Peanuty Peanut Butter Cookies

These chewy sumptuous peanut butter cookie will not leave you guessing if it is peanut butter. These pack a good forward peanut taste on the palate.

 

• Servings: makes 2 dozen cookies
• Time: 45 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 2  cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups of finely ground peanuts
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt (decrease if you are using salted ground peanuts)
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of white  sugar
• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of chunky peanut butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) with the finely ground peanuts, mix well.  Blend sugars with your butter using a mixer till light in color. Add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla and continue mixing till light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture till just mixed. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Press gently with fork tines to form crosshatch pattern. Bake 15 minor till edges are slightly brown.

St Patty’s Pincushion

I got these designs free at embroidery.com

Made some theme pincushions.

Riddle me this: When is a Men’s Shirt NOT a Men’s Shirt?

Please choose from the following:

1. When it’s a zippered pouch
2. When it’s a bean bag
3. When it’s the main piece of a girl’s pillowcase dress
4. All of the above

Yes, you guessed it;  all of the above!

I suppose it’s true that everything old is new again.  I find immense pleasure in taking a discarded  item and giving it renewed life.  Up-cycle, re-purpose, re-invent…call it what you will, it all means the same thing–I can get rid of something I’m not using and not feel bad about it.

This work shirt of my husband’s never saw much outside of the closet walls until this past fall.  First I used it to make a cute zippered pouch…(Well, I did but the picture you’ll see is of a gift card holder.  I used the cuff and it took all of 2 minutes to make).

Then I made the bean bags for teaching Tiny Tots dance classes…

And now I’m using the rest of the button down front of the shirt for a dress destined for Little Dresses For Africa….

I haven’t added the bias tape yet  for the arm holes/ straps, but I’ll do that soon.  For the bottom, I used leftover scraps from the duvet cover I used for a Valentine’s Day wreath.

I love using this stuff up.  I still have much of the back of this shirt (seeing as my husband is not a tiny man), and tons of the duvet cover left.  I’ll use that for more pillowcase dresses for Little Dresses For Africa, but send along any other ideas you may have for these discarded yet full-of-potential fabrics!

Beef Chili

The trick to get bright taste from this chili is to bloom your spices with your veggies from the beginning.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 2 Tb of chili powder
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 2 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• salt to taste
• 1 (28 ounce ) can of tomato puree
• 1 (28 ounce) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of vegetarian beans (I use bush’s it is in a tangy brown sugar sauce)
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven till hot then add your vegetables and spices. Cook until vegetables are softened. Stir in the garlic at the end for 1 minute.

Add your ground beef and cook the beef breaking up the chunks. Cook till beef is no longer pink.

Add your tomato puree, diced tomatoes and both beans. Bring to a simmer.

From here if I am not pressed for time I would transfer the mixture to a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Otherwise I would put your covered dutch oven in a 325 degree oven for a few hours. Enjoy!

 

Beef Chili

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 2 1/2 hours(crockpot 6hrs)
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 2 Tb of chili powder
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 2 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• salt to taste
• 1 (28 ounce ) can of tomato puree
• 1 (28 ounce) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of vegetarian beans (I use bush’s it is in a tangy brown sugar sauce)
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven till hot then add your vegetables and spices. Cook until vegetables are softened. Stir in the garlic at the end for 1 minute.

Add your ground beef and cook the beef breaking up the chunks. Cook till beef is no longer pink.

From here if I am not pressed for time I would transfer the mixture to a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Otherwise I would put your covered dutch oven in a 325 degree oven for a few hours. Enjoy!

Dancin’ Rice

Still on the hunt for fast n’ fun props for teaching Tiny Tots dance classes, I whipped up some bean bags.  Well, technically they’re rice bags.  I’ve never made rice bags for freezing/ throwing in the microwave, but now I think I may.  What a great, inexpensive gift to give someone, especially in the winter.

I took an old (but barely worn), sassy work shirt of my husband’s and made a dozen rice bags.  The most liberating thing about this is that I didn’t measure anything.  Nada.  Nothing.  How great!  Since these are destined just to be dance class props, I didn’t mind that the shapes weren’t perfect rectangles or that they’re all a little difference in size.  Different shapes and sizes–just like people.

I serged up 3 sides then on the fourth used the sewing machine, leaving about 3 inches for turning and filling with rice.  I used a sheet of notebook paper for a funnel to pour the rice into the bag and didn’t overfill.  This helped when I went back to the sewing machine to stitch up the 3″ opening.  Just like when making a placemat, sans the rice.

These were great in class today and who doesn’t love the tactile feel of a bean bag?  We used them to test balance while standing on one leg.  When we were done with our balance game, they got to throw the bags into a bucket;  funny how the new game soon became “Hit Miss Jen with the bean bag!”  Well, whatever works….  🙂

Here’s Abby testing out a bean bag while doing tendu (foot extended to side on floor) and passe (toes touch opposite knee).  Bean bags…the modern day take on the Finishing School’s “put-a-book-on-your-head-and-walk” challenge!