Friday, October 30, 2009

Slow Cooker Apple Spice Pudding cake

November's Canadian Living magazine arrived and one of the recipes that caught my eye was a old fashioned comfort food dish; pudding, cake and apples in a slow cooker.Liked the description of 2 layers; one ,the bottom mix of fruit and butterscotch juices and the second a cake top...
Ingredients;
7 cups apples thickly sliced peeled ( used Spys)
2 TBSP. lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
Mix these ingredients together put into a 4-4.5 L. well greased slow cooker.
Cake topping;
1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each ground cloves and salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
In large bowl,cream butter and sugar til fluffy, add egg and vanilla combine well. Whisk together flour, baking powder, spices and salt.Stir into butter mixture alternating with milk 3 dry and 2 of milk.
Scrape batter smoothing out over top of apples.
1 1/4 cup apple cider
4 tsp. cornstarch
Combine cider and cornstarch in small saucepan bring to a boil and slightly thick.
Pour this sauce over batter.
Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours, until apples are tender and cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
.....remove insert from cooker let cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Serves 8
The crock pot filled the kitchen with a wonderful spicy appley fragrant scent.
The taste lived up to the fragrance , very good.
The cake part, light; the apples held their shape tho don't cut small. The sauce was more appley than butterscotch to me..I must say it is not the most attractive when dished up but then I did not add any whipped cream or ice cream to dress it up.
I did cut this recipe in half since my crock pot is small and there is only 2 of us , it easily feeds 4 generously, so the regular batch could probably feed 10.
Can. Living suggests this dish would be great for a brunch, I agree.
Will make this dish again.It is a keeper.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mish mash of home things

Christmas (not really) cactus is flowering beautifully after its summer vacation outside.

Lamp shade now has trim , no bling.

2 old gold covered feather pillows needed updating , used more of the ultra suede sage fabric.

Made simple envelope style covers;
These cushions will sit on my bedroom reading chair, to make it even more comfy for the winter months..

Thinking these pillows still need something to give them a more finished look, perhaps 3 big buttons?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Touches of Halloween

Here are a few of the accents scattered thru my home.


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Christmas 2009

New additions to my Christmas 2009 Collection. More Photos avaliable at the Photo Gallery




Try something New. These Gift Card Holders are priced at a pocket-friendly $3 each. Add something special to your gift cards this holiday season.

For more Paper Craft projects please click here

Lamp Shade redo!

I have had for many years a lovely brass swing arm tri-light lamp that I dearly love , great to read by. Whenever I have tried to replace lamp shades to match new decor ,can never seem to find the right size . To solve this problem have attempted
to re-cover lamp shades when needed.
The saga of my favourite lamp's life ;
started out shiny and new with a pink pleated shade fabric(remember when rose was in), then after attending a decorater's home showcase ; saw a rose flower lamp shade ; Made a similar one using my handy hot glue gun and many bright pink silk roses ,covering the shade completely.
Whimsy, tres chic!So in!
Okay, not every one's idea of chic but it was kitch.I think my daughters thought I was nuts.
After several years decided that the roses were a bit too much; so hot glue gun in hand came up with something a little less over the top .

What do you think? still OTT with all those leaves, note the pink peeking thru?
Lived with this version for a couple of years and now I have recovered it yet again with the help of my trusty hot glue gun.Thanks goodness for hot glue guns.
Lamp stripped of old pink cover and leaves.

Ta Da ! my new shade with soft sage green ultra suede on .

Needs some trim to finish it off.Will try to restrain myself from OTT trim, tho perhaps some bling!
Next on the updating of items; 2 pillows to cover with same ultra suede fabric and perhaps a foot stool.
No more kitch!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Halloween Cards, Spooktacular !


When surfing one of my favourite card blogs; Linanna's, Linda mentioned digital download card kits . Decided to investigate what that was all about.
Checked out the web site she recommended The Creative Cottage
Their freebie for the month of October is called Spooktacular.
Could not pass up this amazing kit, but was worried how it would print, how much ink it would use and even if I could do it properly....
Here are the cards I made;
Witchy and Dracula;

Mummy;

Ghost;

The parts of the file were printed on card stock , colours are brighter than my camera is showing....time for a new camera! All the pieces are were included in the kit, overall very easy to use , my cutting skills need to improve.Did not think the ink used was excessive.
If you like to make cards do check out the links I have posted for some great ideas and kits.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

3-D Birthday Cards




These are always a favourite. These adorable 3-D Bithday Cards are perfect for any child (or adult). Only $3.00 each.

More Photos avaliable at the Photo Gallery

To see more Birthday Cards please click here

Macville Craft Show


October 24, 2009
Thank-you for visiting my booth ... Missed this show? Please visit me at one of my upcoming Craft Shows

Fall Clean up

There was one lovely warm sunny fall day this week before the rain ,and cold returned.
I do believe I have mentioned before; okay I whined , that the summer was cool and rainy and the autumn hasn't been much better.. In September 2 weeks were warm and sunny.Since then, colder than normal and rain, rain, rain.
So on the one great weather day ,I spent it outside relishing the weather and cleaning up the back garden, digging up canna bulbs and trimming back some dead flower stalks....
3 bags full:

Canna roots drying;

Checking to see if the 3 heucheras I transplanted are still surviving, and they are much to my surprise!

One question;
Where is Indian Summer?
What has your fall weather been like?
Yes, that is 2 questions!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Port Dover Museum / Atlantic Steamship Wreck

Red Hats outing this month was educational as well as a few laughs.
Off we went to the Port Dover Marine Museum. We watched a short film on the discovery of the wreck of one of the most luxurious steamships of the 1850 era , The Atlantic.
It was found just off of Long Point in one of the deepest parts of the lake, 200 feet down. The Atlantic was for it's time a most luxurious sidewheel passenger steamer 267 ft long only 3 years old , when it sank on 8/20/1852 after colliding with the propeller steamer Ogdensberg in a heavy fog 4 miles due East of the tip of Long Point. The ship was carrying far in excess of its usual number of passengers and anywhere from 150 to 250 drowned in this disaster, many on board were Norwegian immigrants coming from New York city via the Erie Canal, to Buffalo then on their way to start a new life in the west..a tidbit of Great Lake history I did not know was how the Great Lakes and ships were used for a period of about 20 years to help open up the west before rail took over.
Do check out the link for more of the story of this wreck.
Mike Fletcher a local diver found the wreck in the 80's and many of the savaged items he brought up from Atlantic are on display at the museum.
Dishes;Ironstone,

Child's leather shoes;
Crocks, note the center one is pristine! preserved by the cold Lake Erie water.

There are many other displays as well , one that spoke to me is the uniform from the war of 1812 , how small people were back then.

We then went to
Sweet Treats from Home a bake shop and tea room on the main street of Port Dover. This is a small shop with lots of treats. The 3 tables
were each set with unique tea sets and linens.
I chose a pumpkin scone to go with my tea.
Will be looking for a recipe for them , so good.
A great afternoon.