Craft With May

I was inspired by a dish I had at TGI Friday’s a while back, and know what? It’s sooo good and super quick. These days, what with me working so much fast = good in dinner department. Plus anything with super lean chicken breast (that I actually like) is always welcome here.

Here’s the deal – soak a chicken breast (or 4) in some caesar dressing. Do it in a plastic bag so you don’t have to use all that much dressing. I poke holes (w/fork) about 6-8x into each breast randomly so it’ll really soak in. After a few hours (or a day or two even) when you’re ready heat up a pan with just a little olive oil. Get it nice and HOT. When ready, take them out and shake off the excess. You don’t want them too wet. Now just brown up  until all cooked and delicious.

For the topping – toss some panko bread crumbs (I like the ‘italian seasoned panko’ for this) into a small pan and add a little butter. Stir until butter is melted and panko is getting toasty. How much you use depends on how many breasts. Just sprinkle it over the top of your chicken breast, then dust with some parmesan cheese and enjoy.

I like spinach sauted with garlic & butter as a side. I love the flavor the dressing gives and the special touch the breadcrumbs + cheese topping makes. It feels much more special than a 15 minute meal!

I got it in my head that it’d be fun to write letters (but really just blog posts) to companies & people when they do something I love. Just a little positive happy note put out there into the blogosphere. Focusing on something good… here’s the first.

Dear Making Memories,

As I sit here surrounded by your vintage findings collection, I ask myself why it is your name never comes up when I’m thinking about my favorite companies. Your customer service and product replacement when there’s a problem is awesome, and you’ve come out with some of my favorite products EVAH. So what’s my deal?

I can not explain, but I can tell you that your beautiful things don’t go unnoticed here. The tiny glitter letters, your vintage findings collection, brads, not to mention the paper collections you’ve come out with that I have enjoyed over the years. Today though, I’d like to talk about these:

I did not realize when I ordered them that I’d be getting all this:

I am filled with Christmas Joy. Truly. They make me happy, and reminded me to say thank you for making such cool stuff just for me. It is, right? Just for me? It definitely feels like it in this case.

Sincerely,

M.F.

As soon as I saw this recipe on Margie’s blogI knew it sounded like a real winner! Only thing was due to the fact that I’ll just eat all the muffins I thought a smaller recipe would be safer. So, I cut it in 1/4. Then I found I didn’t have oil and used butter instead. Results? It’s MAAAAGGGIIIIICAAAALLLL. Seriously – these things are amazing. My recipe made 24 mini muffins + 12 regular.

“Margie’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins”
{with May’s edits & substitutions}

1 stick barely warm, mostly melted butter
1/2c packed brown sugar
1c sugar
{mix up then add all this}
1 small can (12 -15 oz or like 1 1/2 cups) pumpkin
2 eggs already beaten
1tsp vanilla
1tsp baking soda dissolved in a tiny bit of warm water (less than 1/4 cup)
{mix dry ingredients together, then combine with wet}
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
pinch ginger
1/2tsp cloves
1/2tsp nutmeg
1tsp cinnamon
{then mix in}
1/4 cup water
{and then stir in}
1 – 1 1/2cups chocolate chips (I just did 2 big handfuls)

bake 20minutes @ 350

 Thanks to Margie for sharing – the girls LOVE them and they are such a taste of fall – truly makes my mouth happy!

I love this mug. It makes coffee while taking some creative time in the morning taste that much better.

I just did what I call a “clean up” layout. What it means is that I only use stuff already out. I do this a lot – it’s my way of getting stuff used & not having to put it away.

In the Adventures in Scrapbooking: Using kits I talk about using leftovers and if I’m not mistaken making a scraps/leftover layout is one of our challenges. Fun stuff – and definitely beats out alternative of actually cleaning up. Oh, and the answer is yes. Yes, it did nearly kill me to put that Prima flower on a layout. Thing was, it was time to use it. I have such a hard time when I have something just too pretty and I don’t want to use it wrong. It’s a struggle in life, but I’m getting better.

The green leaf is the paper packaging the flower was on. I love when I can use packaging instead of putting it out in recycling bin. It saves me a trip.

the completion of this page puts me 1 closer to filling my ‘Disneyland in March 09’ album. I really want that filled before we take off for the happiest place on earth again.

 

Finally today I’ve got some winners to draw here… randomly, as always the prizes go to:

Cardstock prize winner is drawn… and it’s… Dawn (comment left sept 17 @ 1237am)

the sewing tools prize goes to… scrapycandy

e-mail me (mflaum (at) comcast . net) to claim your prize! Be sure to tell me what you won too. Didn’t get to win? I’ve got 3 more prizes lined up here… so stay tuned!

I’m calling this a ‘hot’ give-away because it’s all so warm and summer-y. Twelve sheets of American Crafts cardstock, stickers, 2 Fiskars NEW punches… oh this is a good one.

If you’re already in my PN Cardstock class then you know – you can do some mighty cool things without patterned paper. I’ll be sharing some of those ideas right here later in the week. For now though –

Would you, dear blog reader, like to win this prize? Just leave a comment here to be entered – and have a happy crafty day!