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PhotoPlay's Fresh Picked as gorgeous as if it came fresh from your own garden. Fruit stand freshness and down home charm come together to bring your seasonal memories to life. From the lazy days of summer to the sweetest orchard adventures, Fresh Picked will bring heartfelt love to all of your pages and projects. This new line is now available at Allscrapbooksteals.com. 'Happy Crafting!!! Jacqueline

Tast Tuesday Taco Soup

Hello Hello Blog followers!  So sorry I have been a little absent lately, honestly I don't have a very good excuse....I got a little too involved in a TV show and couldn't stop watching it.  You guys weren't the only thing neglected, my house work and my husband are also on that list.  But I am back and out o my TV show funk with a delicious new recipe! 

One of my favorite go to dinners is Taco Soup.  It is beyond easy and so so good and you usually have most of the ingredients if not all on hand.

What you will need:
1lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 can corn
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes with green chile
1 can tomato paste

cheese and sour cream for topping

Brown ground beef and onion in a skillet and add taco seasoning according to directions.  Then add all ingredients to a pot and simmer for about an hour.  Then dish up an enjoy, easy as that!  Love recipes like this and I'm happy to share them with you. 

Talk to you again soon!

Happy Crafting!

Tasty Tuesday Banana Cake

Again I feel the need to apologize for the lack of crafty posts going on here.  I am still learning how to balance all my time being a new mommy.  There will be a new post of a Easter/ Spring center piece craft tomorrow though, promise!! 

For our tasty Tuesday this week I wanted to keep things going lighter and fresher to keep us feeling the spring in the air and since Easter is just a few day away, we have this amazing Banana Cake!  This is a regular at my family parties and is quite delectible.

What you will need:
Cake
1/2 C. butter
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 med. ripe bananas

Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 3/4-4 C. powdered sugar

Cream the butter and sugar.  Next add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and mix until well combined.  mix all dry ingredients in a seperate bowl and gradually add to the creamed mixture. Mash up the bananas in a seperate bowl and add the bananas to this mixture.

Grease a 9x13 pan and pour in mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes.  let cool completely and then frost.  Store in fridge and serve cold.  Helpful Hint:  you can even make this cake a few days before and store in refridgerator and it will be even better.  As you can see topping with some fresh strawberries can add a little more zest and freshness to it!  I'm sure any fresh berries would be good though!

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family and I do!

Happy Crafting!

Tasty Tuesday Semi Homemade Lemon Raspberry Cake

I am very excited about this weeks Tasty Tuesday. It is so light, refreshing, and just down right delicious!!  I saw something on Pinterest about adding ingredients to box cake mixes to make them taste better so I thought I would try it out - and Success - it was SO GOOD.

I'm on a bit of a lemon kick right now, so I thought I would make a lemon raspberry cake with buttercream frosting.  I bought a Duncan Hines lemon cake mix and made the modifications I read about.  What I did was: add an additional egg, melted butter instead of oil and double the amount, and use milk instead of water.  I was skeptical of what it would do to the cake but I decided to experiment anyway.  It turned out so wonderfully fluffy and moist - it was a big hit with my family.  I didn't have any cake rounds so I made it in a 9x13 pan (but either way will work out fine). Make sure you butter and flour the pan so the cake comes out cleanly.

Next, I made the buttercream frosting I always use (I have added the link for you to make it easy).  Let the cake cool before taking out of the pan, cut it in half and cut all the sides off.  Also level out the top with a long serrated knife, like a bread knife.  Cutting off the top will also let the raspberry jam soak in nicely.  I recommend wrapping your cakes in plastic wrap and letting it cool in the fridge for a bit, frosting it is easier if it is cold. 

Place the bottom of the cake on your cake stand or whatever you may be serving it on and pipe some of the icing around the edge so the raspberry jam doesn't leak out and add your raspberry jam.  Then, place the next layer on top and for easy frosting you will want to pipe on the icing all around the cake and on top of it and then simply smooth it out. Lastly, top with fresh raspberries! You could also put some lemon zest on top of that, which I will be doing next time. 

 I hope you enjoy this delicious treat as much as I did!!

Happy Crafting!

Tasty Tuesday: Curried Chicken

Happy New Year One and All!!

For this weeks Tasty Tuesday I will be sharing one of my favorite recipes of all time.  I love Indian food, so when I found the recipe for this curried chicken for me to make at home I was very pleased!  Now, it is a long ingredient list, but don't be scared away by it, it's mostly seasonings.  This recipe is for a slow cooker so it is very easy!

What you will need:
1 1/2 c. chopped onions
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 lb boneless cicken breast, cut into
                     bite sized pieces  
1 c. salsa
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. curry powder
3/4 tsp. salt

-Place chopped onions and green peppers in bottom of slow cooker, then put cut up chicken on top.
-Mix salsa, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes i a sepperate bowl and then put on top of chicken.
-Cover; cook on low for 5-6 hours
-Combine cilantro, sugar, curry powder, and salt in a small bowl; add to slow cooker and stir in.
-Cover; cook on high 15 min.
Serve over rice.

Helpful hint:  If you want your curry to be a little less spicy, add curry powder to the salsa mixture instead of at the end of cooking.

This is also very tasty with some Naan bread that you can find at the grocery store or make some of your own.  If you don't want to buy Naan it is also good with a warmed tortilla (that's what my husband and I do).










I highly recommend making this dish!  I know it may look daunting, but I swear it is not that difficult.  I hope you enjoy!

Make sure to check back soon for a post about or January Giveaway!




Happy Crafting!

Tasty Tuesday

Hello everyone and Happy Tuesday!

This week for Tasty Tuesday I decided to make my favorite treat, cupcakes!  This idea that I had would work for Christmas or New Years Eve.  I'll be honest, I was going for a New Years Eve look with a firework on top, but it ended up looking more like a snow flake, so either holiday would work! You could also get crafty with this and make fireworks using paper and sticks placed in the cupcake, or even use a sparkler.  Just have fun with it!

For this recipe, I used a box mix and made according to directions on the box.  I do however have my own buttercream frosting recipe that I will share :)

1 c. Butter
1/2 c. Shortening
2 1/2 c. Powder sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract

-Using the paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening, and powder sugar until well blended
-Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until light and fluffy

Make sure your cupcakes are cool before frosting, then you can either pipe on the frosting like I did, or you can spread it on.  Add whatever color sprinkles you would like.

Next melt some chocolate, and put it in a zip lock to pipe out.  Lay out a piece of parchment and make some firework design, or snowflakes ;), and add sprinkles before they set up.  Let them harden and carefully remove and add them to your cupcakes!
Note: Make a lot of snowflakes/fireworks, some will break when you try to get them off the parchment.

This also works great for birthdays, or any other themed party, by simply changing with you make out of the chocolate. I hope you enjoy these, and I hope you like my frosting recipe.

Happy Crafting!!

Tasty Tuesday

Fall is just around the corner.  Before you know it we'll be wearing jackets and boots instead of shorts and sandals.  One of my favorite dishes for Fall is meatloaf.  It's comfort food at its most basic.  If you're not a fan of meatloaf, then you've never tried my take on Williams-Sonoma's Italian Meatloaf.  Forget onions and ketchup, this meatloaf has pesto and sun dried tomatoes.  I always double the recipe and make two loafs, one to cook and eat, and one to freeze for later.  Once you have your ingredients you can whip this up and pop it in the oven in about 5 minutes.

Italian Meatloaf (adapted from Williams-Sonoma's Simple Suppers Cookbook)

1 lb. Lean ground beef
1/2 lb. Ground pork
4 oz. Pesto
1 cup Progresso Italian Style bread crumbs
4 oz.Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes-chopped
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, pesto, bread crumbs, sun-dried tomatoes, egg, and salt.  Mix gently, but thoroughly with your hands.  Form the mixture into a rough 9-by-5-inch loaf in an 11-by-7-inch shallow baking dish.

Bake the meatloaf for approximately 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 160 degrees.  Let the loaf stand in the pan for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

I like to serve this with either a Caesar or Caprese salad.

Tasty Tuesdays

A friend of mine just had a baby.  I wanted to make her family something super yummy to eat when they came home from the hospital.  The first thing I thought of was chicken salad, wrapped in puff pastry.  It is the ultimate in comfort food, and it's pretty easy to make.  I always make two, one to eat, and one to freeze for later.

1 package of puff pastry sheets (I prefer Pepperidge Farms, in the freezer section)
2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
1 red pepper (diced)
1/2 cup of green onions(minced)
1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup of mayonnaise
1 egg
Olive Oil
salt and pepper to taste

Defrost puff pastry and pre-heat oven according to package directions

Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and brown in a skillet using a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Once the chicken is browned, set aside to cool.

In a bowl add cheese, green onions, red peppers, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and chicken. Mix all together.

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam non-stick spray and lay one pastry sheet on the cookie sheet. Crack egg and beat it until well mixed. Brush egg on pastry. The pastry sheet should have three sections, cut the two side sections in one inch strips. Fill the middle of the pastry with salad mixture. Fold sides of of pastry over the top of the salad, alternating sides. Tuck in ends and brush egg mixture over the top. Repeat process for second pastry sheet. Bake according to pastry package directions, or until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes.

Tasty Tuesdays

Clearly I have an obsession with raspberries.  It's a sickness, I suppose.  This week's recipe is for raspberry tarts.

* Prepare one package of puff pastry cups according to package. I use Pepperidge Farm, you can find it in the freezer section.
* Melt 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave (for one minute).  Stir until smooth.
* Spoon melted chocolate into bottom of pastries.
* Mix one pint of raspberries with 1/4 cup raspberry jam, or enough to coat the raspberries.
* Pile berries into puff pastry cup.
* Top with whipped cream right before serving.

Tasty Tuesdays

Today's recipe is for my all time favorite thing to eat, homemade raspberry freezer jam.  Now I have to tell you that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to jams.  I have tried tons of different brands in my quest to find one as good as my mom's freezer jam.  I have even sampled the same jam that the Queen of England likes, but none hold a candle to this fantastic jam.  You can make this jam at home in about 45 minutes and then freeze it for up to a year.  I have one jam making day a year, and make enough jam for my family, and to give as gifts to my friends and neighbors.

Ingredients:

4 cups of mashed fruit (5 pints of raspberries)
1 cup of sugar
1 medium lemon
1 packet of pectin for freezer jam

Directions:

1.  Rinse and drain 5 pints of raspberries in a large bowl.
2.  Using a potato masher, smash the berries until there are no longer large chunks.
3.  In a separate bowl, stir together sugar and fruit pectin.
4.  Squeeze the lemon into a bowl, remove all seeds.
5.  Add the lemon and pectin/sugar mixture to the bowl with the smashed berries and stir for 3 minutes.
6.  Ladle the jam into jam jars, let sit for 30 minutes.
7.  Freeze, or eat your jam.

Tasty Tuesdays

While I was in Utah a few weeks ago we had a family dinner.  My sister Shayna brought this amazing rainbow fruit salad.  I loved the presentation and can't wait to make one myself for our next bar-b-que.  I think I will use peaches or apricots for the orange section since mandarins aren't in season anymore.  All the kids at the dinner thought it looked so pretty that they couldn't stop eating it.