Bake.Love.Sew

Eco-Friendly Wine Rack Giveaway!

2013-05-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Eco-Friendly Wine Rack Giveaway!

Hosted By Miss Frugal Mommy and Sponsored By ThinkEco2

ThinkEco2 makes eco-friendly products to organize your kitchen & wine, garden products. They reclaim, reprocess, and repurpose wood that was on it's way to the landfill Green Wine and Garden Products. Trendy, Rustic, Modern, Vintage. 100% recycled wood products.

The Eco-friendly Wine Rack:

An elegant way to store and display your wine selection, this framed wine rack holds 12 bottles and fits perfectly on your counter top.

This eco-friendly wine rack embraces the green lifestyle.

You can view Miss Frugal Mommy's review to learn more about this product!

They are made from 100% recycled cedar.

Check out the ThinkEco2 shop for additional colors and products.

I personally love all the colors and styles, and love the rustic look of this! I really like that it's repurposed wood and I know right where I would put it... I mean it would look great right on the counter or even on top of the fridge.

One winner will receive a black frame repurposed cedar wine rack as pictured below (wine not included)

Enter to win in the Rafflecopter below, all entries will be verified, open to US only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: Miss Frugal Mommy and Bake.Love.Sew are not responsible for prize fulfillment. This giveaway is no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. If you have any questions/concerns or would like your product featured in a giveaway, please contact Miss Frugal Mommy.

Top Ten Mother's Day Brunch Ideas

2013-04-20T15:53:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day is right around the corner! Last year we decided that instead of giving our Mom's and Nana's something they really didn't want or need we would host an Annual Mother's Day Brunch for them, it was a huge success and everyone is looking forward to this annual celebration. So we have been super busy searching out the best, the yummiest, the most Mother's Day worthy brunch ideas and recipes out there. Here are some of our favorites:

#10. Broccoli and Sausage Egg Muffins from Snacking in the Kitchen:

#9. Donut Hole Breakfast Skewers by ValSoCal

#8. Blueberry Breakfast Cake by The Cake Blog

#7. Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast by Table for 2...or More

#6. Baked Eggs by Saveur

#5. Traditional Mother's Day Brunch Table from Paper Fancy

#4. French Toast Shooters by EM for Marvelous

#3. Butterfly Brunch Invitations (free to download and print) by the elli blog

#2. Raspberry Sparklers by tasty trials

#1. Brunch Menu by At Home In Love

Hope you enjoy these!!

Easter Ham Leftover Stew

2013-04-02T20:15:00.000-04:00

As a family we are trying to be less wasteful. This is not easy, especially with kids, but one way that we are are doing this is with food. We are making a conscious effort to use up leftovers and (hopefully) not throw them away. We would always save leftovers, thinking they would get eaten, but more often than not and more often than I care to admit, we were throwing food away. Over the course of a year it ends up being a lot of food.

So we are menu planning, and using what we have before we buy more. And at least one meal a week is cooked using leftovers. This week it was leftover Easter ham.

For Easter, my youngest son had requested that my husband cook a boiled dinner and as this is easy, fairly inexpensive, and something the whole family likes, we readily agreed. Yes, my husband cooks for holidays. I am spoiled, I know and as I tell him often I am the luckiest girl in the world, and yes he cleans up after himself too! Anyway, we had a TON of ham and a ham bone leftover. None of us care for pea soup, so what to do???

Make my friend's Slow Cooker Ham & Bean Stew of course!!! It was delicious, easy to make, and used up a lot of our leftovers! I used a combination of Kidney and Pinto beans and everything we already had in our pantry. You could easily add more veggies to this and make it to fit your families tastes. I found it smelled wonderfully like baked beans but was definitely more of a stew. It was very filling and as it was a cold blustery spring day here in Maine, it was perfect having a nice hot stew for dinner. There's just something about soup that warms the soul on a cold day, don't you agree?

So head on over to cook.can.read, tell her Amy sent you and find a delicious new recipe to cook and a great book to read!

Friday Finds: Easter Edition

2013-03-15T17:14:00.000-04:00

I have been on a pinning frenzy, there are so many talented bloggers and crafters out there posting GREAT ideas!! Here are some of my favorites that I found...

Like these Cadbury Egg Cupcakes from Pizzazzerie, YUM!!! Genius!

And how about these chalkboard eggs from Oh Lovely Day...

Maybe you want quick and no mess, these black & white eggs, from Obviously Sweet are for you!

Loving the lace from Celebrating Everyday Life.

Here's a free printable from It's Always Autumn.

**Click on the image to go to the site**

And my personal favorite:

How cute are these? Oh What Fun you ROCK! LOVE THEM!!

Hope you enjoy these Easter ideas, and these blogs are great. When you check them all out, check out all the other hip, fun, and crafty ideas they have posted!

Cookies and Cream Frosting

2013-03-15T08:05:00.000-04:00

Anyone that knows me knows that I love frosting. It's one of the few things that I can actually still eat! I love cake and frosting, but mostly the frosting. Buttercream=Joy.

I have made frosting for a long, long time and every once in a while I get adventurous and add something, but nothing, NOTHING beats just your basic Buttercream frosting.

Last Wednesday was national Oreo cookie day and I also had a small office birthday party that day, so was able to make some Oreo goodies and celebrate my coworkers birthday all at once. I made chocolate cupcakes (gluten free of course) along with the cheesecake bars in my previous post. I wanted to do an Oreo frosting, but all the recipes I found were for cream cheese (not good for the lactose intolerant) and Oreo's. So, I adapted the basic (Wilton's) Buttercream Icing recipe and made my own version of cookies and cream frosting. YUM.

Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
1 cup of butter or vegan butter like earth balance
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 pounds confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons of milk (soy or almond work as well)
10-14 Oreos or gluten free Glutino brand chocolate cookies smashed up into small pieces.

Directions:
1. Beat butter and shortening until well blended.
2. Add vanilla and mix well
3. Slowly mix in confectioners sugar a cup at a time on low speed. Add milk a tablespoon at a time and mixing well in between.
4. Add chopped cookie pieces and mix with a spatula.

**Please note that If you are planning on using a decorating bag you will want to chop Oreo's in a food processor into small pieces.

Yield: enough for 24 cupcakes or approximately 4 cups.

Enjoy!

Oreo Love

2013-03-06T13:17:00.002-05:00

Happy National Oreo Cookie Day!!! To show a little Oreo love I made a few different recipes this week...

"Oh, Oh, Oh, ice cold milk

And and Oreo Cookie

They forever go together,

What a classic combination

When a dark, delicious cookie

Meets an icy cold sensation

Like the one and only cream,

crunch, chocolate, O-R-E-O"

This is one of the delicious recipes that we made. It was super easy to make, and could be easily be your dessert tonight!!

Oreo Cheesecake Bars

recipe by brown eyed baker

Ingredients:
For the crust:

23 Oreo cookies (I used the gluten free version)
2 Tbsp melted butter

For the Filling:

12 ounces cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
6 Tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
12 Oreo Cookies, coarsely chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line an 8 x 8" baking pan ( I used glass, but metal works fine too) with parchment paper or foil, allowing it to hang over two sides (don't use wax paper - it will smoke in the oven).

2. Make the crust: Process the Oreo cookies in a food processor, or put in a Ziploc baggie and use a rolling pin to roll into fine crumbs. Pour crumbs in a bowl and drizzle melted butter over the top and stir until butter is evenly distributed and all the crumbs are moist. Pour the moist cookie crumbs into the prepared baking dish and press into an even layer (a fork works best for this). Bake for 10 minutes.
3. Make the filling: Beat the cream cheese on medium high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat until completely incorporated.
4. Slowly add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one and mixing until completely combined. Scrape down sides of bowl and add sour cream and vanilla, beat until mixed well.

5. Using spatula, gently fold in chopped Oreos. Pour batter over prepared crust, smoothing it into an even layer. Bake until the edges are set, but the middle still jiggles slightly, about 40-50 minutes depending on your oven.
6. Place pan on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature (about 2 hours). Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving.

7. To serve: Lift the cheesecake out of the pan using the parchment or foil handles. Slice into bars and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week.

*find original recipe here at brown eyed baker

Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Sauce

2013-03-05T12:09:00.001-05:00

I needed caramel sauce for another post/recipe for later this week and decided I would be brave and make my own. I have made it before using heavy cream, but didn't have any on hand. So, what to do?! No worries, I found this recipe for DIY Caramel Sauce at Confession of a Bright-eyed Baker and it only uses sugar, milk, and sea salt. Say What? That's right only three ingredients!!!

The hardest part of making this caramel sauce is making sure it doesn't burn! But, as a warning make sure you are careful not to splash or spill any of it on yourself while making, sugar melts at 320° and will hurt pretty badly if you aren't careful (don't ask me how I know this).

What you will need:

1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup milk (make sure it is at least a 2% milk fat content)
1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt (for a more "salted caramel" use 1/2 tsp)

What you need to do (read through completely before starting):

Place sugar in a large heavy bottomed pot, shaking it so it is in an even layer. Place the pot over medium-low heat (This scared me and I actually tried to do it as a double boiler first, so I wouldn't end up with burnt sugar. Don't do it. The sugar won't get hot enough to melt). Set a timer for 8 minutes and let the sugar heat up. Check on the sugar once the 8 minutes are up. It should look pretty much the same. Set the timer for another 8 minutes, I promise something does happen this time! Now you want to keep a close eye on your sugar. Around the end of this 8 minutes, it will start to melt and liquefy.
At this time you want to make sure your milk is all ready! You don't want to burn your sugar, because you have to heat up your milk... So microwave your milk for one minute in a microwave safe bowl and have it ready and next to the stove. You also will want to have a trivet ready to for your pan of hot sugar and a heat safe spatula or spoon.
You will start to smell the sugar heating up and melting before you see it. It will begin to appear light brown and translucent in some spots. As soon as you see liquefied sugar, you want to take your heat safe spatula and carefully scoop the melted sugar over the non-melted sugar. Essentially, you are making sure the already melted sugar doesn't burn and are moving it out of the way, so the rest of the sugar can melt... Continue to do this until all the sugar is completely melted, stirring gently until all the lumps are completely dissolved and the sugar has turned a rusty golden brown color.
When the caramel is the right color, you want to move it from the burner (leave the burner on) onto the trivet and quickly stir in half of the warm milk. Now this will do funny things to your melted sugar, and honestly you will be wondering if you just ruined your caramel, but I promise it will turn out OK. Also, this is where I splashed hot caramel on myself, so please be careful. When you pour in the milk, your melted sugar will bubble and steam, a lot. I mean a lot. It will cool down the sugar and make it get hard and weird candy looking glob. It's OK, just continue to try and keep the caramel moving while you are stirring in the milk. Then stir in the rest of the milk.
You will have hardened caramel on the sides of your pan, and it may look weird and lumpy, it's OK. Return the pan to the medium-low stove burner and stir. When the caramel starts to melt you will be able to carefully scrape the sides of the pan. Continue to stir until all the lumps are melted, it will take about 5 - 10 minutes, so be patient. Your caramel will thicken as it cools, so do not cook it too long! 15 minutes tops after it is all melted.
Remove the pan from the stove and whisk in the sea salt. Pour your caramel into a heat proof container (if using glass, put something metal in it to prevent shattering). I used a glass Pyrex liquid measuring cup. Cover and place in the refrigerator, letting it cool and thicken, Keep the caramel stored in the refrigerator.

Yield 1-1 1/4 cups caramel.

Enjoy your caramel!! And check back tomorrow to see what we're putting it on!!!

Beauty, Aging, and St. Patrick's Day Subway Art

2013-03-01T04:58:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that tomorrow is March 1st! Where does the time go?

This morning, I found wrinkles around my eyes. And on my forehead. I wanted to cry, for real. A week ago, I had my niece and nephew for the day since we were all on school vacation. My niece O said it "makes her uncomfortable to talk about gray hair, but Auntie you have a lot!" Umm, thanks? And O- it makes me uncomfortable too!

What is it about becoming older that is so scary? I know for me, it's the surprise as I realize I'm really not 22 anymore. Sometimes I forget. So, it's always the shock that "oh my goodness, I have wrinkles on my forehead! I can't have wrinkles, I'm too young to have wrinkles! Oh, right I'm 37. " GAH! When I turned 37, as a joke my youngest told me I was "old and grody", but seriously that's what society tells us. I know that is what every magazine with a supermodel {age 16} on the cover, with her {age 16} body and {age 16} skin says to me... You are old a grody if you don't look like me.....Well I want to say, "Soon enough you'll look like MEEEEeee....Hehehehe. I know that my dear friend AM is going to remind me {any minute now after reading this} in her loving way, that I am beautifully and wonderfully made. Do you know that you are BEAUTIFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE?? You are!!!!

In the past gray hair was considered a crown of glory, a reminder of wisdom and experience. What happened to that? Why as women, do we fight aging tooth and nail. Why do we not REALLY BELIEVE that we are beautifully and wonderfully made when the AM's in our lives tell us? To be honest though, I'm no different. You better believe that before I went back to work on Tuesday, my hair was freshly dyed and I guarantee that by the end of ~~March~~ this week, I will have an arsenal of wrinkle fighting creams at my disposal. Someday I will face the fact that I'm not 22 anymore, but not today. And I will try to remind myself that yes, I am beautifully and wonderfully made.

St. Patrick's Day is almost here, do you celebrate? Do you decorate? We typically do not do much more than cook the traditional boiled dinner. So I would love to know what you do! I made you a cute new subway art printable to use in your holiday preparations! Hope you like it! You can download it here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wine Glass Bling

2013-02-24T21:09:00.001-05:00

At a recent get together with my favorite girlies, we were thinking it would be fun to make wine glass charms. It's a perfect project to do while your sitting around gabbing and sharing a bottle of vino.
I did some research on the Internet, and they are really super easy to make! You can make them as simple or fancy as you wish. You can buy special ear wires or use basic jewelry wire, like I did because it was already in my stash. In fact I already had everything that I needed.
We made charms that night, which everyone loved! And because I forgot my camera (of course), I made some more today to share with you.

Here is what you will need:

Assorted beads
Jewelry making pliers- bull nose and flat head
Wire cutters
Jewelry wire or circle/hoop ear wires
Jewelry making board

The first thing that you want to do is cut your wire in 4-4.5" lengths. If you are using ear wires you can skip this part. Then, it's helpful if you pick out your beading design and lay it out on the board to see what it will look like. Next, using your pliers you need to bend one end of the wire in a hook shape.

Now you can add your beads.

Next curve the other end of the wire.

Viola, bling for your wine glass!!

Enjoy!!!

GF Rosemary Chicken Pot Pie

2013-02-21T18:11:00.000-05:00

I am gluten free. Not my husband and not my boys. So, as you can imagine dinner is an obstacle at times. Although gluten free food and recipes have come a long way, many times it is still very bland and blah. It usually has a different texture and tastes a little off. On many nights we have ended up making two different meals, one gf and one regular. It's a problem. Needless to say, when I find a recipe that everyone in the house likes and asks me to make again, it's a keeper. Here is one of our favorite gf go to meals. It is the perfect snowy day comfort food. For our family of four (mainly because I have two boys that eat more food than most small countries) I have doubled the original Pot Pie part of the recipe it is enough to fill a 3 qt. baking dish.

GF Rosemary Chicken Pot Pie

Prep time: 20-30 min.

Cook time:20-25 min.
Servings: 8-10

What you need:
2c cut up cooked chicken
4c chicken stock
1c carrots-diced
1c celery-sliced
1/2c onion-minced
1c peas
3/4c GF flour mix like Pamela's or Bisquick
4-6 tsbp water
1/2c cream or nondairy substitute
2-3 sprigs fresh Rosemary (discard stalk after removing leaves)
1/4c fresh parsley-chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

One Biscuit Mix recipe to top the pie. You can use any recipe you like for the biscuits. But I usually just use the GF Bisquick.

Preheat oven to 375°.
Cut up chicken and set aside. Place the chicken stock in a large saucepan and bring to a boil; add carrots, celery, and onion and cook for 15 minutes. Stir in the peas and chicken and cook for 5 minutes longer.
Mix the flour mix to a thin paste with a few tablespoons of water. Thicken the stock with the flour paste and cook on low for 1-2 min. Stirring constantly, add the cream and season with salt, pepper, parsley, and the rosemary.
Pour the cooked pie mixture into a 3 qt. baking dish or individual casserole dishes and top with dropped biscuit dough (I use approximately 1/2 tablespoon for each dropped mound and leave about 1/2" in between them). Bake on top of a cookie sheet for approximately 20-25 min. or until biscuits are browned and pot pie filling is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Weekly Menu & Shopping List

2013-02-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

I have been planning a weekly menu for our meals for about 2 months now, and have been able to cut our grocery shopping bill in half! Just by doing better planning! I think that is amazing. My husband and I both work full time jobs and had gotten in the habit of cooking what ever was quick and easy. We were grocery shopping every night, because we would forget to take something out of the freezer. When you shop nightly you ALWAYS end up spending more than if you were to go once a week. Unfortunately our grocery store is only a short distance from our house, so it became easy to go nightly.
We are both proud to say that we have stopped that bad habit. We have been eating and cooking delicious new foods and trying new recipes. It has been a great experience for us all. We actually got the motivation from my dear friend over at Modern Homesteading: Maine-ah Style. She did a pantry challenge to start off the new year, feel free to check it out. Let me know if you decide to take up the pantry challenge and how it works for you. I have really enjoyed trying new recipes based on what ingredients I have on hand.
One thing that I have been looking for and finally decided that I could just make myself using photo shop is a weekly menu and shopping list all in one. Something pretty. This is what I came up with, and there are 2 more in the works. I couldn't wait to share these with you though!

You can download them for free here:
menu 1
menu 2

They are sized to print on standard copy paper.

Enjoy!

Super Sweet Ipod Valentine's!

2013-02-13T11:10:00.000-05:00

Sorry that it's taken forever to post this! Our friends over at Delightful Order have a great ipod Valentines craft that we made on Sunday. So easy to make and not super girly-which Sam loved.

Here's what you'll need:

Sweetheart candy's in the small boxes- they are on sale everywhere right now
Reese's mini peanut butter cups
ribbon
glue- I used hot glue.
scissors
free printable ipod design find it here

First, you want to print out your ipods and get them all cut out. This can be a little tedious and your child may need help if they have 20+ kids in their class, like Sam. Second, get your glue gun plugged in and warmed up. Sam has used a glue gun in the past and is able to do so safely with close supervision. Do this at your discretion- I would suggest just letting them watch or actually using different glue, if necessary. Next, get your ribbon cut (we used approximately 8" lengths) and knotted (we tied the ear buds together about half way down). OK, so now you are ready to glue it all together, we did the ipod cover first but I soon realized that it may have been better to start with the ribbon. You can do any order that works for you. Lastly, glue the ribbon to two Reese's cups for the earpieces.

Viola~ ipods!

This was a lot of fun to make, and we actually had a little Valentine Crafting party with my sister and her kids with sledding and mint hot chocolate (which both Sam and his Auntie love). Thanks to Delightful Order for this great idea and the free printable!!

Here are some of the other Valentine's we made:

Let me know if you make these and how they turn out!

XOXO

Valentine Subway Art

2013-02-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

Just printed out this cute Valentine's Day subway art print from The Bonjour family over at

http://libby-bonjour.blogspot.com/2011/01/photobucket_26.html

There are 2 different sizes and a few different colors to choose from. And it's so cute!! What do you think?

XOXO

~a

Gluten Free Snow Day Blueberry Muffin's

2013-02-08T11:19:00.000-05:00

It's a snow day here in Maine today! They are calling for 2 ft of snow and blizzard conditions, so naturally we are all home in our jammies.

What a lovely treat it would be for my children to have homemade blueberry muffins on this cold and dreary day! OK, great idea, but wait I want some too!! As the Gluten free mommy here, it's always hard to make cookies and treats that I can't eat. So I decided I would try to figure out a way to make them using what gf ingredients I had in the pantry{'cause there is no way I am venturing out to the supermarket in this!} And I dont' know about you, but I always seem to feel like I am experimenting every time I cook gf....

So here is what I used

2 1/2 cups GF Bisquick
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter melted (can use vegan butter or margarine)
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups organic whole frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 375°F. Place paper baking cup in each of the 12 regular-size muffin cups.

In medium bowl, stir 1 1/4 cups Bisquick mix and the brown sugar with whisk. Making sure the brown sugar is well blended (No clumps). This pastry tool actually worked really well...

Make a well in center of the mixture. In small bowl, stir milk, butter, vanilla and egg with whisk until well blended. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Stir blueberries into batter; spoon batter evenly into muffin cups. The batter will be thick and will not rise as much as regular muffins, so fill to top of muffin cup.

Bake approximately 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm.

Enjoy!!!

XOXO

~amy

Wrap Up Party & Sweet Giveaway!!

2013-01-26T07:07:00.002-05:00

Head on over to Tatortots & Jello and check out their wrap up party, link up your projects and enter for $100 to Barn Owl Primitives!!!

Tatortots & Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party & Sweet Giveaway!!!

XOXO

Past Valentine's Day Creations

2013-01-25T11:37:00.002-05:00

I thought you might like to see what some of our past Valentines projects looked like and where the ideas came from. We {try} to make our own Valentines every year and it's always fun to try and come up with something new, I am always grateful to websites and bloggers that provide tons of great ideas..

So as you know last year we did the Mustache Valentine's and chocolate mustache pop's.
If you like them on facebook Design Dazzle will let you print out the valentine for free.

I bought the chocolate pop mold on Amazon

Valentine's Day 2011 we did this:

S. liked the Mustache Valentines the best, but I think these were my favorite ones! I actually brought these to work and put them in mailboxes {which they all hope to receive every year now}. They are super easy to make, I think I bought everything at JoAnn Fabrics and if you use a coupon- even better!
You can print out your 50% off coupon here .

We have done the You Rock!! Valentine's and I think I altered it to be a treat bag topper.

I am sorting through some great ideas for this year, honestly I love them all and S. and I are going to have a hard time choosing!!!

Happy Friday!

XOXO
~a

Valentine's Day Love

2013-01-23T20:25:00.001-05:00

I love Valentine's. Not just the day, but Valentine's cards in general, if it is a good one. I really have fun every year trying to find origional ones for my boys. That they actually like. And will pass out. You see, Valentine's Day is really a girly feminine holiday and for a boy of 11- it's not that much fun. In fact if you ask S. he would tell you it's gross.

Here's a picture of what we did last year. It was a huge hit!!! Hard to top, I know!!

I would love some ideas- so feel free to send me some!!! And will post my favorites soon!!!

XOXO

Chicken Soup for the Soul

2013-01-23T19:37:00.000-05:00

We are a house full of sickos. Literally. We all have the flu, well everyone except My Honey. So we made a batch of Chicken Soup in the crock-pot. But this isn't just any chicken soup, it's THE BEST CHICKEN SOUP.

Gluten Free Goddess: Chicken Soup for the Body and Soul recipe

This soup is just goodness in a crock-pot. I walked in the door after working {sick} all day and literally wanted to cry it smelled so good. I hadn't been able to eat anything all day, since I had been glutened the day before and my stomach still wasn't quite right, but this smelled like heaven.

I love soup when I am sick. I love soup. End of story.

XOXO

~a