Yes….summer is practically here.  I’ve had picnics on my mind.  We had one picnic during Spring Break and it was super fun.  I’m thinking of  fun things we could take along besides the usual peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

This cold salad would be the perfect addition to any picnic or BBQ.  It’s flavorful and full of fresh, crunchy veggies. And easy to take along.  The creamy tahini dressing is outrageously good.

In this salad, I’ve used radishes and carrots I got from my local CSA. Feel free to change it up with different veggies, or add more.  Celery, broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, and shredded cabbage would be great additions.

I sprinkled the top with toasted sesame seeds, green onions, and broccoli microgreens.  If you can’t find broccoli microgreens, substitute bean or alfalfa sprouts.

Cold Rice Noodle Salad with Carrots, Radishes, and Creamy Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

For dressing:

4 Tbsp. homemade or store-bought mayonnaise (for vegan, use veganaise)
1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
1-2 tsp. tahini, to taste
1/2 tsp. sambal oelek (garlic chili paste)
1/2 tsp. salt, or more to taste

For salad:

6-7 oz. cold rice noodles, prepared package directs (mine required soaking in hot water or boiling)
3 small carrots, scrubbed clean or peeled, julienned
4 large radishes, scrubbed clean, julienned

optional garnishes–toasted sesame seeds, sliced green onions, microgreens or sprouts

Instructions:

For dressing:
Whisk all ingredients together and taste. (It should be concentrated and salty because the salad ingredients are not.) Set aside until ready to assemble salad.

For salad:

Place cold noodles and julienned vegetables in a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over the top and toss to coat. Place a good-sized portion on a plate and garnish with the sesame seeds, green onions, and microgreens.

Serves 4.

*For a lunch, the salad alone would be great. For a heartier meal, serve with chicken, seafood, or marinated tofu.

This cute little caterpillar was just begging to be stitched onto a card! I love to stitch greeting cards, so I thought I’d try my hand at adding a few beads to the mix. I think this little guy turned out perfect. He’s ready to display or be gifted to someone for spring!

Supplies for Stitched Caterpillar Bead Card:

• heavy cardstock paper piece 4 1/4 inches by 5 1/4 inches
• cork board
• pin or punching awl
• cross-stitch needle
• embroidery thread
• plastic pony beads, big enough to fit through a needle
• glue
• folded blank card
• pen or pencil

**See here for the basic instructions on hand-stitched greeting cards for more help and inspiration.

1. Lay your cardstock piece of paper onto the cork board and using your pin or punching awl, punch two holes at either end of the card, a few centimeters in from each side.

2. Add embroidery floss to your needle and knot the end. Stitch it up through one hole in the card.

3. Add your beads to your needle and thread. Stop adding beads when you get to the length of the other hole.

4. Stitch your thread through the second hole and tie it off with a knot, tight! Make sure this is tight or your caterpillar will droop.

5. With a pen or pencil, add a few little legs and antennae on the caterpillar, to give him a little life!

Now he’s ready to climb, eat, and form his chrysalis!

Usually paper and scissors go hand-in-hand, but not for this project. We’re tearing paper and layering the pieces to make colorful landscapes. Each one turns out completely unique and beautiful, and all you need is paper and a glue stick.

Choose a background paper and tear a strip from your first color. Leaving some paper at the top for the sky, glue down your first piece.

Work your way down the page, overlapping and gluing each piece. Experiment with your tearing – try making big mountains, rolling hills, straight plans, or wavy fields.

Have lots of paper handy – some of your tears just won’t be right!

Continue adding torn layers until you reach the bottom of your paper. If you like, add torn paper details like trees, clouds, sun, or flowers.

Stand back and admire your beautiful landscape. This is such a quick and easy project with very little set-up, making it perfect for crafting while dinner is cooking or friends are over to play.

Here are a few variations you and your kids might enjoy:

• Use various shades of blue paper for an ocean scene
• Use magazines or your kids’ finger paintings instead of construction paper
• If you have a toddler that wants to craft alongside your older kids, tape a piece of clear contact paper sticky-side-up on the table. They can tear paper and stick it to the contact paper.

Tearing paper is not only fun, it strengthens little fingers and hands too. Happy crafting!

The latest video of the Kids in the Craft Room series is live! This week I’m sharing the best adhesives for kids, as not all glues are created equal.

In today’s video, you’ll hear a little about each of my adhesive choices and what they can be used for. This will help you get prepped for organizing your own craft room. With summer on it’s way, and kids out from school, it’s best to be prepared with a few crafty items. Make sure to watch the Basic Craft Supplies video, as today is part 2, talking all about glues and tape.

Enjoy!

Silly kids making silly faces, showing how much they love glue. Yay for crafts!

I wanted to share a few of the fun things I’ve been writing elsewhere lately. It’s a little of this and a little of that, but all things I’m loving right now!

• Instagram and the #PhotoADay Challenge: It has been so fun to be a part of this #photoaday challenge, created by Fat Mum Slim. It’s a great way to get creative with your photography. Are you on Instagram? What do you think? I’m in love with it! Here’s the #photoaday line up for May I’m sharing over at Babble.

• 15 Crafts Inspired by the Great Outdoors: We are dedicated as a family to do more outdoors. And in doing so, I’ve been wanting to bring some of that outdoor flavor to the indoors and create a few fun handmade items. I’m sharing this round up of great ideas over at Babble.

• 25 Things We Love about Mom: I took the new Handmade Card Journal I made for a mother’s day gift, and put a spin on it – turn it into a LOVE book for Mom. Write down 25 things you love about mom, one thing on each page. Instructions over at Babble.

• If You Give a Child a Book…: I started this conversation over at The Blog Frog’s Random House community and it was great to hear what all the responses were. We love the stories by  Laura Joffe Numeroff. It makes for such an interesting story! I’m also talking about picture books with no words and where to find fun storybook printables!

I get a little too excited about kitchen tools.  I’m kind of a geek that way.  I’m also a practical kind of gal, so instead of perfume and flowers for Mother’s Day, I prefer small appliances or gadgets to add to my collection.

I get asked a lot about my must-have kitchen items, so here is my list of basic items I think every cook should have, or in other words, the items I use on a daily basis and would be lost without.   With the exception of the fancy pastry brushes, these are all the exact items I use in my kitchen and love with all of my heart.  I could make a list of 100+ more things I love, but for now let’s focus on the what and why of each item.

1.  Good-quality, sharp chef’s knife, 8-10″ long and wooden cutting board–probably the most indispensable kitchen tool besides your hands.

Spend the money and get one of the big name knives and invest in a sharpening stone or get your knife sharpened by a professional at least once a year.

2. Serrated bread knife–good for chopping nuts, slicing tomatoes, bread (of course), chopping chocolate

This is pretty self-explanatory by the things you’ll use it for. Don’t underestimate a good serrated knife. No more squished bread. It cuts through tomatoes like butter. And when you chop nuts and chocolate, they won’t fly all over the place.

3. Immersion blender–for soups, if you get one with attachments it can whip cream, chop herbs, etc.

I never knew I needed one of these until I had one. I use several times a week for soups or other purees. I do have the one with attachments, so I have used it to whip cream several times or beat up a bunch of eggs for a frittata. When my blender broke, I even used it to make smoothies.

4. Rimmed baking sheets–for making cookies, roasting veggies, jelly roll cakes, bread, pizza

Self-explanatory. Just be sure to buy a really sturdy one for more even baking.

5. Hand mixer–doughs and batters, whipped cream, eggs, etc.

I have a tiny kitchen and don’t have room for my stand mixer on the counter. Instead of lugging it out of the closet, I whip out my hand mixer for almost everything now–except for making bread dough. Look for a powerful one that won’t burn out when you’re mixing up thick cookie doughs.

6. Coffee/spice grinder–grinding fresh spices, grains, coffee, nuts, bread crumbs, etc.

I use this almost daily too, to make homemade spice blends (like curry powder), and to grind nuts and seeds (flax and chia). It works better than my food processor for grinding nuts.

7. Pastry brushes–buttering pans, brushing tops of bread and rolls with egg wash, wash down sides of pans when making caramel/candy

This is another thing I never knew I needed.  I had always used my fingertips.  But it makes me feel more legit.

8. Microplane–for grating citrus zest, nutmeg, ginger, garlic, hard cheeses (Parmesan), cinnamon sticksgood handmixer–cookies, whipping cream, etc.

I lost my microplane one time and I think I actually cried. We eat tons of Asian food, so I’m always using it to grate fresh ginger. Probably #2, just behind the chef’s knife, of indispensable tools.

9. Silicone spatulas–small, medium, large–heat-proof, for folding egg whites, scraping out bowls and jars, scrambling eggs

Because silicone is heat-proof up to 450 degrees F (I think), you can use it in a very hot pan without worrying that it will melt.  I only use this kind of scraper now.  They last practically forever.

10. Food processor–chopping, pureeing, making pie crust and other doughs (pizza), mayonnaise, etc.

I added this at the end because most food processors do cost a pretty penny.  But if you are someone who really loves to cook, or is just learning, I totally recommend getting one.  They save tons of time if you’re chopping a bunch of vegetables.  If you get one with grating and slicing attachments, that saves time.  You can make small amounts of dough in them.  We use ours for pizza dough and pie crusts mostly.

Now it’s your turn–what are your indispensable kitchen tools?

images via Williams-Sonoma and Amazon

When we think of spring we think of new life and nature. On the farm there’s all sorts of new life in the spring. Baby chicks are hatching, piglets are born, calves are by their mama’s sides and cute farm babies are abundant. Children love farm animals, so why not put together these craft stick cuties that can be used as puppets or even bookmarks! A fun project for a spring afternoon.

For this craft you will need these supplies:

• 5 jumbo craft sticks
• Googly eyes
• Buttons (tan and pink)
• Small pink bead
• Scissors
• Glue or glue dots
• Felt: light brown, dark brown, black, pink,orange, and red
• Paint: white, black, light brown, pink and orange
• Fine point marker

Begin by painting the craft sticks. Two of them will be white and the other three will be pink, light brown, and orange. paint some black splotches randomly on one of the white sticks.

Use a thin paint brush (or you can use a black Sharpie!) to add stripes to the orange stick.

Cut out pieces from felt for:

• Pig’s ears – pink
• Cow’s ears – black
• Horse’s ears and snout – light brown
• Horse’s mane and forelock – dark brown
• Chicken’s comb: red
• Chicken’s beak: orange
• Cat’s ears: orange

You can use glue, or if you like Glue Dots, to attach the googly eyes to each craft stick. Glue the felt pieces in place for each animal and glue on buttons and the cat’s nose bead, and you have yourself a barn full of new friends!

Here’s the latest video in our Kids in the Craft Room series, helping to get kids crafting. Today we’re talking all about basic craft supplies to have on hand. I’m sharing my 5 favorites and my daughter shares her 5 favorites too. With these 10 must have craft supplies, the kids will be ready to craft.

I have to say that pipe cleaners and googly eyes are my top 2 must have craft supplies. But if you know me or my blog at all, you probably already knew that! Below is a photo of the supplies we’re sharing. Watch the video to see what we have to say about them all!

All of these craft supplies can be found at your local craft store, Michael’s Crafts, JoAnn’s Fabric, Walmart, and Target. You can also purchase these supplies online at ConsumerCrafts.com.

If you missed the first video in the series, talking about where to craft, make sure to visit the Kids in the Craft Room page.

Just for fun today, in time for Mother’s Day or Teacher Appreciation Day, I’m giving away a copy of my book, Make and Takes for Kids. The ideas in here will help you get the kids crafting too. And I can tell you that all of these supplies are used to craft with in my book!

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Giveaway Entries: For the chance to one win one copy of Make and Takes for Kids book, leave a comment on this post sharing “your favorite craft supply for kids” by Thursday May 10th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Friday morning May 11th. Good Luck!

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