Seven Scrumptious Strawberry Recipes

It's that time of year!!! Strawberry time!

Hurray!

Who doesn't love strawberries? (well apparently some people don't--like my 3-year-old. go figure)

But for the most part, everyone agrees that strawberries are just scrumptious.  And this time of year, they are fresh, (more likely to be) local, and (relatively) inexpensive. I just picked up a big 'ol container full at Costco and can't wait to eat them. :)

It's hard to improve on just a fresh strawberry, but here are some of our favorite strawberry recipes we've posted about her at Everyday Art. Looking through them makes me realize that I've failed to put some of my favorite recipes up! So, someday soon hopefully you'll see posts with my favorite Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie and also my Strawbery-Pepper-Pecan jam! YUM!

But, you won't be missing much with these great recipes. Take your pick of recipes and enjoy!

1. The Healthy, Vegan, Raw Strawberry Oat-Almond Bars. I could go for one of those right about now....

2. Rustic Strawberry Cake. Perfect with a dollop of whip cream on top. 

3. Fun, Fancy, Strawberry Puff Pasty. That creamy layer? Oh, it's delicious--cream cheese, sour cream, orange zest...yum!

4. Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. Can't go wrong here! Love this on bread, ice cream, crackers or, um, just with a spoon.

5. Strawberry Scones. Not even a little bit healthy but oh so decadent and delicious!

6. Of course we had to include Fresh Strawberry Pie. It's a classic for a great reason. This link has several versions--take your pick. 

7. Breakfast Banana Split. Healthy, yummy, and just something new and fun to do.

Make your own paper pots for starting seeds

Have we ever mentioned how much we love gardening around here? Well, we both do. A lot. 

Hard to say why exactly--everything about it is so great. For me, I love ever aspect of it. I love digging in the dirt. I love planting seeds. I really love watering. I love harvesting. I love fresh, chemical-free produce. I love that I can peek out the window at my kids snitching produce from the garden. I love looking at my garden. I even like weeding. How's that for weird. 

Where I come from, it's still risky to put your garden in the ground. It's awfully tempting because it's so warm, but it could still surprise me with a freeze any night now. But, waiting is really trying my patience. I've been out to the vegetable garden spot a lot, prepping it. Keeping the weeds out, stirring the chicken poop under, etc. (Gotta love free fertilizer.)

 And now I even have some little seedlings already to put into the earth.

 

It's been fun for the kids and I to start these plants. I wanted to make some paper pots out of newspaper to start the seeds in so that I could just put them directly into the ground without transplanting, and it was really easy to do. Easy and so far things have worked very well, as you can see by my healthy butternut squash plant in the image above. 

Want to make some easy, inexpensive, eco-friendly, no-fuss awesome paper pots in which to start your own seeds? Well here's a handy-dandy little tutorial for you.

1. Tear a strip of newspaper slightly taller than the jar/can/random cylinder you are using as your form. Wrap the newspaper around the jar, leaving about 2 inches at the bottom.
2. Fold the bottom edges up.
3. I like to dip the bottom in a bit of water to kind of stick it all together.
4. When you have all the pots made that you want, go ahead and fill with dirt and plant your seed in.
5. Place in a warm, sunny spot and keep the soil moist (but not soggy). Before long you'll have yourself some little plants ready for the garden.

If you are anything like me, you'll have a little TOO many plants ready for the garden. One seed pack of butternut squash planted 12 pots (all for a $1.29 I might add), all of which came up. I like butternut squash, but 12 plants is ridiculous. So, I've been giving them away to whoever wants one (or two or three).

I've also started a fun mixed batch of heirloom tomatoes (we'll be getting all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes), cantaloupe and even some flowers for the flower garden. 

Happy Gardening!

 

Easy Pillow Covers

I don't know if there's an easier or faster way to brighten-up a room then adding fun throw pillows.

Even better than buying new pillows is making them- or the covers at least. 

Making them gives you almost unlimited fabric choices and is easy on the budget- and just plain easy. 

Here are a few simple steps to get you going on your own.

1. Choose your fabric, this is the hardest part. Cut your fabric.
(I had an 18" square pillow so I cut an 18" strip of 45" wide fabric.) 

2.Fold one of your short sides over 1/2 inch towards the back and iron.

3. fold over AGAIN, 1 1/2 inches this time, and iron.

4. Fold over the OTHER short side 1/2 inch toward the back and iron.

5. Fold over AGAIN 1/2 inch an iron.

6. Sew close to the edge on the side with the SMALLER fold.

7. Lay your fabric right side up with a ruler centered along one of the long sides. Fold the short side with the wide hem in towards the center. (My pillow was 18 inches, so my fold was about 14 inches.)

8. Now fold in the other short side until your pillow cover measures 17 inches 

(or however wide your pillow is minus an inch or so). The folds should overlap.

9. Pin along the raw edges.

10. Sew along raw edges with a 1/2 inch seam. I like to go over this seam a couple times so it's stronger.

11. Turn right side out.

12. Stuff your pillow inside!

*Yes, the pillow cover I made for an 18 inch pillow measured 17 inches. Making the pillow cover slightly smaller will keep the pillow looking nicer longer, rather than loose and saggy when the pillow gets wear and starts to squish down a bit.

Now make a few more and throw them on your couch, bed, bench, chair...
wherever you need a splash or color!

Now get thinking about what colors you want next season :)

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Cute Kids Cupcakes

 Gotta love cute cupcakes. :)

And these beauties are super fun--colorful swirls and polka dots and candies and the whole ball of works. 

 

My daughter's elementary school had a carnival and needed volunteers to make cupcakes for the cake walk.

I thought about it for about, mmmm, 2 seconds then signed myself right up for a batch of cupcakes. I love baking but don't always love having the sweets around for myself or my kids to eat, so this was a perfect scenario for me!

Her request? 

"Something bright and colorful!"

Check. :)

Here's what I did to make these cupcakes. 

1. Make (or buy) some frosting.

2. Get some frosting bags or plastic sandwich bags with the corner cut off.

3. Use a toothpick or paintbrush to wipe some gel food dye onto the edges of the bag as shown here.

4. I wanted a high mound of frosting on top, without actually using THAT much frosting, so I cut a marshmallow in half and stuck it on top of the cupcake. Then I piped the frosting around in a large circle ending up on top. 

5. Apply skittles and voila! Cute cupcakes for the kids. :)

 

Paper Mache Bowls

Who knew paper mache could be so fun?! And cute?!

 

I love these little bowls. This was one of those perfect crafts for me. 

Why? Well,

 1) I used to scrapbook and have oodles of old scrapbook paper that I could "shop" from.

2) I like to use up old supplies. :)

3) I wanted something to decorate my shelf with.

4) I wanted a craft to do with my kids. 

Bingo! Paper mache bowls. :)

I first saw the idea here and fell in love with it. Couldn't get it out of my head. Soooo I decided to make a blue-and-white-and-gray version for my kitchen/dining area.

Want to join along? Here's the easy how to. 

1) Punch a lot of 1-inch circles. I bought myself a hole punch for this. I used the Fiskars Squeeze Punch, and I must say, I was truly amazed at how easy it was to use. Rather than wearing your thumbs down to a nubbin pushing a whole punch, this one works by squeezing two handles together. Easy and smooth. Love it.

2) Find yourself some bowls to use as molds. Wrap in plastic wrap. Now, I learned this the hard way: the plastic wrap sticks to glass bowls a little too well. I'd recommend either using plastic bowls or maybe putting a dish cloth between the bowl and the plastic wrap. That'll make removing your paper bowl SOOO much easier.

3) Make yourself some paper mache goo:

• Combine ½ cup flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl.
• Boil 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the flour and cold water mixture. Bring to a boil again.
• Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
• Let cool. The paste will thicken as it cools.

4) Dip paper circles into the goo, put on the bowl.

 

 

5) Let it dry. 

 

6) Remove the bowl, and voila! cute paper mache bowl. Love it. :)

 

 

Fun project for my girls and I! :) 

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