Rock Candy Approx 120 hours

Rock Candy Approx 96 Hours

Here is Miss V's Rock Candy Experiment at approx 96 hours.  Look at how much solution has already dissolved.

 Look at all the crystals!

 Look at all the blue crystals!!!

 And look at the crystals around the top of the container!

Rock Candy Experiment approx 72 hour

 Look you can see crystals growing on the skewer that had sugar on it!!

Kitchen Craft - Large Suncatchers

So I saw this idea on Pinterest this week and knew it would be something that Miss V would want to try.  We just happened to be at Michaels this afternoon and picked up a big bucket of translucent colorful pony beads and a package of just clear pony beads.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

In a round cake pan, place a single layer of pony beads.  You can get creative of just pour them in and shake around.

I did the creative thing with just a few colors and Miss V just poured them in.
Bake in the oven for approx 20 minutes.  They will smoke and smell for a bit.
Let them cool completely in the pan, you may here them pop when they pull away from the sides of the pan.
Drill a small hole and use fishing line to a loop.  (I couldn't find any so I just used some pastel yellow embroidery thread for now)
Hang them wherever you have a sunny window. 
I just hung them in the family room window for now since I had a couple of command hooks up already.  The ceiling fan is making them twirl around too.

Mini Peach Cobblers

Thanks to Pinterest again for a cute food idea.  I saw these earlier today.  They are called Mini Peach Cobblers.  When Miss V and I ran to the store earlier I grabbed a can of sliced peaches.

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
a dash of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 stick of melted butter (I had a lot left over so maybe 3/4 of a stick would be fine)
brown sugar &cinnamon
1 can sliced peaches, chopped up

Preheat your oven to 350.
Put 1 tsp of melted butter in each muffin cup.
In a medium bowl mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk until combined.  Place about 2 tbs of batter in each muffin cup.
Place 1 tbs of chopped peaches in each muffin cup on top of the batter.
Sprinkle with brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Let cool almost completely in the pan.  (If not they stick like mine!)

Like I said mine stuck to the pan.  The flavor was pretty good, but you could definitely tell they were canned peaches.  Next time I would just use fresh of frozen (defrosted) and sauteed in a bit of butter until soft.

Freezer Meals - Sausage and Peppers

So the other day I posted about making four freezer meals.  Today I decided to make up the sausage and pepper bag.

I let it defrost for an hour in a bowl of cold water.  Then dumped it into my crock pot and cooked on low for 7 hours.  It was smelling done and my crock pot automatically turns to Keep Warm.

I served this over Bow Tie Pasta.  I liked that it is a very light "sauce" and not a heavy red sauce. 

Rock Candy Approx 48 hours

Chex Muddy Buddies

I have seen these popping up all over Pintrest.  So I showed Miss V and she wanted to make some today.  I adore this little girl.  I handed her the recipe from Betty Crocker and she went searching for the ingredients and what we didn't have went on a list.  We just ran to Publix to pick up the cereal and chocolate chips.  (I had some hidden, but she is a choco-saurus and can sniff it out)

So here we go!

9 cups Corn Chex
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

Into a large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

In a microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter uncovered on high for 1 minutes.  Stir and microwave another 30 seconds.  Stir until smooth.  Stir in vanilla.

Pour mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated.

Pour into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and add powdered sugar.  Shake the bag until well coated.  Spread on waxed paper to cool.  Store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

Miss V gives this TWO Sticky Thumbs Up!

Making Crystals - approx 24 hours

Here is Miss V's control jar after 24 hours.

Kitchen Experiment - Making Crystals

Yesterday at the library, Miss V picked up a book on Science Experiments.  It looks like very simple projects that would be perfect for summer break.

Today she picked the Making Crystals.  I also found a couple blogs dedicated to making Rock Candy and combined both directions and threw in some of my own knowledge.  (gasp...shhhh...I am secretly a science geek)

(I blur her face for her own online privacy)

 Soak wooden skewers for about 10 minutes in hot water.

 Roll them in granulated sugar.

 Let dry completely!  This is very important.  The saturated sugar solution (hopefully) will use these crystals as a place to start growing.

 I put them on the counter under the ceiling fan set to high for a couple of hours.

 We decided to make some colorful!

 I marked plain skewers.

 Jars with food color already to be filled.

 We started with 4 cups water and 4 cups granulated sugar.  When that dissolves completely, turn on the heat to medium and add 1 cup sugar at a time and dissolve completely.  We ended up using about 8 1/2 cups sugar total.

Jars now sitting in the breakfast nook window. Notice that we kept one jar plain.

The clear jar is my control jar.

 All the jars lined up.  Each jar has two skewers held up by clothes pins.  All the jars have one plain skewer and one sugared skewer.

Control jar:  Left Side Skewer is plain and the right side is the sugared skewer.  

I probably should have sprayed the area first with ant spray...woops!  I will try and remember to take a picture every day at 4:00 pm to see the changes.

Freezer Meals

I forgot to post this back in May....

I know I have posted on my crafty blog about how much I love Pinterest.  There have been many pins lately regarding "freezer meals".  Anyway I went to a blog called Ring Around The Rosies.  Two of her recipes looked perfect for what I just picked up at the store.

I made up the Chicken Teryiaki and the Sausage and Peppers.  I did have to change the Sausage a bit though.

Chicken Teryiaki
Large bag of carrots
Red Onion into Large Chunks (I used a couple small sweet onions)
2 large cans pineapple (undrained)
4 Garlic Cloves (I peeled and smashed them)
4 Chicken Breasts (I cut them into large chunks)
1 cup teriyaki sauce (I skipped this step and just put in when I put it into the crockpot)

Follow directions above, and split everything into two gallon freezer bags. shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Written on the bag: Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to crock pot, Cook on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Serve over hot rice.

Next up was the Sausage and Peppers
6 Italian Sausage (I just used a coil of Sweet Italian Sausage)
2 Green Bell Peppers
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 large red onion (I used a few small sweet onions)
4 cloves garlic, minced (I just peel and smashed, I find that small bits of garlic will burn if they are on the bottom of my crock pot)
2 cans italian diced tomatoes (I just used regular diced canned and added my own dried Italian seasonings)
drizzle olive oil

Follow directions above, and put everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Instructions for Bag: Cook on low 8 hours,