Did you miss me?

Hi! Sorry I haven't been posting much but I have been busy! Ordinarily, we only camp 3 times a year - not because we wouldn't want to camp but we didn't have anyone to camp with. This year has been different in that we found people to camp with! Yeh! Our 2 daughters but hybrid campers and a friend bought a travel trailer, plus we reconnected with neighbors who camp.

So far we have camped at Roundtop Campground in Gettysburg (that was a HOT weekend), Steamboat Landing in Lewes Delaware (hot weekend but my son has a seasonal site and a screen room attached to his 5th wheel which kept it cooler), and Artillery Ridge Campground in Gettysburg (HOT+++ and our air conditioner kept shutting off). We had fun at those campgrounds but were hot.

This past weekend we went to Mountain Creek Campground in Gardners, PA. Our sites were large and right on the creek. The children went tubing down the creek right in front of our sites. There were large shade trees on our sites that kept it cooler. I believe this camping trip was the most fun!

We ate the usual hot dogs, hamburgers, and chipped beef gravy. We also tried a shredded chicken in barbeque sauce that we put on top of baked potatoes - delicious and it all was done in crockpots! Another new dish was made over the fire. We used the piemakers. The ingredients were grilled chicken, red & green peppers, cheese, taco seasoning, and a little bit of water. A soft taco shell was put on the piemaker, then all the ingredients, and another soft taco shell. Close the piemaker and place in the fire. You have to keep checking but it takes about 5 to 8 minutes until they are done. Delicious!

So far we will be camping at a streetrod show Labor Day weekend and camping at Artillery Ridge for Halloween. We have also been talking about going to Harpers Ferry, WV the beginning of October. Can't wait!

Guess What???

I just had to tell you how I spent my Saturday evening. The picture above is from Google - I didn't take a picture of my dish, sorry, it didn't last long enough.

So I am making myself some fresh sliced peaches and blueberries to eat and decide to put some whipped cream on top ...just a dab ;-) . My St. Bernard, Marcy, gets all excited when she sees food and was jumping around, doing a dance, breathing heavy, and making crazy sounds. She is not Cujo - she just loves food! 

So I squirted some whipped cream on my fruit and then s-l-o-w-l-y turned around, pointing it at Marcy. She opened her mouth wide and I squirted whipped cream right in her mouth (great aim!) and she slurped it right down. Now she won't leave me alone! She wants more whipped cream. I tested her so that I would be sure it was the whipped cream that she liked. I took out the whipped cream from the frig again - whoa and behold - Marcy opened her mouth wide (and that is a big mouth!). So I squirted her again and guess what - she slurped it down again and then was looking for more.

Yep! That is the highlight of my Saturday night! How was your Saturday night?

Guess You Are Wondering What I have been Doing . . . or maybe not . . .

Guess you all are wondering what happened to me and why I haven't been posting. Well, let me tell you about what's going on.

First, I must say that I am not a "summer person". Heat does not wear well on me. And it has been hot in Hanover, PA this summer. We have an older motorhome that we go camping with or my husband takes it when drag racing his cars. My husband does complain that we have no one to camp with (sorry about ending a sentence with a preposition). This summer we found people to camp with!

So in May my daughter bought a new hybrid camper. It looks like this:

The ends of the camper are the beds. By the way these children are some of our grandchildren except for Jeremy. From left to right: Matthew (only grandson), Jeremy, Olivia, Kierra, Ariana, and Meagan. So now you see the camper and the grandchildren. Anyway, my daughter wanted us to go with them on their first camping trip with their new camper just in case they were unsure how to operate the camper. We went to Round Top Campground in Gettysburg, PA. Here is their link: Round Top Campground.

So we went with them on Memorial Day Weekend. The campground is very nice. It has a nice pool and activities for the adults and the children. It just so happened that they had some reenactors camping there that weekend. They had an activity that cost $2 where you could have someone arrested by the reenactors. Of course my grandson (who just loves his sisters), wanted to have his sister (Meagan) and Ariana (his step cousin - is that a word?) arrested. The reenactors came to the campsite, with guns, to arrest them. At first the girls did not want to go along with it but they gave in. Olivia was very upset that her sister, Meagan, was arrested. She cried and cried but stayed at the campground with me so she could eat! She eventually calmed down.

Afterwards, they did admit they had fun. Matthew was snickering the whole time!! He loved it.

One more thing - it was over 100 degrees at the campground!!! Yes it was hot!! We had taken our two dogs with us - Muffin (a Polish Lowland Sheepdog) and Marcy (a St. Bernard). They did not do well in the heat (nor did I) and we had to take them home Saturday night. The house was air conditioned which made them happy. We made trips home to feed them and let them out. They recovered from the heat and are lively as ever!

And as for me... it was hot and I sweated profusely! Maybe I should have said "perspired" but all I know there was watering pouring down my face all the time. The heat and humidity did a number on me and everyone else, but . . . it was all worth it to go camping with my daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren! And of course, my husband ;-).

ReMake disposable plastic bags into fused placemats!

What a great idea! I have all those plastic bags from the grocery store that could be put to good use! I can't wait to make these placemats!


Here is the video:

D-I-Y > Plastic bag placemat description: Dress up your dining room by turning disposable plastic bags into reusable placemats. Here you'll learn how to heat-fuse plastic bags together. Then simply cut out a rectangle and you have a new table setting. If you’re like me and turn down plastic bags at the checkout counter, ask your friends and family to start collecting. Once you get the hang of heat-fusing, you can apply this technique to a wide range of projects. Create coasters, reusable tote bags, pencil cases and more. Your only limit will be your collection of plastic bags! materials: - 3 plastic bags - a ruler - a pen - a pair of scissors - 2 sheets of kraft paper - an iron instructions: 1. Measure and cut ¼ inch off the bottom of each plastic bag. 2. Turn the bags inside out and stack them on top of each other. Place the stack of bags on one large piece of wax or parchment paper and cover the stack with another large piece of wax or parchment paper. Place this entire stack on the ironing board. 3. Set your iron to medium heat (the rayon or polyester setting). Do a test: iron one corner of your stack of bags to make sure they don’t burn. If they do, turn the iron down. Once you have the correct setting, slowly run the iron over the top of your paper, always keeping  the iron moving. Run the iron over the bags several times, but never touch the hot iron directly to the plastic. This technique fuses the plastic bags together so they become a solid piece of plastic. Turn off your iron and set it aside. 4. Take the fused plastic bags out from the layers of wax or parchment paper. Using a ruler, mark and cut out a rectangle on the fused plastic that is 17 inches x 11 inches. Wipe off any  marker you can still see. Round the corners with your scissors. Make as many placemats as you’d like. Then, serve on these ReMade placemats at your next meal. Here is the link: RePlayGround

Uncle Lou's Visit to Maryland

My Mom's brother, Lou Dlabick, or Uncle Dziusiu as we all know him, came to Maryland this Sunday with his son and his son's family to visit his family in Maryland and Pennsylvania. He will be here until Saturday morning when they will drive back to Ohio where the uncle lives. On Sunday, Jimmy (the son and our cousin) and his family will drive back to Missouri. I have included some pictures that we took so far and will add more later.

This is my Uncle Lou with his older sister, Aunt Stella. Lou will be 86 in December and Aunt Stella will be 93 in November. Lou is getting around great and is just so positive and happy. He says that he may not be rich in money but he is so rich in the love of family. He makes you everyone feel so happy and loved by just being around him!  Aunt Stella is walking with a cane - not because she needs to use it to walk but just in case she needs to hit someone in self defense. She has a great memory and relates all kinds of stories from the past to anyone who will listen, and even to those who don't want to listen ;-).

This is a picture of Uncle Lou holding a picture of his sisters and himself taken some years back. My Mom and Aunt Mary have passed away but Aunt Wanda, Aunt Stella, and Uncle Lou are still going strong.

One more thing - Uncle Lou is on Facebook! I think that is so great!

Calvin Nicholls Paper sculpture artist

A friend sent me pictures of Calvin Nicholls paper sculptures and I was just amazed!! Here is more information that describes what Calvin does. I have also included some pictures of his work.


"Calvin has been creating his paper sculptures since 1986 from his studio north of Toronto Ontario, Canada. Working with sheets of paper and a scalpel, he cuts the component pieces to fit the final drawing and assembles the low relief artwork under studio lighting. When the sculpture is complete the lighting is adjusted to bring out the subtle form and texture. A large format camera is used to capture the detail on 8x10 film prior to scanning for print applications or art prints."

Here is the link Calvin Nicholls provided by Behance if you want to see more of his work. 

Memorial Day ... take the time to remember

While everyone is busy with picnics, parades, the beach, vacations, and cookouts, take the time to remember all the people who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Remember their families who grieve and go on without their loved ones. Take the time to think about them and say a prayer for them and their families. And say a prayer of "Thanks!".

5-minute cream cheese danish

I have tried the cream cheese danishes with the crescent rolls and they turned out very good! Now here is a recipe that looks special and like a danish should look.

If you have a can of crescent rolls and a package of cream cheese, you're in business.

Recipe after the jump!

Firstly, preheat your oven to 375 degrees (190 Cesius, for my Canadian friends) and line a cookie sheet with foil. Then, dump your ingredients into a mixing bowl.

8 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt

Mix these until they're smooth; set aside. Open your fridge and grab your can of rolls.

Unroll your cresent rolls onto a sheet of wax paper, but don't separate them. Pinch the seams together, like so:

Use a small, sharp knife to score the edges like I've shown here:

Don't fill it too full, just use about 80% of your filling.

Then fold the bottom part of the dough up and tuck it around the filling.

Begin "braiding" your dough, crossing one little flap over on one side, then the other, until you've gotten to the top. Fold the top of the dough over and tuck it around the other end of the filling. Carefully place your danish on your foil lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or so. While this is cooking, make your glaze.

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 TB milk

Whisk these together in a small bowl until smooth.

Left the foil with the danish on it from your cookie sheet and let it cool on a wire rack. This prevents the bottom of the danish from continuing to cook on the hot pan.

When it's cooled a bit, drizzle your glaze over it. Serve it for brunch and blow everybody's mind.

I found the recipe at : Crafty Butt Blog

Alex's Mocha Melted Ice-Cream Cake with Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

Looks like I am taking an interest in recipes ;-), especially deserts! This just looked so good!!

Incredible Melted Ice-Cream Cake
by Anne Byrn

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix (one without pudding in the mix!)
2 cups melted ice cream, your choice of flavor (I used Häagen-Dazs coffee)
1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso powder
3 large eggs
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting (see below)

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside. (Or just use Pam with Flour - I love this stuff!)

Place the cake mix, melted ice cream, instant coffee, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with the rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Add chocolate chips and mix just until it's best combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 38 to 42 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a small rack, then invert it again onto a second rack so that the cake is right side up to complete cooling, 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile prepare the Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting: Slide the cake onto a serving platter and pour the warm frosting over the cake (you will have a little extra). Let it stand for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Marshmallow Frosting
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 large marshmallows or 3/4 cup marshmallow fluff
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup whole milk or whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Sift the sugar and cocoa powder together into a large mixing bowl.

Set aside. Place the marshmallows, butter, and milk/cream in a medium-size heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until the marshmallows are melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour the confectioners' sugar and cocoa mixture over the marshmallow mixture. Add the vanilla and stir until the frosting is smooth and satiny.

Use at once to frost the top of the cake of your choice.For the garnish, I used marshmallow fluff to "glue" on chocolate covered coffee beans.

Here is the link: Alex's Mocha Melted Ice-Cream Cake with Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

Creamy Orange Cake

When I saw the picture of this cake, I just knew that I wanted to make it! It is a great cake to make in the summertime! Orange just seems so refreshing. I can't wait to make it!

Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package orange cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package orange flavored gelatin mix
1 cup boiling water
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

• Prepare and bake cake mix according to package Directions for a 9x13 inch pan. Poke holes in cake while still hot with the round handle of a wooden spoon.
• In a medium bowl, make gelatin with only 1 cup of boiling water. Pour liquid gelatin over cake while hot. Cool cake completely.
• In a medium bowl, make vanilla instant pudding with only 1 cup of milk. Stir in vanilla and orange extract. Fold in whipped topping. Spread evenly over cake. Refrigerate cake for 1 hour before serving.

Here is the link: Tricks Chefs Site