Bit O’Green

Here is a little green treat for St Paddy’s Day!

Green Candied Popcorn

4 quarts popped corn
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional, does make mixture slightly more creamy)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
green food coloring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon Wilton paste color in Kelly Green)

In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn. Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

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Lucky Shamrock Hair clip

If your little girl needs a bit o’ green tomorrow it is not too late to make this little hair clip. I need to admit that I have never written a crochet pattern before—-so I am hoping it works for you if you give it a go. It only takes a few minutes.

I used a size 4 crochet needle and embroidery floss (all 6 threads).

Chain 6, dc in 2nd chain from hook and then slip-stitch in remaining 4 chains (this makes the stem), chain 3 and join with a slip-stitch in the 3rd chain from hook to form a ring. For petal *chain 3 turn (only turn the first time), trc , dc , trc , chain 3 and slip-stitch in ring*. Repeat between * two more times so you have 3 petals. Fasten off and weave in the ends. Sew your lucky shamrock to a bobby pin or hair clip.

Now this little girl can tell her big brothers NO PINCHING!

Lucky Shamrocks

My 11 year old boy made these cool hanging felt shamrocks for our window. (He wanted me to make sure that you know he was VERY bored and needed something to do and he got to use the sewing machine —stressing the MACHINE part, so it was all good)

We took two layers of felt and cut out a shamrock shape.  My crafty boy used a sewing machine to beautifully stitch the layers together and also stiched  in a ribbon at the top.  He added a few beads on the ribbon and now they our hanging in our window—hopefully bringing us lots of luck!  If you need some luck, here are the shamrock shapes we used.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Missy’s Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 ½ Cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Divide dough into 4-5 portions, flatten each into a round disc and wrap well. Chill in the refrigerator a couple of hours or overnight (dough can be frozen). Roll dough out about ¼ inch thick on a floured surface in desired shapes. Bake at 325°F for 12-14 minutes on ungreased cookies sheet. Edges should be just slightly golden. Cool completely and then frost with your favorite frosting. I used this one for the shamrock cookies.  I did have to double the milk and corn syrup as mentioned in the reviews.  I also substituted creme bouquet for the almond extract.

Blarney Blessing Biscuits

 

These biscuits are filled with little blessings.

 

 

 

I took little green strips of paper, wrote a blessing and then laminated them. My basketball loving, jersey-wearing son received one that said, “May you shoot for the stars and make it.” My other son had one that said, “May you always have friends to greet you.” My husband’s said, “May your hard work be rewarded. And of course one that said, “May your sippy cup never run empty,” for our two year old.

I baked these blessings in garlicky cheese biscuits. They taste similar to the ones at Red Lobster when fresh out of the oven. I feel a little bit like Paula Deen even suggesting that someone use this much butter, but they are tasty!

Blarney Blessing Biscuits

They received their name because my friend Missy kept saying that there should be Blarney biscuits you could make for St. Patrick’s Day.

So here it goes………

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt (3/4 tsp if using Kosher salt)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup butter, divided
2/3 cup milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp of salt

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Cut in 1/2-cup cold butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture looks like peas. Stir in the milk and mix just until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Stir in the shredded cheese. I make these totally in my food processor.

Melt remaining 1/2-cup butter and add the garlic powder and salt. Form dough into balls (about 2 tablespoons in size, makes about 18 or so biscuits). Dip each ball in butter mixture and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Place your strips of laminated paper in the middle of each biscuit. If I weren’t trying to show there was a blessing in each biscuit in the photo I probably would have folded the strips so they were hidden. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden. Drizzle any remaining butter on top and serve immediately. Since they are best served straight from the oven I made them early in the day and kept them in the refrigerator until they were ready to be baked. If you don’t have access to a laminator you could always enclose your papers in aluminum foil.

Blessings!

Blarney Treasure Stones

Tradition says if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will be given the gift of gab. You will be able to talk eloquently and convincingly. I don’t think these girls need any help with the gift of gab, but we still thought we would make these Blarney Stones. A treasure can be found in the middle of each stone.

Mix up:

• 1 cup used coffee grounds (or used dry espresso grounds–what we had)  If they are too wet I am sure it would change the color of the mixture
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup water
• (I think it would be very easy to tint this mixture with tempera paint—they might be dull colors when dry)

Mix together dry ingredients and then slowly add enough of the water to make a stiff dough—you might not need all off the water, so add slowly.

Knead the mixture on a floured surface until fairly smooth.

 

Break the dough into desired sizes. We divided it into 4 equal pieces.  Hide your trinkets (super balls, small plastic toys, etc.) or money in the center of each ball of dough.

Bake at 150F degrees for 2 hours (I turned them over half way through)  and then air dry 2-3 days (or longer).  If you make smaller rocks I would dry one hour in the oven and then air dry 2 days or more.  The size of rock and the amount of humidity in your home will affect the drying time.  They will look and feel like rocks when dry.

I had hoped to paint them with green and white paint for fun and wait to open them on St Patrick’s Day, but nobody was willing to wait to crack them open with a hammer— let alone wait for paint to dry. 

I think we might make some egg shaped ones for Easter.  These would make great favors for a Dinosaur birthday party!

Beadies

My boys used to be addicted to this beading craft. Their backpacks were adorned with lizards, frogs, Pokemon and more. Every zipper pull and clip, bore a beadie. We haven’t visited this craft for years. When I mentioned blogging about beadies I thought I would be greeted with groans but to my amazement they each enthusiastically started beading.

First you will need a pattern. There are thousands out there. We like Making Friends, Margo’s Beadie Critter Collection, Evelyn’s Beadie Page and Jason’s Beadie Page. The pattern you choose will tell you the amount and color of pony beads you will need and the length of cord. Most patterns will call for satin cord. We find that plastic lacing cord is much easier to work with. The stiffness of the cord makes it easy to thread the beads—no need for a needle. We choose clear cord instead of colored because it works for every project.

First you will divide your cord in half and attach a lanyard clip with a half hitch knot .

Beads are threaded on one side of the cord in color order according to your pattern

The other side of the cord is threaded back through all of the beads. You continue through the pattern in this fashion.

We made this leprechaun and leprechaun hat

and looking forward to Easter this bunny and chick.

If you have used the plastic lacing cord and have trouble getting your beadie to lay flat when finished, you can take it and drop it in boiling water for about one minute. Remove from the water and place on a towel. Press your beadie with another towel, adjusting and flattening. Use caution– it will be hot when it first comes out of the water (especially the metal clip).

Happy beading!