Wedding Survival Kit

August 9, 2014August 6, 2014 / Jodi / 4 Comments

One week from today is Jackie and Matt’s wedding. Another one of “our children” is getting married… (sigh)

Where did the time go?

When I met my BFF, Jill, we were pregnant with Nick and Jayme and had two little babies. I had Jake. She had Jackie.

Last year Jake married our beloved Colleen. This year Jackie gets to marry her dear Matt.

I can still picture our two little toe heads and the wonderful times we shared as we weaved our way through diapers and bottles and strollers and trips to the mall (just to get out of the house)….

to being homeroom moms together and planning holiday parties and the best obstacle courses for field day…

to PTA meetings, playgroups, the best themed birthday parties and homemade Halloween costumes…

to Jill & Jodi’s Junque craft shows, and then re-entering the workforce, being parents of teens, then sending them to college and empty nesting…

and now weddings.

It is a great life to share with friends like we are, and I am so excited to celebrate our Jackie next week.

One of the shower gifts I gave Jackie was this simple little “Wedding Survival Kit.”

I put all the items in a cute little keepsake box that Jackie can use for whatever she wants.

You can customize it to suit your special couple and make a sweet, personalized gift.

A crayon – to “color” all the days of your marriage bright and sunny

A rubber band – to remind you to always be flexible

A candle – to help the glow of romance always be part of your love for Matt

A paper clip – to help you hold it all together

A penny – to give you extra “cents” to know which battles are worth fighting and which are not

Some tape – to remind you little things can be “fixed”

A highlighter – to highlight all of the wonderful moments you and Matt will have

A glue stick – to help you “stick it out” during the rough patches

A battery – to help you recharge after a long day (or week…or month…)

A button – to remind you that sometimes you need to “button your lip”

A safety pin – to help you pin-point your problems and solve them

A dental pic – to always pick out the best in Matt

A q-tip – to dig out all the bad things in your relationship

A band-aid – so you can tackle those high heels in August

Can’t wait to celebrate your day next week at this time Jackie!

Love ya!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

She left BEAUTY wherever she went

August 8, 2014August 6, 2014 / Jodi / 3 Comments

Another little treasure from our trip to Hobby Lobby last weekend was this this little stamp set Janet found in the clearance rack. It “spoke” to both of us, and I had to have it. It reminds me of so many amazing women in my life. I wanted to list them – starting with Stella Star all the way through life, but I am afraid I would accidentally forget someone…

I wanted to show pictures, but again afraid I don’t have all that I would want to post and/or forget someone.

But I think this sentiment should really speak to ALL women.

Be your own kind of beautiful….

Know that there are many kinds of beauty…

Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, and even senses….

Beauty can be visual or it can be something from the heart – the way someone makes you feel – maybe with the words they use – spoken or written…

Beauty can come from the way something or someone smells… like flowers or freshly baked bread or cookies or a favorite perfume…

Beauty can be the way something feels – like a tight hug from a friend, your favorite slippers or comforter, your favorite sweater, or the warmth of a kiss.

Know that you have the potential to leave BEAUTY wherever you go!

Happy Friday! We are off to “The Best Book Club Ever” tonight! Woohoo! “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks and lots of discussion and wine! 🙂

The layout of this card was designed from the Freshly Made Sketches Sketch #148:

Go out and be your own kind of beautiful!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

25 Things that Make Me Happy

August 7, 2014August 5, 2014 / Jodi / 7 Comments

A Short and Random List of Just Some of the Things that make me HAPPY:

Lots of people in my home
The phone ringing at 7:03 am – and my Dad on the other end saying “Good Morning”
Marty’s laugh
Seeing my boys in love
Seven Deadly Zins Red Zinfandel
When my boss sends a reply email to a project I’ve done with a one word reply: “Perfect”
Mikey’s tail wagging and the greeting I get EVERY time I come home – even if I was only gone 10 minutes
Girlfriends – deep conversations and belly laughs
Sunshine and blue skies
Bombay & Tonic with lime and lots of ice on a hot evening
Sending a card to a friend “just because”
My first cup of coffee in the morning with sweet Italian cream
Text messages from Rob and Ella
Brady Bunch songs
The beach
Tight hugs
Smiles from strangers
Christmas music
The smell of Apricot Nut Bread – Grandma’s recipe
Baking cookies for friends and family
Thursday date night to John’s Bar
Finding and giving just the perfect gift
Allowing myself to get lost in a good book
Marty snoring – because that means he is there beside me
People saying “Love ya”

You can NEVER have too much happy – right?!

So I had fun making this card for Mojo Monday Challenge #357 and using this Stampinup Yippee-Skippee Stamp sentiment: “You Can Never have Too Much Happy,” which I heat embossed with white on Blackberry Bliss cardstock.

This is the sketch we were to follow:

I used some Park Lane DSP, some more of the new In Colors: Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist with some classic Old Olive, and stamped and cut out the flower and leaf from SU Flower Patch. I embellished with a few of my homemade faux enamel dots, and the finishing touch was a spritz of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (which I picked up on our brief shopping trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend). Fun!

I love how the light catches the Shimmer mist, but it was hard to capture in a photograph. I can’t wait to share this with someone and hopefully make them happy.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Pittsburgh-Style Sprinkle Thumbprint Cookies

August 6, 2014August 5, 2014 / Jodi / 20 Comments

So – we have already discussed that we Pittsburghers do cookies for weddings. Right?

Massive cookie tables that serve as appetizers, desserts (along with cake!), and take-home treats/gifts/doggie bags.

Pittsburgh is also kinda famous for our twist on the traditional thumbprint cookie, which is typically filled with jam or fruit preserves and rolled in nuts.

Nope – in the Burgh, we do sprinkles and icing on our thumbprints!

Many of the local bakeries as well as our large grocery store chain, Giant Eagle, make and sell these by the hundreds of dozens. They come in a variety of colors of icing and sprinkles and there is also a chocolate icing version.

The ones I made this week are blue because, well – they are for an upcoming wedding (WOOHOO Jackie and Matt – only a little over a week to go!) – and I wanted to match the wedding color theme (as close as possible with sprinkles and icing – there are only so many shades of blue sprinkles available….)

Here are the ones I made last year for Jake and Colleen’s wedding in yellow.

I must give credit to two great baking bloggers for this recipe: Michelle – Brown Eyed Baker and Chelsea – Chelsea Bakes.

Pittsburgh-Style Sprinkle Thumbprint Cookies:

2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sprinkles of your color choice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour and salt. Once it is mostly incorporated, slowly increase the speed back to medium-high and beat for another minute or so until a dough forms.

3. Form tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in the sprinkles. If dough is a bit dry, you can add a little bit of milk or cream or put on your hands when rolling the balls to allow sprinkles to stick.

4. Place on baking stone about 1 – 1/2 inches apart. Make a slight indentation with your thumb or finger on the tops of all the cookies.

5. Bake for 8 minutes, then make a deeper indentation in the middle, and bake for an additional 7-8 minutes. The cookies should not brown much at all around the edges. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons milk or cream
Pinch salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter, room temperature
food color of your choice

Stir together all ingredients until smooth, then drop a spoonful into each cooled cookie.

I liken the taste of this buttery cookie to that of shortbread. It is thick and moist and dense and tender flaky all at once.

You need to allow these cookies to cool for quite a long time for the icing to “set.” I leave mine on racks overnight and then place in Ziploc Freezer bags.

To make the chocolate frosting version, see Michelle’s recipe on her Brown Eyed Baker Blog here.

Enjoy these Burgh style cookies.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Lemon Chicken Parmesan

August 5, 2014August 3, 2014 / Jodi / 2 Comments

I love chicken.

It is so versatile, and I am always looking for different ways to create chicken dinners.

Especially for a hot summer day, I loved this LEMON version of Chicken Parmesan. It is a lighter version of the typical red-sauce chicken parmesan.

I found the recipe from The Recipe Girl’s Blog, and we enjoyed it Sunday evening for dinner.

Delish with angel hair pasta, fresh lemon juice and zest, fresh basil, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and some bubbly fresh mozzarella on top.

Here is the recipe as I slightly adapted from The Recipe Girl:

Ingredients:

PASTA:
1 box angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (or your favorite Parmesan)

CHICKEN:
4 chicken breasts – pounded to tenderize and make thinner for more even cooking
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (or your favorite Parmesan)
1 tablespoon fresh basil (or as much as you like)
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic

TOP:
1 small ball fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
salt and coarsely ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Mix the cooked pasta with the butter and lemon zest. As soon as the butter is melted and mixed in, stir in the Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Blend the Panko, Parmesan, Basil, Lemon Zest, Salt and Pepper in a medium bowl.

4. Heat the butter, lemon juice and garlic in a large, oven-safe skillet.

5. Dip the chicken in beaten egg, then Panko cheese mixture, and place in the pan. Cook on both sides until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side (depending on thickness of chicken). Remove the chicken to a plate.

6. Spoon the mixed pasta into the skillet. Place the cooked chicken breasts on top followed by the sliced mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle top with salt and pepper.

7. Bake 15 minutes (or until the chicken is cooked through) covered.

8. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes until the mozzarella is bubbly and brown.

Serve and ENJOY!

We sure did.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

A Kangaroo Burger at Burgatory!

August 4, 2014August 3, 2014 / Jodi / 4 Comments

After a “brief” 3 -hour (yep – we rushed!) visit to Hobby Lobby on Saturday with a couple of my favorite girls – my sweet “daughter” in law, Colleen, and one of my BFFs, Janet, to look at/purchase/limit ourselves to various crafty supplies and home décor, followed by a visit to Volkweins’s Music to check in on one of our favorite guys – Jake – we ladies were FAMISHED. It was 3:30 and none of us had had breakfast or lunch – with the exception of coffee and a biscoff blondie :).

None of us had been to #Burgatory yet, so were excited to try! It was a great time to go. We hear there are long lines and standing room only at lunch and dinner time – but since we went at an odd “in between” time for lunch/dinner/linner/whatever you want to call eating at 3:30pm – there was no wait!

I told our awesome waiter Andrew, I would be blogging about this, so I wanted to know what the BEST burger was. He recommended Morty’s Steakhouse.

In addition to being famished – we were extremely parched and excited to try some refreshing cocktails. It was a hot day, and though I am typically a wine or G&T kinda gal, I had a hankerin’ for a beer, so I took Andrew’s recommendation on an amazing IPA. Janet had a Raspberry Ginger Beer combo and Colleen had a “lemonade.” We kinda wanted to try one of their famous drunken “hard milkshake” cocktails, but decided you can only handle so much in one day! CHEERS!

While we were waiting for our food, I had to grab a shot of this humongous sign that might need to be everyone’s Mantra – Honor Thy Burger & Thy Mother! Look at the friendly chap smilin’ for me :).

Andrew was awesome – and (ahem) CHECK OUT the MORTY’S STEAKHOUSE BURGER! It seriously has a huge steak knife jabbed in it to keep it together!

Janet was the brave one of the three of us and willing to take the risk for the sake of us all and tried the KANGAROO Burger. Apparently they choose a different game burger to feature each weekend, and we hit on Kangaroo weekend. This “sandwich” consisted of: garlic crusted kangaroo with cheddar, braised short ribs, roasted cauliflower puree, onion marmalade and mixed greens on brioche. We all tasted it. EVEN Colleen! Probably our first and last time to have kangaroo. Not bad – but not great either.

Colleen had the Standard Deluxe: All natural beef burger with white American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and the house burger sauce. She loved it.

And now – the piece de resistance – the MORTY’S STEAKHOUSE! (and yes – there is a burger under that bountiful bouquet of haystack onions. Are you ready for this? Peppercorn crusted beef burger with horseradish cheddar, haystack onions and cabernet sauce. Like the greatest steak dinner you’ve ever had reincarnated as a burger.

Andrew was right. IT WAS THE BEST! Done to a perfect medium for me. Had to smash it down and crush all those crunchy yummy onions to fit in your mouth, but oh so worth it!

A cute touch at the end of the meal is a custom fortune cookie with a Burgatory twisted message inside actually the best fortune cookie I ever ate. It was super fresh and very vanilla-ee, and the messages were fun.

We would have had a great time wherever we went, but we enjoyed our experience at Burgatory. (even if a burger linner set us back a mere $85 – counting a generous tip for Andrew!) – Budget Shmudget!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Dreaming of a Serene Silhouette Sunset

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014 / Jodi / 17 Comments

I thought it would be fun to play along with the Paper Players Challenge again this week, and this week’s Challenge #207 is a Button Theme Challenge.

The guidelines were simply to include a button of any sort on your project. It can be an actual button, or it could be stamped, embossed, patterned paper, anything…

My card reminds me of the time of year we are at – August – nearing the end of Summer – and kind of a postcard also – from a vacation where you got to spend time watching the gorgeous sunset.

This card used the StampinUp Serene Silhouette stamp – one of my faves to use. I used a brayer technique to create the background sunset, and a masking technique to create the “sun” and the mountain range. The “postcard” language was embossed with a folder (can’t remember the name) that has a pretty script. I just drew on the “birds” with a dark marker, added a couple dark brown candy dots and SU Naturals Designer Button and some twine to finish it off.

I hope you are enjoying your August, some nice weather and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Biscoff Blondies with Cinnamon and White Chocolate Chips

August 3, 2014August 1, 2014 / Jodi / 8 Comments

OOOO LA LA!! Have you ever tasted Biscoff Spread?

O… M… G…

It kinda tastes like those little teddy graham cookie crackers, but in a peanut buttery-like spread. (Can you imagine?!)

It is amazing on toast, bagels, English muffins…..

It is heavenly licked from a spoon!

Add it to a blondie with some cinnamon chips and some white chocolate – and it is magical!

Remember – I was recently cleaning out the baking shelf?? Well – I had some Biscoff Spread, had some cinnamon chips, and Biscoff Blondies came to my imagination.

So, of course, I googled Biscoff Blondies to see if anyone had thought of it yet or if there was a similar recipe; and lo and behold, the amazing Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction, had just the recipe!

I thought it needed cinnamon chips, so that was just the way to “Jodi” it up.

I simply followed Sally’s recipe, but subbed 1/2 cinnamon chips and 1/2 white chocolate chips for her 1 1/4 cups of white chocolate chips.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Biscoff spread
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line a 8×8 or 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper or spray with nonstick spray (I used a 9 x 9 square baking stone).

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and brown sugar until combined. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk, then add the vanilla. Stir in the Biscoff spread. Gently fold in the dry ingredients.

(Per Sally – be careful not to overmix, as it will result in crumbly, hard blondies.).

Fold in the cinnamon and white chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes. The blondies may appear very soft, but they will set up as they cool. Always UNDERBAKE for yummy goodness.

Allow the blondies to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Makes 16 yummy, awesome blondies.

Betchya can’t eat just one!

Enjoy!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Drink More Water

August 2, 2014July 31, 2014 / Jodi / 5 Comments

We hear it everywhere – right? We know it is good for us – right? But do you drink enough water?
I know I don’t myself.
Coffee all morning – many cups… Wine in the evening – (ahem) no comment…

All dehydrating.
So I TRY to drink a couple of glasses of water in between.
I was watching a show on Food Network recently that took muddled honeydew and coconut water and lime juice that they made look like a cocktail!
Fruit Infused Water seems to be all the rage.
So I thought I’d try my own version.
I must say – DELISH!

For my water “cocktail,” I simply mixed some muddled fresh red raspberries and lime juice to some sparkling water over a tall glass of ice.

Another really refreshing way to drink water that seems all the rage is with freshly sliced cucumbers; and with all the cucumbers I’m harvesting (YAY!), I tried this too – with simple tap water. Nice when you don’t want something “sweet.” And it is amazing how quickly it infuses.

It’s not quite cucumber vodka (which – – have you tried yet? with tonic – YUM!) …… but – I so easily digress – we’re hydrating now – remember?!

And it always tastes better with a cute straw – right?

Drinking Water…
At Life in Between.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Cheers! It’s Friday!

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 / Jodi / 2 Comments

CHEERS! It’s Friday! Another week flew by, and it’s the Yippee Skippee Weekend again!

I’m sure hoping it’s a summertime weather weekend. These silly Fall-like temperatures need to go away and come back another day – much later in the year.

For my Friday card this week, I had fun with StampinUp’s Happy Hour Stamp Set making fun looking cocktails and thinking festively of celebrating time with family and friends. The “Cheers” is embossed in silver, and I thought the silver ribbon added just what it needed.

Hope your weekend brings lots of things to cheer or “cheers” about!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

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the creative life in between

cherishing the moments and exploring my passion for creativity… through art, photography, food, and writing

Wedding Survival Kit

She left BEAUTY wherever she went

Pittsburgh-Style Sprinkle Thumbprint Cookies

Lemon Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

Directions:

A Kangaroo Burger at Burgatory!

Dreaming of a Serene Silhouette Sunset

Biscoff Blondies with Cinnamon and White Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:

Directions:

Drink More Water

Cheers! It’s Friday!

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