Foody Friday - Apple and Cottage Cheese Bake

I found Apple and Cottage Cheese Bake on Spark Recipes the other day. 

It's a very simple recipe that would be perfect for a weekend breakfast or mix it up the night before and pop it in first thing in the morning and allow it to bake while you shower and dress. 

Apple and Cottage Cheese Bake

1-2 chopped apples

1/2 cup cottage cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup regular oats

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mixed eggs with cottage cheese, oatmeal, eggs and apples. Put mixture in a small pie plate sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until done. Drizzle with honey and serve warm if desired. 

This is a very filling dish and could easily feed two people for breakfast or three kids if you are able to convince them to try such a concoction! I wasn't so lucky. My kids wouldn't touch it, of course. But I sure enjoyed it! 

Yeah, I'll definitely be eating this one again! 

Week 6 - Wire

Okay, I admit....I whipped this photos out fast and didn't give much thought to how I shot...I just had to get em' done this week. I hate the idea of falling behind as early as Week 6! I barely even looked at my camera's settings. I know I could have done better if I'd given it more thought, or time! Things are just rushed this week, aren't they always? 


First two are shots of this hair twisty thing I wear all the time. I just threw it on my day planner and took some shots. 

1/40 sec., f 5.6, ISO 1600

1/10, f 16, ISO 1600

1/8, f 5.6, 1600

And a quick edit in black and white.

I was manually focusing today with slow shutter speeds so I know that the focus on these is probably wonky. 

Speaking of edits, I have used picnik.com for my editing for a couple years now. But they are closing down their site in April and merging with Google+. I've tried editing through Google+/Picasa albums but it's now more cumbersome and time consuming than before. 

I did find a new online editing site that I tried today, very quickly, and I think I might be hooked. It's pixlr.com. I'm still not convinced that I need to buy fancy Photoshop program when I can free sites on the web that will fulfill my purposes.  

Oh, I almost forgot, next week is....

.....Plug. 

Crap. Why don't I start looking ahead when I post? I could have used this one next week too! 

Something Wonderful to See.

I saw something wonderful yesterday. 

Here it is. 

Big brother reading to little sister. 

What's even better he sought her out and asked if he could read a book to her. 

I've been waiting for this moment since the day she was born. 

Amazing how much him reading to her helps me out. 

Marker Monday - Table Catapult

Yeah, I know..it's Tuesday, not Monday. And I know it's been a while since I posted but last week I was down for the count with a stomach bug and I'm finally catching up on LOTS of stuff. 


The kiddos and I did feel well enough Sunday afternoon to make a fun little catapult. Easily put together in less than 10 minutes and something to keep the sick ones a little busy while lying on the couch. (Mostly me being the sick one lying on the couch.) 

And really what little boy doesn't like playing with a catapult? 

I found the instructions here, along with a lot of other really cool pirate crafts! 

You need a bunch of craft sticks, glue (we used hot glue), and two clothespins, a rubber band and a plastic spoon...well, fork in our case. 

First, make a raft with the craft sticks. 

Then glue two clothespins together like this. 

Then glue the clothespins onto the raft. 

Wrap a rubber band tightly around the top prong of the clothespin and slide the plastic spoon, or fork, in the rubber band. 

Then use cotton balls for cannonballs or make some out of toilet paper or gauze. 

We found that if we moved the catapult to the edge of the table it shot the balls a lot better. 

Foody Friday - Spiced Almonds

Oh yum! Spiced Almonds like the kind that you buy in the mall in the little cellophane cone. What a great snack..and addicting!! 

Unfortunately I found a super duper easy recipe for 

Spiced Almonds from theydrawandcook.com.

Isn't that a gorgeous illustration? I just love browsing TDAC's website just to look at the art. 

And I do mean 'unfortunately' I found this recipe. I only made these yummy snacks last night and already I've eaten about half the batch. Almonds might be magic and a wonderful health food but when you put that many almonds in your tummy there's bound to be some pain. But I must be too stupid to learn my lesson because I'm munching on more right now. They are just that good! 

Week 5 - Steel

Week 5 of 52 Weeks of Photography Themes 

Steel!

I have to say I am loving these weekly themes. It's so much easier than trying to come up my own ideas for photos. 

I ran up to Dodge City over the weekend, by myself!, and being the the Queen of the Cow towns brought the railroad through this part of the state I found myself taking a lot of railroad themed photos. 

f 5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

The Cow Catcher 

f 9, 1/13 sec., ISO 1600

 Controls for the engineer and fireman on the inside of the cab. 

f 8, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

Parts of the steam engine's wheels. 

Shooting the steam engine that sits out front of Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City was tricky because the sun was so very bright that day. I kept having to fiddle with my camera. My ISO was all over the place. Although I've always loved how bright it is in Kansas all the sun tends to wash out the colors in my photographs. But it's hard for me to shoot other than during the brightest time of the day. 

f13, 1/125 sec., ISO 100I stopped for a bit on the way home for a shot of tiny steal barbs. I just love how blurry the windmill in the background is. 

Let's see..next week, Week 6 is...

...Wire.

Whoops. Maybe I should have saved the barbed wire until next week! 


P.S. - I have a Facebook friend who is doing this project with me and this was one of hers for Steel. I just love it!! 

My New and Improved Etsy Shop

Well, I did it. 

I took the plunge...again...and re-opened my Etsy shop!

Before Yahoo was born and we moved to Kansas I was much more active making and selling baby booties in my shop. But after we moved out west and the boys started school and everyone seemed to get so busy, I just couldn't get my heart into making baby booties anymore. In fact it hasn't been until just the past year that I finally started creating anything again. 

I never even thought of selling my paintings, I just painted because I enjoyed it, but Kasse at Rural Women Rock suggested that I try it...so, here goes! 

So far I only have four paintings to put in my Etsy shop. 

They probably look familiar to you; I've posted them here before. 

I don't mind selling my paintings but I have a hard time setting a price for them. They range in size form 6 1/2 to 8 inches square.

What do you think would be a fair price? 

We'll see how it goes. I'm not much of a self promoter. I feel self conscious telling people that I have art work to sell. I'm not even sure how to go about advertising...well, besides a blog. 

Ah well. I just enjoy making them and for me, that's all that matters.