Poor Man's Steak

Kate here again. Here's an inexpensive steak dish that my family enjoys. I'm quite picky about the ground beef recipes I like to eat, and I especially detest little bits of ground beef disguised in casseroles. I make vegetarian lasagna and spaghetti for that reason. (If I want some protein with my spaghetti, I'll prepare chicken cacciatore instead of spaghetti with meat sauce.) I'm happy to say that Poor Man's Steak is one of my favorite ways to eat ground beef. Here's what you'll need to get started:

1 pound extra lean ground beef ( I used 1 1/2 pounds)

(Pictured: ground beef from our family ranch Pleasant Valley Beef.)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs (Blend 3-4 slices of bread.)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 of a 1 1/4-ounce package dry onion soup mix
egg
salt and pepper (optional)--I think I used 1 tsp. salt and 1/4-1/2 tsp. pepper

Combine the steak ingredients and mix well. Press into a 7 x 12-inch pan. Cover and chill 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Cut meat into 6 pieces.

Coat each piece with whole wheat flour.

Heat a small amount of oil and brown steaks on both sides.

While the steaks finish browning, make the sauce.

1 103/4-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of milk
1/2 of a 1 1/4-ounce package dry onion soup mix

Mix sauce ingredients together.

At this point you can transfer the steaks to a 9x13-inch dish and pour sauce over, or dirty one less dish and pour sauce into the browning pan with the browned steaks. I vote one less dish to wash. Cover pan and simmer on stove for about 45 minutes or until steaks are done. If baking in the oven, cover the 9 x 13-inch dish and bake in the oven at 325° for 1 hour.

This is what they look like when they've finished simmering. The recipe actually calls for 1 4-ounce can of mushrooms, drained. However, I much prefer to slice some fresh mushrooms, chop a little onion, and saute together in a bit of olive oil. Then top each serving with a spoonful of mushrooms and drizzle some sauce over the top. (The sauce also makes a nice gravy for baked potatoes.)

Yum! I hope you enjoy!

Poor Man's Steak

Steaks:

1 pound extra lean ground beef (or 1 1/2 pounds)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs (Blend 3-4 slices of bread.)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 of a 1 1/4-ounce package dry onion soup mix
egg
salt and pepper (optional)

Sauce:

1 103/4-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of milk
12/ of a 1 1/4-ounce package dry onion soup mix
1 4-ounce can mushrooms, drained (Or saute fresh, sliced mushrooms and chopped onion in a bit of olive oil and save for topping after cooking.)

Put bread in blender to make fine crumbs. Combine the steak ingredients and mix well. Press into a 7 x 12-inch pan. Cover and chill 30 minutes to 1 hour. Cut meat into 6 pieces. Coat each piece with whole wheat flour. Heat a small amount of oil and brown steaks on both sides. Transfer to  9 x 13-inch baking dish if baking in the oven. To make sauce, mix soup and milk. Add the remaining 1/2 package onion soup mix and mushrooms. Pour over meat and cover. Simmer on stove or bake in a 325° oven for 1 hour. (If you don't have whole wheat bread crumbs and whole wheat flour, use white. It will turn out just fine.)

Striped background

Hi!  Kristie from Kristie Kreates here today.

It's getting to be that time of year again.

Time to start getting those Christmas cards made.

Today I'm showing you how to make a cool striped background.

Here is the card I made using this technique.

Below are the supplies you'll need.

A piece of card stock,

ink pads and

masking tape.

 

First rip off a piece of masking tape.

If it is very sticky, stick the tape to a piece of fabric,

honestly, I just stick it to my pant leg.

This will take away some of that stickiness.

Or you can use painters tape if you have it,

it is not as sticky as masking tape.

 

Now press your tape into an ink pad. 

I used Distress Ink, but you can use what ever you prefer.

Take your inked up tape and apply it to the piece of card stock.

Press it down firmly.

Now remove the tape,

the ink will stay behind

leaving a stripe.

 

I love this distressed look that this technique creates.



Repeat the same steps again with the same or another color.



Here is the background I ended up with,

that I used on my card.



For my card, I trimmed it down and adhered it to a

white card stock base.

I wanted the mat for the Christmas Blessings

(Eureka! Stamps #7304)

to match the green stripe so I rubbed ink directly from

the ink pad onto white card stock.

I then adhered the sentiment to the green mat and trimmed it

to size using Perfect Layers cutting tools.

(See my blog for more information about them.)

I used foam tape to adhere it to the card.

One more Christmas card down, about 40 more to go.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial

and will try this technique soon.

It's fun, it's easy, it's quick.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I'd love for you to visit my blog

Kristie Kreates

and see what else I've been creating!

 

Until next month, have fun creating!

 

Fall craft ideas!

Wayward Girls' Crafts here! Fall officially begins this weekend. Are you in full fall mode yet? If not, we've got some great autumn decor ideas to help you get that way!

Brooke made this beautiful fall wreath and has tons of great tips for making wreaths.

 

Jordan has a great harvest printable. We love this quote!

Mom made these table runners for fall. The second one looks great on Jaime's tablescape!

 

Jasmine made these fun Mod Podge Halloween vases. So cute!

Jaime made this fall leaves canvas. Can you believe it was only $1?!

 Now are we ready to decorate?! Get to it!

Fresh Peach Pie

Kate here again with one of my family's favorite desserts during peach season. 

You need one pie shell cooked and ready to go.

First boil a pot of water for removing the peach skins. I like to use my pasta pans because of the ease of draining, but you can use a large saucepan or stock pot and a pair of tongs to remove the peaches.

Once the water is boiling, drop 3 peaches in. Yes, I realize there are eight in the picture--that's for later. Just use your imagination. Let the three peaches sit for 30-60 seconds and then...

Remove them to a bowl of ice water. After 30-60 seconds you can begin removing the skins. (When I'm canning peaches I scrub the kitchen sink and then fill it with ice water for the ice bath.)

The way I like to do this is make a slice all the way around the peach. Then I use my thumb to slide the skin off.

Easy as...pie! You knew I'd say that. Now I insert my thumb into the slice I made earlier and pull the peach apart. Then I lay the halves in my palm, slice them, and place in the blender.

Blend in blender:
3 fresh peaches, peeeled and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Pour into saucepan. Cook until mixture boils, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 tsp. almond extract and 1 T. butter. Cool in fridge.

Meanwhile dip 8 more fresh peaches in the boiling water and cool in ice bath.

Remove skins, pit and slice into pie crust.

Pour glaze over sliced peaches. You will have to lift the peaches and let the glaze run under and around or it will spill over. See the bottom portion of photo that I conveniently cropped off? Spillage. Now it wouldn't do that if I would just follow the original recipe and only use 4-5 fresh, sliced peaches. But we like a lot of fruit in our pie!--and there's plenty of glaze to spare for 8 peaches. Now put the pie in the fridge for 2 hours--no less!

Okay, okay. If it's a school night and ten to eight and this is the FHE treat and you know there won't even be a crumb to capture on film after your family gets through with the pie, then, and only then, you can remove the pie from the fridge after only one hour. But I'm warning you, it won't be completely set and will be a little hard to photograph because it wants to ooze all over the plate instead of hold its shape--but the taste is divine--because it was never cooked it has a scrumptious fresh peach taste. Top with whipped cream unless of course your fresh cream refuses to whip and you're too lazy to skim another gallon of milk to see if it has thicker cream. Then serve plain and...Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie

Ingredient list:

1 pie shell, cooked
3 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced for blender
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 T. butter or margarine
8 peaches, peeled and sliced (Can use only 4-5)

Blend in blender:
3 fresh peaches, peeeled and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Pour into saucepan. Cook until mixture boils, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 tsp. almond extract and butter. Cool in fridge while slicing remaining peaches into prepared pie crust . Pour glaze over peaches, lift and stir when necessary; chill. Top with whipped cream if desired.

(I also frequently omit the pie crust and stir the glaze and peaches together and serve as a fruit salad or dessert cup.)

Creating an Embossed Background

It's the first Wednesday of the month again.

Time for another crafty tutorial from me,

Kristie from Kristie Kreates

I can't believe how fast the last few months have gone

and it's getting to be time to start thinking about

making Christmas cards.

Every year I think I'll get them done early

and it never quite happens, some of them

get done early, but I always seem to

have some to finish up

at the last minute.

Today I'm going to show you

 how to make an embossed background.

I'll be using

"Snow Background" (#27301) from

Eureka! Stamps

White card stock
VersaMark Ink

White embossing powder and

Broken China Distress Ink

 

 The first step is to ink up your stamp with VersaMark ink


Then stamp the image onto white card stock.
When I'm using one of my larger stamps,

I like to lay the stamp right side up on the table,

lay the paper over the stamp and

 then rub over the surface of the card stock.

This way I feel that I am getting a better impression.

Next you will cover the stamped image with

white embossing powder.
You can use any color, but since I am doing a

snow background, I wanted it to be white.

You can see I have the area under my project covered

with a piece of paper, this way any powder that 'spills'

off the card can easily be put back into the jar.

Once the entire image is covered,

pour the excess powder back into the jar.

Using your heat tool, heat the embossing powder until

you can see it turn shiny.

I usually heat the back of the piece also,

this helps to reduce the amount of warping

of the paper that you get from the heat.

 

You can see the embossed design on the card stock now.

Nice and shiny.

Next using a blending tool or sponge

cover the entire design with Distress Ink.

Always start off the paper and work your way

into the center.

 You can add a little or a lot of ink.

You can mix colors or use just one.

I only used one color on mine, but there is

still variation in the blue.

Some places have a little more, some a little less.
Just what I wanted.

The last step is to use a soft cloth,

I'm using a dry baby wipe,

to buff the surface.

The embossing will resist the ink.

You can see how nice and white my

snow is.

 

Once you have the background done,

you can use it in so many ways.

Add a bannered sentiment.

Cut out a stamped image and add it.

Just add some ribbon and adhere

it to a card base.

 Use your imagination and have fun!

 

I hope you have learned something new today

 and have been inspired to try making your own

embossed backgrounds.

 

I'd love to have you stop by my blog

Kristie Kreates 

and see what I've been doing lately.

I may just post something

with an embossed background soon.

 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Leave a comment if you will and

if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Until next month, have fun creating!

 

Roasted Spaghetti Sauce with Roasted Garlic, Most Deliciously Easy Recipe Ever

I love autumn time because it means I can make lots of fabulous recipes from my garden, like this gem here. My walking buddy, Michelle shared her recipe with me last year and it was the first time I'd ever roasted garlic--my family loved it!

Roasted Spaghetti Sauce with Roasted Garlic
Courtesy of Mashed Potatoes and Crafts.com

2 lbs of Tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, chopped
One head of garlic
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp fresh oregano
1 Tbsp fresh basil
1 tsp salt
Optional (add in your own favorite herbs like oregano, garnish with parsley, etc.)

Combine tomatoes, onion, and herbs in a 9X13 pan. Chop the end off the head of garlic, then center the head of garlic in the pan, drizzle entire pan with the 3 Tbsp Olive oil, making sure to get a good amount on garlic. Cook for one hour in a 375 degree oven.

How do you roast garlic?

Easy peasy! Follow the above directions, just slice off the end of the garlic (tops of cloves) and roast the entire head with skin on for an hour.

I used a hot pad to pick up the garlic head and gently squeeze the bottom.

The garlic cloves pop right out of their skins.

The flavor of the roasted garlic will knock your socks off and have your family begging for more!

This last step is optional, it depends how chunky you like your sauce. I put the entire mixture in my Blendtec and pulsed it a few times. I do this because I have little kids who are leery of big chunks of tomatoes and onions. You could opt to blend half the mixture and mix in for a spaghetti sauce with great consistency. Add in ground beef or sausage, noodles, and your meal is ready!

Enjoy the fall harvest!