Not So Secret Recipe

I don't really believe that there should be secret recipes. I think the FNM has a page each month called Copy That for that exact reason. They don't think there should be secret recipes either :) Pretty much recipes are meant to be shared. They provide life long memories and get passed down from generation to generation. Whether they are written down on a piece of scratch paper or typed up in an email with a fabulous running commentary (Adriane) or just passed on by word of mouth, they are always best when shared.

So to the person who asked for the Cranberry Spritzer recipe, here you go.

Mix 1 part cranberry juice to 1 part Sprite. Pour over ice and enjoy!

Good for any occasion but best when enjoyed with a giant plate of anything Mom is serving after 10:00pm.

Here is a link  to some great downloadable recipe cards for you to share your best recipes with your friends.The one pictured above is called Mamie.  Just in time for a last minute Christmas gift.

Pyrex Love

OH WOW! CHECK OUT THIS LINK! 

(Yes, I realize I am yelling and just used 2 exclamation points.)

If you don’t love this blog just for the fabulous pictures in the header, something is wrong with you. Well, actually something is probably wrong with me, not you ;)

My Pyrex  collection is limited to a set of mixing bowls and a few covered refrigerator dishes  but this blog makes me what to head out to the Goodwill right this minute!  

Check it out and leave a comment  here to be entered in the giveaway! 

Weekend Wedding

Here are some pictures  from the wedding this weekend. 

 

Thanks to the happy couple for letting us help out with your     very special day!

2010 Christmas Gifts from Let it be Done

 

Just in time for the holidays!  Some handmade gifts for you to purchase and share with your friends and family. 

Vintage Print Paper Birds

These  birds are hand cut and decoupaged with your choice of vintage Christmas music, book pages or recipes and are mounted on a colored clothespin.  Sold in sets of 5 for $15.00.  Please specify pattern. 

 

Paper Bird Card Holder

The same cute  bird mounted on a  vintage Jell-O mold.  With a clothespin back, it is perfect for holding recipe cards or your favorite photo.  $6.00 each.  Please specify pattern.

 

Festive Paper Banners

Decorate for any occasion with a personalized paper banner.  You choose the saying to be mounted on sheet music, book pages or patterned paper.  Pennants are 4 inches wide by 6 inches high and a 6 foot banner will accommodate 15 pennants. Banners are strung on 1/2 inch colored ribbon.  $12.00 for each 6 foot banner.

 

Clever  Collars                                                                                                     for dressing up  your favorite beverages

For your coffee loving friends . 

Collar with a White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie.

For your beer buddies.  Collar with BBQ Pecans.

For you wine drinking relatives. (You know who you are)        Collar with Herb Dip Mix.

Christmas Paper Collars are $3.00 each or 4 for $10.00.             Mix and match.  Beverages not included.

 

Christmas Aroma

Back by popular demand!  Served up in a vintage enamelware pan, the blend of fruit and spices will have your home smelling good all season long.  $15.00 each.

 

Please email or call to place your orders!  Order by December 15th for Christmas delivery.

Shipping will be added at the time of purchase based on the items ordered.

 letitbe.done@yahoo.com

Kellee 970.744.0913

Laura 970.481.2191

My Best Turkey Leftover Suggestion

 

I did not make Thanksgiving dinner this year.  We headed south for an afternoon with family and it was quite lovely.  The down side to not cooking is that there are no leftovers.  Now, I did end up with some carrot casserole, some mashed potatoes, a little turkey and a piece of pie but only enough for Friday’s lunch. 

If I did have piles of turkey left over, I would make these.

Chicken (well, turkey) Enchiladas  - Laura’s Recipe :)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

1 can diced green chilies

4-6 cups grated cheese - (cheddar/jack or Mexican mix)

3 cups chopped cooked chicken

8 flour tortillas

Mix together soup, sour cream, chilies and ½ of the cheese. Spread ½ of the mix evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Add chopped chicken to the remaining mix. Fill tortillas with the mix, roll and put into pan. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes until hot and bubbly

Serve with salsa.

Note to self. Finish one thing before beginning another.

 

Strangely enough, I like to have a lot of things going on all at once.  As I have turned my attention to the wedding reception next weekend, the hand made things I want to work on for Christmas and the fact the Thanksgiving is next Thursday, I realized that I have not even posted the pictures from the birthday party that was in October.  So for everyone who has been so patiently waiting to see how it all turned out, here you go!

Thanks to Briee and Tasha and Ryan for all their help with the games and the activities and the face painting.   And thanks to Tasha and Jan for bringing their wonderful cameras and getting such great pictures. Last but not least, thanks to Laura, for helping with pretty much everything.  It was a great party.

Oh Wow.

Links to a variety of food related things frequently land in my in box.  But this week I have been bombarded with way too many not  to share.  

Thanks to Mom for this one.  And a special thanks to Dad for reading the WSJ for his WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE!

Read the whole article here.

And the more accurate description of making the cake here.

 

And then my sister Lauren sent this tonight.  STOP THE MADNESS!

(It wouldn’t let me copy the picture.  Just go check it out, you won’t regret it!)

So, there you have some food for thought.  Ha ha ha.

It is never too early to start thinking about Christmas!

 

Check out this  site where you can customize your holiday invites and print them yourself for free!   I do love thinking about Christmas but I better stay here on October 21 and make it through one more birthday party and Halloween first! 

I am hoping to be organized enough to provide you with lots of great ideas for the holidays.  Don’t worry, they won’t be my ideas, I will continue to borrow them from others :)  Stay tuned.

Make Free Printable Christmas Party Invitations & Holiday Invitations

Fun and Games

 

I am pretty sure that no one year old would ever care if there were games at their first birthday party. Or a cake, or presents for that matter.  But, when you have two older sisters and all your “friends” are older, school aged (and by that I mean college aged) friends, you really need some games at your birthday bash.

 

So in planning this little shin dig, I found the perfect party for all ages.

July marked the birthday of the blog Draw! Pilgrim.  She designs some pretty cute stuff and the whole month she featured great free downloads for a Pinwheel and Bunting Themed party.

 

So for the big birthday event, we are going to play Pin the Pinwheel, and maybe bingo, because it is too cute not to play.

Check out all of her stuff over on her blog.

Taverns, Made Rites and Sloppy Joes

 

So my sisters are at home for a few days visiting our parents in Northwest Iowa and the question has arisen as to the difference between the three types of sandwiches named above.  

I have done a little research and will share my findings with you.  I know, you can hardly contain your excitement.

 

1.  Tavern.  The tavern recipe I have comes from my childhood friend Erin.   I have know Erin since grade school and we spent a fair amount of our Junior High years  working on our 4-H record books, baking cream puffs at her grandma’s house, riding 4 wheelers around her farm, practicing crazy skits, working on our Share the Fun for the State Fair, and making super cool cards on  the computer(like when computers were first invented)!  Ah the good ‘ole days.

Back to the taverns.  Here is the official recipe. 

Simmer for 10 minutes-

2 cups water

1 cup catsup

3 teaspoons dry onion

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

Add to that, 2 lb cooked ground beef and 1 teaspoon dry mustard.

Simmer 40 minutes. 

There were a few recipes to be found for taverns on cooks.com and the ingredient list was similar.  I like Erin’s recipe.

 

2.  Made Rites.  Another Iowa original. 

In 1926, Fred Angell, a respected butcher in Muscatine, Iowa, combined a special blend and grind of the finest Midwestern ground beef with a selected recipe of secret spices and created the one and only Maid-Rite sandwich.

As legend goes, Mr. Angell asked a delivery man, at his restaurant, to taste his newest sandwich creation. After a few bites, the taster exclaimed, “You know, Fred, this sandwich is just made right.” Thus our signature sandwiches name was born.

Thanks to my mom, I have a recipe for Made Rites as well. 

Bob’s Drive-In Made Rites

2 1/2 to 3 lb ground round

14oz chicken broth

1 small onion

salt and pepper

Brown beef in 1 tablespoon oil, crumbling with a fork over medium heat.  Add chicken broth and simmer uncovered until liquid is absorbed.  ( You may use 3 tablespoons dried chopped onion)

I love Made Rites too.  We have Carl’s Canteen here in Loveland where you can get a sandwich for lunch and the owners are from Iowa even! 

3.  Sloppy Joes.  The most commonly known of the sandwich names.

Sloppy joe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sloppy joe is an American dish of ground beef, onions, sweetened tomato sauce or ketchup and other seasonings, served on a hamburger bun. Commercially made sauces are also available. Contradictory lore suggests that the Original Sloppy Joe Sandwich was invented at Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West, Florida or by a cook named Joe at a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa as a variation of the popular "loose meat" sandwich (which does not contain tomato sauce).

Sloppy joes are also referred to as:

• Yip Yips in Southern Illinois near St Louis.
• Yum Yums in parts of the Midwest USA, particularly in Nebraska
• Wimpies in parts of the Northeast USA, especially Northeastern Pennsylvania
• Slushburgers in parts of the Upper Midwest, particularly in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota
• Barbecues in other areas of the Upper Midwest, and also in some parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
• Hot Tamales in parts of southeastern Wisconsin, particularly in the Sheboygan area despite the fact that tamales are a completely different food item.
• Taverns in parts of northwest Iowa and Minnesota.
• Sloppy Janes in parts of central Minnesota.
• Steamers in parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.
• Gulash (not to be confused with Goulash) in parts of the Upper Midwest, especially in areas where people of Scandinavian heritage, boasting Viking roots, are prominent.
• Dynamites in northern Rhode Island.

 

So, if it is  a sloppy joe you seek, I would refer you back to item #1.  The best Tavern recipe ever. 

And that settles that.

Maybe I should stop wondering and start working.

 

I often find myself wondering  things. Why can’t I get anything done?  Why is my birthday a month past and I have not sent out any thank you notes?  Do you think these plums will turn into fabulous jelly all by themselves?  When do you think the girls will be able to wash their own hair?  And get all the soap out?  Will I survive a 1st birthday and two 10th birthdays in one week?

Sometimes I think if I had less stuff going on, I could get more stuff done.  While this may be true, I have figured a few things out when it comes to stuff getting done.

1.  Nothing is more important than the things I do for my family. 

2.  Dirty clothes and dishes don’t wash themselves but they will wait patiently until after everyone goes to bed. 

3.  And the things we do for others are the most rewarding when they are done because we are able to do them and for no other reason. 

October gets kind of crazy at our house.  We celebrate our anniversary and all the girls birthdays.  We have my sisters coming to visit.  The girls have changed their mind about what they want to be for Halloween at least 100 times already.  And that is just the family stuff!   We have a whole bunch of things going on at church that will be  great to attend (and maybe plan too :)  and I am sure there are things going on at school that I am not even aware of yet.

And on top of all that I am so thankful that I have time to fill in at church, get together for coffee dates, help Scott clean off his desk,  watch the big girls chase the little girl around the chair and read books before I tuck everyone into bed. 

I love being busy.  It forces me to slow down so I don’t miss out on anything. 

So tomorrow I start my list for October, mostly so I don’t forget anything.  And I think I will start with this for the birthday festivities. 

 

This is one of the cutest blogs I have come across lately and I am using all her great party stuff for the girls birthday party.  Stay tuned for all the details. 

And the winner is…

A few posts back I put up the recipes we entered in the Corn Roast Festival recipe contest.

The  Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival is the oldest and one of the largest community festivals in Loveland. Weekend activities included a Friday night street dance, roasted and boiled corn for sale, live music and Loveland's Got Talent Contest, beer garden, corn shucking contest, corn eating contest, corn recipe contest, parade and more.

I wanted to enter the corn eating contest but after a few practice tries at home, I realized I didn’t have a chance and stuck with the recipe contest.  And it is a good thing I did!

 

Corn Recipe

• Corn Relish Winner - Marybeth Hammond, Feta Corn Salsa

• Corn Chowder Winner - Kellee Zweifel, Santa Fe Corn Chowder (that’s me :)

• Corn Casserole Winner - Maryjo Morgan, Fried Corn

• Corn Chowder Winner: Junior category- Brea Hammond, TexMex Taco Soup

• Corn Salad Winner: Laura Burrill, Texas Tailgate Caviar

• Judge’s Choice: Laura Burrill, Texas Tailgate Caviar (look at Laura go!)

See that big trophy?  That is because she is the Judge’s Choice winner!  Way to go Laura! 

We celebrated by refilling our fresh squeezed lemonades  and toasting Mom for giving us the recipes and sharing a funnel cake.  It turned out to be a great day.

Things I send in the mail

 

I wish I lived closer to my sisters.  That way when they ask what they should serve for their upcoming parties, I could just make them some stuff instead of just making suggestions.

So my sister Lauren had a house blessing on Sunday and served a variety of cookies outside on a table underneath a tree in her yard.  It turned out super cute.  I wish I could have been there but instead I sent these. ( And paper lanterns from Dollar Tree but that is another story.)

 

And my sister Adriane is having some people over on Saturday. Again, I wish I could go but I can’t so I have these to offer.   

Sorry Adriane, I am not sending you the LWML cookies.  I know you are disappointed.  They were extras and completely experimental.

So the moral of this story is to invite me, knowing I can’t come,  in hopes that you will get a  box of cookies in the mail :)

Martha ain’t got nothin on me

I don’t really read Martha Stewart’s blog. 

Her personal life, I could do without.  But when I saw this as her post for the other day, I had to check it out.

1. Because I wondered when her birthday actually is. It is August 3rd.

2.  Because mine is August 29th and the last thing I want is to share a birthday with Martha.  DeAnn I am fine with :) Just not Martha. 

If you click on the link you can see the pictures and the rest of the famous guests too!( I don’t even know who half of them are!)

August 26th, 2010

My Joint Birthday Party With Harry Slatkin

A few weeks ago, I went out to dinner with my good friends, Harry Slatkin, the fragrance tycoon, and his wife, Laura.  We chose a new restaurant in Montauk, the far-east end of the South Fork of Long Island.  Its name is Navy Beach, a beachfront restaurant and bar serving casual coastal cuisine in a laid back, family-friendly setting.  While dining, we looked around and said, “Wouldn’t this be a great place to have a birthday?”  And so we started planning.  Harry and I never celebrated our birthdays together before, but it seemed like a fun thing to do.  Dinner consisted of everyone’s favorite comfort food, including iceberg wedges, butter poached lobster rolls, buttermilk fried chicken, truffled macaroni and cheese, seafood and chips, parmesan French fries and a several-layer chocolate cake.  Harry!  What do you think?  Should we try it again, next year?

So let me take this opportunity to compare this with my birthday.  Which is actually the point of this post. 

1.  Since it was on a Sunday, I went to church and it was a communion Sunday for us. Nothing like starting off your birthday will all the saints.

2.  My children gave me hand made cards. And I know my husband purchased a card for me BEFORE the actual day :)

3.  I got a box from my sisters with the most thoughtful contents. 

4. I got a box from my parents with the most thoughtful contents.

5. I got tons of FB Happy Birthday wishes, lots of texts and phone calls.

6. We went to my in-laws house for a wonderful supper. 

7.  I got to eat some fabulous chocolate pasta and enjoy it with some great company. 

  I got to celebrate my day with the most important things to me.  Church, family, friends and food.  It really doesn’t get any better than that. No matter how old you are.

Thanks everyone!

Need Something to Do?

Head on over here and check out cute thing upon cute thing! 

ONE PRETTY THING

I am particularly fond of the cake buntings that are popping up all over these days. They would be so cute on a set of cupcakes too.  And made out of paper instead of fabric, you could make them completely personalized. 

Did I mention that I have 3 milestone birthdays in my house all in one October week?  I am thinking and planning ahead!

File Folders and the Corn Roast Festival

I would consider myself a fairly organized person.  I can find things when I need them without having to look too hard :)  

Like this recipe for example.  It was in my email in the folder labeled recipes because it came straight from Mom.  Where else would it be? :)

Sun, April 5, 2009 9:17:28 PM

Recipes for Laura

All this brings me to the point of this post.  Laura and I both entered recipes in the recipe contest for the upcoming Corn Roast Festival here in town.  The recipes had to be turned in by Friday and the festival is the last weekend in August. 

Go here to read all about it and the judging criteria for the recipes.  In the mean time, here is Laura’s entry.

Texas Tailgate Caviar

1  15 oz. can red beans, rinsed and drained

1  11-15 oz. can corn, rinsed and drained

1  15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained twice

2 mid sized roma tomatoes

1/2 to 1  red or green pepper, diced

(cilantro, optional)

-Marinade-

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup canola or olive oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 T water

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Mix marinade ingredients until dissolved. (A 16 oz. jar works well to mix by shaking.) Pour over veggies and marinate for 2 hours up to 2 days. This keeps well for 3-4 days. Serve as a salad or as a salsa with 'scoops' corn chips. (Drain off marinade before serving and add back to leftovers, if desired.)

 

And here is mine.  Compliments of the Marcus Cookbook and Grammy.  There really is nothing better than some fresh sweet corn to finish off the summer! Wish us luck!

 

Santa Fe Corn Chowder

3 ½ cups fresh corn kernels

1 cup chicken broth

¼ cup butter

2 cups milk

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons diced green chilis (canned)

1 cup cooked chicken, diced

1 cup Monterey jack cheese, grated

¼ teaspoon baking soda

Combine corn and chicken broth in a blender and puree.

In a large sauce pan combine butter and corn mixture and simmer slowly for 5 minutes.

Add milk, oregano, salt and pepper and bring to boiling.

Reduce heat and add green chilis and chicken. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add cheese and soda. Stir until melted.

Serve with warm flour tortillas. Makes 6 servings.

No I have not become a Vikings fan.

 

So to toot my own horn, here are the pictures of the cookies I made last week and my good friend Jan photographed for me :) 

I agreed to donate a  silent auction item of a few baked goods for the Buffalo Wild Wings golf tournament that is coming up next weekend.   I worked at the BWW in Rochester for several years before we moved to Colorado and so of course I couldn’t say no:)

 

Check out this site, Bake at 350 for some super cute cookies! 

Since all these great Minnesota sports cookies actually have to be shipped to Minnesota,  I found this  video to help me pack them so they get there all in one piece, hopefully!

 

Now I am off to find some packing peanuts and boxes!