Strawberry Lemonade

It’s summer here in Sourh Florida and that means it is hot and humid! With that heat, I want a cool drink, so I made this delicious and not too sweet Strawberry  Lemonade.

Here are your ingredients for 2 quarts: 4 lemons, about 8 strawberries, liquid Splenda or sweetener of choice, water.

Step 1. Wash and cut strawberries.

Step 2. Blend till smooth (I use a bullet-type system) and add to pitcher.

Step 3. Squeeze and strain lemon juice into pitcher. I use a Pampered Chef Lemon Spigot. It is an old item that they don’t make anymore, but you can find them on ebay.

Step 4. Add water and sweetener to your liking and mix well.

Step 5. Serve over ice with garnish of berries and lemon wedges!

Enjoy!

Easy Garlic Pull-Apart Bread

I don’t usually eat bread, but on the rare occasion that I do, I love to make this recipe!

Step 1: preheat oven to 350

Step 2: melt about 3-4tbsp of butter in an 8 inch skillet.

Step 3: add minced or pressed garlic (about 3 cloves) to the butter and brown.

Step 4: open a can of Grands Flaky Layers buscuits and cut them into quarters.  I find sharp kitchen shears works great for this!

Step 5: add biscuit pieces to the pan and then stick the whole thing in the over for 15-20 minutes.

Step 6: Once it’s baked, take it out of the oven and immediately add seasoning of your choice and grated parmesan cheese!  The seasoning I like to use is actually a bread dipping seasoning that you usually add olive oil to.

Love the Pampered Chef rotary grater!

Step 7: Enjoy!

Almost gone!

Note:  Make sure your skillet is rated to go in the oven.  The one I use is the Pampered Chef Executive 8″ sauté pan and you can find it here.

Herbed butter

I have an abundance of basil growing on my patio and these cute little trays, so I’m making herbed butter!

The recipe is pretty easy. Melt some butter, add your herbs, and pour into the container to harden.

I started with about a stick and a half of butter, because that’s what I had. And a handful of basil, because that’s all I picked. I also used about 4 cloves of garlic.

 I melted the butter in the microwave for about 45 seconds, stirring every 15. You don’t want it boiling or clear, just melted enough to remove the lumps.  Then stir in the chopped and minced herbs.

Use a scoop to portion out the mixture into the trays. These are herb freezing trays from Pampered Chef. The green is flexible silicon and the white is hard plastic. It makes them easy to pop out once hardened. And you can use a dry erase marker on the lid to label! (You can get them here).

When solid you can pop them all out and store in a ziplock, or just keep them in the trays. Use them on steak, rolls, or use them for sautéing food in a pan for extra flavor.

Enjoy!

Optical Illusions

I just started the Op Art blanket. It’s an optical illusion that spirals from the center in ever growing stripes. Starting with only 4 stitches, the pattern increases by 4 with each row until you end with 888 stitches! I did the math. Counting the bind off, the total blanket is 99,898 stitches! I’ve done 8,318 so far. This is going to take forever 🙂

I am making it in green and white, the color of Marshall University and CK Highschool in Huntington, WV for friends of mine. It is where we grew up, but both of us are far away now.
If you are interested, the pattern is here.

Knitting a new leaf… And a sock!

This morning I very quickly knitted another leaf dishcloth!

I love this pattern, it knits so quickly! And if you follow my blog or have been here before, I knitted a leaf a couple weeks ago from a pattern from the same author. The pattern can be found here. This is the “Stocking Stitch” pattern. If you were curious how it compared, I have a picture of that too.

So, this week I also tried my first ever knitted sock. It was a toe-up pattern knitted magic loop style. It also knitted pretty easy, however the yarn I am using is frustrating! The skein has had 4 or 5 breaks in it already, so annoying! Also, my bind off is completely wrong and not stretchy, so with the second sick I will see if I can fix that.

Today I think I’m going to make more leaves and start the sock tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Strawberries and Cream “Cheesecake”

Remember the Orange Creamsicle “Cheesecake” I posted the other day? Well, this is the same recipe, but with strawberry gelatin. Oh, and I finely chopped 2 fresh strawberries and mixed them in too, along with half of one on top for garnish.

It was yummy and I can’t wait to try another flavor. Maybe I’ll layer a couple? This is becoming my favorite summer treat!

Orange Creamsicle “Cheesecake”

I found this recipe on Pinterest and though it’s not really cheesecake because of the gelatin, it is an excellent light, sugar-free dessert!

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
1 box sugar free orange gelatin (makes 2 cups size)
1 1/4 cup Heavy cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
6 +/- drops liquid sweetener (like EZ Sweetz or stevia extract)

Instructions
-Boil the water and then dissolve the gelatin in it.

-Whip the heavy cream. I use a knock off Magic Bullet type mixer. It takes about 30 seconds or so, but you can use a hand mixer too.

-In another bowl, beat the cream cheese and mix in sweetener well. I love my KitchenAid mixer for this!

Speaking of sweeteners, I use a liquid stevia from Whole Foods, but you can use any type you have on hand. The amount of drops may vary though depending in which one you use.

-Once the gelatin has cooled for at least 15 minutes, slowly pour it into the cream cheese mixture. Mix until smooth.

-Fold in whipped cream fully

-Pour into greased pan and refrigerate for a couple hours

Makes 8 servings, approximately 2 net carbs each, depending on your specific brands.

Try strawberry or lime flavors or add sliced fruit to the top and enjoy!

Fabric ruffle scarf

I bought this ruffle fabric a few months back and just knit it! I know it’s 90 degrees outside, but I REALLY want to wear it!

The fiber is called Starbella Flirt Siberia by Premier Yarns . I also have the same fiber in the Black Spot colorway that I can’t wait to use!

Quick knit

Well, I had planned knitting something else tonight, but didn’t have the pattern I wanted. So, I knitted this quick leaf dishcloth.

The pattern knitted extremely quick, about 2 hours for me because I had never done an ssk stitch (slip, slip, knit). There are 2 leaf patterns on the site and this is pattern 1. The pattern is listed here.

Introducing my Etsy store!

Actually, it’s not a new store, but new to this blog. 🙂 I started melting glass, or lampworking, back in 2002. I got a kiln about a year later and started selling my items on eBay, then Etsy.

Right now my shop has mostly glass items and handmade jewelry, but the knitted items are slowly making their way there too!

If you want, check out the site! www.lizajayne.etsy.com!