What's left in the pantry

We certainly don't live an extravagant life. I take it as a personal challenge to "make do" with limited resources — using free pallets for crafts, finding old chairs to makeover and rummaging through my pantry to create meals for the last week of the month, when our food budget has run dry.

It's laughable really. But sometimes frustrating when you realize your taste buds control more of your decision-making than you desire.

Last night I was forced to serve up a generous portion of Shepherd's Pie. I can't say that it would ever be my first meal choice. But when you're down the wire and the only meats you have left in your freezer are ground beef, ground venison and ground turkey, well you do what you can.

Ground meat meals are never my preference. Luckily I had a bag of frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, beans) and a box of instant mashed potatoes.

Now I will have to admit that I was quite disappointed when I found out that the half of onion and green pepper I had in the fridge had gone bad (I think it's the best way to sauté meat). I chose the ground turkey and resorted to a blend of dried seasonings — celery seed, onion salt, red pepper, Lawry's seasoning, paprika and basil (you really can't go wrong at this point unless you over salt).

After mixing the seasoned meat with chicken stock (it's all I had), the steamed mixed veggies and a little flour (for thickness), I topped the poor-man's meal with the cooked potatoes and shoved it all in the oven for a bit.

It was more than edible. It was actually pretty good, which was a good thing considering the casserole-dish sized portion I made for just the two of us. We'll be eating on that for a while.

And of course that sweet tooth came nagging pretty quickly. I try to keep my pantry stocked with general baking necessities — chocolate morsals, one cake mix, a box of brownie mix, flour, sugar, rolled oats, brown sugar, powdered sugar, well you get the idea. I've been eyeing that can of Eagle Brand on my pantry shelf for some time now. I love Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. I mean truly love it. I wish I could use it in every recipe just so I can scrape the last of it off the spoon with my finger and enjoy that little piece of heaven. It's so unique and tasty!

So my creativity went to work. I pulled out the chocolate chip muffin mix (the add-milk-only type — this is the way to go when you have no eggs) and a few odds and ends here and there to create what I am calling Creamy chocolate chip bread with banana crisp topping. It was amazing. The moist bread topped with the creamy yet crisp banana-flavored goodness sent chills to my toes.

Step into my kitchen...

---------------- Do It Yourself ----------------

The Recipe

Items:

Chocolate chip muffin mix

3/4 cup Milk

1/4 cup Cream cheese

1/2 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

2 sliced Bananas

3/4 to 1 cup Rolled oats

1/2 cup coconut

To do:

Mix muffin mix and milk as instructed on package (my mix was Martha White). Add in 1/4 cup (or 1/2 cup depending on flavor you want) cream cheese. 

Pour into bread pan and bake at 425* for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, heat Eagle Brand in small sauce pan until slight boil. Add sliced bananas and let Eagle Brand cover until bananas are softened. Fold in rolled oats and coconut. Keep this mixture simmering on stove top until bread is done. 

Remove bread from oven and top with banana mixture. Return to oven for an additional 8 minutes to allow bread to continue cooking and topping to crisp.

Remove and enjoy!

A crafty fall

Autumn has arrived, and it is my favorite time of year.

My porch sits decorated with pumpkins and fall-esque decor. The yard is covered in multicolored leaves and our family room is filled with autumn-scented candles and baked goodies.

It's quite lovely at the Ragon home.

This autumn has also found its way into my craft room and forced its beautiful ways upon me. I couldn't be happier. In addition to my Finely Twisted hand-sewn clothing designs, I have filled my time with wreath-decorating, painting and shelf-making. It's glorious.

John and I have decided to not only share our specific ministry stories with you. We have decided to share our lives. Enjoy this journey with us. It's proving to be a really good one!

---------------- Do It Yourself ----------------

Shelf
Items:
Old pallet
Small "L" brackets — these can be used on top (as shown above) or beneath the boards depending on your preference. I liked the exposed hardware and natural wood combo.
Small screws — I think mine were 1/4" — that won't show through when screwed into wood.
To do:
Dissemble pallet. Cut boards to desired length (I planned 36" so they would comfortably host different sized canvases). Each shelf will need two boards. Measure and mark each board in two places (one on each end). Situate boards perpendicular and fasten L-bracket to boards with screws. You now have a beautiful shelf which can sit with overhang on bottom (shown above) or top

Wreath
Items (all purchased at my local Walmart):
Burlap (purchased by the yard)
Push pins with large head
Autumn floral bunch
Foam wreath form
Floral wire
To do:
Cut burlap into strips twice as thick as your wreath form (mine were about 6-8 inches wide). I cut multiple strips the length of my purchased fabric. Loosely fanfold burlap, using pushpins to fasten to wreath (I chose pushpins instead of glue so I can easily remove the autumn decor without damaging the wreath form so I can use the same one for other holidays/seasons). I made sure my fabric folds covered previously placed push pins.
Dissemble floral arrangement and choose what flowers, leaves, berries, etc... you want to use. I removed or cut off all plastic stems from the flowers I chose to use.
For the small yellow flowers, I placed a yellow-topped push pin through the top of the flower and straight into the foam wreath.
For the large yellow daisies, the flowers were limp and disconnected once the stem was removed so I used two small yellow buttons per flower and sandwiched them on the outside of the flower, threading the buttons with floral wire and wrapping it onto the wreath form, covering the wire with the burlap folds.
For the sunflowers, the "stump" of the stems was extra thick so I pierced the floral wire through the "stump" and wrapped it around the wreath form, covering the wire like with the daisies.
I hung mine on my front door with an over-the-door wreath hanger.


Painting — "Traffic"
Items:
Thick paint brushes
Choice colors of acrylic paint (make sure some are shimmery)
Canvas of any size
To do:
Coat entire canvas with three colors (I chose deep navy for the bottom, yellow for the middle and green for the top). These will be the colors that show through.
Use extra paint colors to make pearls of paint up, down and across middle third of the painting — My pearls somewhat came to a point in the middle of the painting.
With a fresh brush, slightly damp, begin at side where paint pearls are and drag brush across canvas, leaving some thick strokes of paint for depth. Your shimmery acrylic paints and color choices will give the painting a better texture and make the appearance of movement within the painting.
Enjoy!