Food Flub - Evaporated milk ice cream

So I was hanging out with a friend one night and I wanted to do something random and fun. I had been goofing around on Pinterest (I get a lot of my inspiration there- at least food wise) and came across THIS pin to THIS blog post.

Ice Cream from evaporated milk?!?! Just 2 ingredients and no need for a  this is the greatest thing ever! I must try it!

I rushed through reading the recipe and thought I would be ok to just wing it. I had sugar and I had a can of evaporated milk.

What could go wrong?

Using my handy - dandy Kitchen aid stand mixer passed on to me by my wonderful Grandma Vicki, I whipped the chilled milk then added the sugar and whipped it some more. All in a well chilled bowl.

It looks yummy!

But then we tried it. It tasted like really stale marshmallows. Not very edible. Unless you like stale marshmallows. I would imagine there is someone out there who does. I like a lot of weird things. No judgments but I was disappointed to the max. 

A couple days later I decided to look at the original post again... 

Looking closer I realized that it called for POWDERED sugar... not regular ol' granulated. 

So I will be trying this recipe again. Sometime. 

Fix it Friday - My favorite backpack

Like any girl, I love bags.

 If you've read this blog long enough or know me at all, you won't be surprised to know my bag of choice isn't a purse or a classy leather handbag. I'm not big on leather unless its in an awesome jacket (though, I have yet to find one that I both love and can afford because admittedly I am a bit picky).

But rather my bag of choice is either a backpack, a smaller cross body bag (which lucky for me has recently become trendy) or none at all. I like the two extremes. I either want to be able to carry everything, including the kitchen sink or just the basics - phone, ID, and debit card. I do have a weakness from some Vera Bradley products as well (but well lets face it - most women/girls now do love at least one of their products)

I'm weird. I admit it. I'm don't go to school any more, nor to I hang out at the skate park as my favorite bag might suggest, but I love backpacks. I have at least half a dozen. But there is one that I love more than the rest.
This past christmas one of my brothers found me this discontinued YakPak that suits my personality quite well.

Its the perfect sized backpack - not too big but not too small, simple and my favorite shade of grapey purple so it quickly became my favorie. And it was a YakPak, which I am a big fan of. They have quirky patterns in great colors, and all their products are super durable. I have a wallet from them that I used for 2 years and the only reason I stopped using it was cause I went on a Batman kick and wanted a Batman wallet. 

Anyway. . . So I love this backpack. And I recently went from a 17' laptop to a 15'. And I was super stoked cause my new smaller computer would fit much better in my favorite  backpack. I had carried my old computer in this bag before but it barely fit and strained the zipper. But since I got the slightly smaller computer it would fit with out straining everything as much. There was only one problem left - this backpack doesn't have a laptop sleeve (they have other products that do) and I didn't want my new lappy in there without some sort of support.  So I dug around in my boxes of findings and found the solution! Thick black elastic straps! 

So did some quick figuring and did some hand stitching.

I made the decision to stitch the elastic with the seam of the pack pad even though it was narrower than the computer. It would help hide the stitches on the outside and in general be more secure and made it easier to keep everything in line. I did 2 straps and I think it worked out fairly nicely. (picture before extra thread trimmed)

Ta-da! Nice and secure! I will be using it to transport my computer on our trip this holiday weekend. It will work out quite nicely for what I need. I will probably add a vertical strap between the two straps just so its easier but I am still happy. My laptop, lap desk, AC adapter, mouse, kindle and fuzzy ear buds fit nicely with room to spare! I love taking my favorite things and making them even better! 

Recently, I've gotten away from my creative ways, but I am making an effort to get back at it. So don't be surprised if this blog goes from 80% food and 20% creative to a more 50/50 split. I have lots of fun stuff planned on both fronts over the next few weeks that I am really excited about.

Also-- I am open to suggestions. Is there a recipe you want to see me try? Or maybe a DIY project you just aren't sure about? Leave me a comment! I would love to hear from you. If I can I will try it. 

Coming soon! 

Lots of DIY's - my signature pendant, rings,  a thrift store alteration, and  rice heat bag.

Foodie posts - another flub, some of the best cookies, lemonade, 

Can Do Casserole - Creamy Chicken Casserole

So my friend recently had her baby and I had signed up to take her and her hubby a meal. I was planning on making a bake-able version of my super easy freezer burritos (coming soon!) But alas I misremembered the date and was in a crunch for time. I was only missing 2 ingredients for this yummy pot pie - esque chicken casserole that I had been wanting to try so I decided this was the option to go. After a quick run to the store I started this yummy recipe in a double batch (one for them and one for us).

Creamy Chicken Casserole

2 cans Cream of chicken soup
2 chicken breasts, cooked chopped
1 bag frozen mixed veggies
2 large potatoes
1 can biscuits

Peel and chop potatoes into bite sized pieces. Boil until almost cooked (still firm NOT mushy - they will cook the rest of the way in the oven. if you over do them now they will just turn to mush.)-  takes about 15 to 20 min depending on how big of chunks.
Cook and chop chicken breasts (I did mine in the skillet with a little salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder)
Mix chicken, veggies, potato, soup, salt, pepper and a can of water. Spray casserole and spread mixture evenly. Cook for about an hour (to heat through). 1/2 an hour in put biscuits on top.

Serves 3-6  (or 2 with leftovers for a second meal ;) )


Learn from My Mistakes:
There are 2 things I should have done differently.
The first is I didn't salt or pepper my veggies so they were a bit bland.
The second and more obvious is that initially I put the biscuits in at the beginning. This resulted in burnt biscuits that were doughy on the bottom. Putting them in half through ensures that you aren't putting cold dough on cold veggies and thus cooks more thoroughly.

Potatoes!

Biscuits! 

And apparently I fail at taking the final pic. I coulda swore I took a picture of them when they were done. but I must not have. oops!

All in all in turned out great. Mr. Hubby isn't a fan of creamy casseroles so I may tweak this recipe a bit for some individual portions. I liked it a lot. Its not the most healthy but it still chock full of veggies and tastes great. 

Coming soon!

- crazy easy Chocolate peanut butter cake cookies

- Ice cream food flub

- fix it! backpack edition

- thrift store fixes

Food flub - Easy Crock pot chicken stuffing

So I found this recipe on Pinterest.

I was super excited. I love my crock pot and I love stuffing.

And it looked super easy. Just throw chicken, stuffing, a can of cream of chicken soup, some sour cream and some water in the crock and let it go? YES PLEASE!

To be fair. I am making fun of myself in this post. Most everything that went wrong was my own fault and I will attempt this recipe again once I get over some of my own stupidity.

Thing started to go wrong right from the start.

My crock pot was on the counter and I took inventory of everything I needed.

Chicken 
sour cream 
cream of chicken 
stuffing 

I opened my chicken only to be accosted with the "foul"est of smells (cause who doesnt love a good pun?) Much to my dismay this chicken had spoiled. I'm still not sure how but it was disgusting. I bagged it up and asked Mr. Hubby to please take it to the dumpster right away. One whiff and he obliged with out complaint.

It was the last of my chicken and we had already bought groceries for the week. But I decided to go a head with the recipe sans chicken. I mean stuffing is amazing by its self right? One of my favorite parts about thanksgiving is leftover stuffing.

But I want it to be more than just flavored bread. Clint and I love corn and I always mix corn in my stuffing anyway. So I will throw that in there.


So in the crock went stuffing, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, some margarine and a drained can of corn. I hadnt pulled up the pin because I mean its so simple right?
Well, it didn't seem like enough liquid I must have misread.... So I added about 2 cans of water. maybe.... it might have been more. I was thinking it was about the amount that I would need to cook the stuffing on the stove top.

Than I had an idea. There's cream of chicken soup in it and I always make my cream of chicken with milk. So I threw in a can of milk or so.

I wasn't really thinking when I did this. I was cooking while extremely hungry. I spaced eating that day and had only had a cliff bar and my coffee and it was well after 2pm. Not doing that again.


Knowing it wouldn't need too long because there was no need to worry about chicken getting cooked through I checked it about 1.5 hrs later.

Needless to say there was not only too much liquid but the crock pot over cooked everything so it was just mush.. .  very tasty mush. but other than that it was basically inedible. I have included a picture at the bottom of this post. But fair warning. It looks nasty. Like wet dog food.


So in a nutshell:

1) Chicken went horribly bad. I had never actually smelled spoiled chicken before and don't care to again.
2) Too much liquid.

RESULT - Visually unappetizing (that's probably not strong enough of a word)  but actually pretty good tasting mush.
If you want to see the result scroll to the bottom.

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ok so maybe its not that bad. but there are a couple people I know who would not have wanted to see it. Looks like .. nasty.

Crockpot apple butter

I know apple butter is usually a fall thing but I promised I would post this recipe sooner rather than later.

I love apple butter, but like most things its not that great unless its homemade. The apple butter sold around Shipshewana is yummy but I dont always get up there and I figured I could make it cheaper.

I found a basic recipe online but wasnt a fan of standing over the stove. Not to mention I lost the lid to my biggest pot. So I did a little research and came up with a crock pot recipe.

Some things I did different-

-The addition of brown sugar gives the butter an extra oomph from the molasses. Not many recipes I found online use it but I love the depth it adds to the flavor.

- A lot of recipes called for various spices like ginger, nutmeg, allspice or clove. But I have come to prefer it with just cinnamon. Apples and cinnamon is a classic pairing so the simplicity works.


Crock pot apple butter

3lbs apples (my fave for this is fiji)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar


Core, peel and chop apples. Combine all ingredients in crockpot coating apples with sugars and cinnamon. Add 1 cup water. Cook until apples are very golden brown - about 8 to 10 hours on low. stirring every few hours.
Blend until smooth in a blender or food processor. Place in containers and cool.

Some recipes go a step further and recommend running it through a cheese cloth to make it even smoother. But unless your blender stinks at doing its job or you are REALLY picky about how smooth it is you can do with out this step.


Sorry for the lack of pics!

Coming up next: A pinterest fail.... stay tuned quirklings its gonna be an entertaining one!