PhotoShop Fun

Yesterday I finally got a chance to sit down and play with my Photoshop Elements. Using tutorials from Jessica Sprague I had a photo of my niece Heather when she was visiting over the Holidays. I changed the hue and saturation to give the picture an "aged" look and then did some tinting on her face with the brush setting and tweaking the foreground color. And then with the star brush with a white foreground color to give the sparkle effect in her hair.

Here is the finished photo.

And here is the original photo that I started out with. Isn't she the cutest?

Maple Baked Beans

I noticed that I posted about the X-Weighted Challenge right above a post with recipes for Guinness Stew and Candy Cane Brownies. Kind of ironic isn't it? I think I will balance things out with a healthy recipe instead.

It is January, Christmas is over and so are all the over indulgences that go with it. Our budget is tight, all those bills are starting to come in, and our pants are tight, all those cookies, cakes, drinks etc, are starting to show themselves in extra poundage and inches.

Right now in the oven, I have some Maple Baked Beans slow cooking for tonight's dinner. Something that is slimming to both your budget and waistline.

It is Monday, and it is stupid night here in the Jenkins household. I have to run carpool today for the high school kids, which means I leave at 1:50 p.m. and get back into town around 3:15, just in time to pick up Daniel and Amanda from their school. Amanda has dance tonight, she needs to be ready to go at 4:45, which means she needs to eat her dinner at 4:00, which is the same time I am on my way out the door with Daniel to take him to his Karate class. Thankfully, Marissa takes Amanda to dance along with her daughter Alexa. I get home from Karate around 5:30 or so, and then have to go pick up the dance girls at 6:30. And who knows when Dave gets home. So in the midst of this madness I need to have dinner ready for the five of us to eat in shifts. And this recipe is a lifesaver. It is from the cookbook Dinner Survival by Sandi Richard. You have to watch Sandi in her show Fixing Dinner on FoodTV. Fabulous show for cooks short on time, love love it.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 cups dry white navy beans

5 cups water

1 onion

Sauce for Beans:

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp Sambal Oelek (crushed chili paste)

add more if you like it hot (we do)

2 tsp vinegar

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup ketchup

1 cup water

4 bacon slices

THE NIGHT BEFORE:

Rinse beans in a colander, discarding shriveled ones. Place beans and water in a large stove-top pot at high heat. Finely chop onion, adding to pot as you cut. Stir. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat to medium-low for a low boil. Set timer for 15 minutes.

Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, pepper, mustard, Sambal Oelek, vinegar, molasses, ketchup, and water in a large oven-safe pot or casserole. Trim and discard most of the fat from bacon.

When the time rings for the beans, transfer beans, water and onion into the sauce pot and stir to combine. Lay bacon on top. Cover, let cool, then place in fridge overnight.

IN THE MORNING:

Set the oven to 250F (set at 225F if gone more than 10 hours) Place beans in oven.

At the end of the day when you get home, reset oven to 350F. Remove 1 cup of beans with sauce into a bowl. Mash with a fork, return to bean pot and stir. Place beans back in oven, uncovered. Set timer for 20 minutes. When timer rings put some whole grain bread in the oven next to the beans, then turn off oven. Put together a salad while the bread warms and voila you have dinner!!

I am allergic to pork, so instead of real bacon, I use vegetarian bacon, gives the dish the same smoky bacon taste, but without the added fat and for me itchiness.

If you do use real bacon in the beans and you live in the area, I highly recommend you get your bacon from Oakridge Acres. They have the best bacon (at least according to those in my house who can eat bacon) and it is lean!!! No fat to drain when you are finished cooking the bacon and there is very little shrinkage.

X-Weighted Challenge

Happy New Year everyone!!!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the Holidays. Santa was very good to all of us here in the Jenkins household and it was good to have some time off and spend it with family and friends.

If you were like me, you probably ate and ate and ate and ate over the Holidays. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning after a good New Year's Eve party of food and drink and had a "That can't be a good thing" moment when I saw the number on the scale. All I could think of is that the X-Weighted Challenge can't come soon enough.

What is the X-Weighted Challenge you ask? If you have ever watched the show X-Weighted on Slice, you will know how they go into people's homes and lives and revamp their eating and exercise lifestyle. I have always loved watching the show when I can, seeing people who have struggled with weight loss and the emotional issues that tend to go along with why they are overweight in the first place. Now the experts at X-Weighted are putting together a National Challenge for people to "Get Fit and Lose Weight". I follow X-Weighted on Twitter and found out about the challenge initially through Twitter, and said I would join the challenge, which has now put me on their blog here , and caused me to think, "I can't believe I am doing this"

When I was asked to be featured on their blog I was at first hesitant, "What if I totally fail and at the end of the Challenge I am still at the same weight and fitness level as I was at the beginning." I decided to go for it, that this will force me to focus and stay on track, make me accountable, because a lot of people across Canada have now seen my face splashed on a National Blog......gulp (I still can't believe I did that)

Some people will look at me and think I don't need to lose any weight, but underneath I know I need to get my act together. My muffin top is getting bigger and I have my family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and osteoporosis to think about .

I have always been a skinny girl growing up, I was teased in grade school for being so skinny some times, I can still hear "Skinny Minny Miller". But in my teens and early 20's being the "skinny girl" was advantageous at times, I could eat whatever I want and still wear my size 6 clothes. I was also very active so I burned off the excess calories. But eating whatever I want has caught up with me. I have also had three children and am not as active as I used to be, combined with being 41 years old with a slowing metabolism the pounds have crept up on me. In 2006 I saw myself in the family pic of my sister in law's wedding and was shocked at I how I looked, that is not me. So two girlfriends and I joined a small private gym, I lost a fair bit of weight and was about 15 lbs away from my goal when the gym closed, tried another larger chain gym, but then the recession hit, Dave's company got hit and we had to trim corners financially, so I gave up my gym membership. We purchased a treadmill with some income tax money and got a Bosu ball thrown in. I told myself I could continue the regime on my own. Nope, among other things human laziness has gotten the better of me ,the pounds are starting to creep back on again, I am not as heavy as I was in 2006, but if I don't smarten up I will be soon.

Am I nervous about doing this challenge? You bet I am, since I have made it very public to do this.....there is no turning back. I am also overwhelmed by the prospect, I have a very full life. My oldest daughter Laura is in an International Baccalaureate Program for High School, which means we carpool with other families to and from the school which is about 1/2 hour away from our home, the other two need to get to their school as well. Almost every single weeknight is taken up with at least one child's activity (horseback, dance, karate, swimming, piano), and there is all the other "Life" stuff.

As some of you know, I have uterine fibroids, one of which is quite large and they literally knock me of my feet for a few days to a week each month. Because of the fibroids my hemoglobin is starting to get low, not too bad yet, but enough to make me feel it, which will also affect my exercise program. I am booked for surgery at the end of April to have the fibroids removed, once that is done and my hemoglobin gets back up to normal, I can ramp up my exercise program.

I will have to tweak the challenge to suit my life for now and whatever is thrown at me in the next six months, but I know I can do it!!!! How about you?

The Challenge starts January 9th, who is in?

A couple of recipes as requested

We are well into December and we have snow actually sticking on the ground here. I had to find my winter driving skills today driving to karate and horseback, some wicked black ice out there.

On Facebook today I mentioned that I was making Guinness Stew and Candy Cane Brownies for dinner tonight and I had a lot of requests for the recipes. Here they are, enjoy!!!!

Guinness Stew (I call it this, but the recipe is actually called Deep Dish Pub Pies, I got it years ago from Homemakers.com)

2 lbs (1 kg) boneless lade, cross-rib or round steak or stewing beef, cubed

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 cups beef broth (I use the VE Beef Bouillon)

1 can of Guinness

1 cup plain tomato sauce (I use V8 for added flavour)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp thyme

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

3/4 cup celery, diced

1 1/2 cups small mushroom, halved

Topping:

1 (about 14 0z/400 g) package frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg lightly beaten

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add beef and shake to coat with flour. Reserve remaining flour. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy saucepan set over medium heat. Brown beef cubes in batches, adding more oil as needed. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add broth, beer, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, stirring well to scrape brown bits from bottom of pan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until meat is nearly tender. Add carrots, potatoes and celery, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then add mushrooms and simmer for 15 minutes longer or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Mix reserved flour mixture with a little cold water until smooth. Stir into beef mixture and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Taste and adjust seasoning. Divide beef mixture between 8 individual casseroles (each about 10 oz/300 mil or 4 inches in diameter) Cover with foil.

Make -Ahead: Beef mixture may be refrigerated before or after filling casseroles, for up to 2 days)

Topping:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Roll out pastry to 1/8 inch (3 cm) thickness and cut into 8 round that are the same diameter as the casserole dishes (pastries will puff up during baking and shrink slightly in diameter) Place on large baking sheet.

Chill until pastry is cold, about 15 minutes. Brush with lightly beaten egg. Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Reserve

Make Ahead: Pastries may be made up to a day ahead. Cover with a tea towel and store at room temperature)

Bake foil-topped casseroles in 400F oven for 15 min or until bubbling hot. Remove foil, top each with reserved puff pastry rounds and return to oven for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

If you like beer, have a can of Guinness while eating the stew/pies.

I normally don't make this into pies, I don't always have the time. I skip the pastry part and just eat the stew part. You can also add dumplings to the stew the last 15 minutes or so of cooking.

I have also made this stew in the slow cooker. Brown the beef and add to the slow cooker. Use the beer and some of the broth in the pan that you browned the beef in, scraping up the bits and add this to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients, mix well and cook on low for about 8-10 hours.

Now for dessert:

Candy Cane Brownies

This recipe is from Canadian Living Holiday Best 2002

2/3 cup butter

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Topping:

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

2/3 cups mini chocolate chips

Line a 13 x 9 inch metal cake pan with parchment paper, set aside.

In saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together butter and semisweet and unsweetened chocolates. Let cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Using wooden spoon, stir in flour and salt. Scrape into prepared pan.

Bake in 350 F oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging, 25 to 30 minutes.

TOPPING: Sprinkle with candy canes, then chocolate chips; return to oven for 30 seconds (do not let topping melt). Let cool in pan on rack. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Makes about 40 bars

I use a whole package of candy canes (i think there are about 12 or so candy canes per pkg). I can't be bothered measuring crushed candy canes. I put the unwrapped candy canes in a large Ziploc baggie, seal the baggie and beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin. It is a great stress reliever. I also just eyeball the chocolate chips on top as well, in my world you can never have too much chocolate.

We also say screw it to refrigerating the bars for 1 hour. After a couple of hours I remove the brownies from the pan, and cut into squares while the chocolate chips are still ooey and gooey and oh so good and you end up with chocolate all over your hands and face. Yummy.

Scrapping Turtle is Having a Spooktacular On-Line Crop

At the Scrapping Turtle Forum, one of the forums I like to hang out at, is having a "Spooktacular On-Line Crop" beginning Nov. 13. There will be challenges and ballots given to win some awesome prizes, don't know what the prizes are, but knowing the Turtle they will be awesome. If you are new to the forum, go and register, tell them I sent you, complete at least 2 of the challenges from the on-line crop (it will be fun, trust me) and you and I will each win some ballots.

Gotta Love Halloween

I love Halloween. I love decorating, getting the costumes figured out, picking out pumpkins and raiding the kids treat bag (my hips and stomach don't appreciate that part though)

It is a yearly tradition in our house that I take a picture of all three kids with their pumpkins after we carved them and are waiting for the pumpkin seeds to finish cooking. Of all the pictures I took that night, I like this one the best, it shows all three of them laughing, shows them as I see them and why I love my three babies (yes Laura, you maybe 14 but you will ALWAYS be my baby). Why are they laughing? That splash of white in the left hand side of the picture is a clue. That would be Dalwhinnie who decided that with me sitting on the floor with a camera sticking out of my face, it would be a good time to jump on me and lick my ear, ewwwwww!! Nothing like dog licks in the ear.

This year for Halloween it was just Daniel and Amanda who went Trick or Treating with their friends, Laura opted to stay home and hand out candy, I think she realized it was more work than she expected. Of course I have to take some pictures before they head out. Daniel was walking death, again, and Amanda was an enchantress with a purple and black wig that lasted about 3-5 houses.

When I look at this picture it makes me giggle. Daniel had his toy sword with "blood" (ya gotta love boys) and was swinging it at our Pirate, Mr. Doomsday, who is trying to get out of his grave, except it looks like he is ready to take Amanda down who is smiling sweetly, without a care in the world. She doesn't see her brother who appears ready to slash his sister down into oblivion, but she is an enchantress, she will use her magical powers to deflect him. Daniel has been foiled again. Bwahahaha!!!!

And finally, here is our house with the decorations. My favourite would be the giant spiderweb and spider. And we can't forget Mr. Doomsday. Poor Mr. Doomsday who will be stuck half in and half out of his grave forever......well right now he is in storage in my basement.

A couple of cards

I have been busy making a couple of cards. This first one is to welcome my new niece. We haven't had a chance to actually meet her yet because we have had the flu in the house, she is about a month old already, hopefully we will be able to see her very soon. Kathy, if you see this, you didn't see this, right?

The stamp is Geordie The Giraffe, it was in my loot bag from Crop for the Cure (thanks Tracey) and I colored him in with Copic markers, the words "little one" is a Close to my Heart stamp. Patterned paper is Basic Grey (sprinkles), ribbon I am not sure, got it in a grab bowl at Scrapfest, cardstock is Stampin Up, the Threading Water Stamp from Fiskars was used to give the scalloped edge at the bottom of the pattern paper.

This card I made just because. I will probably give it to one of my girls at some point. Patterned paper is from Stemma, stamped image and wording is Close To My Heart, flower rub ons and bling is from Bazzill and again I used the Threading Water punch from Fiskars.

That is my three posts for today, to make up what I missed posting yesterday and Sunday. We shall see if I can blog everyday this month for National Blog Writing Month. I think if I do I need to treat myself to something scrappy, maybe a Quickutz die, or new Cricut cartridge, or more paper because lord knows I don't have enough paper!!!