Crochet Review: A Great Snowflake Pattern Booklet

Last year I found a great snowflake pattern booklet called Winter Jewels: 16 Snowflakes To Crochet, a South Maid article J-14, Book 1410, CC-C.  (It's five books down in the list from that book link on her site and costs only $2.50 plus S&H from her site.  The South Maid books are listed under the Coats & Clark category)

The snowflakes in this book are designed by one of my favorite designers, Trish Kristoffersen and by ordering it from her website, I got it for a great deal and sent to my home within a few days of placing my order, autographed by Trish herself.  How very nice that was to see!


Here's Snowflake #6. Frosted Rose.  I added beads and crystals and more beads to the thread before I started the project.  The book says you can add beads and glitter later on but I happened to have some crystals I wanted to use and haven't had much luck trying to marry glue to crystal.  In fact, I could never get the glue to stick at all except to my fingers and anything else I didn't want it to stick to but that's just me.  It would probably work well for you. 
The lower photo shows the beads and crystals a bit better... I think...

I am finding the snowflakes in Trish's book fast and easy to make, and they come out really beautiful, are strong enough to hold up the little crystals I add to it.  They even look beautiful before I stretch and starch them (which I haven't done yet..)



Go check out Trish's website if you crochet - or even if you don't.  Her designs are outstanding and beautiful to look at and enjoy no matter what your crochet skill level is.

O,T. Easy Recipe For No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

This has got to  be the easiest, quickest cookie recipe on the face of the earth.  Another plus is that in this hot weather we're all having, you don't have to heat up the house by using an oven to cook these cookies!  Here ya go:

Recipe:  No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies


In a heavy sauce pan, mix:
1/2 cup milk
2 C sugar
Cook on high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to boil.  Boil for one minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  (that's all the cooking you will have to do)


Add:
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 C peanut butter (I used creamy but chunky would be great too)
3 C quick cook oatmeal

Mix together well.
Roll into 1 " balls or you can drop by the teaspoonful onto waxed paper or parchment paper.
It only takes one cookie sheet as you can place the cookies close to each other, they will not be spreading at all.

My daughter likes them best when they're still warm.  When cool they have a fudgy quality that is very good - and somewhat good for you too.  ;-)

Crazy Cake Recipe

Crazy Cake
A delightfully rich and moist cake that is easy and fun to make.  Even a bachelor can do it and make a great impression on the ladies.

•  Using a 9" round glass cake dish, measure into a sifter and sift together right into the cake dish the dry ingredients:

     1 1/2  (one and one half) Cups flour
     1  C sugar
      1 tsp   baking soda
     1/2 (one half) tsp  salt (optional)
      3 Tbsp   unsweetened cocoa

• Stir together the ingredients above in the cake dish, mixing well.

• Make three well-holes in the dry ingredients with a spoon: 

1 large "well"

1 medium "well"
1 small "well"

• In the biggest of the wells put     5 Tbsp vegetable oil

• In the middle sized well, put       1 Tbsp vinegar

• In the smallest well put      1 tsp vanilla

• Pour 1 Cup cold water over all  

•  Stir all ingredients together very well using a spatula

to smash and mix in lumps and to scrape the sides and
bottom of the cake dish to make sure
all the dry gets mixed with the wet.

• Bake in a moderate oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.  

 (Note:
If you stick a toothpick into the cake to check for doneness it'll probably always come out with moist crumbs on it so don't use that for a test.  Just tap your finger on top of the middle of the cake and if it springs back and the cake doesn't smell burnt yet, it's done!)

• Now you can serve it as is (good warm and cold) with ice cream, or
• Let it cool and make it fancy by placing a pretty paper doily on top and then sifting powdered sugar over all.  Remove the doily and you've got a beautifully decorated cake

Uncle Don's Chocolately, Moist, "Crazy Cake" Recipe

My Uncle Don was a bachelor and not much of a cook according to Mom.  Her brother died in his sleep when he was only forty five and when we were going through his things in his home following his death, we came across this recipe for  "Crazy Cake".  We have no idea where he got the recipe but we've found this recipe to be tried and true for any occasion.  It can be a snack on Saturday afternoon or served for dessert after an elegant dinner.  If you love chocolate you'll love this yummy moist cake!  (Photo of finished cake at bottom of this page.)

Crazy Cake
A delightfully rich and moist cake that is easy and fun to make.  Even a bachelor can do it and make a great impression on the ladies.

•  Using a 9" round glass cake dish, measure into a sifter and sift together right into the cake dish the dry ingredients:

     1 1/2  (one and one half) Cups flour
     1  C sugar
      1 tsp   baking soda
     1/2 (one half) tsp  salt (optional)
      3 Tbsp   unsweetened cocoa

• Stir together the ingredients above in the cake dish, mixing well.

• Make three well-holes in the dry ingredients with a spoon: 

1 large "well"

1 medium "well"
1 small "well"

• In the biggest of the wells put     5 Tbsp vegetable oil

• In the middle sized well, put       1 Tbsp vinegar

• In the smallest well put      1 tsp vanilla

• Pour 1 Cup cold water over all  

•  Stir all ingredients together very well using a spatula

to smash and mix in lumps and to scrape the sides and
bottom of the cake dish to make sure
all the dry gets mixed with the wet.

• Bake in a moderate oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.  

 (Note:
If you stick a toothpick into the cake to check for doneness it'll probably always come out with moist crumbs on it so don't use that for a test.  Just tap your finger on top of the middle of the cake and if it springs back and the cake doesn't smell burnt yet, it's done!)

• Now you can serve it as is (good warm and cold) with ice cream, or
• Let it cool and make it fancy by placing a pretty paper doily on top and then sifting powdered sugar over all.  Remove the doily and you've got a beautifully decorated cake!

For a printable page (no photos)  of this recipe, click here