Game Hen with Pineapple Glaze

My husband loves cornish game hens. As a child his grandmother would make him his own special hen for thanksgiving while the rest of the family ate turkey. I have to admit that I don't do this for my husband but I do try to make him a hen once in a while and this is my favorite recipe for the glaze.

1. Roast Hens at 350 breast side up
2. Brush with butter then salt pepper
3. Bake uncovered, baste with glaze

glaze ingredients

• 8oz can crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tbls dijon mustard
• 1 tbls soy sauce
• fresh chopped parsley (optional to garnish hens)

1. combine ingredients in medium sauce pan
2. scrape hen drippings into sauce 
3. bring to boil 
4. reduce and simmer

Sit upons—a Girl Scout tradition

If you know what a “sit upon” is you must have been a girl scout. It’s just something to sit on when camping or outdoors.

There are many materials that can be used for making a sit upon: Wall paper, duct tape, shower curtains, jeans, plastic or vinyl bags, and vinyl table cloths are just some of the options available. Here is the supply list I used for the sit upons pictured above:

• (2) 15″ x 15″ pieces of oil cloth (or other material)
• (1) 13″ x 13″ square of carpet padding (or other material such as newspaper, batting, or foam)
• enough string to overlay stitch all the way around 2 times to make a ‘v’
• alphabet beads
• pinking shears for cutting the oil cloth
• scissors for cutting the carpet padding
• hole puncher

I had extra oil cloth so my lucky girls have fancy sit upons. A carpet store donated carpet padding for the inside cushion and we used nylon lacing similar to shoe laces to stitch them together. To personalize each sit upon, the girls finished them off with a loop which they strung alphabet beads on to spell out their name.

Each girl was given pre-cut pieces of fabric and padding. I hole punched the fabric about 1″ apart all the way around so the girls just stitched around and made a beaded loop which they could also use as a strap for holding. The girls had a great time crafting their very own sit-upons and we all can’t wait to put them to good use!

camp crafts: God's Eye

We just got back from our annual family camping trip. It's always a good time playing at the river, hiking, roasting marshmallows story telling and crafting with the kids. This year Alivia taught a couple crafts: lanyards and God's Eyes. The God's Eye was a really fun camping craft because they got to search for sticks in the campground. Her little cousin Ella looks up to big cousin Alivia and they are so cute together.

mascarpone & apricots a perfect pair

We just picked all the apricots off our tree and now have an abundance of perfectly ripe apricots. It's always a game as to who will get the apricots first. The birds are waiting for them to be just right and so am I  . . . so is the dog by the way. At least she waits for them to fall. Those bad-mannered birds peck at one a little then move on to the next. I've learned to pick them just before they are perfect then let them ripen in the house. We've eaten all the fresh cold apricots we can, given away a bunch and they are now at the point where they have to be eaten and I can't bear to see these gems go bad so I made jam last night. I simply cooked down a pot of apricots with fresh squeezed lemons from our tree and added sugar. Hot apricot jam is almost as good as the pairing below.

• apricots halved
• mascarpone
• walnuts - oven roasted with honey and kosher salt
• honey
• basil
• balsalmic - reduced to a syrup

1. bake the apricots at 350 until juicy but not mushy
2. fill with a dollop of mascarpone - let cool enough that the mascarpone doesn't melt
3. top with roasted walnut
4. drizzle balsalmic reduction 
5. top with fresh basil chiffonade

alphabet cupcake toppers

Free downloadable PDF for an alphabet party

I used these as cupcake toppers by cutting out the circles with a circle punch and gluing to a toothpick.


alphabet cupcake topper

campfire cobbler

Alivia is at girlscout daycamp this week. Yesterday the girls made their own lunch which included a peach cobbler cooked over the fire. Alivia has agreed to make this for our family camping trip. Here's the easy recipe if you want to try it out for your own camping trip.

girl scout campfire cobbler

• canned peaches
• cinamon sugar
• bisquick 
• milk
• butter

1. make bisquick batter with milk then set aside
2. Sprinkle the bottom of your pan with cinamon sugar                                                             (according to my daughter as much as you like)
3. lay peaches on top
4. spoon batter over peaches
5. place a few butter cubes on top of the batter
6. cook over the fire

The girls made homemade vanilla ice-cream to top their cobblers!

honest abe

Today my daughter did a biography report on Abraham Lincoln. She got a huge laugh out of the class when she walked up in the hat and beard. They all loved the really tall hat! The top hat project was inspired by Sue Astroth's book, Super-Simple Creative Costumes. I used fast2fuse heavyweight and black felt. I wanted to make sure that it fit Alivia's head perfectly so that it wouldn't fall off during her speech. I measured her head and found a paper plate that had just about the right circumference so I just trimmed a little off and it was perfect. The beard is stuffed fleece and tied around her head with embroidery thread. Alivia asked if she could be Abraham Lincoln for Halloween. 
Score . . . one costume down 2 to go.

family:outing solar eclipse

I went with my family to a quiet little beach cove out in Point Reyes called Chicken Ranch Beach. 


We had a lovely family BBQ. 
At home, we marinated chicken, prepared salad, cooked rice and sliced fruit. 
At the beach, there wasn't much to do. The rice was still warm, the chicken strips were defrosting and marinating in BBQ, Apricot jam and dijon mustard sauce. After my husband barbecued, I plated the warm half white, half brown rice with chicken strips hot off the BBQ and a mixed green salad combined with pomegranate infused cranberries and almonds topped with poppyseed dressing and sprinkled with Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese. 


A side note about the cheese: Besides it being a fantastic farmstead cheese, the cows are raised on our family's ranch so it's extra special to us. As for the salad, I just put all our ingredients for the salad in a bag, shook, then plated and we were all set for a fancy beach dinner.


The beach is sheltered so that it wasn't too windy and the kids were able to play in about ankle deep waves while dad bar-b-qued. This beach was also the perfect location for viewing the solar eclipse; the first annular eclipse since 1994. We look forward to seeing the "Ring of Fire" again in 2023. My daughter asked if we'd save our viewer but I think we'll probably make a new one.


We made the viewer at home and brought it with us. Everybody at the beach was interested to see the partial solar eclipse so it was fun to share with other people.

Simple Solar Eclipse Pin Hole Viewer

• 2 card board sheets
• duct tape
• small square of foil
• push pin
• white paper

1. cut 2 large sheets of cardboard
2. tape a sheet of paper on one
3. cut a square in the other cardboard
4. tape tin foil over the square
5. push pin through foil to make a pin hole

You now have a viewer.  It was simple to make and worked perfectly!

magical splatter paint butterflies

For mother's day I woke up to an amazing orchid display. My husband saw it and thought of me because of the hand-painted butterflies. Of course I looked at it and was amazed but then immediately thought of an art project that I did with my daughter's 3rd grade class. They were learning about Jackson Pollock and had the opportunity to try out splatter painting. It was really fun but wouldn't it be magical to decorate the classroom with butterflies cut out of their splatter paints. Maybe I'll suggest it for my son's class when he's in 3rd grade.

my mustache

The girls LOVE the mustache.


I thought my young girl scouts might think it funny to have little mustache pins. So I made a little template for them to cut and make into a swaps. My daughter brought her mustache pins to a huge event celebrating 100 anniversary of girl scouts. She exchanged her mustache with an older girl who then calls all her friends over to see her new little friend. The big girl hugs my little girl and tells her I'll never forget you and takes a picture with her. I wish I had the picture because the story is so funny and my daughter was so proud that this big girl was so impressed with her. I do have a picture of the mustache though and I have a free little template for you. enjoy.

Rainbow Unicorn Swap

Remembering back when I was 10, I loved unicorns and rainbows. So I designed a fun little unicorn with rainbow ribbons for my girl scout troop. The girls are going to a huge event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of girl scouts. All the girls will have cute little things that they made to trade with other girls called, "swaps". My troop will have the unicorns and a couple other swaps. The girls are so excited for this and can't wait to see what other girls made. 


For pattern go to craftsy

Sue's Crock pot Chili Chicken Tortilla

         yumminess in a pot. Thank you Sue.

• package of fresh corn tortillas (i use them whole or you can tear....)
• can cream of chicken soup
• can of mild chopped chilis 
• cooked chicken 
• 2C shredded cheese
• 1 cup of milk

Then start layering the ingredients in your crockpot....I try to end with tortillas/cheese on top.

Pour milk over top

cook on low for about 2 hours....

If you want to do in the oven....just bake in a casserole dish for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees just till everything is hot 

mango salsa

A sweet and savory recipe from my mom.

• mango
• avocado
• can rinsed black beans
• cilantro diced
• red onion diced
• olive oil
• apple cider vinegar
• salt/pepper
• a little onion powder