Spinach and mushroom calzones

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My husband is working from home today - so I thought instead of making these for dinner....I would make us a nice lunch, that we can actually sit down and enjoy.

I am not sure how things are at your house...but around here..(since having kids) rarely do we have a peaceful meal, and I can't even tell you the last time I ate something that was hot!

So, here it is.  My plan for dinner, which ended up being a delicious lunch.

First, I have to tell you.  I LOVE to cook, but I am a horrible recipe-giver-outer.

It isn't because I want to keep them a secret, it simply is because I almost always use a recipe as 'inspiration' and then end up doing my own thing.  It just goes against the grain for me to not jazz stuff up and add a little Jacki-flair to it.

SO - that being said...I don't have measurments for you with this recipe.  I did take pictures, so you can have a visual.  Hopefully that will work :)

You can use any ingredients that you like for this..feel free to use this as YOUR inspiration!

Gather your ingredients:

Fresh Spinach

Garlic

Portobello mushrooms

pizza or marinara sauce

cheese of your choice (I used shredded mozzarella)

1 can refrigerated pizza dough

(not pictured)

half an onion

parmasean cheese

Italian bread seasoning grinder

Grab a cookie sheet and grease it...or line it with parchment paper.

I prefer to use parchment paper because it saves your pan and makes for easy clean up.

pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.

Open up your dough.

I am such a wimp when it comes to this.  I always hold it as far away as I can with one eye closed when opening these types of cans.  It always pops before i expect it to, and it scares me.  Dumb, I know.

Anyway, spread your dough out on the pan.  You are going to cut it into 4 rectangles (about 6x5).

I used a pizza cutter - I am sure a knife would work just fine.

this next step is optional.  I like to cook with a lot of flavor.

Over the years I have used several brands of Italian bread dipping seasoning to cook with.

I am pretty sure that I have never used it with olive oil and dipped bread in it...BUT it is the best to use in sauces, pizza crusts, pasta...just about anything.

I can't be sure, but I think that I purchased this at Costco.

it is wonderful :)

I grinded a little over the pizza crust to give it a little flavor.

Next - shop some onion.

I chopped up about half of an onion.

If you don't like onion - leave it out.  If you love it - use more!

heat up your skillet with a little olive oil.  If you would like to use raw ingredients - you can skip the next couple steps...I am sure it will still be yummy.

when your oil and skillet are hot - add the minced garlic.  I buy mine pre-minced for convenience...and because I use a LOT of garlic when I cook.  Ask my mom.  She is forever telling me I use too much ...  Personally, I don't think there is such a thing as too much garlic!

 Brown your garlic...keep it moving in the the skillet to prevent from burning.  Kind of like you are making scrambled eggs :)  Browning it will open up the flavors..and make your house smell wonderful. :)

I had to take a break here and smooch Mr. Serious.

He is one tasty lil man!

I diced up the portobello mushroom and added it and the onion to the skilled and sauteed

all of it together for about 3-4 minutes on med/high heat.  Just until the onions were starting to get clearish.

spoon some sauce onto the dough.  I kept it in the middle since i was folding the corners in.

Next you are going to put on your ingredients.

on top of the sauce - add your cheese.  I think I used a couple tablespoons of cheese on each.

I tore the spinach up to make it easier to pack onto the dough.

Place the spinach on top of these cheese and then spoon the mushroom/garlic/onion mixture on top.

Fold opposite corners together and pinch the dough to seal.

Repeat this step for the other corners.

I sprinkled some parm cheese on top before putting them in the oven...but you don't have to.

Bake at 425 for about 12-14 minutes.

The crust will be golden brown when ready and look something like this.

YUM!  They were just as delicious as they look!

Let me know if you give this a try..or what variations you made.

Have a great day!

Jacki

Refrigerator Door Water Tray Gunk Cleaning Trick

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Okay - so this post has not a thing to do about embroidery.  Since having the baby, and being able to move around  - I am noticing all the things that fell apart in my house while I was preggo and on bed rest.  Pair delayed nesting, a horrific onset of adult ADD, with insomnia..and you have me cleaning the water tray in the fridge at 2 am and taking pictures with my phone for a blog post.  Yup... that is just how it is going to be folks.  Random posts with poorly lit, mediocre quality photos.   Hope you love it!

If you have a fridge with a water or ice dispenser...then I am sure you have this little tray.  Yours may be glistening and squeaky clean.  Mine looked like this AFTER running through the dishwasher:

 Nice, huh?  Not so much.  SO - at 2 am - I decide this is something that had to be taken care of immediately.  I took pictures of the experience to share with you.

Step 1.  Look at it about 100 times and say to yourself "I need to clean that thing...it is disgusting."

Step 2.  Finally run it through the dishwasher hoping it will get it clean, but know that it really isn't going to do a darn thing.

Step 3.  Confirm the fact that it still looks disgusting and go to your computer and google how to clean it.  That may be how you ended up here!  

Step 4.  Go to your pantry and whip out the white vinegar.  I am sure you have some.  I have 3 bottles.  Why?  Because every year around Easter time I buy a bottle for Easter eggs because I can't remember if I still have any from the year before.  I need to remind myself when I try to buy it next year that I SURE DO have white vinegar..I have enough for the entire neighborhood to dye eggs next year.

Step 5: Pour enough vinegar to fill all the groves of the tray.  I forgot to take a picture of this step - but I am sure you can figure that one out :)

Step 6.  Let it soak for a few minutes.  It really doesn't take long...I think I let mine site for 3 (maybe less, I was anxious to see if this really worked).

Step 7.  Grab a sponge or an old toothbrush.  I keep an old toothbrush in my kitchen, and another one in my laundry room.  They are fantastic to have around...you know, in the middle of the night when you need to scrub the grooves of a tray.  Put a little dish soap on it and scrub away.  I didn't have to put much elbow grease into this at all - just a light scrub.

Step 8. Run it under the faucet a little to rinse off the soap.

VIOLA!  Your water tray is clean!

Ahhh... I feel much better now :)  Easy Peasy.

Happy Scrubbing!

~Jacki~

Sunday Night Sweets

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White Chocolate Cranberry Almond cookies

Don't ask me why but, every Sunday night once I get my kids into bed, I feel like eating baked goods.  Maybe it's my sub-conscience gearing up for another week or trying to reward me for all the hard work I've done the week before. Whatever the case, I have an overwhelming feeling that I need to bake.  Tonight I debated for an hour trying to convince myself to eat a salad instead...clearly the salad lost.  I did decide to go "healthy" with my choice and made cookies that have both fruit and nuts.  lol 

They actually turned out pretty yummy, for a non-chocolate treat, so I decided to share the recipe.  If you are OCD when it comes to directions then you may hate me and my directions.  I like to cut corners.  Anything that saves me time/work and doesn't sacrifice taste, I'm all about it.  Less dishes, less mess, more time to enjoy my treats.  :)

Ingredients:

3/4C butter

1/4C sugar

1C brown sugar

1T. Vanilla

1egg + 1egg yolk

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2C (plus 1T.) flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

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1C white choc. chips

1C dried cranberries

1/2 C slivered almonds OR macadamia nuts

Pre-Heat oven to 325

1) Cream together first section of ingredients in a large bowl. 

(I usually throw my butter in the bowl first and microwave it until its half soft and half melted, then I add the sugars, vanilla and eggs)

2) In the same bowl sprinkle your 2C plus 1T. of flower over the creamed sugars completely covering it. In your dirty 1C measuring cup,  mix your soda and salt together then sprinkle it evenly over your flour.  Once you have all your dry ingredients covering your creamed sugar mix thoroughly.

3) Add your white chocolate chips, cranberries and nuts

4) Place one inch balls of dough 1-2 in. apart on your cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 15 min

5) Once your cookies are done, leave them on the cookie sheet until they have set.  (about 3 minutes)

I like to cool my cookies on a double layer of paper towels but, you can use a rack if you like. :)

My pictures may not be that great because it's midnight so the lighting is horrible but, the cookies sure do taste good.  They will be even better for breakfast!! or the 7 times I'm going to get up in the night to nurse the baby.  lol

~DeLynne

Order in the Sewing Room!!

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A Beautiful New Sewing Room

(for super cheap)

For the past 7 years I have been operating my sewing business from my ever so spacious and extremely visible, living room.  I selected a corner of the room that I would set up my sewing/embroidery machine on a fold out butterfly style table.  I kept my notions in Tupperware bins that originally had lids but, after 7 years I couldn't close the lids, let alone find them.  My fabric and ribbons I kept in my garage and my ironing board in my coat closet.  It's been oh, so cozy.  After having my fourth child recently I have been trying desperately to create some sort of order somewhere, anywhere in my life.  Jacki (who also just had a baby) and I both missed the nesting stage because we were both on strict bed rest and unable to do ANYTHING.  She went crazy on her house a few weeks ago with the label maker and She thinks this is our bodies way of postpartum "nesting"  lol.  I really just was so tired of sewing in such an nonfunctional space, I had had enough.  I am not necessarily a cheap person but, I do think I am frugal so I didn't want to spend a ton of money but I wanted it to be beautiful, of coarse.  I have had a lot of thinking time over the past few months to plan out how I would get my desired look as inexpensively as possible.

I started by making space for my new sewing room....

Then, I went SHOPPING :)

I decided how many shelving units I wanted and where I wanted to place them.  I purchased 2 five shelve bookcases ($28.97) and 3 three shelve book cases ($14.97) from Walmart.  They are super cheap there and fairly easy to assemble (if you have eyes and can follow picture directions as there are no words). hahaha

I also purchased wide mouth mason jars in 2 different sizes. (quart size and pint size) They come in packs of 12 and are between $8-12 per package.  I then purchased 3 larger Gallon size lidded jars on the Tupperware isle that were $4.50ea.

Next I bought boards to roll my fabric onto.  I actually invested a little more money in this because I wanted something REALLY sturdy that wasn't going to bend over time with the weight of the fabric.  I also wanted something that came in different sizes so I could put larger cuts of fabric on larger boards.  They sell canvas panels in many sizes for painting in 3 packs that I really, really love for this however, they are a tiny bit pricey. You can go cheaper and cut your own from the hard foam presentation board (sold on the poster board isle) or you can use comic book boards (limited size options but SUPER cheap)  I spent around $100 on boards (using a combination of canvas panels and cut foam board) for my fabric but, you could spend as little as $10 if you use comic book boards.  

For my excessive ribbon supply I bought spring tension rods from the curtain rod isle.  They were $1.98ea and I purchased 9 of them.  I also bought 10 folding bins from K-mart for $4ea ($40). They fit perfectly onto the shelves. This puts the grand total for my entirely new sewing room at $293.35.

As soon as I got home, I assembled my shelves.  It took me about 3 hours to put the 5 sets of shelves together (while I was watching The Voice and Smash, so I wasn't totally paying attention to what I was doing)  lol.  I figured it would only take me a few hours to fill the shelves up.  BOY WAS I WRONG!!  I guess I didn't realize exactly how much sewing junk I had accumulated over the past 7 years.  It took me an entire day just to sort through my notions.  

I organized my rolls of ribbon according to color then slid them onto the curtain rods.  I fit 4 rods onto two different shelves.  Just popped them right in, Easy Peasy~

Then I filled up the jars with all of my notions.

It was then time for the fabric.  I first separated it according to quantity.  Fabrics that had several yards,  more than a 1/4 yard, less than 1/4 yard and scraps.  I rolled the larger quantities onto 11x14" panels and the smaller quantities onto 8x10" panels.  I put the scraps into a bin.

 I used different sized office clips to hold my fabric onto my boards.  If there was a really large quantity on one board, I just clipped the fabric to itself at the bottom instead of over the entire end. You could just use straight pins like at the fabric store but, I have 4 little children and my oldest has spina bifida and can not feel her feet so I try extremely hard not to misplace any pins onto my carpet. I thought office clips were a lot safer for me and worked really well.

I arranged the rolled panels onto the shelves according to color for easy finding later.

For my work station I used a 6ft. folding table and set it up on top of my shorter shelves. I have another folding table that I can pull out for extra work space if needed.  It's a 5ft. table that folds in half and stores perfectly behind the front facing bookshelf (under the visible table)

I already had these but they can also be purchased at Walmart for between $20-30.

There you have it.  One brand new beautiful work space.

Now, I guess we better get some new designs going.  :) 

~DeLynne

The Preemie Project

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HOW TO: A step by step guide on Raw Edge Applique using your Embroidery Machine ~

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This is a step by step tutorial on how to do Raw Edge Applique.  We love to use decorative stitches instead of the usual satin stitch on a lot of our designs. This tutorial will show you how to pre treat your fabric  and give you, our opinion of, the best way to enhance your raw edge design.

 Step 1:  pre-treat your fabric using a sew-able iron on adhesive.

We like Therm O Web's, "Heat n Bond LITE" 

Place your fabric, pattern side up, onto the rough side of the iron on adhesive.

Using a warm iron, adhere the adhesive to your fabric.

Step 2:  Hoop your stabilizer and item that you are going to applique

Step 3:  Place your hoop in your machine and stitch out the placement stitch of your design.  (some digitizers do not offer a placement stitch so if your design does not have a placement stitch you would skip this step)

Step 4:  Peel the paper backing from the back of your fabric.

Step 5:  Place the treated fabric over the stitch area. Make sure there is at least a 1/2 inch minimum overlap on all sides before stitching.  Then stitch out the decorative stitching. (this example has a triple stitch instead of the usual satin stitch finish)

Step 6:  Using a sharp pair of embroidery scissors, trim around the edge of your applique.

If the design allows, leave a 1/4" edge to enhance the decorative stitching. Leaving this edge also makes your raw edge applique more secure and helps prevent fraying.

If your design has more than one layer repeat the steps again to achieve the same effect.

Don't forget to pre-treat your fabric for every layer of raw edge applique.

Once your entire design is finished you can run a warm iron over the entire design to adhere it to your item if desired.

Most of our Shabby Sweet Collection has a raw edge as do several of our newest applique Christmas phrases.

What a fun way to applique!!  

Guest Blogger: Robin Ebaugh of Soggy Bottom Baby Duds~

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It's been a minute or two since we had a guest blogger.  It is not because we haven't received hundreds of entries but, rather because life has gotten the best of us lately.  So we apologize for not sharing sooner.


A few weeks ago we received an email from Robin and these absolutely georgous and ingenius projects that she made using a few of our embroidery patterns.  Not only did we like what she had done we loved these projects enough to feature her on our blog!!!


This is the letter we recieved from Robin:

I've made some really cute things using your Simply Scalloped Square banner and I thought you might like to see them. The first one is a Christmas name banner with pockets sewn on IN THE HOOP. I'm calling it Better-Than-a-Stocking Banner, because the recipient can "open" one pocket each day. I also inserted a Santa face (in the center of the O). I like the Santa and will probably continue to use him!

Isn't this an adorable idea?  We absolutely love it!!!

The second item I'm using the Simply Scalloped Square banner for is kiddie hot pads. I'm making play oven mitts and hot pads to go with a friend's play food (we're doing a craft show).  

I'm embroidering the design on the hot pad first, then backing it with another piece of felt and embroidering them together, so the back looks nice and neat.

Robin Ebaugh
Soggy Bottoms Baby Duds

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Thank you so much Robin for thinking out of the box and for sharing your amazing talent with all of us~!!  You can keep up with Robin on her blog http://soggybottomsbabyduds.blogspot.com/

You can also buy her fun stitched items in her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/SoggyBottomsBabyDuds




We love to see what you have been up to.  Keep the entries coming.  Guest blogger entries can be sent to delynne@embroitique.com Please use the word GUEST BLOGGER in the subject line