I Played It Again

I'm so excited that I got to contribute (in a small way) to  The Daily Digi.  They have a feature every month called Play It Again where they display several layouts with the exact same photos and journaling, but scrapped by different people.  You get to see all the different creative paths that can be taken with the same photos.

I've been a fan of the Play It Again posts ever since they started, so when I saw an opportunity to participate (thanks to my guest CT spot at The LilyPad), I jumped at the chance.  And to be completely honest, it had not escaped my attention that Katie describes the Play It Again contributors as "some of the best scrappers in digi land." That might have had some bearing on my enthusiasm to participate. Just a little, maybe. Here is the layout I created:

Froggy's Cardstock by Gina Miller; Plaid Addict 3 by Rachel Young;
Paint Swatch Templates and Vintage Vogue Elements by Sahlin Studio;
Summer Minimalist by Fruitloop Sally; Sprinkles V3 by Valorie Wibbens
Photoactions by My Four Hens Photography

I really love this layout. I've considered reusing it for some of my own photos! I've been a little interested lately in placing titles and elements in somewhat random spots on my design, and I did a little of that here ... It can create "trapped white space," which is supposed to be a no-no, but the rebel in me tries to see what I can do. Thanks for looking!

Mini Quiches, New Layouts - August 24, 2011

A while ago I wrote about my new technique of making large meals, and then freezing a portion to keep as an easy meal in a few weeks, instead of eating leftovers in a few days.  One of our favorite meals is a broccoli & cauliflower quiche.  It's delicious, but the leftovers usually don't get eaten, which is a real shame because the recipe makes a lot of filling:  it fills a big 10 inch deep-dish pie plate.

So, I thought it would be great if I could work out a better end for this quiche by freezing it in small portions before the final cooking step.  It worked!   Instead of making one large quiche, I can make 6 small ones.  I use 5-inch pie tins.  I fill them with crust then spread the filling between them all, and then slip 4 of the pies, uncooked, into the freezer.  I cook the other two right away for dinner that night.  Here's a picture:

How do the frozen ones taste?  Pretty darn good.  I would have to say that they are not quite as awesome as the freshly baked ones, but the difference is minimal.  Since I can make 6 (possibly even 7) small pies out of this recipe, that means I can get THREE meals out of this one!  ... Until Miller starts eating quiche.  But even then, I'll still get two meals out of one prep.

Here is my recipe.

To fill the 6 small pie plates, I use 1.5X the recipe for a single pie crust.

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 4 Cups total broccoli & cauliflower (2 cups each), chopped small
• 3-4 green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 oz. cheddar cheese (1/2 of a block)
• 6 oz. mozzarella cheese (1/2 of a block)
• 4 eggs, beaten well
• 1 Cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or less)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Melt butter in a pot then cook the veggies in it until soft-ish, stirring once in a while.  While that is going ... Shred the cheese. Beat the eggs and then add to them the milk, salt and pepper and mix well.  Get the pie crusts all ready. (I would have made the crust earlier and just need to roll them out.)  By now the veggies are ready, so distribute them among the pies (about 1/3 Cup each), then top with cheese, then pour on the egg mixture (about 1/3 C each). Bake at 425 for about 25-30 minutes.

The mozzarella cheese in this recipe really is good.  When I first found the recipe, I thought it was weird to have mozzarella cheese in it, so I substituted cheddar.  But then one day I tried a mix of both, and discovered that the firmness and chewy-ness of the mozzarella was really quite nice.  The original recipe also had more milk, and I found that the filling was often too wet.  I've made enough substitutions that I think I can call this recipe my own.  It's one of our favorites.

Here are some more layouts. This first one is about a trip to a local amusement park with  my mom's group. The funny thing about this day was Miller's outfit. He couldn't let me be prettier than him, so we were both wearing necklaces when we left the house.  Plus, he had on some REALLY baggy pants.

Postage Frames by Amy Martin
Boy, Oh Boy by Designs by Lili and Leora Sanford

Just a little summary of the preschool summer camp Miller went to.

Froggys Cardstock and Stitched Alpha by Gina Miller
Stand Tall Alpha by C.D. Muckosky; Template freebie by Miss Tiina

This is a Project: Love, Me page about a relaxing activity I would like to start doing: gardening.

Sketched Frames by Scrapping with Liz; Froggys Cardstock by Gina Miller
Vingtage Vogue Elements by Sahlin Studio; Unique by Designs by Anita

That's all for now! I'm itching to organize some templates while Miller and the scientist are at the park.

New Layouts August 19, 2011

I haven't been making a lot of pages, although the length of this post may indicate otherwise. In reality, I'm behind getting them up here on the blog, so they have piled up. What have I been doing instead of scrapping? Giving myself a little creative break, doing some file organization (photo actions), trying to spend more time playing with Miller. I did open up my Wacom Tablet that I got for Christmas and plugged it in to the computer. I think it will be fun, although Miller has actually used it more than I have so far!!

This first layout has pictures from the State Fair. It explains why Miller was begging to be carried so much - he literally had handfuls of corn kernels in his shoes and never thought to dump them out!

Sunday Afternoon Elements by Kelly Schmidt; Ten Things Papers by
Baers Garten; Color Swatch Templates by Sahlin Studio

This is a little spider that we found while he/she was making his/her web. It was interesting to watch it go round and round so fast. I kept calling it a "he," and every time the scientist would say, "I'm pretty sure it's a she." And I just stood there wondering why that mattered so much.

Ten Things Elements by Baers Garten; Sunday Afternoon Elements by
Kelly Schnmidt; Pumpernickel by Valorie Wibbens; Painty Frames by Amy
Wolff; Sewing Table by Gina Miller Designs; The Wolff by Heather Hess

This is just a picture of Miller when we were visiting my mom.

Snapshots by Karen Lewis Designz

This is my ode to templates. It was inspired by a layout I saw in a gallery, and the scrapper had left the default journaling guides on when she saved for web (instead of toggling on her actual journaling layer). So the layout had these columns of text saying "journal here ... journal here." But I thought it was a neat idea for celebrating templates, which I really like to use. So I left the title as "title," and one of the journaling boxes has the pre-typed text from the template, although the font I chose probably makes it hard to read.

Recyclables IV by Scrapping with Liz; The Everyday Papers by
Valorie Wibbens; Your Day Solids by Rachel Young Designs;
Free Spirit Alpha by CD Muckosky

Just me and Miller being silly.

One Fine Day by Amy Wolff and Valorie Wibbens; Simple Journalers 1 by
Gina Miller; Photography Frame by Joanne Brisebois

A Project: Love, Me page about how I relax.

Froggy's Cardstock by Gina Miller Designs; ever+always by Lauren
Reid and Micheline Martin; June Bliss Templates by Amy Martin

I actually have more, but I figure this is long enough already. Hopefully I'll get them up in just a couple days.

Scrapped Out!

I am scrapped out!!  I've been scrapping so much these last couple of months, with my guest spot at the Lilypad (which isn't quite over yet) and my Digichick spot, which I'm sad to say I have given up.  There are a lot of exciting things happening at The Digichick right now, which also means more activities for the creative team.  It just didn't fit in with my creative level and my schedule right now, so I had to say good bye.  :(

Here are some layouts I've done, though.  I can't quite shake this minimal thing I've got going.  This first page is kinda about Miller's little summer camp that he went to and kinda about the aftermath of getting his blood taken.

Kidding Around by Kelly Schmidt designs; Template Pack 16 by Kaye
Winiecki; Spring Sprocket Cardstock by Gina Miller Designs

This is one where I had a photo that I liked, but no story to go with it ... But now it's been a few months, so I just tacked on a different story! It still relates to the pirate costume, though. Miller comes up with these games where I'm supposed to say certain lines ... and when we get to the end, then we start again at the beginning and go through the scenario yet another time.  This game is about mistaken identity.

Daffodil templates by zinnias and swallowtails
Yoho Yoho by Valorie Wibbens and Emily Merritt

This one has pictures from when we went to the State Fair.  But the little story alludes to the fact that without James and Miller I would probably never leave my house.  Well, not quite, but I am a real home body.  The picture of me in the layout is one that Miller took - that's why it's all blurry and my face is cut off.  But on a whim I threw it onto the layout, and I liked how it looked.

Family Ties and You Make Me Smile by eNKay Design
Press Plate no. 30 template by Paislee Press

And a couple more Project: Love, Me pages. This first one was about celebrating an event that would not usually be celebrated. I chose to write about my graduate school career that ended with only a Masters degree, not a Ph.D.

An Afternoon at the Park elements by Sherwood Studio;Yin and Yang
Template Collab by Scrapping with Liz and Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs
Spring Sprocket Cardstock by Gina Miller Designs

The theme for July was celebrations/traditions. I wrote about a tradition I would like to instate/continue for my family: camping at the coast every summer, like my husband did when he was little.

An Afternoon at the Park elements by Sherwood Studio;Yin and Yang
Template Collab by Scrapping with Liz and Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs
Spring Sprocket Cardstock by Gina Miller Designs

Thanks for stopping by. I know I mentioned up above about being scrapped out. I'll still have some new layouts to share soon, but after my Lilipad gig is up, I'm planning to take a nice long scrapping break.