Cooks Country Atlanta Brisket with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Parchment paper provides a nonreactive barrier between the cola-based braising liquid and the aluminum foil.

INGREDIENTS

             1 (3 1/2-pound) beef brisket, flat cut, fat trimmed to 1/4 inch

                  Salt and pepper

        4 teaspoons vegetable oil

              1 pound onions, halved and sliced to 1/2 inch think

              2 cups of cola

        1 1/2 cups ketchup

              4 teaspoons onion powder

              2 teaspoons packed dark brown sugar

              1 teaspoon garlic powder

              1 teaspoon dried thyme

• INSTRUCTIONS

1. Using fork, poke holes all over brisket. Rub entire surface of brisket with 1 tablespoon salt. Wrap brisket in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 or up to 24 hours.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Pat brisket dry with paper towels and season with pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place brisket fat side down in skillet; weigh down brisket with heavy Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes. Remove Dutch oven, flip brisket, and replace Dutch oven on top of brisket; cook on second side until well browned, about 4 minutes longer. Transfer brisket to plate.

3. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in now-empty skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer onions to 13 by 9-inch baking dish and spread into even layer.

4. Combine cola, ketchup, onion powder, sugar, garlic powder, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper in bowl. Place brisket fat side up on top of onions and pour cola ­mixture over brisket. Place parchment paper over ­brisket and cover dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until tender and fork easily slips in and out of meat, 3½ to 4 hours. Let brisket rest in liquid, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

5. Transfer brisket to carving board. Skim any fat from top of sauce with large spoon. Slice brisket against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices and return to baking dish. Serve brisket with sauce.

TO MAKE AHEAD: Follow recipe through step 4. Allow brisket to cool in sauce, cover, and refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours. To serve, slice brisket, return to sauce, and cover with parchment paper. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and cook in 350-degree oven until heated through, about 1 hour.

INGREDIENTS

       1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes

           1/4 cup milk

           1/2 cup buttermilk

           1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

              4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

                  Kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon of salt to a boil. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and cut them into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Add them to the boiling water and bring the water back to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes fall apart easily when pierced with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan, making sure it doesn't boil. Set aside until the potatoes are done.

3. As soon as the potatoes are tender, drain them in a colander. Press the potatoes through a ricer to create a creamy consistency without over mashing.  As soon as the potatoes are mashed, stir in the hot milk mixture with a whisk or rubber spatula. Add enough buttermilk to make the potatoes creamy. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and the pepper, and serve hot. To keep the potatoes warm, place the bowl over a pan of simmering water for up to 30 minutes. You can add a little extra hot milk to keep them creamy.

Lemon Thyme Olive Oil Cakes with Sugary Glaze

Lemon Thyme Olive Oil Cakes with Sugary Glaze

Inspired by:Tasty Kitchen

I have made these tasty cakes so many times now, I could do it in my sleep. My favorite part about this recipe is making the entire thing in my food processor. It makes the clean up super easy. If you don't have thyme available, you can use poppy seeds, leave them plain, or even add fresh crushed fruit.

Ingredients:

1-1/3 Cup Sugar

2 Tbsp Grated Lemon Zest

2 Whole eggs

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

2/3 Cup Whole Milk

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking powder

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Minced Fresh Thyme

Glaze:

1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp milk

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or more as needed

Preheat oven to 350

Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. I do not not recommend just spraying muffin tin as cakes are likely to stick. In food processor, pulse sugar and lemon zest until combined. Add eggs one at a time , then slowly add olive oil and milk pulsing until emulsified and batter is thin. Do not over mix batter or it will become too fluffy.

In small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and thyme. Add in small batches to blender and pulse lightly just until combined. Pour batter into muffin tin and bake 20 mins depending on oven.

For glaze, whisk all 4 ingredients until smooth. When muffins are done, place on cooling rack over a baking sheet and drizzle or dunk cakes into glaze to coat. Allow to cool and store in container or plastic zip bags.

Creamy Tomato Bisque with Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese

Creamy Tomato Bisque with Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese

Inspired by: Food Wishes

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Celery
1 Large Onion diced
3 Garlic Cloves
28 oz of Canned Tomato (If using home canned tomato increase sugar)
Or 3 1/2 Cups crushed tomato(Recommended: San Marzano)
1 Quart Chicken Broth in addition we added 1 Quart of home canned tomato Juice and increased ingredients
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
3 tbsp Long Grain Rice*
2 tbsp Sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Optional:
Basil
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
*using rice brings the silky consistency to the soup without having to make a thick rue with flour or add any additional starches.

White Sandwich Bread
Butter
Shredded Smoked Gouda (Boars Head)
Shredded White American (Boars Head)

Special Equipment:
Immersion Blender (Subsitute: Regular Blender)
Electric Griddle ( Subsistute: Frying Pan)

In a large pot or dutch oven heat olive oil. When ready, saute diced onion, celery, and crushed garlic. Once soft, add chicken broth and/or tomato juice, crushed tomatoes and bring to a simmer on high. Add salt, pepper, sugar, cayenne and paprika if using, to taste. Once simmering on high, reduce heat to maintain a low steady simmer. Add rice and simmer for 35-45 minuets stirring occasionally or until rice is soft. At this point, taste to season with salt, pepper, and any additional sugar needed. It is important to taste as you are cooking and adjust seasoning as you go.Because we used the home canned tomatoes the salt and acidity where high and we ended up using several tablespoons of sugar to cut down on the acid.

When rice and vegetables are soft, turn down to low and blend soup in pot with your immersion blender until smooth and silky. If using a blender, allow to cool and gently pour the soup into your regular blender.

At this point, we chose to strain our soup through a fine mesh strainer to remove the additional pulp and skins left behind. We liked this better and felt it was worth the additional step to make an extra smooth and creamy dish. However, this step can be skipped.

Once blended and strained, return to low heat and add heavy cream. Stir until completed combined and taste to adjust any salt or additional sugar needed.


Sammachies:

Heat griddle or pan with melted butter. Shred cheese and make sandwhiches. Grill until melted and brown on the outside. The benefit of using shredded cheese instead of slices, the cheese melts faster and gives you a creamy consistency throughout the sandwich.


Cooking Notes:

If the soup tastes to acidic continue to add cream and sugar on low heat until it reaches your desired taste.

Using fresh tomatoes will require you to either roast or boil and remove skin and seeds. Using high quality canned tomatoes like home canned tomatoes or the San Marzano tomatoes will most likely work better.

To add an additional flavor dimension to your soup, roast the canned tomatoes and vegetables in the oven first with olive oil, salt and garlic for 20 minuets before starting your soup.

This soup can be frozen before adding in the cream.

Chocolate Truffles with Candied Orange Peel

Chocolate Truffles with Candied Orange Peel

Easier then you think...

Ingredients:

16 oz of semi-sweet Bakers Chocolate

3/4 Cups heavy whipping cream

1 tsp of real vanilla extract

4 tbsp of soft butter

1 tsp of strong coffee (optional)

Flavoring...

Use 1/4 cup of your choice of flavoring

Orange Juice

Beer/Alcohol

Coffee

Jams/Jellies

Soft Fresh Fruits

Shell:

To coat my chocolate I used 3 bags of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Flavor Melting Wafers

Other suggestions:

Powder Sugar

Refined Cocoa Powder

Tempered Chocolate

Confectioners Coating

Powdered suger mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg,pumpkin pie spice, or any other combination of spices

Orange Peel

Thinly shaved orange peel, with white part scrapped off

Sugar

Water

To make the inside of the truffle...

Chocolate Ganache

In a food processor, pulverize bakers chocolate until almost a powder. Heat heavy cream on stove top until it just starts to bubble. Turn the food processor on high and slowly pour in the warm whipping cream until mixture runs smooth. Then add butter, vanilla, coffee, and 1/4 cup of flavoring. Mix until smooth and texture is silky.

(The key to a great truffle is the ganache center. If the texture of the truffle is not smooth and silky but comes out rough and grainy, the mixture has broken. To fix this mix the broken ganache with a tablespoon or so of heavy cream the is roughly the same temperature as the ganache until smooth and silky.)

Pour ganache mixture into a clean bowl or dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temperature until firm 4+ hours. You can speed this process up by placing it in the fridge, however, the ganache may take on a grainy texture.

Once your mixture is firm enough to handle you are ready to form it into balls.

I put on clean plastic gloves and used a spoon to scoop the ganache out of the bowl and rolled it quickly between my hands. I made mine on the smaller side and placed the rolled balls onto sprayed parchment paper.

I let mine rest for 20 mins to firm up again before dipping in chocolate.

After several tries with the chocolate coating, I found the best method was to melt small batches in the microwave and as the chocolate starts to harden, add more chocolate wafers to the bowl and reheat. When melting the chocolate over the stove, my ganache center started to melt into the coating which made it hard for the chocolate to harden fully.

Let cool, and EAT! The truffles can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. They are served best at room temperature.

Candied Orange Peel:

Jacques Pepins Candied Orange

Thinly slice your orange peel with a vegetable peeler and scrap off any white that is left. Blanch 2 times by bringing water and orange peel to a boil, drain, and repeat with fresh water. 

Then in a small pan bring about a cup or more of sugar(depending on how much you are making) and water (enough to cover the oranges) to a boil. Allow sugar to crystalize and thicken while the liquid reduces for about 10 mins. When done, roll in sugar and allow to cool. Store in air tight container to keep from hardening.

Note: Before I made these Truffles I watched several you tube videos and read tons of blogs and recipe books before developing my own method. 

No Knead Pretzel Rolls

No Knead Pretzel Rolls

Adapted from Artisain Breads with Steve

Ingredients:

3 C bread flour

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 tbsp sugar

10-1/2 oz water

3 tbsp baking soda

1 egg yolk

1 to 2 tbsp water

Coarse Sea Salt

Instructions:

Whisk the first four dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Once fully incorporate slowly add in the water and mix with the back of a wooden spoon. When the dough becomes difficult to stir, use a spatula to scrap down the sides of the bowl. Wet hands and begin turning and mixing the dough with your hands to form a ball. You will use a kneading motion to mix the bread at this point to smoosh the dough and form a soft ball. Once done, cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit for 8-10 hours.

Once the dough has more then doubled in size...

Scrape dough from bowl onto a clean work surface that has been dusted with flour. Using floured hands, fold the dough onto itself and form a ball and lightly knead the dough a couple of times. 

At this point you will need to decide how many and how large you would like your rolls to be. You cant make 6 sandwich rolls about the size of hamburger buns. Or, 12 small dinner sized rolls. I chose to make 6 roll

Cut your dough ball in half, and form each half into a ball. Then cut each half into 3 parts again forming each part into ball. 

Once your dough balls are rolled, leave to proof on the floured surface covered with a towel or plastic wrap for half an hour. 

When the rolls slightly increased in size, about 30 mins later...

Position your oven rack to the lower part of the oven. If using a baking stone, place in oven now to allow it to come to temp as the oven heats up. Preheat oven to 450.

Poaching...

While oven is heating, poach the dough.

Set up cooling wrack over  kitchen towel to catch moistuer after the poaching, and a piece of parchment the size of the baking sheet or stone you will be using.

Bring a skillet with 2 inches of water to a simmer and then add 3 tbsp of baking soda. Next, drop the dough 3 to 4 at a time into the simmering water and poach 30 seconds on each side. Remove when done and place on cooling rack while poaching the next batch of dough.

To make an egg wash use the egg yolk and a few tbsp of water, whisk together.

Transfer rolls to parchment paper and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with course sea salt and score the top of each roll with a knife.

To transfer the rolls onto the hot baking stone I used a flat baking sheet and shimmied them on. You can use a pizza peel or if you chose to not use a baking stone, no preheating of the pan is needed and you can slide them into the oven on the baking sheet of your choice.

Bake for 14-16 mins

The perks of using a baking stone...

Creates even heating and a nice crunchy texture to the bottom on the bread.

Original video in link...

No Knead Pretzel Rolls by Steve

Speculoos Cookie Butter

We made a trip to Nashville last week, which was wonderful and a great city. Anyway, we stopped in at Trader Joe's on our way out and picked up many wonderful things including Speculoos cookie butter. Oh my, it is sooooo good. I had to share this with you, because if you ever get the chance to go to TJ's, you MUST buy a bottle of this goodness.

If you do not already know what Trader Joe's is , it is a specialty grocery store that sells everything for WAY less. 80% of the store is private labeled which I am sure helps with cost cuts. 

Oh and that goodness up there...have you ever had those cookies on a Delta airline flight?(I love those cookies.) Speculoos is the Biscoff cinnamon biscuit cookie. Biscoff took the speculoos and made it into a sugary cinnamon peanut butter consistency. (It does not have any nuts in it.) It can be eaten on anything really. Waffles, pancakes, pretzels, bread, ice cream, anything delicious. I have seen it made into a frosting and put on cake....oh man. Right now I am happy sneaking bits with a spoon.

Some other things to try at TJ. The tomato sauce, chocolate, cheese, pizza dough, curry sauces, marinated mushrooms, and soup. We just had the roasted red pepper and tomato soup for dinner. yum. 

TJ is coming to Knoxville! I hope everyone supports. I know I will.

.:Chewy Gooey Peanut Butter Bars:.

I cleaned out my pantry and found several cans of sweetened condensed milk. I had a little bit of peanut butter, some oatmeal, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Surely there is something delicious I can make out of this, right?

So, I started searching recipes with similar ingredients to get an idea of how long It needed to cook.This is what I came up with.

Stephanie's Chewy Gooey Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup of flour

1 cup of oatmeal

3/4 cups of brown sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 cup cold butter

1/3 cup of chopped walnuts

1/3 chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, and egg in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or you can do what I did and took a wire whisk and used that to mash up my butter. Reserve 1 cup of crump mix and press the rest into the bottom of a baking dish. I used a small dish that was around 8x8 you can also use 9x13 for a thinner bar. 

Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Beat sweet condensed milk, peanut butter and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until well combined. Spread over partially baked crust.

Take the reserved crumbs and mix in salt, walnuts, and chocolate chips and crumble over the top.

Bake for 25-30 minuets until it is nicely brown on top and the mixture looks cooked through.( Does not have  the glossy unbaked look on top. 

Allow to cool for 10 minuets and then cut into bars. 

YUM!

Chewy on the outside, gooey in the middle.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Say hello to my new red best friend....

I got this baby for Christmas and I didn't even ask for her. My husband is awesome and knew what I wanted but wouldn't ask for.

My heart melts every time I walk into the kitchen and see her sitting there all shinny on the counter. If you were one of those people who said "psh, I don't need some fancy kitchen aid stand mixer". I got news for yah, You have no idea what you are missing out on. Just sayin....oh and just to put it out there that I am not cool enough to be one of those people who gets paid to advertise on their blog. I am not that advanced in blogging and kitchen aid has no idea who I am.

Lets get on to these cookies...

Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cream together butter and brown sugar until it starts to become light and fluffy. Then add an egg and whip until well combined. If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Then add vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together  flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Switch to your paddle attachment and then slowly add the flour to the sugar. Mix only for a few seconds until well combined. Then add in oats and chocolate chips also mixing for a few seconds. 

Now, here is the hard part. To make these cookies fluffy and crisp they need to sit in the fridge for half an hour or the freezer for ten to fifteen min. I got my oven to start pre-heating and then stuck them in the freezer and went about cleaning up my mess. Trust me, they will taste better.

I made my cookies large and baked them for about 11 mins. Just until the outside was golden but the middle is still a little under-cooked looking on the top. Let cool for ten min. and then EAT!

YUM!

.:Rolled Pages Mirror:.

This weekend my goal was to start and finish a project. After a night of pinteresting I had a few Idea's of what I wanted to do. I got this idea here.

What you will need:
Hot glue gun
a few old books
small mirror
Card board
lots of time....
a good movie to watch


This will require at least a movie's worth of page rolling. It was worth it to me though because the finished project looks great on my wall.

I bought two books at goodwill. A thick 500 page book that I roughly used 150 pages from as well as a smaller paper back that was old and the pages had turned brown that I used roughly 150 pages from.

Here is an idea of the difference in size between the two. I did that so I could layer them.

I started by cutting a large doughnut out of cardboard. Actually, I cheated by buying the round cardboard pieces that you put cake on, found in the craft section at wal-mart. I cut a whole in the middle that my mirror would fit snugly into. Then I reinforced the mirror by putting a gluing strips of cardboard behind and gluing it to the doughnut. Hope that makes sense :/

Then I cut my pages out.

Then I rotated between rolling and gluing pages around the mirror. This took a few hours. Start with big rolls all the way around to give it volume and then layer with skinny and short pages.

Make sure you lay them thick and evenly or you will have to do like me and go in and add more after you are done to make it look symmetrical all the way around.


I wish I took more pictures as I was layering and gluing. However, my glue gun broke and I had to post pone the project till I used my mother-in-law's glue gun.

It worked out though because I had wonderful company and help as I finished my project. We were really good at rolling pages by the end of the project.

Starting to get to the finish line. At this point, we hung it on the wall and looked to see where we needed to add more. Then, we flipped it over and glued them in. You can see here where I took the small yellow/brown page book and layered it on the top to make the wreath two toned.

I took some pictures after the fact of things I would of liked to know while doing this project:

I understand that rolling pages might be easy. It took me awhile to get it down and I wished that I had had a step-by-step to give me an idea. So I have made one.

                                                                     

                                                                                            

                                                                                                             glue the end .

to make a tighter cone ^

oh, when I went to walmart to get some supplies....I found this goody in the baking section:

That says SNACK SIZE. Perfect for my house hold where I am the only one who eats brownies. Also, perfect for some of you single ladies who want brownies but don't want to eat a whole pan. .92$ by the way. I used a small dish...around 9x6 it suggests an 8x8. whatever...they were delicious.

happy rolling!!!!!

.:my famous beans and rice:.

How does something earn the title "famous"?

In my book I  would say...when lots of people like it and ask you for the recipe. Well, this is a super easy thing to make. It doesn't taste like your typical beans and rice, so people are always shocked when they try it. Its tangy and savory and delicious and makes great left overs and freezes well and and and and and.....

The credit for this goes to my mom. She adapted it off the back of a can of beans. I adapted it from what I

saw her make. I love it.

The amount of ingredients depends on how much you want to make. I love the leftovers and usually make enough for 10 + servings.

Start with some bacon. You can use bacon bits, a few slices, or none at all. Sometimes I use it most of the time I don't because I rarely have bacon on hand. The rest of the ingredients however I keep stocked in my pantry because this meal can be whipped up on a whim.

Some bacon

1 onion chopped

5 garlic cloves chopped

24 oz jar of pace salsa

4 cans of beans ( I mix black and pinto)

half a lime give or take

cilantro( dried or fresh)

Tabasco sauce

salt 

pepper

Rice

butter

chicken stock

water

Before you start the beans....get the rice going. I picked up some tips on how to cook delicious rice from a "Julia's Kitchen Tips" book and adapted it a little bit. Start by sauteing the rice in a little bit of butter to get some flavor in it. I usually make 2 cups of rice for my husband and I( 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of liquid) and will make more rice as we eat more left overs. 

After the rice takes on a bit of color and a nutty smell add your liquid. I use half water and half chicken stock  PLUS two extra tablespoons of water so that my rice is not dry. It will make it nice and fluffy with that little boost of water. Get it boiling with the lid on and let it boil for 7-10 mins(you will see the rice start to absorb the water but at this point there is still about an inch of water on top of the rice). Then turn the heat to low and leave it alone until your meal is finished. Do not open the lid during this point. It will let the steam out. I usually leave mine for ten to fifteen extra mins. Once you are ready to serve up the rice take off the lid and fluff your rice with a fork. YUM. 

If you want to add chicken to your meal then cook up some chicken with a little bit of salt and pepper and set it aside to add it to your beans after they get started. I like to use left overs from a rotisserie chicken.

If you are going to use bacon cook that up real quick, drain the fat leaving just a little in the frying pan  and set the bacon aside. Saute your onions in the same pan you fried your bacon in until they are fragrant and translucent. If you are not using bacon then add a little vegetable oil to a frying pan. When it smokes, throw in your onions and start sauteing.

Add your garlic and cook for 1-2 mins until you start to smell it!

drain the beans and add it to the pan mixture along with the salsa, chopped or dried cilantro, lime juice,chicken, bacon, and salt and pepper. Allow it to cook on medium bubbling nicely, for about 20 mins or more. Your mouth will start to water at this point. When it smells ready or you just can't take it any more throw in a few dashes of Tabasco sauce and dish yourself up some rice and beans.

I hope this works for you. I change it all the time adding things or NOT adding things when I am out of stuff. Really what makes this good is the tanginess that the salsa and lime bring to it as well as the earthiness of the cilantro.

Happy Cooking!

p.s. K-Dat, call me if you have any questions. Besides I would love to hear your voice.

POST UPDATE:

Made this dish the other night and added a fried egg and avacado.... DELICIOUS.

.:news paper mache birds wall art:.& .:rosemary lemon chicken:.

.:hello:. friends... today was a rainy day and I did some crafts AND made a delicious dinner. Two of my most favorite things to do. First off I am going to show you how to make some pretty wall art. Very easy to do, just takes a little patients, wal-mart, and a printer! Here we go.

Supplies:
two canvas's of what ever size you would like
newspaper
mod podge
water
brushes
permanent marker
black piant
scissors
spray paint

Start by....

Prepping your canvas.

I just sprayed half hazardously all over. no direction. just a few squirts. you will cover most of it up anyway. You could just splatter or paint if you do not have spray paint. However, spray paint is CHEAP and fun to work with. Keep that in mind(: I ended up spray painting our patio. Because, I am an air head and really didn't think about what I was doing...oops.

Next...let it dry and in the mean time start ripping up your paper. The original project used an old book. I do not have an old book to rip up. I did however have newspaper. It also did not use ANY color. I love color so came up with this idea.

now its time for MOD PODGE.If you have never used this, then you are seriously missing out.

water, sponge brush,mod podge,newspaper, birds(we will get to that)

Put some mod on your sponge brush and brush it onto your paper. 

Then dip your brush in water and brush it over the paper on the canvas.

I have not perfected the method of application. You can also put Mod onto the canvas and then stick wet paper onto and brush it smooth. Mod podge is water based...so it works well with water for sticking to things.

All done. Now it needs to dry. In the mean time this is what I did.

"googled" small birds and found the ones I liked. I wanted a side few and a front few. Then I opened then in paint shop and either shrunk them or enlarged them so they would be the right size. Then I printed them in "grey scale" so I wouldn't waste color. Cut them out carefully and WAIT!

Put up and decorated my tree. That little monster is under the tree waiting for me to leave so he can eat the balls hanging from it.

Then I made dinner. This was DELICIOUS.

Rosemary Lemon Chicken. Recipe is at the end.

Then we ATE it and watched X-Factor.

All dry!

Now I took the spray paint and squirted a little over the canvas to make everything really pop.

Take a pencil and out line your tree, then go over it with a black marker.

trace your birds on.

I love this black paint because it has a sparkly finish.

now paint in the rest of it black and let it dry!

FINISHED!

These are the first ones I made. They hang in my mother-in-laws house above the piano. I am honored.

.:well I hope this was helpful and inspiring. I hope you all try this because it was worth it! The rosemary lemon chicken recipe is below. I picked it up from a cooking class so I hope the instructions will be helpful if you try and make it on your own:.

Rosemary lemon chicken:

Ingredients:

5 slices of bacon

1/4 cup of flour

6 medium chicken thighs/4 large

6 medium cloves of garlic thinly sliced or chopped

1 tbl. Rosemary

1/8 tsp. red pepper

1 C chicken broth

1/2 C white wine(or red)

2 Tbl. lemon juice and zest

4 pats of butter

salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon in a large skillet over med-high heat until crisp but not over done. move bacon to a plate to drain. 

Remove all but 2 tbl. of bacon fat.

Place flour, salt and pepper in shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour. Brown chicken on both sides. You MUST be patient during the browning because a lot of flavor will come from this. You want them to be a nice golden brown on both sides. Depending on the size of the chicken may take 10 mins on first side 7-10 on the opposite side.

GOLDEN!

When your chicken is brown reduce heat and add garlic, rosemary, and pepper flakes.

Cook until garlic is aromatic-2 mins

Add wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add bacon and chicken broth. Bring the broth to a boil and then add lemon juice and zest(also added mushrooms at this point but not necessary if you don't like them). cook 12-15 mins simmering, turning chicken often, until sauce is thick and glossy.

Chicken must be 165F/75C

adjust seasonings and serve.

I served with wild rice and asparagus! oh and I added mushrooms.

Cheers!

.:stephanie:.