KT Cooked It: Captain Crunch Chicken

Hello out there!

Welcome back to my blog. Before we begin with today's did-it, I have to address my absence from Katy Did It. Specifically, to all of you who have been visiting my blog looking for more Kraftmas since December 17th, I apologize. Honestly, a craft-a-day turned out to be WAY too much for me - I pooped out! I'm certainly no Martha Stewart. I did however make a few cute presents for my family, which include:
(1) A ribbon picture board for my mom



















(2) Wine glasses for my sister and future sister-in-law















(3) Crochet boot cuffs for my little sister, which I am kind of in love with and think I'm going to make a matching pair for myself!

















































(4) And these awesome painted Redskin beer glasses (because drinking beer is about all Redskins fans can do to comfort themselves over the bust this season...*sigh)















But here I am now, back with a few more did-its before the new year!

Today I am going to share with you a favorite appetizer recipe among our family and friends - my mom's Captain Crunch Chicken. I'm calling it "my mom's" simply because (a) she is the only one who I know who makes it, and (b) she found this recipe when I was about 8 years old. My mom makes this recipe twice a year, once on New Years Eve and the second time at her annual Super Bowl feast. I've never made it myself, but was requested to bring it to the holiday party of a childhood friend of mine who always loved this stuff!

What you need:
1 lb of chicken breast strips
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 cup of Captain Crunch cereal that has been crushed or processed in a food processor
1 cup of Cornflakes that has been crushed or processed...
Olive oil for cooking

Okey-dokey! First, whisk the eggs and milk in a mixing bowl.

Next, set up three mixing bowls to get ready to coat your chicken: (1) one with the flour, (2) one with the whisked egg and milk, and (3) the last with the combined cereals.

Now get to coating your chicken! Dip each piece in the flour first, then the eggs and milk, and finally coat with the cereals.

Place the chicken strips in a skillet with olive oil on high temperature, and brown the chicken. This isn't a healthy recipe...so don't be shy with the cooking oil...

Finally, cook the chicken in the oven at 350 degrees until cooked all the way through (more accurately to an internal temperature of 160 degrees).

Once the chicken was out of the oven, my mom always laid it on a paper towel with some paper towel overtop as well to soak up some of the grease.

When you're ready, serve your chicken with some honey mustard!

Kraftmas Day 17 - Heavenly Hash Candy

I'm excited to share this recipe because this is absolutely my favorite Christmas goodie! I am not sure why this rocky-road chocolate and marshmallow candy is known as "Heavenly Hash"... it certainly tastes divine but it is also sinfully delicious. Since Eric first tried the candy last year, it has become more fondly known amongst the family as "Angel Poop" :)

There are various versions of the recipe, but here is the version that we like

What you need:

1 (12oz) pkg semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cup mixed Planters nuts

Place the chocolate morsels and the peanut butter into a sauce pan on low heat, stirring constantly until the ingredients are melted. 

Next, fold in the marshmallows and nuts. 

Pour the mixture into a 9x13" dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until set. 

Break the candy into pieces, and enjoy!

Kraftmas Day 16 - DIY Christmas Cards (Part III)

Welcome back for the conclusion of DIY Christmas cards! Today I am going to show you how to make your own envelopes for all of those holiday greeting cards that you made.

What you need:
Construction paper (size 10x12")
Paint, ink and stamps for decorating

First, lay the paper lengthwise on your work surface. Place the card in the center lengthwise, but on the bottom 1/3 of the width of the paper.

Next, fold the bottom of the paper over the bottom of the card. The folded part should be about 1" in width. 

Then, fold the sides of the paper over the card, and then the top so that you've made the dimensions of your card. 

The next part is a little tricky. Unfold the top part. With a pencil or pen, draw diagonal lines from the top corners of the card to make a center point as you see below. Make sure that the point at which your two lines meet is not any lower than the top piece that you initially folded over the card, since this is the top of the envelope. 

Cut away the excess paper along the line that you drew on either side. Also cut along the vertical folded line connecting the excess paper to the top of the envelope (see below)

Using double-sided tape, tack the bottom fold of the envelope to the side segments. Now, for the top of the envelope, you can either keep the shape as a rectangle as you see here...

OR you can cut the sides of the rectangle so that the top is a triangle as you see here

Now these seem a little boring! So let's decorate the inside of the top of the envelope. A couple of ways to do this are:

1. Use a gel pen to write some holiday phrases. Here I wrote "Merry Christmas!"

2. Stamp the inside

3. Paint stripes

Finally, you can make the front of the envelope pretty. I used a gold gel pen to make a border around the envelope, and then stamped a pine cone in the bottom left corner. 

And here you have it! All of your cute DIY cards ready for sending 

 

Kraftmas Day 14 & 15 - Best Sugar Cookies and Mom's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello again!

First of all, I realize that I did not post yesterday. I apologize, but my life happened to me! So today I'm cheating a little bit and posting two in one.

There are two cookie recipes to share that are family favorites: sugar cookies and my mom's famous chocolate chip pudding cookies!

Sugar Cookies
What you need:
1 1/2 cup butter
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla
5 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1. Cream the butter, eggs and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Slowly mix the flour mixture in with your "wet" ingredients.
4. Mix in the vanilla.
5. After the dough is mixed completely, put it into the refrigerator to set for about 30min.
6. To roll your dough, either flour the surface onto which you will roll out the dough, or use shortening (which is what I prefer). Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out your cookies. Yay!
7. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the edges appear slightly browned.
8. After the cookies are completely cooled, go ahead and decorate with various icings and sprinkles!

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

What you need:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

3 oz. instant vanilla pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cup semisweet chips

1. Cream the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the instant pudding, flour, baking soda and salt. 

3. Slowly mix the flour mixture in with the "wet" ingredients.

4. Mix in the semisweet chocolate chips.

5. On a lined or greased cookie sheet, place heaping tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheets with at least 2" of space between the cookies because they will spread.

6. Bake the cookies in a  preheated oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are brown and the centers are firm.

7. Place the baked cookies on a wire wrack to cool before serving (with a glass of ice cold milk! Mmmmm)

Kraftmas Day 13 - DIY Christmas Cards (Part II)

Today is the second day of DIY Christmas cards, and I have a few more ideas for you procrastinators out there like me who are trying to scramble some last minute holiday greetings together. Let's get started!

Stamped Holiday Cards
What you need:
Cardstock
Wine cork and X acto knife OR rubber stamps
Paint or ink for stamping

Okay, so I have a pine cone rubber stamp from last year when I made my wedding invitations. Great for making a card like this:

But this is a DIY project! Obviously we need to make our own stamps! I've seen these on the internet and I have always wanted to make one: wine cork stamps. To make these you simple draw the design that you want, like the pine tree and snow flake pictured below, and then use your X acto knife to cut around the design. And you have a stamp!

Lot's of ways to use your stamps to make cards. Here are two that I came up with:

"Noel" Card
What you need:
Cardstock
Paint
Modge Podge
Glitter
Scissors

This card was really fun to make! First, I measured my brown cardstock for the card, then measured and cut a piece of white cardstock to attach to the front of the card. Next, I painted stripes on the front of the card using red acrylic paint, as you see below:

Next, I made my letters. To make the letters, you need a piece of paper for the background and a second piece in a different color. On the colored pieces, draw your letters N-O-E-L. You need to make them as blocked letters so that you can cut out the inside of the letter. Once you make your letters, use scissors to cut out the inside. Here is an example of the "O" that I made. As you see, after cutting out the letter, I pasted the green paper overtop of the white piece.













Finally, attach your letters to the front of the card with either double-sided tape or modge podge.

If you want to make the card a little more glitzy, follow the same process as above. Once you've finished the letters, apply modge podge to the letter and sprinkle glitter over it.

Once the letters are dry, shake off the excess glitter. Finish your card by tacking on the letters. Here's the card I made with the word "JOY."


There you have it! Of course the possibilities are endless, but now you have a few cute cards that you can make for some of the special people in your life.

Tomorrow I will show you a couple of ways to make your own envelopes for all of the cards you've made!

Kraftmas Day 12 - DIY Christmas Cards (Part I)

Yesterday Eric and I received a super cute Christmas card from my brother/sister-in-law, which reminded us to make some Christmas cards to send out too! Thus, the next few days of crafts are devoted to DIY cards and envelopes. For all of the cards I have used 8x11" cardstock, which I folded in half length wise, then cut into two pieces for each card. Enjoy!

Painted Christmas Lights Card

What you need:

Acrylic or watercolor paint in various colors

Paper for you card - I used tan cardstock for the card, and white for the front of the card

Black ballpoint pen

Glue or tape

First, cut your cardstock to make the size card that you want. Next, measure the size of white paper that you want for the front of the card. I made mine a little small than the card so that there would be a border around the edges. Attach the white paper to the front of the card using glue or tape. I have clear double-sided tape on a small roller that I use for scrapbooking, which I used to attach the paper.

Next, pull out your paints. I have both acrylic and water color paint, but I chose to use the acrylic this time. To make the lights, you can use one of two methods: (1) paint the shapes using a paint brush, or (2) use your fingers to make fingerprint lights. I used both methods, first using my index finger to make the shapes, then using my paintbrush to refine the edges and make the top of the light come to more of a pointed edge than too round. I used green, red, yellow, orange and blue. 

Once the paint is dry, use your ballpoint pen to make the light strand. I made a spiral at the base of the light, then connected the lights using a wavy line. 

To finish the card, I wrote "Happy Holidays" on the top right corner, and "2013" on the bottom right.

Wycinanki Christmas Cards
What you need:
Various colors of cardstock
Sharp paper-cutting scissors
Modge podge

Wycinanki are traditional Polish folk art, and very popular around Christmas time. There are various designs we can make. I chose to make some Christmas trees, as well as a Nativity scene. For more information on this paper-cutting art, see my post where I made my first wycinanki.

As with all of the cards, first chose the color and size cardstock for your actual card. I used blue, and then made a smaller rectangle out of white for the front of the card. To make the Christmas tree, cut a square with the dimensions that fit the height of the tree and width of the largest branches. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. Using a white colored pencil, draw the outline of half of your tree along the fold, so that you will have a symmetric tree after you've cut it out and unfolded the paper.













After you've cut the outline of the tree, keep it folded and cut small squares or triangles around the outline of the branches to give them a feathered appearance.









Once you've finished your tree, use the modge podge or an adhesive of your choosing to attach the tree to the card, as I have done here.

The next part of your wycinanki tree is to make the ornaments. You can made any shape or design, such as hearts, stars, flowers, etc. The key here is to make everything symmetric. I made flowers and hearts using variations of the same colored paper (blue, turquoise, light pink, dark pink, purple, green, red, and yellow), as well as candles to go on each tree branch. Here is an example of a flower that I made. As you can see, the flowers are layered which is characteristic of wycinanki - it is all about layering.











Here you can see me building my tree, using modge podge to attach my ornaments.













And here is my final product!




















Now, if you'd rather not use the layered approach, you can use a different method which involves using only one color of paper. For this technique, chose a color (red, black or green are popular) and size for your end design. You are going to fold the paper in half, and using a pencil or pen, draw half of your design along the fold. Below I will show you how I made a Christmas tree and a Nativity scene.

First, here is the Christmas tree. I folded my red paper in half after I measured the size that I wanted it to be on the front of the card. Next, draw half of the design in white pencil along the fold. The design I drew not only includes the tree, but also the outline of the star on top, some flowers and stars on the tree limbs, and presents beneath the tree.




















After you've perfected your design, you can cut it out, unfold it and then paste it onto the white background on your card.




















Here is the other design, which is a Nativity scene. Following the same process as the tree we just made, draw half of the outline for your nativity scene. My card is small, so I was only able to include the manger, Mary and Joseph praying by the side of the manger, as well as an angel on the side of the stable. Again, cut it out, unfold and paste onto the white background on your card.

Christmas Ornaments Card

What you need: 

Cardstock for the card. You will need at least 2 colors, as you will see below. 

3 patterns of fabric or scrapbook paper

Fine-tipped Sharpie, gold or silver gel pen

As for the other cards, first chose the color and size of cardstock that you want for your card. Next, cut out a rectangle or square to go on the front of the card as above. I cut two different pieces - one green and one white. On the white square, I drew my three ornaments in pencil using three different shapes. Next, you need to cut out the shapes in the card. To do this, poke a point of the scissors into the center of the shape, then begin cutting around the inside of the shape that you have outlined. This is what it looks like once you've cut out the shapes.

Next, take your fabric or scrapbook paper, and cut either a square or rectangle a little larger than the shape of the ornament so that when you lay the fabric/paper on the back side of the paper you can turn the paper over to see the shape that you cut out for each ornament to be covered by the fabric. Attach the fabric or paper to the back using modge podge. Be sure that the "right side" of the fabric or paper is facing down when you paste it to the back, or else the wrong side will be showing when you flip the paper over. Here is what it looks like:

I used double sided tape to apply the paper with the ornaments onto the piece of green paper that I cut out, and then tacked the whole thing to the brown cardstock that I cut out for the card. Finally, I used a brown fine-tipped sharpie to outline the ornaments and draw a line from the top of the card to the top of each ornament to make it look like it was hanging. I then used a gold gel pen to accent each of the lines that I drew with the brown pen. And here is the card:

Day 1 of DIY Christmas Cards complete! Come by tomorrow for some more card ideas.