French Onion Soup

With fall arriving early this year my family and I had a hankering for soup. They love French Onion and I wanted a recipe that would taste as good as a restaurant's. So the search began.

I found a delicious recipe from Allrecipes.comI love that it can be made in the slow cooker too.

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter
 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
 4 large yellow onions, sliced and separated into rings
 1 bay leaf
 1 tablespoon white sugar
 8 slices of french bread
 2 cloves garlic, minced
 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup cooking sherry
 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
 7 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
 1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste

 Directions:
 1. Heat butter in large pot over medium-high. Cook and stir onions until they become translucent, about 10 min. Sprinkle onions with sugar; reduce heat to medium. Cook stirring constantly, until onions are soft and browned, at least 30 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute.

 2. Stir in sherry (I didn't have sherry and used red cooking wine as a substitute) into onion mixture and scrape bottom of pot to dissolve small bits of browned food from the pot. Transfer onions into a slow cooker and pour in beef broth. Season to taste with salt, stir in thyme and bay leaf. Cover cooker. Set on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours.

 3. About 10 min. before serving, set oven rack about 8 inches from the heat source and preheat oven't broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet.

 4. Broil bread slices until toasted. 1-2 min. per side

 5. Combine cheeses in a bowl. Fill oven-safe soup crocks 3/4 full with soup and float bread slice on top. Top with cheese mixture.

 6. Place filled bowls onto a baking sheet and broil until cheese is lightly browned and bubbling. About 2 minutes.


My family really enjoyed this recipe and it truly was a comfort food! 

100 Days Til Christmas! Yikes!

Yep 100 days. Until. Christmas.

Yikes.

Where oh where does the time go?

So I say that it is never too early to get those Christmas cards and gifts created! 

 (Don't slap me) ;)

I was challenged by Favecrafts to create a Christmas project using a fun paper kit by Docrafts.

The kit contains die cuts, stamps, craft tape, 12×12 papers, and a collection of stunning 3D pop-up Christmas cards, the 12 Days of Christmas collection is inspired by the popular holiday tune of the same name, with the motif running through all products in this collection. This kit was a lot of fun to work with because everything coordinated! 

In addition to the 12 Days of Christmas paper pack, I also used my Silhouette, some colorful ribbon, mini jingle bells, string, and ink to create my gift bags.  They are perfect for stocking stuffers or to create your very own 12 Days of Christmas advent calendar.  

 

Want to learn more about how you can win this awesome paper pack?

GIVEAWAY!

All you need to do is head on over to the giveaway page and register to win!  You have until September 30th to enter, and you can enter to win once a day…so the more you return, the greater your chances of winning this awesome paper pack!  Good luck!

Have a great day!!

Watercolors and Angels....

Good morning to you my friends! I have been a bit neglectful of my crafting and this little blog of mine. Since starting school I have been trying to settle into some sort of a routine. It hasn't been easy.  ;)  So here and there I have been managing to squeeze in random bits of time. 

 I adore this image from Crafty Secrets.  It is their Rose stamp and it was embossed in white on watercolor paper. 

I water colored it using my Inktense Pencils.  I continued the water color look on the back panel which I randomly added pinks, oranges, and yellow to.  I spritzed it with water several times to help move the color.  I adhered everything using dimensional foam squares by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.  I added a sentiment, ribbon, sequins, and a couple of rhinestones to finish it off. 

When Cortney came home from her RunwayLOUD experience I wanted to commemorate her beautiful dress and wings.  I decided to do a little photo shoot. I created a thank you card for all of the people that made her dream happen. 

This one is my favorite. 

Love her.

I am off today with my dolly.  She is sick with a double ear infection and the start of pneumonia. 

I am so glad I took her to the doctor yesterday.  

Meds, extra sleep, and some TLC should do the trick!

Have a great day friends!