Join me and my author friends as we share some fun posts for this month. Check theirs out at the end.
Today, I’m going to share three of my favorite things for Valentine’s Day. One of my favorite holidays.
*Crafts
*Sweets
*Books
First Up, This Fun Card To Make
Growing up, our mom was always making crafts and Valentine’s Day was one of her favorites. Mine, too! If you follow me, you know I’m all about the hearts, year round. 💝
I also love trees! So, why not combine the two? You can add special sayings like:
“My Love Keeps Growing and Growing For You”
“Spread Your Love Like Leaves On A Tree”
Or, just write a personal message with your name on it.
Use any kind of paper or cardstock. Use, crayons, colored pencils, paints or your favorite art mediums. Follow these directions to make your special card.
Card to make for Valentine’s Day
Next Up…
Sweets!
The Best Peanut Butter and Chocolate Fudge Ever!
You’ll need…
3 cups chocolate chips. Use any chocolates you like. I prefer the milk chocolate.
1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk. (You can’t tell the difference since this fudge is loaded with sweetness.)
24 regular size unwrapped peanut butter cups
Instructions
Line 9×13 baking dish with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray lightly. Line with 12 peanut butter cups If you need to fill the bottom of your pan, add more.
Use a large microwave-safe bowl, add chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Stir together. Microwave 30 second. Stir. Keep melting until completely smooth. Pour over peanut butter cups to cover them all.
Cut up the remaining Reese’s and press into the top. Let it set to cool to room temperature {30 minutes to 1 hour} before refrigerating. Cover and refrigerate until completely solid. Overnight works great. Once it’s solid, remove from the pan using the foil and cut into small 1 inch by 1 inch squares.
These are very rich and soooo good!
Last, But, Not Least…..
Books!
Give the gift of reading!
Click on the poster below to read about these eleven titles. If you have any questions about them for your readers, let me know.
Don’t forget to click on the author names below for more February fun! Don’t forget to check out their books, too.
What a busy time it’s been! This last month, I’ve been working on another children’s book for 2019.
I just finished an illustration on page 11. When I get closer to getting it completed, I’ll reveal more soon.
I also have some more very exciting news to share with you. I’ll get to that after we salute this month of March 2019.
Let’s get started by celebrating in threes for 03/01/2019.
In this blog, you’ll find:
*3 Fun Facts about St. Patrick’s Day and March
*3 Fun Activities to Make
*3 Yummy Recipes
Okay, first with the facts.
Image: Pixabay
Did you know?
The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was not in Ireland.
The first St.
Patrick’s Day parade “recorded” was not in
Ireland but was held in New York City in 1762. In the mid19th
century, there was a massive increase of Irish immigrants to the United States.
This is when the March 17thcelebration became
widespread.
There’s No Corn in that Corned Beef.
Corned Beef and cabbage, is a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day staple. “Corned” Beef doesn’t have anything to do with the grain corn. Instead, it comes from “grains of salt” that are used to cure the meat. Corned Beef gets its name “corn” from an old English word for grain. Who knew?
March is National Craft Month.
If you have followed my blogs, you know I love all crafts! This month I’m looking forward to seeing fun projects to make for the spring and summer months.
Speaking of crafts, here are three crafts to make for St. Patrick’s Day.
Let’s start off by making this very easy card. Use card stock, paint, markers, or crayons to decorate.
I like tracing out two heart shapes and cutting to form a shamrock.
How about making a “Pot of Gold” filled with candy ?
Here are step by step instructions to make one. Adjust to the size of paper plates you use and to your liking.
Puppet Craft or Treat Bag
This was made from a brown paper bag. Cut green paper to fit for the shirt and hat. Add black strips for the hat and belt. Cut out two yellow squares. Fold, and cut out the middle of the squares. Add a strip of orange paper for the beard. Cut 1/2 inch strips, stopping at 1 inch of the top of your paper. (Before I glued it down, I curled the cut strips with a pencil.) Draw eyes, nose, and mouth. Cut two long thin strips and do accordion folds. Glue. Add hands.
I’m going to fill my Leprechaun Bag with cookies.
(See Cookie Recipe at the end of this post.)
Yummy Recipes for March
Corn beef and Corn beef Sandwiches are
staple foods for St. Patrick’s Day.
Our favorite Corn beef sandwiches are made with Rye Bread. Some prefer theirs on Pumpernickel bread.
Image: Pixabay
Everyone probably knows how to make these, but we found a little trick to ours.
Set it up like you are making a grilled cheese.
(Tip we learned: If you use mayonnaise, instead of butter on the outside of your bread, you will make a nice crusty sandwich. It’s the eggs and oil in the mayo that toasts it up to a golden brown.)
Add a layer Thousand Island dressing
inside your bread.
Add Swiss cheese.
Add Sour Kraut, and Corned Beef. Grill your sandwich on med high until till toasty. Flip and brown the other side.
This next recipe isn’t necessarily a St. Patrick’s meal, but for some reason I always end up making this recipe in March. We have been known to be creatures of habit.
Ham Gravy and Biscuits.
(One could make this for breakfast, but we usually have it as a dinner meal served with a vegetable. ) It is soooo good!
Directions:
Make a batch of biscuits from a store bought biscuit mix. If you add a ½ cup of grated cheese to the mix, it makes for extra yummy cheesy biscuits.
For the gravy you’ll need:
¼ cup butter
3 T chopped green onion
6 T Flour
1-1/4 cups milk
1 Can of Cream of Celery Soup
2 cups chopped ham
1 T lemon juice
Directions:
Cover and melt ¼ cup butter in the
microwave.
Add 3 T chopped green onion to the butter.
Cover and cook in the microwave 3 minutes.
Stir in 6 T flour to the butter and stir to
make a paste, removing lumps.
Slowly add 1-1/4 cups milk. Stir to mix.
Stir in 1 can of Cream of Celery Soup
Add 2 cups of chopped cooked ham
Add 1 T lemon Juice
Cover and cook 6- 8 minutes, stirring every
2 minutes until thickened.
Cut biscuits in half and serve gravy over
biscuits.
For leftovers, I find it helpful to add a splash of milk to the gravy before reheating. It makes for an easier pour over the reheated biscuits.
Now for that Cookie Recipe.
I’m saving to make these to fill in my Leprechaun Bag for St. Patrick’s Day.
I found out the coolest thing last week when going through some old recipes.
Did you know, you can make ANY kind of cookies with a box of cake mix, 2 eggs, chopped nuts, (if you wish) and anywhere from a 1/2 cup of Crisco to 3/4 cups?The trick to remember is to use just enough Crisco to have the batter thick enough to roll into balls. (I’m going to start with a 1/2 of cup of Crisco and add as needed.)
Add all ingredients into a bowl, using enough Crisco to form a stiff dough. Mix by hand.
Form into little balls, place on a baking sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls, and bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes, till puffy, and just barely golden around the edges. (They do spread while baking).
As soon as they come out of the oven, add candy, such as M&Ms.
UPDATE: I made these on St. Patrick’s Day and they turned out awesome. I used a 1/2 cup Crisco and it was the perfect amount for this cake mix. Also, this recipe yielded 20 cookies.
I hope you enjoyed this March blog. Let us know what fun things you have planned for this month.
Okay, here is the very exciting news I wanted to share with you. Click on this link to read more from Cat Michaels here.
Was 2018 a crazy roller coaster ride for you? Smooth sailing? Milestone events?
My author pals and I are remembering the happy moments as well as lessons we learned from challenges this past year in our blog hop: The Ups, Downs and In Between Times on our 2018 Writing Road.” Check out our personal reveals, then visit the other#Gr8Blogslinked at the end of this post for more shared recollections and lessons learned along the way. We hope you’ll be inspired to dive into your own special memories of 2018!
January 2018 through the summer months were busy times here at “Books by Rose.” In August, I released my 8th children’s book, “Moonshadow Mae.” Leading up to that, I had to work on setting up an all new website. Whew! It took me five weeks to figure it out, but with the help of all my tech savvy friends, I made it! This is my third time transiting websites. The first and second time, I painstakingly replaced everything. This time, I started fresh and new. Did it bother me that I lost all my content? Yes it did! The only thing that got me through was looking back and realizing all my posts would of required updates on those I interviewed and posts I created that had changed. So, as sparse as it may look at the moment, I hope to fill it fast with all new content in the coming months.
Getting back to “Moonshadow Mae.” This is my first hardcover and our goals are to see this sweet story in bookstores and libraries across the USA and then some. It’s full of wonder as Mae loves the moon and the glowing shine it leaves behind. Fun facts, a recipe, and a really cool craft is in the back of her book. I hope you will share it with your friends in your hometown. Click on this link to see her 5 star reviews: Amazon
Rosie Russell
Summer was filled with birthday parties, BBQ’s, reunions with friends and, of course, BASEBALL. If you have followed me by now, you know we are a huge baseball family and love supporting our home team and our little league teams.
In November, I was ready for a fair I signed up for. Lots and lots of work went into making crafts to go along with my books. I would also like to add, the work involved turned out to be a good thing, as it got me away from the computer with hands on activities. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the healthiest thing I could have done for myself. I really have a hard time not working on writing and illustrating more books. Since the crafts all pertain to my stories, it was the perfect time for me to give myself permission to take a break. I really recommend this for all you writers and illustrators to take breaks from time to time. It’s so good for the soul. In the long run, it will make you more productive.
If you would like to see some of the crafts I made, check out my November blog post here.
Now friends, are you ready to see what our other author friends have been up to in 2018? I hope you will click on their links below to read their stories. You may find some new authors you have not heard of or known before. You are in for a treat when you see all their wonderful books and blogs.
Don’t forget to leave a comment letting us all know how 2018 went for you. We would love to hear from you!
If for some reason a reply form does not show up on your side, please go to the top of this page and click on comment under the title of this post. Thank you for your patience as I’m still learning this new website. 🙂
Fall is here! Our temperatures have not been reflecting the cooler weather quite yet, but we know what’s on the way, so we’ll take it.
As the days turn cooler and get shorter, we’ll be spending more time indoors.
Everyone loves warm soups on those chilly evenings. If you are a football fan, you will want to look over this recipe to see it will fit into your next gathering. This recipe makes a lot!
My brother-in-law, who is a retired Captain from his fire department, made this for his crew and it was a big hit!
All the credit goes to my sister-in-law Karen, for making this soup at an event years ago. As we talked about this recipe last week, we decided to call it, “It’s Not A Diet Soup!” Once you see the ingredients, you’ll know why. Also, this isn’t one of those regular type of recipes you normally find. It’s little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Potato Soup Pexels CCO License
Potato Soup
10 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Cover the potatoes with water and add 1-2 Chicken Bouillon cubes for flavoring or season as desired.
Cook until tender.
Drain the water off of the potatoes.
Add a stick of butter. (Salted or unsalted.)
Once the butter is melted, add enough milk to almost cover the potatoes.
Add 1 Tablespoon of regular mustard and stir.
As the soup heats up, add up to 2 squares of Cream Cheese, if desired. Stir until melted.
Add more milk if desired. It depends on what consistency you like. If it becomes thinner than you expected, add a couple teaspoons of cornstarch to a small warm glass of water. Stir to dissolve and add to soup.
Here’s what we have added to this soup to make it even more delicious Slivered Deli Ham. Sometimes we’ve added cooked crumbled bacon. Many times we’ve topped it off with shredded cheese.
Want to really send this soup over the top? My sister-in-law has even added a few tablespoons of Sour Cream, oh and yes her favorite, Ranch Dressing. She also suggested shredded carrots for a little color. You can add those when boiling your potatoes.
Once you make this soup, you may have some other ideas. Let us know and we’d love to hear from you.
P.S. This soup goes great with any sandwiches, especially BLT’s.
Last week, I made a post on Facebook about a big fad going on right now, and that’s rock painting. If you go online or on Pinterest, type in “Rock Painting” you will find a ton of ideas on how to do this. Basically, you need acrylic paints, acrylic markers, and something to seal your rocks with. (Waterbase products will not work for outdoors.) Why worry about the outdoors? The painting groups I have found and joined online, paint their rocks and hide them for others to find. It’s a nice way to give someone out there in the world, a smile for their day, as they find your treasure. They can keep the rock or pay it forward by hiding it for others to find.
Here are a few I’ve made so far.
Find a group near you to join if you and your family are interested in this activity. Many of these groups have hashtags and the name of their groups. Each group will have their own rules, but almost always, they have these rules.
1. Safety first and always. Online safety, but also, make sure you don’t hide your rock that could put someone in danger by retrieving it.
2. Never hide your rock outside or in a business. Parks are a perfect place.
3. Never hide your rock where someone could possibility mow over it. Hide it in plain site or somewhat easy to find.
4. Finally, use rocks from natural resources or purchase your own rocks. Never take rocks from businesses or homes where people have used for landscaping. Remember, they bought those rocks.
If you have little ones and it’s too cold or wet to go outside, have a hide and seek game for the rocks in your home. Talk about the kids having fun! They love this game!
One last thing, here’s an indoor activity to make. Cards!
If you have followed my page for a while now, you know I love making cards or anything out of paper.
Here is one Pop-Up card I made awhile back. I actually found many sites online on how to put these together. Let me know and I’ll send you the links.
Here’s another one I did using Stickers. A lot less cutting for this one.
This next card is one I’m REALLY excited to tell you about! I won’t be able to reveal what’s inside quite yet though. I have a fair coming up in November. I’ll have this card at my booth to show those visiting, how I made this. I’ll give you a hint. It has something to do with two of my books, “Maggie, Merrie, and Millie’s Magical Adventure” and “Maggie, Millie, and Merrie’s Magical Coins.”
I hope you have enjoyed these ideas.
Happy October everyone!
Rosie
PS. Don’t forget to take a look at my “Shop Here” page. For full descriptions on all my books, visit my author page on Amazon.
