Carmen's Random Tips: Can you make meatloaf without breadcrumbs?

How to Make Homemade Breadcrumbs

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Can you make meatballs without breadcrumbs and can you make meatloaf without breadcrumbs? I decided to include both of those questions instead of just one, because I have Googled both of these questions. 

Yes, the queen of forgetting things has forgotten to pick up some breadcrumbs at the store and not realized this until she was ready to start mixing up her meatballs and meatloaf...several times.

As a matter of fact, I just did this last night, which was my inspiration for this post. So can you make meatloaf or meatballs without breadcrumbs? Sure, but it will not taste the same. I know, because I've tried...

There's definitely a reason we put breadcrumbs into meatloaf and meatballs. But have no fear, there is a solution to this problem. If you have bread on hand, then you can make homemade breadcrumbs. Ironically, Google did not tell me how to do this. My mother did... It's actually pretty easy.

I wouldn't want to do it every time, but when I have to and if I feel like it, then now I know how to make homemade breadcrumbs from scratch. 🤷‍♀️ So here's how you make homemade breadcrumbs from scratch...

Homemade Breadcrumbs Recipe

 

Step 1)  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Step 2)  Four slices of bread equals one cup of breadcrumbs. I usually only use one cup of breadcrumbs, so this was perfect. Take four slices of bread and break them up into small pieces onto a baking sheet. Spread them out.

Step 3)  Bake the pieces of bread for 10-20 minutes or until crispy looking - sort of like a crouton.

Step 4)  Remove bread from oven and allow to cool. This doesn't take long at all.

Step 5)  Using your hands, a blender, or food processor, crush the bread pieces until they crumble. I used my hands and it was very easy. I would take a couple of pieces and crush them into my one cup measuring cup.

Step 6)  Use plain or add desired seasonings. I added onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

And voila! You now have homemade breadcrumbs! Enjoy!

Carmen's Random Tips: How to Get Rid of a Christmas Tree without Getting Pine Needles Everywhere

Goodbye Christmas Tree - Hello New Year

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If you're trying to figure out how to get rid of a Christmas tree without getting pine needles everywhere I'm here to save the day. Now that Christmas has passed, I bet you just can't wait to get that dried up looking, ready to catch fire, on it's last life thing out of your house - yes, your Christmas tree. 

The joy that your beloved Christmas tree has brought to you and yours has now passed, along with the passing of the holiday. You nursed this thing all month long, but now this thing is "ready to go." "Ready to go, or I'm ready to go" always makes me think of Wanda from In Living Color. (<-- funny phrase in 3...2...1 @ 5:52). Ahh, good times.

So back to the tree... And what's funny is that regardless of whether or not your tree is real or fake,  you'll still have a loss of pine needles. Yes, I know...mind-blowing. I always thought that with a fake tree I wouldn't have to deal with pine needles, but, nope, pine needles were everywhere and I was constantly vacuuming. It was baffling to me...

I've always been a real tree kind of girl, but there have been a few years where we used a fake tree or two. Whenever it was time to get rid of the real tree I'd say I was going to get a fake tree the next year as I removed pine needles from my house. But...same problem. So if that's your reason for getting a fake tree, don't bother.

Often times, getting rid of the Christmas tree also brings a feeling of dread. It's much more exciting to get the tree and decorate it than it is to actually take it down, along with all of your other household decorations. But the New Year is just around the corner and with the New Year comes thoughts of starting new and thoughts of spring. Yes, spring.

Even though spring is about three months away many of us begin anticipating the arrival of spring when it's time to take the tree down. This thought process rejuvenates us, gets the blood flowing, and gets us moving. Personally, I find myself in great anticipation of spring at the arrival of winter, but hey, that's just me. 😂

Remove a Christmas Tree without Getting Pine Needles Everywhere with These Tricks

When removing your Christmas tree, you have a few options.

• Drag It Out As Is:  Dragging the tree out "as is" will more than likely result in dried up pine needles flying everywhere in places that you can't even begin to imagine. And that you will more than likely find in strange places -- regardless of how well you have cleaned up -- in the spring.
• A Disposable Christmas Tree Bag:  The disposable Christmas tree bag is an ingenious invention that allows you to literally bag up your entire tree in your Christmas tree bag to remove from your home avoiding the flinging of pine needles everywhere.
• A Large Sheet:  Depending upon how large your tree is, you very well might find yourself able to remove the tree by wrapping it in a sheet, starting from the trunk. Wrap the sheet good and tight around the tree and then carefully drag the tree from your home.

Each method may result in the loss of pine needles, but not nearly as many as method #1, so have your vacuum cleaners and brooms ready! We usually remove our tree right after New Year. But regardless of when you actually remove your tree, good luck! Cheers to as few pine needles as possible as you get ready to ring in the New Year and...think spring!

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Just for Laughs: Christmas Vacation Christmas Dinner Scene - Lol

Video by:  movieclips

I hope your Christmas dinner doesn't turn out like this! Merry Christmas!! :D

Carmen's Favorite Recipes: The Christmas Tree Cake - Last Minute Christmas Dessert Ideas

Holiday Fun and Holiday Yum

Our Christmas Tree Cake of 2008

If you're looking for last minute Christmas dessert ideas, then how about baking a Christmas tree cake? Easy, creative and fun.

Simply go grab yourself a Christmas tree cake pan from any baking store, grocery store, department store, or craft store of your choice and let's do this. 

A Christmas tree cake is so easy to make and it's also honestly so much fun. If you have children, then let them get involved in "decorating" your Christmas tree cake with garland, lights, ornaments and all, just like a real tree, only edible. Whatever your little imagination or heart desires - go for it. 

Make your little Christmas tree cake gaudy or classy - the choice is yours. :D It's all going to the same place anyway, so does it really matter? Yes, I suppose it does if you're having a large family get-together. Anywho...yes, I meant to say "anywho." 

So, anywho, the Christmas tree cake is also a cheap Christmas dessert idea. No need to get fancy and make your frosting from scratch, unless, of course, you want to. But all you really need is your cake pan shaped like a tree, frosting, gels, icing, maybe some sprinkles or colored sugar, the holiday spirit and your imagination.

Christmas Tree Cake Supplies:

• Cake pan shaped like a tree
• Cake mix of your choice
• Chocolate frosting and white frosting, preferably whipped frosting. It's easier to work with. But whatever frosting your little heart desires.
• Cake gels
• Cake 
• Icing
• Optional: Food coloring to color your frosting green for the tree or whatever color suits your fancy. Keeping it white would be pretty, too.
• Optional:  For quick icing to decorate your festive little Christmas tree cake, grab a couple different colored cans of the Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing. To make it easier for you to find them, they look like this. It comes with four tips and many holiday colors to choose from. This will allow for some quick, last-minute cake decorating!

Friendly Warning:  Don't forget to make sure that you have eggs and vegetable oil for your cake mix. Um, yeah, I've forgotten to do this and had cake disasters...

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Note the first mistake - cake was still in pan and I started to frost. Um,  yeah.

Okay, we're out of the pan and frosted. Progress...

Tada!

Carmen's Favorite Recipes: The best sugar cookies ever

How to Make Sugar Cookies

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Sugar cookies are a year-round favorite treat for many of us, but for one reason or another they're a baking staple during the holidays. 

Maybe it's because you can festively decorate them, or just cause they're packed with sugar, the world may never know...who knows? 

All I know is that I grew up baking them with my own mother during the holidays. And now I love baking them with my own children during the holidays. And they're just...um...yummy. 

But when baking sugar cookies you only want the best recipe because some recipes frankly just...well, they suck. There are many great sugar cookie recipes floating around out there, but the one I'm about to share is my personal favorite, thus far. 

The cookies come out perfect and so yummy. So without further delay, here is my favorite sugar cookie recipe - the best sugar cookie recipe ever. Okay, one of the best sugar cookie recipes. I'm sure there are others. 😂

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of butter, softened
• 2 cups of white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Friendly Warning:  Leaving any of these ingredients out will funk up your cookies. 

Sugar Cookies Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth with a hand-mixer. 
2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Cover dough and chill for at least one hour or over night for optimum results.
5. Once you're ready to bake your yummy sugar cookies, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
6. Bake for 6-8 minutes. 

Check out "How to Bake Perfect Cookies" for baking tips on how to bake the perfect cookie to make sure that your cookies come out of the oven perfect.

Sugar Cookie Frosting Recipe  

If you'd like to frost your sugar cookies, here's a great sugar cooking frosting recipe that I love and have tried myself.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 5 tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Optional: food coloring - your color of choice.

Sugar Cookie Frosting Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners sugar and shortening until smooth with an electric hand mixer on low.
2. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla on low/medium until smooth and stiff - about five minutes.
3. Color with food coloring if desired. If using more than one color of food coloring, then separate the frosting into separate bowls before coloring.

If you've decided to go ahead and frost your cookies, then you'll want to make sure that they don't stick to one another when you store them. So be sure to check out "How to Keep Cookie Frosting from Sticking" to learn how to keep your cookies from smudging or sticking to one another.

Have Fun!

  

2008 - Okay, so we epically failed decorating them. But we tried! And that's what counts, right? :D Looked like something from The Nightmare Before Christmas but they sure tasted good though! We have improved in our cookie decorating skills. This was the first time that we ever did sugar cookies together, lol. Epic Fail, but so good!

 

Carmen's Random Tips: How to Keep Cookie Frosting from Sticking

Keep the Frosting on Your Sugar Cookies from Sticking with These Tips

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If you've ever taken the time to bake sugar cookies -- particularly if you took the time to bake them from scratch -- and then took the time to frost them only to have the frosting smear when it's time to store the cookies, then you know just how frustrating this is. 

I've done this many times in my life and I just may get it right this year with these tips that I found for myself! I wanted to share what I found to save anyone else out there from ruining their Christmas cookies too! Messy cookies are just as yummy, but why put all of that work into decorating them only to have them smear?

Should you use icing or frosting to decorate a sugar cookie?

You can actually use both frosting and icing to decorate a sugar cookie. Icing and frosting are two completely different things when it comes to decorating a cookie. If you're looking for more of a hard shell, then stick with icing. If you're looking for a hard shell, plus additional decoration, then use both. 

You can use frosting alone, but it may be messier and/or take longer to get the look that you're trying to achieve with your cookies. Icing hardens quicker than frosting. To get frosting to harden, you have to place it in the freezer longer than iced cookies. However, many people find frosting to be tastier, so the choice is yours.

How do you store frosted cookies to keep cookie frosting from sticking?

The next time you decide to decorate sugar cookies with frosting or icing follow these steps below to avoid smudging or smearing your cookies:

1. Decide whether or not you want to use frosting, icing, or both. If you decide to use icing, consider using a royal icing recipe.
2. Gather supplies.
3. Bake.
4. After you've baked your cookies, let them cool. 
5. Once your cookies are cool and ready for decoration, begin decorating.
6. Freeze your cookies. If you've opted to use both frosting and icing, then freeze the cookies with the icing before frosting for optimal results. You can frost before the icing hardens, but this may be a bit messy. It's up to you. If you've done both and already frozen them with just the icing, now it's time to freeze them again with the frosting.
7. Remove cookies from the freezer and store in your container of choice. If you have to stack your cookies, keep them separated with wax paper.

Some of the Best Cookie Icing and the Best Cookie Frosting Recipes

These are some of the best non-stick icing and frosting recipes on the web:

• Sugar Cookie Frosting:  This recipe has over 1,000 reviews and close to a 5 star rating.
• Butter Icing for Sugar Cookies:  If you'd like to try a butter cream frosting flavor for your cookies, then give this recipe a try. Out of over 170 reviews, this recipe has close to a 5 star rating.
• Sugar Cookie Icing:  Out of over 2,200 reviews, this recipe has close to a 5 star rating.

Just for Laughs: The Perfect Tree - Christmas Vacation

by:  H_Bowles

"She'll see it later honey...her eyes are frozen" Lol, this is a classic in my house. My brother and I can recite most of this movie. I can't believe I saw this in the theater with my mother and brother when it first came out. One of my all-time favorites. This one and A Christmas Story are my two fav's.

Carmen's Random Tips: Non-Traditional Christmas Dinner Ideas

Breaking Away from the Traditional 

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Every year for my whole life we've always had the same things to eat for each and every holiday, year-after-year. But this year I've decided that for Christmas I want to try making something different for a change. 

It's always the same; every Thanksgiving and Christmas we have turkey, for New Year's we have ham, and then for Easter we have ham again. 

I'm not knocking turkey and there's no way anyone could ever convince me to forfeit my turkey on Thanksgiving - forget that, but for Christmas this year I'm just really in the mood to try something different. I'm thinking of either a pork roast or roast beef for the holiday. 

Since apples go good with pork, I'm thinking of apple pie for dessert and maybe some chocolate cake, or chocolate brownies, or both. The 13-year-old has been wanting to bake brownies, so I'm thinking of letting him do it for Christmas and I'll do the pie and cake. 

Some people are not so happy about this and want turkey, but I think that when they see how everything turns out they'll be happy. If you're also looking for some really good non-traditional dinner ideas for Christmas, maybe you'll want to try one of these great ideas below. 

Some of the Best Non-Traditional Christmas Dinner Ideas:

• Pot Luck
• Lasagna
• Pork Roast
• Roast Beef
• Pot Roast
• Filet Mignon
• Steak
• Baked Ziti
• Stuffed Shells
• Chicken
• Prime Rib
• Turkey Shephard's Pie
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Turkey Pot Pie
• Turkey Casserole
• Chicken Casserole
• Any Casserole
• Stew
• Shrimp and Scallops
• Shrimp Scampi
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Tacos
• Chinese Take-Out <<<---------😂

 

Side Dishes, Dessert and Final Thoughts

Depending upon what you're making for your main-dish, side-dishes will vary. But you could always include salad, rolls, rice, baked potatoes, roasted potatoes, veggies, refried beans, etc. For dessert; any type of cake, cheesecake, cupcakes, fruit salad, pie, ice cream, etc. that strikes your fancy.

For my family I've decided to go with a pork roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, a few veggies, apple sauce, dinner rolls and for dessert apple pie and chocolate brownies - maybe a chocolate cake too. If you've decided to go non-traditional this year, remember that it's not what you eat that matters; it's being with those you love that matters most! Good luck and Happy Holidays!!

Carmen's Random Tips: How to Make a Chalk Mural - Making Memories with Your Child

Creative Fun with Chalk 

(For Moms, Dads, Kids or ANYONE)

photo credit: Rahxy via photopin cc

If you're looking for something different to do with the walls of a room, then how about a creative chalk mural? I haven't done this in years, but it was so much fun when I did it and it came out beyond cool.

When my older boys were 1 and 2 years old, I drew a Sesame Street chalk mural on their sliding closet doors, which were already painted white. Ever since I was a child I've had the ability to draw with precision just about anything that I'm looking at (just about).

I think that all I did was look at the picture of a book and tried to recapture that picture with chalk. If you know how to do this, then a chalk mural could be a lot of fun for you to try. After I drew the characters that I wanted to draw, I also wrote the theme song above them. It was really cute and my boys loved it.

I remember back then they used to sell the Chubs baby wipes and their wipe containers looked like big Lego blocks. And I believe that they came in the colors red, yellow, green and blue. I remember taking one of each color and on two different walls, I nailed them strategically and decoratively like shelves.

I think we had wall border and some Sesame Street stick-ups, too. Wish I had taken pictures, because it was great. :( But now all I have is the memory. I have so much undeveloped film from when they were smaller; maybe I'll find a picture of the closet doors one day to add here. 

Another Thought for Your Chalk Mural

If you're not good at drawing by simply looking at an object, then try stencils! For older kids, you could even let them get involved. What fun would that be, right? A memory and a mess. What more could you ask for as a parent?

Chalkboard Paint - How cool is that?

One more thought on this topic. I remember reading once upon a time that there is a type of paint that you can use to create a literal chalkboard on the wall of a room. So if you have a child that is a little artist you could create a chalkboard on one of their walls in their room and they can have chalkboard fun every day!

Carmen's Random Tips: How to Remove Lint Balls from a Wool Coat

No, that's not me, but I like her look!
 photo credit: Idhren via photopincc

Keep Your Favorite Wool Coat Looking Like New

How do I get lint balls off my wool coat?

So I decided recently to get out a favorite wool coat of mine that I haven't worn in a few years partly because of annoying lint balls that have accumulated on the coat. Even after having the coat dry cleaned, it looked older than what it was.

But I really like this coat and wanted to wear it this year, so I was determined to find a way to get the lint balls off, or at least as many as I could. If you've tried using a lint roller, then you know they don't work with lint balls.

They say you can use a razor, but I don't want to risk ruining my coat. So I grabbed some packaging tape and worked with that. All you need is some really strong tape like packaging tape or duct tape. 

I didn't have any duct tape in the house during this impulsive moment to rid my coat of lint balls, so I did my best with packaging tape. I only say that because duct tape is easier to work with. When you handle packaging tape, it sticks to itself too easily and gets all twisty and makes it hard to work with. 

To get lint balls off your favorite wool coat, try this:

Step 1)  Place the coat on any flat surface. Your table or a bed would work.

Step 2)  Grab a good sized piece of tape and start dragging it on the coat and rubbing the coat with the tape, sort of pulling the lint balls off. 

And that's it. That's all there is to it. It may takes some time, but it's worth it if you really love the coat. It worked for me. My coat looked 95% better just using some tape. 

Other Methods to Remove Lint Balls from Your Favorite Wool Coat Include:

• Using a pumice stone.
• Using a velvet brush.
• Carefully using a razor.