Mini Witch Hat Tutorial

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My daughter is going to be a witch for Halloween, but I couldn't find a hat that was small enough to fit her.  Well that's not totally true, I could have paid $30 for a witch costume at Target which had a hat included, but that would have been crazy.  I finally decided just to make one for her.  While a normal sized hat would have been fun, I thought a mini witch hat would be cute.  What did it cost me?  Well, nothing since I had all of the supplies on hand, but if I hadn't had the materials on hand, it probably would have cost around $1 or so.

Here's what I did:

Using this pattern, I cut out my foam sheet.

 I wrapped the foam around into a cone and hot glued the seam.  I then added on little strips along the inside of the cone in order to glue the cone to the base a little easier.  You could definitely skip this step and just put hot glue all around the bottom on the cone as long as you're planning to cover up the seam somehow.  Otherwise, you'll see the hot glue.

 I glued the cone to the base.

 I then added some tulle to match my daughter's tutu.

Last, I hot glued some elastic thread to help keep it on.  The elastic thread was perfect, it didn't bother her so she actually kept the hat on.  Yay!

Chicken Pot Puffs

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 I have a recipe that we call "Chicken Puffs" in our house.  It's one of my grandma's recipes and has been one of my all time favorite foods since I was a kid.  I decided to do a spin off that recipe and do a chicken pot pieish filling.  I'd love for you to try them out and let me know what you think!

Ingredients
Filling
-  1 Large Chicken Breast
-  1/2 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
-  4 Oz Cream Cheese, slightly softened  
-  1 Large Carrot, or several baby carrots, chopped/sliced  
-  1/4 Cup Frozen Peas
-  Salt
-  Pepper 

Outside
-  1 - 2 Packages Crescent Roll Dough
-  1 Stick Butter, melted
-  1 1/2 Cups Italian Breadcrumbs

Sauce
- 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
- 2 - 4 Oz. Cream Cheese
- 1 Can Chicken Broth
 

Directions 

Boil your chicken breast until cooked through.  Chop or shred your chicken breast, set aside.  Par boil your carrot slices for about 5 minutes, so they start to get soft, but aren't completely cooked through.  In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup and cream cheese.  Then add in the chicken, carrots, peas, salt and pepper.  Stir together with a spoon until well combined.

Take your crescent roll dough triangles.  They them out and gently push them outwards to make them a bit wider.  Put a dollop of your filling in the center of each triangle.  You will be able to get 8-12 crescent rolls filled depending on how much filling you put inside.  Wrap the dough around the filling and make sure all the sides are closed up (this takes a bit of practice, and in reality if you have a couple of holes it's not the end of the world, your filling will just seep a bit when you bake them).  

Dip your dough in melted butter and then in seasoned breadcrumbs until it's covered everywhere.  Place on a non-greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

To make the sauce simply put the cream of chicken soup, cream cheese and chicken broth in a medium sauce pan.  Bring it to a simmer.  Stir or whisk until all of the chunks are gone.  Let it reduce until it's a good sauce consistency, not runny like it starts out.

I hope you enjoy this little twist on a chicken pot pie!

Broccoli Potato Cheese Soup

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Well it's starting to be that time of year where you look outside and just want to stay in and eat some nice warm soup.  This is one of my favorite soups.  This recipe makes a fair amount of soup, but it makes for good leftovers. It is pretty easy to half. I had a recipe that is similar, but I revamped it to my liking and added potatoes enjoy!

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 Pinches nutmeg
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves – or 1/4 - 1/3 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups of water with 3 bouillon cubes)
• 1 - 2, 12 oz packages frozen broccoli, thawed
• 3 medium potatoes quartered then sliced - boiled until tender
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese – grated

Directions 

In a medium pot, melt the 6 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme cook, stirring, until fragrant, for 20 seconds. Add the flour and cook, stirring until the mixture is well blended and smells fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the broths, whisking constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until it begins to thicken. Add one package of broccoli and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.  

Remove the pot from the heat and puree with a hand-held immersion blender or normal blender. 

Add the cream and bring to a simmer add the remaining ½ - 1 package of broccoli depending on how chunky you want your soup and simmer for 7 minutes (if you don't want chunks of broccoli, don't add the extra package, it is still very delicious!). Add cooked potatoes and once the broccoli is tender, add the cheese and cook over low heat, stirring, until melted.

Serve and top with grated cheese.

Candy Corn Wreath

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I know these have been around a lot lately on the internet, but I love them so I had to make one to share with you.  To make the wreath, I bought a foam tube at Home Depot that is in the plumbing section for 97 cents.  I then cut the tube to the size that I wanted and then used duct tape to keep the two ends together.  The one issue I ran into by doing this method was that it didn't stay a perfect circle.  I've also heard of doing the same thing using a swim noodle.  I just didn't want to spend $5 on a foam wreath when I could get away with only spending $1.

Next, I wrapped the wreath with black duct tape.  Then I hot glued candy corns onto the wreath.  Just a warning, this will take you a while haha.  I changed the direction the candy corns were facing each row.  Then I wanted to make my wreath a little different than all of the other candy corn wreaths out there, so I added a little sign that says "Trick or Treat" on it.  I purchased a really thin piece of wood at Robert's for $1.80 or so.  It was way longer than I wanted, but it was the right thickness and width.  I broke the wood so it would have rough edges.  I then outlined Trick or Treat on wood and painted around the words.  I decided that I liked the plain wood look for the letters rather than painting them in a different color.  I sanded down the sign a little bit so it would have a distressed/scary look to it.  Then all I had to do was tie a ribbon to the top so I could hang it.  I've seen where people have used a really thick ribbon to hang their wreath, which I think looks nice, but I didn't think it would look as good because of my sign.

I have talked to a few people who made these last year and their wreaths actually ended up melting!  So you may want to preserve your wreath.