Nothing warms up your bones in the winter like a big, steaming bowl of tasty soup... so, despite the fact that it is now March and we ought to be thinking about spring time, we here in Idaho still have 2 feet of snow on the level and it's supposed to snow some more every day this week. With that in mind, I give you one of my favorite soup recipes: Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup!
With complex flavors and easy directions, this soup will likely become a favorite in your house, too! I can whip this up in about half an hour including prep time and it really hits the proverbial spot, I'll tell you what.
Brown sausage in the bottom of your soup pot. Deglaze pot with apple cider. Add tomato sauce, carrots, and water. Add all spices. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until carrots are fork tender. Add tortellini. Cook 5 minutes more or until tortellini floats to the top.
Serve hot and topped with fresh Parmesan cheese if you desire.
Serves 6 to 8. This soup is also fantastic reheated the next day! Save
Whenever I go shopping, I stop at Starbuck's and get myself a little treat, and, if they have it, I try to get their lemon loaf. But what if you get a lemon loaf craving at home and don't want to go to Starbucks? This recipe is an almost dead-on copy of the coffee chain's signature lemon loaf, but homemade! It's light, fluffy, lemony, and the thick glaze on top gives it just the perfect amount of sweetness!
This recipe is a family favorite - it almost never lasts the night after dinner - so it's perfect to take to potlucks or other gatherings to make sure you come back with an empty plate and no leftovers... not that you'd mind with as tasty as this treat is!
And watch me make this lemon loaf at my YouTube channel (make sure to subscribe or support me on Patreon!)
Coffee House Copy Cat Lemon Loaf
2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 3 eggs 1 cup sour cream 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder Zest of one lemon 1 tsp lemon extract yellow coloring as needed
Cream together sugar, eggs, sour cream, and oil. Mix in lemon juice, zest, extract, and coloring. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet mixture. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Allow to cool in pan. Remove from pan and top with lemon glaze.
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I'm ready for spring; I don't care that there is still tons of snow on the ground here. Because I am so ready for spring, I have already started uploading my newest products to my Etsy shop: Spring-themed hair accessories! Easter, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, general spring pastels... over the next day or so I will be adding tons of new stock to my shop, so keep checking back. The first product available are these GORGEOUS hydrangea bunches in pale pastelscolors of pink, yellow, and blue. I also made coordinating, detachable nests that clip to the flowers with alligator clips, so these hair flowers are perfect for Easter or any time, just by removing the nests!
I have tons of new products coming in the next day or so, so keep checking back, and I will try to remember to post here as I put them up for sale!
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Yesterday was, of course, Valentine's Day, and my valentine is a choco-holic! How to satisfy his sweet tooth but still make something unusual? How about Berry Swirl Cheesecake Brownies?! In my latest episode of the Mid-Century Kitchen with Molly Starlite, I show you how to make this dessert that satisfies any chocolate lover but is not too sweet at the same time! The chocolate ends up soft and gooey and the cheesecake is just tart enough from the cream cheese. And, best of all, this dessert goes together quickly - I was done in about 20 minutes and then one hour to bake - which makes it delightful to put in the oven for later while you're getting ready for your Valentine!
Watch me make one here:
Here is the recipe (download a PDF here):
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
12 tablespoons butter (salted)
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
For Cheesecake Batter
8 oz (1 box) cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt.
Berry syrup
DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8" by 8" square baking dish. Set aside
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for brownie batter and mix thoroughly, until all butter pieces are incorporated. Pour into baking dish and spread batter to edges. Set aside.
Rinse out bowl (or get a new one) and combine all ingredients for cheesecake batter. Beat until all clumps are worked out of the cream cheese. Pour cheesecake batter on top of brownie batter and gently smooth to edges.
Drizzle berry syrup on top of cheesecake and swirl through with toothpick, making sure not to get down into the brownie layer.
Put in oven and bake for 1 hour or until edges of cheesecake layer are a soft, golden brown.
Allow to cool completely before cutting. Makes 9 servings.
Top strap is the underside; bottom
strap is the top side.
If you remember my how-to sew a swing dress post from last summer, you'll remember that I struggled to make straps that looked neat and finished and weren't interminably frustrating to make. After much trial and error, I finally found this method that doesn't involve sewing and turning fabric, isn't frustrating at all, and takes only minutes to make each strap.
That's right: using nothing more than a hot iron, an old bath towel, and a can of spray starch, you can turn a 4-inch wide by 18-inch long piece of cotton into a sturdy strap for dresses and tops in just a few minutes. The only sewing involved is a simple seam down the edge to secure it, but these things come out looking neat and clean and professional in literally just minutes.
Watch me make one here (my 5-year old was taping this, just to explain the videography on this one):
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My pinup life really started with Viva Las Vegas... I entered their pinup contest last year and needed a pinup name to enter, and Molly Starlite was born! Someday, I hope to actually make it to Viva, and I hope to do so as a contestant in their pinup contest... big changes in my life this year (that are continuing this year) prevented it from even being a consideration this time around, but maybe next year or the year after. Fingers crossed!
I daydream a lot about getting to go to Viva or Tiki Oasis; all the big conventions are so far from me, though, and, what with running our own businesses, it's harder than you might imagine to get away for that length of time and keep the budgets in line. Over the last 5 years, my Tommy Lee and I have been saving to drill a deep water well here on our property. We moved out here and there was nothing: no house, no electricity, no plumbing, no utilities, and no water. Over the last five years, we cleared a spot for the house, put in a house, dug a septic and drain field, put in electrical, put in Internet, put in phone access, built a shop and an office, and remodeled the entire house to be a midcentury oasis. We had a five-year plan when we started and we're at the beginning of Year Five; all that's left to do is get water into the house and build a snow roof over the house. Last fall, we got the hole in the ground for our water well developed; this spring, we'll be running the pipes to the house. I'm so excited! We're almost done!
And after we are done, I will start saving a little bit every month to take my first vacation to one of these retro conventions - haven't decided which one yet - and I CANNOT WAIT!
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As a teenager - or pretty much all through my life - I was never prone to acne or anything; I was really lucky. That is, until I quit smoking several years ago. Then, I got really bad cystic acne that took forever to heal. I needed to find something to exfoliate and moisturize my skin that wouldn't break me out worse.
After a lot of trial and error, I finally hit on this recipe while messing around in the kitchen one night:
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons solidified coconut oil
Vanilla extract
The sugar and vanilla work together to make this totally natural and edible paste taste like birthday cake, and the sugar works as a mild exfoliant to get rid of dead skin cells and dirt while the coconut oil is soothing and moisturizing! And as a lip scrub, this tasty concoction works wonders. I just saved some glass jars from my eye cream and fill them with this scrub. You can put the jars in your purse to exfoliate and scrub your lips anywhere, or keep it at your vanity for a quick pick-me-up for your face.
I, probably like a lot of people, didn't like potato salad when I was a kid. In fact, I don't think I willingly ate any potato salad even through most of my young adulthood. And then one day, I was a potential drummer's house for him to try out for my band and his wife served us all bowls of potato salad. Not wanting to be rude, I ate some. And I was shocked that I actually liked it. It wasn't weird in any way. It tasted like potatoes and bacon and there wasn't any weird crunchy things in it, but it had the taste of onions and pickles without the crunch of it.
But the audition didn't go well and I lost contact with that drummer and his wife and never got the recipe. So, I set out to make my own version, and this is the result! This potato salad is a crowd favorite to every place I have ever taken it to; I have never had to bring leftovers home when I bring this dish to picnics, potlucks, BBQs, etc. The secret is the inclusion of pickle juice and lemon zest and juice, which adds the traditional pickle flavor but kicks it up a freshness notch or two with the acidity of the lemon.
Alternate versions of this that I have made before when I have it on hand include adding bacon, but it really is delicious exactly like this. Watch me make it here:
Empty Bowl Potato Salad
6 eggs (hard boiled)
5 medium potatoes (boiled)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Zest & juice of one lemon
2 tbs pickle juice
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs chicken bouillon
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp black pepper
In a large pot, cover potatoes and eggs with water and bring to boil. After 7 minutes of boiling, remove eggs from water and set aside to cool. Continue boiling potatoes for another 10 minutes or until fork tender in the middles. Remove potatoes from hot water and allow to cool.
In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon zest & juice, and pickle juice and whisk until combined. Add in spices and seasonings and whisk until incorporated.
Peel and dice potatoes and put in large mixing bowl. Peel & rinse eggs and set aside.
Add dressing to bowl of potatoes, gently folding to combine until all potato pieces are coated.
Slice eggs on egg slicer and add 4 of the eggs to the bowl of potatoes. Gently fold to incorporate.
Transfer potato salad to serving bowl. Top with remaining two eggs, arranged in a pretty pattern for serving.
Serves 6 to 10.
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For the last day of Miss Amy May's Jenny January, I chose to wear the last Jenny dress I bought from Pinup Girl Clothing: the ice blue harlequin print! I am a harlequin diamond nut. I love this motif, so much, and so, outside of the Halloween harlequin (which I wasn't fond of the orange in it) and the purple harlequin print (which I didn't like the green and purple combo that doesn't look good on my skin tone), I have at last one item in every colorway. This dress... I didn't think I was going to be able to afford it, but my Tommy Lee surprised me with it as a Christmas present, and I am so glad that he did because it is really versatile, and the fit is amazing, in my opinion.
And that does it for another year of Jenny January posts. I am ready for a wiggle skirt tomorrow, though, and I'll be filming another episode of the Mid-Century Kitchen with Molly Starlite. What should I cook? I'm thinking potato salad.
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My second favorite Jenny dress that I own is this cherry border print dress that I wore for Miss Amy May's Jenny January Day 6. I ADORE this print because it is unusual compared to traditional all-over cherry prints... plus, this one is a dress that is actually three sizes too big for me that I tailored to fit me. That means that the waistline of the dress makes it all the way to my navel and my natural waist, accommodating my freakishly long waist better than any other dress I own.
I wore this dress to walk in the Women's March on Washington Sister March in Sandpoint, Idaho this morning/afternoon. It was a near-blizzard out there today, and, while the weather ruined my wet set, it couldn't stop our spirit and determination and solidarity... and my dress kept me warm while we were out there for about 2 and half hours with about 800 other like-minded souls.
Like what you see here? Want to help me make more awesome stuff? Support me on Patreon.com
and get instant rewards! You could get a custom song, free copies of my
books, free jewelry, a say in my projects, and so much more! Thank you
for your patronage!
