Meatball Appetizers

Last Friday, we had another family get together and decided to eat leftovers plus we made a few appetizers, mostly finger foods and desserts! This meatball recipe is really  delicious, the meatballs soak up the sauce, oh they are so good! Why would you not try this recipe, it is so easy to make and everyone will think you slaved all day!! 🙂

You can purchase ready made meatballs in the frozen food section of your grocery or make you own. I choose to use the ready made meatballs, it just made it easier since I have been cooking for a week already!

Ingredients:
16 ounce jar of Grape Jam
16 ounces of Chili Sauce
1 bag of Meatballs
Crock Pot liners

I doubled this recipe since we had a big crowd. It’s so easy, combine equal parts of grape jam an chili sauce into your crock pot and stir. Add meatballs and stir, set the crock pot on high for 4-5 hours to cook. You might need to cook longer depending on the size of your crock pot. I did not have any crock pot liners so clean up took a little longer. I like to use the crock pot liners, makes for really easy clean-up!

 The meatballs I used were Italian style that had garlic and other spices, they were delicious!

The Chili sauce can be hard to find but the grape jam is easy!

The above picture shows what they look like after mixing everything, turning on the crock pot and placing the lid on top. 

I would suggest stirring the meatballs about every hour if you can! Next picture, they are ready to eat!!! MMM… they are so delicious!

What is your favorite appetizer?

Happy  New Year!! 🙂 Be safe if you are going out tonight!!

Birds Eye Maple Cutting Boards

 

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Maple Burl

I was searching around today on Craig’s List and found a super deal on a couple of Maple Burl blocks. I got both pieces for $10, on Ebay and other wood stores these pieces would go for $45 plus. Maple burl is hard to get and nearly impossible in my area. I used a little mineral spirits on one side of each piece to show the colors!

Both pieces are 1-5/8 x 2-1/2, one is 17 inches long and the other is 11-1/2 inches long. I am planning to use these to turn a batch of my wine bottle stoppers!! Give me a few weeks and I will post pictures! Happy Days 🙂

 

 

Trailcam Wild Turkey

I have not posted any trailcam pictures lately, here are some pictures of the wild turkey that live around our home on the mountain! I love my trail cameras, they are a lot of fun!

 

 

 

 

 Enjoy your Sunday! 🙂

 

 

Check out my charcuterie serving platters !

 

 

Heath Toffee Bits

Do you like the Heath Toffee candy bars?  If you like the Heath Toffee candy bars you will love these cookies! They are easy to make and they only take 6 minutes to cook!! Everyone loves these cookies!!

Ingredients:
1  – 18 or 30 ounce roll of sugar cookies
1 – tablespoon of plain flour per 18 ounce of sugar cookie dough
1/2 bag or 4 ounce of Heath Toffee Bits per 18 ounce cookie dough – I like to add extra bits!!
3-4 ounces of chocolate chips for topping ( not required )
Bake at 360 degrees F

Using cold sugar cookie dough, remove wrapper, cut dough into pieces. Add flour and Heath Toffee Bits. Using your hand work the flour and Heath Toffee bits today.

Using parchment paper, line your baking sheet. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place equally apart on the parchment paper.

Place in the oven and bake 6 to 7 minutes depending on your oven. Be careful not to over bake, if you over bake them they will be crisp instead of a chewy cookie!

I didn’t have any chocolate chips left but I usually melt chocolate chips in a baggie, cut a really small hole in the baggie, then drizzle the melted chocolate on top of the cookies. Then sprinkle more toffee bits into the chocolate. I suppose you could also use the chocolate sprinkles, green and red for Christmas!

Time for a snack! 🙂

Enjoy! 🙂

 

 

 

Walnut and Pentacryl

I cut a few Walnut rounds on Saturday using my chain saw from a wet log that was given to me.  I used Pentacryl, which is a non-toxic liquid compound of modified polymers designed to prevent cracking and splitting of green wood for the drying process.  Basically a preservation solution. The idea is to stop the cracking and splitting, if I get lucky there won’t be any cracks! The Pentacryl is absorbed by the wood replacing the moisture in the wood.

Using a plastic bucket, I poured the Pentacryl over the walnut rounds with a small thin piece of 1/8 wood, 1″ x 1/2″ between each piece to keep them separated. About every 12 hours I rotated the Walnut rounds, letting them soak for a total of 72 hours.

The picture above I took after removing the Walnut from the Pentacryl, you can tell they are wet, the colors seem to bleed together. All that will change when they are completed try!

I removed them from the Pentacryl, stand them on their ends and let them drain for about an hour. Next I cut cardboard rounds the size of the Walnut for both ends and covered them. The cardboard will help slow down the drying process.

I will rotated these daily for the next 3-4 weeks. Once I think they are close to dry I will check the moisture content, can’t start the final finish until they are dry. I will follow up with another post when they are dry and show you the final finishing process!

Over the last year I have made a lot of new friends blogging and have so much enjoyed all the comments, conversations, emails and getting to know you! 🙂 Enjoy your Christmas with family and friends!

 

Charcuterie platter

Artisan cutting boards

 

 

 

Just believe you can!

Good evening y’all,
It’s been a gloomy past two days with a lot of rain today, more tonight and more rain tomorrow thru mid day. The high today reached 39 degrees with a wind chill of 32 degrees. It’s currently 37 and raining! I took this picture this morning, the fog was so thick you could not see more than 30 – 40 feet.

We wait all year for Christmas and now as  write this blog we are only 27:45 til Christmas. This year we have two grandsons that will make our Christmas more special, Parker and Asher!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

It’s been weeks since I have been able to post! This year more I have been covered up with orders for my boards, ice cream scoops, birdhouses and honey sticks. Most all of the orders have been shipped with a few that were ordered late that will ship this week. If you ordered from me I want to thank you very much and hope you loved everything. If you are giving as gifts, I hope everyone enjoys them. I sure would love to see pictures from your kitchen!

My wife and I spent the afternoon yesterday making Chocolate Chip Cookies, 6 dozen! 🙂 In just a while we are planning to make 4 dozen our Heath Candy bar cookies.

This chocolate chip recipe was given to me many years ago from a friend. It is not the traditional Hershey chocolate chip recipe, these cookies are a chewy chocolate chip cookie. Everyone has their preference but I really like a chewy cookies with medium thickness and a ratio of 50/50 chocolate to dough.

Ingredients:
1 pound unsalted butter (room temperature)
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
2-1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
4 eggs (room temperature)
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds of chocolate, chips, chunks mixed plus a little chopped

I use King Arthur pastry and bread flour. f you have not been to their web site and you like to bake, you need to visit their site! 🙂

To get started, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line all of your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift all of your dry ingredients into a separate bowl.

In a large mixing bowl of your electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.

Reduce speed to low and add your dry ingredients and vanilla. Stop mixer, remove and clean off paddle. Now addd your chocolate and mix using spatula or by hand.

I like to use a scoop to keep all the cookies about the same size. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft about 12-14 minutes depending on your pan and oven.

Walnut cutting board, click picture to see more!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!!

 

Cheese boards, cutting boards and charcuterie platters

 

The Rock

Good evening y’all,

It was a beautiful day today on top of the mountain! Our high reached 59 degrees F, the low was only 39 degrees F. Fog all day today but no rain. We are due to get heavy rain tomorrow but clearing for Sunday.

I have not had much time to post the last week because I am extremely busy in the shop, which is a good thing!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! 🙂

 

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

– Aristotle

 

I made a Cherry cutting board for a nice customer that lives in Boston, MA and she sent me a picture of the board in her kitchen. It goes very well with her Kitchen Aid mixer!