sincerely yours, dena

For my husband’s birthday this year, all he wanted was for me to make him a Cornhole court. So with help from a friend (a lot of help) we put together his very own bags court. I still have to finish the final step of painting the Patriots logo on the blue box and the Green Bay Packers logo on the green one. This game is super fun and is best played with a beer in your hand.

A few suggestions in construction:
- I used MDF instead of plywood on the top. It’s cheaper, smoother and precut at home improvement stores
- Triple sew the seams of the bags. A lot of pressure is put on the seams during the game. I found myself running upstairs with broken bags during the party fixing them
- If you can’t find corn (which I found at Lowe’s later) I used beans.

I got my cornhole plans from cornholecornhole
You can get free plans from cornhole-game.com

Both site give a history and rules of the game.

I loved grilled petty pan squash. I think it tastes like steak! A sweet steak that is! It’s so easy, slice in half, marinate in olive oil and then throw on the grill for a few mins.

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

(I used organic items and veggies from my organic farm share)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Taken from Food Network

I have been pining over the mudrooms in the Pottery Barn magazine for years. I finally have a mudroom of my own that can handle a large piece of furniture but I haven’t won the powerball yet to afford it.
During my yard sale travels this summer I’ve procured 2 wooden pegged coat racks for a $1 each. This along with 3 unfinished shelf hangers from A.C. Moore ($9) and scrap wood leftover from the construction I hacked together this pottery barn inspired mudroom coat shelf in a night. I have to say that I’m pretty damn proud of myself.

I got a fennel bulb as part of my organic farm share this week. I’ve never had fennel before and I really didn’t know what to do with it. I found this recipe online and figured you can never go wrong with frying something and then smothering it with cheese. It was indeed very yummy.

2 fennel bulbs
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup half-and-half cream
3/4 cup creme fraiche (I couldn’t find any at the local grocery store so I substituted Heavy Cream)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cut the base off of the fennel bulbs, and cut a cone shape into the base to remove the core. You can see the core because it is whiter than the surrounding green. This is optional, but helps the fennel cook faster. Slice the fennel vertically (upright) into 1/4 inch thick slices.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the fennel, and fry for about 5 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and creme fraiche until well blended. Transfer to a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown and the fennel is tender enough to pierce with a fork.

Taken from allrecipes.com

The best part of eating mussels is dipping the bread in the garlic sauce. Here’s our friend Julia’s recipe that’s so super yummie:

- 1 head of garlic (yes, the whole head)
- 1 small white onion chopped
- Maine Mussels (Maine is the best after all)
- Dry white wine
- 1/2 stick of butter

Simmer all the above in a covered sauce pan until the mussel shells open. Serve with a french baguette for dipping. Don’t eat any mussels that don’t naturally open up on their own!

My new favorite thing in card making is hand stitching with embroidery floss. My mom and I got really into it last Christmas break when we found some stencils at our fav craft store in up north Wisco. Since then, it’s definitely become more popular. I did a little web fishing and I found makeandtakes.com which had this super duper cutie tie pattern. It was fun and easy to make. So easy that I did it during a Friday night girlie wine night. Sorry, Doug for spilling wine on yours….

Click here to download the pattern

A play off of the “turkey gobbler” that I loved from Clark’s Bistro, it’s got sauteed mushrooms and onions with lots of melted cheddar cheese. The finishing touch, drowned it in Stubb’s BBQ sauce.

Got lots of sage from the organic farm share so I’ve got to come up with lots of ways to use it.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage
2 large minced garlic cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
Mix all together or process quickly in a food processor. Chill and serve with rolls or use it on vegetables such as green beans, brussel sprouts, cabbage or other green vegetables.
Recipe from Seeds of Knowledge

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
3/4 cup hazelnuts - toasted, skinned and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons hazelnut liqueur (couldn’t find it ANYWHERE, ended up using Amaretto)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
13 skinned, toasted hazelnuts
4 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon hazelnut liqueur

DIRECTIONS
Using a blender or a food processor, finely chop 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips. Place in a small mixing bowl. Add vanilla wafer crumbs, ground hazelnuts, 2 tablespoons white sugar, and melted butter or margarine. Mix until well combined. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake in a preheated 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) oven for 15 minutes. Cool.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add 1 cup white sugar; mix well. Add the eggs and 3 tablespoons liqueur. Mix until well blended. Coarsely chop 1 cup of the semisweet chocolate chips, and add to the cream cheese mixture. Stir. Pour batter into the cooled crust.

Bake at in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 1 hour. Let cake cool for 1 hour. Remove outer ring from pan. Then let cool completely.

Melt 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips over hot (not boiling) water. Stir until smooth. Dip 13 hazelnuts into the chocolate, covering one-half of each nut. Shake off the excess chocolate. Place on a waxed-paper lined plate. Chill until set.

To the remaining melted chocolate, add sour cream. Mix well. Stir in 1 tablespoon liqueur. Spread glaze on top of the cooled cheesecake. Garnish with chocolate dipped hazelnuts.

Taken from Allrecipes.com