Highdesert Stamper – Artistic Inkspirations

As I write this… the temperature is dropping and it’s currently 15degrees F. ITS COLD!!!

Orecchiette Pasta or “little ears” is a good pasta to cook to “hold the sauce” well. It’s one of those pastas that just loves to grab the sauce. I like to cook EASY dishes, since I can’t stand very long and prep a lot of things. I saw a recipe in one of my emails calling for any kind of pasta and a quick pesto sauce with chicken. I had a jar of pesto, so I gave it a try.  Pesto is one thing I’ve found, that if you find a good ready to use brand… go for it. Trader Joe’s here in town has some wonderful pre-made sauces.  They have “tastings” so if you want to try something before buying it.. wait long enough and they’ll serve all their new things in the back of the store in their “tastings”.  This Pesto sauce I got was one such item.

My recipe called for some sun-dried tomatoes which I didn’t happen to have, but I had some cherry tomatoes. So I buzzed them in my little bullet to grind them up and threw them in the pan with the chicken. I also modified the given recipe a bit and added some “It’s a Dilly” seasoning, and some onion powder. The rest I left the same with about 1 1/2 TB garlic ground up, 3 large boneless chicken thighs (the recipe called for breasts, but I had thighs which have much more flavor), and the pesto.  I did add a can of artichoke hearts. I’ve had artichokes in many dishes in restaurants and I know it goes well with pestos.  So here is what my Orecchiette Pasta dish looked like all sauced up..  My daughter says she wishes I’d learn how to cook…. I guess if I did learn how to cook any better…they’d have to roll me out the door!!

Try it… it’s yummy!!! And a very quick and easy main dish!

I’ve not had time to do much stamping, but did finish a swap I was in for my Oriental group of ladies.  I will post one of my pages later. I did make something called Kolaches last week.  Harry and I used to get them at a little Pennsyvania Dutch bakery in Kemp, Texas. We would go on Saturdays after we’d hit a few garage sales. They were freshly made every day… those and the hand held pies the bakers made.  Here are some homemade Kolaches I made using a basic pillsbury roll mix, some turkey kielbasa and cheddar cheese. I rollled mine into little mini roll shapes instead of the triangles like the traditional ones from the bakery. One batch of the bread dough will make a couple dozen of these tasty little bites!!

If you want a tasty treat for the holidays… these are super easy to make and they will feed a crowd! You can always cut triangles of dough and just roll the chunk of sausage and cheese up into a little crescent shape, let rise til double, then bake 15 min at 450deg.

Come back again for some more Holiday Goodies and stamped projects.

Visit my ETSY shop for handmade cards, books, calendars, supplies.

Visit WEBSTORE for retired items, supplies, artifacts, and various other things.

Leave a comment and your email for the MYSTERY KITS!!

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I saw a card made by Michele Zindorf..(see her tutorial for the Reindeer card here).. the Queen of brayering and distressing.. and wanted to make a similar card but in a FALL theme since I have a bunch of November cards to send out to a RAK group I am in. So I came up with the following Leaf card.. using the Gently Falling stamp set, and an old, old punch I had. I never get rid of my flowers, leaves, or snowflake punches. They just don’t make new punches like the oldies..

Here’s the Original version I cased from Michele Z using the Winter Post stamp set which is ON SALE THIS WEEK!! If you don’t have this set…better get it while on sale!!

Winter Post stamp set ON SALE for $13.48!!

Snowflake punch used on card:

Now here is my Fall Leaf version

I used the Spice Cake designer paper, and the leaf that was punches out, was used as a mask to sponge around so I could stamp inside it’s border. I think the recipients will enjoy these cards..

Spice Cake paper: Gently Falling stamp set:

Would you like a card kit to put together? Leave a comment and I will draw a name each week to receive a kit of ONE of the cards I have displayed on my blog. The kits, since I am GIVING them away, come all STAMPED, ready to assemble!! So be sure to leave some love in the form of a comment on my blog. The Blogmonitor will ask you to do a simple math problem when you leave a comment…just to make sure you are  person and NOT a spybot!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and be sure to come back on Thanksgiving day to see my card for the CreativeSketches challenge blog.