Hoosier Homemade ~ Making Your House A Home

St. Patrick’s Day Decorations

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe via RSS or via email to have my latest posts delivered right to your inbox. Thanks so much for visiting!

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. I had fun decorating and sharing our St. Patrick’s Day Mantle.

Sometimes I have a struggle with blogging “in real time”, that is, like designers and authors, you have to write and post about upcoming events or holidays quite a bit ahead. I wanted to share a tutorial on how to decorate your Mantle for Easter, so I took down the St. Patrick’s Day Mantle a little early. I still wanted to have some decorations up though, so I moved all the “green” goodies to the Dining Room. And, added a few decorations…

I made a St. Patrick’s Day Garland, using the same concept that I made my Valentine’s Garland. I used construction paper and cookie cutters. I was really surprised, after asking my son, Casey, to go through the cookie cutters for me and get out all the shamrocks, that I have 7 different size shamrocks. Remember, these cute cupcake toppers? I printed out some more and added them to the garland too.

I hung it under the window in our Dining Room, I apoligize for the light exposure in these pictures. With the light coming in the window, I just couldn’t get a good picture. We also still have up our plastic on the windows, hoping Spring is near

Decorating my Little Tree for the seasons and holidays, has become quite a tradition in our home. I recently shared with you the Valentine’s Day and the Snowman Tree.

I started with wire garland that has shamrocks on it, I added some of the shamrocks that I cut out of construction paper, like the garland, some of the St. Patrick’s Day printables and a few gold coins that I glued a ribbon to. (visit Diane to see her money tree)

I had all of the supplies on hand, making this little project, quite “lucky”

Do you have a special day planned for St. Patrick’s Day?

This post linked to:

~Works For Me Wednesday

Follow me on Twitter

Don't miss a post! Subscribe today and have them delivered to your inbox.

Cupcake Tuesday ~ Thin Mint Cupcakes

Welcome to Cupcake Tuesday! If you are new here, grab a cup of tea or a glass of milk and enjoy a cupcake!

During my recent visit to Nashville for the Blissdom Conference, my very dear friend, Dawn, took me by Gigi’s Cupcakes, unfortunately it was Sunday and they weren’t open. But, Dawn was telling me that during the time that the Girl Scouts sell cookies, Gigi’s offers a cupcake and donates a portion of the proceeds to the Girl Scouts. Well, since I don’t sell my cupcakes, I was trying to figure out how I could help the Girl Scouts in our town. And I came up with this idea…for every link, today, I am donating to our local Girl Scout troup.

Then, I needed to come up with a cupcake to share. So, I jumped on Twitter and asked my Tweet buddies, what their favorite Girl Scout cookie was, and the majority rules…Thin Mints

One of my goals on Hoosier Homemade, is to share with you, simple, easy recipes, still keeping it homemade, but easy. A way to “Make Your House A Home” without having to spend hours and hours cooking, baking or decorating. These cupcakes, are a perfect fit. They are ooey, gooey, chocolatey and minty. But, very easy.

I started with one of my favorite chocolate cupcakes, from the Farm Chicks

And I used a jar of hot fudge, peppermint extract, green food color, whipped cream and of course, a box of Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies.

Begin by whipping the heavy cream until stiff peaks forms, add about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, 4-6 drops of food color and 4-6 drops of extract, depending on how strong of mint flavor you want and what color you want it. Place whipped cream in a decorator bag, I used the Wilton plastic bag with a 1M tip.

Spread hot fudge, straight from the jar, onto the cupcake. By trial and well, lots of error, I discovered that heating up the hot fudge, even for a few seconds, made it drip down the sides of the cupcake making a big mess.

Then pipe on whipped cream. You could also frost with Buttercream Frosting, but I wanted it to taste light and airy, minty, like a Thin Mint cookie.

And add a cookie

These cupcakes would also make a yummy St. Patrick’s Day treat. Green and mint…perfect.

Do you have a Girl Scout in your house? Do you have cookies everywhere?

Now it’s your turn! Please share your cupcake or muffin recipe! For the guidelines, you can visit Cupcake Tuesday. Be sure to link back to this post and visit some (or all) of the other participants.

You are welcome to link any post, new or old, as long as you haven’t shared it on Cupcake Tuesday. The linky will be open for a week, so you are welcome to come back all week long.

Thanks for helping the Girl Scouts!

Follow me on Twitter

Don't miss a post! Subscribe today and have them delivered to your inbox.

Meals~March 8-14~Cheeseburger Mac

Welcome to another great week of meal planning! I’m always glad come Sunday afternoon, when I get ready to post my meals for the upcoming week and I have the meals planned already because I did my Monthly Meal.

Our meals last week went pretty well, the Bobby Dean Goulash was a big hit and I had enough left to freeze for another meal. Another of our new recipes last week was the Cheeseburger Mac, although it was similiar to the Goulash, it was still very good. My family thought it was very much like Hamburger Helper, but of course, homemade, without all the preservatives that Hamburger Helper has in it. It was a quick, easy meal, and also very frugal.

Ingredients:

1 pound Hamburger, cooked & drained (I buy Hamburger in bulk, cook it and freeze it)
2 3/4 cups Water (I added about 1/4 cup more because it seemed dry)
1/3 cup Ketchup
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/4 teaspoonGarlic Powder
2 cups macaroni, uncooked
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Brown hamburger and drain. Return to skillet or large saucepan. Add water, ketchup and spices, mix well. Bring to boil, stir in macaroni, cover and simmer on medium-low heat 8-10 minutes or until macaroni is tender.

While the macaroni is cooking, shred cheese. After macaroni is tender, stir in cheese, cook until melted, stirring occasionally.

I served this with Honey Bread, that I made in the bread machine.

Another great meal for under $5!

Tomorrow on Cupcake Tuesday, I’m helping our local Girl Scout troup, for every link I’m donating. So, if you have a cupcake or muffin recipe, please come and link up, all posts are welcome, old or new, as long as you haven’t shared it before on Cupcake Tuesday! Oh, and if you don’t have a recipe to share, come visit anyway, I baked some yummy Girl Scout cupcakes!

Now, onto what we are having this week…

Monday ~ Breakfast for Dinner - Homemade McGriddles, Fried Potatoes & Smoothies

Tuesday ~ Chicken in a Haystack

Wednesday ~ Taco Ring and Spanish Rice

Thursday ~ Mostacolli, Garlic Bread and Salad

Friday ~ Chicken Fajitas, Rice

Saturday ~ Stuffed Crust Pizza

Sunday ~ Taco Soup and Cheesy Chili Dip

What’s on your menu plan this week?

This post linked to:

~Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Blessed with Grace

~Tuesdays at the Table hosted by All the Small Stuff