RECIPE FOR RHUBARB CRUMBLE

I have to give Oprah the credit for this recipe. I was looking for different variations of rhubarb crumble and I figured I would start off with Oprah's. The crumble doesn't have oatmeal in it but just flour.


Rhubarb desserts often call for strawberries, but in writer Catherine Newman's family recipe the red stalks are perfectly delicious on their own. Sliced and baked under a blanket of brown sugar, they melt into delectable, ruby-hued spoonfuls, completed with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Servings: Serves 8

Ingredients:

Rhubarb Crumble
2 pounds rhubarb , cut into 1-inch pieces (about 6 cups)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter , cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp. salt
Vanilla ice cream , for serving (optional)
Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. To make filling, put rhubarb, granulated sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and vanilla into a 9" x 13" baking dish and toss well to combine; set aside.

To make crumble topping, put remaining 1 cup flour, light brown sugar, butter, and salt into a large bowl and toss well. Using your fingertips, rub butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal. Working with one small handful at a time, squeeze dough together to make a ball, then gently break it into chunks and scatter them on rhubarb filling in baking dish.

Bake until rhubarb is very tender and bubbly and crumble topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream if desired; spoon any leftovers into bowls and eat cold for breakfast.




I made two of these so I could freeze one.

A Simple Breakfast for Company

Take a look these leaves from my rhubarb!
It is so hot today that my daughter and I are like wet rags.
She helped me cut the stalks of the rhubarb and also cut the chunks. I am going to make two crumbles so that I can freeze one when my son, daughter-in-law and grandson come to visit this week. The second one I am taking to a church cook out tomorrow. Ooo, two birds with one stone!

The men that attended the men's bible study taught by my husband ate all of the blueberry crumble and almost all of the muffins.

For the muffins, instead of making a drizzle for the tops, I took cream cheese, added a bit of confectioners sugar to it, frozen raspberries and some milk and made a spread for the muffins.

So today's breakfast for the men:

Orange juice
Coffee
Iced Water/orange slices
Blueberry Crumble Cake
French Vanilla muffins
Raspberry spread
Butter
Sliced pineapple

See, it is a simple breakfast but yummy! Don't overdo it in this hot weather if you want to have people over for a visit. You can still be hospitable and yet enjoy your company!

Colors of Early Summer

Be inspired when you are looking at the colors of early spring, early summer and early fall. Just the colors themselves can give you ideas for new pieces of art. You don't have to paint the flowers themselves. Pull out these colors from your stash of paints or papers; mix paint on your pallete, cut random pieces of color from your scrap book papers and glue away.

Years ago, we had what was called color aid paper in art school. We would use this paper to learn about all of the hues, their values and intensities. Today, we have papers galour to play with from textured papers, shiny gold and silver papers, home-made papers, oriental style papers, flat or shiny papers; you want it, you can find it!

Take a piece of bristol board (a paper that is somewhat thick with no tooth to it) and paint different spots with your acrylic paints. Let it dry and then cut out shapes and glue the shapes every which way you would like on a piece of wood, on a canvas board, or even a piece of drawing paper. Get a feel of the colors.

We are so used to making sure colors match in our wardrobes, but when we see the lillies of the fields, and the herbs in our grasses, we see combinations of wonderful colors like the yellow and peach in the lilly, and the burgundy and mauve type pink.

When you are taking a drive, do you ever look at the colors of the weeds and wild plants on the side of the road. I have seen what looks like purple in the lime green colored grass. I am sure that the purple was not purple but brown. But, with the light and shadows, that brown was purple. So,paint a picture with purple and green instead of brown. Our minds trick us into thinking something else when we really see purple. Color is alot of fun. Play, Play Play with your colored paints!

Bride and Groom

"Bride" and "Groom" are the titles of my two newest collage/mixed media pieces.

My son and his bride got married two months ago and I finished these to get out in the mail for their wedding gift.

Bride and Groom are collaged on wood. I drew these cute little illustrations in a drawing pad, and then colored them with prisma colored pencils, cut them out and gel mediumed them to the wood. There is where I began to paint them with acrylic golden paints and many mixed materials for the backgrounds including inks, papers, stamps...

If you have any questions about methods, please do write!

French Vanilla Raspberry Muffins

oooyum!

1 box French Vanilla cake mix

(yes, there is a french vanilla out there in the grocery store. I had never heard of it either.

It is by Betty Crocker)

2 TBS flour

3 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. baking powder

2 cups raspberries

Mix everything together. The batter will be a pretty pink color.

Bake in prepared muffin tins for 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

This recipe made 20 muffins.

They can be eaten plain or make a drizzle with confectifoners sugar and milk to a thin consistancy and drizzle with a spoon over the top of the muffins.

Ran out of BROWN SUGAR

I was preparing a blueberry crumble bread for the men's meeting for tomorrow morning held at our house. I ran out of brown sugar or so I thought. I BINGed for a recipe on "How to make brown sugar out of other ingredients in the house".

Here's the recipe:

1 TBS of molasses to 1 cup of white sugar.

That simple! I put them together in a bowl and just stirred till the molasses and sugar were thoroughly mixed. The instruction said to put the ingredients in a food processor. Nah! Too much work and more dishes.

It came out wonderful-the bread that is!

And guess what, I found the brown sugar after I was all done!

CREATIVITY

Are you creative? No...your not? Of course you are!

Do you sing, do you like to eat, do you like wearing bright colors or dark colors like black?

Do you look at street signs or the huge murals on the highway when you are traveling?

When your watching tv, is there a jingle you love from a particular commercial? Do you see a commercial and think "I would have done that commercial this way or that.

Have you ever made someone a cake?...a special meal?

Do you go to the hairdressers and you express by using a magazine or one of those books in the waiting room?

Have you gone to the ocean and wrote in the sand, created a sandcastle when you were little, blew bubbles in the water, skimmed rocks in the lake to see how many ripples you made?

How about ice cream? Do you have a hard time determining what kind you want?

If you think about each question here, you will see that there are determinations of what you like or dislike. And you know what? That is your creativity.

There have been times I have wanted to wear bright colors, but another day, I may want to wear a whole outfit that is black and just wear a decorative necklace to jazz up the outfit.

G

BlogHop at SuziBlu's

SuziBlu and a bunch of wonderful artists are having a bloghop where they are giving a give away; a special present==gilding kit if you write to each artist!

Here is a great spring/summer outfit! Cotton...cool with a vintage apron on top of a white linen full length skirt

I have a hard time wearing warm when it is hot out, but this is great for those damp spring, summer or fall days. Wear a pair of your shorts with black leotards, black flat shoes, and a black turtle neck. To brighten up the color of the outfit, wear a bold colored pocket book or bag!

There are so many dresses now out on the market that are sleeveless. Do you know that style is from the late 1970's and early 80's. Funny isn't it?! Hot days are here. To make this dress modest, add a vest on top with a great large bold necklace with chains or beads, match your shoes and off you go. I put together a similar dress combo for a wedding I recently attended. The weather was in the high 90's and there was no air conditioner in the church. My outfit went well with the weather. Instead of a vest, I wore a short little thin sweater.

Layered Look, short sleeved white top, patterned shirt on top of the white top, a patterned shirt with thin belt on top (waist level), straight leg jeans, and short high healed closed toe shoe

Oh how I love this! this color brown or "cocoa" is so in now! Hand-made necklace, black tank with a brown "cocoa" tank on top, black below knee skirt, grey tights,

brown shoes and a scarf for a belt

These colors are so lovely. A round necked green jersey, a patterned

jumper, matching tights and bold necklace statement

Casual and I love it! Scarf, black round necked shirt, striped shirt, lose vest, black leggings and black flat shoes

simple but lovely combination of color-burgundy, gold and black

This is a great look for work, for church, for a business meeting or just

going out to eat!

jean, corderoy or military type jacket, scarf, red round necked shirt, red

leotards, leather gloves, belt and boots to match

short cardigan sweater with pin, round necked shirt wide legged pants,

patterned scarf for a belt

Mix and Match Outfits

scarf, waist length sweater, striped shirt, wide belt, straight leg cords,

toe shoes

Wardrobe Remix

Being a christian mom, my concern is always to be modest around my children especially my boys, and also caring about how I look around others.

No, the outside is not so important to the Lord as the inside. But what is in the inside sometimes comes out on the outside. You may be a little unsure of your style, or confused about what to wear. Society is always telling us what we should be wearing. Magazines on the counters of every store, bill boards, movies, tv, online advertisements.

I was in a size 3 two years ago. I could have worn a gunny sack on my body I was so thin. I am now much healthier and have gained quite a bit of weight and I look very different. So I have to take that into account. I still shop with that size 3 in mind, get to the dressing room and think, "oh boy" what am I thinking". So my ideas have changed.

Finding the site "wardrobe remix" was so fun for me. I found it a couple of years ago and started blogging down the outfits I liked. Yes, they may be different than what you pick, and perhaps I would not wear all of the outfits I blogged, but there was something about each that I liked. Some, it was the color combinations. Others, it was the style.

Being a christian, I prayed that the Lord would keep showing me how he would like me to dress. The Lord knows my style. He knows me through and through. I love large earrings, pocketbooks to match. Color and texture and the over-all look matter to me. I do not get over dressed everyday, but I like to have outfits picked, put together and set on the side for church and casual days. I also like to have some special outfits for Mondays when my husband and I go out for a date.

Take a look at wardrobe remix and get inspired!

ROSE WATER

,For years now, I have wondered how rose water was made. It seems to me that I had read that vodka was needed to make it and I guess that is why I never did or never found the time to do so.

My roses are now in bloom-various colors: pink, hot pink, red, fuschia and all the colors in between. So, with the fan on, and a home-made pina colada (fresh pineapple, pineapple juice and coconut milk and plenty of ice, chop up in blender), I decided to research on Bing "How do I make rose water. Rose water is very good for your face and is like a tonic or freshner for your face. I have a Lebanese friend that uses rose water in her baklava.

It is so eassssssssy to make and there are plenty of directions.

Take one cup of rose petals

(about 2-3 roses)

Rinse them first to get bugs or dirt off of them

Place them in a pirex bowl

Pour 2 cups of distilled boiling water over them

Cover the bowl with a plate

Let liquid cool

Strain the petals out

Pour water into a sterile jar with cover and refrigerate

*1 part vodka, rubbing alcohol or witchhazel to 10 parts

rosewater for your facial astringent

I love finding out new things about life and what we can use the things the Lord has given us into

our everyday lives. That goes along with doing 2-3 loads of laundry today, cleaning up a tad for tomorrow being Sunday and having a day of rest and Father's Day.

I am also making potatoe salad for my hubby for tomorrow. I can't wait to give him his presents with my kids. He is getting a new pair of cotton pajama bottoms because we know Dad never buys himself things. Bath and Body Works had an awesome sale last week so he is getting shower gels; a new set of headphones so he can listen to his brass band music, and passion fruit tea and a StarBucks cold cup so I can make him Strawberry lemonade tea. We will plop him on the couch with his tea, nice comfy pajamas and rest! My husband is a pastor and is having a busy day, so when we get home, I want him to be comfortable and relaxed.

The rhubarb has grown huge, and I would love to get out there tonight (the sun is setting) and cut some up and make him a rhubarb crumble.

I'll blog about that recipe in the next couple of days.

WELCOME TO CRYSTAL'S CREATIONS

Always Something To Do

I find that there is always something to do as a mom, wife and artist/writer. I have ATC (artist trading cards) on my desk in envelops ready to mail, weeding in the garden; just put away laundry and am driving my husband to a meeting while I pick up a few things at the grocery story.

New AGAIN

Another day, another blog. Yes, I took this old blog and am making it new. Why? Because I can't find my other spectangle blog that I had art work up on, and a beautiful and colorful layout. I don't write down my passwords or sometimes my user name either. So after much searching (my teen daughter helping me out too), I decided to take this blog, and continue with it! Join me and enjoy.

Do check out the videos. These are some of my favorite blogs that have great videos on them to teach you new techniques. Also, I have a YouTube gadget on the sidebar so that you can type in your favorite videos and watch them and let me know what they are.