My Birthday and some new crafts ...

Well, it's my birthday weekend and I will be turning the big 5-0 on Sunday. So, I decided to take an extended weekend from work to just relax and do things I enjoy doing. One of them is making crafts, especially for the sabbat holidays. I began working on some items for Imbolg and now I am working on creating some new things for Ostara ...

Small Imbolg wreath

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Imbolg Heart #1 

 Imbolg Heart #2 (wreath)

Small Ostara Wreath

In addition to these, I also made a few other things including a large "The Seasons of Green Man" wreath with a brass Green Man leaf in the middle surrounded by representations of all eight sabbat holidays ...

 Small Lace-trim Cat Wreath

 a small Mermaid  wreath for my Nautical theme in our bathroom ...

 I also came across a set of really cute Ostara bunny tea light holders by one of my favorite artists, Jim Shore ... (LOVE these!)

And, since dare I say I do not do very much cooking, I couldn't wait to make my favorite recipe which I learned from my Nana. It is an old Pennsylvania Dutch soup called, "Chicken Corn Rival Soup." I do not make it very often because it takes HOURS to cook until the homemade rivals (dough balls) are completely cooked . I also thought that it would be a nice idea to make a huge batch for my dad now that he is home from the rehab hospital ... that is until my brother told me that my mom had already made it two days ago! No matter, I will still make sure that he gets a bowl or two along with Mom and Pop (my in-laws) ...

In case anyone is interested in making this dish, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

1 (4-pound) chicken

4 quarts water

1  (10 ounce) package frozen whole white kernel corn

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 egg

2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

Directions:

In a large stock pot, cover chicken with water. Cook slowly until tender (approx. 1 hour). Remove chicken, let cool and remove meat from bones. Cut meat into 1 inch pieces, discarding skin and bones. Cut corn from cobs if using fresh corn. Add corn and cut up chicken to pot and season with salt and pepper. Simmer soup for 10 minutes.

How to make the Rivils: (homemade dough balls)

In a separate bowl, make the rivils by mixing the flour, salt, egg. Separate mixture into tiny balls of dough and drop into soup also adding the hard boiled eggs. Simmer anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour, depending upon how long your rivals actually take to completely cook. Serve hot.

Have a great weekend everyone!