DIY Paper Basket

With Spring in full gear now we are going to share with you a little how-to Spring/Easter basket that you can make. These are perfect to use as an afternoon craft project with the kids on Spring Break so they can have them ready for egg collecting on Easter morning or you can use them as decorations or even as a goodie “bag” at a party or gift basket to give to someone. They can be as cute or as sophisticated as you want them to be.

Here’s how to make them...

We actually made two different sized baskets. The first one (blue) is made from regular sized paper that we cut into a 8 ¼ x 8 ¼ inch square. You can really use any size paper but it needs to be cut into a square. The bigger the paper the bigger the basket. We also made one (pink) that was slightly larger so we made that a 12x12 inch square. We have also provided lots of step by step by step pictures as some of the steps are hard to explain.

So the process at the start is the same for any size. You will need to start off with a square then you mark it into thirds in both directions so you end up with nine smaller equal squares.

Then you cut the two lines on the bottom third and the two lines on the top third (as shown in the picture below).

Now fold all the side towards the middle along the lines.

Here’s where things get a little different.

Blue Basket (wider shallower basket): Put glue on the sides of the bottom middle square and then glue the bottom corner squares to the middle so it forms a triangle. Repeat at the top.

Then use scissors to round the four corners of the basket.

Take a long thin strip (ours is from what was left over of the paper that we made into a square which was about 8 ½ inches long but you can make yours whatever size you like) and glue the strip on like a handle.

Now you can decorate. We used some punches but you can draw, stamp, or sticker things to it. Keep in mind that stamping and drawing would be more difficult when the basket is already assembled.

Pink Basket (taller deep basket): Take each corner and spilt into thirds again and cut. 

Now take the middle bottom square and mark the middle of the edge and cut into a triangle and do the same on the other side. Fold along lines. 

Glue the inner third from the right hand side to the inner third from the left hand side so they are perpendicular to each other.

Then continue overlapping and gluing sides, adding thirds and alternating sides until you’ve used them all.

The last ones should be in line with each other.

Glue the remaining triangles upward to hide all of the overlapping gluing that you’ve just done and probably to hold things in place as well.

Fold little one inch circles (ours probably could have been a little bigger) to help hide all of the edges and corners at the top

Attach a handle. Again it can be whatever size and colour you choose. Lastly, decorate!

Creamy Soups

Spring is here and the weather is warming up so it’s fitting that it’s our last week of soups! This week we are focusing on creamy soups, ones that are a bit thicker and more filling. You can have these soups as a main meal or even use them as more of a sauce on meals you are having.

Some different types of creamy soups are...chowders (clam, corn, potato, seafood etc.), cream of broccoli, chicken, and celery, mushroom, creamy tomato basil, potato, cauliflower, chicken vegetable with rice (almost like a stew consistency), cheesy broccoli, potato leek, potato and ham, and bisque.

We’re sharing with you a couple of recipes today for creamy soups (you can also look back at one that we posted previously, for Potato Chicken Chowder). One we made for lunch the other day so check them out.

Cream of Potato Soup

For the soup you will need the following ingredients...

2 tbsp. of margarine

1 small onion (diced)

2 tbsp. of flour

2-4 potatoes depending on the size (diced)

2-3 stalks of celery (diced)

4cups of chicken broth

½ tsp. of celery salt

Bacon bits (optional)

First of all, dice up the celery, onion, and potatoes and set aside.

If you are wanting to sprinkle bacon bits on top of your soup, then you can chop up some bacon now to fry later.

Next melt the margarine in a large pot on medium heat.

Add the onion and cook until tender.

Mix in the flour and stir well.

Now add in the potato and the celery along with the broth (we added a cup or so of water as well) and bring to a boil and allow it to continue to boil (with the lid on) for 10-15 minutes. If the potatoes aren’t tender by this time then you can keep on boiling the soup until they are.

While the soup is boiling, you can make a roux for thickening.

In a separate sauce pan, melt 2 tbsp. of margarine and then add 2 tbsp. of flour. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Your roux should start thickening to a cake icing consistency. You should see gentle bubbles.

Once it bubbles and is thicker, you can add your 2 cups of cold milk to the pan slowly while whisking. Adding a little bit of liquid at a time is probably the best thing to do and then whisk after each addition. In order for the roux to become properly thickened (we found this out by failing) you need to let it simmer for 10-20 minutes. Once you’ve let it simmer and it looks to be thicker, then it’s ready.

Back to the soup...after letting your soup boil, you should have soft potatoes. Now you can stir in the celery salt and then incorporate the roux you just made. Add in a couple of pinches of salt.

Allow the “finished” soup to simmer at medium temperature for 10 minutes or so and serve.

In this simmer time, we made some bacon bits to put on top of our soup and a cheesy melt to pair our 

soup with for lunch.

'Cream' of Mushroom Soup

3 Tbsp. of olive oil

2 pounds of mushrooms (finely diced)

1 tsp. of fresh thyme

Zest of 1 lemon

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 celery stalks (diced)

1 large head of cauliflower (chopped in small chunks)

1 ½ tsp. of sea salt

½ tsp. of black pepper

½ tsp. of onion powder

1 tsp. of Dijon mustard

4 cups of broth

1 cup of unsweetened coconut cream

In a large pot, heat 2 Tbsp. of oil and then add the mushrooms and cook until golden brown and soft. Add in the thyme and lemon and cook for about 2 minutes or until very fragrant.

Set half of this mushroom mixture aside and leave the rest in the pot that they were cooked in. Add in the rest of the olive oil, onion, garlic, and celery and cook until tender.

Now add the cauliflower chunks with the salt, pepper, onion powder, and the mustard. Sauté it all until fragrant and then add in the broth and cook until the cauliflower is tender (about 5-7 minutes). Transfer to a blender and purée.

Once the soup looks smooth, add in the mushrooms that were set aside along with the cream (you could probably use regular cream if you want to) and stir it all up to combine. You might want to add it back to the original pot to warm it up slightly before serving.