Redneck and loving it!

Spring is in the air!

The past week has been great. I've made some new things and had a blast doing them. My first new love is the redneck wineglass. These are just fun!

I figure they will be great conversation pieces this summer at cookouts. I did them with jewels, vinyl and ribbon. I have some that are red, white and blue and some that are Auburn or Alabama. War Eagle!

My favorites are the summer colors though. I've put several of these in the Hometown Specialties Shop in Wetumpka.

So today, I played off the wineglass idea with a friend of mine to create lanterns too. I used wire and beads to make the handles and put tealights in them. I really like playing with wire and beads. This is my set of pink/green lanterns and redneck wineglasses!

I have orders for 6 more glasses that I need to make this weekend. Can't wait to get started!

We've also found some really cute plates and cups at the local thrift store so I've been working with them too. This is a piece that I put together and put by my coffee pot. A friend suggested putting sugar cubes in the top (notice my little sterling silver sugar cube tongs, also a thrift store purchase), and sugar packets and substitutes on the plates. I put green tea bags on the bottom plate and the substitute in the cup but the effect is pretty much the same.

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The new recipe I am going  to try this weekend is
Pretzel Crusted Key Lime Squares
They sound really good -- salty/sweet lime. Kind of Margarita flavor maybe?
UPDATE: These tasted awesome! I think I could have done a few things better though. The crust didn't "stick" together like I thought it should. I will definitely grind my pretzels smaller and maybe add a bit more butter before pressing into the pan. Also the white chocolate should be added to the squares AFTER they are cut. I added it before and it was pretty but when we cut them the white chocolate drizzle just crumbled into they lime filling and didn't make a very pretty presentation. I will make them again just because they tasted so darn good!


Crust:
1 1/2 cups pretzel crumbs
6 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 Tbsp sugar

filling:
2 large egg yolks
1 - 14 oz. can fat free sweeteed condensed milk (I'll probably used the real stuff)
1/2 cup key lime juice

Optional white chocolate drizzle:
1 oz. melted white chocolate

preheat ove to 350

spray 8x8 square pan with cooking spray. in a food processor grind pretzels until they are a fine crumb (not dust). in a bowl combne your pretzel crumbs, butter, salt and sugar. press firmly into your prepare pan and bake for 10 minutes. let crust cool.

now combine yolks, sweetened condnesed mile and lime juice. stir until well mixed. pour into crust and bake 12-15 minutes until its set. cool completely and drizzle with white chocolate. refrigerate until ready to eat (at least an hour). store in refrigerator.

I'll let you know how they turn out ;)

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