You know we love contests around here. It’s fun to have you participate and then share some prizes with you! Next week we’ll have our Fifth Anniversary Contest, but first we have a couple of other ones to wrap up. During Project Two time for Camp Loopy, we divided the participants up by Trail Guides. Some of the Trail Guide groups have been very active on Ravelry, talking about their projects. We asked each group to come up with a colorway and name to commemorate their time together. I told them I’d pick my favorite for awarding some prizes, but that we’d have ALL of the colorways dyed up for fun. Watch for news of Camp Colorways this fall!

The competition was fierce, and it was hard to make a decision. But the final winner is Lulu’s Lightening Bolt. I picked this one because not only is the inspiration-photo pretty, but I liked the story behind it. These campers really got into the spirit of Camp Loopy. They said, “After one of our hikes got cancelled due to a thunder and lightening storm, we decided we would love a yarn to memorialize our time spent in the lodge together waiting out the storm, watching the wonderful colors light up the sky.” Click here if you’d like to see the photo. I used the random number generator to pick three comments for winners on their Ravelry thread. Cairnknits, Brainsneezes and Shedubba each win a $20 Loopy gift certificate for participating in the winning colorway thread!

I also have the winner of our Second Quarter Challenge, which was to knit for charity (or using a pattern that benefits a charity). The winner is Sarah from MN who knit the Japanese Garden Shawl (which was designed by Wendy Johnson, with pattern proceeds for April donated to the Red Cross. Wendy’s generous contribution brought in more than $6000 for the Red Cross!) Sarah donated her beautifully finished shawl to Wrapped in Care, a charity that provides shawls to women in the hospital who have just lost a baby to stillbirth or neonatal loss. Sarah has won a $35 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate, for the Challenge.

We’re still tallying votes on the Project One Reader’s Choice award, so we’ll wait and announce all Project One winners in a week or so. Just know that we’re working on it. And then pretty soon it will be time to vote on Project Two.  Your projects this summer have been stunning.

Before I go – here’s a quick and healthy (as promised) recipe to try out this summer. We had this at a friend’s house this summer and it quickly became one of our favorite side dishes.

Susan’s Roasted Sweet Potatoes

4-6 sweet potatoes
Olive Oil
Oregano
Salt
Thyme

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into 1/2″ thick discs. Put in a large bowl and add a few tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tsp. of Oregano, and 1 tsp. Thyme. Stir to coat well. Layer the potato discs in a single layer onto a foil-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and more Thyme and Oregano, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until tender.

We have big things going on downtown this weekend. So much to explore. What are you doing this weekend?

Sheri surehappytohaveKnittingDaughterhomeforaweek

I had a lot of fun knitting up these mittens for Project Two of Camp Loopy. Love the yarn (Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted) and love the pattern (All the Water from Through the Loops). I’m already thinking that I’d like to have some red mittens, and then maybe some sunshine yellow mittens as well. Once Camp Loopy knitting is done, I’ll have time to work on the long list of favorites that I’ve compiled this summer!  For those of you still working on Project Two, remember you need to have your photos uploaded to the Project Two photo gallery by 8/16 (international campers by 8/23). Don’t worry if you don’t see them approved by the deadline. Sometimes I have a backlog to work through. But each one comes through with a date and time stamp, so I know exactly when you uploaded them.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually had some time to try a few new recipes in the past couple of weeks. (Partly due to the fact that we’ve had people visit us already.) One of the recipes I’ve loved the most are these Cake Ball Truffles. They are …. so awesome. They’re not cake balls, because you don’t bake a cake and crumble it up to make the insides. You just make the batter (no eggs, so it’s safe to eat) and then roll them into balls and dip them. Easy. Yummy. Give them a try if you like the taste of cake batter like I do. The original recipe comes from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.

Cake Batter Truffles by The Girl Who Ate Everything
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
4 Tbl. milk
2 Tbl. sprinkles

Truffle Coating:
16 oz. almond bark or white candy melts
4 Tbl. yellow cake mix
sprinkles

(Note – I doubled this recipe so that I could use almost the whole box of cake mix. And because one can never have too many truffles.)

Beat together butter and sugar. Add the cake mix, flour, salt and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 4 Tbl. milk to make a good dough consistency. (Use more or less, depending on how it’s looking to you. You should be able to make a nice firm ball of dough with it.) Mix in the sprinkles by hand. Roll into 1″ balls and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Melt the almond bark in the microwave (30 seconds at a time, so that you are careful not to burn it.) When it’s melted, stir in the cake mix. Dip the balls into the coating with a fork, tapping the fork on the side of the bowl to remove excess coating. Place on a cookie sheet and top with sprinkles right away, since the bark will harden quickly. Chill until ready to serve. A doubled recipe makes about 3-4 dozen truffles.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that sprinkles just make things look happy? That’s why you get two truffle pictures today. I’m promoting happiness. How are you promoting happiness today?

Sheri whopromisestosharesomehealthyrecipesintheweekstocome,too

Maybe I ought not to have put the word “bombs” in my blog title. Who knows what that will bring to my blog via the Search Engines. I don’t think I want to know.  But the title is appropriate, because these things are the bomb! The original recipe came from Tasty Kitchen, but I first saw the photo of it on Pinterest. (Pinterest – now sucking up even more time that I don’t have, but OH so fun. Sigh.)

Interesting to note – these bake up like cake donuts on the inside. The recipe says to dunk them in butter and roll them in cinnamon/sugar after baking. Well, that sounded like a bit much to me. I figured I’d bake them in cupcake liners, then brush butter on the top and sprinkle it with a dusting of cinnamon/sugar. Healthier, right? The problem with that is that the cake part is pretty bland and a light dusting of cinnamon/sugar didn’t cut it. So I said “the heck with it”, dunked them good, and rolled them in the cinnamon/sugar mix like they told me to. The result? Ohmyword good. Perfect. Some things you just don’t fight. Or “fix”.

Cinnamon Sugar Bombs

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Topping:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbl. cinnamon

Combine oil, 3/4 cup sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Divide into 12 well-greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 10 – 12 minutes. (Note: I had to bake mine for 20 minutes. Not sure why.)

While hot, dip in melted butter and roll in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Let cool. Enjoy!

Now, on to the zillion other recipes I’ve pinned in Pinterest. Are you on Pinterest? Stay away from it if you can help it. Stay very very far away.

What did you decide to knit for Camp Loopy’s Project Two? Next Friday can’t get here soon enough, so that we can start in on our projects! I am knitting All The Water mittens (which we have now sold out of at Loopy, so pop over and get it from Kirsten if you’d like it) out of  Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted (in Cara – the light blue color that matches my Winter’s Rhythm Capelet). I did finish my Project One Pamuya and it’s drying and blocking. I’ll show you that next week. Have a great weekend!

Sheri baking,despitebeingtakenoverbypackingboxes

The Campfire Story about Loopy is cracking me up! Did you read it? Loopy started off knitting in the attic of a house and he has: taught the UPS guy how to knit, drunk a portion of  shrinking potion, followed the Wollmeise trail to Germany, danced with blue and green lights, talked to Dr. Who, and met friends along the way. Great job on the story-telling! I’ll draw a yarn winner next week, so feel free to continue the story over the weekend.

Here is a cake that has ALL the right flavors in it – brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, graham crackers, cheesecake, and chocolate frosting. Doesn’t it look unbelievably decadent? I especially love the thick layer of chocolate frosting on the top. I saw this over on Julia’s blog and asked permission to share the photos and recipe with you. (I was afraid that if I made it to photo myself, WH and I would then eat it. Which would have been very very good. And very very bad. But I will make it sometime, when there are more people around to eat it. It looks way too good to pass up.) You can find the recipe for this cake here. It’s a little long, so I’m sending you over there instead of typing it all up here.

Check out some of the rest of the recipes on Julia’s blog. She does a great job of coming up with unique flavors and combinations, that all work together to mix into something wonderful. Like Basil Cauliflower Pizza, Breakfast Cookies, Goat Cheese and Phyllo Pizza, Grilled Vegetable Platter with Cilantro Avocado Aioli, Chickpea and Feta Salad, and …. well, I’ll stop now. You can pop over there and poke through all of the categories on your own. I know you’ll come up with several “must make” recipes for yourself and your family.

Do you ever have a weekend where you SHOULD be doing one thing but you WANT to be doing another? I really should be packing boxes, since we’re moving our household in three weeks. But what I want to be doing? Working on my Pamuya Shawl. What should you be doing? And what do you want to be doing instead?

Sheri ormaybeIshouldavoidbothofthosethings
andjustmakethiscake?

Are you ready for s’more recipes that are perfect for camping? (Lame joke. I couldn’t help it.) These are best when you zap them in the microwave for 15 seconds before eating. It melts the chocolate and marshmallow just enough to seem like you’re enjoying an old-fashioned S’more. (Really, I can’t believe the authentic taste that you get from this recipe. Must be the graham cracker crumbs in the dough.)

S’mores Cookie Bars
(original recipe from Lovintheoven)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (like Hersheys)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat over to 350 degrees and grease an 8 x 8 baking pan.

Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Gradually add this into the butter/sugar mixture at low speed, until mixed well.

Divide the dough in half. Press the first half into the bottom of the pan. Layer the chocolate bars over the dough and then spread the marshmallow creme over the top of the chocolate.

Roll out the remaining dough to fit over the top, and then layer it on. (You won’t be able to pat it out on top of the creme, so rolling with a rolling pin is the easiest way to do it.)

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting.

How are your Camp Loopy projects coming along? I started mine with the two colors I showed you in this post, and had to rip out the multi-color Mansfield Garden Party, four rows in. I really thought it was going to work, but once I added it to the Celadon, they just looked bad together. I’m using Seawash with the Celadon instead. Much better. I still love the skein of Mansfield that I have. I’ll pair it with something else and will make another two-color shawl. In fact, I have so many patterns that I now want to make, thanks to all of you for sharing links over on Ravelry. Have you found more two-color projects that are now on your list, once this first one is done?

Sheri whomayhaveeatenoneortwoofthosebars
fortestingpurposesonly

I found the easiest (yet yummiest) camping recipe to share with you today. Perfect for our Camp Loopy snacking. Do check out this link to the original photos from TSJ Photography, as the whole birthday idea is brilliant and the photography is stunning. (Photos used with permission. If you’re in the North Carolina area, I’m jealous that you have the opportunity to use Tracie’s photography service firsthand. What beautiful work.)

Happy Camper Crunch

4 cups Golden Grahams cereal
3 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups milk chocolate chips (or M&M’s, if you want to add in more color)

Mix and serve in a big bowl, or package it up in single-size serving bags. Put on a family movie and gather ’round for a night of fun. (Note – you get to knit on your Campfire Night project while the rest of the family enjoys the movie with you. That way, everyone is happy!)

Enjoy your weekend. I am at our TNNA Market, scouting out new products and lines to add in at The Loopy Ewe. I’ll keep you posted on what I find. I might also need to make sure that Jeni’s Ice Cream still tastes good. That’s one of the best parts of heading to Columbus, OH for Market.

What are your favorite family movies? Maybe a weekly Family Movie Night is in order for the summer. What do you think? (And then maybe a Weekly Family Reading Night, too, just to make sure that books get at least equal billing.)

Sheri wishingIhadabagofthisHappyCamperCrunchtoday