Template Spotlight: Yearbooks & Teacher Appreciation

Whether you’re recording your child’s school year, congratulating a graduate or thanking a dedicated teacher; April is the time to start bringing school projects into full focus. Heritage Makers offers beautiful yearbooks for every grade, meaningful gifts or greetings for the graduate and one-of-a-kind teacher appreciation gifts. Let’s take a look at a few examples in each of these areas.

      

      

Yearbooks to Remember
From pre-school to graduation, every grade and experience is something to be preserved and celebrated. Ask any grandma and she’ll tell you, you may THINK you’ll never forget your child’s performance in the school play or his third grade best friend; but memories fade fast. As a parent, one of the greatest legacies you can leave your child is a record of his or her younger years. Roxanne Buchholz has an entire line of 8 x 8 yearbooks that span pre-school to high school. You’ll love how easy these books are to use and how they coordinate with one another so you can make one each year. Those shown here are “HM Kindergarten Yearbook,” template 81118; “HM 1st Grade Yearbook,” template 56434; “HM 2nd Grade Yearbook,” template 56433; and “HM 6th Grade Yearbook,” template 25798.

  

Words of Advice for the Graduate
Looking for a classic gift of wisdom and encouragement that can go with the graduate as he or she starts her life journey? Sandra Dovre’s “A Bit of Advice-Son,” template 34717 and “A Bit of Advice-Daughter,” template 34832 are Heritage Makers projects that celebrate the occasion and become lifelong keepsakes.

   

A Memento for the Graduate
One of the simplest graduate gifts you can create is a framed 11 x 14 “Graduate Subway Gift.” Template 84423 is by Lynda Angelastro and can be customized with appropriate school colors, name and initials along with the graduate’s name. Buy a large frame at the hobby and craft store that is matted for an 11 x 14 photo. Use a 40% off coupon and a good frame should be well under $20. With your Club HM membership, you’ll be createing a wonderful, original, personalized gift that’s also very reasonably priced!

  
Teacher Appreciation Time
At Heritage Makers, there are a many a one-of-a-kind ways to tell your child’s teacher “thank you.” Try these two ideas from Sharon Macfarlane. They are made on simple 7 x 5 Invitations that can be hole punched and attached to a beach bag for the “Teacher Fun-in-the-Sun Kit,” template 83307 or to any kind of container for the “Teacher Movie Mania Kit,” template 83309. Instructions are included on the reverse side for teacher to use an assortment of small gifts for a day at the beach or the movies. The reverse side also includes a place for a “thank you” from your child.

  
  

Group Teacher Appreciation Gifts
If you’re responsible for gifts for all the teachers in the school or want to say thank you to several of your children’s teachers, try these fun ideas from Roxanne Buchholz. “HM POP-ular Gift Tags” template 86184 and “HM Smart Cookie Gift Tags,” template 86183 are each designed especially for teacher gifts. Each card of these decks can be personalized on the front side to make up to 54 custom labels for cellophane bags of gourmet popcorn or cookies. Personalize with the name of the teacher and the child, or the class if it’s a group gift. If you’re using the gifts tags on cello bags of cookies, make the cookies from any recipe that stores well for a couple of days. For the popcorn tags, use your family’s favorite gourmet popcorn recipe or try the ones we show here.

LIME POPCORN
3/4 cup popcorn
1/4 cup olive oil for cooking popcorn
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Pop popcorn in hot-air popper or in olive oil in large lidded pan on stove. Mix together the butter, lime juice, lime zest and salt. Put popcorn in large, lightweight paper bag and pour over popcorn. Shake until popcorn is coated and moist. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spread popcorn evenly. Heat oven to 300 degrees and bake popcorn for 5-7 minutes until dry.

WHITE CHOCOLATE POPCORN
Two 3 1/3 ounce bags microwave popcorn
6 ounces white chocolate chips
Pop popcorn, remove unpopped kernels. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Place popcorn in large bowl or on cookie sheet. Drizzle melted white chocolate over all and refrigerate until hardened. Break up into smaller clumps before bagging.

Heritage Makers offers gifts and greetings for every school occasion. To find templates for commemorating your child’s school year, gifting a graduate or saying “thank you” to your child’s teacher; simply head to the Template Gallery. Search on “school,” “teacher,” “graduate” or “gift” to find well over a thousand perfect present possibilities for your school needs.

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Template Spotlights: Favorite Recipes

Does the smell of chocolate chip cookies take you right back to childhood? If turkey and dressing is on the menu, does it just somehow feel like a holiday? Food plays a huge part in the shaping of our memories. The meals we eat at Thanksgiving, the kind of cake served at our birthday parties, or the snacks our families provided when we had friends over all help mold our early lives. To preserve this distinct part of your family heritage, document your mother’s recipes, pass along your own food favorites or begin to record the dishes served at your next holiday meal. With Studio’s templates, you have hundreds of easy ways to record your family food memories. Let’s look at some of them!

   

Popular Cookbook Format: 6 x 9 Wire-bound BookAlmost certainly the most commonly used format for recipes, our 6 x 9 wire-bound book is a handy size and comes with a wrap-around, wipe clean cover. The three shown here include space for both food and family photos along with text boxes for glimpses of life with family or friends, alongside the recipes. “Special Recipes” by Sandra Dovre is template 9136 and takes a whimsical design approach with lots of room for family stories. “Recipe's from Friends” by Michelle Bell, template 11440, preserves the recipes of lifelong friends, with room to journal about time spent together and the occasion the recipe was first enjoyed with the group. “Family Favorites” by Sharon Asher, template 19600, has a rustic, camping flavor with space to talk about family remembrances alongside cherished recipes. It would be perfect for a record of campfire and fishing food.


 
 
New 6 x 9 Booklet
Hijacked from the Heritage Makers business line, the inexpensive 16-page stapled booklet is proving a popular format for recipe preservation. Its inexpensive format and expandable size (up to 32 pages including inside and outside front and back cover, but in four-page increments) make it the perfect vehicle for neighborhood, school, church and other small group or fund-raising recipe books. Brooke Mehr’s “Family Recipes,” template 66228, is a perfect way to record the initial efforts at cooking of a newly married couple. With room to write about the recipe and how it turned out or was adjusted or received, the booklet also has room for photos of the people involved in this food journey. “Countdown to Christmas Cookbook” by Darcie Toom, template 65997, is the perfect way to gather traditional holiday food recipes into one place along with photos of the holiday event.


   

 

An Innovative Use of 6 x 4 Invitations
Recipe card boxes full of 3 x 5 index cards have been a kitchen staple for years. More recently, slightly oversize recipe boxes were introduced to accommodate newer 6 x 4 index cards. Piggy backing on the idea of this size card, Heritage Makers everywhere have turned to the 6 x 4 invitation to duplicate this new trend. We love the clear Lucite type recipe boxes for this size that let beautifully designed recipe cards shine through.

Here are five examples of documenting your family’s food favorites on our 6 x 4 invitations. “Chocolate Trifle Recipe” by Katie Ann Wilson, template 64891, is designed in the rich chocolate colors of the recipe itself. Ann Perry’s “Recipe Card,” template 64857, is delightfully feminine and floral, while “Recipe Card” by Kimberlee Riddle, template 65817, is designed in Christmas colors and would be perfect on top of a Christmas neighbor gift. Kimberly Keber had the same thought when she designed the “Recipe Card Gift,” template 66326, which serves as a gift in itself. Put it at the top of a couple of the templates “Recipe Card,” also by Kimberly Keber, template 66327, tie with ribbon and the stack makes an appreciated gift.



   

 


Food in Many Forms
Whether you’re documenting the bounties of your holiday table like Michelle Bell’s “Holiday Recipes” flip book, template 44911 or recording your camp cooking adventures as Angie Tudor did in her “Campfire Recipes,” square flip book, template 59046; Heritage Makers provides a variety of ways to record your family’s food culture. Robin Knutson used a 12 x 12 scrap page to memorialize a favorite recipe served in her home town, “Steel Town ‘Shrooms,” template 52250, tells the story and shows the food and family associated with it.

Sara Boster used a playing card deck to make copies of her favorite recipes in her template 6592, “Recipes.” Punch a corner hole and thread on a scrapbook-style binder ring and you have a handy reference or great gift. For an extra personal graduation gift, make your son or daughter a “Recipes from Home” swatch book, template 58390, as Lynda Angelastro did. Include approximate prices per serving and choose from the simpler of your recipes and your student is sure to be well-fed while far from home!

Food Templates of Every Type
Nearly every product type has templates for family food memory keeping, so get started today. When your grown child opens up a book of grandma’s carefully scanned recipes and says, “This is the best gift of my entire life,“ you’ll know your focus on family food is preserving a priceless legacy.

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Recipes: Chicken'n'Dumplins

So I've had a lot of people ask me for the recipes that go along with my Menu Planner, so I've decided to share them on here!

Now, be warned: I am NOT a professional cook by any stretch of the imagination. I just know what my family likes, and I try to stick in as many vegetables as I can possibly get away with. I'm a big fan of Deceptively Delicious :)

Anyway, here's my debut recipe! My version of one of my favorite Southern dishes (I'm also a big fan of Grits!)
For Chicken'n'Dumplins, you will need:
~ 1 frozen Chicken breast
~ 1 Onion
~ a bunch of carrots (I used about 5)
~ a lot of celery (I used about 5)
~ Frozen Corn and Peas
~ Chicken Boullion (I prefer McCormick's cubes)
~ Flour, Water, Salt, Pepper, Sage, and Parsley
~ Bisquick and Milk (or a biscuit dough recipe of your choice)

First, I do what I do most of the time when I cook - I grab a completely frozen chicken breast out of the deep-freeze and I stick it in a pan with a lid on low heat. Completely frozen because it's easiest, no thawing or defrosting, and no having icky-chicken-hands when my 2year old suddenly decides to go after a knife or something :) It'll be completely cooked in about an hour, and ready to add to the rest of the meal. For this recipe, I just added a bit of water in the pan for steam (maybe 1/4 cup), but no spices or anything. This one is simple.

Once the chicken has started, I chop up my vegetables and add them to my wok (my biggest pan available) - about 5 things of celery, 5 carrots, an onion, some frozen corn, and lots of frozen peas. 

I added about 5 cups of water on med-high heat, and 2 McCormick Chicken Boullion cubes (1cube for each 2cups of water), Salt & Pepper to taste, and some Sage and Parsley. I like the McCormick boullion because it contains no MSG, and it's all vegetable flavoring, so no questionable meat by-products.

Once the meat is all cooked, I take it off the heat to cool, and then chop it into smaller cubes. Another option is to pull it apart with 2 forks, but cubes are faster. :)




Add the chopped meat to the cooking vegetables and broth, and then prepare a thickener. I use flour in a Tupperware quick-shake container, and then mix it with water. About 1/2 cup of flour, and then add water to about 1 cup of thickener. Shake, shake, shake! :) Then pour it into the pan and stir.

While the thickener is doing its thing, make the dough for the dumplings. If you want to keep it simple, just mix some Bisquick (from Betty Crocker in the baking aisle) with milk, or if you want the tastier version, mix up some baking-powder biscuit dough. Once your dough is ready, drop it by spoonfuls into the pan. They don't have to be pretty, because either way, they'll be delicious.

That's it! Just cover and let simmer for another 10-20 minutes for the biscuits to bake, and then you're done :)

My wok doesn't have a lid, so I use a baking sheet. It's pretty ghetto, but it does the trick:

Once it's all done, serve it up and enjoy :)

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