Lady Abbies

Potato Pasty

2012-01-24T11:30:00.001-05:00

Potato Pasty

I had my first potato pasty (pasty/pastie means pie and is traditionally filled with meat) at an English themed pub located in Central Pennsylvania. They offered the meat version and a potato version of the pasty, I chose the potato and proceeded to order it every time I would go to that pub because I enjoyed it so much. After moving back to Southeastern PA, I have never seen a similar offering, and I have always wanted to recreate the recipe. I finally did so just a few weeks ago, and tonight I already made it for the third time. It’s obviously been a hit at my house, and this time of year is perfect for it – it’s a completely warm and toasty comfort food. It’s pretty easy to make and very customizable, so I hope you will give it a try and enjoy!

Ingredients:

Crescent Rolls (for an 8X11 pan – I use 12 total rolls, 1 full tube (8 rolls) and 1 small tube (4 rolls))

1 bag Ore Ida Steam n’ Mash Cut Russet Potatoes

- 2 tbsp. butter

- 2/3 cups milk

6 to 8 oz. cream cheese

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

½ to 1 tsp. garlic powder (or to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray baking pan with PAM. I use an 11X9" dish. You can certainly go bigger or smaller, but will need to adjust the amount of ingredients to your needs.

Take six crescent rolls and place them in bottom of pan. (Works best placing them as seen in pic for 11X9). Pinch seams of dough together. Poke holes throughout dough with a fork. Place in oven for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until it starts turning golden brown.

Meanwhile, microwave bag of Ore Ida Steam n’ Mash as directed on package, for 10 minutes on high. When potatoes are finished, continue to make them as per the instructions on package. Mash with 2 tbsp. butter and 2/3 cups milk.

At this point, you can add any extras you would like to your potato mixture (meat, herbs, different cheeses). I usually add the following:

Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and garlic powder. Stir all in until well combined with the base potato mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once the bottom layer of crescent rolls is ready, remove from oven and immediately spoon completed potato mixture evenly over it.

Top potato mixture with the remaining 6 crescent rolls and pinch the seams together as well as possible.

Place in oven and bake again until top crust is golden brown and flaky, about 15 to 18 minutes.

Cut up and serve immediately.

Additional Information:

In my house I am only cooking for two, so this recipe makes us about 3 dinners (6 servings) per dish. I put the remainder in the fridge and I strongly recommend eating it within a week. The rolls, even when fully baked the first time around, seem to start breaking down a bit the longer they sit. To reheat, I get the oven to 350, put the 2 servings in a baking dish, and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until warm throughout.

I use Steam n’ Mash because it’s easy and tasty, but you could certainly make this recipe with homemade mashed potatoes. Again, just make your mashed potatoes as you normally would and then add in extras to punch it up as a main course item.

The pub version was more like an individual pie whereas my version is baked in a baking pan and makes 6 to 8 servings as the main meal. Between the potatoes, cheese and rolls, it’s fairly heavy so I serve it with simply prepared veggies or fruit on the side. It could work as a side dish as well, but in that case you should get a lot more servings out of it!

The pub version was served in more of a puff pastry crust, which I want to try with my version as well, but when I first made it I only had crescent rolls on hand and they work great.

M&M Hugs Pretzels

2012-01-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Simple, relatively inexpensive, and a hit every time! M&M Hugs Pretzels are a yummy, bite-sized treat, and they make chocolate covered pretzels something anyone can make themselves in a few easy steps!

Ingredients:

Bag of milk chocolate M&M's candies
Bag of Hershey Hugs candies
Bag of Pretzels (I suggest Rold Gold's mini twists)

Check the serving sizes on all of the above packages. Buy as many of each item that you think you will need for the amount of pretzels you want to make.

Directions:

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Unwrap all needed Hershey Hugs and set aside.

On baking sheets (it helps to line them with parchment paper, but this is not necessary), arrange pretzels in a single layer.

Top each pretzel with one Hug candy.

Place these in oven for 3 to 5 minutes. When removed from oven, the top of the Hug should be soft enough to press the M&M’s into, I often get them soft enough that the Hug, when pushed, spreads over the pretzel, filling in all three open sections.

Immediately after removing the Hugs and pretzels from the oven, begin pressing M&M’s into tops of Hugs. It’s up to you how many M&M’s you want to use, I do anywhere from one to three.

Let cool on trays, they can be put in the fridge. Once cool and Hugs have hardened, remove from trays into an air tight container.

I find that these store well in an air tight container at room temperature, I do not recommend putting them in the fridge for storage.

Additional Information:

I particularly love these little treats not only because they are delicious (and quite addictive – be warned), but because they can be personalized for so many different occasions by changing the colors of the M&M’s. This is easy enough to do with the various regular and seasonal bags that are sold throughout the year (Red & Green for Christmas, or pastel ones for baby shower treats and favors), but with all of the custom colors also available, the possibilities are endless! Make them as wedding shower treats or wedding favors, make them for a college graduation party, make them for Super Bowl Sunday…so many options!

I have made these with Reese’s Pieces in place of the M&M’s – yummy!

I have made these with Hershey Kisses rather than Hugs (cause I am really not a big fan of Hugs on their own) and, interestingly, they did not come out that great. So even though I do not love Hugs on their own, they are terrific on these pretzels.

Try your own combinations – I’m thinking Rolos might be a candy I experiment with soon. Pretzels, chocolate, caramel! Oh my! What to top it with…

Elmo Christmas Stocking

2007-08-29T14:39:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought Elmo couldn't get cuter! Now he's a singing Christmas stocking. Sure to delight your kids and anyone else who sees him! He's a perfect stocking to be stuffed!

~Erin

The Figurines Are Coming! The Figurines Are Coming!

2007-04-09T22:28:00.000-04:00

I have been personally collecting animal figurines for I’d say at least 15 years now. It all began when my mother brought me home this adorable little unicorn figurine. I don’t think she realized what that one little figurine would start! 15 years later, I have a lot of figurines and am still collecting.

Because I love animal figurines just as much as I love stuffed animals, I have wanted to carry them in the store since I opened it. Well I am excited to announce that in the coming weeks we will finally be adding animal figurines to our store. The main delay with stocking animal figurines has been finding companies to buy from, a lot of figurine companies will unfortunately not work with internet only stores. But I have found a few companies that will, and more importantly, they make high quality figurines that I will be able to sell for reasonable prices.

Out of the companies I have found to work with, I have placed orders with three that should start arriving next week or so. The companies are Sandicast, Quarry Critters and Country Artists. Sandicast has an adorable line called “Snoozers” which features sleeping animals in adorable poses. In addition they have a variety of sizes of animal figurines and Lady Abbies will mainly carry the small size. They specialize in dogs but also have cats and wildlife figurines. I own a few Sandicast figurines, including the black and white springer snoozer above, so I can attest to the quality, value and sheer adorableness!

Quarry Critters by Second Nature Design are resin animals made to look like they are carved from stone, hence the name. These animals, though usually done in simple grays and browns, are still incredibly adorable due to the sweet faces and expressions they are given. Due to the simple colors of most of their figurines, it makes the splashes of colors added in some all the more vibrant and fun. In addition, they have a new floral line which consists of animals covered in big, bright flowers. Quarry Critters also makes stuffed animals and we will be carrying a few of them as well.

Last but not least of the three figurine companies we will be adding to the store is Country Artists. This is a great line that is full of adorable animal figurines. I have an adorable schnauzer puppy figurine in my collection from Country Artists. The figurines from this line range from incredibly realistic looking animals to whimsical animals. In either case, the detail is fine and the quality is superb.

I will be starting out with a small collection of figurines from each company to see how they do but I certainly hope to offer a wider selection representing each in the near future. I hope you all enjoy them at least nearly as much as I do:)

~Erin

Happy Easter & Happy Birthday Dad

2007-04-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter Everyone!

For those of us in Southeastern PA, it feels a little bit more like Christmas. I think weather-wise Easter will actually feel more like Christmas then Christmas did! If that makes any sense:) We were even supposed to have snow today but that ended up going further South. That's a relief, don't want to see anymore of that! Once Spring technically arrives, I expect the weather to automatically change over into sunny 70 degree days. Doesn't usually happen that way, but oh well.

Nevertheless, it is Easter weekend and I hope you all enjoy it with your families and friends!

I have to admit it will be a bit of a weird day for me tomorrow. Easter happens to fall this year on what would have been my Dad's 52nd birthday. Yup, would have been.

Hard to believe it was only two years ago that we were celebrating his 50th birthday with a surprise party. I bought him an inflatable walker and everything, all the stuff to rub in the age - over the hill and all of that. Even harder to believe that at that birthday we didn't even know he was sick. We found out in August that he had esophageal cancer and the cancer was bad. It had already spread to other parts of his body, he didn't even know he had it until he developed a lump in his throat that made eating difficult - which led him to go to a doctor. I don't want to bring anyone reading this down with all of the horrible details, too many of us know what this disease is like already, but it was my first time (and how I wish it will be the last) that I ever dealt with cancer so up close and personal and it was awful.

Dad passed away in November of the same year, just 7 months after his 50th birthday party. Suffice it to say, my mind will be on him a lot tomorrow. I am sure losing a parent at any age is difficult and in many ways I was lucky to have my Dad in my life for as long as I did. But 50 certainly feels young these days. My parents were young parents too, so I guess I had just taken for granted that they would be around for a long time to come.

So, wherever you are Dad, Happy Birthday. I'm thinking of you and I love you.

I would like to end this post with a little something that was read at my Dad's memorial service. I am not sure where it came from and believe it is anonymous, but it resonated with me and if any of you out there reading this have lost someone you loved, perhaps you will find some comfort in these words as well.

When I die, give what is left of me to the children. If you need to cry, cry for your brothers and sisters walking beside you. Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give me. I want to leave you with something, something better than words or sounds. Look for me in the people I have known and loved. And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes, your mind and…your Acts of Kindness. You can love me most by letting hands touch hands, and letting go of children who need to be free. Love does not die, people do. So when all that is left of me is love… give me away…

~Erin

Welcome Spring & Goodbye Shoveling!

2007-03-23T15:26:00.000-04:00

Spring came on Wednesday! And although it has been raining pretty much since then, at least the temperatures are mild. Unfortunately, last weekend, just when I thought it was safe, my region got hit with one last nasty storm. The worst of the year actually, mainly due to the fact that it pretty much sleeted for hours upon hours, coating everything with layers of ice.

My home has a small driveway, 3 cars fill it to the brim, and we have a small sidewalk out front (luckily we aren't a corner lot) but let me tell you, the ice storm beat me when it came to shoveling out after it. My husband and I didn't even get our driveway and sidewalk shoveled until Sunday afternoon, on our fourth attempt of the weekend to do so. And even then, it was poorly shoveled, but I didn't even know if my arms would ever work again so I decided it was good enough!

Luckily, the temps warmed up on Monday and melted most of what we had left, and now that Spring is here, I hope we won't see anymore snow or ice this year. Or rather, ice, I don't mind shoveling snow so much but the ice was awful. I noticed most of my neighborhood, which is usually quite good at getting into gear after a snow, left their sidewalks unshoveled, even the few with snow blowers.

So even though southeastern Pennsylvania had a fairly mild winter this year, it certainly ended with a bang. I love Spring anyway, love Summer even more, but it is greeted even more openly following a winter ice storm.

That's my round-a-bout way of saying, Welcome Spring! Of course, Spring has its own issues, rain which leads to my yard becoming a swamp, that my two dogs love to run around in and then bring all of that mud inside, all over the floors....etc...oh boy...welcome spring.

~Erin

And Here's Goober the Bear's Video

2007-03-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

***For some reason these videos are messing up the sound a bit and it is not syncing with the mouth movement. But please note, Goober's mouth actually moves along quite well with the singing, as does Arnold's to his snoring.***

Okay, I got to it while I was thinking about it! So here's Goober the Bears video debut singing, "Don't Worry Be Happy," while he leisurely reclines and taps his foot.

Even if you don't choose to buy either of these cute sound and motion plush, I hope you at least got some entertainment from watching their movies!

~Erin

Arnold the Snoring Pig, from Gund

2007-03-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

Isn't this pig adorable and fun! I took this video of him so that you could see what he actually does when he snores and wiggles in his sleep. Sorry about the quality, looked better on my end before it went through the upload to YouTube, but I think the cuteness of Arnold shines through the poor video! I have a Goober Bear from Gund that sings "Don't Worry Be Happy" and taps his foot, I will try to get some video up of him as well so that you can all see what these guys actually do. I know it can be hard to know what you are getting with sound and motion items when you buy online, so I hope this video helps!

~Erin

March is here and Easter's coming!

2007-03-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

It is March, how did that happen? Not that I am complaining, because on March 11th daylight savings time begins and March 21st is the first day of Spring! And even though we had a short (and compared to much of the country, quite uneventful) winter here in South Eastern PA (it didn't really start getting cold until January) I am still looking forward to spring. Bring on the warmth and extended sunshine!

Of course, as it is already March, that means Easter is quickly approaching as well, it falls on April 8th this year. I have quite a few cute items in stock that would make fabulous gifts, find them here. One of those items is JustaBunny, the critter in the picture. Isn't he endearing? He's a beautifully made plush from Gund and he's sure to delight the lucky person that gets to partner up with him for the big egg hunt!

I still have quite a few of my plush Easter presents from years past, usually given to me by my parents and paternal grandparents. I certainly got my fair share of bunnies on Easter, though each was unique and special; my large and simply crafted pink and white bunny, my all snowy white bunny with a cute belly button, my brown bunny holding a carrot that came in its own basket, etc...etc... That's why I love plush, because there are so many wonderful items out there and I know for myself, they are a beautiful way to display items that contain special memories from special times. I can look at most of the plush I own and give you its history, particularly if it was given to me by a loved one...

~Erin

Cuddle Factory is Closed

2007-03-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

After this cute guy sold out on my store, I went to reorder more from the distributor, The Cuddle Factory, and found out that the company has closed down. It wasn't purchased by anyone and all of the inventory is gone. Too bad, they had some cute items that I really liked, including Merlin the Dragon and some cute dinosaurs, not to mention Snappy the Crocodile.

So if you are looking for anything from The Cuddle Factory, I do still have a few items, found here. But once they are gone, that's it, no more reordering. Aww, I wanted my own Snappy and now I can't get one.

In some good news, for those of you that love bulldogs, First & Main has told me that they are returning to their old style of "Spike" the bulldog and I can't wait to get him back in stock. Right now they are telling me he should be available in early May. Of course, I just took the description off of my site as I hadn't heard anything for awhile and thought it was a lost cause. So if you are a Spike fan, check back with us in May and hopefully we'll have him back. If you just like bulldogs in general however, take a look here to see the versions we currently have in stock.

Speaking of dogs, I made an annoucement that we were expecting a variety of dog breeds in and we still are, they are just delayed. I won't be receiving most of the dogs it looks like now until April, but once I get them, they will be up in the store. I was supposed to be stocking a chow-chow from Aurora, but as beautiful as most of their plush are, I was not happy with the chow so I sent it back and will not be stocking it.

Out of that list, here are the ones you can find in the store now:

Bulldog – Winston from Aurora & Norman from Douglas
West Highland Terrier – Ava from Douglas
Shih Tzu – Moon from Douglas
Pekingese – Buttons from Douglas
Chihuahua – Paco from Douglas
Dachshund – Spats from Douglas
Weimeraner – Hans from Douglas
Husky – Rainier from Douglas
Bernese Mountain Dog – Bernice from Aurora
Maltese – Magnolia from Aurora
Bearded Collie – Harvie from Aurora
Papillion – Butterfly from Aurora
King Charles Cavalier – Prince from Aurora

So we do have the above and more in stock now, easiest way to find them all would be to go under the plush menu tab and then click on dogs & cats. Or if you are looking for a specific breed, just type it in the search box.

Goodbye Cuddle Factory, it was nice doing business with you and you made some cute stuff...now destined to be coveted items by the lucky people that were able to get them while they could!

~Erin

Pet Net Resources

2007-02-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard of a pet net, or a toy hammock? If not, take a look at the picture. It's a terrific and space saving item that hangs, via three hooks, in the corner of a room and it forms a sort of shelf, or pouch, for you to store things in, namely plush. I love these things and have two hanging in one corner of my office, one on top of the other. They are easy to install and so convenient, and you can fit quite a few animals in one net. Look how many are in the net in this picture. (BTW I used to have that bear on the right, next to the parrot. I think it was a department store Christmas bear, I wonder what happened to it. I am not a person who loses track of my animals easily, but I think he's been delegated to a bag in storage. Do you have too much plush when you can recognize a piece you own from a random picture??) Anyway, I would say the two nets I have hanging up each have at least 20 animals in them, if not more, and not just little 5" tall animals, substantially sized animals.

I'm not doing this advertisement for these things because I sell them, because I don't, but since I do sell a lot of plush, I wanted to give you a couple of links where you can find these nets if you are interested as they are related to what I have in my store. I think you will find them to be helpful with storing your collection, or getting all the toys off of your childs bedroom floor. I bought one of my nets from Organize.com, don't know where the other came from. The only warning I would give is watch out for quality, the one in the picture is nice because it has the nylon edge which makes it more durable. I also like one with tighter netting, some have holes that look like quite a few animals would fall through. I have that exact one in the picture so I can recommend it.

I am not affiliated with the sites I am listing, not getting any kind of profit from them, again, just listing a helpful resource. These nets would probably work for a lot of things, not just plush. They are normally hung up with hooks but there are also versions now that hang with suction cups if you are concerned with putting holes in the walls.

So here are a few links to on-line stores you can find the nets at:

www.Organize.com
www.organize-it-online.com
www.spacesavers.com
www.hangercity.com

Hope you found these resources helpful!

~Erin

Welcoming Aurora!

2007-02-04T19:54:00.000-05:00

Lady Abigail's Collectibles and Gifts is happy to announce the addition of the Aurora line of plush products to our store. To the left is one example of their fabulous Nature Babies Collection, Schatzi the Schnauzer. We will be starting out our relationship with Aurora with Schatzi and 23 other Aurora items. Included will be an array of animals from the Flopsie Collection as well as some cutie patooties from the Tushies Collection. All of these items should be in stock soon, possibly this week, so be sure to check out the store.

We are excited to grow our list of great plush manufacturers to bring to the public, so welcome Aurora and here's hoping we do much business in the future. ~Erin

Relax & Unwind With Sand

2007-01-31T20:04:00.000-05:00

If you've had a long day and need to unwind...click on the above picture (sorry, don't know how or if I can load the actual video clip on this blog) to be taken to the clip page of www.sandfantasy.com. Here you will find an artist, Ilana Yahav, who makes moving images with sand. The clips of her creating these amazingly intricate sand pictures are accompanied by soothing music. The clip for "Just Imagine..." from which the above photo was taken, was posted on yahoo's main page today and I took a look and loved it and thought I would pass it along. It's the kind of thing I love to watch and even gives me little tinglies down my back. I ended up watching all of her clips and hope she adds more soon. So if watching an artist create is something you would find peaceful and relaxing...please enjoy.

~Erin

Please note I am not affiliated with this site, just thought it might be something you'll enjoy as I did.

2007-01-23T19:18:00.000-05:00

Giving Props:
Since I named my on-line store after my beloved English Springer Spaniel Abigail, who passed away in April of '06, (and whose picture can be found on the About Us page of the site) and also drew the store's logo as a cartoon of her, I thought I should at least introduce my boys. They were starting to feel a bit left out. Sam is our two & a half year old English Springer Spaniel and Tucker is our almost one year old German Shorthaired Pointer. Since these two are fairly close in age and have similar energy levels, they tend to get along great. They are brothers in every sense of the word. And although Tucker is technically the little brother, size wise he is outgrowing his brother by leaps & bounds (he's already about twice the size he was in this pic)! I wonder if Sam longs for the days when he had the upper hand?

So those are my boys, officially introduced!

2007-01-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

Holiday Buzz

Valentine's Day is already under three weeks away! While it is coming up quickly, there is still plenty of time for you to order and receive something sweet for that special someone in your life and we have a few great items in stock to meet your needs.

Beaumont the Cupid Teddy Bear from First & Main is the perfect Valentine's Day plush. He's a soft white teddy bear with vivid blue embroidered eyes, red heart footpads and a red heart shaped nose. He's all decked out as the little love god with his opalescent wings, gold halo, bow and heart tipped arrow and his pink sash with red hearts. He'd make a terrific gift all on his own or, because he's priced right, he'd be a great accompaniment to perhaps a more extravagant gift. (wink, wink).

You can check Beaumont out here: http://www.ladyabbies.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=197.

If your Valentine is a dog lover, particularly a bulldog lover, you can't miss out on Sassy or Spike from First & Main. Petite little pups at about 5" long, they are all the more adorable due to their small size! Spike is dressed up as a little biker dude with a black jacket and red kerchief on his head and Sassy is decked out in pink.

Check out Sassy here: http://www.ladyabbies.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=179 and Spike here: http://www.ladyabbies.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=180.

Lastly, if you are looking for a Valentine's Day gift that is more appropriate for your best friend, parent or child, we recommend something from Russ Berrie's Bloomin' Friends Collection. This collection consists of a bunny, teddy bear and hedgehog. There are three styles, one of each character, available in plush and there are six styles, two of each character, available as figurines. Whichever you choose will make an absolutely sweet, but toned down, alternative to the typical Valentine's Day plush.

Check out the plush Bloomin' friends plush here: http://www.ladyabbies.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=198 and the figurines here: http://www.ladyabbies.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=199.

Announcing www.ladyabbies.com

2007-01-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my blog! My name is Erin and I would like to thank you for stopping in to visit.

I would like to start off my first post by introducing my on-line store, Lady Abigail's Collectibles & Gifts, found at www.ladyabbies.com.

Lady Abigail's carries an array of baby, kid, holiday and wedding items from terrific companies like Gund, Russ Berrie, First & Main, Melissa & Doug, and many more so I hope you will find something you love when you visit.

Lady Abigail's is named after my English Springer Spaniel Abigail. The real Lady Abigail (of the Woodlands-her AKC title), more commonly known as Abbie (she wasn't pretentious), passed away almost a year ago. When I decided to start my store shortly after her passing, I could think of no more perfect name for it then hers. It is my honor to have her name on my store and to think of her everyday when I look at the springer logo I drew after her (though in real life she was less cartoony) or see her name atop every page. And I am proud to introduce her to you, she was worth knowing...and anyone who has a dog and loves them dearly knows what I mean.

Creating this store has truly been a labor of love for me and I am thrilled that it is finally up and running. I would like to thank my brother and webmaster, David, for all of his help in this endeavor because I had the vision but he brought it to life online for which I am extremely grateful.

Thanks again for stopping in and I hope you enjoy the store!

~Erin