Totally Out of Character Food-Related Post

This week's EtsyBloggers blog carnival topic is recipes. While I may not seem like the four-course dinner type, I have been known to whip up a tasty dish now and then. And, generally, being a fan of lower-fat and lower-calorie alternatives to traditional ingredients, I do my best to feed the masses without clogging their arteries or causing unsightly bulges around their midsections.

I want to give credit where credit is due - the vast majority of my all-time favorite recipes, particularly the ones that I freeze for later, come from Cooking Light magazine's supercool searchable database. I'm fairly certain that's where this one came from as well. This is a great recipe for casual family dinners when it's chilly outside and you feel like serving something with a little "substance." Add a salad - mixed greens, some fruit, pecans, a vinaigrette perhaps? - and you're done. For you cook-ahead types, this does freeze well. Divide it in half, place in two separate freezer-friendly dishes, and freeze before baking.

Without further ado, I present the best spinach lasagna recipe EVER.

Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (about 1/3 cup)
1 (12-ounce) container 1% low-fat cottage cheese
1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
12 cooked lasagna noodles
1 (27.5-ounce) jar low-fat chunky mushroom pasta sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat a medium nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion and mushrooms; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

Beat the cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until smooth; add the cottage cheese, sour cream, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, and eggs, beating well. Add the onion mixture and spinach, and beat well.

Spread 1/2 cup of the spinach mixture in the bottom of a 13 x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over the spinach mixture; top with 1 cup of spinach mixture, 3/4 cup of pasta sauce, 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese, and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with Parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese; bake, uncovered, an additional 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.

Yield: 8 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 413 (29% from fat); FAT 13.3g (sat 7.5g, mono 3.7g, poly 0.9g); PROTEIN 26.7g; CARB 47.9g; FIBER 5.3g; CHOL 90mg; IRON 4.2mg; SODIUM 834mg; CALC 400mg;

And there you have it. Relatively easy and absolutely delish. Enjoy!

Skwigga-zine Blog Ring -- Blog of the Week

This week's featured blogger is Lily of Tulip's Talking, Tulip's Treasure Box, and Mocking Bird Lane, her newest venture.

Mocking Bird: Its scientific name, Mimuspolyglottos, means "many-tongued mimic," and the Indians called it Cencontlatolly, which means "four hundred tongues." Although the Indian name may exaggerate the bird's talents, the mocker not only has a beautiful song of its own, but also can imitate the songs of dozens of other birds.

The bird actually sings at great lengths in musical phrases that are pure mockingbird song. As the bird sings, it repeats each phrase three to six times, and it can change its tune as often as eighty-seven times in seven minutes. This repetition and the sudden changes of song help distinguish the mockingbird's sounds from those of other birds.

A fantastic jewelry artisan, avid up-cycler, and faithful blogger, Lily offers something for everyone. Visit Tulip's Treasure Box to find elegant special-occasion jewelry and Mocking Bird Lane for vintage and eco-friendly pieces.

Newsletter or No Newsletter -- That is the Question

This morning finds me battling equipment issues, as seems to be the case at least one week out of every month. Ah, the perils of small business ownership... So, given that my time and attention is required today in areas other than writing, I'll keep today's blogging to a minimum. I do, however, wish to pose a question for my fellow small business owners about using newsletters to keep in touch with customers.

With the holidays fast approaching (much faster than I'd prefer, truthfully), and given that I'm a greeting card company, I've been seriously considering using a newsletter to help spread the word about the availability of my holiday designs, opportunities for custom ordering, and Mission Soldier Support, the EtsyGreetings project to get handmade cards into the hands of our troops overseas so they can send them to their friends and families in time for the holidays.

I do have an existing (relatively small) mailing list, and have done mailings in the past. But my business has grown to the point that I feel a more, shall we say, professional newsletter is in order. Price, however, is of course an issue, particularly with the astounding number of equipment expenditures that have been required in recent months.

Constant Contact seems to be the standard email marketing service for small businesses. However, as I understand it, there is a monthly fee. And, frankly, I can't see myself using the service more than a few times per year - more than that would feel spammy to me and I fear my customers would balk. I've heard of a few pay-per-use companies (MailChimp, I believe has been mentioned by some fellow Estyians?), but haven't a clue as to which is the best fit for my company.

Which brings me to my question(s), fellow business owners, should you care to weigh in: How do you use email to keep in touch with your customers? Are you happy with your service? How effective are your email campaigns at driving repeat business? How do you handle opting in? Via blog or direct customer interaction?

Your opinion is very much appreciated. Without you, how would I ever accomplish a thing? And with that, I'm off to the printer wars. Check ya tomorrow when, hopefully, I'll be up and running again.

Interview Posted on Etsy Featured Artist Blog

A huge Macaroni and Glue thank you to new friend, fellow Twitterer and jewelry artist extraordinaire, Debbie Gootter, for featuring us on the Etsy Featured Artist blog today. I've become a big fan of Debbie's blog and was so honored to be asked for an interview. Please take a moment to check out the blog and leave a little comment love. And while you're at it, Debbie's Etsy shop is just filled with beautiful silver treasures like this Sophie Multi-Circle Necklace just waiting to be snapped up for you or your BFF. Christmas will be here before you know it!

Skwigga-zine Blog Ring -- Blog of the Week

This week's featured blogger is Hilary of Designing Hilary. Here's what she says about herself:

Me? Wife, mother, grandmother, jewelry designer. How it all fits together, I still don't have a clue. But I'm having a ball being clueless!

An amazing jewelry artisan and thoughtful blogger, Hilary is definitely worth a look. Check out the Designing Hilary blog for some stunning photography and honest musings, and visit '57 Design Studio to get something wonderful for your jewelry box.

EtsyFAME Feature On This Mom's Life

I'm a little behind on this one, but I wanted to send a shout-out to Andrea Baker of This Mom's Life and Andrea Baker Designs on Etsy, and fellow EtsyFAME member, for featuring Macaroni and Glue earlier this week.

Let me introduce you to Macaroni and Glue. She’s super awesome and so easy to work with. Actually when I placed my custom order with her, she was thinking along the same lines as I was and that made for a super team. I ordered some pink and white thank you cards for my Mary Kay business. She customized them with the word thank you on the outside. My customers love them...

You can read the rest of the article here. Andrea actually made me the cutest little keyring/business card cozy which has now become the single most important thing in my (giant) purse.


I not only use it for my cards, but also as a mini-wallet which can take the place of said purse on short jaunts to the store or walks to the park. I'm such a nerd that I've even attached it to a caribiner, so when all available hands are occupied with kids and/or shopping carts, I can clip it to something. I'm sure I look really cool with my keys clipped to my beltloop and my iPhone in its little armband-thingie, but whatever. I'm all about hands-free!

Thanks again, Andrea, for the feature!

Photography Follow-up -- My New "Studio"

Last month I told you about my most awesome birthday gift EVER, a professional light cube to replace my cardboard home-built version that was literally coming apart. I promised to show you my set-up, so here it is:





As you can see, I use the removable top as the bottom of the cube so I can continue to use my beloved dark woodgrain background (my kitchen table, in case you've ever wondered). Another side zips open - that's the side I shoot through.

To my surprise, the new lightcube actually lets less light in than did my homemade version. So I struggled to find the right camera settings for days on end before finally deciding that I simply needed a third light source (duh!). So I'm now using three office-type lamps, each with a 100 watt GE EnergySmart DAYLIGHT bulb, and I'm happy with the results. With just a teensy bit of contrast correction in Photoshop, here's what I get.