Monday, April 30, 2012

Meatless Monday! Sweet Potato Hash



THIS.IS.DIVINE. Make it! Devour it! DIVINE!

From Better Homes and Gardens.

Ingredients

1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered (about 1 lb.)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1 11-oz. can Southwestern-style corn with black beans and peppers, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
2 Tbsp. chipotle salsa
3 medium avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
Fresh cilantro leaves and chili powder (optional)

Directions

1. Place sweet potatoes in a microwave safe dish; cover and cook on 100 percent power (high) for 5 to 8 minutes or just until tender enough to chop. Cool slightly; cut into chunks. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
2. In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add potatoes; cook until browned and crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add drained corn to skillet. Cook 3 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
3. Meanwhile, stir together sour cream and chipotle salsa.
4. To serve, divide sweet potato mixture among 4 plates. Top with avocado and serve with chipotle sour cream sauce. Add cilantro and sprinkle chili powder. Makes 4 servings.


Want more meatless recipes? Visit Meatless Monday for ideas and inspiration.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Fibers on Friday: Turtle

Happy Friday, Folks! I'm going to show you a quick picture of what I just started making and leave the rest up to you! I just started crocheting this turtle picture prop for a friend who is expecting a baby boy in July

Source: etsy.com via Beth on Pinterest



All the little hexagonal shell pieces are made separately and then pieced together. I've gotten 3 hexagons done so far.



Monday, April 23, 2012

You Can Cut Fabric With Your Cricut

My kids wanted to have a lemonade stand during our community-wide yard sale. They're always asking to have a lemonade stand, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do it up good. I asked Bruce to make a real stand. I wanted to make a lemonade bunting.

I've made a couple buntings in the past and I must say it's pretty time consuming cutting out letters from fabric. I wondered if I could cut out the letters on my Cricut. I did some internet searching and found I could. Here is how I did it after compiling some tips and tricks.

Get your fabric and Heat 'N Bond.

Apply it to the back of the fabric as directed.

Put the fabric, sticky side down, right side up onto your mat. I did not have a new mat. In fact, it's dying to be replaced.

Apparently there's some kind of rolling tool to really adhere the item to the mat. I don't have one, so I just grabbed something that would work....a large wooden stamp. This is very important because the needle will just rip and drag the fabric around if it's not really stuck to the mat.

Set your Cricut to LOW speed...HIGH pressure....the size of your choice.

Set the dial on the blade to 4 or higher. I had to go to 5.


Here's how nicely it cut once I got all the settings perfected.

I then ironed the letters to the pennants.

And sewed it all together onto a ribbon for a nice lemonade stand display!


And then I flipped it around and used it at their birthday party the next day!

Meatless Monday! Erik Estrada......huh?


***A re-post! Let's keep asparagus going strong for a few more weeks :-)***



We had Erik Estrada for dinner? Ponch? Huh?

Yes.....I was making this strata and my husband came into the kitchen and asked what we were having. "Asparagus Strata", I tell him.

"Erik Estrada?" He asks, confused. "the short one from CHIPS?"!!! Hahah!

"Yes, dear"

It was good for a laugh and this meal will always be called, "Erik Estrada" in our house. And I assure you, this will be a staple in our house. LOVED it! Love you, too, Ponch.

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. I omitted the ham. No one missed it. My husband was in charge of cooking this after it was assembled and adding the eggs at the appropriate time, so props to him for making this look so lovely.



Erik Estrada

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 5 cups French bread cubes
  • 2 cups shredded Gruyére or white cheddar cheese, (8 oz.) (I used Asiago and yellow cheddar)
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped chives or green onions
  • 8 oz. cooked ham, diced (Omit for MM)
  • 10 eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups milk

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boiling. Add asparagus; cook 5 minutes or until bright green.

2. In a greased 3-quart baking dish spread half the bread cubes. Top with cheese, onion, chives and half the ham and asparagus. Top with remaining bread.

3. In a bowl whisk together four of the eggs and the milk. Evenly pour over layers in dish. Press down bread pieces into the egg milk mixture with the back of a spoon. Top with remaining ham and asparagus. Cover; refrigerate until ready to bake.

4. Bake, uncovered, in a 325 degrees F oven 30 minutes. With the back of a wooden spoon, press 6 indentations in top of strata. Pour a whole egg into each indentation. Bake 20 to 25 minutes more or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in center of strata registers 170 degrees F and eggs are set. Let stand 15 minutes.

5. Cut into squares to serve. If desired, drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Fibers on Friday: Potholderpalooza

Happy Friday!! Last week was just the start of my week long potholder-palooza!! I felt like I was knocking one potholder out per day! These are so gratifying!

Here's the Chrysanthemum that needed to be finished from last week:

and I went ahead and made a purple one:

and then I did this circle in a square one:

and rounded it off with this little beauty, the Ocean Grove Round Dishcloth:

It was a fun and easy week of crocheting! And these were the perfect little projects to work on while we had visitors for the week. Easy to pick up and do a little while still visiting and chatting and having fun!



Monday, April 16, 2012

Meatless Monday: Avocado and Asparagus Egg Sandwiches

Finally a new Meatless Monday! I really enjoyed this one the other night. A nice, light, spring time meal! Nothing screams spring like asparagus!

This is from Better Homes and Gardens March 2012.

Ingredients
  • 1/2 pound green, white, and/or purple asparagus, trimmed
  • 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled, and chopped
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 8 slice white, wheat, or brioche bread
  • 8 slice crisp-cooked bacon (just be wakin' with the fakin' bacon to keep this meatless)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Directions

1. Place asparagus in a single layer in a shallow baking pan. Cover with about 2 cups of boiling water. Let stand for 10 to 12 minutes, until bright green and crisp-tender. Drain. Finely chop three of the asparagus spears; set aside. (I wasn't thrilled with this method. It was still a tad too crisp for me. Next time I'll just steam it as usual)

2. In a small bowl mash avocado with lime juice. Stir in chopped asparagus; set aside.

3. In a large skillet melt butter over medium heat. Break eggs into skillet. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook eggs for 6 minutes, until whites are completely set and yolks begin to thicken. If desired, turn eggs, to fully cook the yolks.

4. Meanwhile, toast the bread. Spread avocado-asparagus on four slices. Lightly sprinkle with salt. Layer bacon, egg, asparagus, and remaining bread.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Fibers on Friday: Chrysanthamum



Howdy pardners! I've had a pretty quiet blogging week. It might be a little crazy for a couple weeks, because I'm planning and prepping for my girls' 7th Birthday party. It's going to be a Lorax themed party and I have a lot of really good ideas for it. Most of which are crafty and I'd love to share with you as I go along.

I really thought I'd jump back in to knitting my NY Cardigan once all the Easter cuties were finished, but no. I guess I'm just not feeling it right now. Perhaps this warm, sunny weather just doesn't lend itself to having a heavy-ish dark brown sweater resting upon my lap.

What I WAS feeling, however, was one of these dishcloths that textiles4you just blogged about. I saw on Pinterest someone showed a wall of dishcloths and hotpads as art in their kitchen. I'm gonna do the same thing.



I don't have a wall that huge to cover, but I have a little one that needs a variety of color. So, here's my start:

I had to rip out all that red you see lying there (all of it actually) because I did that row in hdc, but it should have been dc. Ooops. But, I figured I'd sneak in a pic so I could blog and then get back to work.



Saturday, April 7, 2012

Fibers on Friday: addendum

There's still time!! Here are the cute little eggies:




Friday, April 6, 2012

Fibers on Friday: More Easter Stuff!

Hi friends! Last week we had a lot of link ups! Lots of amazing awesomeness and new people!! Welcome!! So thrilling to me!

I gathered lots of inspiration from Kathleen's blog, A Surprise Every Time, and made two Easter basket goodies for my girls.

I had to work under cover at night. I made two of these little guys....




And I made two of the little eggs with chicks shown on her blog. I still have to weave in the ends so that pic will have to wait. Sorry...they're SUPER CUTE!

If you crochet, these are quick projects that you still have time to do for Easter!



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Come Sit a Spell

I'm officially a trash picker. Not ashamed to admit it. Recycling at it's finest. I drove by this bench out for the trash about a month ago. I eyeballed it. I saw the potential. I came home and told Bruce, "I have something I want to trashpick and I need your help." He said yes.

I pick the trash and it leads to a bunch of work for HIM. Oh well, like the girls say, "He doesn't mind. Nope. Not at all!"

So here is the bench from that fateful morning. It was so waterlogged and rotten. The entire back had come off and the wood was just rotting right off the thing. But the metal! Look at that weathered metal....


Bruce bought some nice oak and got to cuttin'. He says it was a little tricky because there were some bevelled angles he had to cut, but he didn't have the right equipment. He got it done, though...and it is FABULOUS!!



So, we've added to the screened in back porch. The porch itself is totally lacking....the floor is gross, there are ants up in the roof that chomp so much wood it's constantly falling on us, and it stays wet most of the time.....stinkin' Florida humidity.

But, this makes it look that much better and someday...in our dream home...this will be perfect!!