Salsa Verde

This weekend I tried out the Mexican basket from Bountiful Baskets and loved the fun foods included. I had a bunch of tomatillos in it (they look like small green tomatoes) and wanted to make a great salsa verde. I looked through several recipes and with lots of tweeking I came up with one that we loved.

Salsa Verde

Ingredients

• 10 tomatillos roasted
  
• 1 large green onion
  
• Large bunch of cilantro leaves
• Juice of one small lime
  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 Jalapeno peppers roasted
• 1 Anaheim pepper roasted
• 2 roasted garlic cloves
  
• Salt to taste

Method

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well. Cut in half and place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for about 7-10 minutes to lightly blacken the skin. Slice jalapenos and Anaheim in half and roast as well. Roast garlic in husk.

2 Place tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, peppers, garlic, and sugar in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt. Cool in refrigerator.

Serve with chips or as a salsa accompaniment to Mexican dishes.

Snowman Treat

We got invited to a sledding party today and I remembered seeing the cutest treat that would be perfect to bring. These snowman treats! I used powdered donuts, candy corn (I still had some leftover from Halloween) and chocolate chips for the eyes. I skipped the mouth-I thought they were cute enough. Plus, me and frosting don't get along so well.

A perfect winter treat! And one the kids can help with.

Steel Cut Oats

Julie wanted me to post how to make Steel Cut Oats. If you have never cooked steel cut oats before, let me tell you that they are vastly superior to rolled oats, in my opinion. I am NOT claiming that this is my FAVORITE breakfast.....but it is a healthy one!

1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups water
1/4 tsp. salt

Bring salt and water to a boil. Add oats. Cover and cook on low 10 to 20 minutes. I usually cook close to 20 minutes. To serve add milk, raisins (if desired), and brown sugar.

Marshmellow Construction

So, I needed an art project for my 9-year-olds scouts that didn't involve paint. (Boys + paint=mess, which sometimes I can deal with and sometimes I can't!)

So, I looked through my stash of ideas and found this from the Idea Room. My kids had a blast testing it out first, and the scouts loved it too. And you only need toothpicks and marshmellows. A great boredom buster!

Two-week Menu-UPDATED with links

So, I actually followed my last menu so I'm going to try it again. It was a learning curve because we ended up having meals with rice for 5 meals in a row. Needless to say I won't be needing rice anymore for a while!
Mon-Tortilla Soup
Tues-Hamburgers
Wed-Almond Chicken from my friend Jana
Thurs-Scalloped Potatoes
Fri-BBQ Chicken Pizza
Sat-Lasagna Buns
Sun-Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops *See recipe below from my friend Jana
Mon-Cowboy Spuds
Tues-Dry rub ribs with sauted quinoa
Wed-Strogonoff
Thurs-Baked potato soup with bread
Fri-Enchiladas

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup4 lbs peeled,
cubed potatoes
5 Tablespoons real butter1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
6 cloves roasted garlic (directions are below
)1- 1 1/2 Cups warm skim milk (I used 1% and I didn't warm it)
1 Tablespoon salt, or to taste1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper, or to taste

Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours.(I sprinkled the Ranch seasoning over the chops and then put the soup on.) Place potatoes into a large pot of cold water. Place onto stove top over high heat and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling, cook for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Drain and transfer to the work bowl of a stand or electric mixer. Mix on low until potatoes are mashed then add butter, Parmesan, garlic, milk, salt and pepper. Season to taste if needed. For thinner mashed potatoes add more milk, slowly until your desired consistency.Scoop mashed potatoes onto serving plates and top with pork chops and soup gravy from crock pot. Roasted GarlicPreheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place bulb of garlic with skins on, wrap lightly in tin foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove from foil and let cool for 15 minutes. Remove garlic from skins, place in a bowl and mash with a fork until completely mashed. Set aside. One garlic bulb will have around 12 cloves.

Quilting

Ok so I haven't blogged anything for over a month and there is a great reason. I have been finishing some projects that should have been finished before Christmas. Anyway, minkee was on sale before Christmas for $7 off a yard--so I decided that each one of my children needed a new blanket for Christmas. (I finished 4 quilts before Christmas and 2 after for my children and then I made 3 other since then)

Logan loves cars and I found a fleece pillow kit and bordered it,quilted it on my machine, and then tied the edges

At the Bonneville Craft Fair--I found this cute pattern for Breanna's quilt. It was actually for a ragged quilt but I didn't want it to be ragged so I just pieced it together. I love the colors on this quilt.

Hattie's quilt idea came from a quilt that my sister in law received when she had her last baby. I just pieced the top together. I lvoe the bright colors in this one as well.

Andrew's quilt is a minkee quilt kit from Porters. It is very soft and snuggy.

For the boys, I found a pattern that is call The Yellow Brick Road. It uses fat quarters, then you piece it together squares and then sew the squares together. I had someone ask me if Brock was a Bonneville fan because of the colors. I just picked the colors because of the football theme.

Then I did a small version of the yellow brick road pattern for my friend who just had twin babies. I used mainly minkee for the squares but used flannel for the back.

So I have been busy at work--just not busy blogging about it!!

Sweetheart Candy Valentine Topiary

So instead of making the felt flower topiary on my project list I decided to try to make a candy one. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Supplies: Foam ball ( I used one for flowers but you can use regular styrofoam)

Felt

Pins

Sweetheart Candy

Finish Spray

Pink Paint

Dowel

Flower Pot

Foam to fit on flower pot

Ribbon

You need to cover the ugly green, so I took a cup a traced around the bottom on the felt to get several circles. It took about 1 1/2 sheets of felt. Then I cut out the circles a cut slits on two opposite sides so it would lay nicer.Then I started covering the ball using two pins per circle. I overlapped the slits a little bit so they would lay flat. At the end you should have a nice pink artichoke looking ball.

Now you simply start using your GLUE GUN to glue the candy all around the ball. Leave a small opening at the bottom for your dowel. When it is completely covered you can spray with finish spray and let dry.Now you cut your foam to fit into your pot. Then paint your dowel pink and stick it in your pot. Then I glued more candies to cover up that foam and sprayed with finish spray. Now you are ready to stick your ball on the dowel and tie a cute bow around that. Now you can still enjoy your carbs without them going straight to your hips!

Scrapbook Paper Wooden Pendants

One of my favorite projects of last year was Makes and Takes Scrabble Tile Pendants. I love how versatile and fun these are to make and wear.

And, one of my favorite blogs is Lil Blue Boo. She seriously makes the cutest things I've ever seen. On my project list was her wooden pendants. So I found these at Michaels for about $4 to try this out. And I think I used my coupon. Anyway-200 of them=cheap. They have circles, etc. but I bought this bag with a variety of shapes.

But the problem was that I couldn't find the gel medium she has in her tutorial. So, I got to thinking-what kind of baby would I have if I married the Scrabble Tiles with the Wooden Pendants?

And this is what I came up! It was almost as exciting as having a real baby. Just kidding. (Mostly)

So, here are the steps.

1) Trace around your wooden shape onto scrapbook paper and cut out.

2) Apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to the wood and press your paper on. Then let dry for a few minutes.

3) Apply a thin layer of Modge Podge on top of this to seal the paper. Let dry for a few minutes. You can then trim around the edges if you have any extra paper. (This is where your Tim Holz scissors are amazing!)

4)Then you can apply your Diamond Glaze. I couldn't find any around here, so my sister had to bring some from Utah. I think they make similar products now like Glossy Accents etc. Let me know if you like one that you try.

5) Let this dry for at least 4 hours.

6) I hate it when my pendants turn over and show their ugly backside, so I repeated these steps to have a two-sided pendant. So this way it doesn't matter if it flips. Just have the same or similar paper on both sides so it still coordinates with what you are wearing. This is the back side of the pendant shown above.

7) To make it into a pendant you have a few options. The wood is pretty thin, so my 1/8th inch punch actually did punch through. It didn't really like it, but it did it. My Big Bite, however punched though it with no problem.
Then you can add a jump ring and then attach to your necklace. I didn't have any jump rings on hand, so I glued a bail to the top of it with jewelry glue instead. You could also drill on hole on top.

The possibilities are endless.

For this ring I took 20 gage wire and twisted into a ring like so:

Then I hot glued the star onto the top so that part wouldn't show or rub your finger.

For this hairclip I just hot glued this star onto a clip. Cute for little girls and big girls. Seriously, I would wear this. Wouldn't you?For the keychain I punched a hole with my Big Bite and slipped a keyring into it. Now go make a whole bunch and see how fun they are.I like them because they are a little chunkier and you can use a bigger pattern than the Scrabble tiles. Plus, you don't have wait to find a Scrabble Set at DI. Scrabble tiles shouldn't have all the fun anyway, don't ya think?

Excitement

I just have to say how excited I am. We've been published twice on http://www.oneprettything.com/ this week. One for the Bakugan holder here and also for the wreath here. I also linked to Blue Cricket Designs Show and tell. So with all that this week we started the week out with about 800 hits and now have 1353 this morning. Yeah bloggers!

PS. And the wreath is also here on Craft Envy. Thanks! Be sure to go check out their site. She has really cute ideas.

A heart-shaped Valentines Wreath

Okay, so I have like zero Valentines decorations. Nothing. Nada. So, I was thinking about making a wreath for the door. I liked the look of the rag ones I have seen. I'm trying to "use what I have" to craft method, so instead of buying a wire wreath I took this baby:And bent it into a rough heart shape.
Then I cut up a whole bunch of pink fabric into strips (approx. 1" by 7", but they don't have to be exact). I used old shirts, ribbon, fabric I already had, and baby clothes I had been given but were stained.

Then I tied them around the hanger wreath. It took awhile but turn on a good show and tie away! Wahlah! Number two on my list complete. And I didn't have to buy a thing!

See what you can get done when you focus!

Solving the cup issue....

I don't know if your house is like mine or not, but this what my counter ends up looking like at the end of the day. Making me seriously envy my sister-in-laws drinking fountain she has in her HOUSE! Jealous.

Anyway, I've been trying to think for a while how to solve this. I even contemplated buying those expensive name cups at Toys R Us. But I would have to special order two names because they aren't common. Anyway, I saw this idea and knew I had my solution. I even had Staz-On but I had never used it. So, I picked up these plastic tumblers fairly cheaply at the big store that starts with W. And I stamped the names for each of my kids on three cups each. They get one cup a day. And the know which one is theirs. I threw the rest of the gross cups away. Yeah. #1 on my project list complete.

And yes, I did wash the cups and the ink really does stay on! (Hence the name)
Nice new, clean, personalized cups!

Two craft-lifted projects

I made this skirt/legging combo the other day. I made my three-year-old son model after bribing him with candy. Turned out Ok. I guess I should focus more on projects than can be used in the next year instead of three years away, but whatev. I also had to look at DI for another scrabble game for the pendants, but only found the travel version which has smaller tiles. I bought it anyway, thinking it might come in handy. Then I saw this idea and had my answer. Another way to help learn letters!

Two more things on my wish list..

Well, I broke down and spent the $4 on a candy thermometer, so I can add two more things to my wish list.

1)Comfortable exercise shoes. My feet kill after using the $40 Nikes, but if invest in expensive ones, that means I'm making a commitment to work out often. These Shapes Up are intriguing. Your feet have to feel good with this much padding, don't ya think?? Anyone have any good ones?

2) This Versa Tool can burn any laser-printed image onto fabric, wood, etc. etc. I saw it on Creative Juice while I was feeding the baby. I don't really have any projects in mind to use it for, but I think it looks cool!

Top Ten Project List

Going along with my word FOCUS, my project today was to focus my project list. Ever since I got married I have loved to collect project ideas. Before I discovered blogs I went to the library and made tons of copies for future ideas.

But with so many exciting crafty ideas out there, I have to admit I get kind of a "crafters high" looking for and collecting them. The thought of even making them someday can keep me sane. But, I have control myself and spend more time actually creating than looking for ideas.

Anyway, I have so many printed ideas that when I do get a minute to craft, sometime I don't even know what project I want to work on next, or have the right supplies.

So, here is what I did 1) I went through all of my ideas and wrote down ones that interested me. I had 23.
2) So I edited those down to ten.
3) Then I wrote down the order I wanted to finish them.

So, no more wasting craft time. Now I have focus and direction and a shopping list. I can't start one until I have finished one (unless I need some supplies I don't have).

So, here is my list:

1) Snowman Hill gave me this inspiration for an idea I want to try. I will let you know if it works!
2) Valentines Wreath of some sort: Some inspiration here. Looks like I'm going to have add this blog to my reader. See people-- I need help!
3)Valentine's Topiary
4) A display board with inspiration from here.
5) Wooden pendant necklaces -this looks so cool!
6) Epoxy necklaces- under the words broken gems
7) Side panel shirt refashion Repurposing is the hot trend right now, so I was inspired to go through my closet and what I don't like. Now I just need to repurpose.
8) This little dress.
9) A cute headband.
10) Polymer pendants I've made these before, but I had a different idea I wanted to try.

So, there you go! More information overload for you to waste your time on!