Orzo: Rice Pilaf and Seafood Medley

I am SO sorry I forgot to post this on my day. I'm just so out of the routine of blogging. Sorry again!!

Did I mention I live in a small town with no Target, a small WalMart and 2 grocery stores? Well, I do. And in these stores I found no orzo. Well, I didn't look in one grocery store because it's an expensive one. But I did find a rice pilaf mix. And I do love rice pilaf.

Ingredients:
Rice Pilaf mix

Seafood Medley and Cream Sauce:
Packaged seafood mix (crab, muscles, calamari, scallops)
1/2 Onion diced
1/2 bunch Spinach chopped
1 clove Garlic minced
1 c Milk
1/3 c Parmesan cheese grated
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp Flour

Make the rice pilaf according to the directions. Let that cook and get to the yummy seafood! Heat a large, deep skillet to medium heat. Add olive oil. Let that heat up. Add diced onion. Once the onion starts to look slightly golden add the spinach and garlic. Stir this around and let cook for 1 min. Add milk, cheese and flour. Stir and heat. Don't boil it. This is the delicious sauce. Add the seafood. Reduce heat to low. Cover with lid and let simmer for 10-15 min stirring occasionally. Serve over rice pilaf.

**If your muscles are still in their shells, keep the lid on the pan and DO NOT REMOVE for 3-6 minutes or until the shells have opened. If the shells do not open, do not eat the muscle. Same goes for clams and other shellfish steamed in their shell.

Wonton Wrappers: Southwestern Eggrolls (Chili's Copy Cat)

Sorry I completely forgot to introduce my pick!! While we were watching the many cooking shows we do I saw one of the ingredients used was wonton wrappers. I thought we should give it a go! So here we are!!

Our family loves Chili's. And I especially love their appetizers. I wanted to try out their Southwestern Eggrolls so that was why I chose wonton wrappers! Ok, finding wonton wrappers was extremely difficult for me. I looked at 3 stores and finally found them in the first store when I went back. At my grocery store they were in the refrigerated section where the mushrooms and herbs are. Good luck finding them in your store!

Ingredients:
1 Package wonton wrappers (80 ct)
Vegetable oil

Filling:
1 Red bell pepper diced
1 medium Onion diced
1 bunch Spinach chopped
1/2 can Corn
1 can Black beans rinsed and drained
1 large Jalapeno diced
1/2 c Cheese of your liking
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Parsley (fresh or dried is fine)
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

Chop, dice, grate, drain all the ingredients as needed.  I used half mozzarella and half cheddar for the recipe. Monterrey Jack is also a good one to use since it has some kick. And I took out most of the jalapeno's seeds. Again, I'm a spice wimp. Now's also a good time to heat up your oil in a large skillet or deep fryer. Put enough oil in to fill the bottom of the skillet completely. Turn on medium high heat.

Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl adding spices last. Mix with a large spoon.  Lay out a few wonton wrappers. Fill each wrapper with a spoonful of filling. Don't overfill! With water, use your finger to dampen the edges of the wonton wrapper. Seal by folding in half and pressing the edges firmly. Place into the oil carefully away from you to prevent splashing back onto you. DO NOT place into oil that hasn't been heated long enough. I turned on the heat then made 8 eggrolls before putting them into the oil. If the oil isn't heated this will make everything really soggy and gross since the wrapper will absorb too much oil. Fry until golden brown (about 1-3 min), flip and repeat. After both sides are golden brown, remove from oil and let cool slightly on a paper towel.

I served our eggrolls with the Tomatillo Cilantro Ranch! So yummy!! Could even use a little more cheese if you're a cheesy fan.

**I halved the recipe (left the spices and beans at the same amount) and still made a ton! So caution in portion control!!

Agave: BBQ Sauce

I had no idea what to do with agave nectar since you can do so much with it. Sounds backward but that was the predicament I was in. I looked on Dominosugar.com endlessly since they had a ton of agave recipes. And I found one that worked! Of course I had to tweek it to my liking though.

Ingredients:
1/4 c Agave nectar
2 c Ketchup
1 c Water
1 tbsp Hot sauce (my husband prefers Tabasco)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp White vinegar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Soy sauce
1/2 tsp Onion powder
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 tbsp Flour
1/4 c Butter (cubed)

Combine flour with 2 tbsp of water to create a sort of flour roux. I didn't try it but a butter and flour roux probably would've worked just as well, maybe even better. Set this aside.

In a saucepan (I used a pot, I thought it worked well for the quantity made) over low-medium heat combine everything EXCEPT the flour roux and butter. Stir and allow that to simmer for 10 minutes. Next, whisk flour mixture into the sauce. Allow to simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Add the butter and whisk until incorporated. Simmer for 10 more minutes! Then it's ready to serve.

(I forgot to take a picture of the actual sauce so you'll just have to enjoy it on these ribs!)

 Agave BBQ Sauce on Baby Back Ribs:

Place ribs in slow cooker around the bowl so they curve around slightly, bone side facing in. Slather that with BBQ sauce. I mean slather those puppies up! Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Using a large spoon, ladle the sauce back onto the ribs every couple of hours. Serve hot!

Tomatillo: Tomatillo Cilantro Ranch

If you've ever visited the Mountain West you may have seen Cafe Rio. If you were wise you stopped in for their amazing Mexican food. If not, I'm sorry. I've never done anything with tomatillos before so I decided to give Cafe Rio's ranch a try.

Ingredients:
2 Tomatillos
1/2 bunch Cilantro
1 medium Jalapeno (remove seeds for less heat)
1 Ranch packet
1 c Milk
1 clove Garlic minced
1 tsp Lime juice
1 c Mayonaisse
1/4 c Sour cream (optional)

Cut up tomatillos, cilantro, and jalapeno. Mince garlic. Since I'm a wimp in the spicy department (see my Butter Chicken post!), I removed all the seeds from the jalapeno. I used my handy dandy food processor (cut the cutting and mincing down significantly) and I'm sure a good blender would work as well. First combine all produce. Turn on food processor for 30-60 seconds. Repeat until everything is chopped nicely. Add milk and lime juice. Pulse a few times. Add mayo and ranch packet. Blend until smooth and mixed well. It will be thick!

The only picture I took of the dressing on its own. It doesn't look super appetizing in the picture but it was so good!

Substitutions: I didn't have a full cup of mayo so I just added in some sour cream and it worked well.

Indian: Butter Chicken

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Uh, Jaime already did butter chicken!" Well, I did a much lazier edition of butter chicken! I didn't have half the spices the recipe called for and the bulk spice section in our small grocery store didn't help either. Luckily, the Asian aisle did!

Ingredients:
1 Chicken Breast
1 Packet Butter Chicken Paste
4 tbsp Butter

2 c Rice optional

 See? Lazy.

   So, really all I did was combine the paste with butter, let that cook for 15 minutes then added the chicken. It was pretty easy so I tried making Naan bread. Well, that didn't turn out very well so we'll just leave that wayward moment out of the post!

   I served the butter chicken on top of rice and served it with bread and salad. It was very spicy for me! Like so spicy I could barely finish. My husband served an LDS mission in Australia and was able to meet a lot of Indian immigrants. He was served a lot of spicy Indian dishes so he was used to both the strong flavor and spices and enjoyed it quite a bit! This is something I think I'd have to make from scratch next time to tone down the spicy level!

DIY Carnival

I, along with helpers, decided to throw an activity at church that was family friendly and more geared toward your inner kid. We decided to do an indoor carnival. So, I'm including some tips of making your own carnival too! This could be indoor or outdoor. This was a while ago and the weather still wasn't as reliable as we wanted for something outdoor. Anyways, here we go!

These were our booths:

• Duck Pond -pick up a duck, if it has an "X" on the bottom you win a prize!

• Cupcake Walk-Number spaces 1-8. The contestants walk around the spaces while music plays. When the music stops hope your number is called from the mystery hat

 

• Can Toss-We used tennis balls against 6 stacked cans. Get them all down for a prize.

 

• Target Practice-Get a set amount of points in 3 throws for a prize.

• Kissing Booth-guess how many Hershey's Kisses are in the jar (we had 3 jars and differing amounts. Each jar had it's own separate guesses)
• Face Painting-we bought a simple pack at Wal-Mart. It didn't dry very quickly so I would do better research on that!

Here's some additional ideas for booths:

• Fortune Teller-fortune cookies or someone dressed up and has a fun imagination
• Go Fish-attach a string with a magnet at the end to a stick. "Go fishing" behind a curtain or in a baby pool with cut out fish with a paper clip attached so the magnet will stick. 3 tries for a fish!
• Ring Toss-rings and glass soda bottles or pegs, get the ring on the bottle and win
• Balloon Dartboard-Tap small balloons onto a board in a grid and pop with darts. Careful of pointy darts!
• Spin Wheel with a bunch of different prizes 

Food:

Now as for food. Since this was an indoor carnival, popcorn would be a bit too messy. We opted for other carnival food. In a crockpot we stacked hot dogs standing up and cooked them on HIGH for 1.5 hours and they were ready to serve! That's all it took. We fit 75 into a medium sized crockpot. We served with chips and had a potluck for desserts. So yummy and VERY successful way to do a lot of food at once. Although we opted to save money and not to this, certain companies rent out cotton candy machines for as low as $25 a day! I know some Uhauls offer rentals, just go see if your local one does!

Prizes:

• Our prizes were just candy but if you wanted to go all out here are some other ideas
• Restaurant Gift Cards
• Stuffed Animals
• Blow-up Toys (like guitars or saxophones)
• Bouncy Balls
• Temporary Tattoos
• Bubbles
• Nail Polish
• So much more! Just go to your Dollar Store, I'm sure they have tons of "prize" worthy stuff

All in all, we budgeted for about $150 and we got right around there. In addition to the supplies for each booth (rubber ducks, face paint, tarp, etc) and prizes we also bought table cloths, balloons, printed signs, and the food. We did this in our church's gym which supplied tables and chairs for free.

Oh yeah! I made a cool invitation too:

Download the font here! I promise it's safe and didn't give my computer some weird virus. This is for the carnival like font. And I found the picture of the tents online just looking up clip art.

Things to do with Zucchini

Last summer we decided to start a garden. We planted zucchini, jalapenos and watermelon. Our watermelon plant died pretty quickly but the other two thrived. We can talk about the jalapenos in another post because this post is solely dedicated to our zucchini plant. We weeded and watered as needed and by the end of the summer we harvested over 2 dozen zucchinis big to small. So anyone else ever been in the same boat of what on earth to do with all that zucchini?! Well, we definitely got creative.

Here's my list of things to do with zucchini:

Sliced thinly:
Saute them in olive oil and garlic salt
Ratatouille (I didn't attempt but I thought about it!)
Oven baked with butter, salt and pepper
Oven bake chips
Fried zucchini
Pasta noodle alternative (large cheese grater or they have a veggie noodle device)

Sliced not so thinly:
Fries! (these turned out pretty tasty. Just dip in an egg and then a flour/breadcrumb/Parmesan mix and bake!)
Raw with veggie dip
Grilled (brush with olive oil)
Stuffed zucchini

Pureed/Grated:
Bread
Muffins
Pancakes
Baby food
Fried patties (with cheese and onion and other Pinterest recipe stuff!)

AND you can freeze your grated zucchini! My freezer currently has 7 cups of frozen zucchini...

Hope these ideas help or inspire you! If you want any additional information on recipes or techniques just ask! I will be happy to make additional posts that are more descriptive.

Logo Bleach T-Shirt

For the 3 Christmases my husband and I have celebrated together I tried to include at least one homemade present. This past Christmas I wanted to get him something with one of his favorite band's logos on it but the t-shirts I found online were too dang expensive for our budget. So there was my handmade present idea! The whole thing cost about $8 to make. If you want to do the inverse of the logo check out Jaime's Bleach T-Shirt tutorial.

What you'll need:
Colored T-Shirt
Bleach pen
Pins
Chalk or chalk pencil
Traceable pattern (I did mine on computer paper)

First, I cut out the lettering of my pattern. I then pinned the pattern onto the shirt. I put a piece of cardboard in the shirt so the bleach wouldn't go through. This also made pinning the pattern onto the shirt easier since the pins could go straight into the cardboard to really hold everything in place.

Next, trace the pattern onto the fabric with chalk.

Now you're ready for the bleach pen! I just used a basic Clorox bleach pen that had 2 sized tips. I used the narrower tip so the outline wouldn't be too thick. I found this at Wal-Mart for a couple of dollars in the bleach aisle. Something I wish I would've known was to watch out for sputters and bubbles when the bleach came out. Don't squeeze it out too hard either. Oh well, makes it look more rustic, right?

This only needs to set for a short time. I let the bleach sit on the shirt for maybe 3 minutes then quickly threw it in the wash. As the washer filled up with water, I ran the bleached part under the water to wash off the excess bleach and to ensure no bleach would get anywhere else (which it did because I wasn't as careful as I should've been. You can see this on the right side of the shirt.) Dry the shirt and now it's ready to go!

Pair with a cute baby onesie with a matching logo (it was an iron on patch!) and you'll have the coolest dad and baby outfits!

Valentine's Day Party

Last year we were inspired by Jaime to throw a Valentine's Day party. We wanted this to become an annual thing but this year Valentine's Day is a week before my due date so we opted out of this year's celebration. But anywho! Here's some of the fun things we did last year:

The Dollar Store was the perfect place for the decorations (some pictured below.) They had plenty of items that were Valentine's day themed including the napkins, plates, fabric rose petals and doily hearts that we got. With the doorway decorations I cut rectangles and squares from red cardstock and wrote love, kissy, and xoxoxo with one letter per square then threaded them with red thread and viola, doorway garland!

Games:
the Newlywed Game,
Battle of the Sexes,
Guess the Famous Couple through hints,
make a story with 10 conversation hearts,
love song charades (whichever couple could guess 2 songs in the shortest amount of time won),
and a group mad lib (on strips of paper were written adjective, noun, etc and were put into a mad lib which was hilarious!)

The food had to be within the theme of course. We included on the invitations for our party guests to bring a treat that was red or pink.

Treats We Made:
Of course I didn't take hardly any pictures especially of the food...
Sliced red potatoes with sprinkled cheese and bacon bits on them (and baked for 15 min at 400)
We did a red fruit platter with Cool Whip for a dip
Pink Rice Krispie Treats
Ok, we didn't make these but we did supply hot tamales and red hots...YUM

Treats that were brought:
Strawberry Kiwi drink
Pink Oreo truffles
Chocolate covered strawberries
Cinnamon sugar donut holes
Brownies
Red and pink trifle (which won the prize for best treat which included taste and overall pinkness)

We gave out prizes for some of the games and treats. The prizes were:
Newlywed game: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Famous Couples: Gossip magazine
Best treat: Oven mitt with matching hand towel with a large french chef
Love song charades: lollipops (get it? Pop stars?)

What do you like to do for Valentine's Day? Go out to dinner? Netflix night?

I tried to figure this out but just couldn't. If anyone knows how to embed a PowerPoint into your blog post let me know and I can share our Newlywed and Battle of the Sexes games!

Cleaning Your Pillows in a Top Loader

Who ever thinks about cleaning your pillows? But let's think about the abuse pillows get. You sleep on them every night. This means spit, sweat, oils from hair and face, and any face products you apply can seep in there. Plus, you fluff, kids battle, and they just get thrown around a lot. They deserve to be fluffed and cleaned every now and then!

This may be TMI about my family but...here's the before: YUCK!

Front loading washing machines are more ideal for this project but I don't have one of those so I just made do. They keep the pillow's shape better. First, I looked at the pillows' tags. They have washing instructions on them!

Then I shoved them, I mean I placed them in my machine standing upright. I think it would've been better to have them horizontal instead of vertical but I guess I can just call this part wayward.  I filled up the washer and then added detergent (I just used regular liquid laundry soap, a mixture of baking soda and vinegar can also be a great detergent). I followed the care instructions on the tags I found (one pillow's tag had been ripped off). The first symbol (left to right) means warm wash. The next means non-chlorine bleach when necessary. The third means tumble dry, normal, low heat. And the last symbol means do not iron (as if you'd iron a pillow). I have a key on my washing machine that tells me what the symbols mean. This can also easily be looked up online.

After the pillows were washed, They were a little misshapen so I beat them. No, really, I beat them over my knee until the insides looked a little more normal. Then into the dryer they went. I also threw in some tennis balls with socks over them for fluffing. The tennis balls help break up the fibers that might be unwilling to separate inside the pillow. This traps moisture and makes the pillow misshapen. I dried them for about 2 hours to make sure there was no left over moisture. Then they were ready for a pillow case.

And here's the after: SO much better!

DIY Maternity Maxi Dress

Sorry for my long absence! But I have a good excuse. Well, I think it's good. So back in August, I was  asked to be one of my college roommate's bridesmaids. Well well well, what a predicament. The other 7 or so bridesmaids and I did not have something in common that would make dress buying much, much more difficult because I would be 21 weeks pregnant at her wedding! Luckily, the bridesmaids got to choose their own dresses which meant I would make my own dress. I decided to go with a maxi dress thinking it would be both easy to make and accommodating to my growing baby belly. This was far more wayward than I thought but I learned from my mistakes!

What you'll need:
2-2 1/2 yds jersey knit (depending on your height)
Thin elastic
Matching thread

Instructions:
1. Measure from under your bust, over your shoulder to mid back (equal to where your under the bust measurement is on your back). Measure down lengthwise on the fabric. This is the length of A and B. Mine was 30 inches.

2. Hem one side of each A and B pieces. This will be the neckline. Overlap A and B 4 inches right side on top of right side. Pin and sew.

3. Next, sew C to A and B, D to the opposite side, wrong sides together.
4. Fold along mid line of A and B top panel. You may need to trim both sides depending on how loose and flowy you want it. Sew sides of dress (wrong sides together) from bottom to a couple inches above where C and D meet A and B.
5. Measure where you would like to put on the elastic. I measured under the bust to accommodate baby. Cut the elastic 2 inches less than your measurement. Overlap the ends of the elastic about 3/4". Sew forward and back a couple of times. You'll need to put 4 pins in your elastic 4 equally apart: one in the middle front, middle back, and sides. This is markers to match while sewing.

6. Pin your middle front marker of the elastic to the middle front (middle of where A and B overlap), the back marker to the middle back, and sides to where C and D meet on the sides. Your elastic should be smaller than the fabric, this is on purpose! (I added a few extra pins due to how wayward everything was turning out for me. But I pinned in the middle of where the fabric was between pins to the middle between markers and match to fabric. You must be very careful if you are adding extra pins!)

7. Now sew with a zig zag stitch on the elastic to the wrong side of the dress, stretching it to meet the length of the fabric between pins. This will create gathering in the dress.

8. Cut and hem skirt to desired length, hem sleeves at length you want.
9. Optional: I sewed a small piece of where A and B overlap (6 inches from edge of waistline) for added modesty.

And here's my wayward adventure:

I measured wrong both the fabric and elastic, twisted the elastic while sewing, had to unpick thread so many times, etc, etc, etc! .

And here's the finished look!

Note: these were taken at 29 weeks not 21!! Hello belly button!

Threading a Bobbin Right

Ok so have you ever sewn something then when you finished you see a big heaping mess of thread on the underside where you started? Well this is because the bobbin hadn't been threaded all the way correctly. In order to do so first you're going to need to put it in the machine the correct way leaving it with a couple of inches of extra. This is important. Not all machines are alike so I don't really know how yours needs to be threaded!

Next with the needle threaded, turn the knobby thing until the needle goes all the way down into the machine.

Now pull it back up . You should see that the top thread has gone down into the bottom part of the feeder. Now pull the top thread's thread until the bobbin thread comes up.

 Using a seam ripper or whatever's small enough to fit under the foot, pull one side of the bobbin thread.

And pull that thread to the side. Now you won't start a sewing project with a ball of  thread around your bobbin!

Easy Decorative Accent Pillows

We got a new couch when we moved last fall. This meant I could also get new pillows (in my mind, no one actually gave me permission.) I had made an embroidered pillow with our last name on it a few months before and had plenty of fabric left over. I also made a table cloth (I took a home linens sewing class my last year in school!) and used left over fabric from that, too. I cut out 16" x 16" squares. Then I cut them along both diagonals to get 4 triangles. Since I was only making 2 pillows I only cut out 2 squares of both colors which resulted in 16 triangles. Next I laid out the triangles in the desired pattern.

Then I sewed 2 triangles in alternating colors together along the short side. Make sure you are sewing on the right sides of the fabric! The tan fabric is a jacquard fabric and definitely has a right and a wrong side.

 I had to check and recheck that I was sewing the right short edges together to get the right matching pattern for one side of the pillow.

Then it was time to sew the two larger triangles together. This was tricky so I started a the middle in order to get crisp lines. I pinned the seams down and sewed from the middle out. Then repeated in the opposite direction.

Then I sewed both sides together, matching where the red triangles were in the front and back to have a symmetrical pillow (forgot a picture of this step, sorry!) And then came the stuffing part. I left half of the bottom section un-sewn when I was sewing the two sides together. I stuffed to my hearts content. In order to get good corners I stuffed stuffing down there with scissors and made sure it went into the point of the corner. After stuffing, I sewed up the hole by hand. This could've been done by machine as well which would've been much faster but oh well!