Hobo chickpea concotion

I am dressed like a homeless person right now.  I'm not really sure what is going on.  But, I was really hungry and didn't feel like changing, and since we all know that I live by the phrase "you never know when you are going to meet your husband", I could not leave the house.  Therefore I decided to hunt through my cupboards and make something with what I had.  This could have been a disaster, but ended up being delicious.
You will need the following ingredients:

• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 a bag of spring mix greens
• 1/2 inch of ginger, peeled and grated
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• red pepper flakes
• 1/2 of a lemon
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 1/2 some sort of squash

So, bake your squash in the oven.  While you are doing this, put some oil in your pan and cook up the garlic and ginger.  Pour in the drained garbanzo beans. Cook for about three minutes.  Drain some of the juice off of your diced tomatoes and add that in too. Stir it around.  open up the oven and flip your squash, then return it to baking.  Add in the coconut milk.  season with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Squeeze the juice from the 1/2 lemon into the mixture. Bring this whole thing to a boil, then let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring about every five minutes.  Now this is the weird part: add in the salad mix handful by handful and let it wilt. Remove your squash from the oven and pour the garbanzo bean concoction over it. Yep.  It's delicious. also, it makes a ton (so only use about 1 cup on your squash), but it is also thick enough that you can eat it with a fork.

Snowed in...still.

Snow Day #2 Today I ventured out into the snow to buy coffee, beer, goldfish crackers, and mac and cheese. It’s an exciting life I lead. My beer is currently sitting in the snow outside until it is at least 2 pm… I figure it’s still a school day so I should at least wait until the kids would normally be on the bus to crack a beer. What happens when you’re snowed in as a crafter? You can get to all those projects that you have been pining on Pinterest.

Ruffle Butt onsie? Check.

Garter? Check.

Another bow tie? Check.

Mac and cheese bake? Check.

Here is how to make the delicious mac and cheese. I learned the red bell paper trick from Tim Roark and the Broccoli trick from Nicole Gelb. Life changing when combined. Maybe they would be a good couple? Hmmm. You will need:

• Annie’s White Cheddar Shells mac and cheese
• Broccoli 
• Red Pepper
• Panko 
• Milk 
• Cheddar cheese 

First, boil some water. Then throw in the red pepper, broccoli and pasta. Boil until pasta is done. Put in a colander. Make the cheese sauce with milk in your pan. Put the pasta and veggies in a pyrex. Pour the white sauce over it, then top with some cheddar cheese. Toss some panko on top. Broil for about 3 minutes. DONE.

Bow Tie! It's still snowing.

Bow ties are really weird to tie.  I just spent ten minutes learning on YouTube.  But, anyway  I used this tutorial to make a bow tie! http://gescott14.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-sew-your-own-bowties.html

also, here is the best guide I have found so far on how to tie one of these bad boys:
 http://www.tie-a-tie.net/bowtie.html

Good Luck!

Snow Day!

Today it is snowing.  I decided to go through all my old patterns and make a dress.  This is what I came up with.  It only took ½ bottle of wine and some real concentration, also Bon Iver. Oh and I made braised balsamic chicken. BooYah. I’m a 40 year old house wife.  So here is my recipe for the chicken, and following are the pictures of the dress.

Braised Balsamic Chicken

You will need:

• About 1 pound of chicken breast
• A can of diced tomatoes (I used Mexican style because that’s all I had and I am not walking out in this shit)
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp of each of the following: dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• olive oil
• ¼ of an onion, thinly sliced

Brown onion and raw chicken in pan.  Really brown it.  I almost burned mine, don’t do that, but do make sure that the onion is nice and brown,  Then dump in everything else. Turn the heat down to medium.  Go look at pinterest for about 15 minutes.  Yum yum, you’re done.

Tie Me Up

So Let’s talk about some things: or more, I write, you read.

When your crazy organizing and need to micromanage everything in your classroom drives you to the point that you find yourself in the sensory room rocking in a chair, it’s time to take a sick day.  Yep, that happened. So, I’ve come up with some new things to think about:

1. this is your job, not your life

2. delegate (just because you think you can do it better, doesn’t make it ok that it gets done two months later)

3. Your job is impossible, so good job showing up!

Then, I went to the 5^th Avenue Tavern and drank all night. At 12 when I woke up, I decided that I should do something productive, so I went to the fabric store and bought a menswear pattern. So, obviously, I was still feeling a little crazy.

With that being said, I bought some amazing silk fabric and decided to make a tie.

I will spare you the step by step, but here is the pattern, cutting,  and final product.

Infinity Scarf #2

Infinity Scarf #2!

I woke up this morning and immediately knew what I had to do…SEW ALL DAY LONG. I drove out to Hobby Lobby, only to discover that they love the Lord and are closed on Sunday. But…what is that across the street?? The biggest JoAnn’s I have ever seen. Perfect. I was eyeing a dress that I saw on a blog earlier this week. It was made of black and white stripped seersucker…but it was linen, not cotton (so not really seersucker). Anyway, I found that fabric at JoAnn’s, and IT WAS ON SALE! I decided that I needed to make an infinity scarf to replace the maroon one that I lost (have you seen it?). So here it is.
This is what you will need:
2 yards of fabric (or 1 yard, cut in half lengthwise and sewn together to make it 2 yards long)
Sewing machine
Iron
Matching thread
needle
Scissors
Pins
Pandora Station: Cave Singers
Steamed broccoli with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes (to keep you going when you get mad)

Step one: Lay your fabric out. Fold it in half. Iron. Cut along the ironed edge. Fold that in half lengthwise, right sides together. Sew along the long edge with a zigzag stitch.

Step two: So far so good. Turn the fabric right side out. Carefully pin the raw edges at the top together (just one layer). This is the tricky part. You are trying to make a tube. Go slowly and don’t get frustrated. Take lots of breaks to put on lipstick, drink coffee, eat broccoli, check your e-mail, and send text messages.

Step Three: Sew along the pinned edge leaving about 3 inches at the end.

As you are sewing, slowly push the scarf inside the hole that is continually getting smaller (it make sit easier to sew.)

Refresh your Pandora (they don’t like playing to an empty room!)
Step Four. Turn the scarf right side out again. Thread a needle. Fold the raw edge into the scarf and pin shut. Use a slip stitch to close the hole.

Step Five: Throw one up to the Big J.C. ‘cause hobby lobby was closed and you found this great fabric!

Weddings and Bacon: The perfect pair!

It is January 1 already! I can’t believe it. I did not get in half as much crafting as I would have liked to over this holiday break, but I did score big today at Goodwill. I got an awesome 100% blue silk dress. It even has shoulder pads! Bonus!

It will go great with the peep toe pumps that I also bought.

Apparently this is the time of year that people get engaged. What this means for you: Lots of wedding themed crafts and food! What this means for me: not eating and working out like crazy person, while trying not to cut my finger off crafting. Tomorrow I am hosting a small brunch before some ladies go out dress shopping for Kath. Very exciting. I decided to make muffins, a fresh fruit plate, coffee, belinis and Bacon, Egg, and Toast cups. They are pretty simple, and delicious! My apartment smells like bacon, which is a double bonus.
Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups
What you will need:
A package of bacon
A carton of eggs (try to get medium)
A package of whole wheat bread (get the cheapest, softest kind you can find)
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
Pan Spray
Salt and pepper
Muffin tins
Cooling rack
Your oven
A frying pan
Tongs
What you do: First of all, don’t put your bread in the fridge. Only a stupid person would do that and then they would have to boil some water and steam their bread to warm it up and make it fit into the muffin tins. See? Waste of time, don’t do it. You will take your perfectly room temperature bread and cut it into a circle (repeat 12 times). I used an IKEA cup, it has a pretty standard circumference….I would suggest anywhere from 3-3.5 inches.

Place these little bread circles in a pre-pan sprayed muffin tin. Turn your oven up to 400 degrees. Get out your frying pan. Cook bacon on med heat. Don’t cook it all the way. It needs to be a little pliable, and also you’re going to pop these bad boys in the oven in a minute.
Use your tongs to grab the bacon and toss it onto a plate. It should look really gross, like bacon pasta or something. When your 12 pieces of bacon are cooked (and you have eaten the left over bacon in the package, because we all know what happens to uneaten bacon…nope, there isn’t such a thing. Bacon should always be eaten immediately) you will now begin the “hardest” part.
Take the bacon and work it in between the bread and the side of the muffin tin. You might break the bread a little bit. This is ok, the egg will mend it and your little bacon and toast cup will be all shored up with egg and ready to set sail in no time!
Toss in the tiniest bit of cheddar cheese. Now, crack an egg and put it in the cup. I suggested medium sized eggs, because there is way too much egg white with a large egg. So if you have a large egg, try to not put all of the white in. Now, put a little salt and pepper in them and cook for about 15 minutes. Just keep and eye on them and try to make the yolk how YOU like it.

Most of the time I make some little comment like “I’m a genius, these are great.”Which may or may not be true.  But I literally took a bit of this and thought “Holy hell, these are delicious” and then started laughing because I was so impressed with myself. Now, you try!