Friday, June 22, 2012

Shish Kabob to the Rescue!


I have been really busy lately it feels like so I was trying to think of easy recipes that I could try and remembered Shish Kabobs! Food served on a stick... what is better then that, and its such an easy, tasty way to incorporate some veggies! :) 
To make my life even easier I found some frozen beef for stew that I had in the freezer (guess what! its already cut into bite size pieces! no cutting up meat for me!) I marinated the beef in Worcestershire sauce (I just did an even covering on all of the meat) and then sprinkled garlic powder, onion powder, and some red pepper on it evenly. I let the meat sit covered and refrigerated for the day while I was at work. 
One thing I did not get a picture of was the Kabob sticks soaking in water. You need to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes. This keeps them from catching on fire while they are on the grill (genius right! I never would of thought of that... good thing the bag I bought told me to do it!)
The next step is chopping! Just roughly chop up onions, peppers, mushrooms, and any other veggies you would want to go on your kabob. Be careful not to cut them too small, the mushrooms we bought were to small and they would just split in half when I tried to slide them on the stick. (so only a couple got mushrooms) 

Next! slide all the goodies onto the kabob sticks (that have been soaking in water). We made a bunch with just rotating all of the items, but also make a couple all veggie ones and all meat ones. :) 
Finally heat up your grill on medium, I stuck my kabobs on when the grill was around 450 and they turned out great! Grill them for 5 mins and then flip them (CAUTION! the sticks won't catch fire but they will get HOT! so be really careful and tongs work best). 
Stick them on a plate and ENJOY!!! 
(P.S. the onion is my favorite on them, so put lots of onion:) Trust me!)

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Easy Beef Taquitos!


This post is to continue my taquitos post so here are the beef ones :) 
1 LB. Ground beef
6" Tortillas
1 Green bell pepper
1 Fresh Jalapeno
1 Onion
1 Packet of Taco Seasoning
  1. Brown Hamburger Meat 
  2. Add Seasoning
  3. Dice jalapeno and bell pepper
  4. Finely chop onion (or stick it in the food processor)
  5. add all of the veggies to the meat and let simmer 10 minutes or until they start to get soft
  6. Warm tortillas in a damp paper towel or tortilla warmer in the microwave for one minute (this makes it easier to roll them without the tortilla cracking)
  7. Scoop 1-1 1/2 tbs of mixture onto tortilla and add a pinch of shredded cheese
  8. wrap tightly
  9. Line Cookie sheet with tinfoil and spray lightly with cooking spray (pam)
  10. Line wrapped tortillas on cookie sheet
  11. Preheat oven to 400
  12. Stick taquitos in oven for 16 mins flipping half way
Enjoy them! I know we did! 

Jalapeno Cream Cheese Taquitos



So the Boyfriend and I happen to LOVE the cream cheese and jalapeno taquitos that they sell at 7-11. We enjoy them enough to try and make them ourselves. J We planned on eating them for dinner one night so we also planned on regular beef taquitos; both have similar steps so I will do one tutorial with both of them.

To start off you need:

Cream Cheese ones:

2-3 blocks Cream cheese (we used Kroger brand but any cream cheese will work and the whipped might save you some time)

1 can of diced jalapenos

2 fresh jalapenos

6” tortillas

1.      Cut fresh Jalapenos

2.      Put all (fresh and canned)  jalapenos into food processor
3.      Process until “real” little but not super mushy
4.      Cut blocks of cream cheese into food processor.

5.      Process it until the cream cheese is easy to mix and work with. (You could also microwave it for like 30-45 seconds but watch it closely because you don’t want it runny)

6.      Mix all of the cream cheese with all of the chopped up jalapenos until even. (you don’t want all of the jalapenos in one bite J)
7.      Stick 6  tortillas in damp paper towels or a tortilla warmer for one minute

8.      Spoon 1 tbs of cream cheese mixture in the tortilla

9.      Wrap tortilla tightly
10.  Preheat oven to 400
11.  Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and spray lightly with pam or any other cooking spray

12.  Line up the rolled tortillas on cookie sheet and lightly spray the tops of them

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Chicken Fried Steak


A while ago the Boy and I found some manager special Cubed Steak (the little corner explaining thing said skillet steak) and it was going to go bad so we needed to use it. Problem is that I had no idea what to do with this kind of steak! A little Google action happened and I found out that chicken (country) fried steak is made with it… YUMMY!


I looked at a bunch of recipes for chicken fried steak and found out that it’s called chicken fried steak because it is made just like fried chicken. DEAL… I am a master at fried chicken. (I’ll post about that the next time I make it)

So to start I had to “beat” the steaks a little. Now I am a little ghetto and don’t have one of those supper cool mallet thing that are made to do this, however I did have a bottle of champagne (which recently has been used as a rolling pin as well lol).

Next is the most annoying part (for me at least) of dredging the meat in the egg wash and flour.  To start this process I grab a couple eggs, normally 2 or 3, and a 1/3-cup of milk. Mix those bad boys in a bowl and one part is done J ** make sure the eggs are beat very well so you don’t get super big clumps of egg whites.  Next, I take another big bowl and add 3 cups of flour. You can add any other spices you like to the flour; I personally add about a tablespoon Lawry’s seasoning salt, ¼ tbs of Paprika, ¼ tbs of cayenne pepper, and ½ tbs of pepper. You’re going to mix all of this good stuff together and set it next to your egg wash.  Now, I am a little particular on starting this process, because I really dislike it and it takes forever so the last thing I want to do is have to stop, and this is how I set myself up. Plate of meat, egg wash, flour mixture, an empty plate, and I have a stack of 3 or 4 napkins sitting in front of the flour.



To start you dip the steak into the egg mixture making sure it is completely covered, and then transfer it to the flour mixture. Coat the steak in the flour mixture. I double coated my steaks to make them a little crispier, so I stuck it back into the egg and flour one more time and then set it on my clean plate sitting next to the flour.


Do this until all of your steaks are covered. **Warning if you use the same hand to do the egg and the flour you will end up with monster fingers. I always start out really well and use different hands and then mess up once and give up and live with the monster fingers. J


Take the oil you are using, I personally used canola oil because that’s what I had at the house. Pour some in a pan, I poured enough that it would be like half the height of my steaks. (Sorry, I will do a more precise measurement next time) I heat the oil after I have everything covered in the flour mixture because I like that little extra time to clean up the mess from the covering process.





I heat the oil on medium, until I can take a little bit of the flour mixture and stick it in the oil and it sizzles. Once the oil seems ready stick one steak at a time into the oil (carefully!) until it’s full. You want to use your space but don’t want them lying on top of one another. I was able to fit 3 into my pan. Fry them for 4 minutes and then flip them and fry the other side.

Once they are fried I stick them on a cooling rack set inside of a pan. (I do this so any oil left can drip into the bottom of the pan. I also heat the oven to 200 and stick the meat in there while I cook the rest.



I am going to do another post for my mash potatoes and white gravy. Good Luck!! J

Chicken Fried Steak:

Ingredients:
Cubed Round Steak
3 eggs
1/3 cup of milk
3 cups of flour
1tbs Lawry’s seasoning salt
¼ tbs of Paprika
¼ tbs of cayenne pepper
½ tbs of pepper.
Oil for frying

Instructions:
1.      Beat steak until tender
2.      Dredge the steak in egg and flour mixture (two times)
3.      Heat oil
4.      Fry steaks for 4 minutes on each side
5.      Keep warm

Easy as Pie! J Have fun that’s the best part of cooking adventures! 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

OUCH!


Monday night I was being usual me and somehow slipped/tripped and hurt my knee. :( Thus, I have been bed ridden and unable to work on my sewing. :( 
Here is a sad picture of my leg… 
I am working on getting some new recipes we tried up tho. They will be up soon (hopefully) :) 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Holding It Together


When your sewing there are some areas on your clothes that you want to make sure has an EXTRA STRONG hold. Luckily there is a stitch for that! It is called the BACKSTITCH. Your going to use this in practically anything you make, not only clothing.
The backstitch happens at the beginning and end of each seam. When you start your seam you should do 4 or 5 stitches and then backstitch back to the beginning. Most machines have a button that looks kinda like a u-turn symbol. (My machine I have to press it in while I sew, my mom’s super cool new machine stitches all on its own when you press the button). This gives the stitch a little extra hold so the threads aren’t able to unravel. Some people do this multiple times, I think one time up, one back, and back up is sufficient. 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Your New Best Friend...

The seam ripper! This nice little tool helps you rip out ALL of the mistakes you make. 


I was working really hard on my dress last night, and suddenly realized that I had messed up. So I whipped out my handy dandy seam ripper, and tore out all of the messed up parts. “Fixed” the pieces, trying to closely follow all the instructions… but guess what! I messed up once again… so I had to seam rip all of it apart. After two tries I figured it was time to call in the big guns, mom. Then I drove the whole 5 mins to momma’s house and she figured it out!!! We pinned the two pieces and I went home and sewed the pieces together! Mission Accomplished! :) 

THE ART OF SEAM RIPPING:
  • Find the seam the needs to go away
  • Pull out your handy dandy seam ripper
  • Slip the pointy end of the tool under one of the stitches
  • Push until the string rips
  • Do this to every 3-4 stitches 
  • Pull the fabric apart carefully
  • Pull all the string out and throw it away
* Be very careful that you aren’t cutting the fabric as you seam rip 
* Don’t pull or stretch to much during the process, it makes the stitch holes bigger and ugly. 
GOOD LUCK!!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Cutting Patterns


It seems like it took FOR-EV-ER for everything to get cut and pinned and cut once again, but I think I got it! Sewing has exploded all over my house, but luckily my boyfriend loves me and doesn't care. So the tips I have for the cutting stage (most of these are general knowledge and pretty obvious but saying it again can't hurt):  
  • Do a rough cut on your pattern before you really get started so you aren't fighting with a huge piece of paper (and worrying about tearing it) 
  • I ironed the patter after I finished cutting it out, but it would be easier to cut (and not fight with all the creases when your cutting if you iron before) This also helped pin all of it flat on the fabric. ** make sure your iron is on low before trying to iron your patterns!
  • I read like a million times to wash, dry, and press your fabric before cutting so I guess I will say it too. This will prevent any shrinking or stretching later on. 
  • (super obvious) Have your "paper" scissors and your "cloth" scissors. Maybe it is just obvious to me because since I can remember my mom has been yelling at my brother and I that we used the wrong scissors and made her cloth scissors dull. But its true, it works best to have 2 different pairs. I marked my paper scissors with a little piece of tape, and told my live-in boyfriend that if he ABSOLUTELY had to use my scissors to use those ones, I am truly becoming my mother (its kinda scary lol).
OK my last two tips are personal preferences but I find them VERY important!
  • Time! Time! Time! I guess when I went into the cutting stage I thought it would be a piece of cake and wouldn't take long at all. WRONG! Thus, I ended up cutting for a long period of time, here and there and then something would come up. Give yourself some "me" time, and get ready to cut! 
  • Music! Music! Music! Put something on that can help pass the time, because (for me at least) sitting and cutting is not very fun, but once I turned on some jams time seemed to go by a lot faster! Granted, I am a big fan of music all day long, no matter what I am doing. 
All of my pictures are on my camera (at home), so here is a picture of my kitty cat, Sirius Black AKA kitten, monster, monkey man, when he is helping me sew! 


I'm Gonna TRY!!!


However, in other news I have decided to learn how to sew. I see all of these cute clothes all the time and when I go to the websites to order one of the adorable dresses I find out that the sizes stop at 12! Ok, so I am definitely not a size twelve, as much as I would like to be, so sewing some of the amazing dresses is my only option. 

So, naturally I got online and found a super cute fabric store in Denver that gives sewing lessons and signed my happy little self up for the next class (which happened to be that day!).  I went to the class, struggled through the whole thing... BUT made a fabulous pillow case!


The very next day... being my ambitious self I decided one class was enough and I could go get a pattern and start sewing this super cute dress! I got a "EASY" pattern, picked out my fabric (with the help of my loving boyfriend), got some scissors, and other little sewing tools. I went home, pumped and ready to sew, and opened the pattern. This is when I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, one sewing class isn't enough. I read through all of the instructions, looked at the pattern pieces, folded them all back up, and stuck them back into the nice little Joannes bag! 



After a little break, and the initial shock of how hard this might be I have pulled everything out and started cutting out the pieces. It does help that I have this super amazing MOM who can help me if I have any major problems... Once everything is cut, I will post some of the tips that I have learned so far!

Addicted...

Its official! I am addicted to pinterest… It consumes my entire day trying to find new recipes, crafts to try, sewing help, and basically everything else in the ENTIRE world. I know I am not the only person facing the challenge of closing pinterest every time I am on the computer.