Random Doodles

Pecan-Crusted Chicken with a Sweet Corn Reduction Sauce

2011-05-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Did you miss me? So M's after school activities have ended for the year which means that she gets home REALLY early every day. Wow, it's amazing how much difference just a couple of hours a day make. I honestly haven't had the cooking/creating bug lately and so therefore don't have much to share this week. I did make a delicious meal last week though that I'm just now getting around to posting.

I used Rachael Ray's pecan-crusted chicken recipe as the basis to make this yummy dish and I found a sweet corn reduction sauce recipe here.

First, let's talk about preparation. It's amazing how easy it is to follow a recipe when you have all of your ingredients chopped up, measured out and ready to go before you start cooking. I'm going to try to get better at doing this.

Before we get started with the sauce, get your oven preheating to 400 degrees. Okay, now let's make the sweet corn reduction sauce. We're going to add our frozen sweet corn and diced onions to a pan with some heated olive oil. Saute for a about a minute.

Now, add your sliced jalepenos and heat until the liquid is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Don't worry, it doesn't make a spicy sauce. Your kids will still eat it. Side note, I omitted the bell pepper simply because I didn't have one.

Here's the shot of the reduced liquid. Next time I'll let it reduce down a bit further since I found the sauce a little too soupy. Add your honey, salt, pepper and lemon juice now.

Once you're done reducing, set your sauce aside while you get your chicken going. We're going to start by putting our pecan pieces (which by the way, I forgot to toast and I just bought a bag of pecan pieces and skipped the food processor step), bread crumbs, salt, pepper and basil in a shallow baking dish.

Coat your chicken with honey mustard and then give them a generous coating of the pecan mixture...yum! I thought I would spare you the picture of the raw chicken breasts with mustard rubbed on them. For some reason it grosses me out to see pics of raw chicken. Weird, I know.

That's it my friends! Just place your chicken on a sheet of parchment, to make clean up easy, drizzle with some olive oil and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remember, always use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.

Now, back to the sauce. While your chicken is baking, heat your sauce back up and then pour your reduction into a blender and blend until all of the solids are liquified. Or, if you were a better a planner, you could have been making your sauce while the chicken was cooking. See? Aren't you glad I'm trying all of these recipes out for you so you know what not to do? Feel free to leave a comment thanking me if you'd like. Whew, I crack myself up.

Where were we? Oh yeah, blended sauce. Here's what mine looked like. Hopefully yours will be a bit thicker so that your significant other doesn't ask if it's soup.

Simple recipe, right? I guess I got a little too excited, because I forgot to take any pictures between now and serving the dish. I think you can all figure it out though. I served the meal with mashed potatoes. Here's a tip. Instead of using butter, I used the new Philadelphia cooking creme in Italian Cheese and Herb. Wow. Best mashed potatoes that I've ever made (I swear I'm not getting compensated by them in any way, shape or form).

Enjoy!

Sweet Corn Reduction Sauce

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup diced onion

1 1/4 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon minced jalapeño pepper

2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper

1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch of black pepper

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

In a medium pan, sauté corn, garlic, and onion in oil over medium heat 1 minute. Add jalapeño and bell pepper. Cook 30 seconds. Add stock. Reduce liquid by half. Season with honey, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Transfer to blender and puree.

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

1 cup pecans. toasted
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried basil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
1/4 cup honey mustard

Preheat the oven to 400°. Using a food processor, grind the pecans into fine crumbs. Transfer to a wide, shallow bowl and stir in the bread crumbs and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Rub each chicken breast with honey mustard, then coat with the pecan mixture. Place on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Bake until the juices run clear, 15 to 20 minutes.

Oh, I have to share these pics of M trying out the dish, which she loved by the way.

First one, "Yum!" Just so you know, it's well into the 80s here. I have no idea why she is wearing a knit hat...with her ballet recital outfit.

Second, "I'm not liking it anymore." :-(

Finally, "I'm just kidding! This rocks!" What a goof ball.

Leftover Easter Candy

2011-05-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

I believe that I've mentioned before that I'm cheap...really cheap. I mean, who doesn't love getting a deal? Enter my love of couponing. Don't get me wrong, you're never going to see me on TLC's Extreme Couponing. You'll definitely see me in the store, mostly Target, a couple of times a week though getting some extreme deals.

Let's examine this week's goodies. Thanks to Easter clearance, the candy is super cheap this week.

John Frieda Hair Color - $11.99 ($5.00 Target coupon) ($5.00 manufacturer coupon) = $1.99
Ziploc Baggies - $1.79 ($2.00 coupon when you buy 2 bags of M&M's) = $0.21
2 Bags of M&M's - $1.44
Toddler Shorts - $4.50 (20% off Target mobile coupon) = $3.60
2 Bags of Hershey Bliss - $1.74 ($1.50 manufacturer coupon) = $0.24
2 Bags Lifesavers Jelly Beans - $1.24 ($1.00 manufacturer coupon) = $0.24
1 Bag Dove Chocolate - $0.87 ($1.00 manufacturer coupon) = $0.13
2 Packs of 5 Gum - $1.24 ($1.00 manufacturer coupon) = $0.24
2 Packs of Stride Gum - $0.96 ($1.00 manufacturer coupon) = $0.03
Aquafresh Toothbrush - $1.99 ( $1.00 Target coupon) ($1.00 manufacturer coupon) = $0.01

Total Spent = $7.37 ($5.00 Target Gift Card earned last week) = $2.37!

Okay, so now what to do with all of this candy? Let's see, I scoured my trusty blogs and of course, they didn't let me down. I found some really fun things to do with leftover candy.

Jelly Beans
These jelly bean bracelets from Quirky Momma are so cute. I know that M and her friends will have a blast making them. Definitely something we'll do once school is out.

I had forgotten that jelly beans make excellent fillers for cookie and cake pop displays! These sugar cookie pops from Oh How Posh are so cute sitting in their bed of jelly beans!

Chocolate
There are tons of things you can do with leftover Easter chocolate.

1. For starters, chop it up and use it in place of chocolate chips in cookie recipes. Honestly, I like chunks better than chips anyway.

2. You can also melt it in a saucepan with a little bit of cream to make a yummy chocolate sauce for ice cream sundaes.

3. Chocolate chunk pancakes. A favorite in our house.

4. Give them away to your friends. I have a feeling they're just about OD'd on chocolate right now so maybe wait a bit and surprise your neighbor that gave up M&M's for Lent with a bag of M&M's? (Hey neighbor, you know who you are!)

Or, you could just open up all the bags and consume them all by yourself. Probably not the best idea if you don't want to be mistaken for one of the performers at Sea World this summer!

Burgers!

2011-05-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

In honor of the weekend, let's grill some burgers! The weather in Houston this week has been amazing! Cool temps, low humidity and breezy. Everything spring weather should be but usually isn't here! Edited to add that by the time I posted this we're back to hot and super humid. Bummer.

First, let's just get this out of the way. Ladies, you can use the grill. There. I said it. It's a well known fact in our house that I am the one that does 99% of the grilling. I don't understand why so many women are intimidated by a gas grill. It's really simple ladies. Turn it on, let it heat up, give it a good scraping to make sure it's clean and you're ready to go! A huge plus...no dishes to clean up! Grilling is definitely my preferred method of cooking when the weather is nice.

Okay, on to the burgers. These are really simple. No crazy recipe here, just my normal way of doing burgers. First I start out by making an herb butter. To start, get a stick of unsalted butter and lay it on a piece of plastic wrap. Next, fold in some chopped garlic and fresh herbs of your choice. I used basil here since it's what I have growing right now.

Once you have your garlic and herbs incorporated, form the butter into a log shape, wrap it up and pop it into the freezer for a few minutes to harden.

Now, take your ground beef and shape into patties. Make an indention in each patty and put a slice of the hardened butter into each indention. Cover up the butter by molding the meat around it. Basically you'll have a pat of butter on the inside of your patty. This makes your burger super delicious!

After you're done embedding the butter, sprinkle each patty with cracked pepper and sea salt. Now we're ready to grill. Place your patties on a grill that's been preheated on high. I take a little olive oil and oil my grates before placing the patties so that they won't stick. Cook for about 7 minutes per side, or until a meat thermometer registers well done. I know, many people scoff at the idea of well done hamburgers but I'm not willing to chance getting sick. So I suggest cooking your burgers people! Also, a couple of minutes before the burgers are ready, use some of your herb butter for the buns and throw them on the grill. Delish!

See! Wasn't that easy? Now make your plate of garnishes. I like to use little heirloom tomatoes, provolone, avocado, grilled onions, bacon or prosciutto. Don't be afraid to stray from the normal toppings.

I served this particular meal with a little Caprese salad made with the leftover tomatoes. My husband says he's definitely a fan of my blogging if it means more meals like this!

Okay ladies, if you haven't already, get out there and try your grill! Also, let me hear from you if you're the designated grill master in your house!

Succulent Garden

2011-04-30T14:25:00.001-05:00

I have been in love with succulent container gardens lately.

Image Source: chicweed.wordpress.com

Image Source: illustratedgallivant.com

Not only do they look really great, but...apparently, they are really easy to take care of since they're native desert plants that require little water.

So off I go to Home Depot yesterday to try my hand at creating a garden of my own. I picked up a few succulents for about $2.50 a piece and a bag of cactus soil for $3.97.

I started out by using a vase I already had at home. I filled the bottom with a couple of inches of gravel from our garden to allow for drainage.

Next I added a good amount of cactus potting soil.

Finally, I added my succulents, a few stones and some moss that I had lying around the house. What? You don't have bags of moss lying around your house?

All done! I love, love, love this arrangement! So pretty and so simple.

On a side note, if you've tried any of my recipes or projects, please take a picture and share with me! I'd love to see them and feature them on my blog!

Have a great weekend!

Frozen Key Lime Pie with Macadamia Nut Crust

2011-04-29T09:36:00.000-05:00

Remember earlier in the week when I promised there would be good stuff coming up? Well here's what I was talking about. This pie is delicious and really easy to make. Coincidentally, these are the two stipulations I have for anything I cook. Lucky me I found this recipe on the Dukes and Duchesses blog.

Let's get started! First we're going to prepare the crust. Start by toasting your shredded coconut in a dry skillet over medium heat. Be careful, it burns quickly...burnt coconut is really gross by the way. Don't ask how I know this. The key here is to stir constantly.

Next we're going to put 3/4 cup of the coconut (remember to save about 1/4 cup for topping the pie), the macadamia nuts, vanilla wafers, butter and flour in a food processor. Grind until crumbly, you know, like a pie crust.

Once finished, press the scrumptious mixture into a 10" glass pie plate and bake for 15 minutes.

While your lovely crust is baking, prepare the pie filling. This is the hard part folks, so brace yourselves. Combine all of the filling ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth. Whew...glad we got through that!

That's it! As soon as your crust is done baking, take it out and let it cool completely. Next, pour in your filling and top with the remaining coconut. Freeze for about two hours (if you can hold out that long...I couldn't).

Enjoy!

Frozen Key Lime Pie with Macadamia Nut Crust

The Crust:
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup macadamia nuts
1/4 cup butter, softened
20 vanilla wafers
2 tablespoons flour

The Filling:
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 6 limes' worth)
grated zest of 2 limes

1 can sweetened condensed milk {I use fat-free}
2 cups whipped topping, such as Cool Whip

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large dry skillet on medium heat, stir the coconut until it turns golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes.

Put 3/4 cup of the coconut, the nuts, butter, vanilla wafers, and flour into a food processor and process until the consistency of very coarse crumbs. Save the remaining 1/4 cup coconut for topping.

Pat the crumb mixture into the bottom and sides of a 10-inch deep-dish pie plate and bake 15 minutes. The crust needs to cool completely, so you may want to put it in the fridge, uncovered, while you make the filling.

Mix all the filling ingredients together and spoon the mixture into the cooled crust.

Sprinkle with the reserved 1/4 cup toasted coconut.

Freeze at least 2 hours before serving.

Weekly Grocery Store Bouquet

2011-04-28T09:04:00.000-05:00

This week I decided to splurge a little on my grocery flowers. I spent $8. My rule is $6. I just fell in love with the cabbage leaves and had to incorporate them into my arrangement.

Have a great day!

Squash and Spinach Casserole. Yum!!

2011-04-27T16:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally back after a week of sickness that has affected every member of our family! We were able to get one semi good day where all of us were at least mobile and made it to my in-laws for Easter. It all went down hill from there. As it stands, my husband is the one still down for the count. Poor guy is competing in a triathlon next week so this is not good for his training!

Okay, back to cooking! I made a fantastic vegetarian meal last night that was scrumptious! I got the recipe from, where else, Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo. I just love her site.

First off, a couple of tips before you even begin this dish. 1. Don't start cooking at 6:30, otherwise you won't be eating until 8:00, throwing bedtime schedules off, leading to a cranky morning...but I digress. 2. Have your cornbread already made before you start the casserole and things will go a lot quicker. 3. Defrost your frozen spinach before beginning to cook. I know, common sense to most. I'm obviously not most.

Let's get started!

First, you're going to want to dice up a yellow onion. I live in Texas y'all and we've got BIG onions here so I only used half of one.

Next, slice up two yellow squashes. First cut in half lengthwise, then cut each half in half lengthwise. Once all of that lengthwise cutting is done, slice into 1/2" pieces.

Now we're ready to get cooking! Heat your olive oil between medium low and medium heat. You're going to want your veggies to gently sauté, not burn. Add your diced onion and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until they're clear and golden.

Add your squash, spinach and salt/pepper and continue sautéing for another 10 minutes or until the squash is nice and soft. Note that there is no picture of the spinach. It's okay, just envision your lovely spinach being added at this time. Moving on.

Once all of these healthy veggies are done doing their thing, you're going to add your crumbled, already cooked, cornbread and give it a good stirring.

Once stirred, add the can of cream of mushroom soup and stir. So much for the healthy.

Next add your cheese and stir. Oh yeah, health factor just keeps moving on down here.

Now, in case you forgot to add the spinach, go ahead and do that now. It's okay, it happens to all of us. Then, spoon the yummy mix into a butter-greased baking dish.

Sprinkle the top with some more yummy cheese.

Pop that baby in a 350 degree oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Finally, enjoy! Okay, so it doesn't look gorgeous in the picture but it tastes gooood! M loved this dish, which is amazing since she isn't too keen on veggies or cheese.

BTW, I served this as our main dish. But it would also be great as a side, which is where the leftovers will end up tonight.

Lots of good stuff coming up this week. Stay tuned!

Squash and Spinach Casserole

Serves 4-6

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and chopped into 1/2" slices

1 10 oz. box of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 8.5 ounce box of Jiffy cornbread mixed, prepared and crumbled

1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 10.75 ounce can Cream of Mushroom soup (or Cream of Celery)

1 and 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Saute onion in olive oil until soft, about 10 minutes. Add squash and spinach and cook until over medium heat until squash is soft, about another 10 minutes.

Add salt and pepper.

Add in the crumbled cornbread and mix well.

Add in the can of soup.

Mix in 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese.

Spread in greased 8x8 baking dish.

Top with 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese followed by the mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until cheese is well browned.

Cupcake in a Jar

2011-04-14T18:55:00.000-05:00

OMG, I think I've died and gone to heaven. I ran across these amazing looking cupcakes that are packaged in jelly jars over on the Cakies blog. Genius! These babies are definitely going to be party favors at a baby shower I'm hosting in July. So cute...and easy!

First, I started off with a box cake mix. I wasn't feeling very ambitious today. I followed the directions and made the batter. See, easy, right?

Next, I filled the the greased cupcake pan (no liners, although next time I'm using liners so they don't stick) about 2/3s full of batter and baked according to the directions on the box. By the way, an ice cream scoop is the perfect size for making cupcakes.

While these were baking, I made a quick butter cream frosting recipe that was on the back of the powdered sugar package. Sorry, package is in the trash, so no recipe! Are you feeling just how gourmet these guys are? Yeah, me neither.

Once they were cooked, I allowed them to cool. I sliced the ones that didn't hang on to the pan for dear life in half and dug the other ones out with a spoon. Thankfully this project is so forgiving that you can totally screw the cupcakes up and no one will know the difference.

Now the fun part. Put the bottom half of your cupcake in the jelly jar. Pipe some icing on top. On a side note, I don't own a pastry bag set so I just spooned some icing into a zip lock bag and cut off one of the corners. It worked beautifully and there was zero cleanup. Bonus!

Now, layer the top part of your cupcake on top of the icing and then pipe some more icing. A cupcake with double the icing? Definitely a winner in my book.

The only thing left to do is add sprinkles and package it up! See. Sooooo easy!

What's awesome about these is that they have a shelf life of about a week, or they can be frozen if for some really strange reason they're not consumed in that time frame. Never going to be able to test out that theory in this household! I delivered cupcakes to a few of our neighbors today and it was absolutely effortless. No plates to return or flimsy paper plates with knocked over cupcakes. I'm telling you, genius!

Enjoy!

Fresh Flowers

2011-04-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

I used to think that the only way to have beautiful flower arrangements in my home was to hope and pray that someone would think enough of me to have a beautiful bouquet delivered to my door. Ha! Still waiting for that to happen.

Instead of going through life living with faded plastic floral arrangements, I've been picking up whatever bouquet the grocery store has on sale each week. As a rule, I never pay more than $6.00 for the bouquet. Have I mentioned before that I'm cheap?

Here's my latest example. Randall's had bouquets of carnations on sale for $4.00. Normally I wouldn't go for the carnations, but I'm so glad I did this time.

Once I got home I trimmed the stems to fit in a small fish bowl and just started sticking the flowers in there.

It's amazing how a dinky little bouquet can all of a sudden become a centerpiece...well two actually.

Now go out and get some flowers, you'll be glad you did.

Mmmm...Bacon

2011-04-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

I'm in love, seriously in love with this pasta. I mean, hello? Pasta AND bacon! I've made this dish twice now and it's definitely a winner in our house. M even likes it!

I found the recipe at Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo. She has step-by-step instructions, but seriously it's so easy to make you don't really even need them.

Pasta with Edamame and Bacon
Serves 3-4

1/2 pound pasta (fettucchine, thin spaghetti, linguine, or even cheese tortellini), cooked according to package instructions
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup frozen edamame (soybeans), cooked (or substitute frozen peas)
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large skillet, saute bacon for 7-8 minutes over medium-high heat. Using a slotted spoon, tranfer cooked bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease and discard the rest. Whisk cream into the reserved bacon grease and whisk over medium-high heat for another 7-8 minutes until the cream has thickened and "reduced".

Add the cooked bacon back to the pan; also toss in the cooked edamame (or peas, if using). Stir together to mix well.

Stir cooked pasta into the sauce.

Top with Parmesan cheese.

Instagram

2011-04-11T10:01:00.000-05:00

I have a new obsession...Instagram! If you have an iPhone, this little FREE app is a must have. It's super simple. Just snap a photo, or choose one from your photo library, and play with the different filters Instagram offers. I love the way it makes my "flat" photos come alive and look like professional pics!

Here are a few of my favorites.

Updated Spring Wreath

2011-04-09T15:59:00.000-05:00

After not really loving my spring wreath I made a couple of days ago, I decided to beef it up a little bit. I bought a wreath form from Michaels and started wrapping yarn around, and around, and around it for about two hours. Finally, the entire wreath was covered and I simply pinned the braided wreath directly to it with some straight pins.

Much, much better now that the scale is right. What do you think?

Before:

After:

Art Set Birthday Gift

2011-04-08T14:14:00.000-05:00

If you have a young, school-age child, then you're feeling my pain when it comes to endless birthday parties. We try to make it to about half of the ones M gets invited to. Otherwise, most of our weekends would be dominated by Pump it Up (an inflatable play place, which seems to be THE place to have a preschool party). As it stands now, we have a party to go to this weekend and next weekend...incidently both at the same place.

Other than completely dominating your weekends, 15 to 20 kid parties a year can also dominate your bank account! I came up with a really cute, inexpensive birthday gift that I think is going to be our go-to gift this year. I found a cute 100-piece art set at Michaels the other day, on sale for $2.97! I picked up a painting pad to go with it for $3.00 and a craft apron for $2.00. I'm lucky enough to own an embroidery machine so I embroidered the child's name on the apron. If you don't have a machine, there are tons of different style iron-on letters that you can quickly pop on there. If the apron is for a girl, iron-on rhinestones would look great also.

So, for a grand total of $8.00, you can have a personalized gift that I think will last a lot longer than whatever the hot movie character figurine of the moment will.

Have a great weekend!

Spring Wreath on the Cheap

2011-04-05T16:05:00.001-05:00

**Updated! Check out the new and improved wreath here!

So, my lovely husband has put a moratorium on spending. This directly conflicts with my need to decorate for Easter. Enter Carolyn's Homework blog. She posted this awesome tutorial for a braided yarn wreath that I thought would look great with my French country-style house.

I'm disappointed in the way that mine came out. I think that I should have used a thicker yarn or at least used more strands for each braid section. Also, making a perfect circle with a wire hanger...not easy! All in all, I think it will do for a couple of weeks...or at least until I get the okay to shop again. :-)

You can find the full tutorial on Carolyn's Homework, which by the way I highly recommend spending some time on. She is amazing and has the best ideas.

Have a great day!

Fabric Flower Headband

2011-04-03T09:54:00.000-05:00

I found this super cute and super easy fabric flower headband tutorial on Little Miss Momma today. I was shocked at how quickly I was able to make these...20 minutes from start to finish. Don't be daunted by the prospect of cutting out 20-30 fabric circles. Since they don't have to be perfect, I just took the length of my fabric, folded it over about 2 inches and started cutting half circles out. It took about 5 minutes to cut all of them out. Also, don't worry about the fabric fraying, it adds to the charm of the flower.

I apologize for the photos. I took them with my iPhone and made the tutorial on Moodboard since I'm currently without a computer and am putting this post together on my iPad.

For the full tutorial visit Little Miss Momma, she has much more detailed instructions. Have fun!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies...or Kitchen Pantry Cookies

2011-03-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

One of the things about having a blog, especially one devoted to keeping you motivated is the requirement to actually do something so that you have something to post about. M gets out of school at 12:00 on Thursdays, which gives us a LOT of time to fill before dad gets home.

Today we decided to make cookies. Unfortunately I only had a little of everything that most recipes require. So I found this great recipe at the naptime chef that pretty much used up all of the bits of baking ingredients I had in my pantry.

First off, I'm not a great baker, or planner...both of which can be issues when trying to make cookies. Keep this in mind as you follow along. Do as I say, not as I do. I'll explain later.

Step 1. Combine the flour and baking soda

Step 2. In a MIXER FITTED WITH A PADDLE ATTACHMENT (not in the same bowl...minor oversight), beat the butter, sugars and salt. Add the eggs one at a time. Add vanilla (I probably should have done this at this point...moving on).

Step 3. Slowly add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture. Again, way ahead of you here.

Step 4. Fold in the chocolate chips, coconut and oats, one at a time.

Step 5. Place the dough on the baking sheets. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until cookies start to brown. Watch M try to be patient and the dogs sleep while the tortorous 15 minutes pass.

Tada! All done. M wanted to make hers into a sandwich so we used some canned frosting and rolled it in some sprinkles. Way too sweet for my tastes. She of course loved it. The rest we bagged up and delivered to our neighbors. All in all a fun way to spend the afternoon. Now we're heading outside to enjoy our beautiful spring weather.

Playdough

2011-03-30T15:11:00.000-05:00

I have a confession. I can't stand playdough and we do not own any. So imagine my joy when M's teacher sent home a handy little recipe along with a note saying I was the next parent in line to make the classroom playdough. Awesome!!

So, M and I dutifully made a very pale pink playdough that kind of resembled raw chicken. She loved it. That's all that matters right?

Playdough Recipe
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly. When the mixture has the right playdough consistency, take it off the heat and allow it to cool.

Mood Boards

2011-03-29T15:01:00.003-05:00

First off let me put it out there. I'm addicted to my iPad. Seriously addicted. I spend an inordinate amount of time reading blogs, magazines, message boards, etc. on it daily. I've found that one of my favorite and most useful apps has been Moodboard Pro (BTW, they totally have no idea who I am and this is solely my opinion). This app is so cool. If you're like me and love crafting, cooking and interior design then I highly recommend you stop right now, spend the $9.99 and download this baby.

I think the main purpose of Moodboard is for interior designers to lay out their rooms. We're remodeling a weekend home right now so that was my initial intent for the app.

I quickly found way more uses though. For example, you've just run across a recipe that looks great on your favorite blog. What do you do? Bookmark it? That's what I normally would have done. Then I'm left with a long list of links that have zero visual appeal. Now with Moodboard I can grab a picture of that recipe, paste it on my board and voilà! When I want to see the actual page it came from I simply click on it and I'm taken back to it's source page. Brilliant right?

Another great use is for craft projects, putting together a new wardrobe, scrapbook layout, basically anything that would benefit from having a visual list.

Let me know what you would use it for.

Home Sweet Home

2011-03-28T13:02:00.001-05:00

Aww, finally back home after nine lovely, but long days.

Today's goal: tackle the mountain of mail that accumulated while we were gone. So much fun.

While I love traveling, I certainly miss my house, my bed, my mundane normal life...oh, and this guy,

and this one,

and last, but certainly not least...even this crazy one.

Comfort Zone

2011-03-26T10:53:00.004-05:00

It's amazing how comfortable you can become with something without even realizing it. We've been coming to the town of Los Barriles for about seven years. About an hour and a half north of here are two little towns, San Antonio and El Triunfo. We've driven past the towns several times but have never stopped to check them out. Yesterday we decided to hire a driver to take us to Todos Santos. On our way there we decided to stop off at San Antonio and El Triunfo just to check them out and take pictures of the kids. We ended up spending two hours exploring these little towns and discovered a great little restaurant, amazing architecture, and the most random piano museum. Oh, and the pictures were amazing. Here's one of my favorites of M.

Once we made it to Todos Santos, we had lunch at Tequila Sunrise. It was a bit pricy, but soooo delicious! We then headed to the beach where we witnessed fishermen preparing their catch and got a real crash course in the beauty and brutality that's involved in the fishing industry. I'm thinking that M is probably the only kid in her class that saw a decapitated hammerhead shark on vacation!

In all, we ended up spending less time in Todos Santos then we did in our side trip stops. Sometimes the best things are right under your nose, you just have to step out of your comfort zone a little bit to see them.

Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville

2011-03-25T09:04:00.003-05:00

My goal of accomplishing something, anything, was not met yesterday. Wait, I did successfully hold down a pool-side lounge chair for several hours. That counts, right? :-)

I have a feeling today's adventure will more than make up for yesterday's loungefest. We're loading up all nine of us and going on a day trip to Todos Santos, a quaint little artsy town on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula. Should be fun as long as the children don't spontaneously combust somewhere along the way!

A Primitive-ish Night

2011-03-23T11:52:00.001-05:00

I have a good reason for missing yesterday's post...no electricity. One of the joys of having a house in rural Mexico is the possibility of power or water outages. Yesterday we got blessed with the double whammy, a power outage that lasted for hours and resulted in us using up our water reserve. No electricity equals no replenished water pila.

The kids took full advantage of the outage and had me roasting hot dogs on a campfire we built in the front yard. The hot dog roasting took forever so luckily we still had gas and were able to salvage dinner with a meal of boiled hot dogs and pasta salad which I thankfully had prepared earlier in the day. All in all it turned out to be a fun night with everyone sitting around talking instead of having their attention focused on a TV or iPad.

Oh, and the stars, wow. With the entire town cloaked in darkness, the stars covered every square inch of the sky. Our city-dwelling kids, and the adults, were star struck in the true sense of the word.

Angry Birds...Baja Style!

2011-03-21T13:15:00.007-05:00

Ahh, another beautiful day in paradise. So yesterday's plan to paint rocks like Easter eggs morphed into something much more fun. I decided to take pretty much everyone's love of Angry Birds and our abundancy of rocks here and turn that into a virtual Angry Birds game!

M and I spent a few hours yesterday collecting the perfect size rocks and painting them to look like our beloved feathered friends. They turned out so much cuter than I ever dreamed they would! Our only obstacle was a slingshot. How were we going to get the birds to fly? Keep in mind we're currently in the middle of nowhere in Mexico so there's not a handy Walmart nearby. Hmmm, what to do. Cue the cousins arriving. The first thing out of M's mouth "come look at the birds!". I quickly explain that while they're super cute, we have that one logistical problem of no slingshot. Sister-in-law says, "how funny, I packed one!". What more can I say. Angry Birds Baja Style was a go!!!!

Needless to say we're ALL having a blast flinging the birds at the pigs.

Mission accomplished. :-)

*I'm currently on my iPad so images to come once I get to a computer.

Jen

A new beginning

2011-03-20T16:19:00.000-05:00

I've decided to change the direction of my blog. Previously it was focused on promoting the new products from my now defunct website, doodlehearts.com.

As a world-class procrastinator, I'm going to use my blog as a personal tool to try and keep my complacency in check. My goal is to write a post every day, detailing what I accomplished, however small it may be. Baby steps, right?

I'm a creative person by nature so expect many crafty posts. Definitely not major accomplishments, but a start on my journey to change the parts of myself that I'm not proud of--read, I'm notoriously lazy.

As I write this post I'm sitting on the coast of the Sea of Cortez, about on hour north of Los Cabos. Instead of enjoying the beach, I'm sitting in the house with my 4-year-old, I'll call her M, watching TV and reading magazines. I've got to change these habits! I'm hoping that by seeing my lifestyle in print, I'll realize the scope of my problem.

My sister-in-law and her family are arriving this afternoon. Yesterday M and I walked along the beach collecting rocks that had been tumbled to the point of resembling eggs. Perfect little spheres. I plan on having the kids paint the rocks like Easter eggs...Baja Easter eggs! Anyone who has ever spent time in Baja will totally "get it.". Baja is super rocky and sandy, nothing sweet or dainty about it so rock eggs are perfect.

Now, I think I'll get dressed and go for a walk!

Jen

Please help a fellow blogger...

2008-11-13T20:19:00.004-06:00

This is reposted from the Domestic Diva's blog. Please help her sweet girl if you can.

Things continue to be difficult. But where there is life, there is hope.

I’m forcing myself to blog so I can update all my dear friends and family about what is going on with my sweet Sunshine Girl, Marielle, as her kidneys fail. It looks like we are on the way to the local emergency room again tonight–she’s in terrible pain and a bit lethargic.

After continued difficultly getting calls returned and kidney donor evaluation packages send to those who have come forward to donate their kidneys, we’ve given up on the Philadelphia hospital of ever finding a living kidney donor. They’ve recently told us they will only test family members and the closest of friends. They’ve taken it upon themselves to decide who our friends are. Philadelphia has only tested 3 donors in 4 months. To say I am furious is an understatement.

But there is hope. We are in the process of transferring Marielle’s care to NY Presbyterian-Columbia University Hospital (NYP) in hopes their additional living-donor kidney programs will save her life. Not only will NYP consider family members as donors, but are willing to evaluate EVERYONE (friends, associates and kind strangers) who wants to donate a kidney. That’s right…EVERYONE regardless of blood type, antibody mismatch, age, etc. They offer several kidney donor options for us:

Compatible Living Donor

Incompatible Donor Program

Paired Donor Exchange Program

Deceased Donor Program

Marielle will only match 1 in 50 people in the general population (average person matches 1 in 2). I am asking EVERYONE who has ever loved a child as deeply as I do my daughter to please consider being a living-kidney donor to her. You might be the one who can save my daughter’s life.

If you would like to receive a donor consent form to see if you could be a potential donor, please print out this form:

kidneydonorquestionnaire

Then send it to Joan Kelly either by email at kellyja@nyp.org or fax (212) 305-9642. Be sure to put MARIELLE CARROCCIO as the Potential Recipient’s Name.

Please pass this information along to anyone and everyone.

I continue to be comforted by the tremendous amount of love and support from all of you.

Thank you seems to fall short.

Vaction Rental Property Near Cabo

2008-11-08T18:30:00.004-06:00

We've just published a website for our vacation rental house in Baja (just north of Cabo San Lucas). Check it out! http://www.lacasanina.com

Finally, Something New to Add!

2008-04-14T10:54:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post! I went through a slump and couldn't get motivated to create anything new, well that's over now. Just look at all of my new things.

The lovie blankie, fabric burp pad and chenille bib are part of a donation I did for a charity auction. I have to say I am so proud of the little blanket. It was frustrating but I think it turned out great.

I've also been applique'ing (is that spelled right?) on shirts lately and I love the way the name applique came out.

I also made a coffee coozie to math our wine wraps. They are ridicuously cute and fun!

Now for some good news/bad news.

The good news first. I have a big shipment of new adult travel tumblers arriving on Thursday! I've finally found a new vendor and I can't wait to receive them. These are going to be a bit larger than our last ones. The new cup is 16 oz as opposed to the 11 oz old one.

Now for the bad news. Playtex is discontinuing our sippy cups! I am so sad about this. Everyone really seems to love our personalized sippys. I have about 20 of them left so when they're gone, they're gone. Playtex will still continue to manufacture the bowl/plate sets and the straw cups, for the time being.

I guess that's all of our news.

Have a great week!

M's Easter Pics

2008-03-20T10:19:00.002-05:00

Spring has Sprung!

2008-03-19T18:11:00.010-05:00

Well, it's definitely feeling like spring here in Houston. We've already had our first 90 degree day! My yard is coming around nicely. My roses are blooming and my trees are starting to sprout new leaves. I think spring is my favorite time of year. Nice cool mornings and warm afternoons. I snapped a few photos of my roses and also of my kitty and one of my dogs enjoying the warm weather.

I haven't been creating much lately, but I did find time to make M a little outfit the other day. I found this great trim at Hobby Lobby for less than $1.00 a yard. Way cheaper and easier than making a ruffle myself! I appliqued the heart on the shirt for Valentine's Day and am just now getting around to making the jeans to match.

That's about it for now. Have a Happy Easter!

The Craft Show Was a Success!

2008-03-10T22:44:00.004-05:00

Well, my first craft show was this past Saturday and I had a blast! I actually sold quite a few items, which honestly, surprised me. I didn't bring my embroidery machine to the show so therefore, everything had to be ordered. I figured that most people would want to take their stuff immediately so I really didn't count on any sales and hoped to treat the show as more of a marketing opportunity.

Boy was I wrong! I received quite a few orders! I also succeeded in making some great contacts for some future large jobs. All in all, it was definitely a success.

I would like to thank Rechelle from Cutie Pie Bows for basically making the entire show happen. Thanks so much for including me and helping me to "get my feet wet." I really, really appreciate all the help that you've been to me these past couple of months.

So, now the show is over and orders are due. Back to work I go!

Preparing for a Craft Show

2008-03-03T17:41:00.007-06:00

I'm preparing right now for my first ever craft show on March 8th. I have one major problem though. I have NOTHING ready!! I've decided that I must stop creating new things and start producing general, non-personalized items that I can sell at the show. I'm having a really hard time with this though. So far I have two boy burp cloths, a boy bib and two girl burp cloths. Not exactly enough for an 8-hour show.

I think in reality, I'll be able to make another 10 or so burp cloths and then just bring samples of my personalized items and hope that people are inclined to place order rather than just going for instant gratification. I'm also toying with the idea of bringing my embroidery machine with me, but that may be more trouble than it's worth.

Anyway, the new items for today are the lollipop burp cloths, which I think are super cute. I love the ribbon sewed on to the lollipop.

I found some really cute toiletry bags the other day and my mother-in-law, thank you, gave me the idea of using them as on-the-go diaper bags. Why didn't I think of that! So, here they are in all their glory.

Okay, back to creating "stock" items now. That's no fun! ;-)

To Blog or Not to Blog?

2008-02-25T10:58:00.003-06:00

So now that I've entered the e-commerce world, I guess I should join the blogging world as well.

A little background....

I'm a stay-at-home mom of a beautiful, smart, feisty almost 15-month-old little girl named M. I have a wonderful, slightly neurotic husband who I'm eternally grateful to for putting up with my crazy ideas and supporting my dreams. Did I fail to mention that we also have three dogs and a cat?

I am now the proud owner of Doodle Hearts Embroidery Boutique. Doodle Hearts specializes in unique, personalized gifts for all occassions. I try to come up with a new item or two every week to keep the site interesting, so far, so good.

I'm going to use this blog to showcase my new products. I'll also share random things about my family and the general craziness that usually ensues in such a busy household. I'm hoping that this will become a place where our friends and family can stop in and check out what's going on in our world and also keep up with M and the incredibly fast pace in which she is growing and learning.

So, fittingly, my first pictures posted will be my new bib and burp set that I added to the site today and a picture of M, it's old, but one of my favorites.

Enjoy and come back often!