Strawberry Pomegranate Mojito

As summer is coming… and our mint plant is going crazy… we are finding refreshing drinks to use our mint in. In addition to iced tea, we are making mojitos!

1/2 lime cut into four wedges

10-12 mint leaves

1 Tbs. sugar

1 1/2 white rum

1 diced strawberries

club soda

splash grenadine (true grenadine is actually pomegranate) If you want to leave this out, add another Tbs. of sugar.

1. take the mint leaves and put them in a sturdy cup with two of the wedges and pulverize them. We used the back of a wooden spoon.

2. add sugar, strawberries, and one more wedge of lime and smash some more.

3. Fill the cup with ice and add the grenadine and rum. Fill the remainder of the cup with club soda and garnish with the last wedge of lime, and perhaps another sprig or two of lime.

Bacon Pancakes

Oh yes….. I did.

My husband doesn’t really like pancakes… but he loves bacon. Since I was craving pancakes….. well… I added bacon (cooked it in the microwave and then put it in the batter).

all were happy :)

Receiving blankets

One of my best friend’s sister is having twins! A boy and a girl. For her baby shower I knew I wanted to make her something special, but I didn’t have a ton of time. So decided to make some simple receiving blankets and burp cloths.

To make the blankets, first, I squared up the fabric and put the back and front pieces of fabric pretty sides together and pinned.

I sewed all of the way round the blanket but left a small opening so that I would be able to turn it right side out. Then I went around and did a zig zag stitch around the edges so that they wouldn’t unravel.

I turned them right side out, ironed, and then did a straight stitch all the way round, using the edge of the foot as my guide. Then I did another line around the blanket, an inch in, using the guide on my sewing machine.

Since I dind’t want the blankets to get all wonkey in the wash (since the two fabric pieces weren’t attached in the middle) I measured six inches in all around and sewed a line, then I did another square 9 inches in.

In all I made a blanket and two burp cloths for each baby, as well as threw in two books… I have to… I am a teacher :) You can find a tutorial for the burp cloths here.

note: these burp cloths are awesome… my godson spits up and drools like non other, and even though he is a year, she is still asking for more because they are super absorbent.

Everyone was impressed…. if only they knew how easy they were to make :)

see my list to the right to see who I am linking up with

Epic Chili

I served this chili at my house warming and it was a huge hit. I was asked for the recipe several times, so I thought I would share. enjoy!

2 lbs ground beef

1-2 cups shredded beef (either make your own or they sell it pre-cooked)

45 oz pinto beans

16 oz black beans

16 oz kidney beans

56 oz diced tomato

6 oz tomato paste

1 onion, chopped

3 stocks celery, chopped

1 green bell pepper chopped

1-2 c. corn

3 Tbs. steak seasoning

3 Tbs. chili powder

1 Tbs. worceshire

1 Tbs. chopped garlic

1 Tbs. oregano

2 tea cumin

2 tea. hot sauce, or more to taste

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. season salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. cayenne

1 tsp. basil

1. tsp. paprika

1 tsp. sugar

optional to taste… I threw in a little

Jerk seasoning, Northwoods seasoning, Cajon seasoning, jalapenos

The beauty of chili is that you can change things up… add more of one thing and leave out simething else, and it will still be super yummy.

1. brown the meat with the steak seasoning. Drain the fat.

2. throw in the chopped onion, celery, and bell pepper and cook until the veggies start to become tender (not all the way done)

3. open all the cans and start dumping (yes liquid and all.. it will help thicken it) the beans, tomatoes, and tomato paste. stir. Add all of the seasonings and heat until it is simmering.

4. add the shredded beef and corn. Simmer for as long as you desire, but at least 15 min.

serve with the toppings you like… sour cream, onions, cheese, corn bread, French bread, etc.

you can even make this the night before and re-heat it. The longer it sits, the more the flavors will combine and get even yummier. :)

Look MOM…No bugs!

In our den we have a large sliding glass door. When we first moved in, there was no screen on the door, so we added that to our long list of things we wanted to get for the house. About a week ago while Lan was crawling under the deck, he found the original screen. It had a huge tear in it, but the frame was in decent shape.

Lan got a Screen repair kit for $8.50 and we got to work.

*be prepared for some very non-technical explaining :)

First you take out the old screen and lay the new one over the frame. Cut the screen so that it is about 1/2 in to 1 in past the inner part of the door frame. Tape it in place so that it doesn’t move around when you push the screen and rubber thing into the groove.

Lay the rubber strip on top of the screen and use the wheel thing to push the rubber and screen into into the groove.

cut off the excess screen just above the rubber thing.

tada!!!

Then the next day, two different people ran into the screen during our house warming party :/ Don’t get me wrong, is still fine… it just isn’t as tight anymore.

Link Parties!

Please see my side bar to see who I am linking up with... lots more crafty ideas :)

Make your grass work for you

Awhile ago, we saw somewhere in blogland, the idea for growing grass as an indoor decoration. We loved it and decided that it would add a nice green pop around the house for our housewarming party. We were at home Depot, and I just couldn’t get over the $15 price tag for a bag of grass seed. Yeiks! Then I saw this idea somewhere else in blogland for using wheatgrass to decorate. Hmmm…. at least this grass you can eat and get some of your money back from it. Well, I couldn’t find the correct type of seed to grow wheatgrass (it is supposed to be Red Hard Winter Wheat)…. so I just bought some ordinary wheat…. and you want to know how much it cost me… a whopping $1.15 baby!

First you need to soak your wheat for about 24 hours. You should be able to see little white things at the end of your seeds, that is the root!

Rinse them and then lay them out evenly on some dirt with about an inch between the seeds and the top of the pot. You will need to cover them. I don’t know why this makes a difference, but we tried them covered and uncovered, and the covered ones did much better. Then you just spray the seeds with a spray bottle several times a day.

After another day or two you should see some green shooting up

Once the green reaches the top of the pot, you no longer need to keep them covered. In a week, your grass should be nice and tall :). Since these were for our housewarming, we taped some pictures to chopsticks and put them in the grass. We had these all through our house to show the before pictures.

Stump Planters

My stump planters have seriously become one of the things I am most proud of in our home. These were not exactly easy to make with palm tree stumps, because as we found out, palm trees are extremely dense.

Lan first used his reciprocating saw to cut out how large the hole is going to be. Then he used an Auger bit on his drill and drilled down as far as he could. He then took his reciprocating saw and continued to slowly cut away pieces until it was widened to his guide cut. When he was all done, he took his drill and drilled down once more. Since the stump can’t drain, we filled this hole with rocks so that excess water can collect there, away from roots.

We ended up planting Jalapeno, Sweet Basil, and Rosemary. I love these planters.. and the icing on the cake, is that it is free!

I kept telling Lan that he should make more and we could sell then for a really good price. He looked at me like I was crazy and responded “go for it babe, but I'm not doing it”

Linked to:

http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2011/05/link-party-no-54.html