Embroidered Baby Gift

So, my darling husband let me get a new sewing machine, since the one I had was on it's last legs. The one I chose has embroidering capabilities, so I have been trying to learn the fine art of embroidering. It looks so easy .. yet it's so hard!

So, I made a baby gift for a military wife friend that is about to have her first baby any day now.

It's a little t-shirt and a burp cloth. I had a lot of fun making the burp cloth. The t-shirt ... well, I'm hoping it'll be easier next time if I use a bigger shirt.

Crock Pot Scalloped Horseradish Potatos

This recipe comes from Stephanie @ crockpot365.com. Oh so yummy and delicious! We'll be having this as a side dish to some grilled steaks this evening. I also made this to go w/ our Easter dinner earlier this year.

3 pound red potatoes, washed and sliced (no need to peel)
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish (not the cream kind, the regular; I went with extra hot)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

The Directions.

I used a 4 quart crock pot. Scrub your potatoes well and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Layer into a crock pot you've sprayed with cooking spray. In a mixing bowl, combine the heavy cream, horseradish, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Pour over the top of the potatoes. Stir.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, high for 4 hours, or until potatoes are fork tender. I cooked ours on high for 2 hours, then low for another 4. Garnish with shredded Parmesan.

Halloween T-Shirt

So, I went out and did some shopping today ... I mostly looked for Halloween items and couldn't find any short sleeved shirts Halloween themed shirts for my 6 year old son. So, I bought a plain white t shirt from Walmart, and spent $0.70 on fabric and made my own.

Iadded some rustic looking stitches around the image to hold it in place and here is my goofball wearing the finished product:

This was so easy to make! I cut the images using my Cricut! I used the "Life is a Beach" cartridge for the skull & crossbones image. All you do is apply fusible webbing to your fabric by lightly pressing the entire thing with a warm iron, cut with your Cricut, peel off the paper backing and iron on the image. I'm pleased with how it turned out, although I think that my sewing machine is about on it's last legs. Oh well .... Christmas is right around the corner! Maybe Santa will be good to me this year .... ;)

All American Chili

Okay Okay ... so, I have seriously neglected my blog. Shame, shame. I haven't had a lot of time lately between working my two part time jobs, taking my two college classes, and taking care of my two kids and hubby. There seems to be a theme of two's here ....

Anyway, just to appease I thought I would share my favorite chili recipe since it's fall somewhere (certainly not in hot Hawaii!) and chili is a perfect fall food ...

Yield

8 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups chili and 1 tablespoon cheese)

Ingredients

• 6 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound ground sirloin
• 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/4 cups Merlot or other fruity red wine (can sub w/ beef or chicken stock if you aren't a wino like me!)
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped (Note: I dont like tomato chunks, so I use tomato sauce instead)
• 2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage, onion, and the next 4 ingredients (onion through jalapeño) to pan; cook 8 minutes or until sausage and beef are browned, stirring to crumble.

Add chili powder and the next 7 ingredients (chili powder through bay leaves), and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, tomatoes, and kidney beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Uncover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard the bay leaves. Sprinkle each serving with cheddar cheese.

Note: Like most chilis, this version tastes even better the next day.

Unit Cake

I made a cake the other day for my husband's unit.

Here is the unit patch:

Here is the cake:

Sorry the picture is so huge! It is a white cake w/ strawberry cream filling and vanilla buttercream icing. Yum!

Cricut Creations

This weekend I did a big of crafting. I made a large sign and a shelf sitter. I'm pretty happy with the way the large sign turned out. In hindsight I wish I woud have painted the shelf sitters a different color but these will do since they're just for me.

Kielbasa, Take 2

So, after the Kielbasa in the crockpot disaster, I tried another recipe that called for Polish Sausage the other night. I have to tell you, this is one of the top ten best foods I have ever eaten. Absolutely delicious and will definitely become a regular in our dinner rotation.

The recipe came from my online friend, L. I believe she adapated it from a similar recipe on Food network.

Roast Chicken & Sausage

ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut up
1 smoked sausage
1 large sweet onion
1 lemon
1/4 cup flavored oil (i like garlic oil or hot chili oil. you can use regular light olive oil and just add garlic powder or chili powder)
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp worcesteshire sauce
pepper to taste
salt to taste
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
garlic powder to taste

1. in a gallon baggie, squeeze juice of one lemon, add oil, mustard, worcesteshire sauce, pepper, salt, thyme, sage, and garlic powder.

2. cut chicken breasts in half so that they cook evenly with other chicken pieces. add all chicken pieces to baggie. *leave out the chicken bits you don't want like the organs and neck

3. cut onion in big chunks and add to baggie. mix baggie well and put in fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

4. preheat oven to 425, arrange chicken and onion in a roasting pan. cook for 30 minutes. cut sausage into 2-3 inch pieces. take out roasting pan and add sausage pieces to pan. bake for additional 30-45 minutes until chicken is crispy and sausages are weeping clear juices. let rest 5-10 minutes. serve and enjoy.

I will say that I used garlic cloves rather than garlic powder, and that I felt like the "bake for additional 30-45 minutes" reference at the end was a bit vague. For my oven, I think 30-35 minutes was plenty. I also quarted red potatos and added them to the roasting pan before baking. The onions were to die for. Something magical happens to them while they are baking. This recipe is just pure food genius.