Kids in the Kitchen ...

Okay - yesterday I posted about the "3 ingredient dinner challenge" we are doing in our home.  The kids cooked last nite.  And the verdict... not bad for a first!

Ingredients:  ground deer meat, noodles, and sauce
The noodles they chose together was a combo of fettucine and spaghetti  (there wasn't enough fettucine to serve all of us).

Sarah decided for the sauce since she is not a marinara fan  - that she was going to make a traditional Bechamel sauce with parm cheese and add a little marinara at the end to create her version of a Rosa sauce.

Jacob decided he wanted to take a spin off  chicken parm and make a sort of meatloaf patty out of the deer meat, bread and pan fry the patties.  He seasoned the breading with garlic granules, and a mexican seasoning mix my brother Rusty made when he visited not long ago.   (I know right - mexican flavored meat with bechamel sauce - weird concoction - but thats what you get when kids cook).    The mix is wonderful and I would give it to you, but I wasn't total in the room when he took my spices to mix - I can tell you that it is like full bottles of several spices - including chili powder, garlic, onion powder, some cumin and a couple of other ingredients that I can't remember.  I will have to get the information from him because it is excellent with boneless, skinless chicken tacos.

The dish was tasty, although I think the meat was a bit "heavy" for my normal eating.  But the kids did a good job coming up with their own recipes and managed to cook the entire dinner by themselves and no body got hurt or sick from the food.  Just kidding, my kids cook often and rarely is there any negative side effects. 

Now, the grand finale... the final dish, including a peice of asiago french bread with garlic butter....

Round two of 3 ingredient challenge coming soon.  Stay tuned.  Have a great day!

3 Ingredient Dinners ....

Okay, our family is starting a new weekly tradition.  Keep in mind my kids are 17 and 13 and I have had them in the kitchen cooking with me since they were little. 

I have a Facebook Friend that I met through another cooking facebook page.  He lives in upstate New York, sings, cooks, has a farm, and is a psychologist.(http://cooperboone.com/) has recently started a 3-ingredient challenge for himself.  During this challenge, his Facebook friends, comment on his status 3 ingredients.  He takes all the lists of ingredients, keeping the 3 you put in together into a hat/bowl and picks out 1 set of ingredients that he cooks with that night.  Sometimes its dinner, sometimes dessert - depends on the ingredients.  But all 3 have to be used in 1 single dish. 

Well our family is doing a take-off of this idea.  We are doing a 3 ingredient challenge - where each of the 4 of us make a list of 3 things that we currently have on-hand in the house.  We fold them up, put them in a cup and pick out one list of 3 ingredients and thats what we have for dinner.  We were going to do our first this Sunday after church... so Saturday night we made our lists and had the kids draw out the winning ingredients so that if we had to thaw something out we would have time before dinner Sunday.  My 13 year old son - Jay picked his own list. 

At first the list seems mundane ... ground deer meat, noodles and spaghetti sauce.  Until I told them that it could not be typical spaghetti .   Oh, any that my kids were going to cook the meal by themselves.   They are pretty excited

But Sunday at church, my sister and brother in law invite us to their home for Sunday dinner.  So they got one night of repreieve.  Although they already have an idea that they want to try...

My son thinks they can make a knock off of chicken parm with ground deer meat, using cornmeal as a breading.  He actually wanted to take some corn on the cob that I have that needs to be cooked really soon and grind up the kernels to make homemake cornmeal.  I am thinking this is a little bit overzealous for his first dinner by himself.  But, if all else fails we can always have PB&J. 

I am planning on the kids making their meal tonite, eventhough my husband has to go out of town for business overnight.  I will post pictures of the finish product, with review and next weeks 3 ingredient combo.  Wish me luck... and if I never post again, you know this wasn't a good idea....  :)

Divider Conquered!

Okay - here it is.  I've been working on re-vamping a pocket divider I bought my daughter years ago before she became a teenager from ltd Commodities.

BEFORE



AFTER

Plain white.  The fabric is sparkly, but it is very hard to notice with all the white.

So I dyed the fabric panels...

Spray painted the hinges,  buttons, wood frame...

Added a little decoration to the pockets ...





THE FINAL PRODUCT AGAIN ...

.  And now my daughter Sarah thinks she should get it back ... NOT.  It's going in my craft/workout room. 

Thanks for visiting.  A have a fabulous week!



Roasted Radishes

Okay, here is a quick recipe that might be of interest.  I saw one of the contestants cooking it on Ironchef America on Food Network a couple of weeks back and thought ... yumm! 

1 / 2 bunches of radishes (Being that there is not a vast choice in my area - I used the normal red radishes you see in all grocery stores).  Trimmed and cleaned

2 - 3 tbsp of olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 - 3 tbsp of melted butter
fresh chopped rosemary or thyme
fresh minced garlic

Toss the radishes, salt and pepper, olive oil, garlic and rosemary in a bowl.  pour into a baking dish. Pour metled butter over top.  Cook in preheated 400 deg over for approximately 40 - 50 minutes until radishes are fork tender. 

We made these as a side for Easter dinner and BOY! were they good.  I even tossed some into my salad as a garnish.  The radishes have a slight sweet taste, loose that really sharp bite that they are known to have, and have a peppery finish to them.  Very nice! 

Give them a try - you might like them!

Purse Fetish

Okay, a couple of days ago Anusha posted a blog about a ruffled bag ( http://anushab4u.blogspot.com/2011/04/black-n-white-ruffled-bag-tutorial.html) that was too cute for words!  So, I had to give a go at it ... and this is my first attempt.  Doesn't look as good as hers, but not bad if I do say so myself. 

So, after that was finished and ready for me to use for church on Easter. I decided to make the "ducttape" bag my sister and niece asked me to make.  I have previously made one for me to carry my bible, pens, gum, etc in for church, so that I alway feel prepared.  They saw a picture of that bag and wanted one for themselves.  I forgot to take pictures as I was making my sisters bag.  Her only request that was I put a "FROG" on it acronym for Fully Forever Rely on God.  This was a tricky - especially out of ducttape.

Here is the fisished product....

Over view

Inside View - I even gave her a interior pocket.

Close up .. FROG and detachable key chain

I finished her bag in approximately 2 hours from start to finish - pretty easy job. Good thing too because she asked for it for her birthday and it happens to be May 14th.  Just in the nick of time!

Next was my niece's turn.  She is graduating from high school on May 17th and asked for a bag.  Her bag ideas have changed from week to week. First it was going to be purple and yellow for the college that she was going to attend.  Then it was just blue and anything else so that she can use it to carry her bible in as well.

Here is how hers turned out.  I decided to make a 'take-off' of Anusha's ruffle bag.  And this is the outcome...

Inside view - I gave her a smaller pocket...but there is still a pocket

Hanging view of finished purse.

Close up view - she even has a hanging keychain - shape of a cross.

Recipes coming soon.  Tried a couple new inventions and you might just like them.

Have a great day and try, oh try, to stay dry!

Weekend Follies

This past weekend we decided to venture to the lake to fix some things that could not be ignored any longer and possibly some fishing time.  Which no, I am not a avid fisher-woman, but my family is so I tag along and enjoy their antics. 

We got to the lake property - a make shift cabin that has been added on numerous times.  It started as a 1 oversized garage, now is a living area with tv, kitchen with eatin table, bathroom with something that can almost resemble a shower, a good size bedroom - and good thing since there is only one and an alcove that houses a freezer, bar and keg cooler that doesn't get used as a keg cooler - it houses all of our drinks for us and the kids. 

This weekend we installed a P-tac unit (similar to the in the wall units that you can find in most budget motel rooms.  However this one is newer and works like a charm!.  We had central heat and air, but all the critters have torn the flex duct under the cabin out and no longer functions as it should.  We moved the AC window unit that was in the kitchen window to the bedroom window to cool that room. 

I had a rock fire pit, that over the years has taken a very hard hit - so last week in the shop (we own a plasma table that cuts metal- we use it for ductwork manufacturing, but every once in a while I get creative and whip something out - my current project are Crosses - but that will have to be a different blog) I created a personalized fire ring.  I cut 3 bands of black iron metal with our name and stars cut out at the top and made them 22 inches tall.

This is my plasma table.

With the help of my husband using the roller, we finally rolled the black iron enought to resemble a circle shape when all were connected.  Using 15 bolts and locking nuts, we bolted all 3 pieces together. 

This is the roller.

Extra black iron plate - husband thought 4 was over kill - go figure!

So... the finished product and installed ......

 We had a great weekend, accomplished a lot on our list, got the cabin ready for summer, mowed, and fished a little. 

The fishing was not at all productive though... the only thing that was caught besides a barely keeper size crappie was this .....

Now imagine if you will , my 17 yr old daughter Sarah was fishing on our dock when she thought she was stuck in trees/brush under water quite common on our lake.  So dad comes over to help out Sarah and they both have decided they are going to have to cut the line.  Just about the time the have decide to, it "pops" loose and low and behold this is what my daughter caught.  Never in a million years would I have guessed this little baby was laying around under us while we swam, etc. 

AND, believe it or not, my husband just puts in BACK IN the water.  What is he thinking?  I don't want it to get bigger and I definited dont want it in the lake, or at least my our dock.  Come on, you're dealing with Miss Afraid of all creatures.  I am not a squeally one, I don't shireek at ever little mouse - but I DO NOT LIKE THEM! 

Well that was my fun weekend - hope your's were just a good and eventful and productive!  Thanks for checking me out ! :)  Have a great one!

Mic Stand

Okay .... been a while. its been hectic at our place.  At Christmas, all that know my daughter know that she loves to sing.  We have Rock Band for the Wii and she has always wanted to play guitar and sing at the same time ... so I had this wild idea to make her a mic stand.  This is how I did it.

Supplies:

1" PVC pipe
3 - 1" Tee
4 - 1" End Caps
1 - 1" 45 deg fitting
1 - 1" coupling
1 - 1" x 3/4" reducer
pipe cutters
Pipe glue
tape measure
One Mic clip - from music store (Approx $5-7)
Spray paint of your choice

First cut 6 length - I use approximately 6" for each.

These will make the base of the stand. glue the PVC pieces into the TEE.  When you glue - glue both inside the TEE and the outside of the pipe - and twisti as you puch the pipe into the TEE so that you have good contact.  Make sure that it is pushed in all the way, you may have to hold it a few seconds for the glue to set up a bit so that it doesn't "push" back out.  When you are finished with this step you should have 3 pieces that look like the picture below.

Now you are going to connect all three together in the same process as before so that they look like this picture.

Next we need a length of the pipe approximately 4 - 5' tall - depending on the total height needed at the end.  Once that is cut - you glue it into your base.



As you can see in the above pict - after glueing it into your base, then attached the 45, making sure that it in inline with the base that everything is straight.  After glueing all the pieces together, but another piece of PVC approximately 1 - 1/2' long and glue it into the other end of the 45.

Now depending on your mic clip you might have to alter the next steps to fit your clip.  I needed a 1 " coupling to attached to my pipe (which I glued), Then I attached a 1" x 3/4" reducer because the mic clip was not exactly 1" in diameter.After I glued everything together, including the mic clip, I let it set overnight to ensure that the glue was good and set.

The next day I took my little can of black sparkling spray paint and voila ...

My daughter, who is a 17 yr old - thought this was the best gift she has ever gotten for Christmas or her birthday in her entire life (okay so she can be a little dramatic  - what teenage girl isn't from time to time). 

I gotta be honest ... this is one present here it is April and she is still using it.  And the entire project only cost me about $15 - 20, that including the mic clip and spray paint which, I could have used a can I had sitting around but decided to splurge on the sparkle.

Hope you enjoyed... I have another project getting ready to be posted - artwork crosses.  Come back and visit - you might like it.