Fingerlaces

As you know I purchased a lot of charms from eBay a while back.  I mean A LOT of charms.  Trying to use all of them will be difficult to do, but oh so fun!  Here is my first attempt.  I call them "fingerlaces"...basically necklaces for your fingers!  I'm thinking of copyrighting the name as I know they will be a HUGE hit!  OK, maybe not, but they sure are easy to make. 

Supplies needed...

1. Charm
2. Chain...measure to size of ring
3. 2 jump rings
4. A tool to open and close jump rings

Close chain with one of the jump rings.  Add the charm with the other jump ring to the center of the chain and done!  Super easy! Super cute!

I made this one for Vivian...

Fingerlaces!  

I made other rings too...

Vivian kept all of them.  I also made her this necklace...

Cuz I love her!   

Until next time!

Smiley Luna!  

What I've made...

I made these this past week.  

And these...

Oh, and in case Vivian forgets her name, I made her this...

Until next time!

Luna relaxing after a long walk.   

Roll-Ups Fail

I was catching up on The Chew and a Mexican chef by the name of Pati Jinich was on making something delicious with pork so I thought I would google her to get some recipes.  I found her website Pati's Mexican Table and, while going through it a recipe caught my eye.  It looked both yummy and easy to make and totally adaptable with ingredients I had on hand.  This past Sunday I volunteered Vivian to help me make Pati's French Toast Roll Ups Pati's French Toast Roll-Ups. All was going well, until I decided to bake them instead of frying them.  I baked them in our toaster conventional oven....

Not very appealing but oh so good!

That's Nutella busting out of the seams.  {sigh}  BUT!  They still tasted good!  Like a rolled-up french toast with Nutella & banana in the middle.  We also made some with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries.  I think it was a combination of too much stuffing and not rolling tightly enough.  Anyway, here's the recipe.

French Toast Roll-Ups
adapted from Pati's Mexican Table
makes 12

Ingredients:
12 slices of white bread 
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon + 1/2 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

filling of choice -- I think any jam and/or fresh fruit combo works.  
We used Nutella with bananas for half of the roll-ups and
strawberry jam with fresh strawberries for the other half

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 

Cut the crust from the bread.  Using a rolling pin, roll the slices gently until half it's width.  

Add the filling -- about a teaspoon (don't over fill!) and the fresh fruit.

Now roll the bread with the filling.  (Pati suggested like a "cigar or a rolled-taco".  Definitely do that as otherwise will get busted up roll-ups!)  Finish stuffing and rolling all.

In a shallow bowl whisk the egg, milk, vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and nutmeg together.  Place each roll up in the bowl and let soak for about 5 minutes.

Foil or use Silpat over baking sheet and lightly spray or grease the tray so the roll-ups don't stick.  Place each roll-up on tray, seam side down, and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Flip each roll-up and spray or butter the other side.  If using butter make sure you melt it first and brush on.  Now bake that side for 8-10 minutes or until completely baked.

In a plate mix sugar and rest of cinnamon.  Once roll-ups have finished baking you will roll each one in the sugar and cinnamon mixture.  And done!

Until next time!

Lettuce Wraps

The other night I was craving lettuce wraps but didn't have all the ingredients for the Asian lettuce wraps (think PF Chang) I was really craving.  I decided to check out one of my favorite food blogs, Skinnytaste, to see if she had any lettuce wrap recipes and sure enough she did!  She calls them "Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps", I just call them delicious!

I made some minor alterations and also made a chipotle sauce (recipe to follow).

Here's the recipe.
adapted from Skinnytaste

1.3 lbs ground turkey
1 tsp. chipotle powder
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
2 tbsp. red bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup water
4 oz. can tomato sauce
8-12 leaves from butter lettuce

The how to:

In a large skillet, brown the turkey until no longer pink.   Add dry seasonings and mix well then add the onion, pepper, water and tomato sauce.  Mix all together and cover.  On low heat simmer for approximately 20 minutes.  While the mixture simmering, wash and dry the lettuce leaves.  

Once all done you are ready to assemble!  I made a chipotle Greek yogurt & sour cream sauce.  This made enough for 6 lettuce wraps.

2 tbsp. greek yogurt
2 tbsp. sour cream
2 tsp. Chipotle Adobo Sauce 

Mix together and done.  If too spicy add more greek yogurt or sour cream. If not enough spice, well add more chipotle adobo sauce!   

For toppings, I chopped up some tomatoes and shredded some cheese.

To assemble, grab a lettuce leaf and add meat then spoon a bit of chipotle sauce and add tomatoes and a bit of cheese.  Now eat!

As a side note, I made these cute cake pops for my friend's little girl's baptism a couple of weekends ago.  I'm happy to say they were a hit!  The pink ones are strawberry flavor and  the white ones are lemon flavor. 

Until next time! 

Masquerade Masks

August has been a busy week so far.  August 2nd I attended my friend's birthday party. You had to wear black (no problem here) and wear a mask.  Well, you know what that meant...DIY time!  I made my guy's mask and volunteered Vivian to make mine.  I wanted a lace looking mask so I googled "black lace mask" and landed on Sprinkles in Springs blog. She's amazing!  I had Vivian follow her tutorial exactly.  Here she is in action...

Click here.  Vivan was so into the process she ended up making all three of Kara's masks.

While Vivian worked on my mask I got busy on my guy's mask.  Here are the supplies.

Blank mask

Paper -- I purchased leather looking paper for the front and a velvet paper for the inside (both from Michael's)

Stick on brads

Modge-Podge

Super Glue

Scissors

Black ribbon

Take the paper and glue to the mask.  Cut around it and glue edges down. Now cut the eye holes and glue edges down.  Add super glue and glue one side of ribbon and do the same to the other.  With modge-podge glue the velvet paper to the inside. Cut the eye holes same. To be honest the inside wasn't very nice looking but it was comfortable. :)

I added the stick on brads to the front and here's the finished mask.

Vivian finished my mask and I added some bling to it.

Pretty, right!

Leather & Lace

Until next time!

Luna watching us work!

Flower Earrings

All is well with my phone!  After 3 attempts the forth phone finally worked.

We decided to take a girls road trip to Santa Barbara this past weekend. We meaning, mom, Vivian, Luna and me. :)  I found these at a vintage store on State Street...

Super cute, right!  So, I made these earrings...

Even cuter!

All I needed was the below items...

and some glue to adhere the flower to the filigree piece, and then insert an ear wire to the finished item. I bought other findings and that, plus all the charms from eBay, and I'm set for some jewelry making fun!

Until next time!

Luna was ready for the road trip!

 

No camera

Yep, I have no camera. :(  I use my cell camera to take photos.  On Monday I had to replace my original phone as it wasn't charging.  So, I get a replacement phone and all is well, BUT it won't read SD card. What happens when phone doesn't read SD card?  Well, I can't access the camera as it keeps asking for an SD card!  Poop!  I call Verizon and after an hour the guy says, "Yeah, it's not reading the SD card."  Um, ya think?!?!  The guy sends me another replacement phone.  I get the replacement phone that replaces the original replacement phone and guess what?  Yep, not reading SD card.  The SD card was working just fine on the original phone.  I tried another SD card, and same problem. I called Verizon again and they are sending me another replacement phone but this time from a different warehouse.  OK.  Whatever.  I just need a phone that reads the dang SD card!!!  I'm hoping this new replacement phone works.  So, long story short no tutorials, no photos of food, and no Luna pics!  BUT, I do have this nifty photo of my mom circa 1960...

Isn't she beautiful!

Until next time!