Project Frustraion

I've just had one of the most frustrating project experiences I've ever had.  It's a problem that defies all logic and no matter how many times I try it won't work.  The fix is going to require a ton of work, lots of adjustments and more supplies; I'm mad.  Until this point this was a project that I was super pleased with.  Lots of little individual parts that get put together to make an awesome finished product.  Not only am I re-covering something truly ugly but I'm completely re-designing the style at the same time, that is if I can ever make it fit like it should.  Mad! Mad! Mad!

I needed to vent, I needed it off my chest, I needed to share with you.  Tomorrow I'll start with renewed stamina and things will be great but tonight I'm just upset.

New Food Friday - Taquitos

In case you're new around here, New Food Friday is where I try a new meal and then report back on the success or failure.  I'd love if you'd join me but since there were no entries and linky tools isn't free anymore I'm dropping the linky.  Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me about your new recipe, I'd love to come back to your blog and check it out.

Since I've started making a new recipe a week we've eaten a lot of meals that were very blah, hardly worth mentioning but since I started recording them I've had some great successes.  I generally have low expectations of the new meals but for some reason I expected greatness of this meal and I definitely got it.  So yummy that we're going to eat them again tomorrow.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions
2 C shredded cooked chicken (for extra yumminess, use grilled taco chicken!)
1 C grated pepperjack cheese

small corn tortillas (I used flour)
kosher salt
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.


I wouldn't change anything about this meal except perhaps to follow her directions.  We used large tortillas, not small ones and you can see the edges were pretty brown but the middle wasn't.  The filling was very hot all the way through but the browning was uneven, I really should have used the small tortillas like she says too.  I also thought when I wrapped them up that the ends looked really empty so I stuffed some extra filling in only to have it bubble out while cooking so don't worry if you have empty ends, they'll fill up.


I got this recipe from a site called Our Best Bites and you can find the original with photos and a tutorial here.  This site is my new favorite and you'll probably see a couple recipes from here in the next little bit, everything looks delicious.  They recommend serving the taquitos with a Creamy-Lime Cilantro Dressing that sounds yummy and I would have made but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand.

Microphone Stand Case

Brad has a pretty big family (6 kids and they're all married with kids).  We get together for everyone's birthday which means there are lots of celebration.  Being on a strict school budget we generally only give birthday presents if I can think of something really cheap to make.  This means that usually the men in the family don't get a gift (have you ever seen a project on here for men?).  I always try to think of an idea but come up empty handed... lucky Byron is going to be the first to change that.

Him and my husband share a talent/hobby of music.  They're both very musical but the aspect I'm talking about is recording.  They've recorded choirs and plays and bands and all sorts of events meaning they have a ton of equipment that has to be hauled out every time.

My husband had mentioned once that I should make him a case for his microphone stands.  I'd said you bet and filed it away in the back of my mind since it wasn't a project I was excited about.  This is a perfect gift for Byron though since he has two of his own stands.  I think they're the worst to carry places.

We have some camp chairs that fit in bags and the size of the bag was almost the perfect size and shape for the stands, just a little short.  So I added some length and copied the design.

For the fabric I wanted something pretty stiff so it would hold the shape.  Canvas was the best I could find and it really doesn't hold it's shape well, the finished bag sort of looks like a pile of fabric but it's functional so I'm looking the other way this time.  You can read my post yesterday about the fabric, I had to dye some canvas to get black.

This bag easily holds two stands with room for probably two more.

I think my favorite part of this bag is the zipper though.  I made a new years resolution to put in a zipper this year and I was pretty intimidated.  I thought it was tricky but in the end I think it took 10 minutes and one try.  It was super easy and looks really good.

I can already check off one resolution and it's not even February.

(The fabric doesn't look quite as bad as this photo would lead you to believe.  Darn that flash and night time pictures).

Now I just need to make one for Brad too (he's quite jealous that Byron got one before he did)

Dyeing Fabric

This project made me nervous, it's something I'd never done before.

I wanted a nice heavy duty fabric in plain black for a project we'll talk about tomorrow.  The only thing I could find was some heavy canvass but it looked like this.

I didn't want to wait around and try to find something so I figured I'd dye the fabric black.  I'd never done this before before but I'd read about it.  I knew trying to get a deep black might not happen so I was prepared for a light grey.

I washed my fabric and then I took this bottle

I filled my sink with hot water (I didn't want to use the washing machine because it's a front load and I rent) and dumped in the entire contents of the bottle.  I should have only need half but it said for dark colours double the quantity.  Scary looking hey?

I added my fabric and let it soak while I stirred and agitated for 40 minutes.

Looing good hey?

 When the 40 minutes was up I rinsed it really well and then washed and dried it.

The end result was not bad.  It sort of looks like an old black t-shirt, kind of faded.  For this project that'll be just fine but I think if I dyed it one more time I'd get an even better colour.

I would dye fabric again though, it wasn't as scary as I thought.

This post was long enough so come back tomorrow to see what I use the fabric for.

New Food Friday - Tomato-Feta Chicken with Orzo

Two whole link-ups!  I thought I'd go a little longer on my own, I appreciate the two that linked up last week.  


In case you're new around here, New Food Friday is where we try a new meal and then report back on the success or failure.  Tell us what you'd change and show a picture, it's a great way to add variety to your weekly menu.

Before I started documenting my new recipe's I made this orzo dish that was so bad it was inedible.  It was a bad recipe that we only ate one bite of before throwing it out.  Since then I've had half a bag of orzo I needed to use, this recipe sounded like a good way to do it.

Tomato-Feta Chicken with Orzo

2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil (I used olive)
3 - 3 1/2 pound cut-up broiler-fryer chicken
1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups frozen small whole onions (I used fresh pearl onions)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup white wine or apple juice (I used apple juice)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or parsley (I used cilantro)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried oregano leaves (fresh are expensive, I used dried)
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes, drained (Can someone please tell me why you ever use whole tomatoes?  They always say to chop with a spoon or cut them with scissors, why not just use diced ones?  That's what I used.  I also just noticed as I was typing this that it says to drain the tomatoes, I didn't do that and was a little surprised how liquid this dish was... draining would definitely fix that... oops.)
3 cups hot cooked rosamarina (orzo) pasta or rice (I used orzo)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in 12 inch skillet or 4 quart Dutch oven over medium heat.  Cook chicken in oil about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides.  Remove chicken from skillet with tongs.
2. Add 1 Tbsp oil to drippings in skillet.  Heat over medium-low heat.  Cook onions in oil mixture about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.  Stir in garlic.  Cook and stir about 30 seconds or until garlic is light golden brown.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients except pasta and cheese, breaking up tomatoes with a fork or snipping with kitchen scissors.  Add chicken.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.
4. Serve tomato mixture over chicken and pasta.  Sprinkle with cheese and, if desired, additional chopped fresh cilantro.

It looked like this until I garnished like the above.

This dish was really delicious, I especially loved the feta on it.  I'll probably make it again but with some modifications just for convenience.  I would just use chicken breasts next time because it's what I had on hand.  The thigh and drumstick was a nice addition but Brad hates cutting around the bone.  I would also just use a regular onion next time because I have them all the time, the pearl onions were nice but I don't think they made a huge difference.  I'd also probably serve this on rice or egg noodles next time, again just because I don't stock orzo regularly and it's sort of hard to find.

Again, it was delicious and Brad really enjoyed about it, I think it even got a cheer (we took a page from Doug's book and we cheer over our good meals).

What did you make this week?  Link up below.

Apple Roll Up

This is a dish that my Mom made the other night.  She said it was delicious and wanted to link up to New Food Friday but she doesn't have a blog.  I said I'd share it with you so here is a yummy apple recipe.

Apple Roll-up
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter or margarine
3/4 cups  milk
4 cups cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2  cups water
11/2 cups granulated sugar
butter or margarine to dot
cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle

Vanilla ice cream

Measure first 4 ingredients into a bowl.  Cut the butter until crumbly.  Add the milk and mix to form a ball of dough.  Don't mix too much.

Roll out 1/4 inch thick in a rectangle about 9x12 in. in size.
Spread apple over dough.  Roll out from the short end   (I rolled from the long side to make more slices)

Boil water and first amount of sugar in small saucepan slowly for 5 min.  Pour into a 9x12 pan.

Cut roll in 1 1/2 inch thick slices.  Lay slices cut side down in the syrup.

Dot with butter.  Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top.
Bake at 450 for about 25 min. until apples are tender.  (I found they needed about 10 more min.)

Serve hot with ice cream.  Made 8 rolls.

Doesn't this sound so yummy!  I think I'll have to try them. 
Sadly Mom left her camera in Utah so there's no picture of these.  If you make them you should send me one.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #20

This week I had a serious case of no desire to do laundry.  That meant she started wearing whatever was handy (all the clean stuff was still in the basket in the laundry room), meaning she wore the same jeans a lot.

Wednesday

White long sleeve T - Superstore (it says I Love the Sun)
Dark Jeans - Old Navy
Pink Belt - Made by me

Thursday

She LOVES turning off the lights... if only she'd figure out how to turn them on so I didn't have to go help her so often.

Polka Dot Cardigan - Superstore
White short sleeve Onesie - Carters
Dark Jeans - Old Navy
Yellow Ribbon Belt - Made by me
Brown Shoes - Walmart






Friday

She really loves these boots.  Brings them over to me often to put them on and then wears them around the house.

Striped Ruffle Top - Superstore

Black Leggings - Children's Place

Yeti Boots - Old Navy

When we went out I switched out the Yeti boots fro the ruby red slippers from Target.

Saturday

Striped T - Superstore
Dark Jeans - Old Navy

Sunday

Today the sad girl woke up with a fever and was miserable so we spent the entire day like this watching Sesame Street.

Sleeper - Sears

Tuesday

White T - H&M
Pink Hoodie - Superstore
Jeans - Old Navy



As always, Linking to

Beaded Wrap Bracelet

I've mentioned before that I read a lot of different blogs, with those blogs comes some really great idea.  This idea on C.R.A.F.T was one of them.  I loved it immediately and loved that she linked to such an awesome tutorial.  I'm not going to tell you how to make one of these because she does so well but if you want your own you can make one, really.  C.R.A.F.T. tells you everything you need to know.

The back clasp has this pretty bling.

Surprisingly I had just about everything on hand.  I really wanted one that wrapped around my wrist a couple of times but I didn't have enough beads so I went to Walmart and made this beauty.

I love the champagne beads with the black leather.

Also with the pretty clasp.

I think it would be really pretty wrapped 4 times with smaller beads.

I'm really trying to make to make an effort to wear more accessories but I just can't ever bear the price tag of new jewellery, making it myself is the perfect solution.

Rainforest Bouncy Chair (2 of 3)

I mentioned last week that I'm working on 3 different bouncy chair re-covers, you can see the first one I finished here.  This is the second and this chair turned out to be significantly more difficult than I was prepared for.  It's a different design that the other chairs I've re-covered (you can see them here and here).  It's finished but it sure tried my patience.  The toy bar on this one is different, not fabric covered and it plays music, vibrates and has lights.  I thought I'd stick with the jungle theme and bought some cute giraffe print to go with it.  The brown in the centre is soft, minky dot.  I think a baby will be snug and cozy in this chair.

Here's the before

Big improvement hey?  And some more before and after shots

New Food Friday - Roadhouse Pizza

Two weeks ago I issued a challenge to spice up your menu, cook a new recipe and share it here... sadly it seems I'm the only one interested.  Whether you join me or not I'm going to continue with the new recipes so I may as well blog about them.  I'll continue with my sad little linky parties just in case someone decides to join but if no one does it's okay, I'll carry on anyway.

We love pizza in our house, whether it's homemade or take out we love it all so I make it fairly often.  This week I decided to re-create a pizza we like to order out, it's called the Roadhouse and it's from Two Guys and a Pizza Place.  I also tried a new crust recipe, the one I used in the past is not great but it's probably the 1st and only dough recipe I used.  I figured it was time for a new one.

Roadhouse Pizza

Pizza Crust
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.


For our toppings I started with a sauce of Ranch dressing.  Then I added cooked, sliced chicken breast, red pepper, bacon and cheese.


This pizza was delicious and very close to the take out we order.  I wish the crust had been a little crispier but I probably could have cooked it slightly longer.  I also needed to use more dressing and more cheese.  I think in our house we tend to over due it with the cheese so I was trying to cut back and I got a little carried away, a tiny bit more would have been nice.

I'm calling this recipe a success and we'll probably make it again.