Cool Find #8

For this weeks cool find I bring you another DIY for your home.

A name plate.

I think I will make this for our house using our last name.  I will hang it in on the wall in our foyer.
This can also make a great gift for someone.  I really like this project.  You can do just initials, use different colors, you can even put in the bathroom with the word bathroom in. The possibilities are endless.

Click here for the original post.

Homemade Iced caramel coffee

I was never a coffee drinker up until my 6th pregnancy.  During this time I tasted someones Ice coffee and have loved it since then.  I'm thinking its one of those pregnancy things.  You know its either you never ate it before until you got pregnant or you loved it until you got pregnant. Anyway, I make my husband coffee every morning, so I decided to try making ice coffee.  Now all I did was wait till it cooled added some milk and that was it.  I did not like it.  Recently I found out that I could make caramel using sweet condensed milk.  Basically you take the can, put it in a pot add lots of water and boil it for about 4 hours.  So I had the idea of doing this and adding it to the ice coffee.  I can say I will not have to buy it at DD any more.  This is soo goood.
After I make my hubby's coffee I wait till it cools some but not to much.  I put 1-2 tablespoons of the homemade caramel in my cup then add some coffee.  I put in enough ice cubes to fill up the cup then I add my milk.  I also add a little bit of vanilla extract.  It doesn't even need sugar.  It is so good.

Give it a try.

Whats for dinner #7

Today's dinner is one of my families favorite.  Lasagna.

I know this is tried and true for alot of you. But since my family loves it, I thought I should put the recipe here.
ENJOY!!!!
Ingredients
lasagna noodles
Meat
Pasta Sauce(your choice)
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese.
Seasoning for your meat.
First cook the pasta according to the box.
I make my lasagna with ground turkey.  I put it in the caldero (pot I use to make rice. check out this link)
I constantly chop the meat up while it is cooking with my trusted metal spoon.  I season the meat with sofrito , adobo, sazon, garlic and onion powder.  After it is all mixed up well I add the sauce.
Once the noodles are done I drain them and put them in cold water.
I then go on to start building the lasagna.
First I layer the baking dish with noodles I add the meat,  put in some ricotta cheese then sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.
I continue these steps till I come to the top of my baking dish.  Cover with sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
I usually put my oven to 375*.  Just make sure you check your food.  Ovens all cook differently.  It is done once you see it bubbling on the sides.

Fall Challenge take 1

I am also thinking of adding gauchos, but not sure.  I really like how they look with boots, but I may just make the skirt for the Fall Challenge over at coletterie.

I don't want to go real big here.  6-7 pieces are a lot for me time wise.  Hopefully I can get at least half done in 8 weeks.

I want to make the short skirt in mustard, the pants in black, one shirt in Burgundy, the other shirt in brown with the dress in green.  The long skirt will be brown.  I was thinking, if I make the cardigan I might make it in green.  A nice dark green, still undecided.  I went to  MOOD the other day with my daughter again, and purchased the fabrics for the short skirt and the pants.  I am so excited to get started.

I am not going to make the first shirt on the board, I will post a picture of the shirt as soon as I can, the other shirt will be a knit shirt.  I will also try to post a picture of it.  This means the shirt I have up on my board is not going to be made.  I may save it for spring since it needs sheer fabric.

Cool find #7

For this cool find I bring you yet another craft for your kids.  Its important to my for my kids to keep busy.  I've learned that boredom can lead to a lot of arguments.  So I try to keep them as busy as possible.  Also my little girls need something to do while their siblings are doing school and I am trying to clean the house.

The answer : Homemade Puffy Paint.

If you use food coloring or Wilton's gel food coloring its safe for little ones to eat.  We all know how they love to put things in their mouths.
Click HERE to be taken to the original link.

Fall Challenge

I joined the Fall sewing Challenge over at Coletterie.  I plan on making 4 pieces.

1. skirt
2.cigarette pants
3. 1 blouse
4. one dress

Hopefully I can get it done.  We have 8 weeks to complete the pieces.  Week one is to gather your inspiration, fabric, patterns, etc.. weeks 2-8 are all for sewing.  This is the first time I have done something like this, so I am very excited about it.  Once I have narrowed down my pieces I will post them here.

Here are my colors.

Whats for Dinner #6

Today I am bringing you Yellow Rice (Spanish style).


Here are the ingredients for a basic yellow rice.  You will need 1 packet of Sazon. 1/2 a packet if you are not making alot of rice.  I make about 5 cups here for us and I use a whole packet.  A pinch of salt, a few dashes of Adobo, 2 tablespoons of Tomato Sauce, 2 tablespoons sofrito.  You can get the ingredients for sofrito here
and about 2 tablespoons oil (not pictured)

We cook the rice in whats called a Caldero.  Its basically a large quart pot.

OK so we put the pot on the stove to heat up then we add the oil.

When the oil is nice and hot we add in all the ingredients, no particular order, just put it all in there and mix it up well.

Once its mixed up real good we add in the rice.  You want to have the rice ready for this step so its a good idea to rinse it before you start cooking.

Mix it all up real good.  Make sure all the rice gets covered with the sauce in the pot, you do not want two tone rice.

Once its mixed up good, you add your water.  Add enough water to just cover the top.  About an inch of water covering the top of the rice.  A good way to measure is using your finger.  Put it in the water just on top of the rice, not pushing down onto the rice.  If the water level is at the first line at the back of your finger you have enough water.  Its a good idea to add the water a little at a time.  You don't want to put in too much water, then you get extremely sticky rice.

Put the flame on high and cover the rice.  Cook it till there is no water left in the pot, being careful not to burn the rice.

  Then I put the rice in a mound.  This step is not necessary just something my mom and her mom etc... would do.

Cook the rice till it is soft (done).  Once done serve it with what ever meat/veggie you made.
Here we have yellow rice with stewed chicken and split peas.  YUMMM

Miss-B's dress FINALLY done.

I don't know why but for some reason this dress gave me tons of problems.  It's not the first time I've made it either.  The top part, and the collar were just not cooperating at all with me.  I am just glad it is finished, well I still need to hem it but other then that it is DONE.
The pattern for this dress is posted here. 

Here is the dress. 

She choose the fabric for this dress.  She likes it and that is all that matters, since she is very picky. 

Cool find #6 Popsicle Stick Bracelets.

I saw this and knew I had to post it here.  This would make such a fun birthday party activity( maybe not so much for the boys, but girls can have a lot of fun with this).  You can prepare it ahead of time and just have the girls decorate them.
This is one that can really be done whenever.  Think of all the possibilities you could do.  You can make name ones, modpodge some with nice wall paper fabric, or even regular fabric.  You can even make some to match some of your clothes.  Like I said before the possibilities are endless.  If you want to give this a try, click on this link

Hope you enjoy this project.