Crock Pot - Pot Roast

I love using my crock pot! Especially on days when I don't want to cook. This recipe was intended for a dutch oven, but I don't have one, so I adapted it for my crock pot! I was a little nervous at first, but it worked!

Ingredients:
1 whole 3-4 pounds Chuck Roast
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 whole Onions
1 small bag of baby carrots
Salt To Taste
Pepper To Taste
1 cup Red Wine
2 cups Cups Beef Stock
3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary, or more to taste


Directions:
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Then add a drizzle of olive oil to the bottom.

Cut two onions in half.

When the oil in the pot is very hot , add in the halved onions, browning them on one side and then the other. Throw onions into crock pot/

Next, put the carrots in, brown them for about 1 minute. When finished, add to crock pot.

Salt and pepper the meat'. Place the meat in the pan and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Add to crock pot.

With the burner still on high, 1 cup of red wine to deglaze the pan. Pour over roast in crock pot.

Cover with 2-3 cups of beef broth or stock. You may need to stir up the pot, so that the liquid is covering the meat. Add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary on top.

Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or until the meat will fall apart! Serve with Roasted Parmesan Potatoes!

Adapted from: The Pioneer Woman

I Love Santa

I made these cute little shirts using my Silhouette machine.  I just bought the heavy duty Wonder Under and then used my machine to cut out the shapes.  Then I ironed it all on! You can't get easier than that! I can't wait to see the kiddos sporting these! 

Baby Reece ready to go see Santa!

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

I needed a quick and easy side dish to go with my roast. This is what I came up with! They were SOO good, and I had everything on hand!

Ingredients: 

4 potatoes, cut in quarters (I used baking potatoes, but could use red)
1t. Italian seasoning
1t. garlic powder

1t. garlic salt
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of pepper
Olive oil

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Wash and cut potatoes into quarters 

In a bowl, place your potatoes and drizzle with olive oil.  

Add seasoning, cheese, and garlic. 

Toss until coated well. 

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with Pam.  

Spread out potatoes on baking sheet, making sure that they are not on top of each other. You want them to get nice and crispy! 

Bake 20 minutes, and give them a stir. 

Bake and additional 20 minutes, or until they are crispy! 

Adapted from: http://www.tablefortwoblog.com

Personalized Stationary

I had each child draw their face and write their name.  I taped it all together and made a class stationary! I copy it and have the children write thank you notes to people who have helped our class with events or field trips! Now if only I could get them to write a friendly letter correctly every time! :) 

NOEL

Love how this turned out! I bought the N, O, and E at Hobby Lobby.  The O is actually a small candle holder.  I made the L out of scrap barn wood from my Mom's house.  I just cut 2 pieces and glued them together. I can change it to spell LOVE for Valentine's Day by adding a V! 

Tis the Season

This year I got a little anxious and set up my tree before Thanksgiving. Ever since I was younger I liked having a matching tree. My mom likes the hodgepodge look, but I am all for matchy-matchy.  I have had pink trees, blue and white trees, red and green trees, and this year I decided to tone it down and go more neutral.

I got a new tree this year, a find from my grandma's basement! It is much taller than my old one, which means more room to decorate.  I bought 3 new shape ornaments, and a few more gold balls.  I also bought burlap ribbon and burlap to make my tree skirt.  I plan on making a few burlap ornaments too! Stay tuned!

To make the tree skirt, I used my old one to use as a pattern. I just cut it out along the lines. I may add a ruffle to it if I have time!

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2012/12/2012-christmas-tour-of-homes.html

Farmhouse Table- Part 1

When Erica moved out, I was left kitchen table-less.  I needed a new table, but didn't want to spend $1,000 on a table at Pottery Barn. I wanted a farmhouse table.  I decided I was going to build it.  I looked online and found a bunch of designs that I liked. I found a few that we would need to build from scratch. I also found a few that used an old table and just built the top.  I was at Salvation Army looking for a lamp, and found this table.  It was $70 and had 4 chairs.  I called Kent, sent him a text of the table, and he said yes. Do it. It would save us a lot of time. So I had my friend Megan come help me load up the table and chairs.  The table fit perfectly in my car!

 I unscrewed the top and was left with this.  So we measured and planned, and went to Lowe's to buy wood.  We "made the table" in the store and made sure we had flat boards that would fit well together and look nice.

 The corners were a little unstable, so we used some scrap wood and made the corner supports.

We built some supports for across the table.  We screwed them in every 12 inches.

 Matt helped me cut the boards to my measurements.  Then it was finally time to screw them in! We started in the middle. We screwed them in using self drilling screws and screwed them into each support.

 We screwed some of them from the bottom, with the table upside down to make it easier to see!

Then it was time to plane and sand.  We were a little nervous about getting the table flat and smooth. But this tool did some magical numbers! I found it in my parent's basement. It is old, but it did the job!

We sanded and sanded some more.  However, the end boards didn't line up perfectly.  We needed to even it out so that the end boards would fit nicely.

 We lined up a board and clamped it. Then sawed off the edges to make it line up perfectly.

We added the final boards on. They were a little wobbly, so we used the nail gun to secure these boards.  We sanded and used the planer again.  FINALLY it was ready to stain!! I used some tacky cloth and the leaf blower to blow all of the little sawdust off.

Fried Tofu with Awesome Sauce

One of my favorite restaurants here in KC, Blue Koi, makes a great appetizer, "Fried Tofu with Awesome Sauce."  I have always been skeptical of tofu, but this tofu is sooo good! We have tried to duplicate, and this is as close as we can get. The sauce still isn't quite right, but it's pretty darn close!

Tofu Ingredients:
1 block of extra firm tofu
3/4 cups corn starch
1/4 cup cornmeal
salt & pepper to taste

Directions: 
Wrap the tofu in paper towels and drain water and pat it dry. You want it to be as dry as possible.
Cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Add tofu to dry mixture. Toss and coat.
In a shallow pan, heat 3/4 cups of vegetable oil until it is hot (shimmery or water bubbles when flicked in it)
Add the tofu to the oil, turning it until all sides are golden brown.  (5 minutes or so)
Remove tofu and drain on paper towels.

Sauce Ingredients: 
Thai Chili Sauce
Cilantro

For the sauce, mix together Thai chili sauce and 1T of chopped cilantro.

Serve together and enjoy!

BBQ Turkey Pizza

With Thanksgiving coming up, you will probably have a lot of turkey left over.  These pizzas are quick, easy, and anything but Thanksgiving!

Ingredients

• shredded turkey (or chicken breasts)
• BBQ sauce- I like KC Masterpiece
• Red onion 
• garlic (1 clove for 4 pizzas)
• olive oil
• Shredded Pepper Jack cheese or Mozzarella 
• Tortilla, naan, pita or any other pizza crust you like 
• Pizza sprinkle

Directions: 

 In a skillet cook the onions until translucent, add garlic and shredded cooked turkey.  Add BBQ sauce to cover turkey, you don't want it to be too soupy. Let the flavors meld together for a few minutes. While that is cooking, brown the crust, by drizzling it with olive oil, and popping it into the oven. After the crust is lightly toasted, spread BBQ sauce over the crust, add toppings, and sprinkle with cheese and pizza sprinkle. Bake until cheese is melted and lightly brown.

sauce & crust

skillet mixture

Before going in the oven

Elephants

I made this cute little calendar for my friend Erin's shower. I found a calendar online, and a background. I used Microsoft Word to put it all together.  Then I cut out the elephant that she used to decorate the baby's room.  She doesn't know what she is having, so we guessed pink or blue and the date! We wrote our names with a little colored heart on the dates. Can't wait to see what Baby R will be!

I also made the baby this cute onesie using the same shape.