Are You Ready For Some Football? Brocos Onesies & Shirt

I got a text from one of my friends that said, "Say you knew a Broncos fan that needed her kids decked out for the big game... would this be something you could help with?"

My first response was, "It will be against my beliefs, but at least its not an MU request!"

Well, after completing these, I just might be a temporary Broncos fan!

She has boy/girl twins who are 9 months old and a 4 year old little girl. This is what I came up with!

Had to put a little Peyton humor on his little butt!

Stuffed Peppers- Italian Style

I have been trying to find a good stuffed pepper recipe for a while. I think I finally found one I like! I had a coupon for these Johnsonville Chicken Sausages and decided to try some with that, instead of ground turkey or beef.

I found a recipe to go off of, but since the sausage had so many great flavors, I decided to simplify it, and use up a few ingredients, instead of going out to buy more. (This would be why it calls just a little bit of yellow peppers, and petite diced tomatoes/marinara/tomato sauce)  I didn't want to open a 14 oz can of tomato sauce, so I used a tomato marinara I made up last week to go with my zucchini meatballs.

So feel free to mix it up a bit for your stuffed peppers too!


Ingredients: 
1/4 onion, chopped
1 cup chicken stock, divided
3 peppers cut in half with seeds removed. (I used red)
2 T. diced yellow peppers
4 chicken sausage links- Johnsonville 3 Cheese Italian Style
1 t. minced garlic
1 cup COOKED rice
1/2 cup petite diced tomatoes/marinara/or tomato sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
olive oil


Directions
Preheat oven to 400* and cook rice, if it is not cooked.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a medium sized pan.  Add onion, garlic, and sausage.  Cook until onions are translucent and sausage is slightly browned.

Add 1/2 cup tomato mixture and 1/2 cup chicken broth.  Mix and simmer on low for 5 minutes.

Add rice to mixture.

Place peppers in a baking dish. Fill each pepper with as much of the stuffing mix as you can.

Pour the remainder of the chicken stock into the bottom of the baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle cheese on top. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

 Last night we made them with just Spanish rice, Rotel, and cheese, but followed the basic directions.
We also made some with parmesan couscous and cheese on top! So really you can put what ever you want in them!! It is a great way to sneak in some veggies!

Baby Kisses ~ Black and White Picture with Color Pop!

This weekend I went to visit my friend and did her baby girl's 3 month pictures. I had seen the kisses pictures on Pinterest and wanted to give it a try. 

Here is the original photo:

Original Photo

 I used www.fotor.com to make it so only the kisses were red, and everything else was black and white.

To do this I uploaded my picture to fotor.com and then selected the effects icon.
Next, I chose color splash and used the paintbrush to paint the kisses back on.
I did have to go in and erase some of the areas where I went outside the lines, but for the most part I got the effect I wanted!

Photo using Fotor.com

Zucchini Meatballs

Need a sneaky way to get in your veggies? Or use up some fresh ones before they go bad? These meatballs are awesome! I made them using my food processor to grate the zucchini and onion and stir up the meat!

Ingredients: 

1small zucchini
1/4 small white onion
4 garlic cloves
1lb ground beef (use turkey if you want to be super healthy!)
1 egg white
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/4 cup bread crumbs (the original recipe used 1/2 cup panko, which I didn't have on hand)

Directions

Grate the zucchini and onion in the food processor, using the attachment, add in garlic.

Change the blade to the S shaped plastic blade, and add in remaining ingredients.

Shape in to meatballs and place on lightly greased rack.

Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.

Serve with your favorite sauce and noodles or on a hogie bun for a meatball sub!

These are a great thing to eat half of, and freeze the rest! When you are ready to eat them, pop them in the microwave for 4-5 minutes, or bake them at 350* for 20-25 minutes.

Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Mother Earth Paint Dresser Makeover

One of my friends asked me to help her paint her dresser. This time I tried out Mother Earth Paint. It works very similarly to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. However, it is more natural.  

You do not need to prep the surface, however, she did, because she wasn't sure how she was going to paint the dresser at first. Sanding it made it soak up paint a lot more! 

We wanted to keep the keyhole hardware, so we taped over it and used an exacto knife to cut around the keyhole. 

We used 2 small sample sizes to cover the dresser. This paint can be watered down, and it can cover a little more!

To distress you can sand it or use handi wipes. The handi wipes need a little more rubbing, but leave a nice distressed look. Finally, I covered it with a wax. 

"One"derful

Didn't these 1st birthday bloomers turn out cute? I started with some white bloomies (that were very hard to find in 12 month size!) I added a 1 cut out of pink fabric, ironed it on, and sewed around it.  I also sewed on pre-made tulle ruffles to the legs.  

The birthday party had a "Winter ONEderland" theme. I made this little onesie with glitter iron on vinyl and pink flocked vinyl. 

On the back I put I'm '1' derful in pink letters! 

Have a kiddo's birthday coming up? I can help you with a custom shirt! Custom orders are my favorite!  aprilcremer@gmail.com

I also made this fun poster for her. Her mom printed it on 16x20 poster paper and framed it! 

This pink high chair is adorable!

Friday Funny

We were reading and a kid wasn't following along. I called on him and he didn't know where we were.  I told him where we were, but he was upset that he didn't know where we were. He started reading, and couldn't finish the sentence because he was crying.

"It's just I can't see through the tears!"

Crispy Parmesan Potatoes

My friend Megan made these for us a few weeks ago.  They were so perfectly crisp that I knew I had to make them again! I did add a little Penzey spice to them to cheese it up without a lot of cheese! 

Ingredients: 

2 Red potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

1/4 cup butter (melted)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

salt

pepper

1 t. Penzey's Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle

Directions: 

Preheat oven  450*.

Melt butter in 9x13 inch pan. (I used the preheating oven to melt the butter). Make sure butter is spread across the bottom.  

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese, and seasonings over the butter. 

Place potato slices face down on the butter and seasonings. Sprinkle a little more seasoning on top so all sides are covered! 

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, to allow the Parmesan to stick. Serve with sour cream for dipping.

French Onion Soup

On a cold winter day, what a better thing to serve than soup? I made this for my wreath party last month. I wanted something I could make, and leave, while we were gone at Hobby Lobby. I also wanted something that could serve 8 people! We had the perfect amount. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 onions sliced thin

2 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

1 cup red wine

2 quarts beef broth

Worcestershire sauce

Toppings:

baguette

Gruyere or provolone cheese

Directions: 

Melt stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are soft and caramelized.  I had to split mine up into 2 pans to help them cook.

Best way to cut a lot of onions, you ask? FOOD PROCESSOR! I was done in 1 minute with 4 onions, perfectly sliced! 

Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes.  Discard bay leaves.  Add broth, Worcestershire sauce and simmer for 30 minutes.

When you are ready to eat, arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet and sprinkle with cheese.  Broil until bubbly and golden brown.

Serve with the baguettes on top!

Keep Calm and Call Nana

This onesie is my best seller in my Etsy shop! My friend had posted this on her Facebook, and I knew baby G needed it! I even threw in some free leggings, because she was my first Etsy sale!

Get yours here! I can also change the NANA to MIMI, GRANDMA, NAN or what ever you call your special lady!

Chatroom Grey Kitchen

Bye, Bye, Bye ...

Red wall is gone! I was afraid to paint over it, but the guy at Lowes gave me an awesome primer, Zinsser Bullseye, that worked great! He tinted it grey and it worked like a charm! My new color is from Sherwin Williams and is called Chatroom.

It makes my walls look crisp and clean!

Here is the before, in a builders beige. 

The color is kind of hard to pick up in pictures, but it makes the room look so much better!

Tasteful Olive Salad with Apples

For my birthday and Christmas I received a lot of fancy olive oils and balsamic vinegars from the Tasteful Olive, a small shop in downtown Overland Park, KS.

I wasn't sure how I was going to use them all, but I have found a use for most of them! This salad was soo good!

I used a little of the Blood Orange fused olive oil and some of the Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar, OMG, so good!

I happened to get my first order from Door To Door Organics and it included lettuce and some fuji apples.  So all of that was calling my name for a fancy salad.

Ingredients: 

Lettuce

fuji apple diced

feta cheese

red onion 

Dressing: 

 Blood Orange fused olive oil

Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

salt and pepper

Directions for dressing: 

Drizzle equal parts of olive oil and vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and pepper over the salad. 

Next up, a way to figure out how to use Coffee infused Balsamic! Let me know if you have any ideas!

Winter Reading

These are the books I have finished in the last month! 2 of them were book club books, and the other one, was one I bought on sale last summer. 

Room by Emma Donoghue 

This book I could not put down! I just wanted to keep reading to find out what happened. It is told from the perspective of a 5 year old little boy.  The first few pages, it was a little hard to get into because of the way it was written, but after I figured out what was going on, I COULDN'T STOP.  It is similar to the Jaycee Dugard story.

The Girl You Left Behind  by JoJo Moyes is a love story about a painting and trying to find its rightful owners.  It takes place during WWI and in the present time. It is a quick and easy read and a history lesson!

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz was another book club pick. I finished it, but it wasn't my favorite. It is very jumpy with its characters and time.  It is about 2 sisters and their relationship.  However, one sister has a deep dark secret, which is slowly revealed. 

Other book lists:
My list of Summer Reading

Pantry/Spice Organization

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to try to live off my pantry and freezer for a bit.  The first step for that was to clean out my pantry! It was scary! 

 It took up all of my counter space! Just shows how big my pantry really is. I'm so thankful that I have one!

 Some how, I have ended up with 4, yes FOUR, bottles of vegetable oil! 

Ahh.... much better! 

I also filled out a handy list that I found on Pinterest to see what I had on hand. 

Next up was the spice cabinet! I have more spices than a normal person. I am kinda addicted to Penzey's! I only had duplicates of a few, and that is because I got a nice gift set for Christmas. I was able to fill my spices, and get few of a few close to empty jars. 

Up next... the freezers!