Home about tutorials recipes before/after

Friday, April 29, 2011

Food Fun Friday- Lemon chicken Breasts

yes, I know... another chicken meal- well they are delicious if you use the right recipe.. and this is a good one!!! enough spice for the lemon not to be overpowering!!! and pretty easy to cook up and serve (allows you more time to spend on desert, haha)

 Lemon Chicken Breasts- Ina Garten
1/4 C good olive oil
3 TBL minced garlic (9cloves)
1/3 C dry white whine
1 TBL grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
2 TBL freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 lemon
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic and cook for just one minute, but don't allow the garlic to turn brown.  Turn off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme and 1tsp salt and pour into a baking dish.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce.  Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper.  Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned.  If the chicken isn't browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes.  Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Blogville-The Novice Chef

This is a great foodie Blog
The Novice Chef
as you can expect she has great food recipes...
I mean just real food recipes but with a twist of differences...yummy       like:
Raspberry Almond Cheesecake for Two


My Big (Skinny) Greek Burger
Moon Pies
Then she offers other things like:
'insane musings'  which I found absolutely entertaining!  like this one:

And I will leave you with a warning…next time you find the world crashing down around you and you need a superhero to come save you…call Batman or Spiderman. DO NOT call Superman. He’s too busy testing out women’s shorts and getting a bat out of the cave.

all in all yummmy-
and not the same ole food to make and eat. 

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wednesday Wisdom

As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness,
you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you"
Dieter F. Uchtdorf





Tuesday, April 26, 2011

the Domino Tutorial


I know I've shown my domino's before... but this time I actually took pictures of the proccess (please excuse them as my lighting skills needs improvement).
We went to a wedding last weekend, and rather than making a necklace, I wanted to just make something fun to put in the card (I made them magnets). 

It makes sense to prepare a lot of dominos at one time.  You will want to sand the surface of the domino to get all the glaze off of it.  You want it dull so that your inks will adhere.  Sand until there is no more glaze (shine). (you don't need to sand the dot side, unless you are going to color it too.)
If you want a base color on your domino, lightly ink up a tiny sponge and sponge on the desired amount of color (hint, if you put on too much color you can wash it off with rubbing alchol).
When you have the desired base color on the you will need to heat set it.  If you emboss papers you have come across this tool.  You 'could' use a hair dryer, but the force will really blow things around.  Heat set until all glossyness (new word) is gone. 
Pick out some stamps that will fit on the domino, I'm going with the wedding theme.
Using black document Ink, ink up your stamp and lay it on the counter.  Bring your domino to the stamp.  I have tried colored inks too, they work ok, but document is really a pigment rich ink and will give you the bold outline needed to really show the picture.
Dominos all stamped up and ready to go...... HEAT SET them again.  No shiny ink left. 
Now we will 'color' in what we need to.  Notice in the above picture, the far right domino has no color at all.  I did (background) coloring using a sharpie pen and what is a tiny tiny q-tip. 
Besides coloring it with the tiny q-tip, I also used a thin black sharpie to finish the letters that did not print out ..(e in ever and the loop in the h)  I didn't really draw as much as I just used dots to make the lines.
When you've colored the dominos enough... HEAT SET again.  You can tell they are done when the ink has lost it's shine.  Hopefully you can tell in the below picture that the inks and colors are all dull.
Example, the middle one has areas that are still shiny (wet)... it needs more HEAT SET
With a glaze, like Diamond Glaze, put a big dollop on the domino and spread it out with your finger.  Yep, your finger.  Make sure you cover everything.  It is self leveling.
If you want to add a little bling, as soon as you can (while glaze is still wet) use tweezers to add jewels.
and here they are all dry (overnight).  (See in the top row that dark blue one that the ink RAN...because why???  oh yeah, I didn't heat set the ink enough!!! So when the diamond glaze was put on, it made the dark blue run!)
While inking up the dominos, you can even ink the edges.. like this Paris one.
Now take a look at your stamps and see what designs you can use on your own dominos.
I have shown my other dominos in the past here and here and here

now for something interesting... I'm learning how to link to some crafty parties:
and look I found another linky party:
and  ANOTHER and another to link up to.. how fun these linky parties are!!



Photobucket

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Wild and Busy Weekend to Savor and Enjoy


THE wedding.
It has been planned for a year.  At work we heard about it almost every day, almost..but APRIL??? come on.... it can and often does snow in April.  This year has been an awfully cold one... with no sun whatsoever.  Every day as I drive to work it is in the low 30's...but Saturday there was a miracle
 63 degrees

but I digress... 
FIRSY  Elliott was taken to the vet, the first time in 3 yrs!  double ear infection, poor guy... but we've got the ear drops now to cure BOTH infections (do you think THAT's why he barfed up on the new carpet?)
 THE wedding was less than an hour away in a little coastal town: Port Gamble.  I knew it was near where blog-friend Gina from Cat Nap Inn lived.. and I had some left over things to give her -way to big to mail and I just KNEW I'd be in her neck of the woods some day... so before the wedding we met up (she drove over to where the wedding was in Port Gamble) and we were able to exchange goodies and of course snap a picture.
I
I love her hair, the colors are great and they really photograph well, I'm thinking of adding all those colors to my hair.. I'm tired of the light brown, or dirty brown as my dad used to call it!!  Anyway she makes the most amazing things, I mean she is all over the place!  If it can be made she will make it and if it has ANYTHING to do with primitives SHE makes it best... I mean look at the goody she brought for me... so so sweet!

and of course it has a star on it!! my favorite!  love ya Gina!
ok onto the wedding... It was the most beautiful day, truly made the wedding more special... I mean I think I even got a little pink in the cheeks from the sun!!
I know it's hard to see but here is the beautiful bride walked down the isle by her two brothers (the tall one my boss)
It was an interesting wedding as they must have taken pictures before hand because right after the ceremony we were ushered through a buffet line and then the dancing started.
As perusual, the little flower girls steal the show!
but the ring bearer (the grooms little boy) was the typical boy and had to come show his dad how you can slide in the dirt (it was all over his back side!!):

 I love weddings

All in all a wonderful time, such a happy occasion. beautiful bride, beautiful scenery, beautiful friends and beautiful weather.

Easter Sunday wasn't as beautiful (the rain was back) It was more like a day of sprinkles.
It is always a blessing to enjoy the sabbath, and Easter Sunday was special listening to inspirational music and talks.  The kids were unusually rowdy, I'll just chalk it up to the Easter Candy/Sugar high!!
We cooked a turkey, a 21 pound turkey for the three of us, hahaha  and yes just a little bit of left overs. 

When we got our mail (yes Sunday, we had a busy Saturday) There was a pkg from Lauren and a really cute photo-cube.. and I know just the picture to put on it!
miss the little man.
feel like I am missing the little man grow up.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Green Day- Happy Earth Day

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Blogville- Favorite Paint Colors

A new blog out there:
If you've ever seen a room out in blog-land and wondered WHAT color they used... this is the place to go
If you've ever wondered what THAT color would look like on a wall, this is the place to go
If you like looking at rooms that REAL people designed themselves and painted themselves.. this is the place to go
If you need painting tips... yes, you now know the answer
There are many painting tips....
There are many categories from COLORS to ROOMS.
I find I have a hard time looking at JUST the color... I love looking at the REAL designs... They are beautiful and I love the fact that they are not out of a magazine, but real live able rooms.... I could go on and on but lets sit back and take a look at all the beautiful colors:
 
 now that's a blue kitchen
 Lauren this laundry room has your name on it
 
go check it out for yourself... LOTS of eye candy here folks