Crafting Christmas- Little Pink Studio Style

Cerri is going to have tutorials and a stocking swap and all sorts of fun stuff this holiday season. I signed up for the swap.....I've never made a stocking before...should be interesting. :) She is only taking 20 people, so if you are interested head over. www.littlepinkstudio.typepad.com

Wiener Schnitzel and Home Made Fries

I suck...no picture....too busy frying the fries. :) The wiener schnitzel recipe came from the book "Tender at the Bone" by Ruth Reichl. Really good book...she has two others as well. If you like food, you'll like her books. They aren't cookbooks...memoirs. The home made fries are what our Mom makes...she just cuts potatoes into thin pieces and fries them in vegetable oil....yummy....even better when she makes them. :)

Wiener Schnitzel

1 1/2 pounds of veal cutlets
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup finely ground bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
6 Tablespoons butter
1 lemon

Pound each cutlet thin between two pieces of waxed paper.
Place flour in a flat dish or plate large enough to hold cutlet. Place beaten egg in another dish, bread crumbs in a third. Season each with salt and pepper.
Dredge cutlets in flour. Dip into beaten egg. Dip into bread crumbs until thinly but thoroughly coated. Place on waxed-paper-covered platter and place in refrigerator for about an hour.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in large skillet. When sizzling, brown cutlets quickly on each side until golden. Remove to platter.
Melt remaining two tablespoons butter in same pan. Squeeze lemon juice into butter, stir, and pour over cutlets.
Serves 4.

It was pretty good...my lemon was a little big, so it was very lemony. Use a smaller lemon or half a lemon, if you don't like too much lemon flavor. I sprinkled Pommes Frites Wurzsalz on the fries after they were done frying. It is a cool seasoning from Germany...they put it on their fries. Or you can just use salt (I did that on the ones for the wee one).

Happy Birthday, Zombie Boy!

Today is his birthday..happy, happy. He is such a big boy. He still won't tolerate wearing a costume, but he wore a ton of fake blood last night. :) He had a little container of body parts to carry around with him. He finally "gets" Halloween and he went trick or treating. His Dad said he did great and was very well behaved. I passed out candy (as usual....even when pregnant to the gills...which I was with both boys....I am the candy passer outer). This is a busy week for us...Halloween and two Birthdays. :)

P.S. I don't do the decorating for Halloween....I like cutesy, not gorey. :)

It's Apple Picking Time

On Sunday, I had the brilliant idea of going apple picking. :) We went to Brown's farm which is about an hour and a half east of Fort Huachuca. We had a great time. We picked way too many apples.....I'm still figuring out what to do with all of them. If you have any good apple recipes send them my way. We sampled their apple cider (and then bought some). The boys got to see sheep, pigs, chickens, and horses. Whenever they see animals it is a good day. We hit the new IHOP in Sierra Vista on the way back. It was a good day. I meant to blog earlier this week, but I've been really busy with my shop...so exciting...I had a bunch of orders this week. If you know me.....I get all kinds of excited if I sell one thing....I sold more than one this week...so happy. I've been trying to gather up some more things to do another update, but it is slow going. I put things in safe places and then can't remember the safe place. Yes, I need safe places...wee one emptied a whole bottle of MS black glitter in my "office" the other day....argh. I got a little crafting in.....I finished a project I started months ago. There is a picture somewhere on this blog of a stack of paper and an old BH&G decorating book. Well, I can't show the finished product yet...I need to mail it to the recipient. It feels good to finish it.....I was worried I was going to screw it up. But the other day I just said the hell with it and did it. :) I wish I was like a lot of you and could just craft to craft. I need it to be for a swap or something specific. Silly, I know. Well.....back to the unearthing. :) Have a great weekend! (If you get bored pop by the shop...I still have more stuff for sale.) :)

Crock-Au-Vin

This was dinner last night. I got the recipe here www.vocalpoint.com . It was really easy and took no more than 30 minutes to prep and your house smells fantastic for hours.

CROCK-AU-VIN

4 bone in chicken legs and/or thighs
4 slices of bacon, cut in pieces
2 onions, cut in medium wedges
4 carrots, roughly chopped
3/4 cup red wine (Burgundy)
1 Tbsp flour
A few leaves of thyme

Combine all the ingredients in the crock pot, give it a brief stir to cover chicken with ingredients, and turn on LOW for 6-8 hours until chicken is cooked through and beginning to fall apart, and the vegetables are tender. If the liquid needs thickened, stir in another tablespoon of flour with the heat still on until it thickens. Ladle into bowl, top with a chicken leg, and serve with a side og green beans or a salad.

I made a few changes.....I used 6 drumsticks....there was plenty of room in my crock pot. I, also, used a few sprigs of thyme. I served it with french bread. I used Burgundy wine (in the original recipe they screwed the pooch and had Chardonnay as the other red wine choice...which is all kinds of wrong). So if you have cooked with red wine before and want to use a different red wine...go for it.

Scallop Couscous Paella

I actually made this back on the 29th of August, but never got around to blogging about it. Here is the link to the recipe: www.familycircle.com/recipe/scallop-couscous-paella/ It makes a whole lot (like ratatouille a lot), so be prepared for leftovers. :)

Two In One Day

Last Friday was OD (Organizational Day) for hubby's unit. We all wore our new ugly shirts with our call signs on the sleeves ( Secret Squirrel, Household 6, Confidential Squirrel, FOUO Squirrel). We actually missed most of it...the boys were in school and by the time we got there it was pretty much over. That was fine with us....the boys enjoyed playing in the water and we enjoyed watching them play. :) I was trying to catch up last week after being gone for a week. I got my little books done for the Halloween Little Book Swap...I still need to take a photo. I've got 27 pages to make for the Christmas ABC Book Swap and goody bags for the PC Witches Tea. Behind, behind....that doesn't include needing to update my shop. I had a whole game plan for the shop and poof those plans are gone (I should've written down my ideas...that will teach me).
Oh well.....back to work. At least I can cross update blog off my to do list. :)

The one where I explain my absence

I was doing better about the blogging and then on the 1st of September my Aunt died. I flew back to Pennsylvania on the 3rd and stayed for a week. That was the first time in 18 years that I had flown into Pittsburgh. Not quite how I wanted to come back...but hey..it is what it is. :) We had three viewings and I was bad...when given the opportunity to leave early from the last one....I took it. The service was nice and it rained at the graveside....which coming in from Southern Arizona I was loving. Rain with no thunder and lightning...wouldn't you?? My brother, sister and brother-in-law all drove up. I got to see all my cousins and their children. It was kind of neat seeing everyone together. They had a wake at the church and those church ladies totally rock.....they even had made from scratch angel food cake.

I did get in some thrifting. I have to say....I love Pennsylvania and their insanely low prices. If I had an extra suitcase....oy. I found a few nifty things....I got a bunch of vintage playskool puzzles (the wooden ones) for a quarter a piece, a vintage ravioli form for $1.99, and vintage linens/lace for 50 cents a piece. I can't wait for my parents to retire, so that I can drop the kids off and shop. :) I got the required PITT shirts for me and the boys (and a Penguins shirt for hubby...he wouldn't wear a PITT shirt even if he was naked and needed clothing). I brought home cookies which wee one helped me eat.

The another thing I love about Pennsylvania is that it is so green. It is so pretty. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to, but you can see some that I did. Yes, I had to take picture of the mushrooms in my Uncle's yard. Hell....I took a picture of the grass for wee one....he loves grass and misses it. Yes, we now have some grass in the backyard....thanks to monsoon season....it won't last long though. :( The first photo is the side yard at my Grandma's house.....you can see an outline in the grass.....that used to be a giant garden. Oh well. It was a nice trip under the circumstances. It was nice to go back. It's probably as close to a home base as I have....especially after my parents retire.

I did it!

I finally updated my etsy shop. I figured it was about time. It is just a small update. I've added paper and ephemera packs (pictured above), more vintage books and a few other items. It took all morning and afternoon....oy. This has to be quick...wee one's bus will be here soon. Have a great weekend!

The Rest of Summer Vacation

I guess since as of this morning Summer Vacation is entirely over (high school started on Monday and wee one went back today) I had better finish up all the stuff from summer break. I managed to read 11 books and go see 4 movies (Cars II and Winnie the Pooh rounded out the month of July). I, also, got adventurous in the kitchen. The picture above is ratatouile. High Schooler decided one day that we should make some (he tried a grilled version at the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix at the beginning of summer and wanted to make the old school version)...turned out I made it...that is a lot of slicing and dicing. It made a huge ass pot. Here is the link to that recipe: www.easy-french-food.com/ratatouille-recipe.html . It went over well. About a week before that we made this www.foodsessed.com/2010/04/20/baby-octopus-with-garlic-and-parsley . Since the ratatouille I've done this www.whatscookingamerica.net/Seafood/OystersPanFried.htm and made these www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2010/05/smoked_salmon_with_black_pepper_potato_chips_and_lemon_creme_fraiche Oy...that has to be this longest link ever. :) Big disclaimer here....I love food....I just don't each much of it. Everything made above was for hubby and high schooler. I got some thrifting in this summer....hopefully, I'll get pictures taken and things listed in my neglected tiny Etsy shop in the next few weeks. I'm going to go enjoy the silence some more before they return from school. :)

Mini-Vacation, Part 2

Saturday morning we headed to the Reid Park Zoo (www.tucsonzoo.org). Wee one has actually been there...that is where they had a field trip in the Spring. It is rather nice..not too big, not too small. I did take pictures of the giraffes, but about a week after we visited one of the giraffes died. :( It was starting to warm up, so we went back to the hotel for a dip (okay, I didn't..they did). Hubby and Jr went here www.funtasticks.com for some father/son bonding time. For dinner, we ran across the road to here www.monkeyburgerrestaurant.com. The burgers were excellent, they make homemade chips to go with them and they have beer on tap (not that I drink beer). We hit a few shops the next day on the way home (Trader Joe's, Super Target, a new B&N for us). It was a nice, little last minute trip.

Our Mini-Vacation, Part 1

Hubby got his leave approved at the last minute, so choices of where we could go were limited. We decided on Tucson..close enough that the drive didn't suck, but far enough to get away from work. :) We drove in on Thursday (stopping at a few thrift stores to appease me and a Toys'R'Us to appease them) and stayed at the Embassy Suites- Williams Center. They are quite affordable in AZ during the summer. :) We walked over to Target and got Pizza Hut that night for dinner...real exciting, I know. Friday was a busy day. We started here
http://www.tucsonbotanical.org/, then hit this http://www.theminitimemachine.org/ (which has a great deal going on until Labor Day...active duty military and their families get in for free), then we hit a mall and saw "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II", and ended with a trip to Olive Garden for dinner. The photos are from the Tucson Botanical garden....I took over 60..hard to pick which ones to post. There is no photography allowed at the Mini Time Machine Museum...it was cute though. You go through and can pick up storybook sheets to build a kind of choose your own adeventure book. They give you a cover and some brads at the end to put it all together. Part 2 will cover Saturday and Sunday of our mini vacation. :)

Fourth of July Weekend

My parents drove down from UT and we met them in Phoenix. We stayed with them at the Embassy Suites for the night. The next morning, they all went for a swim and I took photos. Hubby and I headed back to Fort Huachuca and the boys stayed with my parents. We hit Barnes & Noble, Michaels, and Jo-Ann's (which turns out to be right across the street from the Michaels). On the Fourth of July (since we were kid free) we went and saw a movie. Bad Teacher was pretty funny. The boys were returned to us a few days later (after being spoiled rotten). I guess I need to download the photos from our "vacation" we took about a week later. :)

Shadowbox Swap

I never remember how to order my photos. The first five are items that I made for inside her shadowbox...her being Stevie (www.myartcanvas.blogspot.com). I had the worst time painting this shadowbox. The first one..the colors were too bright and I tried painting over them...not my best work. So I ordered two more shadowboxes...good thing I did. I settled on white, because she likes Shabby Chic and Rachel Ashwell paints everything white. :) I was stupid and left the paint for the inner boxes out and wee one decided he wanted to paint. He painted the outside box green....not all of it. I barely had enough green to finish the inside boxes, so I used the outside box of shadowbox #3 and started over again. I decided against the birthday theme, so that she can have it out year round. She is the only female in her household as well. I can feel her pain. I, also, did not glue anything down.....I thought she might like to pull things out to touch them....which led me to fill the last boxes with handmade items she could wear and put back. I made a brooch (with reclaimed Simply Shabby Chic fabric), a ring, and three bobby pins with vintage findings. I had a good time making those and I am tempted to make more. Her favorite colors are pink, mint green, and aqua. The bottom photo is the little box of adorable she made me. :) There is a little fairy sitting on a cake and a fake strawberry....she makes her own strawberries and that is why she got a pea pod from me. She loves fake food as well. :)

Overdue Swap Photos

Loads of swap goodies came my way in the last month. Little books, bling and summer lovin tags. My contibution to the tag swap was the snow cone in the upper right hand corner. I used glittered paper for the ice part....it glimmers like a real snow cone (thank you cheap Target scrapbooking paper....99 cents for two 12" by 12" sheets and they have eight packs of other paper for the same price...check it out) and a real snow cone holder for the snow cone holder....you can't fake that waxed paper cone...so I cut up real ones. Next post will cover the Birthday Treasury Shadowbox Swap...what I sent and what I received. Then I'll cover what we've been up to the last few weeks.....I remembered my camera and took photos. :) Woohoo...a few more weeks and school starts.