Monday, January 15, 2018

Mid 60's, Snow Days, and Running a Small Petting Zoo

Welcome to Missouri! Where the weather's made up and the meteorology doesn't matter! I think God likes to mess with us Southern Missourians. That old saying of, "If you don't like the weather here, give it ten minutes" rings painfully true. This is the first snow our pups have experienced, and talk about mixed signals! Tonks was MADE for snow! She went bounding out of the house yesterday kicking and jumping and smiling. Luna, on the other hand, not so much. She makes a face that is very similar to the face my dad makes when he wakes up and sees snow on the ground. It's a mix of grumpy disgust. Luckily, Tonks has enough energy to pep Luna up, and they have been playing like crazy.

Just look at these pretty girls!




I say we are running a small petting zoo because what is supposed to be my art studio/office/craft room looks more like a boutique feed store. We have rabbit food, bird seed, two kinds of dog food, and leftover cat food (heart breaking sounds). It's been really nice to have a long weekend to spend time with Wayne and the pets. 

I've also had some time to experiment with some recipes! As always, the recipes will be listed at the bottom of the post. I will have more fashion posts coming soon, as well as sneak peeks to my next book. Luna will be telling this story! 

I hope you all have a great snow day if you are able, or just a regular ole great day! 

Honey Garlic Sticky Chicken and Rice:
1/4 c honey
2 cloves garlic
2 tbs soy sauce (or to taste)
3 chicken breasts cooked to your liking (I cooked mine whole and then shredded it up)
Rice or noodles of your choice

Cook your chicken however you see fit (It would be really good with cubed, fried chicken). In the same pan you cooked your chicken in, pour in the honey, soy sauce, and garlic and cook together until its all hot and sticky. Serve with veggies and starch of your choice. 

Turkey Gyros:
1 lb ground turkey
Greek seasoning to taste
1 Chopped onion 

Cook your onion and turkey meet together like you would hamburger for spaghetti sauce. Add your Greek seasoning. Serve with the sauce.

Gyro Sauce-
Greek Yogurt
Greek Seasoning
Cucumber finely minced
half lemon-juice

Mix all that stuff together, tada! Sauce! 

You can serve this with Lemon rice and a salad like I do, or you can put the filling in flat break like a proper Gyro with tomatoes, red onions, and cucumbers. 

Lemon Rice:
Rice cooked of your choice
Garlic Salt
Lemon Juice

Cook your rice, stir in garlic salt and lemon juice, done! 

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

New Year, New Art, New Recipes, New Books!

Hey everyone! Long time, no blog. Christmas was an absolutely insane time for us. Wayne and I attended 6 different Christmas gatherings. Count 'em, 6! We also had the pleasure of having 5 of our nephews along with my youngest cousin over for 3 days and 2 nights. Just so you know, the number of eggs 6 teenage boys eat in two mornings is 4 dozen. Over Christmas break, we also got our youngest dog, Tonks fixed. Hind sight, do not have 6 teenage boys at your house the same days that you have a freshly spayed dog that, under the best of circumstances, is a big ole wuss. She's doing much better now though! And I think she may be toughening up a little bit, too.


I got to squeeze in one more book signing before Christmas. I had a shipping delay, but even so, I had people pre-order books from me. You all are the absolute best! Speaking of books, keep your eyes peeled for sneak peeks of more books to come. I am working on another children's that should be out around Easter! I am still planning on answering all of your self publishing questions that you have, I just haven't had time to sit down and arrange my thoughts and make a video all while looking like something that resembles a human being. I will have that done for you ASAP. So sorry!

Stay tuned for new art coming your way as well. I know this all sounds very ambitious, but my new years intention is to manage my time better, so we will see how that goes 😀.

And through it all, I even manged a couple new recipes, too! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to have a happy, healthy 2018 with no (or at least only a few) worries! Enjoy the recipe and picture dump that follows!


I mean, come on.



Breakfast Crescent Sandwiches

2 rolls crescent roll dough
1 dozen eggs, scrambled
1 lb of ham (I just used deli sliced ham, and not quite the full pound)
Any cheese your heart desires in any amount you see fit

First, grease a baking sheet up and preheat the oven to whatever temperature your classy canned crescent rolls require. I think mine was 325.

Lay the dough out on a cookie sheet and smush the seams together so it's one big sheet of dough. Lay slices of ham down the middle of the dough sheet. After you cook your eggs, do the same thing on top of the ham, and top the ham and eggs with cheese. Keep all of the filling as close to "down the middle" as you can. Here's why. You can either wrap all of that filling up rustic style by folding the sides of the dough up and pinching it together at the top, or you can get fancy and cut strips and make a trellis type pattern on top.

Bake the whole thing according to the crescent roll package directions. No, the eggs don't dry out even if you are a "hard scramble" person like me. Once done baking, remove from the oven, let cool a bit, cut into little sandwiches, and serve!

Asian Inspired Salmon, Carrots, and Spaghetti Squash

2 Salmon fillets or a big hunk, whatever you prefer to buy
3-5 whole carrots, washed, peeled, and sliced, or peeled, washed, and sliced, whatever.
1/2 previously roasted spaghetti squash (cut in rings and roasted at 400 for about an hour) (About 3 cups)
1/4 cup of honey, divided
1/4 cup Sriracha, divided
2 TBS Garlic, divided
Soy sauce (no measurements, adjust to taste)
1 TBS sesame oil
2 TBS butter

on a sheet pan, coat your cut carrots with 2 tbs honey and 2 tbs sriracha, and coat your salmon in the leftover honey, sriracha, 1 tbs garlic, and however much soy sauce you like. Bake in a preheated 400 oven for 20 minutes.

While that's cooking, put the sesame oil, a tbs garlic, and some more soy sauce, and the butter in a sauce pan with  the squash and cook together to make Asian style squash noodles.

Serve everything together in a Buddha bowl style, or eat "like normal". The carrots will be HOT. I mixed mine with the squash and it was a perfect veggie side to the salmon.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Book Sales and Fat Pants

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving week! I think I have peeled (and eaten) my weight in potatoes.

 How crazy is it that Christmas is only ONE MONTH AWAY?! I only have a handful of gifts left to buy and I will be finished Christmas shopping.  Do you have all of your Christmas shopping done? If not, here’s a shameless plug for my first children’s book! If you have little ones that you need to shop for, or if you do family gifts on a budget, or both, my new book is a perfect gift option! It’s only ten dollars and is prime eligible on Amazon. I will be putting a link for the book at the end of this post. Keep an eye out for future posts that will include a teaching resource on Teachers Pay Trachers to go along with my book for all of you teachers out there!

I was so excited about my book that I forgot to document very many outfits the last few weeks, and to be honest looking cute was not a priority of mine last week. My theme last week was more holiday hobo than chic, but I did manage to get my act together a couple of days! I know some of you are going to throw a bible at me and hiss, but have you checked out Walmart’s clothes lately? They are ROCKING it. I have bought three sweaters and a flannel that are super cute, comfy, cheap, and have held up extremely well in the wash! In each picture the tops are from Walmart and the pants from my favorite boutique, Rustic Rose.

I hope you all have a great week! Check out my book and tell you friends!

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B077PPFFBS


Sunday, November 12, 2017

French Toast and Title Pages

Hey everyone! In continuing the efforts to perk myself up, I made an AWESOME new recipe for breakfast this morning, and I wanted to share! I also want to share some progress of my silly little book. Guys, it’s going to happen. I’m going to publish online with the graphic design help of one amazing sister-in-law. The tentative title is “Why did My People Bring a Tree Inside?”. It’s about Christmas from the point of view of the pets. I think all of our little pups would love to eat some of the French toast I made this morning, along with all the treats they get into in my book! 😊 I hope you are all having a great weekend and a safe deer season!

Recipe:

Half a loaf of vanilla brioche, I came out with six slices.
2 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk (you could use all cream for extra extravagance 😁)
Cinnamon-however much you like!

Preheat over to 350

On medium heat, melt butter in the skillet (think grilled cheese amounts of butter). While the butter melts, soak the vanilla brioche in the egg mixture for about two minute per side. Put the soaked bread in the hot skillet and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side. Put the toast from the pan to a cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Serve with syrup and butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon, some candies pecans would be divine on the French toast, too! It was the creamiest, most flavorful French toast I’ve ever had!


Friday, November 10, 2017

Long Time, No Talk

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't hopped on here in an entire month. To be honest with all of you I've had some medical issues that aren't life threatening, but very depressing. I have been struggling lately and have been trying to work through being sad and bitter.  In efforts to try to perk myself up, I've started a new creative project.  I have been working on a children's book about our dogs, and I'm hoping to publish it soon! It's corny, and goofy, and very childish, but maybe some kids will find some joy in it. As I get more involved in the publishing process I'll be sharing more about release dates and sales! I hope all of you out there with little ones hug them extra tight and love and care for your children the best you can. And maybe, pick up a silly copy of my silly book hopefully by this winter! I hope you all are having a wonderful fall!

Here's a sneak peak at my illustrating I've done for my book!



Saturday, October 14, 2017

It Was My Birthday and I'll Forget to Post if I Want To

Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a great couple of weeks! I had full intentions of posting last week, but life happens. I've been on BAD autopilot these last couple of weeks and I'm having a hard time snapping out of it despite my best efforts. I have definitely learned to never say the phrase, "it can't get any worse" ever again because y'all, it can. Even though I'm auto piloting through life, I have managed to keep myself busy and my mind kinda occupied by spending lots and lots of time with our dogs. I love taking Luna for walks when it's nice and cool out, ya know, the three days this fall it's been nice and cool. One day last week it was wonderful outside and the girls and I played and walked and played some more and had the best time. I tired to get some good pictures of us, but they had other ideas.



I have also been doing a lot of cooking and looking at home building things on Pinterest to boost my mood. Gotta do what ya gotta do. After that last statement I'm sure you can guess I have some recipes that I tried and loved to share with you all, and I actually have some fashion pictures to share! If it ever cools down, I will be able to style my work pants way cuter than I have been the last couple weeks, but I didn't have any days where I just felt like a straight up hobo either, so I guess that's a win. All of the recipes and pictures will be at the end of this post as usual!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Pray for rain and 50 degrees! 😊



Sausage mac and cheese skillet:
http://juliasalbum.com/2015/05/mac-and-cheese-with-sausage-and-bell-peppers/

Deer stew:
http://allmygoodthings.com/2015/12/hearty-and-delicious-venison-stew/

This is a breakfast casserole my mom used to make all the time so I made it this last week for quick breakfasts. There are lots of versions online that have more specific instructions! 

Breakfast casserole:
8 slices bread
Cup of milk
8 eggs
1lb sausage
Cheese

Brown sausage, mix milk and eggs, cube bread, pour milk and eggs over cubed bread, after sausage cools, combine all ingredients with however much cheese you like in a 9x13 pan, and let sit in the fridge over night. In the morning put it in a 350 oven for 40 ish minutes. 

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Fall Fun and Puppy Playtime

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great first week of fall! I have had a sinus infection that I think Satan himself gifted to me, but this weekend I enjoyed myself and my time at home. I don't have any fashion or original recipes for you this week, but be on the lookout for fall outfits once the temperatures start to drop! I do have some links for you of recipes I made this weekend. Yesterday and today both have apparently been the days to cook like a mad woman. I have 5 soups that are now in the freezer ready to be reheated for busy fall nights. 😍 (The links for recipes are at the end of this post!)

I did all of that cooking and kept my kitchen clean, so, bonus points to Katie for doing something all other adults do all the time.

The best part of the weekend was being able to actually spend some time with our dogs. For those of you who know me well, you know that our dogs are like our kids. This last week I neglected the girls pretty bad because it seemed like something was going on all the time. I just sat outside yesterday and today for hours playing with the girls while James and Wayne hung out inside playing video games. With the weather being cooler, and Luna growing up, Tonks is the one that is hyper and playful, and Luna is mellowing out into a hound. Tonks was so happy Saturday morning to go outside in the cool air that she was doing flips and cartwheels and being extra cute. I can't wait to see what she thinks of snow!

I hope you all have a great week! I know this blog post is feeble at best, but if nothing else you get to see my cute dogs and try some new recipes if you haven't tried them before! 😊

And yes, my yoga pants are covered in dog hair. Yes, I do have on Harry Potter socks, and yes, I do wear my husbands slides outside when I don't feel like putting on real shoes.


Recipe links:

http://www.inspiredtaste.net/27956/easy-tomato-soup-recipe/

https://www.perfectionpending.net/2017/04/24/easy-30-minute-black-bean-soup/

https://www.cookingclassy.com/moroccan-sweet-potato-lentil-soup/

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/slow-cooker-french-onion-soup/

http://damndelicious.net/2015/02/18/easy-thai-shrimp-soup/


https://therecipecritic.com/2017/09/slow-cooker-creamy-chicken-tortellini-soup/