Americana Baby Quilt

Finally!!!  It's done!  It took me about 7 weeks, but I finally finished it and gave it to the recipients (Nick and Andrea)!  Woohoo!! 

Now, this is my second quilt EVER and I think it turned out really awesome!  It's by no means perfect, small areas of fabric overlap on the back, not 100% straight edges if you were to measure it, but overall it turned out really well and I'm really proud of it.  It gives me the confidence to continue to try new and more challenging projects.

I plan to write (at some point) a tutorial on it, but that might take a while and I was just too excited to wait to share the pictures, so today's entry is a bunch of pictures along the way, as well as the final product with a little description for each.  Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures!  I sure had fun making it! :-)

Nick and Andrea aren't far enough along to know the gender of the baby yet, so I thought an Americana theme would be great for them.  I thought it would match their overall decor in their home, and is definitely gender neutral.  Here is the fabric I chose to make it, I was going for a country Americana color theme:

Here is the first and second row completed:

After that, just keep repeating until there is a row of 6 white squares on the sides (final was 6 white squares by 5 white squares):

Now for the inside blue border:

And the final outside white border:

And it wouldn't be a quilt without some quilting!  Here is a close up of the quilted stars in each white square:

And now, *DRUM ROLL*, the finished product!!! :-D

I've wanted to share this for so long, especially once it started to actually looke like my design, but I had to refrain since it was a gift.  And since Nick and Andrea are moving tomorrow and we won't see them again until May when we pass through their town on our move, I just had to give it to them before they left....I just couldn't wait until May!!! :-p 

I hope you've enjoyed this post, look for a tutorial at some point, and now, time to start planning my next project!! ;-)

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Sadly, football season is over and now I must wait until early Fall again to enjoy gameday food.  It just isn't the same for other occasions, just doesn't have the same flavor and excitement in the food.  So for the Super Bowl a few weeks ago, I made some delicious chicken teriyaki wings!  I found this recipe originally on the All Recipes website, but after reading through reviews, I changed a few things from the original and I must say it's AMAZING!  Also, fresh ginger and garlic really do improve the flavor, as does regular soy sauce and not lite or reduced sodium.  Don't get me wrong, you can certainly still use them, we did on the first time, but after using regular and fresh the second time, I won't go back to lite soy sauce or bottled garlic. :-)  This would also make a killer marinade for chicken on the grill!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

·         ¼ cup water

·         1 cup soy sauce

·         1 cup packed light brown sugar

·         1 (6 oz) can pineapple juice (sold in a six pack in juice aisle)

·         ¼ cup vegetable oil

·         1 Tbsp minced fresh garlic

·         1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

·         3 pounds chicken wings

Directions:

1.       Whisk together water, soy sauce, sugar, pineapple juice, vegetable oil, garlic and ginger in a large bowl until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the chicken wings, coat with the marinade and transfer to large zip loc bag.  Marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, overnight for best results.

2.      Preheat oven to 350* F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and put wire cooling racks on top.  (If you don’t have cooling racks, you can use parchment paper by itself or just grease the baking sheets.)

3.      Remove chicken from the marinade, reserving marinade.  Shake off excess liquid from wings and place on the prepared baking sheets.  Bake the wings 25-30 minutes on one side, turn wings over and bake another 25-30 minutes, or until evenly browned.

4.      While chicken is cooking, place reserved marinade in a pot on the stove, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer until marinade is reduced by about half for sauce.

5.      Toss cooked wings in desired amount of sauce and enjoy!

And for you blog faithful, get ready for a new craft project post soon!!  I finished it yesterday, now just to give it to the recipients and pictures!!! I'm excited to share soon! :-D

Cheesy Quinoa

I've wanted to try quinoa forever, but wasn't sure what would be a good "first impression" dish to make sure I'd try it in other stuff too.  But then I came across a recipe for Quinoa Mac N Cheese, and decided that was what I was going to make!  .....No surprise, it came from Pinterest ;-)  I decided to rename it Cheesy Quinoa because it tasted NOTHING like Mac N Cheese, but was still good and deserved a better name without giving you a false sense of hope for a healthy mac n cheese dish.  I also had to improvise the recipe because I got it off someone else's blog, but honestly, she sucked at directions.  She had ingredients listed but didn't say what to do with them!  It's fairly easy to figure out, but I like step by step directions when it comes to new things.  I also added about twice as much cheese, because I like cheesy dishes!!  So last night, I made rosemary and garlic pork chops, asparagus, (both on the George Foreman grill) and cheesy quinoa.  I topped the dish with panko bread crumbs and paprika, but there are other suggestions listed as well.  The panko definitely gives it a nice crunch!  And I topped my serving with diced green onions.  Enjoy! :-)

Ingredients:

·         1 ½ cups quinoa, rinsed and drained

·         Salt to taste

·         ½ medium onion, diced

·         2 cloves garlic, minced

·         2 large eggs

·         1 cup non-fat milk

·         3 cups grated Cheddar cheese

·         Optional – Crushed Red pepper, paprika, and/or Panko Bread crumbs for topping

·         Optional Toppings – salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350* F. 

2.      Cook quinoa to packaged instructions until fully cooked (about 15 minutes).  While quinoa is cooking, lightly sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until tender.  Add garlic and onion to cooked quinoa and mix together.

3.      Whisk together eggs and milk in large bowl.  Stir in cheese, then add in quinoa mixture.  Stir very well and let some of the cheese melt. 

4.      Coat 8 x 11 inch dish (or 8 individual ramekins) with cooking spray.  Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish.  If using Panko crumbs or bread crumbs, add now and bake 30-35 minutes, until bread crumbs are browned.

Southwest Turkey Meatballs

A while ago, a friend was doing a month of fowl recipes, and this was one of them.  I tried it at the time, but didn't save the recipe, so then I had to search the web for the recipe again!  Thankfully I did find it, or at least something very close to it.  I modified the original recipe just a smidge...how can you do something "southwest" without onions???  So I added that and subbed panko bread crumbs for whole wheat (because I couldn't find whole wheat.  If you do find whole wheat, cut the bread crumbs to 1/4 cup).  This is pretty tasty, and you can serve with shredded cheddar cheese if you want. 

Finished dinner...and yes that is the new Sam Adams Alpine Spring beer in the background.  Very good as well! :-)

Ingredients:

·         1 lb ground turkey

·         2 egg whites

·         1/3 cup whole wheat bread crumbs or panko

·         ¼ cup finely diced onions

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp pepper

·         2 tsp olive oil

·         1 cup frozen corn

·         1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed well

·         1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juice

·         ½ medium onion, diced

·         1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

·         1 tsp ground cumin

·         Chopped cilantro to taste

Directions:

1.       In a large bowl, combine turkey, egg whites, bread crumbs, ¼ cup finely diced onions, salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Shape into 1 inch meatballs, makes about 26-28.

2.      In a large skillet, heat oil on medium high.  Add meatballs and cook 3-5 minutes, turning frequently, until browned on all sides.  Add corn, beans, tomatoes, diced onions, lime juice, and cumin.  Mix well.  Reduce heat to medium, partially cover and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.  Stir in cilantro and serve with shredded cheddar cheese if desired.

Portabella Mushroom Pizzas

I don't know anyone that doesn't like pizza....it's so delicious and there are so many different ways to make them!!  Recently I decided to do a no carb adventure for a week and a half, and really wanted some pizza during.  So I modified crust to be the giant portabella mushrooms!  Really simple actually, there's no "recipe" really.  Just buy the big mushrooms, clean them out.  Bake them at about 425 for 10 minutes, with the open cavity down.  Take them out, flip them over, fill with pizza sauce and your favorite ingredients, then put them back in the oven at 425 for an additional 10-12 minutes!  (might be longer if you really pile on the toppings!)  Voila!  Pizza with a ton less calories! :-)

Only one minor drawback to not using a regular crust....you have to use a fork and knife, or it will just fall apart!  This is also a great way for people to individualize their pizzas without having to do half n half, or if someone likes more of one ingredient than another, etc.  Yum!