Fresh Pressed Tomato Juice

    

 

About 20 small to medium assorted tomatoes, Roma and Early Girls, made about 20 oz of tomato juice.

I plan to use this batch (plus one more batch) of tomato juice to make this: Spaghetti and Meatballs from TheArtofDoingStuff!

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Easy Peesy Cheesy Quinoa

mmmm...I could eat a whole pot of warm, nutty, cheesy quinoa.  This stuff trumps a box of yellow Mac & Noodles any day.  My hubby even likes it..that says a lot!!  A complete protein, quinoa is like a grain, more like a seed, and can replace pasta or rice in many dishes.  I made a big batch of plain quinoa on Sunday and made a Pepper, Corn & Avocado quinoa salad on Monday, similar to this.  Now, on Thursday I'm making Cheesy quinoa.  Cooked, the stuff lasts about a week in the fridge.

To make your own batch of cheesy quinoa, gather some things:
1-2 cups cooked, plain quinoa*
1 or 2 laughing cow cheese triangles
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your liking (I used Mexican Blend-Kraft)
2-3 splashes of milk or half and half
1/2-1 Tbs butter
splash of jalapeno juice-optional but highly recommended

1. Combine all the ingredients in a pot on the stove on low heat (I cook a double batch, take some cooked quinoa out, then make cheesy quinoa in the same pot that I cooked it in)
2. Add some salt and pepper to taste and stir till the cheese and butter is all melty and gooey...and you're done!
3. Nom nom nom and Enjoy!

*To make the quinoa, follow the directions on the bag.  Or if you buy from the bulk container, wash off the quinoa, add it to a saucepan with a lid, about 1 cup dried grains to 1.25 cups water.  Add a pinch a salt and a bay leaf if you know you're using it for savory things.  You can even substitute some chicken broth for water if you like.  If you're going to eat your quinoa for breakfast or in a sweet dish, don't add the bay leaf...

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DIY Subway Art with Silhouette

I wanted to incorporate a favorite quote into some art for the new laundry room.  I had seen some similar art over at Pinterest and new I wanted to make some chunky letters on a canvas in grey/yellow/white color scheme, like so:

 (source here, here, here and here)

I really liked that last one, so I set out to make my own with a 22"x 28"canvas, some left over shelving contact paper and my trusty silhouette machine!  

I downloaded a new cursive font (blackjack) and set to work making each individual text box and made a pretty good rendition of my inspiration.  The silhouette software is fairly straight forward...or SO I THOUGHT!

After I made this, I thought it would be no thang to divide the words into three groups (the printer only cuts13" wide), cut out the letters, remove the negative space and slap on my canvas.  Oh, I don't think I've been more wrong!

The first half dozen tries the paper kept slipping around, and the blade would eat my paper up, cutting all wonky.  I would stop, adjust the rollers to keep the paper in place and go again.  By the 4th mess up, I had run out of wide sheets of the contact paper, now I'm using the narrower leftover scraps.  After hours of searching the internet, using the cutting mat, cursing at the machine, reading more blogs of people with similar issues...I finally realized one of my rollers was too far over and not holding anything down.  It has been this way since I took this machine out of the box...like months ago...(!!!!!)  I thought that roller was fixed in place, never to be adjusted.  No worries that I had ruined other projects before..I am so glad I figure that out.  

Fast forward to using even smaller scraps of paper, meaning each word was being cut out individually and then transferred over with the sticky contact paper.  At this point I have been working for 4 hours and have 5 words on the canvas.  Oh my good gosh.  Custom art miiiight not be worth it...

Last problem I found was the machine would randomly not connect a cut line.  It would cut, pick up the blade, then cut the rest of the word.  This happened so much that I had to use my exacto knife and fix almost. every. letter. Good grief!  After more cursing and more time, I found a fix, this little "Make" button.  When all the words are separate, sometimes the machine skips over those invisible text box lines.

 To fix, select all your words and hit "make" to group them as one object.  Hit "release" to get them back to individual words and hit "divide" to break up into individual letters.

Luckily I figured this out after I ran out of big sheets of contact paper, so I was stuck doing one word and sometimes one letter at a time!  After two nights of working on just CUTTING OUT THE LETTERS, I was done!  I should have picked a smaller project or less words for my first time cutting out the contact paper. Oh well, lessons learned! Fingers crossed, I'm a little nervous about painting..all this work I better not screw it up!!

Update: I painted it and it didn't turn out horrible!  There are a couple places where the paint bled through but overall it came out looking good.  

I used wayyyy too much craft paint, somehow I thought I was covering a much larger area.  I also bought this small roller to apply the paint but didn't like how splotchy it was.  I ended up making long horizontal strokes with a regular old craft sponge brush.

Applying such a thin layer, the paint dried very quickly and I used the point of my exacto knife to peel up the letters while the paint was still damp.  Welp, she's done and I had fun doing it, I'll have to show you where I hang it :)

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Mud Room Renovations-Part I

Let's take a trip down memory lane.  Mudroom Before...

Yes, got to love peeling paint, dirty walls and random blue cabinets...Now for the During!!

 And the Afters!  The room is about 90% complete.  Only thing left is to paint the cabinet, paint the door trim and add some hooks and hang some artwork, and maybe a mirror over the sink.

 The floor is a two part epoxy garage floor by Rustolem. It was very easy to roll down, the hardest part being all the prep work.  We removed most of the chipped floor paint when we first moved in, but this time we had to clean and de-grease then etch the bare concrete so the epoxy could have good adhesion.

The wall color is Passive by SW, we got it in Behr Paint and Primer in One and used two coats with a spray gun.  The paint went on really smooth and was worth not having to clean the gun when switching from primer to paint.

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Pork Lettuce Wraps

pic source

These little puppies are like the trail mix of the dinner world. You get a little bit of everything-- salty, tangy, crunchy, sweet and spicy--and you can eat it with your hands! These wraps have all those classic Asian flavors as well. Asian food is one of the best cultural cuisines in my opinion, Vietnamese and Thai food are tied for my favorite of all time. Anyways..on to the recipe if you'd like to make them as well. I would make them if I were you..they are good eats, and great left overs!

The laundry list of things on the cooklight light recipe is a bit daunting, but I had 99% of the ingredients in my pantry or fridge. I also left out some things..like powdered ginger for fresh (forgot to buy it at the store). I also omitted the peanuts because I felt like I already had lots of toppings with the cilantro, bean sprouts, and cucumbers. But whatever you have and enjoy eating will work.

I'd like to comment on the lettuce. The recipe calls for bibb lettuce and I thought, "oh, i'll just get regular old romaine or red-leaf" and at the last minute standing in the produce aisle, I paid the extra dollar and bought the real bibb lettuce. What a difference! I really like it and it made the wraps much more crunchier and easier to fold. So yes, there is a difference to types of lettuce..I can hear some people laughing already!
So, longest pre-recipe post ever..here's what you do:

1. Get your pork

Which pork you ask? Tenderloin or thin boneless chops will do, cut into medallions and either skewer or leave alone, depending on your preference. I used thin boneless chops, trimmed of fat and cut in half, for about 14 palm sized pieces.

2. Marinade it!

In a small blender/food processor chop:
2-3 clove garlic
1/2 inch fresh ginger
2 Tbs white sugar
black pepper
4 inch piece lemon grass (I used 1 pinch penzy's dried lemon grass)

Once this looks like a paste, add 2 Tbs soy sauce, 1 Tbs fish sauce, 1 Tbs olive or canola oil.
Add the liquid to a plastic zip top and add your meat, turning occasionally, let marinade in the fridge for an hour or two.

3. Pickle your carrots

This step is worth the extra two minutes to do, adds the tangy and sweet flavors.

In a small bowl, grate some carrot about 1/2 cup. Add 2 Tbs sugar and let them hang out for ten minutes. Then add juice from a lemon and about 1/4 cup rice vinegar. You can add minced garlic and sliced chilies here as well, but I didn't. Taste and adjust sugar/vinegar to your liking.

4. Gather your toppings

Wash and pat dry the bibb lettuce and cilantro, basil, and mint (I only used cilantro). No one likes eating dirt. No one.
Chop some cucumbers, I liked them diced, or even fat matchsticks so they fold up nice in the wrap
Put some bean sprouts and lime wedges in a bowl for later as well. If you want peanuts, chop and dry roast them now too.
Lastly, boil some vermicelli or Asian noodles with no fat or seasonings. Cool till your ready to eat. I liked the noodles in the wrap, but if you don't have any, don't sweat it.

5. Assemble!

So, first grill your pork about 3 minutes on each side. Use a really hot grill to get some nice char marks. Don't over do it, they cook fast.
Let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes while you set all the toppings out.
Cut the meat into strips and build your wraps:
lettuce-noodles-pork-carrots and juices they are in-cucumbers-bean sprouts-cilantro-lime wedge squeeze-two tiny drops of Sriracha Chile sauce



Wrap or fold however you can get this creation in your mouth, and Enjoy!!

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