Home-made salsa

Home-made salsa...made this up.

 in a blender or food processor puree: carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, cilantro, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 clove of garlic Mix in more cilantro, red onion, ripe tomatoes, green onions, lime juice, jalapeno (seeded...mostly), some salt

Drunken Gummy Bears

Drunken gummy bears:

2 bags of gummy bears
1 bottle of mango rum

Soak gummy bears in alcohol for 2-3 days in the fridge. If you bring them somewhere warm...might want to keep them on ice...

crockpot chicken tikka masala

today's pinspired production: crockpot chicken tikka masala! Totally seems easy enough...

Crock Pot Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe – 7 Points - LaaLoosh 

8oz skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips 

1 cup brown rice, uncooked 

1 large onion, thinly sliced 

4 garlic cloves, minced

 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced 

1 28oz can diced tomatoes 

1/2 cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt

 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

 1 tbsp Garam Masala 

1 tbsp cumin 

1 tsp paprika 

1 tsp allspice 

1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 

1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

 Juice from 1 lime

Minor mishap...totally not able to focus (seriously, today was crazy busy!) and I mixed in the rice with all the soupy ingredients...I'll get back to you on the final results of that one...

Crock Pot Chicken Tikka Masala Instructions large bowl, mix all ingredients except chicken, rice and cilantro. Stir well to combine. Lightly mist crock pot with non-fat cooking spray, and place chicken inside. Season with additional salt and pepper. Pour bowl of tomato mixture over top of chicken. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours or high for about 4 hours. Prepare rice according to package instructions. Preparation time: 15 minute(s) Cooking time: 6 hour(s)

Mine is going to cook for closer to 8 hours because I'll turn it on when I leave @ 8 and won't return home until at least 4:30 most likely.

Oh yeah, the first picture is of the Tikka Masala Curry sauce (got it from the WinCo) just in case someone was like, what in the world is that and what would it look like?

tin can up-cyle: office/school supply holders

I was in organizing mode today and I had a bright idea of how to use all the tin cans I've been saving to use for a recycled craft. I love these pictures of Hawai'i. Most of these look like they are from when I was on Maui...with the exception of the Diamond Head one from when I lived in Honolulu. I just scotch taped them to my tin cans and then taped index cards to hide the part of the can that the picture couldn't reach to cover. For the last one which was a crico can, I used two pictures. I also labeled them because I like labels and hope that they help these cans to stay organized if people need to borrow supplies.

ribbon + glitter clothespin picture display

So...I recently came across and of course pinned how to make glitter clothespins! I had gotten a big pack of clothespins thinking I was going to make a clothesline before we got a dryer but it's just too humid here to dry clothes on a clothesline.

Today, I was in organizing mode...

I realized that I had some ribbon that I picked up at the Michaels and didn't know how I was going to use it...BAM, inspiration!

 Oh yeah, the glitter clothespins are elmers glue on clothespins, glitter sprinkled and then dried overnight. Optional to put a thin layer of glue on top so glitter doesn't "shed" I'm not worried because they are going to be stationary,

pin it

Roasted seaweed

Roasted Seaweed with wasabi

super easy. oven 300. brush nori with mix of sesame + canola oil. salt. brush with wasabi (mine weren't spicy so I think I needed to let wasabi sit for longer. Bake 5 min. I baked 5 min, turned and baked about 3 more minutes.

I love buying these as a low-cal treat...much better for you than the hot cheetos I got today at the WinCo. Can't be perfect all the time...

49ers cookies

Bay Pride: Niner superbowl cookies

Background: Being a Bay Area native, I was stoked on the 'Niners season this year...especially the fact that they made it to the Superbowl! I got invited to a Superbowl party and everyone was bringing everything except for cookies. Excellent, considering I'm something of a Martha Stewart (my friend, Marysol, always calls me that!) in the kitchen...I decided I was going to look on pinterest for a good way to make a 49er helmet cookie.

Materials: I drawing of a football helmet. Google a pic of insert helmet of your fave team here 1 beer can (well, you could use a soda can but that's just not as fun). Sugar cookie dough supplies and icing/frosting recipe. + food coloring +rolling pin + duct take

Method: 

Make sugar cookie dough. This is important because it needs to refrigerate for at least an hour.

Cut can. BE CAREFUL!! I used a knife. This makes a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. Now, since alluminum is a very malleable metal, explaining why it was my material of choice, it bends easily. Once satisfied with its shape, I tried to bend the edges in which now that I'm thinking of it might have worked if I used my pliers...I totally almost cut myself (good thing I washed the can!) I just decided to duct tape the sharp edges so I could use it as a cookie cutter.

Cut your cookies. this part was a bit tricky...place them on a cookie sheet. My cheat is that I line my cookie sheets with foil so clean up is faster and I don't have to grease them which is a bit gross...

Now...you might be wondering how I got the bigger cookies....I got annoyed with the little cookies as it was going to take forever to use all the dough so I cut the big helmets out of dough with a knife. Let's just say that it wasn't like on the Martha Stewart show and I was a bit stressed and in a time crunch...So the big helmets were free hand. Why do I always decide to do kitchen experiments on big event days?

Frosting: This was tricky...obviously I needed a sort of tan color and food coloring doesn't come in this color...I mixed the colors and I just kinda added drops and deviated from the formulas on the back of the food coloring box until I was satisfied. The red was the recipe for brown with extra red added. The white was just plain frosting. I made the frosting with powdered sugar, milk and something else that is escaping my memory.

Conclusion: The sugar cookies were a hit! The host of the party has a 5 year old girl who went straight for a  big helmet cookie as soon as I put the tray on the table. I left some at my house for those coming over to watch the super bowl and they were definitely gone.