Pinterest Quilt

I found this quilt on Pinterest, and thought, I could make that, I even have the materials on hand! 

Here's my take on it. I used my #sewmystash2015 Precuts Party motivation to move some more precuts out of my stash!

Crockpot Success! Chicken Fajitas

I love my crockpot. Actually, I have two... but our family is small right now so I only use one to cook. I'm sure I'd love the other one too, once we have room to use it, and people to feed with it.

I'm slightly obsessed with finding recipes to use in the crockpot. My husband and I like eating, and we're not too great at eating healthy, so I decided to try to reverse that. We'll still love eating, but we'll eat healthier. Part of this is that I'm going to do all I can to sit down and plan meals, get the shopping done, and it will be ready to go. No desperately hoping I have ingredients to make something as I drive home in rush hour traffic. No last minute ditch to go get Cook Out because it's cheap and delicious (and fried).

This weeks crockpot success is Chicken Fajitas from Stacymakescents online. I found the recipe via a 100 days of no processed foods pin on Pinterest. Here's the deal though, I have a bad memory and could have sworn I had cumin. No cumin. However, my husband had a spice container labeled "Fajita Seasonings" so I put a bunch of that in. (I'm a fan of eyeballing when it comes to cooking some things). The other substitution I did was I put a squirt of Tabasco instead of lime juice. (I hate citrus, unless you are eating an orange straight up. Don't use it to flavor anything.)

I am declaring it a success. I put mine on a tortilla with just a bit of sour cream and nothing else. I was surprised at how good they tasted! Go ahead and try it out. It's a keeper!

Pinterest Adventures: Jello Fruit Snacks

This is a first of hopefully many Pinterest Adventure posts. I know a lot of people do them and the humor in it is that real life doesn't always translate to pinterest level products. However, I really think it's nice to see that someone else, a "normal" person, was able to somewhat successfully do something found on Pinterest.

(If you have any pins that you would like me to try out first to work out the kinks, just let me know!)

Picture and Recipe credit goes to Six Sisters Stuff blog: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/homemade-jello-fruit-snacks-recipe.html

This pin caught my eye because it said Homemade fruit snacks. I love fruit snacks, but being a graduate student, and a newlywed, fruit snacks are not in the budget. So of course I thought I'd be able to have fruit snacks if I made them at home. Sadly, the ingredient list at the time would have cost about the same amount as a box of fruit snacks, so I just let it sit.

Then, I decided I really really wanted to try it. I went to Kroger and found out that Kroger brand gelatin was on sale for only 39 cents a box. So I grabbed a couple on the last shopping trip, and waited for a weekend.

First off, it says to "sprinkle the gelatin" into the water. This didn't work. The gelatin clumped up all gross and kind of stayed that way on the first go around. The second time though, I whisked it in like I would with gravy mix. Whisk constantly while slowly pouring the powder in. It worked better, but not perfectly. Maybe it would work better with brand name gelatin?

Next, I poured it into a mini ice cube mold, the ones with the silicone bottom so you can pop the ice out easier? I had difficulties trying to decide how full to fill them though. This is the first go around when I filled them up pretty much all the way. I ended up not filling every one up. And ended up with some monstrously big fruit snacks. 

My second go around, I filled them to where the silicone part ended. I had enough to fill up this mold, and if I had a second mold probably about half of that one. Since I didn't have a second mold I used my husband's gun shaped ice cube mold. Got two guns out of it too. 

The tutorial instructed me to let the fruit snacks "sit" for "at least 20 minutes". Ok. Good, I could do that. I wandered off to Netflix a show. When I came back, they were still really soft and I couldn't get them to come out of the mold. 

Yeah, so turns out you should let them sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This was missing from the instructions. Second go around, golden on this.  However, this did not ease the getting them out of the mold process. Alas, I have no pointers on this part other than be patient, and maybe a little aggressive. They will eventually come out. 

Finally, they do not need to be kept in the fridge after the initial setting. But they do need to be eaten rather quickly ( a couple of days) if you elect to not keep them in the fridge. They will mold otherwise. At least they will if you live in the South like I do.

My last thought: These really aren't like store bought fruit snacks. They are weirdly squeaky (best word I could come up with) and don't taste nearly as good as store bought ones do. BUT if your children are young and you are on a budget, go for it. They probably won't be able to tell the difference.

Did you Know?

Apparently September is "National Sewing Month". Whoda thunk?

I've been working really hard and getting more of my sewing and crafting stuff done. My sewing machine is currently sitting in my living room, and it stares at me all the time. It's been a great motivator to me to be working on things.

With this in mind, I'd love to do a series of sewing 'tutorials', pinterest experiments, and maybe even some sew alongs. Please let me know what you would like to see happen here on the blog!

p.s. Pinterest experiments are when you see something on Pinterest and want someone else (me) to try it before you try it, to work out the kinks and let you know if it's really worth doing. Drop me a line, or send me the pin and I'll add it to my line up. ;) even if it isn't sewing related...

I'm Avoiding Dishes and Homework

My friend sent me this on Pinterest as I was stuffing my face with chocolate chip cookie dough.

HOW DID SHE KNOW?!?!?!?!

Internet Adventures, Maybe Idiot Adventures?

Internet Adventures  0.1

There seems to be a popular website out there called Pinterest. I happen to have an account on Pinterest, and see a lot of interesting things on this website that make me wonder. Yeah, but does it work? Is this for real? Is it really as miraculous and wonderful and time-saving and gorgeous as everyone seems to be making it out to be?

In fact it’s not just on Pinterest that I see stuff like this. Lots of blogs and even sometimes stuff shows up on Facebook that makes me wonder if it’s something that really does work, or if it’s really as great as people make it out to be. A lot of it, I think that a certain ‘type’ of person will really love it, but maybe it’s not for a girl like me.

So, in hopes of posting more often here in the blog (it’s on the rotating list of goals I’m working on for the year), I will post some of these special little tidbits, after I try them out and let you all know how I feel about them. It will be quite fun, I think. And a great way for me to be doing new things on a semi-regular basis. 

If you see anything that you would like me to try out, SEND ME THE LINK! I’ll do it! As always I rely on my friends and fans to help generate ideas, this little brain can only do so much, especially while in grad school ;)

Well Said...

So, one of my favorite Bloggers, Middle Aged Mormon Man, wrote a post this weekend and it said pretty much everything that I think about during the month of November.

Why? Because, as Pinterest said:

You should go read his post: Can We Stop Talking About Gratitude?

Even Pinterest knows:

http://pinterest.com/pin/269371621434226343/