New Fall Items for Sale!

Here is a small preview of the new Fall items available for purchase in my  ETSY STORE.  Great for gifts or for your own personal decorations!

Beef Enchilada Casserole

I know it is hard to believe that the words "I cooked!" are coming out of my mouth (or in typed format so to speak). 

All the people who know me personally know that it is a challenge just to boil water in the kitchen. (Three burned pots last Easter to prove it).  I am seriously surprised my children have lasted as long as they have with the meager offerings of attempted meals at dinner time.

This happens to be one of my family’s favorite meals for dinner.
It is also one of the easiest ones I have.  It can be changed up very easily with other ingredients that you like and your family loves.

This was one of my first recipes I ever tried to make on my own.  While it is very simple, being a horrible cook in the kitchen made it a challenge for me and my dishwasher.  This recipe was one of my Mothers favorites and she requested for me to make this at least once a month for her.

You will find that I don’t use exact measurements when I cook.  What I have listed in the recipe is just a guideline and can be adjusted to suit your tastes. Go for it. Change it. Enjoy it.

(Please excuse the horrible photos!) 

For a printable copy in Word and PDF format, click the Download link at the end of this post.

BEEF ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

2 pounds ground beef

24 white corn tortillas

2 large cans of red enchilada sauce (1 cup set aside)

1 large bag of shredded Colby cheese

1 can of sliced olives

2 tablespoons of chopped dried onion

Salt and pepper

Step One

Preheat oven to 400F. Start by browning your ground beef. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Add the chopped onion. Continue browning until no longer pink. Drain and return to pan. Stir in 1 cup of enchilada sauce to give some extra flavor to the meat. Set aside.

Step Two

Pour some sauce in the bottom of a pan.  (foil lined is easier for cleaning) Not a lot of sauce, but just enough to give a good cover to the bottom of your casserole.

Add eight tortillas to the bottom of the pan and coat with a little more sauce.

Step Three

Now the layering begins! Adjust your layers to what you like, but this is how I did it for the basic recipe.

Cheese, Olives, Meat, Cheese

Add some more sauce if you like your enchiladas to have lots of sauce in them. In this batch I didn’t because my youngest daughter is not a fan of the saucy kind.

Step Four

Add another layer of tortillas. Cover them in sauce. Be sure to coat all edges of the tortillas to avoid crispy, burnt edges. Then another layer of cheese and olives.

Step Five

Lightly cover with foil and cook at 400F for 30 minutes or until heated through. Remove foil cover the last five minutes to lightly brown the cheese. Let stand five to ten minutes. 

If your family likes sour cream, then top it off with a spoonful of sour cream. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD RECIPE

Here Kitty, Kitty.....

We currently have 2 cats and 1 dog in our home.  I realized that I hadn't taken any new pictures of them lately mainly because my camera on my phone is really bad.  Filters don't even make the photos look much better.  So I pulled out my new Sony RX100 IV camera and decided to try and figure out how to use it finally.  My daughter took a photography class and used this camera, but I didn't want to have to completely rely on her and having to bother her with a ton of questions regarding how to use it.

With the girls at school, I only had the animals to use and live subjects. It figures that as soon as I pulled out the camera, our dog Lulu decided to play camera shy and hide. So I moved onto the next animal that was lying around being lazy and found our youngest cat Aelita on the back of the couch sunbathing.  This cat never lets me get near her, but I guess she decided to be a ham and let me at least zoom in on her.

I love black and white photos!

Toy Camera filter adds a ring of black around it!

she was starting to get annoyed with me at this point

I can't remember what filter this is but I love her expression!

Olaf-- our older cat-- was being his stubborn self and let me take a total of one picture.
ONE. Darn cat. As soon as he realized I was taking a photo and not giving him a treat, I was determined to be of no use and he ran off.

"what the..?? no paparazzi please!"

For a first try of really trying to figure out the settings, I don't think they turned out too bad.

No Sew T-Shirt Infinity Scarf

After cruising around Pinterest for hours the other night, I kept coming across tutorials for Infinity Scarves made out of T-Shirts.  I decided to give one a try and combined the steps from several tutorials into one that worked for me.

You are going to need a T-Shirt and a pair of scissors.

I used one from Fruit of the Loom. It is recommended that you use at least a size Large. This one is an Extra Large.

Lay your shirt out flat on a large surface. (I used the living room floor)

Cut the hem off the shirt. Cut right above the sewn hem. KEEP the hem you just cut off because you will need it later in the tutorial. Set it aside for now.

Cut the top of the shirt off right below the bottom of the arms. Try to cut as straight as possible, but small flaws won't matter much. Set the top part aside as we won't be needing it.

Cut slits along one side of the T-Shirt. I eyeballed it and cut them about one inch apart and about 2 inches deep. There is no set amount you are suppose to cut, but try to at least have 15 or more.

After you made the small cuts, you are going to go back and finish cutting them the rest of the way. Just be sure that you STOP cutting at least 1/2 inch from the top.  You need to keep them linked together by a small amount.

Take each one of the cut strips and test your strength! While holding the top of the strips, take each one at the bottom and pull as hard as you can and hold it for a few seconds.  You want each strip to start getting the rolled look to it as shown in the picture above.  Also try and keep them all the same length.

After you are done, bunch the top together where the chain link is still connected. Make sure all of the loops are still separated and lay on the flat surface.

Take your discarded hem from earlier and tie it around that chain link section into a knot.  This secures it all in an orderly fashion.

Cut off the extra hem leaving enough to tuck back under the knot.  I used the end of my scissors to make sure it was under there tightly so the ends wouldn't come out. 

ALL DONE!  Now you have your own T-Shirt Infinity Scarf made in about 10 minutes with no sewing involved.  

Tomato Chicken Alfredo

Are you ready to be amazed?
Can you believe this took about 10 minutes to make from start to finish?

I am horrible at cooking. I am trying to learn to cook better and in the process I am learning to come up with a few dishes of my own that are edible.  Well here is my first dish I came up with all by my lonesome self. I am quite proud of it and my oldest daughter fell in love with it.  This would be a great dish for when you are in a hurry and need to make something quick that also makes quite a bit.

First up here is a look at what we will be making:

Below are the ingredients:

1 box of Linguine Noodles (1lb box/your choice of noodles)

2 jars of Classico Sun Dried Tomato Alfredo sauce (15oz each/or your flavor of choice)

3 packages of Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Chunks

STEP ONE

Prepare your noodles as directed on the box. Cook until your desired tenderness.

Drain the water when the noodles are done. Return the noodles to the pan.

STEP TWO

Add your chicken chunks and sauce.

STEP THREE

Warm until the sauce and chicken is warmed throughout the pot.

STEP FOUR

Serve and Enjoy!

We Have to Start Somewhere

Hello and thank you for stopping by.

Many years ago, I started out with a crafting blog.  I would share my projects and voice my opinion on various crafting supplies and recipes.  Then I started working again.  With work, 3 kids, and no time, I ended up closing that blog.

Years have passed and now I am not working.  While I wish I could be, there just aren't many jobs in our small town.  So I have decided to start crafting and cooking again.  I do have another blog featuring book reviews and a personal blog, but no where to show my crafting side.

So here you will find my crafting projects. (or fails)
My DIY projects. (or fails)
My recipes. (or fails)
Opinions on various crafting purchases. (reviews)

I can't wait to get started and I hope you will stick around for the ride!