Card Club

These are two cards I designed (with inspiration help) for card club at my house. This post is for you, Brie, so that my meatloaf picture in no longer up! :) It has been a long time since I last updated....

Mom Would Be Proud

I think meatloaf gets a bad rap in life. This recipe for Everyday Meatloaf is quite tasty and is sometimes just the thing to fill the need for comfort food that reminds you of home. Meatloaf reminds me of my mom, and she always served it with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. I think she would be proud of this meal. Ben loved it too!

Patriotic

This was a quick card with no stamping. I made it to send with a care package for my brother-in-law who is in Afganistan.

Orange Square

I made this card using paper from My Mind's Eye and got the inspiration from Karen's blog. I love the look of a square card but haven't made them before because I would need to buy different envelopes. Now that I've made one and have to buy the envelopes, I might as well keep going.

Sweet Sunday Sketch #12

This is the card I did for Karen's sketch challenge. The colors look a bit more hazy here than in real life. I made this card with my dad in mind for some future occasion. He likes old trucks.

Amy's Sketch Challenge #56

This is a birthday card for the sketch challege over at Prarie Paper & Ink.

Perfect Enchiladas

All I can say is WOW! There is a reason why Pioneer Woman calls these perfect enchiladas. As you can see, Ben and I put quite a dent in them. Enchiladas are my favorite thing to get when we go out for Mexican, so I was very excited to find a recipe that recreates that taste at home. I must admit while making them, I was wondering if it was all going to be worth the effort since you have to fry the corn tortillas and dip them in the sauce before rolling them --a messy pain. And also artery clogging. But so worth it!

Chicken Scallopini

This chicken scallopini is another Pioneer Woman recipe I tried tonight. The initial bite tasted very winey, but the schock of the wine sauce wore off right away. I was quite pleased with this recipe. It was my first time using capers, and I wasn't too impressed. I feel like they didn't do a lot for the dish and were a bit of an annoyance. I think I'll leave them out next time.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

I saw this recipe on the Pioneer Womans' website and knew I wanted to try it. This was my first time roasting red peppers, and the pictures on Ree's website really helped. It was also my first time using pine nuts. Not bad. All in all, this was a delicious recipe, though it needs some tweaking to fit our taste. Specifically, less onion! We are not big onion flavor fans, and it was overpowering. The next time around it will be perfect.

And for dessert....



Pure delicious-ness! This baked fudge is also a Pioneer Woman recipe. To die for! The chocolate is rich and must be topped with whipped cream or, my favorite, Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

Same card as earlier, different color combo.

Happiness Card

This color combo of grey and purple just happened because the purple background paper was peeking out of my paper pile right next to the grey. Huh. I just added the green as a contrast. I stamped the flower image on paper covered in silver embossing powder right after it had been heated, while it was still warm and tacky. Gotta work fast!

Get Well Chirps

I did this card today for my uncle who just had surgery. I really find it difficult to make cards that look somewhat man-ish. The problem is my overabundance of flower stamps. I really must resist the flowers and purchase some sets that are more prcatical. Like an actual get well set and something not so flowery! But I do love SU's Soft Summer from the occasions mini catalog....

Nana's Card

I made this card for Ben's grandma with whom I always play cards when I visit her. Interestingly, the card pictures are foil wrappers from some chocolate candy that was given to Ben. My husband is a choco-holic who can't even resist the cheap, waxy kind. Love you, Ben!

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #11

I made this card for Karen Giron's sketch challenge. Thanks, Emily, for introducing me! Since this is my very first sketch challenge, I decided to really stick to the sketch! I did have to use a flower because I didn't own anything with butterflies on it. The whole card started with the cute flower buttons and just developed into a baby girl card. You'll find the sketch at http://kgiron.blogspot.com/

Birthday Whimsy

This is the card I made yesterday to fill the time while I was waiting for Ben to get home from work.

5 Spice Pork Chop

This recipe was a new one -- 5 Spice Pork Chop with Strawberry Salsa. I served it with broccoli and whole wheat couscous. This sounded good to me mainly because of the strawberries! I learned that 5 Spice Powder is found in the Asian aisle, not the spice aisle. When I pulled the spice jar out yesterday to make this recipe, I read the back to see what was actually in five spice powder. Anise jumped out at me. I hate anise! I drastically reduced the amount that I used so that the anise flavor wouldn't be prominent. The recipe says to pan fry the boneless pork chop, but I just browned it in the pan and baked it in the oven, hoping that it would be more tender. In the past, I've had problems with tough pork chops. Despite my efforts, it was still tough this time around. All in all, a fun recipe, but I've got to figure out how to master the pork chop.

New Knives

I also love to cook so this is my official announcement that this blog will also chronicle some of my cooking adventures. Today I bought some new knives. I'm super excited! Many cooks say that one of the foundations of a good kitchen is having good knives. I accidentally registered for serrated knives for our wedding. The kind that are supposed to never need sharpening. Yeah, right. Well, I've suffered with them for four years now and finally got fed up last night while trying to mince cilantro. I'm replacing the four knives I use the most and decided to go middle of the price road with Calphalon. I'm still not willing to shell out the big bucks for the Minolo Blahniks of knives. I chopped strawberries tonight and fully expected my new knife to slide through them like butter. I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong. They're way better than my old ones. Anyone know if you're supposed to sharpen brand new knives before you use them?

Birthday Cards

Here are two cards that I made this week. They are actually the first cards that I've made since we moved. Sad to say. I desperately need to build my stash of birthday cards back up.

Blog Make-Over

I first started this blog when living in Michigan. The theme doesn't apply anymore so I re-vamped the whole thing. It's a blog make-over! I'm posting this picture of our new house in Texas to mark the change of direction this has taken. I'll probably be doing the same thing next year.... Such is military life.