Brag Board

Last year for mother day I made some brag boards for our moms but the one I had for DH's mom got damaged in transit so I never gave it to her. I wanted to give it another try this year and ended up giving her this. Instead of using the ghetto clothespins , I used sheet metal and magnets. MIL is in love with bottle cap magnets and has become quite expert at making them, so I figured that if she put this sign up in her office she could show off grandkid pics as well as her bottlecaps.

Lemon Gelato

My BFF made this for a summer BBQ 3 years ago when we were both pregnant. It has become my favorite summer dessert. The lemon flavor is very strong and it's not overly sweet, but that's what makes it so refreshing. If you have an ice cream maker, this is a quick, super easy summer dessert.

Lemon Gelato

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

5 egg yolks, beaten

3 Tbsp. grated lemon zest

¾ cup fresh lemon juice (5-6 lemons)

2 c. heavy whipping cream

Scald milk. Add sugar and cook until dissolved. Temper eggs then add all eggs to mixture. Add zest. Cook until thickened to a custard-like consistency. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice. Place pan in ice water. Stir in cream. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.* Transfer to ice cream maker and mix until an ice-cream consistency is achieved.

*May be placed in freezer for an hour instead of refrigerator.

Subway Sauces

DH LOVES LOVE LOVES sauces. He's always experimenting and coming up with new concoctions. That's why our fridge is mostly condiments:)
On Sunday night he was craving a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich from Subway, and since it was Sunday we of course weren't going to go get one, so we started researching recipes. By the time I found some good recipes, he had munched on something and wasn't hungry anymore, but I got really excited about our two favorite sauces, the sweet onion sauce and the southwest chipotle. (Try the sweet onion chicken teriyaki with just a small strip of the chipotle sauce, and lots of sweet onion sauce. It's divine!) I was only missing a couple ingredients so I got them today and whipped up these sauces tonight. They were both super duper easy but the sweet onion sauce has a rather strange ingredient that I wouldn't think most people have laying around. This buttermilk powder can be found on the baking isle, but not knowing what it looked like, I honestly wouldn't have found it. Luckily my friend spotted it.

Sweet Onion Sauce

1 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons minced white onion

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 teaspoons white distilled vinegar

2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoon buttermilk baking mix

1/2teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon poppy seed

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch cracked black pepper

pinch garlic powder

Combine all ingredients. Bring to boil. Whisk well. Cool and store in refrigerator.

I used 1 Tbsp. of dried minced onion instead but I'm anxious to try it with the fresh onion.

Southwest Chipotle Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

1 ounce pureed chipotle chile in adobo

1 tsp. fresh garlic, minced

salt, to taste

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate.

I was trying to find some fancy glass bottles but settled on these for now. But really these will work better than glass since they can be squeezed.

So tomorrow night's dinner is homemade Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwiches!!! We're excited. DH just needs to find Subways Italian Herb and Cheese bread recipe.

Ribs

We were stuck at home working for the mortuary today while the rest of our family celebrated Independence Day. So in an effort to not feel sorry for ourselves, we had our friends over for dinner. DH decided to try his hand at beef ribs. (We're not pork eaters) They were fall-off-the-bone incredible!

He came up with this sauce on his own. He loves to get as many spices into a sauce as he can, luckily I was taking notes so I was able to write up a recipe. Like any good ribs, these take quite a while, but they're worth it!

5 lbs. beef ribs
3-4 garlic cloves
1/2 onion, minced
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
14 oz. ketchup
1/2 cup honey
2-3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire
2 Tbsp. liquid smoke
1 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 - 1/8 tsp. ground clove
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. seasoning salt
1/2 tsp. tarragon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp. ground sage
3 drops green Tabasco

Saute garlic and onions in oil.
Stir in ketchup, honey and vinegar.
Add remaining ingredients.
Bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Slather ribs in sauce and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 280°. Place ribs in a roasting pan and cover. Bake for 2 1/2 hours then reduce heat to 200°for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Remove ribs and keep covered. Let sit for an about an hour.
Just before serving, place ribs on a preheated grill for 2-3 minutes on each side, just enough sear the ribs.

Baby Gifts

Now that my SILs shower is over I can post some of the things I've been working on. I made a diaper cake and had a basket of homemade goodies. But I was in such a rush to get these gifts to the host's house that I forgot to take pictures of everything. But here are a few.


This one is my fav :)

I saw this corny applique at JoAnns and I debated using it but DH convinced me. The other side of the shirt says something about "Reuse, Recycle...." I don't remember exactly, and the back says "Be Green." Well, the baby's last name is Green and his mama is into "being green" so DH thought it would be hilarious.

This is Make It-Love It's pattern for a nursing cover with one little add-on:

On the corners I added some minky fabric. I liked having a little pocket there for a nursing shield, and having something absorbant since, lets face it, you have to dry off after feeding the little one.

I made some Wee Wee Wigwam's and Binky clips, among other things. We're so excited to welcome our little unnamed nephew into the family next month!

Forgetful me

I recently got my car door fixed. Hallelujah! And while cleaning it out I found several things I forgot were in there. I'm sure when I put things there I thought I'd remember where I left them, but that doesn't work out so well.

So I know it's corny to put vinyl lettering in the car, but if I didn't I'd forget what's in there.

You have no idea how happy I am to have this:

A back door that opens!

Word to the wise, if a can of soda explodes in your can and the sticky sugar somehow makes the weather stripping come out of place, fix it before the weather stripping gets caught in the latch and you can't open your back door:) It's not fun to pay $96/hr. for a mechanic to prise your door open.

When crafts go wrong....

So I've been crafting a ton of baby things lately for my little nephew-to-be but I can't post any of it for fear his mommy will see:) But one craft went seriously wrong and they're going to be trashed.
I'm really bummed these didn't work out. I was really, really excited about them. I attempted, and failed, to make closet dividers for my little un-named nephew (I'm shaking my fist at his parents for keeping his name a secret. It's funner to personalize baby gifts....just sayin)

I don't remember where I found this idea but when I saw it I wished so bad that I had them when DD was born. She got so many clothes in a wide range of sizes that sometimes I didn't find an outfit until she had grown out of it.

I found the wood door hangers at hobby lobby and used DH's dremel to cut one side so they'd hook over the rod. Then I mod podged on paper. Here's where I messed up. I wasn't too worried about cutting the paper exactly to size because I thought that when I went back over the edges with a sanding bit on the dremel, it would sand off the extra paper. It didn't. Then I tried to exacto knife off the excess, but it tore a lot. So I thought I'd ink the edges but the ink wasn't dark enough so I used paint. By then I was so frustrated that I wasn't as careful as I should have been. In the end, they looked like crap and I refuse to give them to my sister-in-law, but here they are:
It's okay. I've got many, many other things to give the little guy and his mama. But it's always a bummer when a craft doesn't work out.