Homemade Craft # 4

Chalkboard Wine Bottles

I got this idea from a book a friend sent me recently.  With all the wine that we drink around here it's so easy to accumulate bottles! And these make such fun gifts!!

I ordered the chalk board spray paint off Amazon because our local Walmart didn't have any chalkboard paint.  The spray paint makes the process so incredibly fast! 

The chalk I found at Walmart was super inexpensive and the ribbon I used to tie the chalk onto the bottle was left over from Christmas ribbon.  

There are endless possibilities to these fun bottles!

Kids Craft # 2

Letter a Week

When I was growing up, I went to a wonderful woman's home while my mom went to work. This woman's name is Miss Joyce, or as some other's call her "Mom Mom".  Because of this woman I have made life-long friends, have respect for life more than I possibly would without her, and instill education in our children that she taught us while we were not in school.  

Below is an example of something that I have been working on every week with our children: A letter a week with 4 letter-related pictures.  I draw them because I feel like it makes each picture more personal and Miss Joyce used to draw the pages for us before we all could afford printers.

Every week I see a different fine motor skill develop with each child. And my husband is thrilled to see his children come to the refrigerator and point to the pictures and learn a new word almost everyday!

Happy Reminders

There are absolutely times that I feel I need to remind myself these.

Whether you are a stay at home mom or a 9-5er working at a desk you can get down in a rut.  

Remind yourself this and your day may turn out a little brighter 

Thanks Katie :)

Homemade Craft # 3

Walnut Monogrammed Ornaments

For our Christmas present from my husband and me to our family members (parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents) we made personalized walnut ornaments.  

The wood came from my in-laws' neighbors' yard (thanks!) and after my husband cut each of the ornaments I drew and painted the letters of the first initial of the last names.  We sprayed a polyurethane finish on the ornaments so they could last for a long time.  Some family members will use it as a coaster, as an ornament, or will hang it on their wall all year long :)  

I want to do this again!

Kids Craft # 1

It's cold outside and there aren't very many places to take the kids around our area for them to play.  In order for them to get some educational, artistic fun I decided to incorporate colors, counting, and ocean animals in this ocean scene.  Once I introduced the colors and animals the kids were able to place the animals and seagrass where they thought best.

 I placed their artwork on the fridge. The kids come up to their picture and point out colors and animals they can say.

Recipe # 10

This was a pretty tedious recipe but it was great to do while watching football games that I wasn't really interested in.  There are a variety of steps to this in order to get the final product: Make the squash, create the raviolis, boil the raviolis, sauté the raviolis, make the sauce, place raviolis on the plate, pour the sauce over raviolis, enjoy! 

*I did find all of the recipes online but changed them according to what I had in our kitchen.

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with a Sage Mushroom Cream Sauce

Roasted Butternut Squash 

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded

2 teaspoons butter

 2 teaspoons brown sugar

Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place butternut squash halves on a large baking sheet flesh side up. Place 1 teaspoon butter in the middle of each squash. Sprinkle brown sugar over each squash. Season with salt and black pepper. Roast 25 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender. Reserve 2 halves for future meal.

By following this recipe you should produce 4 cups of mashed butternut squash

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli

(This was only 1 of 3 batches that I made with all of the squash ravioli filling)

Ingredients

4 cup mashed, cooked butternut squash

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cup mascarpone cheese

4 egg yolk

1 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 (16 ounce) package round wonton wrappers (or whichever wonton wrappers you can find...I found square wonton wrappers at the Walmart produce section

4 tablespoons butter or margarine 

4 tablespoons minced garlic

Directions

Place cooked squash into a mixing bowl. Add salt and black pepper. Stir in mascarpone cheese, egg yolks, and Parmesan cheese, mixing until the filling is smoothly combined.

Place a wonton wrapper onto a working surface. Wet the tip of a finger in water, and run it all along the outer edge of the wonton skin to moisten.

Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of the wonton. Place another wonton wrapper with moistened edges over filling and other wonton and, with a fork, press the edges to seal. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers.

Place a deep skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in butter and unpeeled clove of garlic. Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil.

Drop the filled raviolis into the boiling water, a few at a time, and cook until they float to the top, about 2 minutes. Drain the raviolis, and transfer them to the skillet. Turn the heat under the skillet up to medium-high, and cook just until the raviolis are infused with garlic flavor, about 2 or 3 more minutes.

Sage Mushroom Shrimp Cream Sauce

Ingredients*

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 whopping Tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 package thawed, raw shrimp (We did medium, you can use whatever size your heart desires)

2 Tablespoon butter or margarine

3/4 cup red onion, chopped

3/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth (I did both!)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp Ground Sage

Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

1/2 package of mixed mushroom, sliced

Directions

Place the garlic, olive oil, and onions in the pan and brown.  Once the onions become 'clear'ish place the shrimp in the pan and saute until the shrimp is cooked through.

In a large sauté pan, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion to the butter or margarine and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Add the cream, chicken broth and/or wine, sage, salt, pepper, mushrooms, and shrimp. Lower the heat to a simmer and reduce the sauce by half. 

*I doubled the recipe for us.  Since the sauce gets reduced I couldn't stand to not have enough ;)*

**The sauce separates with the butter and cream so serving it directly after it is done reducing may be the best idea**

We really enjoyed this! Next time we have this, though, I think I will make it for a date night.  Our toddlers are at a stage where they are very picky with textures so they didn't want anything to do with this lovely meal. 

I know, I know, you missed me ;)

Hi there everyone!!

The holidays are coming to an end and I can finally get my mind wrapped around things other than shopping, wrapping, traveling, cooking, baking, taking pictures, eating, and drinking!

I hope everyone had as blessed of a holiday season as our family did.  We were able to travel to my husband's family's houses for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties while we had Christmas day at our house with the little ones playing with their toys all day!  My husband and twin toddlers were also lucky enough to spend 11 days on the east coast with my family and friends.  What a memorable time!!

Just so you know I wasn't purposefully neglecting the blog, I wanted to explain how busy we were through a montage of pictures :)

Thanksgiving at the McCoy's playing Thanksgiving Bingo!

The kid's 3rd time being on Santa's lap (1st: while in the belly, 2nd: 9 months old, 3rd: 21 months)

Headed to Philly with Byron, my sister, Kelly, and her friend Kayla for the Army/Navy game.  We stayed with my dear friend Stella and her boyfriend Dan in the city.  We started the weekend off with a fun time at the bars.

Just a few of the party crowd at the tailgate at Army/Navy

Never a dull moment, but always a good time. I love my Stella (china doll).

Byron's birthday (12-12-12).  I tried to incorporate as many "12's" as possible.  We started the day off with an order of a dozen donuts.  Aunt Alice and Uncle Mark even surprised Byron by driving from Virginia for his birthday!

...and a dozen oysters...

The kids got a chance to run around on daddy's old practice field on the United States Naval Academy yard.

The kids got to experience what it's like to feed the duckies at Ego Alley in Downtown Annapolis.  I love this place!

We celebrated Christmas early in Maryland with the Savoie/Middleton/Brice family.  Always a great time and always great food!

'

Our annual Christmas pajama picture. Who doesn't love new pajamas?!

While on the east coast, I was able to meet up with most of my college friends for Kristen's wedding in Philly.  WHAT A FUN TIME!!!! I totally lost a dance-off with an older gentleman...embarrassed...

Due to fog, we were forced to sit in the airport for 6 hours and THEN told that our flight was cancelled.   With a frustrated husband and wife with two toddlers it was an interesting situation. Thankfully we have a family that was able to get our flight changed and a hotel room for us. We stayed in an airport hotel, ordered Chinese food that was delicious, and made our flight the next morning (barely!!).  My father-in-law KNEW I was going to need those drink coupons.... Thanks Matt!

Girls' Night Mexican Christmas Party at El Camino in Clinton.  Tis the season to sing "Feliz Navidad"!  This was my first Christmas living in Clinton.  We drove around and looked at the lights in the town and I even got to see the "ghetto"! ;)

The kids' first snow...wasn't much but they got to wear their new boots that Kel Kel gave them.

Oh yea, we got a kitty...it was cousin Sarah's.  Her name is Kiki

Christmas celebration at the McCoy's.  Always a great time!

So...my husband is pretty amazing at sports. He helped his baseball team in high school win States.  Therefore there was a 10th reunion for his baseball team to celebrate what a great game they played.  It was such a fun experience meeting more of my husband's friends.

Christmas celebration at the Shoemaker's.  You can judge the time we had by this picture ;)

Christmas morning at our house.  The MO great-grandparents, Granny, Papa, and Aunt Casie joined us during the day.  Then we were visited by some CRAZY carolers later in the evening.  

As you can see it has been a very busy month. We are so lucky to be able to spend these fun, memorable times with so many loved ones.  I can't thank everyone enough for being in this life of mine AND ours!  Without each and every one of you we wouldn't be where we are today. 

I plan on getting back on the blog after the New Year (...so I can continue picking up Christmas toys that are around the house...) 

I hope you have a safe and enjoyable New Years.  

Also, we are trying to get to 2013 blog views by 2013.  Why not start setting crazy goals now, right?