Sunday, December 30, 2012

Blankets


This year for Christmas I decided to make Tyrone's family homemade blankets. I thought of this around April of this year and started on the first one in July. But, by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I only had two of them done. So, I was a little scared. I am not a procrastinator and I usually have all of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. Since I had felt so behind I decided to do one a week up until Christmas and I was finished a week before we left for home. whew!! But they all turned out so unique and cute. This is the first one I made for my 7 year old nephew. I also made one for my 4 year old nephew but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I followed the tutorial from Pink Suede Shoes


These are the blankets I decided to make for the older niece and my in-laws. I got the tutorial for these blankets from This mamma makes stuff. Mine were on a larger scale but they turned out really cute and they are so soft. I think everyone liked their personalized blankets. I sure had a lot of fun making them and Tyrone had fun picking out all of the fabric for his family.

I have a good story about going to get the soft fabric for the back of the blankets. I thought that it would be a good idea to take a day trip to LA to get the fabric for a little bit cheaper. So, I planned out my work schedule so that I could have a day to drive up there, go shopping for the fabric and get back in time before I hit rush hour. So, I parked up in LA a little bit further away from the fabric district than I usually do. But, I figured I had a lot of time. So, I put enough change into the meter so that I could be there for an hour. Then, after I had looked around and got all the fabric that I needed, I headed back to my car. As soon as I could see my car I realized that the parking police were at my car writing me a ticket!! So, I ran over there while yelling, "That's my car!!" Needless to say, the guy just claimed that since it was already in the computer, he had to give me the ticket. I looked at the time and I was honestly a minute late! I was really angry and upset! I got in my car, looked at the ticket and it said $68!!!!! For that price, I could have just gotten the fabric locally and saved a bunch of time on the trip to LA. But, oh well. Sometimes things like that happen. It makes for a good story later.








Vegetable Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree was so fun to make and it turned out excellent! I always have the hardest time trying to figure out what to get my grandma for Christmas. Last year, I made a fruit Christmas tree so this year I decided to make a vegetable one. What else am I supposed to get my awesome 89 year old grandma??

So, to start, I got a 12 inch foam cone and I  hot glued it to a square piece of wood. I did this because the fruit and cheese are heavy and if it doesn't have a stable bottom it will topple over. Then, my sister cut out small square pieces of felt and glued them to the base of the cone so that it looked somewhat like a tree skirt and it covered up the ugly piece of wood. Then, the last thing you need to do is to wrap tin foil around the foam. Last year when I made the fruit tree I didn't do this but I think its a good idea so that the vegetables aren't coming in contact with the foam.

Supplies:
Cheese- use whatever type you'd like
broccoli
cauliflower
cherry tomatoes
Christmas cookie cutters
12'' foam cone, or smaller if you'd like to make a smaller one
wooden block
hot glue gun
felt- optional
candy (to look like gifts under the tree)
toothpicks



Then, you can put the fruit on with toothpicks however you would like. We were planning on doing all broccoli and cauliflower as the main part of the tree and then using the cherry tomatoes and cheese as the ornaments but we realized we didn't have enough, so this is what we came up with.

Now, just something  to think about, with the cheese star on top, and the block of wood on the bottom our tree was about 17 inches high. Luckily my mom had a shelf that was adjustable so we could fit it in the fridge overnight. We then put a plastic bag over the tree and tied it so that the cheese and vegetables wouldn't dry up.
On the bottom of the paper plate, we put candy bells to make it look like ornaments and to hold down the pieces of felt hiding our block of wood. 
Now, I officially out of ideas on what to get my grandma for Christmas. Maybe I'll find another edible Christmas tree idea. 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Turkey

I cooked a turkey this week!!! It's probably not that big of a deal but I was  really proud of myself. And, it tasted absolutely delicious! I couldn't stop eating it and I'm not a huge fan of turkey so that's saying something.
I told a friend of mine last Sunday that I was having some people over for dinner and I was cooking a turkey and so she asked me how I was doing it. Well, I had no idea. I had never cooked one before. So, needless to say, she lent me her roasting pan, which was perfect, I don't know what I would have done without it. She also gave me a Reynold's oven bag. This was awesome because it held all of the juices in the bag instead of in the bottom of the  pan, so after the turkey was done cooking we just dumped the juice from the bag into a pan to make the turkey gravy. I am so grateful for my friend's help or it never would have turned out this good.


Here is the turkey defrosted and out of the bag. I took out the neck of the turkey but I couldn't find the innards, you know, the heart, liver, etc. So, I just assumed my turkey didn't come with that. But, after my turkey was fully cooked, I found them, under the neck cavity. So, make sure to check the body AND the neck cavitiy for giblets. In the last picture of the turkey, there is a hole in top, which shouldn't be there, this is why. the giblets were in the neck cavity and as it cooked it ripped open the skin, so that part of the turkey was a little dry, unfortunately.

Ingredients:
1- 10-18lb turkey
1 reynolds oven bag
olive oil
fresh rosemary
fresh tyhme
salt and pepper
lemon, sliced in half


After I got it rinsed and dried, I salt and peppered the inside of the body cavity and placed half of a lemon and some fresh rosemary inside. Then, I lathered up the outside of the turkey in olive oil. I then put salt and pepper and fresh thyme on the outside of the bird and placed it into the oven bag without letting the top of the bird touch the bag. Then I tied the bag closed, put 6 slits with a knife in the top of the bag and put it in the oven which was preheated to 350 degrees. I let it cook for about 3.5 hours and when I took it out of the bag, the turkey was so tender it was falling off the bone. I tried to get a pretty picture of the turkey right out of the bag but it was so tender that it is falling apart. So, its bad for the picture part, but when you are getting ready to cut it up and serve it, you couldn't ask for anything else.