He brought me flowers

These are Camellia's they grow on small tree's that kind of look like bushes.  They are evergreens but only flower in the winter and early spring.  Fun fact about Camellia's, the tea plant is a member of the camellia family.  I learned about these flowers from my old neighbor Larry, he used to bring them to me when I lived in Defuniak.  He had a tree in his backyard.  They make awesome floating flower arrangements.

Normally Tyler doesn't believe in cut flowers, he grows them for me in the yard.  His philosophy is that if he plants me flowers I will have them all of the time, but if he cuts me flowers it's killing the flowers and they only last a short while.  Honestly I think he brought these home because he was trying to figure out what plant they came from.  He always brings me plants to identify.  Regardless I got to enjoy their beauty and I learned the tea plants is member of the Camellia family so it's a win all the way around.

What are we having for dinner?

Taco soup with fried tortilla strips and cheese quesadillas, that's what!

I decided to just make up my recipe as I went along so I took a trip to the grocery store. I was super happy with the results and Tyler loved it. I'll post the recipe another day.

Recipe

1lb ground beef (I used vegetarian meat crumbles)

1 small onion chopped

1 can corn

1 can kidney beans

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

2 cans rotel

3 packages taco seasoning mix

2 bottles bud light lime

1 lime juiced

1 cup shredded cheddar

1 package of shredded cabbage

1 container of sour cream

5 tortillas

Oil for frying

In a large stock pot brown ground beef and onion until beef is cooked and onion is soft.  Add contents of all cans (I didn't drain anything I used all of the juices)  Add the beer, at this point if it's not soupy enough add water.  Then once the mixture is warm add the taco seasoning mix, bring to a boil, once boiling reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. 

In the mean time heat oil, I used peanut oil because that's what I had on hand and I used my fry baby for deep frying but you can use whatever you like.  Cut the tortillas into small pieces about 2 inches long.  Take the tortilla pieces and put into the preheated oil, fry until bubbles start to form in the tortillas or until they start to brown on the edges.  Take out of oil place on plate with paper towels to drain and cool.  I put garlic salt on them at this point and juiced a little of the time on top as well to give them a little more flavor. 

Go back to the soup, juice lime into soup, taste, if necessary add some chili powder or salt and pepper.  To serve put soup in bowl, top with shredded cheddar, sour cream and cabbage garnish with fried tortillas.  There you have it Taco Soup.  I know it sounds kind of complicated but it was really easy. 

Let the craftiness begin

Ribbon Bracelets

I had this idea a while ago, but it took until now for me to get the motivation to move ahead with them.  I used my hemp knot skills with beads and ribbon and came up with this result

They're a work in progress so stay tuned, but I like what I've got so far.  The left is a bracelet and the right is an anklet.

Apps For Dinner

Restaurant Knockoff App's for Dinner
So I found myself jonesing for Bang Bang shrimp last night and cheese sticks.  Now I know this doesn't seem like the greatest dinner combination, but it's what I wanted so I thought I would give it a try.  I was able to find some great recipes for a Knock off on the Bonefish Bang Bang Shrimp

Bang Bang Shrimp  take the link to Food.com for the recipe, it's well worth it. I also found a great recipe for Cheese Fritters by Evil Chef Mom

it was absolutely amazing.  Here's a link to the recipe: Cheese Fritters I recommend these for Superbowl Sunday, I actually saved some of the cheese mixture so I can make them for our Superbowl party.  I opted out of the dip for these and just went with marinara, take it easy on the salt and pepper in the cheese mix, it can be overpowering. 

Tyler seemed to love both the cheese fritters and the shrimp.  All and all it was a successful meal and with the lessons learned and the leftovers I should be re-purposing pieces of this dinner for the rest of the week. 


Scroll to Top

It's a start

I've been talking about starting a blog for a while now so I decided I would just go ahead and do it.  I need an outlet for all of my craft projects, my creative ideas and just somewhere to put all my pics and opinions that's not Facebook.  So here's to my first post.