More Authentic Tacos for Cinco de Mayo

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Cinco de Mayo, tacos, tortillas

We take our tacos kind of seriously around here. Once I was shown that how I had eaten tortillas my entire life was not authentic – and not even good in comparison – things got even more serious. My Puerto Rican friend told me that once a child could see over the stove top, he or she was expected to turn his or her own tortillas – but you never, ever, ever microwave a tortilla. This knowledge has practically changed my life.

Because I have an electric stove top, rather than gas, sometimes I will put foil down.  I am generally prepping tacos for four or more people, so I will use two or more burners at a time. It is important to keep an eye on your tortillas and turn them several times, so they get a little crisp and brown, but not burnt.

The only time I have bought a packet of taco seasoning in the last seven years was when I was traveling overseas and did not want to buy all the individual spices. When I mix in my own spices, I know there are no weird preservatives, and I have total control over the flavor and spicy-ness. Taco meat always includes onion, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and paprika. At my house, it often includes cinnamon, oregano, chili powder, and/or cardamom. Spice, stir, simmer, taste, repeat until you find what works for your family. It will take more spice than you anticipate I bet.

Authentic toppings are really simply chopped onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime (don’t forget the fresh lime!); however, I like to add tomato so our toppings remind me of the Mexican flag. Happy Cinco de Mayo, Amigos!

P.s. If you are not concerned with authentic, I do recommend this recipe for blueberry salsa, which I will be making again this Fourth of July.

May the 4th be with you!

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Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Star Wars

Today was all about geeking out and mostly for these two who were thrilled to ride on the Millennium Falcon as a part of the preview for the Indiana State Museum’s new Star Wars®: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit.

They put on their favorite (not only) Star Wars® t-shirts (that is a Darth Vader t-shirt with the cape), grabbed the pool noodle lightsabers I made last summer, and spent an afternoon geeking out with friends and learning a bit more about the universe.

Photo by @SpencerSokol

I put my hair back up in my Princess Leia messy buns, but I was totally outdone by all the little girls dressed as Leia (with perfect buns) and Amidala.

The Millennium Falcon experience opens to the public on Monday. The official exhibit opening is on May 24th at midnight. Click here for more official info. Don’t forget to make your own pool noodle light sabers to take with you to protect you from the storm troopers!

Mickey Mouse Half Birthday Cake

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half birthday, Mickey Mouse

Half birthdays are a thing around here. It’s a fun easy way to find more things to celebrate. Plus everyone loves a birthday party. For half birthdays, I make half a cake and order pizza – so easy.

Although not quite 1.5, little man did help me pick out the theme for his half birthday party by pointing to things on Pinterest. Of all the things he seemed to like, Mickey Mouse was the one around which I was pretty sure I would not want to base an entire theme party. If you look really closely though, you can see that I was able to dress for the theme.

I ordered half a round cake pan not realizing that it was made for making large wedding cakes, so I guess we ended up with a full cake – but it does give the right effect.

 

Lending Love Maternity Shower

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favors, gender neutral, gluten-free, maternity clothes

When my friend Katie posted the announcement about her unexpected pregnancy, I wanted to find a way to help her get a little more excited about what was to come. Parties are what I do, right? So Heather jumped on the bandwagon to help plan another shower for another Indy Geek Girl.At Katie’s request we kept it low key, focusing on her request to borrow maternity clothes. Borrowing and lending led to the “library” theme for our party. We were happy to be able to have the party at the beautiful Indy Reads Books, so they set the color scheme. It also allowed us to do some early Christmas shopping pre and post party ($1 each for kids books!).

Just like the last shower, I worked on decorations and Heather made the food. Indy Reads Books doesn’t require much decoration, so I did not have much to do. Making the banners was pretty easy, although it took a little time.

I went to Goodwill to find the most yellowed book they had. I used a paper cutter to cut from each top corner to the center of the bottom of the page, turning each into a triangle. I used the American Typewriter font, cutting out and pasting the letters to the bunting. A standard hole punch and twine were the only other things I used.

For favors, I attached bookmarks made out of paperclips and ribbon to old library cards with a Stampin’ Up stamp.

I also made little tags for gummy “bookworms”.

Other than shopping (and chatting), our major activity was writing notes for Katie – encouragement; predictions about height, weight, birth date, and gender; and helping her re-vision her future and her family.

Designhermomma

Heather used books to help set the menu (again all gluten free), which made food labels easy to make.

Christmas Craft To Do List

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Christmas, Christmas lights, craft, Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, wreath

I consider myself more of a “party girl” than a crafter, but Pinterest makes me think that I can do things. Real crafters I am sure already have all of their Christmas crafts completed, but I am not a real crafter. In an attempt to keep myself motivated, here is my hopeful to do list for Christmas crafts.

1. Stocking Identification – this pin was my inspiration to create vertical names for each household member using Scrabble tiles. Thanks to Heather I almost have all the letters I need. I think I am just missing an L. If you find Scrabble at a thrift store, I will take it off your hands. I need to make sure I have enough twill tape as well.

Source: oopseydaisyblog.com via Chris on Pinterest

2. Vintage Light Wreath – Last year I tried to use my large, “vintage” Christmas lights in a vase, but things started getting melty very quickly. I already have the wreath frame for this, so I just need to pull the lights out.

Source: realsimple.com via Jules on Pinterest

This idea failed:

Source: buzzfeed.com via Kaila on Pinterest

3. Wool Felt Mistletoe – I thought I was going to make this…

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Brooke on Pinterest

…but then I found this at one of my favorite stores, where I just happened to have two birthday gift cards.

4. Advent Calendar – As I am writing this post, I am already reconsidering… I thought I was going to tell you that I was going to make this with the stack of library pockets that I have. I even bought some half-off felt embellishments at Hobby Lobby today.

Source: kimberlypetersen.typepad.com via Deidre on Pinterest

Something like this is really more ideal (sturdy)….

Source: paper.tipjunkie.com via Danee on Pinterest

… but then I found this on Etsy. I may just keep watching Etsy to see if someone makes one that is perfect for me… or I might buy this one.

by VintageModernMix

Either way, I need to come up with a list of 24 fabulous family holiday activities to fill the advent calendar, so send your best ideas my way!

5. Gift Topiary – This is a maybe if I happen to find the right items on sale. It just looks like fun.

Source: thatvillagehouse.blogspot.com via Shelly on Pinterest

I have been ill this week, so I did not get a Dia de los Muertos post up in time, but I did get this accomplished. I’ll do a how to post next year before Day of the Dead. Hopefully, I can have better supplies on hand.

Monster Hand Meatloaf and Bone Shaped Breadsticks

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gluten-free, Halloween, meatloaf

I knew I wanted to serve something “creepy” for tonight’s dinner, but I just wasn’t inspired – until I saw this:

Mine is a bit more of a monster hand than a human hand, but I was able to convert my awesome meatloaf recipe to gluten-free, so that is worth sharing. If you are making a meatloaf hand, you’ll want to start with the onion –  slicing and rounding off pieces for the fingernails and rounding out a chunk for the bone.

 

Chop up maybe a cup of onion. If you are planning to mold it into a shape, I’d suggest using a food processor of some sort to mince it into very fine pieces. Throw the onion in a bowl with a pound of beef, a pound of sausage, approximately four cloves of minced garlic, maybe a cup of Glutino gluten-free bread crumbs, two tablespoons of parsley flakes, and maybe a tablespoon of sea salt. This is all approximate – do what feels and tastes right to you. Mix it by hand

 

Add two tablespoons Worcestshire sauce,  a dash of cumin, two teaspoons of oregano, and one beaten egg. (I added two eggs because it was suggested for gluten-free to help it stick, but I don’t think it was necessary). Mush it all together with your hands and enjoy the mess.

 

Since I didn’t have a fancy mold, I shaped my meatloaf into a hand shape on a greased cookie sheet, adding the onion fingernails and bone.

I am currently not eating any dairy, so I couldn’t do the fun provolone trick at notmartha. Next year, I will try that, at least for the kids. Instead, I just used a little blood barbecue sauce.

 

I did add mashed potatoes surrounding the hand, but it wasn’t really necessary since it actually cooked into a neater hand shape. While my meatloaf baked at 350 for 50-60 minutes, I made bone-shaped breadsticks using the chebe mix I received at the Gluten Free Expo.

Serve with “blood” dipping sauce (marinara or barbecue), cranberry juice or Witches Brew. The original meatloaf recipe came with a mushroom gravy side, but I don’t think it’s necessary to add anything to this meatloaf.

Happy Halloween, Y’all!

 

 

 

Celtic Candied Popcorn and “Irish” Turkish Cake

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Celtic Fest, color scheme, gluten-free, Irish, Scottish, St. Patrick's Day

I have to admit that I learned how to do theme parties from my parents. My dad’s favorite one every year is “Celtic Fest”. He goes all out with decorations, games for the kids, backyard Scottish games, kilts, and more.

Even more over the top at Celtic Fest is all of the food. Do you see all those crockpots full of beef stew and lamb stew? There were Scottish flag cookies too, but they were devoured before I pulled out my phone.

This year, I wanted to contribute some food allergy-friendly dishes. I used this recipe to make candied popcorn. I did burn one batch of the sugar, leaving the liquid candy brownish rather than green. Don’t leave out the vanilla – it really does change the flavor. I was just afraid of turning another batch brown unintentionally. I followed the directions exactly with the orange though and it was lovely. In fact this recipe was an easy way to keep the food in the theme colors, that it will likely show up at other parties in the future.

I also used the recipe for Turkish Cake to add more green to our table. The green is from pureed spinach, but you won’t taste it. The cake was gluten free, dairy free, made with spinach, (and without the vanilla – the recipe’s directions left out that step) and I still had people asking for the recipe. I think that makes it a winner. I thought it was extremely moist and had a great flavor.

Because I made it dairy free, I tried to make my own whipped cream topping out of cans of coconut milk, but that didn’t work. On my way to the party, I stopped at Whole Foods where they had a spray can of soy cream, but then we could not get it out of the can. In the end, it only had a dusting of powdered sugar, but my intention was to add a green sugar shamrock to the top – maybe I can do that for St. Patrick’s Day. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, something is going to go wrong.

 

 

 

 

Witches Brew Mocktails for a Kids’ Halloween Party

Tags

Halloween, mocktail

In my last post, I alluded to a project I am working on for Creative Converting. When they post the entire thing I will share it with you, but for now I thought I would give you a sneak peek and teach you how to make Witches Brew Mocktails for your Halloween party.

The first step of this project was painting the “glasses” I used plastic margarita stemware for this project because I thought the margarita shape was more generic than a wine glass so potentially more appropriate for kids, while the stemware made it just a bit fancier.

I just used acrylic paint and let it drip down the sides of the upside down stemware, adding more half way through to give it a thicker, more detailed look. Maybe you will get it right the first time, but I didn’t.

Once the paint was dry, the stemware was ready to go. The “Witches Brew” is simply my favorite all natural ginger ale and a few drops of green food coloring. I had green sugar sprinkles left over from Mardi Gras.

I dipped the rim of each creepy cocktail “glass” into a bowl of water then into a plate of sprinkles to sugar the rims, poured the colored ginger ale “Witches Brew” into the stemware, and topped each mocktail off with a gummy worm and a fancy bat straw.

The plastic stemware is light enough for a child to lift it safely, but the straw is added protection against green spots on a white table cloth.

Halloween Gift Wrap with Printable Tag

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free printable, Halloween

Halloween is a favorite holiday around here. Other than the whole tree thing, we probably have as many decorations for Halloween as we do for Christmas. I’ve been tempted to just photograph all the decorations we have to share with you, but they really aren’t things that I crafted. Maybe that is what instagram is for….? I have been working on a really fun project for Creative Converting, so hopefully I can share that and the projects that go with it soon. If you’ve been following me on twitter, you may have seen some hints

While we love the skulls and spiders and scary stuff, I’m not huge on candy. Trick or Treaters are more likely to find toys and pretzels than candy bars at my house. My most amazing assistant, on the other hand, loves candy and deserves all kinds of treats, so I buy the seasonal goodies for her. I think festive wrapping can make anything more special – even just a couple of bags of M&M’s.

I found the awesome printable tags (free) here. I just printed on plain paper and used my circle cutter to make them into tags. I used the extra ribbon from my spider webs wreath to really make it pretty. I taped the end of the ribbon to just inside the bag, then cut off a triangle at the right length. Adhesive dots attached the tag to the ribbon and the bag, holding everything in place. Repeat on the opposite side. I had everything needed on hand, so it only took a few minutes to turn a boring bag of candy into a festive thank you gift.

Halloween Spider Webs Wreath

Tags

fall, Halloween, spider, wreath

Happy fall, y’all! While I am never in a rush to say goodbye to summer, I always welcome autumn with open arms. I am craving cider and stew and squash. I made pumpkin alfredo last week with turkey (I’m still working on that recipe though). But I’m even more excited to share with you the Halloween wreath I made this weekend.

The hardest thing about  making this wreath was trying to find the right spider. I envisioned it with a glow in the dark spider, but could not find one anywhere, so I settled for a glittery orange spider (from Michael’s). The “shimmery” black tulle was on sale at Jo-ann’s, where I also grabbed the orange sheer ribbon. The wreath form is from the Dollar Tree.

I rented Taken when I needed a break from cleaning house and knocked out this wreath before it was over. I had two yards of tulle, which I cut lengthwise into quarters and then into 2-3 inch strips. All my cutting was approximate because it is spider webs and Halloween, so variance is a good thing (which so makes this my kind of project!) I simply tied the strips of tulle around the wreath form, double knotting them, and I used one of the strips to secure the spider as well. The tulle shimmers nicely in the autumn sunshine too.