Red Wine Spritzer

Friday we had an ugly sweater party at work.  At the end of the party the managers were kind enough to suprise us with the fact they had gotten each of us a wine bottle as a Christmas gift. How sweet! Each wine bottle was wrapped in red or white paper indicating what kind it was. We were then free to grab what we preferred. The only thing was they were random brands and kinds so we had to blindly choose. I am very picky when I comes to wine and when I unwrapped my Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot I was excited to try something new: 

Wine Spritzer!

Pour ice in you glass

Toss in a handful of frozen berries- I had blue berries on hand. 

Pour in one part wine and three parts flavored berry sparkling water. 

Enjoy!

With this particular wine, it is not sweet and usually I only like sweet wines. But this was brand new to me and I loved it!

Recipes From Home- Porcupine Meatballs

Yes, another amazing meal from the Recipes From Home Collection.

This gift from my Future-Mother-In-Law introduced me to many recipes I had never heard of. I always thought of meatballs as part of spaghetti, never a meal on their own. I was concerned we  may feel a bit empty just eating meatballs, but I should of never doubted her. This simple, four ingredient, delectable, meatball recipe soon became one of my favorites. 





Like I said, you only need 4 ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground beef.

• 1/2 uncooked minute rice. I had the boil in the bag kind, 1/2 a cup was equivalent to about half a bag.

• 1 small chopped onion. I LOVE my dried chopped onions from Sam's Club. I got this container over a year ago and still have a lot left! If your are using dried chopped onion keep in mind these are dehydrated and will expand when moisture is added. For this recipe I use about half a lid full. 

• 1 can of tomato soup

In my casserole dish that I use for everything it seems, I mix the tomato soup with half a can of water and put it in the oven while it preheats to 375 degrees.

While the oven is preheating and the soup is warming up roll your beef mixture into balls.
Add meatballs to the soup- oven does not have to be done preheating

Wait until oven is preheated and bake (covered) for 1 hour.

Yum!

Recipes From Home- Meatloaf

As you may know from my first post I am getting married in August! Last Christmas, before we were engaged, I received a priceless gift from my Future-Mother-in-Law: Recipes From Home.
A whole binder full of... women. Just kidding- had to throw that in there.
A whole binder full of her recipes! This gift is so great in so many ways.
 She is a mother of four, each child two years apart, and three of them are boys. These meals are easy, inexpensive, filling and delicious!
Also, Jeremy is a super picky eater and now I have a whole collection of meals he will eat.
Most of these recipes call for beef, which is also perfect because in August Jeremy bought a quarter of a cow and we have a LOT of ground beef.

Going forward, all the recipes from my Future-Mother-In-Law will have the title "Recipes from Home"

 

Without further adieu...Meatloaf! 

What you will need:

1 lb of ground beef

1/2 packet of Lipton onion soup mix

1/2 cup oatmeal-dry

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

 Mix ingredients by hand. I whisk the egg before mixing it in. Shape into a loaf. Place in pan (oh look the same dish I used to make my bread in!) and cover. If you're using a regular baking pan cover with foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. After the 50 minutes are up, uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Super Easy Bread!

I must admit, I've never made bread before I came across this recipe. So, I don't know how easy it is compared to other ways, but I do know I love it. 

You need:

3 cups of flour- I used whole wheat.
1 3/4 teaspoon salt.
1/2 teaspoon quick rise yeast.
1 1/2 cup of water. 

Mix together everything dry first, and then add water.

Cover the bowl you used with wrapping plastic and let sit for 12-18 hours out on your counter-not the refrigerator. (I've gone a couple hours over 18 and it's still turned out fine)

 

(You can see my puppy paw prints from my previous post)

 

After the dough has sat for 12-18 hours heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Once your oven is preheated you're going to need a pot or casserole dish to bake your bread-remember it's going to rise and you need something you can cover.
I use a casserole dish.
Place your empty pot or dish in the oven with the lid in the oven for 30 minutes.

 

IMMEDIATELY after placing your pot or dish in the oven, dump your dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. It's important this is done immediately because the dough needs 30 minutes to rest after being shaped.

Once the 30 minutes has passed, plop your dough into your pot or dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Once the 30 minutes is up you will have a beautiful loaf of warm, yummy bread!

My top got a little smushed from the lid-oops

Had to add my "helpers" in. They're always by my side in the kitchen :)

 

Puppy Paw Prints

We have gotten over a foot of snow here in the North Land, and they're predicting 4-10" more! So I got a snow day from work!
Awesome!
But I was already stir crazy from all my holiday PTO.

So I came up with a craft for myself, inspired by Pinterest.

This is SO easy!!

The clay is made with
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup corn starch
3/4 cup of water.

Combine mixture and put in small saucepan.

Stir constantly a few minutes over medium heat

When the mixture looks like this, it's ready!

Remove from heat and continue stirring until it looks like this

Wait until clay is cool enough to touch.

Roll into a ball and call your puppies!

I found it easiest to put the clay on the floor and then press my dog's paw firmly down to make an impression rather than how I have it pictured here.

Bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes on each side. Baking times will vary with how thick the clay is. When the clay is wet it's kind of a greyish color and when it's fully baked it's a pure white. You can also feel for wet spots.

I chose to color in the paws with sharpies!

If you'd like to use them as Christmas ornaments be sure to make a hole for the string before baking.

Homeownership- Cleaning the grout

Now that I own my home- I want to take care of it. It is, after all, an investment.

We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous master bathroom in our home. The tile is a bit dated, but that tub makes it worth it

Back to the dated tile though.
Said tile needs to be cleaned.
The photoed tile here isn't so bad but the floor was getting pretty rough.

So, I went to Walmart to look for grout cleaner.
I'm not sure if grout cleaner is a thing, but I sure as heck didn't find it.


After the help of google and wikiHow I figured it out!

First, I just used an off brand pine sole mix to wipe down the tile.
Then I sprayed vinegar over the tile, let it sit 10 minutes, and scrubbed it with a soft brush.
Third I made a paste with baking soda and a little bit of water and applied it to the tile.
It was fun watching it fizz!
I enjoyed the fizz for a couple minutes and then got to work.

This is where the magic happened.
Look at that!!!
Just scrubbed the grout with the soft brush.

Afterwords I wiped off the bakingsoda paste with a wet towel and wikiHow said to follow up with lemon juice.
So with a sponge I applied lemon juice to the grout- luckily I have a huge Sam's Club container of lemon juice. 







I just rinsed the tile with a wet, warm towel and that was it! Clean bathroom floors!

http://m.wikihow.com/Clean-Bathroom-Grout

DIY Glitter Silhouettes

This thanksgiving weekend I got a little antsy with all my PTO from work.
I already decorated my house for Christmas and was itching to do some more.
A few weeks ago the fiance' took me hunting for the first time. No luck but I do
still have my dream buck in my mind.
So I decided to make something centered around my dream buck!

Glitter Bucks!

First I drew the outline of a buck on to canvas

 Then, I traced the outline with tacky glue

 Now the fun part! I decided to have the outline be pink and the rest gold. So I sprinkled pink glitter along the glued outline.

Then, shake off the glitter....

 Ta Da!!! Pink buck outline!

 

 Next I applied glue to the inside of the head and used a paint brush to spread the glue evenly.
I chose to do sections at a time, but I'm sure you could do it all at once.

 And the end result! I chose to make inverses of each other! Aren't they beautiful? This makes me want to glitter-ize everything! Let me know what you choose to glitter-ize!