Breaded Baked Halibut

Thanks for your very sweet comments (Jane!).  So, another meal from the kitchen!  To make this breaded halibut:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Oil the pan you will be cooking your fish in.  Rub oil on the fish and place in dish.  Put about 1/4 cup of white wine in the dish, splashing over fish.  Rub Dijon mustard on fish.  Sprinkle with thyme, paprika, salt and pepper to taste.  Then cover with fine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes in the oven.  Serve immediately.  Comes out flaky and yummy...serve with rice and veggies.  I did some asparagus here and the timing is perfect to start the rice and then cook veggies while the fish bakes...they all get done at the same time so you have hot food!

Swedish Meatballs

This meal turned out so yummy!  I just used the directions on the McCormick's Swedish Meatball package and put it on some wide egg noodles.  Easy, but--oh man--delicious!  The sides are another easy addition.  For the apple/banana fruit salad recipe click here.  For the bread, I just took some sandwich bread, spread butter and sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top and then broiled till brown.

This week in the Garden..

As you can see many of the flowers I planted are springing to life and flooding the fountain with something other than water!  I am so excited and every day am seeing new sprouts--can't wait for blooms.  

My Forget-Me-Nots are started to plump up and some are really thriving with the heat we are getting.  However, sadly, some are browning a bit on the tips from the heat, and a couple of the little guys have totally fried up.  I was hoping to get a few more seedlings in the ground where there is a bit of bareness, but the stores have already moved onto Fall plantings! :(

Here is my oh so sad herb/veggie garden...The parsley on the left is coming in a bit, but not much and the lettuce that was growing in on the right is starting to fry in our heat.  I planted it just way too late in the Spring. Also, no signs of coming back on my oregano or basil and no sign of growth from the peppers or eggplant.  It might have been too late for them also and I know the soil in this pot is very fickle...eventually I will figure out what he likes..

An Ivy update: the new sprouting branch is so long! In case you didn't see him when he was first starting to sprout click here.  There's a picture down towards the end..probably about a 3-4 inch growth!  (He was my first baby)

Other gardening news: I am still finding tons of snails every day eating up my little flowers!  I noticed today that they like to hide in the hole of my fountain that would be the drain hole.  Little stinkers!!  :)  I also put some organic feed down for the seedlings and some quick start growth stuff I got from our local nursery. I hope it helps with the sun and my little pests...

Baby Scrapbook-- 2nd Pregnancy!

So here's my second completed page in my baby scrapbook!  I just love these papers I got from one of those big paper books and the dimensionals are something I think I picked up while still pregnant anticipating making a baby scrapbook page! :)

In my first pregnancy I was taking a picture of my belly every other week...I got too busy to do it with the second one so I looked through my pictures and found a bunch of me in pictures while pregnant and did a little time collage from those! 

I always think that I will have too much space with my journal and then end up running out of room because I want to talk so much!  I love writing journals sometimes (especially because it can be so easy just writing it by hand!) and I think it works well here, but I hope in a few of these pages I can get some cute fonts and type up some cool journals too.  Then I can fit more!

Of course, I needed to add pictures of little Elijah inside my belly too so I made flaps for my ultrasound pictures and added some little details and journaling in the flaps too.  The ribbon worked really well with the papers and I tied it all together by sponging brown ink on the edges of everything.

If you'd like to see my first pregnancy scrapbook page click here!

Friday Sketchers #104

This sketch comes from Friday Sketchers.  It's my favorite one of the three sketches I did this week.  It was my first time doing the sketches/challenges.  I hope to do more of them and I can already see improvement to my card making!  Thanks to all of you for the encouragement and ideas! :)

TESC115 Sketch

Made this sketch from Taylored Expressions blog.  I liked all of the details they added to their sketch.  Also, it was bittersweet being able to use this set from Stampin' Up--I really like the wording.

Banana & Apple Side Dish

This is such a super easy and inexpensive side dish to any meal.  To feed about four, cut up two bananas and two apples and throw them in a bowl.  Then in a separate very small bowl mix about 2 tablespoons of sour cream and about the same amount of light brown sugar.  Mix together until white color turns cream, adding more brown sugar if needed.  Toss with fruit.  If you are feeding more people, just add more fruit and sauce.  You can also do half as much for two or so people!  This is really good to bring to a holiday meal or party because it's so cheap and feeds a lot.  People just love this---I actually stole the recipe from a friend who stole it from her mother-in-law and she probably got it from someone else--it's so good you just want to pass it on!  Hope you enjoy!

Laura's Sketch 53

This sketch was really hard for me--I kept wanting to add things or not put the top part of the sketch on.  It's not my favorite card, but I guess you have those every now and again!  

Click here for: Original Posting/Card Challenge Website. (From 2 Sketches 4 You)

Baby Scrapbook Pregnancy

Here's the FIRST PAGE I've completed for my baby scrapbook.  I'm planning on doing a "combo" book.  I had my first two kids close in age (13 months apart) so I thought it would be cool to do their baby book together.  It will include all the significant parts of their first year of life.  So, pregnancy, birth, first bath, holidays...etc.  Some pages will be their own page (like this one) and some I will combine pictures and make one page for both kiddos.  I'm pretty excited and hope it will be awesome.  Let me know if you have any cool pics on your blog of a baby album you did or any ideas in general...I would love to include them in this scrapbook. :)

The very first page in the scrapbook will probably be a nice portrait of the boys, but this will immediately follow it.  This is my pregnancy with my first son, Nehemiah. 

Honey and Dijon Mustard Glazed Turkey

Ya, I know Thanksgiving is way over, but my parents gave us a turkey they had and didn't feel like cooking--so I did!!! It turned out sooo juicy and yummy.  We also made turkey sandwiches the next day with our leftover meat.  I started following a recipe and then got creative so here's the recipe I used including my spin:

Honey and Dijon Mustard Glazed Turkey:

Wash turkey and remove innards.  Pat dry with a paper towel.  Mix in a cereal-sized bowl the following ingredients: olive oil, kosher salt, honey, a stick of melted butter, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, McCormick's Crusting Blends (the garlic, lemon, and rosemary one), black pepper and lemon pepper.  (I just added about how much I thought would be good with more of the stuff we like.  It filled up a cereal bowl.)  Then, rub onto turkey lifting up the skin and putting directly on meat.  With the breast side up, cover the roasting pan loosely with foil, and bake at 325 degrees for about three hours or until internal thermometer reads 180 degrees (my fifteen pounder took three and a half hours).    Let cool for ten to fifteen minutes and carve.

Feeling Inspired...

I have felt so inspired by all of the other crafters I started following this week!!  Thank you and here's what came of my inspiration (until two in the morning last night)!

The "ribbon" here is actually one of those twisty ties that holds toys or electronics in their box that I had saved and now re-purposed!

Fall out Flip Book Tutorial

Here is a tutorial on how to make a falling out flip book.  It worked perfect here with the bridesmaids walking down the aisle because as you see the next page you are seeing the next thing that happens (or next girl coming).  This would also work well with another timeline event.  This would also be cute to make on its own as a memory book.

I first arranged the order I wanted the pictures to be seen in and set them aside (now you should know how many pictures you have to figure out the number of pages too).  The background paper, black here, is an 8 1/2" X 11" sheet cut length ways so that I could fit four pictures per half a sheet.  In the example there are nine pictures plus a title so I had a total of one and a quarter black sheets.  It's two pictures for every quarter page, or four pictures for every half a page.  You can choose any size of book you want, but I like this way because you maximize your paper usage and minimize where you see the paper connecting. 

Let's connect all of the black sheets before adding any pictures.  Line up the short sides of the background paper and adhere to one another.  We want where the seams meet to be behind the picture and out of sight.  In the wedding example all you will see is folds because the seam is either hidden behind a picture or is at the back, where we aren't looking, when you flip open the book.  Put the left most paper edge on top of the next sheet with about a 3/4"-1" overlap and adhere.  Repeat this with as many pages you would like to add (if you have to add only a quarter a sheet at the end, you can just overlap the last page--and fyi you shouldn't need extra length).  

Now, we want to fold at the very first seam.  The fold should be in the back at the edge of the second paper.  Then, the long sheet should rest on top of the first sheet.  Next, fold the following page the same way so that it folds at the back seam on top of the second page.  You just repeat the first step until all of your seams are folded.  Remember to keep folding inward or to the left though.

Then we open it length ways again and starting at the right most side folding the pages in half inward.

The last flap goes on top of the rest of the pages.

Now as you add your pictures make sure you do it in the right order as the flips fold out!  

 

Then add decorative rub-ons, tabs, titles, embellishments, or whatever you fancy!  Tie the same elements into your scrapbook page!

Result is clean-line, but you got a lot more pictures/memories in that page!  And what a fun way to remember the order everyone entered in!  Please feel free to email or post with any questions!