All Things Alice #4: Cherry Blossom Girl Shoot

Melinda (thanks!) tipped me off to this photospread over at Cherry Blossom Girl, a cool fashion blog that was also a new find for me.

Project Linus 7-9

Remember how I started this? Well, I'm still going strong. I have 3 more quilts done and I have to say I am a little addicted. Is it still service if you love it so much? I hope so. Since most of my fabric is pretty girly, I tried a more masculine color scheme on the middle one. Many more are in my head and will be done shortly.

So I still get some personal crafting done, my plan is to do one quilt for the Project and then something for me. That way I stay sane and don't burn myself out.
(Obviously these quilts were made up in my mind as the patterns are a little funky. Next time we're going to be using up small scraps that for some reason I just cannot throw away.)

And P.S. My wonderful husband ordered that book for me. Lesson learned: Just blog about the things you want and directly instruct your husband to buy them for you. My next post will be about pretty jewelry and summery sandals...

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Eaten: Crispy Chicken Burritos

So I am not a food photographer. But this really is delicious and simple. Even if the picture looks kind of gloppy-how can refried beans look anything but gloppy?Since I get home from work at 5:15 and am starving, I don't mess around with dinner. Keeping it simple is my mantra. This is a recipe for enchiladas that I adapted to what was in my cupboard and what makes sense for us. Since I don't really measure I am just approximating the #'s below, please feel free to adjust to your tastes. Plus, you can make a ton of the filling and freeze it.

Crispy Chicken Burritos
Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed or shredded (whichever way you prefer, personally I'm a cubed girl)
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can green diced chilies
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1-3 cups cheddar cheese (if you want to add cheese to your sauce which is delicious, you'll need closer to 3 cups, if you're just using as a garnish then I would say 1 cup should be fine)
Oil for frying
10-12 tortillas. I like the costco ones that you cook yourself just make sure to cook them before you fill them.
taco seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook chicken in saucepan. I usually cook in a little oil and garlic. Add taco seasoning to chicken or just salt and pepper.
2. While chicken cooks, prepare sauce. Mix green chilies, about 2 cups cheese, soup, sour cream and milk in bowl.
3. Once chicken is cooked through add the sauce to the pan. Heat over medium until hot.
4. Meanwhile, cook your tortillas-if you need to. Set aside.
5. Heat clean pan with oil.
6. Fill tortillas, place spoonful in center of each tortilla and roll burrito style. I wish I could explain how to do this. Unfortunately, I worked at Taco Bell for a brief time so this technique is ingrained in my brain.
7. Place burritos in hot oil and cook until crisp on both sides.
8. Drain on paper towel. Sprinkle with cheese, cilantro and lime.

Serves 4. Or I set aside half the filling and freeze for another meal down the road. Don't forget to label your bag or you'll pull it out of the freezer in a few months and wonder what the heck it is.

You can also experiment with adding corn and black beans to your filling, both good. This is also good if you want to stretch your chicken further.

Eaten: Chocolate Mayo Cake with Ganache

This cake was found in an add for Miracle Whip in Instyle magazine. What? Mayonnaise in a cake? Well, hold onto your britches, this cake is so fab and easy to make you almost won't believe it. I mean its a cake mix, how can you screw it up? Plus, this dessert is so impressive looking and tasting you'll have to keep it a secret how simple it is.
Chocolate Mayo Cake
Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup mayo or miracle whip
3 eggs
1 cup water

1. Preheat oven according to cake mix directions.
2. Mix all ingredients with an electric beater. If you don't use the beater then you might get small lumps of mayo that weren't mixed in and the thought of that makes me want to throw up. Batter will be fluffier than you might expect.
3. Divide into either mini bundt pans (my personal favorite) or you could use a big bundt pan.
*Note-if using the mini pans make sure you use lots of PAM or the cake will stick and your cute little cakes will be a disaster. So apply a layer and then another layer and just when you think you have used enough, put on a little more for good measure.
4. Bake cakes according to package.
5. Cool. Drizzle with ganache, sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and serve with fresh berries.

Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Heat cream to just under a boil in a medium saucepan. If you're fancy you could also use a double boiler.
2. Place room temperature chocolate in glass bowl. If your chocolate is frozen, I know I keep my chips in the freezer, it won't work because the cream will cool too fast.
3. Pour cream over chocolate and mix until creamy and delicious. The cream will melt the chocolate but it takes awhile so you might be tempted to add more chocolate but don't, the ratio is very important.
4. Let sit for 5 minutes. Pour over cakes.

*Note-I think this tastes even better the second day!

Inspiration: Knotted Belts

Every month I get an Instyle in the mail, it is usually one of the better days of the month. Over time, the magazines tend to pile up until one day, when I've had enough, I sit down, reread them and rip out anything inspiring. Those pages are then trimmed and glued into a black sketchbook for future musings.Thanks iphotobooth for the pictures.
I had one of those days recently wherein I found this amazing belt. So I went to Home Fabrics bought 6 yards of 50 cent cording, spent an hour aggressively hot gluing, another 30 minutes figuring out the knot (thanks girls camp certification!) and voila! a way cute belt for under $5.It was only afterwards that I realized the same knot is on the headband I bought at the biggest Forever 21 when I was shopping with Jenny. And no, I am not wearing them on the same day, it is only for pictures because that would be ridiculous.

NCAA Tourney and Weekend

Our office is doing an NCAA March Madness Bracket and I am in 4th place. We'll be watching lots of basketball this weekend. The winner gets a $50 giftcard. I really want to win, not just to beat the guys in the office but for the giftcard!

Hope you all have a fun weekend, we'll be visiting with family, trekking to the Gem Show, watching the YW General Broadcast and as always trying to catch up on sleep, be crafty and spend time with my boys.

Need something to do while you're watching tv and surfing the net at the same time? Trust me, we do it too. Check me out on tumblr, updated everyday with inspirational lovelies from my internet journeys. Or see link on sidebar.

(Did I just say 'surfing the net'?)