Tickled PINK!

I'm tickled pink, because I tried a few new things (crafts and a recipe) and they all turned out as good or better then I'd hoped.  Last night I made a strawberry cake, the recipe I got from the Food Network's Sandra Lee (here is the link). Today, I was in a sewing mood, made the following:
1. A Valentine bib for mom
2. Two Valentine kitchen towels from one towel
3. Two "Burp Cloth"
4. Decorated a Onesie with tulle and made it into a tutu ( had enough fabric to make two).
Did I mention that they are all PINK!!!!

Onesie TuTu

Onesie TuTu

Burp Cloth

Kitchen Towels

Adult Bib

Too many UFO's

I have too many UFO's .....a UFO is an UnFinished Object.  I have a self imposed challenge for the month of February, to see how many UFO's I can complete.

So here we go!

February 1  UFO's

1.  Santa Apron
2.  Santa Apron

I also started a new project!  I redesigned a blouse for my good friend Jan who broke her arm.  She cant left her arm and therefore can't wear normal cloths, so I took a blouse, cut it open in the back, finished the raw edges with bias tape and added velcro.  I'll post pictures later!

February 1  New Projects

1.  Redesigned a blouse for Jan

Carmen's crock pot pot roast

Ingredients

2 lbs beef chuck shoulder
1 package of dry onion soup
1/4 cup water
4 red potatoes, cut in half
4 carrots, peeled, cut into 3 inch chunks
4 celery stalks, cut into 4 inch chunks

Directions

Heat a skill on medium, spay with Pam spray, brown the roast on each side for about 2-3 min; place meat in crock pot. Mix onion soup and water, pour over meat. Place into crock pot, in this order, potatoes, carrots and celery.  Cook on low for 8-10 hour or on high for 5-6 hours. Feeds 6-8

Carmen’s crock pot chili

Cook time: 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low

Ingredients

1 pound chuck roast, cut into ½ inch cubes

1 pound Italian sausage, removed from their skin

1 medium onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 cups celery, chopped

1 table spoon ground cumin

2 table spoons chili powder

1 package chili seasoning mix

2 (14 ½ ounce) cans diced tomatoes

2 (14 ½ ounce) cans of stewed, tomatoes

2 (14 ½ ounce) cans pinto beans, drained

1 (14 ½ ounce) can kidney beans, drained

Garnish

Shredded, cheddar cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions.

Directions

In a skillet brown the cubed chuck roast, drain and place in crock-pot.  Brown the Italian sausage, drain reserving dripping for next step, place cooked sausage in crock-pot.  Without cleaning the skillet return the drippings from the sausage to skillet, heat skillet to a medium low. Place the onions, garlic, bell pepper and celery in the skillet and sauté about 3-5 minutes.  Reduce heat, stir in cumin, chili powder and chili seasoning mix until well combined; remove from heat and place directly into crock-pot. Add tomatoes and beans to crock-pot and stir to combine all the ingredients.   Cook 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.  Serve topped with cheese, sour cream, onions. 

Panic

At the office one of our clients gave us tickets to see the AirHogs game (minor league baseball) in a suite complete with food, so I called several family members  and  friends,  asked if they wanted my ticket since I wasn’t planning on going because I didn’t have a sitter. My friend asked why not take mama, I replied that it would be difficult for us to get in vehicle after the game, getting her there would not be  difficult since I could ask V (mama’s caregiver)to help me get her in the car.  My friend assured me that if I took mama to the game they’d help me get her in the car to go home.  Needless to say I decided to go.  

  

I called V and asked how mama was doing today; mama slept through the night on Sunday and was very alert when I went to check on her in the morning.  V said she was going pretty well except she’s been a little panicked today; she told her “Un hombre estaba golpiando ha Carmen”, that a “man” was hitting me.  She has also been asking about my brother John, she’s very worried about him.  Once I get home I assess her and decide its okay to go to the ball game. She asked me if I was okay because a “man” had been hitting me, she kept looking at my face to see if I had any marks on me from the beating.  At the game she did pretty good, she wasn’t too confused; she didn’t know where we were, but she did enjoy the food.  We sat out on the balcony, watched the game until 8pm and then we went home.  For me it was nice to do something “normal”.

After struggling to get her into the house alone, I got her into bed by about 9:30…a little late for her, but she seemed okay.  Sometime about midnight she started calling out in a panic, she was calling for her mama. It took me about an hour to calm her down enough to fall asleep.  About 4:45 am today she woke up calling out in a panic again, again I went to check on her, this time she went right back to sleep.

When I got home, my sister MT was here, putting color on mama’s hair, mama seemed okay, she was alert enough to follow directions when she got the color rinsed off and during her comb-out.  After MT left, MJ arrived to help me get mama in bed.  She wanted to know what we were planning, why did we want her to go to bed.  We explained it was bed time!  We waited about 10 minutes, asked her again, now she was ready.  She was able to walk to her room, which was good.  She fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.  12:30 am, she’s awake talking about “handan los muchachos en el baile” (the boys are at the dance), she’s trying to get out of bed.  It’s a little after 1 am, she’s finally asleep. Good night!

Crock-Pot Chicken with Mushrooms

Crock-Pot Chicken with Mushrooms

Cooking time 5 hours

Serves: 4

What you need to know before you begin (about crock-pot cooking):

• Once you put the lid on the crock-pot DO NOT OPEN IT, when you open it that stops the cooking.
• Meats go on the bottom, layer with the next hardest ingredient (like carrots), ending with the softest (peas).
•  Cut vegetables no smaller or larger than 1 inch for even cooking.
• Turn your crock-pot on high while your prepping your ingredients.

What you need:

• 4 chicken skinless, boneless chicken breast
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 can of condensed mushrooms
• 1 cup of fresh carrots, peeled and chopped into 1” pieces (you may also use whole baby carrots which I like to do since it save me time [I like easy])
• 1 cup of fresh celery, chopped
• 1 cup of fresh mushrooms
• ½ cup onions (I like to use red onions; you may use pearl onion too!)
• 1 cup frozen peas (don't thaw)

Instructions:

• Rinse your chicken and pat dry with a paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in the crock-pot in a single layer (if possible).
• Open the can of mushrooms and pour over the chicken, place all of your vegetables in the crock-pot in the order I have them listed above.
• Place the lid on the crock-pot and let this cook for 5 hours. DO NOT OPEN the lid during this time. Alternative cooking would be to set the crock-pot on low and cook for 10 hours.

My personal notes:

I love making this Crock-Pot Chicken with Mushrooms because it is so easy and I can fix it and forget about it.   I will usually make this in the morning about 7am and by noon it’s done which allows me to run errand and return home to a hot meal I didn’t slave over that taste great! Yes, I leave the house while my crock-pot is cooking.  This is one of my mom's favorites :) God bless the woman who invented the crock-pot!

May 15th: Mama

I let mom sleep as long as she wanted to today. I gave her, her medications at about 8:30 this morning along with her eye drops and asked her if she wanted to sleep a little more or if she was ready to get up; she elected to sleep.  I made myself a cup of coffee and breakfast, and then got back into bed with a book.  

About 11 am mom was ready to get up, she is very alert this morning.  She said “I must have been very sick because y’all were acting like I was dyeing.“ At breakfast she ate everything, her smoothie, oatmeal and egg.  We listened to ranchera music during breakfast, I was singing and dancing while cleaned up around the house.  Mom watched as she ate, she recognized the music and even sang along with one of her favorite song….something about “la chancla que yo tiro” I even noticed that she was moving her feet to the music.  After breakfast I was feeling creative, I had a project in mind (have for the last week) so I worked on it while mom watched.  She didn’t say much as I worked on it, I showed it to her and ask her input but she didn’t respond until it was completed …then she gave an approving applaud!

Next we moved to the living room where we sat and watched TV for a little while.  Mom got a little confused but not too badly.  A little later my oldest son and his wife came over.  After he visited with her for a bit he asked me why I hadn’t told him we were “moving”; Grandma Jessie (mama) told him we were moving to an apartment.  Of course he knew she was confused. 

At lunch I served mom the chicken with mushrooms I made in the crock-pot yesterday (recipe to come), she ate all of it.  She liked how tender the meat and vegetables were.  Mom got a little panicked after lunch she said the my “Minerva’s family is coming over and Martin has a gun”, “que pasa con ellos” .

Mom’s in bed now, she did very well getting to her room. Let’s see how we make it through the night.

Garden Hose Wreath....I saw one at Cracker Barrel, just couldn't see buying something I could make myself. Besides, my garden hose need to be replaced and I didn't want the old one to end up in a landfill!

This is my old water hose!

Dollar store items (not the bird house).

Finished project!

Looks great on my front door!