Christmas tamales

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

For the past several years Brandon and I have created our own tradition of making tamales on (or around) Christmas. Making tamales requires just a little bit of pre-planning (supply buying and day-of timing) and are fairly easy.

We use this recipe from Pepper Fool, of course with our own tweaks:

For the tamales:

1/2 eight-ounce package dried corn husks
4 ounces (1/2 cup) vegetable shortening
1 pound (2 cups) fresh masa
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 oz purchased salsa verde (We use the LaVictoria Thick’n Chunky Salsa Verde)
Shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken (about 2-3 cups)

Toppings:

Cilantro
Cheese
Sour cream
Onions
Whatever else you want!

Prepare corn husks:

Soak the husks in water till pliable. Make sure they are fully submerged. If using room temperature water, they made need to soak for a few hours. To speed this up, you can put them in simmering water for 10 minutes and then let them continue soaking while the water cools.

To make the dough:

Beat the vegetable shortening in a mixer until very light, for about a minute. Add 1/2 pound (1 cup) fresh masa to shortening. Beat until well blended. Continue beating, adding alternately the remaining 1/2 pound masa and the broth, adding only enough broth to give consistency of medium thick cake batter. Then sprinkle in the baking powder and salt. Beat 1 minute more.

To form the tamales:

Remove husks from water when they have softened. Pat husks dry. Tear extra husks into 1/4 inch wide, 7 inch long strips one for each tamale. Take one that is at least 6 inches across on wider end and 6-7 inches long. Lay out this corn husk with tapering end toward you.

Tamale making begins

Spread a couple of tablespoons of dough mixture into a square, leaving at least a 1.5 inch border on side toward you and 3/4 inch border along other sides. Add chicken, cheese and salsa. (Along with whatever else you decide to add!)

Filling the tamales

Pick up two long sides of corn husk and bring them together, overlapping one over the other.

Fold up the bottom section of husk tightly right up to the filling line. Leave top open. Secure it in place by loosely tying one of strips of husk (or some baking twine) around tamale base.

Wrap up the tamales

Repeat with remaining husks and dough mixture.

Stand tamales on the folded bottom in prepared steamer, being sure they are not packed too closely in steamer they need to expand.

Cover with layer of leftover husks. Check carefully that all the water doesn’t boil away, adding boiling water when necessary. Cover with lid and steam for 1 hour.

Unwrap the tamales, discard the husks and serve with additional salsa on the side.

Our tamale feast

Yield: 4-6 servings

15Dec2015

Yarn ball Christmas ornaments

Posted in Cats, Crafts, DIY, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

With Christmas in only 10 days (!!!) I’m excited to share a Christmas ornament that is so easy, so cute and so perfect for anyone who knits or crochets or has a love of yarn. As I type this, my mind is going crazy with ideas about how to make this more cat-centric, it could even be a gift for the crazy cat ladies in your life too. (No judgment, I’ve been a proud crazy cat lady for 10+ years!) I made four of these last year, and found the idea on Pinterest. (I love Pinterest!)

Yarn ball ornaments

First, gather your supplies. A trip to Michael’s or JoAnn’s Crafts will set you up perfectly for this for pretty cheap. Depending on the value of coupons, this could be less than $5 total!

All the supplies you’ll need for the yarn ball ornaments

A skein of the yarn of your choice (Yes, I looked up what that was called!)
A package of the ornaments you want to cover
Wood beads
Skewers (any size 6” or longer)
Super glue
Scotch tape
Scissors

For the needles

Select pairs of wood beads that are similar colors.
Cut sets of skewers (if necessary) in similar lengths
Apply super glue to the inside of the wood bead. You could probably also use hot glue, but the hot glue might get everywhere. If you do use super glue, be very careful about applying the glue and having it unknowingly seep drip through the beads and onto your fingers. It glues very securely and very quickly! (Yes, I speak from experience!)
Hold the end of the skewer flush with the outside of the wood bead, to make it look like a knitting needle.

Yarn ball ornament “needles”

For the yarn balls

Start the yarn ball by taking the gold or silver “topper” off of the ornament. (It’ll be returned once the yarn has been applied)
Take a piece of tape and tape the end of the yarn onto the ornament.
Start wrapping the yarn around the ornament. And keep wrapping…and wrapping…and wrapping…and wrapping… But seriously, switch up the direction from time to time and wrap the ornament until all of the glass is covered and it looks like a ball of yarn.
When you’re nearing the end, simply cut the yarn and tuck it into a previously-wrapped section.
Put the topper back on, lace the “needle” through the yarn and your finished product is ready!

First thing first. Starting the ornament.

Wrap, wrap, wrap.

More last-minute Christmas present ideas to come! Have a great rest of the week!

4Nov2015

Michael’s 1st Halloween {2015}

Posted in Baby Michael, Crafts, DIY, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Baby Michael was born just in time to celebrate his first Halloween in style!

I originally wanted him to be a Cookie Monster, but there weren’t costumes in the itty bitty size that I needed. (We did end up receiving a toddler-sized one as a gift, so be on the look out for our Cookie Monster next year!)

Late night breastfeeding is conducive to lots of Pinterest browsing and I found this adorable glow-in-the-dark skeleton outfit on sale. $8 for a costume? Done.

Skeleton baby & skeleton head wine!

I also made this ghost onesie for Michael. (More on that in a future post; hopefully this week)

BOO! It’s Michael!

You’ve also already seen Michael’s pumpkin bib. It was a gift and was perfect for Halloween and his six-week Facebook photos.

Michael’s six-week photo shoot

Finally, his Waldo outfit came together by happenstance. I was going through Michael’s outfits, saw the red and white striped onesie and his blue pants and voila! I added a red electrical tape stripe to his hat from the hospital, along with a yarn puff. The only item I needed to purchase were pipe cleaners for his glasses. $1 total. Cheapest– and cutest– costume yet!

Where’s Waldo… er… Michael!? I found him!

Look at those specs!

Which costume is your favorite? I like them all!

We tried putting Michael in an actual pumpkin too, something I’ve always wanted to do with a baby, and it was an extreme failure. We were all laughing as much as my sister was. Everyone except Michael. Maybe next year?

This looks so easy on Pinterest…

30Oct2015

Halloween preparations on Megan’s Island {2015}

Posted in Baby Michael, Drinky drinky, Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Man, this baby vacation is flying by and I’m not doing nearly the amount of fun festive crafting and blogging that I had hoped I would be! I had grand plans of decking the house (and the kid) out for Halloween, but I’m nowhere close. Alas, he’s worth it — and I followed through on decking him out!

Michael & Beary Goldberg: best friends!

BOO! It’s Michael!

First things first, I found a bottle of wine for Halloween: the 2013 Dearly Beloved Forever Red. There are many bottles out there and this one matches Michael’s skeleton costume the best, so I had to have it. Plus the price was right at under $10.

Skeleton baby & skeleton head wine!

I’ve seen lots of Halloween-y wines at QFC and Trader Joe’s, and here are some wine-specific candy pairing ideas I found this year. If wine isn’t your thing, VinePair had some great Halloween Candy/alcohol pairings last year. Read my post here.

For a festive dinner, I’ve been scouring Pinterest during middle-of-the-night feedings and have settled on a “scary” lasagna. I opted for this “Cheesy Brussels sprout lasagna” with a scary face topping. I’m hoping it looks like this, but without the red sauce:

Scary lasagna!

Last year we made a zombie meatloaf (this is awesome, delicious, gluten-free, and quick and easy, if you need an idea!).

In 2013, we made squid ink pasta with “brain” sauce.

For more Halloween ideas, check out my Pinterest “Halloween Inspirations” board. So many great ideas that you could even do on short notice for this year!

21Oct2015

DIY clay animal busts

Posted in Baby Michael, Crafts, DIY, Homemade by mszerwo

A few months ago I received a large rhino head by accident from Zulily. (It was supposed to be pair of raven bookends for my Dad’s birthday…)

Maddie isn’t sure what to do with this surprise delivery

Of course I wanted to spray paint the head white and the horn gold and hang it in the nursery, but Brandon put the kibosh on it pretty quickly. (He likes the natural coloring of the rhino.) I’ve kept my eyes peeled for an additional rhino or other animal busts on my trips to Marshall’s and HomeGoods, but never found anything that I had to have.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and Etsy and stumbled across several great items, but they were all more than I wanted to spend, so I decided to make my own!

I looked everywhere for Crayola Model Magic, which apparently doesn’t exist anymore. So, after intense staffmember consultation and debate, I landed on DAS modeling clay from the University Bookstore. I also bought several unfinished plaques from JoAnn’s (similar to this one, the in-store selection is hit or miss and I lucked out).

The sculpting reminded me of my childhood and high school art classes and I really enjoyed it. Some of the ideas came from my head, while some came from the internet. I sculpted the busts around foil balls (so they were lighter when hung) and followed the instructions and let them air dry for several weeks. (Mainly out of laziness.)

Once they were dry I spray painted them a glossy white and Brandon used leftover stain to make the plaques a uniform color. I used ample hot glue to adhere the busts to the plaques– and voila! they were beautiful! I originally tried to adhere them with super glue and that didn’t work out. Hot glue was the way to go.

My clay animal busts

To finish off the projects, I hot glued a “D” hook on each plaque.

Hanging the busts

Here they are in relation to the nursery wall. I’m really pleased with how the nursery turned out. And look at that little two-week old Michael! He’s grown so much since then!

Michael and his friends, showing off his clay animal busts. (Sort of)

Happy crafting!

9Sep2015

It’s football time!

Posted in Crafts, DIY, Homemade, Q13 by mszerwo

‘Tis the season to get ready for football season! I’ve been gearing up on Pinterest and have compiled some of my football favorites here for you. We even went to a preseason faceoff between our hometown Seattle Seahawks and Brandon’s beloved Denver Broncos. (The Broncos won~ Go Broncos!) Baby-dependent, Brandon will be heading to the first home Husky game of the season on Saturday. I’ll be at home cooking something delicious. Maybe these ‘chos? {Better yet: pineapple and pork are supposed to induce labor!}

Since the season is long and we’ll have plenty of opportunities to share our tailgate and game day eats, I’m focusing on football crafts today. Specifically, AstroTurf crafts.

I had a lot of fun with AstroTurf last year, with my debut on Q13’s morning show.

Looked good on TV!

I made koozies, coasters, platters, wine tags, “wreaths,” and more. {Full blog post and tutorial here} But those were so 2014.

Beer koozies

AstroTurf platters: works with any size tile!

AstroTurf wine tags

One of my most favorite crafts to date: An AstroTurf W!

For the 2015-16 season, I’ve purchased a new roll of AstroTurf rug and found some new ideas:

An upgrade on my coaster idea: circles!

This AstroTurf table is pretty amazing

An AstroTurf bulletin board

I have several ideas swirling in my mind right now, and potentially a couple more weeks of free time to act upon them, so check back for my new 2015 AstroTurf ideas! Happy football season to you! Go Huskies, Broncos and Seahawks!

10Aug2015

{2015} S’more Day

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Guess what today is? NATIONAL S’MORE DAY!

Mallow Bits

This kid has given me an incredible sweet tooth and that sweet tooth has a sweet spot for s’mores. I’ve always been interested in the combination of marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker but it’s been kicked up a notch the past few months.

If the weather cooperates, I’ll be making {another} batch of s’more chocolate chip cookies. Perhaps you’ll join me?

It’s quite easy: take your favorite chocolate chip cookie –or any cookie really — recipe (some suggestions here), add some of mini marshmallows or these “Mallow Bits” I found at Target, some crumbled graham crackers, and voila! S’MORE COOKIES.

The s’more cookies I made for a potluck last week.

Here are some other ways you can celebrate:

Want to celebrate with others?

Celebrate S’Mores Day at Theo Chocolate, taking place on August 10 and 11 from noon to 5 p.m. at their factory in Fremont. Delicious homemade marshmallows and graham crackers combined with tasty Theo Chocolate makes for a very special treat.

Best part? $1 of every s’more goes to Food Lifeline and stopping hunger in Western Washington.

S’mores for TWO days at Theo!

Want to celebrate with yourself? I have some ideas for you:

S’more bark

A triple chocolate s’more bark, perhaps?

S’more pizza

I love pizza. S’more + pizza = Sounds amazing!

S’more lasagna

S’more lasagna? Yes, please.

And some recipes for the full year? Thanks, Country Living!

S’more recipes for the whole year…

I hope you have a very enjoyable s’more day! I know I will!

3Aug2015

2015 National Night Out (Tomorrow!)

Posted in 2015 Resolutions, Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

It’s already August (where did the past eight months go!?) and with that comes Election Day for those of us in Washington (make sure you vote!) and National Night Out. Both of which fall on the first Tuesday of August.

2015’s National Night Out: TOMORROW! What are you bringing?

What is National Night Out?

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live. Together, we are making that happen.

National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community and provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.

Neighborhoods across the nation host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other various community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel and exhibits.

Growing up I was the Block Watch Captain for our block, organizing the Night Out potluck celebration each year.

Our Megan’s Island neighborhood usually has a get together and this year is only a little different. Our neighbor Dave professionally smokes meats (ribs, brisket, etc. — it smells SO good on our street come football season!) and will be cooking up BBQ chicken and brats for our Night Out celebration.

(Interesting side note: We toyed with the idea of having Dave bring is smoker up to our house and having fresh pizzas and smoked meats, but we didn’t get out stuff together fast enough this year or last. We’re planning a separate neighborhood pizza party instead. Besides, two parties is better than one, right?)

The assignment for those attending our neighborhood potluck this year is to bring a side dish to share. I usually go with brownies, but since it’s been so hot and brownies are kind of boring, I’ve been scouring the internet for a new recipe and I think I’ve found the perfect dish to bring: a watermelon goat cheese salad. (Of course, any and all of these hot weather eats would be perfect for your Night Out celebration!)

I found this recipe in my new (library-issued) Food52 Cookbook, which happens to be our cookbook of the week this week. It’s perfect for the season and should be perfect for a large group of our neighbors. I plan on making a few (mostly lazy) changes, so I’ll include them here. If you want to see the official recipe, visit Food52.

Watermelon and Goat Cheese Salad with a Mint-Basil Infused Vinaigrette
Serves 4

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 handful fresh mint basil
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 seedless watermelon
1/2 pound fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup unsalted pistachios
2 tablespoons red vine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 dash fresh pepper

Roughly chop the mint basil and add the olive oil and the coarse salt. Grind for about 10 minutes and let it sit for about 1 hour at room temperature. (The original calls for using a mortar and pestle, but we don’t have one of those. I’ll improvise.)
Cut the watermelon into cubes and place in a salad bowl in the refrigerator.
Place the pistachios in a pan and on low heat toast them for 5 minutes.
Remove the pistachios from the pan and chop them roughly. Set aside in a small bowl.
Crumble the goat cheese.
Take the olive oil and mint-basil mix and put it through a small mixer. When completely mixed add the vinegar. Mix again.
Take the watermelon out of the fridge, add the goat cheese, drizzle the vinaigrette, sprinkle the pistachios and finish with sea salt and pepper. Mix and serve!

This is what it’s supposed to look like. Check my Instagram feed tonight to see how my version turns out!

Food52’s watermelon goat cheese salad

I hope you’re able to enjoy Neighborhood Night Out tomorrow and get to know your neighbors!

30Jul2015

50 days to go!

Posted in Around the house, Baby Michael, Crafts, DIY, Homemade, Photos, Uncategorized by mszerwo

About 50 days ago I blogged my master to-do list for the baby’s room.

Well, time has flown by and over the weekend we hit the 50 days until D-day mark. We also spent a lot of time wrapping up some of the nursery projects.

Here’s a update of where we are, and what we still have left to do before the little guy comes in just about seven weeks. (Or sooner?!)

UPDATED master to do list:

~~Remove the mattress and bed frame. Wrap for transport to the cabin.~~ Transported to the cabin over the Fourth, where I won an award for my quinoa salad!
~~Apologize to Maddie for stealing her favorite napping spot.~~ She still sleeps in there, and has made do with the bassinet. She’s in for a rude awakening when that bassinet is full with an infant!
~~Wash sheets, take comforter to dry cleaners.~~
~~Remove ball lights.~~
~~Clean out and remove the bookshelf side table.~~
~~Vacuum and dust thoroughly!~~
~~Buy paint and paint the room. We’re debating between Behr’s Sparrow and Anonymous. Which one is your favorite?~~ We went with Sparrow. It’s very pretty and so serene!
~~Secure baseboards. Touch up with paint if necessary.~~
~~Hang curtain rods and curtains.~~
~~Place the art on the shelves and think about where wall art will be placed~~ We still have some art to frame, but it’s we’re running out of space!
~~Empty Brandon’s clothes from the dresser.~~ He’s all moved into the master bedroom! It only took 5 years…
~~Replant and move Brandon’s terrarium.~~ It looks so good! I realized that I never posted about it. I’ll add that to the list of blogs to work on!
~~Assemble new rocking chair.~~ Assembled! And we’ve used it several times. We have this pouf on order to complete the look!
~~Grab crib from home-home and set it up.~~ It’s grabbed, but it turns out my sister busted one of the rungs when she was a kid. It’s in Dad’s shop now, getting repaired. We’ve got the mattress and lots of sheets for it!
Finish whale mobile. It’s almost ready. I just need to find the embroidery floss in my rather cluttered craft room. Maybe this weekend I’ll finish it!
~~Finish painting ceramic fish and lampshade.~~ Painted. Now I just have to find a spot for the fish and put the lampshade on the lamp.
~~Measure dresser, cut whitewood (or other kind of cheap wood) to create a top. (We’re making something like this, but only the top.)~~ We a went a different direction; one that I’m really pleased with the direction we went! See the photo of Michael’s new ombre dresser below!
~~Sand and paint dresser, replace drawer pulls.~~ Painted. Pulls replaced! See photo and let me know what you think!
Sand and stain ~~dresser top~~, elephant rocker, side table, ~~trophy bases and book boxes~~. Rocker and side table sanding/staining are still on the to do list, but the trophy bases and book boxes are done and look great.
~~Spray paint the ceramic animal heads~~, adhere them to the wood trophy bases. They’re painted and now they need to be adhered. I’m debating between using super glue and hot glue. Anyone have any recommendations?
~~Make rope basket “zoo” for stuffed animals.~~ It’s a great idea and project, but I could not find the rope anywhere. Then I went to Homegoods and found an adorable bin for far less than it would’ve been to make the rope basket.

Some new to do’s, in addition to the ones not crossed out above:

Get sun from home-home, hang in the corner of the room. Michael and I will grow up with the sun in our rooms, made by my Aunt Peggy!
Buy laundry hamper.
Clean out ‘candle drawer’ in the kitchen, so we have a place for all of his bottles and supplies. (Yes, we have a candle drawer.)
Clean out the bathroom a bit, making room for all of Michael’s new stuff.

And what you really came here for… updated photos!

Here's our super-sized rocker and the photo area. I imagine I'll be spending some quality time here soon!

Here’s our super-sized rocker and the photo area. I’ll be spending some quality time here soon!

Here’s the ombre dresser and changing table area.

A close up of the “zoo” bin for Michael’s stuffed animals.

Here is one of our rolling apple crates for books. Brandon did such a great job sanding and staining them! We both did a good job on the wheels.

Here’s the latest on the whale mobile. It’s looking great and will be finished soon!

I hope you enjoyed our nursery update. There will be more photos as we keep finishing projects in the next (less than!!) 50 days!

9Jul2015

Star-spangled quinoa salad

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Happy belated independence day to you, dear blog reader! I took a brief hiatus from blogging, my real job, and my outside jobs to enjoy the fourth — and the heat — east of the mountains, at my family’s cabin near Vantage.

On the shores of the Columbia

We played in the pool, we wine tasted, we did some work around the cabin, and we participated in the community celebrations. Brandon ran the community 5K — he got 24th overall! — and I decided at the last minute to enter the cooking contest.

Spoiler alert: I won!

Sunland Estates Best Salad winner 2015: ME!

Sunland Estates Best Salad 2015 winner: ME!

The cooking contest consisted of several categories:

Best burger
Best salad
Best ribs
Best chili
Best dessert
Best cocktail and costume

I made a quinoa salad with mint, watermelon, feta, and blueberries, in a lime vinaigrette. (Recipe below!) The initial recipe came from our cookbook of the week, Simply Ancient Grains, but I made many changes, including swapping the couscous for quinoa, making it gluten-free. I also added the blueberries for the red, white, and blue-ness of the salad, for ‘Merica. Brandon helped me re-name it, dubbing it “Star-spangled quinoa salad.”

Patriotic watermelons

There were seven judges, so I plated seven samples of the salad. Dishes were judged on presentation, so I added some fourth of July flair, including watermelon stars and decorative elements on this plate itself.

Star Spangled Quinoa Salad

Star-spangled deliciousness!

The salad turned out deliciously and there was plenty leftover for us to enjoy it with our burgers and corn-on-the-cob from the grill.

Decked out and ready to go!

Our fourth of July feast

Star Spangled Quinoa Salad (adapted from Simply Ancient Grains) Serves 6-10, depending on serving size

1 c quinoa (this can be altered as you see fit), appropriate amount of water to cook it with
2-3 limes, to be zested and juiced (a couple of tablespoons of bottled lime juice works as well)
2 T olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 T honey
1.5 c seedless watermelon, I used about 1/3 of a small watermelon
1 pint blueberries
1/2 c crumbled feta
1/2 c mint
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook the quinoa per the instructions, typically 1/2 c of quinoa with 1 c of water (I like to add a swirl of olive oil and some salt and pepper to the pot as it’s boiling)
Make dressing: Combine oil, honey, lime juice and zest with salt and pepper.
Prepare additional ingredients:
Cut watermelon into little chunks (or stars, if applicable)
Chiffonade (cut into small strips) the mint leaves
Wash blueberries
Crumble feta
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve!
Add additional salt and pepper as needed. Be careful: feta is salty and too much additional salt may overpower your salad!
Salad can be served warm or cold.
Enjoy!

Megan's Island

Welcome to my island!

Category Archives: Homemade

Christmas tamales

Yarn ball Christmas ornaments

Michael’s 1st Halloween {2015}

Halloween preparations on Megan’s Island {2015}

DIY clay animal busts

It’s football time!

{2015} S’more Day

2015 National Night Out (Tomorrow!)

50 days to go!

Star-spangled quinoa salad