Pineapple Onion tacos

So freaking delicious! Vegan Friendly!

You will need:

Coconut oil

1 pineapple

1-2 onions

Corn tortilla shells

My homemade guacamole which is found in another post; see link at bottom.

Extra cilantro

Any other taco fixings you enjoy: refried beans, pico de gallo, etc.

1. Pre-heat broiler on high. Use coconut oil generously on bottom and sides of glass baking dish.

2.Peel and core pineapple. Cut into small chunks. 

3. Peel onion. Slice into narrow strip and cut the bigger ones in half.

4. Put pineapple (and all the juice from cutting) and onion into prepared dish. Stir it up a bit.

5. Broil for about 7-9 minutes, stirring once or twice.  It is done when it starts browning.

6. Put in warmed tortilla shells and enjoy with a fun Mexican drink like the pictured piña coloda or my delicious easy margaritas. 

http://diykaiti.blogspot.com/2015/02/guacamole-love-of-my-life.html?m=1

Guacamole | a love of my life

I am pretty sure I could eat guacamole every single day. I never buy the stuff and it's basically down to a science when I'm planning to make it. here goes. 

You will need:

Three avocados (slightly soft, not mushy)

Minced garlic

Garlic salt (1-2tsp)

Dice onion (about 1/4-1/2 small)

Cilantro about 1/2 cup, cut up

1 lime

Diced Jalapeño (I scoop out seeds and dice tiny, only use half, but it depends how spicy you like each bite, to how big, how much and if you leave some seeds)

Diced tomato

Optional: favorite sour cream or plain Greek yogurt substitute 

1. Cut avocados in half, save pit, dice and scoop.

I use a knife to dice it in the skin, then scoop it into a bowl.

2. Mash with fork slightly (sometimes j mash the first 2 avocados and save the 3rd one until later to add bigger chunks

3. Add garlic salt, minced garlic, onion and yogurt or sour cream, if using. Stir.

4. Squeeze lime juice over the entire top, sometimes you only need half a lime.

5. Add cilantro, tomato, jalapeño and final avacado.  Stir gently.

6. Place one avacado pit in the guacamole.  Cover and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour before serving. Stir gently before serving

*You can refrigerate a few days. If some of the guacamole browns, you can just stir it in, or scoop it off. If it is really brown and liquody I scoop it off.  

*The tighter you seal/cover it the less browning will occur.

*you can omit tomatoes or jalapeño, however everything else is super important to the flavor and the color!

BREAKFAST BAKE

Our family enjoys this dish on Christmas morning!

ingredients

• 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
• 10 ounce package frozen spinach, cooked, drained and chopped
• 12 ounces pork sausage
• 6 ounces mushrooms
• 1/2 chopped scallion
• 1 dozen eggs
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese

directions

• Lay cheddar cheese into bottom of greased 13“x9” pan.
• Saute sausage, mushrooms and scallion in salad oil until cooked; drain off fat, and layer over top of cheese.
• Beat together eggs and whipping cream and layer over top of sausage.
• Cover egg mixture with the Swiss cheese.
• Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes.
  
  *It is simple and still delicious if you choose to omit and of the ingredients your picky eaters may not enjoy....We usually do half w/o mushrooms :)

PRALINE TOPPED FRENCH TOAST

A Christmas morning favorite!

ingredients

• 1 loaf French bread (16 ounces)
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg

TOPPING

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

directions

• Slice bread into 1 inch slices. Arrange in buttered 9“ x 13” baking dish in two rows, overlapping sides.
• In large bowl, combine eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and a speck of salt. Beat with rotary beater til blended. Pour over bread slices, covering evenly and spooning between slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, preheat oven to 350°.
• Combine topping ingredients in bowl. Spread mixture evenly over bread.
• Bake for 40 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve with maple syrup or honey.

Rose Petal Beads

When my Mom passed away we were given so many beautiful flowers in her memory.   I wanted to do something special with them.  I dried some (I'll write my method for this another time), and with some of the roses, I chose to make beads.  When searing online I found a few different ways to do this.  Here are some step by step directions including the photos I took during my process. The entire process takes a long time.  I gave myself a full day.

1.First you need to pick out the roses that you want to use.  (I did a batch of yellow and orange and this batch of Red roses.  I believe most colors will turn out very dark, but it works best if they are generally separated.)

2. Pick off the bad petals and throw them away. (You want all living petals.)

3. Put all of the healthy petals in a pile.  The easiest way to separate them, is to use a twisting motion to separate the bud from the rest of the petals. (You can store these in the fridge for a few days, until you are ready to cook them.)

4. Place the rose petals in a sauce pan

 5. Cover the petals completely in water.

 6. Bring to a boil, after boiling, allow to simmer (about 4-5 hours depending on the amount of petals).

 7. Stir the stinky porridge occasionally.

 8.Once it is all MUSHY, strain it.  

I also squeezed out the juice, and set it on a paper towel, so it was not to messy.

 9. Separate the MUSH into sections and start forming beads.  You can do any shape you want.  PLEASE NOTE: They Shrink A LOT, about 30%!

10. Slide the shapes onto a T-pin, or thin skewer stick. (You can use anything for this however metal works best.)

11. Place the pins in cork board or over something so they will dry.

12. Rotate your pins every few hours so they dry equally.  (If you make bigger beads or different shapes, such as the cross, you may want to stabilize it, as it may bend.)

 13. Slide the beads off and allow to finish drying for a few days. (Yes, they will continue shrinking a little more.)

14.  After they are totally dry...string onto your preferred material. (I like fishing line.)

Storage of your new jewelry/beads:  They will last longest if they are stored in a dry sealed place.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I am happy to assist anyone.

Letters

Everyone loves to hang letters in their kids room.  Hobby Lobby sells some pretty cool but boring letters.  When I was in college my roommate and I decorated our letters so we had a personal touch to our office.  We used puff pate and they turned out super cute, but also rather permanent.  Once they were dry, you couldn't make many adjustments.

When my niece was born in November, I wanted to be sure her name was hanging in her nursery.  I didn't want it to look tacky or boring and I wanted it to be letter she could leave hanging for a long time.  I bought the same letters from Hobby Lobby, but this time, NO FABRIC PAINT.  I chose to cover each letter with a different scrapbook paper.  When we had the baby shower we made invitations using a floral variety pack for a "Garden Party Shower".  I had some of the paper left and it worked great to cover the letters.  I simply applied double sided tape to the face of each letter and stuck the paper on.  I flipped the letters over, than used and exacto-blade to cut around the letter.  It worked perfect!  Just make sure your blade is sharp and your paper is stuck on very well!

My New blog!

I decided it is time to get my face out there.  Soon there will be a link to my website, but for now feel free to browse around!