I'm Still Here!

The holidays and third trimester kicked my butt.  But here's a bit of a giggle for you. I'm looking back on it and laughing..at least I will, in the future.

(I posted this in my Facebook First Time Mom's group and it was just too good not to share)

I totally feel like a 9 month pregnant mom of a toddler. Zoltan is getting over an ear infection which then led to diarrhea and nausea. I'm getting a cold and feel icky. I found myself at CVS buying Pepto, Imodium, Gatorade and of course mint chocolate chip ice cream. All while wearing faded black capri jammie pants, slippers and a tshirt that I didn't realize had ick (is that ketchup or bacon grease?) on the front until I got home. And of course everyone else in the store were young thin professional women getting shampoo, makeup and oooh a bottle of wine. I got to go home and put ear drops in my husband's ear, do the dishes and the laundry and now I get to enjoy MY ice cream while downloading "Happiest Baby on the Block" all while I'm having one huge HiggsBoson (BH for nerds). This is happening. I don't know weather to cry or laugh. Or to just laugh to keep from crying.

A New Etsy Favorite! More the Merrier Design

One of my new favorite Etsy shops is MoreTheMerrier!  When you want more than just the usual (*ahem* boring) free online printables go visit Natalie at her shop!

Unique party & wedding invitations, save the dates, 

and paper party decor galore! At More the Merrier, we love paper 

& we love parties! 

We customize our designs to create the perfect printables for your event! Once you love it, we email you the digital PDF or JPG file. You can have that file printed at home, your favorite local print shop, or online (I love catprint.com) as many times as you'd like!

Best Soup Ever!

Let me start by saying I pulled this recipe off of Pinterest.  I made it to feed the ladies of a party brainstorming meeting.  The hubs kind of took over while I was making it and he's made it about 5 times since then!!  It's a simple, inexpensive soup that just tastes better after a few days.  

We call it Italian Bean and Pasta Soup but the original recipe is Sausage and Bean Soup with Pasta.

A few notes before I divulge the recipe of this delicious soup (which I made for my cookie exchange party, and ate the last of the leftovers today!).   We use red kidney beans, we don't drain the sausage and we use small shells pasta.  Other than that, we're pretty true to the recipe.  Man it's so good!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried cannellini or cellini beans or 1 15-ounce can of any beans you like, drained
• 1 pound ground sausage, turkey or pork
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 medium carrot, diced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes 
• 6 to 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper 
• 1 cup ditalini pasta, or any small pasta
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

Instructions:

If using dried beans, place them in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large pot, brown the sausage.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, carrot and olive oil and saute for 5 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans (*this is the point to puree the beans if you want to) and the sausage and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer.

If using dried beans, check for doneness at this point.  (If using canned beans, add the pasta now.)  If the beans are not soft enough, cover the pot again and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft. Add the pasta and cook, uncovered, until the pasta is tender.  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more chicken broth.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

What's YOUR favorite soup?

Next on Fabrycated Mom: Decorating for Thanksgiving for under $20

XOXO

-Lisa

First Wedding Anniversary

I've been getting a bit behind with my blog due to the third trimester tireds!  The holidays are certainly in full swing and I've been pooped!  I've certainly been cooking and crafting though so it's time to get caught up!

Our first wedding anniversary was November 11 and we had a great weekend.  Hubs planned outings that involved yummy food and culture.  The opera followed by a declicous steak at an upscale steakhouse.  I made a paper/photo collage that I'm quite proud of.

The first anniversary is traditionally paper.  I began looking online for different ideas somewhere around September.  I found a few cute things that I could have dropped $30 on but really, could have made myself.

So that's what I did!

Using a few of my Snapfish free prints and a $12 picture frame I found online at Target I think I did a great job at being frugal AND creative!  Go me!

Here is the finished project:

It spells out "SOULMATES".  Also, an engagement photo, a wedding photo and the green box soon became the lyrics to our first dance song.

I took the photos of the letters throughout the span of a few weeks.  Each letter is from a place that is close to our heart as a couple. I used MS Paint to write on the frame what measurements I would need for each photo specifically so I could make sure crop appropriately. (I was not going to let pregnant brain ruin this!)

 I then uploaded them to Snapfish and waited for the prints to arrive.

It was pretty easy to place the photos in the corresponding spaces using double sided tape and the paper that came in the frame.

This was one home made gift that I was pretty proud of and hubs totally appreciated.

What did YOU do for your first wedding anniversary?

Next time: Italian Bean and Pasta Soup

XOXO
-Lisa

Swedish Rye Bread!

(I just noticed that most of my posts have an exclamation point in the title.  I'm always so excited when something goes right that I just have to convey those feelings with punctuation.)

Swedish Rye bread has quite a few memories attached for my siblings and I.  Our grandmother was an immigrant from Sweden to Texas and stuck to her Swedish roots.  There were little plaques and maps around her house in Swedish.  She also adopted much of the Texas culture.  Thus, Swedish rye bread and gravy.  A delicious, terribly not healthy, breakfast consisting of fried Swedish rye bread smothered in cream or country gravy.  So yummy!  I've never seen it on a menu, heard of anyone else making or even made it myself.  It's never to late to rekindle a tradition though, right?

I'm actually nibbling on a slice of it right now, it's that good.  I bet it would be good with butter but I'm just too lazy. I know for a fact that it does pair quite well with a mug of apple cider!

Place 10 ounces of water, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons white sugar, and 1/4 cup Brer Rabbit light molasses in a glass bowl and microwave for 90 seconds. (Molasses smells terrible!!!  I had no idea!)

Remove, stir ingredients, and place in bread maker pan. (The original recipe left out the part about  the water in the bowl and it turned out fine, but was really hard to work with!)

Place 1/2 cup rye flour and 2 3/4 cup white bread flour on top of liquids.  Make a hole in the center of flour and place 1 1/2 teaspoon bread machine yeast in it.  

Set your controls for 1 1/2 pound loaf and medium crust (I set my machine to Whole Wheat).

The finished product as soon as it was finished!  I couldn't wait to cut into it and it was steaming when I cut it open.  A yummy crusty bread with a bit of sweetness.

What's your favorite bread machine recipe?

Next time on Fabrycated Mom: First Wedding Anniversary Gift 

XOXO

-Lisa

Pumpkin Seeds, Finally!

Daylight savings time ending has given me a whole extra hour to enjoy my Sunday.  Sundays are always over too quickly aren't they?  

Halloween has come and gone and I'm just now getting around to roasting my pumpkin seeds.  I've kept them in a plastic container in the refrigerator for a bit and so they are still fresh. I've really just been holding out for the perfect recipe.  I wanted savory, then I wanted sweet, then I wanted spicy and couldn't make up my mind!!  And then I found it.  A recipe for Sweet, Spicy and Savory Pumpkin Seeds!  It couldn't have been easier and oh boy they are delicious!  I was actually making them more for the hubby because he likes spicy stuff but I can't keep my hands off of them!

Let's get this party started!

So, to start:

• 2 cups cleaned, washed and dried pumpkin seeds
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used salted, no difference that I noticed)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (I only had the dried, again, no difference)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Your friendly ingredients, watch out for cayenne though!!

 Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter and then stir in the brown sugar, salt, rosemary, cinnamon, cayenne and black peppers.
• Stir for 2-3 minutes until the sugar has mostly melted (no joke, I didn't stir long enough and the sugar just clumped when I put the seeds in so use a timer if you need to.)
• Remove from heat, and stir in the pumpkin seeds.

Smells so good!

• Spread on a well-greased cookie sheet.   Some recipes will say to use foil for easy clean up but it will be a terror to get the seeds off.  I didn't even grease my cookie sheet, just used the non stick type and stirred, A LOT. 

Seeds!  As far as the eye can see!

•  Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring 2-3 times during baking.  KEEP A CLOSE EYE!  They will burn, baby burn!  Once they look like this, they are ready! 

After much stirring and waiting, Voila!

My first batch is almost gone and we have friends coming over tonight for baked ribs so I'm sure they'll help us finished them off!

What's your favorite pumpkin seed recipe?

Next on Fabrycated Mom: Swedish Rye Bread (in a bread machine!)

Be sure to subscribe, I'll be giving away an Amazon Gift card within the next few weeks!

XOXO

-Lisa

Earl Grey Tea Cookies!

I have a love affair with Earl Grey Tea.  There's just something about the blend of herbs and black tea that really give me that cozy feeling in the morning and after work!

I was enjoying a cup at work the other day and was inspired to look up a recipe for Earl Grey Tea cookies. My friend Natalie (see her blog here: Soiree Bliss Event Planner Blog ) had an amazing cookie exchange party last year and I'm trying to get a jump on my cookie entry!  I'm shameless!

Speaking of shameless, be sure to subscribe to Fabrycated Mom so you don't miss the "Mac and Cheese Amazon Gift Card Giveaway"!

The cookies are a shortbread style with the tea mixed in.  Very fitting for a High Tea, I would assume! They came out perfectly and I will certainly be making them again.  I told my husband, "Any cookie I can make in the food processor is a cookie I love!"  Very little clean up and super simple for something so delicate!

I cheated a bit, this photo is from Google Images.  BUT mine really looked like this! We ate them before I could take their picture...mmmmmm

Start with: 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves (I used 6 bags of the Twinning), 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 2 sticks of room temperature butter

Pulse together flour, tea and salt until the tea is just spotted throughout the flour.  

Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and butter.  Pulse together just until a dough is formed.

Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log.  You have to work with it a bit but who doesn't love rolling dough into a log? Roll the log about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  Tightly twist each end and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Use a bag of rice to keep the round shape. Slice the log into 1/3 inch thick disks.  lace on parchment or silpat lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart.  Bake at 375 degrees until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes.  Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks (or paper towels in my house) and cool to room temperature. 

The best part about these cookies is the crumbly buttery texture and the light Earl Grey flavor.  I had a few, OK four, before bed and didn't notice any effect from the caffeine.   I made about 12 and put the roll into the freezer to make again when I have the desire.

How have I gone my whole life without making shortbread or even 'icebox' style cookies?  So easy and so delicious?  These are certainly a winner and will be made year round.  Is it wrong to dip them into a lovely steaming cup of Earl Grey tea?  Methinks not!

What are you favorite shortbread or icebox style cookies?

Next on Fabrycated Mom: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Perfect Ribs and (hopefully) Swedish Rye Bread

XOXO
-Lisa