Monday, June 23, 2014

Breakfast Tacos


Men love tacos.  At least my man does.  He will take any opportunity to make something into a taco if it isn’t one already – and he gets pretty creative with it.  It’s pretty funny to go to a party or restaurant and see his eyes light up when he discovers a charcuterie tray and makes himself some sort of meat and cheese sandwich/taco concoction.  So the other morning I decided to be a really nice wife and blow his mind with some homemade breakfast tacos.  I lucked out and had some great ingredients on hand, but basically all you need eggs and some tortillas. 

 My line-up of ingredients includes chipotle Tabasco, eggs (1 per taco), tomatoes, cilantro, onion, Colby jack cheese, corn tortillas, sausage, shrimp, & leftover Chimichurri sauce.


I whipped up a quick pico de gallo with some cherry tomatoes, chopped onion, cilantro and lemon juice.


Leftover chimi from last night’s dinner – pretty good on just about anything.


Two eggs, beat them together with a pinch of salt and pepper and a dash of hot sauce.  The hubs loves the chipotle Tabasco, it has great smokey flavor.  If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you do.



After cooking it all up they were quickly devoured.  I will definitely be making these again.  
Check out the recipe below.




Kitchen Sink Breakfast Tacos
(Makes 2 tacos)

4 corn tortillas (or 2 flour tortillas)
¼ c cheddar or Colby jack cheese
½ c precooked meat (sausage, bacon, shrimp, whatever you got!)
2 large eggs
salt & pepper
hot sauce
pico de gallo or salsa
chimichurri (recipe below)

Set up a griddle or large non stick pan over medium/med. high heat.  If using corn tortillas lay 2 on the griddle to warm.  Beat eggs in a small bowl with hot sauce and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Dice up meat of choice into bite size pieces and toss on the griddle to heat thru. 

Once warmed, remove the first pair of tortillas and keep on a plate.  Place the 2nd pair of tortillas on the griddle and warm for 2 minutes then flip.  Once flipped over, cover the tortillas with cheese and turn the heat down so they don’t burn as the cheese melts.  Once melted place on top of already warmed tortillas, creating two tacos with two tortillas each.  Take your meat and divide equally between the two tacos.

In a small pan, add eggs and scramble to your desired level of doneness and add to you awesome plate of tacos.  Offer salas and chimi on the side and rock on!


Chimichurri

1 finely chopped shallot
4 finely chopped garlic cloves
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh oregano
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Throw it all into a blender or food processor, adding olive oil in a steady stream.  Let stand at least 10 minutes before using.

Friday, June 20, 2014

New Product Inspiration!



I’m always looking for cute new ideas for products or monogram styles.  I never have enough hours in the day to create all these wonderful things but a girl can dream!  My Pinterest boards are all over the place, but I’m thinking these next couple of days should be devoted to trying out some new ideas.

1.     New placemat styles – monogrammed of course
These are by Kate Spade and are adorable…and I love stripes!  I’m thinking something similar to this, just two stripes with a monogram would be darling.

Bold patterns and bright monograms.  Perfecto!

2. Something nautical
These shirts come from a sweet little shop on Etsy, Sweet Tea Monograms.  Maybe some flags on cocktail napkins?
 
Ahh so stinkin cute!  And they come in long sleeve...may need to go purchase these.
3. Ah cocktail napkins.  And pom poms. What’s not to love??



4. Pot holders and oven mitts.  Monogrammed, obvi.  Fun fabrics, definitely.  Thanks for the tut A Beautiful Mess!  Check them out for the full instructions.



Have a product idea or something that is lacking a monogram?  I would love to hear about it!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Guest Bedroom Part 2 - Upholstered Headboard


I made a headboard! 

This was a pretty painless project.  The only pain I felt was more of a freaking out sensation as I stapled the first side of the fabric hoping for the best.  I scowered the internet for a quick and easy tutorial but ended up taking advice from a few and winging the rest.  They were all so different and no one had really precise measurements for the headboard or one particular way to hang it on the wall.  Some anchored it using hardware, others built legs…it really all depends on how you will be making up the bed when it’s all finished.  My guest room is not ginormous, so saving space is key – meaning lets mount this thing to the wall!

Ok so I started with one ginormous piece of plywood and cut it down to 4x5 feet.  My queen mattress measures about 60 inches across, and after studying pictures on pinterest I decided I didn’t want much headboard peeking out around the sides.  Also, since I am mounting this to the wall and it’s not standing on it’s own two feet, I decided to go with one of the least expensive types of plywood available.  In the plywood section they had about 15 different kinds, ranging from $12 to $80 a piece. 


 Next step – attach some hanging stuff.  We used 2x4’s for this part because that’s what we had lying around, but you could use something thicker if you wanted.  After cutting to size, we screwed them to the ends of the plywood and then one piece running perpendicular to them in the center (which you don't see because I forgot to photograph...too excited to start stapling!). 


My brother cut the center piece on an angle all the way across so that it’s matching piece or better half could be attached to the wall and they would sit together so nicely like two people holding hands – but instead just two lifeless pieces of wood holding a wonderful headboard.  Make sure to do all the attaching before upholstering.

Upholstery – much easier this time around because squares are great.  I don’t care how that saying goes about “don’t be a square!” or “what a dork, she’s such a square”, you are wonderful squares, as are your cousins the rectangles.


 Base layer is batting.  I bought this in the craft store and the twin size was more than enough for my headboard, and I ended up folding it in half so my headboard is extra fluffy.  Just simply stapled, nothing too fancy, but be aware of how far in your staples are for the second layer. 

Next is the fabric.  Mine is a wide navy and white cabana stripe upholstery weight cotton.  Next time I think I will probably use some white muslin or something underneath just to give it a little more umph.  Freaked out slightly about keeping the stripes on straight but I think it worked out okay.  To keep things flat I always work one side (doesn’t really matter which) and then to the opposite of that one, pulling it tight to keep things from shifting diagonally.



Once it was done we hung it up!  The center wood piece thingie does a great job of distributing the weight and it is not moving at all. 

I haven’t completely finished the room, but here is a sneak peak of how it’s coming so far J

Oh and I needed new monogrammed shams...

Remember this chair??  Still needs a cushion.