The Naptime Goddess: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Pot Roast and "real" gravy.....

Sorry it's been a little while since the last post. After the kitchen re-do, I really haven't felt like doing much of anything at all. I did change the mirror out in the downstairs bathroom with a gorgeous one I found at a thrift store for $9, (SCORE!!!) but other than that, not much.

Anyway, I was making dinner last Sunday and thought I would talk over a few points about gravy.
Most of you probably already know how to make gravy from scratch and how to thicken various sauces but just in case - here are a few tips. :)

Making pan gravy: "real" gravy is made from the leftover juices from the meat you cook. It is simple, delicious and will always compliment your meat. Here's how I do it.
I cook most of my meats in the crock pot so I will use that in my example but it will work with whatever your desired cooking method. I will use a beef pot roast as my example.

Beef Pot Roast in the crock pot:

4 long stalks of celery
1 medium onion
4 large carrots
1 three to four lb pot roast - whatever cut you like best
1 pkg McCormick pot roast seasoning mix (or whatever herbs you prefer)
1 can beef stock
1 cup water

Cooking directions:
*Roughly chop the veggies and place them in the bottom of your crock pot. Place your defrosted pot-roast on top of the veggies (if there is a fattier side, place that side up). Pour beef stock in. Mix the seasoning mix with the water and pour over the roast. Cover and cook for 6-8 hrs on low.

*This is a great time to throw some baked potatoes in: Wash potatoes, poke with a fork, spray lightly with cooking spray, wrap in tin foil, place in 350 oven for 1 - 2 hours. Yum!*

After the roast is finished cooking, put it in your serving platter and surround it with the cooked veggies. Cover the whole thing in tin foil and let it rest until the rest of the meal is ready.

Gravy:
There will be a lot of juices left in the crock pot after you take out the meat and veggies. Strain the juice to remove any leftover bits of meat or vegetable. I strain it twice just to make sure. Put the juice in a medium sauce pan over high heat. Bring it to boiling. While it's coming to a boil, put 1/2 c. ice-cold water in a cup and stir in 2-3 heaping Tbsp of corn starch until it's dissolved. When the juices are boiling stir in the water/corn starch mixture. Reduce the heat to medium and continue stirring until you achieve the right consistency. Remove from heat and serve. (If your gravy is too thick, just add a little more water).

Voila! Pan gravy!

This cold water/corn starch mixture is good for any gravy or sauce that is not dairy based. I use it for all of my meat gravies and sauces such as sweet and sour sauce. If you are making a sauce that has a milk or cream base use RUE for thickening it. Rue is equal parts butter and flour that you mix together and add to the sauce as it is cooking to thicken the mixture.

Good luck and have a great day!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The "desire" timeline.....

Me.

I have been all about self-reflection lately and after hearing a talk in church today about recording your life story I am itchy to do it. I thought I would start with this: A short list of what I have wanted at different phases of my life. I think making a list of things you yearned for paints a very good picture of who you were and are inside. Also, it's fun! :) Try it out, I think it will make you smile to remember the things that were on your internal Christmas list.

Wants: purely things I desired, most of which never came about - thank-goodness.

Elementary School:
*cheese (yum!)
*a cure for acne (yup, started at 8 years old - my poor kids)
*fruit roll-ups in my lunch box
*ballet lessons
*a baby named Chevrolet (weird right?)
*to be psychic
*a perm

High School
*to be an actress
*a cure for acne
*a date
*jeans that weren't handed down from my sisters
*combat boots
*to be like "everyone else"
*marry Brandon Fraser

College
*have a nose ring (didn't really get one, just dreamed about it.)
*a cure for acne (are you sensing a pattern here?)
*be an "artist"
*a jeep
*not be broke
*be different than "everyone else"
*be skinny
*work as a designer on Broadway

*Insert a time period where I served a mission to Brazil. Then came home to meet and marry the man of my dreams. Those two events changed absolutely everything for me. Again, thank-goodness!

Today
*wainscoting
*still a cure for adult acne (sheesh, I'm 32 already!)
*a minivan with doors that open with the push of a button on my keys
*hardwood floors
*children who remember to flush
*various un-necessary surgeries to "tune-up" this mommy body
*find the perfect salsa recipe
*live on the coast in Oregon
*To enjoy my kids while they are still little

Oh how life changes what we think we want. I think it's good to reflect on who we were and to delve into who we are. It doesn't always have to be in serious, time-consuming ways. I think our kids would probably rather know these silly, fun things about us anyway. :)

p.s. I didn't include anything spiritual or too deep. I thought it would be fun to record things that probably wouldn't normally be known about me.

Me.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Healthy frozen taquitos.....

We love these taquitos. They are amazing and really good for you. They come together quickly and you can easily double or triple the recipe to make lots for a party or just to have for a day when you don't want to cook.

Healthy "make-ahead" frozen taquitos:

Ingredients:

1 small cooked rotisserie chicken
1 small can diced green chilis

1 can pinto refried beans

1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese

12-16 medium sized whole wheat tortillas

Instructions:

Remove meat from the rotisserie chicken and shred it. (An easy way to do this is put it in your stand mixer and mix on med speed for 2 minutes) Add chilis, beans, chili powder, and cheese and mix until incorporated. Put a small amount of mixture along one side of the tortilla and roll tightly. Place on a cookie sheet. Repeat until all of the mixture is gone. Flash freeze the taquitos (don't cover them and place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 1-2 hours). When they are frozen, place them in freezer bags and put them back in the freezer.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the taquitos from the freezer and place on a sprayed cookie sheet. Lightly spray over the taquitos and put them in the oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Serve with fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream.

Delicious!!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

For what?????

I have often been told that I know how to do a lot of different things. I have also been told that I am non-committal, a dreamer, and crazy. The thing that I have discovered about myself amid all of these labels is that I love to learn. There really isn't a subject out there that I am not interested in on some level. I find everything at least mildly captivating. I dream of taking a pottery class. I love to discuss physics with my sister. I can't wait until I have some more wood in my garage to mess with. I love ballroom dancing, landscape painting, restoring furniture, travel, etc. I would love to learn how to rock climb. I think of sitting in a class and just absorbing knowledge and it seems heavenly. But there is always this question looming, whether I ask it of myself or I hear it from others - what for? What are you doing this for? Why are you taking this class? What is your objective? See, there's my problem. I often feel like I can't explore unless there is some sort of paycheck at the end. I feel like this world likes to say that you can't learn unless you are going to make it work for you. Like learning isn't worth anything unless there is some sort of reimbursement. I have struggled with this for so long. Why can't I learn about anything and everything just for the sake of exploring it? I have worked at sooooo many different jobs. In college I moved to a new apartment almost every semester and had oodles of roommates along the way. I took tons of classes that didn't apply to my major. Thus the labels, but I don't regret any of it because I learned something new with each experience. No, I am not a master of any one subject. I would say that I am not even mediocre at most things, and that has tortured me sometimes, but as I have pondered it more - who cares? I like to try new things just for the sake of trying it.
So here's the challenge. Let go of the end. Try something new. Don't be burdened by needing to justify it. You don't have to be good at what you try to make it meaningful and worthwhile. It doesn't have to make you money later or lead to some sort of occupation or life change. Just learn because it interests you and nothing more. If it leads somewhere, great, if not - great too.
Sculpture, knitting, photography, science, botany, history, religion, auto mechanics, woodworking, heck - if learning about the life cycle of a newt interests you, go for it! Take a class, watch a tutorial, pick up a tool. With the Internet, so much amazing information is yours for the taking. I have watched countless tutorials online about sewing, cake decoration, painting, home repair, gardening. It's worthwhile because you like it. You are worthwhile. Learning is still fun, can still be yours, and does not need to lead anywhere but to wake up your mind. You are still a work in progress. You are not set in stone. There isn't an age limit to growth for the sake of growth.
I don't like the term - invest in yourself. It infers that anything you put into grooming yourself and your mind has to then produce some sort of tangible return. So if my learning to sew doesn't have me creating a new wardrobe for my family or selling some handcrafted thing on etsy, then it was a bad investment? I say no. If learning to sew leads to absolutely nothing except that now I know something I didn't before then to me, that's enough.
I have come to terms with the fact that I am one of those people who could accurately be deemed, 'Jack of all trades, master of none.' It's okay. Each roommate, each job, each class, each trip, each book, each tutorial, each experience leads to a me that listens to people more. Leads to a me that realizes I don't know everything. Leads to a me that can hopefully see from a broader perspective. There are a few subjects that I constantly try to do better at and expect results of myself for sure - motherhood and marriage for example. I have a feeling though, everything I learn adds to my capacity in those areas as well.
I bet your city offers classes in just about anything you could be interested in. Go for it. I think I'll take tennis next month, I'll probably suck at it, and that's okay. :)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

My kitchen project.....

This is the after.

Where have I been you ask? I have been painting my kitchen. Those of you who have done this project need no further explanation as to my recent disappearance. Those of you who have not attempted it probably don't understand the scope to which this can overtake your life. :)
This kitchen has bothered me since the moment we looked at the house. I loved everything about this house except for the kitchen and have spent many hours contemplating it, pouring over it, and finally decided to change it. Here's the process.
P.S. I didn't take a proper before picture because I forgot. I am still getting used to the whole "document what I am doing" idea. I promise to try harder. :)

This is what the kitchen looked like when we first looked at the house almost three years ago.
I have since painted the house a beautiful shade of beige called "Gobi Desert" which I loved but reduced this kitchen to a mind numbing beige wonderland. The thing is, this is a nice kitchen, granite counter tops, under mount sink, real wood cabinets, all good things. I fought changing it but when it really came down to it, I didn't like it.

First I cleaned the cabinet faces and bases with an oil-removing soap. Take your time with this step. Then let everything dry. (Yes, I know I need to reorganize what is in my cupboards.)

This is the primer I used. It covers even the shiniest of surfaces. I really didn't want to sand my cabinet doors and this did the trick beautifully. You can even prime over tile with this stuff - amazing! I did two coats on everything. I used rollers that are specifically made for cabinets.

Primed. I can't stand it when I have a messy kitchen so this literally gave me nightmares for several nights.

Two coats of paint on the front and the back of each cabinet. I used a brush for the crevices first and then went over with the special roller to remove brush strokes. I think it worked very well. Allow plenty of dry time between coats. This took a lot of patience for me.

We decided to add oil rubbed bronze hardware to the cabinets. I love how they look. Our granite has flecks of bronze and black so it goes nicely.

We added a pendant light fixture above the sink and I am in love with it! It is oil rubbed bronze with a blown glass shade in a rope pattern.

I love how light and airy it feels now.

I found this little runner at Ross and love the pop of color it adds to an otherwise monochromatic space. I have a thing for turquoise and red together - my favorite combination. :)