So, here’s the coffee table after I took the doors off and sanded it a tad. Being as Abbie-like as you can imagine, I forgot to take photos before I began prepping it. Are you surprised? Uh-huh, that’s what I thought. So an in-process, crooked picture is what you get.

So there!

It’s that table. The one that it seems everyone had in their homes at some point. In fact, some of you mentioned on Facebook that you currently have it in your home. It’s a staple of our generation, I’d say.

I won’t give you the step-by-step this time, but here’s the gist of it:

I lightly sanded it.

I mixed a 1:1 ratio of Extra-Bond and Salem Red milk paint from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company.

I painted the larger surfaces with a 3″ foam roller and the smaller parts with various sizes of foam brushes.

I beat it up with a putty knife and sandpaper.

Once you guys help me decide on something, I’ll give it 2-3 coats of Clear Coat and then wax it with some Daddy Vans Beeswax and Lavender Furniture Polish.

And that will be that.

So, here she is in all her Salem Red glory!

I kept the distressing fairly light.

And, without distressing the doors, I put them back on.

And this is where I need your help.

Doors or no doors…that is the question.

If I went doorless, I would patch screw holes and remove those two magnets, and touch up the paint on the inside back wall (the lighting in these pics made me notice a couple of spots I didn’t do well), of course. Maybe even add some narrow trim over those edges (where you currently see screw holes). What do you think of that?

See, here’s the deal. I’m having some hardware issues. Several of the screws broke off in the wood and some of the holes are stripped. It’s going to require more time, effort and supplies, but it can be fixed, for sure.

However, before I go to all that trouble, let’s think about the possibilities here.

With doors, it can be used for storage (hide clutter, right?) and stays truer to the original design.

Without doors, it could be used to store/display favorite books. Or, according to my kitty, you could a pretty pet bed and create the perfect kitty hideout.

Really, it’s just preference. I need to know what your opinions are on the matter since I’m having commitment issues.

So….

Doors?

Or no doors?

Editing to add: I’m considering/planning to sell this piece. If I decide to keep it, I’ll probably leave the doors off and use it as a Lego table for the kids. That way, we can easily slide tubs of Legos in and out of there.

Comment below and let me know what you’d do. Pretty please?

OH…right. The winner. How could I forget?

I simply used Random.org to choose a number and it was….

Congratulations, Vicki! You lucky dog, you! Just send me an email and Anne and I will get you taken care of!

Now, for those of you that scrolled down to see if you won without reading (Oh, come on! It’s cool! We’re all guilty of it sometimes!), please scroll back up and then comment? I need your help, yo!

Let’s all say thanks to Anne at The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company for her kindness, generosity and knowledge. She’s been so wonderful and I, for one, am a customer for life. I hope you’ll all take a look around their incredibly informative website and use their product at some point. You won’t regret it…but if you’re just nutty enough to do that, guess what!  They have a “Love it or it’s free” 100% guarantee. Yeah, they’re that great!

Thanks for sticking with me through this, everyone. You are all so appreciated!

Welcome back! It’s time for the second installment of Adventures in Milk Paint and I gotta tell ya…this one is full of success and ends in an opportunity to win supplies for a milk paint project of your own. That’s right!  A giveway full of goodness. Aw yeah.

Let’s see. Where shall we start? First, if you haven’t already, skim through Part 1 and get caught up.

So, we left off with my dresser stripped of its first milk paint makeover and waiting patiently for another makeover.

I gave it a couple of days, talked myself through the steps I would need to take to be more successful the second time around and then…I had an idea.  I sent an email to the good people at Old Fashioned Milk Paint to pick their brains and to see if by any chance they’d like to sponsor this post by supplying product for me to use and by hosting a giveaway with me. Guess what! They did! Man, can I tell you how awesome they are?  Anne and I exchanged a lot of emails (Sorry about being quite the Chatty Cathy, Anne!) and she was so kind, so knowledgeable and so very generous!  Before I knew it, I had these goodies delivered to my door and ready to make things beautiful.

After she read the first post about the dresser and I told her about some other pieces I’m ready to paint, she sent me 2 quarts of Marigold Yellow, one quart of Salem Red, and one quart of Oyster White. Plus, she included some Extra-Bond, some Clear Coat and some awesome furniture polish samples. I think the UPS delivery guy that I had finally lost my mind as I snatched the box out of his hands, grinning like a goon.  Can you blame me?

See, the thing about milk paint is that besides looking fabulous, it’s green as can be! It’s free of VOCs, lead, mercury, plastics, etc.  It’s so safe that you can use it on children’s toys. Pregnant and wanting to paint your nursery? Check out their Safe Paint for walls! This is stuff you can bring into your home and feel good about having it around your family.  You can paint indoors and not worry about passing out from fumes!

Now, I want to take this opportunity to compare using Old Fashioned Milk Paint to the process of making milk paint from scratch.

When you make your own milk paint using lime powder, you’re looking at spending a good chunk of time getting it all ready. I won’t go in to great detail, but here is a little rundown:

• Go purchase hydrate lime powder. It’s not expensive, but it’s still something you spend time going to get.
• Find and purchase pigment in the color of your choice.
• Get a gallon of skim milk and let it come to room temperature. This takes most of a day.
• Mix milk and vinegar and let it set overnight to produce quark.
• Strain quark.
• Mix lime and water, add that mixture to the quark. Add pigment. Stir.
• Strain again.
• Paint.

When you use Old Fashioned Milk Paint powder, a lot of the work (and time!) has been done for you and the process is quite simple.

• Purchase paint (powder).
• Mix with water.
• Paint.

If you’ve spent any time looking around my site or have been a reader over the last few years, you’ve probably noticed that in pretty much any area of my life I prefer to try making something myself before purchasing a ready-to-go product. I think that habit stems largely from the fact that I grew up way out in the country. Going to a small town with little to offer took 30 minutes one way. Driving into a larger town with a little more variety–and an hour away–was something we didn’t do all that often and never without good reason. You can imagine that Mom and Dad didn’t exactly rush me to the store on my every crafting or shopping whim, so I got creative and learned to work with what I had. I love that  piece of my life for that reason.

However, with my  hands pretty full these days, I will freely admit that I love anything that can save me a little precious time. When it comes to prep time for a milk paint project, Old Fashioned Milk Paint wins my vote!

So…..back to the dresser and my new shipment of goodies. I decided to change the color completely and go with Marigold Yellow for the main color. Boy, am I glad I did. It’s gorgeous! This is what the powder looks like fresh out of the bag.

So pretty! When you get a quart of milk paint, it’s roughly 2 cups of powder. Mix that with an equal amount of water and stir well to work the biggest lumps out. Take a few minutes and really work on the lumps. Then, strain it from one container to another. You can use a few layers of cheesecloth like I did in Part 1, but I had far better luck straining through pantyhose this time around.

Now, let me address the main issue I had in Part 1: the bubbling/chipping/flaking. My number one reason for that failure was the plain and simple fact that we didn’t prep the wood well enough. It was sanded but not nearly sanded enough to let the milk paint do its magic. Hence, the paint getting the heck out of Dodge once it dried. User error without a doubt.

This time I didn’t mess around. I sanded the you-know-what out of that dresser first and then made sure to really dust off and clean the surface up when I was done. Most importantly, I added one part Extra-Bond to two parts already-mixed milk paint (after straining…not sure if that matters). If I hadn’t sanded the dresser further and had left it less-porous, I would have mixed it 1:1 instead.

After mixing, let it sit for 10-15 minutes while the ingredients mix and do their magic.

Time to paint! You can use a bristle brush, foam brush, foam roller or a sprayer. This time, I chose to use a foam brush to apply the paint. Milk paint doesn’t glide on like other paints. You really kind of drag the paint across the surface as it kind of grabs on to the wood. If you’re using Extra-Bond, you can do this in a thin coat and it acts as a primer as well as your first coat of paint. Right on!

It will be dry to the touch after about 30 minutes and ready for a second coat after a couple of hours. You don’t need to use Extra-Bond in your second coat. Confession: I did because I still had plenty of paint mixed up with the Extra-Bond in it. After my second coat, I had more coverage and I was really liking the way it looked. Not too perfect, not too shabby. Just my style.

Sneaks (SneakAway the kitty cat) approves.

With the second coat dry, I put the drawers in and I was loving the overall look. There’s something about milk paint and photos just don’t do it justice. It gives such a lovely finish. Now I won’t lie and say I didn’t consider a 3rd coat, but ultimately I’m really glad I stopped at two. I just love imperfection on pieces like this.

I stenciled on my design without too much concern for getting it “just so”.

Once I was sure I liked it, I lightened my pencil markings with an eraser.  Erasing works quite well on milk paint, so don’t fret too much if you need to redo some of your work.

Painting on the design made me a little more nervous. I will free admit to having very unsteady hands, so I kindly allowed myself room for squiggles and bobbles and oopses.  Again, I’m embracing imperfection. Using a nice flat brush like this one definitely helped keep my crazy under control, though.

There we go! I’m liking it. How about you?

The white looked too stark and freshly painted, so I tried going carefully over it with small scraps of fine sandpaper. I was sanding my fingers more than the dresser, so I wrapped the sandpaper around the eraser end of a pencil and went to town.

Apparently it was so easy that it looked fun to my 5-year-old daughter, so she joined in with a pencil sander of her own.

Getting so close to done! Now to age and distress this dresser-beast and get that awesome worn, beaten-up look I love so much. I started out with some medium sandpaper and after about 30 seconds I realized that’s not the approach I wanted to take. Instead, I grabbed a putty knife and went to town on this sucker.

I chipped.

I scraped.

I abused.

And then I loved. Once it was satisfactorily beat the hell up, I gave it two coats of Clear Coat.

I poked the old drawer pulls through some poster board to keep them upright…

…and gave them a quick spray with this stuff.

When the dresser was completely dry, I put the pulls back on and fell completely in love with my new-old dresser! After a rub down with the Sweet Orange Oil furniture polish and a good buffing….wowza!  Not only did it look stunning, but it smelled amazing!

If only these were scratch n’ sniff photos!

It’s just so purty!

And it adds a lovely spot of color to our bedroom.

I couldn’t be happier with the ease and beauty that comes along with using Old Fashioned Milk Paint.  Add to that the fact that this company is run by Good People (That’s a huge honor and in Texas, I believe when we say it, we say it with capital G, capital P.) and I’m 100% sold on the stuff.

AND NOW! Now it’s all about you!  From me as a thanks for sticking with me through this insanely long post and from the Good People at Old Fashioned Milk Paint because they’re just that nice, we have a giveaway!

Up for grabs is one shipment of milk paint supplies including:

• Milk paint: one quart OR one pint each of two colors
• A pint of Extra-Bond
• A quart of Clear Coat
• Just added!! 3 (1 oz) samples of Daddy Van’s Furniture Polish. One each of Unscented Beeswax, Sweet Orange Oil, and Beeswax & Lavender. Sweet!

For extra entries:

Follow The Green Wife (still me!) on Twitter and leave a separate comment here on the blog post.

Tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment here on the blog post.

Share this giveaway on Facebook and leave a separate comment here on the blog post.

Pin it on Pinterest and leave a separate comment here on the blog post.

Entries will be received beginning at the time this post is published and ending at 12pm CST on Monday, October 1, 2012. Any entries received after that time will be ineligible to win the OFMP goodies.

While you guys are busy doing that, I’m going to start on a coffee table and some side tables! Hello, Salem Red and Oyster White! I’ll be sharing pictures when the winner of the giveaway is announced. Good luck!

So, I’d been itching to make over an old dresser I’ve had for about 10 years and I really, really wanted to get that gorgeous antiqued look that milk paint gives to furniture.  Who can resist that charming, comfortable look, right?  Plus, milk paint is non-toxic and super green.   Bonus!

I researched and shopped around online for a bit before deciding which approach I wanted to take.  See, you can buy faux milk paints that are actual paint-paint but still kind of give you a milk-painty look.  Or you can buy dry milk paint mixes; just add water and you’re ready to roll.  But, the method I chose was making my paint from scratch.  I looked at several different recipes and settled on the one over at Earth Pigments.  I gathered all my supplies and waited while my father-in-law took the dresser, fixed up one of the drawer pulls that was in bad shape, lightly sanded it and returned it to me.

Here she is, all ready for her makeover.

Assuming that it was roughed up enough to hold the milk paint, my mother-in-law and I started out on the milk paint adventure. We mixed it up and painted away.

If you decide to try milk paint, go into the project knowing that it will in no way behave like any other paint you’ve ever used.  This is a whole ‘nother animal.

This is what it looked like as it started to dry and gravity pulled it down.  I was a little nervous, but not discouraged.

After it dried some more (and my MIL had to head home for the day), my nerves settled and I was feeling good!  It was really starting to get the look I wanted.

Happy!  I was happy!  I was hoping for a little more cracking/peeling since I’d read how unpredictable, cracky, and fun milk paint was, but hey.  That’s cool.  Whatever.  I’m going with the flow.

I busied myself with laundry and what-have-you and when I came back, I discovered a little cracking and peeling!  Right on!

Came back a bit later and UH-OH.  Lots and lots of blisters and cracks.  I mean, you could just look at it wrong and chunks of paint would fall to the floor.  I started flaking off the loose pieces only to discover that my paint did not really want to say on.  Like I said, I was hoping for some of this, but not that much!

By this point, it was dinnertime, kid bedtime, etc, so I decided to let it sit overnight and see if any of it would be salvageable or if the whole thing was going to peel off.  At that point, the sides of the dresser looked great, 2 drawers were satisfactory and 2 were….not so good along.  The top of the dresser (pictured above) just really didn’t want to behave. Ack!

To bed I went.

Day 2.  Lots of peeling and flaking.  Still going with the flow and not feeling too discouraged, I sanded over the now-naked areas and mixed up a new batch of paint. By the way, in most milk paint recipes, you’ll find that it calls for dry pigments.  Since I couldn’t find them locally and had no patience to wait for some to ship, I used some artists’ acrylic paint to color mine.  It did a beautiful job.

My plan was to go back over the entire dresser, in hopes that the bare areas would hold the new coat(s) of paint well and just leave the dresser with a fun, uneven, blotchy finish.  Before I started on that, though, I grabbed my bedside table and decided since I had extra paint (it doesn’t keep and needs to be used quickly), I’d paint it for my friend Susan as a birthday/housewarming gift.

After seeing the blistering paint issues and realizing I didn’t have time to sand the table down, I gave it a quick coat of white no-sanding-required primer.  I brushed it on roughly letting the bristles of the brush leave their marks and letting some of the wood show through here and there.  I was in quite a hurry that day and didn’t photo-document the process, but after primer, 3 coats of thinned-out milk paint and a little stenciling, I was in love with this table!

I have to admit, it was pretty hard to give it away, but this table had Susan written all over it!

Back to the dresser!  I went back over the dresser 2-3 times with very thin milk paint.  I thinned it because I realized that the places it blistered and peeled so much the first time were the places where the first coat when on a little thicker.

Those thin coats dried in no time and despite the fact that the flaking was pretty extreme in some spots at this time, I shrugged and carried on.  In the back of my mind, I realized that it would likely have to be stripped and repainted but figured I’d at least stencil some of it and see how it behaved.  I really loved the colors and design at this point and thought I’d maaaaaybe be able to salvage my work.

Fun, right?  However, notice the flakes of paint on the cardboard underneath.  Things were taking a turn for the worse.  I was started to accept my defeat.  Kind of.  In one last attempt at saving the beast, I took it outside and clear-coated it in hopes that it might act as a glue and seal the remaining flakiness in.

Nope.  I gave it my all but in the end, my first attempt on the dresser was a failure.  The thing about it, though, is that I was smiling through it the whole time.  Despite the fact that I knew I had to start from scratch, I felt good about the experience and realize now what I can do on the second time around to achieve the look I’m going for.  I’m not giving up!  I’m excited to try again, in fact!

So, today she sits patiently waiting for my attention. Naked (mostly) and sanded more heavily and waiting to be made beautiful.  Again.

I’ll be back again soon with pictures of her standing tall and proud in milk-painty glory!

Alex’s eyes got huge and bright.  He was sold on the idea!  So we bought a white pair of shoes and headed home with only a vague idea of how we would paint them.  We knew that since his latest and fiercest obsession is Minecraft, the design of choice would likely be something from that game.

This morning, we headed to Hobby Lobby to grab some fabric markers and chose several shades of green, a gray, and a black. Minecraft fans, I’m sure you see where this is going.

Yep! Creeper shoes-ssssssss.  For non-Minecrafters, Creepers are the worst of the bad guys.  They hiss, they blow you up, and they….well, they creep.  Not necessarily in that order.

I’ve put together a little step-by-step of how I decorated these for Alex. It’s extremely simple, but definitely plan on spending a good chunk of your day working on them.

For starters, gather your few supplies.

• White canvas shoes. We used Vans, but TOMS or any other similar shoe will do.
• Small straight edge.  I used a popsicle stick to pencil my grid.  The width was idea and the small size made it easy to work around the curves of the shoes.
• Pencil. Just a regular ol’ pencil will do the trick.
• Fabric markers.  You can buy packages of many colors, or in some places you’ll find them sold individually. We found the individuals at Hobby Lobby.
• Waterproofing spray for shoes. This isn’t shown because I haven’t picked any up at the store yet. I plan to use the type they sell with camping gear.

Grab your popsicle stick (or similar item) and, starting from the tip of the toe, start drawing your horizontal lines.  They don’t have to be perfect, but the neater you make them, the easier the coloring part will be later.

Once you’ve finished that set of lines on the front section of the shoe, start your vertical lines.  I made the mistake of started on the side of the shoe (you’ll see my mistake in the following picture) and I had to erase the best I could and start over in the center to ensure I drew out a straighter grid.

Continue with your vertical lines until your shoe looks something like this.  For size reference, these are men’s size 6 1/2.  How in the world is my baby boy wearing men’s shoes already?!

Now, turn the shoe around and do the same thing on the heel section of the shoe.

Repeat grid on other shoe.  Duh.

Oh, and when you’re beginning your horizontal lines be sure and make them match the other shoe so that your Creeper faces won’t be way out of whack in the end.

Not that I learned the hard way or anything.

It’s time to color! I recommend starting with the back of the shoe while you and your markers get to know each other. Some of the colors will bleed over into the others a bit and, while this isn’t completely avoidable, it’s good to get a handle on that before working on the front of the shoe.  I followed no particular pattern with my colors.  If you want to get super picky with it, there are a ton of Creeper images on the interwebs to guide you in your endeavor.

Once you’ve completed the back, turn them around and do the face next.  Here’s how I fit them into the grid:

After you’ve filled in the black facial features, just have fun filling in the rest of your squares! I started with the ones nearest the face and worked my way out to the edges.

You’ll notice that these are far from perfect and there are quite a few spots where the colors bled, but you know? I love them just that way and Alex is thrilled to death with them.

Alex opted to keep the side panels of the shoes solid white.  Personally, I would have have gone black for practicality, but I won’t be the one wearing them.

Also, after I get the waterproofing spray, I intend to not only spray the outer part of the shoe to protect the design, but also the inside. I’m hoping that will help with any sweaty feet issues or paint staining the socks.

Like I said, this is a super simple tutorial, but it earned me tons of hugs today and lots of “Mom, you’re awesome!” and “I love you! Thank you so much!” Hope you enjoy making your Creeper shoes!

Hi there! Long time, no post. Just wanted to hop on here long enough to share a yummy recipe that my family loves.  It’s basically Japanese fried rice–minus the rice.  In our efforts to eat a little healthier these days, I’ve been using quinoa in anything I can and this recipe is no exception.  It’s nothing groundbreaking, but definitely an easy, yummy meal that suits just about anyone.

We (especially my son and I) love the fried rice at our local Hibachi grill.  This comes so close to matching their rice that my son even swears it’s better. I’m not sure about that, but it is delicious if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups chicken broth

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups frozen peas & carrots (optional)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 sliced green onions

1/4 cup soy sauce (we like lots, so you may want to reduce this to suit your taste)

1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves minced garlic

fresh ground black pepper

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Cook quinoa according to package directions, but substitute the chicken broth for water.  If you’re going to be using peas and carrots, set them out at room temperature to thaw a bit.  The quinoa takes 15-20 minutes to be ready, so while that’s cooking, scramble your eggs in a medium skillet. Set them aside in a small bowl, keeping your skillet warm for the quinoa later. Mince your garlic and set aside.

Now, once your quinoa is just about ready, put your butter, green onions, and garlic in the pan to melt. Toss in your cooked quinoa (and veggies if you want them), soy sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper.  Toss well to make sure quinoa is thoroughly coated and cook until veggies are tender (if you added them).  Next, put in your scrambled eggs and sesame seeds. Cook a minute or two more.

Don’t forget to taste it throughout the cooking process. I like to add extra butter toward the end if it seems dry, and extra soy sauce, garlic and green onions never hurt my feelings either. Just work with it until you’re happy…and enjoy!

Since big brother is camera-shy again these days, Elliott has had to be such a trooper while I snap photo after photo of her.

I made her this dress a month or two ago with the intention of doing kind of a dreamy-feeling little photo session with her.  It’s been hanging in her closet ever since.  Until today.

The dress is simply a variation of my halter top tutorial.  I used leftover quilt squares from when I made her rag quilt and pieced together the skirt.  Then I added folded layers of tulle over the bodice and a little tulle ruffle at the hem.

We in North Texas are in a terrible state of drought and most everywhere you look, it’s brown.  Dead and dying vegetation doesn’t make for pretty photo backgrounds, but I managed to find a pretty green spot for her to have a little tea party.  I turned her loose and she helped herself and her friend Squishy to some tea.

Not pictured: Squishy.

Also to be noted: Squishy is a large stuffed elephant.

This child of mine doesn’t stay put for long, though.  The tea party soon ended and she was all over the place.

I am a sucker for these pretty little feet!  Long, thin, dainty and lovely.  They dance and they dance and they dance.  I love to think about all the places they’ll take her over the years.  Maybe one day they’ll be in pointe shoes.  And what will her first pair of heels look like?  What kind of shoes will she wear to her wedding?  I picture these feet grown and shoeless, pacing for hours in the middle of the night in circles around her dining room table, desperately trying to soothe a colicky baby.

Or were those my pacing feet?  And was she the baby only a few years ago?

Oh.  Oh, my baby girl.

Oh no.  Now I’m all verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves.

Spinachiladas

12  corn tortillas

cooking oil

2  cloves garlic, minced

1/4  c  green onions, sliced

black pepper to taste

1/2  c  water

6  oz bag of baby spinach

1/2  can cream of chicken soup

3/4  c  black beans, fully cooked

1  small roma tomato, diced

1 1/2  c  Mexican blend shredded cheese

White queso for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat medium skillet over medium heat.  Add water, garlic, black pepper and half of your green onions to the skillet.  After cooking for 1 minute, add in your entire bag of spinach.  Once spinach is thoroughly wilted, remove from heat and drain juices.  Place in medium mixing bowl.

To your spinach, you’ll add your cream of chicken soup.  Now, before we go any further, let’s discuss this serious matter.  I used that because I had it on hand.  If you want to make these spinachiladas completely vegetarian, you could substitute maybe….sour cream?  Plain yogurt?  Cream of onion soup?  I’m open to suggestions and would like to hear what you guys do with that.

Anyway….now you’ve added your creamy substance.  Toss in your black beans, tomatoes, remaining onions and shredded cheese.  Mix well and set aside.

Put a small skillet over medium heat and add a tablespoon or two of cooking oil.  One by one, put each tortilla in the oil and cook just long enough to heat and soften them–approximately 10 seconds on each side.

When the tortillas are cool enough to handle, plop a spoonful of your spinach mixture into the center of one.  Spread left and right so that it looks something like this:

Fold up each side and place into a greased casserole dish with your folded side down.

Now you’ll pour your white queso on top.  While I’d like to say that it was the veggies in my fridge that inspired me to put this recipe together, it was really this:

Yep.  My husband brought it home from the grocery store.  See, we have this terrible addiction to Rico’s nacho cheese.  You know Rico’s?  You do even if you don’t think you do.  It’s the cheese found on concession stand nachos all over the good ol’ U.S. of A.  Yeah.  Sometimes late at night, we treat ourselves to a big ol’ helping of “football game nachos”.  Why late at night?  Well, because we won’t share.  Yeah, you heard me.  This is a Mommy & Daddy snack only.  No kids allowed.  They have cooties.

Ok, no cooties.  And sometimes I’ll even make the kids some.  So I lied to you just a little.  But they don’t get the late-night ones, so there.

Anyway, if you can’t find this can of goodness in your grocery store, grab your favorite queso and just go crazy.  You can’t go wrong with cheese.  Ooey, gooey cheeeeeeeese.

I sprinkled some more shredded cheese on for color.

So, bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

Give ‘em a shot and report back to me.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Back to the matter at hand, though.  This recipe is my favorite of 2011 up to this point.  I promised myself that I’d have only one slice, but that quickly doubled and almost tripled.  Wowza.

Ingredients:

3  tbsp  olive oil

3  cloves  minced garlic

1  sprig fresh basil (Substitute dried if needed.  I just had some handy from my wimpy garden.)

1/2  tsp  dried oregano

1/4  tsp  thyme

1 1/2  c  sliced fresh mushrooms

1  6 oz bag of baby spinach

1 small tomato diced

1/2  c  sliced black olives

Small jar of spaghetti/pizza/marinara sauce of your choice

1/2  grated mozzarella cheese

1/4  c melted butter

freshly grated parmesan cheese

1  can crescent roll dough

Preheat to 375.

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic, basil, oregano, and thyme.  Heat for 45-60 seconds and add mushrooms.  Saute for a couple of minutes and then add the entire bag of spinach.  Toss it around until it’s nicely coated in oil and seasonings.  Leave that to wilt, checking occasionally while you prepare your dough.

When you remove the dough from the can, do not separate into triangles.  You want to patch the rectangles together Frankenstein-style.  Pinch all seams and tears (I can’t get the dough out of the can without tearing.  Ever.) together until it looks like this:

Spread a few spoonfuls of your sauce down the center and add some mozzarella (leave some cheese for later) to look like this:

By now, your mushrooms should be tender and your spinach wilted.  Remove from heat and spoon onto your saucey/cheesey strip.  On top of that, add your tomatoes and olives.

Sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top of that and close it up.  Bring up the sides, pinch them together and then fold up your ends.  I cut a few pretty little slits in mine.

I brushed mine with melted butter and sprinkled on a little fresh parmesan.

Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until nice and golden.

Mmmmm.  Slice diagonally and serve.  You can use your remaining sauce for dipping, but it’s just wonderful without it.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

You’re welcome for the new word.

Side note:  I thought to grab my camera at the last minute and wasn’t prepared, so please forgive missing & poor quality photos.  Thanks.

Moving on….

Spinach Cream Sauce

What you’ll need:

Pasta (this was superb with gnocchi, but use whatever floats your boat)

Olive oil

8 cloves garlic

Sprig of fresh basil

9 oz bag of spinach

3-4 large shitake mushrooms

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup fresh parmesan, grated

1 tsp corn starch

Mince your garlic.  Set aside approximately 2 cloves-worth for later in the recipe.  Mince the basil and dice your mushrooms.

My pretty basil from my backyard:

And my diced mushrooms.  Small enough to enjoy, big enough for my husband to pick out of his plate.

Heat about 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-to-large skillet.  I don’t measure, I just pour, so I’m estimating here.  When the oil gets hot, add your garlic ( 6 cloves worth) and your basil.  Allow to cook for about 30-60 seconds and then toss in your mushrooms and bag of spinach.  Toss with spatula to make sure everything is nice and coated in oil.  Add a little splash if you didn’t start with enough.

Cook until mushrooms are tender and spinach is thoroughly wilted. Remove from heat and drain excess moisture.  I chopped mine up pretty good to make sure nobody gets any stringy spinach.  Any mom knows that one stringy bite is all it takes to turn a kid off of a food in a heartbeat!

Set that aside.

In a medium saucepan on medium heat, add your cream, remaining 2 cloves of garlic and 3/4 cup of your parmesan.  Whisk continuously to prevent sticking and burning.  When cheese is melted, vigorously whisk in a teaspoon of corn starch, just a sprinkle at a time.  Continue heating & whisking until the sauce is thickened.  Dump in your spinach mixture and continue to cook for about 2 more minutes or until desired thickness is reached.

Serve over your favorite pasta and sprinkle your leftover parmesan on top.  Absolutely heavenly.

Vegetarian (baked-not-fried) Stuffed Jalapenos

12 of the largest jalapenos you can find

2  c  fresh spinach

2  c  shredded cheddar cheese

2/3  c  black beans

3  green onions

1/2  tsp  chicken fajita seasoning

2/3  c  sour cream

3/4  c  bread crumbs

1/2  c  corn meal

3  eggs, beaten

Preheat to 375.

Wilt your spinach in a skillet with a few tablespoons of water and then chop it up.

Toss it in with your shredded cheese.

And dump in your black beans.

Slice up and add your onions.

Add your seasoning.

You can use whatever seasoning you like, but this is what I use.  I use it because it’s extra fancy, of course.  Or maybe because it’s cheap and the kids like it in their quesadillas, so I keep it on hand.  Either way.

Plop in the sour cream.

Mix that well and put it aside while you prepare your peppers.  The ones I got at the market were enormous, so if yours are smaller you may need more than a dozen to accomodate all the filling.

Look at the size of this thing!

Cut off the stems and slice the peppers in half.

Scoop out the pulp and seeds and discard.  Stuff each pepper half with the filling you’ve prepared.

Now, you can bake these as is or you can add a light breading. If you opt for the breading, mix your bread crumbs and corn meal in one small bowl.  In another, you’ll have your 3 beaten eggs.

Spoon the egg over each pepper.

Transfer each pepper to the bread crumb/corn meal mixture and spoon that over the pepper, as well.  Shake off excess crumbs and place on cookie sheet that is either covered in parchment or sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375.

The cheesey mixture will leak a bit unless you choose to bread them more heavily.  I like them being mess, ooey and gooey, though. Yum, yum, yum!  Lots of peppery crunch filled with flavorful goodness.