Ribs Anyone?

I love ribs, I LOVE RIBS! And I LOVE my crock-pot so I have been looking for a crock-pot recipe and found one that sounded pretty good. I thought I would try it with a few tweaks. I used boneless ribs or country ribs this time. They have a little less fat since they are really just pork loin chops made to look like "ribs".

Oooey Gooey Ribs
2 - 4 lbs pork ribs
1 small onion chopped (or 1/2 cup frozen diced)
1 tsp Cajun seasoning (I Love Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp Dijon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Combine the ingredients together and mix well.

Pour it over the ribs in the crockpot Mix well and put the lid on it.

Set for High for 4-5 hours or on low for 6-8.

No Peaking!

Tip #1 If you open your crock-pot lid then it takes it around 20 minutes to regain its temprature!

Tip#2: I LOVE pre-diced onions in the freezer section because I HATE chopping onions!

Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

Cinnamon Bites

1 1/3 cup flour

1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed

2 Tbsp + 1/2 cup sugar, divided

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter flavored shortening

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup melted butter

1) Mix cereal, flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

2) Cut in shortening until coarse crumbs.

3) Add milk and stir making thick dough.

4) Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls

5) Mix pumpkin pie spice and remaining sugar in a dish and drop balls into melted butter and then roll in pumpkin pie sugar mixture. 

6) Place together in greased pan and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until firm to touch.

Note: I did make them as individual balls but they are better placed together, they don't dry out as much. The picture above is of them individual and not in a small pan placed together.

Garlic Chicken and Roasted Asparagus

Here is one of our ALL TIME FAVORITE recipes!!! I mean it, it is delicious! A friend of ours made it many years ago for us and we have been making it ever since. It appears on our meal schedule at least once a month. It is great served with asparagus and baked potatoes. Sorry no picture, I will post one when available this week.

Garlic Chicken
4 skinless and boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
4 large cloves garlic, minced (or 2 Tbsp)
2 cups apple juice
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour in a small pie plate. Spray skillet with non-stick spray and cook till close to done. (You can add a little olive oil if the chicken is not browning.) Remove chicken and add butter. When melted add in garlic and saute 1-2 minutes. Add in apple juice and lemon juice. Boil, uncovered until reduced by about half. Replace chicken in skillet and allow to thicken and cook just till chicken is done.

Roasted Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
dash of salt and pepper

Cut off hard part of asparagus.
Hint: to find the hard part of stem take one stalk of asparagus and gently bend, where it breaks separates the tender part. Cut the rest of the bunch to match.
In a bowl combine the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Turn to coat and place on metal baking sheet or baking stone. Bake at 450 till the stalks are crisp about 15 minutes. (I really like mine extra crispy.)

For the baked potatoes: Clean well and dry. Roll in olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 450 till done. The outsides get all golden and crispy so you can eat the whole potato.

Need a great zucchini recipe? Here you go...

Crispy Zucchini
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425. Combine Panko, cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic in a pie plate and mix well. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and cut off ends. Slice into 1/4" long sections. Spray each side with non-stick spray and press that side into the breadcrumb mixture. Spay other side with non-stick spray and then coat. Place on a baking sheet and cook till tender. During the last part of baking turn on broiler and heat just till browned and crisp.

A New Favorite Recipe

We have a favorite cookbook in our house. It is not allowed to leave our house. You may copy recipes from it but that is it. No borrowing; we almost lost it once...not again. It is our tried and true cookbook and everything I have made out of it  has been great. Thank you Southern Living!

Here is one of our new favorites from the book.

Baked Chicken Nuggets
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
4 skinned and boneless chicken breast halves cut into 1" pieces
1/4 cup butter melted (butter just tastes better)

Combine breadcrumbs, Parm & italian seasoning in large ziplock baggie; seal and shake well. Dip chicken in butter and in small batches put into the baggie and shake till well coated. Place chicken onto a well greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden. I turn half way through baking to crisp both sides.
Yields: 4 servings

Finishing up and new fun projects...

I have been wanting to finish Madeline's quilt however I knew it would require me to hand-stitch the binding. I hate hand-stitching anything! But I did it finally and I am so thankful that I did! I love her quilt and am so glad it is finished. I can't wait for her to use it because of course that is what a quilt is for...now onto the fun new stuff:

I made a knock-off of a really expensive type of pants I love! It was alot of fun and something I have never tried before. I went to find a cute black shirt to match it but couldn't so I cut up one of Madeline's black turtleneck's and lopped off the sleeves. I added some detail and voila! I love it and have other fun revamps for some of her bluejeans that I am working on. Can't wait to post them and share. :)

Sniffle...

I am being lazy today. I have the sniffles and I have a million projects to do and I am being lazy. It is a sin I know, but man is it fun! It is cold out and looks like more snow. I am sitting on the couch with the dog, aka "my heater" and watching Wuthering Heights...Madeline is sleeping and I am not even crocheting! I am not even cooking tonight. I will be going out with some lovely coupon I have aquired and Madeline & I are having a 'date' before Bible Study tonight. Here's to laziness today!

What I have been up to...

I have been crafting a little here and there but not alot. My time has been taken up by a very cute little helper. She loves to take off with my yarn, fabric and other miscellaneous items. Unfortunately little gets done unless it is around the house. Here's what I have been up to:

I wanted a pretty cover for my Kindel Fire.

The inside of my Kindel cover. I wanted a pocket and something to keep

the Kindel in place instead of elastic sides.

A hat for a friend's daughter.

A fun new hair flower.

The fun new Frilly Scarf I am making...

And a crocheted kitchen scrubbie...because if you have to dishes it should be fun.

My neighbor has 'hired' me to make 3 notebook covers for her daughters so that should be fun. They will be similar to the Kindel covers and I will hopefully have time to make them before too long. So they get done I 'hired' her to watch Madeline for me while I work on them. My other lofty goal will be to create enough to do a craft fair this fall. It should be fun and I am excited for the challenge.

Happy crafting!

Flowers and feathers

I have been making up some new hair flowers. It is really fun to make them and I love seeing how they turn out. They are all kind of unique. I charge $8 for the large ones and $5 for the small ones. If there is not a color you see but want one just email to rach.fairchild@gmail.com and we can talk about what you would want. The crochet flowers and feathers are $5 as well. I love to clip the flowers and feathers to headbands for myself, though they do look much cuter on Madeline...

Funky Feathers

Crochet Flowers & Heart

Peony Style

Poppy style flower

Purple silk Rose

Black silk Rose

Count down!!!

We are moving again! I am so excited for the new house but really dislike, ok...hate moving! I just did this 9 months ago. Thankfully most stuff is still packed but there is the stuff we unpacked to make the apartment more homey feeling. We are moving our personal stuff like clothes, breakables and dishes ourselves but we are actually hiring movers this time! I am psyched!!! The movers we are using are very reasonably priced and will save us from rounding up our friends and renting a truck and feeding everyone. In all honesty it will cost just about $100 more for the movers and we keep our friends. So, since we are moving and I am packing that leads to no sewing. I was in the mood and very ready but I have no room at the apartment to spread out fabric and Madeline can always see me so that means she wants me. In the new house we are turning the formal dining area into a work-out room slash craft room. The other part about not sewing in the apartment is she can hear the sewing machine and it wakes her up. Stinky I know. So the countdown begins to April 28th as closing day and 29th is when we are moving our personal stuff and the movers get us all in on Saturday the 30th. Oh yeah, and we are having Madeline's first birthday party in our new house two weeks after we move in. Very exciting and busy for us but we are so thankful to God for providing us just the right house! We looked at many homes and even had an offer on a different one but it didn't work out. This is the perfect home for us. When we put in our offer we offered a little lower than asking price and for a few pieces of the furniture (the house was a model home for a local builder and the furniture was negotiable) and also for the seller to pay closing costs. He came back asking for full price and would pay closing and give us all the furniture!!! Well that was a deal! The home is half way furnished! So see, God is GREAT and He had this perfect deal for us and if we wouldn't have waited on His timing we would have missed out completely. We are looking forward to many years in this home and really making it ours and welcoming to friends and family.

Changes...

Nate has a contract to work as a Fixed Duration Employee for Eli Lilly and it is up in 1 1/2 years. We sold the house last year in case he got a new job and we had to pick up and move across the country or something fun like that...well he did get a new job but we are staying in Indy! WOOT WOOT! I am very happy about that. I like it here, we are in between family and we have a great group of friends here. So smiles all around on it. Nate will have to travel to Chicago a couple times a month but not for long thankfully. Since there is a secure job, we can have a house! I love house hunting and think it is tons of fun. There are some great deals out there but man do they need work. We walked through one house that looked like they put mud or grease all over their feet and their animals and stomped through the house! I think we found one we really like and will probably put an offer on it the week Nate starts his job; March 7th. I am excited about the stability this brings. It is all still in God's hands and we are very thankful for the new job.
*side note: it is really hard to type with a 9 month old banging on the keyboard*

We have also been fighting this horrible virus again. We all had it for a month back in October but this time it is even worse. I have felt like death warmed over and Madeline has been clingy and fussy with this crud. She has been pitiful looking too with red eyes filled with yellow goop that hardens and a nose like a faucet! It is awful...She perks up for a while after she gets her medicine then fades pretty quickly. She is also a brute! She body slams the poor dog, 13lb dog verses 20lb baby is not really fair. She pulls hand fulls of fur from poor Maggie's tail and Mag's just sits there and looks at her. She finally growled yesterday but licked her 5 minutes later. I feel for that poor dog but she sure is such a good girl!
Well I still have plans to finish the pillows soon and think Saturday looks like a great day to do that. I hate unfinished projects and it has been since fall that I started 4 measly little pillows. Pretty pathetic that they are not done. Here's to finishing them Saturday and getting rid of this crud!

Here's to a new year...

I am psyched a friend has offered to come by and have a play date for our munchkins so I can sew. WOOO HOOO! I really miss it and feel bad that none is getting done. I have even made up a few new patterns in that time and am still looking at the pillowcase half done on my sewing machine. I have to finish those pillowcases! Its not challenging maybe is why they are not done? I'll give any excuse right about now but I WANT them DONE and shipped to my poor friend who is waiting for them. I sure do love her for not freaking out that they are not done. Good friends are hard to find huh? Well here's to sewing on Thursday; it may not hurt that she knows I am cooking lunch for us as well...Chicken Corn Chowder in the crock pot. YUMMY, full belly and an afternoon of sewing. The only thing that would make a day better is to add a nap to that line-up huh?

My Cute Little Model (aka: my little ham)

I have been crocheting hats lately. They are quick and easy for me to knock out and they pass time in the car or when I am watching tv in the evenings when the little bug goes to bed. My sis-in-laws friend was poking around the blog and saw one of Madeline in her hat and wanted one so....here it is. I added the flower for her to go with the hat. I never know what to charge for things; since they are handmade you cannot get them just anywhere but I think people would sometimes rather just go to the store and buy something cheap. I thought $15 was reasonable for a wool blend chunky hat with flower. She thought so too so SOLD. Woo hoo. I have left a little basket of these flowers and some other designs at my cousins hair salon and they have not sold? I am at a loss. I put $5 on most and $8 on the really big ones. They come with a hair clip or a pin so you can add them to your blouse/coat/______ fill in the blank. I just don't get it. Oh well. I am feeling some inspiration again. I just need to finish my friends pillows and then I have a few little lovies to make up and I designed a pattern for a Bible cover I want to try to make. That will be an adventure since I MADE it up and have no idea how that will turn out. Its only fabric huh? Well if there is a need for a nice warm hat, let me know I love making them...we can work out prices.

Time vs. Lack of inspiration & the battle of wills

I have no time it feels like. I put Madeline down for her nap and she wakes up. What to do. I hate giving up time with Nate and her in the evenings to sew but I just need to. There is also the lack of inspiration. I have no lack of fabric, just the other two problems...Its a dilemma huh? Right now was the perfect opportunity to sew but just this second we are in a battle of wills, she wants up from nap (only 1 hr and is still exhausted but screaming at me!) and I want her to sleep! I don't know how much of the crying is okay. She looks abused when I finally give in and go in and get her-eyes red and face blotchy and it looks like she breaks out in heat rash. My child does not give up! She gets madder and finally just wakes herself up completely screaming instead of giving in to the exhaustion. SHE DOES NOT SELF SOOTHE! Passy be darned and blankie or bunny too...she just gets really ticked.
Who can be inspired when there is the sad, screaming baby? By the way she is normally a very, very happy child, just not at sleepy time.
There, blew off steam, sorry.

Madeline's New Hat

When I travel I always take my crochet with me. It is so easy to get a hat or scarf done in the hour or two that we are in the car. Madeline normally sleeps when Nate drives and so here is her hat I made and a little flower as well. She did scratch her face (baby nails are vicious!) but I still love this photo.

Back to sewing

These are a few of the little tag blankets I have made. The first was for Madeline and the second in red was for a friend. I am selling them for $15.00 if anyone is interested.

A few new pics

It had to happen...

Well Madeline spent her first night in her own crib...I spent the night in the guest bed right next to it. (I know...) Her room is shared with the guest bed since we went from a three bedroom home to a two bedroom household. I had been having her sleep in a side-by-side bassinet since we are nursing and the more you move her around, the less likely she was to stay awake. Now she is only waking up once or twice in the night, mostly due to the stupid passie I gave her and if she drops it out of her mouth, she wakes up wanting it back and cannot put it back yet herself. The other times is just wanting to be on her side instead of her back. She generally goes to sleep around 8:30 to 9:00 and wakes around 5 or so to eat and then maybe sleep another hour to hour and a half if I am lucky. We are hopeful she will start sleeping through the night and learn some self soothing techniques, I'm working on it. She is so big now. She is in 6 month sizes and is only 15 weeks this week. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying.
Also Tuesday August 24th is our 8th Wedding Anniversary. We are going to let a friend watch her for a few hours on Saturday so we can go out to dinner to celebrate...Did I mention this is the first time really leaving her? I am not sure where we'll go, but am more concerned that my little stinker will take a bottle for those friends and not scream when they try to give it to her. Our friends are so excited to watch her which is nice, they have three older kiddos and love having a baby around. I know I will be anxious to leave her but she is in very capable hands. Well someone is singing my name "waaaaahhh, aaaaaa, waaaahhhhh!" and wanting her nightcap. :)

Mommy and Madeline (5 wks)

Tummy time on my play mat (7 wks)

My little black dress, Papaw says every girl has to have one...(6 wks)

So peaceful (8 wks)


Bright eyes after my bath (7 wks)

Just wanted to update some of my favorite pictures of my girl. I am so sad to go to work next week but know it is limited time back. Next week I go back on the 27th and then have Thursday and Friday off for closing and moving. I am happy to have a good friend watching her but it is still heart-wrenching to leave her. I left her alone with someone other than Nate for the first time on Friday and my heart almost came out through my mouth. I left her with a good friend and left her with some formula just in case. She ate it just fine. I wanted to see how she did with it if I am not able to pump enough while at work. She did fine however her belly did not like it; it took till Sunday morning for her to go #2. She was still happy even though constipated, go figure. She is a happy baby for the most part. She is only fussy if tired, hungry or gassy.

Update on me, I am great, loving nursing and find it amazingly rewarding to be able to nourish my punkin. It is hard being tied to her that way sometimes if I need to leave or am in public and there is no easy place to nurse but we are getting really good at discreet nursing. I am apparently

trying to kill myself, either that or Nate is...I was getting into the car today and in a hurry to get it cooling down for her and whacked myself in the nose with the door. I don't think I damaged myself too bad which is great since I had sinus surgery several years ago to fix my septum. When I got home I was trying to get into the fridge in the garage and didn't realize Nate had put the power drill on the top of it while doing some work. I do have some "cat" like reflexes because I caught it before it hit me in the head. It would have probably knocked me out...So hopefully tomorrow will be better and I will go about the day unscathed. I called Nate to make sure he had my life insurance paid up and he laughed and said he still needs me for now. hehe.

Well please be in prayer for us with the next few weeks coming of me going back to work and moving. There is a lot of stress coming our way but God is good and he has gotten us this far and answered our prayer of selling the house and he did it in under three weeks. I am going to have good help between my mother and step mother-in-law coming this week to torture themselves and watch the baby...I feel so sorry for them, such a burden I know. Well wish us luck, no posts for a while till after we get settled

Things I hear myself saying...

1. "Stop hitting yourself in the head". -said once upon a time to my brother-in-love when I was picking on him. Now said to Madeline to stop hitting herself or pull her own hair...
2. "Yea, poopie!" -said now when constipated
3. "Oh yeah 4 hours of sleep is awesome!" -now said that she is sleeping four hours at first then giving me around another two afterwards.
4. "Stop licking the baby." -Said to the "mother hen" dog who wants to take care of Madeline.
These are a few of the things I hear myself saying on a daily basis and they are music to my ears!