Sliced Baked Potatoes

So this looks really cool but let me tell you it is kind of a pain in the @$$!!
Here is the before shot:

And now for the after:

The original recipe came from seasaltwithfood so it was first of all a pain in the patootie to cut the potatoes thin enough and down enough to make them crispy and not cut all the way through. As you can see I was unsuccessful on a couple many occasions.  Also I did not put the butter on top but you can see I put it in the slits. 

Ingredients
6 Medium Size Potatoes
2 - 3 Cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
30 g Butter
Maldon Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 220˚C (425˚F). Put the potato on a chopping board, flat side down. Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through, at about 3 to 4 mm intervals.

Arrange the potatoes in a baking tray and insert the garlic in between the slits. Scatter some butter on top of each potato. Then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh is soft.

Overall these potatoes were tasty but not worth the extra work for me. If I want a baked potato I will scrub it, oil and salt it, and bake it, very simple.  If I want crispy potatoes I will cut them, toss them in oil and seasoning, and bake them, again simple.

Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

Original recipe can be found here

So I made this soup on a chilly day which was a perfect soup day.
I however cannot read properly so I bought two cans of chipotle chilies (NOTE IT SAYS TWO CHILES NOT TWO CANS!!)

Ingredients

• 2  tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1  onion, finely chopped

• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce

• 6 cups chicken broth

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• Juice of 2 limes

• Salt and pepper

• 1 hass avocado, thinly sliced lengthwise into 12 pieces

• Crushed tortilla chips

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, lower the heat to medium and cook until the onion begins to brown, about 7 minutes. Increase the heat to high, push the vegetables to the side of the pan, add the chicken and cook, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce, then stir in the chicken broth. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, skimming any foam. Stir in the cilantro and lime juice; season with salt and pepper.
2. Place 2 avocado slices in each of 6 soup bowls and pour in the soup. Top with the tortilla chips.

It was delicious even though I put in about 4xs the chipotles and I had to leave out the garlic for my MIL. It will definitely be making repeat appearances in the future.

Lost Sock Board

So my second Pinterest craft was this cute little board for the laundry room:


I was tired of Miss. E's socks without mates being left in various spots in the house (laundry basket, top of washer, top of her dresser, etc.) I thought this would be the perfect solution!

I got the initial instructions here. Since I have no clue what the DI is, I went to Hobby Lobby.

Supplies:
Wood Board (bought at Hobby Lobby for $5.99)
Paint -i had it but you can buy a small bottle of craft paint for $1 each
Glue Gun- had it w/ glue sticks
Clothes pins- had them (you can get them most anywhere)
Clear Finish spray- had it ($7.99)
Two eye hooks- had it
Ribbon- had it

Cost: $5.99
Total Time: 35 minutes

This project was broken into several steps over the course of two days

Phase 1: Painted board and clothes pins-these I took apart and put back together but I think they look pretty good I did two coats (5 minutes)

Phase 2: Lettering I used this tip which proved pretty useful, just make sure you press fairly hard so you can see your lines easily, also make sure you have a smaller brush to paint the fine lines. I also put the clothes pins back together at this point (15 minutes)

Phase 3: Glue the clothespins to the board (I placed mine first to make sure I liked the spacing) Once the glue was cooled I sprayed it with the finish spray. (make sure you follow the directions so it doesn't run or pool and dries well) (10 minutes)

Phase 4: Screw in the eye hooks, tie the ribbon and hang! (5 minutes)

Ribbon Board

So I got the basic directions from here.
Supplies:
Stapler (I couldn't find our staple gun at 9:30pm when I decided to start this beauty)
Cork Board (bought at Hobby Lobby for $5.40 w/ 40% off coupon)
1/2 yard of fabric (I bought some clearance fabric $1 for a yard)
1/2 yard of batting (bought the prepackaged stuff for $7.99 and used about 1/3 of it)
2 spools of ribbon (1.99 each)
thumb tacks (had them with our office supplies)

So basically when I go with per board cost I spent about $14. (really good when you consider that one this side would retail for around $40)
Total time @45 minutes this includes the time I spent searching for the staple gun and thumb tacks

I started the way the blog stated except because I didn't have my staple gun I stapled the batting first and then stapled the fabric.
The next step was way trickier, the ribbon is way more complicated than simply placing it parallell and then attaching to the back...I did this, as you can see my ribbon is not parallel. After undoing and redoing this step about 5 times I decided that once the pictures were on it you wouldn't be able to tell and I kept going. ***If I did this again I would mark at equal increments on the back so that everything was spaced uniformly.***

I tried putting in pictures without the thumb tacks and they all fell, and I pulled those ribbons tight! So I found our supply of thumb tacks and added those to hold the ribbon on tighter. Here it is hung in Miss E's room:

Welcome

So after being obsessed with Pinterest for the last few weeks I realized I should be reviewing/posting about the crafts and recipes I have tried. So here I am to share my adventures in crafting and creating.
A few things to keep in mind...
- I am a full time teacher (so I work Monday-Friday)
- I am a mother of a very energetic almost 2-year old
- I am enrolled as a full time student getting my masters in Educational Administration.
I mention these things because the crafts and recipes I try are not super involved, nor time consuming, especially since I get maybe an hour to work at a time, so I will also be dividing the activities into phases as I often will take several days to finish what would ordinarily be a two hour craft. Enjoy!