This is one of my go-to fake out meals.  You know, where you want it to look like you slaved and made something amazing when you actually just tossed some prepped ingredients together.  If your chicken is ready to go, these seriously only take about 15 minutes to get on the table.  Boom – dinner!  Figured this post was especially appropriate since I’ve been dyeing up a storm this week and that calls for quickie meals.

The first thing I do is get one of those rotisserie chickens from the store and have an easy breezy dinner or lunch from it.  Then I shred up the remaining meat for enchiladas the next day, but if you’re a from scratch kinda person, you just need about 2 cups of shredded chicken from a leftover roast.  You could also poach up a few boneless skinless chicken breasts if you’re keeping it extra light.

OK, enchilada night - gather your ingredients:

2 Cups shredded chicken

1 ”box” of spinach (or a few very large handfulls)

2 Cups sliced mushrooms (a box of pre-sliced outta do it)

1 can green enchilada sauce

1 Cup feta cheese

1 package of corn tortillas

1/2 a red onion thinly sliced (or a tomato chopped) for garnish

Heat a skillet to medium high heat, add 1 Tb olive oil.  Sautee the mushrooms for a few minutes, till they’re nice and brown, toss in the spinach and cook till it wilts and turns bright green.  Pour in half the can of enchilada sauce.  Cover the corn tortillas with a paper towel and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds.  Just enough to soften them up and make them pliable.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of filling into each tortilla and roll it up, then place it seam side down on a serving platter.  Repeat till all your filling is gone.

Heat the second half of the verde sauce in a mug in the microwave for about 45 seconds.  Pour it over the top of the enchiladas.  Sprinkle the feta cheese and red onions or tomatoes over the top.  Serve immediately.

I’ve been pinning on Pinterest again!  Our last contest was so fun and resulted in some gorgeous colorways, I’ve decided this has to be a regular thing.

So this time, we’ll be picking one colorway, and you can win a skein just by participating.  Here’s how it works.

1. Check out my Colorway Inspirations Board on Pinterest.

2. Vote for your 3 favorite palettes by leaving a comment about them here on the blog.

3.  I’ll interpret the palette with the most votes into a new colorway on yarn and fiber, then do a random drawing of all the comments, one of which will win their choice of a skein of yarn or braid of fiber in the winning colorway.  Yay!

Please be sure to only leave one comment with your choices, otherwise you’ll be disqualified. (Not because I don’t like hearing from y’all, but each comment will be an entry into the contest, so multiple comments wouldn’t really be fair to everyone else.)

Also, I know there are a lot of options, so there’s a chance there won’t be a clear winner.  In this case, I’ll pick the top 3 and we’ll do a vote off.

First Place goes to Persimmon Leaves, the clear winner with the most votes.  Y’all especially loved the transition between the deep blue-green leaves, to the lighter ones, so I knew it would be perfect for our transitions base.  Perfect for faking complicated colorwork.  Congrats to Erin!  You’ll be getting a scarf you can knit from in the mail soon.

Next comes Urchin Tones.  Soft greens and blues with hints of silvers.  I am in love with this colorway!  You can find it in the shop on our bamboo/merino sock blend, our Squishy superwash/nylon blend and in our Bambino fiber.  Makes me want to visit the ocean and smell the salty air.  Congrats to Liz on this one! 

And last, but definitely not least is Black Raspberries.  Another favorite, gorgeous pinks, both deep and soft, a hint of black and leafy greens.  I am craving summer berry pies already!  Faith is going to get one of these in her mailbox.  Start stalking those mail carriers!

If you didn’t win this time, no worries, we’ll be posting the next contest tomorrow!  I’m going to keep it to one winner this time, but the good news is, you don’t have to suggest the winning skein to be entered into the drawing, anyone who participates will have a chance to win, and you’ll be able to suggest 3 colorways.  If there’s not a clear winner, I may do a vote off of the top three.  Yay I can’t wait!  Off to pin some more inspiration to the board…

In the meantime, I love love love me some pancakes.  We have breakfast for dinner at least twice a month, especially when I’m spending a lot of time in the dye studio.  I discovered Ricotta pancakes awhile ago and used to think I had to do some kind of special fancy recipe to make them.  But I’ve discovered an amazing secret – just take any recipe, even a mix, and add 1 Cup of ricotta or even cottage cheese.  Instant ricotta pancakes!

Speaking of pancakes, check out this hilarious music video.  I went to high school with the drummer.  I love it when a band has a sense of humor.

(Pancakes by Eclectic Approach)

I’ll post a pattern for you when I’m all done writing it up.  They’re the perfect project for your first pair of socks, or just some instant gratification.  I came close to finishing the first one in just one afternoon. 

and it’s like waking up from a hazy sleep deprived zombie like state.  I’m having flashbacks to the newborn phase, although it’s not that bad because hubby has been taking on at least half the load.  3 kids, all with double ear infections.  Bleh!  The good news is I think I’m on the cusp of being able to count on some consecutive hours of sleep.  Sometimes just the hope of some really good sleep keeps us going!

Last week there was a crazy icy day here in Cinci, and the antibiotics were just kicking in enough for the kids to not be in constant pain.  We needed something special to remind us of better times… summery times.  It was time for indoor s’mores! 

I like to make mine with Nutella.  A. because I’m totally obsessed with Nutella, B. because you don’t have to deal with the chocolate that isn’t perfectly melted issue I hate about regular s’mores.

So here’s the easiest snack ever, perfect for  cabin feverish winter days – I even make them in the summer when it’s too hot to think of sitting around a campfire.

Spread graham crackers with Nutella.  Both crackers.

Toast marshmallows over your stovetop.  Just be careful not to touch the marshmallow to the stovetop – so hard to clean!  Hold them about as close as you can without risking that and you’ll know when to turn them because they’ll start smelling amazing and start to steam up a bit. 

Slide that toasty, gooey marshmallow onto your crackers to make a perfect s’more sandwich.

Enjoy!

Do you remember any of your bubble bursting moments?  I remember thinking these cookie bars were the most amazing secret recipe of my mom’s – simply because she’d make them all the time without looking at a recipe.  The are so yummy, and perfect because every ingredient either comes straight from the pantry, or is always on hand (butter) so you can stock up and have everything you need at a moment’s notice.

Anyway, the first time I was away from home and wanted to make them myself I picked up all the ingredients from the store.  While shopping I saw the recipe for Magic Cookie Bars on the back of the can of Eagle’s Sweetened Condensed Milk I was buying.  What?  My Mom is famous!  Her recipe is on the back of a can!  Pause…  Thinking it through…  Oh. 

Oh well, they’re still awesome. 

I have a friend who was going through a very rough time so the kids and I made up a yummy batch and sent it her way.  Sometimes it’s important to make the extra effort to send a handwritten note and homemade treats instead of an email or a Facebook comment.  And I loved that the kids got into it.  I’m sure that knowing they’d get to taste a few before we boxed the rest up had nothing to do with it.

So, so easy! You can just follow the recipe on the can, or use my family recipe, which is ever so slightly different, or adjust it to fit your liking.  Sub in walnuts for pecans, leave out the nuts or the coconut, whatever.  I remember my mom only put coconut on half the pan, since she liked it and the kids didn’t.  It ensured that half the pan would always be reserved for her.  There was even a time when she’d make 2 pans, one for the kids, and the other which she would hide in her room somewhere.  Probably to eat with the door locked while we knocked on the door asking her what she was doing in there.  Bless that woman!

Ingredients: 2 packages of graham crackers (1/2 box), 1 stick of butter, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 bag chocolate chips, 1 C chopped pecans, 1 C unsweetened coconut.

Step 1: have kids crush 2 packages of graham crackers (half a box)

make sure they really get into it.

Step 2: Put 1 sitck of butter in a 9×13 pan and put it in the oven.  Turn the oven on to 375 and let the butter melt as the oven pre-heats.

Step 3: mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs.  Press them down to make a crust on the bottom of the pan.  Pour in 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, a bag of chocolate chips, 1 cup of chopped pecans and 1 cup of unsweetened coconut.  Press them all down into the condensed milk.

Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, or until the sweetened condensed milk is a golden brown and bubbling up around the other ingredients.  Mmm.

Try to let them cool completely before cutting.  Or scoop out some before they’re ready and burn your mouth a bit because they smell so good you just can’t wait.  I won’t tell.

I loved Laura Dern’s dress.  Even though it’s stunning and gorgeous, it has this aura of integrity to it.  I know that’s an odd word to use when talking about fashion, but what I loved is that it looked like her.  It looked somewhat effortless, like she wasn’t trying to be someone else’s idea of fashionable or sexy.

If it inspires you to take a peek at Andrew Gn’s 2012 Spring Collection too, I’ll save you the google search – just click here.