Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tutu and Taco Party!


One of my girlfriend’s birthday is coming up, and she likes to celebrate her birthday for a WHOLE WEEK. And she has a theme (this is her sixth year running). This year, the theme is tu-tu’s and top hats. A couple of us girls decided that we must make our own tu-tu’s. So I decided to host a taco and tu-tu party. That’s right, awesome homemade tacos followed by making our own tu-tu! 

We were having about ten people over to the house for dinner, so I decided to make my lentil tacos, as it seemed to be a good way to feed a lot of people for not too much money. I bought homemade corn tortillas from HEB, and for toppings I made some guacamole, bought a jar of salsa and sour cream, shredded some jicama, and crumbled queso fresco. Ended up being less than $15 total for a wholesome and very filling meal. Below is my recipe- it was enough for everyone to have 2-3 tacos with some leftover for dinner the next day:


Lentil Tacos:

1 bag of lentils
2 jalapenos, diced small
1 onion, diced small
1 packet of low sodium taco seasoning
4 crushed garlic gloves
2 cups of broth
4 cups of water
Salt and pepper to taste

Pour oil in a large stock pot. Fry the garlic, jalpenos and onion until soft. Mix in the broth, water, lentils, taco seasoning and salt and pepper. Cover and let cook for 30 minutes or until soft. Stir every five minutes or so. Warm the corn tortillas so they are soft and pliable (we used our griddle to heat lots up fast), top with yummy ingredients of your choice, and enjoy!

For our tu-tu’s, everyone bought about four yards of fabric and some elastic. Most of the girls used the technique listed here. I choose to take several different pieces and colors of tulle and ruffle them (this tutorial is pretty straight forward if you’ve never tried it) using straight stitches with my sewing machine. Since I was basically using scraps of tulle that I have been carrying around for at least four years, none of the ruffles were wide enough to wrap around my waist. So I pinned all the finished ruffles together to form one piece of ruffled fabric that would wrap around my waist. Once I finished sewing the ruffles together, I sewed a ribbon onto the waist on either side so I could tie it in a bow. The pieces were all a bit different in length, so I cut the completed tu-tu across the bottom in jagged triangles. Took me about 15 minutes to whip up, and I was pretty pleased with the result. Very fairy princess and I am happy to have de-stashed my fabric pile. Here is the finished result:

And all of us together:

 
After reading this, I hope you feel the need to invent reasons to wear a tu-tu and make one of your own! =)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Hand-Sewn Mini Stuffed Kitty

I had yet another plane flight ahead of me this week, so I decided to tackle a project that I've been putting off for a while. On one of my favorite blogs, See Kate Sew, Kate made this totally cute little deer and elephant from a pattern that looked pretty simple. How adorable is this?

Check out Kate's post here.

The pattern for this little stuffed animal was posted here. I had some corduroy and leopard fabric that I thought would make a cute combo. I originally tried using my sewing machine as Kate suggested, but completely ruined the head on my first try. I let it sit for a few weeks so I wouldn't throw my sewing machine against the wall, re-cut the head fabric, and then packed up all the fabric and some needle, thread and stuffing, and brought it on the plane! Took me about three hours and was a little painstaking, but I got upgraded to first class and watched the Hangover 2 on Directv for most of the time, so it went by pretty fast.  

The body was definitely the easiest part. The head was a bit harder to get together, and when I was done and I set it on top of the body, it looked nothing like a little deer. But it did look a lot like....a cat! So I folded the ear pieces in half to make a triangle and assembled the tail a bit differently and decided to roll with it. My little kitty doesn't have a face yet as I am in a hotel now and don't have access to my craft bin, but here she is frolicking on my hotel carpet:


I do wish I had used a bit more of the leopard fabric in creating this, but it's a pretty sweet little stuffed animal. The thread did show through a bit on the seams, but luckily I used purple thread, so it just looks kind of shabby chic. If anyone of you who are more talented with their sewing machines at a small scale try this, do let me know!
















Monday, April 2, 2012

Simple Zucchini Breakfast Quesadilla

I never thought to have a quesadilla for breakfast before. But this weekend, we had a bunch of fresh corn tortillas laying around, and I thought, why not? Put down a corn tortilla, so leftover stir fried zucchini, some queso fresco, and then cracked an egg right over it. A lot of the recipes I looked at online had you scramble the eggs (like this one, does look awesome BTW), but there was a certain laziness factor going on. 

Sprinkled some salt and pepper on top and put on a bit of salsa, and waited for the egg to cook most of the way through. Then I added another corn tortilla, flipped it, and waited for the other side to get crispy. When it was done, I just picked it up and ate it like a sandwich! Super quick, easy and yummy, and quite neat to eat as well. Definitely adding this one to the breakfast repertoire. Too bad hubby has decided he hates corn tortillas, because they are my favorite thing ever (when they are fresh anyways).