It's the Life

Cilantro Lime Dressing with Tomatillo

In Utah, we have a Tex-Mex restaurant called Cafe-Rio. People are CRAZY about it. Even years and years after it's first opening. A long time ago someone told me how to make a dressing that tastes like their salad dressing. I don't remember who told me, and I don't know if this is even the way they told me to make it. This is how I make it, and it is delicious. I might even say I like it better than the restaurant version.

 

At the restaurant, customers usually get this dressing for their salad: Tortilla, rice, beans, meat, lettuce, pico, dressing, etc.  That is very yummy, but I'd like to offer an alternative use for this dressing: The Salmon Taco

We love salmon at our house. My boys like to eat it straight from the oven with a side of asparagus. I usually buy extra salmon so I can use the leftovers for salmon tacos. 

Start with a tortilla. I like to buy the raw tortilla and heat it on the stove. Add your salmon.

Drizzle on some of the dressing.

 

Break off some lettuce pieces. Some additional cilantro would be good here. I didn't save any when I made the dressing. Roll into a taco. So, so, seriously good.

This recipe makes a lot of dressing. You might want to fill a mason jar and share with your neighbors. They will love you. 

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Ryan!

I bought both of us a "love" cookie today...but I ate yours on the way home. 

You can have a bite of mine. That's how much I like you.

Tutorial: Shorten your Jeans, Keep the Original Hem

I don't think I've ever bought a pair of pants that were the right length for me. My legs are just too short. When I used to hem my jeans I would just cut them to the length I wanted plus an inch or so, fold back the fabric and stitch a smal line around the leg bottom. I never really liked the look of it, but I'm short, what choice do I have? I like the manufacturers hem, but I didn't know how to get that same look. I still don't know how to create that look, so I decided to keep it. I'm going to show you how to hem your jeans, but keep that original hem. Don't stress, it's easy.  Really, really, easy!

Start with a pair of jeans that are the length you want. Lay the shorter pair on top, making sure the tops, hips and crotch lines are all matching.

Using a pin or a pen, mark on the longer jeans where the stitching for the hem on the shorter pair hits. Not the bottom of the jean, but where the yellowish stitching is.  This is where you will sew the stitches of the longer jean.

Now, fold the leg of the longer jeans up until the bottom of the original hem lines up with the mark you made. Pin in place.

Make sure the stitch lines that run up and down the leg line up.

Pin it in place.

Line up the other side as well. Pin in place.

Do this on both pant legs. 

With a sewing machine, stitch along the original hem line. As close to the fold as you can, without going onto the fold.  Stitch all the way around each leg.

As you sew around, make sure your lines are still matching as you stitch.

When you have stitched all the way around, you can fold the excess inside the pant leg. At this point you should be getting excited! Look at that beautiful orginal hem. Look how those lines match up perfectly.

Heat up your iron and press your stitches from the inside and out. Make sure your fold is where you want it to be.

At this point you should find a thread that is a blue/grey. It doesn't have to match perfectly, but you don't want to use white (or pink). I use this same thread for dark and light jeans, and it hides just fine.

Bring your nicely pressed jeans back to the sewing machine. Stitch all the way around the leg bottom as close to the fold as you can.

Feel your heart swell with pride as you see your lines lined up perfectly.

Remind your husband how lucky he is to have married a catch like you! 

Gift Idea: Fun Kitchen Items

This holiday felt like a Kitchen Christmas for me. I loved it. If you know someone who likes to cook or likes to decorate their kitchen, you can't go wrong with fun, colorful, yet useful items like these. 

 

I love each one as much as the others! 

Gift Idea: Sugar Cookie Kit

 

My friend, Rachel, over at A Little Cuppa Tea and her awesome mother, Laura, gave out Sugar Cookie Kits during Christmas.  What a fantastic idea!

They even provided the cookie dough and frosting! Check out Rachel's blog for her recipes!

See those brown dots on the dough?  That's flavor people, lots and lots of flavor! We used both the Superhero cutters for Jefferson, and the snowflake cutters for me. 

 

How awesome are those Superhero cutters? I think I might find a gingersnap recipe we could use them for as well. We had to get really creative in order to frost them so you can still see the faces. I think a ginersnap would be perfect, because you don't need frosting. 

We used a very clean paint brush with some corn syrup to fill in the lines on Hulk.

Then we pressed black sanding sugar into the sticky gaps.

Not too bad...I did say we had to get creative!

For his hair and the rest of the cookies, I added some half and half (you could use milk) to the frosting to thin it out a bit. We used paint brushes to apply the frosting in the different areas. Don't you love that green hair? 

Jefferson want's it to be made clear that his FACE should be GREEN, and his hair should be black. (Yeah, yeah six year old...just eat your awesome cookie)

Since I didn't have to make the cookie dough or the frosting, I wasn't tired of the cookies by the time it came to frosting them. So we moved on to the snowflakes.

 

You will notice that the cookie kit was made just for me. I do love the blue & red combination. I'm not sure if they know, but my favorite thing besides a good sugar cookie, is a sugar cookie with cinnamon balls. I LOVE those cinnamon balls on a cookie. Tastes so good.

Ladies, this was an awesome idea for a gift! Not only was it packaged beautifully and the items inside are fun and tasty, but it allowed me to spend time with my boy, making memories, without the prep work. 

Thank you!