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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Homemade Spanish Red Beans

Happy Wednesday!

Growing up, my mom taught my sisters and me how to cook Spanish food. Spanish food is very much apart of our culture and my mom just felt it was important for us girls to learn how to cook Spanish food the right way. Spanish food is full of savory flavors, but it's never spicy. My sisters and I have our own style of cooking, but one things remains true we can cook up a scrumptious Spanish meal every time! By the time I was 12 years old I was cooking and I never really appreciated cooking then like I do now. Now that I have my own family, dinner time around the table with my husband and children is very important to me. Not only are we eating home cooked meals together but it's our time to catch up on the day, share some laughs and enjoy each others company. I dedicated this post to my mom, who taught me the importances of cooking and bringing family together.

Recipe for Spanish Red Beans:

1lb of red or pink beans
Salt to you're liking
1 tablespoon of Black pepper
1 tablespoon of garlic power
2 Bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon of dry oregano
1 can of tomato sauce (with no salt added) or you can also use 2 tablespoon of tomato paste
1/2 cup of pimento stuffed manzanilla olives
Small handful of cilantro leaves
Half of green, red or yellow pepper
3 cloves of garlic mince

*2 big spoonful of recaito by Goya, you can find this in the freezer section. If you are not able to find recaito by Goya, I will include at the end of this post how to make recaito. I  do make my own recaito and freeze it in small containers and use it when I need it. I don't use this everyday and this is why I freeze it so it won't go bad. Today, I didn't have any homemade recaito and I was too lazy to make it. LOL!
This is the spoon I use to measure the recaito
This is some of the ingredients. Also, you see the Goya, recaito.



Place beans in a large heavy bottom pot. Add enough water to cover beans by 2 inches and two tablespoon of olive oil. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cover and let it stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans. Return the beans to the pot and add enough water to cover beans by 8 inches and add salt to taste and 2 tablespoon of olive oil. When the beans begin to boil, cover pot and set on medium heat and cook till beans are tender (about 1 1/2 hour). Once beans are tender add from the black pepper down all the other ingredients to the beans. Once you have added all the ingredients to your beans let it simmer for 1 hours. Taste your beans to see if it has enough salt, if you need any more salt then you can add it at this time.Cook for about another 1/2 hours to 1 hour till you see the water of the beans (I like to call it the bean juice) is heavy, almost thick, but not watery. You don't want watery. 

The red beans all done
Once the beans are done turn off and sever over and next to white or brown rice you can add roasted chicken, roast beef or any meat you like. This recipe is easier then it sounds. I promise! Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Here is how you make Recaito: 3 medium spanish onions, 3 green peppers, one entire cloves of garlic, and small bunch of cilantro and 1/4 of olive oil (make sure it's a good quality) and water.
Take your blender and add the chopped up onions, peppers, smash up garlics, cilantro leaves, olive oil and start blending. If the mixture is a thick then add a 2 tablespoon of water till it smooth,but not watery. Consistency should be smooth not watery. Place recaito in container and place in your freezer. You can add a spoonful of this to soups,stews and beans. It's really adds a lot of flavor to your food.

As we say in our culture Buen Provecho! Happy Eating! Thank you for stopping by and I love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Vanessa













Monday, August 29, 2011

DIY Table To A Desk

Hi, Everyone

Happy Monday! I am not sure what is going on with Monday's but this is the second week I was unable to upload my post early this morning due to a computer issue. Thank goodness for my husband, he's my IT man!

I was in the market for a bigger desk for my son and just around the same time my dear friend happen to have a table she wanted to get rid of. It wasn't a desk, however it was a small enough table, but big enough to be used as a desk. Here are the before pictures.


Needs some TLC

Things we used

Lightly Sanded 

Removed dust

Stain with Red Mahogany 225 Minwax 

Here is the new and improve

Love curvy legs. I mean on the table. : )

Our son love's the table and color. The total cost was $27. I also have enough stain to use on another project.  This was a hugh blessing and I am so grateful to my dear friend Nicole. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I love to hear from you so please leave a comment. Till Wednesday, have a Bless week. 

Vanessa

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Vintage Books as a side table

Hello, Blog Friends

This post is going up late, but my sweet hubby had to fix our computer. But now we are up and running. Yippee!

The last few weeks, I have been organizing, rearranging and purging. I am getting ready to do a Just Between Friends consignment sale in October. So, needless to say I have been very busy.

I love to collect vintage things. For example, I love vintage chairs, books (children books mostly), dishes, plates, coffee cups, pictures and well you get the idea. One day my wonderful in-laws came for a visit and brought with them a stack of vintage books. My husband told me they belong to his grandfather, who was a teacher. I love old things so we have a stack of vintage history books. For weeks I have been trying to figure out where in the world are we going to put these books. We have no bookshelves, so I had the books stack up in the corner of the office and a few months later I found this vintage chair and I put two and two together and this is what I came up with. What do you think?

I have more to do, but I just wanted to give you an idea what it looks like. 

Vintage History Books


Here are some other vintage finds I picked up: 

1946 Children story book

vintage dishes

Vintage dish set. It belonged to my husband's great-grandmother. Love these dishes

Vintage dishes

I hope you enjoyed looking at my vintage finds. Thank you for stopping by. Love to hear from you so please leave a comment. 

Blessings,

Vanessa

Monday, August 22, 2011

Re-pupose boring plates

Happy Monday!

I trust everyone had a great weekend! I've been a busy little bee over the weekend. I have another DIY project which I will post tomorrow. I realize there is only 125 days before Christmas, can you believe that? I have decided not to wait to the last minute to do special projects, painting, and redecorating. I have a long to do list and I plan on doing every project with minimal money.

I love hanging plates on my walls, so I shop around at different places. I will go to Walmart, Target, antique stores, thrift stores, yard sales, Ross, Marshalls, TJ Max, Homegoods, and department stores as well. I have found really nice plates for a $1 to $3. I will not pay much for decorating plates, unless I plan on using them for salad or desserts. But even then, I stick to a set price.

I had these lovely clear plates I bought at the Good Will store and I knew I wanted to do something different to them.

I clean the plates with soap and water and dry thoroughly. 
Clear plates. 

Krylon can be sprayed on glassware and I love this brand because it is easy to use and dries quickly. Also, make sure the can spray you use can be sprayed on glass. Just read the label. 


 I sprayed two coats and in between coats I let it dry for about 15 minutes.



I love my new red plates, especially in the kitchen. Did you know red promotes eating? 
 I am not done with these plates yet. I plan on adding something else to them, what I am not sure yet. But once I am done, these plates will hang in the kitchen. So watch out for an update. 

What's nice about these plates, you can spray them and decoupages them with fabric or scarpbooking paper. You can even add a photo to your plates! I will being doing a DIY tutorial on this as well. It's on my to do list. LOL!  

Thank you for stopping by! Make sure to leave a comment below I love to hear your opinions! 

Blessings,

Vanessa




Monday, August 15, 2011

Food For Thought!

I have a good friend from high school who is asian and she and her husband own three restaurants up north. She taught me to make a simple Chinese meal and I wanted to share this recipe with you. It's one of my favorite meals and I know you will enjoy it.

4 boneless chicken breast cut into cubes
2 Tablespoon of soy-sauce (I use light sodium)
1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 Tablespoon of oyster sauces
Fresh or frozen veggies
Brown or white rice or chinese noodles

1) Whisk together the soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar and pour over your chicken and let it marinate for 20 minutes.


This is want your marinate looks like, if you like your meal to have more sauce then double it.
2) While the meat is marinating cook your rice or noodles and follow the instructions on the package. After 15 minutes toss everything into a pan on medium-high heat. Cook till chicken is done (about 10 minutes). You may need to add some water so sauce doesn't dry up and you may also need to add more soy sauce and corn starch. Just eyeball it and make sure your sauce doesn't dry up.
When chicken is done, add 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce to the pan and mix it well into the chicken.

3) Finally add your veggies and cook till tender and make sure your sauce isn't drying up. If you need to add some water or oyster sauce go ahead and do so at this time.  When veggies are done turn off the stove.

4) Serve your rice or noodles on your dinner plate and place your chicken and veggies over your rice and noodles.

You don't want to add any salt, pepper or any other seasonings to this meal, if you do you will end up with a very salty meal. This meal takes about 35 minutes to make and one pan for an easy clean up.
For variation, use turkey meat or just different veggies to marinate in your sauce and cook and serve.

Happy eating!


Cooking chicken and sauce. 

Veggies are always the last thing to add so they don't get mushy.


I serves it over noodles. 
Love to hear from you, so leave a comment.

Vanessa