Homemade Wheat Pasta with Alfredo Sauce and Baked Chicken

There weren't a lot of items on my Christmas list this year (outside of clothes and shoes - always), but the KitchenAid Pasta Extruder was one of them.  Gabe wanted to buy it for me, but we were travelling this year, and it wasn't exactly logical to take it on the plane.  Instead, he just told me to buy it once we returned home.  I researched, looking for the best price.  Bed Bath & Beyond was the best if I used a 20% off coupon, but the local store didn't have it so I waited several months for an online 20% off coupon.  Finally, I received one last week -- and FINALLY, I got my late Christmas gift on February 13th!  I couldn't wait to use it!

It may be odd, but we never go out to dinner on Valentine's Day because we don't want to deal with reservations and crowds.  And this year, I was scheduled to have a meeting on the evening of February 14th, which I thought would derail my chances of making pasta on Valentine's Day.  The meeting was cancelled the day of so I began making dinner plans -- centered around homemade pasta!

KitchenAid Pasta Extruder

This pasta extruder from KitchenAid is amazing and so easy to use.  Mix and knead the pasta, put walnut size pieces in the extruder and cut the pasta (using the cutter that is attached to the extruder) -- so simple!

I opted for light wheat pasta (a mixture of whole wheat flour and unbleached flour) with Alfredo sauce and sliced tomatoes.  The fresh pasta was definitely worth the extra effort and this two cheese Alfredo sauce was super creamy and delicious!  For the protein I baked chicken thighs with olive oil and spices.

Light Wheat Pasta from KitchenAid

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sifted whole wheat flour
1 cup sifted bread or unbleached flour
4 large eggs
2 tbs water
1/2 tbs salt

Mix whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, eggs, water and salt (with the KitchenAid mixer:  flat beater on speed 2 for 30 seconds, then dough hook on speed 2 for 2 minutes).  Remove the dough and hand knead for 1 to 2 minutes.

Alfredo Sauce

Click here for the Alfredo Sauce Recipe from Key Ingredient

Baked Chicken

Ingredients:
Skinless Chicken Thighs (I used bone-in)
Olive Oil
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Italian Herb Seasoning
Cayenne Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place chicken in glass baking dish.  Brush with olive oil.  Rub with onion powder, garlic powder, italian herb seasoning and cayenne pepper (one to one for the first 3 spices, cayenne pepper depending on your taste).  Bake the chicken for 30 minutes or until juices run clear.

After plating the pasta, I added parsley, fresh tomato and fresh grated parmesan cheese.

for more great ideas.

My Top 5 Beauty Faves

Hopefully very, very soon, I'll be able to tell you about the AMAZING homemade pasta that I made with the new pasta extruder that arrived at my doorstep moments ago - Of course - I have to make that AMAZING homemade pasta before I can share it!

For now, I'll resort to sharing some beauty products that I LOVE!

                                                                     1.  DHC Velvet Skin Coat

DHC is a Japanese company that I found through mail order catalogues.  The catalogues always come with free samples and Velvet Skin Coat was the first DHC product that I tried.  I have been ordering it ever since.  It's a very light weight primer that fills in creases and fine lines.  A very small amount covers my entire face and makes applying foundation a breeze!












2.  Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer

I don't know about you, but it seems like my eyeshadow always ended up vanishing from my eyelids - that was - until I found this eyeshadow primer!  This is also a very lightweight product.  A tiny little dap covers both of my eyelids and holds my eyeshadow all day long -- including when I work out, play sports and any other time that I sweat in the South Florida sun!








3.  DHC Perfect Pro Mascara

To go along with my eyeshadow problems, I've always had an issue with my mascara ending up in places that it shouldn't be.   I blame this one on the sun too -- and the fact that I sweat, a lot!  Though I prefer that my mascara stay where I put it, most waterproof mascaras are too difficult to remove when I'm ready to.  This is different.  DHC advertises a "tubing technology" that "encapsulates your lashes in polymer tubes."  It stays where you want it and is easy to remove with water.  As DHC advertises "simply splash your face with warm water and slide the tubes right off."  Did I mention that DHC also offers loyalty discounts?







4.  DHC Moisture Care Lipstick

I've always wanted to wear lipstick but my lips are pretty dry.  Most lipsticks that I've tried turn into a dried out mess within a few hours of wear.  Recently I decided to try DHC Moisture Care Lipstick because, well, their products never disappoint.  DHC products tend to function as advertised, which is really nice to know when they have to be mail ordered (though as I mentioned before, they will send free samples if you want to try something).  And, no, I'm not paid by DHC, though you may think so at this point!  This lipstick offers just a hint of color.  It is very moist, but not glossy.







5.  NARS Illuminator 

I originally received NARS illuminator as a sample at Sephora, with no instruction.  I didn't really know what it was or what it's purpose was, but I looked it up and tried it.  It is a great highlighter that can be used over or under foundation (I use it over foundation but beneath powder).  It can be worn all over or only as a highlighter and can even be mixed with foundation.  I use it as a highlighter -- mostly on the top of my cheekbones.  It's great for adding a little glow to my skin!










FIVE more FAVES (in no particular order):

Sephora Collection Colorful Palette Eyeshadow
Sephora Collection Sculpting Disk
DHC After Bath Hair Treatment Oil Type
Smashbox Photo Finish Luminizing Foundation Primer
DHC Eye and Lip Makeup Remover

Initial Door Hanging

Christmas is over, and it's time to take all of the Christmas decorations down, including my Christmas wreath.  It's January 5th, and while I've taken down all of the decorations inside the house, the lights are still up outside.  We should be able to take care of that today though (finally)!  I do have to mention that several other houses in the neighborhood are still decorated for Christmas so we aren't last!

I've seen several different door hangings that use initials: letter of last name, monograms, etc.  I found this "J" at Hobby Lobby (there is no Hobby Lobby nearby, but there is one about 40 minutes north and my mom had a gift card that she needed to use - sounds like a good reason to go to a huge craft store to me).  It was already black so I didn't even have to paint it!  Gabe says that the "J" is for "Julie," but really, it's for "Johnson."

I also got several sheets of felt at Hobby Lobby (4/$1.00 - which I thought was pretty amazing)!  I thought about coming up with a new felt flower, but I ended up deciding to just use my poinsettia pattern (the method can be found here, but my pattern is actually hand drawn).  I figured that in blue and grey they wouldn't look like poinsettias anyway.  I also made another burlap rose, but smaller than the one's that I made for my Christmas Wreath.  The piece of burlap that I used was about half as long as the ones that I used before.

I think it's a nice springtime piece.  I do realize that it's technically not spring, but in South Florida, we don't have winter, and I consider it to be spring as soon as the holiday season is over.  I love turquoise, blue and aqua.  They remind me of the ocean, which is less than 10 minutes away, yet I never find the time to visit...

Let me know what you think!  And post pictures if you try something similar!

Painted Wooden Letters

Christmas is almost here!  Between attending parties, shopping for family members, making my own wish list and, of course, working, I found a little time to be creative!

I've been planning this project for a while.  I planned to have completed it when I decorated for Christmas (but I hadn't even ordered the wooden letters).  Several months ago, I stumbled upon this site on Pinterest.  It offers completely customizable wooden letters.  You're able to choose the font, height and thickness of the letters that you choose (price depending on height and thickness).



This is what the letters looked like when I received them (above).  It's tough to see in the photos, but the letters have a dark brown edge.  This is due to the thickness of the letters that I ordered.  The thinner letters are cut with a laser (which leaves the dark edge) while the thicker letters are cut with a computer controlled router (all of this information can be found on the website).

To paint the letters, I first painted a thin line of brown around the edge of each letter (this is much more obvious on "Joy" than "Noel" because of the size of the letters).  Then, I painted the entire letter with red or green (not the base red or green - I mixed paints to get the colors that I wanted).  On top of the red and green, I added bronze paint (not all over, just in a few key spots).

I glued the "Noel" letters together using E600 glue, but not the "Joy" letters (because they didn't fit well together).  I learned about E600 glue through a Michael's tutorial.  It's pretty good stuff.  If you haven't tried it, you should!

I hope you found this post inspiring and/or helpful!

T-shirt Bag

Today was a busy day - church and then leading a team of teenagers to decorate the youth room.  The service was awesome as always (if you're in the Jupiter area, you really should check out Generation Church).  The cheesy Christmas theme in the youth room is complete (though I really wanted one of those old plastic yard figurines to complete my "design").  After dinner I tried making a peppermint chocolate chip milk shake, but we didn't have enough ice cream so it was really just peppermint chocolate chip milk (no shake).  And then, instead of watching the BCS Bowl Selections (because I already knew where Florida would play and who we would play), I decided to let my creative juices flow.

I went upstairs with no plan in mind and ended up with this cute little drawstring t-shirt bag.  I tried drawing on the first one that I made, but drawing on a t-shirt was much more difficult than I expected (I was thinking of writing a name and drawing some sort of small design - I probably could have made it work, but I gave up quickly in favor of the cute red flowers).

This was a pretty simple project.  

1.  Cut a rectangle from a t-shirt.

2.  Place string (could be any type of thick string - I didn't have any so I made my own with a black t-shirt) about half an inch from the top of the rectangle, fold the t-shirt over it and sew the folded piece down (so that the string is kind of inside of a tube).

3.  Fold the rectangle in half so that it's inside out and sew the bottom seam (if you're going to sew anything onto the front of the bag, you'll want to do it before starting step 4*).

4.  With the bag still inside out, sew the open side shut.

5.  Turn the bag ride side out, test your drawstring to make sure it works, and you're done!

* To make the flowers, I cut the flower from a small a piece of felt (freehand) and cut a small dot from a black t-shirt for the center.  I sewed them onto the bag by making a small "X" in the center of each flower.

These bags could be made in lots of colors and sizes and could be used for gift-giving, storage, decorating and many other things!

Sights of Christmas

I put up my Christmas decorations yesterday.  I took some photos today so I figured I'd share them.

Find the tutorial for this cute felt and burlap ornament here.

My mom is the queen of bow-making.  I decided to give it a try and think that it turned out pretty well.

It wouldn't be me if it didn't include the Gators!

Trying something new...

This is the centerpiece on our dining table.

I thought the reflection of the tree in the china cabinet was really pretty!

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Felt and Burlap Star Ornament

I haven't put my Christmas tree up yet so I decided to photograph this cute little ornament on our (fake) palm tree!  After all, we do live in South Florida.  Maybe I should just decorate the fake palm tree (probably not, but it's worth a thought). (Edit - I have since put up the Christmas Tree, and I took new photos of the ornament on the Christmas tree.  I deleted the photo taken on the palm).

This ornament was super simple, and it only took a few minutes to make it (good thing because I haven't even had time to make a second one).  Finally, it's Thanksgiving break, and I have time to write this post!

I searched Google and found a basic star pattern here.  I was afraid that it wouldn't be sized the way that I wanted it, but it printed in the perfect size.

I used the pattern to cut a star out of red felt and and a star out of burlap.  I kind of pulled on the edges of the burlap to give it a frayed look.  I placed the burlap star on top of the felt star (in a perfectly imperfect way) and then used my sewing machine to sew them together.  I sewed a piece of thread onto it to make the hanger (I did this part by hand).  I actually would have preferred to use a thin strip of ribbon for the hanger, but I didn't have any.

Edit - I eventually made 6 of these ornaments.  They were easy to make and will also be easy to store!