Twila's Easy Microwave Spanish Rice

I promised I would post this recipe after our "Fiesta party" last week.  No one could believe it was so easy and prepared in the microwave.  Hope you enjoy :D

Twila's Easy Microwave Spanish Rice

Ingredients

1 cup  rice (not instant rice) if you are watching your carbs use Uncle Ben's converted rice.

1 - 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon chicken base i.e. Tones  (or a dissolved  boillion cube)

1 can of your favorite salsa (I use the 7 oz Herdez Salsa Casera)

salt & pepper & chili powder to taste

Directions:

in a microwave safe dish, add rice and just enough water to cover the rice, then stir in the chicken base or bouilliion).  Microwave uncovered  on high for 8 minutes or until water dissappears.  Take out and fluff up with fork and then cover with water again.  Microwave on high for another 5 minutes.

Fluff with fork - add chili powder, salt & pepper and can of salsa and stir with fork to mix.

Cook another 4=5 minutes and let stand for 5-10 minutes.  I sometimes let it stand for up to 15 minutes with the lid on.

Rice should be perfect!

"You are my Hero" - Scrappy Moms & Copics

Love the Copic Markers and my Scrappy Mom stamp sets!  The copics are so wonderful for line-art stamp images and you can bet Scrappy Moms has a stamp set to match just about anything!.  I made this card for my hubby, because he is my "hero" every day :-).

This is a full-sized card.  The eagle is a rubber stamp from Stampabilities (Hobby Lobby).  For the eagle I stamped with Tuxedo Black "Memento" ink and used the Copic markers (for the beak and talons I blended Y15 and Y11.  For the head I blended C1 and C3.  For the body/feathers I used E09,YR24,E29.YR04,Y15 blending them as I added colors. At the end I used the colorless blender on select areas to highlight). Then I cut the eagle out with my Cuttlebug and the large round Nestabilities die-cut. After cutting, with the round die-cut still in place, I used Ranger Distressed Ink "Walnut Stain" with my daubber to ink the edges, so that when you remove the die-cut circle, you get that defined edge.  The mat behind the eagle is cut with the Scalloped large circle Nestabilities from a mat stack.  The sentiment is from Scrappy Mom's "For the Boys" set.  Before adhering my Rust mat to the black mat, I tied the coordinating ribbon around the rust mat. I used my corner rounder on both mats and then used pop dots for the eagle and scalloped mat.

TJ :-)

Hubby's Valentine's Card

Since I couldn't wait to give my hubby the first valentine card I made for Momo's Tuesday Challenge I just had to make him another "official" Valentine's card.   I finally got my camera out and took a picture to share.

This is a full sized greeting card.  For the floral mat, this was from a K&company mat pad "Madeline". I cut a slightly larger black mat to go behind it. Before adhering it to the black mat, I added the pink ribbon.  For the hearts I used my Cuttlebug and  the plain and scalloped Nestabilities from Spellbinder.  I also used a Spellbinder  "Fancy Label" and cut it in half and adhered each side to the back of the scalloped heart.  Then I used Ice Stickles to bling it up.  The center glittered heart was from a pack of hearts I got at Dollar Tree. I used dimensionals for the top two hearts for that three-d effect. For the sentiment, that's from Scrappy mom's "love notes" clear stamps.  I stamped it and then cut it out again with my Cuttlebug and the small square nestabilities from Spellbinder.  I cut the next size larger for the black mat and then turned it over and embossed it to define the edge, then I used pop-dots for dimension.

This card is really pretty in person.  Hubby loved it :)

Cheese Roll Recipe

This is an awesome recipe for stuffed rolls.  I know the ingredients sound a little strange, but they are a big hit at potlucks.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 lb grated cheddar cheese

5 green onions

1/2 cup oil

1/2 bell pepper

1 small can tomato sauce

2 hardboiled eggs

1 small jar chopped pimento

1 small can chopped olives

1 bag of dinner rolls (like from Costco or Sams)

Directions:

Grind all ingredients together and spread lightly on rolls that have been split in half.

Put the halves back together and wrap in foil

Refrigerate until ready to bake

Bake 15-20 min at 350.

Will fill 3 dozen rolls.

Hallmark 2011 Card Studio - Valentine's Day Cards

Once again, I've used Hallmark 2011 Card Studio for my base card for my parents and aunt's cards this year.

Don't they look great?

I also used studio to add picture and fill out the addresses with my ink jet printer for coordinating envelopes.  Just love that feature!

Momo's Tuesday Challenge Card

Momo's challenge this week is to make something using Black, White & Hot Pink.... and it has to have a heart. (http://madebymomo.blogspot.com/)

I used the Hello Kitty Cartridge which I just recently purchased on sale - Miss Kitty is super cute :D.    I cut her at 4.5 inches with a 4.75 blackout layer.  Instead of Miss Kitty's bow cut out I used a prima flower with embellishments and then used Ice Stickles around the heart and a little pink bling for her nose.  The "Be mine" stamp is from Scrappy Mom's Love Notes stamp collection.

For the inside sentiment (also from "love notes") I use the Spellbinders nestabilities hearts (both plan & scalloped) in my cuttlebug, then I used my versamarker pen to highlight the scalloped edge of the heart mat and then used embossing powder to really define that scallopped edge.   Hope you enjoy!

Here's the video

Christmas Cards with Hallmark Card Studio 2011

Happy Holidays to all!  I just upgraded to Hallmark Card Studio 2011 Deluxe and I'll be sharing what's new as I explore it.

I used it for my parents and my aunt for their Christmas cards this year and they really came out beautiful.  For both cards I printed the the outer card on pre-scored Photo quality Greeting Cards from printonit.com and for the inside sentiment I printed it on a separate sheet of paper that coordinated with the color schemes.

With a little embellishing these cards really come out amazing.  I wish you could see these "in person", but if you click on the pictures you can get a pretty good idea of how the embellishments look.

For my parents, I used the "Crystal Stickers (MarkRichardsusa.com) from Joanne's I used the crystal & pearls and a gold trimmed velvet ribbon.  I also made a coodinating envelope and with the software you can print your return address and the recipient address right on the envelope - which is so cool.

If you have your address book set up in the Event planner section, and you use the same design for all your cards you can just click on who you want to send it to in the Print section and put all your envelopes in the printer and click PRINT.  I did this for my handmade 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card envelops (I think that's the A2 size) and they came out perfect.

For my Aunt's card - I also embellished with the Crystal stickers to accent the stars in the ornaments and used the straight-line pearls on the round ornaments and used Ice Stickles for a little additional blink on the card & envelope. For the envelope I used the Ice Stickles .