Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Haus of Kendi!

Cutest little scarecrow ever!

Kendi's Kitchen: One Pan Sausage and Veggies

This is another recipe found on Pinterest.  The picture is what sold me.  It's pretty straight forward but a little time consuming.  I recommend making this as a nice Sunday dinner.  I tried it again during the week for dinner and it was a little stressful.  We ate kinda late that night.

Cheers!

One Pan Sausage and Veggies

4 sausages (beef or pork - we use mild Italian)
1 pound potatoes
1/2 pound carrots
1/2 bell pepper
1 large onion
1 fennel bulb
2 garlic cloves (I use like 5)
2 tbsp oil
freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 cup chicken broth (we used the powdered bouillon)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I added some more after the first 45 minutes)

**Note:  You can use what ever veggies you like.  The original recipe lists the veggies I have hear and I followed what she did.  But I'm sure you could switch it up with different stuff and it would taste just as good.**

Chop and peel all the veggies and garlic.  Put all the veggies in a roasting pan.  Make sure they are mixed up.  In a bowl, mix oil, garlic, chicken broth and Italian herbs.  Pour mixture over veggies and toss them a little.  Try to coat as many as possible, but don't be too serious about it.  Salt and pepper the top.  Cover with foil and bake in oven for 45 minutes at 450.  While veggies are cooking, brown the sausage in a pan.  You don't have to cook them completely, just get them brown.  Cut the sausages in half.  After 45 minutes, the veggies should be fork tender.  If not, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.  Place sausage on top of veggies and drizzle the balsamic vinegar over everything.  Put back in over, uncovered for 25-30 minutes.  After 15 minutes, flip sausage and get some of the juices in the bottom of pan and pour over everything again (I just grab the balsamic again and drizzle everything again).  Cook for remaining time.  

To me, this is Fall in a pan.  And it makes the most amazing leftovers.  Enjoy!

Stats:
Time: 2 hrs
Cost:  around $8 depending on veggie prices and what you like
Servings:  4
Leftovers:  yes

Ingredients

Adding the sausage to the cooked veggies

Fourth of July

Since I wasn't on call for the fourth, we decided to head up to Chattanooga, TN to visit Kevin's friend Shawn.  We had a BBQ, traded recipes and told stories.  I even tried out a new pin.  It was a great evening.  

Oh, and we made a new friend.

Cheers!

This is Chewy.  He's was such a little wiggler!

 I found "Firecracker Cookies" on Pinterest.  They seemed pretty easy so I gave them a try.  I made some sugar cookies, frosted them with white and blue frosting and sprinkled red Pop Rocks on top.  Well, didn't know that the moisture in frosting was enough to set the Pop Rocks off.  They starting popping right away.  By the time it was ready to eat them, the Pop Rocks were all melted and gross looking.  Next time, I will add the Pop Rocks right before I serve them.

70's Pop Rocks

Energy Balls

My Dad turned us on to this VERY simple recipe when we were home a while ago.  We call them energy balls.  They are all over pinterest and are the easiest, most filling snack I have ever had.  And they don't taste like you're being good, which is always a plus.  I highly recommend making a batch.  I grab two for breakfast as I'm running out the door and they hold me over until lunch.  And bonus: they are totally customizable.  :)  Here's the recipe we use. 

Cheers!

Energy Balls

1 cup dry oatmeal (oats)
2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Toast coconut flakes in a small pan at medium heat on stove top.  Keep moving the flakes around so they don't get burned.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  I try to put the chocolate chips on the bottom so the coconut doesn't melt them until I stir everything in.  Let it sit in the fridge for a bit to harden up.  Make into balls.  Store in the fridge.

If you don't like chocolate, try dried fruit or nuts.  And you can make these without including the flaxseed if you want. 

DIY Fabric Softener

I'm really excited about this one.  I waited MONTHS for my Sam's Club sized container of fabric softener to run out so I could make my own.  I found the recipe via Pinterest (where all awesome things are found...) and finally made my own version a couple weeks ago.  It was super easy and super cheap, I had all but one ingredient.  I've been using it for a little over a week now and it seems to be fine.  Can't really smell it, but I never smelled the store bought stuff either.  Looks like this ones a keeper!


Here's what you'll need to make your own batch:

6 cups HOT water
3 cups white vinegar
2 cups hair conditioner (I used Suave because its cheap and good)

First, I measured out the conditioner.  Then I microwaved the six cups of water to make it REALLY hot.  I wanted to make sure that all the conditioner was dissolved.  Then I added the vinegar.  I mixed it all up in an empty water jug. 

Shake it!

Then you just shake, shake, shake!  That's it.  Once the bubbles settle, it's ready to use.  I use it in a Downy ball.  Never buying fabric softener again!

Cheers!

Valentine's Day

This year, we spent Valentine's Day in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  Not bad, huh?  Because we were going to be on vacation for the big day, we decided to go easy with the gifts.  I ended up finding a few goodies at the dollar store for Kevin to use on the trip and I also made him this from pinterest:

from pinterest

Instead of "like" I said "love" and I switched out the ribbon for manly metal rings.  :)

Kevin also went the pinterest route and actually showed me up this year.  His gifts were activity themed, as in things we could do together.

He made a list of date ideas and framed them.  We can use a dry erase marker on the glass to check them off.  He also made a date jar so when we can't decide what to do, we just pull out a popsicle stick and do what's on it.  They are seriously the sweetest gifts I've received in a long time.

We gave each other these things before we flew to Mexico so we wouldn't have to lug them on the plane.  We were in Mexico on Valentine's Day but Kevin managed to surprise me with another pinterest present:

Yup.  Those be Rolos dressed up as dynamite.  I'm a lucky girl.  :)

Cheers!

Mild Pinterest Addiction

I love Pinterest! And I'm proud of it. There, it's out in the open. Ever since I spent the summer in unemployment limbo I've been hooked. What started as a way to pass the time (just browsing and actually finding projects to work on) has turned into a mild obsession. I just can't tear myself away from all of the great recipes, style suggestions, gift ideas, and decorating/DIY projects. Not to mention all of the random funny stuff. If only there were more hours in a day to actually do everything I have pinned. And if only I could eat all of the great food without turning into a whale. Here's to a year of pinning!

Pinterest Christmas 2012

So, I may have mentioned earlier that my goal for this past Christmas was to make it a Pinterest Christmas.  I was hoping to make everyone's presents.  I wanted to save some money and I personally think that handmade presents are better.  Well, I didn't take into account how long it takes to make things.  I was able to get a few things done, but not everything I had on my list.  Good thing there are always birthdays and pinterest parties!

Here's the run down of Pinterest Christmas 2012...

My most important pin, and most tedious, was for my mom.  Boot shapers.  I really liked these and I knew she would too.  I had really good instructions, I just needed to find all the stuff and make them.  I think they turned out really good for the first try!

Who doesn't love Christmas cookies?  Not the Haus of Kendi, that's for sure!  Kevin is really good in the kitchen and he wanted to bake all his family's traditions this year, included Peanut Blossoms, Sugar Cookies and Nuts & Bolts (Chex Mix).  I can't think of a better treat to hand out at Christmas, can you?  :)  I tried some new recipes I found on Pinterest.  Some worked, some didn't.  More on the pintatrophies later...

All dressed up and baking Peanut Blossoms

Crushing candy canes for cookies

Frosting sugar cookies

The baking pin successes were Puppy Chow (recipe here) and Peppermint Brownie Cookies (recipe here).  Both were really easy and straight forward.  My only change, I added a lot more powdered sugar to the Puppy Chow than what was in the recipe.  Two more winners!

Puppy Chow

Finished cookies

We also make some mixes for our family and friends too: Kevin's Pancake Mix and Instant Hot Cocoa Mix.

 

Instant hot chocolate packaged and ready to give!

And last but not least, I followed these instructions and the instructions on the package to make an etched monogram beer mug for Kevin's brother.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but it turned out better than I thought it would!

Dad helping me cut out the "R" stencil

My mom also got in on the Pinterest Christmas, but she didn't realize that she had.  She made me a make-up brush travel roll!  She got the instructions from the PBS show "Deals", but I found some on pinterest here.  She made it out of a hand towel so it could be washed and picked brown so you wouldn't see make-up stains.  I totally love it!!

Final pin tally: 5

I hope this inspires you all to try some of the things you find on Pinterest.  This Christmas alone, I've added two new recipes and two new skills to my repertoire!  

Cheers!

December Pinterest Party

So, I think it's been well established that there are only, like, four people not on Pinterest these days.  I myself am completely obsessed.  Because of this obsession, I tried to start a weekly Pinterest party with a few of my equally obsessed girlfriends.  Well, my first attempt failed (I completely forgot that I was going to have the party that day).  Thankfully, my girl Tanisha picked up the slack and planned one in December at her house.  It was just the thing I needed to kick off my Pinterest Christmas.

We decided to make it a monthly event and we even established a format for the parties:

1:  The hostess will do a food pin, so we have food to eat and can try a new recipe

2:  Each month we'll pick a different category to pick pins from, since we all inadvertently chose beauty product pins...

3:  We bring enough supplies for the other ladies to try the pin we picked.  That way we are all try a bunch of pins each party.

Here we are hard at work on the first project

We did my pin first.  I chose "Gardener's Hand Scrub".  It was very easy, only 2 ingredients.  All you need is Dawn dish soap with Olay and sugar.  That's it!  Find the complete instructions here.

Mine pin is done!

We moved on to Shannon's pin.  She picked a body scrub, also super easy and smelled really good.  She got the scented sea salts from Whole Foods and we mixed in different oils like coconut oil, grape seed oil and olive oil.

Shannon's body scrub

My finished scrub (please ignore my hair.  It was raining that day)

Shannon also brought a lip scrub for us to make.  This was also really easy and only a couple ingredients.  You can find the recipe here.  I haven't tried the lip scrub yet but I love the one you can get from Lush, and I'm sure this is pretty similar.

Finished lip scrub

Danielle baked banana bread for us and packaged it up so pretty.

We were really excited with how everything turned out.  I got a few Christmas presents taken care of too!

This month is jewelry and accessories hosted by Shannon.  Can't wait!

Cheers!

Library Books - Week 3

Here is the round up for this weeks worth of library books.  Went a little overboard...

Still obsessing over interior design and fashion, but I'm gearing up for my "Pinterest Christmas" and got some DIY books too.  :)

Cheers!

Fruit Pizza

I've had this at many a potluck and have always enjoyed it.  But in my enjoyment, I've always forgotten to ask for the recipe.  Enter Pinterest.  Found this gem a couple months ago and was waiting for a reason to try it.  A last minute B-day celebration at work seemed like the perfect guinea pig.  Thanks for making it a hit, Betty!

Cheers!

Fruit Pizza via Betty Crocker

1  pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix

1/2  cup butter or margarine, melted
1  egg
1  cup whipping cream
1/2  cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting (from 1-lb container)
3 1/2  cups assorted fresh fruit (I used kiwi, strawberries and an orange)

Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly spray 14-inch pizza pan or 15x10-inch baking pan (I used a cookie sheet) with cooking spray. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, melted butter and egg until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown (follow the recipe on the cookie package). Cool completely, about 45 minutes (this is really important).  In chilled medium bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Gently stir frosting into whipped cream. Spread over cookie pizza. Arrange fruit on top. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Nutritional Info (for the health nuts):

1 Serving (1 Serving)  Calories 380 (Calories from Fat 190), Total Fat 22g (Saturated Fat 11g,Trans Fat 1/2g), Cholesterol 60mg; Sodium 190mg; Total Carbohydrate 44g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 28g), Protein 3g;

Stats:
Servings: 12
Time:  1hr 20min
Leftovers:  yes
Cost:  less than $11 (but this will allow you to make it a few times...)

Pin: Candlestick Bracelet Holders

I am obsessed with Pinterest.  I've pinned hundreds of things but I've only tried 4.  The DIY Laundry soap was a pin.  That worked.  Here is another that I've tried:



Original pin from Style Me Thrifty


I've been searching for candlesticks for this very reason.  I couldn't decide if I wanted colorful glass or clear, sliver or gold, or if I was going to spray paint some.  I ended up piecing together a few from sales at antique stores.  I got 3 for $9.  Now I'm hunting for a really tall one...

And as Kevin pointed out, if I ever need to decorate for dinner, I can just take the bracelets off!

Cheers!




Here's my version!