Gumbo?

I don't know if what I made is gumbo, but it sure is good! I've never had gumbo before but I've been wanting to add more rice dishes to our menu. The only thing is I hate okra and I don't eat shrimp. For dinner tonight I made red rice and used 1/2 pound of smoked sausage. I had a grilled chicken breast leftover from the other night and decided I needed to do something with it so I thought why not gumbo?  I didn't take pictures, but here's what I did:

1/2 lb smoked sausage
1 grilled chicken breast; shredded
2 cans chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion; chopped
1/2 bell pepper; chopped (you can use more if you want, but I'm not a huge fan of green peppers)
3 cloves garlic; chopped
3 T oil
3 T flour
cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Saute your smoked sausage in a little bit of olive oil until browned. Add onions and peppers and cook until crisp tender. Add garlic and cook just enough to take out the "rawness" of the garlic, probably about a minute. Take everything out of the pot and set aside. Add 3 Tbsp of flour and 3 Tbsp of oil to the pot (I added a little more flour because I had a bit more oil in the pot from the onion mixture). Stir the flour mixture until it turns a nice reddish brown color, it took me about 5 minutes for this to happen. Start adding chicken broth and whisk to keep smooth. When it stops looking like a gravy add the rest of the broth and tomatoes. Next add the sausage/onion mixture. Then add chicken. At this point everything smelled delicious! Let it simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes. To me it smelled like Chinese food which made me think Jasmine rice would be tasty with it. I think in traditional gumbo you're supposed to put the gumbo over rice, but I just dumped in 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine rice. Let it cook for an additional 15-20 minutes and it's done.

Oh my goodness! When I tasted this it made me smile. I couldn't help it. I thought it was really good. My hubby agreed and my little one agreed also. To me it was a Chinese/Southern cooking fusion and it was yummy. Not a bad use of leftovers.

No Sew Cart Cover

I don't know why I have such a hard time going shopping by myself with a new baby or babies. With my first born I didn't feel completely comfortable with going somewhere with a little baby until the six month mark. The same thing happened this time around. But now my little ones are older and I come and go all the time with the three of them. The only place I can't go by myself is Sam's. The carts are huge and it's impossible to push a double stroller while pulling that giant cart with my oldest sitting in the front of that one. So I figured the only way I would be able to conquer Sam's by myself is with a cart cover. I'm a bit of a germophobe..some would say I am more than a bit of a germophobe :-)...so I needed something ASAP. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a cover because I just needed one for Sam's. I saw a no-sew cart cover on Pinterest and decided to make one for myself. The only problem is I didn't have the dimensions of a double cart. So what did I do? Well since I didn't have the nerve to go and actually measure, I called them. I know I probably sounded crazy asking this but here's how it went...

Sam's: Thank you for calling Sam's Club how may I help you?

Me: Hi, I have kind of a strange question, but do you know how wide your cart seats are because I want to make a cover for my kids.

Sam's: Uh...I have no idea...could you please hold while I have someone check?

Me: OK.

(Three minutes later...)

Sam's: Umm, everyone is guessing about three feet.

Me: OK. Thanks!

Sam's: You're welcome ~chuckle~

When I got off the phone I felt kind of dumb for calling them, and figured during the three minutes I was on hold they probably had a good laugh. But I have to say, this all happened AFTER I looked online to try to find the dimensions. So the next step in this process was to actually measure because three feet seemed excessive to me. We left the house (hubby was with us) and went to another store by Sam's. Since we were so close my hubby suggested we go and measure the cart. I didn't want to and here is how that conversation went:

Hubby: Why don't we just go? We're right here! You'll be happy that you have the actual measurements!

Me: No. What are we going to do? Just pull up next to a cart and try to measure? Don't you think that's gonna look kind of shady? Anyway, what do we have to measure it with?

Hubby: I don't know...look in the glove box.

Me: The only thing in here that we could maybe use is a bank deposit envelope.

Hubby: OK.

So we pull into the back of the parking lot where a stray cart is parked. I tell hubby he's gonna measure it because it was his idea to do this.

Hubby: Fine...I don't care.

Me: What if someone asks us what we're doing? They'll just see you standing there with an envelope in front of a cart and you'll say "Oh I'm measuring for a cart cover". They won't believe you...

Then I start laughing because he looked at me like I was crazy. Anyway he's measuring away and tells me to start speaking into the phone with the talk to text. So I did and it kept coming up with some really funny things that weren't even close to what I was saying. So then I call home and leave the message on my voicemail and we proceed on to Joann's.

A couple of days go by and I notice Hobby Lobby has Simplicity patterns on sale for .99 so I decide to look through my patterns before I buy more. What do you suppose I find? A PATTERN FOR A DOUBLE CART COVER!!! All I could do was laugh. So I put the pattern on my fleece and cut out the leg holes. That's the only thing I needed to know out of this whole ridiculous process! Which by the way I looked "double cart cover" up online too and the only thing I could find was patterns with two leg holes not four that was big enough to cover a double cart.

Anyway, here's what I did:

I cut my fleece 56"x56". Measure up 18" and this is where the bottom of the leg hole begins. I folded my fabric in half for the cutting of the leg holes. Go in 1" from the fold and cut a 5"x5" square. Go over 1" to the left and cut another 5"x5" square (although if I were to make another one I think I'd go over 2"). From the center of the leg hole measure up 12" and make a 3" slit. Repeat for other leg hole. This will give you a place to pull the straps through from the cart.

Now you're ready for the ties. While your fabric is still together cut a 4"x4" square out of the end corners (NOT the folded side!). This will make everything look tidier when you're finished. Then just start cutting 4" high by 1" wide strips all the way around. Then open it up and start knotting.

I know this says no sew, but I did sew...I had to do some reinforcing. All of the cut areas seemed too flimsy so I basically did a zigzag stitch around the leg holes and the slits for the buckles. Now it's all done...finally! So I had to try it out. I really had no reason to go to Sam's other than to see if everything turned out OK. So here we go again...

Me: We need to get out of here before they close!

Hubby: Do we actually need anything?

Me: No.

Hubby: ~Blank Stare~

We get to Sam's...

Me: Start getting them out of the carseat while I get a cart.

A few carts later...

Hubby: What are you doing?

Me: What is the deal with these stupid carts? The first one only had three belts, the second one had four belts but one of the buckles is broken. Oh, here's one where the buckles are fine...wait a minute! It only has one seat thing! Whatever, lets just put them in there so I can take a picture.

Hubby: OK.

Babies get put into the cart and I take a picture, then my oldest says, "Can I get in?"

Me: Yeah go ahead. We're gonna go in.

Hubby: I thought you said we didn't need anything.

Me: We don't but I don't want to be seen putting on a cart cover and taking pictures then getting in the van and leaving. I'm sure there is something we need.

Hubby: ~Silence~

A few minutes and a pack of Pepsi later...Here is the cart cover:

Wasn't it worth it? You can actually tie the little ties to the cart so it won't move. I think I'm going to sew a little loop to the top so toys can be attached, but as for now I'm done with this project!

I have the dimensions to the cart and I will post that info seperately in a post called "Double shopping cart dimensions", so that if some poor mom is looking for that information, she won't have the same crazy experiance that I had.

Although it is kind of funny!

Apple

Felt Chore Chart

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. I've been busy with my little ones and have had no time for crafty things. It's amazing how much a house can get out of order from pregnancy through birth. Well now my two new little ones are a little older and it's getting easier to do things. I have been playing catch-up with house work and I'm slowly getting everything organized again. Now my oldest little one is at an age that chores will be introduced, it really isn't anything big but simple little things that will teach responsibility. I saw a felt chore chart on pinterest and thought it was a really cool idea. The instructions are here if you want them. I didn't follow the instructions, I just modified it to my liking.

My large felt piece is 18"x19", then folded it down about 2" to make a rod pocket. I purchased printable fabric and printed out images since my little one isn't a reader yet. After I printed the images, I cut them out with pinking shears and sewed everything together. You can see how I pieced everything here:

I decided to add a few more embellishments:

The green is for feeding the pets and the orange is for setting the table:

The yellow is for picking up toys and the blue is for putting clothes down the laundry chute at night.

This is how it looks hanging up...pay no attention to my upside down "S" for Saturday ;) 

It took me a couple of hours to pull this together because I sewed everything, but it was worth it. I think it turned out awesome!

So the concept is everyday a particular chore is done the coordinating stick gets put into that day. At the end of the week an allowance will be given. We will be giving real money and "home" money. Home money can be used for goodies that I will have like fun size candy bars or stickers. Home money can also be traded in for real money for the piggy bank. I want to teach the concept of saving, but also I want there to be a lesson in spending (hence the "home" money).

I'm looking forward to trying this. I haven't been particularly successful so far in getting my little one to pick up toys, so we'll see how this goes!

I hope you try this with your little one!

Apple