Happy Halloween!!

Croque-Madame

I have been under the weather since Sunday afternoon and this afternoon was the first time I felt like getting out of bed. Not only did I feel like getting out of bed but I HAD to make Croque-Madames for dinner. Have you had this? Oh my goodness, it's SOOOO good!!

I found this great recipe:

5 T butter
2 T flour
1 c milk
6 oz thinly sliced Gruyere {swiss cheese}
1 tsp dijon mustard
Sliced sweet french bread
Thinly sliced ham
Eggs

To make the Mornay sauce I started by making a roux. This is simply melting 2 T butter in a saucepan, adding 2T of flour to that until smooth and bubbly and then adding 1 c milk until boiling. To that mixture you add the dijon and 1/2 c of Gruyere. Once this is smooth it's done.

Begin assembling sandwiches for grilling by spreading 1 T of the Mornay sauce on one slice of bread and ham and Gruyere on the opposite side. Invert the Mornay sauce slice on top of the ham and cheese and butter both sides of the sandwich. Grill as normal. Once all of the sandwiches are grilled spread one more tablespoon of Mornay on the top of the sandwiches and broil for 3 minutes. Add a fried egg on top of each one {normally this is a sunny side up egg but I prefer fried} and serve.

I had had this sandwich before but nobody else in my family had. They all loved it, suprisingly, my 4 and 5 year old ate every bit of theirs.

On a different note, stay well, there are sick people everywhere!!

Have A Great Weekend!

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

I promised those of you who attended Saturday's workshop that I would post the recipe for the chicken pot pie we had for lunch. Here it tis...

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
• 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups instant biscuit mix
• 1 cup milk
• 1 stick melted butter
• salt, pepper & dill

In a greased 2-quart casserole layer the chicken and mixed vegetables. Mix the soup and chicken broth and and pour over the layers. Stir together the biscuit mix and milk and pour over the casserole. Drizzle butter over the topping and season with salt, pepper and dill. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

Itty Bitty Book

I absolutely love it when little things like this tiny velvet book are waiting for me inside my mailbox. This one came all the way from PA, it was from a Mennonite family.

It's so itty bitty it just fits in the palm of your hand. Isn't it a shame that we have so much these days that we don't use something or adore it as much as the person who obviously owned this little treasure?

I wonder what they kept inside of it?

Fab Flea Market Finds - Part 2

This gaggle of millinery flowers was an exciting find. I'm just thrilled with the super big reddish/pink one.

This old tin is sweet and could only be used for 100 different things. Not sure what I'll store inside but it was too nice to pass up given my love of pretty storage.


Out of the hundreds of ornaments that I ran across and perused these are the ones that made it into my bag...{that made it sound like I five finger discounted them - I did pay for them first of course}...

I've been wanting one of these calendars for a long time. How cute is this? I could have sworn that I spun it to October 31st before adding it to a Halloween vignette in my studio. Tiny hands, that's probably what happened here...

A whimsical find, didn't really need it truth be told but look at the buttons I put in the drawer. Cute huh?

Totally not sure what this was for but you know how I love velvet worn items. This orange, collar holder?, had the faintest bit of velvet tufts left on it. It got some serious use people...

There were several other small finds but these were the highlights. I've got two projects in the works, soon I will post sneak peeks of both of them. I'm taking requests for the February classes that I listed last week so if you have something in mind that you'd like to do be sure and let me know!

Fab Flea Market Finds - Part 1

Well I've been threatening to share pics of my flea market finds for the past week. Instead of one long post I thought I'd share a couple of things a day. I don't know what this metal catch-all was originally for but I scooped it up without any debate. Each tier has a mesh bottom. Does anyone know what it's intended use was?

I found this pretty print at the Addison Endpapers booth. Love the little bit of red and pink together. More fab stuff tomorrow!

Creative Class!

Today I taught a private class for 3 sweet friends. Take a look at the mannequins they made...



Each one turned out so different. Check out the loot on those girls! After that class we made gigantic spools. This was a really fun class. Again, they're all different. Check out the one made by Debbbie that is Halloween themed.



I haven't forgotten about sharing my flea market finds with you. I got a new computer this week and it took a little minute to get everything set up. I LOVE it! I traded my Mac for a new PC. The Mac was great but I just never found the time to figure it all out.

I have been wanting to make some green faced witches with my Character Construction stamps all week long. After my nephews homecoming game tonight I think I'll come home and stamp a few with my 4 year old.

Tacos Laguneros

After a great day of shopping the flea market with my friend Carole I headed to my Moms for a cooking lesson with my sisters Mother-in-Law, Rosa. She had made a dish, Tacos Laguneros, that I could not get enough of. She was in town visiting this weekend so I asked her to make them with me. They are SO good that I wanted to share the how-to with you.

We started with 3 lbs of pasilla chiles {the same chiles used for Chile Rellenos}. After cutting the tops off we sliced them lengthwise and took all of the seeds out. Once that was done we sliced the chiles into shred like slices and sauteed them in a few tablespoons of butter. As they cook down they begin to blister slightly and they take on a brighter green color.



After lightly frying white corn tortillas we filled them with a spoonful of chiles and a sprinkling of cotija cheese. We rolled them up the same way you would an enchilada and lined a large baking dish in a single layer.



After all of the tacos were rolled we put two tomatos and 1/4 of a white onion in the blender with 1/2 cup of water. We added that mixture to a frying pan coated with oil.



Once the mixture began to boil we took it off the stove and poured it over the tacos.



The final layer was crema latina, or mexican sour cream. We put enough on to cover the tacos, it was a fairly thick coat.



The tacos were baked for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 3 lbs of chiles yielded us 49 tacos. I will probably add a bit more of the chile filling to my next batch which will likely yield more like 33-35 tacos.

People these are SO GOOD! I would like to tell you that I didn't eat a dozen of them between 3 and 9pm but I believe honesty is the best policy!

Please let me know if you try it! I'll be back tomorrow to show you what I picked up today at the flea market.

A Meaningless Post

Last week my boss {and friend of almost 20 years} was invited to attend a luncheon given by a company that has been trying to pitch us a new phone system. He knows I love the italian restaurant they hosted it at so he told me to drive over and meet him. It was so fun, I crashed their luncheon, ate everything in sight and every once in a while I'd nod my head and look impressed. I must have done a great job at looking interested because he leaned over and said, "they probably think you're going to buy it"...and actually, we did. Anywho, after l escaped I stopped by Anthropologie on the way to the car. I picked up a great sweater and this adorable candle. Admittedly it doesn't smell fabulous but the presentation is great.

Oh, and a side note about the luncheon, I forgot to mention I was in nerd heaven! Of course I'm married {and not to a nerd I might add} but I've always had a thing for them...well not ALL of them, but you get my drift. In fact years ago I was in a college English class and I sat next to a cute nerd and I would fantasize about ripping his glasses off and running my fingers through his hair. Is that hilarious or what? He had NO idea. Anyway, should any of you be single and of the nerd persuasion consider hitting up a telephone/computer luncheon at random.

OK so it wasn't a very meaningful post but it was fun to blather.