Spicy chicken fajitas

So last Thursday, like every Thursday,  I made a Mexican dish for dinner...it's kind of a thing my husband and I do because he's obsessed with tacos haha but instead I decided to make chicken fajitas because I like those better. I had some thai chiles from making chicken enchiladas but if you don't have those that's fine...they are incredibly hot (40 times hotter than a jalapeño)...I only used 3, and took the seeds out (unlike the chicken enchiladas where we put in about 20 or 30 and didn't take the seeds out...that burned for days!)
So, if you want heat, add it to your comfort level, you can even use Sriracha if you want, if you don't like heat you don't have to add anything at all! The veggies in this are really more to your liking, the measurements I'm listing are what I used for the 2 of us.
Anyway, on with the show....

What you'll need:

Chicken breasts (1 per person, I used 2)
1/2 Red onion (white or yellow are also fine)
1 Bell pepper (any colour)
1 cup Corn kernels,  cooked
1 cup beans (black or kidney are best)
4 cloves garlic
Shredded cheese
Shredded lettuce
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 paprika
(Optional) Hot peppers or hot sauce
About 3 tblsps olive oil

What to do:

Heat a pan with 1 tblsp oil. Dice your chicken breasts into small cubes; chop all your veggies fairly fine and put everything into the pan. Once the chicken is cooked through, mix the remaining oil (off you're using hot sauce, only use 1 tblsp oil and mix it with your hot sauce) then put all your spices in the oil (or oil and sauce) mixture and mix, pour over chicken medley and stir until veggies are tender.
Serve on a warmed tortilla with cheese and lettuce. Sour cream and avocado also taste amazing on these!
If everyone wants their a different heat level, leave out the hot stuff while cooking and serve with optional Sriracha sauce.
Enjoy!

Did you do something a little different?  Tell me about it in the comments.

Wedding advice from a newly wed

So I got married this past June (2015) and it was a great day, no doubt, but hindsight is always 20/20 and there are things I wish I had known before the big day so I could have done it differently. This is just from my experience, every wedding is different and hopefully, if you're reading this and getting married soon, your wedding day is everything you hoped it would be. So...here are the things I would have done differently and general advice about weddings....

1. You do not need 4+ bridesmaids, you don't need 3 or even 2 for that matter. I had 4, 2 were friends, they didn't like the 3rd and the 4th didn't know any of them. I was engaged for 19 months and for 19 months I had to put up with petty drama bullshit because they refused to all get along. I would go into details but that would take forever...let's just say because of them some of my showers and my Bachelorette party didn't go as planned. I know you probably have a bunch of friends and want every single one of them to be your bridesmaid....don't do it! Pick one friend who you know is responsible and will be there for you to be your maid of honour and leave it at that. ..everyone else can just help if need be. I'm telling you it will make your life so much easier...and cheaper, don't forget you need to get thank you gifts for your bridal party. What I found was that 3 of my girls wanted to be the leader and 1 was too busy so she was just a follower.... you can't have 3 leaders, it won't work.
Take my warning, pick 1 friend and stick with that!!

2. Long engagements are unnecessary. I was engaged for 19 months and honestly, that was about 9 months too long. I realize sometimes you have to have a longer engagement because your dream venue is booked up that long, but if you can have your wedding in under a year, I would highly recommend it. What I found, because we were engaged for so long is that people got bored of it...it was exciting at first, but after a while it's like "ok, let's just get the show on the road here...". Every event was so spread out that it was like random bits of excitement instead of constant excitement which is what most people think of when they think of getting married because that's what's on TV and movies...if you want the constant excitement, your wedding has to be within a year or so of your engagement otherwise people lose interest.

3. Your wedding will not be like the wedding on *insert favourite tv show or movie*. Sorry. It's just not going to happen. Unless you want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on your wedding, not everything is going to be movie perfect.  But that's ok, your wedding should be a reflection of you and your spouse-to-be, not a reflection of some TV show or movie. I tried to make mine movie perfect, until I saw how much things would cost and then I did the alternate, less expensive route.

4. Pinterest will be your best friend and your worst nightmare. Pinterest is good if you're looking for specific ideas or how to DIY something specific, but if you haven't a hot clue what you want pinterest is the worst place to look. I had a few ideas for what I wanted but wasn't too sure, so off to the magic time-wasting land of pinterest I went only to find approximately 250,784000 wedding relates things I liked and wanted at my wedding. Realistic? Not so much. Not to mention it's all a mishmash of stuff. You might like the rustic and the country and the ultra glamorous but chances are they aren't all going to flow together nicely. So, before you enter that magical pinterest world, talk to your fiancé(e) and pick a general theme and stick to it! It'll make your life sooooo much easier.

5. Splurge on a good photographer. If there's anything you can or should splurge for for your wedding, let it be your photographer.  You don't need that 3000$ dress, but you do need that seemingly over priced photographer.  We hired a friend of mine for 1000$ which, to us, seemed like a lot of money and we didn't want to spend more than that....boy do I regret it. Now, the photos we did get were very nice, but we only got around 400 pictures, which really isn't very much. He also took some using his iPhone instead of the fancy professional camera that I paid him to use. I also didn't get some shots that I had specifically asked for, that I shouldn't have even asked for like my mom putting on my veil or my Dad walking me down the aisle. Looking back now, I wish we had paid 2000$ for a better photographer instead of paying my photographer friend. (I should clarify, he has his own photography business, it wasn't just some friend who had a camera, even though that's what it ended up looking like).

6. Make sure you have a plan B. No, I don't mean the little 40$ pill haha if you're having an outdoor wedding have a rain plan ready to go, written out for everyone and make sure all your vendors and guests know what it is. My wedding was supposed to be outside but it got rained out last minute, now luckily I had talked to my reception venue before hand and they were fine with us having our wedding there if need be, but I was so sure it wouldn't rain that I didn't do any other planning...boy was that stupid.  Our ceremony was at 4:30 and at 3:30 I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to coordinate people and calling vendors and my Mom to try and get everyone to the hotel (reception venue) to set up and get settled. It was a gong show! Now, if you have to resort to your plan B...it will be a gong show anyway, but if you have a solid plan for what to do in that event, you'll be far less stressed than I was. 

7. Get vendors insurance. If you can, I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. Or make some sort of arrangement with your vendors that in the event something goes wrong and you need to reschedule last minute you don't have to pay out the ass. I'll give you an example as to why it's important. I paid my ceremony vendor 525$ for the ceremony site (which is way too much for what little they were going to do) but in the event that it was rained out, they didn't give refunds. What I should have done was negotiated that ahead of time or found some way to insure that so if I did get rained out,  which I did, it wouldn't be a hassle to get my money. Instead I had to bitch my way to the president of the place and ended up getting 425$ back. In all fairness they should have offered me a refund, there was a tornado warning and severe lightning....anyway, protect your investments and don't get screwed over! If the vendor is not willing to negotiate or compromise don't go with them.

8. DIY as much as you can. BUT! Shop around first! If you want to make something but it'll cost half the price to buy it in the store already done...just buy it! Home made doesn't always mean inexpensive. For example, I was going to make all the centerpieces, I thought if I went to the dollar store and bought everything it would be easy and cheap...well, turns out they would have cost almost 10$ each, but my decorator could make them for 5$ each....I had her make them! On the other hand, I made soaps for our favors and they turned out to be about 1-2$  a piece I believe, where as if I had bought them they likely would have been a bit more...even if they wouldn't have been I still had fun making them ;)

9. Spend time with your guests. A lot of guests will come say hi to you and your new spouse and a lot will leave the 2 of you alone so you have to be proactive and go and say hi and chat for a bit. Now I'm not saying you need to spend your whole night doing this, but a few minutes at every table should be sufficient. You don't want to wake up the next morning and wonder who was even there because you didn't go and talk to everyone. If your family is like mine, chances Andre you have people coming from all over, make sure you take the time to talk to them and thank them for coming. I didn't because I was so frazzled but I really regret it.

10. Relax and enjoy. With any luck you'll only have to do this once so make the best of it. Even if it rains, or your bridesmaids help doesnt go as planned or your husband gets so drunk he pukes and passes out or most people leave by 11:30 or your photographer doesn't get every picture you wanted or your aunt gets injured and has to go to the hospital or your DJ loses your entire play list and you have to come up with songs on the spot for your dances and then he plays a lot of shit all night (if you haven't caught on all of this happened to me on my wedding day) but even if all of that and worse happens, at the end of the day you got to marry your best friend and that is the most important thing.

How to crochet: double crochet

Hey everyone, I'm dreadfully sorry for the delay in this post, I've been kind of busy lately. I will also no longer be posting ramblings on Monday, they'll be more random, but everything else is the same. But, without further ado, on with how to do a double crochet. 

First thing to do is to yarn over...

Then insert your hook into the next space...

Pull your working yarn through and you'll have 3 loops on your hook...

Yarn over again...

Pull the yarn through the first 2 loops on your hook only, you'll end up with 2 loops on your hook...

Yarn over once more...

Pull through the 2 remaining loops and tighten...

That's it! As you can see the double crochet is much taller than the single or half double crochet stitches, it's also much looser and causes bigger holes. It's a good stitch for a loose blanket and it works up quickly. If you have any questions ask in the comments below. Next week I'll show you the triple crochet stitch!

Drool worthy Pork tenderloin with bonus salad!

So this is a new favourite for the hubby and I.  The original recipe called for thmye which I didn't have so I just made my own rub and hoped for the best and oh my was it ever the best!
So, here's what you'll need:

1-2 pork tenderloins
1-2 apples (same number as pieces of tenderloin)
1 red onion
Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp salt + more for pork
1/4 tsp pepper (black or white)
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp onion
1 tblsp butter
2 tblsp dijon mustard

What to do:
Pour about 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a pan and heat over med-high heat. While your pan is heating rub your pork all over with oil and salt generously. Brown your pork tenderloin on all sides, about 12 minutes but could be less. Your pork will not be done at this point, only browned. While your pork is browning, cut your apples and onions into pieces, I like smaller bite size pieces but you can also do larger wedges, it's up to you. Mix all your seasonsings  together. Once your pork is done, put on a separate plate and put to the side for now. Add another 1-2 tablespoons of oil to your pan and add your apples and onions, once they start to soften sprinkle with about a teaspoon of your seasoning mixture and stir. While your apples and onions are cooking rub your pork tenderloin generously with your mustard, you can use your hands or a basting brush depending on how hot the meat is. Once that's done sprinkle all sides of your pork with the seasoning mixture. Don't forget to keep stiring your apples and onions so they brown evenly. While it's cooking grab your corningwear or other baking dish and coat with butter or other non-stick thing you have. When your apples and onions are almost done,  add a tablespoon of butter and stir until it's melted, once melted, dump all of it into your baking dish. Make a little bed in the middle and place your pork there, sprinkle everything with more of the seasoning mixture. Bake in a 425 degree over for 20 minutes or until your pork is done to your likeness.
That's it! I served it with a salad. I'll put below our favourite salad....

Iceberg lettuce
Red onion
Carrots
Peppers (any colour)
Almond slivers
Pecan pieces
Apple (I use golden delicious)
Cucumber
Top with Italian dressing

I didn't put any amounts because it's all to your personal preference but this is what we really enjoy in our salad.

I really hope you enjoy this recipe! Let me know what you think in the comments below! :)

How to crochet: half double crochet or hdc

Hello hello! I hope you've all mastered the single crochet and are ready for the half double crochet...if not...go back and read my post from last week lol
Anyway! On with the show...

First things first, yarn over 

Then insert your hook into the next stitch...

Then yarn over again...

Pull that yarn through the stitch so you have 3 loops on your hook...

Yarn over again...

Then pull that yarn though all 3 loops. 

You're done!

Just a reminder, you're doing these stitches in each stitch or hole or space or whatever you want to call them

Each stitch goes under those 2 top strands

When you reach the end of your row, chain 1 before turning 

That's it! Wasn't that easy? 

Any questions please ask in the comments :)

The best chicken you'll ever have

So I gotta tell you, this is honestly the best chicken you will ever have! And it's super easy and quick to make.

What you'll need:
Chicken (any pieces, I used 4 thighs)
3 tblsp butter
1 cup Panko
2 tblsp Parmesan
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 onion powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp basil
1 Egg
1 tblsp water
Olive oil

What to do:

Pre heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter and pour it into a baking dish (swish it around so it covers the bottom). In one bowl combine the egg and water. In a separate bowl combine the panko, Parmesan and all the seasonings. Take your chicken (can be skinless or with skin) dip it in the egg mixture then put it in the panko mixture and make sure the panko mixture completely covers the chicken and is pressed on firmly. Put chicken in dish, I usually take the left over panko and put more on the chicken. Then sprinkle olive oil over the chicken and bake it for 30 mins, flip and bake for 15 more mins or until chicken is completely done.
That's it!!
See, wasn't that easy!? And it's absolutely delicious.

Did you make any changes? Tell me about it in the comments.

Not average? too bad for you.

As we all know no one is average, however the fashion industries seem to not notice. It is getting better though, as a plus sized woman of average height I can easily find clothes that fit properly at plus sized stores (even though everything is grossly over priced). Tall or plus sized men, same thing. Short or small framed women are also catered to with petite sizes or clothes that come in a size 0 or xs or xxs (or as I like to call it prepubescent boy haha). However there is one demographic that for whatever reason the fashion industry continues to ignore... short or small framed men. My husband is 5 foot 1 and as of right now, it's impossible for him to find pants that don't need to be hemmed, t-shirts with sleeves the right length, and long sleeve shirts? forget about it....and don't even get my started on shoes. He wears a size 7 and they've been refereed to as "under sized" how about just calling them a size-fucking-7!?
It completely baffles me that every other body type can find clothes that fit except for short men, I suppose the only other group that could relate would be very tall women. Most of the world is populated by the asian countries and most of their men are quite short or small framed so I just don't understand why it's so impossible to find clothes that fit someone who isn't of an "average" size.
I guess for now I just need to get better at sewing until the fashion industry does.

Know of a place that sells smaller sizes or caters to shorter men? tell me about it in the comments.

How to crochet: single crochet

So to continue from last week today we're going to do the single crochet. It's the easiest stitch and the first one everyone learns.

I'm going to show you on a swatch I made. If you're starting to do your single crochets from the chain you would be going into each chain into each single crochet space. To turn your work to go back in the other direction you need to chain one then turn (or turn then chain one, it doesn't matter). Make sure you count your stitches.

To begin, you'll see there is a space next to the stitch I just made, you will be inserting your hook into the next space.  When working into the chain it's a little more tricky because it's so flimsy, that's why it's extra important to count your stitches.  

Once you've inserted your hook, yarn over. 

Then draw the yarn through the stitch. You should now have 2 loops on your hook.

Yarn over once more.

Then draw the yarn through both loops that are on your hook. Tighten. There it is, your first single crochet!

When you look at your work you'll see that it makes holes, the size of the hole is dependent on the size of the hook you're using as well as your tension. For a single crochet you will always be going through one hole at a time. There are lots of stitches that go through more than one hole or no hole to complete but we'll get to that a different day. 

You'll see on the top of your stitches that it makes almost like a 2-stranded braid. For the single crochet make sure your hook goes under both strands. There are stitches that don't but again, we'll go over that a different day.

So, I hope that helped you learn how to make a single crochet. If you have any questions or comments please post them and I will answer them as quickly as possible.

See you next week when we'll be going over the half double crochet or hdc. 

Sweet and Sour slow cooker ribs

I'm a big fan of sweet and sour ribs, I'm not really a fan of sweet and sour anything else but I love me some sweet and sour ribs (I'll admit, they're better when Mom makes them) but the ones I made were pretty damn good too. Now, I prefer a lean pork rib but the ribs I had were beef (and quite fatty, damn you Walmart!) Anyway, they were good yesterday when I made them and the left overs were good today when we had them again haha they're also really easy to make since it's in the slow cooker.

What you'll need:
1 package of ribs, cut into pieces  (beef or pork)
2 tblsps soya sauce
2 tblsps ketchup
2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp of garlic powder (or more if you prefer)

What to do:
Cut your ribs into pieces and put them in the slow cooker. Then, in a sauce pan, mix the brown sugar, water and vinegar together over med heat then add the soya sauce, ketchup and garlic and stir. Cook, stiring frequently until it thickens. Once it's thick, pour it over the ribs and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.
Don't have time to cook the sauce first or couldn't be bothered? No worries. Just mix everything together in a bowl and pour it over the ribs, it'll thicken in the crock pot.

Sorry I don't have a pic....my hubby and I ate them all before I could take a pic hehe

Did you make this your own? Tell me about it in the comments.

R.I.P. Cecil the Lion

I wasn't sure what I write about today but I  decided to pick something topical and write about that dentist that killed Cecil the Lion. I've read a lot about this piece of trash recently and it was all disturbing. If you haven't already heard, a Minnesota dentist by the name of Walter Palmer paid a large sum of money (I believe it was something to the tune of $55,000) to kill a lion. A collared lion in Zimbabwe...and people are pissed! I've read a lot of thoughts about this guy, some think he should be killed, some think he should be in a Minnesota jail, others think a jail in Zimbabwe and there are others who think we should do nothing more than pray for him (which is the equivalent of doing nothing). My personal opinion,  I think this guy, and any person who hunts for sport, is a piece of shit. A disgusting, vile, worthless piece of trash. I mean really, what kind of person finds it fun to kill an innocent animal for no reason!? Like how much does he hate himself that he needs to feel better by killing something? Does this kind of shit get him off? Does he have erectile dysfunction so severe that only killing large, majestic animals helps him feel better about himself? Because ya know, they have pills that help with that nowadays. I just don't understand it.
With that said, do I think he should be killed?  Certainly not. But the fact that he's completely ruined his career and life because of his poor choice of hobby makes me happy. I think that's almost better than jail. I doubt he'll ever practice again and if he did he'd probably have to change his name and move to a different country.
My advice to him and any other sport hunters, put down your weapons and pick up a better, safer, more humane hobby. ..perhaps crocheting? ;)

How to crochet: slip knot & chain stitch

Hey everyone, sorry for the late post...it was a rough day. But I'm here now :) lol
So, I'm a fan of crocheting, I've been crocheting for 13 years now and I still learn new things all the time about it. I enjoy crocheting because it's a relaxing hobby that makes you feel good because you're creating something! Now, I should warn you, this hobby is not only addicting, but it can also be quite expensive, time consuming and space consuming...one day I'll share a pic of my stash of yarn and you'll see what I mean haha
A lot of tutorials I've seen for crocheting start with what's called a "single crochet" but they never tell you how to actually start off...so, I'm going to. To start most crochet projects you're going to need to start with a slip knot. Different people do it different ways so I'm going to show you how I do one, but first I'm going to show you how I hold my hook, yarn and project...

So the way I hold my hook is called the "knife" method. There's also the "pencil" method which..you guessed it, means you hold it like a pencil. The holding style is personal preference and it does not affect your quality of work. As for holding and keeping the tension of my working yarn, I just hold it with the pointer finger of my non-dominant hand...again, everyone holds their working yarn differently, you have to find a way that's comfy for you.

So, to begin you need to make a slip knot, there are other ways to start different kinds of projects but we'll cover that sometime in the future. To start off with, you're going to wrap your yarn around your fingers like so...

Then, you'll take the working yarn and wrap up and over the piece that's hanging down like so...

Now, you'll still be holding your yarn at this point (although if it's easier for you to put it down and do it this way, that's fine too) I had to put it down so I could take a picture of it. But, basically you should end up with a shape like this, kind of like the circle with a line through it from a no smoking sign. Your working yarn will be behind the circle.

Again, you'll be holding your yarn and hook while doing this but I had to put it down for a picture...anyway, you'll need to put your hook behind the yarn but on top of the circle like so...

Then pull tight, holding onto the short piece of yarn that's hanging down, you may need to pull on the shorter string to adjust it, you'll figure it out. You don't want to pull too tight otherwise you won't get your hook out and you'll have trouble making your first chain stitch. The hardest part about starting to learn to crochet is getting the tension right but eventually you'll get the hang of it and find the tension that works best for you. Some people crochet tightly and some loosely..it depends on the person and it also depends on the day!

So, to make a chain stitch, you'll need to put the yarn from back to front  (also called yarning over or "YO" in patterns)...

Then catch the yarn on your hook and pull it through the loop you created from the slip stitch. You should end up with something that looks like this...

Now, depending on what you're making, you may need to do a few of these or lots of them. If you're making a blanket or an afghan for example you may have to do several hundred to get the size you want. Don't let that scare you. As time consuming as crocheting is, it's also very rewarding when you finish a project and you have something beautiful that you can show off!

Next week I'll be covering how to do a single crochet as well as some common crochet terms and abbreviations.