Hawiian Baked Beans

Hi Everyone and Happy Saturday! Hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July!!

We had a great time eating BBQ and playing with fireworks! July is a VERY busy month for my family with lots of birthday and family fun!So for this next party I was asked to bring baked beans, but I wanted to switch things up a little. One of my grandmothers favorite fruits is pineapple, so i did a little "research"  on the wonderful world of Google and browsed the MANY different recipes!  Have I ever mentioned how much I love Google? Now when I search for recipes I never take one good recipe and follow it, I read 3 or 4 and make up my own version. So... Here We Go!

First the ingredients!

Now keep in mind I created this recipe based on feeding 30 people

and...  when I cook... I really don't measure... :-/



 

3lg cans of baked beans ( I chose vegetarian since I am using ham instead of the typical bacon)

Diced ham ( pick the amount based on how much meat you want, I used 2 1/2 pounds)

1 med. large onion diced (divide in half)

1 lg can pineapple chunks (mostly drained)

(2) 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup diet soda ( i based this on a ham glaze I have used before)

2tbls olive oil

Now lets put it all together, and what do you got....

In a dutch oven, or large pot, olive oil bring to med. high heat and one of the halves of onion saute the onion until it becomes transparent and soft. Add the ham and diet soda, place lid on pot, stir occasionally, and bring to a boil. Once soda beings to boil drain the pot leaving just the ham and what onion remains. Still at med. high heat add 1/2 cup brown sugar to ham stirring often allowing the ham to almost caramelize.

And Viola!
Add beans, pineapple, the rest of the onions and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer, turn heat to low and cover till ready to serve, then serve and most importantly ENJOY!

If you made any changes to this I would LOVE to hear what you did to make it your own!  

Chair crazy!

In honor of St. Patrick's day I wanted to do something "green" so I decided on sharing one of my current favorite projects!

Here's my St. Patty's Day Green!!! I fell head over heals IN LOVE! with this fabric!!

Recently I decided that I wanted a smaller kitchen table so I took a trip with an amazing friend of mine to a local thrift store to see if I could find just what I wanted! And I did!!!! $45 later I was on my way home with a "new" dinning set!

Now it was time to make this set mine!

Here's my chair before! Not horrible, but NOT the look I'm going for!

So I removed the cushion and painted the chairs with white primer

Two to three coats of flat black paint, once that dries a coat of satin polyurethane.

Add your newly covered cushion ( I'll show you how to cover in another post) and tada! You've got yourself your custom made dining chairs! (for WAY cheaper!)

Now off to make some corn beef & cabbage! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Enchilada Casserole

Hey! Hello! And Happy Monday to Everyone!

So since my husband and I do not have the same days off, nor do we even work the same hours..

 I try to make "special dishes" the nights we are all home as a family- tonight being one of them!

So on the menu for tonight-

 Easy Enchilada Casserole!!!!

The ingredients you need:

1 - 2 pounds ground beef (depending on how much you are making)

Diced onion (optional)

2 + cups shredded cheese ( I love cheese- so I add a little more)

1 can red enchilada sauce ( Trader Joes has a Delicious one in a bottle!!)

6-12 tortillas

Now the fun part! Let's get cooking!

Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a larget skillet brown the ground beef and onion.

 While the beef is cooking, in a casserole dish pour just enough sauce to cover the bottom, lay down 1-3 tortillas, depending on size of dish.


 Add a little more sauce to cover tortillas, then top with cheese, brown beef, tortillas, sauce, cheese, beef- repeat until you have no more room in dish-

Top with more sauce and cheese.

Bake until cheese is melted and sauce is boiling 30-60 mins.
Let sit 5 minutes and serve!

Happy Eating!!!!!

Spring Time Wreath!

Hello everyone! Hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful weekend! Boy, did it feel like spring here in Northern California! So, to play up this spring-like weather, I thought what better then make some of those beautiful spring blossoms welcome my guests! So I ran to Michael's to see what would inspire me! Instead of the grapevine wreath, I decided to go with the hay wreath to try something new. Once you chose your wreath form, comes the fun part! Choosing your flowers! Here are all my supplies before my wreath was assembled!

Don't forget your glue gun! 

Next I removed all my stems and started to lay out my flowers!

Now learn from me!!! Be VERY careful when hot gluing these flowers up towards the thinner area of the stems!!! They will melt!

Please note only one flower was harmed in the making of this wreath :-)

I like to make the left side of my wreath a little heavier then the right, so of course...

I added more flowers!

Don't worry about the ends of the stems, they will be covered with the "main" flowers.

Now to make the right side a little less bare!

YaY!!! Now to add the leading ladies!!!!

I just put (lots) hot glue around the base of the flower and the very little stem remaining, and shoved (and I do mean shove...) the remaining stem into the wreath.

And viola!

I added some ribbon to the top to help it hang on my hook better.

Spring has arrived! Hope you all have as much fun as I did making this!