KT Cooked It: Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Recently I became motivated to make something more for dinner other than sauteed chicken and a bag of steamed broccoli, which has been a staple of our diet since having our baby (plus or minus the occasional box of Kraft mac n' cheese).

Knowing my limitations, I decided to make something that was not too complicated that I already had the majority of ingredients for. After looking through a few cookbooks for inspiration, I saw a recipe using roasted red peppers. I've always wanted to roast peppers for myself, but have never had an occasion to try it. This seemed as good an opportunity as any! So, with a couple of red peppers and a few groceries from the store, I give you:

What you need:
2 red bell peppers
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup frozen spinach
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1/2 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter
Salt, pepper to taste
2-3 ounces pasta (I used spaghetti noodles, but linguini or angel hair pasta would work well)

First you will need to roast your peppers. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the washed peppers on a roasting pan or baking sheet lined with foil. Roast the peppers for 15 to 20 minutes, then flip them and roast again for 15 minutes. The peppers will be very soft, and the skin will have blackened.

Once cooled, remove the peel. Next, slice open your peppers and remove the seeds. Pulse the peppers in a food processor and set aside.








Sauté the spinach with olive oil and minced garlic.








For the cream sauce, start by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in the flour. Next, add half-and-half and the milk. Allow sauce to simmer and stir until flour is completely blended. Add the processed peppers to the sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.

Once the pasta is cooked and strained, combine pasta with sauce and spinach. I added sautéed shrimp to the pasta, which was delicious!

KT Did It: Happy Independence Day 2015!

Once upon a time there was a blogger who liked to do things and write about them, which she called "did-its." One day, this blogger accomplished the ultimate "did-it" - she and her hubby had a baby! And this baby, a little girl named Rachel, was the joy of her life even in times of sleep deprivation which, let's be real, is most of the time.  And this blogger, who had not blogged for, well, quite some time decided to make a little time to do something to fulfill her crafting/cooking/doing needs ... and to stop referring to herself in the third person...

Today is that day and what better day to celebrate a new did-it than on the Fourth of July - metaphorically a little Independence Day of my own to celebrate the moments over the past week that I had the "freedom" to pamper myself with a shower, a nap and a festive project not so surprisingly made for baby (and when I should probably have been napping again)!

During many early morning hours of baby-snuggling and feeding sessions, I exercised my Pinning muscle and compiled quite the Fourth of July Pinterest Board filled with DIY crafts, food, clothing, and other entertainment inspirations and ideas. See my board and follow me on Pinterest by going here!

Knowing my limitations, I chose to utilize "free" moments over the past week to make baby Rachel a festive outfit for her first Fourth of July - a red, white and blue ruffle bum onesie! This is a very easy, versatile DIY outfit for baby. I'm definitely going to make more of these.

What you need:
Onesie - I used a white NB size
3 rolls of 1 1/2 inch satin ribbon of three colors
Needle and thread
Iron on decal

First, I used my iron to attach the American flag decal to the front of the onesie. You can buy these iron on accessories at any craft store. I got this one at Walmart. You can also use iron on letters to decorate onesies with baby's initials - a great baby shower gift!

For the ruffle bum, I cut two stands of ribbon of each color approximate twice the width of the onesie.

Using a needle and thread (you can also use a sewing machine), knot one end of the thread and sew a running stitch along the length of each of the ribbons. Once you have reached the end, draw up the ribbon to create the ruffle to fit the width of the back of the onesie. Knot the end to secure the ribbon length. Place the bottom ruffle at the level at which you want it to sit on your baby's bum, pin, then sew in place!

 

Follow the same steps for each ruffle, from bottom ruffle to the top. Here is the finished ruffle bum!

You can also make a headband to go with your baby's new outfit, like this one I made with fold over elastic and a rose that I made with satin ribbon.

And here it is, Rachel's first Fourth of July outfit!

I'd also like to share these cute festive desserts made by my friend Katie and her sister Meghan! Love it!

KT Made It: Baby Shower Card Book

This past weekend I went to a celebration that so many women look forward to: their baby shower! It was an incredibly special day thanks to some very special people - my mom, sister Joy, friend Jessica and her mother Nancy. Thank you all for making this celebration so memorable for me!



And, of course, thank you to everyone who was able to attend my baby shower. My hubby and I appreciate that you took time to celebrate with my family and I this joyous event in my life, and for your very generous gifts!

The theme of the shower came courtesy of Jessica, who did some research on Pinterest and found the most adorable invitations for a "Little Girls Are TuTu Cute" party - in purple and turquoise no less!


















Here is the quilt that my mom made for Rachel:


And the cake that she made for me!










And my love of arts and crafts was evident throughout with different crafting stations, which I will admit I might-maybe-may have had some hand in making :)

There was a station to make headbands:

A station to write advice for me as a mommy-to-be:

Another station to make pages for baby's first Alphabet Book:





























A thumb print guest book:




























And some cards for guests to fill out for "Wishes for Baby" and also to see who knows me the best with a few trivia questions.













Here are the beautiful headbands that my friends and family made for baby Rachel:

 

 

My sister-in-law, Ashley, made this adorable diaper bouquet!
















Now on to the did-it! There are a lot of very creative ways to display cards. To make my card book, I modified this tutorial from Dreamy Elk.

I only used the instructions for putting the pages of the book together using thread and a piece of fabric.



I did not follow the remainder of the instructions simply because I did not want to buy materials and I felt like I could improvise pretty well on my own. I won't detail how I made the cover of the book because, quite frankly, I'm not really sure how I did it, suffice to say that it involved card stock, canva paper, hot glue, modge podge and some fabric. Here is the finished product, which will go in a memory chest for baby Rachel!


If you are going to make something like this, I would recommend following the tutorial, as it looks pretty simple, the pictures are really helpful, and she gives pretty explicit instructions so it would be hard to mess up!

KT Made It: Crib Bedding

Happy April!

I can admit that did-its appear few and far between this spring, but I assure you that I have in fact been quite busy prepping for baby and getting ready to finalize the move to our new apartment next month. So while crafts, baking, reading, etc. have not been on the top of the to do list, I guess I will consider it an exercise in the decrease in free time I have to look forward to as a mom - which is something that I certainly don't mind!

One of the things that I have been doing to prepare for baby girl has been making the crib bedding for the nursery. The colors for the nursery that I chose are gray, purple and turquoise, a palate inspired by some serious time spent on Pinterest (view my Nursery Inspiration board here!)

I used Simplicity pattern #3795. This pattern was very straight forward and I would certainly use it again. The only complaint I have came when I put the bumpers into the crib and they were too long! Yeah, I almost cried, which is definitely an over reaction, but disappointment is not considering how hard I worked. However, given the fact that they really are for decoration and that baby will not be sleeping with the bumpers in her crib, it really is not that big of a deal and I can always adjust them later.

Here are some photos showing some of the process of making the crib set:











Here are the cut out pattern pieces. I made the quilt, pillow, dust ruffle and bumpers. The pattern also has a canopy which would be pretty cute as well as an organizer to hang on the side of the crib.

The first piece I made was the dust ruffle:
 

Next were the bumpers:

And the pillow and quilt:

And here is the crib set ready to go! All that is missing is a little baby girl :)