Garlic Butter Steak Bites With Veggies

I found this quick recipe for a complete meal on one sheet pan. It feeds 4 or 5 people or a bit more than two meals for us. 

Garlic Butter Steak Bites

1 Bag of the tiny mixed potatoes (1 pound)

12 ounces green beans

1 small onion. I like Vidalia but a red onion would work

Olive Oil

salt and pepper

1 pound sirloin steak

1 Tablespoon Worchestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley or rosemary

Set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and set it to 350 °. Spray a 10x15 baking sheet with Pam.

Wash the potatoes and cut in half. Place in a medium bowl. Wash the green beans and trim off the ends. Put in the same bowl.  Cut the onion in half and then in wedges.  Add to the bowl.

Pour about 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil over the veggies and add about 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Mix well and spread in the prepared pan.

Roast the veggies in the oven for 15 minutes.  Set the timer for 7 minutes, remove the pan and flip the veggies over, return to the oven and set the timer for 8 minutes.

While the veggies cook, trim the fat off the steak and cut it into 1 inch cubes.  Places them in the same medium bowl and add the Worchestershire sauce, about 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. stir and set aside.

Preheat the broiler. After the veggies cook for 15 minutes, remove the pan and push the veggies aside to make a circle in the center where you place the meat.  Arrange them in a single layer and return to the oven.

Broil for 6 to 8 minutes, flipping everything half way through. I did it for 8 minutes but might do 6 minutes next time.

While the meat is cooking, place the butter in a small saucepan and melt it over medium heat,  Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds or so.

Drizzle the butter over the meat and veg.  Sprinkle the minced parsley over everything and serve.

I served it with a bit of horseradish and mayo.  It's a favorite of min.  I like it with meat and potatoes.,

Dolls and Houses

I do a fair bit of pattern searching on the internet. Mostly I am looking for cute quilt patterns.  So then I sometimes get not searched for patterns that just pop up.  

This is what happened with a fabric doll house in a book form.  It came in three sizes. It came with the pattern for a doll and then there were other patterns available for clothes for said doll. 

        

The inside of the house has a bed and a closet to store the clothes.

My granddaughters were coming for a visit, so I decided to make them each a doll and dollhouse. 

I made one doll with blonde hair and one doll with black hair to match the hair color of my granddaughters. 

Then I thought I would make each granddaughter two dolls. Dolls need friends and I thought that might make for fun play.

All the clothes are lined.  This means they can be reversible and doubles the number of outfits.  

They are sewn with the right sides together leaving a small opening to turn them right side out.  It is very tedious and difficult to turn them, but it is doable.  

 

Needle nose pliers help pulling the fabric and I bought some metal and plastic tools to assist and to poke the corners mostly square.  

        

The jackets are the hardest, but are so cute.

           

After I gave the two sets to my older granddaughters, I started making one for my one year old granddaughter.  

She won't be able to play much with it now, but I wanted to make it while I was in the mood.  

It is fun and challenging and finding the right fabrics is an aspect I really enjoy. 

 

I gave the finished house to CeCe for her first birthday and I made a second for another girl attending the party.  There were two more girl friends at the party so now I'm starting on two more houses.  

It's fun and I'll keep making these houses as long as I enjoy the process and as long as there are kids that want them.

Amish White Bread

 I grew up in Altadena, CA. I also used to make a lot of bread.  So when a site I follow on Facebook, What's Up In Altadena, posted a bread recipe, I decided to try it.

It was easy and used my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have always enjoyed the process of kneading bread, but this recipe used my dough hook. I have never used it!  Plus, I am now dealing with carpal tunnel problems, so saving my hands seemed like a good idea.

Amish White Bread

2 cups warm water, about 110-120 °

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast (2 packets of the 3)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

6 cups flour 

Place the sugar and water in the bowl of your mixer.  Stir to mix and then sprinkle the yeast on top. 

Let it dissolve 5-15 minutes.

This is called the bloom.

Add the salt, oil and half the flour.  Mix slowly to incorporate.

 Then add the remaining flour, but don't mix. Replace the mixing paddle with the dough hook and mix slowly until the dough ball is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on the very clean counter and knead a few times.

Drizzle about 2 Tablespoons oil in a large mixing bowl and smear it all around and up the sides. Place the dough ball in the prepared bowl and flip it a few times to get it coated in oil. Cover with cling wrapp and place in a warm, draft free area until it doubles in size.  Check in about 1 hour.  I set a timer on my phone as I tend to get involved in projects and forget to look.

Remove the cover and place it upside down to use later  Spray two bread pans with Pam.

Punch the dough down and lay it out on a surface sprinkled with flour.  Cut it in half.  

Knead the ball to get rid of air bubbles.  Roll it out into a rectangle.  

Pinch any remaining air bubbles.  Roll it up tightly from the long side. 

Pinch the seam closed.  

Pinch the ends closed and fold over to make it a bit smaller than the size of the bread pan.  

Pinch the seams. Place in the prepared pan and repeat with the second half.

Place in a warm spot and cover the pans with the saved cling wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 30-50 minutes. Mine took about 40 minutes.  Set a timer so it doesn't rise too much.  Pre-heat the oven to 350°.

Place in the  center of the oven and bake for 25-35 minutes.

Pull out and brush the tops with melted butter.  Let cool 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.  

Let cool before you cut into it. This could be the hardest part.  If you cut too soon it will smush together.  

This makes a very nice sandwich bread.  But it is especially nice with a smear of softened butter.

Elephant Baby Quilt

 I need to make a baby quilt for our granddaughter, Cecilia. I found a cute pattern with elephants and flower pots on Etsy. The pattern was for a full size quilt. I want a baby quilt so I decided to only use a few of the elephants and flower pots. But the flower pot squares were too small to make the quilt work. 

   

I re-sized the flower pot squares making them the same size as the elephant squares.  Then I had to fill the bare spots in them.  

I have a few fabrics from other projects with cute bugs. 

I have cartoon bugs and some bees, ladybugs, and dragonflies. I added these to the squares. I even added a few that escaped from the squares and flew around the border fabric.

When I started quilting I realized I should have kept more fabric around the tiny bugs to make for easier quilting. I have no idea how long they will last with a crawling baby and many washes.  But the bigger, cartoon bugs should last.

    

The back of the quilt is a flannel with a lot of cute elephants.  I prefer flannel on quilt backs if I can find one I like. It makes them feel cozier.

    

I like the quilt and hope Cecilia does, too.

Felt Wall for Craft Room

 I having been reading about felt walls in sewing rooms.  It is a place to put up the quilt squares as you make them to arrange or see where you are going. 

I found these peel and stick felt tiles. I was worried about how to get them off the wall, but I realized this is my craft room. And whenever we sell, it will be the next owner’s problem to remove it if they don’t like them!

I like the way they look.

Butter Beef

 I get emails from Allrecipes.  You should, too!  A recent one was for Butter Beef.  I tried it because it was super easy and I could use a Crockpot. There are only three ingredients.

Butter Beef

2-3 pounds stew meat

1/2 cup butter (one stick)

1 packet Lipton soup mix

I found that stew meat is way more expensive than just buying some top sirloin and cutting it myself.  I also used two pounds as there is only two of us. 

Cut the meat into bite size pieces and place in the Crockpot. If you bought stew meat,  just dump it in from the package. 

Place the butter on top of the meat and sprinkle the soup mix on top. 

Cook for 8 hours on LOW or 4-5 hours on HIGH.  Stir a couple of times while it is cooking.

Serve the Butter Beef over egg noodles or rice.  I used rice. Make sure you get some of the sauce to drizzle over the rice or noodles.

It was delicious.   

Butter Beef Burrito

1 very large or 2 medium Russet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces

1 medium onion. I used a sweet onion

salt and pepper to taste

reserved Butter Beef 

sour cream

salsa

Large flour tortilla

I knew I would have a lot more beef than we could eat at one meal, so I planned on using the rest in some burritos. 

 

Cut the potato into cubes, place in a saucepan and cover with water.  Boil for a few minutes.  While you are waiting for the water to boil, cut up the onion.  Heat a large fry pan over medium. Add a slab of butter and the onions.  

Drain the potatoes and add to the onions.  Add salt and pepper to taste. (I boil the potatoes for a bit to shorten the frying time. ) After the potatoes are browned, add some of the Butter Beef.  Cook until warmed through.

Smear the sour cream on a warmed tortilla. Top with the potato/butter beef mixture and add salsa. 

Fold the sides over the mixture and roll up the burrito.

After the burrito meal we STILL had Butter Beef and fried potatoes. 

I chopped them into smaller pieces and heated in a fry pan.  

I cooked two eggs over easy in another pan and served the whole shebang on toast. 

 

Meal three with one batch of Butter Beef. A win for me!