Thursday, December 31, 2015

Last Bag of 2015

Hi!
I made this bag for my friend, Debbie of Elkhorn Quilt Company. She sells great fabric, quilt kits, and sewing supplies. Her website is here. I made this bag with Katarina Roccella's new line for Art Gallery Fabrics, Wonderland. I really like this fabric line, it's so cute. I love how the fabric looks in this pattern as well. I hope you enjoy. Happy New Year! Here's to 2016, may it be filled with sewing.
- Allie Ann :-)

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Santa Rosa Plum Jam

Hi all! My family has a Santa Rosa plum tree in our yard and just love eating plums fresh from the tree. Some many of our plums have begun to ripen and fall from the tree so I thought jam would be a great way to use them. 
Santa Rosa Plum Jam(more like sauce***not thick but great flavor)
-4 cups of plums, pitted
-1 cup or sugar 
-the juice from 1/2 of a small lemon 
-To begin, add all the ingredients to a large pot and stir together.
-Next, place the pot on the stove on low-medium heat, stirring constantly.
-I used a electronic hand mixer to break the plum into smaller pieces.
-Take care not to boil or burn your jam.
-The jam will simmer for about 30 minutes until it is a slightly thick sauce.
-Allow sauce to cool then pour into glass jars and chill in refrigerator to further thicken th the jam.

-Enjoy with butter on toast or English muffins or try over vanilla ice cream :-).
-Allie Ann :-)

Monday, April 20, 2015

My Kind of Mexican Rice

I love a good Mexican rice from a favorite Mexican resturant. For the longest time, I've wanted to make some delicious rice at home. A few months back, I finally began to search the internet for the best, most delicious Mexican rice recipe. I found a lot of recipes for Mexican and Spanish rice! I filtered through them and did some trial and error batches of rice. After all of that I came up with the following recipe which I really find to be very delicious.
Ingridients:
•2 cups long grain rice(it's important that it be long grain)
•4 cups chicken broth
•1/4 cup olive oil 
•heaping 1/2 cup tomato sauce
•1/2 teaspoon cumin
•1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
•1/2 teaspoon black pepper(I like to add quite a bit more because I really like pepper)
•fresh onion(chopped finely)
•fresh jalapeño(halved and most seeds removed depending on your taste for heat...ps don't remove with bare hands) 
•a large pot with a lid
1. Heat olive oil on medium to high heat depending on how quick you can stir your rice in(6-8 heat level)
2. When the olive oil is heated(you will see some fizzling) add your rice and onion and stir often until lightly golden

3.When rice is sizzling and golden brown, stir in the tomato sauce

4.When rice it somewhat whiter and the sauce has stuck to it pour in chicken broth 
5.Stir in the chicken broth then add all the spices and fresh Jalapeño and stir that in as well

6.Bring the rice to a boil then lower the heat to 2-3 and cover the pot. Make sure the rice maintains a light boil throughout the cooking process. 
7.Let the rice cook, covered for 15 minutes...Do NOT remove lid
8.After 15 minutes, take the pot off of the burner, Do NOT remove the lid and let stand for another 5 minutes
9.After five minutes you can finally remove the lid and stir the rice, bringing the bottom rice to the top
10.Grab a bowl and scoop up some scrumptious rice! Or even better make tacos, enchiladas, burritos with fresh Mexican rice
-Allie Ann :-)
P.S. I hope to add a new sewing DIY soon just thought I'd share this recipe :)

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Downtown Tunic Pattern by Sew Caroline

Hey, ya'll!  I had the honor of pattern testing for Caroline of Sew Caroline again!  This time I tested the Downtown Tunic pattern! I've found that it is such a cute and sweet pattern! Simply choose a couple of coordinating fabrics(1 knit for the main tunic piece and 1 woven for the skirt piece).
The top piece is Anna Maria Horner KNIT and the bottom skirt piece is Melody Miller(Cotton+Steel) voile(WOVEN).  I think these two fabrics ended up looking fantastic together!  They are a great match! I heart fabrics ;-)
This side view shows the excellent drape and flow of the skirt piece of the Downtown Tunic pattern.
Thanks for reading! Go sew one up? You'll have fun! :-)
- Allie Ann :-)