Cowboy Caviar

In honor of Pioneer Day I thought I'd whip up one of my new favorite recipes: Cowboy Caviar. Its a perfect dip or salad for a hot summer day.

COWBOY CAVIAR

2 T red wine vinegar

1 1/2 to 2 tsp hot sauce

1 1/2 tsp salad oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/8 tsp pepper

2 firm-ripe avocados

1 15 oz can black-eyed peas

1 11 oz can corn

2/3 cup sliced green onion

2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2-3 tomatoes, chopped

salt

1 bag tortilla chips

2 cups shredded lettuce or cabbage (optional)

1 - In a large bowl, mix vinegar, hot sauce, oil, garlic, and pepper. Peel, pit and cut avocado into 1/2-inch cubes. Add to vinegar mixture and mix gently to coat.

2 - Drain and rinse peas and corn. Add peas, corn, onions, cilantro and tomatoes to avocado mixture. Mix gently to coat. Add salt to taste.

3. Serve with chips or add lettuce/cabbage to made a delicious salad.

Hope you enjoy!

BBQ Invites

I made these invitations for a neighborhood BBQ and thought I'd share. I used my free picnik account. It was easy to make!

I thought some of you would like a blank invitation. Right click and save.

Celebrate!

I decided to make this little printable to put on some soda bottles for the 4th of July. I thought I'd share it in case you'd like to use the image (personal use only). Just right click and save as a picture. For multiples, I fit about 6 of them in a Word document.

I made this using my favorite photo editing site, picnik. Try it out!

Linked to:

Patriotic

Somehow it is almost July! I had been wanting to do these craft stars, so I finally hauled my 2-year-old to Joannes and got some cute paper.

This is the end result:

Sorry this is a poor picture, but the star is actually quite pretty with the glittery paper. Its a little rough, but I hope to make another one that is a bit more perfected.

Things you need:

2 - 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper

cutting board and x-acto knife

glue dots

staples

about 2 hours

Total cost: .87 cents (for paper)!

For more instructions and pictures, go here.

Spring

A view from my front door a few days ago . . .

quite the difference from last February!

Hooray for spring!

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

I wanted a nice light dessert for Mother's Day. I thought of strawberry shortcake, but didn't want to bother with the assembly (we were having a picnic), so I made cupcakes instead. Think of having your own little strawberry shortcake. My family and friends thought they took me a while, but they're really simple.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE CUPCAKES:

1 box yellow cake mix or your favorite yellow cake recipe

1-2 pints strawberries

Granulated sugar to sweeten

2 cups Whipping cream (use the real stuff, not Cool Whip)

2 T Powder sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

-Make cupcakes according to package directions (yield 24-36 cupcakes).

-While baking, chop strawberries and add sugar to sweeten.

-Once cupcakes are cooled, scoop out tops of cupcakes (see photo below). They obviously don't have to be perfect.

-Fill is holes with strawberry mixture (below)

-Beat whipping cream until soft peaks are formed. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until mixed.

-Right before serving, top cupcakes with whipped cream and additional strawberries if desired.



Here's another close-up. Yummy.

Blogging Slump

I wish I could say the reason I haven't posted is being I'm working on a big craft project, but I think the real reason is another project:

Due in November. :)

Pray that my energy will come back so I can at least spring clean!