Honors & Awards

My friend Sarah over at Uneventfully Wonderful awarded me my first ever Liebster Blog Award.  Liebster Awards are intended to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers.  I'm so honored that Sarah thought of me!  I like this award because it honors those who blog because they purely love it, & not because they get paid to.   I started this blog a little over a year ago & enjoy doing it so much.  One of my purposes of this blog is for my kiddos.  Someday when I'm really old & they get married & start families of their own I'd like them to have access to all my recipes & ideas.  Nesting Corral is also a great creative outlet for this busy mom who NEEDS a creative outlet.  Thank you Sarah for awarding me!

Part of receiving the Liebster Award is awarding it to other bloggers.  Here are the guidelines:
1. Choose 5 blogs with fewer than 200 followers to grant the Liebster Blog award. 
2. Show appreciation to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them!
3. Post the award on your blog and link back to the blogs you have given the Liebster Blog award to so everyone else can pay them a visit. 


So here goes...

Fabulous Farmhouse 5 by Jami Rodolph.  She has so many cute crafty DIY ideas that cost near to nothing.  I'm always inspired (& a little jealous) by her garage sale finds.  Plus there are tons of cute items she makes & sells.  I've blogged about her recipe boxes & photo albums, but there's so much more- you'll have to check it out.  Beyond that, keeping up with her family is always a fun read.  This is a great blog for anyone who likes to create, enjoys shabby chic decor, & is thrifty.

We Have Plenty is co-created by my friend Michelle Fullente & her cousin Myra Cherchio.  It is a great site to get a variety of recipes.  The premise of the website is using what you have.  No overly fancy ingredients, yet wonderfully creative & yummy dishes.  Try the King Ranch Chicken, you'll be hooked!


I know I'm suppose to award five blogs, but my other choices have already received the award or have too many followers.  I am happy just to bring attention to these two wonderful blogs.  Nice work ladies!

Easy Cheese Sticks

These are the easiest fried cheese sticks in the world.  Instead of breading you use spring roll wrappers.

The centers are full of gooey cheesy goodness.  The best part is they don't break easily.  The spring roll wrappers keep the melted cheese contained.  Dip these puppies in some red sauce or ranch & you'll be in heaven.  Here's the how to...
Ingredients
mozzarella cheese sticks (unwrapped  & however many you want to make)
spring roll wrappers
vegetable or canola oil
Directions
Open spring roll wrappers & place damp paper towel on top so they don't dry out.

Place cheese stick at one corner of the wrapper.

Roll cheese stick up in wrapper until you get to the middle of the wrapper.

Fold both corners of the wrapper in.

And continue to roll until you get to the end.

Dab a little water on the corner & roll the remaining way (the water will hold the wrapper in place).  Fill a medium size frying pan with an inch of oil, heat over medium.  Once oil is hot place cheese sticks in the oil & fry all sides until golden brown, 1-2 minutes per side.  Enjoy!

Pizza Dip

I kept seeing this dip on Pinterest.  And since my family is basically addicted to pizza I thought I'd better give 'er a whirl.  Plus, I'm concentrating on appetizers & finger foods right now for the upcoming Super Bowl.  I think Pizza Dip screams Super Bowl fare.  This is super easy to pull together.  And if you're like me & always have pizza sauce & pepperoni in the freezer you'll likely have everything in house already.  You can put whatever topping you desire on.  I kept my simple for the kiddos.  But anything you would put on pizza you can put on top of this.  If you do pepperoni, I suggest using the mini pepperonis.  They work better for dipping.   I served my pizza dip with homemade bread sticks, but pita chips work great as well.  Here's the DL...
Ingredients
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/2 teaspoon dry parsley
1/4 teaspoon dry basil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cup pizza sauce
mini pepperoni
1 tablespoon sliced green onion
(or any other toppings you may want, anything you would put on a pizza you can put on this)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine cream cheese, garlic powder, oregano, parsley, and basil.  Spread cream cheese mixture evenly in 9 inch pie pan.  Evenly spread on pizza sauce.  Sprinkle on 3/4 cup of the mozzarella.  Add toppings of your choice.  Sprinkle on remaining mozzarella & Parmesan.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.  Serve with bread sticks or pita chips.  Enjoy!

Recipe for Homemade Bread Sticks
I just made up a batch of pizza dough & then formed it into a rectangular-ish shape.  Baked it at 450 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.  Then I sliced it up as pictured above.

The Office Light

When we moved into our house we turned the little loft space into my husbands office.  Since our house was built in the 1970's and apparently ceiling lights were out-lawed then (I'd love any architectural insight into this), our house mostly has sconces.

Such was the case in my husbands office.  not only was it a sconce, but it was a very dim & not very attractive sconce.  Two bad qualities for a light to posses.

For a long time now we've wanted to make a permanent light fixture out of an old latern.  We saw it in one of our rustic decor books.  We took our our bad office lighting as an opportunity to make the light fixture we'd always wanted to try.  So I sold that ol' sconce & three others that matched it our our bedroom on Craiglist & my hubby got to work creating his masterpiece.

It really was quite easy.  He took the bottom out of the lantern & installed a lamp socket.  Then just attached some wire to the socket & hooked er' all up.  (I'm keeping details kind of vague because I'm not a professional electrician.  So if you have no idea what I'm talking about then get someone who knows the business to help you.)

Then he built a base out of barn wood & we screwed it into the wall & it was done.  I love how it looks & how we've taken something forgotten about in our bunkhouse & revived it into a light we use everyday.  It looks so cool at night shining through the old sixteen pain window we reclaimed.  It gives our house personality & cost way less than a new light fixture.  Kuddos to my hubby for getting this done.

Pulled Pork Sliders

This is one of the easiest & yummiest ways to feed a crowd.  This makes a great Superbowl party dish.  You simply whip up a batch of BBQ sauce & throw a pork roast in a crock pot.  This dish uses my all time favorite BBQ sauce that is so easy to make & tastes amazing.  (You could also use store bought sauce, but I recommend trying to make this one.  It is so good!)  This dish will make your house will smell great, bellies will be full, & you won't have to spend too much dinero.  Here's the skinny...
Ingredients
1 pork roast
4 Tablespoons of butter
1 cup water
Dinner rolls or slider buns
BBQ Sauce (you will probably need two batches of this for an average size pork roast)
    1 onion diced
    3 Tablespoons butter
    2 cups ketchup
    1/3 cup molasses
   1 teaspoon mustard
    2 tsp brown sugar
   1 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
   1/8 cup whiskey
Melt butter in  medium saucepan.  Add diced onion & cook until tender, about 8-10 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients & allow to simmer stirring often for 20 minutes.  Taste it & add more salt or sugar as desired.  If you like things a little spicy add some chili powder.  So good you could eat it by the spoonful, but I suggest using it as a topping.  Makes about 2 1/4 cups.
Directions
In crock-pot or slow cooker pour in water.  Set in your pork roast.  Slice the butter into 1/4 pieces & place on top of roast.  Cook on medium for 5-6 hours or until pork easily pulls apart by using two forks (& I mean easily!  Should be like butter.)  Pull the pork by using two forks & shredding it.  Pour on plenty of BBQ sauce & coat the pork.  Put a couple tablespoons on a dinner roll or slider bun & eat it up.
*Cooking time will very depending on the size of your roast.  As long as there is enough moisture you can't really over cook it.  Just test it by using two forks & trying to pull it apart.  If there is resistance then the meat is not done.
*Make sure to have plenty of BBQ sauce.  You will have to probably make 2 batches of the recipe above, maybe more.  If you make too much just freeze the extra for another meal.
*This is a great meal to make for a kid event because the sandwiches are small & manageable... & yummy.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I figured I better post some dishes for the upcoming Superbowl.  One reason I love the Superbowl is that I get to eat appetizers all day long.  A signature food of any football get-together is buffalo chicken.  There are few things I love more than buffalo chicken.  I like it in it's various forms, wings, chicken strips, nuggets, whatever.  So when my mother-in-law incorporated it into this awesome dip I was hooked.  The best part is that it's paired with ranch & celery, so you get all those wonderful flavors in one bite.  Serve this dip up with some tortilla chips & you'll be a hero at your Superbowl party.  Here's the skinny...
Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese softened
3 cups shredded chicken
3/4 cups buffalo sauce (my favorite is Frank's Red Hot Wings Buffalo sauce, or make your own {recipe below})
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 celery stock finely diced
{Buffalo Sauce}
1/3 cup hot sauce (like Frank's hot sauce)
1/3 cup butter melted & cooled
1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix chicken & buffalo sauce together until chicken is coated, set aside.  In deep dish pie plate or 9x9 baking dish evenly spread the cream cheese.  Sprinkle celery evenly on top of cream cheese.  On top of that spread the ranch dressing & then evenly layer on the chicken.  Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve with tortilla chips & enjoy!

Chicken Lasagna Roll-Ups

I love lasagna, but I don't like making it.  It takes time and quite a bit of money to buy all that cheese.  This is a great alternative to traditional lasagna.  But it takes half the time & doesn't require as much cheese.  Plus, it's easy to serve & looks fancy.  Here's the DL...

Ingredients
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup milk
8 lasagna noodles, cooked & drained
2 1/2 cups spaghetti sauce

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In medium bowl combine chicken, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, and milk.  In a 9 by 13 inch baking dish spread 1 cup of spaghetti sauce, or more until bottom of pan is coated.  Lay out lasagna noodles & pat dry with a paper towel.  Spread about 1/2 cup of the chicken & cheese mixture on each noodle.  Spread about 2 tablespoon spaghetti sauce on top of that.  Roll noodle up.

Arrange lasagna rolls seam side down on top of sauce in the baking dish.  Top each noodle with a little more sauce & sprinkle with the remaining cheese.  Cover loosely with tin foil so that foil doesn't touch the top of the rolls (you may have to tent the foil)  Bake for 20 minutes, remove foil & bake for an addition 10 minutes.  Serve & enjoy!

*This would also be good with a little spinach in them as well.  Could substitute ground beef or ground Italian sausage for the chicken.