Pork Carnitas

When I was a teenager, I had this horrid little habit of conforming. Not in the nasty little middle school and high school norms. I mean, I did keep my language clean, I didn't dress too revealing (who am I kidding I dressed like a 30 year-old substitute teacher...a cute teacher...but still), and I was not a mean girl.

However, I was a teenager and I was still programmed to conform.

So how did I conform?

Several ways, for example...

Heaven forbid I admit to knowing what or even listening to country music.
"Garth Brooks. Nope never heard of him. Nope I did not scream my head off at his concert. Nope that was not one of three times that I cursed (Friends in Low Places people)."

I would never choose to stay home and read a book instead of cruising around the town with kids my own age. When I said no to going out it was always because, uh...my parents are lame and are making me...uh...clean all the bathrooms...

Eww chocolate, that stuff will make your skin break out. I don't like the taste of chocolate.

Pork. Gross who eats that. I mean yuck. I don't eat most meat. It will make me fat. Chicken only please.

Yup, I was like tofu. A bland little sponge of a thing. Soaking up several mass accepted teenage norms.

Man am I glad I am not a teenager anymore.

I mean, don't get me wrong I am still a little bit tofu, but that is best left for another day...

But I can happily say that I do not conform the way I did when I was a teenager.

Good thing too, otherwise I would have never made myself this to.die.for pork carnitas...aka heaven on a tortilla.

This slow cooking carnitas had my house smelling like a favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant all day. The process of first cooking it in the slow cooker ensures that it is tender fall apart glorious. Then thanks to glazing and some broiling it is caramelized and just slightly crispy on the outside.

It is not a heavy meat dish. The carnitas pairs perfectly with crisp lettuce, fresh salsa, and a little bit of sour cream.

I am not going to lie, I at this meat right off the pan. I had made my mouth wait all day to try it, so I kind of had to deliver as soon as I could.

I have said many times that I am not a leftover kind of gal. I like enjoying the meal when it is made, but it takes something extra special for me to want to enjoy once it is a leftover. Poor leftovers, I am so mean.

So when I tell you that I happily ate this as leftovers the next day, you know that is saying something.

If you are a fan of pork. Make this.
If you are a fan of Mexican food. Make this.
If you are a fan of fall apart, melt in your mouth meat. Make this.
If you like food. Make this.

Make this! Make this! Make this!

PS...that was me chanting for you.

Pork carnitas...so yummy!

Pork Carnitas
My Kitchen Escapades

Print Recipe

4 pound boneless pork butt or shoulder, fat trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 cups water
1 medium orange, juiced and keep the spent halves

First, adjust the rack in your oven to the lower middle and preheat to 300 degrees.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large Dutch oven (or any kind of large pot that can go from stove top to oven) including the spent orange halves and the juice from those halves.

Bring the mixture to a simmer. Once it simmers, cover the pot with the lid and transfer to the oven. Cook until meat falls a part at the touch of a fork. This will be about 2 hours.

Remove the pot from the oven and turn on your oven's broiler.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat from the pot and place on a foil lined cookie sheet. Take everything out of the pot but the liquid. Place the pot with the liquid in it, over high heat and bring to a boil. Let boil until liquid reduces, thickens and looks like syrup. About 20 minutes.

While the liquid is reducing, separate each piece of pork into three equal bite-sized pieces. Then when the liquid is syrupy, add the meat to the pot and lightly mix making sure that each piece is coated in the syrup. Add salt and pepper here if necessary.

Remove the meat from the pan and once again place it on the foil lined tray. Spread it out so there is only one layer of meat. Put it in the oven and broil until the edges are browned a little crispy. Anywhere from 5-8 minutes. Then with spatula, flip each piece of meat. Repeat and broil the other side.

Serve on a warm tortilla with your favorite toppings.

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for letting me confess my horrid teenage habit of conforming.

Did you conform as a teenager? Were you tofu like me? I would love to know!

Project Handmade Christmas Presents: Child's Wallet

At Christmas time I like to make a handful of gifts. Nothing too major.

One year I thought, "Hey why don't I make all the gifts!"

Hahahaha...that idea was quickly put to rest. There is absolutely no way that is going to happen ever. However, I realized I could simply pick a couple of people to make presents for.

Last year I shared a couple of handmade Christmas present ideas with you in my Project Handmade Christmas Presents.

I had so much fun last year that I decided to give it another go this year.

So welcome to the tutorial for the first Handmade Christmas Present of 2012.

A handmade child's wallet.

My Little Men love wallets...well let's face it they love what is inside the wallet.

They love having a place to put their own small amount of cash. They also love having a place to slip a gift card, or even a pretend credit card. Middle even likes slipping in a business card or two. Yeah he is legit like that.

In our family we do a cousins gift exchange every year. Two of the cousins we need to get a gift for are two cute little boys 4 and 2. I thought that making them a wallet all their own and then loading it with ones would be fun gift.

The wallets came together quickly (that is after I worked out the kinks and turned on my brain). I was able to make the wallets out of fabric scraps. I didn't have to go to the fabric store for a single thing...for which Hubby is grateful. I am lethal at the fabric store.

I really like how they turned out and I am excited to stuff them with cash and send them to these adorable boys.

Do you have a tiny money bags in your life?

I am pretty sure they would like a wallet all their own.

Here is a quick and easy how-to for this little wallet.

You will need:

2 pieces for outside and inside (can be same or different patterns), measuring 7 1/2" by 4 1/2".
1 piece of stabilizer, measuring 7 1/2" by 4 1/2" (I used a piece of white felt)
1 piece for long inside pocket, measuring 7 1/2" by 3 3/4"
2 pieces for small inside pockets, measuring, 3 3/4" by 2 3/4"
fabric strip for inside biased tape, measuring 2" by 15"
fabric strip for outside biased tape, measuring 2" by 26"
velcro, cut into 2" strip
thread

I used two different fabrics for this wallet.

The inside pocket matched the yellow for the inside. Then I used a coordinating print for the little inside pockets.

I used the yellow for the biased tape for the outside of the wallet and the print for the inside pockets.

To start, make your biased tape (or you can always just buy biased tape).

For the inside pockets you will need two strips measuring 3 3/4" and one measuring 7 1/2".

Pin the smaller strips to an outside edge of each smaller pocket.

Sew them in place.

I did this next step out of order on the pirate wallet so I am showing you with the batman wallet.

Face the pockets with biased edges by each other. Place and sew in the velcro 1" in from the raw edge.

Pretend that you see velcro from now on...

Pin the small pockets to the longer pocket. Base stitch the smaller pockets to the longer pockets by sewing with a long length along the top and bottom raw edge.

Next take the longer biased tape and pin in place along one of the raw edges.

Sew in place with a normal stitch length.

Then pin the completed pocket piece to the inside fabric piece. Base stitch the two pieces together.

Now you are going to layer the pieces together. Place the outside piece print side down, making sure the top of the print is at the top.

Layer the stabilizer piece on top of the upside down print piece. Then layer the inside pocket piece, right side up, on top of the stabilizer.

Baste everything together on the outside edges.

Now prepare the biased tape for the outside.

Pin the biased tape in place around the edges.

When the edges meet, fold over one of the edges and pin in place.

Your wallet should look like this all pin-arrific.

Stitch it all in place.

Now the whole wallet is put together and finished.

So cute.

Before you wrap it up and send it off, slip some cash or a gift card inside.

A present perfect for any tiny money bags!

Stay tuned for other handmade gift ideas.

Cutting Edge Stencil GIVEAWAY and review

Do you like my new tote? I kind of like it too. My favorite thing about this bag is that I was able to custom make the main material to my little hearts delight.

Say what??!!

Yup, that is right. The main material was completely custom made.

Custom made you say? But that sounds like too much work and it sounds haaaarrd.

Guess what! Making my own custom fabric was easy peasy all thanks to Cutting Edge Stencils.
 

Cutting Edge Stencils contacted me asking me to review one of their stencils. I of course immediately said, "Why happily!"

They make so many fantastic stencils great for a variety of projects. I honestly couldn't decide. I literally took a week before finally narrowing down what to do.

Do I pick one of their fabulous wall stencils? If so, which one...for the love which one?!? Which wall? The possibilities are virtually endless and all wonderful. What is a girl to do?

But the possibilities didn't stop there. They have new craft stencils perfect for fabric and smaller projects.

Did you catch that I just said they make stencils for fabric? That was a hint to what I chose.

After much hemming and hawing I finally made my decision. Craft stencil it was.

The Zamira craft stencil to be exact.

 Zamira Craft Stencil

Once I made my decision, I could hardly wait for my stencil to get here. Then it came!

This stencil can be used on fabric and on any small project.

I had visions of this tote almost right away. I also knew I wanted my pattern to be gray. I really have a fondness for gray.

I bought simple white duck cloth for my fabric canvas.

I picked out my paint.

I cut out all my pieces and then I started to stencil away.

The stencil was easy to use and only took a little patience. The good news is that Cutting Edge Stencils has a simple How-to-Stencil videos. Once I got the hang of stenciling, it was a breeze.

I soon had several lovely pieces. They dried quickly and before I knew it I was ready to start sewing with my new custom fabric.

Now thanks to some especially lovely stenciled fabric I have quite a gorgeous Carry All Tote.

Are you already imagining all the lovely things you can make using their stencils?

You know you are now listing in your head all the stenciling projects you can do.

You know you want one of your own!

Well woohoo! This is your day.

Cutting Edge Stencils are giving one of my readers(US Residents only) one stencil up to $50 in value. The winner will be able to pick out their favorite stencil and Cutting Edge Stencils will ship it to the winner for free.

Can I get a woohoo??

To earn an entry for this completely awesome entry all you have to do is head on over to Cutting Edge Stencil and browse around. Leave me a comment letting me know which stencil is your favorites.

Get this though, you can more entries.

Earn extra entries by doing the following and then leave me a comment letting me know-

Following Just Another Day in Paradise (just over there where my friends hang out)

Following Just Another Day in Paradise on Facebook

Following Cutting Edge Stencil's blog

Like Cutting Edge on Facebook

That is four extra chances to win yourself an awesome stencil.

Just make sure to leave me a comment for each entry and make sure to give your email address.

The giveaway will go through Friday, December 7th 11:59pm pst.

Good Luck friends!!

Baked Potato Soup

Winter is getting closer. We are starting to get chilly around here.

One of the things I love about winter is that it gives me an excuse to make soup.

I am totally a soup girl. While I am always trying new soup to add to my soup recipe box, you are more likely to find me making my favorites over and over and, yes, over again. One of my favorites is Baked Potato Soup. This is a recipe I have used for years. This soup is pretty low maintenance ingredient wise. It comes together SOUPer fast...sorry I had to...This soup is also great as leftovers. Woohoo!

Today not only am I sharing the recipe for Baked Potato Soup, but I am also linking to several of my favorite soup recipes that I have shared previously on the blog. Let's start with the recipe shall we.

Baked Potato Soup 

Print Recipe

2 med. potatoes, baked
3 Tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 Tablespoons flour
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/8 teaspoon ground thyme
1 cup half-and-half
 garnishes-shredded cheddar cheese, bacon pieces, sliced green onions, sour cream


Melt butter in a stock pot. Saute onions in the butter until light brown and translucent. Add flour to onions and stir continuously  while cooking for 1-2 minutes.

Add broth, water, cornstarch, instant potatoes, and spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Cut baked potatoes in half and scoop out the pulp into the soup, letting it crumble into rough bite-sized pieces. Add half-and-half. Bring back to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for another 15 minutes.

Serve with garnishes. Enjoy!

 

Okay, now for some other delightful soup recipes that I have made and shared on my blog. I have enjoyed all of these and a few have become my very favorites...don't worry I will tell you which ones those are! I hope you are finding ways to enjoy this winter weather and I hope you find a new soup recipe to warm up with.

Slow-cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup

a favorite

Chicken Parmesan Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

a favorite

Chicken Cream Cheese Soup in Homemade Bread Bowls

Santa Fe White Bean and Chicken Soup

a favorite

Fabric Wrapped Holiday Letters

I had a blank spot on the wall above my mantle that was super bugging me. The space seemed just right for a little holiday word.

Since I didn't have a holiday word just laying around, I figured I should probably either make one or come to terms with going crazy over the blank spot on the wall.

I have enough crazy, so I decided to make the decoration I needed.

I gathered some yarn and material that would coordinate with the rest of my decorations.

Are you shocked that it is black? It may not scream Merry Christmas, but it totally goes with all my holiday fun, including my Christmas Vintage Book Poster.

I also didn't want to spend the money on blank letters, so I grabbed some left over foam core to make my own.

I printed off my letter, J-O-Y in the font ChunkyRomanFive at 600. Then I cut them out and traced them onto foam core.  I used a exacto knife and cut the letters from the foam core.

I wrapped each letter in either strips of fabric or yarn, held in place with some hot glue.

Now my little holiday letters just had to be hung up and fulfill their destiny above my mantle.

I have intentions of showing you my mantle. I think it is rather quaint and vintagy looking, but alas I just can't get a good picture. So fingers crossed maybe soon.