Headboard is finally done!

Right now it's in the basement drying from the polyurethane coating I put on it earlier. I'll be hanging it tomorrow. It took me forever to actually sit down and do it... I've had all the pieces forever!

This is going to look so good!

Pulled beef with a spicy sauce!

Today I made pulled beef because my grandmother sent me $40 in Walmart giftcards so I went shopping for Bad Movie Night food and bought some other groceries as well!

I bought a small rump roast and decided to cook it in the slow cooker. I started it around 11 today and we're just now eating. It's delicious!

Here's the recipe in case anyone is interested! (Sorry they're not exact amounts, I just make this stuff up as I go!)

Spicy Pulled Beef

Ingredients:
1 rump roast small enough to fit in your slow cooker
1 large onion
2 jalapenos
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
8 cloves of garlic
allspice, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper
a couple tablespoons of tomato paste
dash of white vinegar
canola oil for browning
1 lime

You'll also need a crockpot, a pan for browning the meat, and a saucepan, strainer and a blender if'n you want to make a fancy sauce.

Prep work.
Slice the onion into thick rings and set aside. Dice the jalapenos, taking out most of the membrane and seeds. Smash the garlic to take the skins off, and then mince them. Open the can of tomatoes. Roll the lime and cut it in half.

Liberally rub the roast with the salt, pepper, allspice, cumin and paprika. Make sure it's evenly coated. It should look like it has a second skin.


Cooking.
Heat a small amount of canola/olive oil in your pan. Wait until the oil shimmers and begin to brown the roast. Brown it on all sides until it has a nice crust. Transfer it to the slow cooker to rest.

Now, dump in your veggies and saute them for a few minutes until they begin to soften a bit. (Watch out for the fumes here. Those peppers are dangerous!) Juice the lime into the veggies, and then dump the diced tomatoes, juice and all into the pot.

Bring this to a simmer and then pour it over the meat in the slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker to low and cook for 8 hours, turning once after 4 hours.

Finishing up!
Once the eight hours have passed, set the meat on a plate and let rest. Strain the liquid from the crockpot into a saucepan, making sure to catch all the solids in the strainer. Add the solids and a bit of liquid to the blender and process until smooth. Make sure to hold a paper towel over the top of the blender while doing this - hot liquid always wants to shoot right out of the blender!

Dump the contents back into the saucepan and taste. I added some oregano, and a bit of coriander at this point, as well as some tomato paste and a dash of vinegar.

Boil this, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until it forms a fairly thick sauce. It should reduce and be about 1/4-1/3 of what it was before.

Serve on sandwiches or alone. We ate it alone because I forgot to get some nice bread. Hooray!

Pecan pie, scalloped potatoes, dress forms!

Making things I normally don't cook has begun!
I think I should come up with a better title/mission statement, yeah?

The pecan pie is on Instructables. The scalloped potatoes should be posted later tonight.

And today - I'm buying my first ever dress form! Mermaid costume here I come!

Jogging and making!

Embroidered picture frames for my mom! Full how-to at instructables!




Full how-to at instructables!

And two bags - one for my mom and one for me. The one for mom sadly messed up in the wash, though - I bought the lining fabric years ago and forgot it was dry clean only. Wasn't strong enough to hold up at the seams. :(

Oh well! Live and learn and make more!

The rest of my time recently has been spent babysitting my nephews and cooking with my mom - I went home for a week and it was great! Now I'm back in Louisville and back to work.

I'm taking up jogging again too. Trying to do a half mile every other day and building up from there. In the past I've ran too fast and too far in the beginning and burned myself out. This time I'm going to be responsible with it.

I'd really like to be able to run/jog a few miles. It's something I've never been able to do. I can ride a bike forever, but my stubby little legs don't take well to running!

Up late, realization of not posting, stuff.

I guess I should get on with it, then.

For tonight, I'd like to remind all of you that Andy Samberg is hot. I will post about productive things in the morning. I have made things. I have. Promise.