Pasta Casserole

We were invited to a party of a close family friend this week, and mom volunteered to bring a casserole. Naturally, mom had me do the cooking. (haha) I wanted to make a classic dish that also had unique twist. I personally had a craving for Italian-- so I decided to make a lasagna/manicotti/casserole creation.  I'm not sure what to call it-- leave a suggestion in the comments section in you have a fun name for it!

What you will need:

For the sauce:
2 pounds of ground sirloin
2 yellow onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used 2, but the final casserole had too much liquid in it-- so try just one)
1/2 cup dry red wine
4 sprigs of rosemary

For the pasta:
4 boxes of manicotti

Cheese:
8 oz of shredded mozzarella
4 oz of shredded parmesan


Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees 
• In a stock pot, bring water to a boil and cook your manicotti pasta for 7 minutes

• When the manicotti is cooked, drain the water from your stockpot. Toss manicotti with two tablespoons of olive oil so that the pasta wont stick together. (I didn't do this when I was cooking, and the manicotti all got stuck together and ripped apart--very frusturating.)
• Brown your ground beef in a skillet, along with your onions and garlic

•  Once your ground beef is cooked and onions are soft and slightly translucent, take skillet off of heat and drain fat
• Add your ground sirloin in with your crushed tomatoes, rosemary, and red wine
• Let your sauce simmer for a bit so that the flavors combine

•  Now, take a springform pan (this one was 10 inches) and place each manicotti upright
• Stuff each manicotti with meat sauce 

•  Once you have filled the springform pan with stuffed manicotti, cover the mozzarella on top

•  Place your casserole in the oven, and cook until the top of the casserole is a nice golden brown (about 30 minutes)

•  After you take your casserole out of the oven, sprinkle your parmesan cheese on top of it, and let it cool
• Once your casserole is cool to the touch, unhinge the springform pan sides and gently remove your casserole

• Enjoy!!

As you can tell from some of the pictures-- this casserole was SUPER messy to make. The sauce finds itself everywhere. Also, be patient with yourself when you are stuffing your manicotti-- it can be frustrating if your pasta rips apart, but the taste of the final product is worth it!

DIY Laundry Detergent Part Deux

Okay, so remember that one post where I made: DIY Laundry Detergent? Yeah--that didn't turn out as wonderful as expected. For about a week: it was a smooth, lavender-smelling, laundry detergent worthy of cleaning the gods' robes. However, it soon became a solid mass which proved unable to squeeze itself out of the container. I searched the internet to find an alternate recipe, and I found something that may work really well. Rather than a liquid form, I'm trying out a dry powder--which cannot congeal! (For now, I'm going to put those two gallons of laundry detergent aside and figure out what to do with them later.)

All you need is:

One bar of soap (finely grated)

One cup of Borax

One cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

First, grate your soap

Then, add your Borax and Washing Soda

Next, mix your soap and powdered ingredients well

After everything is well mixed, put it in a container-- and you're done!! (You only need one tablespoon of this stuff per load, but I wrote down two for my mom because of the small size of the spoon).

Now, all you need to do is put one tablespoon of this stuff per laundry load. You should probably use warm or hot water when you're washing your clothes so that the soap can melt-- but I don't know if that is necessary. Anyways, it's front loader/HE friendly because it doesn't "sud" up like other laundry detergents.

UPDATE: replace the bar of finely grated soap with an in-scent booster for half the work!! It's not as cost effective, but when you don't have the time to grate a bar of soap, buy this instead and just throw all of it in the mix! Here are some in-scent boosters I've used and work really well:

"Gain Fireworks Sweet Sizzle In-Wash Booster"

"Downy Unstoppables Lush In-Wash Scent Booster"

Stairway to Heaven

Not really a crafting project, but I wanted to share my performance of: "Stairway to Heaven". Enjoy! 

Ornament Wreath

Sorry for not posting sooner! I'm busy with finals and other drama that has prevented me from having any free time these days! I started this ornament wreath forever ago, but I put it aside to do homework assignments. However, I just finished it, and wanted to share my creation!

What you'll need:

• Foam wreath
• Ribbon
• Enough ornaments to cover your foam wreath (I think I used 5-6 tubes of ornaments from Walmart for $3.50 each)

First, gather your materials

I had to paint the styrofoam wreath with white acrylic paint, because Michael's only had forrest green ones...yuck...(good for floral arraignments but UGLY).

Next, I cut my ribbon about how long I wanted my wreath to hang and then hot glued the ends of the ribbon onto the back of the wreath.

The ornaments from Walmart all had these little silver bits on the end which I didn't want. So I just removed them by popping them off and throwing them away.

Once the silver bits were popped off, I was able to stick the ornaments into the wreath by pressing them into the foam. After I pressed each ornament into the wreath, I pulled them back out and slathered some hot glue on them so they would stay in place. Then I glued each ornament onto the wreath.

Here it is about halfway done. Make sure to have fun with it! The ornaments dont have to be symmetrical at all-- I think all of the fun is having all over the place and a little crazy!

Crunch Time

Sorry I haven't posted in ages! I'm so stressed out with school-- it seems there are never enough hours in the day. I found this idea online and I'm OBSESSED with it. When I have my own home I'm definitely doing this in the bathroom.

There must be some sort of laquer on the floor to keep the surface even...

I love the copper color, and I imagine this is cheaper than getting copper floors being put in your house!