(So Easy) Gumbo!

So I've had a little more time to cook since I've been on break from school, so today I decided to make gumbo for supper. I had a recipe for using my slow cooker, but I didn't want it to take all day.  So I adjusted the recipe a little bit.  Then as I was tasting it as it was cooking I started thinking that it was missing something so I started looking online for other recipes.  I found one that called for the juice of one half of a lemon and since I had one in the fridge thought I'd try it.  BINGO! That was the missing ingredient!  The lemon juice cut out some of the "fatty" taste of the rue.  So here is the recipe that I put together using a few different ones and some stuff out of our pantry.

The ingredients:
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup oil (I used vegetable but any would work)
3 cups of hot water
1 chicken bouillon cube
A mix of gumbo vegetables (I had a bag a frozen gumbo mix: okra, celery, corn, red and green peppers)
Any extra vegetables you want
1/2 of a lemon's juice
2 pre-cooked chicken breast
salt
pepper
3 garlic cloves or powder
Cajun seasoning
cayenne peeper

Directions:
1. Stir flour and oil together on high for 5 min.  Reduce heat and continue to stir for 5-10 minutes.  Meanwhile add the bullion cube to 3 cups of hot water, let it dissolve and add to roux mixture after 10-15 min.
2.  Add remaining ingredients and season to taste.  My husband and I like it hot, so we added lots of seasoning.
3.  Serve over cooked rice (I used brown).

The results:
Pretty good.  I love the lemon juice in it.  In fact I might add a whole lemon's juice to the mix and see how that ends up.  My husband also liked it and I liked how easy it was.  The roux was the only thing that took up time. 

Here's what it looks like finished.  Not the most beautiful dish in the world but it tastes GOOD!

Christmas Tags

So I can't just do things simply and buy name tags for Christmas gifts. It's just too generic! :) So here are some of my home-made name tags:



This one is for our neice Autumn (it's actually her birthday gift) and has Autumn spelled out in hot glue with sequence stuck on.



For my mother in-law, just two peices of paper and hot glue-gunned sequences.



My father-in law, using paper squares and stick-on letters



Another view



For our nephew, 2 peices of paper and a glitter glue border



My brother, round piece of paper and stick-on letters



For my mom (from my dad...decorated by me) paper snowman with the scarf made of extra coordinating wrapping paper, and buttons that spell out Lisa



Closer view



Another one for my mom (again from my dad)



For our other nephew, using hot glue and sequence



My brother-in-law's (paper squares and stick-on letters)




And a few pictures of our FIRST tree!



All lit up!



Presents



And more presents

The Start of Something New

We'll see how this goes. I think I'll be posting pictures and recipes or ideas and designs of things I want to make or have made. Since I don't have much elso to say, I'll end it, short and sweet, with this from Emily Dickinson:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.


Could you imagine the change in the world if everyone lived by her words??