Turkey Quinoa Chili

Turkey Quinoa Chili

I recommend this recipe for crock pots or low cooking on the stove but you can rush it in about 45min/1 hour if needed.

Also, I don't really have a chili recipe, I just add relatively the same ingredients each time. So all measurements are "good guesses"

Also, this recipe is beanless, but only because I ran out of beans! So add them if you like them.

Ingredients :
1 package of ground turkey (16 oz)
1 28 or 29 oz can of tomato puree
6 oz tomato paste
2-3 cups of beef stock (or chicken or veggie)
1 cup quinoa
1 very finely diced carrot (my need to sneak veggies into dinner - omit for picky eaters)
1/2 white onion- chopped
approx 3 tbs chili powder
approx 1 tsp cumin
approx 1 tsp garlic powder (or add fresh minced garlic when browning the meat)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• in your big pot brown the turkey and chopped onion. When the turkey has browned drain the fat
• add you tomato paste and blend into turkey meat
• when the tomato paste smells 'woken up' and smells ,well, tomatoier add the tomato puree
• after turkey and tomato puree are combined add spices
• add quinoa and 1 cup of stock
• in a separate bowl add your corn starch and a small bit of stock or water to make a corn starch slurry. Corn starch should all be dissolved into the liquid
• add corn starch mix
• quinoa takes approx 20 minutes to cook so simmer for at least 20 minutes
• add 1 cup of stock at a time as chili thickens

My family enjoys this with corn bread or biscuits, sour cream and cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!

wedding photos

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my "victorian peacock" wedding. Hunter green, babies breath, vintage, Oh my!

 

My gown :-) Maggie Sottero "Monterey" sorry ladies, it's discontinued. But she makes some similar gown.
I wore my mom's veil to the church. We cut off the daisy chain trim and tea stained it to match my alabaster gown. (see earlier post on how to tea stain a veil)

a corset and ring shot, and my awesome victorian inspired shoes. (I thought the collar arond the booties looked so victotian/vintage with a modern twist)

all my girls wore the same designer, length, and color, but picked their own style bridesmaids dress. Every looked and felt great! (Bill Levkoff dresses in "euro holly" a hunter green color)

My adorable flower girl! She has a babies breath halo/crown and a babies breath and spray rose kissing ball to carry.

The groomsmen had peacock feathers and a denro orchid boutonniere (peacock feather instead of greens) And wore tails! So vintage and handsome!

Rainy wedding day photos. These came out so sweet.

Signs I made. Please pick a seat not a side and in loving memory sign.

Some funny groomsmen pics:

 

Three generations. My maternal grandmother, my mother, and me!

 Here's all those family photos I blogged about. We had the table displayed at cocktail hour and in the back of the reception room.

DIY Mr and Mrs sign with craft store letters, paint, and some eye hooks.

our reception room . Ivory linens, hunter green table runners, black chiavari chairs, white floral arrangements
a close up of the centerpieces. A ball of "party time" babies breath, white spray roses, and peacock feathers in a large hurricane vase with a white dendro orchid in the vase

 

handcuff shot - police wedding photo (for the police officer)

Some tea set shots! (with my family's heirloom tea set)

  

you can't see it but my something borrowed was a family ring from my mother-in-law, attached to my bouquet)

 

 

This ring was my something old (above) - my great-great-grandmother's engagement ring!

 Something blue was my ring

Something new was my dress/shoes

From MISS to MRS! Changing my last name

Hello there! So much has happened since my last blog post!

1. We bought a house!!!
2. We got married!!!
3. We got a dog!!!
4. Aren't 1-3 enough?! lol

More on all of that later though. For now: here is my journey through changing my name. Which IS GREAAAT because right now I sigh everything Michelle DiFalco-Velthuizen. Yeah. It's a blast...

First things first!

STEP 1 Marriage License
Get a certified copy of your marriage license from your town clerk's office. There may be a small fee ($20ish) The certified copy has a raised seal on it.

STEP 2 Social Security Card
Bring your marriage license and this form to your local social security office. (just print page #5) Along with your valid drivers license (I brought my passport too, just in case)

GO THERE IN PERSON. Find your local office here. Do not mail the forms as you will get them back. They need to see your actual driver's license (not a photocopy that I tried to send) And unless you feel comfortable mailing your license, in person it is!

I have to say I got there at opening time and it took about 20 minutes including a 10 minute wait. They check your stuff and give it all right back. They mail your new card to you in about 2 weeks. Easy as pie! FYI it is a new card with your new name but you keep your original S.S. number (thank goodness!)

Here is a link for more details: click here

STEP 3 New License 
The dreaded DMV. I am still in this process as I moved and changed my name... so I have postponed doing this task. But this is what you need to do:

Bring you current license or ID card, a change of name request form, and your marriage license with you. And a check because it costs $30. I got lucky and my license expires this year so I think I only have to pay the $75 renewal and not the $30 on top of that... but I will let you all know.

*Update: I only had to pay $70 to renew my license! I changed my name and address and renewed it in only about 30 minutes! If you bring your passport or birth certificate you can get a verified license for (i believe) $30 more. Apparently in the next few years you will need either a verified license or a passport to fly EVEN domestically. So if i had know I would have brought my passport with me and bit the bullet.

I was in and out in 30 minutes. I went at 11:30 and beat the lunch rush!!! :-) Easy and pain free - who would have thought?!

STEP 4 Passport
First you will need a new photo. GO TO AAA. It only costs $12 (even if you are NOT a member) and they will retake it a few times if the first try comes out horribly! And they are so so nice there!

The new passport: It will cost $110 to change your passport (because you are essentially renewing it) UNLESS you got year passport within one year of changing your name. Then it is free. If you didn't have one before this, it might be a little more. You need to fill out a DS-82 and provide a certified copy of your marriage license, a photo, your most recent passport, and a check.  It takes about 4-6 weeks to get your new passport. Call your town clerk's office to see how/where to submit your passport stuff or look it up here.

To fill out your DS-82 try this link  
 
STEP 5 The rest of your life... lol
Change everything else! lol.

Suggestions:
Bank Accounts (you have to go in for that one- bring your ID, Marriage License
                        and new Social Security Card *note: I only needed my marriage license
                        for my bank)
Credit Cards (i just called mine and verified myself, and they sent me new ones)
Pay role at work
Maybe a new email address (mine had my maiden name in it)
Life insurance policies (update your name and the beneficiary)
Investments


Best of luck to anyone changing their name and congratulations on getting married!

bridesmaids hair clips

So I made these cute peacock hair clips for my bridesmaids to wear. Even though some of them aren't crazy about the idea... lol... I told them they have to wear them for the ceremony and pictures. ;-)

Family Photo Display: a cocktail hour surprise

I decided since the wedding is 'Victorian peacock" themed, I wanted a cool vintage inspired way of celebrating my family and my fiancé's family. So I came up with the idea of framing all of our parent's and grandparent's wedding photos to be displayed at the cocktail hour. I also decided to include a picture of Chris and a picture of myself in our 'first wedding' as flower girl and ring bearer, and an engagement photo of Chris and I in the middle. I also had my friend (who is fantastic with photoshop) scan the images and type who is who on the image. Ex: The bride's maternal grandparents, etc

I stuck with the vintage feel for my frames by mixing and matching frames sizes and metallic colors; silver, copper, gold. I feel like it kept the vintage feel and looks a lot more interesting than fifteen of the same frame.

I got really lucky when I went shopping because 90% of the framed were under $5 at Christmas Tree Shop! (don't you just love a bargain? lol) And I got the remaining few from Michael's craft store and Home Goods.

Here is a picture of the pictures in frames: (I ran out of frames at first, but ran out that night to buy more to finish my project)

Tea Staining a Veil

I know, I know! I wanted to wear a birdcage veil or nothing... But when the ladies at the bridal store put a cathedral length veil on just to see, I had a moment. A suck-up-your-tears-or-lose-it moment. So I decided to cut the daisy chain off my mom's veil and tea stain it from stark white to ivory, to match my alabaster dress.  So if it matches my dress, I will wear my mom's veil at the church then change into a birdcage veil for the reception; best of both worlds.

(side note: my future mother in law so nicely offered to buy my the bridal store veil, but I wanted to give my mom's a try first, because I am actually incredibly sentimental)

So here is how I did it:

• I filled the bathtub with hot-hot-hot! water and about 10 teabags. (helpful hint: I took the papery end off the tea bags so it didn't pill up the tub water)
• I filled the tub about 3 inches with water, and let the tea bags steep for a few minutes to get the water nice and dark.
• I used a wooded spoon to stir my piping hot tub tea.
• After the tea bags seemed to be done steeping I added the veil in the tub using the spoon to make sure all parts were submerged.
• I let the veil soak about 20 minutes**, and voila! mom's white veil became ivory.
• If it still isn't dark enough just do it again!
• Clean the tub right away, you want to stain the veil and not the tub!

**make sure to check the color of the veil every 5 minutes or so. Scrunch up a bunch to really see if the color has changes as it is hard to tell with a single layer of  tulle

Here is a pick of the veil being stained in the tub

I hope my mom's veil is long enough for my dress, but I will keep you all posted.

Wedding flowers - babys breath roses and orchids, oh my!

Well here is a MUCH needed update about the wedding which is 201 days away! It is getting so close!

The theme is victorian peacock. Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me. So while searching pinterest high and low to find pics of my dream wedding, i found myself drawn o baby's breath heavy floral. It looks like lace, and lends a vintage air, but having worked for a florist since high school i needed other flowers too. So I picked baby's breath, roses, and orchids.

For  the centerpieces we are renting tall hurricane vases and we are putting an orchis in the vase and then a centerpiece of 'party time' baby's breath (which is a bigger version of baby's breath) with white spray roses in it. This way our guests can take the baby's breath and spray rose centerpiece off the top of the vase and take it home. :-)

So if these two had a baby:  and there were peacock feathers sticking out a little