Flashback Friday: Southwestern Macaroni Salad

Happy Flashback friday everybody, and apparently Fourth Of July, too! Rewind back with us and enjoy this old post with a delicious recipe!!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

 Best wishes for a safe and fun holiday full of memories to you all from Crafty Honey Badgers! 

Isn't this holiday the greatest? Well every holiday is great in its own way, but independence day is different! You feel a pride to be an American and thankful for all the brave men and woman who have fought to keep it AMERICA! Plus, a hot summer day on the lake ended with some fireworks is pretty hard to beat!

Kids playing with anticipation for the firecrackers when night fall covers. Family gathering and catching up around a BBQ. People wearing red, white and blue with lots of cheer. Parades bringing communities together to celebrate our freedom. This holiday brings us all as one together to be proud of this great country we live in! For one day we all can agree on one thing and thats what a beautiful country we live in and how we are blessed in so many ways. Holidays seem to have that effect on people and thats what I love about them. Opinions separate us quite often but holidays bring a spirit from deep down in us that makes us look one another eye to eye. As a country we can wave our flags and rejoice in cheer for old glory. Our beautiful country the United States Of America.

So I say it again, we wish you all a cheerful, sunny fourth of July. May the fireworks shoot high and light up the sky above you and fill you with cheer! Whether your on the mountain staring at the stars, or down on the streets of your hometown celebrating with your community we wish you a blessed day!

Anyways what's a holiday without a great recipe? Heres a last minute save for a delicious side dish for any of you who may be running behind today! Fourth of July or not, This recipe is a great all american side dish with a twist that will please any hungry appetite! 

Grab a spoon and crack your screen, you know you wanna!

Southwestern Macaroni Salad

1 Pound macaroni or ditalini pasta (Pictured is ditalini)

5 large pieces of roasted red peppers. (I use jar kind from condiment isle)

4 Green onions

1/2 Cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

2 Teaspoons sugar

1 Teaspoon chili powder

1/4 Teaspoon salt

LOTS of black pepper

Boil your pasta on medium high heat until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water until pasta has cooled off. Pour pasta in large salad bowl.  Chop your peppers and onions and stir into pasta. Whisk your milk, mayo and spices together and pour over pasta mixture. Stir until everything has combined and that heavenly dressing has touched EVERY piece of pasta!

Serve with your favorite summertime meals and enjoy! Or just eat a bowlful by itself.. Been there, done that! 

Have a GREAT fourth of July everybody!

Click Here To Print!

Southwestern Macaroni Salad

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

 Best wishes for a safe and fun holiday full of memories to you all from Crafty Honey Badgers! 

Isn't this holiday the greatest? Well every holiday is great in its own way, but independence day is different! You feel a pride to be an American and thankful for all the brave men and woman who have fought to keep it AMERICA! Plus, a hot summer day on the lake ended with some fireworks is pretty hard to beat!

Kids playing with anticipation for the firecrackers when night fall covers. Family gathering and catching up around a BBQ. People wearing red, white and blue with lots of cheer. Parades bringing communities together to celebrate our freedom. This holiday brings us all as one together to be proud of this great country we live in! For one day we all can agree on one thing and thats what a beautiful country we live in and how we are blessed in so many ways. Holidays seem to have that effect on people and thats what I love about them. Opinions separate us quite often but holidays bring a spirit from deep down in us that makes us look one another eye to eye. As a country we can wave our flags and rejoice in cheer for old glory. Our beautiful country the United States Of America.

So I say it again, we wish you all a cheerful, sunny fourth of July. May the fireworks shoot high and light up the sky above you and fill you with cheer! Whether your on the mountain staring at the stars, or down on the streets of your hometown celebrating with your community we wish you a blessed day!

Anyways what's a holiday without a great recipe? Heres a last minute save for a delicious side dish for any of you who may be running behind today! Fourth of July or not, This recipe is a great all american side dish with a twist that will please any hungry appetite! 

Grab a spoon and crack your screen. You know you wanna!

Southwestern Macaroni Salad

1 Pound macaroni or ditalini pasta (Pictured is ditalini)

5 large pieces of roasted red peppers. (I use jar kind from condiment isle)

4 Green onions

1/2 Cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

2 Teaspoons sugar

1 Teaspoon chili powder

1/4 Teaspoon salt

LOTS of black pepper

Boil your pasta on medium high heat until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water until pasta has cooled off. Pour pasta in large salad bowl.  Chop your peppers and onions and stir into pasta. Whisk your milk, mayo and spices together and pour over pasta mixture. Stir until everything has combined and that heavenly dressing has touched EVERY piece of pasta!

Serve with your favorite summertime meals and enjoy! Or just eat a bowlful by itself.. Been there, done that! 

Have a GREAT fourth of July everybody!

Click Here To Print Recipe!

Fresh Salsa & Roasted Corn Guacamole!

Ahhh the week of independence day! Preparations for celebrations! BBQ's, picnics, pool parties or even camping out with family & friends enjoying the outdoors. What do all these celebrations have in common? FOOD! Of course other things such as laugh's memories and so on... but you gotta eat, too! We snack, we eat, we pig out on things we probably shouldn't but hey! Its a holiday! 

Grab a cold one and a handful of corn chips and indulge in these two festive and above all delicious dips!!

Crisp, spicy, and delicious! 

Fresh Salsa

8 Roma Tomatoes

1 Bundle cilantro

2 Jalapeños

1/2 Purple onion

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 Teaspoon cumin

1/2 Teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 Teaspoon chili powder

1/4 Teaspoon sea salt

1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne pepper

The secret to this salsa is my best friend in the kitchen. My Cuisinart food processor . This thing makes salsa a magical experience. Plus its fast! Insta salsa! Who doesn't want that? Okay Mia, get to how we do this already!

Cut you tomatoes into 4 wedges and drop into processor. Rough chop your onion and cilantro and jalapeños since the processor will do the rest to chop it down. Add all your spices and lemon juice. Pulse with processor until it takes on Salsa consistency.

Always, I repeat ALWAYS  test with a chip before calling it done. See if theres any flavors you want more of in there. Once happy with what you got let the dipping begin!!

Click here to print this recipe!

WARNING, Do not grab chip and try to dip it in screen. 

Roasted Corn Guacamole 

6 Ripe Avocados Pitted and scooped out of skin

1 Bundle Cilantro

1/2 Cup finely chopped purple onion

2 Ears corn roasted and cut off cob OR 1 can or whole kernel corn

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 Teaspoon cumin

1/2 Teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 Teaspoon chili powder

1/4 Teaspoon sea salt

1/4 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

If you roasted a couple ears of corn just remove kernels and add to all ingredients. If your using canned corn which is perfectly fine. Its how I do it a lot of the time. Drain and rinse your canned corn and fry in pan with a little butter until it takes on golden brown look. Let cool for a few minutes and add to all your ingredients 

Mash all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl until chunky/smooth consistency you desire. Again, ALWAYS chip test before putting away all the spices! We all have different pallets of what we want in out guacamole. I usually kick up the spice every time! Just remember the longer the sit the more flavor comes out.

*Tips* Didn't finish all the guacamole? No problem for storing without worries of finding a brown batch of guacamole the next day! Put leftover Guacamole in container you plan on storing in. With a spoon smooth out the top of it in a flat surface. Pour a couple tablespoons of lemon juice over entire top of guacamole. With saran wrap firmly place against guacamole. Make sure its air tight and pressed up against guacamole with lemon juice and TA DA... green guacamole tomorrow!

Click here to print this recipe!

So kick back with a cold one and enjoy these two yummy recipes perfect for your holiday celebrations!

Girls Fourth of July outfit

Last year I really really wanted to be on top of things and get this post done before the Fourth.  Then we took off on a road trip to North Dakota to find us a house to live in.  I posted it anyways after the holiday (on my old blog) and I thought for sure this year I would post it here way before hand.  But July is here already.  Still I'm glad it's not after the holiday. So I'm still not a complete slacker right?

I sewed these but I think you could use my best friend hot glue too.  I'm just not sure how that would hold up in the wash.

 

 I made the skirts using this tutorial.  (Links to my old blog Redneck Soccer Mom.)

The shirts where a LOT faster to make. 

I cute a rectangle of fabric 3.5'' by 2.5'' and folded the edges under.  Next, I pinned it on the shirt and sewed around the rectangle as close to the edge as possible.

 I cut red rick rack, 2 shorter pieces and 3 longer pieces per shirt. I burned the ends of each piece so it wouldn't ravel.  Then I sprayed them with spray adhesive.  Which, if anyone knows how to get spray adhesive off a rotary cutting mat, then I would really love to know.  Cause I have washed it several times and it is still sticky...still sticky a year later.

After I sprayed them I stuck them all on the shirts and then sewed a single line down each piece.

That's it! Your done!

Flag dessert

I know, I know, these are ridiculously popular but I couldn't help myself, I had to make one too.  

I used cheesecake but you could use just about any dessert you wanted.  Pudding, angle food cake. Get crazy with it. Flag food is so much more fun.

I think it looks awesome both with and without the whipped cream, my kids sure did appreciate the whipped cream though!

Fourth of July shot gun shell wreath

Anyone besides me LOVE to decorate for the Fourth of July? It's my second favorite holiday to decorate for, after Christmas, of course. I normally make huge plans to decorate but, since Harlee's birthday is only a few day afterwards, I end up scaling back in order to focus on birthday awesomeness.

This shot shell Fourth of July wreath is super easy to make, but it will take you an hour or two, so put on a good movie or Duck Dynasty reruns and bust out that hot glue gun.

All you need is:
shot gun shells (shoot them first!), in this case red, white, and blue
hot glue gun and glue sticks
straw wreath form

Okay maybe you need clay pigeons too. You'll need quite a pile of shells!

Photo courtesy of Snow Capped Dreams photography, AKA Crafty Honey Badger Mia.  She took the picture because she is awesome (obviously) and the wreath was a homemade Christmas present, that my husband made for her.  Yes, you read that right, my husband made it for her, isn't he the best? I helped him shoot all those shot shells though, and taught him to be a hot glue gunning machine.

Doesn't the smell of hot glue just improve your mood or is it just me?  Just knowing that something amazing is about to be born gets me excited to see the result!