A Little of This, A Little of That

I have had all these thoughts running through my head all week of things I wanted to talk about and I just haven't been able to sit down and collect my thoughts. But, tonight I will just start and see where it takes me.

First, do you know April is National Grilled Cheese month? Ah, yeah it is! Grilled cheese is always something I've enjoyed changing up a bit, whether with just different cheeses, throwing in some bacon and tomato or whatever. But I decided since it's actually a designated month for it, I'm going to get creative. And by creative, I'm going to say in my house because I'm sure somewhere it's already been done but I'm going to do it here. One of my favorite things to eat is a good cheeseburger. I love a loaded cheeseburger and cheeseburger soup - so why not do a cheeseburger grilled cheese? And what goes better with a cheeseburger than fries?

I started out by cutting my fries (with my cutter) and soaking them in cold water for about 10 minutes. Then I drained the fries and blotted with a paper towel.

 Next, put them in a Ziploc bag with a little bit of oil and french fry seasoning and shake those babies good!

 Then spread them out on a cookie sheet, and I line it with the non-stick aluminum foil. I throw them in the oven on convection at 350 to speed up the process because I don't really like waiting too long! ;)

 About every 10-12 minutes, I flip them around.

Then, I get my beef and add Weber Gourmet burger spice and Patrick Cudahy fully cooked bacon pieces. I buy several of those at a time because we use them like crazy - in everything (well, almost)! Take off your rings and mix it up good! Then I made the patties into rectangular shape to fit my bread.

Now, if it wasn't 40 degrees, rainy and feeling like it's 10 degrees out, I'd be outside grilling these. But because that wasn't an option today, I just cooked them in a pan on the stove. I set them aside, covered to keep them warm until I get my sandwich ready to grill. I then got out my bread, pickles, jalapenos and cheese. I wasn't quite sure what to do with my ketchup and mayo, so I just put a thin layer of mayo on the inside pieces of my bread and put the ketchup on after the sandwich was done, just by lifting the bread. So, I buttered my bread pieces, laid down my cheese & pickles, put my burger on there, then jalapenos, another piece of cheese and my top buttered bread. I would've liked to have had tomato too, but I didn't have any. At this point I switch my fries to broil just to get them crisped up a little. So as I'm grilling my sammy, I'm also flipping my fries around. Yes, I'm talented like that. LOL

When it's all done, it looks like this:

Yummy, eh? Melted Gouda cheese, bacon, jalapenos, pickles... and fries

 

Throw some cottage cheese on the plate and you're all set!

What's your favorite grilled cheese combo? Are you going to concoct something really yummy for National Grilled Cheese month?

 

For dessert, I had some chocolate cupcake bites that were unfrosted I've had in the frig until I decided what I was going to frost them with. Scanning the kitchen, I saw bananas and decided to make banana buttercream frosting. My usual buttercream frosting recipe, but threw in a ripe banana. 

 

We like eating the bites because they're so easy to pop in your mouth!

OK, so another thing I had on my mind was, I had previously said I ordered some custom fabric labels from Spoonflower to attach to items I make. I received the labels and they are so neat! Only problem was, when I placed the order I had the labels match the previous theme of my blog which was owls. They are still cute, and I will still use the labels but I think I might redesign some others. 

 

 

And while I had heard others say custom labels were expensive, I thought they were very reasonable. I bought a fat quarter size for just under $10 and shipping was only $1. So I have 144 total labels which only makes them 8 cents each. When you think of a fat quarter being $10, then yes, that's expensive but you have to break down what you're getting on that fat quarter!

So if you find yourself in need of some cool fabric labels that you can design yourself (it's super easy, I used the regular address labels template in Publisher and saved it as a JPG file and you upload that to their site) I would highly recommend going with Spoonflower. I did re-order some new ones today (and I used a coupon code ETSYPARTY12 and got 10% off, don't know how long that lasts.) So try it- you'll be glad you did.

UPDATE: My new labels :)

My first label went on a rag quilt I made that I am donating to a friends school's Spring Fling class basket theme of handcrafted baby items to be auctioned off. It was the first rag quilt I made and I had found a jelly roll that was on clearance at Jo-Anns so I decided that would be a good opportunity to try making one. So I never had any specific baby in mind (I certainly don't have any!) or any recipient, I was just seeing if I could make one. I did. It was easy. And I had fun! And I used this tutorial from Sweetwater to do it.

my cute label!

I love the faux chenille look the "rag" edges give

one side is the "rag" side and the other is nice and flat

a very cute blanket, just didn't have anyone to give it to until now!

So off my quilt will go to a little someone who will love it forever. Or so I'm going to tell myself. :)