A Surprising Recipe: "Ropa Vieja"

"Ropa Vieja" is delicious dish, very typical in the Canary Islands. I remember how my mum cooked this for me when I was a child, it was so yummy!

"Ropa Vieja" means "old clothes" in Spanish and it´s believed it was originated in the Canaries. This place was in the past a territory where ships would stop before the long run to or after the long trip home from the Americas. As a result, immigrants from the Canaries supposedly brought the dish with them to the Caribbean.

If you want to try it, here is the typical recipe:

Ingredients:

1.1 pounds of chickpeas (1/2 kg.)
1.1 pounds of beef meat (1/2kg.)
1.1 pounds of chicken meat (1/2 kg.)
2.2 pounds of potatoes (1 kg.)
3 garlic cloves
1 red or green pepper
1 onion
1 tomato
1 small cup of white wine
pepper, salt, thyme, laurel and olive oil

Directions:

The previous night, leave the chickpeas in water so they will be tender next day.
In a saucepan, mix the meat, the chickpeas, salt and water.
When they are stewed, mince the meat. After that, fry the chickpeas and the meat until they are crunchy.




In another saucepan, use some oilve oil and fry the onion, the pepper, the tomato and the garlic cloves (everything previously minced). Add pepper, salt and thyme.

Also, add the meat and the chickpeas and cook ten minutes more.

Finally, chop the potatoes and fry them. When they are ready, add them to the rest and serve!

I hope you liked the recipe and thanks for reading!

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Very soon I´ll be organizing a new giveaway, stay tuned!

My Designs Have Been Featured!

Recently, I´ve been featured in some different sites. The first one you can see is the lovely blog of the winner of my last giveaway, Kerrin (a.k.a. Sigmosaics). You can visit her wonderful shop HERE and her fantastic blog HERE. Thank you Kerrin!

My Green Petal Necklace has been featured on Shesdaily.com ! Shesdaily is "The insider's guide to today's women online".

I invite you to visit this fantastic site, with great articles: Shesdaily.com Thank you Mara!

And last, but not least, the amazing Shannon Nelson wrote THIS fantastic article about the digns she bought from me. Thank you Shannon!

I feel very honored of being featured on these lovely sites! Thank you!

My Latest Designs

Here I share with you some of the designs I´ve been working on lately. These two necklaces belong to the "Romantic Collection", which is inspired on spring elements.
The yellow one is the "Sun Leaf Necklace".

This one is the "Green Petal Necklace" and both are made with brass chain, Murano crystal and Czech crystal.

This one is the "Lily Pendant" and it´s made with Swarovski crystals in green. I´m also working on some earrings for this design (it´s a custom order).

This original ring is made with Swarovski crystal and golden plated wire, and it´s called "Purple Tulips" .

These tiny and elegant earrings are made with Swarovski crystal and sterling silver and their name is "Lil White".

This long necklace is called "Broadway Necklace" and it was made with Swarovski crystal and sterling silver.

And last, but not least, these earrings: the "Golden Butterfly" earrings are made with Swarovski crystal and sterling silver.

I´m working in some other designs that I will be publishing this week.

Thanks for reading!

Free Shipping! Only This Weekend!

Special offer available in my Etsy shop, only this weekend: FREE SHIPPING!

All the items from my shop.

Everywhere.





And to help you to start the weekend with a smile, here is a funny video of a kitty. I hope you like it!



Thanks for reading!

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

When I first saw this wonderful picture, I thought "yummy!" and gave me the idea of making homemade ice cream.

This picture belongs to the amazing artist known as PetitPlat. Her work is stunning and very detailed, everything in her shop looks almost real!

If you want to know more about her and her work, take a look at her Etsy shop: http://www.petitplat.etsy.com/ and also her blog:
http://petitplatbysk.blogspot.com/




And here is a recipe of Strawberry Ice Cream, found HERE:

"Ingredients:

2 cups (480 ml) half-and-half
5 large egg yolks
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup strawberry puree (sauce)

Directions:


In a small saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the half-and-half and the vanilla bean to the scalding point (the milk begins to foam up). Remove from heat, take out the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds from the bean with the back of a knife, and mix the seeds back into the half-and-half.

Meanwhile in a stainless steel bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy (about two minutes). Gradually pour the scalding half-and-half into the whipped egg yolk mixture, making sure you keep whisking constantly so the eggs don't curdle.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook until the custard thickens enough that it coats the back of a spoon (170 degrees F) (77 degrees C).

Immediately remove the custard from the heat and continue to stir the custard for a few minutes so it does not overcook. At this point stir in the vanilla extract. Stir in the strawberry puree. Cover and let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate the custard until it is completely cold (several hours but preferably overnight).

Transfer the cold custard to the chilled container of your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once made, transfer the ice cream to a chilled container and store in the freezer. If the ice cream becomes too hard place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving so it can soften."



Thanks for reading!

My Mini Moo Cards Arrived!

Yay! Today my mini moo cards finally arrived and I´m very happy with them!






So I took some photos of my package and the lovely box they sent. They are really cool.




Here you can see the 100 cards I received (well, you are seeing less, I have already used some of them...) and the lovely mini moo card from them.

I think they did a great job and I´m totally amazed with the result and the quality of the paper.

Thanks for reading!

My Giveaway: And The Winner is...

Sigmosaics





Congratulations!

I have used random.org to decide the winner, as you can see in the video and pictures (sorry for the quality of the video).

Soon there will be another giveaway, stay tuned!

Thank you very much everyone for participating!!

Honest Weblog

My wonderful blogger friend from Timmy and Friends has chosen me for the "Honest Weblog Prize". Thank you so much!

So here we go:

"When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog”. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

Ten honest things about me:



1- I love singing...too much.



2-I love listening to the purr of the cats.



3-I hate eating eggs in the morning.



4-I like the smell of the books when they are new.



5-I wear jeans most of the time, because the are comfy but I have a huge collection of skirts that I rarely use.



6-I always carry a whole make up set in my purse. I call it the "emergency kit" (lol).



7-I have a strange passion for horror movies (specially zombie movies).



8-I´m a coffee addict! I can drink a lot of coffee in a day (yes, I know it´s not healthy lol).



9-I go to the beach in the Summer and also in the Winter, because the weather is very warm almost all the year where I live.



10-Winter is my favorite season.





And I give this award to:



-A Thyme To Bee Conforted


-Almay Alday Designs


-Beluda Designs

- KIZZ

-Meekiyu´s Dream


-moxylyn


-Swiedebie


Thanks for reading!

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Come and enter my Giveaway, you can win a lovely pendant. More info HERE. Tomorrow is the last day!

Featured!

I haven´t had the chance to write something in my blog in the last few days and today I would like to thank the wonderful people who have featured my work lately.

First, I would like to thank marcieadary for writing a wonderful post about my rings. I encourage you to visit her lovely blog HERE and her beautiful shop HERE.

Secondly, my giveaway has been featured on Shesdaily.com! Shesdaily is "The insider's guide to today's women online: Fashion, Beauty, Shopping, Style, Gifts, and Cooking and Dining and Travel." and I feel very honored to be chosen. Thank you!

You can visit Shesdaily HERE.

Thanks for reading!

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Come and enter my Giveaway, you can win a lovely pendant. More info HERE.