Venison!

YES it is true! I eat venison. I love it! Most people I have talked to do not enjoy it. I personally think it is the way it was probably cooked that made them not like it. We eat it for everything! Everything you cook beef with, we use venison. I think I'll post venison recipes to help out those needing good ideas. Speaking of deer, Craig got a doe yesterday morning :) We seriously do not have to by any beef for an entire year. Actually we are still finishing up the venison we got last years!

So today's recipe is for venison steak fingers. SORRY I don't really measure anything out when I cook, but hopefully I can give enough information to help you figure it out.

Roll Call:

Venison tenderized Eye of Round Steak

Flour

Italian Seasoning

Season Salt

Bread Crumbs

2 eggs (I knew the amount for that haha)

Oil

Half and Half

So it might sound a little crazy using half and half but that was all that I had in the fridge and it worked AMAZING! I put the steaks in a bowl and cover them completely with half and half and stuck it in the fridge for about an hour. It took ALL of the gamey taste out. COMPLETELY. 

Once they are done marinating I got a 1 gallon zip lock bag. I filled it up with roughly 2-3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, added Italian seasoning and season salt. I used a spoon and mixed it around in the flour. With venison you want to add a little more seasoning compared to what you would do for beef or chicken. I look at the flour and determine if I think I have added enough. You want to be able to see the seasoning in the flour.

Heat the oil about 1inch high in the pan on medium/high. So on a 1-10 stove do about a 7/8.

 

 

 

 

I like the reflection :)

In a bowl put 2 eggs in it and stir it around.

Now here comes the dirty and messy part. I like to use shears but you can use a knife, cut the steak into strips or chunks. Make sure they are about the same size so they will cook properly. After cutting them up drop them into the zip lock bag of flour.

Zip lock the bag shut. NOW make sure its shut again. :) SHAKE IT. (the bag, not your booty. well I guess you can do both if you want to.) Open the back and see if the steaks have a good coating of flour on them. What I like to do is while the steak is still in the bag put them to one corner. Take out 1 piece out and dunk it in the egg bowl. Then put that piece back in the back but the opposite corner. Continue to do that until all steaks have been put into the eggs and back into the flour.

It gets messy!!

Close the zip lock bag again. Shake it! Open the bag and place the steaks in the hot oil. BE CAREFUL! Cook them on one side for a few minutes. You will be able to see the bottoms turning a golden brown.

While that was cooking I made a really easy and great tasting sauce to dip the steaks in. All it is, is brown sugar and mustard mixed together. Do equal parts. It tastes like honey mustard.

Flip the steaks and cook on the other side for another few minutes.

NOW ITS TIME TO EAT!!

Hope that was easy enough to understand. ENJOY!!

Baked Spaghetti-

I get tired of just plain spaghetti. It's just boooooring. This one is creamy, saucey, meaty, and scrumptious. 

12 oz spaghetti

1 (28 ounce) jars prepared spaghetti sauce
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce.  Set aside.

Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet.  Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl.  Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic (I used garlic salt instead).  Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.

Lightly grease a 9x13" pan.  Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.  Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3- Now sprinkle the cheese on! (Cheese makes everything wonderful)

 Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

LETS EAT!

You can cut the spaghetti out into a neat square or just dig in like I did. Hey it's spaghetti! Its suppose to be messy.

Bring It on WORLD

MAN oh MAN! It sure has been a hectic week. School, meetings, and not sleeping very well makes for a very long, draining week. The semester is almost over though. Just 2 more weeks.  Then I'll be student teaching!

I have 2 projects going on right now. The first one is Beanies for Babies. Each year around Christmas time I try to do something to give back. This year I have created beanies for newborn babies at our local hospital. People were able to donate money, yarn, and/or beanies they have created. Guess how many I have, just dooooo it. 95!!! My mom has created about 20 some and the rest has been yarn/money donations. I have just a few more weeks to create some more before I deliver them. The babies have to be stylish when they come into the world. Thats what I think anyways. Heres the link to the beanies (if you wanted to check them out) https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253595577991930.67493.195714050446750&type=3

My other event is Around the World with Love. HOLY SMOKES. That pretty much sums that up. Never thought I would get the response that I have. It makes me so excited that all these people are willing to help. THANK YOU ALL A TON! The link for that is at the top of this page if you're interested to find out more information. I will also be posting updates on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Granny-In-Style/195714050446750 I can not express how ecstatic this makes me! For one I love to travel and to teach. So why not put them together. HEELLLLLLO. I started just a few days ago and I have almost reach me goal! WOOHOO.

Lastly I have had a few people ask me about how I came up with my name "Granny in Style" Well I am very far from becoming a granny.....age wise. I am a 25 year old and 0 kids...so that just doesn't add up. HAHA. Well I have been crocheting (trying to) for a long time. My mom taught me when I was a youngster, but all I ever did was the single stitch. I started crochet again this summer. At the time I had a ton of classes to take in a very short amount of time. So I was stressed out and needed 'me' time. Not many people my age crochet and I got a lot of slack for doing it (they were always jokingly doing it). I was being called a granny. AND BAM thats how I got the name. I just went along. If you can't beat them...JOIN THEM.

Saw this while riding on the motorcycle in TX. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Get crafty, be creative, and RELAX.

Around the World with Love Blanket

WHOA! I am so excited about this project. So here it goes. My goal is to get a person from each of the 50 states to help with this. Heck I think it would be even more awesome if we got people out of the USA to help! SO spread the word friends!!! Some may be wondering what I will use this for. I am about to graduate college and become an elementary teacher. I think this is a wonderful thing that I could share with the students. How we all have stories, how we are the same/different, and yet we were able to come together and make something beautiful :)

• DUE DATE (to join in on the fun)- February 1st!
• DUE DATE (to have the square to me)- February  26th- 3 months! 

• Each person is to CROCHET/KNIT a 6x6 inch square. This can be a Granny Square or any stitch that you would like, but only 6x6! please! If you want to learn how to do a granny square check out this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBZNWeVmAa0
• I want it to represent something that is important to you in your life. Either by the colors you use, the decorations you attach to it and so on. Be creative and have fun. (Ex: I could do my college colors and then add an applique of the mascot)
•  I would LOVE it if you would take a picture of yourself with the square and I will create a photo album on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Granny-In-Style/195714050446750. So we know who made what.
• Please send an email to nlamort@hotmail.com and I will send you my address for you to send the square to. If you want, leave a note with the square telling me your story about the square. This will be the caption of your photo.In the email please leave what state you are from. I'm compiling a list of locations :)
• Make sure to leave about 1/4 inch around the border so I am able to attach all the squares together. **UPDATE: I have had a few questions about this. What I mean is when decorating your square and you are possibly attaching something other than yarn (appliques, ribbon, etc....) leave some room along the border so I do not ruin your design by sewing into it when I am attaching it to another square. Hope that clarifies some of your questions. Leave a comment below if you need anything else.

Most importantly just have fun! Doesn't have to be complicated.  Everyone has a story. Some good, some bad. Lets get creative and share it. Hope you find this as enjoyable as I do. I am way too excited!! Lets get CRAFTY!
UPDATES WILL BE POSTED HERE: http://grannyinstyle.blogspot.com/p/around-world.html

Lets get Crafty.

Brain Mush! That is how I felt this entire week. I have been spending all week studying for a huge test. This test is part of my teaching certification, so it is a must pass. Oh and this also determines if I am allowed to do my student teaching next semester and if I get to graduate in May. SO ya, needless to say I have been super stressed about it. I will find out my results in about 3 weeks. CROSS YOUR FINGERS, TOES, ARMS, LEGS, EYES and whatever you can cross.
This is what my week looked like

 

Since I have been so busy studying I did not do any crafts the entire week. If you know me, that is HARD to do. I am always coming up with something to make. Last night I got together with my mother in law and a few friends. We had some wine, worked on crafts, and had tons of laughs. I have an amazing mother in law who made a great dinner for all of us. I am soooooo lucky to have her in my life. I enjoy her so much I came back over to her house today to do more crafts together. I'll leave you with a few pictures from last night. 

Have a super Sunday!

Beanie I made for my nephew

Brittani, Sandy, Penny

YUM!