Lettuce Wraps - recipe

Summer is almost here and that means it's time for some easy light recipes! I love wraps, and we're always playing with different combinations of fillings, this one uses pork but we like using ground turkey as well. If you like your lettuce wraps with a spicy kick, add a dash of red pepper flakes. Need more vegetables? Try adding a handful of bean sprouts, shredded carrots, or even cook diced up eggplant along with the mushrooms and onions.  Dinner rolled into a pretty green leaf - yes please!

Ingredients

the Wraps:

leaves of lettuce,  Boston or I like the outer leaves of Iceburg lettuce

1 lbs pork, diced into small pieces  (I buy the pork for fajitas, it's already cut into thin strips) 

1/2 of a yellow onion, diced

1 package mushrooms, washed and diced into small pieces

1 8oz. can of water chestnuts, diced into small pieces

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced 

1 bunch Saifun bean threads 

handful of chopped cilantro 

olive oil

the Sauce:

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbls. lite soy sauce

1 tsp. ginger, minced

1 Tbls rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Directions

1. Start by boiling water in a medium sized pot. Once water is boiling add the Saifun, cover and turn heat off.  Leave the noodles in the hot water until they soften and are clear, about 15-20 minutes. I use Dynasty Saifun noodles, they are found in most grocery stores in the Asian food isle. Once the noodles are ready, drain the water and I cut mine into small pieces, about 1/2 inch long. 

2. add a little olive oil to a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onion. Stir until both are softened. Remove from pan and put into a bowl.

3. using the same frying pan, add a little olive oil and brown the pork, stirring often to break up the pieces until meat is cooked all the way through

4. While the meat is cooking, make the sauce by combining all ingredients. 

5. Let meat cool a bit, then toss with the chestnuts, cooked onions and mushrooms, Saifun noodles, green onions and cilantro. Add the sauce and toss to combine. Wash the lettuce leaves and fill with meat/mushroom mixture, sprinkle on sesame seeds and serve.

enjoy! 

xo ~ Tara

Balboa and the Beach

 With every new place we visit, it offers a chance to discover something new, something inspiring, something pretty and photo worthy. This trip, and this maybe true for other vacations taken prior to, there are 2 things that seem to draw me in: 

1. Gardens   and   2. Architecture 

I've always loved the history of old buildings, the carving details, the angles and at certain parts of the day - how the light creates intricate shadows over the buildings face. We had hoped we were going to be able to see more while visiting, but that heat over there quickly got the best of us and we found we weren't moving all that fast. So, this trip turned out to be more of a strolling along the beach, evenings walking along the harbor with frozen yogurts in hand and incredible views from our hotel room!.

Here's our hotel! We stayed in the tower on the left, all the way up on the 23rd floor. The kids were amazed with the lights in the evening time - wait until I take them to Vegas! Our room overlooked the hills to the left and the harbor and the Coronado bridge on the right. When we arrived the kids were greeted with a s'more kit and wooden sticks, the hotel has fire pits that light up in the evening especially for roasting marshmallows. Needless to say Alaina and Chase both think this hotel is the best! 

We spent some time at Balboa park, but later ditched our plans to go up to the zoo and instead spent the afternoon at the Science Center (which happens to be air conditioned!!). They have a good dinosaur exhibit and even a few Ansel Adam photographs on display.... and it was air conditioned. It's almost embarrassing to say, living in a town that can reach 120 in summer time, but  combine a little humidity with sun & heat and we were done for. The museum was a great break though from the sun and I was impressed with the hands on exhibits. 

I brought my trusty ole Anscoflex along for the trip. Love-love using that old camera, and I forget how fun it is until I get my little light box set up on it and start shooting through the view finder. Even though I look ridiculous taking the photos, sitting here editing them makes it worth it! I love how 'grainy' they are. I don't think I've used this camera all year and it now has quite the collection of dust to work with. :)

We spent our last night in Oceanside right on the harbor. Funny, it's just a 40 min. trip north of where we were, but it was overcast, cool and breezy, perfect for searching the beach for treasures! 

First trip to San Diego, not too shabby!
xo ~ Tara

San Diego, positive thinking and some clothes

I am spending the day packing suitcases! Last summer my power of positive thinking won me a trip for 2 to San Diego, at a pretty hotel and a night time dinner/dance cruise. What's "power of positive thinking" you say? Let me explain. 

It's simple really, years ago I got into the habit of talking to myself, you know, when you're at home all day and your kids aren't really able to hold whole conversations, and you end up asking questions out loud and then you also answer them? Well, that was me. Except, as I would see something I'd like, or read about something I'd like to do, want to win..... etc. I would say it out loud and kind of picture it happening. It didn't take long before some of those random things that I wanted starting happening for me and I was slow to connect it and just thought that I had really good luck or it was a coincidence. But then, I'd say things like "I'd like to be on "xyz desing team" or "I'd like to win tickets to that concert" and a few weeks later I'd be merrily going about my morning routine checking my inbox and there would be an invitation to join the design team I wanted or an email telling me to pick up tickets I had won at the will-call booth. Too mnay good things were happening to just be a pure coincidence.  

Call it wishful thinking, or really good luck, I like to call it my power of positive thinking! Here's what it doesn't seem to work on though:

the lottery (don't bother, tried it, doesn't work)

major health issues (don't wait, go to the Dr.)

apparently it doesn't work either when you find a great house and the sellers back out

I'm sure there are other things, I just haven't wished for them yet :)

You have to be careful too. I use to say, I'd like to be published with "xyz magazine" and most of the time, invitations would show up and I was happy to be doing what I wanted. Like that time I said "I'd like to be in a particular blogging magazine" and then when I got the email, I realized it was alot of work and I didn't really want to do it, I just wanted to be asked to contribute. (There's a big difference!) So, be careful of what you wish for, I think I wasted a 'wish' with that magazine when I could have used it for something else! 

Back to San Diego. Last summer one of the radio stations was holding an online contest, a weekend hotel getaway, plus some other cool stuff but odds of winning - not so good. You could only enter once but that isn't a problem when you use some positive thinking. I said outloud 'I'd like to win and go to San Diego' (who wouldn't right? but mainly because Peter and I both have never been - and we call ourselves Californians, shameful!) and then I forgot about it because the contest was open for like 3 months. So, I went about my summer and forgot about the contest. Until I got a call from the radio station saying I won. Positive thinking at it's finest. - and this isn't even the first vacation trip I've one either! I'm getting good at being positive!  

So here's what I'm packing along with a few cameras and a beach bag full of sand buckets, swim suits and bright colored beach towels! Oh yeah, instead of a romantic getaway for 2 we decided to bring the kids along and make it a family vacation!
                                   

weekend away by taraanderson featuring tory burch

Now, like I tell my friend Jessica, if you wish for something and it doesn't happen, it doesn't mean that you suck at positive thinking. I just tell myself, when something doesn't manifest the way I would have wanted, that 1. it wasn't meant to be or 2. I didn't really need it and I move on and try to stay in a positive frame of mind! 

You have to believe in order to achieve

- and that my friends, will be the cheesiest thing you will ever read on my blog

xo ~ Tara

a winner and a color combination

Hi there! Taking a little break here to announce the winner of my weekend giveaway! Thank you for all of your sweet comments, my tiny shop is one of my favorite hobbies! 

  The winner for the embellishment kit is: 

Nathalie said...

I am also going to throw my name is the hat because I love visiting here :) Your photos are always such beautiful works of art!

Thanks Nathalie for stopping by! Please drop me a line at rosas07@msn.com 

and since I don't like posts without at least one photo, here's a summery color combination. I'm getting ready for a mini-vacation this week and I am so looking forward to the beach, sunshine, hopefully a little cooler weather and the kids are hoping for seashells!! Here's to lovely weekend getaways! 

xo ~ Tara

Giveaway: from Citron Faire

Hello friends! In honor of getting my shop updated this week, I thought doing a little giveaway would be a perfect start to end the week - because I like Fridays and I like giveaways! Since it's almost summer and that means more time to scrapbook (we hope!) I thought making a sweet little embellishment kit might be fun to work with! 

To enter: 

just leave a comment below and I'll pick a winner on Monday (the 29th) morning and in the meantime have a wonderful weekend!  

Citron Faire, update

I have plans today to update my little shop with a new summer inspired collection of products! I was thinking about all of the things I love about summer and road-trips won out above everything else, so I designed and collected things that I thought fit that theme. There are combinations of flowers inspired by the southwest states, some fun touristy vintage items, a road-trip vintage paper kit, new scrapbook mini kits and little summer note/journals made from handkerchiefs. (So far, I think this is my favorite themed collection, I had so much fun with the photos!) 

and vintage fabric bundles are back too with new 'old' fabrics in springy pastels! Check back here on Friday, I have a little giveaway for the shop planned then! 

xo ~ Tara

water color garden

Chase and I did a little gardening yesterday afternoon! I had picked up a few new succulents for my patio and found this beauty. The leaves remind me a bit of a water color painting and I love the tiny pink tips! Spring is definitely here!  

sewing layers - (a work in progress)

I have a date with my sewing machine today - trying to finish up some projects that have been on the table all week. It's been such a strange week, with all the sad events throughout the country this week, I've been watching more tv than usual and I think sometimes you have to force yourself to turn the tv off and focus on something positive, otherwise it gets very overwhelming quickly. Today will be a tv free day just cds, old dusty records, maybe a little piano playing, lots of sewing and a little painting with Chase! Here's to a positive and productive Thursday! 

April Color Combo and a little Paper

Hi there! As promised, a scrappy share for Friday morning but first, a pretty color palette. 

If you've followed my blog for awhile now, it's likely you already know of my love for color combos! Every project starts with a combination of colors. I think it makes the creative process easier too, to only work within a certain combination, limits your choices but in a good way. - I actually find myself spending less time trying to decide on what papers and embellishments to use because I'm only interested in things that match with my color combination. I do this whenever I'm a guest designer and need to create alot of projects. 

Here's my color inspiration for April! 

I was asked to be their guest designer this month for Little Black Dress kit club. Since I don't subscribe to any kits, it's kind of fun to be able to play with a new one every now and then!  I made a few layouts, a couple of cards and a library mini tag book!

 

 

I also made a mini book with the Pebbles library cards and pockets that come with the main kit. Chase loves to draw little happy faces on everything, so I finally decided on saving a few and creating something to keep them in. It's his 'Happy Face' book!

Thanks for looking and have a lovely day! ~ Tara