{ Kade in the Kitchen: Taco Meatloaf }

Hello, friends of the Interwebs!!

My apologies for the massive delay since my last post. I have several excuses for my slacker ways:

1) I had actually pre-written and scheduled several blog entries to post before Christmas and then shortly thereafter. None of them managed to post, of course, but I’ve not had time to mess around with the software to see why that happened. And, what’s even more fun is that most of them were worded such that it wouldn’t make sense chronologically to just post them all now without doing some tweaking. So, that’s that.

2) I got sick. Really sick. But, at least I was already off of work for the five days of illness. Granted, it was during the two-week Christmas break I’d looked forward to all year, but I’m grateful I at least wasn’t sick on Christmas Day.

3) I got a new phone and my many, many, many pictures for the blog tutorials were on my old phone. I thought it was going to be as easy as just taking the SD card from my old phone and then using that to upload them all to my computer. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. It turns out that my pictures all saved to the phone itself—not the actual SD card—so I am systematically going through and moving them from the phone to the card, then to my laptop. I have to do it in small (well, 300 photos at a time) batches because it turns out my SD card doesn’t hold much in the big scheme of things. Only about 2,000 more files to move over and then I’ll have a good collection to work with.

4) We had non-stop guests rotating in and out for roughly two weeks, culminating in the Glorious Christmas Party for which I cooked for around 50-60 guests. That alone earns me some forgiveness for being a slacker on the blog front.

5) My new monogrammed dog products sold like crazy for Christmas (YAY!) and I’m the one who makes each of them myself. That was incredibly time consuming, but exciting nonetheless!

6) I’m working to kick off another company. Stay tuned for that.

OK, enough with all of the excuses. On to the more important thing here: food. Not just any food, but…wait for it…taco meatloaf! Yes, you read that correctly. That would be deliciousness upon deliciousness. You can’t go wrong with that. To combine two of my favorite foods into one dish just seems almost criminal.

I have been on a cooking frenzy lately and this is the latest in a series of tasty delights (I’ll post the rest of the recipes later). It came about because I got a fantastic deal on meat the other day. It was basically half price, but only if you bought five different kinds of meat. So, I had to go to the cookbook stash to figure out what I was going to do with it all. I made two amazing pots of yummy soup, a batch of taco puffs, and tonight, taco meatloaf. And I still have to use up the bacon. (Trust me. It won’t be hard to figure out how to make that disappear.)

Amongst my library of cookbooks (Doc makes fun of me for how many I have and for the fact I read them like regular books, but I think they’re fascinating and have so much to learn in them), one of my favorite go-tos is the Taste of Home Grand Prize Winners. The recipes may not be as gourmet as what some of my other cookbooks offer, but that’s why I like it. It’s just real food that’s delicious and oh-so-easy to make. The fancy stuff can wait for special occasions.

So, without further adieu, here’s the recipe:

Taco Meatloaves

3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups picante sauce, divided
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (11 ounces) Mexicorn, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans (2-1/4 ounces each) sliced ripe olives, drained
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 pounds ground beef
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
Additional picante sauce, optional

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, 1/2 cup picante sauce, beans, corn, onion, olives, bread crumbs, taco seasoning, cumin and chili powder. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well.

Pat into two ungreased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until no pink remains and a meat thermometer reads 160°.

Spoon remaining picante sauce over each meat loaf; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with additional picante sauce if desired.

Yield: 2 meat loaves (6 servings each).

This obviously makes a lot of meatloaf, so I plan on eating one right away and freezing the other for later. I love it when I don’t have to think much or work at making dinner, so having one to freeze and enjoy later speaks my language.

Meanwhile, of course I took some pictures along the way…

Here are all of the ingredients required. I had to chop up some onion for the taco puffs I made yesterday & only needed part of it, so I kept the rest for use here. That’s why you don’t see an actual onion. Oh, and I needed to use up both some ground sirloin and some meatloaf mix, so I used both in this recipe. Also, I just did one can of olives that was roughly the size of two of the smaller cans. I think it provided plenty and was slightly cheaper that way. In the batch I made, I did half as much cumin as the recipe called for and one-fourth as much chili powder. I do not like a lot of heat. Flavor, yes, but not heat. So, between that reduced amount and what’s in the taco seasoning, I think it was just right.

So, I have this thing about raw eggs and meat. I find both to be nasty. Necessary, but nasty. What made this whole cooking experience particularly interesting is that when I cracked the first egg, some of the egg spilled out and dropped straight onto my bare foot. I had to curl my toes upwards to keep the gooey egg pooled on top of my foot while I hopped across the kitchen to where the paper towels are stored. Not fun, people. Not fun. I recommend avoiding that if you can.

One thing that was really fun about this dish is all of the colors. This is everything but the picante & meat mixed in. Oh, and one note here: be sure to use a gigantic bowl for this recipe. You will not be able to make this in your KitchenAid, unless you have an industrial-sized one at your disposal. I know I’m in for some serious cooking when I pull this bowl out. To put it in perspective, the one slightly smaller than this is the one I use for making mashed potatoes. I can usually make about 5-lbs. in it. It is a serious bowl. I love it! (Incidentally, it’s one of my first kitchen purchases as an adult. When I moved to Raleigh after college and had almost zero money, I went to a warehouse store & got a few basics. They had this great set of ceramic bowls for $25. To this day, it remains one of my best purchases ever.)

And then I threw on the picante for even more color! Ole!

Incidentally, a good friend assures me that they do not say “ole!” in Mexico, but I still imagine it to be shouted on the streets, in restaurants, in homes, in the open market, and in fields aplenty. Basically, in my head it’s like the music in the “Sound of Music”. But in Spanish. And it’s the word “ole!” filling the air…with light mariachi music (if there is such a thing as light mariachi music) serving as a subtle background track. Sure, I have been to Mexico a couple of times & didn’t experience anything remotely similar to what I’ve just described, but I think I may have just been in the wrong part of the country.

This is everything but the beef mixed together. If not for the raw egg, I think it’d be pretty tasty at this point alone. It smells amazing. Oh, but the dry taco seasoning and dry bread crumbs may not be as appetizing as one would hope. I guess it is important to finish making the recipe to the very end instead of stopping at this stage.

At this point, I had to put down the camera and deal with the raw beef. It was while dealing with the raw beef that my shirt sleeves decided they no longer wanted to stay pushed up my arms, so I ended up with raw meat stuck to the cuffs of the black sweater I’m wearing. That was just delightful. But, this was the end result of that debacle; well, this and a sweater that now needs to be dry cleaned ASAP:

Sometimes I amaze myself. And I give myself little pats on the back when I do. This was one of those times. Somehow I managed to get both loaves weighing the EXACT same just from eyeballing how much meatloaf mixture to put in each pan. I patted in what looked like about half of the mixture into each of the ungreased pans & then got looking at them. They looked so identical that I had to see how similar they were. I put them on the kitchen scale and about had a heart attack from glee when I saw that they were indeed identical! It’s the little things, people…

So, I put my perfectly halved loaves in the oven, and this is what came out 55 minutes later:

I hate that nasty stuff on top, so I was more than happy to move on to the next step: covering the tops with picante sauce--

And then it was time to do what I consider to be one of the most exciting things in cooking: topping it with cheese. Now, not only do I look forward to this because, well, we’re talking about cheese here, but also because topping something with cheese usually means you’re nearing the finish line. I will say that it seemed like an unusually large amount of cheese to fit on each loaf. But I wasn’t complaining. Oh, and I used triple cheddar instead of just plain regular cheddar. Why? Because three is better than one. Especially when we’re talking cheese. That’s why.

The oven, however, is a whole other story. It is complaining. Apparently I should have put a pan on the rack underneath these babies, as the cheese and picante went over the top edge of one of them & left a lovely mess in the bottom of the oven…where it will sit until the next time I talk Miss Deloris into cleaning the oven because I reallllllllly don’t like to.

And there you have it: two deliciously perfect taco meatloaves! Now, if you’ll please pardon me while I go and work away at devouring one of these…

{ Kade in the Kitchen: Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread }

Many moons ago (well, perhaps not that many—just a few months ago, actually…but it feels like many) I happened across a recipe for something called Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread. Because the name was so awful, I was intrigued. Little did I know, it’d fast become one of my favorite dishes!

It turns out it’s named that because you literally just dump a bunch of ingredients onto bread dough before rolling it up and baking it. In this case, the ingredients make a deliciously cheesy buffalo chicken bread. Now, I shall preface this by saying that I don’t really like buffalo wings—or any wings in general—because I don’t like chicken on the bone or with skin on it, nor do I like spicy sauces. So, this proved to be a great alternative for me because it didn’t require chicken on a bone, nor with skin, and I can control the level of sauce spiciness myself.

First, I’ll give you the basic recipe & instructions, but then I’ll give you some variations and a step-by-step tutorial. Without further adieu, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts, chopped into cubes (the breasts need to be medium to large in size; you’ll want 2-4 cups, depending upon how chicken-laden you want the dish)

1 Tube of Refrigerated Pizza Dough (regular crust thickness; avoid using generic store brand, as it does make a difference here)

1/3 C Blue Cheese Dressing, plus extra for dipping (I prefer Marzetti’s Ultimate Blue Cheese Dressing that’s found in the produce area refrigerator)

1/2 C Wing Sauce, divided (I use extra mild, but get whatever spice level you want)

2 C Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

1 C Cheddar Cheese, grated

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Take the dough tube out of the fridge and leave it on a counter, as you’ll want it to come more to room temperature before working with it.

2) Cook the cubed chicken in a large skillet until completely done. Drain, if necessary.

3) When the chicken is completely cooked, add 1/4 C of the wing sauce to the skillet and coat the chicken with it thoroughly. Let cook for 1-2 minutes, long enough for the chicken to start to absorb the sauce a little.

4) While the chicken is cooking, lightly flour your work space. Then, open the refrigerated dough tube and unroll it over the floured area.

5) Using your hands, carefully stretch the dough to be a large rectangle. Having your dough less chilled helps with this. If you find that the dough immediately snaps back to its original shape, it’s too cold to work with. Allow it to warm slightly at room temperature, then try again. In stretching it, you don’t want the dough to be paper thin, but you don’t want it to be really thick either. One trick to helping stretch the dough is to lift a section of the dough along one edge and (using both hands) carefully wave the dough up and down. Repeat around all edges. Close any holes that form.

6) Once the dough is in a rectangle, use the back of a large spoon to spread the blue cheese dressing over the entire surface, right up to the outer edges. Leave about 1/2” of one long end of the dough uncoated so that when you roll the dough, the uncoated edge will adhere to the roll itself and seal it shut. (See picture below for more info.) If you are using a thicker dressing, it may require more than 1/3 C.

7) Pour the remaining 1/4 C of wing sauce over top of the blue cheese. Spread it around evenly as well, right up to the edges (except for your uncoated seal edge).

8) Spoon the coated cooked chicken evenly over top of the sauce. Again, take the chicken to the edges. If you don’t, you’ll have end pieces that are primarily just bread without filling.

9) Evenly sprinkle a layer of each of the cheeses over top of the chicken.

10) Starting at the long end that is coated up to the very edge, carefully roll the dough. Be sure to evenly roll the bread as you move along to the uncoated edge. Once you reach the uncoated edge, fold the edge over top and lightly press it to seal it. Also, fold the dough carefully over both ends of the loaf so that they’re covered.

11) Gently (and swiftly) lift the loaf onto a baking sheet. (Grease the baking sheet if it’s not a non-stick pan.) Re-shape the loaf as necessary. If any holes have torn during the movement, try to close them as best you can, but it’s fine if a couple of small ones exist. Not a lot of filling will escape from them during baking.

12) Place the pan into the pre-heated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the top of the bread has started to brown. Let cool slightly before serving. Serve it with extra dressing on the side for dipping.

Variations:

-If you want more cheddar than mozzarella, just swap the amounts. Be warned that cheddar is a lot more oily, so the loaf ends up much more greasy. But it’s oh-so-delicious.

-Doc & I add about a cup or so of chopped onion to the chicken while it’s cooking. Depending upon your personal tastes, mushrooms or even crumbled bacon could be a tasty addition.

-Not a fan of blue cheese? Switch it out for ranch dressing instead. Or, make the loaf with blue cheese & serve it with ranch dressing for dipping. That’s a particularly tasty combo.

And now, the pictorial tutorial…

When I took these pictures, it was my second batch of Garbage Bread in as many days. No, we’re not THAT big of pigs; I just happened to make a loaf for the neighbors the night before. So, I had pre-cooked the chicken that we used in our own loaf at the same time I cooked the chicken for the neighbor’s loaf & forgot to take pictures while doing so. However, I’m sure you can picture a skillet of cubed chicken cooking, so we’ll just go with what we’ve got…

1) Lightly flour your work area. Make sure you do an area large enough to allow for the large dough rectangle. You do NOT want that sucker sticking to the counter, especially when you go to roll it.

 

2) Unroll the dough. If it tears, piece it together. And then slam it with the palm of your clenched fist to make sure it goes together again. It works. (What also might work is gently massaging it back together, but that’s not how I operate—plus, punching it also serves as an additional outlet for stress release. Dinner AND a centered chi—what’s not to love about that?!)

3) Shape the dough into a rectangle that’s not too thin.

4) Put the dressing onto the dough. I have found that it’s easier to spread the dressing if you do it before pouring on the wing sauce.

5) Use the back of the spoon to spread it around. Don’t try to use a knife. It’s too difficult. And it makes it too easy to cut into the dough accidentally, at which point it’s not so easy to pound it with your fist—after all, who wants to pummel their palm into blue cheese dressing? Not this guy.

6) Spread the dressing all over and right up to the very edge of three of the four sides. You will note that on the right side of the pictured dough there’s about a 1/2”-1” strip left uncovered in dressing. That’s the part that’s going to seal the loaf shut once you roll it up. (Assuming you’re rolling from left to right. Reverse as necessary.)

7) Pour the wing sauce on top of the dressing. It almost looks like a Picasso…almost.

8) Swirl the wing sauce all over, aside from your one edge for sealing.

9) Evenly sprinkle the cooked chicken (and any other toppings) over the wing sauce. Again, take it to the outer edges.

10) Sprinkle the two layers of cheese over that. In this particular batch, we used more cheddar and less mozzarella. (If it weren’t for the fact the base is uncooked dough, I could just go to town and devour the whole thing at this point. But I resist. Because I’m strong like that.)

11) Evenly roll the loaf onto itself, making sure you go in the direction where your uncoated dough edge will be able to seal the loaf. Also, seal the two ends. (I love this step! It means you’re ever-so-close to a plate of deliciousness!)

12) Draw upon every bit of inner strength and faith; say 10 Hail Mary’s; call on the heavens above, or Mother Nature, or Buddha, or Chuck Norris, or Jack Bauer, or whoever it is that can bring you the superhuman abilities required to successfully transfer the loaf from the counter onto the baking sheet. You have to do this in one quick movement, so have your pan right next to the loaf and facing the correct direction BEFORE picking up the loaf. Support the underneath side of the loaf as much as you can.

You may end up wearing dressing and wing sauce in this step. And that’s OK. Take one for the team. Just get that loaf moved over with as minimal damage as possible. (Repair any major holes, but don’t fret over the little ones. In this picture, you can see a couple of spots where the chicken pieces started to poke through the thin spots of the dough. It’s not the end of the world.) And, yes, I could’ve used a beautiful, shiny baking sheet here. But I didn’t. Because I don’t have any. OK, well, I do, but not any that I use. That’s why they’re still beautiful and shiny. My ol’ reliables are beat down and crazy looking. The others just sit there and look pretty.

 

13) And then put your beat-down, reliable pan with it’s unbaked lump of awesomeness into the oven and try not to hyperventilate while waiting for it to be baked. Now would be a good time to remove the dressing and wing sauce from your arms. Oh, you don’t have any on you? That’s fine. No need to judge me. I’m not judging you. (OK, I secretly am, but we’ll pretend like I’m not.)

14) Once it’s browned sufficiently, take it out of the oven. And behold it. Just take a moment to behold the beauty in front of you. It’s so glorious.

Also, you’ll note here that I somehow managed to take the before and after picture at almost the exact same distance and angle. That was not remotely intentional. Hoped for, yes, but not intentional. I suck at taking pictures—let alone consistent ones. So, this was just a nice little surprise in the process.

Now, trust me—I get it. You just want to inhale the whole loaf immediately. Please don’t. It will be VERY hot. Instead, give it a moment to rest. Use this time to set the table for your family. Or, if you’re making this whole thing for yourself, use this time to grab a fork, knife, and napkin. No need to dirty a plate. While you’re at it, don’t forget to grab the dressing to have on the side for dipping. I don’t know what it is about dipping sauces, but I love them. Doc makes fun of me, but if there’s an opportunity to have a dipping sauce (or, even better, a variety of delicious dipping sauce options), I’m all for it. This is one such opportunity.

One final tip—if you’re the one cutting slices for everyone, cut it such that you end up with the center section. It’s so amazingly gooey and wonderful, with less bread to get in the way of the good stuff. (I personally cut it in the middle, slice off a couple of pieces, and then push the ends back together. It helps keep it from cooling too quickly before you have a chance to go for seconds.)

This is supposed to serve 10. I don’t know who those 10 people are, but Doc said they must be miniature people with anorexia. This loaf serves exactly two grown men with a little bet leftover. Translated: family of four people who aren’t afraid to eat a healthy portion. It is good with salad on the side, as admittedly it is a really decadent dish.

If you make this and come up with any other variations or tips, please share them in the comments section below—I’m all for maximizing the amazingness of any food item!

{ Elevated Guest Experience Series: The Background }

I previously mentioned that I’d be sharing some posts in a series I’m titling our Elevated Guest Experience. Prior to really delving into it all, however, let me back up to even explain the background behind the title of the series. And there is significant history behind it, so bear with me while I explain every little detail…

For years, we have prided ourselves on making sure our guests feel well taken care of when they’re in our home. I worked very hard to try to think of everything and make each stay as pleasant as possible. Friends joke about us needing to add comment cards to complete the experience, or they’ll complain we didn’t turn down their bed. Aside from that, it’s a pretty complete five-star experience. Or so we thought…

This past summer, Doc & I headed out west to see friends and family. One of our first stops was in Denver, where we stayed with a friend of Doc’s & his lovely wife. We’ll call them Jason & Lynn because…well, those are their names. That’s why.

As mostly irrelevant (yet fun) background, Doc & Jason went to optometry school together in Florida and have remained close friends ever since. Jason married Lynn a few years ago. Shortly after their wedding, we met up with them in Miami. We fell in love with her as soon as we met her. She is absolutely delightful.

Whenever we stay in Miami, we’re fortunate to have a five-star suite at a hotel where one of Doc’s friends is a financial analyst (or something like that) and it is truly an experience I wish every single person could have at least once in their lifetime. While at the hotel, I try to take in as much as possible and aim to pick up on little tricks they do that make our stays more pleasant. For example, they know that I love cookies & milk, so there will be a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and a carafe of milk waiting for me upon arrival and each day thereafter. Doc likes fresh fruit, so there are plates of that. Jason loves mojitos, so there are make-your-own-mojito trays left in Jason & Lynn’s room when they join us. It’s just little touches like that which really make the stay memorable.

Side jaunt: especially memorable is the last stay in Miami, when Doc & Jason had a continuing education conference to attend. Lynn & I did not have such boredom to attend to, so we just relaxed, shopped, ate, and lived it up. (And, of course, we sent Doc & Jason text pics along the way. Not to rub it in or anything that we were having a great time while they were stuck in cold meeting rooms with cheap hotel food…)

My personal favorite of that particular trip was having breakfast in bed with Lynn. We got up and went down to my favorite little French café a couple of blocks from the hotel to get breakfast, stopped at Starbuck’s to get drinks, and then we piled back into mine & Doc’s huge bed to pig out on deliciousness while watching the boats go by below. (Our room had a large curved window that went around almost three full sides of the room, so we had a fantastic view. It was made better by having a plate of ricotta pancakes with berries in my lap.)

Anyway, back on track, last year Jason & Lynn came to the Glorious Christmas Party and we gave them what we thought was our five-star guest experience. But then we went to visit them this past July.

When we walked in the door to the guest room they were putting us in, it happened. And there was no hiding it. Doc later said that he’d never seen such a look upon my face…but that he’d also never seen someone out do me before either. Yes. That’s right. That oh-so-delightful Lynn became my arch nemesis in that very second. From that moment forward, it was game on. Well, after I pulled my deflated self back together that is…

Over the next few days that we were in Denver, I contemplated, I pondered, I may have even cried a little, but by day three, I had a plan & I could not wait to get back home to test out my ideas. But first, we had the rest of our trip to do. So, I used Amazon to start getting various elements shipped to the house so that I had a head start upon our return. I told Doc that I needed him to not question me, but to just support and love me as I embarked upon creating an elevated guest experience. (And thus, the title of this series.) He looked at me oddly, but agreed to just love and support, no matter how crazy I got. He knew how deeply affected I’d been by this, so he was wise enough to also know to just stand back and not get in my way while I tried to recover from the trauma.

You see, Lynn took guest treatment to a whole new level. Whereas we had provided all of the toiletries in our guest bathroom & each night I placed water bottles by each side of the bed, she streamlined the experience a bit more and also spread it into the bedroom itself. Instead of the towels stacked on the bathroom counter, for instance, she had a giant basket in the bedroom filled with bath towels, wash cloths, and—wait for it—snacks and drinks. That’s where she got me. She totally got me, in fact. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that, but I hadn’t. So, I set out to outdo her and her Pinterest ingenuity. Curse you, Pinterest, and your great ideas! Curse you! (OK, not really, Pinterest. I take it back. I was just going for dramatic effect there, but I really do love you oh-so-much. Please don’t leave me out in the dark…pretty please. I promise I’ll do better.)

It took some doing, but I have finally gotten it all together and have tested it out a couple of times. While in beta mode, I have learned a few more things and now I’m ready to share them all with you. In the next blog post, I’ll be covering the ideas for the guest bedroom itself. I’ll go over some obvious and not-so-obvious ways you can really help elevate your guests’ experience while staying in your home—and then we’ll move on to the guest bathroom. Stay tuned…

{ Quick Tip: Sealing Envelopes without Licking }

Doc was so sweet and threw me a surprise birthday party last night! It was so fantastic and as if spending time with a bunch of friends and family wasn’t enough, I got some very generous gifts, too. So, I wrote my thank you notes and was just sealing the envelopes when I realized that my usual way of sealing envelopes may not be something everyone is aware of. Thus, I’m here to share it in hopes that it makes someone else’s life a little better.

I, like most people, truly hate licking envelopes. Lord only knows what floats around in the factories in which they’re manufactured and stored, let alone what is encountered during shipment. It’s not like they’re in air-tight containers. Anyway, my point is that I hate licking them. So, this is what I use to seal them instead:

It’s just a basic glue runner that I bought at Marshall’s. I bought a pack of four of them, but found that I loved them so much that I went back and bought several more packages. The Marshall’s nearest me seems to carry them on an ongoing basis, but I’m sure they originated at some of the craft stores—they’re probably in the scrapbooking section. That would be my guess. But, the great thing about them is that the width of the glue is approximately the same as the width of the envelope seal area. So, I just take the glue runner and go around the envelope’s lick line and then seal it. It holds the envelope shut tighter than it normally would be, plus you didn’t have to lick a thing! And they’re cheap. Does it get any better than that combo?!

I highly recommend seeing if you can find something similar before doing your Christmas cards in order to save yourself from contracting some horrible disease that requires tongue amputation. Not that I’m dramatic or anything…

{ Developing a Personal Brand }

If you’ve stumbled across this post in your search to develop a personal brand as part of furthering your career or job search, I apologize. This is not that kind of personal brand. Instead, we’re talking about developing a personal crafting brand. And I’m not talking about a logo here. Most people hear “brand” and assume that means “logo”. Incorrect. This is about consistency with the look, the feel—you know, the brand image—of what you share with friends & family. To have this make a little more sense, I shall first back up a step.

Doc and I have been together for what’s coming up on five years now. For about four of those years, we’ve had a brand. Through my marketing work and my own companies, it has become engrained in me that maintaining a consistent brand is key to solid brand recognition. At first, branding seemed like a pain to me. As part of a new branding kick-off with my FT job a few years ago, for example, we were given an 87-page book of branding guidelines. At times, I wondered if we were even allowed to breathe through our nostrils instead of our mouths while working on a branded piece, as it just seemed like a book of insane strictness. And, actually, it really was. It was overkill. But, what I took from it was that while branding can be taken to the extreme, it can also be a helpful simplification tool if done correctly. Having almost all of the decisions made in advance frees you up to focus upon the message of whatever project it is you’re working on. You know what fonts you’re going to use, what placement to work within, what colors can be included, etc., so that’s not a concern.

In that same spirit, about four years ago I combined that concept with the more simplified version of a style sheet (something heavily covered in a lot of my comm classes back in college…that’s right, college finally did pay off for me) and I used it to come up with an idea when it came to gift wrap.

What I found was that I was buying a lot of rolls of wrapping paper, different colors of tissue paper and ribbons, random gift bags, etc., and then I’d end up with a lot of leftover stuff that may or may not get used again at some point if a similar occasion came up for a person with a similar taste. So, I decided to break it down to a more simple plan. I had to slowly introduce the concept of a personal brand to Doc, who did not take too well to it at first and thought I was 100% insane. (It’s quite the opposite now; more on that in a second.)

I thought about how I wanted our friends to feel when getting a gift from us, about what style matches our personalities, and about what is universal for everything from birthdays to Christmas to housewarmings to career success celebrations. At roughly the same time, I was falling in love with kraft paper. And that’s when it hit me—the only gift wrap we need is kraft paper & from there, we can embellish it…within our brand guidelines, of course!  So, with that as the base, I set out to determine what else we could consistently use for all of the aforementioned types of events. It started with old fashioned striped twine in a variety of colors (think: old mercantile store style), then grew to include ribbons, silhouette stamps in white ink, and a few more fun designs here and there. It’s worked perfectly. In fact, it’s now to the point that when someone is opening gifts, they immediately know which one is from us, as there’s now that brand recognition, so to speak.

And it’s made my life a lot simpler in the process. I only have to store the one roll of wrapping paper.It’s fantastic! Plus, it’s also inexpensive—last time we needed to buy more, we just got a roll of it from Lowe’s Home Improvement. They offer it as a floor protector; little do they know, it works great to wrap gifts, too!

Oh, and as far as Doc is concerned—he absolutely loves the brand now! Just this past weekend, I had him along with me while I picked up some supplies at the craft store. I normally do not take him with me, as he ruins all the fun (i.e., “Do you really need that?”, “Don’t you already have ten of those?”, “Where are you going to store that?”, “Are you done yet?”), but on that particular day he was alongside me. I picked up a package of patterned gift bags that were a great price & a fantastic pattern. For gift bags, I now typically only buy solid-color kraft colored ones or white ones, then add decoration from there. So, when I picked the patterned ones up and had them in my hand, he said that I couldn’t get them because…and this made me so proud when he said it…they were not on-brand & that would not work for him.

It’s actually not the first time he’s had to keep me in check, but I’m very proud of the brand monster I’ve created. It’s fantastic!

So, as we head into this gift-giving season, think about using this as an opportunity to create your own personal brand. It may not be that you use it for all of your gifts—maybe it’s just something you come up with to use when wrapping crafts you make yourself. But, have some fun with it and create a look and feel that is totally you! You’ll be surprised at how much easier it makes life when it comes to wrapping—and at how much people enjoy seeing something that comes branded from you!

Here are several examples of ways in which we’ve used our brand:

{ Elevated Guest Experience Series: Refillable Toiletries }

At our home, probably much like your own, we already have a lot going on to get ready for the holidays! With guests coming (including my mom for 10 days—hooray!!!!), our annual Glorious Christmas Party to host, and a large house to decorate—including adding & making the decorations for what will be our 11th Christmas tree, woot woot!!—there’s just a lot happening. In fact, just a few minutes ago I was battling it out with our housekeeper over the schedule to get the oven cleaned, floors waxed, windows washed, etc. You know—all the extra crap you have to do to make it look like you’re actually on top of it the whole year, when in reality your oven is rarely clean, your floors don’t always shine, and your windows have plenty of spots. But, at Christmas, everything is…well, glorious!

Anyway, as part of all the preparations, I’ve decided to do a series of posts related to entertaining and hosting in general. This is the first in that series, which I’m calling the “Elevated Guest Experience”. I’ll be sharing very easy and (perhaps, most importantly) inexpensive ways for you to create a five-star experience for your own guests, regardless of if you have a dedicated guest space or if your guests just sleep on your couch. Either way, you can always provide guests with an elevated experience using just a little bit of extra effort!

Doc & I love to host and to entertain friends and family. It’s always so nice for them to have taken the time to come visit us. So, we work very hard to make sure that those staying with us feel like they’re being taken care of and don’t have to worry about a thing while they’re here. We try to think of everything for them—and then some. We’ve been very fortunate to stay in some luxurious hotels and I’ve tried to incorporate some of the things I’ve observed happening there into what our guests experience when they stay with us. It just makes for a much more fun experience and I know it’s what we ourselves appreciate when we stay with others, too. Here, I want to discuss the toiletry situation.

So, I have this thing about staying in other people’s homes: I hate using their half-used toiletries! It can be some of the nicest product you’d ever imagine, but I feel so weird squeezing shampoo out of the same bottle I know they themselves (or 100 other guests) have used. Don’t ask me why. It just is. My simple solution, of course, is just to travel with my own shampoo and body wash. But what about when guests stay with us? Do we just put out mini toiletries we’ve collected along the way? Short answer: no.

Having said that, I do travel quite a bit and have to admit I find myself taking the soaps and mini shampoo bottles from the hotel bathroom whenever I leave. I feel like a mini-toiletry hoarder. But, here’s the thing—I don’t like mini toiletries when it comes to the guest bath. Heck, I don’t typically even use the hotel ones myself (yes, I’m a product snob). So, why I take them after a hotel stay is beyond me. It’s like my little perk for paying for the room, I guess. At any rate, mini toiletries are not what I want to put out for guests. Especially because it’s a bit tacky to have a Hilton-branded shampoo bottle sitting in the shower at home. Guests know full well we aren’t a Hilton and there’s no big ol’ Hilton logo on the front of our house, so why would there be Hilton toiletries in the guest bathroom?!

To solve this, I keep full-sized toiletry bottles in the shower. My trick is that I have back-up bottles stored underneath the sink. After guests leave, I use the back-up bottles to refill the bottles in the shower so that each guest doesn’t feel as if they’re dealing with a half-used product. However, once I got my Cameo, one of the first things I knew I wanted to change was the full-sized bottles themselves. You see, the labels on the bottles didn’t match the bathroom. And that annoyed me greatly. (I know. I need help.) So, after a great deal of searching, I came across some frosted pump bottles (at Target, of all places!) that fit the bill perfectly.

I used my Cameo to cut vinyl labels for the bottles, making all of it coordinate nicely, regardless of what color the bathroom walls or towels may be. This is how they turned out:

Now, what’s funny here is that when I filled the bottles, I reversed the shampoo & conditioner and didn’t even realize it until my sister came to stay with us and pointed it out. So, that’s been changed since taking this picture.

It works beautifully, looks coordinated, and best of all—there’s no half-used bottle for guests to use. In fact, with these bottles, they can clearly see that they’re full. My neurotic self thinks that’s fantastic.

So, a couple of possibilities when you’re looking at your guests’ experience:

1) Forget the mini toiletries. Put full-sized bottles in the shower, refilled after each guest leaves using back-up bottles of the same product. Even if you just use the bottle the product came in instead of putting it in non-branded pump bottles, that alone will make a world of difference. And all for about $5. (I just buy Tresemme products at Target for the guest bath refills.) That’s it—$5!

And, if you have a bunch of mini toiletry bottles already and you don’t want them wasted, you could always use them as the refill for the bottle as it gets emptied until you’ve used them all up. Unless it’s a different color toiletry (i.e., pouring green shampoo into a bottle of white shampoo), nobody’s going to know the difference.

2) Spend a few more dollars to find or make labeled pump dispensers. (Remember to avoid anything with metal so that you don’t have to deal with rust.) My three bottles? Yeah, they cost a total of $12. Love that!

This is a very inexpensive & simple solution that will help your guests leave your home feeling like a million bucks!

{ Tutorial: Burlap Bubble Wreaths }

First off, I must make what I fear is going to be one of many apologies for the delay between entries. It has been an absolutely insane couple of weeks!

For those who don’t know me personally & who just happen across this blog, I currently work a FT job in marketing, have a wholesale business featuring dog apparel & accessories, and I have recently launched my Krafty Kade brand with retail space in a local boutique. Life can get a little hectic at times, so it seems that I’m always dropping the ball on something. (In this case, the blog.) Last week, I was out-of-town for team meetings for my FT job, which really threw off my production schedule for the launch of Krafty Kade’s retail space (which happened two days ago). Anything in-between is a blur. But, I’ve gotten in lots of crafting in order to have products in the retail space, so now I’m trying to get blog entries written that cover some of those really fun (and VERY doable!) projects. First up: the burlap bubble wreath. Something that looks like this…

Stay with me here. If you only knew just how easy this really is, you would not feel remotely intimidated. So, come with me through a detailed pictorial tutorial that will leave you with a fantastic wreath that looks so much more impressive than it ought to. And, the best part is that it requires zero unique tools. Just some readily available supplies. So, we’ll start with those…

Supplies

You’re going to need:

1) 6” wide burlap ribbon: about 10 yards if you’re doing a 12” wreath; 20 yards if you’re doing an 18-20” wreath. I think mine is a 20” wreath, based upon my rough measurements. What you see in the picture of the finished wreath at the top of this post is 15 yards of plain burlap, with five yards of chevron-printed burlap. The supplies picture above only includes two rolls of five yards. More on that little mistake later, but it ultimately led to the chevron-printed burlap coming into play.

Burlap ribbon is easily found at Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, etc. If you buy it at Hobby Lobby and aren’t in a rush to get this project done, wait until they put ribbon and notions on sale (usually about every-other-week) so you can get it all for 50% off. Or, pick up a roll at Michael’s & use the 40% off coupon, go back the next day & do the same, etc., until you’ve got as much as you need without paying full price. You can do this for cheap.

2) a wreath frame: select one in the size of your choosing; just remember to buy enough burlap ribbon to accommodate whatever size you decide upon. A 20” wreath is about as large as I’d go for a front door, if that gives you some perspective. Wreath frames are found in the Floral departments, typically, and are a couple of dollars. They’re green metal frames comprised of four circles (giving you three open rows) attached together using equally spaced crossbars.

3) any embellishments (bows, ornaments, flowers, pinecone clusters, etc.) you may want to include. I went with one large burlap flower that had sparkly stuff (technical term, of course) in the middle of it. It was on a pick and I ultimately just used the pick to attach it to the frame—no glue required!

Step 1:

Tie the burlap ribbon onto the wreath frame. Do it such that the tail of the knot points towards what will be the back of the wreath. That way, it won’t ever stick out amongst the forward-facing bubbles. In other words, the exact opposite of this:

I tied this, photographed it, and then realized I tied it on reverse from what I’d ultimately want. But, I forgot to re-photograph it the other way. (You’ll notice the curve of the wreath frame. You want the concaved side to be the back.)

Step 2:

Create your first bubble. What you’re doing is gathering small bunches of the burlap and pulling it through the wreath frame in alternate rows. You don’t have to do any tying or knotting for each bubble. As long as you alternate which row of the wreath frame you’re feeding each bubble through, they will stay just fine. I think the most logical and easiest method is to go in order from top to bottom row when putting in the bubbles. That way, it makes sure there’s even coverage. This is what I mean about gathering the burlap into a bubble (also note that in this picture the knot tail is going the correct direction)--

As you can see, it’s not hard. Just grab a bunch of the burlap. Some people choose to twist the base of the bubble gathering before feeding it through the wreath frame. I tried it both ways and didn’t see a difference. I don’t think one holds any tighter than the other, so do it whichever way you prefer.

Step 3:

Feed the gathered bubble through the frame.

Here, I fed it through the wreath frame’s middle row. It doesn’t really matter which row you start in—just remember that you’re alternating each bubble to be fed through different rows each time.

Important note: This is the point at which you need to decide how poufy you want your wreath to be. The bigger you make this first bubble (i.e., how much burlap you pull through), the puffier your overall wreath will be. Each bubble needs to be about the same height to maintain a uniform look, so decide now upon what that height will be. (I think this is about 3-4” high.) Also, keep in mind that the puffier the bubbles, the more burlap ribbon you’ll need.

Step 4:

Feed the next bubble through the wreath frame, using a different row. Here, I fed the second bubble through the outer row:

Another important note: To keep the back of the wreath mostly flat and to keep the bubbles in place best, make sure you are pulling each bubble tight after pulling it through. This will require you to hold onto the previously placed bubble (so that you don’t undo it) while you pull through the new bubble. The end of the ribbon that’s connected to the previous bubble is what you’ll pull tight so that the ribbon is right up against the underneath side of the wreath frame. Like this:

This will take a little bit of practice, but it’s not hard.

As you go along, it will ultimately look like this underneath:

Step 5:

Continue feeding bubbles through the wreath frame in the alternating rows. Be sure to keep pushing the bubbles together as you go along so that they’re in compactly. You will also want to fluff the bubbles a little as you go along so that you can make sure you’re sufficiently covering the wreath frame. You don’t want any of it showing from the front.  It should very quickly start to resemble something like this:

When you get to the end of a roll of the burlap ribbon, knot it onto the wreath frame, like this:

Again, make sure the tail of the knot is pointed towards the back of the wreath frame, like this:

Then, tie the new roll onto the wreath frame & continue just as you have been, ensuring that the bubbles cover up the knots you’ve just tied.

This is what mine looked like after two five-yard rolls:

And that’s when I started to panic. It was apparent that each roll did about one-fourth of the overall wreath, obviously meaning that I would need four rolls. The problem was that I bought three rolls of a darker burlap and five rolls of a lighter color of burlap. I was using the darker burlap to this point and knew it would look insane if I did one-fourth of it in a lighter burlap. I also knew that I was not about to do another two-hour round trip drive back to Hobby Lobby just to get one roll of darker burlap. And I didn’t want to undo all the work I’d just done. So, I kept pondering my options as I worked towards this point:

And then I knew it was decision time. As I slightly perspired over the stress of it all, it dawned on me that I had also bought a couple of rolls of chevron-print burlap ribbon, which I’d intended to use for another purpose. But, sacrifices must be made. And that’s how it ended up like this:

In the end, I decided I really liked having that chevron accent section. I also got positive feedback about it when I took it to the Krafty Kade retail space today. Several people commented on how much they liked the combination of the two, so it turned out to be a good mistake in the end.

Step 6:

Affix your embellishment(s). I don’t have a picture of how I did this, but it’s going to vary anyway depending upon what type of embellishment you go with. You may need to use florist’s wire to attach the object, or maybe hot glue will be best. For me, I just twisted the end of the flower pick through the rows of the wreath frame and it holds it in place perfectly. (Plus, I positioned it such that it covers the knot from the end of the chevron-print burlap and the knot from the beginning of the first roll of burlap.)

In case you’re wondering, the back of the wreath looks like this:

That’s it!  Oh, I guess I did miss one step—hang it wherever your heart desires! I think I’m going to try making some smaller ones next time and may do a trio of them on one wall, each positioned at different heights, hung by wide ribbon. That could look cool. Or, at least it does in my head anyway. Reality could be a whole other story.

I can’t give you a good estimate on how much time this takes to make, but if you’re not stopping every five seconds to take a million pictures in hopes one of them turns out good enough to be used in a blog post, I imagine it’s a pretty speedy process (i.e., 15-30 minutes, depending upon how distracted you get & the size of the wreath). The other great thing about this particular project is that it’s one you can easily walk away from and get back to later, if need be. You don’t need to do it all in one sitting.

At any rate, that is how to make a super-easy burlap bubble wreath. If you make one yourself, please come back and share pictures and any pointers you picked up along the way that I may have overlooked!