Chuy's copycat green sauce

Chuy's is on of my favorite places to eat.. mainly because of their creamy jalapeno sauce. If you haven't had a chance to go to a Chuy's or don't live near one (It's a TEXAS food chain).. I have the perfect copy cat recipe so you can enjoy at home. What's even better is this is literally the simplest recipe I've ever come across in my entire life. It is also the BEST dip you've ever tasted. Your mouth will thank you. It has a little kick but you can add less jalapenos to soften the kick. You'll want to put this on everything... enchiladas, tacos, chips (specially the HINT OF LIME chips), hamburgers, cereal...

Here is what what you'll need: (if it's just you or if you just want to experiment to see if you like it, I recommend you half everything because it makes a pretty big batch.)

*1 quart mayo
*1 cup buttermilk
*1 cup jalapenos (I used jarred but I'm switching to fresh the next time I make it. I also add a little juice.)
*1 cup tomatillo sauce (I found mine at Kroger BUT they aren't going to carry it anymore so try H.E.B.!)
*1/2 bunch of cilantro (The recipe I found said chopped but I didn't chop)
*3 packs dry ranch mix

1 quart is equal to 4 cups. I bought the regular jar of Mayo and a small squeezie jar. The jar won't have enough Mayo.. it only has about 3 and a half cups so I just squeezed some out of the other jar to help bring it up to 4 cups. 

You'll find buttermilk by the milk :)

Pushing the cilantro in. This is my favorite part because cilantro is the heart of all good foods. This is also the part we noticed that we were going to overflow our 7 cup blender. So, we poured HALF of what we already had in the blender (mayo, buttermilk and cilantro) into a bowl. At the end we would pour the other half into that bowl and whisk feverishly for a few minutes. 

1 cup of jalapenos with a little of the juice. 

1 cup of tomatillo sauce. Don't forget to look at H.E.B. for this NOT Kroger!

Opps! Clean up on isle 4!!

Since we were in such a tizzy after spilling the tomatillo sauce I forgot to take a picture of us adding the ranch dry mix! But go ahead and add that in at this time. 

THEN -- pulse/blend for about 5 minutes. It's noisy but worth it!

Now remember I told you we poured half out into a bowl? Now after you pulse/blend for 5 minutes add that to the half you might have had to pour out (if your blender is big enough then you don't have to worry) Here I am about to start whisking my little heart out! I whisked for just a few minutes until I saw everything was nice and blended. 

NOW THE BEST PART!!

I promise this will be a hit anytime you make it. I made it for my graduation party (the whole recipe) and it was gone in about an hour. So I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions feel free to comment and I'll be as helpful as possible :) 

This one is DEFINITELY a pin!  

Mason Jar Candles

Tomorrow I am graduating from Sam Houston State University! So I am getting ready for my party tomorrow and I wanted to show y'all a quick table decorating idea. I have seen various ways to do this on Pinterest but I just used some of the staples I have in my crafting drawerS!

What I used:

*Mason Jars
*Rhinestones
*Ribbons
*Letters cut from my Cricut
*Hot glue
*floating candles
*clear rocks

Alrighty folks! This one is simple.

First, tie your ribbons (or have your WONDERFUL Meme tie them for you) around your mason jars. Make sure they are nice and snug or they'll slip down your mason jar!

Next, glue a big  rhinestone in the middle of the knot of the bow (thank you Tabitha for that awesome idea!)

Then glue some more rhinestones at the bottom of the ribbon! (First you have to sort through a multi-colored pack.. again thank you Tabitha for picking out all the oranges and blues!)

You can be done at this point. BUT if you are fortunate like me and have a Cricut, you can cut out letters! For a wedding I'd just cut out the first letter of the last name, or maybe spell out the whole name for a centerpiece at the cake table. I just did the initials of my college - SHSU. On the Cricut cartridge Plantin Schoolbook I cut out the SHSU in 3 3/4 inches. Then, I cut them out again except this time I used the SHADOW setting and cut out the same letters in the same inches. When they were all cut out I glued the first set (I call it the skinny set) of letters onto the shadowed letters. USE CLEAR GLUE. Then I just hot glued those babies on 4 of my mason jars. Make sure after you hot glue them to the jar that you hold them down for a minute or they'll pop off!

The letters before I glued them to the jars. See how the blue (shadowed letters) are peaking out underneath the (skinny) letters? 

Decopodged Canvas

Student teaching is over and I graduate in 2 days! Now I have all summer to bring you all sorts of fun crafts that I find on Pinterest! On a whim I decided to make something super cute that I found on Pinterest. 

What you'll need: 

*Random scraps of paper

*Canvas

*Ink pad and sponge 

*Mod Podge

*Black paint and brushes 

*Wooden letters

*E-6000

First, cut up the paper into different square shapes. I used my slicer so I'd get cleaner and straighter edges!

Now the hard part... deciding where all the papers will go on  your canvas!

Once I found where I wanted all my pieces to go, I started to ink all the sides of my papers. This took a while and my fingers got very black! But the effect it has when it's finished is WELL worth it!! 

Next, I painted the sides of my canvas black (you can do whatever color you want but since my ink was black I decided to just paint the sides of my canvas black as well!)

Then I started to modpodge all my pieces down. I just painted on modpodge on the back of all the pieces of paper and laid them down on the canvas. I also did not put modpodge over the papers when I was finished because I wasn't sure how that would have turned out. 

Now that all my pieces are cut, inked and mod podged down... I'm going to add my "brand" to the top. 

 I bought some medium sized wooden letters at Hobby Lobby (only $1.99 plus 40% off! Yeah!) Then I painted them black, after they were dry I sprayed over them with a clear high gloss :)

I glued the wooden letters down with E-6000. Make SURE you let the letters set before you hang it on the wall.. or they'll slowly slide down and fall off! It happened to me but luckily I was able to catch the letter before it messed up anything! Let them dry about 24 hours before hanging it up! 

I added some little wooden crosses in the top left corner to add a lil something extra to my canvas. :)

This one is DEFINITELY a pin! 

Easter Cupcake Cups Topiary

Spring Break! Yay! Here is a cute little Easter topiary for you Easter table!

What you'll need: 

* Hot gun/glue

* Paint

*5/16 x 36 dowel ( I cut mine into 8 inch sticks)

* two 3in. Styrofoam balls 

*2 1/2 inch cupcake cups (I bought packs of 36 and used about 5 packs. Luckily they each cost less than a dollar!)

* cup/can

* Filler of your choice. (Easter grass/gemstones/shredded color paper)

To cut my dowel into 8 inch sticks I just cut around and around with a pair of scissors, then it made it easy to just snap in half! MUCH easier than any other method I could think of! Next, I painted my sticks white.

THEN I pushed the 8 inch stick into the Styrofoam ball about one inch. After I had made the hole I took the dowel out and put a lot of hot glue on it, then I replaced the stick into the hole I just made and pushed hard. These made sure the stick was really secure in the hole and wouldn't come out while I was putting the cupcake cups on it.

I feel like these cupcake cups are sad they aren't going to get to hold a delicious treat! It is way easier to go ahead and lay out as many cupcake cups as possible before you start. That way you can grab, glue and place a lot faster!

Using another dowel I had, I pushed the cupcake cup onto the flat side of the dowel and put a spot of hot glue onto the cupcake cup. 

Then I quickly pushed it onto the Styrofoam ball. I didn't keep the ball there between my knees while I was putting the cupcake cup onto it, that was just for picture purposes. I had to actually hold the Styrofoam ball with my hand to make sure that I securely put the cupcake cup onto the Styrofoam ball. 

Looks like a dress!

It's growing!

Yay! I'm getting there!!

So close!!!

Pushing the final cupcake cup onto my Styrofoam ball! YES! 

Next, I placed the other half of my 8 inch stick into another same sized Styrofoam ball, THEN I got lucky. I figured out the cupcake cup plastic container fit the other Styrofoam ball in it perfectly! 

Then I just placed the cup into the metal bucket! I saw other people using Easter grass or shredded paper to hid this part that sits inside the bucket, but I didn't have those things.. so I just used my leftover gemstones to  hide all that. They also kept everything pretty sturdy in place in the bucket so nothing tipped over.

Whale and Ladybug are so impressed! I added two ribbons around my 8 inch stick

oOo I love pastels!

This one is DEFINITELY a pin! 

** Plus, you can do it for any holiday with any colored cupcake cups, just use different colors!!! **