Best Dad in the West - Father's Day Gift

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads and Father Figures out there.  This year I had a hard time thinking of something for Mr. Devilish Dish.  The last thing he needs are more golf balls or fishing lures.  Both my Christmas and Valentine gifts for him were cooking related: cookbooks and kitchen gadgets so I didn't want to go that route again.  Our Oklahoma Sooners Baseball Team made it to the College World Series.  We got his dad a shirt.  He's a huge baseball fan.  Mr. Devilish Dish got his own shirt.  That idea for him was down the drain.  A while back I saw the cutest cowboy hat planter at Walmart.  That's not really his thing, but I wanted it for myself.  I kept thinking it would make a cute cowboy-themed gift basket.  It was in the back of my mind while I was searching "Father's Day Gift Ideas" online.  Nothing jumped out and said, "Mr. Devilish Dish needs this," but the one thing he's been doing a lot of lately is barbecuing.  You name it, and he has put it in the smoker.  So I was leaning toward some kind of gift with a grilling theme.  But again, he has just about everything gadget for barbecue kings. so I was at a loss.  I was scrolling through my million emails when Texas Food caught my eye.  Apparently sometime in the past I have ordered some Made in Texas products from them.  Of course I took note of all of the barbecue rubs and sauces.  Goldee's Barbecue in Fort Worth, Texas is a highly rated BBQ joint that is often cited as some of the best barbecue in the whole state.  When I saw the gift pack of rubs and BBQ sauce, an idea was born.  AND, instead of a box, gift bag or basket - well I had my excuse to get that cowboy hat planter. I added a little shredded gift basket stuffing and whipped out a cute tag.  Of course I had to get the cowboy boots plant stake too.  Now he can create his delicious Goldee's style barbecue at home and I can plant something pretty in that cowboy hat planter.  Win-Win.  Happy Father's Day.

I just love how this
all came together.

Here's the planter and the little
plant stake.  I'm thinking
of planting either cactus or
succulents in there.  So cute!

All it needed was a little gift 
tag to complete the theme.

Here is the gift tag I created.
Feel free to copy and save it to 
print one for yourself.

I think the planter, plant stake and gift
tag would be a super cute gift with just
a plant inside.  But Mr. Devilish Dish
is a barbecue guy, not a plant guy.
I can tell you he LOVED the rubs
and sauce. 

I hope this little gift idea inspires you.  It would work for any holiday. Without the BBQ stuff I think it would make a super cute baby shower gift.  Add a plant, add some candy, add some bandanas and turquoise jewelry for the ultimate western-themed gift. 

The Viral Costco Meat Breakdown

Mr. Devilish Dish is pretty handy in the kitchen.  His knife skills are way better than mine.  Whenever you see perfectly diced things in pictures, you can be sure he did most of the work.  In fact he does a majority of the cooking around here.  For years we have bought meat in bulk, portioning it and vacuum sealing it for the freezer.  It is not only cheaper, but it is so convenient to have frozen beef, chicken, or pork ready to thaw for whatever we want to prepare.  Especially in the summer when our garden is abundant, we just choose a protein to grill and serve whatever we have harvested that morning.  Now that we are empty nesters, it is even easier to decide what is for dinner.  He grills one big steak and we split it, and while he grills I throw together a salad or simple side dish.  He's been breaking down his own cuts of meat for years, and lately I've started to see more and more people doing the same thing.  It is not only economical, but you control the portion size and the cuts.  On our last Costco beef restock, I decided to document his preparation technique, AND do the math on how much this costs.  Well he did the math.  I went to art school for a reason lol.

This is the result of New York Strip Loin
Break down.

11 (16-20 ounce) steaks
2.25 pounds stew meat
fat that will become tallow

Mr. Devilish Dish does all of the 
cutting and trimming.
My job is to vacuum seal and 
date and label everything for the freezer.

He does large steaks.  We typically
grill one steak and split it between
the two of us, so a 16 ounce steak
is 2 perfect 8-ounce portions.

You need a very sharp knife for this.
He has a "breaking knife" specifically
for this job, but a good heavy-duty
Chef's knife will do.

He portions out the large pieces with
his big knife, and then goes back in 
with a filet knife and removes most
of the fat.

As you can see we paid $168.83 for this beef.

This is the weight and pricing.

Not counting the stew meat and tallow,
that comes out to roughly $15 per steak.

As I said before, he grills one bigger steak for the two of us.  So now we're talking around $8.00 per portion.  I know that is for the meat only, not counting the sides.  But typically we have a baked potato, or something from the garden like salad, fresh tomatoes or shishito peppers.  I looked at the pricing for area steakhouses and a steak dinner of the same size at a chain restaurant is $33.99 for steak, potato and salad.  For the nicer steak house in our town a 14 ounce steak is $55.00 with ala carte sides.  Even if we split that steak we're still talking almost $28 per portion for each of us.  Versus $7.50 per portion.

We also love to have the stew meat for his famous Green Chile Stew 

so those couple of pounds of trimmings are well used, especially when the weather starts to cool off.

He renders all of the fat down and makes his own tallow.  Not only does he use the tallow for a lot of his preparations, last Christmas I made my own tallow soap.  I grew my own loofah plants and my friends got all natural loofahs and soap for Christmas.  Feeling very Laura Ingalls after that.  Do you need to save the fat and go to the trouble of making tallow?  No, but it's something he likes to do, and really makes this process have almost no waste.

Does this technique work for everyone? No.  We are fortunate enough to have deep freeze, so we have the space to store the meat.  We also have a vacuum sealer that helps keep everything fresh.  I did not factor the cost of the freezer bags nor our time and effort into this.  

It does take some time and effort to do this.  We are empty nesters, and we both enjoy doing activities like this.  Mr. Devilish Dish breaks down all of his own chickens and makes his own stocks and broths.  There was a time when I bought a can of Swanson's Chicken Broth can called it a day, because we both worked full time and had Little Devil and the Devilish Nephew to care for.  Now it is only the two of us. 

There are tons of YouTube videos that delve more in depth on how to select your meat, how to cut and weigh everything out.  Mr. Devilish Dish has been doing this so long, I really don't have a tutorial, but if you're interested in doing this, the info is out there.

Let me know if you decide to do this and how it goes for you!

EGGS-Presso Martini Easter Gift

I have four "big kids" now.  Little Devil has her very serious boyfriend, who is part of the family.  He has his name on a Christmas stocking so he is stuck with us now.  The Devilish Nephew has the most awesome wife.  It's kind of fun being empty nesters with adult kids.  Now we can hang out and enjoy a cocktail with the same folks we were once yelling at over late homework and dirty laundry.  OF COURSE I have little Easter Baskets made for the tiniest devils.  They are 3 and 5.  I hope I live long enough to have an espresso martini with them someday, but for now I am obsessed with the little guys, so they can stay tiny and hunt Easter eggs for many more years.  Sometimes I do grown up baskets or gifts for the big kids, and this time I saw these super cute glasses with Easter eggs on them, and I thought that would be a cute container for a grown up "basket." Then I saw a reel someone made putting together the canned espresso drink with a bottle of vodka wrapped up like a carrot.  The only thing missing was the opportunity for having a bad pun and calling it EGGS-Presso instead of espresso.  So I got inspired to make my own version for my big kids.  This is a great co-worker treat or hostess gift too, and I've included the little tag you can print to make your own.  Happy Easter!

Easter "baskets" for my "big kids"

Here's everything you need.
It's listed below.

Put the green shred in the bottom of
each glass to look like grass.
Add a can of espresso drink.

Place the individual vodka bottle
upside down and gather the orange
tissue around it.

Tie it off at the larger end so it 
looks like a carrot.

I trimmed my tissue paper at the
top because it was pretty big and I was 
too lazy to cut my tissue squares into
smaller sizes.

Grab some Easter-themed candy
to throw in.  I went with eggs since my
glasses had eggs on them.
AND it's an EGGS-presso Martini.

Add the vodka carrot and your candy 
to the glass. I'm not gonna lie,
my stuff BARELY fit in here.  I'm glad
I chose the Ketel vodka because it 
was a longer, skinny bottle.

Here's my tag.  You can right click 
on this and save it to your computer.
Size it to your liking and print it onto
cardstock.  Cut it out and punch a tiny
hole and tie it onto your carrot.

Aren't these just the cutest?
Blue eggs for the boys and pink
eggs for the girls.

Cheers! Happy Easter.

EGGS-PRESSO MARTINI GIFTS

You'll Need:

Easter-themed glasses or other container (I found these at Hobby Lobby - I literally googled "easter glasses near me)

Starbucks Mini Espresso in a can (I found these at the grocery store)

Mini bottles of vodka ( I found these at Total Wine - I went with Ketel because I think it's better tasting vodka, and I liked the shape of the bottle)

Easter candy (small eggs or chocolate rabbits) (Found at the grocery store)

green shred or easter grass (Hobby Lobby)

orange tissue paper (Hobby Lobby)

green ribbon (Hobby Lobby)

cardstock to print the tag
hole punch
twine or thin string to tie the tag on

Let me know if you make these.  Send me a pic, I want to see it, or TAG ME if you post to your social media <3

80's Alternative Music Themed Anniversary Gift

Mr. Devilish Dish and I have been together for a long time. We met in junior high, and really only started dating around our senior year of high school.  Without giving away my age, you could say 80's music was popular back then.  For our first few wedding anniversaries we tried to follow the traditional gift protocol like First Year: Paper (He gave me a Martha Stewart Cookbook and I gave him an Oklahoma Football book.) Seven Years was wool and I gave him seven pairs of wool socks.  Once you hit ten years, the suggested gifts seem to skip to 15 years, and then every five years after that.  Plus they get more expensive as the years go on.  Sterling silver, pearl, coral, ruby etc...That's not really our style.  On our 25th anniversary I got the bright idea to gift him a big silver bucket with the song theme "Tennessee Whiskey" which included Tennessee whiskey, strawberry wine, and brandy.  I've done some sillier song themes with gifts like, "Beer Bait & Ammo" and last year my theme was "Abracadabra" by Steve Miller Band.  I used some post Halloween sale items for a witchy/magic theme and gifted him tickets to see Steve Miller Band.  This year I was stumped for a fun song and stumped for a theme.  His favorite music genre is 80's Alternative.  He mentioned a while back he needed a new pair of Converse Chuck Taylor Sneakers and an idea was born!  I could not settle on an 80's alternative love song to theme my gift around so I just picked the entire genre.  I ordered a pair of new sneakers for him and once I searched "80's alternative music gifts" the rest of his gift came together really easily.  The book, "Mad World" kept popping up in my searches, and as it turns out, the author Lori Majewski is on Sirius Channel 33 First Wave which is his favorite music station.  Plus Duran Duran is on the cover which makes me happy too.  A trip to Etsy led me to a pint beer glass that looks like it's covered with cassette tapes.  I found one with a lot of his favorites.  The holiday calendar kiosk at our local mall had a Gen X calendar to round out the gift.  All I needed was some sort of basket or bag to gift it in.  I had a vision for a gift box that would look like a vintage boom box, but in my searches the only things I could find were homemade Valentine boxes.  And then I thought why not make a homemade box.  Who cares if it is silly and made with construction paper?  That's exactly the type of stuff I used to make him in the 80's.  Before Amazon and custom printing we used Elmer's glue and construction paper for our love notes and gifts.  I went full 1980's fan girl on my box.  I spray painted a liquor store box silver and cut out all the shapes and glued them on for a vintage boom box look.  It turned out so cheesy and corny and perfect.  The homemade box was actually my favorite part of the gift.  When we got ready to exchange gifts, he was listening to Yacht Rock music and I said, "Alexa play Sirius XM Channel 33 First Wave" which completely shocked him.  Then I whipped out his gift and said, "The music needed to match my theme."  He was really pleased with the gift and totally amused with the gift box.  I think the best part has been the beer glass.  He even made a new playlist called "The Pint Glass Play List" based on the artists on the glass.  Who needs coral and rubies when you can have Duran Duran and Depeche Mode!

Here's my 80's Alternative Music Themed
Anniversary Gift.  I'm so happy with
how fun it turned out.

Converse Chuck Taylor Sneakers,
a book for any music lover,
a new trivia calendar and best of all
the cassette-themed beer glass. 

My corny, homemade gift box.
We might be a long way from the 80's
but I'm still a silly high school girl at heart.

This turned out to be so much fun.
This would make a great gift theme for 
any music lover, and a great retro 
birthday gift idea too!

I hope this inspires you to get crafty and creative with your gift ideas.  They don't have to be expensive to be thoughtful.  A free box from the liquor store and some paint and paper I had around the house turned into a super fun gift idea.

Happy Crafting,

"VALENTINE: Every Hour is Happy With You" Cocktail Gift

Last Valentine's Day was pretty lame because I was on week 6 of a 16 week recovery of hand surgery.  I've mentioned in posts past that Mr. Devilish Dish and I passed the recuperation time by watching reruns of "Bar Rescue" and creating cocktails.  Aside from the excruciating pain, and frustration of only having one hand to blow dry my hair, I have to say those few weeks were time well spent with my husband.  He took great care of me and went to great effort to keep me comfortable, sane and entertained.  In addition, we learned a lot about the art of cocktail making and when Valentine's Day rolled around I knew I wanted to get him the handful of tools I realized we were missing in our bar set-up.  We needed a cocktail mixing glass, a cocktail strainer and he asked for sugar cubes.  I also found a company that sells the most unique cocktail mixers, bitters and more.  El Guapo is located in New Orleans, which is dear to our hearts because my brother-in-law is a chef there.  I had already ordered gifts for him from this company in years past, and I knew their LOVE POTION BITTERS would be the perfect addition to a cocktail themed Valentine basket.  I also added a bottle of their Cajun Grenadine which features the famous Ponchatoula strawberries.  And of course no Valentine is complete without some chocolates so I added some of his favorites in there too.  Considering I put the entire thing together with one hand, I was pretty impressed with this little gift.  Even if I wasn't able to tie a bow on it.  And the best part, is I do love a Valentine Pun, so I was able to add a little homemade card that said, "Valentine: Every Hour is Happy With You." Which turned out to be very true, because My Valentine is the one that helped me get through that mess of a surgery recovery. 

Valentine: Every Hour is Happy with You!

These bitters are so unique,
and fit with my theme perfectly.

I filled the cocktail mixing glass
with a variety of his favorite candy.
(And mine too.  I ate that Reese's.)

Did you know that traditional grenadine
is made from pomegranate? THIS certified
Cajun version features Louisiana strawberries. 

Here's the whole basket.  Good thing
it didn't need a bow, because I couldn't 
tie one with one hand.

Hope this gives you some Valentine inspo!

A Totally Awesome 1980s Party

 I am a true 80's kid.  You know...Generation X: Raised on hose water and neglect.  Literally.  Commercials came on right before the evening news and said, "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" Television had to REMIND our parents to summon us home for bedtime.  It was truly a different time, and if you know you know.  We loved it.  Now I have my great nephews, the Littlest Devils making me kind of a pseudo grandmother.  A really cool Gen X grandmother.  You know Mr. Devilish Dish and I love live music.  In the last year we've seen Adam Ant, Psychedelic Furs, The Church, Duran Duran, Rick Springfield, The English Beat, Wang Chung, Paul Young, John Waite, Toto, Christopher Cross and Men at Work.  (Not including countless Red Dirt and other genres, but this is an 80's post!) Take me back!  Anyway, now that I am a cool Gen X G-ma, I saw these adorable personalized beaded bracelets.  I wanted them with the Littlest Devils names on them but they were kind of pricy.  You know I'm a crafty girl, so I landed upon the idea to make some custom bracelets (think those Swiftie style bangles) and it reminded me of the good 'ol days when we made friendship bracelets.  I remember in 10th Grade, I had a class with Mr. DD and he asked me to make a friendship bracelet for him.  Mind you he was NOT my boyfriend at the time.  He was just one of the cutest boys in the whole school and a very preppie golfer-type.  I remember spending hours at the craft store putting together the exact combination of embroidery threads to make him the ultimate preppie boy friendship bracelet.  Apparently it worked because we've been together over 30 years now.  Since I am still an 80s girl at heart, the night I decided to try my hand at creating the beaded bracelets, I invited over some crafty friends and decided to make a true 80's themed feast.  Not only did we create some totally awesome bracelets and have some good food and good laughs, we turned on YouTube and found some videos with assemblages of old 1980's commercials.  It was hilarious hearing, "Where's the Beef?" and "Mikey Likes It."  I hope this inspires your next get-together for some 80's themed fun!

Here's the full spread.  This was so much fun 
planning and putting together.

No 80s party is complete without some glow
necklaces and bracelets.

Remember the Sea Monkeys? My mom would NEVER
let me have those.  We enjoyed Shrimp Cocktail with
Mr. Devilish Dish's SPICY COCKTAIL SAUCE.

I made a small "charcuterie board" and cut a brie
cheese to look like Pac-Man.  I just added some salami,
crackers and fresh grapes.

The hardest part of the whole night was hollowing
out a cabbage for the "Cabbage Patch" relish tray.
Just ranch dip served in a cabbage with some
fresh veggies.

Remember hitting the mall for an Orange Julius?
Not only do I have a recipe for the DRINK HERE,
but I have a FRUIT DIP that tastes exactly like the
original drink.  We enjoyed that with fresh berries.

I added a bowl of candy and glow sticks.
Most of the candy I found at Dollar Tree.
Pop Rocks and Ring Pops were the thing
back then!

I hope you get some inspiration for your own 80s party.  This was kind of a spur of the moment event, but I know I will use these ideas in the future.  This could be the beginnings of a great costume or birthday party.  

Road Trip Snack Box Gift Idea

We have soooo many birthdays in the month of September.  My brother-in-law, father-in-law, Little Devil, Devilish Nephew, Mr. Devilish Dish, plus several close friends.  Now combine that with Christmas shopping a mere three months away and I'm always out of ideas.  I love a good theme gift like my fun "CHOCOLATE Lab" gift from years ago, or the PATRIOTIC BIRTHDAY BAGS I made for my mom and aunt and while back.  I made this gift for my father-in-law this past Father's Day, but the idea could be easily adapted for any occasion.  My in-laws are professional road trippers.  They have great friends in Arkansas that they visit several times a year.  We were struggling to come up with a good idea for his Father's Day gift when I stumbled upon these neat treat boxes at Hobby Lobby.  I sent Mr. Devilish Dish a screen shot and said, "Father's Day idea activated."  We went to our local Winco Grocery Store because they have an awesome bulk section of nuts, candies and other treats and bought all kinds of tasty treats to fill the separate chambers.  Of course the gift could have stopped there, but I'm extra and I need to zhuzh up everything I get my hands on.  I found a Hot Wheels car that is the same model as their car and made a couple of cute gift tags to tie on to complete Papa Bear's Road Trip Snack Box.  What little boy (even 77 year-old boys) don't love a race car? That way he had some tasty snack for his drive to Arkansas, and a neat box he can refill for future trips.  I know I will recycle this idea for future gifts, and I hope it inspires you for your gift giving occasions!

Here's the completed Road Trip Snack Box - 
it turned out so cute!

We added chocolate covered sea salt popcorn, 
limoncello almonds, macadamia nuts, M&Ms and more!
Thanks Winco!

Here's my supplies all gathered and ready to go.

I used double-sided tape to add the car to the 
little road strip tag.

Here it is all tied on and ready to roll!

ROAD TRIP SNACK BOX SUPPLIES:


One divided snack container with lid
Assorted snacks to fill the container
Hot Wheels Car
Gift tag or card
Scissors
Twine or ribbon
Hole Punch
Double-Sided Tape

 

PS: Here's the road strip I used to create the tag
for the Hot Wheels Car to drive on.  Right-click and 
save to your computer and print onto cardstock. 
Attach your car with double-sided tape.