Having Fun
with Tie Dye
By
Theresa Ragan
Fast,
easy, and fun to wear!
Materials:
Rubber
gloves
Dye — all
the colors you love!
Rubber
bands
T-shirts —
any white cotton shirt, tank top or dress
Stove and
large pot for boiling water
Tupperware
bowls and spoon
Newspaper
1. Twist
T-shirts, tank tops and dresses into all sorts of shapes. Twist
rubber bands all over the shirt! Go crazy!
2. Fill
large pot with water, and bring it to a boil. Add salt. Pour hot
water into Tupperware or plastic bowls. Make sure you cover area
with lots of old newspapers.
3. Put on
your rubber gloves, and make sure you’re wearing old clothes.
Next, add one package of dye to each bowl of water and stir.
Never one to follow directions too closely, I usually make my
dye stronger than the package suggests.
4. Dip one
section of dry cloth into the color of your choice. Dip and
squeeze. Repeat. Then move on to the next section of cloth and a
different color, and repeat the process. Don’t worry about the
edges of one color running into the edges of the other. Use a
spoon to add colored dye to spots that are hard to get to. Be
creative. Use your imagination. Squeeze out excess dye each time
you dip. When you are done dipping cloth into dye, put the shirt
aside and start on the next one. After shirts have sat to the
side for a minimum of 15 minutes, go ahead and rinse under cold
water until water is fairly clear. Rinse and squeeze. Take out
rubber bands, rinse again, and hang dry.
5.
Tie-dyed shirts are ready to wear as soon as they are dry! Good
luck and have fun!
Optional:
Make stencils of hearts, stars, or peace signs out of cardboard.
Put a large piece of cardboard inside shirt, then dip one side
of stencil into black fabric paint and push stencil carefully
onto tie-dyed shirt. Repeat. See picture for heart-design
stencil I made and used. Read the instructions about required
drying time for the paint. Allow painted shirts to dry before
wearing. (For more information on shirt stencils, check out Kiki
Clark’s
craft article on the topic from August 2005.)
When
Theresa Ragan
isn’t making crafts with her kids, she’s usually typing away on
her computer, writing another medieval time-travel or
single-title romance. Theresa has been writing romance for more
than a decade and is determined to write as many books as it
takes until she makes her first sale! See what she’s up to by
visiting her Web site at
www.theresaragan.com.
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Saffron
Shrimp, Chicken, and Rice
Contributed by
Bridget Stuart
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain, white rice
(Jasmine is good!)
2 chicken breast halves (or
one if the breasts are connected)
2 cups (approximately)
pre-cooked, peeled prawns or shrimp
2 threads saffron
1/2 cup fresh or frozen
shelled peas
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 (12-ounce) can peeled,
chopped tomatoes, including juice in can
1/4 stick butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Add two threads saffron to
boiling chicken broth, add rice and simmer for 20 minutes or
until rice is fully cooked; set aside. Boil chicken breasts for
approximately 15 minutes in water or until cooked thoroughly (no
pink remains inside). Cool chicken until you can handle it
safely, then "jerk" into pieces approximately thumb size or
smaller; set aside. In a large saucepan, melt butter and stir in
olive oil; sauté onion and red and green peppers until onion
begins to be translucent. Add rice to the pan, and mix with
wooden spoon to distribute vegetables throughout, making sure
rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of pan. (You may add a little
broth if it is too dry at this point, but don’t drown it). Add
contents of peeled, chopped tomato can, including the juice, and
toss in the jerked chicken to heat thoroughly; lastly, toss in
the prawns and stir just until heated.
Serve with a fresh mixed green
salad and enjoy! You may serve either a white or a red wine with
this, and it will go equally well. I recommend a Truchard
Rousanne.
Mexican Sushi
One of our favorite
“Desperation Dinners” is something we call Mexican Sushi.
Fill a wrap with canned crab
or shrimp or whatever leftover (cooked or canned) fish is in the
refrigerator. Sprinkle with grated cheese, whatever kind you
have. Add some cocktail sauce, hot sauce or even salsa. Add
whatever vegetables your kids will eat: sliced peppers, chopped
spinach, a little broccoli maybe. Roll and place in whatever
lightly greased cake pan best does the job. Bake at 325 degrees
until the wraps become crispy. Enjoy with coleslaw or other
salad.
Note: Vegetables can be
steamed in advance, or you can use whatever leftover vegetables
you have in the refrigerator.
Grilled Fish & Mushroom Sauce
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 pound white-fish fillets
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots
1 and 1/2 cups sliced
mushrooms
3 tablespoons flour
1 and 1/4 cups fish bouillon
or water
1/2 cup dry vermouth
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh
parsley
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Grill the fish over a hot fire
and set aside.
Heat the butter and oil in a
large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms
and sauté for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour into the pan,
stirring constantly until it is well blended. Slowly add the
fish bouillon or water, and stir until the sauce is smooth and
thick. Add the vermouth, parsley, and white pepper. Stir until
the sauce is well blended and begins to bubble slightly. Add the
fish. The fish will flake into small pieces as you gently stir
it into the sauce. Heat thoroughly and serve over hot pasta or
rice.
Note: If you can’t grill the
fish, bake it in an oven at 400 degrees until moist and flaky.
Grilled Marinated Prawns
This is one of my family’s
summer barbecue favorites!
3 limes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 to 1.5 pounds of fresh
prawns*, peeled and deveined
To prepare the marinade, wash
the three limes and finely grate the peel into a small bowl.
Squeeze the limes and add the juice to the bowl, along with the
minced garlic and the olive oil. Set aside.
Skewer the prawns—three to
five per skewer makes a nice serving—and place them in a wide,
shallow pan. Whisk the marinade and pour it over the prawns.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator
for half an hour to an hour. Turn them once so they’re evenly
coated.
Grill the prawns for 2 to 3
minutes per side, or until they’re pink and opaque.
*Frozen and/or precooked
prawns work well. Thaw frozen prawns under cool, running water.
If the prawns are precooked—they’ll already be pink if they
are—reduce the cooking time to about 1 minute per side, just
enough to heat them through and get them nicely singed from the
grill.
Garnish with lime wedges, and
serve with salad and grilled vegetables on skewers.
Note: Prawns are also known as
jumbo shrimp.
Fish Chowder (thin soupy type)
1 chopped onion
1 rib celery, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper cut in
half-inch squares
2 filets of a sturdy fish
(grouper, drums, etc.)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and
diced
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh
parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Zatarain’s liquid
crab boil
Place the fish in the bottom
of a large soup pot, cover with about 4 inches of water, add the
tablespoon of crab boil then bring to a boil and cook until fish
is white; turn off. While fish is cooking, swirl a couple
circles of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) in the bottom of a
skillet; add onion, celery and yellow bell pepper then sauté al
dente (still firm). Drain any excess oil from the skillet. Add
the vegetables to the pot with fish. Add the can of diced
tomatoes plus a can full of water to the pot. Bring to a boil;
add the spices and potatoes. When potatoes have cooked, you can
eat the chowder, or stop when potatoes are half cooked then
leave in the refrigerator overnight (this is what we do).
For metric conversions of the measurements above, consult any
of the following sites:
http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/blconv.htm
http://www.thatsmyhome.com/recipes/conversion.htm
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/conversions.htm
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