How to make pages on Blogger

So a good friend of mine asked me how I made my pages on Blogger. So here is a hopefully understandable step-by-step guide on how I did this. Having pages gives to a place to sort out posts, like tutorials, recipes, information and other items. It is a really helpful tool. And it was all provided through one of those lovely "Gadgets"! (Sorry these images are a bit fuzzy)

   Go into your blog settings, select "Layout" (Red Oval) then click on a "Add a Gadget" button, see here in the red rectangle.

Once you click on the "Add a Gadget" this pop up will appear and you will want to add the "Pages" gadget you see here selected by the red rectangle.

Then arrange your gadget in your layout where you would like it to go.

Then you click on the edit button on your new gadget and you will see a new button pop up that will give you all your options for making your pages.

Now that you have named and arranged your pages to your liking you will want to go to the "pages" section (seen in the red oval) and here you can see where your individual editing will take place.

Now go into your live blog. You will see your pages...but they don't have the text type or color that you desire. Now you need to liven things up! Select "design" (red oval) and get to work!

See that red box? Click that customize button! Do it! (apparently I need some sugar...miss grumpy pants)

Once in the "customize area you want to click on the the "advanced" button shown in the red rectangle.

Then scroll down till you see tabs text and tabs background and edit to your liking. You will be able to see how it looks below. Once you are satisfied with the results. click the "apply to blog" button.

THEN YOUR DONE!

That is until you want to change it again.

Have fun creating!

Misguided Maiden

Roasted Chile Salsa

So I am a spicy girl. I like a little spice in my food. Not necessarily HOT but spices are an excellent way to liven up a meal (and they pack a whole lotta vitamin C). Don't get me wrong...I can handle and I LOVE the heat, but not everyone does so I try to accommodate for that in my cooking.

But not in this recipe.

This is a roasted chile salsa...if eaten with chips alone it will pack quite a punch! However, if eaten with say a breakfast burrito...spicy magic.

This is our Chile Directory...These are the chiles that will be used in the salsa. This is how much you need to get the party started. the hottest pepper here is the serrano and following in in order to the most mild is the Poblano chile. The smaller the pepper the bigger the punch! If you wanted to make a more milder roasted salsa use two Aneheims and two Poblanos. or mix it up! This is a very forgiving recipe. LOVE THOSE!

 You will also need your tomato base. The old family traditional way would be to roast your onion and fresh tomatoes and blend that into the mixture...but...I am a girl with little time on my hands so this is the "college" way (still used today). Believe me it is just as good.

 So here is all your ingredients (One chile hiding behind the mighty Poblano).

 Place your pepper on some aluminum foil

 Roast or broil them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the look like...

 THIS!

 Then take to tops off and throw them into the blender.

 Pour your entire can of tomato blend into the blender.

And blend on a medium setting until it is the consistency you like. Then can to preserve for later or...store in the fridge for one week. Believe me it will go by fast.

Buen Provecho!

Misguided Maiden

Pico de Gallo con Aguacate

That's fresh salsa with avocados! This is just one way to make Pico de Gallo. It is simple and with the California weather there is usually fresh tomatoes (even in January,  but not for long). The Salsa I made was a smaller version than the recipe below which is twice the amount. There were only 2.5 people eating this and it is better fresh so I did not want any to go to waste or I would be forced to eat it!

 First you want one small white or purple onion

 6 Roma Tomatoes (Any tomato will do as you can see above but I am partial to the Romas for this salsa. Can't get my hands on them locally at this time of the year though.)

 1/2 to one bunch of cilantro. Stems and leaves!

 

One Avocado. Two if you like more. I certainly do!

 1/2 to 1 jalapeno depending on spice tolerance. For what we made with this I opted out of the jalapeno for my little ones sake. 

 Juice from one fresh lime (as you can see above this is not fresh) this can be used if your in a bind. Like I am more often than not.

 Chop all your ingredients up and mix together! drizzle a little lime and salt for taste. I have even heard of people using garlic salt! It is delicious too!

Then TRY to save some for your meal.

Pico De Gallo con Aguacate (Avocado)

Ingredients
One small white or purple onion diced
6 Roma Tomatoes (or your tomato of choice) diced
1/2 to 1 bunch of cilantro with stems and leaves, chopped
One to two avocado diced
1/2 to one jalapeno (or none) finely diced
The juice of 1-2 limes
Salt to taste

Directions
Mix all ingredients, add lime and salt to taste and enjoy!

Buen Provecho!

Misguided Maiden

Whats for Dinner? Green Chile Enchiladas!

This is one of my go to meals when I am in a bind. My mom made this for us when we were kids and now I can make it for my son (not as spicy for him) and husband. In the future I hope to show you just how easy this is to make (and quick)! But for now...its time to drool...

 Meal Preparation

 Little Helper!

 Time to eat!

 Oh My! Tastiness!

Sorry...I did not want to share.

Buen Provecho!

(That's Bon Appetite in Spanish)

Misguided Maiden

Saying Goodbye to Black Dog

Today my husbands parents had to put down their dog black today. Here he is with our dog Bammer. They were best friends. It always hard to see pets pass away, just as it is to see anyone we love deteriorate and pass on. I will miss you Black; you were such a good dog and I know Bammer will miss her best friend and partner in crime. However, I look forward to meeting you in heaven when its my time to move on. In the meantime we will continue to look after Bammer and your mom and dad for you.

                                                                                                     Much LOVE ~

                                                                        Misguided Maiden

ABC Wall: Part Three. Time to Work!

Rainy days lead to entertaining indoors and focusing on cleaning and organizing (which is good) and less on moving forward on projects or blogging. We desperately need the rain though; and I want to see the green hills again (some would be right outside my door)! Well with a short break in the weather I was able to paint my 26 frames with the fabulous colors I showed you in a previous post.

 I had some large boxes from some furniture I purchased which made for good spray table tops!

 First you want to prime those frames up!

 Then separate the frames based on the color you will be spraying them and Spray Spray Spray!

Look at those bright vibrant colors! I am getting so excited! Then because I wanted a weathered finish I left them outside overnight to dry. With the morning mist it gave them a nice look (will have to post a close up later).

Random Picture:

 And here is my cat bullfrog who was watching my work. Supervising can be tough. Especially for a cat.

Next is figuring out the layout and of course making your animal artwork! More to come.

~Misguided Maiden

Recycle: Bags with logos a Valentines Day Edition

After all that Christmas shopping most of us are left with numerous bags that could still be usable but have logos plastered all over them from the various shopping venues. Here is one that I had leftover after picking up some stockings and lip-gloss:

There are logos all over this baby...lets see if we can fix that. With the dark and light pink stripes this bag is screaming to be made into a valentines bag.

 So with some card-stock, scrap felt, permanent marker and the ol' glue gun I was able to come up with something.

 Here are the two little inserts for the inside of the bag...yes there are logos in there too!

 I wanted to come up with a little saying that would mean something to me and would go with the Valentines Day theme of the bag. so I came up with "LOVE is even in the smallest spaces." I liked this because it is all the little things that make me fall in love with someone. Also, have you seen nature? Little pink flowers surviving and thriving in the smallest cracks of concrete?

It takes a lot of love to make miracles like that happen.

I decided to do one side with a lot of decoration and keep the other side plain. maybe because I was tired or maybe because I liked how it shows how love can be simple and love can be complicating.

 Here is where my other logo cover ups went...

Now I have a new lease on this bag to fill with goodies and give to someone on Valentines day!

                                                                                Love ~

Misguided Maiden

ABC Wall: Part Two. Whats in a Name?

Concept? Check.
Frames? Check.
Color Palette? Check.

Layout and Names? No.

So It took some thought on how I wanted to do the actual artwork that went into each frame. Was I going to do the generic ABC's or would I attempt something more complicated. The idea winner in this case came from the rug in the room:

You can see how most of the shapes are silhouette so I went this this idea. I would do black and white silhouettes of an animal that would represent each letter and put the name of the animal within the picture as well, making the first letter a wee bigger than the rest of the letters. I liked the idea of black and white because it would play off well with the bright frames and it would be an easy contrast for my son to focus in on from any distance.

Now comes the fun part. Matching names of animals to each letter. This is where your significant other comes greatly into play. I employed my spouse into helping me figure out all the animals. This was a fun little activity to do together and it got him involved in the process and excited about the project (which is always good...especially when you are grumpy the next day staying up late working on said project. they always seem to understand better and are more "sympathetic").

So here is the list:

A- Alligator

B- Buffalo

C-Chicken (it was cat but we have chickens...so)*

D-Deer (it was dog but we have deer sightings...so)

E-Elephant

F- Flamingo

G- Giraffe

H- Horse

I- Iguana*

J- Jaguar

K- Kangaroo

L- Lion

M- Mouse*

N- Nightingale

O- Owl

P- Porcupine

Q- Quail

R- Rabbit

S- Squirrel

T- Turtle*

U- Ursa (Bear)

V- Vulture

W- Wolf

X- X-Ray Fish*

Y- Yak

Z- Zebra

*Are those in the teeny tiny frames.

Then you find free silhouettes. Like this:

Roarrrrr!



And cool fonts like this:



Alligator

Till next time!

-Misguided Maiden