Ann's Entitled Life

Compliment Painted Rocks

March 29, 2018 By Ann 3 Comments

How to paint rocks. This easy painted rocks tutorial has many rock painting ideas for a beginner. Whether giving as a gift, painting rocks for the garden, or just painting a fun, decorative rock for the family room shelf, these compliment painted rocks are adorable and simple to make.

Compliment Painted Rocks

Rock painting is all the rage! From garden markers to cartoon characters to flowers and plant, there is a rock painting idea for nearly everyone. So why not say something nice? These Compliment Painted Rocks are simple to make. You can also use them as weights to weigh down a tablecloth on a picnic table or as party favors. There is no end to the different sayings you can paint.

If you love giving and getting compliments, you will love these compliment stones! These little rocks can be used to give random compliments to friends and coworkers in the most adorable way possible. Celebrate your friends and similes at the same time with the compliment stones. These also make fun gifts for friends, teachers, relatives, or Christmas stockings!

Notes:

• These are small, but you can make them larger.
• Any size or color combo that you like will work. Just keep the contrast high.
• Make sure you waterproof even if being kept indoor. That will help keep the paint in place.

Compliment Painted Rocks Materials:

• River Rocks (any color)
• Acrylic Paints
• Paint brushes
• Mod Podge or or other Waterproof Sealer
• Paint Pen – optional

Compliment Painted Rocks Directions:

• Cover your work surface in case of spills.
• Make sure your rocks are clean and dry.
• Paint them one color (in this case black).
• Allow the paint to dry completely. Remember to paint all sides, and the top and bottom of the rocks.

• Think about funny sayings and compliments you can write onto the rocks. I used silly phrases like:

Cute as a button
Busy as a bee
Light as a feather
Cool as a cucumber
Sweet as pie
Happy as a lark
Fresh as a daisy
Happy as a clam

• Any common and sweet similies will work for the compliment rocks.

• Leave a big area clear for your words and paint a small object onto the stone that matches your saying. For instance a small button for “cute as a button”. A small bug for “cute as a bug’s ear”, a daisy for “fresh as a daisy”, etc. The object is in place of the last word of the saying. You can trace an outline of the small object, or just draw it freehand.
• Once the paint for your small themed object dries, write on your words with a contrasting color to your stone base. You can use a paint pen or a fine tiped pain brush and acrylic paint. These stones were painted black, so I used white to write the words.
Allow the word-paint time to dry completely.

• Add any touch-up details to make the stones prettier, then let dry.

• Add a layer of Mod Podge to the stones to protect them.
• Allow the Mod Podge to dry for 24 hours before using.

• You can even add a strong magnet to the back of your stones and make them magnets, or display them on your desk or shelf with pride, if you love them too much to give them away!

If you would like to make more painted rocks, check out these painted rock tutorials:

• Sylvanian Families painted rocks – if you children like Sylvanian Families (the toys are super cute), this Sylvanian Families painted rocks tutorial is for you (and them)!

• Dr. Seuss Inspired Thing One and Thing Two – if you have Dr Seuss fans in your house, these are a must. Simply the cutest!

• Pet Cactus Rocks – these pet cactus rocks are fabulous! Super easy to make, these are simply adorable.

• Holiday Painted Rocks – check out all the holiday painted rocks. From Valentine’s Day to Pumpkins to Christmas, there are some really great tutorials.

• Disclosure: the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Gardening Posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• For more Craft posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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Filed Under: Crafts, Decor, Outdoor

Dilled Chicken Salad Recipe

March 26, 2018 By Ann Leave a Comment

Do you have leftover cooked chicken? Make this simple dilled chicken salad recipe. It comes together in minutes for a fast and delicious lunch entrée. Yum!

Dilled Chicken Salad Recipe

Notes:

• This recipe is in a Romaine lettuce “boat”. If you prefer bread or rolls to make a sandwich instead of, or in addition to, the Romaine lettuce, go for it!

• If you like chicken salad, try this chicken salad recipe. It is the BEST chicken salad ever! (no offense to this dilled chicken salad recipe).

• If you do not have leftover baked or cooked chicken, try poaching your chicken! It makes for a very tender, very flavorful chicken and a better chicken salad (truly). Here’s the poached chicken salad recipe.

Dilled Chicken Salad Ingredients:

• 2 cups Chicken, cooked, diced or shredded
• ¾ cup Mayonnaise
• ½ cup Red Onion, chopped
• 3 ribs Celery, chopped
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• ½ tsp Onion Powder
• 1 TBSP Dried Dill
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice
• to taste Salt
to taste Pepper
• 2 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
• 8 Romaine Lettuce Leaves, cleaned and washed if desired

Dilled Chicken Salad Mise en Place:

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Measuring Spoons
• Measuring Cup
• Bowl

Dilled Chicken Salad Directions:

• Chop chicken, red onion, and celery into bite sized pieces.
• In a large bowl combine cooked chicken, mayonnaise, red onion, celery, garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill, lemon juice and salt and pepper.
Put all ingredients into a bowl except tomato and romaine
• Mix well and taste for seasoning adjustments. If you prefer any more of an ingredient, add it now.

• Transfer ¼ cup to ½ cup of prepared chicken salad into the romaine leaves. The amount will depend on personal preference (as to how much you want in each leaf) and the size of the leaves.
• Chop Roma tomato into bite sized pieces.
• Top with the chopped Roma tomato.

Dilled Chicken Salad Recipe
By Ann
Do you have leftover cooked chicken? Make this simple dilled chicken salad recipe. It comes together in minutes for a fast and delicious lunch entrée. Yum!

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 0 Minutes
Total Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Chicken, cooked, diced or shredded
• ¾ cup Mayonnaise
• ½ cup Red Onion, chopped
• 3 ribs Celery, chopped
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• ½ tsp Onion Powder
• 1 TBSP Dried Dill
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice
• to taste Salt
• to taste Pepper
• 2 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
• 8 Romaine Lettuce Leaves, cleaned and washed, if desired

Directions:

• Chop chicken, red onion, and celery into bite sized pieces.
• In a large bowl combine cooked chicken, mayonnaise, red onion, celery, garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill, lemon juice and salt and pepper.
Put all ingredients into a bowl except tomato and romaine
• Mix well and taste for seasoning adjustments. If you prefer any more of an ingredient, add iit now.
• Transfer ¼ cup to ½ cup of prepared chicken salad into the romaine leaves. The amount will depend on personal preference (as to how much you want in each leaf) and the size of the leaves.
• Chop Roma tomato into bite sized pieces.
• Top with the chopped Roma tomato.

Makes 8 servings Dilled Chicken Salad

• To print the Dilled Chicken Salad recipe click here.

• Disclosure the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Recipes on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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Filed Under: Entrees, Recipes

Estate Wineries on Seneca Lake

March 21, 2018 By Ann Leave a Comment

Estate Wineries on Seneca Lake

Over the last three years of taking Max to Cornell for his GME Hubby and I have visited a lot of Finger Lakes Wineries. You may want to read some of my past posts on Seneca Lake Wineries (west side) and Wine Tasting On Seneca Lake (east side).

Last month we took Max at the end of February for his chemo treatment and decided to hit a few wineries while waiting. We had only gone to one winery in January and decided more wine tastings were in order for February – especially in light of one of my favorite Finger Lakes wineries being sold! (it was an estate winery too!) That and it was 60 degrees out that day.

An estate winery is a winery where they grow their own grapes (owned or controlled). Many wineries do not own their own grapes. They buy grapes from various places (maybe not even local) and ferment and make their wine from the outsourced grapes. So, an estate winery is the exact opposite of that! They grow their own grapes and make their own wine.

Does it make a difference to the taste of the wine? In my uneducated opinion, it definitely can. One of my of my favorite estate wineries (the people closing down) has a Syrah grape that is not generally grown in the Finger Lakes. And they have produced some mighty fine wines with it.

For my favorite Finger Lakes Winery – Silver Springs Winery it appears (again, I am uneducated in viticulture) that the process is even more important. They dry the grapes (like raisins), the press, etc. with the higher-end wines they sell and everything was much more hands-on than what we have seen at other wineries.

I own (and have consumed) cases and cases and cases of wine from Silver Springs. It is an amazing winery!

This is an old photo since we had just purchased a few cases and didn’t head back in February. They finished their addition though (a huge new tasting room) and I think Hubby and I will be back in April for more very, very good wine.

Some details: The wine tasting here was $5 for 6 tastings.

The owner’s daughter (Kimmie) is now making wine with her dad. She is soooo helpful whenever we stop in. She marks our wines that need to be decanted, explain the new processes, and more.

While not inexpensive, I HIGHLY suggest stopping at Silver Springs Winery if you are touring the Finger Lakes.

I had not read up about Lamoreaux Landing before stopping there. I just needed a fourth winery to make the estate winery trip worthwhile, so added it.

One of the issues with Finger Lakes Estate Wineries we ran into is they were closed on Mondays. Some were only open on Sunday. Some were only open on Saturday. But many were closed on Mondays. I cannot blame them – if it is a family operation, a steady day off needs to happen.

The current hours of operation for Lamoreaux Landing are M-S, 10-5, and Sunday 12-5.* Tastings were 5 for $5, but since it was a Monday I think we had 7 or 8 tastes. (Tip: when there are two of you doing tastings and someone needs to drive, splitting a tasting helps. It also helps to swish and swirl, and not take big gulps of wine.)

This is my new second-favorite Finger Lakes Winery! OMG the Riesling Ice for $38 was well, well, WELL worth the price. I am not a big white wine drinker, but do like late harvests and ice wines. This is labeled a dessert wine and is so rich and smooth – the next time we buy a case! Absolutely delicious.

I also purchased the unoaked Cabernet Franc that was absolutely amazing. This will also be a case purchase next time too.

Now in case you are wondering why we (ok, I) do not buy cases the first time through as wintery, it is because Hubby and I do get palate fatigue when doing several wine tastings. We now have four wineries as our daily limit, and only purchase one or two alike bottles at a time after the first winery. It avoids mistakes.

The Riesling Ice was so good, I purchased four bottles first time though, and we’ve already consumed two of them. Yum!

The Atwater Winery was actually our first stop of the day. The current hours of operation for Atwater Winery are M-S, 10-5, and Sunday 11-5.* The wine tastings were $5 for 5 tastings.

They had very nice wines that were very inexpensive. For instance, their 2012 Gewürztraminer was on super discount sale – 3/$30 or 6/$50. I did purchase three and just have to be certain we drink it soon.

Our pourer also clued us in on the coravin wine system! I have not yet decided which one is best for our needs, but I need to buy soon. It basically ends wine-waste.

One thing that I purchased here that was really interesting was wine flour. Wine flour is made from grape seeds and skins and is gluten-free. This is sourced out, and part of their sustainable practices. I purchased a bag of red and a bag of white wine flour. While the bags came with recipes I can always find more recipes at Sustainable Viticulture Systems.

Right next door is Chateau LaFayette Reneau. This is one large estate winery. They have over 100 acres of grapes, and they are growing as far as the eye can see!

They have two seasons of hours, May-Oct open every day 10-6, Nov to April open daily 10-5.*

The wine tasting was 5/$5, and there was an upcharge for the premium wines. Hubby liked this winery a lot. Our purer was quite knowledgeable and gave us tidbits on all the wines we tasted.

I ended up buying the Meritage (on sale for $25 a bottle!), Cab Sauvignon Owner’s Reserve (the $2 upcharge was refunded when I purchased this $39.99 bottle of wine), and a Late Harvest Riesling ($14.99!! Yes, only a 375ml bottle, but still… cheap for what you are getting)

Our final winery of the day was Boundary Breaks Open 11-5 7 days a week*, the tasting was $5/5. They have a wine and cheese pairing for 4 wines + 4 cheeses for $10.

There is an interesting story to Boundary Breaks in that they only sold Riesling when they first opened, and for several years afterward. I did quite a bit of research on this winery before we went as it is well off the beaten path. The reviews all said it was worth the ride.

To me, because we like to try new things, it was worth the ride. For the wines? Not-so-much. Besides the dry rose I *gagged on* (seriously just not good), they only had dry Reislings in stock, the reserve had just arrived and was not ready to pour. I have no idea when the Riesling Ice would be available.

I also have no idea what Hubby purchased. I don’t think it was much as the few wines we tried were not for either of us. I did tell my brother that if he and his wife go (they like Rieslings) to buy me one of each of the Ice and Late Harvest. I’m more than willing to give them a try!

They do have a lovely set-up here. Almost on top of Seneca Lake, you can drive around the winery (and all their grapes!) and get down on the access road next to Seneca Lake where I swear I could almost touch the water from my seat in our vehicle.

And that was it for estate wineries for us for the day. If you would like to find more Estate Wineries on Seneca Lake, be sure to check out the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. And, don’t be afraid to make a spur of the moment stop! Some of my favorite wineries were unplanned stops.

* Always check with the winery for store hours. Sometimes, wineries are closed for special events.

More Finger Lakes Wine Tasting Experiences:

• West Side of Seneca Lake

• Wine Tasting On Seneca Lake

• Wine Tasting On Cayuga Lake

• Wine Tasting On Canandaigua Lake

• 12 New York State Wineries Offering Free Wine Tastings

• Disclosure the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Cocktails on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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