Jacque Made: a place to share my creative side.

So, my family has all been under the weather lately. It's been no fun at all. The only thing that sounded good for dinner yesterday was this: Tyler Florence's Chicken Noodle Soup . It was heaven sent. I even got Jason to eat it! Ingredients: 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 3 medium carrots, cut diagonaly into 1/2 inch thick slices 3 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1 bay leaf (I used dried, since I didn't have fresh) 2 quarts (8 cups) chicken stock (I used Rachael Ray's store bought chicken stock -- it was YUMMO, as Rachael would say) 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 1 handful fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped Directions:  If you don't already have shredded cooked chicken on hand, I either cook some boneless skinless breasts on low in the crockpot wi...

My twin sister, Jaime, and I had the best time meeting up in San Diego for the first of hopefully many to come Twin Weekends! We haven't lived in the same state since college, so it's always a real treat when we can get together. No one understand me like Jaime. No one makes me laugh quite as hard. And no one enjoys the things I do quite as much (eating, sight seeing, shopping, etc.). Jaime used to live in San Diego, so she knows all the awesome restaurants and sights. We first went to Extraordinary Desserts for lunch. It was so delicious and the desserts truly are extraordinary!   Just look at these gorgeous desserts! They were stunning and mouth watering. Masterpieces for sure.  See the gold flakes on them? Talk about fancy! We shared a kale, strawberry, date, and avocado salad and each got a half turkey cranberry panini. They were both fantastic.    We finished off our meal with this beautiful chocolate truffle bundt cake. It ha...

It's been awhile since I've pulled out my sewing machine... and when I did pull it out, I realized it'd been damaged on our move down to AZ. So, when I found out a friend was having a baby girl, I had to borrow my sis-in-law's sewing machine to make her this gift.  I wanted to send her something extra special, as she was having her 3rd baby girl (and what could be sweeter?)! When I was looking through my fabric, I came across these prints, that I'd forgotten about. I love them and felt they'd be perfect for my friend. She said she was hoping to not use pink for her 3rd girl... was sick of pink. These have a tiny bit of pink, but I love all the other colors in them. And they still feel dainty and feminine.  I saw this baby dress at Target and had to get it for her.. even though it is pink. I loved the mixed knit and fuzzy white fabric and the bow on the front is just so sweet!! I wish I had a baby girl to put this dress on!!   I made a gray taggy bla...