Have you ever tried Spanish rice? It is a delectable dish that is good in taste and flavor, high in nutritional value and is easy to prepare. A perfect accompaniment to chicken, steak and other Mexican dishes, it is a highly preferred delicacy in most of the countries.
Here is an easy-to follow recipe that will help you prepare mouth-watering Spanish rice.
Instructions
Ingredients Required
Vegetable or olive oil
Long grain rice
Cube of chicken bouillon
Mixed vegetables (optional)
Onion
Clove garlic, minced
Tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
Water
Method
Take a pot or skillet and lubricate its bottom with olive oil or vegetable oil as per your preference. Use just enough oil so that it covers the bottom of the pot. Place the pot over the flame. Now pour the rice into the pot. Make sure the pot is big enough for the rice to expand.
Continuously stir the rice on medium heat until slightly golden brown. This browning of the rice is essential to achieve nutty and almost toasty flavor of the rice.
Now add the chicken bullion, onion and garlic and other vegetables as per your choice to the rice. The bouillon will add a rich flavor to the dish as it will slowly be absorbed by the rice.
Add water, salt and pepper to the rice. Make sure that you add twice the quantity of water for every single amount of rice you use. Also add tomato sauce to the cooking dish. Stir all the ingredients well.
Cover the pot with a lid and allow the rice to cook on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes until the liquid is completely absorbed by the rice. Make sure you do not open the lid often while it is being cooked.
When the rice is fully cooked, you will notice that each grain of rice is split open and bigger in size than what it was prior cooking.
Once you are sure that the rice is properly done, remove it from flame and allow it to cool. During this time the leftover liquid will get properly absorbed and will perfectly blend with the rice, adding desired flavor to the finished item.
Your dish is ready to be served. Enjoy it with your family and friends!
Tips to remember
Avoid over browning of the rice because that might lead to burning.
If you want to go for very spicy variety, then add some hot sauce to it.
If you prefer fresh tomato over tomato paste, then chop up a large tomato and add it to the rice just at the last 15 minutes of cooking.
Watch a video instructionon how to make Spanish rice
Faux painting is synonymous to decorative painting. There are different types of faux finishes that can be used for decorating walls and furniture like marbleizing, graining, rag rolling, stippling and dragging.
This article will help you understand how you can dress up your walls and recreate the beauty of your wall texture. Carefully read the following instructions and give a new and alluring look to your room walls.
Instructions
Firstly, paint the walls with a solid color that will form the background color. Allow it to dry for overnight so that the wall is ready next day for faux finish. There are different techniques through which you can achieve different textured looks for your walls. You can select any option enumerated below:
To achieve a two-tone mottled effect apply a second coat of paint on the base with a sea sponge. You can either opt for completely contrasting color or different shade of the background color. Repeat the process with other paint color for added and better dimension.
You can also use ragging technique for faux finish. For this, you need to replicate the look of the material by ragging the wall with large and twisted rags that are saturated with paint or glaze. Wring out the rags and then roll them from top to bottom, overlapping the edges.
If you want to go for a “colorwash” texture for your wall then apply a tinted glaze to the painted wall in a circular motion, you can use a sponge or crumpled rag for this purpose. You can even substitute a brush if you wish to make linear patterns.
For creating an “Old World” look, a tinted glaze should be carefully applied over the base coat with a brush. Then, with a thick rag material remove most of the glaze. Rub the rag over the wall surface in circular motion. This will create imperfections in the texture that will give a completely different look to your wall texture.
You can also recreate the look of crumbling stones on your wall surface by using Venetian Plaster technique. All you need to do is to carefully mark the stone lines with a pencil and then glaze the wall with a rag. Now paint the cracks, grout lines and crevices with the help of a foam brush. Further, add the desired texture by applying glaze and drywall compound with the aid of a knife.
Tips to Remember
Wear goggles and gloves while working.
It is always better to first apply the techniques on test panels to identify which one gives the perfect effect.
Experiment with different types of rags and trowels while preparing textured walls.
Make sure you finish faux painting techniques without stopping so as to achieve uniform patterns
Changing the décor of our houses helps in uplifting of spirits as well as provides a much needed relief from the usual dull and drab feeling of old houses. Painting the walls can do the job of creating a new look! There are some general steps which are to be followed while painting the plaster walls of your houses. Before jumping on to the steps, let us gather the much needed things for doing the job at hand. The things needed are:
Premixed dry wall mud
Chisel
Trowel
Wall sander
Sand paper
Tack cloth
Paint
Stain blocking primer
Roller
Paint brush
Let us now get into the job of painting plaster walls!
Remove the old wall paper over your walls. It is easy to paint over an existing paint but not advisable to paint over wallpapers as they have the habit of buckling and bubbling under a coat of paint.
Now you will have to inspect the wall for any cracks or loose plaster if any. If there is any crack visible, then carefully scrape out the plaster from it and fill up with premixed drywall mud.
Use the sanding pad fitted with a wall sander to sand the wall. Make sure to run your hand over the wall to see whether it has become smooth or not. If not then repeat the process again until it gets smooth.
Now dust off the walls using a tack cloth. This is needed because even a speck of dust left on the wall will make the paint look mottled.
Apply the stain blocking primer which will seal the discolored areas in the walls and thereby preventing these from showing through the final paint.
Now use the paint brush and the rollers for painting the plaster walls!
Hickeys are similar to any other bruise which afflicts the skin. In more scientific terms, a hickey is a hemorrhage which happens just below the skin and is caused by broken capillaries. Although like any other bruise, there is no remedy for healing a hickey fast but there are various ways which can help the healing process. There are some things which are needed to be assembled before the process of healing starts. They are:
Paper towels
Spoon
Wash cloth
Ice
Pain killers
Let us have a look at the steps which can be used for healing a hickey faster:
Apply icepack around the affected area. Whenever an injury occurs in the skin, the blood vessels present inside the skin cause some swelling. Swelling prevents new blood from entering the veins which in turn delays the healing process. Applying ice immediately on the injured skin will prevent swelling and hence, there are chances of the hickey to heal faster.
Massaging the bruise will help a lot in getting rid of the hickey. There is blood clotting which is seen just after the injury. After one or two days, there is a dark bruise which appears on the skin. Just massage the bruise with a cold spoon to break the clot. Place the spoon in the freezer for a few minutes before using it to massage the bruise.
After about 12 hours of applying icepack on the hickey, take a wash cloth soaked in warm water and apply it on the affected area. This heat will help dilate the capillaries to allow fresh blood inside.
Incase the pain becomes unbearable, take an aspirin which will help subsidize the pain.
If nothing else works, then go for wearing a high necked sweater or a scarf around the hickey.
Watch a video instruction on how to get rid of a hickey
Dried roses are great for different settings and arrangements. It can be used as potpourri, for Victorian decor and even in wreaths. Drying roses is also be a wonderful way of creating keepsakes. There could be different reasons for preserving roses. Whatever may be the reasons, following are some of the methods that can be used for drying roses thoroughly:
Instructions
Method 1: Air drying is the most common methods of rose drying
Take some roses that have become droopy but have not yet lost their petals.
Remove all the leaves from the bottom of the stems.
Bunch them up together by loosely twisting a rubber band around the bottom of the stems.
Find an apt place for drying the flowers. It's better to hang them upside down in a dark and dry place. Leave them to dry for two to three weeks until they are completely dry.
You can use a hair spray to spray the roses so as to keep them from falling apart.
Method 2: Weight pressing is a simple way to preserve roses.
Place the roses (either whole buds or just the petals) in between the pages of a heavy book.
If you want you can line the pages with wax paper, so as to preserve the book.
Close the book and put something heavy on top of the book.
After two to three weeks, the flowers will be ready to be used.
Method 3: Silica Gel Method is most effective if you want to retain the color, size and shape of the fresh roses.
Take an air tight container that is at least 1 inch taller than the roses you are drying.
Place 1/2 inch of Silica Gel in the container, and then place the roses such that the bloomed part of the roses are facing up.
Place more Silica Gel into the container until all parts of the roses are covered.
Seal the container tightly.
Leave the container untouched at room temperature for 10 to 12 days.
After this duration carefully remove the roses from the desiccant.
There are other methods too like sand drying method and microwave method for drying roses. Pick any of the methods that you feel is most convenient to you.
Faux painting is synonymous to decorative painting. There are different types of faux finishes that can be used for decorating walls and furniture like marbleizing, graining, rag rolling, stippling and dragging.
Hickeys are similar to any other bruise which afflicts the skin. In more scientific terms, a hickey is a hemorrhage which happens just below the skin and is caused by broken capillaries. Although like any other bruise, there is no remedy for healing a hickey fast but there are various ways which can help the healing process. There are some things which are needed to be assembled before the process of healing starts. They are:
Dried roses are great for different settings and arrangements. It can be used as potpourri, for Victorian decor and even in wreaths. Drying roses is also be a wonderful way of creating keepsakes. There could be different reasons for preserving roses. Whatever may be the reasons, following are some of the methods that can be used for drying roses thoroughly:
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