Blog changes

I've decided to remove the personal posts from my blog, and keep only the kitchen and crafty ones, since those are my most favorite hobbies. There just isn't a whole lot going on here for me to keep a personal blog.

Hope you'll stick around as I make some changes!

Etsy Love- Uncommonly Chic

Earlier this month I decided to treat myself to an early birthday present. (My birthday was on the 9th-if you missed it, that's okay! I accept late gifts)
I'd been watching Uncommonly Chic for awhile. She had posted a Necklace that I loved, but alas somebody was quicker on the draw than I. Finally one day in a posting frenzy she put up a new one, and I snatched it up before anyone noticed it was there. Muhahahaha!

Uncommonly Chic sold something like 30 necklaces that day, but I received my necklace 4 days later, in a cute little box tied up with raffia. I love it! It's not too flashy, but very cute. Just my style. I was very impressed with the quality (especially for the price!) and the quick shipping.

here are some other Uncommonly Chic necklaces that I love:

Sunny


Sarah II


Olive

Her photography is pretty great too. You know exactly what you're getting. (all photos credit Uncommonly Chic)


So if you feel like you need a treat, go visit. You wont be disappointed!

Homemade Spaghetti sauce

In addition to a plethora of zucchini, this has also been the summer of tomatoes. And what a summer to choose for that, due to my tooth problems, I couldn't EAT the tomatoes. Talk about torture, I love a good tomato!

Anyways, my boss told me that I needed to "get on board with this cooking thing" and make my own tomato sauce, so I did!

First, I took my gorgeous Parker bowl (Thank you hub!) full of red and yellow tomatoes and I pureed four of the tomatoes, and chopped the other four.

Then, I tossed some garlic in olive oil in a hot pan.

Then I tossed in both the pureed tomatoes and the chopped, along with some onions and red wine vinegar (and a wee bit of sugar, there was just a little too much bite), and cooked it for about an hour.

Then, I sauteed up some squash, cooked some noddles and poured my sauce over both. Then I drowned everything in way too much feta.



mmmmm. Still, my end review is "Meh, not worth it." I prefer store bought sauce, but IDK, maybe I did something wrong. It just could've been better.

Zucchini Muffins

I hate writing the word zucchini, I always spell it wrong. I wish Dictionary.com kept track of how many times one person looked up a word, I bet I've looked up that one at least 20 times. What can I say, I'm a slow learner!

Anyways, this summer has truly been the summer of zucchini (there's that word again!) we've been given far more zucchini (gah!) than we could deep fry, so I decided to try my hand at zucchini muffins. My mom used to make a bread that I liked, but muffins are so much more portable and handy.

After a little research, I settled on this recipe from Simply recipes. The only change I made was substituting almond extract for vanilla. (I also omitted cranberries and walnuts cause I didn't have any.) I don't know how I ran out of vanilla extract, it's such a staple! And they turned out awesome!


mmm. Also, notice those muffin cups they are in? BUY THOSE. One of my least favorite kitchen chores is cleaning the muffin pan, and these little suckers have cured that for me! You don't need a muffin tin at all, you just pour your batter in the silver cups (that are lined with paper) and throw them in the oven and voila! Muffin tin-less muffins!

Le card making

After a year and a half of intense planning, my mother in law and I finally got together to make some greeting cards. We've done this one other time, in March 2008 with great success, and it was always our plan to do it again "really soon". Yeah, we suck at "really soon".
For my birthday (last August!) she bought me this stamp set I'd admired, and today I finally got to use it! (Carte Postale from Stampin' Up). You'll see the reoccurring theme in my cards.

I managed to pump out 8 adorable cards in a few hours (MIL made 3, she's a perfectionist!), using scrap booking paper leftover my scrap booking days, and MIL's stamp pads. Total cost for my 8 unique and sweet cards: $0. Love it! I gave MIL her favorite one as a thanks.

Anyways, if you're looking for a new hobby, I highly suggest card making! Fun, useful, and if you find you don't like it then you can send me all of your supplies!

Best Chocolate Frosting EVER

For his birthday, Dimples requested that I make him a funfetti cake with chocolate frosting. Well, i don't know about you, but I can't make funfetti from Scratch. So, to make up for my funfetti failure, I went to allrecipes.com to try and find the most decadent chocolate frosting possible. I think I found it.

Chocolate Cream Frosting

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream, whipped


DIRECTIONS
Blend the melted chocolate and milk. Gradually mix in the water, vanilla, and pudding mix, and whisk until smooth. Fold in the heavy cream. Frost the cake immediately, and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

OMG! It's seriously the easiest, bestest frosting in the world. It's very close to a mousse in both texture and flavor (I seriously could not keep my face out of the kitchenaid bowl, that's how delicious this frosting is). I was eating by the spoonful. It made way more than necessary to generously frost the cake.

Make it. You wont be sorry.

Trying my hand at Royal Icing

It seems like every where I look online, I see pictures of gorgeous Sugar cookies, iced with Royal Icing. This morning I decided to try my hand at it.

I also used a new recipe this time, not my basic Wilton recipe that I've been using. I found this recipe on a year in the kitchen, and the icing recipe came from Creative Catering.

I halved Ashlee's recipe, and it made about two dozen cookies. And they are flakey and delicious. I omitted the lemon zest and the almond extract because I didn't have any on hand, so the cookies were a little blah until I added the frosting, then they were perfection.

As for the icing being...gorgeous, well, i fail at that. This is my third attempt to use frosting tips and bags, and I think my fate is sealed: I'm terrible at it. I have a very shaky hand, so I have to move really quick or my edges turn out funky. I also am not patient enough to spread the "flood" frosting with a toothpick, I gave up and used a spoon. Much easier. I also should've made it more watery.

Anyways the result:

So, they're not super impressive. But, they were tons of fun to make, and they're pretty cute. They served their purpose, though. I no longer have a Sunday Sweet Tooth :)

Sorry my pictures are sideways! I don't know what's going on.

Old pictures

The other day my Mom gave me a box filled with pictures from my childhood. Just for fun, here are a few of my favorites:

Adventures in Vegan baking

Lately I've been experimenting with vegan baked goods. No, I'm not becoming a vegan (I could never betray bacon like that!) I'm just starting to prefer saving our dairy and eggs for eating alone. Most of the time, I don't even notice a difference. I'm definitely not feeling deprived, that's for sure (just ask my love handles, they'll agree)!

Today I was trying to think of an easy grab and go snack, using ingredients that we have on hand. I found this recipe, from allrecipes.com and tweaked it a little to eliminate the dairy and eggs. I also used whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, because I think it keeps you feeling full longer. I've italicized my changes, other than that it's the same as the allrecipes link.

Cranberry Oatmeal bars

1/2 cup melted margarine (I know there's margarine haters out there, but I love margarine. Not all brands of margarine are vegan, so be sure to check ingredients if you really care.)

1 heaping tbs. Soy flour (this, combined with the 1 tbs water, replaces an egg)

1 tbs water
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teas nutmeg (I eliminated this, I didn't have any)
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup walnuts (I just didn't have pecans on hand)

3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 11x7 inch baking pan.
2. Pour melted butter into a mixing bowl, and beat in the Soy flour and water, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a separate mixing bowl. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until thoroughly blended. Mix in the cranberries, walnuts, and oats until evenly blended. Press mixture into prepared baking dish.
3. Bake in preheated oven until top is dry and edges slightly pull away from the sides of the pan, 13 to 15 minutes. Cool before cutting into squares.

Also, I used a 11x15 pan and it was still too big. It's easier to get the bars out of the pan if they aren't touching the sides. The batter will smell...bad. Sort of like chewed up alfalfa hay (if you're a horse person, you know what that smells like) but never fear! Once these are cooked they smell and taste amazing. Not at all like alfalfa.

MMmmmm.

Leroy the Chicken

The other day at the grocery store I noticed that whole chickens were ridiculously inexpensive, so I picked two up. I figured that for .79 cents a pound, I could get over my poultry-on-the-bone phobia.

I started by looking at allrecipes.com for ideas. Nothing was exactly what I was looking for, so I created my own recipe. I didn't take pictures of the process because I spent too long looking for recipes and had to rush though prep.

First, I named my chicken Leroy. I don't know why, I just felt like I should give him a little dignity. Then I pulled out Leroy's guts, washed and dried him, and plopped him into a pan. It turns out Leroy was a little bit of a slut, so I tied his legs together with string. That'll teach him!

Next I preheated the oven to 450, rubbed the Chicken with Olive oil, Salt, Pepper and Cayenne. Then I sprinkled on some dried Rosemary (from Farmers market last summer) and some fresh Oregano, Thyme, and Dill from my Aerogarden. It's the first I've used my Aerogarden, (a Christmas gift from IL's) so that was exciting. I also shoved a little oregano sprig up Leroy's bum, for tasty tasty flavor.

Then I chopped some Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Garlic and a crimini mushroom (yes, one mushroom. It's all I had left!) and put them in the pan around the Chicken. Then I poured a can of Swanson Low Sodium broth over the whole thing, and tossed it into the oven. Then I wept, because I always forget which end of the onion to cut first to avoid the tears!

Looks yum, right? Okay, it doesn't look yum unless you're into Salmonella, but it looks like it will eventually be yummy! I was so excited to try my first chicken that I couldn't resist peeking into the oven every 5 minutes to watch bad, bad Leroy brown. Okay, that was a bad pun that I'd been planning this whole time, but I'm not sorry.

Finished:

I will definitely make this again, especially since it looks fancy, but the price is right. This whole dinner cost less than $5. Amazing.

Chicken a la Leroy

1 whole Chicken

1 tbsp Olive oil

1/4 teas pepper

1/4 teas salt

1/4 teas Cayenne pepper

1/2 teas rosemary

Oregano, thyme, and dill to taste

3 potatoes

2 large carrots

1/4 lg yellow onion

3 cloves garlic

1 crimini mushroom (or, you know, more if you got 'em)

Preheat oven to 450.

1. Pull guts and neck out of chicken cavity, and cut off fat flaps (mmm). Wash under cold water and dry. Put in a large pan.

2. Rub your clean chicken with Olive oil, and tie legs together

3. In a small cup, mix salt, pepper and cayenne. Rub mixture all over chicken.

4. Sprinkle on herbs, and shove some up the bum

5. Cut Vegetables into large chunks and place around chicken in pan. Grind some peppercorns over veggies

6. Pour can of chicken broth over everything

7. Cook at 450 for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400 and cook for another 40 minutes or until temperature reads 180.

Ready in about an hour and half!

Why, Hello there, Beautiful.

Where have you been all of my life?!

Meet my new favorite toy, my Mixer. Watch it make easy work of creaming butter and sugar!

I can't believe I used to do this by hand!! Who does that?

And in 5 minutes, my persimmon cookie batter is done! A week ago (when I made these cookies last) I'd still be creaming my butter and sugar!

It's magical. I love it. Thanks, Dimples!

In the one week I've had my KA mixer I've made:

Persimmon cookies

Molasses cookies (PW recipe, and it's awesome.)

Pizza dough X3

Brownies

Muffins

mashed potatoes X2

Meatloaf

Scrambled eggs

all just for the sake of using the mixer, I love it so.

Handmade Christmas recap

I think this years' handmade Christmas went much better than the last. First, I started early and collected ideas. That was key. It made me feel organized and the projects didn't seem so difficult, and if one seemed too daunting, I moved on to another idea. Here are some pics of my finished projects.

For my pre-teen nieces I made these little fabric journals. The first one that I made was the blue one, and I was least happy with it's design, so I added her name to it, and a little extra inner pocket. It also fit the best over the journal, so in the end I was very happy with it.

For my one year old nephew I made these little fleece slippers. I used my husbands Moccasin slippers as a template for the design, then googled the "average size of a one year old foot in inches" to get the size. I was delighted when they fit him perfectly. Also, I sewed the buttons on extra tight so he wont be able to pull them off and choke on them. Because I care. :)

And for my four year old niece, I made this purse that I posted a few months ago. She wasn't very impressed with it because there was a giant red gift bag that she fit inside, and it was way cooler. I'm sure she'll love the purse when the giant gift bag stops being so awesome :)

For my 10 year old nephew I made a little fleece hat that had 7 panels, and little ear flaps decorated with buttons. I used my own head as a template for that hat, and since my head is freakishly small, it barely fit his! I think it was cute, though. Maybe he can wear it under a beanie when he goes to the snow :)

Anyways, I had a ton of fun personalizing my gifts, and actually using my sewing machine! I will definitely be doing this again next year, except I'll be starting a little earlier so that my gifts can be more intricate. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll know how to knit by this time next year!

Candy Making

This was my candy making-ist season ever! Along with my Mom and a girlfriend I made about 300 nougats, 250 peanut butter balls, 2 pans of Fudge, 1 pound of candied nuts, 2 slabs of peppermint park, 100 caramel pecan pretzels and 100 Russian tea cookies. Okay, so the last one was not candy, but they were made in the middle of a candy marathon, so they totally count.

For my co-workers I bundled up little packages of Russian Tea Cookies, Fudge, Peppermint Bark and Caramel Pecan Pretzels and Candied nuts, and wrapped them in cute bags. Dimples and I passed out candy every time we had friends over, and we each ate way too much ourselves. Some of it was destroyed in an unfortunate glass breaking incident, and some of the nougats are still in my fridge, bringing me shame for not dipping them in Chocolate yet.

I love the Holidays.

Busy Bee!

I've got a lot of yummy recipes to post, and a lot going on, I've just been way to busy to post! Hopefully that will change as yesterday was my last day at full time job for TWO whole weeks! Woot!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my Christmas decorations, because I know everyone is dying to see them.

Broccoli, White Bean and Cheddar soup

I found this Broccoli, White Bean and Cheddar Soup Recipe the other day, and thought I would give it a try.
First, when I went to the grocery store I couldn't find "Cannelli Beans" anywhere, so I decided to get Navy Beans. They're white, right? Same thing. (They aren't by the way. Cannelli beans are white kidney beans. Live and learn!)
I used my Turkey stock that I made Thanksgiving Day instead of the Chicken Stock. It smelled so good on the stove! Then I cut up the broccoli, tossed it in, threw in the navy beans and poured it in the blender. This is so easy it's magical, I thought.
Then I turned on the blender that was filled with my delicious smelling soup. FFFFWAP! The steaming hot mixture sprayed all over my kitchen. All over me. All over my floor. Idk, I must have filled the blender too full.
I was pissed. So I poured myself a little bowl of mess and tasted it. Heaven! I almost don't regret the fact that cheesy broccoli bean crap is dripping down my walls.

Almost.