A year older and even more fabulous

Happy Birthday Tory!

I can't wait to hear all about your weekend adventures.

Recipes of the Week

It happened again. I spent another weekend away working on the list. (I promise to share more on that later.) But luckily for you I planned ahead and tried out two new recipes to tell you all about. They lack pictures but trust me: they look good, taste good, and are worth a try.

Southwest Pinto Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayonnaise
Flavors of the Southwest are my favorite and this recipe did not disappoint. The burgers themselves were a bit of a pain to work with because the mixture is pretty loose. Do not skip refrigerating the burgers before cooking them. This did help firm them up a little. I might even pop them in the freezer for the same amount time to make them even easier to work with. We ate these as burgers but I think they’d make a really great appetizer. Next time I’d fry up mini-patties and serve them over a bed of greens, drizzled with the chipotle mayonnaise.

Chicken with Olives and Lemon
This recipe is great. All you have to do is toss some chicken thighs in an herb and spice mixture, arrange it in a pan, and pour a flour/broth mixture over it. Top with olives and lemons and as the dish bakes it creates it’s own flavorful sauce. It’s hard to believe such a small investment in time can yield such delicious results.

Another lap quilt

I promised my sister-in-law I would make her a lap quilt for her front room in her new house right after I made my mom's.  Well, her house isn't quite as new as it was, but I did finally finish the quilt and take it out to her on my last visit.  I was thrilled with how well the fabrics I chose went with her decor and recruited my niece and her side-kick Clifford to help me take some photos.

I used the pattern from Bend the Rules Sewing but increased the size to 50 inches square like I did the first time around. Our family is tall and I wanted to make sure someone could really cozy up under it.

Clifford wasn't really holding up his end of the deal, so Grandma stepped in for the final shot.  Can you tell that my love of red runs in the family?

Gone Hunting

I am so in love with this project. I HAVE to make one.

photo from Chronicle Books

Zzzzzz

The dudely would tell you I’m a picky sleeper, but that’s just not true. I just know what I like. I like it on the cool side and I like it dark, really dark. Cool and dark is not a problem in New England in fall and winter. Achieving the two in spring and summer, however, is a problem.

Cool is easy enough with the windows thrown open and the help of a cute, little window fan. However, that means I have to forgo the blinds being fully closed. This leaves a direct path from the streetlight to my sensitive eyeballs. This year I’ve thought ahead and done something about it.

Behold my new sleep mask. The pattern is from Amy Butler’s In Stitches. I did make a few changes to the instructions. The first was using just two layers of batting rather than the four suggested. It’s plenty dark enough and cuts down on the bulk in the seams. I also decided not to use ribbon ties. I just couldn’t see how they’d stay tied all night long and I didn’t want a bump on the back of my skull. OK, so maybe I’m a little picky.

What I went with was elastic hidden in a casing. I roughly measured my head, added an inch for the seam allowance, and ended up with a 12.5” piece of elastic. I then cut a piece of fabric for the casing at 1.5 times the length and 3.5 times the width of my elastic, sewed it up, and turned it right side out. Next I fed the elastic through the casing, pinning and aligning the edges of the casing and elastic. (This keeps you from losing the elastic inside the longer casing.) From there I followed Amy’s directions and found myself ready for any warm nights that spring and summer may bring.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Pappardelle with Smoked Salmon
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients: *****
The ingredients on this list are great. The cream cheese and smoked salmon typically found on a morning bagel find themselves reinvented in a pasta dish. I chose to skip the tomatoes on this go around though. By the time I got to them they were looking very, very sad.

Preparation: *****
Boiling pasta is obviously pretty easy. What makes the preparation of this recipe really stand out, however, is making the creamy sauce. It’s nothing more than allowing cream cheese to “melt” in chicken broth. No heavy cheese. No stirring and stirring and stirring.

Taste: ****
This made a really wonderful Sunday dinner, instantly being added to my list of things to make again and again. There are two things I’d do differently though. First off, I’d sauté the onions longer than suggested. They were a bit too crispy for me. I’d also probably skip using smoked salmon in favor of using up leftover salmon fillet. By the time the dish heats through you’ve lost some of the great smoked salmon flavor. Better to save the good stuff for the bagels. Which got me thinking that this recipe is a great base for modifications. I could see using sautéed mushrooms with asparagus or broccoli, chicken, shrimp, or scallops instead of salmon, fresh herbs instead of dried. See what I mean? Adaptable. It just might help you clean out a fridge full of little bits of this and that.

Recipes of the Week

Here's a confession. I didn't actually make a new recipe last weekend. Why? I was busy working on no. 9 on my list. But that doesn't mean I haven't been trying an extra recipe here or there to share with you. It does, however, mean that there are no pictures since these were tried late on a weeknight when no hint of natural light could be found.

Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken

Wow! These were quite a surprise. Moist and delicious. If there are leftovers you'll be fighting over who gets them for lunch the next day. I have only one suggestion, make extra panko/coconut mixture or your last piece of chicken might be a bit under-dressed.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Another better than expected recipe. The whole wheat flour was not too heavy in the pancakes so they remained light and fluffy, just like a pancake should. Because I never have buttermilk in the house I used the old lemon juice + milk trick. The lemon also helped give a light, fresh flavor. If you happen to have some blueberries around I'd throw some in. Blueberries and lemon are the perfect partners.

Spring flowers

We received a couple of inquiries regarding the fabric flowers in our current blog header so I thought I'd post some more information about them. I made them using this tutorial that Blair posted on her blog Wise Craft a couple of years ago. They are super easy and fun to make and her directions are very clear. I cut out the pieces to make a half dozen in an hour or so and then took another couple of hours to put them together and hand-stitch the backings on. I did find fabric glue to be very helpful; both to attach the felt pin backing and also to provide some rigidity, as well as to shape the petals. Once I had the pins put together as per the directions, I "fluffed" the petals to make them fluttery and soft looking and then squeezed a fairly generous dollop of glue near the base of each petal pocket and let them dry. Buttons were either from my stash of vintage finds or fabric-covered. They are a fun little splash of color that will hopefully keep me going until Spring arrives (soon, please?). Thank you, Blair, for generously sharing your creations with those of us less talented (she has other tutorials posted, you should take a look).

A Cautionary Tale (with pictures)

Our desktop computer is starting to show signs of age. It makes horrific noises upon start up. It also will randomly shut itself off, typically in the middle of an e-mail the dudely has spent all morning trying to compose. It had me worried and I started thinking about moving all my pictures to my laptop. Then it died and I panicked, convinced I’d lost everything I’d been too lazy to back-up. Miraculously it came back to life three days later. That’s when I got to work moving files and taking a walk down memory lane.

That’s my rather lengthy way of saying, “Hey, take a look at these really cool pictures I found from my trip to Geneva in 2005.”

Now might I suggest you take my story to heart and back-up your really cool pictures? They’re too good to lose.

Planning for warmth

Spring is a cruel temptress. The weekend was beautifully sunny with temperatures in the 60’s. The windows were thrown open, I treated myself to a post-winter pedicure, and I broke out my favorite summer cocktail.

Monday, however, reminded me that winter is still in charge in the Northeast. In less than 12 hours we had plummeted 30 degrees. The skies were no longer bright but were filled with rain, sleet, and snow. The only way to pull myself out of the doldrums was to dream of summer sewing.

And dream and scheme I did with Heather Ross’ new book Weekend Sewing in my lap. There are so many great patterns in this book for adult sized clothing; it’s what made this book a must buy. Topping my summer sewing list is the summer blouse and the trapeze sundress. The blouse will come in handy as spring continues to flirt and play with my emotions. The trapeze sundress I foresee becoming my summer weekend uniform. It looks so easy to wear.

Of course, this sewing will require a fabric purchase. Nothing in my fabric stash is over a yard long and that isn’t going to cover it. (Well, very little of it anyway!) So it seems that this is the perfect excuse to get some of the Good Folks fabric I’ve been eyeing but couldn’t bring myself to purchase without a plan. Isn’t it great how it all comes together?

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Apricot and Lamb Tagine
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients: ****
This recipe has been on my “to make” list for many months. Finding a package of boneless leg of lamb that weighed less than 6 pounds and cost less than $36 at my local grocery store provided a bit of a challenge. That’s where, oddly enough, Costco came to the rescue. On a whim I looked there figuring it would be even harder to find a small package at this mega-size store. Happily, I was wrong. They had nice little packages weighing in at just over 3 pounds at a price of less that $4/pound. Two pounds were hacked off for this recipe and the remaining pound went to the freezer for the next lamb dish.

Preparation: *****
This is a slow cooker recipe. Enough said? Not quite. The recipe recommends a cooking time of 8 hours on low. It was nearly noon yesterday before I had the ingredients assembled in the slow cooker. Not wanting to eat at 8pm I did 1.5 hours on high and 5 hours on low. It was perfect.

Taste: ****
A big part of taste is smell and this smelled incredible all day long. The taste was pretty good too, although I found it a little on the sweet side. That’s to be expected though with the 6 ounces of dried apricots that go into it. I might reduce that amount the next time I make it. The dudely didn’t seem to mind as he devoured two massive bowls of it. He even proclaimed this morning that the tagine had kept him warm all night. I don’t know about that. What I do know is that I found the tagine was even better today than it was last night. Some of the sweetness had mellowed and overall the flavor was more balanced. So break out the slow cooker and come home to a warm, hearty meal and have the perfect lunch the next day.

Recipe of the Week

Recipe: Maple-Almond Granola
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients: ***
I'm being overly harsh on the ingredient rating this week. It's all because of one little ingredient that began life as a grape. In my opinion if a grape is to be reincarnated as another food stuff the only thing it should become is juice, be it the non-alcoholic or alcoholic variety. However, this whole raisin fiasco is easily remedied by substituting dried cranberries.

Preparation: *****
If you haven't made granola before I highly recommend it. It's so easy to spend just a few minutes assembling good ingredients into many mornings of breakfast.

Taste: ****
The granola is good but it seems to be missing something. I think it's the lack of maple flavor despite maple having a prominent place in the recipe's name. I also prefer nuttier granolas rather than fruity ones and this one is heavy on the dried fruit. If you're looking to try a granola this recipe is fine but I'd highly recommend this one instead.

no. 14: Best of February

Photography in February proved much easier than photography in January. I can't say it was the improvement in light, though it is getting better. Somehow I just had an easier time capturing images I liked. It was even kind of hard to pick just nine favorites.

You can find the other 19 images here.

Food for thought

I'm supposed to be studying for my mid-term on Thursday but I had to take a break and share my new recipe for beef stew. It might seem like a lot, but adding the entire can of tomato paste plus lots of minced onion results in a wonderfully rich and flavorful dish. If you are in the part of the country that is being hit with a winter storm today like we are, you might want to fire up your crock pot and give this a try.

Elise's Beef Stew

Marinade:
1 small can tomato paste
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup shallots, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 Tbsp Montreal Grill Seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp ground black pepper

1 pound flank steak, cut into 1.5 inch cubes
2 cups baby Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
4 carrots, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
2 parsnips, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
1 cup mushrooms, halved
1/2 cup red wine or beef stock
1 cup hot water

Combine ingredients for marinade in your crock pot and toss with beef until the pieces of meat are evenly coated. Add vegetables and toss briefly, then add liquids. With cover on, cook for 3-4 hours on the highest setting or until vegetables are tender, stirring every hour (I've never done it with this recipe, but I'm sure it would be fine to start it in on high for an hour or so then turn it down to low for 6-7 hours). Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Enjoy, and stay warm today.