May 8th

I made jelly for the first time!

More specifically, redbud jelly. From this recipe. In hindsight, it's a bit sweet so I may find another recipe that uses less sugar.

Now that I've had my first canning project, I'm looking forward to doing more! It wasn't nearly as difficult and time consuming as I feared. I'm thinking strawberry jam.....

Nov. 3

I woke up this morning expecting horrible icy weather (it rained yesterday evening and was supposed to snow/ice overnight) but instead it is a bright, chilly day! Always a pleasant surprise.

The other day I made some pumpkin granola (via THIS recipe) and decided I wanted to try out making granola bars with it. After much research on the Pinterest, I decided on THIS recipe, though instead of including chocolate chips, I melted the chips and spread the chocolate on top of the whole thing. Successful if I say so myself, though I might be slightly biased. Next time I might use a little less honey and see if they still stick together.... or just bake up some more with a different recipe (This one uses sweetened condensed milk?).

To note, I don't taste much pumpkin, but I think putting it in the granola gives it a fantastic crunch and some healthy benefits to boot!

Sept. 29

I had three hours today where I wasn't working (why do I have two jobs again?), but thankfully that was all I needed to make up some chicken and wild rice soup! I have had this planned for quite some time and I'm so glad I finally got to cook it. I used the simplest recipe I could find from HERE, but ended up editing it a bit.

6 c Chicken Broth (I only had two cans of broth, so I used water for the rest)

2 Chicken Breast Halves, cooked and cubed

6 oz pkg Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice Blend-Original Recipe

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 c All-Purpose Flour

12 Tbsp Butter (I only used 8 Tbsp because I thought more than one stick was a bit extravagant)

1/2 c Carrots, diced  (I didn't have any vegetables on hand.... I wish I would have had an onion at least)

1/2 c Celery, diced

1/2 c Onions, diced

3 c Heavy Cream (I used a pint of half and half and subbed milk for the third cup)

1. Open rice, pull out seasoning packet and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour. Set aside.

3. In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth and chicken. Bring to a boil, then stir in rice. Cover and remove from heat.

4. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add carrots, celery and onion and saute for 5 minutes. Stir in contents of seasoning packet, and continue cooking vegetables until softened, about 5 minutes more. Add seasoned flour gradually while constantly stirring, to form a roux. Saute roux for 3-4 minutes to cook out raw flour taste.

5. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.

6. Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through and rice is done,15-20 minutes.

First of all, I have no idea what a roux is. In hindsight I probably should have looked that up, as I didn't use all of my flour mixture because my 'roux' was getting extremely thick.... like chunky paste thick. Is that was it's supposed to look like? I even put some of the chicken broth that was boiling on the other burner in it to try and get some more liquid. I assume it is because I didn't use all of the butter?

Regardless of how well I made the roux, the soup turned out heavenly. I was even inspired to go to Checkers in an attempt to find sourdough suitable for bread bowls. I was unsuccessful, but I did get little sourdough rolls that I could at least dip into the soup.

Here is the result. I was most pleased and am excited to eat more tomorrow.

May 8

So with the contest closed and tabs pulled from the hat I find Synthia to be the winner! Huzzah's all around! The odds for everyone were pretty good this time around, maybe next time it will be a bit tighter. So Synthia, I'll get that to you posthaste!

And also, on an unrelated note: Cookie dough is the best use for left over Cadbury mini-eggs ever.

Feb. 10

Photo Here.

My pattern drafting class is fascinating! The possibilities really are endless when it comes to altering patterns. So far we have mostly been working with little paper 1/4th scale cut outs of basic sloper pieces and just snipping and pivoting and moving things around to figure out how to make certain effects. I'm impressed, to say the least.

The sewing class is going well too, I've learned a few different (and better) techniques to things I thought I knew how to do already, so even though we've been going super slow on our skirts it's still been good.

The weather is going to get tons better this week as well which really make me happy. Other than the last month or so the winter has been really mild, but I still want it to be spring! I want to wear dresses and pretty shoes again!

I've also been making my own honey wheat bread for toast in the morning lately and I'm really happy with it. I still have to tweak how I do things so it will rise properly, but I'm confident that it is possible for me to make a good loaf of bread. If only I wasn't almost out of my yummy pear butter. Maybe this fall I can learn to make some myself.

Dec. 31

Source

So I suppose it's the time of year where one reflects on the last 365.25 days and tries to figure out what the next will be like. It has definitely been an ever-changing year for me, and I'm satisfied with it. That said, I hope next year offers a bit more stability.

I'm not going to make any resolutions because I kind of feel that they are silly, but I definitely have a lot to work on this year so hopefully I can motivate myself.

A friend of mine gave me some turkey thighs and a leg he didn't end up cooking, so I made it up the other day and this morning I made some noodles. I'm really excited about turkey noodle soup folks. It seems pretty cold out there so I don't know if it's worth it to go out and get some carrots.... I may improvise with some other veggies I have around.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to take my sewing machine in yet again to see what is wrong with it. I called a local place and he suggested that since I just got the belt replaced it might be too tight? I have been borrowing my mom's for the last couple weeks and it has been working fantastically... I was on it almost all day yesterday without any problems. I start it up today however, and it starts running really weirdly too! I really don't know what is going on with me and sewing machines. I seriously can't try to use them as my livelihood if they insist on not working constantly.

Since it's the holiday and all, here is my favorite version of Auld Lang Syne. I think I might curl up and watch An Affair To Remember tonight, as it's the only movie I have that has a NYE scene. A little champagne might be in order as well.

Nov. 6

I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast today and I cannot even wait to post about them. They were amazing. I used the recipe from here, but I made cream cheese frosting instead of the glaze she has. Here is the result:

So incredibly good.

Nov. 5

Picture by Luve.

I said I would update today and I intended on taking pictures of some new things I've made, but I forgot to take pictures of them until after 4 when the light was terrible. So.... it might be a couple more days on that since I won't be around tomorrow. I am in the process of making pumpkin cinnamon rolls, so we'll see how well that goes. My dough was pretty sticky while I was kneading it, I had to add a lot more flour. I'm excited to eat them though!

Now I'm drinking a lovely cup of tea. I've never been a tea person but a dear friend sent me a whole tin of loose leaf jasmine curls last Christmas and I drank some then, but dang, this last week or two I have been drinking it like crazy! I am craving a cup or two a day. It has been getting a lot colder and my roommate and I haven't turned on the heat yet, so I have been keeping warm with the tea and my lovely little space heater who is just about my best friend right now. My roommate teases me because when I bring it into another room with me I look like a little kid dragging a red wagon.

Oct. 29

I am so glad it is Friday. I've been sick the last couple of days and am greatly looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I just got a book in the mail today that I'm really excited to read it, it's called Machine of Death and it is an anthology of stories about people who know how they are going to die and it was published by two of my favorite webcomic artists, David Malki and Ryan North.

I've been cooking up a storm lately as well.... lets see, I made some fried mozzarella sticks the other day. First time attempting to fry something and though it was successful, it was kind of gross. What does one do with leftover oil? I think we ended up throwing it out. Today on my way home from school I had a very strong urge to make chicken noodle soup, noodles and all. I love having a pasta maker. There is something extra delicious about homemade chicken and noodles. I strayed from the recipe quite a bit.. I put potatoes and tons of rosemary in it. I wrote down my recipe, so if anyone is interested let me know.

Mmm... look how colorful it starts out!

And then it promptly becomes beige after everything is added and cooked. Noodles and chicken are so worth it though.

 

 

 

After that I whipped up some Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese... it is just heavenly on one of the french toast bagels I bought yesterday. Really. Fantastic. I used this recipe last year and I'll be using it plenty more this year.

MMM..... words cannot convey how good this smelled.

I realize that this blog hasn't been too sewing oriented lately, so I guess I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I am doing with it. It also means that I haven't been doing as much sewing as I should. This will be amended this weekend. Now that I've written that I need to get something done.

Oct. 16

It would seem as if I've been doing stuff since I posted last... I had my first sale (the blue pinstripe dress from this post) which is pretty exciting. I also made a couple new skirts that I posted up on my shop earlier today.

 

 It's kind of exciting to be able to sell things that I make.

The other day I was such a homemaker... I baked pumpkin applesauce muffins, and tried three new recipes! The first was guacamole because we had an extra avocado, and that turned out great on top of some black re-fried beans... yum. I'm not much of a chip person so we don't have any in the apartment, so I baked my own lime tortilla chips with some corn tortillas I had which were great too. I may need to bake them a bit longer next time though.

Then I made some breaded ravioli from some frozen ones I bought at Costco. Breaded ravioli is one of my favorite things and I'm excited to know how to make it now. I may post the recipe here soon.

Sept. 15

I figured out was was causing me problems with my sewing machine, and it was a completely preventable silly fault of mine... my needle was in backwards! So many people said to check my needle but I was just sure that it was in right. With that little blunder fixed my machine is running fantastically and I finished my dress tonight. The last bit took a while since I put the zipper in by hand at its full 22 inch glory. It looks fantastic though guys... really. Unfortunately it was too dark to take pictures when I finished it, but I'll make sure to take some when I get home from school tomorrow.

This afternoon I went to Costco and they had some naan at a good price, so I got some and made Indian food tonight. I can't say it was the best batch I've made, but I was still happy. I even made some mango lasse to go along with it. Tonight I also baked just about the best cookies ever... I just ate two. I doubt they will last long.