Happy V-Day!

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I know it was yesterday but I was too busy having a fantastic day to post anything :) I love Valentines Day because I get to make all these silly little crafts but there isn’t the pressure or expectation of Christmas.

This year I made a cute little heart streamer to welcome my fiance home. Just a few fabric hearts sewn onto white crepe paper.

For gifts I usually just get him a little token gift, something small but useful. This year it was unscented and non-aluminum deodorant (so he smells yummy) and socks (so he looks yummy). Yup, it’s was a gift for me too :)

And the card, a heart stitched on the front. I guess stitching hearts was the theme this year.

But my absolute favorite part of Valentines Day is our tradition of going to Roburritos! My fiance and I first met at Rob’s through a mutual friend… and a mutual love of amazing burritos.

Every Valentines Day Rob abandons his standard (and delicious in it’s own right!) menu and has a reservation only dinner of the most amazing culinary delights. That’s right, I said culinary delights! Because this isn’t merely food! He devotes himself to finding new ingredients and crazy flavor combinations that I would never think about. And every year he manages to outdo himself.

I think my favorite part of this years dinner was the dessert. A waffle ice cream sandwich! Lilac ice cream rolled in homemade brittle, an amazing syrup, baileys infused whipped cream! There was more to it but I can’t remember all the details. I’m sorry, but I was high on food at this point and not really able to retain information. Suffice it to say, it was bangin’! And you should be jealous!

Hope you had a marvelous V-Day!

DIY Lamp Shade

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A while back I saw this DIY lamp shade on Design*Sponge and decide to take a stab at making my own “capiz shell” lamp shade. In our dining room we had this plain but very 90′s feeling lamp shade that I really hated. Unfortunately the whole thing is like a single unit that I don’t think I can get apart without some electrician skills (which I have none of and don’t fancy electrocuting my self).

Here is the lamp before:

That metal piece at the bottom wasn’t connected at all so I was able to bend it and carefully wiggle it off the glass shade. Then I spent a few weeks cutting out paper circles with an exacto O_o

My Materials: Rives Lightweight paper, self healing cutting mat, ribbon, glue gun, exact-o, and different size bottles to use as templates for cutting.

I decided to just use a single sheet of lightweight paper and skip the gluing wax paper process the original design used. The wax paper is so beautiful but I was trying to really get some coverage over our old shade.

So, then the lamp shade stayed like this for a few weeks

I’m thinking of renaming my blog “The Procrastinators Projects”, what do you think?

But finally I finished!!! Mostly because we were going to have company and didn’t want to continue answering the question “what’s going on here…?” as they point with their confused, scrunched up face at my poor little scraggly lamp shade. *sigh*

Voila!

Thrifty Alteration: Winter Sweater

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A thrift store alteration for the Winter season!

Seems like every winter there is an influx of Nordic pattern sweaters. I see super cute ones at stores and on websites for way too much money. I mean, it’s a sweater that you can only really wear in the dead of winter. I’m not paying $200! But when I look at what the thrift stores have to offer the selection is um… horrible! After wadding through horrendous Christmas sweaters for a few weeks I found a pattern I actually liked! Yay! Too bad it was 8 sizes too big for me.

Enter basic sewing skills.

Before

After- Front

After- Back

First I had to sew up the three button opening in the front. Because it was a originally a button closure that meant there were four layers of knit all on top of each other. It was quite bulky so I had to cut away the extra fabric before sewing it shut. I also decided to turn the whole sweater backwards so the different pattern would be in the back.

Next I cut the opening for the neck to be more of a boat-neck shape. When working with knit you need to be very careful about cutting. The best method I found is to sew a line in the knit right about where you plan on cutting so that the knit doesn’t fall apart as soon as you cut it.

I then finished my neck line by sewing a zigzag stitch along the cut edge then folding that over once and sewing a straight line top stitch. I had to go back and do some hand stitching on the inside of the neck line so the edge didn’t flip out and show the ragged edge. I’m sure it would have been fine but I worry about things like that :)

Lastly I put the sweater on inside-out and used my favorite method of clothing alteration, the Pinch n’ Pin! Pinch the fabric to where you want it and pin it. No measuring required! This only really works with clothing that isn’t very structured. Once you get into dealing with darts on a structured piece, things get more complicated.

I am very happy with the results! Even though the shoulder seems are really low. But I don’t mind because all that pattern helps disguise it. :)

I Made Dirt!

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This post is long, long overdue. But…I made dirt! My compost did it’s thing beautifully and made a terrific pile of soil.

I had to stop adding to the compost for about a month since I only had the one pile. And even still I had to go through by hand and crush up eggshells. When I started the pile I didn’t realize how much you really needed to crush them so there were quite a few hidden in the pile.

Another thing I learned about composting is that you need a pitchfork! It really is a necessity. I tried just using a shovel in the beginning, not good! Not good at all. But the pitchfork, the pitchfork is wonderful! It cuts into that pile like buttuh!

And as predicted, the flimsy hardware cloth is not doing well. I can see it now from my kitchen window collapsing under  a few inches of snow and ice. I did manage to make another pile though. This one is in a garbage-can I can put by the back door so I don’t have to venture too far out in the ice and snow. I’m looking forward to the Spring when I can get my composting back into full swing using a two pile system!

Recipes: Tomato Soup and Pasta Sauce

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My latest tomato endeavors have been delicious. Too delicious not to share. I don’t know how you like your tomatoes but I am a purist. My favorite preparation of a tomato is a dash of salt. eat.

So these two recipes are pretty simple but have really good flavors and you can always spice things up!

The first is a super simple tomato soup from allrecipes.com. I followed the recipe to a T and it turned out fantastic! Add a grilled cheese on marble rye and you have perfection!

tomato soup

The next recipe is my own concoction so forgive me for the lack of measurements.

Mascarpone Pasta Sauce for Two:

  • Two strips of bacon
  • One clove of garlic minced
  • Some shallots minced
  • 1T. mascarpone
  • Three fresh tomatoes diced
  • Some chopped up parsley
  • Cooked pasta for two

Cook two strips of bacon in a large pan. Remove bacon and put to the side. Add garlic and shallots to bacon grease and lightly brown. Add diced tomatoes to pan and let simmer about 15 minutes or until much of the liquid has cooked down. Break up the bacon into small pieces and add to the sauce. Keep the heat on low and add the mascarpone. Stir until combined and pour over pasta. Sprinkle the parsley on top. Voila!

Mascarpone pasta sauce

I know my photo of the sauce looks a bit like chicken curry :/  But it looks much better in person, trust me!

Kale Jungle

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Kale

The kale is looking great and tastes even better! In our excitement (and ignorance) we bought far too many kale plants for a two person household. Fortunately we do love kale and so we have been trying out a few ways to prepare it. Here are our two favorite ways to cook kale.

#1 Baked:

  • Rinse and dry kale leaves.
  • Remove the thick stalk and spread on a cookie sheet.
  • Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a little salt or other seasoning of your choice and place in oven.
  • Our oven runs really hot so I put it on 275- 300 for about 5 minutes. Make sure you watch it though! It can burn quickly.

#2 Blanched and Sauteed:

  • Rinse, dry and de-stalk the kale leaves.
  • Blanch your kale! If you don’t know how, check out this All Recipes instruction. It’s super simple.
  • After blanching lay them out on a clean towel to soak up the excess water.
  • In a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, saute diced red onion and a clove or two of garlic.
  • Before the onion becomes translucent add your kale and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Just toss the kale in the pan long enough to reheat it and spread all the seasoning so each leaf is coated.
  • You can saute the kale without blanching first but we found that the blanching toned down the bitterness which was a nice change for kale :)

Next I am going to start blanching and freezing our kale so it doesn’t go to waste and we can enjoy it long after our plants have died. Pick Your Own has a great little page on how to blanch and freeze your greens. If you already know how to blanch scroll on down the page for some great tips on harvesting and freezing.

Enjoy!

Attaaaack of the killer TOMAtoes!!

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And by “killer” I mean AWESOME tomatoes! It is unbelievably satisfying to grow and eat your own food! To know that they are truly fresh, vine ripened, organic vegetables! So great! And so delicious!

home grown tomatoes

Now, tell me. What do I do with them all?!

Salsa- check. Guacamole- check. Pasta with fresh parsley and diced tomatoes- check! Check check check

Now what?

No seriously, I’m open to suggestions!

…canning?

Tacos de lengua

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Tacos de lengua

Or “Adventures In Tongue!”, that was the runner up title. But I thought “No, no! Lest someone mistake this for an X rated site!”…

But even if you did think about food, the word “tongue” does not evoke a particularly mouth watering, pleasant feeling for the majority of “Average Americans”. Tongue, liver, heart, blood, feet, hooves etc. these are things that most Americans would throw away. Well, they would throw them away if they HAD to. Instead they cut the cellophane packages open and find a perfectly shaped chicken breast. Something devoid of skin and bones or anything else that would remind them that this was, in fact, once a living being. But I digress.

No, tongue is not something “normal” in the American diet. In fact we could only get ONE of our friends come over for a dinner of tacos de lengua. But let me tell you, you have no idea what you’re missing! First of all, it’s cheap! Sure, go ahead and joke that it’s cheap because no one wants it but the truth is a lot of people in the world DO want it.

Secondly, it’s very tender and flavorful. The images of it being cooked may not be very pleasant. I will admit that. But you should at least give it a try! There are Mexican restaurants that will often have “tacos de lengua” but you can also get it at many Jewish deli’s. For a first timer I would suggest the tacos route. It is not distinguishable as a tongue and it is mixed with a lot of different textures and flavors to distract you from constantly thinking “I’m eating tongue!”.

*** Warning! Tongue images below! Don’t look if you’re a wussy!***

Boiling tongue

First we boiled the tongue for about three hours in a pot full of onions and peppercorns and other yummy seasonings!

Tastebuds!

Taste buds!!! Gaaahhhhh!!!!

Peeling

Now to peel off the “skin”. Ugh, thank god the taste buds are gone!

Finally we cut the tongue up into small bite size pieces and saute it in a pan. I also made up my delicious homemade flour tortillas and a variety of fillings for the tacos: red onion, cilantro, radishes and avocado.

fillings

If you are feeling adventurous (and you should be!) hop on over to Simply Recipes were we got our recipe and try it out for yourself!

We Have Tomatoes!

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Almost Ripe!

The tomatoes have really taken off! In fact, maybe a little too much. I counted the other day and there are 35 tomatoes growing out there! I think I should have paid closer attention to what my plants were doing. My next post may end up being on how to make home made salsa and marinara sauce.

I can’t wait until they ripen up! Looks like two of them will be ready in a day or two. You know, one of my favorite things to do growing up was to pick tomatoes from my best friend’s garden. I would stand there in the garden munching away on the warm tomato with the juice running down my arm. A perfect summer moment.

Backyard Composting

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Woo Hoo! Composting! Is it crazy that I am so excited about this? …Nah

So many ways to compost! Tumblers, piles, bins, balls (!?), drawers, pallets and worms, Oh my! How to choose? Well, lots of research I am sorry to say. You just have to find what’s right for you. Will you compost indoors or outside? How much room do you have? Will you continually add to the compost or put in one big batch at a time?

I decided to make a single enclosure my self; it is much cheaper and pretty easy to do. But it does have downsides that I will get into in a moment. I used hardware cloth and three metal stakes to make a triangle in a sunny corner of the yard. It took me about 15 minutes and cost about $20.

staking things out

Compost Pile

Now for the verdict! It has been a few months since I made this and I gotta say, I love composting! But I do not love my enclosure. :(

The plastic hardware cloth is much too flimsy and will not last the winter. I am also very frustrated with not having an opening so i can actually get to my compost. Having to bend over and turn the compost has become such a pain! It’s to the point that I now climb into the pile to turn it. My shoes don’t like this method at all! I also don’t like only having one pile. I think I need two or three piles going at the same time that are at different stages of decomposition.

In doing more research and talking to family members who also compost, I think my next adventure in composting will be to make a two or three bin, open front system using wood pallets. However, I will still have to put up some kind of fencing because of those damn…er, adorable bunnies.