HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

These were the goodies my honey gave me for Valentine's day.  He knew he'd be on duty so he arranged for these to be delivered by ProFlowers.  How sweet.  Since we haven't seen eachother since we went to sleep Friday night, I thought I'd make a special dinner for him tomorrow night.  I'm sure it will have something to do with steak since he's a big steak lover...easy peasy!

My friend, Laura, and her kids were over last night.  While they were on their way, I knew I wanted to make them a little treat for Valentine's day so I put some cookies in the oven and got out my Cricut.  I made them little cookie goodie bags that I think turned out really cute.  I created a little 4" wide scalloped rectangle and a 2" x 1.6" heart using Sure Cuts A Lot, folded the top of the treat bag over, placed the folded rectangle and heart over that, punched holes through them and tied it all together with some ribbon and tulle.  If I were a stamper, I'm sure I could have added a cute little stamp to the mix.

These are three Valentine's banners I made with my Cricut.

New electric tea kettle and artisan bread...woohoo!

Yesterday I met my friend, Pat, at Michael's to look for some crafting supplies.  I was actually looking for some adhesive to use on my Cricut mat to make it sticky again (but that will be another post).  We stopped into Ross next door but I had already made up my mind that I didn't want to spend any more money.  We tend to look for teacups and teapots while there but I had no idea I'd find a Capresso H2O electric tea kettle!  I tried talking myself out of it but thought I'd better carry it around in case someone else saw it.  I've been coveting this tea kettle for quite awhile but didn't want to spend $60 for it.  How much did I spend?  $40!   I love it!  It's so pretty and I love the fact that it's glass instead of plastic but most of all I love the speed at which it boils water.  Of course, as soon as we got back to Pat's house we had to test it out.  We filled it up (48oz) and it probably took no more than 3-4 minutes to come to a boil!  No off odors or tastes that some reviewers complained of, thank goodness!

Now, about the artisan bread.  I borrowed a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois after getting interested in refrigerator bread doughs such as that mentioned in one of the Tightwad Gazette books I read years ago.  This book gives a master bread recipe that requires no kneading and can stay in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.  The longer it remains refrigerated, the more of a sourdough flavor it takes on.  I was interested in the "no kneading" aspect of the dough as well as being able to take a hunk of dough and bake a loaf of bread with only 40 minutes of rising time as preparation.  Now, my loaf didn't exactly look like the one on the cover of the book, but it really reminded me of something I'd tasted in a restaurant.  It was crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, like ciabatta.  The hardest part of all was doing what the book instructed and waiting until the bread had completely cooled before cutting it.  The only thing I don't like is that the recipe seems rather salty to me.  Next batch, I'll decrease the salt and see if it affects the outcome at all.   With another portion of this batch I'll try the Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls.  Yum!  Can't wait.

Homemade "clotted cream" a la Alton Brown

There's nothing I love more on a scone, a bagel, or on a spoon than clotted cream.  After doing a search to see if I could make it at home, I found this technique by Alton Brown.

I know this technique doesn't produce real clotted cream but it's a very good substitute! I usually buy Luxury Clotted Cream from the Devon Cream Company but have to drive about 20 minutes to get it and pay about $5.00 for a 6 oz jar. Now I can have it whenever I want! I used pasturized (not ultra pasturized) heavy whipping cream ($1.99/pint). I tried making it in a small strainer with a regular basket coffee filter with very poor results. I then made it in a small cone filter atop a coffee cup with much more satisfactory results. I found that if I stirred the cream to loosen the thick parts every few hours, I got more "clotted cream" left in the filter.  Alton says that the whey strains through the coffee filter leaving the "clotted cream" but I found the stuff that strains through more like a thick half and half cream than whey and poured it back into the carton to use in coffee.  This is the result of my endeavors:

A couple of Thank You cards done

It's funny how a spark of creativity comes out of nowhere.  Here I was, happily surfing when I got the urge to make a couple of Thank You cards.  Bernie says, "you always need Thank You cards!"  After watching Robyn at The Pink Stamper blog, I was inspired to do these:

Okay, please don't laugh!  I'm new at this, having just gotten my Cricut Expression for Christmas!  Thanks to my friend, Pat, I'm not totally without supplies.  She very generously shared some of hers with me, although I can see how easy it is to get addicted to buying them!  I think this is exactly why I never got into scrapbooking...one more addiction!  I do love how easy it is to just whip them up whenever you need 1 or 10.  LOL

A very un-Domo-kun

Chris and I love Domo-kun!  I decided to try and make our very own Domo but the result wasn't very satisfactory.  I think I made his head too tall.  I really didn't think his contruction through very well.  I'll try again but in the meantime he's hanging around the house.  Not even the dogs will play with him.

Watch Domo 7Eleven Slurpee Episode 1 in Animation  

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Happy 20th Anniversary, My Love!

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary.  I love this man more today than I did back then.  We have challenges like everyone else but in my heart I feel so much peace.  I know that no matter what, he'll take care of me, he'll be the strong one, he'll be the tough one, he'll be the level-headed one, and he'll be the smart one.  He sits back and watches me make mistakes and then laughs so hard that it makes me laugh.  We call eachother "stoopit" (stupid, but in a kind way).  We give eachother room to move.  He is my rock and I make him feel cared for.   He holds the weight of the world on his broad shoulders and we feel sheltered.  I love this man of mine!

He wanted to take me out for dinner for our anniversary but because I am still getting over the flu, I thought it would be a waste since I can't really enjoy it.  I decided instead to make dinner for us at home and leave him to his video games in the living room.  My friends who know him would think it's funny that he asked me out to dinner since they all know he hates eating out.  When I ran into a friend at the supermarket she said I should have gone, sick and all, because I never know when it will happen again!  Isn't that the truth!  That's okay.  I am where I want to be right now.
 
What else exciting happened on our anniversary?  He got to take apart the pipes under the kitchen sink!  Before I left for the store, I went under the sink for something and noticed it was wet.  Oh no!  I took everything out and wiped everything down but couldn't locate anything dripping.  I reminded him that the sink was backing up whenever I ran the dishwasher so he took everything apart and cleaned all the gunk out of the hoses and we were back in business.  No more backup when I ran the dishwasher.  Woohoo!  Poor guy, he would never have made it as a plumber...too big to fit under the sink!  I told him it's almost like plumbing by Braille since he can't see everything he's doing. 

Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Happy New Year everyone!  I don't know about you, but 2009 was a pretty good one for us.  We love eachother, we were healthy, we were together, we had a roof over our heads, the kids were happy, we had more than enough to eat, we had no family spats, we have the companionship of good friends, we have the unconditional love of our family pets, and my husband has job that he loves which allows me to stay home.  As far as I can tell, we don't have a whole heck of a lot to complain about.  We are anticipating some big changes in 2010 but as long as we're united we can get through anything.

I wish you all a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2010!

Easy Christmas Cookies

(Sorry for the poor lighting!)

These cookies are the result of my baking so far today. I've made about 16 dozen of these cake mix cookies: Devil's Food Chocolate Chip, Milk Chocolate Chocolate Chip, & Snickerdoodles. Each batch takes 1 box of cake mix, 1 stick of butter, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla. The chocolate chip cookies each have 2/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of chopped pecans. The snickerdoodles were rolled in 1/3 cup sugar and 3 tsp cinnamon before baking. All were baked at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Easy peasy!

Next I'd like to try an iced lemon cookie or an oatmeal raisin carrot cake cookie. I'll let you know how that goes.

Instant masala chai

This morning I was texting one of my friends before she went to work. She has an Indian step-mother and is a big chai lover like me. I told her that I'd have a travel cup of chai ready for her if she was inclined to do a drive-by at Mik's Cafe. She was so inclined! This got me thinking...I had made up a batch of my chai masala for her but she's usually too tired to go through the whole process of boiling the water, tea, milk & spices at the end of the day to make it. What if I whipped up a batch of instant chai mix for her? She could even take it to work and make herself a cuppa whenever she wanted one?

Here's what I came up with:

Mik's Instant Masala Chai

1/2 cup dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups non-dairy creamer (try vanilla flavored creamer if you don't have vanilla sugar)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vanilla sugar (vanilla beans left in a container of sugar)
1/4 cup honey powder (found at a local Korean market - may substitute with sugar)
3/4 cup unsweetened instant tea
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp cardamom
dash ground nutmeg
dash black pepper

Use 3 rounded kitchen teaspoonsful (not measuring spoons) per 8 oz boiling water. I'm not sure how many servings this batch will make.

Please let me know if you try this and what changes you make to suit your taste.

Enjoy!

Turkey & Wild Rice Soup

This is a really easy recipe and a great use of leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Turkey & Wild Rice Soup
2 Tbsp. butter
1 carton fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 large onion, diced very small
1 1/2 cups chopped, cooked turkey (or chicken will work, too)
1 box Rice A Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice mix with spice pouch
3 cans chicken broth
2 cups water
1 cup 1/2 & 1/2 cream

Saute mushrooms and onion in butter. Add chopped turkey, rice mix, spice pouch, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer until rice is cooked and starts to curl. When ready to serve, add cream and just heat through.

Homecoming 2009

Here are some pictures of my son, Anthony, his date, Kelly, and their friends this past Saturday. I'm sure they all had a great time, especially since they won their game the night before against Chaparral High School by a score of 56-6! I don't know if this is just a Vegas thing, but their "party bus" had a stripper pole in it!

Yay! My water kefir is fizzy!

I must have brewed 4 batches before I started on the right track. There is so much conflicting information out there. Most people say that water kefir needs to breathe, just like kombucha, and should be covered with a cloth or filter, whilst others say you need a sealed container. My previous batches were not fizzy at all so, at the risk of exploding my container, I sealed my jar and wrapped it in a towel. I even put it cabinet under the sink just in case. I left it there for two days and checked it this morning. Voila! Fizzy cranberry flavored water kefir! The fizziness only lasted a few seconds but it was good while it lasted.

Shhhhh...Kombucha is sleeping!

I'm not sure why, but my kombucha brewing environment was so good that I was bottling way more than I could drink. I was doing the continuous brewing method with two batches (1 gal & 1.5 liter containers) and they were both ready to bottle within 2 days after the last bottling. I decided this morning to put one of my SCOBYs to sleep. It was the larger of the two, the one in the 1 gallon jar. That batch was particularly quick to reach drinkable stage. I found that I only had to leave the bottles out for second fermentation for one day as they reached my desired level of carbonation by that time. I was also able to find a 3 liter glass sun tea jar (plastic spigot not optimal but seems most readily available) at my local grocery store and transferred the 1.5 liter batch to the larger container, which I topped off with fresh tea/sugar solution. The pineapple is still my favorite flavor but I do enjoy a splash of guava nectar in it.

As far as my new foray into water kefir brewing, I am not sure it's going well. I got my live kefir grains in the mail on Thursday and brewed my first batch that day. I let it sit for 48 hours as was suggested. The water got slightly opaque, which is normal, I think, but not carbonated at all. I bottled it and hoped it would progress into the fizzy, soda pop-like beverage everyone is raving about, but it did not. I hate to say but I tossed it. It didn't have much flavor at all. Sortof a flat, very weak lemonade. I brewed my second batch and it, too, grew slightly opaque and looks like it's getting fizzy, but I'll see tomorrow. So as easy as it is to brew, compared to kombucha, it seems as though I'm a better kombucha brewer!

Pineapple Kombucha. Yum!

I have been doing the continuous brew method so far for my two different kombuchas. I have already made three bottles for second fermentation that I've flavored differently. One black tea kombucha has cherries & ginger. That is quite good. One black tea kombucha has blueberries. Also quite good. My favorite thus far, however, is the green tea kombucha with pineapple. Yum, yum, yum! They're all slightly sweet and fizzy.

Because the SCOBY baby had gotten thicker and opaque, I decided to bottle what was left in my container and start a fresh batch instead of continuously brewing that batch. I read that new babies don't form when you're continuously brewing (not sure if this is true) and I want to build up a supply of a couple of SCOBYs before doing more continuous brewing. Also, I'd like to get myself a 1-gallon sized container to do this in, preferably something with a spigot but the only ones I've seen have either plastic or metal spigots. I've just been ladling it out a bit at a time so far and that has been working.

Just to show how quickly the baby forms, check out these pictures of my green tea SCOBY over a three day period. The last picture shows the much smaller mother culture and the new, larger baby above it.





Next up will be my foray into water kefir, which is also a probiotic loaded drink. I've just ordered some live water kefir grains from an eBay vendor and will document the process here as well.

UPDATE: While doing my grocery shopping at my local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, I found a 1 gallon glass "cracker jar" container for under $6.00. It was just what I was looking for and the cheapest I've seen thus far. They had sun tea jars with spigots but they were plastic, so I passed on them. After washing thoroughly, I put my green KT in it and topped it off with some fresh brew.

New way to order @ McDonald's! Love it!

My Kombucha!

I'm not quite sure how I got interested in kombucha again. What is it and why should I drink it? The last time I brewed my own kombucha was 15 years ago when a classmate introduced me to it. She had problem skin and was told it would help clear it up. I don't remember why I was interested enough in it to make me want to drink it. What I do remember is that I made it in a large Tupperware bowl (not recommended anymore!) on top of my fridge and that I didn't have any instructions other than how to make it. The internet was new to me back then and I didn't think to look it up. However, with a 2 year old at home and me going to school full-time, it fell by the wayside. Back then, my friend gave me a nice big healthy SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) with which to brew my kombucha, but this time I didn't have one of those.

I started my first batch on 9/2/09 with some sweet black tea and a 16 oz. bottle of High Country Original Kombucha I purchased at Whole Foods. By this time, I had ordered a small SCOBY from a vendor on eBay, which I received on 9/6/09. I started the second batch that day with some sweet green tea. After 7 days, my first batch has formed a small SCOBY on the surface. It's still quite thin, getting a bit opaque, and has a couple of chunks of culture that were in my bottle of prepared kombucha. The smell is wonderful! It is still on the sweet side with a slight tang. The color has also changed from a typical black tea to what looks more like green tea. I need to let it go for a couple more days probably before I decant it. I'll let it sit on the counter, capped, for a couple of days further to let it develop some fizz (hopefully). I'm just afraid it'll explode!

The second batch (with the purchased SCOBY) still has a way to go. The SCOBY is resting on the bottom of the container and little chunks of a new culture are forming on the surface of the tea. It doesn't have the wonderful fermented smell yet, but it's young. I can't wait to taste the difference between the black tea and the green tea kombuchas.

I also want to try putting fruit and ginger in my tea when I decant it. I have some cherries, blueberries, and cranberries to add. Maybe even pineapple? I really love GT Dave's Kombucha drinks, especially the Synergy line. I'm especially fond of the Guava Goddess. I can see blending the homemade kombucha with some guava juice to get the same effect. Yum!


I'll post more on this later.

New QAYG Table Runner

I have been wanting to try another QAYG (quilt-as-you-go) quilt but I'm settling for a table runner at this point. I couldn't decide which method to use but decided upon the one that uses sashing strips for the front and back, and makes a completely reversible quilt. I decided upon autum colors and found a lovely batik and a fall leaves print. I'm using blocks that finish to 6" and are not pieced, just quilted. Hopefully I can finish it by Sunday as I'm kinda busy this weekend. I chose to hand sew the sashing strips down on the back side and I'm sure I'm happier with the result than I would be had I sewn them down by machine.
It goes together pretty quickly once all the pieces are cut. Bigger blocks would have been good, too. I will put a traditional binding on it in the burgundy colored fabric, which matches both sides. The sashing strips are cut to 1 1/8" for the front and left flat and 1 3/4" for the back and are pressed in half lengthwise. I found many sites online with instructions and here is just one of them from quilterscache.com.

Cutting hexagon templates faster!

I don't know how many other hexie enthusiasts are cutting their own paper hexagon templates, but I wanted to share how I do it. I have been using Robyn's 2 inch hexagon template. Thanks Robyn! What I do is cut her template sheet apart in rows and then take 1-2 sheets of plain paper and accordion fold them to fit the size of the hexagons. I then put a staple in the center of each hexagon to help maintain the integrity of the template while cutting through several layers. Then I cut around each hexagon shape. This will net me around 170+ hexagon templates per template sheet! Now, if I could only sew them together that fast!

Yep, I'm back to sewing them together by hand rather than machine. It was a great experiment but I enjoy having some hand-work to do while watching TV and prefer the way hand-pieced motifs look more than machine-pieced. I still don't have a grand plan but right now it's all about the journey rather than the destination.

Back from Hawaii...

and trying to get back into the swing of things. It's hard to do when I've been gone for a month! My body is still on Hawaiian time, which is 3 hours behind Nevada time. I had very limited access to a computer while I was there since I didn't bring my own. I have loads of pictures to go through. I'd like to create a little photo album of our trip, which I've never done before.

The crocheted pot holders and hot pads were a big hit. Now I want to get more sewing done. I have a couple of apron patterns to try. This one, by Mary Mulari, is the closest thing I've found to the aprons worn on my beloved Korean dramas! I wanted to buy one but couldn't find any and didn't want to take my mom's apron from her. She offered but I resisted! My sister-in-law brought it back from Japan for her and it's too cute. If it turns out all right, I'll make one for her. As it happens, she really liked the cap I made for her to wear over her curlers and wants me to make her more in various colors. I've got to get working on that! Gina wants one in purple so she can wear it while on her new purple Harley! I bought the pattern from a seller on Etsy and it was very easy to make but I was looking for something a little more fitted, somewhat like a doo-rag. I guess I'll have to draft my own pattern.

For as long as I was there, there are a few things I failed to do. I really wanted to bring home a bunch of fabric but decided to wait until my last day to go to Fabric Mart. In the end, I had so much to do that last day that I forgot to stop at the fabric store. I wanted to bring home some food but didn't get to that either. I did manage to bring home a few little goodies for my friends and some shirts for Bernie. In the end, though, I think he's just happy to have me home and finally get some home cooked meals. It feels good to cook! I didn't do any cooking at my mom's house and since I didn't want her to feel pressured to cook for us, we ate the majority of our meals out. I'm afraid to step on the scale! Time to get back on an exercise regime and eat better!


Picture taken by my friend, David of (from L to R) his mom, Cora, my BIL, Jeff, my sister, Gina, me, my friends, Tom & his wife, Julie

EPP by machine getting easier!

I think I like it! This little piece, which I think will be turned into a table mat, took me about 5 hours to complete. That includes cutting and basting all the hexies, piecing the flower motifs and then sewing them all together with the border. I don't think 5 hours is so bad for this.

Once I got the hang of it, it went much faster. **Note to self: Next time, graph my design out and piece in strips rather than flowers.** In this machine pieced method, I think it would have been much easier to assemble that way. It's just so much fun, though, to see a bunch of flowers put together. I'm glad I now have an alternative to hand sewing my hexies. I still prefer the look of the hand pieced, but if I have to make a quick gift, this is the way to go.

I don't think the stitches are as noticable as they appear in the photo. I think the light from the flash just picked up the monofilament thread. I tried using cotton thread in a sample piece but it was too noticable. I could match the thread to the petals but when it came time to sew around the center yellow hexagon, the colored thread was too much, so I decided to stick with the clear monofilament.

Please let me know if you try doing it this way. I'd love to know how it worked out!