linguisticky countertops

Reflecting on the new year

2010-12-28T11:41:00.000-06:00

I just read this post over at Creature Comforts (which is a lovely blog by the way). She is musing on a post from AT which I remember reading a while back. It poses the question "what do you actually use". (I'm pretty sure I could live off of a small fork, a small spoon, 2 bowls and a plate + cooking stuff.) I have natural hoarding tendencies (not this kind) and also value clean design...what's a girl to do. I definitely need to take the time and downsize. That's doable; it's a matter of making myself focus for long enough to do it. But...

BUT

What about the stuff that's not junk - the mounds of invaluable heirlooms? I'm not sure if they're really invaluable - but they're old, and they were my grandmothers'/mother's/great-whoevers'. Guilt! Shame! I can't throw them away! WHAT am I supposed to do with all of this stuff? Any ideas?

Best soup I've ever had

2010-10-02T13:52:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I'm prone to hyperbole, but this is really good soup!

Mississippi is a strange place in those in-between-season times. It no longer hits 90, but it's not, em, cold, yet you wouldn't necessarily know that by the way some people dress. I saw a girl with a coat+faux fur-lined hood yesterday. Really‽ However, I do get that after months of hardly even seeing 75 in the middle of the night, you sort of jump at the chance to even think about tights, scarves (even summer scarves...), boots, cardigans, etc. And to be fair, I guess I do it too - considering I set out to make some kind of lentil soup yesterday.

I scoured the internet, finding nothing particularly appealing for about an hour for one reason or another. I had totally forgotten about Heidi over at 101cookbooks (fantastic website), until yesterday during my quest when I stumbled upon this little gem. I didn't have any shallots, and to be honest I don't really get shallots. They're something that you "get", aren't they? Like, they're in a different echelon of cooking - a French echelon, I think - and I just haven't used them enough to appreciate them. I don't have a problem with them, but I don't understand their necessity I suppose. Anyway, I didn't have any, but I really liked the looks of the recipe. I also had some carrots, and a red onion, and some garlic, and I hate black olives, and I didn't have almonds. Clearly this soup wasn't going to be what Heidi had in mind. But, that's OK. I'm becoming much more comfortable with my culinary sense these days, so I decided to venture a bit away from the fold...

...and this is what I came up with.

Red Lentil and Brown Rice Soup based on Heidi Swanson's Red Lentil Soup Recipe

1/2 medium/large red onion, diced
1/2 medium/large yellow onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
olive oil - as much as you prefer to use to cook the above

6 cups vegetables stock or broth or water with vegetable bouillon cubes
1 1/3 cup red lentils (picked through and rinsed)*
1/2 cup brown rice (picked through and rinsed)*
salt or Sel Fou**

*note* I soaked these. I realize you don't have to soak red lentils, but I figured it would speed up the whole process, especially with the brown rice, and it certainly did.
**note** This stuff is amazing. AMAZING. I think it really made the soup - I would recommend making yourself a large jar of it and putting it on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

crumbled feta
julienned or shredded apple (1 sweet, crisp apple should be plenty for the whole recipe)
optional lemon juice solution to soak the apples in to keep them from browning if you will serve this later or if you are particularly concerned about their appearance

Warm oil in pot large enough to make a hearty portion of soup in
add onions and carrots and allow to cook until the onions begin to brown, stirring occasionally
add garlic and red pepper flakes, cook until onions caramelize a little
add vegetable stock, bring to boil
add lentils and rice, simmer until rice is tender - lentils will collapse into a thick mush (yum!)
taste and adjust seasoning, add salt and/or sel fou until it tastes like something!
serve with crumbled feta and a generous serving of apple

Pictures coming soon!

Interesting idea...

2010-09-29T23:35:00.001-05:00

Scott (the toilet paper folks) have come out with this new SmartFlush campaign. For a limited time, if you buy an 8 or 12 pack of Mega Rolls, you get one of these puppies for free. I'm torn on what I think about this. Displacing water in your tank is a great way to save water, but, you don't need anything special to do it. I've been doing it for years with a 1 liter water bottle. Easy. Fill it up, displace 1L of water. Save 1L of water every time you flush. Good for Scott for raising awareness, but it seems a little wasteful to manufacture these things.

Whose got the magic?

2010-09-28T13:11:00.001-05:00

I DO!

This is such a sweet video montage of pregnancy photos from pacing the panic room, but what I totally love is the song. Check it!

Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

Black-Eyed Peas and Aloo Sabji

2010-08-16T23:00:00.003-05:00

Best Indian dish EVER.

I'm so pleased with myself about this, you have no idea. I've been making a lot of Indian food lately, especially since I discovered that cooking dried beans wasn't the hardest thing in the world (I was convinced that it was - especially after an unfortunate black bean cooking episode back in the vegetarian days). This is the best dish I've made so far! I got the recipe over at hungry desi. I won't reinvent the wheel here; Nithya does a superb job of explaining it. The only thing I did different was sub in some lentils to make up for the black-eyed peas that I didn't have enough of, use the red chilis that I had instead of green and add some fenugreek leaves (methi) at the end. Everything else was the same. I will say it was a little too spicy for me, but I added a bit too much cayenne (red chili powder) and I'm not actually sure how hot my peppers were (though Liz at the Farmer's Market told me they were pretty mild/medium). No worries, I piled on some yogurt and cilantro and barreled through it with no problem. Rice would've helped - but please do note the delightful cultural clash of a tortilla at the top there.

If you think you can't make Indian food...you're wrong - you can. Give this dish a try; you'll be happy you did!

Faux quoi?

2010-08-15T12:11:00.001-05:00

Faux bois my dears. I have a cute little table that I scored at GoodWill (I do <3 GoodWill) for $13. It's sort of industrial-looking, with a metal/chromey pedestal and an MDF top. I've been debating what to do with that top and I think I've found the answer over at apartmenttherapy

...white paint + faux bois. I'm hoping contact paper will stick to said white paint...I don't see why not though, right?

English muffins

2010-08-05T12:14:00.007-05:00

On the griddle

So, I love having Adelaide around, really I do, but sometimes I feel bad that she's just sitting in the fridge, not giving bouncy, fermented life to something. That's when I go in search of sourdough recipes that aren't for just a loaf of bread. Recipes like this, and this, and this! Especially that last one. I just finished cooking my second batch of English muffins. They are really delicious and fun to make.

I've adapted my recipe from the one on thefreshloaf, and by adapted I mean I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.

Sourdough English Muffins

Makes about 14

1/2 C starter
1 C milk
2-3/4 C mixture of whole wheat and white whole wheat flour
1 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1 t baking soda
Cornmeal, for dusting

Stir the starter, 2 cups of flour and the milk together. Cover with a lid or a plate or some plastic wrap and leave out (not in the fridge!) for 8 hours/overnight. I usually opt for overnight.

The next day (or 8 hours later) add the rest of the flour if you think you need it. I only added sort of a handful and then used a pretty good bit when kneading. Add the sugar, salt and baking soda and stir until well combined. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 4-5 minutes. It's going to be pretty sticky. Roll out to 3/4" and cut with a biscuit cutter (Um, did you mean pint glass? Yes? Ok good.) into rounds. Reroll the scrap pile until you've used it all up. The last one may be sort of a mutant; that's ok though. Place the muffins, at least 1/3 inch apart on something (parchment, silpat, cutting board, whatever) with enough cornmeal to really keep them from sticking. Your beautiful circles will turn into ugly ovals when you try to pick them up and they stick to the surface. Leave them alone for 45 min - 1 hour.

That Guinness glass...not a unitasker!

Rub a griddle with oil using a paper towel (don't burn yourself, please) and heat it to about medium. Cook the muffins for around a total of 10-14 minutes, flipping them every few minutes. I find this works best so you know that you're not burning them and, well, I like to keep an eye on them.

I love my grandmother's cast iron skillet that fits over two eyes!

Split them open with a fork - for optimum nook/cranny experience, using a knife sort of smooshes them - and enjoy!

Eating three is not really recommended...but I won't tell if you don't!

*For more photos, check out my Picasa page!

No coincidence

2010-08-02T10:59:00.001-05:00

There is 100% correlation between the lack of posts from June to July and my teaching summer school. Now that it's over, I'm like, oh yeah, I have a blog. DUH! Not that I haven't done anything over the past two months. I have. Adelaide and I have gotten better acquainted. I've made all manner of sourdough things - whole wheat and spelt breads, pizza dough, pita bread, English muffins and pancakes...it's been great. Sourdough starters are very forgiving, which is good, because mine inevitably has a dark liquidy "hooch" on top by the time I think about feeding it again. Sigh.

Other than that I sewed up an old-man-plaid shirt to fit me. I love it. It's sort of my new favorite article of clothing. This weekend, the first weekend of freedom, I turned a men's shirt into a skirt (I should have made a tutorial, it's a little different from anything I've seen so far on the web), and I made a cover for my sewing machine using this tutorial from sew4home. I even, feeling particularly crafty and summer-campy, made a friendship bracelet the other day! Speaking of friendship bracelets - check out these beauties!

Well, I'm out for the day. Trying to stay cool, probably failing. C'est la vie!

To anyone with an ice cream maker

2010-05-29T19:07:00.001-05:00

Why hello there fro-yo.

I will make this...soon.

Her name is Adelaide...

2010-05-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

I'm making a sourdough starter (squeal!) She's just a little seed right now, but I've named her Adelaide...maybe that's a premature move, but hopefully it will send good vibes her way. I started with this recipe from the New York Times*. However, I decided to drive home (about 2.5 hours), so I obviously had to bring my one-day-old starter with me. After a day here, my dear Adelaide began to separate. After some e-sleuthing I found out that this liquid is called "hooch" - how appropriate, it does smell boozy - and that it is the starters' way of telling you that it needs to be fed. Whew. OK. So, The Fresh Loaf helped me out from there. I think I get to turn it into a real starter tomorrow - if it survives the drive back that is!

*I got the link to the NYT recipe from this article about pizza. It suggests that you leave out your dough for at least 24 hours. Like out, on the counter. I left mine out for a bit over 24 hours, then put it in the fridge, used some of it the next day and then froze the rest. The pizza** that I made was the. best. pizza. I've. ever. made. PERIOD. It was so good.
**I used this pizza recipe from Annie's Eats by the way - which is the wettest pizza dough ever, but very very tasty, even if you don't leave it out for a day. It may actually be mis-written; I usually end up adding a ton of flour when I'm kneading it.

I couldn't have done it without the internet...

2010-05-16T11:47:00.000-05:00

Making that wedding cake was insane.

My mother has a masters degree in home ec., so I know a thing or two about baking and the whatnot, but that is nothing compared to the amount of knowledge I've amassed in the past few weeks. I am endlessly indebted to the following (and many more I'm sure) websites:

Wilton

Wilton is a long standing cake/decorating company. If you have a cake pan, especially if it's in a fun shape, it's probably a Wilton. They have classes and recipes and so many things. They also have really helpful charts like this one that tells you how many servings a cake will yield, how much batter should go in each pan, how much icing you need to cover each tier, etc. I used their lemon cake and buttercream recipes, both of which were delicious.

Martha Stewart

Martha - what can I say, the woman knows what she's doing. I didn't use any of the recipes from her site, but I started there and I learned a lot. This page taught me how to assembly my cake; I never would've figured out to put the dam around the edges for the filling...and that would have been a cake wreck!

David Lebovitz

Besides having an awesome website (I particularly like this post about cloth napkins) - I found my lemon curd recipe here. It's delicious!

This page saved my butt! I was confused about the freezing/thawing/icing process - when? how? etc. This cleared it all up. Can you freeze cake? Yes. Can you freeze it with a crumb coat? Yes. Can you crumb coat it while it's frozen? Yes. Can you ice it while it's frozen? NO. (VERY good to know).

Goingsewcrazy

What a delightful page - full of tutorials and goodness. This one gave me all the information I needed to make these cute little wedding cake toppers. I first got the idea, though, from these - which are truly works of art! They also cost a fortune!

Bakerella

What to do with all of that leftover cake? Cake balls - obviously! Hers are way cuter than mine, because I did them last minute and had run out of patience for perfectly shaped adorableness, but mine were just as delicious. This is a great thing to do if you have leftover cake - or if you have a disaster that can't be remedied... The only problem is the name. Cake balls? Really? With all the linguists at this party - you'd better believe we tried to come up with a better name. We tried French...but it wasn't much better. The little girls called them "mini cupcakes" which is better than "cake balls" ... although Bakerella has mini cupcakes, so we'll have to think of something else!

Like I said, I know there are myriad more websites that I've visited, but these are the ones that I went back to over and over again. A big thank you to all of their creators! Couldn't have done it without you!

Of course - I also have to give a huge shout out to my mother, grandmother and my aunt's friend Cindy. I called all of them several times with random baking questions. And my mother and grandmother taught me everything I know about cooking - thank you! I love you!!

Y'all...I made a wedding cake!

2010-05-16T11:45:00.001-05:00

My dear professor/friend just got married and I boldly volunteered to make her cake. The whole thing was very low-key - in fact they got married over a month ago, but had their reception/party yesterday. Yesterday - one week after graduation day. I figured...I have a free week, I would LOVE to make a wedding cake. And I did love it. But wow. It is a. lot. of. work! I'm going to publish several posts with pictures, as I can't seem to easily get them all into one!

Wedding cake!

2010-05-16T11:45:00.000-05:00

I started on Wednesday with David Lebovitz' lemon curd.

A mere fraction of the eggs used. I bought 8 boxes of butter for this - 8!

One of the 3 double recipes of Wilton's lemon cake

heating core?! my proudest moment

2010-05-16T11:42:00.000-05:00

I discovered something while researching cake making...

if you bake a cake that is really deep or over 10 inches wide, you need a "heating core". This helps the cake cook all the way through, because hate radiates out from the center and in from the edges of the pan.

I did not have a heating core, but I McGuyvered it with a (very thoroughly washed and lined with parchment paper) tomato paste can. Worked like a charm!

Decor

2010-05-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

A made these ADORABLE cake topper clothespin dolls thanks to a tutorial from goingsewcrazy

The gum paste flowers were loosely (or not so loosely) based on the flowers from this cake featured in RealSimple.

..which had no tutorial so I had to figure them out myself. I opted for egg cartons, cupcake tins and ramekins. Worked out pretty well. I was happier with them before I tried to paint them though...

Crumby

2010-05-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

I had to fill them before I could crumb coat them...

and before you can fill them you have to make an icing dam...so the filling doesn't go everywhere!

Three little crumb coated cakes. yay!

Process

2010-05-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

Icing the 9 inch layer...

Putting them together - SCARY

Oh, and, I had leftover cake...so I made cake balls (thanks Bakerella)! I think these may have been a bigger hit than the cake to be honest! They were very tasty.

Finished product

2010-05-16T11:27:00.000-05:00

I loved the topper...

...but sort of hated the flowers...

...as long as they're happy - I'm good.

The aftermath

2010-05-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

I sort of overdid it really. We took out the 9 inch layer - but the WHOLE 12 inch layer was left. I could've just made a 9 inch cake and been done with it...but this was much more fun!

Cake!

Really good cake!

A busy weekend

2010-04-25T13:29:00.001-05:00

For the weekend before the last week of school I sure have done a lot of non-school-related things.

My friend B and I went to our good friends' A&T's house last night for dinner. We were asked to get there at 6, which I thought was a bit early, but whatever, they're married and go to bed early. Little did I know that we would be making mozzerella! Awesome. I've heard that this is pretty easy to do, well I read about it in Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (very good read); T got A a kit for her birthday and they've made ricotta and mozzerella a few times now. It was very easy to do - not daunting at all having made yogurt and paneer before anyway. You just use citric acid to separate the curds/whey and then put in a dissolved rennet tablet. There's some specific stirring methods and temperatures, but that's pretty much it. Very cool. Took 20 or so minutes.
I went to the dollar store yesterday in search of a toothbrush (they have sweet deals there...you know...things for a dollar). I also found some clothespins. Wooden ones. 36 for a dollar! Wow. So, I bought them. I had recently seen some very cute painted clothespins (can't find the link!), so I thought I'd do that. Then I realized that would be a huge pain, so I thought maybe I could modpodge them. One look at etsy told me that that was obviously the new hotness. I took some paper I had saved from a very pretty birthday present, and set out. They turned out great. I'm really pleased with the results, and I'm looking for some different paper to use on the other 22!
To round out the weekend, A gave me some leftover whey. She said it's good for bread making. We'll find out today!
Oh. And. I've been doing the no-poo thing for about 2 weeks now, and I couldn't be happier about it. Yay!

These beauties aren't mine. They are from the papered crown's etsy shop. Check it out!

And this, when did THIS happen?

2010-04-13T14:57:00.000-05:00

L.L. Bean also became kinda cool, y'all. Seriously, what's going on?!

When did this happen?

2010-04-10T20:34:00.001-05:00

Great pieces from Land's End Canvas

Land's End got sort of...cool? Looks like J. Crew from 3 years ago, but, well, what's wrong with that. Looks like a solid place for basics.

I had a very intimate 2.5 hours with my mom and aunt this weekend...

2010-04-05T08:40:00.000-05:00

I made a duct tape dress form!!! Oh my gosh it was intense. More later!

Buttons make everything better

2010-04-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

My blog addiction has led me to two photos in the last week that have made me smile (and made me want to sew shorts again...which is a big deal).

Jen, over at The Fabled Needle (Please check her stuff out, it is really beautiful. I have a print!) posted pictures of some of Stella McCartney for GapKids clothing. Now, I am no petite creature, lithe enough to slip into some GapKids, but I can ogle, right? LOOK at these shorts. Please, seriously. WOW! I want them.

Even more button-sporting clothing popped up in my RSS feed this morning. Look at this cute shirt by Coty Lee via Paper and Stitch! Very cute, and super easy to DIY I'd say. I see a refashion in my future!

On not having anything to say (link love)

2010-03-31T10:04:00.001-05:00

It's funny how a blog can make you feel worthless. I've been bogged down with grad school, teaching and studying for my comps (which are more than halfway over now!). I've accomplished a lot in the last two months, but there's this albatros around my neck - I haven't published a blog post; I'm a bad blogger; value judgments from every direction! And by every direction I really mean from myself. I haven't made much in the way of crafting. I've cooked a ton, but I haven't felt the need to blog about it. But boy howdy do I read other peoples' blogs; seriously, I have a blog addiction problem. I've found some really awesome links over the past 2 months, and I'd like to share them with you.

Heart of Light's Homemade Paneer (from today!)

I've wanted to make cheese for a long time. I love Indian food. All you need is milk, lemon juice, paper towels and cheesecloth. Is there anything bad about this idea?

Free bunting printouts from nonpareil magazine via iDiY

I'm a sucker for bunting - completely gaga for it. And free things. Again, good idea.
Speaking of bunting - diy bunting stamp from broccoli rubberbands!!! How ABOUT orange?!

Chevron things

I dig chevron as well (I'm trendy...god). Design*Sponge posted this awesome chevron wall a few days ago.
This t-shirt isn't Chevron, but say YES! to hoboken's blog is! It's high time I stop bookmarking these t-shirts and start making them. Seriously.
Design*Sponge strikes again with this DIY chevron rug by Suzannah over at Adventures in Dressmaking
Prefer stripes? No problem - there's a tutorial for that. via Apartment Therapy

Refashioned things

Look at this bag! Don't you want it!? Salt-water kids via Wardrobe refashion
Sew I thought...this girl NEVER disappoints. Next time you walk into a thrift store you will see haute couture written all over the place!

From the world of actual paper you can touch (but also found online)

I love Real Simple magazine. I've heard people criticize it, because a lot of the things in it are so expensive and they are often not simple. I. Don't. Care. I love it and I don't care. I bought a 6 month subscription from an office-mate's son. The last issue was their 10th anniversary, and they shared popular tips from over the years.
My favorite oldie was to use a salad spinner for getting rid of excess water in hand washed sweaters. I had just gotten back from Minnesota and needed to wash some cashmere, but was frustrated by the instructions that say "do not wring or twist"+ "lay flat to dry". Really? What do you want me to do with it then? Obviously, put in in my salad spinner. Amazing.
This issue also shows you how to dry your hair. I've never known how to really dry my hair. I'm serious. No one taught me...who is supposed to teach you? I don't have sisters. My mom has short hair. Stylists, when I do ask for help, do a terrible job of explaining the process. But there it was. In three steps. For straight hair/for curly hair. Thank you Real Simple. My hair looked GREAT!

Kind of out there

Anyone do the no-poo thing? As in not using shampoo at all? I've heard of it over the past 5 years or so, maybe longer actually (I used to work at a hippie co-op). I haven't taken the plunge - apparently your hair looks NASTY for 2-6 weeks - and it is supposed to work better with curly hair - I have straight. But I have added some baking soda to my shampoo when I wash. It has made a world of difference. My once greasy-by-4pm locks are now good to go for 2 days. Weird. If you can make it through the transition period - the results are supposed to be AMAZING.
Finally, a linguistic note. Did you know there's a midline through the states (think Mason-Dixon-ish) that divides how people say "greasy". People in the Midlands and the South tend to go with greazy (/gɹi:zi/) and people in the North and West tend to go greasy (/gɹi:si/). Neat.

My homemade granola

2010-02-07T12:10:00.002-06:00

I really like granola, but I never ate it very often because it was 1. expensive to buy and 2. expensive to make (so I thought) and 3. calorific.

It is expensive. The local bakery sells it to take home for around $9 a quart.
My brother used to have my mom make (doesn't that sound terrible) this granola recipe that must've cost like $30. I don't know what was in there, but it was ridiculous, so I assumed all granola would be really expensive to make. But, don't we all know what happens when you assume? I think we do; thank you Oscar Wilde. It's really not that expensive to make unless you just have to have cold-pressed jojoba oil and exotic whatever. Go to the grocery, get some stuff, put it in there, it'll work.
True. This is an energy food. It does not, however, have to have as many calories or as much fat as the stuff you usually buy at the store or the local bakery.

Here's where I started my granola-making journey (another Mississippi girl, yay!). She is a friend of a friend, and I like her granola recipe as a base. I've changed things up a bit though. This is how I make mine:

Ingredients:

The dry

3 heaping cups rolled oats (quick, instant, old-fashioned...whatever)
1 1/4 cup of a mixture in whatever proportion of wheat germ, wheat bran, whole wheat flour and flax seeds (or some extra oats)
1/4 - 1/3 cup almonds (slivered or sliced)

The wet*

5 heaping spoonfuls brown sugar (like smallish-sized spoons you eat with)
3 spoonfuls honey
3 shakes cinnamon
1 shake each nutmeg, allspice, cloves (more or less or none depending on what you like)
big dash salt
1 spoonful vanilla extract
1 spoonful almond extract
3-6 spoonfuls warm water, to make thick but stir-able liquid
1-2 spoonfuls vegetable oil

The not-listed-yet-so-you-don't-cook-them

dried raisins (1/4-1/3 cup)
dried cranberries (1/4 cup)

Steps:

combine (in large bowl) The dry
combine (in separate, smaller bowl) The wet. add water until you have a thick, syrupy liquid
add The wet to The dry
stir stir stir
turn oven on to 325 (don't worry about preheating)
line jelly-roll (1/2 sheet) pan with parchment or foil + spray
pour uncooked granola onto pan and stick it in the oven
set timer for 18 minutes, but be ready to check it
granola is done when it's about a shade darker than it was when it went in and smells fragrant
wait for it to cool a bit and then add the dried fruit
place in large, airtight container and store in the freezer for best (crispiest) results

Notes:

*I know some of those aren't actually wet, you can really add them to either, but I like to put them with The wet.
this will burn quickly. when you even think it's done, it is. take it out.
it will harden as it cools; don't worry if it does't seem crispy when you remove it

I hope you enjoy this recipe, I really do. It's forgiving; don't be afraid to play with it.

My most difficult (and ugliest) project to date.

2010-02-07T11:52:00.000-06:00

The "a" side

So, I saw these AMAZING pillows over at designsquish, and I thought to myself, "self, wouldn't it be super neat to have one of those pillows?". I apparently also responded with "yes, yes it would" because I embarked on this journey yesterday morning. I set out to make an "a" (because my honey's name starts with "a" and because, conveniently, when you turn it upside down it turns into a "g", which is the first letter in my name). I figured this would be difficult...and it was! The hardest part was the tunnel that you have to make ... and everything else. But now, 28 hour later, I have one pillow form of an "a" and or "g" (I will cover it with a sturdy upholstery fabric or recycled coat like they did so the bumps won't be so noticeable). I will make another one, and I MAY even make a tutorial if you're lucky. I'm trying to figure out the best way to piece this thing together...because what I did can NOT be the best way.

The "g" side

It's not very pretty, but honestly, I think it looks about as good as the one on designsquish. Hopefully I have some tricks up my sleeve for the next one (I think I do anyway), and hopefully it will look better with some thick fabric over it. It was a fun experience anyway and I learned some stuff. However...I may just tuft the hole instead of building that tunnel - that was terrible!

A shout out to Kroger and store brand white whole wheat flour

2010-02-03T09:34:00.000-06:00

Sure, I've sung the praises of white whole wheat flour before. Sure, I love King Arthur Flours (I really really do). But I'm in college. I'm trying to save money. We're all trying to save money. So, I literally gasped when I saw that Kroger put out a store brand white whole wheat flour (ask my boyfriend, he was mid-story when I interrupted him to tell him about this discovery). It was on sale (because it's new?) so I picked up a 5lb bag for 2.49 (regular 2.99). King Arthur usually goes for 4.99, so it really is great savings - especially if you make bread (or pancakes or cookies or tortillas or pita or or or...) every week.

If you guys haven't tried white whole wheat flour yet, get your hands on some. It really is whole wheat flour, it's just a different kind of wheat (white wheat instead of the mixture other varieties usually found in all purpose). I use it in place of all purpose because it's really light and soft - very unlike the heavy whole wheat flours you usually get.

Next time you're strolling through the grocery, see if they have a store brand white whole wheat flour. Kroger is known as many things around the country, and surely they aren't the only ones to have thought of this. Let me know!

Spain for Christmas

2010-01-24T11:26:00.000-06:00

I went to Spain for Christmas, and, being me, I took pictures of, almost exclusively, food. I did have some great food there; I think I gained a stone, but I didn't look!

I thought I would share some Spanish culinary goodness with you all.

Churros y Cafe

Churros: Eating churros is like eating hot, crispy oil - delicious, hot, crispy oil. They are really wonderful, but I didn't need lip balm for the rest of the day. We had them at the famous Chocolatería de San Ginés Restaurant in Madrid. This picture sadly doesn't feature the coffee cup full of melted chocolate in which to submerge your fried tasties.

Montaditos

Montaditos: Spain has about a thousand names for sandwiches, depending on what size they are. Montaditos are these little guys; they're a good three bites. We ate them at the conveniently named Cerveceria 100 Montaditos (so named because they have 100 different kinds to choose from). If you go on Wednesday, they are all 1 Euro - pretty sweet deal.

12 Grapes

Grapes: You can't see all 12, but I swear I ate them. You're supposed to eat 12 grapes on New Year's Eve; well, as the clock strikes 12. I was in charge of getting the grapes, as I had been released into the green pastures of Carrefour for an hour to roam the isles in search of cheap olive oil and Nocilla (which is the Spanish [and better] version of Nutella) and seedless grapes. Fail. I mean, I found cheap olive oil and Nocilla (thank god), but I did not get seedless grapes. I even know the word for seed in Spanish. I just didn't see any. And these guys were little; they were American seedless grape size. Which brings us to a New Year's Eve anticipating crunching down on 12 seeded grapes with the hundreds of us that didn't make it to the center of the Plaza del Sol (bummer). I took it like a champ; my brother and sister-in-law weren't as enthusiastic. I figured I could use the fiber after a week of eating only ham, and, really they're not that hard to chew.

Spain was fun, but I'm glad I'm back state-side.

Mar's Ribbon Cake, part dieu

2010-01-24T11:22:00.000-06:00

And you thought I was long gone...I'm back and just as sporadic as ever.

I have an update on the ribbon cake, and it's kind of sad. There was no ribbon cake this year! I was so disappointed. Of course this means I have to make a ribbon cake now, but I need a reason. I mean, you don't really need a reason to make a cake, but I will eat all of it if I don't have some means of getting rid of it. And that's repulsive. So. We'll see. Maybe I can make a pink - tan - pink ribbon cake for Valentine's Day?

Mar's Ribbon Cake

2009-12-05T12:16:00.002-06:00

My family has a pretty inflexible Christmas routine. First, we wake up at my parents' house; we "do" Christmas there, opening presents, eating the kringle that my dad's college roommate gives us every year, taking embarrassing unkempt photos. Then we go to my dad's mother's. He is the oldest of six, and we are the oldest cousins by at least 8 years, so there are usually lots of little kids running around and being excited about Santa Claus. We eat breakfast there (again? really?) which usually consists of some sort of danish, coffee, orange juice and cake (it's Christmas, this is not a day to ask questions about food). Then we trek off to my other grandmother's house, where my brothers and I enjoy only-grandchildren status. We eat (I don't want to talk about it) lunch there, open presents, eat dessert and eventually waddle home. I never realized how much I actually liked this banal routine until it was almost taken away. My brother and his wife are in Spain this year (I don't want to talk about that either!), and we were going to go see them for Christmas. Awesome, trip to Spain, what's not to love? Yet I was unhappy, and I realized that that was because I didn't want to miss Christmas at home, especially with my grandmothers getting older. We have compromised; we're going the day after Christmas, which suits me much better...

Anyway, I digress...

I want to talk about one of the many food traditions that we have on Christmas - the mysterious presence of cake for breakfast. And before you even think coffee cake or banana cake let me assure you that there is nothing at all breakfasty about this cake. It's a cake; it's not a quick bread, it's not a muffin, it's cake. With icing. Chocolate icing. And layers - three of them. I have no idea why we serve it for breakfast, but I'm going to ask this year for sure! I do know, however, that it is my great-grandmother Mar's (pronounced Mah or /ma/ if you are IPA-inclined) recipe. [Quick aside, my great grandmother's name was Marvel; how cool is that?] This cake is a sight to behold for sure, after you cut into it anyway. Pre-cut it looks like a cake, but when you take out a slice you reveal 3 colorful layers - brown, red and green (really more like tan, pink and mint depending on how dye-happy you get) - hence "ribbon cake". Each layer has a different flavor (spice, almond and mint), but nothing is overpowering; it really just tastes like cake. I don't know why I like it that much; I guess it is because it's a tradition and, well, it's pretty. I'll snag some photos of it this year, but for now, here's the recipe:

Mar's Ribbon Cake

(I'm reproducing it exactly the way my great-grandmother had it except downsized. The original makes 3 cakes; I've cut it down to size for you guys, but you'll have to do some weighing or seriously skilled eye-balling.)

1 box of Pillsbury white cake mix

Make the batter according to the directions and then divide into 3 equal portions. Add the following ingredients to make each layer:

For the green:

1/3 t peppermint oil + green food coloring

For the red:

1/3 t almond extract + red food coloring

For the brown:

1/6 t cloves

1/6 t allspice

1/6 t cinnamon

2/3 T molasses

Now bake off each layer in an 8 or 9 inch cake pan according to the directions on the box. I think I would go 8 inch since you are dividing one cake mix into 3 pans.

Here is the chocolate icing recipe. Again, reproduced just like she had it:

3 c white sugar

1 c milk (I assume whole)

4 oz unsweet chocolate

1/4 c corn syrup

1 dash salt

5 T butter

1 t vanilla

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a sauce pan on the stove.
Bring to a boil and stir often until it reaches the soft ball stage (238 °F).
Remove from heat.
Add the butter and the vanilla.
DO NOT STIR.
Cool for one full hour.
Beat until creamy.

How curious is step number 5? Do not stir...really?

Assemble your (fully cooled) cake by stacking the layers with icing in between each layer and then ice the whole thing. I don't remember if there is any order you have to go in, and I don't think there is. I'll look into that this year as well!

I hope you've enjoyed this tiny glimpse, albeit photo-less (for now), into one of my family's strange food traditions. Please let me know if you try out the recipe!

**Edit** We didn't HAVE it this year! What?! I was really sad. So, no picture; I guess I'll have to make it sometime - maybe next Christmas!

Amazing Quote

2009-11-12T13:45:00.001-06:00

My friend has this quote on his desk in a little frame. It is really quite wonderful:

It is truly strange how long it takes to get to know oneself. I am now sixty two years old, yet just one moment ago I realised that I absolutely love lightly toasted bread. Simultaneously, I also realised that I loathe bread when it is heavily toasted. For almost sixty years, and quite unconsciously, I have been experiencing inner joy or total despair at my relationship with grilled bread.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Cambridge, 27 April 1951

My favorite soups (1 of 2)

2009-11-09T12:45:00.001-06:00

It was cold today, finally, so to honor that I'm making soup.

I love thick soup. I love soup that you put in the fridge as a liquid and come back to find it in a solid state. My favorite way to achieve that is pureeing beans. I have two favorite bean-based soups: one is chickpea, the other is black bean.

Today I'm making the black bean one because celery was on sale this morning. I got the recipe from my favorite en masse recipe website recipezaar. It's a Panera Bread Co. copycat recipe. We don't have Paneras down here, so I can't say how close it is to the original, but it is really really delicious.

Here's the recipe as it appears on recipezaar.

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1/4 large red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 small chicken bouillon cubes
1-1 1/2 cup boiling water
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 lemon, juice of
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Here's how I make it:

1-2 onion, coarsely chopped
Tiny bit of vegetable oil (1-3 teaspoons)
2-5 garlic cloves, hacked at a little
2 celery ribs, like I ever have celery in my house, also hacked at
1 large red bell pepper, chopped into at least 12 pieces
tomatoes, carrots, petit pois, anything else vegetable-like in the house
2 small chicken bouillon cubes, I prefer the veggie ones but my store quit carrying them
1-1 1/2 cup boiling water
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
salt
cumin
healthy dash of lemon out of the bottle, or the juice of half a lemon, if I don't forget it
spoonful of cornstarch
food processor or, better yet, emersion blender

This recipe is really versatile. I usually don't have celery or red peppers on hand, but it doesn't matter. As long as you've got an onion, some garlic, cumin, salt, and beans you're off to a good start.

1. First thing's first. Get chopping. Cut up anything that looks like you can (onion, garlic, pepper, carrots, tomatoes, celery, etc), but don't worry about mincing or finely chopping anything.

2. About halfway through the chopping, heat up a splash of oil in a (preferably nonstick) pan. When you're done chopping, add the veggies to the heated oil and let them get some color.

3. Move things around in there every so often.

4. After the onions and garlic look goldenish add about 1.5 cups of water and the bouillon cubes and let it come to a boil. Turn the stove down and let this simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.

5. Add 1.5 cans of beans, a good pinch of salt and a couple of heavy shakes of cumin. Stir all of this together and then get out the emersion blender.

6. Liquify your heart out.

7. Now it's time to add the cornstarch. But first, a word about cornstarch. Think back to grade school, do you remember making paste? Yes? Ah, that white powdery stuff was cornstarch. It turns into a non-Newtonian fluid (very exciting) when you mix it with water. And it forms nasty clumps when you mix it with hot water! Let me tell you, it is tremendously unpleasant to bite into a clump of glue. You should sift your cornstarch into a small dish and mix it with cold water. Make sure there aren't any big clumps, then pour it into the soup. Blend in with the emersion blender.

8. Add a splash of lemon juice (which I almost always forget and it's still great) and do a taste test. Need anything else? Salt maybe? Black pepper? I don't know, it's up to you. Let it cook for a few minutes longer so that it will thicken up from the cornstarch.

9. Go to town on that stuff. It's great!

It's particularly good with a slice of toasted bread and a drizzle of yogurt.

About linguistics

2009-11-08T23:06:00.001-06:00

So, this blog claims to be linguisticky, but I never talk about linguistics. Well, folks, heres a tasty morsel.

I edited the last post like 5 times because my spelling is bad. My spelling wasn't always bad, and it has ironically gotten worse since I started studying linguistics. I don't care too much; orthography, especially English orthography, is kind of arbitrary anyway. Then again, it can make you look like an uneducated idiot if you can't spell.

Anyway, like I said, I blame linguistics.

First, it has instilled in me the idea that orthography is arbitrary.
Second, and more importantly, it has taught me about voicing. A lot of my spelling mistakes involve mis-voiced consonants. Consonants are either voiced or voiceless (all vowels are voiced) and a lot of them come in pairs. Try it - /f/ & /v/, /k/ & /g/, /p/ & /b/, /t/ & /d/, /s/ & /z/, /θ/ & /ð/ (as in "thanks" & "these"). The first one in each of those examples is voiceless, the second is voiced. Put you hand on your throat as you sound them, you will feel a vibration for the voiced ones and nothing for the voiceless.

I must sound out words as I type, and my fingers, attempting to hit the right key, occasionally pick the oppositely voiced consonant. A minute ago I wrote "stable" instead of "staple"...go figure.

I aboloshise now for any mizzbellinks.

Something successful!

2009-11-08T16:37:00.000-06:00

In happier news (not failed reupholstery news), I have made a Christmas ornament for my mother. I found the tutorial over at Retro Mama. Super cute - and free! My mother has a masters degree in home economics with an emphasis in textiles and fibers...so she knows a thing or two about sewing, or at least she used to. Thus, our Christmas tree is lousy with handmade ornaments. In fact, at some point, my parents decided that the ornaments on our tree had to be handmade. No plasticky kitsch; it's wonderful. Anyway, when I saw this tutorial I realized that it was my time to contribute to the tree. So here's what I've made:

So cute

I'm really pleased with the results! I didn't do it exactly like retro mama did, but this suits me just fine. I did have to learn how to do a blanket stitch, iron on interfacing and use Fray Check; not that any of that's hard, I've just never done it before. Regardless, this was super easy to do. I think I'm going to make a flock! I also think I'm going to make my own pattern for a whole slew of animals and things...why not?

Upholstery

2009-11-08T13:35:00.001-06:00

I think I want to be an upholsterer. OK, maybe not really, but I am completely intrigued. This grad school thing is really cramping my creative muscles. I picked up a nice straight-back chair at an estate sale for $10. (They were asking $30, but I'm good...and it was the end of the day.)

It's the one on the left

It had OK fabric covering the box cushion (light blue, scalloped, stained), but I thought this would be a perfect time to test out my reupholstering mettle. It took me hours and hours (8+) of sewing. Well, that's not true, it took me hours of staring and measuring and staring and measuring and then finally a little sewing. There were lots of firsts. I cut my first bias strips to make my first piping/cording. I put in stripes/panels (they are straight and centered!). I sewed in piping/cording in for the first time. I've never done any kind of upholstery, and even though this is lightweight, I'm really proud of what I ended up with:

Looks pretty good...

...except it doesn't fit!!!

Arrrrrrrrrrrg.

I didn't see that I needed to ease the fabric on the side panels because the bottom of the cushion is wider than the top. Actually, it's not a full cushion; there's a piece of plywood on the bottom; the fabric goes over the wood so it doesn't show and then you just staple it to the bottom of the wood. Nice, except the wood is kind of big and, obviously, much less forgiving than foam. I haven't worked on it in about a week, too much work and too frustrating. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do either. I will try to sand down the corners on the front just a little bit. If that doesn't help, I will have to do some serious un-sewing. I'll have to take out most of the side fabric, ease it at the corners and re-sew it. Totally doable, totally time-consuming. When it's not way too tight, I have to then add piping to the bottom and staple. That won't be too hard. I can see the light at the end of this treacherous path, but with my workload as it is...it may be another 2 weeks before I can mess with it further.

Drawing with a sewing machine part the second

2009-10-19T00:25:00.000-05:00

she was a really beautiful model

Well, I had so much fun last time, that I decided to have another go. This time I used some unbleached cotton fabric that I picked up in the remnant section - it's very pretty - and some brown thread. I figured it would be the exact opposite of the other one that I did. This one took much less time because of the color of the fabric...I could see the lines that I had drawn. I also did almost one continuous line for this go around (instead of about a billion on the last). I love it. I actually finished this one too - it has realized its destiny as a pillow!

LOVE

Thanks again to clutterpunk for the tutorial!

Color Acuity

2009-10-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

Fun! I found this link on apartment therapy. It's a test of your color/hue discrimination. Basically you have a selection of the spectrum and you put all the little color blocks in between in the right order. The lower the score the better. I got a 3, which I think is decent, but, apparently, I'm not so good with blue/red/purple discrimination...which I believe, since I'm always calling things blue that everyone else says are purple!

Color test!

Drawing with a sewing machine

2009-10-17T03:28:00.000-05:00

I found this tutorial by clutterpunk today, and may I just say, ladies and gentlemen, it is so cool. I got home at about one this morning and have been 'drawing' for about 2 hours now. It's not that hard, but it's taking me awhile to figure out. I'm also not super familiar with my (newish) sewing machine yet.

It's not that great, but it's a nice first go.

This is based off of a continuous line drawing that I did a few years ago while I was taking life drawing classes. Who knew that stuff would come in useful. The 'drawing' is made with off-white thread on chocolate brown canvas. I plan on turning it into a pillow, but I may add some more lines first. We'll see - I don't want to lose the image.

Some things I love and am DYING to make

2009-10-10T12:08:00.001-05:00

I've really been scouring the internet for cool stuff lately (what else is a girl to do, right?). I've stumbled upon several really beautiful things that I would love to make myself. (I didn't actually stumbleupon them though...that's a different beast altogether folks). Check them out:

The corsage tee - cute, very J. Crew

Wallflowers - LOVE

Corsage - really cute, but I'm not sure that they're me...but I do like them

Ruffle collar - I don't have the right shirt for this, but if I did...bam!

Felt Flowers - OK. I love these; they're stunning. I've been trying to figure them out for like 2 hours now...

Sweet Headboard - oh Martha...I love it.

We'll see how much of that I get around to! But aren't they pretty??

Projects!

2009-10-10T11:38:00.002-05:00

So, I'm moving...don't ask. I've never really had my own furniture before, so now I'm gathering things (lamps, chairs, dressers, throws, tables, anyone wanna give me a couch?). When you're doing this on the cheap, it's hard to find stuff that you like as-is. Take these lamps for example:

They've both got this cool art deco architectural thing (maybe?) going on. I like the shapes, but I hate the gold and green paint jobs. So, I decided to change the colors. I'm not sure what color I'm going to paint them yet; I think I'll wait until I get into the new place and check the wall color. Until then, I'll be satisfied with just a coat of primer.

They look better already!

Swiffer update

2009-10-10T11:38:00.001-05:00

I made it! I made 2 actually. I was going to give one of them to my friend, but turns out he has an older Swiffer that doesn't have those pads on it. Oh well - the more for me.

Next project

2009-09-30T10:34:00.000-05:00

Look Ma, no patterns! has this sweet little tutorial on how to make your Swiffer Wet Jet slightly less evil. I acquired one because my dear friend had an extra (I think it was a 'gift' from someone. I say 'gift' because, really, a Swiffer Wet Jet?). Anyway, it is pretty darn convenient, but I hate throwing those pads away. ... .... consequently, I use them several times. (ew). Problem solved. I bought a cheap hand towel from the store and I think I'll make this later today. Should be relatively easy to whip up!

I made a pillow. It's wonky.

2009-09-29T21:24:00.001-05:00

All kinds of wonky, and I love it!

Behold the bulgy goodness

Ok, I wish it wasn't wonky, but I'm proud of it. I'm trying to get over my perfectionistic tendency to not do anything unless I think it will work out great.

Mood lighting helps...a little

So, here's my pillow; I made most of it today between my classes. I finished it up except for one edge + stuffing. Fiberfill sucks. I wish I had a pillow form. Also, slip stitching on jersey is no good.

Point in case...

I reserve the right to change,

2009-09-28T09:54:00.000-05:00

So, I started this blog as a cooking blog, but I've started getting rather crafty lately (oddly this is directly and positively correlated with the arrival of and my going to the new Goodwill store in town). Here are some of my finds from yesterday:

Aren't they hideous?! Brass. Yuck.

Yesterday, I saw a tutorial about spray-painting brass, and I decided a little spray paint therapy was just what I needed. I set out to Goodwill, knowing I would find something brassy and wonderful. Sure enough, I settled on the above; I particularly like the little bowl with the cutouts. I think the three cost less than $4. After lots of cleaning, priming, drying, painting, drying, painting and maybe some more painting, here's what I ended up with:

I kind of love them! I'm not sure where they will live yet though...

I also found this old sewing box. It was $3.99, which is really too much for Goodwill, but it was taped shut, treasure-chest style, so I decided the money was worth the surprise.

Treasure!

It had tons of buttons, which are actually really expensive, so I've decided it was worth it. There is also some bias tape, ric-rac, 2 zippers, needles, pins and all kinds of snaps, rivets and clasps. What a fun little find; must have been someone's mother's or grandmother's.

Pretty little ceramic (?) buttons

Oh, aaaand, I found this amazing sewing book. An oldie but a goodie:

Keeping it real with Singer.

It has all kinds of things about sewing clothes and home-decor-things. It even has a section on tailoring (a bit advanced at the moment, who knows, maybe some day!)

I also bought 2 pillows to use as pillow forms for, perhaps, this pillow (only with one or 2 rows of ruffles kind of off-centered, not the whole shebang).

All-in-all, a good day at Goodwill!

This is clearly a good idea

2009-09-17T22:29:00.001-05:00

Cheesy cover - delicious cookies

Ah baking cookies. The measuring, the melting, the mixing, the mess... Not that I don't love baking - I do. However, let's be honest, sometimes a girl just needs a cookie..or maybe two. Am I right? You know I am. I know I am.

Half a batch

My dear friend Blake gave me this book - Small Batch Baking - over the summer; I haven't used it until now. People - awesome. Imagine the possibilities. Here, I'll give you a second to think about the ability to make two cookies, two brownies, a personal-size cake with the perfect amount of icing.

...

Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh, and the cookies are very good.

Tea Shelf

2009-09-14T08:28:00.000-05:00

I love my new tea shelf. I made it with my dad a few weekends ago, but he held it hostage for like a month. I finally retrieved it this past weekend and I've already hung it. It's centered above my sink, which is way better than the weird grape/muscat/fruit print that was up there (thanks Mom).

mmmmmm...I love tea!

Oh, and I certainly can't take credit for this beauty.

Nugget of Hope

2009-09-08T12:38:00.001-05:00

Barn's burnt down.

Now

I can see the moon.

I am no good at blogging.

2009-07-30T12:11:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not very good at this. But, since no one reads it and it's my blog anyway, I'm going way out there and posting THESE. A Goodwill store opened in my town today; I went to the grand opening; I see, I like, I take (well, I pay 14.99).

What I've been making

2009-07-21T08:24:00.001-05:00

Blueberry and Leinie's Sorbet

Dot's Tea Cakes

Pizza Margherita

Carmelized Onion and Feta Pizza

My everyday white whole wheat bread

Beignets and Cafe du Monde coffee

Spanish Tortilla

Black pepper butter cookies

Black pepper butter cookie dough!

Ghetto-roasted-red-pepper. Where are you gas burners?

July has been a bit insane for me. I've been teaching a class for two hours everyday and I've been taking a class for two hours...everyday. I'm also working on an independent study class. This is the first time I've taught; it's horrifying, but I've learned a lot. So, no recipe or instructions today, but lots of pictures!

Bread

2009-06-28T12:20:00.000-05:00

How have I not done a post about bread yet? I make at least one loaf of bread every week and occasionally some kind of pita bread, tortilla, pizza dough, etc. I swear by King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour. If I'm going to be eating bread, it had better be at least mostly whole wheat, and this flour makes that possible and delicious.

More to come...

Let's talk about brownies for a minute

2009-06-26T16:34:00.000-05:00

Well, only one kind of brownie really, Wuollet's Brownies Enourmous. Wuollet's has several locations in and around the Twin Cities; neither I nor my boyfriend had ever heard of them, so I was surprised when I came across them on the internet. I plan on seeking one out next time I'm up there.

I was looking for a chocolaty dessert for the beer and wine tasting dinner that the boyfriend and I hosted in Minneapolis when I ran across this recipe. I found it on the Food Network website, which directed me to Wuollet's website. They have the recipe right there on the webpage; how could they give away gold like that‽ Needless to say, I loved these. In fact, these may be my go-to brownies, like the brownie recipe that I pull out 30 years from now. I'm excited.

I've made them twice. I haven't even gotten them right yet, and I still feel this way about them. I overcooked them the first time I made them; they were pretty hard, delicious, but hard. The second time I undercooked them; they were gooey, but not in that good way (well, still good, but not perfect). I'll post an update and pictures next time I make them (hopefully third time's a charm).

OK, without further ado, Wuollet's Brownies Enormous:

• 3/4 cup butter

• 4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

• 2 cups sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 1 t vanilla

• 1 cup flour

• 1 cup large walnut pieces and chunks of premium-grade bar chocolate

preheat oven to 350∘ F
either microwave (on high for about 2 minutes) or melt in a double boiler the chocolate and butter
mix in the next four ingredients - add each ingredient slowly and incorporate as much as possible before adding the next
when the batter is well mixed, fold in the walnuts and chocolate (I prefer leaving the walnuts out and using all chocolate - Cadbury's dark chocolate bar is pretty killer here)
pour into a 9x13 inch pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with "fudgy crumbs" not clean. if it comes out clean, the brownies will be over cooked
cool and enjoy (or you know, just enjoy)

Wuollet recommends serving the brownies warm (nuked) with a dollop and/or giant scoop of vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries or other seasonal fruit.

M-I-N-N-E-A-P-O-L-I-S

2009-06-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

I just returned from a swank two week vacation in Minneapolis, MN, which is a super cool city, and my boyfriend lives there, so that ups the appeal significantly. I was supposed to be doing research for one of my professors while I was there, but that kind of fell through last minute. So I decided to take advantage of the boyfriend-at-work time and the nearby grocery store with the most amazing bulk section (I can't believe I didn't take pictures of it). The rest of the store is average, but that bulk section, man...I think there was one week day that I didn't go to the grocery store...I cooked A LOT.

Besides my favorite bulk section in a regular grocery store, Minneapolis has some neat food, not to mention BEER, options. Though I cooked a ton, we did go out a couple of times. My favorite outings were to ice cream shops. I loved both Izzy's and The Pumphouse Creamery. Izzy's gives you an 'izzy' scoop to let you try a new flavor (they also give samples, but this allows you a more complete taste experience, which is good because some of their flavors are so intense that getting an izzy lets you know that a whole scoop might send you into hyperglycemic shock).

Izzy's. I adore the izzy scoop on top!

(praline pecan with a norwegian chai izzy and cherries jubilee with a licorice izzy)

Yum

We also went on the (free) Surly Brewery Tour. It's super fun and you get 5 free samples (probably about 1/3 a pint each). You have to make reservations a good bit ahead of time, but if you have the forethought to do it, it's pretty great. Make sure to eat before hand or designate a driver...I recommend eating before! Surly makes some delicious beer that you can only get in the midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin and apparently Chicago). Jealous. I particularly love the Coffee Bender.

That brings me to another beloved location in the cities. I found this while I was walking around the neighborhood. Actually, I had changed neighborhoods; I found myself in St. Anthony Village staring at a store that had 'gourmet' in the name. I wanted to go in. And I did. And I'm glad. Annona Gourmet is a cute, bright little store that packs a punch. It's filled with kegs (tanks?) of olive oils and vinegars. Jeanie (I think that's how you spell her name) is super friendly and really knows her stuff. You can sample anything you want (with bread) and she will help you mix oils and vinegars (black cherry and picholine? pomegranate and garlic? [better than it sounds]). They are kind of expensive, but they are delicious, and you can buy smaller sizes in the store than you can get online. They make a great gift for the culinarily minded in your life. They also carry flavored pastas, flavored salts and flavored sugars (try the green chile sugar - whoa!).

Annona Gourmet. Row upon row of fancy oils and vinegars.

The Twin Cities offer plenty of opportunities for good eating and drinking. These are just a drop in the bucket. There are so many bars, so many great great bars that I haven't even talked about.

Anyway, if you have the opportunity to go, you should check it out for yourself. The summer is especially nice. Minnesotans are so excited that it's not frigid out; everyone is outside enjoying the weather and the lakes.

Nemesis part one: Pizza

2009-06-18T14:47:00.000-05:00

Over the past few years I've become pretty comfortable with cooking almost anything. Challah? No problem. Chutney? Sure. Chana Masala, Granola, Creme Brulee, Hamburgers? Obviously. But one of the things I just can't master is pizza - specifically pizza crust. I've made it plenty of times, but it never seems to work out - dry and crunchy on the edge, soggy in the middle, raw the whole way through, you name it, and as long as it's not good I've made it. It's usually not a disaster, and certainly edible, but making a really good pizza crust would make me feel pretty darn accomplished.

I did make a grilled pizza last week that was perhaps my best attempt so far. The crust was pretty tasty. It had a full cup of beer in it...maybe that has something to do with it. The best part about it was that it wasn't soggy in the middle. Hoorah!

Grilled pizza is really appealing, especially during the summer when, while it's too hot to be outside, it's way too hot to heat up my whole apartment by cranking my oven to the max.

I got the recipe out of He Said Beer, She Said Wine by Sam Calagione, owner of the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware; he credits Chef Marcel Lavalée from Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats for the recipe. I definitely recommend the book - it's superbly interesting, and helps you purposefully pair beers and wines with food.

Boozy Pizza Crusts

serves 4-6

1 cup of Pale Ale (no pale ale in sight, I used a Belgian and I think that was fine)
1 T yeast (I usually use instant yeast, more on that later, but I wasn't in my own kitchen so regular rapid rise yeast was all that I had on hand)
2.5 cups high-gluten bread flour (I used part white part whole wheat)
2 t sugar
1 t salt
4 t canola oil

warm the beer in a saucepan on low. you just want to bring it up to a little above room temperature (lukewarm)
pour beer into a mixing bowl and whisk in yeast
slowly add the flour and sugar, stirring as you go (or use a stand mixer with a dough hook on low)
mix this well before adding the salt and then the oil
knead or mix until smooth and then cover (tightly) with plastic wrap
let this proof for about 45 minutes - until it doubles in size
somewhere in here heat up your grill to medium-high. if you're using a charcoal grill heat it with the charcoal heaped in the middle but distribute it to the edges before putting the pizza on.
divide dough into 2 equal parts (or leave it whole for one large pizza or into 4 for individual pizzas). shape the halves into balls.
flatten the dough balls with your palm and roll them out with a rolling pin (or you know, a wine bottle...classy!)
through the discs on the grill for a few minutes (3-6) until they set up a little. flip them once during this time.
take them off and top pizzas
return them to the grill, which has preferably cooled a little at this point, and cover.
check periodically. remove when the cheese has melted and the bottom is golden brown (make sure the bottom doesn't burn; if it's getting a too dark slide some aluminum foil underneath).
let the pizza rest a few minutes if you can stand it and dig in!

If you have any tips for me in the pizza dough making department (or in any department really) please let me know. These pizza recipes seems promising:

Pizza night
Alton's pizza dough
and this oil-less one

MY Burgers

2009-06-04T10:18:00.000-05:00

I'm so proud of myself

Farmers' Bounty

2009-05-31T23:02:00.000-05:00

I played a gig at the local farmers' market on Saturday. We don't get paid, per se, but we accept produce and cash tips. I walked away with $14 and a bag of beautiful potatoes, squash, cucumber and snow peas. What a great way to start the weekend!

Yogurt do's and don'ts

2009-05-30T18:22:00.000-05:00

My yogurt making usually goes swimmingly. It's not rocket science; in fact it's super easy to do. We're talking about 15 minutes hands on time, 4-8 hours hands off time (go to work, go to school, go to bed, whatever) and, voila, yogurt!

All you need is:

about 1/2 a cup of plain yogurt
2 quarts of milk (any kind will do; I usually use 2%)
a (preferably) nonstick pot*
a whisk

Optional stuff (but it's nice to have):

a medium to large bowl (to move the hot milk to so it cools down more quickly)
a thermometer (you can judge the temperature using your finger, but this makes me more comfortable and confident)
dried milk
2 quart size yogurt containers (from back when you didn't know you could make your own)

Really optional stuff:

cheesecloth or (clean) old t-shirt (if you want to make Greek yogurt or something that approximates it)
mix-ins (honey, vanilla, berries, sugar, fruit, etc)

Here's what you do:

take your milk and yogurt out of the fridge (it's good to let your yogurt warm up a bit)
pour the milk into the pot and put it on a medium burner
stir occasionally (with the whisk or something that is safe for nonstick pots if you're using one)
check the temperature after a few minutes and continue doing so until it reaches somewhere between 120◦-140◦ - I usually aim for 125◦.
take the pot off the burner - pour the milk into a separate bowl if using
leave it alone to cool down to about 115◦ (5-15 minutes) - if you are not using a thermometer the milk will be at the correct temperature when you can stick your finger in and not have to pull it out immediately (or so I'm told, I did it once and it worked...but then I got my thermometer back from the friend I'd loaned it to)
when the proper temperature is reached whisk** in the yogurt - go ahead and mix in a few tablespoons of dry milk at this point too (it makes the yogurt a little thicker)
cover that puppy up - I cover it with aluminum foil and then wrap it in towels to kind of incubate the yogurt - then I usually put it in the oven or microwave or somewhere out of the way.
after 4-8 hours you'll see that a miracle has occurred - uncover the bowl and there it is, a bowl of yogurt
pour it into the yogurt containers (or whatever you will keep it in) and put it in the fridge
DONE!

If you want to make a thicker (Greek style) yogurt strain it using a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or the t-shirt. The time on this varies; you'll have to play with it. The results range from slightly thicker yogurt to labna (almost cream cheese consistency).

Here are the 2 main don'ts

do NOT, I repeat DO NOT, forget to whisk or at least stir the yogurt + milk mixture
do NOT forget to leave the yogurt + milk mixture out - DON'T put it in the fridge

You may not like it at first if you've never had plain yogurt. It's a bit more runny and definitely has more of a bite to it than the stuff you buy at the store, but it's also cheaper (by about half, even if you buy nice/organic milk) and customizable. I love it, and I hope you will too!

*I don't generally love nonstick cookware, however, when heating up milk it's kind of a godsend. It's easy to let milk get too hot and scald; if it burns onto the bottom of your pot there is NO way it is coming off...ever. Well, it will, but it takes a lot of work! I've soaked pots for 3 days and it's still nearly impossible to get off. Use nonstick and it peels right off.

Let me count the ways...

2009-05-30T13:26:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how much I love powdered milk. I've used it three times since Wednesday (and I finally got to the new package that has a spout - I'm thrilled).

Whole Wheat and Oatmeal Bread - A step away from my standby, but very delicious. I used an entire cup of oats with no noticeably poor effects. The dough is a bit more, um, substantial, than I'm used to (though I've never used all whole wheat flour either...and that full cup of oats probably didn't help), but the bread itself is great and slightly chewy.
Yogurt - The first time I made it it was a disaster, that happens occasionally, more on that later. Second time around was a win.
Arabian Pita Bread - I find pita bread intimidating for some reason. Here am I, making bread every week, but pita bread is horrifying. I made mini pitas; they are pretty darn cute and delicious. Not all of them puffed up like they should to make the 'pocket', but I don't really care. Wonderful recipe that apparently freezes well, I've got about 12 left for the freezer.

Incidentally, I used all King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour in both of the breads. I love that stuff too!

Pickles!

2009-05-26T20:38:00.001-05:00

Grapes that is. Pickled grapes. I made these a few weeks ago, the same day I made the chicken and dumplings. Once again, I stole this recipe directly from Deb over at smitten kitchen. Her pictures were just so pretty - I needed some of my own.

They really are pretty tasty. Not my favorite things in the world, but nice and sophisticated. They're a good snack; they're not too pricey (especially when you have cinnamon sticks that you've never used); I think you could use them to dress up a cheese course. I wouldn't do this every time I have a bumper of grapes, but I'll probably make them again.

Recipe Cards

2009-05-25T15:34:00.000-05:00

I'm currently bidding on a neat old recipe card tin. I've looked around for some recipe cards online, but I either hate them or they are way too expensive. So I decided to make my own. I haven't printed any out yet, but I'm very pleased with my creations!

Dad's hamburgers!

2009-05-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

My dad makes the best hamburgers, and I haven't had one in at least 4 years. Until today that is. Yum! He learned how to make these in graduate school from his major professor. I finally got him to show me how he does it; he always adds the caveat that he doesn't really know what he's doing and doesn't measure whenever I ask him about it. Fine, I get it, I just need to know what's in there! And here it is:

Start with ground chuck, about a 1/4 lb per burger
Put this in a large bowl (in an electric mixer if you have it)
Add a few generous glugs of BBQ sauce

Next add a hearty splash of Burgundy (cheap stuff does fine)

Now a few good shakes of onion salt

Followed by a few equally good shakes of garlic salt

Finally, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce

And mix mix mix

Now you need to make patties. Make a ball and then flatten it out with your palm. Dad suggests going around the edges with your thumb, pressing them and smoothing the outside so they don't crumble and fall between the grates.

Put the patties on a hot grill, starting around the outside (the coolest part) and working your way inside. Keep an eye on your watch; they only need to cook for about 5 minutes on the first side and 4 on the second. Try to move the outside ones to the center and vice versa when you flip them.

Now all that's left to do is fix your bun and enjoy!

Better cakes

2009-05-23T19:43:00.000-05:00

I like to make most things from scratch, but I usually use a boxed cake mix when I'm baking cakes (unless it's some kind of crazy/special cake). Cake mixes are pretty good these days (so I'm told*), but there is a trick that will make your cake mix cake taste better. Instead of dumping in whatever amount of water the box calls for do this:

Add a heaping teaspoon of yeast to 1/4 cup of warm (~110◦ F) water in a pyrex measuring cup
Sprinkle on some sugar
Leave alone for a few minutes, until a foam forms and it smells all yeasty. It's a good idea to do this before you start making the rest of the cake; it should be ready by the time you get all the other things up and running.
Use milk to fill the measuring cup the rest of the way (to whatever amount of water the box calls for) - be sure to measure from underneath the foam NOT on top of it
Proceed as directed

*My mom has a master's degree in home ec. This is a trick she picked up back in the day - I imagine cake mixes were much more nasty back then.

I'm happy this is in my kitchen #2: White Whole Wheat Flour - King Arthur

2009-05-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

I love making bread. I haven't bought a loaf of sandwich bread since I read this post a few months back, which, incidentally, turned me on to powdered milk, another one of my favorite things. I love the recipe, but I was slightly disappointed with the ratio of whole wheat to white flour. I've made a rock-like loaf of whole wheat bread before, so it's not that I don't understand why there is so much white flour, I just don't like it per se. Then I remembered I had bought some King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour. This stuff is amazing. I read an article about it in a magazine a year or so ago, and I've been buying it ever since. I've been toying with the ratio ever since, and since I've been making this bread (about once a week), I haven't had bad results. I made a loaf yesterday with about 3/4 www to 1/4 white, and it's great.

The flour itself is lovely. Most whole wheat flours are really gritty, with relatively large chunks of bran or germ or something. This is nothing of the sort. It has a little heftier constitution than the ultra-processed white stuff, but it's still fine and deliciously powdery. It's a little more expensive than regular flour (around $4-5, and it goes on sale with some frequency at my store), but if you're getting quite a few homemade loaves out of it, come on, you know it's worth it.

Links:

A review by The Examiner

Apparently they have a whole grain cookbook; I may eBay or Amazon this!

How to use fruit purees instead of fats in baked goods

2009-05-13T08:59:00.001-05:00

I've always found this interesting, the idea that you can use apple sauce instead of oil or butter and everything will turn out great. Seems suspect. Not that I haven't done it before; I used apple sauce in place of oil in sugar cookies once. They weren't bad per se, they just weren't that good. And now I know why. I was listening to public radio on the way to my parents' house and the Splendid Table was on. I remember when this show came out, but I never got to listen to it because it's on Sunday mornings and I was being dragged to church; more recently I just forgot about it. But I found myself in the car on Sunday, and Lynne and I were cruising south. Anyway, a woman came on with a question about subbing apple sauce or other fruit/carrot purees in baked goods, and here's what we both found out:

You should NOT sub purees for fat in recipes that use the creaming method. In other words, most cakes and cookies ("cream butter and sugars..."). These baked goods get their fluff from the sugar cutting through the fat and creating air pockets. No fat, no fluff, end of story.
You should NOT sub purees for fat in recipes that use beaten eggs as the fluffing agent. I was thinking angel food cake...but that doesn't have any fat anyway...so, you know, other things with beaten eggs.
You CAN sub purees for fat in recipes that basically don't fall under the other 2 categories. Anything where you can dump all the ingredients. Things like carrot cake and hummingbird cake are perfect candidates (I'm debating box cake mixes...maybe). Lynne was most excited about the possibility of brownies, especially using a prune puree. (brown-laxies. yum!) Seriously though, that sounds delicious. She said it works great with anything chocolate.
On a final note Lynne (don't you love that we're on a first name basis) said that you shouldn't sub puree for all the fat, because, well gosh darn it (channeling Alton Brown), it tastes good. (and it serves other functions...)

So, let's review. No purees in cookies or anything else using the creaming method. No purees in egg-induced fluffiness. Go puree-crazy in brownies and 'dump' recipes. But don't leave out all the fat.

An aside from my usual

2009-05-12T09:19:00.000-05:00

I usually don't cook "southern" food. Fatback just doesn't do it for me, neither does heavy whipping cream (well...sometimes it does), and no I don't want any chitterlings (chit'lins), but thanks for asking. Despite this, I decided that yesterday was the day that I was going to foray the southern smorgasbord, and I came out with a recipe for chicken and dumplings. Granted, they are chocked full of tarragon and thyme, somehow I don't think that's traditional, oh my but they are tasty. I won't go through the recipe, as I'd be stealing it straight from Deb over at smittenkitchen, but I will tell you that it is superb - we're talking posh nouveau-southern restaurant good (yes they have those).

As a recovering vegetarian, I think I did pretty good with raw, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

This I was much more used to. Aren't leeks beautiful?

It's been such a long time since I've cooked with meat; I must admit, it smells delicious.

Butter and vegetables. Yes.

The dumplings were surprisingly easy. They're just flour, baking powder, salt, milk and fat.

They puff up like profiteroles...

...and they are phenomenal!

First day of summer and recipes

2009-05-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first free day; I had exams and papers and presenations all week, but Friday was free. And so, I cooked. I decided to make some rosemary chickpea soup. I've recently acquired this blender (c. 1978?) so I decided to mix (all of) it up in there. Danger. Luckily it worked out better than expected, and, luckily, I was smart enough to put a towel over the top of it before turning it on. It's a great soup, one of my favorites, and it's super easy and quick. Highly recommended.

That was lunch. A friend was coming into town for dinner, and we were going to go out to eat, but then I remembered it's graduation weekend around here and everyone's parents are here taking their darlings out to dinner, so I called that off and made Pad Thai instead.

Basil Curls

This is my favorite Pad Thai recipe (and the only one I've ever made, so that's not really fair, but it's good). It is adapted from, of all places, The Joy of Cooking. First, a word of advice - this is one of those recipes where you should probably adhere to mise en place Having all of these things set up before you start will really help; this is stir-fried so once you get going you can't really stop.

serves 4 (heartily)

the hardware:

2 cutting boards (or chop all your veggies first or clean it in between)
1 wok or skillet + vegetable or peanut oil
cooking utensils of choice (separate ones for the raw shrimp/chicken if you use it)
1 one cup pyrex liquid measure
1 large plate
4 small plates
1 small bowl for eggs
1 soup bowl size bowl for shrimp/cornstarch/sesame oil
1 heat-resistant pot or bowl for noodles
1 colander
large serving platter

the goods:

1 t cornstarch
1 t toasted sesame oil

combine the above in a bowl that's large enough to fit all of your

shrimp in, I usually eye-ball it with no problem

8 oz shrimp (peeled, deveined, halved lengthwise)

mix with cornstarch/oil

3 large eggs (beaten)

1/2 c green onions (roughly chopped - the JOC suggested 1.5 inch long pieces - I don't ever put 1/2 a cup because that's a ton; I just buy one bunch and use whatever I get out of it.)
2-3 chilis (red if you can get them - use your judgement here about the seeds and ribs)
4-6 cloves garlic (minced, the JOC says 2 T)

put the 3 above on a small plate or in a bowl

4 oz firm tofu (drained, cubed, 1/2 inch) - you can substitute chicken if you're not into tofu

put on small plate or in a bowl

1/4 cup Thai fish sauce* (nam pla - you can use soy sauce; it won't taste the same but still good)
1/4 lemon juice (sometimes I use part or all lime juice)
3 T sugar

mix the 3 above (I usually do it in a liquid measuring cup)

1/2 c bean sprouts
1/3 c roasted peanuts (roughly chopped)
1/4 c fresh basil (chiffoned)
1/4 c fresh cilantro (chopped or not)
2 t dried shrimp, ground (optional, I've never used these; you have to get them at an Asian market I believe)
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 t black pepper

put the above on a larger plate (the JOC suggests doing this in a clockwise manner, with each ingredient separated - it makes it more ceremonious, but I think you could just dump them in at the same time)

6 oz rice noodles

Before you start on the stir fry you need to submerge these in hot water. The JOC says to let them soak for 20-30 minutes. I did that the first time and they were mushy. I find 5-10 minutes is more like it; I like them al dente.

limes and peanuts for garnish

*this is easy to make vegetarian. just use a whole package of firm tofu instead of shrimp and soy sauce instead of fish sauce

the game plan:

peel, chop, mix etc.
your shrimp are supposed to hang out in the cornstarch for 15 minutes or so, so I like to do that first
the noodles also need to soak for at least 5 minutes (and they go in the stir-fry, so you need to do that early on too, just don't forget about them)
heat oil on medium high to high in wok (JOC says 1/4 cup, which I think is absurd, I use like a T); don't let it smoke
cook shrimp until they are almost done - you're going to add them back later and you don't want them tough - this won't take but about a minute if your oil is hot enough - remove shrimp to a (clean) plate
if you use the chicken, I would go ahead and cook it now, thoroughly, removed to clean plate
add more oil if necessary, cook eggs (Do this like you're scrambling them; keep them moving. Remove them to the chicken plate before you think they're done, they will continue to cook, and they are going back in later.
clean out your pan if there's egg residue and add more oil (a few Ts) and allow it to heat up
add the garlic/onion/chilis plate
stir constantly allowing garlic to begin to brown
add tofu (if using) stir for a few minutes until it begins to get color
add noodles, stir to coat
add fish sauce/lemon juice/sugar, stir well, coating noodles
add shrimp and eggs (and chicken), stir
add all the ingredients on the plate (either in clockwise order, stirring in between, or just dump), stir well
DONE - remove to a large platter/bowl (I usually just take it off the heat...but a serving platter sounds fancy doesn't it?)
enjoy with plenty of lime juice and peanuts

I'm happy this is in my kitchen #1. Powdered Milk

2009-05-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

You know what I love? Powdered milk. Gross right?

mmm.....

But hear me out. I don't drink milk - the only time I buy it is to make yogurt - so buying even just a pint to use for the occasional recipe that calls for a cup (quarter cup, splash, tablespoon) of milk yields at least half a pint of spoiled milk. Solution? Powdered milk. It's right there in the baking aisle, and it's super cheap. Really, it is! It seems expensive up-front because you're going to drop $6-9 depending on how big a box you're buying, but you're getting gallons of milk out of it. And it doesn't spoil. And you can bake with it, and make French toast with it,make buttermilk with it (1 T lemon juice/cup), and, apparently, drink it (though I've been told you should chill it very well first).

This is the reason I bought it. I'm almost done with my first box and bought a second last time I was at the store; this time I went with the pourable variety, which I would recommend unless you're planning on making large quantities at a time (the other option comes in packets to make a gallon).

Links:

The Hillbilly Housewife - This is a cool website in and of itself, and it provides plenty of uses/ideas/conversions for powdered milk.

101cookbooks yogurt - I don't do my yogurt exactly this way, but I throw some powdered milk in when I think about it.

Perhaps perhaps perhaps...

2009-05-07T09:26:00.000-05:00

I would love for this blog to be *amazing*; here's the plan:

post my favorite pictures and talk about them
post my favorite recipes (or the most intriguing ones) and pictures of them...and talk about them
be witty
be relevant
be intelligent
be entertaining
talk about some of my favorite kitchen gadgets and ingredients

I'm excited. Thanks for dropping by.

linguisticky countertops

Reflecting on the new year

Best soup I've ever had

Interesting idea...

Whose got the magic?

Black-Eyed Peas and Aloo Sabji

Faux quoi?

English muffins

No coincidence

To anyone with an ice cream maker

Her name is Adelaide...

I couldn't have done it without the internet...

Y'all...I made a wedding cake!

Wedding cake!

heating core?! my proudest moment

Decor

Crumby

Process

Finished product

The aftermath

A busy weekend

And this, when did THIS happen?

When did this happen?

I had a very intimate 2.5 hours with my mom and aunt this weekend...

Buttons make everything better

On not having anything to say (link love)

My homemade granola

My most difficult (and ugliest) project to date.

A shout out to Kroger and store brand white whole wheat flour

Spain for Christmas

Mar's Ribbon Cake, part dieu

Mar's Ribbon Cake

Amazing Quote

My favorite soups (1 of 2)

About linguistics

Something successful!

Upholstery

Drawing with a sewing machine part the second

Color Acuity

Drawing with a sewing machine

Some things I love and am DYING to make

Projects!

Swiffer update

Next project

I made a pillow. It's wonky.

I reserve the right to change,

This is clearly a good idea

Tea Shelf

Nugget of Hope

I am no good at blogging.

What I've been making

Bread

Let's talk about brownies for a minute

M-I-N-N-E-A-P-O-L-I-S

Nemesis part one: Pizza

*MY* Burgers

Farmers' Bounty

Yogurt do's and don'ts

Let me count the ways...

Pickles!

Recipe Cards

Dad's hamburgers!

Better cakes

I'm happy this is in my kitchen #2: White Whole Wheat Flour - King Arthur

How to use fruit purees instead of fats in baked goods

An aside from my usual

First day of summer and recipes

I'm happy this is in my kitchen #1. Powdered Milk

Perhaps perhaps perhaps...

MY Burgers