Tag: hits and misses

The Almost Forgotten Food
Recipe Roundup

The Almost Forgotten Food

LSiehLeave a comment

I keep making food and then forgetting to post it! The Bad Birthday Fairy brought me a “wicked bad cold” – according to the hipster PA I saw at urgent care. I haven’t been cooking this week much, other than the chicken sausage pasta dish yesterday. Tomorrow it will be crockpot chicken soup.

I did make fresh bao last week. They were big dinner sized buns this time. The Husband was quite impressed. I had Brussels sprouts on the side. They had olive oil and “Sandwich Sprinkle” on them.

This was Fancy’s reaction to not getting to eat the Chicken Bao.

Poor thing… So neglected!

I tried Giada’s House Soup from Food Network, which was pretty good. Not our favorite, but we would eat it again.

With the soup, we had Cheese Twists from “Small Breads.” They tasted okay and were fun to make, but there were too many and the Husband didn’t like them.

We had Antelope Meatballs Stroganoff. It was weird and we’re not sure we like antelope. We’ll probably not eat more antelope. It had a strange aftertaste.

Another miss was this Crockpot Chicken Curry, also from Food Network. The Husband has decided he likes curry spice, but not by itself. It was too much for me to eat by myself. The Husband didn’t really comment on the coconut milk in it, so I think it wasn’t a strong enough taste. I wouldn’t make this again.

We had Ricotta Cheesecake with a Warm Berry Sauce from “The Home Cook” by Alex Guarnachelli. The Husband didn’t like it at all, he thought there were too many textures. There was a not sweet cookie crust. There was candied citron in it and it freaked him right out. My work people loved it though, so it didn’t go to waste.

I think it was too soft, but the flavor was delicious. I like the firmer cheesecakes though, so I don’t know that I would make this again.

We had Nancy Fuller’s Stovetop Mac and Cheese, which had cream cheese in it to make it extra creamy. It was pretty good, not too rich. Quick recipe too. I would use this again.

I attempted to have a Girl’s Night when the Husband was going to be gone, but ended up with a nasty migraine and a ridiculous amount of mini cupcakes with no one to eat them.

They were from the Cupcakes and Cocktails cookbook that I found in a secondhand book store. It has recipes for both and I used three of the cupcake recipes.

Margarita Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream (not the meringue frosting in the book,) Pomegranate Orange Cupcakes, and Chocolate Chili Cupcakes. The Pomegranate ones originally had green tea powder, but I have thrown it out apparently, so I used orange instead.

All three of them were tasty. The chocolate ones were never frosted and the Pomegranate ones had a glaze and were sprinkled with edible glitter. I would definitely make all of them again, but especially the lime buttercream.

I have been trying out some new ideas and will have another cookbook review coming up soon. I want to try one or two more recipes to get a good overall review first. My garden sprouts are coming along well, so I’ll share my gardening plans. For now though, I’m going to go nurse my throat and hope I can actually talk tomorrow. Otherwise, I may be holding sessions via whiteboard!

I’m Just Here For The Food
Cookbook Review · Recipe Roundup

I’m Just Here For The Food

LSiehLeave a comment

I have a Cookbook Review for you and a Recipe Roundup tonight. Hopefully my pictures are right side up. I uploaded them from my phone (through the air, Mom!) and they seem to adjust themselves automatically. If not, pretend I meant to put them that way. It’s way too cold and my hip doesn’t like stairs at the moment.

The Husband was gone on a business trip for a couple of days, so I had a vegetarian feast week planned. It didn’t go quite as well as I hoped, as I ended up with no time to shop for the couple of things I couldn’t find. I did use the cookbook enough to be able to review it though, since I have used it before as well, for mac and cheese. I also had so many leftovers that I had to eat up, that I didn’t end up needing to cook as much as I thought I would.

The cookbook I used is called Vegetables! It’s by Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson. It has some extremely fancy recipes in it, some of which are a little intimidating. It’s a very colorful book. Everything has fancy names and some of them are all about the 15 ingredients that you’ll only use once.

This recipe had baked chicken breasts on the side, as the Husband was still home at the beginning of the week and apparently likes regular meals. 😉 It was Linguine with Swiss Chard and Sweet Onions.

The sweet onion part is misleading, because you just caramelize them, not actually use sweeter onions. I was a little disappointed in that, as I think it would have gone well using them. I used rainbow chard for extra happiness and chicken broth instead of wine. I also added baked chicken on the side. I was a rebel!

Really though, we had a seasoning mix from Penzey’s called “Krakow Nights” that I wanted to try. It is a Polish style seasoning and tastes delicious. The Husband also likes meat. I had herb goat cheese crumbles on the top of mine. The recipe was pretty simple though, so I don’t know if I would use a recipe again. You basically caramelize the onions, sauté the chard, take it out of the pan, deglaze with the wine/broth, then add everything back in along with the noodles. The chicken and the onions made it a longer dish, but everything else cooked while the noodles were boiling. I actually made the onions in the morning and just reheated them. We would have this again.

I also made Black Bean And Vegetable Chili. I didn’t bother with the cilantro-lime creme fraiche (see what I mean about the fancy names?) as I knew I wouldn’t actually like it. I had this as a three course meal after work, with frozen popcorn shrimp, and arugula salad.

Mmmm! I love arugula! The Husband does not, so I don’t have to share! This also means I need to eat the entire container of it myself. Hmm.. I should probably have a rather large salad tomorrow.

The chili has chipotle chilis in adobo sauce in it and it makes it have the most delicious and smoky taste. I brought container of it to work and a co-worker tracked me down to find out what the delicious smell was! I would make this again, but was glad I made just half the batch. The Husband is not a fan of chili.

I’m in two minds whether to keep this book or not. I think there are some very good looking recipes in it, but I have had it for quite a few years and have made exactly three things out of it. The Husband’s dislike for vegetables makes it unlikely that I could make many more of them for both of us. It’s too much work to make separate dishes! But if I keep it, I could supervise the Husband’s pork cookery and make these for myself. Decisions, decisions… (Also, there are two book sales on the horizon and the Husband and I may have come home from shopping with three new cookbooks…)

For our other meals, we have had a variety of things.

I had the urge to make a chocolate cake a few weekends ago from the Alex Guarnaschelli book, so I did just that. (I know! But I can’t stop! Too many good recipes!) What the Husband doesn’t know is that it was the Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake recipe. Don’t tell him, or he won’t ever eat it again! I didn’t use the vanilla frosting though. It involved corn syrup. We don’t get along. I made a chocolate cream cheese frosting from the Better Homes book instead.

This was hands down the best chocolate cake I have made. It was super moist, even after a few days and very lovely and rich. It soothed my soul!

My only complaint was my frosting job wasn’t even, but I have not had a lot of practice with actual layer cakes. I will definitely make this again.

This banana bread was also from A.G’s cookbook. It was a spectacular failure in that I accidentally froze the butter while mixing it, by using partially frozen bananas. I had to put the metal mixer bowl in the preheating oven and it was a mess. Tasted delicious, but was sooooooo dense and wet at the same time.

There was a small mishap when I tried to turn the first loaf over. Half of it came off, so I had to eat it. I ended up throwing it away though. It was not good after a day or two. I may try it again with ripe bananas, not frozen, and halve the recipe.

Another failure this week was on Sunday, when I attempted to make quesadillas and had four fall apart on me for unknown reasons. I was mystified, as I make these all the time with leftover taco meat!

These were the “good” ones. I cooked up hamburger and added green chilis, onions, and some of our Fire-Breather salsa. Then I added it to the tortillas and that’s when it all fell apart. I was a little mortified, but we ate the evidence, so no one needs to know.

Something that did work out well, was the drumsticks.

I used another Penzey’s spice mix, the Galena Street Rub. I swear they didn’t sponsor this post, but they probably should have. Sometime soon, I might write a post about my spice cabinet contents, as it has grown exponentially and deliciously. I also had canned peaches with mine. The Husband has requested this spice rub on everything. 🙂

We also had venison and beef Christmas/Swedish meatballs and noodles at the beginning of the week last week. They were delicious as usual. Fancy was extra excited as she got a tiny bit of the raw venison. No pictures, as we ate them too fast.

Last, but not least, I made Pannukakku, or Finnish pancake this morning and had lingonberry jam on it. Sadly, my thimbleberry dealer is slacking and I am out of it again. 😉

It made my little Finnish heart all warm and cozy this morning. If the dog weren’t pinning me to the couch, I would post the recipe. Although I may have posted it before.

So that’s what we’ve eaten lately. With the exception of the two missteps, which both still tasted delicious, I think it was a pretty good couple of weeks. Now to pick the next cookbook to focus on! And find room for the new cookbooks…

Life Posts · Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I’ve got something up my sleeve for Monday or Tuesday (heh, heh, sewing pun) but wanted to get back on track with my reviews. It helps me keep accountable and on track with my goals. February has been kind of a slower month. I have had a bit of trouble with some motivation and some of the ever present scheduling concerns. Also, sudden dental issues, which always complicate things. Fancy hasn’t been helping either. She’s been very snuggly.

Overall, I have been pretty good at trying to really think through my sewing projects. I have put a 6 month fabric buying ban on myself until June. Gifts obviously don’t count. 😉 The other caveat is that if I need a specific fabric to finish a specific project, I can buy the fabric for that project. Otherwise some things would just pile up more until June.

My organization adventures for the month have made me aware of just how much fabric I have. Most of it has a plan for it, but there is no reason I need that much! It was quite a sobering thing. I’ve been re-evaluating my wardrobe too and have decided to repurpose or remake some of the things that really don’t fit quite how I want them to. I have already taken apart a couple of skirts that don’t fit well and added the fabric back to my stash. I have also started a list of all the things in my project box, with notes about what is needed to finish them.

So far for sewing this month, I have mended a long sleeved sweater and added buttons to a bag and a 3/4 sleeved sweater. All of these have been in my UFO or mending box for quite some time. I also learned that my sewing machine will gather fabric for my if my bobbin and top thread are at different tensions. This made sewing some gathered doll clothes a bit easier.

There have been a lot of doll clothes made in the last two months, but as I have recently acquired two more dolls from a friend’s daughter, I will need to make some more.

Can’t have naked dolls sitting around my office! Speaking of my office, I switched offices with a colleague into a bit of a bigger office and it was amazing how much stuff I had ended up squeezing in my littler one. It took me about 4-5 hours to reorganize and I need a couple of small things, like a game storage unit and a little table for next to my chair. It will be fun to see the kid client reactions to it. The adults will take it in stride, I’m sure. So the next time I take a picture of doll wardrobe at work, it will be on a different chair. 🙂

I have made some more leggings for myself this month, because you can never have enough comfy pants! One of them, the polar bears didn’t quite work, due to the stretch, but I can fix the waistband and it should be fine.

I don’t remember if I mentioned this amazing cutting mat that the Husband got me for Christmas, but it’s making cutting things out so much easier when I’m upstairs. I love it!

I have also made a pair of black pants, but apparently this month, have a tendency to want to write about the pants I currently have on! These ones are soft, black, French Terry, and will pass for work pants, even though I feel like I’m wearing pjs. Instead, how about a picture of my bright pink joggers? I was wearing them the last time I wanted to write about them. They are quite obnoxious, but I love them. The Husband won’t give me his opinion, as he is a smart man.

They are made from my beloved Linen Lounger pattern for Patterns for Pirates and are cotton blend french terry from Girl Charlee. I’m not really enthused about trying new pants patterns, when I like the fit of this one so well. Since my blue jean leggings need to be mended though, I have plans to make a skinnier, actual pant pattern to replace them if needed. I also do need a couple of different pairs of nicer work type pants.

One other thing I needed was a couple of nicer sweaters to wear with my pants and pretty skirts. I went through my sweaters and gave a bunch away, but now needed replacements. I like to dress up a little for intakes and not wear the dino leggings until a couple sessions in. 🙂 Enter this pattern; the Fall In Love Sweater by Ellie and Mac.

I quite enjoy it and it makes me feel super pretty and polished. For future versions, I may size up about a half, as it occasionally feels a little tight. It doesn’t accentuate all my bumps and lumps too much though, so I may not if the fabric is stretchy.

I made this second version as a short sleeved version. It needs bands, as the fabric likes to misbehave and the bottom hem is a little short, but it looks lovely on me. At least I think it does. This pattern fits me better than my normal go to short sleeve pattern, so I will definitely be making more. It has set in sleeves, not raglan or baseball style, so it looks a little more professional.

I’ve also made a very long and cozy fleece sweater to work in the basement in, but it’s come in very handy for our recent cold snap. I think my sewing was more intentional this month. I tried to focus on the gaps in my wardrobe. My drawer is still very full, so I need to do another clear out soon. I have a horror of giving away the “perfect” shirt, but there are a bunch that I just don’t wear!

My Sewing goals for this month include a neutral grey Cocoon Cardigan to fill that gap and to try the fancier pants pattern. I also want to continue to organize and purge my stash, as well as work on some quilts and UFO’s. I have a pattern for a “Fairy Sweater” which is a cascade type sweater that I have a lighter watercolor print to try to use up, but that may wait until closer to summer.

Now to switch gears to food. We had a lot of new food this month, due to the party. I think that I missed a bunch of pictures of meals that were not party food. We did have a lot of Chinese food this month, so you may not see it for a little while. Not that we don’t like it, but there’s only so much stir fry type things I can eat. Here were some of our favorites:

Lion’s Head meatballs

West Lake Beef Soup

Chicken Marsala

Wonton Soup

Fried Dessert Wontons! They were from this website: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/03/cinnamon-sugar-cream-cheese-wonton-nutella-dulce-de-leche.html

They were so good! I didn’t make a dipping sauce for them. We never have Nutella in the house and I have both spoons and no will power.

The Husband had the play auditions and production meetings this week, so we had leftovers from last week, including a new recipe from The Wooden Spoon cookbook. It was not our favorite. Basically hamburger, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning with shell noodles. The Husband added a lot of cheese, but I still think it was a little bland.

One thing we did like this week was Nancy Fuller’s Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese from this month’s Food Network. I was hungry after work on Thursday and ended up making it at 10 pm. It was good late night snacking food though. I used a little of the dragon pepper hot sauce in it. Mmmm!

Misses for the month were the fried pork ribs and the clementine cakes. The ribs were just super annoying to fry and frustrating as I couldn’t taste them to adjust any seasoning. The cakes were a little dense for me, even remembering they were supposed to be a pound cake recipe. I need to practice cupcakes more. I’m sure no one will object to trying them. 🙂

Food goals this month are to use my spiralizer attachment and the Instant Pot at least once. Also, be more creative with lunches and get the Husband more involved in planning. His choices were very good ones this month.

Mental health related, I also want to get back to reading before bed this month. I’m having a lot of trouble shutting my brain down to sleep and I know that will help. I went through a rough patch of not wanting to actually do anything and I am working on not getting to that point again.

Of course, taking Fancy to interesting places is another goal. We went to an informational meeting on therapy dog training today and the information is good, but she definitely needs more training first. I’m sure she won’t mind.

These goals should be pretty manageable, I think. Hopefully once the play starts getting going, we can get somewhat of a schedule going. Wish us luck!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

We have been busy beavers lately. Last year at this time, I had three jobs and was rapidly losing my mind. This year, I can actually focus on the house and yard. I feel much more settled.

We finally put up the hanging pegs we decided we needed in the bedroom. I think we’re going to paint it blue maybe, to match the bottom walls, but for now it’s grey.

We have some spring bugs coming in again, so it really was time to get my purse and work bag off the floor. The Husband also hung new work lights downstairs over my sewing area and now I really need to clean it up. I can see everything! 😳 I knew I had to clean up anyway, in prep for moving back down there for the summer sewing season, but those lights make it hard to ignore things.

We also broke down yard projects by section last weekend and started on some of them this weekend. We chopped a bunch of the out of control front landscaping and I pulled everything from the side of the garage. This was about halfway through.

I ripped weeds! Pulled dead things! I tore out trees! With my bare hands! Well… with a huge trimmer, while wearing gloves. 🙂 Now it looks like this:

Doesn’t it look so much better already? I’m going to put my fairy garden here. It will mostly be in planters and will have butterfly and bee friendly flowers in it. If the ground cover gets too crazy, we may rip it all and put down mulch.

The Husband chopped up some tree limbs that had fallen on our windy day, mowed the grass, and wielded the leaf blower and hedge trimmer. I feel much better about the yard now knowing we can take it in small chunks and get things done.

We were going to get the garden started, but we couldn’t find the tiller at our inlaws. We did get it staked.

Hopefully next weekend, we can till that spot up and get started. So that’s some yard/ house projects from the month. Let’s move on to the food!

Food Review

I used 19 recipes this month. 10 were new recipes. Hits were the fried chicken, prosciutto wrapped chicken, the white pizza sauce, and the dulce de leche ice cream.

The pasta in this picture is homemade fettuccine! Pasta is definitely not as scary as I always thought it was.

Chicken seems to turn out well for me. It’s one of the meats I can regularly eat more than once without texture issues. I also made a different version of spaghetti with a can of sauce and 3 cans of tomatoes. It was much less liquid.

We did have some misses, including one that was so bad, I didn’t even blog about it! 😬 It was a crockpot version of Italian Wedding soup,  but it got weird after the noodles were added and got all slimey and starchy. Blech. I don’t even want to talk about it, except to say, don’t cook noodles in the crockpot ever… The other miss was more of just an “eh..” moment. Beef stew in the crockpot. Wasn’t great, wasn’t horrible.

I honestly think that this blog has improved my cooking skills. I wasn’t as confident about trying new recipes, or trusting my instincts when it came to seasoning. We also haven’t had very many misses lately, so that has to count for something. I also used my spice grinder that I got for Christmas and will be definitely using it again. It made it very easy!

Speaking of skills that have improved, let’s move on to the sewing review.

Sewing Review

I have made 5 projects this month. I have made four more in the past three days, but those haven’t been blogged about yet. Stay tuned for Monday or Tuesday!

My favorite has been my polka dot maxi skirt.

It’s so comfy and lovely. Plus, I saved $36, plus shipping! 🙂

I actually loved everything that I’ve made and am proud that I’m using my stash. It’s so fun to walk in wearing something I made and get to tell people that.

Here’s my other polka-dotted item.

My secret pajama shirt with my very first knit neckband. It’s a proud moment for me. I blame my friend and Instagram for that. She and all these other people keep making all these cute knit things and I couldn’t be left behind!

So far, I’ve made 28 or 29 projects since January. If I keep this up, I might beat last year’s record!

So, for goals this month, I have mainly the same ones.

Food Goals

* Try a new technique, or equipment

* Meal plan consistently. I don’t know why this one is so hard for us, but it is. I end up panic cooking halfway through the year

* Pantry meals 1x per week, at least

* Make more side dishes

 

Craft/ Sewing Goals

* Complete decorating office clipboards

* Decide on summer decorations/ make summer decorations

* Complete Me Made May

* Go through clothes and get rid of unworn ones

* Make 2 solid color or neutral pattern dresses

* Use my serger!!

I think that’s it. I’ve got another shirt waiting on me to sew, and a sad puppy wanting pets.

Have a good night!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I intended to write this earlier, but it’s raining, gross and cold, and then this happened.

How could I be expected to resist the sleeping puppy lure? Now she’s ready to play again and the Husband and I are sleepy and ready for longer naps. 🙂

We had luckily already taken her to the dog mall before it started raining, where she was petted by several strangers, including several teens. She also saw her favorite employee at the dog bakery and got a sample treat.

I had an exciting ravioli tutorial to share before I did the review. My friend gave me this ravioli maker which made my ravioli skills much nicer.

It is the coolest thing! 

First, you put the pasta sheet down over the metal part and the gently put down the white part into it to make a depression. Then you fill the middles and put down the other sheet.

Roll over the ravioli and it seals and cuts it!

Then you have beautiful pasta, just waiting to be used for delicious dinners.

We’ve had them in a mushroom cream sauce twice.

We also used the last of the carne asada in mac and cheese.

It was pretty good, but could have been a little creamier.

So on to the review…

Sewing Review

I just finished this little purse yesterday to take when I didn’t want my big bag.

I did something silly though. I sewed two zippers, though I didn’t need the “extra” pocket piece, and now have two zippers for just the one pocket, instead of two pockets…. I wasn’t using a pattern, so got a little confused on what went where. I’m debating taking it apart to fix it, but it might not get done before the trip.

My other completed projects this month were the wedding quilt in the featured picture, the world computer bag, and the infinity dress.

I also bought new patterns. The one on the bottom right is a knit dress. I’m working on it tonight, I think, if Fancy will let me stop petting her long enough. 🙂

I have one of the other wedding quilts in progress and one pinned, so made some progress on that. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the sewing I did this month. I finished a bunch of projects and it felt nice to check some big things off my list.

Goals for April

* Make a dress

* Make leggings

* Finish a quilt

 

Food Review

We used 17 recipes, 8 of which were new recipes. Hits were the cheese fondue, chicken and gnocchi soup, Irish Whiskey ice cream, rigatoni with sausage, chocolate oreo ice cream, and the chicken ravioli.

I don’t think we had too many misses. None horrible enough for me to remember at least. I suppose that good…

 

Food Goals

* Teach the Husband how to sear pork

* Put together freezer meals

* Meal plan

Overall, a pretty good month. I would like to do more with recipes, but my evening schedule is real weird right now. Well, I’m just gone a lot, so not really weird, just late.

Fancy-pants is staring sadly at me from the hallway. She feels her ratio of play to naps has been sorely neglected today. I’d better go fix that. I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

Here’s to another month! January flew by as usual. We had a lazy first weekend in February. Fancy spent most of her time playing tug with the Husband and her rapidly shedding rope toy, or snoring on my lap. She did not move for much of anything. She was not interested in the puppy bowl, although she was a little confused by the puppy squeaks. She squeaked her ball a lot though, in protest of us watching other pups.

I think I’m off to a good start with sewing. I’ve been working on a bunch of projects and I made some things that I needed and finished a bunch of projects from the UFO box.

This project takes care of both of those categories. I made some hot pads for the kitchen. One has a loop and one doesn’t. They came out a little small, so we’ll probably use them for trivets.

They were easy to make, but not too pretty on the other side. Yikes.. The binding was too big.

I have also started a new rainbow quilt. I’m not counting this one against my total. It’s technically for an old project that I hadn’t started yet.

I swear to finish something big soon. My quilt tops are stacking up. If I don’t finish some, I’ll have to get a bigger tote. I’m considering just backing everything with fleece. I have batting for a bunch of them, but not all.

So for UFOS I have made 13+ tea wallets, the hot pads, a Christmas zippered pouch, the evil fairy bag, and the library bag.

For new projects, I made a self-drafted tunic and the castle shirt.

I have also added two more quilt tops. Well, partial. They aren’t sewn together yet. They are also rainbow, since I apparently can’t do anything else. I think I’ve decided on this block for the pastel rainbow one. I found a cute white on white floral to use for the center of the blocks. I may need to make a few more of the scrap blocks depending on how the layout looks. I also have the chevron one in the featured pic.

Man… sometimes admitting the things I haven’t finished yet makes me cringe. I don’t normally put stock in negative self talk for motivation, but apparently sometimes it works. I’ll be working on some backed up projects for sure this month.

I’ve done much better in food terms this week. 15 new recipes and 12 new cookbooks. Hits were the lamb, the cinnamon ice cream, the Parmesan crusted chicken, and the Gordon Ramsey noodle and mushroom dish.

The hotpot was also a hit. It was a fun dinner with bonus noodle soup!

Misses were the pho (smelled like “lamb and feet”) and the pie contest apple pie. Not too bad for the month.

Goals: 

Sewing/crafting:

– Make the dragon dress

– Fancy up my work clipboards so I don’t get them mixed up with the office ones.

– Fully finish a quilt.

– Sew a pair of leggings! (Eek! Sewing with knits!)

Food goals:

– Use the InstantPot

– Try a new breakfast recipe

– Try a new lunch recipe

– Meal Plan/Pantry shop

– Make more ice cream! (Yes, I know it’s winter, but ice cream!)

I will also try to snuggle this puppers more to her standards. She feels sadly lacking in the snuggle department… You can plainly see she’s terribly sad about it. She probably also needs more treats. I mean, how could we resist?

I think I’ll take her current example and take myself off to bed. Have a lovely, restful night!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I have made 75 tea wallets this month. I went a little crazy. What’s also crazy is the fact that my scrap boxes look very similar to when I started. I need to get my already started quilts done so I can start making some more.

These are waiting on the last threads to be cut. It’s my least favorite part. Some of them will also need buttons.

I got tired of having nothing to report on for my craft goals this month, so worked pretty hard to get them done. I still need this darn Rainbow quilt to be done, but may be able to get the fabric washed tomorrow.

Crafting and Sewing Update

So my completed craft goals for the month were to figure out a wallet and a coin purse, organize the basement, and fix something from the mending or finish a UFO project. Some of the tea wallets were actually in my UFO bag and I fixed a skirt where the elastic had snapped.

I found a stash of wallets that I made when I was first sewing for Etsy, but had decided they weren’t as professional as I would like, so haven’t sold them. I pulled a black one made from a shrunken sweater with a daisy print fabric and daisy embroideries on the front. It’s not too big and looks cute.

I also made a zippered coin purse from some scraps from a shirt. It gave me an excuse to use a tiny 4 inch zipper.

It’s lined with the same material. I have so many zippers right now and really need to make some zippered bags for my Twinflower Etsy store. I have a bunch of weird colors though, so hopefully I can find enough fabrics that match. It would be terrible if I had to buy new fabrics after all! Well, the Husband would think so at least.

This is the skirt that I fixed. The elastic popped while on a work trip a few years ago and it got stuck in the mending pile. I finally pulled it out, picked a few stitches and re-threaded the elastic.

Such a simple fix and I just never did it. Now I can wear the skirt again and it will be even more appropriate since I work with kids.

My office art and clipboards were two things that I only got partially done. I lost my Modge Podge in one of the moves and will need some more before I can collage the clipboards.

The office art is drawn out, but I haven’t quite decided if I like it. One of the songs I had picked out, “Heavy,” is by Linkin Park. With Chester Bennington’s recent suicide (the lead singer), I’m debating the wisdom of having the song in my office. The song itself talks about not holding on to things you can’t change and recognizing that you need to leave some things behind. It’s a beautiful song and sparked a few discussions in my teen group, I’m just not sure if I should have it up right now. I can see both sides. On one hand, the song itself can be inspiring, but it now is connected with someone who died by suicide. Maybe I will still make it and put it up in a few months. This piece will have a stick figure trying to support a globe on it’s back with the words in the globe. It will either be oil pastels or collage pieces with cool colors.

My second song, “Brave,” by Sara Barellis, is one that I have wanted in my counseling office since before I had an office. It talks about saying what needs to be said and being brave. For a little while every time I had to do something big, the song would be playing on the radio. 🙂 This one will have a stick figure shouting the chorus. It will be warm colors.

Garden Update

Most of the garden is growing well. I’m still waging a war on squirrels and they are still winning. Here are some garden pictures.

These are the “mammoth” jalapeños. They still aren’t what I would call mammoth…

Green Peppers

Roma Tomatoes

Cooking Update

I used 12 new cookbooks and 25 new recipes. We had one family recipe and 4 or 5 recipes/methods by me. That’s a lot of food. How did we eat so much food?

Hits for the month were the Gold Beach Burgers, the Korean BBQ ribs, the Greek Grilled Chicken, and the Shrimp Scampi. Most of the ice cream recipes were also hits.

Misses were the Slow Cooker Soy Citrus Chicken, the Garlicky Baked Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks, and the carrot puree.

We had at least two new recipes per week and I made lots of new ice creams. I made two last night actually! This week’s recipes will be posted later.

Goals for next month: 

Sewing wise, I am relaxing my goals a little. I’m picking general categories this month. Sometimes I don’t want to work on the things I’ve picked. The only firm projects are the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and my office art.

Categories:

Clothing item, Etsy stock, and UFO/mending pile.

Continue to organize basement.

Get new storage for small pieces of fabric.

Garden Goals: 

Dry herbs for a tea making party in September.

Food Goals: 

Continue to make 2-3 recipes for week.

Try new ice cream recipes.

Use new recipes for Anniversary party.

Get freezer recipes made up in freezer.

It seems I may have a busy month ahead of me. I think I’ll join the puppers in a good night’s sleep.

Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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Looking back on the past month, I have been terrible at taking pictures of the few new craft things that I made. I’m still struggling with actually making time to craft things, as my caseload is picking up and my schedule evolves into more time at the office, instead of at home. I’ve also been sick with no desire to eat or cook for about a week, which has thrown off all of my dinner plans.

I’m also starting to think more seriously about the garden. Last year, since we were moving, we just had containers, but they did fairly well. I had a lot of herbs, tomatoes, and jalapeños. This year we are going to try a cinder block raised bed, in an effort to keep Fancy out of it. She has recently started digging in the bushes by the house. The Husband is determined to have us grow a lot of the produce that we use and hopefully be able to can or freeze a bunch of it. I love being able to pick fresh herbs and veggies as well.

I am happy to report that it appears one of my blueberry bushes survived the winter in the garage. It had leaves on it the other day. Lately it’s been too cold and rainy to actually put it outside, but I’m hoping it continues to grow. My second one doesn’t appear to be growing, but I will see what I can do with it. I think they would appreciate bigger pots. Maybe it will help them grow more. Last year, I had a volunteer Thai Basil plant sneak into my blueberry pot and grow like gangbusters.

Recipe Update:

I used 17 new recipes and 10 of my methods/recipes. I used 7 new cookbooks, which was a lot better than I thought I had done. I used two cookbooks with double recipes, both for my birthday party.

Hits were the pizza, Irish Stew, truffles, Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes, and Silver White Cake. The Husband requested the Szechuan shrimp sauce as a sauce for chicken too. I learned I can add butternut squash to mac and cheese, as long as I add enough fancy cheese to it. It was a pretty good food month!

The misses were the Chicken Stir fry that I attempted with no recipe, and the chicken potpie filling that was so dry and horrible. We won’t say much about either of those, except that the Husband still won’t admit that I can occasionally make terrible foods, even with the evidence in front of him. I think I’ll keep him. 😉

Food goals for the next month:

*Use 2-3 new recipes per week.

*Weekly Meal planning- I wrote down a list of the cookbooks that I still have not used and am planning to try to grab those first.

*Sort through my recipe cards, magazine pages, and recipe binder, and be realistic about what I would actually like to make. This one may take longer than a month, but I would like to at least attempt to start organizing them.

*Take better and more frequent pictures of meals, including side dishes.

Crafting update:

I had one vending event in the past month. I made one skirt, a cute Ball jar candle holder for my office, and several more fabric flowers, which are currently buried in my vending boxes.

Writing out that small of a list makes me sad. I’m going to try to stop having excuses for why I didn’t make things and just find a time to craft. It is what I love to do, after all.

My fat quarter trunk is now organized, which is a good step toward a workable crafting and sewing space.

I did run into a legitimate snag with one of the sewing books though. My Chic and Simple Sewing book is definitely sized for juniors. I’ve had it for years and found it new, with the patterns still intact on their sheets, at my local thrift store. I’ve made three of the projects from it, two wrap skirts, a few A-line skirts, and the Opera dress, which is no longer with us. The deep neckline looks amazing on the skinny model, however; on me, it’s not fit for public eyes… It was also really hard to get off and on and the hemline was accidentally asymmetrical. Those were all very early efforts. The skirts are still in my closet and I do wear them.

Now I can tell you for sure, that I am not going to figure out all my extra measurements, trace all these pattern pieces to the correct size, and make these patterns. It was one of first clothes sewing books I bought, so I was resisting giving it up, but it might be time. There is no sense in keeping things that are not useful and I have patterns better suited to my figure.

I think I’m beginning to realize that part of this challenge for me is to develop my own style and begin to weed out the things that don’t inspire me. I have so many crafting and sewing materials that are just gathering dust when they could be inspiring someone else instead. Giving up this book will let another beginner sewer experiment and learn their own style. If you know of a younger, or beginner sewer, who might like it, let me know, otherwise it will go to the giveaway pile.

Fun sewing fact, Joann’s now lets you use coupons on books and I had a 60% off one that was burning a hole in my pocket. I found this fun looking book called Sew Many Dresses, Sew Little Time by Tanya Whelan, which promises “interchangeable patterns to create 200+ unique dresses.” It has a section on alterations and the styles are much more flattering and sized with measurements, not just S/M/L. I can replace the simpler book for this one and get a lot more use out of it.

So, after that long-winded explanation, on to my crafty/sewing goals:

*Sew the pillow for my office with the inspirational quote fabric.

*Iron, back, and tie the Rainbow Snowball quilt.

*Add the fabric flowers to Etsy.

*Finish one project from the UFO tote.

*Continue organizing basement craft area.

*Take better pictures for the blog and for Etsy.

Some of these are shorter term and will hopefully be easy ones to finish. I don’t work Tuesday and will try to get the table cleared so I can at least get the quilt ironed and pinned.

Fancy has been super snuggly lately and would like me to add more walks, snuggles, and homemade treats to my goals this month as well. And really, how can I resist either of these faces?

 

She’s currently draped over my lap, snoring peacefully  away. 🙂 I should go and do the same!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

It’s that time again! It’s been one more month of this crazy idea of mine, so I thought it was time to review my progress. Lately I’ve felt rushed and not very crafty, so it was good to sit down and see what I actually accomplished. I was tempted to hold off on writing this until I could maybe finish one more craft project, but decided honesty was best.

The thing I’ve learned most this month is to really focus on being more productive with the time I have. I’ve had to shift my dinner prep time to the mornings, or lean more on the Husband to help get it done, which has forced me to be more prepared.

I’ve also reset my alarm to be 15 minutes earlier, so that on mornings I have less time, I can still get things done. I have had some episodes of insomnia and have been able to get things done when I would normally be sleeping. It’s not an ideal situation, I’d rather have the sleep, but at least I can be a little productive. This morning was one of those mornings. Fancy woke me up at 5:30 am to go outside and I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I’ve washed two cast iron pans, made taco meat for dinner, and made eggs and bacon for breakfast. Now I just want a nap, of course.

So on the the review:

23 new recipes, 5 of them were family/my recipes. I used six new cookbooks, Market Fresh, Bacon 24/7, Icebox Pies, Nancy Drew, Garlic, and the Food of China.

The hits for the month were definitely the Thai Spiced Duck from Garlic, and the Pasta Carbonara from Bacon 24/7. The Husband also liked the Smothered Pork Chops from the Nancy Drew cookbook. Pretty much everything is a make again. We didn’t have a whole lot of misses. I’ve been going with my gut for seasoning and adding more spices if I think they might be necessary. I’ve also had the Husband do more with actually making the dinner and it’s worked well.

I’ve realized that I should remember that I don’t have to make a new recipe every day, especially on days where I have to work late. Canned soup, leftovers, or things from the freezer are also good options. The Husband assures me that he can actually feed himself if he needs to.

We are getting better about meal planning and I’m trying to use what we have. Making more things, like the crescent dough and flour tortillas for dinner tonight is also theoretically helping our food budget. We’re terrible at sticking to one when we go to the store, so if I can automatically take some of the items off the list, it will help. It can be super annoying sometimes. Lately all it seems I’ve been doing is cooking and it leaves no time for crafting or sewing. Hopefully I can make a better balance with those two things.

Speaking of crafting, I did nowhere near as well as I wanted to with finishing projects. The Snowball quilt top is still not ironed and folded in a pile and I haven’t finished any other big projects either. I mostly made Etsy or vending items, which I need to take better pictures of so I can post them. I’m going to run a sale on my Etsy store in the next week, but want to get some more items up first.

The finished craft list is 4 tea wallets, Kanzashi pins, and two hip wraps, a black and gold one and a grey and black wrap. Granted, I was out of power for a few days and have had extra work, but it’s still a little disappointing. I started it to get motivated to finish things, not let them sit half finished.

I get antsy and cranky though when I haven’t had a good crafting session or a good book to read, so I know I need to fit it in. I’m a counselor, for goodness sake! I tell my clients all the time that they need to find the time for self-care and for things that make them happy. You’d think I’d be able to make myself follow my own therapeutic goals… I should have some time on Wednesday and Thursday to buckle down and clear out a space to sew in. I’ll try to decide later tonight what project for me I’ll work on this week. Normally the decision of what to make is half the battle. I did straighten up my craft space bookshelf and find several more craft/sewing books as well.

Also, a confession… The Husband and I went to the thrift store to see if we could find a dog gate because Fancy is getting too pushy around his computers. We didn’t find a gate, but did come home with three new cookbooks… I couldn’t help myself, and he enabled me. 🙂 One is a slow cooker book, which is good, the one we have has not been terribly impressive. The second one is a Lebanese cookbook and has five separate kibbe recipes in it. I was introduced to fried kibbe last year and it is amazing. There’s lots of lamb recipes too, which the Husband was excited about. The third one is a home cheese making cookbook! It has recipes for homemade cheeses and how to use them.

I know, I shouldn’t have even looked, but I did and somehow the books just leaped into my hands and came with me to the checkout. And now that they are here, I have to add them into the rotation.

So my goals for this next month will be to stay away from the cookbook section in any stores, finish at least two big craft projects, and use at least two new cookbooks. I think it’s doable.

In the meantime, I have a dog dancing a jig because she wants to go for a walk and tortillas to finish.

Stay tuned this week for my new favorite picture of my Fancy pup and thanks for reading along.

 

 

 

 

Monthly Review

Happy 2 Month Anniversary!

LSiehLeave a comment

Wow! It’s been two months already. How did that happen? I am feeling particularly cute today because I’m wearing my strawberry dress, which I finished specifically to get a project done for the blog. I thought I should take a minute and review what I’ve gotten done so far. It doesn’t seem like it’s that much when thinking about it, but I suspect I’ve gotten more done than I thought.

Food/cookbook Review: I went back and counted up my cookbooks that I used. 28 new cookbooks were used in the past 2 months! I didn’t completely finish any, but I might be close with Retro Diner. I seem to only have a few more sections of it to use. My most used cookbooks were Food Network Favorites and Better Homes and Gardens, both with 4 recipes. They were all from different sections though. I thought there would be more repeats, but I’ve done pretty good.

I’m getting better about figuring out recipes before I need to start working on them. I’m learning that sometimes it is better to follow the recipe and sometimes I need to go with my gut and make modifications even if it doesn’t call for it. The Husband keeps telling me I should be thinking about going on Masterchef and threatens to have friends bring over random foods for a Chopped style dinner party. I think that the Chopped dinner party might be fun, but am not sure about Masterchef. I still have trouble with planning sides and cooking things at the same time.  The Husband still claims that all I have to do to cook is to wave my arms and food magically appears. He is fairly gracious about eating a little later so I can get everything done, but I suspect it would do me in on a TV show. Plus, Gordon Ramsey might call me a muppet and I might never cook again…

I did find picture of the Wolfgang Puck pizza (Food Network Favorites) that I hadn’t posted and it looks delicious. It was very good and definitely will be added to the pizza night menu. This pizza was one of the favorite meals for the last couple of months. The Curry Chicken Salad (Food Network Favorites), Blackwood Hall Muffins (Nancy Drew), Buttermilk Fried Chicken (Better Homes), and the Stuffed Meatballs (Food Network Favorites) were all favorites.

Recipe misses were Chicken Risotto (A Quilter’s Christmas), and Creamy Mushroom Soup (My Recipe Keeper). I think everything else I would make again, just with modifications.

I still have this week’s Recipe Round up to write, but thought I would do a review first. Those recipes will be  written up tomorrow or Sunday.

Craft Project Review:

So far I have finished one baby quilt and the Rainbow Snowball quilt top, and started another scrap quilt, which I haven’t taken pictures of yet. Here’s the Rainbow Snowball sewn together. Excuse the wrinkles, I have not ironed it yet. I can’t decide on a border fabric, so it probably won’t get one, unlike the original look. It would make it too busy, I think, and I’m not a fan of white borders. It’s going to be quilted with buttons in the diamonds and probably backed with either a fleece or a red flannel. It does have a home, just have to get it done.

I made or completed 5-6 tea wallets for my Etsy store and vending. Some of them just needed a specific thread color to finish the final seam.

I added bias tape to complete the strawberry dress and made a complete dress from scratch in 5 hours for a Dita Von Teese show. The strawberry dress is not the McCall’s pattern that I thought it was. It has princess seams that I had forgotten about. I’m still going through patterns to see what it actually is.

Also, I discovered my dog is afraid of the dress form when it is undressed. Fancy is a terribly vicious pitbull, you know. 🙂

Finished three belly dance hip wraps from the project box. These are all put away in their box, but I did post a few pictures last Wednesday of the black and blue ones. I haven’t gotten pictures of the pink and silver one yet.

Finished two bags, the red and black Record Bag (only in progress pictures so far) and made a dinosaur 6 pocket tote bag.

It’s been a little easier to do more things with food, as we have to eat. Crafting seems to take a backseat, partially due to how ridiculously messy the craft area in the basement has become. It’s pretty cold down there right now, so I have just been down there to find specific things and not working down there. I’m ashamed to say how messy it is, but I really need to focus on getting it into better order. Potentially getting a space heater will help too because then I won’t be taking over the dining room table with all of it. We cut up almost all of our moving boxes and I’m planning on swiping the side flaps to wrap fabric around in hopes that it will help keep things a bit neater and help me to know what I have. I’ll probably post some in progress pictures to help keep my motivation going.

So there it is! Looking back at this list, even though I can see some room for improvement, I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished.

28 new cookbooks used and 15 craft/sewing projects completed in two months. That’s a good use of my time, I think.

Hopefully you’ve had fun following along and will stay tuned for more crafty and cooking adventures.