weekend projects

 

jordan's new pajama pants

while the chicken broth is cooking on the stove i thought i would go ahead and take a few minutes to update the blog with all that i have been working on over the last couple days. see, i am getting a bit better at updating more often! 

friday was a no-cooking/no-baking day...i just didn't feel like being in the kitchen i guess. so, instead i worked on the pj pants for jordan and got a couple skirts started for her as well. she liked the pants and asked where the tops were when i gave them to her...i had to tell her that i don't make tops, just bottoms (they're way easier). she was alright with it though since she can just wear tops that she already has. 

 

jordan's new skirt

next up were the skirts, which i intended to give as a birthday present. skirts are super easy and ones for her use up only half a yard of fabric...which was perfect since that's exactly how much i had left from a couple dresses that i had made last year. i had both skirts started, only to realize that i could just finish one of them since i didn't have enough elastic for the waistband on both. you would think that i would be better prepared since i seem to always be running out of something, but no i'm so very unprepared most times for most things! so only one skirt got finished this weekend...obviously it's the one in the picture! i'll make a run to the fabric store for more elastic later this week and will have the other skirt done in no time.

 

 

doughnut muffins

saturday was my day for baking! i finally made the doughnut muffin recipe that i had been wanting to try. the recipe was easy to follow and my only fear was that butter that had been softening, covered, on my counter for a couple days might not be that tasty. but apparently that was a silly fear, since everything turned out just fine and i haven't gotten sick from the days old butter in the muffins. yes, i am the only one in the house who has been eating the muffins...stephen tried one, but that's it. i chose to make them mini-muffins rather than regular size in the hopes that the kids would be more interested in them since they like the mini sized muffins...but, alas, that is not the case and i am left to be the lone eater. oh, well, at least they're good...next time i think i'll try covering them completely in cinnamon-sugar, not just the tops like the recipe says.

 

low-fat, nearly sugar free bread pudding

and because i felt like i hadn't spent enough time in the kitchen, i decided to bake bread pudding yesterday, as well. i altered a recipe from the good home cookbook: using high fiber wheat bread, skim milk, and splenda rather than sugar. i did sprinkle a cinnamon-sugar mix on the top so that's why it's not completely sugar-free. this was the second bread pudding i had made and i'm still trying things out. this one was a lot easier to put together than the first one, but doesn't seem to taste as good and has turned out to be really runny. i'm not sure if the bread wasn't stale enough, if you really shouldn't use skim milk, or if i should have let the bread soak up the pudding mix more before baking? who knows...it's all part of the lessons i'm learning i guess. live...learn...move on!  

 

my first attempt at chicken broth

really, there is chicken hidden under all those vegetable pieces and water! i'm trying my hand at homemade broth and hoping that i can use the cooked chicken for enchiladas one night this week...the broth will be used in soup making at some point as well. kinda figure i can kill two birds with one stone this way...use the broth for vegetable soup and the chicken, once shredded, for enchiladas and whatever else i can use shredded chicken for. it certainly does make my house smell yummy while it simmers on the stove so that's a nice bonus! side note: the "lovely" browning bananas are being used to make banana bread, right after i finish typing this up!

   

cut up fabric for upcoming projects

as this project goes on, i'm finding that i really am enjoying myself! i love being in the kitchen and smelling all the wonderful smells from whatever it is i'm making. and being in front of my sewing machine or crocheting also brings a new kind of peace that i'm very happy to have found...especially on rough days when i need a moment or two of peace so that i don't explode! i'm glad i decided to start this...of course, six months from now may be a totally different feeling...but for now, this is so much fun for me and i'm super excited about it all!

 

 

one day of rest, then back to work!

 

just wanted to show off my spoiled kitties!

well, as expected, i had over done it on tuesday so wednesday was my day of rest and recovery. i spent almost all day on the couch, taking a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day...it was actually very hard for me to not do anything! even on my "lazy days" i do some kind of crafty thing or some light cleaning, this time i did absolutely nothing and it was a bit nerve racking. truth be told i finally did put some dishes into the dishwasher and folded one load of laundry before i went to bed...i had rested all day and just had to do something.

and so, yesterday i was fully rested and ready to get back to the project full speed ahead...after storytime and little gym, that was. first up was a chocolate truffle torte, for mom's night out, from my better homes & garden cookbook. i changed the crust from crushed graham crackers to crushed chocolate cookies to make it even more chocolatey (and to do something with the cookies i had). i started melting the chocolate with the whipping cream like the recipe called for and was getting everything else together and ready, only to realize that i needed more eggs. so off to target jordan and i went, after the chocolate was melted, of course, since i couldn't just stop that right in the middle. side note: i'm really glad that target carries basic staples like eggs so that i didn't have to go to the grocery store & it's so much closer. 

back from the store i finished getting everything together: pressing the cookie crumbs into the springform pan, mixing all the ingredients together, then pouring them into the pan, and popping it into the oven for what turned out to be 35 minutes, rather than 45. once out and cooled, i put it into the fridge for more chilling and hoped that it really was completely cooked...i'd find out about 4 hours later at moms night out!

 

the top cracked a bit around one edge, but other than that it seemed fine. i made up the fresh whipped cream about 10 minutes before walking out the door for moms night. side note #2: i'm finding that i really like real, fresh whip cream and with my kitchenaid mixer (which i luuuuv) it's super easy to make. this was the first torte i had ever made, so i was really uncertain about how it would turn out...in the end, it turned out very well! it was super rich and chocolatey, the whipped cream really helped cut some of the richness and everyone who tried it seemed to like it...so i was very happy! it's a keeper recipe and maybe next time i will actually follow the recipe and use crushed graham crackers and roasted nuts for the crust.

since i felt that i hadn't done enough in the kitchen, i chose to make chicken parmesan for dinner for the family using a recipe from the pioneer woman's website. i have just recently learned a bit about the pioneer woman and really, for some reason i keep wanting to refer to her as the prairie woman and i'm not totally sure why though. so, anyway, i picked up all the extras from the grocery store (yes, that would be trip #2 to a store) that i didn't already have at home before getting stephen from school. once we got home i chopped the onions and garlic, then grated the parmesan cheese so that i would be all ready after my quick nap since i still wasn't feeling 100%. side note #3: i love my mini-chopper...it was just great for chopping the garlic and onions.

up from my nap, i got into the kitchen and started everything for the dinner. i pounded out the chicken with my newest kitchen tool: the meat tenderizer (i honestly don't know how i went so long without one, it's so fun to use...pounding the crap out of something works out a good deal of frustrations!). i followed the recipe, using both the print out and the pictures from her site, as i went along. side note #4: i have no problem handling chicken, but i must admit that i washed my hands like 7 different times before the meat even hit the pan! 

 

i should have taken a picture with all the chicken in the pan and covered in cheesy goodness, but forgot so that's why there's only one lone cheese covered chicken in theat picture! it all turned out very nicely and smelled great, of course that's just my opinion though. i, of course, served it with noodles...there's just no other way to serve something made with so much red, tomato-y sauce! the kids liked the chicken, stephen didn't like the sauce,  jordan doesn't eat red sauce, and luke didn't say anything...pretty typical for my family, there's just no pleasing everyone! i liked it and will definitely make it again...i'll make a few changes to the sauce though since it seemed to be lacking something. the sauteed chicken was super easy to make, tasted yummy, and i think i'll be making chicken that way more often...working the pan drippings into a gravy next time though.

 

all in all it was a very productive day in the kitchen, no crafting done though so i feel like i'm falling behind on that side. i'll make up for it today and this weekend...i'm already planning on sewing 2 skirts and 2 pairs of pj pants for jordan. i'll finally make the doughnut muffin recipe i've been wanting to try and the laundry really must get done before we're wondering around in dirty clothes or worse, no clothes at all! 

more to come this weekend so come on back soon!

 

not even a cold could stop me...but maybe it should have

first i must confess that i have tons of things/thoughts floating in my head all day, but the minute i sit in front of a blank posting page it all seems to vanish...kind of like an etch-a-sketch that gets shaken right when you're finished with something and before you can show it off. not really sure if that even makes sense, but i just had to be honest and get that out there...i can blame writer's block for my blankness, except that i'm not a writer so it's more like blogger's block. 

anyway, yesterday was yucky, rainy most of the day and that never motivates me very well. i did work on the afghan, getting in my 4 required rows...even added a couple just cause i could! i pulled out an old cross stitch project to continue work on as well, but only added one color so i didn't spend much time on it. i think i spent more time trying to put it into the wooden frame/holder than actually working on it...i gave up on the frame when i couldn't get it to hold the fabric tight enough. 

the big crafty project of the day turned out to be a necklace that i had been meaning to work on for a few months. i had been watching a home show a while ago and really liked the necklace that the woman on it was wearing so i sketched it out with the intention of some day making it...yesterday turned out to be that someday. i foolishly thought that it would only take 20-30 minutes to work on it, not realizing that the chain i was using would be a complete pain in the ass to try to get straight! the wire wrapping of the pearls was easy enough, as was figuring out the spacing of the pearls...the hard part turned out to be getting the clasp attached. in the end it took nearly 2 hours to get it all done, but thankfully i'm so happy with how it turned out that it doesn't even matter that it took way longer than expected to make! in the end, it all worked out and that seems to be the way that things work out for me most times!

 

so, now that brings me to today...a day packed full of baking and cooking, with just a little bit of crafting thrown in and even a bit of cleaning! it's also a day when i really should have been resting since i have the lovely stuffed nose and itchy throat that signals a cold! but, i'm a stubborn person and therefore chose to bake a cheesecake, make red beans & rice, cornbread, crochet, sew, iron, vacuum, clean a bathroom and the kitchen, oh and also wash a load of laundry...after going to the grocery store of course. all in all a very non-relaxing, non-restful day and right around 8:30 tonight, when i finally sat down for more than 5 seconds, i was feeling the effects of the cold that i really hadn't felt all day since i wasn't stopping enough for it to all hit me (bit rambling, but i tend to get that way when i'm sick).

i had decided while grocery shopping, and feeling like garbage, that i would wait to make everything tomorrow and just rest today. yet, somewhere around 11am i decided that i really wasn't that sick and went to work on making the cheesecake...essentially changing my mind about not doing anything in the kitchen for the day. i used a weight watchers cookbook recipe for a lower fat version, that way i might not feel near as guilty if i eat half of the thing! crushing the graham crackers for the crust was certainly an adventure in patience for me...i tried them in the mini-chopper, crushing them by hand little bit by little bit, used a soup spoon in a bowl, and the back of a fork on a plate before remembering that i had seen some cooking show where they crushed the cookies (placed in a ziploc bag) with a rolling pin; that's the one that worked the best. with all the crackers crushed & pressed into the pan, i started getting everything else together, which was a very easy process and makes me very grateful for my stand mixer! grating lemon zest to add to the batter was the only thing that took some time. once everything was mixed, i poured the batter into the pan and stuck it in the oven for an hour to bake, then left it in the oven for another hour to cool before taking it out of the springform pan and putting it into the refridgerator to chill for about 5 hours before we had some for dessert. stephen and i were the only ones to try it, sharing a quarter of the cheesecake...he doesn't know that it's low fat and said it was very cheesy (which he liked), i thought the crust was skimpy, but i don't like a lot of crust anyway. all in all, it turned out really well, i will definitely use that recipe again, and i can't wait to have more tomorrow! 

 

as for dinner, well, that didn't turn out as well as i would have liked. i don't seem to be having much luck with making cajun style dishes, at least not when using the recipes in the joy of cooking cookbook...maybe if i tried a different cookbook things would be different. red beans and rice with cornbread was what i made tonight, nearly forgetting the rice though (i remembered when there was about 10 minutes left for the cornbread). the rice was the easiest part of the whole meal and i will never again make boil-in-the-bag rice since regular rice takes only a bit longer but comes out much nicer. (of course that's just my opinion!) the cornbread was also very easy, made from the better homes & garden cookbook, and it was the first time i ever made it in my cast iron skillet...i'm all about cornmuffins must of the time. i was very glad that it turned out well and came out of the pan very easily.

so now i'm on the hunt for a better red beans and rice recipe, as well as a good jambalaya one...that's kinda why i just glossed over the red beans side of the meal. tomorrow will be a day to rest though since i already know that i'm going to be feeling the sickness more! 

 

at least it looked good in the bowl! it tasted fine, i just need to make some adjustments if i plan on making that recipe again...it was still a bit too watery and really there were too many chopped vegetables for my taste. but i'm learning which is what matters in the end, right?!
 

i'm really enjoying this "no-name" project!

i seem to have finally found something that i really enjoy doing...i'm really enjoying this project that i decided to take on. i've been cooking, baking, crocheting, or sewing every day for the last 2 weeks and really, that's quite an accomplishment for me; i tend to give up and start slacking off right around this point! of course, i am slacking a bit in other areas like the laundry and updating the blog on a more regular basis...something always has to give though, i guess.

friday was a creative/crafty day and was spent sewing on the binding to the tablerunner. 

 

since i've been really enjoying my time in the kitchen either cooking or baking, i decided that i would make fettucine alfredo for dinner on saturday...only luke had other ideas for what he wanted. it's kinda funny, really...i'm not the best decision maker and i had finally made a decision about something without being prodded into that choice, only to have it shot down. oh well, i was still going to make it for the kids though since luke wanted steaks and neither of the kids really like them (yes, my children are oddballs!) 

i used the recipe from the joy of cooking book, making only one adjustment since it actually called for a whole stick of butter and i just couldn't bring myself to use that much...i used half a stick instead. it's a super easy recipe to follow and so quick to make, the sauce was the quickest i've ever made before...waiting for the water to boil for the noodles and actually cooking the noodles took longer than making the sauce! i was very happy with the outcome and the kids seemed to enjoy it, too (thankfully). luke and i enjoyed our steaks and baked potatoes (he grilled the steaks, i baked the potatoes) rather than the pasta.

 

and because trying out different recipes is so much fun for me, i also made chocolate crinkle cookies for dessert! i had all the ingredients here at the house and that was really the deciding factor on making that recipe. it was the first time i had ever used baking chocolate, the kind that come in one ounce pieces that need to be chopped before melting and it was easier to chop the chocolate than i expected. while the chocolate was melting with some butter in my makeshift double boiler, i got all the other ingredients together. 

 

once all the ingredients were mixed together i set it all in the fridge to chill, just like the recipe called for. side note: i had obviously started the cookie making process before starting dinner since i knew ahead of time that i needed to chill the dough. i let the dough chill for a few hours and then set about making the cookies after dinner was fully digested by us all. so, here's all the fun stuff that i found out while making these cookies: chilled chocolate cookie dough is really hard and having to make balls to roll in powdered sugar is quite a workout and rather messy! the first batch turned out to be shaped too small and more ball-like than they should've been. so i fixed that "problem" with the rest of the batches by making the balls bigger and then smashing them with the back of a spoon halfway through. 

they turned out fine in the end, jordan liked them and kept coming back into the kitchen to get some...stephen didn't like them and luke didn't even try them, but i'm not too surprised by any of that really. i liked them enough to have a couple, but not enough to make them again...bit too messy and hard to work with. first batch are the ones on the plate, second batch are the ones on the rack in the pics below.

and so that was my baking adventure for the weekend. sunday was a cooking, baking, and crafting day. i made pancakes from scratch for breakfast, franks and beans for dinner and brownies (from a box) for dessert. 

the pancake recipe (from the joy of cooking) was easy and one that i'll use from now on, possibly doubling it since there was just enough for all of us and i like to have leftovers so stephen can have them for breakfast at least one day during the week.

the franks and beans were very good and we ate the whole batch for dinner, the kids weren't terribly fond of them but they ate most of what i gave them. i left out the chopped onion that the recipe called for since i didn't want to stink up the house and also, honestly, just didn't feel like chopping one!

the brownies were the same kind that we always have when i make them from a box...no more trying ones that have added things like nuts or caramel since no one liked that. eventually i will make them from scratch, too...as soon as i find a recipe i really feel like trying.

as for the crafty part, i worked on the brown afghan some more, with the intend now being that it will be done in time to be an anniversary gift next month. i figure as long as i work on it some everyday and add at least four rows a day, i should have it completed in time. of course, with me, one just never knows.

coming up this week: in the crafting department there'll be more crocheting on the the afghan and working on a cross stitch project, too. in the cooking/baking department there'll be more new recipes to be tried starting with red beans and rice and cheesecake since i finally purchased my first springform pan. keep coming back and i promise to post more often just to keep me from spending an hour+ in front of my laptop every 3 days and seeming to write a book when i do update! things are progressing along quite nicely though so i'm really very happy about that!

i'm not slacking, i've just been busy!

i finally have a few minutes to update the blog, complete with pictures of the jambalaya from tuesday night & the quilted table runner that i'm working on, oh there's even pics of the finished scarves! granted, i could've posted yesterday, but chose to take a nap instead...the nap works out better for my sanity than updating the blog does!

i made the chicken jambalaya recipe, from the joy of cooking cookbook, on tuesday evening as part of the fat tuesday celebration. zatarain's box jambalaya was what i've always made in the past, so using a recipe and not a box mix was all new to me. jordan and i went to the store to pick everything up that we would need so i could get started early since i didn't know how long it would take to make everything. it was a relatively easy recipe to follow, i made a few changes like only using chicken legs & thighs rather than an entire chicken, crumbling the sausage rather than slicing it and doubling the ingredients so that the batch would be a bit bigger. what i ended up making was a brown jambalaya rather than a red one, which is the kind that we are more used to. i cooked it for a bit longer than i should have, thus making the rice mushy but not really effecting the rest of the taste. everyone seemed to like it, mushy rice and all, so that's one that i can make again sometime...finally there's something that everyone liked! (those are the stripped bones and bay leaves from the jambalaya, which i wanted to use to make a chicken broth, only to realize that i didn't have enough "stuff" for it.) 

wednesday was a craft day so i decided to work on a tablerunner that i had, in all honesty, completely forgotten about. i had found it about a month ago when i was pulling out the beast/five year quilt and the serendipity quilt, both of which needed to be finished and have since been finished. i got everything together, the tablerunner top and backing fabric were freshly ironed and the batting for the middle was just the right size, and got to work spray basting them all together to make it easier to quilt. just as a quick side note: i love spray basting (it's a fabric adhesive in an aerosol can)! it's the best thing i could have as a quilter, it makes life so much easier when putting quilts together. i had everything basted together and headed up to my little sewing nook to start quilting it, i got about 15 minutes into before i had my first "incident": my needle came out of the machine in mid-stitch! i tried to fix it without having to really stop my progress, but it didn't seem to want to go back in so i made the decision that i just needed to replace the needle only to discover that i couldn't find any of my replacement needles, thus meaning that i would have run over to the local quilt store to pick more up.


so i left jordan with luke while i ran to the little quilt shop right around the corner from the house. (thankfully, luke works from home, so i can make quick little trips like that when the situation arises). i was very proud of myself for going to the store and not even looking at the fabric, it is my favorite quilt/fabric store that really was quite an accomplishment for me! anyway, back home, new needle in place i set back to work on quilting the table runner. i got it all done and then stated working on the binding, first in the same fabric as the backing only to discover that that was really too light so i then found a better suited fabric and started the process of making the binding all over again. it turned out to be a very busy afternoon/evening so i didn't get to complete the binding until after the kids were in bed...which really didn't bother me too much since i like working on things more at night when i won't be bothered by anyone. (the pic below shows the tablerunner with the binding on the front)

i always make more binding that i really for my quilts and now i know why! after i got the binding sewn all around the top of the tablerunner, i started trimming off the extra fabric and batting so that i could then hand sew the binding to the back, thus finishing the tablerunner. anyway, while trimming one of the edges, i cut off the corner piece that wraps around to the back! and that's not a good thing! at first i thought i could rig something so that i wouldn't actually have to take off the binding strip, but after about 20 minutes of trying to pin, fold, press, and cuss the fabric into place, i knew that iwas going to have to take off some of the binding and replace it with another strip. luckily i had extra binding, since i make more than i need, and i set out to fix the corner piece. with the piece all fixed i decided it was time for bed and so i'm now left to hand sew the binding over the next couple of days, thus making that my crafty/creative thing to do. (that's a pic of what the corner piece looks like when you don't cut into with your rotary cutter! all folded so when it's wrapped around to the backside there's no rough fabric.)

here's a quick side note before i go get ready to take on today's crafty project and other plans for the day: i've found that i love reading cookbooks so that's taking up some of my crafting time, like yesterday i spent more time reading through a cookbook then i did on actually working on the tablerunner! oh well, i'll work on the tablerunner today while jordan's at a playdate to make up for not working on it more yesterday. 


up next for me: making pancakes, waffles, franks and beans, and more crocheting and sewing! it's gonna be a busy weekend and really, i can't wait! and below are the finished scarves, mine is folded in half since it's long and jordan's is the pink one, obviously!

slacker in some ways!

it's been a little more than a week since i started my "no-name" project and while i'm making some adjustments, i have been right on track with doing something either crafty or bake-y everyday. so yay, me! for that and boo, me for not keeping better track with my blog...that seems to be the one place where i am slacking off. oh, well, i'll try harder over the next weeks to blog every day or at least every other day. maybe slacking off can be what i give up for lent...since i haven't decided what i was going to give up yet. can you give up slacking off?

anyway, back to the blog at hand. sunday i baked chocolate chip cookies for the family using the nestle toll house recipe. yes, i know there are tons of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and there may even be some that are better than the nestle one, but that's the one i've been making since i was a kid and that's the one that i'm sticking with! we like the bar cookies and this was taken the day after making them, so obviously there's a good chunk missing!

side note: i'm still so non-computer literate and am having "issues" with the whole posting pictures thing, so my apologies if my pics don't match up to what i'm writing about. i'm highly frustrated by the whole thing, but really it doesn't take much to frustrate me these days!

monday i made strawberry mini-muffins for the first time. i had planned on making blueberry ones but jordan said she wanted strawberry and so that won out...luckily i had plenty of strawberries already so no extra grocery trips were needed. i found the recipe online, but cut it in half though since it yielded 24 regular size muffins and i knew we wouldn't eat that many before they went bad. i got everything together and realized that you can't let melted butter sit for too long because it starts to solidify itself again...that was the only "surprise" of the whole thing. it was a very easy recipe to follow and was just enough to fill the 24 mini-muffin tin. i had to adjust the time since mini and regular muffins bake at different lengths...i guessed at about 16 minutes, only to turn the oven off and take them out at about 14 minutes. and just to show that i am not the cleanest of bakers, i am sharing a pic of the messy utensils & bowls that i used to make the mini muffins.

 

so, no complications or problems with the 2 items i baked over the last 2 days. and today, rather than bake something i am trying my hand at chicken jambalaya...i really hope it turns out since it's our only dinner option! i'll have to remember to blog all about it tomorrow!  

i have finished jordan's scarf and have started working on the afghan for luke. i'll have to post pics of the finished scarves, i keep forgetting to take them though. the skirts i was orginally going to work on last week got put on hold because one now needs more fabric than i anticipated since i don't really want my near 5 year old walking around in a mini skirt! plus, i just felt like crocheting more than i felt the urge to sew!

 

tomato soup, monkey bread, and snow in south carolina!

well, it's certainly been an interesting few days; full of cooking, baking, and the most surprising amount of snow i ever thought we'd see in coastal south carolina! it all started friday with my decision to just bake or cook whatever i wanted, whether my family liked it or not. i went to publix in the morning to get all the ingredients for making fresh tomato soup, a recipe i found in "the joy of cooking" book that i picked up at the library, very simple with few ingredients. once back home i put everything away and took care of household things before getting started. 

by 11am, i got everything together and started chopping the onion as the recipe called for...here's where the first lesson was learned: onions are smelly and will stink up the entire house. once the onions were chopped & set aside in a bowl for browning, i went to work on preparing the tomatoes only to learn my next lesson: recipes really should be read all the way through before starting. i had not realized that i needed to peel the tomatoes before chopping & seeding them; luckily i hadn't gotten very far in my tomato chopping so it wasn't so hard a lesson to learn. once the 3 pounds of tomato were peeled, chopped, and seeded i learned lesson #3: if the recipe calls for 3lbs of peeled, chopped, and seeded tomatoes, you really have to start with about 6lbs of tomato since peeling, chopping, and seeding them reduces their bulk. so, back to the store i went to pick up 3 more pounds of tomato...really glad that i had started making everything during the day so i wasn't heading out at night or worrying that the store would be closed (although, these days there's always a 24 store open within easy driving distance so i need not be worried about that)!

back from store trip number 2, i went back to peeling, seeding, and chopping the remaining tomatoes. side note, i am now very good at peeling tomatoes, by the way! once that was all done i started putting it all together in the pot like the recipe called for and further stinking up the house, as my husband said. after it all simmered in the pot for about half an hour, i added the spices, and put it into the blender to puree it. it all turned out as well as i would have expected since, really, tomatoes and onions are all that are in the recipe. i can add in some heavy cream to make it creamier, if i so choose.

since the tomato soup took longer than i expected i didn't get the chance to bake anything else, instead i chose to look for a recipe for monkey bread. and while i found tons, they all called for either canned biscuits or bisquick, two items that i did not have and i was pretty much refusing to go back to the store for a 4th time (i went back to publix to pick up some king cakes for luke, but hadn't decided on the monkey bread at that time). i finally found a recipe that was all from scratch using yeast dough and decided that that would be the one to try. it was too late to start so i figured i would start the next morning while the kids played in the snow that had started falling.

the weathermen were calling for snow all day, but i was very skeptical about the amount they were calling for since we rarely see more than a few flurries. but, lo and behold when it started coming down around 6pm it didn't stop until the wee hours of the morning and was sticking nicely to the ground, leaving behind about 5 inches of accumulation our yard when it was over. the kids played in it for a bit in the evening, making a little snowman in the driveway before we called them in. once they woke up on saturday, they were itching to get back out in the snow as soon as they could! so at almost 9am, i bundled them all up and let them have fun in the snow while i got everything together and started for the monkey bread.

and so that this does not turn into a much longer blog, here's a few lessons i learned while making the monkey bread:  

lesson 1: even if the recipe suggests using a paddle attachment on your stand mixture to mix the dough, the dough hook works much better once all the ingredients have been combined for the dough.


lesson 2: yeast dough takes a long time to rise in the winter, in a house that is not heated above 70degrees...i stuck the bowl in the powder room since i was probably the warmest place.


lesson 3: a two quart casserole dish will substitute nicely for a 10inch cake pan.


lesson 6: the oven, not turned on of course, makes a good place for dough to rise as well.


lesson 7: my oven runs extremely hot and therefore baking times really don't matter...they are more of a suggestion.


lesson 8: homemade monkey bread, made completely from scratch, no matter how time consuming it is...is so very yummy and well worth the wait!

ok, so it wasn't exactly a short blog entry today. i learned tons of lessons through the whole thing though, way more than i originally thought! the final lesson being that i should keep to daily blog entries just to keep them short!





 

to hell with the picky-ness of my family...i'm gonna make what i want!

i have come to the conclusion that since i want to try new recipes and i have a picky eating family, i will simply have to make the things i want to make for myself! i'm sure that in the end i can convince at least one of my children to try something new, probably jordan since she's already willing to try other things. 

so for today i will be making tomato soup, sweet potato muffins, and something dessert like to get us through the weekend. there are rumors of snow, but i'm not telling the kids since i really don't want to hear their disappointment when it doesn't actually happen. with snow & coastal south carolina, i'm more of a "i'll believe it when i see it" kinda girl! 

i have finished crocheting a scarf for myself and started working on one for jordan since she requested one as well. the yarn for jordan's scarf is not one that i like working with, but she wants it and since i'm not buying new yarn for this whole project i'm gonna bite the bullet and finish it. hopefully, it'll all be worth it in the end and she'll love it...if not, then i'll have a pink/white scarf to donate to goodwill!

so far, so good with my whole project. at least i haven't really given up on anything...yet.

baking may be a bust...?

just a few days into my no-name project and i may already be ditching the baking side of the whole plan. it's not that i don't love the baking, it's more that my family isn't loving the things that i'm making. in all honesty, they're not even really liking the baked goods! they are more of the chocolate chip cookie/brownie lovers where as i'm wanting to try different recipes for muffins, cupcakes, pies, etc. so i think i'll just stick with baking muffins that everyone likes and cookies that i know will get eaten...there's less of a chance of wasting food that way!

yesterday's brownies, from a box, were not liked because i tried a turtle kind rather than the usual plain. and the cheese muffins were deemed not likeable though i'm not sure why. i also made a banana-berry smoothie, which the kids have asked me to make before, and yet neither one of them wanted more than a few sips and jordan even tried to tell me that i made it wrong! that's always nice to hear from your 4 year old...that you've done something wrong.

so, no more baking new things...kinda sad that i couldn't follow through with that, but it really does make sense that i just make the same tried and true baked goods that i know everyone will eat. i swear i live with some of the pickiest eaters! i'm all for trying new things, but the rest of the family not so much. maybe i'll throw in a new cookie or brownie recipe in the next few weeks just for my own sanity!

oh, well, gives me more time for crocheting, sewing, quilting...maybe i'll even pull out some of my unfinished cross-stitch projects. i am feeling like the queen of unfinished projects these days, maybe more crafting time is all i really need! 

Nun's Puffs and the migraine that wouldn't die!

i wanted to have some history or trivia about the name of the puffs that i made, but instead i spent last night enjoying a glass of wine while watching some tv and then this morning, i spent several hours in bed trying to sleep off my migraine. the sleeping 4 additional hours after taking stephen to school really did seem to do the trick and i'm feeling much better. i've had a migraine for the last 2-3 days and while it was manageable for the first couple days, this morning the throbbing in my head nearly knocked me over. so i brokedown and took the powerful prescription pill i have (i save them for real emergencies, like today) and climbed back into bed. thankfully jordan was behaving and luke was fine with her playing while he worked. so, now after my rest i'm back to blogging and normal life...more laundry and baking to get to today!

last night i baked something called nun's pufffs from the better homes & gardens cookbook. the recipe was very simple with only about 5 ingredients, it was the first time i ever had to cook the dough before baking it. i followed the recipe as it was written, melting the butter, adding the milk & flour until the dough formed a ball, then adding each egg one at a time stirring vigoursly with each addition.  side note: stirring dough with a wooden spoon for 4-5 minutes is really a good workout for the stirring arm! so once the eggs were all mixed in i used my handy-dandy scooping tool (it's actually called a disher, but i like handy-dandy scoop) to measure out the dough into the heavily greased muffin tin, sprinkled on some sugar, popped them in the oven for the desired time and started working on dinner. 

the puffs came out of the oven after about 25 minutes, just in time to enjoy with our dinner of fish sticks, rice, & corn (i know, we're so "fancy" with our fish sticks). this time we all tried the puffs, the kids even had their's with honey which is what the book suggests having them with. they were a bit doughy and really, not very good...neither of the kids finished there's and luke & i just had one each. i did save the remaining ones to try today with the hope that they'll be better a day later...i haven't tried them yet, but will at some point.

 

they did puff up quite nicely and i was very surprised about that, the taste just seemed lacking. i was glad that i tried something new though so in the end it worked out just fine. tonight i think i'll try some cheese muffins to go with dinner and maybe some brownies from a box (i can't always make everything from scratch!)

 

the no-name project: cupcakes

still no name for this project that i've decided to take on, so i'm just gonna call it "the no-name project". yesterday was day 1 with baking up first...i made applesauce & cinnamon cupcakes from the book 500 cupcakes. it was the second recipe that i tried from the book and so far, i'm not terribly pleased with the recipes so i'm very glad that it's a library book. i'll give it another chance over the next 2 weeks, but so far i'm not impressed. 

 

 i got everything together and had to make just one little change...i omitted the chopped nuts and simply doubled the raisins. side note about raisins, they are very sticky when being cut into smaller pieces. while getting everything measured out i realized, after opening the box of extra fine sugar, that there's a little spout on the side that you can use for pouring...oh well, i always miss things like that. it was a very easy recipe to follow and came together quickly, so no drama there...really no drama with any of it which was good! i scooped the mixture into the muffin pan using my handy-dandy batter scoop (i love that thing!) and topped each one with apple slices and a little bit of sugar. it was the first time i ever baked apples on top of something so i was a little skeptical as to how that was going to turn out.

 i popped them in the oven for 12 minutes, then turned the pan and continued baking for another 12 minutes. (little trick i learned from good eats: rotate the pan half way through so everything is baked more evenly). turns out that 24 minutes was probably a little too long since the edges got a little darker than i would have liked...not burnt, just dark! i let them cool as directed for 5 minutes in the pan before taking them out and placing them on the cooling rack.

 

the finished cupcakes

 

 stephen and i are the only ones who have eaten any of the cupcakes, which i would really classify as muffins since cupcakes have frosting and these don't! of course i'm not terribly surprised that luke didn't want to have any since he's not a cake/cupcake type person and jordan just didn't seem interested at all. they tasted alright, nothing terribly exciting and while it suggested they are best served warm they seem just fine non-warmed up. 

so day one went well, no drama or accidents, and my lesson learned was to always check boxes for pour spouts before opening the top! not sure what to bake today, but something in the bread family to go with dinner tonight. stay tuned for those results either tonight or tomorrow...just depends on how my day goes as to whether it'll be tonight.

 

   
and here's the latest painting i made to hang in our powder room. it's not great but i like it and that's really what counts! 

the project! follow me, follow me, follow me!

i finished reading "julie & julia" a couple days ago and have been inspired to take on my own kind of year long project. mine will be more about trying new things and improving my skills in each area so i'll be baking, cooking, sewing, quilting, and crocheting...possibly throwing in some beading and painting as well just to up the insanity level a bit!

the plan is to bake something new every sunday, monday, & tuesday; leaving wednesday thru saturday for sewing, quilting, and crocheting. i will, of course, be on my regular workout, cleaning, shopping, family-time schedule during this time as well. my plan is to only use the supplies i have on hand since i already have an abundance of fabric, yarn, & thread for the crafting; the baking items will have to be replenished but that should be my only expense.


i'm hoping that by committing myself to this project i will actually follow something through to the end...i'm really, really bad with follow through. i also figure as long as i keep this blog then maybe someone will follow me and my journey down the road to insanity, thus making me feel way more guilty if i fail to stay on track! so, here's my begging...please, please, please follow me!  i obviously have no problem begging! i'll post pics, honest reviews/opinions of patterns and recipes, and funny stories since i'm sure something worth laughing about will happen to me almost daily!


it all starts tomorrow with the baking of some cupcakes. i'm spending today just relaxing since i figure it may be my last chance for a year!

kitchen adventures!

i have been on a baking/cooking kick for the last couple weeks. i'm not terribly surprised by this since i get this way every 6 months or so! earlier this week i made mini banana muffins and oatmeal that wasn't in a pouch from quaker...i was pretty proud of myself for the non-instant oatmeal risk taking! so today i made bread pudding and baked ziti, both for the first time...hence the kitchen adventures!

the bread pudding recipe came from a bon appetit recipe book that i checked out from the library last week. it really was easy and seems to taste right...i'm not a bread pudding afficionado, i just like to eat it every now and then, so it could be completely awful and i would have no way of knowing! i used white bread from the bakery at publix and will have them slice the bread for me next time, so that was lesson number one to remember for the next time. lesson number 2 was that i need to buy spreadable butter in a tub since stick butter isn't the easiest to spread if it's not near melting! other than those things everything turned out very well, little messy from spreading the butter in the pan, but very well none the less! it baked up in about 35 minutes, a little less than the suggested time, but that didn't surprise me since our oven tends to run hot. it smelled great and was a really pretty, golden brown color...very tempting to stick a spoon into. but i was patient enough to wait until it stopped bubbling...just barely though! after i let it cool i did stick a spoon in, which actually was lesson number 3...no amount of blowing will prevent a scorching piece of bread pudding from burning your throat when swallowed! i'm the only one who's tried it so far, but my family aren't exactly the guinea pig type so my need to try new things is slightly hampered by that. guess i'll have to start hitting up my friends to try my baked goods!

the baked ziti recipe was also from a library book, the everyday food cookbook. it's actually a recipe for baked ravioli, but since i couldn't find ravioli at the store i substituted ziti. i made the sauce from scratch (as part of the recipe) and found that i really like having a mini chopper to chop the onions and a hand chopper to mince the garlic...gadgets make my life so much easier! no lessons learned with that recipe really, it was super easy...just a bit messy when the sauce bubbles unexpectantly onto my shirt, but that always happens whenever i make red sauce. hubby was happy that i decided to finish the sauce while only wearing my bra and sweatpants, since i took off the stained shirt and figured it was just easier not to worry about staining another shirt. once the sauce was thickened and boiled down i added it to the ziti in my often neglected stoneware 13x9 pan, covered it all with cheese and popped it in the oven to bake. it smelled so good and came out just perfect, although really, it was a recipe that seemed hard to screw up. the kids liked it, even the hubby said it was ok and he's hard to please!

so my kitchen adventures today turned out well enough with no major problems, aside from my idiotic self burning my throat cause i was so impatient. and j asked what i was going to make tomorrow...glad to know she likes the things i make! 

i'm hoping/planning to bake or cook at least one new thing a week. as well as, sewing something, be it clothes or quilts, during the week as well. it's all wishful thinking on my part though since i'm great at starting things, not so great at finishing them.