I Heart My Immersion Blender

Stay at home moms bake. A lot. And stay at home moms of children with milk and egg allergies probably bake even more. So, as previous posts have mentioned I've been baking and experimenting. Today I took on two things I never thought I'd consider doing, due to the time involved. But it went much more smoothly than I ever thought it would. Way back before Halloween, I stocked up on pie pumpkins. They were cute, they were 5 for a $1.00. How could I say no? But then Halloween came and went and these things are still sitting around the house. Yeah, they are Thanksgiving-y too, but really, I needed to deal with them before they rotted. Soooo, I did something my mother recommended I not. When I told her what I had in mind, she said "toss 'em", and those of you who know my mother, you know she's a great cook and not one to shy at doing things from scratch. But her advice was: it's not worth the effort. She had tried it back when she was a stay at home mom and was Not Pleased with the results. But I hate waste. Plus, I hate paying over a $1 a can for pumpkin. And this time of year, we are all about the pumpkin waffles and and the pumpkin bread and the pumpkin muffins and the pumpkin casserole. And I'm surrounded by pumpkins. I had to do it. Today was the test run, I decided that I was going to be home and take on not one but two time intensive kitchen projects. I'll detail the other, making rice milk, here too.

I decided that I'd only start with two of the pumpkins because if I messed it up, I would want to try again or maybe they would go with us to Tree and PD's for Thanksgiving as decorations. I had been researching this on the internet for a while and I was disappointed to learn that I could not can these, since the acid level is not high enough (really, taking on my first canning project would have been a little ambitious for me anyway), so I needed to clear out freezer space, so I had this in the back of my mind for about two weeks, working on the freezer situation. I processed the pumpkin using these instructions. I think the key to this is an immersion blender, and the reason why this didn't work for my mother years ago. That and maybe she was using a different variety of pumpkins. Anyway, as many of you know, my mom is not a fan of immersion blenders. Basically, she feels she has a bunch of pureed food ahead of her at the nursing home and she's not going to start eating it now (no, she's nowhere near going into the nursing home, but she's a long term planner). If I had had to use a regular blender or a hand mill, this would not have been as fast, as fun, or as easy to clean up. With the immersion blender, it was all of these. While the pumpkin did take about 90 minutes to bake (I may steam it next time), the prep was really only about 10 minutes and the pureeing only took a few minutes too, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I got about 3-4 cups of pumpkin out of the two pumpkins and so that's about two cans worth. Not a great pay off, but if I had done all of them at once, it would have been well worth it. I also roasted the seeds while the pumpkin was baking. Yum!

While I was doing this project, I had another project on the stove as well. I have been considering a soy milk maker for some time. But it's about $100 - $200. Worth it for us, since we use a lot of soy milk and it would pay for itself in about 8-9 months, but we really don't have the cash for this kind of thing right now. Making soy milk by hand, sounds like a very intensive process, and honestly, I really prefer rice milk for drinking (although I love soy milk for baking some things and I'd also like to try my hand at making tofu since Nora is a complete fanatic about it). I've found several recipes on line for rice milk, which didn't look that hard to take on. Plus, I had a lot of rice bought up in bulk, so I thought, why not. I used this recipe, and while it doesn't have the supplemental vitamins like the ones we buy at the store, that's okay for us right now. Nora takes a mult-vitamin and I don't usually have a problem getting her to eat her veggies (she's a big spinach and kale eater!). I did use 4 Tbs of sugar instead of maple syrup mentioned in the article, but not the oil. I also used filtered water for the blending. This project also required the immersion blender, and again, I think it made it go very smoothly. It's chilling in the fridge right now, but my first sample tasted pretty good. Its a little thicker and rice-er tasting than Rice Dream or other commercial rice milks, but I think it will work better in baking than commercial milks do. I do like cow milk and will often drink a glass of it - I'm not sure that I will give up cow milk completely, but with enough tinkering with this recipe, I might. My efforts yielded about 3/4 of a gallon, which should last us for about a week and 1/2. For those of you who use non-dairy milks and feel like you are paying too much for commercial ones, it is well worth the time it took, it was easy, and I bet you have one cup of brown rice, water salt and sugar in your cupboard. I imagine you can use white rice too, but it wouldn't be as nutritious - but that may not be a concern. While I did have be at home for the 3 hours the rice cooked, it really only required minimal supervision of the stove and the processing took about 15-20 min, including clean up, so really this is not a bad project for a weekend afternoon. If it makes more than you feel like you can use in a week, I've found that rice milk usually freezes fairly well - of course that means that you have to have room in your freezer! I also like storing this in my fridge in glass bottles (I used a glass pitcher and a glass milk container that I never took back for the deposit). Like cow's milk, it just tastes better out of glass.

Food Craft

One of the things I've been spending a lot of time doing while home is baking. I've been working a lot on yeast breads, something that I never felt like doing when I had many things to accomplish in a weekend. Unfortunately, my experiments with sourdough starter were just not that satisfying. I started the starter from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook recipe, and while I did make about 4 loaves out of it, it just wasn't that sourdough-y tasting and then as it sat on my my counter longer, it sort of became a burden and then, eventually, a smelly mess. So I tossed it yesterday and plan to return to Sarah E-Y's wheat bread recipe and some of the white country bread loaves that I've been baking as well. I also bought some spelt flour, so I'll need to do something with that pronto.

I haven't been doing any sewing, which I thought I would be. Yesterday, I finally decided to make some french fries for Nora's play kitchen, so I did do some felt handsewing, and I've got a bunch of felted sweaters that need to be re-made, so perhaps I'll get something done with those. Anyone have any bread recipes they love and want to share? Send them too me! Especially those using wheat flour or spelt.

Here's the french fries complete with ketchup (I didn't make the ketchup bottle, it's from Melissa and Doug).

Out and About

This fall is flying by. Jason's parents were here for just over a week and we did a couple of excursions with them, including Plymouth and Boston. That's a picture of us in front of the Mayflower II:



We also went to visit Jason's cousin Christy at Wellesley to watch the Widows perform their fall teaser. It was really a lovely campus and we all enjoyed both the concert and the visit.


Finally, Nora and I have been wandering about the area, exploring while Jason is working. We try to make it to the library storytimes, and get out and about even if it's just in the back yard. I've also been cooking up a storm: cupcakes, trying new bread recipes, and returning to old favorites. Tonight is pizza night, but Nora has been begging for Mexican night. I attempted to satisfy this need with potato kale enchiladas, which she found lacking (Jason and I loved them), so we are going to have to find a Mexican restaurant. We haven't had much luck in that department so far, but we did spy a possibility that we need to check out soon. Let's hope for the best.

This final picture is from Skinner State Park and it was one of the most glorious days this fall - in the upper 70's and exceptionally sunny. The light was really amazing that day. Nora was immersed in finding more leaves to drag home. I was just enjoying the day:

New England Explorations

While my parents were here last week, we did some exploring of the area - finally driving north of Amherst (we still haven't made it to Vermont) and down into Rhode Island and Connecticut. In Massachusetts, we went to Shelborne Falls and Deerfield. Deerfield is an early settlement and a battleground in the King Phillip war which I knew nothing about until we visited. Many of the houses in Deerfield are restored to their colonial appearance; you can tour them or just walk around town and take in the early America vibe. We chose the latter since we had been touring both the Eric Carle museum and the Emily Dickenson house the days before and Nora was about in revolt (as was Dad, who enjoys historical sites, but isn't too fond of being part of a guided tour). Deerfield was lovely, especially the little meadow walk/nature path that finishes out right next to a very old cemetery. However, Shelborne Falls was a real jewel. It's in the Berkshires and while a very small town, has a thriving artist community and a really lovely floral bridge (this is much less touristy than the write up made it sound).

Over the weekend, we headed south. RI was the final state for my dad to visit so he can say he's been in all 48 of the contiguous USA, so it was fun to cross it off the list for him. And of course, Rhode Island has lots of beaches - a big draw for Jason, Nora, my mom, and I. Dad is not so much on the beach, but he does like state parks, so when both combined, we were all happy. We finished off this two day jaunt with a stop in Mystic, CT, which was very touristy and yet still felt relaxing and fun.

Old tombstone in Deerfield (1731?)

This is in front of some fancy smancy prep school where all the boys were blazers and Bermuda shorts. I liked the tree.

Our first day at the beach was really warm and lovely, but there were advisories up warning us out of the water, so we just built sand castles. Nora found an abandoned hole dug by another 4 year old to sit in.


This was later that day at a state park just south of Newport, RI. The kites were so magnificent, we had to pull over. The beach was much rockier and the waves rougher here, since we were facing the Atlantic instead of the bay.
We spent a long time checking out this big octopus kite, Nora ran right for it when we got to the park, and then she and some other kids ran in and out of its tentacles; it really was amazing.

Whales

Our house has been obsessed with maritime mammals for the past couple of weeks. This could have something to do with the amazing whale watching trip we took though the New England Aquarium. The trip was organized though Jason's school and had the benefit of a chartered bus, so we didn't even have to drive to Boston.

We spent about 4.5 hours on the boat. Fortunately, Nora and I loved it, unfortunately, Jason got a little seasick. Both Jason and Nora were wearing sea bands, so I'm not really sure if they work or not, but given that Nora usually vomits at the drop of a hat, I suspect that they worked for her.

We saw a lot of whales. In the middle of Jason's worse moments, Nora decided we needed to climb up to the top deck. I was more than happy to desert Jason since he looked pretty green, but I wasn't thrilled about climbing up three decks with Nora since the sea was pretty rough. She must have some sort of whale sonar though, since just after we got up there the first whale was spotted. It breached and we got a very clear look since the top deck was a little less populated. I was pretty much amazed and Nora was super excited. I thought that would be as good as it got, but a little while later we slowed down and stopped in the middle of a pod of about 8-10 humpback whales. It included a calf that gave us a big show with lots of diving and tail flipping.

I don't have great pictures - holding on to Nora in the middle of some largish whales while operating a camera was sort of challenging. But I do have a short video. Despite Jason's illness, he did rally around the time we reached the pod and got to join in all the sightings. We had a wonderful trip and we would love to do it again sometime, should any of you want to join us. Be sure to bring Dramamine!

This was taken out in front of the aquarium, they were had an educational fair on whales and it included this inflatable of a right whale.


This was on our way back to Boston, we were in the harbor so Jason was feeling much better.

From whale watch

Click on the Thumbnail to watch the video of the humpback whale calf!

Today's Project

There's something about assembling furniture that makes my back hurt. I'm pretty happy with the outcome though. Tomorrow's project is filling these bad boys up with the contents of the 30 boxes on the sunporch. Do you think they will all fit?

Here's the final on that pear cake from earlier this week. I will be making this again, it just kept getting better as it aged. Very spicy. Not sure it was a Nora favorite, but I really liked it, I think it would make good muffins too.

Pears

I've had these pears sitting on my counter for a couple of days and while we've been enjoying them fresh, I thought I might do something else with them. I'm tempted to try a pear butter or pear honey, since Natascha made some last weekend with her mother-in-law, and having tried last years batch, I'd like to make an attempt. But, I'm not really up to the whole canning thing right now. So, I thought I'd make a pear cake, especially since today is Jason's first day of school and well, I'm all out of inspiration on tackling those boxes of stuff that I don't know where to put right now. I've adapted this fresh pear cake from allrecipes, with some Nora -friendly additions: ground flax seed and water for the eggs and omitting the pecans. I also added a tsp of vanilla and about a Tbs of peach brandy that we had around here. I thought it was pear, but then it wasn't but I still thought it would work. The pears are sitting in the sugar/brandy/vanilla mixture now, so I'll let you know how this goes. I left the skins on, I hope that isn't a mistake....

Tune in later to see how this goes!

Foray Into Boston

This weekend, we went to see Kendra in Boston and check out the New England Aquarium. It was great to see K again and meet her dog Ripley and cats, Eli and Lottie. As you might imagine the cats stayed mostly hidden and Ripley stole the show. After riding the train into downtown, Nora decided that living with Kendra and Ripley might be preferable to staying with her boring parents who just open boxes all day and won't get her a dog.

We had a wonderful time exploring Jamaica Plain (Kendra's neighborhood), riding the train, learning about the Big Dig, tramping around Faneiul Hall, and most of all the aquarium. Nora's favorite part was the sharks and my favorite part was the hands-on tidal pool area where we could touch the starfish and sea urchins.




Thanks Kendra!

Settling In

Yesterday we made a massive trip to Ikea which resulted in two full cars. I wish I had taken pictures. We assembled our Karlstad sofa last night without incident, so we are now making full use of the tv. The four bookcases will have to wait a day or two because next up is Nora's little wardrobe/dresser combo, which I bowed to pressure and agreed to 1 PINK drawer. It is a big one though. I'll post pictures if we get it together.

Jason is on campus again today. He went in on Tuesday and got his ID card and unpacked boxes there. Today he's dealing with insurance crap and attending the grand opening of the new cafeteria. I know he's anxious since classes still haven't started and won't until the 8th, which is I guess, a week away. We've lost track of time.

Nora is missing little people to play with. It has been ungodly hot so we've been avoiding the playground, and we've been sluggish with no A/C. I hope that this will be the last day this year in the 90's. With Earl heading our direction, we are expecting lots of rain and I think it should cool down a bit too. Today though, we are going to the Chicopee Public Library to get library cards! Then, probably more furniture assembly.

I'll post pictures once we get the house cleaned up a bit. Still plenty of boxes to unload!

Return to the Blog

Two months and one cross country move later, I return to my blog. If you are on facebook, you've probably already seen these, but I thought I'd share Pancake Day here, too, since it was such a wonderful morning. Nora had literally been dreaming of Jason making pancakes so she decided that he would become the pancake chef, and he did. His first batch was pretty great and I'm looking forward to future pancake days. Part of Nora's decree included wearing these Daughter and Daddy matching Steak and Shake hats. It's Nora's favorite restaurant, but really, there's not much for Jason there.




This is the pantry, or what Nora calls the Little Kitchen, and right now it' s my favorite part of the house. That could have something to do with there being no boxes there.

Jason's reptilian like pattern on his arm is from Nora playing tattoo parlor. We've tried to discourage this since it is difficult to wash off (Crayola lies about the washable nature of their washable crayons).



We are settling in okay. Nora is having the hardest time, since we just want to unpack boxes and run to Ikea and do other boring things. She's seen a lot of TV the past couple of weeks. We have tried to get across the street to the park everyday (we didn't make it today) or out someplace at least. Unfortunately, the Dinosaur Footprints park was not as exciting as we hyped it to be. Fossilized dino footprints aren't that obvious to the untrained eye and there was no dinosaur recreation which would have made her happy. I think we've got to spend a day this week, doing everything she wants to do to balance it out. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh have I mentioned that it's been hot here this week? 90+ degrees. And we have no AC.

Travels

I've been traveling so much this spring (and it doesn't seem to let up this summer) that the blog has really suffered. Maybe when we get settled in MA, it will become a priority again. Well, I'm pretty sure it will, since some of you actually seem to care what we do with ourselves. Anyway, we have been on the road this past week, visiting family and friends in AR. Unfortunately, while we took many photos of family, we somehow managed to forget to pull out the camera while catching up with old friends, something I regret. I am also regretting the number of times we've past through this state over the past few years and did not make an attempt to visit so many of you who are here year round. One of the many things I love about Facebook is that it's given me the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and better keep up with those that we've remained in touch with over the years. And it made it possible to actually see IRL several of you during this trip. Despite poor planning we managed to catch up with Bob & Sarah, Cindy and Eric, Jennifer & Ilya, and Trent & Sarah Beth and their respective families as well as Elise and Neil. Jason, Nora and I had a wonderful time seeing you all again! Here's a few pics from the first half of our journey:






On the way home, we're hoping to squeeze in a quick visit to the Ozark Folk Center - another crying shame that we haven't made it there in all these years of going back and forth.

Moving

Many of you already know thanks to Facebook all about our news. But for us, it's still very much new. Although it's been a possibility since early April, and the offer was made several days ago, I'm still reeling from the reality that in a few short months everything is changing for us.

Jason accepted a job with Our Lady Of The Elms College, also known as Elms College, or Elms today. We need to be in Massachusetts by late August and classes start September 1st. There's a lot to do. While we are still half packed from our move to my parents over a year and a half ago, we'll need to go through those boxes (and all the stuff upstairs) and whittle down our possessions. We've got to find someplace to live, and someone to move all of our stuff - I don't think either Jason or I are up to driving a fully loaded truck half-way across our big country. Hardest of all, we've got to say goodbye to dear friends and family who are right here and who've been hoping that we would remain here, or at least somewhere in the mid-west.

I'm pretty sure Elms will be a good fit for Jason. I'm hoping that it will be a good fit for Nora and I too. Time will tell. In the next couple of months, we'll be busy - but not too busy for all of you. Wish us luck!

Craft Books

Unfortunately, I tend to spend more time thinking about crafting than actually crafting. Part of it is that I need to feel really confident before I cut into the fabric horde and part of it is that I'm really lazy. Oh and I need to clean my room to get to the sewing machine. Anyway, I found two books lately that are great providing inspiration.

Zakka Sewing

Zakka is Japanese for household goods and this book has a lot of ideas for making cute everyday things around the home. Of course that squirrel tea cozy on the cover is exactly why I checked it out from the library, plus there is a ton of zakka type items on Etsy that I continuously drool over.

Cool Spaces For Kids

Is this really fun book that looks at how to develop kid space in areas both large and small, indoors and out. I love the projects in this book because they look so fresh. Some of them are diy constructions of items I've seen in kids catalogues that cater to the Waldorf set and some are just beautiful alternatives to the commercialized kids decor that seems to be invading our planet.

In the midst of this crafty creativity, my mom dug out an old Better Homes and Gardens Treasury of Needlecraft book that was stuck in her bookcase from 1982.

It was really interesting to see the resurgence of some of the projects in this book. They could easily come out of an Etsy shop now (appliqued owls and rainbows, stylized creche figures for Christmas, patchwork place mats, modern stuffed animals). While the photography was really cluttery-country and dated, I was still amazed that there were many projects that if taken out of their backdrop context would be very au courant. Still I don't see me making that doily appliqued quilt or the old school afghan made from day-glo poly-blend yarn.

Too Much Going On

Can I tell you how much I want to go to this? I'm already double booked for Saturday during these times, I know I can't make it. Can someone else go and drool for me? Tell me what I missed? Hint: my birthday is next month and I Heart Card Catalogues. AAAARRGGGHHHHH!

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY SURPLUS PROPERTY SALE

Surplus Property Sale
Library and Office Furnishings
(Including Tables, Chairs, File Cabinets, Children’s Seating, Library Furnishings)

“ITEMS SOLD AS IS”

DATE: Saturday, March 27, 2010
TIME: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
PLACE: St. Louis Public Library – Central West
1415 Olive Street (14th Street Loading Dock Entrance)
St. Louis, MO 63103

No Preview of items for sale
No phone calls please

ALL SALES FINAL
Cash and carry—no checks or credit cards accepted

Walk In the Woods

Our first Walk In The Woods event was this past Sunday, a very wet and cold day for the 2nd day of spring. Amazingly, we had friends who were willing to join us - Steven and Mary and their girls and Caroline and her two children joined us. We traveled to Mastodon State Historic Site where we spent about 2 hours hiking a short gravel trail. Hiking isn't really the descriptive word: puddle jumping, pebble collecting, rock splashing, mound climbing, stick finding and nature gazing are all probably more apt. It was a wonderful time despite the drizzle and the chill. After the "hike" we spent some time enjoying blondies and exploring the little museum on site. My camera's battery power was giving up by the time we reached the mastodon bones, but be assured that they were wonderful to behold. So was the Giant Ground Sloth re-creation. This was well worth the journey. Tune in next month to see where we might travel next!

What's Going On This Week?

ACTION! Join the People's Settlement - I'll be down there on Saturday afternoon for the bakesale, and probably wander down for the kick-off too. Events keep getting scheduled:

Frustrated with Corporate Control of Politics? Angry over unjust Housing Foreclosures? Big Bank Bailouts? Continuous War? No Change?

That is why a group of us has decided to take the power back and come together on a broad based front, united against a common threat. Join us at the People's Settlement, a week of action dedicated to focusing on various corporations in the downtown area; from Bank of America's bailouts to Peabody Coal's unethical energy to the prison industrial complex to Anthem's blocking of real healthcare reform.

This is the first step in building a genuine broad-based anti-corporate movement in St. Louis. All of us want an end to injustice--from issues of from local control, to clean energy to peace to jobs to healthcare to equality and everything in between. And we have been working separately for too long. It's time that we stand up and stand together on a united front! Many of us have worked hard on political campaigns and activist campaigns attempting to bend the ears of our legislators and it has been to no avail. Why? Because corporate power divides us on every issue and blocks us from effecting real change and legislative action.

We hope our work can harness anger endemic in corporate control of politics, the economy and corporate personhood and serve as a rallying cry for similar actions across the nation. It is also noteworthy that for the first time, all of the major federal campaigns--Healthcare, Financial Reform and Immigration--are emphasizing the need for there to be significant, mass movement in order to achieve anything meaningful in DC. So join us to "break up with your bank", participate in guerrilla street theater, campout on downtown, demand clean energy and a real economy, or simply raise your voice.

We will kick-off the event at 3pm on March 24th with a “real economy” demonstration in Kiener Plaza.

Tentative Schedule:

Wednesday, March 24
3:00- Kick Off Rally
3:30-Foreclosure action at Bank of America
6:00-Settle! Set up the Settlement

Thursday, March 25th
7 a.m. LGBQT Action against Laclede Gas Discrimination
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=376221911371
2-3:00 p.m. Break Up with Your Bank!
5-6:00 p.m CWA-Revenue Action

Friday, March 26th
3:30-5:00 Anti-War Action

Saturday, March 27th
11-1:00 Literacy for Social Justice Teach In
1-3:00 Privatization of Education Bake Sale

Sunday, March 28th
1-3:00 p.m. Faith Based Action-Catholic Action Network
3:30-5:30 p.m. Labor History Tour
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=401545241423&ref=mf

Plus great stuff every evening! Come check us out!

What You Can Do: We need you to come for the kickoff! We need you to camp-out in the evening. We want you to invite your friends and family. Most importantly, this is a movement, we want your ideas on programming and actions.

Sign Up to camp:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BZ3XC2V

Remarkable Creatures

On the way to and from Chicago, I took up Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, a book that I've been meaning to read, but kept putting off. I've been a long time fan of Chevalier's, since Carol told me I need to read the Virgin Blue (she was right) and I have no idea why I let the book languish for so long. Fortunately, the library wouldn't let me renew it, so I had to read it.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of two women, separated by age, class and education, who build an unlikely and often strained friendship through their obsession with finding fossils in the early 1800's. Young Mary Anning sells the fossils she finds to tourists to support her family while spinster Elizabeth Philpot keeps her finds in carefully curated cases. Both are viewed with suspicion and ridicule by their seaside neighbors. When Mary finds the fossilized skeleton of what can only be imagined as a monster, their world changes as the religious and scientific community begin to debate the ramifications of the find.

Chevalier returns to themes she has explored in previous novels: self -determination, gender roles, the life of a person who does not conform to society's expectations, and the everyday lives of people living in watershed moments of history. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is that the characters were actual people. Mary and Elizabeth's conversations with each other and other historical (and more famous) figures are fiction, but the main actions and their role in the early work leading up to Darwin's theory of evolution are our history. And while the history is 200 years old, it is incredibly relevant to today, as witnessed by the actions of the Texas Board of Education last week.

Arkansas Songbirds

I saw this on the Arkansas State Parks Facebook fanpage, this commercial is in the semi-finalist round and honestly I've fallen for it (yeah, I know it's a Folger's ad), anyway, I love it. Give them a listen and vote if you can. The first singer is the receptionist at the Ozark Folk Center and a recent transplant from KC. While she didn't plan on singing for an audience, the folk center got her into it (she's got a few video's on You Tube - Ruby Pine and the Old Saps). I don't know how the commercial came about, but I love it. Maybe it's the chickens, def. her voice, but also that nostalgic 70's feel. And of course the AR connection makes me want them to win even more.

Spur of the Moment

Last weekend, while packing for the Memphis trip, I realized that we'd lost our little factory made ipod cozy. It was sort of crappy anyway, but I didn't like hauling it around with minimal protection. So this weekend, in and effort to put off cleaning out the bathroom, packing, or freaking out about this upcoming week, I decided to whip up a little ipod cozy. I'd been thinking about how to do it for awhile (sometimes it takes awhile for me to get my head around things). I had done some research earlier, and I ended up sort of following this tutorial, with regards to the lining. I've been doing these button cover hair thingies, so they got incorporated too. All in all, I'm quite pleased with it, and it gave me an excuse to use one of my favorite fabrics and to reuse an old pair of pants that had worn out (for the lining - faux velvet is nice for cushioning) as well as an old receiving blanket of Nora's for the batting layer. It took me less than an hour since I had everything on hand and the sewing machine seems to be permanently out, and I'm really happy with the final result. Here's how it turned out:

The claspy thing at the top, is basically two upholstery buttons that I covered with a hair elastic slipped through the shank of one of them. It can be "buttoned" around the other so the ipod doesn't slip out.

I recovered some more buttons and added the hair elastics for Nora's pigtails. I'm so pleased I've figured out how to do this. I've seen these at craft shows for about $5 a pair and up, and this is a great way to use up fabric scraps and it's not really that expensive to make, especially since mom picked up a bunch of button covers at a store clearance. If I were super crafty and super matchy I could make an outfit to match the ponytail holders. But I'm not, so she'll just have to go with these.

Memphis Trip

Jason had a conference in Memphis last weekend and so Nora and I went along and met Jason's parents for a visit. It was a beautiful weekend. We hit the Memphis Zoo, Beale Street, the Bass Pro shop, the Riverfront and Central Bar-B-Que. Here's some photos of the trip:

Being Crafty

Thanks to Carol, I now know that this is National Craft Month, and thanks to Laura I have crafts to share! Last Saturday (yes, I know that was still Feb, but don't get too particular) she hosted a Bitch and Stitch and Cheila, Natascha and I attended. There was wonderful food, conversation, and thanks to the sublime Jenny Hart at Sublime Stitching, we had some modern embroidery to do.

I don't really have a good history with finishing embroidery projects. I started a small table cloth while in Germany and it's still not finished. I bought some of the Sublime Stitching patterns way back when we lived on S. Grand, and I never used them. Fortunately, this occasion offered the opportunity and the time need to complete a project (I would have worked on the tablecloth, but it's packed away someplace). I used the woodland friends pattern and stitched up this hedgehog on a vintage handkerchief.


Although, I'm inspired by N's adding some toadstools to the hem of a skirt and next I think I might take on something like that because it was so adorable. I also finally got around to covering some buttons with scrap fabric to make some hair bobs for Nora (and Laura and myself as it turned out). I don't have pics of those, but I might post them later.

When I got home, I was so inspired that on Sunday (I know, still not March), I finally, after 30 years of using this sewing machine, I worked up the nerve to change out the stitching feet and play around with other stitches (zig zag, smocking, etc.). Then I jazzed up an old tote bag that was laying around the house with an obnoxious logo from some company. Here's the result. I think my Great Aunt Minnie had a dress made out of this material (getting into Mom's fabric stash as been a great deal of fun).

Yes, I know that pocket is a bit lopsided, but it's really hard to run a pre-made bag through the sewing machine without sewing the bag shut.
On the back, I appliqued some circles using some new stitches. Again, it's sloppy, but I'm fine with that.

This month is so crazy, I don't know that I'll get any more crafting done, but I'm hoping Laura will organize another night in April. I've got all sorts of things I want to try next.

La Morena

I've been craving a lot of Mexican food lately. Probably the lack of heat & sun it being February and all. But I thought I share one of my favorite things to make lately. It involves this fabulous little can. Actually, I use La Morena's Chipotle Sauce, but I've used the peppers in adobe sauce too. In either case, to use the whole can, you've got to make a bunch, but I've found that if you only use 1/2 a can, the left overs freeze fairly well for your next batch.

I use a can of black beans, a can of white hominy (both regular 15 oz cans, rinsed), throw them both on top of some sauted onions and garlic, add some cumin, a 1/2 bottle of beer, 1/2 a can of the chipotle sauce (or if using the whole peppers, cut up 1/3 of them into smaller bite sized pieces - or you can puree the can & use 1/3 of it). Let is simmer along for awhile, or better yet, pop the whole thing in the over at around 350 degrees for an hour.

It's all gone or I would post some pictures.

what's been cooking

This weekend I got to try some long awaited recipes and returned to some old favorites. Friday night I made the incredibly addictive Hot Glazed Tempeh from Veginomicon. I can not tell you how much I love this recipe. I crave this stuff, but since really only Jason and I like it, I don't make it that often. Alongside the tempeh we had baked sweet potatoes, cornbread (I got to try out the little corn cob cast iron pan that I got for Christmas), and a black eyed pea/greens soup that I had frozen from New Years. It was super delish. Plus maybe those black eyed peas gave us extra luck for 2010.

Sunday, Todd and Natascha came to brunch, so I had an audience for my experiment, the Italian Feast "sausage" from Vegan Brunch. I also test kitchened the Chocolate Stout waffles and made a batch of the raised waffles (we had tried those Christmas Day), both of these are also in Vegan Brunch. I really love that book. Every recipe I've tried from it has been a keeper. I will definitely be making both of the waffles and the fauxage (as Todd calls it) again. Though next time I think I'll try the choritzo variation.

I wish I could say I got more done this weekend. I needed to change the sheets on the bed, do laundry, and about a gazillion other things, but it just didn't happen. Nora and I did make valentines for the grandparents though, so at least I'm ahead of schedule on that.

For Natascha

I know it's too late for your first day of school (and your first day of work), but I saw this and thought of you. Congratulations on the new job, the new school, and being back in STL instead of jetting all over the world.

Literary Cat of the Day

Princess Arjumand from To Say Nothing of the Dog. Yes, I know that this is the literary cat of the day post and I'm referencing a book that has a dog in it's title. The dog is important but it's the cat that causes big trouble. I read this months ago, but I'm still thinking about this book. Part mystery, part comedy, part science fiction, part romance, this book pokes fun at multiple genres and references so many of my favorite books its hard for me to stop gushing about it. Just read it, you will be happy you did.

Two Words

Steampunk Romance

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Finally a subgenre just for me.

Book Trailers

Thanks to Smart Bitches Trashy Books, I'm all about the book trailers now. Does any other genre do this or is it just a Romance thing? Anyway, here's what I'm going to be reading soon:



Sherry Thomas is in my TBR pile already, but I keep adding more of hers the more I read about her. Now if only I could stop reading the Feehan. She's ridiculous but addictive.