Posts tagged crafts

Staycation

December 22, 2008 · Filed under Books, Food, cross-stitch · Tagged , , , , , ,

Because my family is in New England and the Husband’s family is in the Mid-West, we rarely think about spending the holidays anywhere other than our humble apartment in L.A. I love my family and my in-laws, but snow, ice, freezing nostrils, mittens, and temps below 30 just aren’t my things. Instead, I usually take this two weeks (used to be 10 weeks when I worked for LAUSD) to sit on my couch and crochet, read, and watch movies. Apparently, I’ve been ahead of the game all this time.  This kind of sloth is now known as a “staycation.” It’s all the rage now that the economy is in the toilet.  I’m happily revelling in the hottest new trend as of Saturday.

I’ve been cooking dinners more frequently (you’ll  notice this goes in waves with where I am in the school year- beginning of the year- we eat frozen meals, vacations- home cooking, right after vacations- convenience food, toward the end of the year when I’m in downhill mode- more cooking).

Last week I came up with the idea for this concoction because I have 4 frozen pie shells.  It’s a “Mexican Pie”.  I filled the pie with vegetarian refried beans, topped that with green chiles, then put a layer of soyrizo (vegetarian chorizo), then topped with cheese and three eggs beaten with a little water and milk. I baked at 375 for about 45 minutes. We topped it with sour cream and avocado slices. It was delicious and needed no extra flavoring because of the chiles and chorizo.

mexicanpieI also made a yummy dinner with Israeli couscous- which is the large pearl grain. I made that as directed and sauteed veggie chicken strips with onion and spinach.  We topped the whole thing with feta.  Again, no need for extra seasoning, because the feta and the seasoned chicken strips take care of it.  I had it with sparkling pomegranate juice, which was a holiday gift from one of my students.

israelicouscousLast night I made Veggie Beef Stroganoff.  I got the recipe from another teacher at school who had it for lunch one day.  I mentioned to the hubby how good it looked and he told me how much he LOVEd beef stroganoff.  So a month or so ago I surprised him with it.  It was tasty, so I made it again with the left over sour cream from the Mexican pie. This is sauteed onions, garlic, veggie beef strips, and mushrooms, with vegetable broth and red wine and sour cream.  I put it over wheat rotini because egg noodles have even less nutritional value. I also made brussel sprouts because I love ‘em!

stroganoffToday was rainy and cold so I stayed in and cross-stitched all day.  I can’t believe how slowly these projects go.  I listened to music on the Party Shuffle mode the whole time I worked.  It was fun to hear all the good music I have hidden in my ginormous iTunes library.  Here’s what the mystery gift is looking like after about 6 hours of wok on it today.

xstitchgift2This evening I’ll be working on finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I’m about 250 pages from the end.  My goal is to have it done by Christmas, so Chris and I can watch the movie version as our Xmas movie. I think I’ll have it done.  It’s the only book I’m working on right now. The only serious book, anyway.  I’m in the middle of another knitting mystery. I’m not sure what I’ll start next- maybe The Post-Birthday World, by Lionel Shriver.

Have a great holiday season and I’ll check back in next weekend!

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Yarn Therapy

October 26, 2008 · Filed under Books, Food, Ideas, Knitting · Tagged , , , , ,

After a difficult week, I couldn’t bring myself to update last weekend, so I have lots to share with you today. This past week was much better- better patience, better focus, better breathing.

Yesterday was my last knitting class and I’ve become completely obsessed.  All other crafts have been put on hiatus while I’m working on a myriad of knitting projects. I finished my sampler scarf. It turned out beautiful and so soft once I washed it (Reality yarns).  Last week in class we started hats.  I finished mine yesterday. It’s a self-patterning yarn.  I chose the colors because they look cozy and wintry (I’m longing for fall in the 95 degree heat).

My knitting WIPs are the windy city scarf, which I’m making some progress on.  I’ve switched the new color, and have about 90 rows to go.  I began a new hat with beautiful Tonalita sunrise yarn.  This beanie will be ribbed all the way up. And yesterday in class we began a shawl.  It starts at the point and increases each row.  I’m not very far into it, but it goes pretty quickly. It’s a deep gray color from Comfort yarns.

My next two projects are a skinny scarf (white with silver sparkles), and leg warmers (pink, green, gray). I’ve also been working on two crochet projects, but not as often as I’d like. Crochet goes much fast than knitting so I’ve got to get working on those projects, they should be done soon.  You’ll see them after the holidays.

I’m about 3/4 of the way done listening to the Hound of the Baskervilles on librivox. I think I’ll listen to Little Women next. I finished Native Son and Devil Bones.  Now I’m reading Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates.  Its not great, but it’s an easy read.  It’s about a woman in her thirties, named Nikki, whose mother was murdered.  Nikki fancies herself a rebel with a short, punky hair cut.  It’s actually pretty obnoxious how often the author mentions the short, spiky, purple hair.  Anyway, the mother was a wonderful, giving, loving woman who was always helping people in the community and ends up being killed by someone she offered a ride to.  It seems that story is going in the direction of explaining how Nikki thought her mother was foolish and naive and through the grieving process learns that she wants to live like her mother (but I could be wrong). I’m about half done. I’ll probably finish it, though I don’t love it, just because when I commit to a book, I like to follow through.

I also began reading the Tao of teaching.  It takes Taoist principles and shows how they are applied by teachers.  It’s really inspiring and helps remind me of what kind of teacher I want to be.

I haven’t been to my book club in months, but now that I feel like I’m getting more comfortable with this year’s routine I’m planning on going to the November meeting.  I don’t know what the book is yet, but I’ll probably try to get back into it regardless of the book. 

I’ll leave you with my favorite new Japanese snack:

They’re little cookies with a chocolate “burger” and vanilla fudge “cheese” feeling The cookies are even coated in teeny sesame seeds.  So cute!

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Living

September 7, 2008 · Filed under Books, Food, cross-stitch · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Wow.  This past week flew by. School’s back in session, which means the from scratch, home-cooked meals have been put on hiatus until I can resume a relatively livable schedule. Luckily, there is salad, eggs, and bread.  We’ve eaten any combinations of those three things everyday now for over a week. My coffee consumption has double- one in the morning, one in the afternoon- to get me through the days.  School is great, though.  The kids are fantastic, my room looks great, I like my schedule. I’m just trying to remember how to live as a working woman, rather then a relaxed vacationing woman. Here’s a lunch I packed of olive bread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and fruit- again salad and bread.

One thing I haven’t given up is my crafting.  I spend a little time each night, after dinner either cross-stitching or crocheting.  I’m in the middle of two crochet projects.  That blue baby blanket is just about finished. It’s my goal for today. I also bought a very complicated counted cross-stitch project.  I’ve been taking progressive pictures of it.  I won’t tell you what it is, or post a picture of the packaging just yet, so you can follow along with my progressing.  I’m working only in one general area of the canvas right now, so one of the shapes is starting to flesh out. I’m loving this project.  I find is insanely relaxing and meditative to read from key and count where things go.  It’s like a logic puzzle- like sudoku, only at the end you get a pretty picture!

I’ve been awful about keeping up with my reading.  I missed my last book club meeting because we flew back from vacation that day;  but I did finish the book, Any Human Heart by William Boyd.  I loved it.  It’s written as the journals of writer Logan Mountstuart and follows him from his last years in his English high school to his death. The details and humor were captivating.

I’m about 200 pages away from finishing Middlesex. Still loving it!

I made some banana bread last night.  Our bananas were turning black, so I thought I’d remedy that.  We didn’t have any eggs though (because we’d already eaten through 8 this week) so I googled “eggless banana bread.”  I came up with this recipe from Baking Bits. It’s easy and the bread turned out pretty good. I like my regular go-to recipe a little better, but this wasn’t bad for when there are no eggs in the house.

It’s likely I won’t update again until next weekend- my husband is out of town and I’m trying to make evening plans so that I don’t end up at school until 8 or 9 every night. So, have a great week!

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Catch Up- Ketchup- Catsup

August 28, 2008 · Filed under Crochet, embroidery, paper · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Hi!  I’m back from vacation with a few things to show you.  I didn’t get much crafting done, because I pretty much just sat around and ate cheese and drank beer and homemade wine. Tough life, huh?

I did want to post some pictures of cards I made before I left and an embroidery gift I finished the night before flying out.

This is the card I made for my mom’s birthday.  It’s my first counted cross-stitch project.  I bought the tri-fold card in Solvang when we went wine tasting. I colored the outside to look like a wooden frame (it didn’t really, but that was the idea).  I loved doing this project, I really enjoy cross-stitch.  When we were in Wisconsin I got to see a bunch of amazing projects my mother-in-law has done- teeny tiny canvases with elaborate angels and backgrounds.  SO cool. But here’s mine and maybe someday I’ll be as good as her.

I made this card for Maggie to celebrate her finding the Tiniest Studio Ever ™ in Berkeley and the Card Positioning Template that inspired it.

 


And this card for my friend Raina (sent with cookies and a book).

Also for Raina and her husband, who just bought a house, I’m making these embroidered place mats.  these two are finished with just small birds in the corners.  I’m planning two more with a larger lovebird scene in the middle.  The pattern is from the Sublime Sketch Pad that I mentioned in my last post.

For my birthday, my in-laws gave me two crochet sets.  I made this star pot holder in one evening while watching the Olympics.

They also bought me a set to make a star shaped baby blanket that has one color fading into another.  It’s a beautiful project- my mother-in-law got herself one and finished it while we were there.  It will take me months! I worked more on my blue baby blanket and it almost done! I also started another project, but I can’t show that until December.

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Sands Through an Hourglass

August 15, 2008 · Filed under Food, paper · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Summer is slowly slipping away from me. I know because rather than crafting, I’ve been planning for the start of school.  On Wednesday, Hubby and I fly to Wisconsin, where I thought I’d have copious amounts of crafting and reading hours. From recent talks with the in-laws, we’re learning about all kinds of plans that have been made for us. I’m sure I’ll fit in some crochet, cross-stitch and reading somewhere, though!

I’m up to 23 small circles for the Galaxy top, but I need more yarn to keep going.  I finished off the first skein for my blue baby blanket, so it’s about half way done.

I made a card for my dad’s birthday from a template from Card Positioning Systems.

This week we’ve had some yummy dinners, courtesy of various magazine recipes.  One was breakfast pizza from Family Circle. As you may know from reading this blog, we’re big fans of breakfast for dinner in my house. I used veggie sausage and added chopped onion and pepper from the farmer’s market. Otherwise, it’s reduced fat crescent roll dough, with shredded hash browns, 3 eggs scrambled and some cheese. It was tasty.

Also from Family Circle, I made corn fritters. I’ve never fried anything before in that much oil, except when I was a kid and my mom used the fry baby. But wow! Now I get why Americans are so obsessed with fried food! We served the fritters with a salad, as if that would off set the fried yumminess.

 

Then last night I made a Korean BBQ marinade from Vegetarian Times for some tofu.  The recipe called for 6 cloves of garlic. I put in 5, and the house still smells like garlic. It was tasty, though.  I used garlic and pepper flavored tofu because the store was out of extra firm. I sliced it and froze it and made the marinade.  When the marinade cooled I let the tofu sit in it for 30 minutes.  Then I seared it over high heat and we served itwith our left over salad. The tofu tuned out so delicious, I had two slices and Chris polished off the rest (yes, my meat and cheese husband ate 3/4 of a brick of tofu).

 

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Sushi Pack

August 11, 2008 · Filed under Books, Crochet, Food, paper · Tagged , , , , , ,

I think I’ll start with crafts.

I’ve made a commitment to finish 5 rows each day on my blue blanket.  This lasted for one day. Then I didn’t do it yesterday, so I may have to do 10 rows today to keep up.  We’ll see!

I started the Galaxy top that I’ve been so excited about.  And when I say I started it, I mean I crocheted 5 of the 60 or so pieces needed.  Here are those pieces with the shirt.  I think you’ll be seeing a lot of the progress of this shirt.

I also decorated another planner.  This one I found at Target for a dollar.  They had a whole bin of teacher planners and record books, with the wrong covers.  The lesson plan book had a cover that said “Record Keeper” so they were all only a dollar.  I knew I’d be using my Cricut to rescue THAT.

The different papers are all glittery and foil embossed.  They were part of the big trip to Joann’s a few weeks ago.

In book news, I finished Malinche and Taxonomy of Barnacles, which I realized I never summarized. It’s broken into two parts- nature and nurture.  It follows a family of 6 daughters, all with B-names, as they attempt to win their father’s money by making a lasting name for their family. Hilarity ensues.  It wasn’t great. but it was okay. Malinche was also okay.  Esquivel’s beautiful writing definitely saved the plot.

I began Julie and Julia and love it so far.  I think she’s brilliantly funny and real.  So much of what she writes are one liners that have run through my own head.  I love the side story about the Joy of Sex and that it all started as a blog.

Middlesex is waiting patiently on the end table.  I feel like that might be a book I have to give my full attention, so I’m planning to finish Julie and Julia today and move on to Middlesex tomorrow. I know I’m reading all these books that were hyped so long ago, but who can keep up?

My husband helped with dinner last night.  He’s quite the sushi roller.  When we lived in Arizona, our neighbor was married to a Japanese woman, who would invite us for dinner and teach us how to cook Japanese food.  From her we learned about rice vinegar, Japanese curry, and the love of mayonnaise and sweet red bean desserts. At the farmer’s market and Japanese market I picked up shiitakes, cucumbers, avocados, and nori. I had mine with a soy ginger sauce from Whole Foods and a little wasabi.  Chris is a purist and goes straight soy sauce and lots of wasabi. We paired it with my favorite wine, guwertzraminer.  This one I picked up at Firestone in Los Olivos. Oh! The chopsticks are very special. Chris’s sister was in the military and was stationed in Okinawa.  Chris wanted real chopsticks with an interesting design.  So she sent us lovely enamel chopsticks with naked women. It’s a treat to eat sushi at our house!

All that yumminess got me craving inari, so made myself a nice little Japanese lunch today to follow up. Soba and brown rice inari, miso soup, and dried okra…that’s right dried okra.  Remember my dried mushrooms?  Same thing- dehydrated okra with seasoning. So weird and so delicious.

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Hodgepodge

August 8, 2008 · Filed under Books, Food, embroidery · Tagged , , , ,

I’ve been spending a wonderful week with my mom and husband, so the posts have been non existent.  I’ve been taking pictures of things I’ve made and been working on, though, so for your viewing pleasure- my last week of food and crafting fun.

My mom flew in last Thursday night.  The night before I made a recipe from my trusted Vegetarian Times.  Sausage and plum kabobs with hoisin sauce. Sweet and delicious- alternated pieces of veggie sausage, heirloom plums, and mushrooms in a hoisin/soy sauce/ rice wine vinegar concoction. Served on a piece of lettuce.

When I woke up for my birthday the next morning, my mom and husband were busily making me a birthday breakfast of strawberry pancakes with veggie sausages and coffee. (This picture is not of my birthday breakfast, I was in too much of a daze of delicious breakfast love to take a photo- I made myself the same breakfast two days later).

My mom and I went on a girls trips to wine country, so I made quiche and flourless peanut butter cookies for the hubby. I got the recipe for the quiche a few years ago from the Near East website. Type in “quiche” to find it.  We like the mushroom couscous in pie crush with broccoli and mushrooms and 4 eggs mixed with a cup of milk. The cookies I found at All Recipes. I figured I loved flourless chocolate cake, so why not try cookies. And the ratings and reviews of this recipe were so good and it’s so easy- 1 c. PB, 1 C mixed brown/white sugar, 1 egg, splash vanilla- cook 8 minutes at 350. They were thick and delicious.

Last night, before sending my mom off, I made BBQ tofu (frozen slices sauteed in BBQ sauce) with macaroni salad (wheat fusili, cukes, carrot. scallions, radishes, light mayo, nonfat plain yogurt, Free Ranch Dressing, Light Sweet onion dressing, mustard, and relish) and Sweet Corn soup (blend corn with soy milk, garnish with tomato and basil)

I’ve been doing a lot of magazine reading, and haven’t plowed through any books.  I did finish the Book Thief in time for my July book club.  I won’t say much about it, except that it’s one of my top three favorite books ever. The next book club selection is Any Human Heart, which I picked up last week. I’m half way through with both Malinche and Taxonomy of Barnacles. I don’t love Malinche as much as I did when I first wrote about it, but I’ll finish it this weekend.  Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer kind of reminds me of The Royal Tennenbaums, but not as good or funny.  It’s trying hard, though, and some of the offbeat side plots make it worth plowing through.

I have the next 8 days off and intend to make a big dent in both Middlesex and Julie and Julia in order to keep muddling along through my summer to do list.

One final check off the summer list- I finished my first embroidery project- the pillowcase is done.  It’s really pretty.  I think I may be able to finish its mate this summer, as well.

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To Do

July 24, 2008 · Filed under Books, Crochet, Food, Ideas · Tagged , , , ,

With only about 6 weeks left of summer vacation, and one of those spent in Wisconsin and one spent at school for training and one spent here with my mom, my summer of crafting is slowly coming to an end.  Here’s what I’d like to get done, book and crochet-wise.

Books:

Finish Book Thief- Only 200 more pages.(Done! 7/28 )

Finish Uglies- Only 100 more pages (will read on the bus today)(Done! 7/25)

Finish Malinche- Just started, but only 190 page book (Done! 8/9)

Finish Omnivore’s Dilemma and What Einstein Told his Cook 2 (Done! 7/25).

Start and finish: Middlesex, Taxonomy of Barnacles (Done! 8/10 ), Native Son, and Julie and Julia (Done! 8/11). (And whatever the August book club selection is.)

Crochet:

Finish blue baby blanket

Finish student mesh scarf

Start and finish Galaxy Top t-shirt

Start and finish new tweed purse

Restart and finish bolero in my size

Start the top that’s in my head and possibly write the pattern as I go.

Other Crafts:

Try embroidery project- maybe just a cross stitch sampler. (Done! 8/08 )

Make cards with new templates

Make a necklace

Sew napkins and fix my pink halter top in WI with sewing machine.

I don’t have many cooking goals, since I cook to feed myself and my hubby and not to get fancy in the kitchen. I’m planning on making some peanut butter cookies next week- a treat for Chris since he’s had a rough week. I’d also like to make waffles.  We have a waffle iron, but I’ve never used it.  We also have one of those old school sandwich makers that makes the sandwiches into little stuffed pockets. I wouldn’t mind pulling that out for a few more tofurkey melts.

This was Tuesday night dinner- Tofu fillets with olive from Vegetarian Times. The trick is freezing the tofu (makes it meaty and chewy- it will turn brownish, but that’s normal). You slice a brick of firm tofu into rectangular pieces and freeze (I put them in for about 2 hours). In a pan, saute half a small onion and add pepper and salt.  Put onion on a paper-towel lined plate and put paprika and dried mustard on it. Then add a little oil to the pan and cook the tofu slices for 10 minutes, flipping once half way. Place them on the onion plate and put the onion back in the pan with chopped olives and dry cooking wine. It all cooks until the liquid evaporates and then you spread it over the tofu slices.  We had ours with the rest of the green salad from Monday.

 

Yesterday I went into school all day to finish setting up my classrooms and doing a little planning.  So I packed my pink bento box with food for the day- I had a Veggie dog in wheat bread, cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits (delicious flavor!), a watermelon pluot (my new favorite fruit), some blackberries, pumpkin seeds, and a cheesecake square (which got me a marriage proposal when I shared the squares at work). It was a lot of food, but perfect for snacking throughout the day.

For dinner last night I roasted the rest of the potatoes from last week and made bird’s nests (another Vegetarian Times recipe- there’s even a picture-looks way better than mine, you know food stylists!).  Here you roll out bread, slice off the crust and put it in ramekins.  In a bowl you mix chopped mushrooms and green onions and I added some left over olives, with salt, pepper, and tarragon ( I used oregano). Fill in the nests with the mushroom mix. Crack an egg over each ramekin, sprinkle with cheese and paprika and salt and pepper. Cook on bottom rack at 325 for 30 minutes.

We’re definitely breakfast for dinner people.

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Scarves’n’shawl

June 28, 2008 · Filed under Crochet · Tagged ,

Summer’s here, so I’ve been working on those baby blankets that I mentioned earlier.  My goal is to finish my first two blankets this summer to donate to Stitches from the Heart.  They’re not progressing too quickly, as my passion has been with books lately.  I did finish two scarves for students, another is in progress.  But my most recent crochet triumph is the shawl I just finished.  It’s large and warm and snuggley.  It’s a good wrap for over tank tops, and I’m sure I’ll use it at school, where my new classroom is always freezing. I also made a halter top from an old t-shirt.  It’s not crochet, but it shows just how bitten by crafting I’ve gotten.

This is one of the student scarves, it’s separate flowers all joined together.  I was considering keeping it for myself, but she made me cute hoop earrings.

This is a close up of another student scarf.  It’s a variegated granny square scarf.  I love the colors.

 

Two views of the shawl- pattern from the Happy Hooker book.

It saved up and down, so I don’t know why it’s always posting these pictures sideways.  Anyway, you get the point. I cut off the arms and the back and cut down the seams, then took some of the extra material off and sewed it back up again.  It fits well, though I handstitched it and it’s coming undone, so I won’t be wearing it out anytime soon. When I go to WI this summer, I’ll use mom-in-law’s sewing machine to fix it.

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