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January 2010 ArchiveJanuary 27, 2010
Monkeys!!!
 
First knitting finish of the year! (And of course it's
a pair of socks. I really am the Sock Knitting Queen. WHERE'S MY
CROWN???? *snort*) Another pair of Monkeys (I've knit these at least
4-5 times now) because 1) it's an awesome pattern (I just noticed it's
been knit over 11,000 times now on Ravelry!) and 2) they knit up quick.
I needed a little mind jolt from the post-Xmas knitting doldrums I was
suffering from so something easy and quick was in order. These fit the
bill quite nicely. One night to do the leg, another night to do the
heel/gusset, third night to do the foot/toe. So theoretically they take
a week if you watch tv every night of that week (which I don't, so
these actually took me two weeks). I could probably knit this pattern
up a dozen times and still not tire of it. It's like the knitting
equivalent of home-cooked comfort food: easy to make but richly
satisfying both physically and mentally.
These socks, however, are destined for someone else for Valentine's Day
(they don't read this blog so I'm not ruining the surprise or anything)
so I shall cuddle them and then let them go. Bye socks! It was nice
knowing you. *sniff*
(Thank you again, Lori, for the yarn! It is wonderful stuff. Bright
colors, not too splitty, and washes up nice and soft. Very, very nice
stuff to work with.)
January 26, 2010
Here's what I learned this weekend: I DON'T KNOW SQUAT ABOUT DRIED BEANS.
I was all punch-drunk-happy at my recent foray into making my own
hummus (using CANNED beans) and determined the next step was to make
hummus from scratch 'for real' using dried beans. Heeeee heeee hoooooo
hoooooooooo. I've never used dried beans of any kind, EVER, IN MY LIFE,
because I'm lazy and cans are so readily available so here's what I
learned in my first outing: ONE BAG MAKES A HELLA AMOUNT OF BEANS. AN
EPIC AMOUNT OF BEANS. ALMOST TOO MUCH TO FIT INTO ONE CONTAINER.
One bag seemed innocent enough. My original recipe used one can of
beans and I would have liked a little more. So I figured a bag of dried
beans would equal two cans. Heeeeee heeee hoooooo hoooooo! I knew I was
in trouble when the damn things *barely* fit into my big ole KitchenAid
whizzer and kept creeping up the peephole. And when I was done I had
enough hummus to feed an army of very hungry, hummus lovers. Just a
never-ending mountain of hummus. Very yummy but still - how much hummus
can one person cram into their maw within a short period of time? Next
time: half a bag...........or less.....
I consider it all good research for the 'cause' and, as luck would have it, I saw another dried bean recipe
this weekend I'd like to try. (Side note: baked beans are usually made
with navy beans? I did not know this. I thought they were done with
pintos. Hmph. Can you tell I just learned to like beans within the last
5 years or so? IT'S LIKE A WHOLE NEW WORLD TO ME.)
January 24, 2010
It was a VERY productive weekend making beads, beads and more beads.
This is yesterday's 'haul', with another big batch 'cooking' in the
kiln as we speak!
I
started stringing them together this morning and then decided I should
take a pic because I just love 'bead jumble' pictures!! Don't know why
but I loves me a big pile o' beads. I had to carry this container very
very carefully to/from the window because, knowing me, I'd trip and
fall or something and half would go flying down the stairs and
break........and then you would HEAR ME SOBBING FROM 100 MILES AWAY.
lol But everything went without a hitch, all is strung, wrapped, and
packaged up for their new homes. (Until tomorrow when I open the kiln
and get to do it ALL OVER AGAIN.)
Soooooooooooooooo adorable!!!! (And I'm not just saying that because it has some of my beads in it! Hell's no!) Be sure to check out her web site for more goodies!!! :)
January 21, 2010
New beadies are up!!! :)
January 18, 2010
New Recipe: Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings
Photo credit: Steamy Kitchen
Recipe Link.These are sinfully good. It made my face go like this: o_0 Which I was
surprised by because I generally don't like making chicken wings at
home. (I pretty much only like them when they are fried and I try to
avoid deep frying at home, except for making french fries once in a
while. I deep fried chicken wings ONCE. ONCE.
And the guilt that followed dogged me for at least a week, maybe even
two. lol So now I just occasionally get my fix when we eat out. Somehow
deep fried restaurant food is more acceptable than fried food made at
home. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES PEOPLE. It just is what it is.) Other than
grilling them once in a blue moon during the summer months, I never
make wings. Ever. But the food bloggers have been out in force this
month with the wing recipes (gearing up for the Super Bowl) and this
one grabbed my attention. I only made 8 (whole) wings out of a big
family pack because I didn't want there to be any leftovers in case I
didn't like them but, wow, was that a mistake! We gobbled these up and
made sad faces when we realized there was no more. All that was left on
our plates was steamed broccoli and, whoaaa, VERY POOR SUBSTITUTE!! lol
I still have the other half of the pack left to cook up so I might just
makes these again later this week. :)
Mods: Nothing major. I poked small holes all over the wings before
cooking so the rendered fat could escape and to help them get crispier.
This is essential, I think, because chicken wings nowadays are so so so
fatty. I also turned them halfway through cooking and switched to
'broil' near the end to also help crisp them up.
Oh! And I also made hummus for
the first time too this weekend. Something I've been meaning to do for
a loooooong time. It's so easy to buy it pre-done, eh? Verdict:
unbelievably yummy and well worth the little bit (and it really is a
VERY easy thing to make) time to do it yourself.. I added more garlic
to mine because I worship at the altar of Toxic Garlicky Mouth Fumes
and needed to make an appropriate monthly sacrifice, *ahem*, but you
certainly don't NEED to do that - the recipe is just fine as is. :)
January 16, 2010
I think the whole thing though is such an EPIC FAIL that it piqued my interest. OMG DRAMAZ where nobody is actually being hurt?
SIGN ME UP! I love a good (but harmless) trainwreck, ya know? If I have
to pick a team though I'm definitely with COCO. I'll take wacky-funny
over boring-and-too-politically-correct-'funny' every single time. Poor
Coco. We hardly knew ye. No, really - WE HARDLY KNEW YE! *snort*
(Though I have to be honest and say that if I have to pick a late night
show as my fav, it's Craig Ferguson's. He's wickedly clever, sharp as a
tack, and, Ooowheeeee, the Scottish accent ain't bad either. Who
doesn't love a good Scottish brogue? *purrr* I wish I had time to watch
his monologue every day but ya can't watch everything. I catch him
sometimes during the summer when there is nothing else to tape.)
And to save this entry from being TOTAL MINDLESS DRECK THAT NOBODY IN
THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD BE INTERESTED IN........I'll throw in a photo of
some Xmas ornaments I *finally* got around to sewing up the other day.
(Refresher: I did the needlework in Nov/Dec.)
I'm sure they'll look good on the tree...................NEXT DECEMBER.
Heehee. Three finished about five more to go. I'll get around to it
sooner or later. :) And I even put beads on one of them so, POOF, I
ended up bringing this all right back around to beads. *proud*
January 9, 2010
New recipe: Lemon Parsley Pasta
Or
newish recipe because I've done lemony type pasta things before. But I
saw this post last week while browsing that site and it looked so yummy
I knew I wanted to make it right away. And it *was* yummy. Ate it with
some grilled chicken and grilled yellow squash, and, oh, NOM NOM NOM.
Delish!
Mods:
I used fresh basil instead of parsley because I had that on hand. (I
think it would also go well with cilantro but I have Big Massive
Inappropriate Love for cilantro so YMMV.) Added a pinch of red pepper
flakes to the lemon/garlic/oil mixture. The lemon flavor was quite
delicate, I think next time I'll give it a a tablespoon of lemon juice
in addition to the zest. I wouldn't want it TOO lemony but I think, for
MY palate, I could kick it up a tiny notch. :)
Note:
the recipe has one small error in it in regards to pasta cooking time.
No biggie but if you really were to cook angel hair pasta for 10
minutes like it says you could very well end up with a pile of mush.
4-5 minutes will do it for that size pasta.
January 7, 2010
Thanks for keeping me busy this week with the bead orders!! It's a nice
way to start the year. Productive, feeling wanted. *sniff* I was never
going to jump on the health resolution band wagon so I'll take
productive instead. It's no sloppy seconds. :)
Did you know you can take a book to Staples and have it spiral bound
for a small fee? I totally forgot that you can have this done until a
knit blogger mentioned it the other day!! I've been meaning to do this
to a lot of my knitting books, you know, just one here and there. I was
going out to that plaza last night so I grabbed this one to be done.
Very nifty. This one only cost me $5 but each book is different
depending on it's size. It's very very handy for knitting books that
have charted patterns, cook books, any sort of tutorial book. Being
able to flip it open and lay it flat? A VERY GOOD THING!! Be sure to
keep it mind next time you are struggling with keeping a cook book open or
something. :)
January 5, 2010
Best.Site.Ever.
Nic Cage as Everyone.
Seriously? My head might explode from the LULZ.
January 4, 2010
Go
me for starting the year off with at least a stab at productivity after
taking a few weeks off. (I figure this kind of thing can only last
about a month before I lose steam though. I mean new beads, new Etsy
*and* a giveaway all in one fell swoop? Mark the date because it may
never happen again. lol) I've got a few new things up in the Bead Shoppe (though, admittedly, not as many as I hoped but there is always next week).
I
also had a good time sorting through my bead box to come up with some
sets to offer up at huge discounts. (And I do mean HUGE.) I put them
all up on Etsy because these are all 'one offs' i.e. no redos on these.
(And, as always, I will combine the shipping if you have more than one
order. One shipping charge covers everything!)
And
something new for this month - a GIVEAWAY. Because we all like free
stuff. Spend $35 or more over the course of the entire month and you
will be entered into a free giveaway for this little set:
No
need to keep track of anything or send me an email on it, etc. I'll
tally everything up on the 1st of February and contact you by your
Paypal email to let you know you won. (International customers are also
included!)
January 2, 2010
Meatballs anyone?
Most
people start off the year with renewed vows or interest in eating
healthy, losing weight, going to the gym more often, etc. Me?
I started it off by making lots of meatballs. LOTS of meatballs. Like
100+ meatballs. Using ground beef.............................and pork.
Because they just ain't good eats unless they have a little porkiness in
there. Though, in my defense, we aren't actually EATING the meatballs
just yet. I froze them all in individual food saver packs for when I
want a quick supper and/or don't feel like cooking. (I also made quart
containers of sauce to go with them.)
I'm not one for
resolutions any way other than a generic type of 'simplify simplify
simplify' one. Once the Xmas stuff is packed away (done yesterday) I
start getting twitchy and look around for other things to simplify. So
far, I've simplified my internet 'life' a little by deleting over 1,000
Facebook 'friends'. So if you got deleted recently, don't take it
personally. It was all getting to be a bit much and I decided it needed
to be brought down to more manageable numbers. Because the way it was,
I never looked at a damn thing on there any more because there was too
much going on and I didn't feel like wading through hundreds of posts
just to get to a few that interested me. So I whacked away at it until
I got down to around 240 and I'm still trimming here and there as I go.
And I have to say - it feels REALLY REALLY GOOD. (And part of this was
the changes FB has made to the newsfeed in recent months. I really
don't give a crap to wade through post after post of who friended who,
who fan paged what, or hit 'like' on something. Why did they start
adding EVERYTHING to your feed? Next up, I expect to see it give you a
notice when someone farts! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! So annoying.)
Next
up: I have to whack away at the 'leftovers' of the handmade Xmas
presents/projects piled up on my hearth. Leftover balls of yarns, loose
patterns, etc. And I have a pile (A PILE!!!) of needle worked ornaments
that need to be sewn up into something that you can actually HANG from
a tree. (A tree that is now packed up until next December. lol)
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