The Adventures of Heather

Tote Made From Plastic Grocery Bags (In Progress)

2009-04-22T14:05:00.005-04:00

I found this website on knitting from plastic grocery bags and became intrigued. We have recently started using reusable cloth grocery bags, but we still have a few plastic ones lying around that hadn't yet made it into the recycle bin at the grocery store. So I decided to give this a try. It wasn't hard to cut the grocery bag up into strips for the "yarn", the only problem I really came into was when I tried to separate the two layers of plastic. They had gotten static and tended to cling together. As you can see from the picture above, the process of the actual knitting is simple. Just cast on for the width you want (I casted about 50 stitches onto size 7 needles), and garter stitch until it's twice as long as you want it tall... Because you're going to be folding it then stitching the sides together to make the tote. Then you just recast, make some handles, and stitch them on too.

There is also another method for cutting the bags into "yarn", which is easier to do and yields a bulkier, double-layer yarn. I'm using this technique to crochet a tote, and see which of the two is better. I chained as many stitches to make the bag the width I wanted using size M hook (I just held it up to a reusable tote and matched the width. Then you just single crochet until, again, it's twice as long as you want tall, chaining one at the end of the row. At least I think that's pretty much the jist of it. I'm still pretty new to the crochet world. There's another article here with more complicated instructions and how to change colors if you want to.

Thanks for reading!

Pickled Grapes from Smitten Kitchen

2009-04-20T16:18:00.003-04:00

I just recently came across Smitten Kitchen, and boy I'm glad I did! The first (and only) recipe I've tried from this site so far is one for Pickled Grapes. I was intrigued by them, the husband turned his nose up at the idea. But during an impromptu 1:00 am grocery shopping trip, I decided to give them a go. I had most of the ingredients on hand, I just needed to get grapes and mustard seed. Oh, and I also used ground cinnamon. If/when I make this again, I'll have to try it with the cinnamon bark as described on SK, but making it with ground came out good too.

So here is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which was adapted from A Homemade Life, where it was adapted from a Susan Kaplan recipe. (Boy, that's a mouthful):

Ingredients:

1 lb seedless red or black grapes
1 Cup white wine vinegar
1 Cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 - 2 1/2" cinnamon stick, cut in half (I used maybe a Tbsp or so ground cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I omitted the salt)

Method:

(I don't have pictures of the process, but it really is very easy)

Rinse the grapes and cut the stem end (SK calls this the "belly button") off, leaving a bit of the inner flesh exposed. I divided my prepared grapes into two pint jars.

Combine the rest of the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. At this point I let the mixture cool before pouring into the jars. When pouring I tried to make sure the peppercorns and mustard seeds were evenly distributed between the two jars.

Stick in the fridge and let sit for eight hours or overnight, and serve chilled.

Apparently you can pour the mixture in while it is hot for a softer, more intensely flavored grapeickle (grape-pickle, get it? Ha! Sometimes I think I'm so clever), but I was definitely seeking a more mild flavor, and cooling the solution first yields a milder, crunchier grapeickle.

They came out really good, and the flavor is a little hard for me to describe. They are sweet but not too sweet, mildly vinegary but not overpoweringly so, and have subtle but noticeable hints of spiciness from the pepper and cinnamon. I hope the husband likes them. He has yet to taste them but I think when he heard "pickled grape", he probably imagined a dill pickle with grape, which these are definitely not. They are their own animal, and fairly cheap especially if you can get grapes on sale. And they are pretty easy and quick to prepare. I'd say they are worth trying. SK suggested having them with a cheese platter, and I can certainly see how they would work well there. I think they are also good straight out of the jar.

Thanks for reading!

Kroger Reusable Bag Design Contest

2009-04-09T10:16:00.004-04:00

Kroger is doing a contest right now for reusable bag designs. I submitted two designs, and I'd love it if you could hop on over there to vote for me! No registration is required.

Here are my two bags. Please click on the link or the image to get to the voting page:

Bag #1

Bag #2

Plus, if you do choose to sign up and design your own bag, you get a coupon loaded onto your Kroger store card for a free bag! That's pretty awesome, I think!

Thanks so much! And Thanks for reading!

Our Saturday Adventure

2009-04-05T10:17:00.009-04:00

Yesterday the hubby and I went yard-saling. And we also apparently decided somewhere along the way to start exploring wine.

At the yard sales, he found a book for $0.25, "I Don't Know Much About Wine, But I Know What I Like" by Simon Woods. It's turning out to be a pretty good read, and I think he's learning a lot from it. We also got a set of wine glasses and decanter from Bed Bath & Beyond for about $15.00, and we got a set of four stemless wine glasses from Ross for about $6.00.

Next we needed some wine! We had already been watching episodes of The Thunder Show by Gary Vay-Ner-Chuck, and based on his review of wine pairings with bacon, we bought a bottle of Conundrum for about $25 at our local Kroger. It was a little pricey, but we were interested. It's a white table wine from California. I think he tasted an '07, we bought an '06. Apparently that makes a difference, or something.

While we were at our local Kroger, we also had the pleasure of meeting their resident wine expert. She was really great, and knew so much about wine! She holds a degree in it, even. She not only retrieved the Conundrum for us (she keeps it under lock and key), but she also took the time to talk to us about wine and give us a few recommendations for future exploration, such as the Moscato D'Asti and Eric's The Red something or other. We will definitely be going to her more as we continue our explorations.

For dinner, we decided to get a little fancified, but not too much. We made a homemade pizza with canned dough we got on sale for like 30 cents, along with some homemade sauce, mozarella, diced vine tomato, and chopped fresh basil. The hubby took this "pizza landscape" photo.

For dessert we had sliced strawberries tossed with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a few tablespoons of sugar, and some freshly ground black pepper. We served it over store-bought shortcake and topped with freshly whipped cream, which I just whipped with store-bought cream and some of my special vanilla sugar.

So, on to our wine tasting!

We decided to not only try the wine itself, but also to try it in both the stemless and stemmed glasses, to see if it makes much difference. The stem ones are I guess for red wine (?) and the stemless said for white wine on the package, but I don't know what the difference is. On the Thunder Show, Gary did an episode where he was even tasting out of a pint beer glass, so... we are still learning.

First we poured the wine into the decanter. Apparently introducing air into it helps the wine "open up." We left ours in the decanter for about an hour or so, and apparently you can even let it decant for longer, like 3 or 4 hours, even 8 or 9 hours really develops the flavor. I did notice that the smell of the wine changed from in the bottle right after I opened it, when we poured it into the decanter, and still again when we tasted it. We also had our wine chilling in the fridge, and we noticed that Gary at the Tunder Show has his at room temperature. Apparently if it's too cold you don't taste as many of the different flavors in there either.

We noticed that after we swirled the wine in our glasses and stuck our noses in them, we smelled fruity things ("notes" I think they call it), along with some floral notes. Mostly it just smelled like alcohol to us. Gary smelled all different kinds of tropical fruit along with some "febreeze action."

When we tasted it, it was pretty good. It was definitely slightly sweet and fruity, and even a little spicy and "hot". I guess the "heat" was the alcohol content. I felt really silly doing all this swirling and sloshing and Gary does this kind of air sucking while he tastes, but I didn't really do that too much. I did try it a couple times and it does change the flavor. So I guess it's good to do all that stuff, but it just looks silly and kindof pretentious.

We tried the wine again after eating a bite of the pizza, and it did in fact change the flavor. It was still slightly sweet, but the heat had been knocked back a little and it muted/rounded out the flavors. We tried it yet again after we took a bite of the dessert, which I didn't really like the two of those together as much.

So after eating half a pizza, drinking half a bottle of wine, and eating far too much dessert, I totally killed my diet and had a great time doing so. I think that Eric and I will likely do more wine tasting and continue our explorations. We had a really fun Saturday.

Thanks for reading!

Crock-Pot Shredded Pork Tacos

2009-04-01T17:24:00.006-04:00

This has quickly become one of my favorite dishes! Forgive me for not having that many photos of the process, but I decided at the last minute to post it. I got this recipe from the Food Network, and I'd say I make it at least once every couple weeks or so. It makes plenty to last my husband and I multiple meals, so it's economical too. I didn't stray from the original recipe too much, but there is some slight variation. They also have a really great recipe on there for pickled onions that goes very well with this dish, but I didn't make them this time. I have it pictured here with store-bought tortillas, but next time I make it I intend to make some tortillas fresh.

Ingredients:

4 lbs or so boneless country-style pork ribs
1 white onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed (I use a press)
2 15 oz cans diced fire roasted tomatoes
2 (or more) chipotle peppers, chopped
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
handful of chopped cilantro, if desired

Extra cilantro leaves and sour cream for garnish, if desired

Method:

Really easy - Just throw everything in the crock pot and set to high for 5-6 hours, or low for 8-10. I usually cook it on high, but I also usually sleep in too much, lol!

When it gets ready to shred (after 5 hours or so), I remove the meat and shred it up with a couple of forks. It should be really easy to separate, in fact it should be practically falling apart on its own. After shredding, return to the pan and cook a bit longer.

Note: I also usually remove a lot of the juice after I take the meat out, then add some back in after if it needs it. That way it's not too liquidy. That just makes for a very messy meal, in my opinion. But you don't want it too dry either! I save the extra juice and add it to the leftover meat if it starts getting drier the next day or so. Sometimes I also use the reserved juice for beans, another weekly staple in our home. I imagine you could use it for a number of things.

I just liked this picture of the cilantro. Do you like cilantro? I didn't for the longest time, but now I really do.

Garnish with sour cream and some fresh cilantro leaves, if desired. Sometimes I like to add black beans. The recipe on the site also suggests the pickled onion (of course), avocado, and green cabbage for garnish, but I like it more simple. The sour cream cuts the heat of the chipotle peppers and the cilantro gives it a nice fresh kick.

Thanks for reading!

Earth Hour

2009-03-26T19:24:00.008-04:00

March 28, 2009 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm (your local time), is Earth Hour. Millions of people around the world will be turning off lights as a demonstration of concern about climate change and as a show of support for finding global solutions. And all you have to do to participate is turn off your lights for one hour! How easy is that?

Here is the YouTube video and official statement:

Turn out. Take action.

Be part of this historic event.
March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time

World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

Official Website
Twitter
MySpace
FaceBook

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

2009-03-14T21:41:00.005-04:00

The hubby and I found this Breckenridge Vanilla Porter at our local Greene's liquor store. It's quite good. The website describes the flavor as, "Smooth roasted chocolate with a creamy vanilla finish." I'm not sure I get that out of it, perhaps my palate is just not refined enough. While exploring the Breckenridge site, I found a recipe for Breck Brew Vanilla Porter Milkshake. The recipe is very straight forward - just mix vanilla ice cream and the vanilla porter.

As soon as my husband read about it, we were off to the store to get some vanilla ice cream. All I can say is YUM! After adding the ice cream, I can definitely taste notes of chocolate and vanilla (of course). I think that between this milkshake and the vanilla bean lemon meringue I made earlier, I can declare my diet for today officially dead. Good thing tomorrow is a new day.

Thanks for reading!

Pi Day - Vanilla Bean Lemon Meringue Pie

2009-03-14T15:20:00.010-04:00

Hey Everyone!

As Christy over at Southern Plate so kindly reminded me, it's Pi Day! You know, for the mathematical pi (3.14...on and on forever), get it? March 14, 3/14, pi, 3.14... Apparently it's also Einstein's birthday (March 14, 1879)! It's a geeky two-fer!

So to celebrate Pi Day and in honor of Mr. Einstein, many bloggers and math geeks all over are making PIE!

For my own celebration, I decided to make Paula Deen's Lemon Meringue Pie, with a few variations. Of course I have to do variations on a recipe I've never tried and making a lemon meringue, which I've never done before. I'm hardcore like that, I like to live life on the edge!

Here's how I did mine:

Ingredients:

For Pie:
1 14oz Can sweetened condensed milk
3 Egg yolks
3/4 Cup lemon juice
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
1 Vanilla bean
2 8" prebaked pie shells

For Meringue:
6 Egg whites
1 Vanilla bean
1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of tartar

Method:

Prebake two pie shells per package directions. Mine were from Kroger, and I pricked them with a fork and baked at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Mix milk, lemon juice, zest, egg yolks, and vanilla bean seeds in a bowl (split vanilla bean in half, then use the back of the knife to scrape out all the seeds). Don't throw out that empty vanilla bean! Save it for sugar or to simmer in hot chocolate, or something. There is still a lot of flavor in there, and throwing them out is on par with sacrelige in some circles.

This made enough to fill two shallow pie shells. You could probably put it all into one deep dish, if you want more filling per slice. I filled two because I think it will help me reduce calories per serving.

I then baked this at 350 for about 10 minutes while I made up the meringue.

Beat together egg whites, vanilla bean seeds, cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Again, keep that vanilla bean shell! I put mine in a smaller container with some sugar. It's great on sliced strawberries, or in coffee, or just about anything you can think of!

After baking the pie for a while, I let it cool slightly and then topped with meringue. Doesn't that look pretty?

You can see all those little flecks of vanilla bean. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the meringue is all brown and pretty.

Let cool.

Mine had a slight problem with there being some water in between the meringue and custard layers, which I don't know why that happened. Maybe because I baked the custard layer first? Maybe one of you can tell me what I did wrong. It tasted just as well though, the vanilla really rounded out the sharpness of the lemon and gave the pie a lot of depth. Delish!

If you guys try this, let me know how you liked it!

Thanks for reading!

How I Spent My Spring Break

2009-03-13T12:47:00.004-04:00

Spring break is almost over for the community college that I attend. It was mostly relaxing, except for one professor who decided that since we have all this free time, why not assign two chapters of homework instead of the usual one? And the test for these chapters is released over the weekend, starting at 11:59 tonight. Sheesh. I had hoped that the hubby and I could drive over to Savannah this weekend and see "Paula Deen Town", as I call it. Oh well. We probably shouldn't be spending the money on a road trip anyway.

For a few of my days off I've been working on a black, red, and possibly white throw for the couch. I casted 50 stitches on size 35 needles. I'm using two skeins of Red Heart Light & Lofty in Wine, one skein of the same in black, and some white that I have laying around which I may or may not put in. The first panel is going to be all red, and as you can see it's pretty wide already. Over 40", and about 34" long. My plan is to make a second panel of white and black and then stitch the two together. We'll see how it goes. Much like I can't follow a recipe in cooking, apparently I also can't follow a pattern for a throw (or bother to look for one for that matter). Better to make it up as I go, right?

Thanks for reading!

Belated Website Wednesday

2009-03-12T11:44:00.006-04:00

So I started this whole "Website Wednesday" thing, and then proceeded to only actually follow through once. Ah well. Just pretend it's actually yesterday. But I won't, I had enough adventures yesterday.

First up is FitDay.Com. I know most of the blogger girls out there like to use SparkPeople.Com for their internet fitness and weightloss support, because there is an active community and ideas/recipes can easily be shared, along with a healthy dose of camaraderie. Maybe I'm too shy for all that. For me, FitDay is just more straightforward. It's more streamlined, more about the numbers, with charts and graphs. (Click the pic for a closeup if you really want to see my weight stats, but I'm guessing you don't).

Each day you enter your stats and track your progress. There are tabs for weight, food, activities, mood, even a personal journal. On the foods page you can look up all kinds of foods in their database to add in, and even make your own custom foods. I even made a custom food for my multivitamin and calcium supplements. I can look at my custom food goals tab to see how I'm doing on my calorie intake for the day, and to make sure I'm eating enough fiber.

On the weight page, you can create a graph to track your projected loss and match it against how you're actually doing, which I think is fantastic. I lost more than anticipated the first couple of days, but went back up for a while. This would have been discouraging if I didn't look at my graph and see that I was still on track for my projected loss, and that helped keep me motivated. And as you can see from my graph above, I've actually been losing weight! Yay!

Keeping on the fitness related sites, I've also been turned on to in-home walking with Leslie Sansone. Again, probably because I'm shy and scared to go out walking and risk having to interact with (gasp!) strangers. This way, I can jump around like an idiot for 1/2 an hour everyday in the privacy of my own home, build up some endurance, lose weight, and it's pretty fun so far. I purchased this 30 minute walk from Amazon On Demand (downloaded in minutes and plays on my laptop, hooray!). My daily routine consists of that video, and I usually like to throw in a couple of these 3 minute mini walks, available at YouTube for free.

Finally, I'll finish it off with a little more food porn. I so want this for lunch. A ribeye, watercress, strawberry, blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette salad. Oh my. At least they have a more healthy picture up today, I think my will-power might falter if there were a big old pizza or burrito up there.

Thanks for reading!

More Wedding Ring Adventures

2009-03-12T09:36:00.007-04:00

You may or may not have read my post about wedding ring rash, in which I talked about how my grandma's wedding set was giving me a rash on my finger and how I was afraid to wear them again. Honestly I feel really bad about it. I think if I just kept it cleaned regularly then I wouldn't have the problem again, but there is still the fear that something will happen to them. Those rings are so important and special not only to me, but to my entire family. If anything happened to them, I think I'd die. That's why I decided to only wear them for special occasions, and only when my husband is with me. Of course given the rest of my wardrobe, any would-be robber would probably think they're fake anyway, but I'd still not want to take the chance.

Plus, selfishly (and probably more to the point), it would be nice to have a complete set that is from my husband. And I have all these extra diamonds and gold laying around that I'm not wearing, and probably never will unless it gets remade into something else. Plus the jeweler I talked to is willing to custom make a ring for only $200, considering that I'm supplying all of the necessary materials. All said and done, a 3/4 carat ring will be worth much more than $200, and I'll wear it every day, and I won't be risking damage/theft of my grandmother's heirloom rings, so the stars seem to be aligned to have it made.

So, that being said, yesterday was a busy and somewhat nerve-wracking day for me. I am shipping my engagement ring, along with a number of other pieces of diamond jewelry, all the way across the country so that I can get a ring custom made to match my engagement ring. I was really sad to see my ring go, I even gave it a wave goodbye and made the cashier at the shipping store giggle at me. The jewelry should reach its destination tomorrow, and until then I'm going to be really nervous. Then I'll be waiting until July to see the mock-up in person, and after that gets cleared I'm not sure how long it will take to have the actual ring made. Here's what the ring will look like, or an approximation of it:

I'll be using an old pair of earrings that total 1/4 carat for either of the side stones, either a 1/4 carat stone from my mom's old engagement ring or a 1/3 carat stone from one of her earrings (she lost the other one a long time ago), depending on which the jeweler thinks looks better, and the little accent stones down the ring will be from a channel set band I have that has 12 stones totaling 1/4 carat. I'll also be filling in the inside of the band so that it's completely smooth inside, further reducing any chance of getting water/debris trapped in there.

Here's the engagement ring that Eric gave me. I'll be using it as my wedding band, seeing as how it's more band-like and it will be closest to my heart where it should be. The ring I'm having made will be more like the engagement ring part of the set (does that make sense?) What do you guys think? Will those two rings go together? Am I being silly? What would other girls do in my situation?

Lisa - Defender of Earth!

2009-02-27T13:48:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to say "Thank You" to SITS Welcomista Lisa! She was kind enough to use my Tropicana codes and save 200 sq feet of rainforest! Go check her out at the Chaos Chronicles and show her some bloggy love! Don't forget to click those Google banners!

Save The Rainforest

2009-02-26T11:26:00.003-05:00

I got a couple cartons of Tropicana orange juice the other day. They have a sponsorship program with CoolEarth.Org where you can enter a code printed on the carton in order to save 100 square feet of rainforest.

I would love to enter these codes and save some rainforest, but I don't want to get on a mailing list in order to register so that I can enter the codes.

Here's where you come in:

If you already have an account with this program, or don't mind getting on a mailing list, please feel free to enter my codes and save some trees! That's a combined 200 square feet of rainforest here. If anyone decides to use these codes, please let me know and I'll feature you on my blog!

I'll list them here:

#787FHGF9TWH
#ZVN5HDFWEB9

Thanks for reading!

Website Wednesday

2009-02-25T09:59:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone! I've decided to start a weekly roundup of all the interesting websites, flash games, and other time wasters that I find out on the interwebs. Hopefully you guys will find some of them amusing, and it will help me finally get through all those bookmarked sites I've been meaning to check out.

First up is Food Porn Daily. There is no actual porn on this site, just pictures of food that are so well done, they should probably be censored. Seriously, I'm drooling over that burger up there.

Next up are some flash games. This one is The Dragon and The Wizard. It's a cute little spot the difference game with excellent illustration. The game follows a story of a wizard who comes to save a town from the dragon. Also, depending on whether or not you spot all the differences, the storyline actually changes.

Another super cute and addictive flash game is Farm Frenzy - Pizza Party. In this flash game you are a farmer, and you raise your own animals to produce things like pizza dough, cheeses, and meats to create your pizza. Watch out for the rampaging panda bears!

Last but not least is some truly geeky and awesome knitting. I doubt I'll ever get this good, I'm doing well enough to get one scarf done. The pictures will link to the individual host sites, Nauties by Beth Skwarecki and Baby's First DNA Mode l by Kimberly Chapman. An excellent roundup of these and other awesome works of geeky knitting is located here.

Thanks for reading!

Baked Pasta Casserole

2009-02-22T23:19:00.008-05:00

Sorry about the poor quality pictures. I need a new camera rather than my old cell phone (hint hubby).

I'm feeling triumphant over finishing my Poli Sci test tonight, although I am annoyed. I had to dispute one of the questions because I feel I should have gotten it right. So I had to compose an email to the professor laying out the question, the answer that they marked as correct, the answer that I marked as correct, as well as quoting directly from the textbook the reason why my answer was the right one. This is the second time I've done this, and both times the question in dispute would make the difference between a "B" and an "A". Ugh. I have yet to hear back from the professor on either of them.

So, Jack and Coke in hand, I decided to post what I made for dinner tonight. I was going to make my regular easy weeknight pasta seeing as how I was busy with schoolwork today, but then I noticed a recipe on the box for a baked version. And of course, since I can't follow a recipe, I put my own spin on it. I didn't take pictures as I went, but it's really easy and tasty.

Ingredients:

1 lb Italian sausage
1 26 oz Can pasta sauce (whichever you like)
1 12 oz Box penne pasta (I use whole wheat)
2-3 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 Tbsp each Italian seasoning, Basil, Fennel seeds, Sugar, Parsley flakes
Dash cinnamon

Method:

I like to doctor up my pasta sauces, so that's why I used all the spices. You can vary that to your taste. I also like sweeter tomato sauces, sauce from the can is sour to me. You can add wine or whatever you like to make it suit your taste. Also, everything I used was generic Kroger brand.

~Heat oven to 350.
~Cook up the penne according to package directions. Drain.
~Brown sausage. Drain.
~Add sauce and spices to sausage and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. I usually let it go until the pasta is done cooking.
~Mix sauce mixture and cooked pasta along with a cup or so of the mozzarella cheese.
~Pour mixture into a greased casserole dish. I sprayed mine with cooking spray and that worked fine.
~Top with remaining cheese and a sprinkling of basil.
~Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes, or until bubbling and delicious.

A nice slice of garlic bread or Texas Toast rounds out the meal.

Also, how freaking cute are these?!

These are from the ever-so-awesome Bakerella. I am looking forward to attempting these, perhaps next weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Lazy Sunday

2009-02-22T12:30:00.007-05:00

Wow, it's been a few days since I've posted anything. I've been busy with my online college classes. Actually, I should be working on assignments right now, so to once again procrastinate and avoid the dreaded Political Science exam (ugh), here are a few things that have been diverting my attention recently:

I've been reading all the awesome blogs over at The Secret is in the Sauce. I recently became a follower of this site, it's pretty cool. They advocate leaving lots of comments and encourage discussion between bloggers. They also have a fantastic roundup today of all sorts of giveaways!

I highly suggest you go check them out and comment your hearts out! Don't forget to Follow Wenda!

I've also been catching up on episodes of my favorite TV shows over at Hulu. Some of my favorite shows are Solitary, House, Heroes, Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons, and King of The Hill. They are continually expanding their list of TV shows as well as movies, and it's all for FREE! You just have to sit through 30 seconds of commercials spaced throughout the show/movie. A small price to pay, I think. It's less commercials than you would see on regular TV stations.

Yesterday I made Mama Reed's Vanilla Wafer Cake posted by Christy over at Southern Plate. I highly recommend it. It's sweet, but not too sweet, and I substituted hazelnuts for the pecans. It turned out great. If my hubby's happy tummy is any indication, she's gonna have her own show on the Food Network any minute now. Every recipe off her site is pure gold! And with step by step instructions and photos, even cooking newbies like me can pull off a great meal.

Last, but not least, is Ronald Jenkees. I first found this guy linked from one of my Facebook friends. I'm a couple years or so late finding out about him, and apparently there is debate as to whether or not 'Ronald' is a real person or a persona (another link here, Wiki article here), but there is no doubt this is one talented guy. He displays complete mastery of his chosen instruments to make some excellent music. Here's my favorite 'jam' of his:

Well, off to go get some actual work done. Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Giveaway From $5 Dinners

2009-02-12T09:12:00.002-05:00

$5 Dinners is giving away Artibel Dark Chocolate Figs from DiPalo Selects! Head on over to $5 Dinners and check it out!

February Giveaways From Southern Plate!

2009-02-02T18:00:00.004-05:00

Christy over at Southern Plate has announced her latest exciting giveaway: A Hamilton Beach 12-Cup coffeemaker and grinder! This giveaway is valued at over $110!

She's also hosting a whole bunch more awesome giveaways for the month of February!

Giveaways include:

-A complete Wilton celebration kit!
-Another beauty basket from Southern Beauty Magazine!
-A basket full of Pioneer brand products!
-TWO gift baskets full of sauces and seasonings by Country Bob's!

Click here to visit Southern Plate and get all the details and enter to win!

Thanks for reading!

Obama Hennessy and Immortal Jellyfish

2009-01-30T10:05:00.013-05:00

Wow, two posts in one day? Well, I've been saving up a couple of things to blog about once I had time. Actually, I guess I don't really have the time right now, because I should be doing schoolwork, but such is the folly of taking online college courses. It's easy to get distracted.

First up is Obama Hennessy. This is VS Limited Edition 44, released in honor of Obama's inauguration. Only 180,000 bottles were produced, and they are all numbered. The hubby's plan is to write the president asking him his opinion of the gross commercialization of his name/inauguration, particularly in regards to alcohol that's usually marketed towards the urban demographic. If we get a letter back, then we'll store that along with the bottle as well as some other "Obama-bilia" we've collected. You know, build some provenance in case it's ever worth something like a century from now.

It's weird that the labels came out looking dark green in the photos, because in real life they totally look black. I guess it was just the flash or something.

Here the "44" label looks more like it does in natural light. You can also see my homemade laundry soap in the background. I'll blog about that once we do some laundry with it. The short version - making your own laundry soap isn't really worth it.

Apparently the bottles were mainly released for sale in Washington, D.C. and a few other states on the east side of the US. Yay for us we happened to be in one of those states and found it at our local package store. (On a side note, when we first came here we had no idea what a package store was. We learned that "package stores" are the same as convenience/liquor stores over on the west coast.)

Next up is the immortal jellyfish. My husband found this linked from one of his friends. Being that we are both scientifically-inclined, we found this very exciting. The article I read is located at Telegraph.Co.UK.

This is the the Turritopsis Nutricula, a tiny jellyfish originally from the Caribbean that has now spread all over the world. Most jellyfish die after propagating. This species, however, is unique in that it has the ability to revert back to it's juvenile polyp state after mating and thus repeat the process, apparently indefinitely. The jellyfish is able to do this through the process of transdifferentiation. I'm anxious to see what biologists and geneticists can glean from this creature, and what applications it might have for humans.

Thanks for reading!

The Bacon Explosion

2009-01-30T09:50:00.006-05:00

I first read about this in a New York Times article. It was originally blogged about over at BBQ Addicts. I think they came up with the ultimate design, but had inspiration from some other source. Or something. Anyway, I'm sure it's been all over the Internet by now, but I'll still post about it. It's just too awesome. This is a woven mat of bacon strips wrapped around a layer of sausage with a crispy cooked bacon center. When I showed it to my husband I think I saw him do a little dance. He is quite the bacon aficionado. It recommends smoking, but it says it can also be baked, so I may just have to try it.

In the comments left over at BBQ Addicts, someone mentioned having a mat of bacon surrounding scrambled eggs and cheese for like a breakfast themed heart-attack log. That sounded pretty tasty, but I think you could even take it a step further and wrap that log in a giant pancake. You know, to round it out. Maybe drizzle it with maple syrup. Maybe have the center of it be not only cheese, but also cooked breakfast sausage.

If I ever do get the courage to try it, you know I'll be posting my results here.

Thanks for reading!

"Free" Veggie Soup

2009-01-14T15:04:00.005-05:00

Okay, so Christy over at Southern Plate posted this recipe for vegetable soup. This soup is called "free" in that you can supposedly eat as much as you want. It is supposed to be excellent for diets. I absolutely had to try it and feature it on my blog.

I went to the grocery store this morning and bought stuff to make this soup for my main lunch-y meal. My husband doesn't eat vegetables, so this is something I can make up that he won't have to eat and I can still get my veggies in. Up until now I've been trying to save money by pretty much eating ramen through the day and saving all the "good food" for when the hubby is home for dinner.

This soup turned out to cost only about $8, and as you can see it filled my crock pot so this will easily be enough for me for the week. In summary, the cost might be a little more than the ramen, but probably not much, and the nutritional value alone blows ramen out of the water. This will make both my hubby and my mom happy!

Christy did hers differently on her blog (proving yet again I am unable to actually follow a recipe). As I started making the soup, I realized I don't have a pan big enough for it, so I wound up finishing it off in my crock pot. It turned out fine though, even with my changes/additions.

She stated that you can pretty much put whatever veggies in there, so I added some leftover frozen veggies from the freezer as well as a whole slew of herbs. I essentially went through my spice rack and started dumping stuff in. The result was a surprisingly flavorful soup. I'd definitely recommend it.

Ingredients (that I used this time):

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
16 oz frozen cut green beans
16 oz frozen cut okra
8 oz fresh baby carrots
1 head cabbage, chopped
1 cup frozen veggie mix - onion/bell pepper blend
1 packet ranch dressing mix
5-6 cups water

I also threw in the rest of some frozen corn and frozen peas (maybe 1 1/2 cups total) that I had in the freezer. The herbs I added were celery flakes, rosemary, basil, dill, fennel seeds, and pepper.

Method:

Because I didn't have a big enough pan, I put everything except the cabbage, carrots, and about 1/2 the water in my crock pot and set it on high.

Then I boiled the carrots in the remaining water and boiled the chopped cabbage separately.

Like so. If you look close you can see some residual tomato sauce on the rim there. That's because I originally tried to use this pan to cook the soup in before I realized it was too small.

After the carrots and cabbage were done, I added the carrots (including the water I boiled them in) to the crock pot, then strained off the cabbage and added that in too. At that point it was just a matter of getting it hot enough. It is very tasty! Thanks to Christy again for having such an awesome blog. I really have learned a lot about cooking from her.

Thanks for reading!

Southern Beauty Giveaway!

2009-01-02T17:46:00.007-05:00

Today I was very happy to receive the beauty basket prize from the Southern Beauty giveaway, which was hosted at Southern Plate! Many of the items I received are featured in the Holiday 2008 issue of Southern Beauty. Here's what I got :

It came in a pretty big box! Note my clever placement of the thank you card and scissors to cover personal info.

Shannon included a very lovely note.

A medium-ish sized, very pretty basket, along with:

Julie Hewett - Los Angeles eyeshadow compact in Boheme
L'Oreal HiP eyeshadow compact in Magnetic 206
Dior Replenishing Lip Color in Fantastic Plum
Chanel Nail Colour in Kaleidoscope
Almay Smart Shade Blush in Pink/Rose
Too Faced Lash Injection mascara in Black

Kiss my Face Hand Lightener and matching Hand creme
Smooth-365 Intensive Clarity + Smoothing Peptide Serum
Como & Brigante Nou Eau de Parfum (smells great!)
Crabtree & Evelyn Cacao Noir Body Shimmer Mist
Charles Worthington Big Hair Texturizing Salt Spray
Dior lip pencil in Mysterious Plum (matches the lipstick)

Origins United State Balancing Tonic
Joico Skin Luxe Revitalizing Body Creme in Spiced Ginger
Estee Lauder Body Performance Firming Body Creme
Chanel Hydramax + Active Serum moisturizer
Clarins HydraQuench Cooling Cream-Gel
Johnson's Melt Away Stress body lotion (smells great!)
And a complimentary copy of Southern Beauty Magazine!

So much great stuff!

Thanks again to Southern Plate and Southern Beauty Magazine! I'm off to go play dress up now, haha!

Thanks for reading!

Happy 2009!

2008-12-31T23:24:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your 2009 is filled with love, happiness, laughter, and friends & family!

James Joyce and "Portrait Of An Artist"

2008-12-24T11:29:00.005-05:00

When my husband and I go out for dinner or drinks, one of our favorite places to go is the James Joyce Irish Pub. I especially like their JJ Burger. My favorite drink to get there is called "Portrait Of An Artist". It's great for an after dinner drink. The first time I tried this I made sure to note the ingredients listed on the menu so I could attempt to recreate it at home. I think I did a pretty decent job. The hubby and I had this last night while snuggling and watching Christmas movies.

The menu at the pub listed hot chocolate, Bailey's, Chambord, and whipped cream. Being that we are on a budget, we opted for Emmets Ireland Cream Liqueur, and raspberry schnapps. These were each around $9 to $10 a bottle, compared to around $30 just for the Chambord. Considering that we went cheap on the booze, I fancied the drink up a bit by making the hot chocolate from scratch and using freshly whipped cream.

Once I make this again I'll pay more attention to how much of what I put into the hot chocolate. I've been making it ever since my mom taught me back in middle school and I've gotten used to just eyeballing it. I'm sure most of you out there probably have your own homemade hot chocolate recipe.

Mine is pretty much equal parts cocoa and sugar with a little water, and I cook that up a bit until it's all dissolved and smooth. I add in maybe a teaspoon or so vanilla, a can of evaporated milk and add regular whole milk to taste. Then just let it heat up and get delicious. I will note here that I made mine a little less sweet this time to compensate for the liqueurs.

So, without further adieu, here's my version of James Joyce's "Portrait Of An Artist":

5 C Hot chocolate (whatever your favorite kind is)
1/2 C Raspberry Schnapps (or Chambord)
1/2 C Irish Cream Liqueur (Bailey's or whatever brand is good/cheap)
Whipped cream (fresh is better, but store bought is fine too)

Mix together hot chocolate and liqueurs in a medium sized pot and heat on low until hot. Serve into mugs and top with whipped cream.

I definitely recommend you guys try this! It's raspberry and chocolaty with just enough sweetness and it's not too alcohol-ey. You can obviously adjust the liqueurs to taste. A great adult hot cocoa for parties or snuggling with your special someone!

P.S. - You know, I bet you could also make a kid's version of this with a raspberry syrup to make raspberry hot cocoa. I'll have to investigate that further, haha!

Thanks for reading!

Cookbooks!

2008-12-18T18:31:00.003-05:00

Today I was delighted to find TWO cookbooks in the mail for me!

The first was from Brindi over at Of Food And Fat. She did a giveaway a while back, of which I was fortunate enough to win Bobby Flay's Grill It!

As you can see, she not only gave me that, but also a lovely set of kitchen towels and potholders as well as candy!!! The kitchen towels are red, which will go perfect with the decor of my dining room!

The candy is delicious, I like the cinnamon and mint ones! She included a thoughtful letter wishing my husband and I a Merry Christmas.

The other cookbook was of course Southern Plate's cookbook! This was a Christmas gift from my mom. She asked me what cookbook I wanted and I told her this one, so we went and ordered it online right then!

Yay!