Friday, November 28, 2008

blog #192 >> Under Construction


With this wonderful 4 day weekend, I was able to post my under construction page on Roaring Design my poor neglected website. So far, I've really liked CS3 Flash and Dreamweaver, but I've realized I've forgotten a lot of it. So, I'll be relearning some of it this month. Next step, redesigning the downloadable pdf.
T
(p.s. If you visit it, let me know if anything doesn't work.)
t

blog #191 >> Leftovers are Lovely

Aren't leftovers lovely? It's like having Thanksgiving dinner again and again... And this year Thanksgiving seemed especially nice. The sides were amazing, the desserts were fantastic and to top it all off, my brother and his wife brought the turkey they raised themselves. He was a BEAST! At 40 pounds he weighed more than my 5 year old niece. He took ten hours to defrost, and part of that time he was soaking in the tub because he was too big to fit in the sink. In fact, he was almost too big to fit in the oven. My sister had to wake up at 4am to start baking him. And now we all have left over turkey to last us the year. I'm already planning my turkey casserole and turkey soup and turkey sandwiches. mmmm...mmmm..... I can't wait!


If I can get a copy of it I'll post a photo of Tom still alive. He was a beautiful bird. Here's a picture of the turkey fresh out of the oven. I forgot my camera, only to realize today I had it all the time. So I stole this picture from my sister. To see more Thanksgiving photos visit my sister's blog here.
Happy (day after) Thanksgiving!
T

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

blog #190 >> The Thing that Devoured my Time






This is it! The thing which has taken every spare minute of my time since Sunday. The kitchen's a mess, my bedroom is carpeted with clothes and I've got wood chips and eraser bits all over the floor. I even melted a hole in my cutting mat with the wood burner. I started it as a Christmas present for the neighbors... but I'm a bad friend. (Sorry guys!) I've become very attached to it and I've decided to keep it. Maybe I'll make another one though. I have to go buy new clock parts anyhow. I was trying to force the spacers in when I heard something "pop," and now the minute hand doesn't work so well. But all in all it's a pretty fine cuckoo clock. I got the idea here from Kate's Blog.


And here's the french press cozy I knitted for Grandma for Christmas. (She doesn't have Internet, so it's very unlikely she'll see this post.) It turned out supper cute and I think I'll have to make one for myself. Pattern is:
cast on 56
k 6 rows (color 1)
k 1 row (color 2)
k2p2 5 rows (color 2)
button hole (two stitches from end)
k2p2 6 rows (color 2)
button hole (two stitches from end)
k2p2 6 rows (color 2)
k 6 rows (color 1)
cast off
And that is my best attempt at writing a pattern.
(I never really use them.)
Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!
T

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

blog #188 >> Recipes for You







In the midst of my ftp site clean-up, I realized I probably don't need these recipes on there any more. So here they are for you, just download and print.
Enjoy!
T

Monday, November 17, 2008

blog #187 >> Tower O'Jello


My latest lemon-lime-orange Jello mold fresh out of the mold this morning.
T

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

blog #186 >> Sick Day

This morning I woke up with a sore throat and I felt like my head was in a fish bowl. So a sick day it was. It really was a pretty good day for it. It's terribly stormy outside so I was able to just sleep and listen to the rain and not have to go outside. I always feel very guilty about skipping work though. But I don't suppose anyone wants to catch it from me. And I thought if I take care of myself, and get some rest, I'll probably get over it sooner. Hopefully, I'll be taking less days off in the long run. Today, I ended up sleeping until ten o'clock, then I read all of "Of Mice and Men" and then I took a nap from two-four. Now I'm finally feeling a little bit better, so I'm making dinner and while that cooks I figured I post a blog.


I'm afraid my blogging will be more sporadic in the coming months, because I've finally started redesigning my website. I haven't touched it in the past four years since I graduated school and it's long over due for an update. Since I no longer have the files to update it, and never really liked the design all that well anyhow, I decided to just start over with something new. I'm very excited for it and my Adobe CS3 update is in the mail. (I know CS4 just came out, but it's a lot cheaper this way.)


Here's a look at the French onion soup I made Monday. It turned out amazing! It's possibly the best French onion soup I've ever had. But I think I just liked it because I made it myself. Food always tastes better when I make it myself. And I don't think it has anything to do with the food actually tasting that great. It's just when I put the time and effort into making something from scratch I appreciate it more. However I'm not sure I'll be making this soup again. It was a LOT of work. And it took nearly two hours just to caramelize the onions. I was a teary mess after cutting up all those onions. Then I happened to get a headache and by the time I finished making it I was too sick to even eat it. But it was really good for lunch the next day. I even pan toasted some French bread and melted Swiss cheese on top.

French Onion Soup Recipe:
3 large onions, thinly sliced
2 T. butter (I used more)
1 T. oil (I also used more)
3 T. flour
5 cups beef broth (I used 4)
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste (nutmeg is the secret ingredient)
1/2" thick slices of French bread
1 1/2 cups grated Swiss cheese
Cook onions in butter and oil on med. heat 'til soft and dark brown. (I can see this working really well in a crock pot. It took me about two hours.) Stir in flour and cook stirring 'til flour is light brown. Gradually stir in stock. Cook over low head about 20 min. stirring. Season to taste, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cut bread slices into cubes. Brown bread in melted butter in frying pan. Ladle soup in bowls. Top each with bread cubes and cheese. Broil in oven until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.


I also was thrilled at finally finishing my Dr. Who scarf on Sunday. It took me nearly nine months to knit. And it's so long and wide it's like wearing a coat and a scarf all at the same time. I didn't realize it was so iconic when I first started it. I'm really surprised how many people recognize it. But I suppose it takes on to know one. If you want your own Dr. Who scarf you can get the pattern here. I'll take a picture of me wearing it when I feel better. This one is from when I first started it.

T

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

blog #185 >> When the world seems to shine like a big pizza pie...


It seems I'm always making the same 5 things for dinner. And quite frankly, I'm kinda getting tired of always making those same 5 things. It's just I always end up needing to make things with the ingredients I already have. And I always have the ingredients for those same 5 things. So, I've decided I need to start thinking and buying ahead. I'm going through all my cook books, recipe cards, and allrecipes.com looking for those new and amazing things I can start making. This week I made pizza crust from scratch. It turned out pretty darn good. I added fresh orageno, rosemary and thyme along with dried basil and marjorum to the crust before I baked it. And for a topping I used browned butter and olive oil mixed with a couple cloves of caramelized garlic and colby-jack cheese and pepperoni. I think next time I make it though, I'll use the bread flour. This time I used regular flour, and it does seem a little tough and heavy. Or maybe I just mixed it too much, or didn't wait long enough for the yeast. But it did rise nicely, so I don't think that's it. (oh, and I dropped it on the floor when I was trying to do the fancy pizza thrower thing... don't try that.)
Next week I'm making French Onion Soup!
T

blog #184 >> Rice Pudding


Here's the amazing rice pudding I made this week. It's the perfect thing for leftover rice. I'm totally in my fall cooking mode.

Recipe: Rice Pudding
Beat 2 eggs and 1/3 cup sugar. Add 1/4 tea. salt and 2 cups scaled milk. Add 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 cups cooked rice with 1/2 cup raisins. Sprinkle with nutmeg on top. Pl ace in 1" of water in a 9x13 pan. Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, until liquid is almost absorbed.

Enjoy!
T

Monday, November 3, 2008

blog #183 >> Catching up

Oh my, I'm shocked by how far behind I've gotten on my blogging. Well, here's the quick catch up on what's been up lately.

• • • • • •


Beef 'n Beet Soup
Here's the amazing beef and beet soup I made last Sunday, well actually the Sunday before last. The fun thing about soups is they never turn out the same way twice. It all depends on what you throw in there. This one's got: beef, onions, celery, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, salt, pepper, thyme, basil, and probably a couple of other things too. I'm forgetting at the moment.


• • • • • •


Book of the Week: Frankenstein
I finally finished Frankenstein last week. And I'm rediscovering the joys of a public library. I'd forgotten just how many books they have. Hopefully I can save a little money by not buying the book I want to read, (unless it's something really special) and just check it out from the library. I wanted to get Phantom of the Opera, but it's always out, so I went with Frankenstein as a scary alternative. I was actually somewhat surprised by how unlike the movie it is. It's a much better story. The monster (not named Frankenstein) is actually very intelligent, and I must admit, he has a better vocabulary than me! Overall, it was a very good book. And it had some deep moral principles as well, such as, "Bad things happen when man plays God." and "If you create a monster you are responsible for what you made. Don't let it go around terrorizing the country side. Don't make it fend for itself. Don't just pretend it never happened. Take care of your monster. Teach him right from wrong and how to be kind to others. Then your monster won't hate you and want to destroy everything you care about." Anyhow, good book.

• • • • • •


Nosferatu
For Halloween I went with Dave and Trina to The Mission Theater to see Nus-for-ut-a, Nash-pur-af-u, Nose-fur-ah-two... that's closer... wait I've got it! Nosferatu! I can never remember its name. It was very fun. They had a live band playing with it and I would have gone just to hear the music. It even had an accordion and a cello playing. And the band would even fill in the sound effects. It was excellent. And the moral of the story is: All realtors are crazy.



• • • • • •


Curtains
And finally, here are the curtains I sewed yesterday for the living room. After I took down the Halloween decorations the windows seemed really bare. So I used that extra hour from daylight savings to my advantage and made some curtains.



Until later,
T