Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WWW Jan 25 2012

I have been craving a BLT sandwich.  A well made one.  I think I'll start here.  Dinner is planned Kam!

The cutest prints.  I want to order some of this fabric so bad.  Love this shop!

I think this is awesome.

I might eat jello like this!

If I had a baby, I would totally buy this.  Or learn to make one.

I love these socks!

Kam and I are going on a date here soon.  Can't wait to try it.

Love these watercolor tattoos!

The State of the Union Address reminded me of this I watched a while back ago.  (good find Jo!)

I love these shoes.  Why does everything have to cost so much?  Time to save for spring accessories.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Let's add a little design to this Monday...

So I thought I would share what's been occupying my time and my brain lately.  This is the logo I created for the upcoming Museum of Arts and Culture's auction.  Along with the ad that is being run in both local and national magazines.  Pretty exciting for little old me.





Friday, January 20, 2012

Snow Boots and a Golden Retriever

In honor of my snow day today, I thought I would share my second skirt.  And maybe a few pictures of my happy pup too.  It is basically the same skirt as the polka dot one only I made it about 2 inches longer and added pockets to the front.  I love it.  No fortune today.  Happy Friday Friends!








Friday, January 13, 2012

French Dip Pizza

Ok, I got a little creative.  It was a good thing.
What you'll need:
1 24 hour pizza crust (split the dough in half for small, or use the whole thing for a medium-large size pizza.  This will be a half size.)
1/2 cup mozzarella (grated or sliced, your choice)
1/4 cup gouda  (grated or sliced, your choice)
1/2 cup caramelized onions and mushrooms
1 - 2 cups left over roast beef sherds and pieces
2 cups au juice 
7 or 8 fresh basil leaves

Prepare pizza crust to these instructions and preheat pizza stone to 450 to 500 depending on how hot your oven gets.  Saute about 1/4 of an onion and 3 or 4 sliced button mushrooms in a little butter.  In a small pan, make up au juice and place roast beef pieces into juice.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat, let simmer until ready to use.  

Once dough is stretched, make sure it still slides easily on the board.  If not, add a little more flour. Brush the outer rim with olive oil.  Layer onions and mushrooms, roast beef straight from the au juice (don't shake it, get some of the juice on there), cheeses and basil leaves onto curst.  You can do what you wish with the left over au juice.  Slide pizza off cookie sheet or cutting board onto pizza stone.  Bake for 6-7 minutes.  Be sure to remove pizza from stone once done or it will continue to burn the crust.  Let rest for 3 minutes before slicing.
This was so good, and we had just enough roast beef left over that we had this for dinner the next night too.  Its kind of a make it when you can type of pizza.  It's not everyday that you have roast beef laying around.  But, next time you do, keep this in mind!  You will be happy with yourself if you do.  Enjoy!

Fortune Friday

Thursday, January 12, 2012

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Well here it is.  My first made by me skirt.  I only have one complaint.  I followed the pattern perfectly to size and all that jazz, but it could have been about 2 inches longer.  For a pattern, it's pretty short, which kind of surprised me.  So I will not be wearing my newly created polka dot skirt in the summer sans tights.  This baby is tights only.  But it was fun to wear.  The polka dot fabric is a taffeta and the black dots are a soft velvet feel.  Then I added a liner (which the pattern did not call for) and thats made from a super soft t-shirt material.  Waist band is elastic.  So, what do you think?





Wednesday, January 11, 2012

WWW Jan 11 2012

Best t-shirt ever.

I love this idea!

The name of this blog made me lol!

This ikea commercial is kinda old, but I still laugh everytime.

A most excellent give-a-way.

Really?

You've seen the typestache poster right?

Some of these animal photos are crazy awesome.

Does anyone else remember these cute little toys from when they were little.  I remember loving them so much!

I have done my fair share of business card design research, but I've never seen once quite like this!

Ok, thats all this time.

Alton Brown's 24 Hour Pizza Dough

The first thing I had to make with my new mixer was pizza dough.  And just to step it up a notch, I made Alton Brown's recipe.  He lets the dough rise in the fridge for 24 hours before making the pizza.  It's a pretty basic dough, and I did modify his recipe a tiny bit.  So here goes...
What you'll need:
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1 3/4 cups bread flour (Winco had both white and wheat in bulk)
  • 1/4 cup gluten flour (again Winco bulk.  This was my change from his recipe.  He used 2 cups of the bread flour.  I read somewhere tp use a small amount of gluten flour for chewier crusts)
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
Place all ingredients minus 2 teaspoons olive oil into your mixer and use the paddle attachment to mix until combined and forms into a loose ball.  Switch to the hook and knead for 15 minutes.  Do the "window" test by tearing off a small piece of dough and form in into a disk.  Stretch the disk until thin to so it is taunt, it if tears before you can almost see through the membrane, knead for another 5-10 minutes.  

Roll dough into a smooth ball and place into a stainless steel or glass bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil to the bowl and toss ball to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 18 to 24 hours.

After the rise period, remove dough from fridge and split with a knife or dough scraper into two equal pieces (about 4 slices) or leave whole (for about 8 slices).  Slightly dampen counter top with water and roll dough on counter until it tightens into a ball.  Place back into bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.  Let rest for 30 minutes.  Do the same process with other half of dough if you split.  Spray the inside of a ziplock bag with cooking spray and refrigerate for up to 6 days or freeze for a month.

Put your oven rack on its lowest setting and place pizza stone into it.  Turn up oven to its highest setting.  I put mine at 450 because it gets CRAZY hot.  Flour a wooden cutting board or a peel if you have one.  Stretch your dough on the floured surface into a disc rotating after each stretch.  If dough keeps wanting to shrink back, let rest a few more minutes to warm up to room temp.  Brush the rim or curst of dough with olive oil and add whatever toppings you like.  Carefully slide pizza onto stone and bake for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.







I officially don't need to go out for pizza anymore.  This, as far and my pizza tastes are concerned, is the perfect crust.  Chewy, soft, slightly crispy.  If you are coming over to my house sometime in the next 6 months for dinner, I can guarantee you that I will be cooking pizza for you.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

This is why...

I'm going to learn to sew.  I love these dresses.  Love ALL of them.  But at $250 a piece and half off at that...who can afford that?  I'm going to learn to sew.





Monday, January 9, 2012

Winter Hike

Sunday afternoon we went for a hike in the Hauser Lake area.  About 20 minutes Northeast of Spokane.  There was a little snow on the ground and we saw a million moose and deer tracks.  I took a few photos and thought I'd share.










Vegetable Beef Stew

Two things. 1) I got an immersion blender a while back and I am now obsessed with it and 2) after the holidays I feel the need to eat copious amounts of veggies.  So with that said, this isn't your traditional stew.  The thick broth (I really want to call it stew juice) is made just from veggies and not thickened with flour.  The only thing about this recipe is that if you don't have an immersion or regular blender, your out of luck.

Vegetable Beef Stew
What you'll need:
1 roast (fairly lean, size is up to you.  Mine was really big, but I only used half for the stew)
4 cups beef stock (take as much of this from the slow cooker juice as you can.)
1 large parsnip
5 cups carrots diced
3 cups small yellow or red potatoes quartered
2 cups celery diced
1 cup onion diced
1 medium crown broccoli
1 medium to large celery root, peeled and diced (Ugly little vegetable, I took pictures on how to deal with it)
3-4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

In the morning, place your roast, season with salt and pepper into your slow cooker.  Cover it with as much of the onions, potatoes, carrots and celery as you can fit and set to low.  You probably won't be able to fit even half, but thats ok, you'll cook those later.

After at least 6 hours, when beef is falling apart, remove vegetables from slow cooker and place in a large bowl.  Place the roast onto a plate and break up into quarters to allow to cool enough to handle.  Add 4 cups beef stock, spices and remaining uncooked vegetables into a large pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling vegetables are fork tender, remove some of the parsnips and as much of the other remaining vegetables you'd like and add to the bowl, these will be the vegetables in the stew so you'll want a good variety.  You want about 5 cups cooked vegetables set aside and about 5 cups left in the pan.  Just eye ball it though, it doesn't have to be exact.

Remove any extra beef stock so that the liquid is at an equal level with the vegetables, reserving about a cup.  Using your immersion or regular blender, pulse vegetables until smooth.  If it seems too thick, then add the reserved broth until desired consistency (think stew!).  When meat is cool enough to handle, break up into bite size strips and pieces.  Depending on the size of your roast, you probably won't need all of the meat.  I added about 4 cups, you use as much as you'd like.   Add cooked vegetables and meat and mix into stew.  You may want to reheat on medium for a few minutes, just make sure you gently keep stirring it so it doesn't burn.  Done!

 
 
 
 
 
 
I feel like that was a really weird process to explain.  I hope it all makes sense.  As for the stew...it was AMAZING!  I really loved the fact that it was just as thick and yummy as normals stews that you would use flour as a thickener, but instead it was all veggies.  I made a tikka masala in a similar way the other day and it was amazing.  I used all the normal spices and tomato paste but skipped the butter and flour.  I might just make it again soon and share that with everyone too!  Plus I have SUPER yummy recipe to share later that I did with the left over beef.  Enjoy!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I pretty much just sewed and cooked all weekend.  Although I did sneak out on Saturday for a little trip to Hancock Fabric, who was having a 60% off sale.  I scored some pretty floral prints for cheap!  Like $2 per yard cheap.  Yay me.  Not sure yet how I'm going to put outfit posts together yet to show you my creations, but I've got one skirt finished to share already!     Oh and I guess we did go on an awesome hike sunday.  We saw lots of deer and moose tracks, I will post a few photos from that adventure too.  I guess I have a lot of stuff, I'd better get busy!  Have a great Monday!  4 more days until another glorious weekend!

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