Thing-a-day.com

Just to prove that I have not been completely slacking on Thing-a-Day, here is what I’ve got so far of the baby blanket that started here. More than 60 percent completed! (It’ll be 7 x 7 squares.) Of course, there’s that small matter of the blue square that needs to be ripped and reknit in the correct blue, and then there’s the hours and hours of seaming, but I have to finish all this soon, because the wretched beastie is due sometime in March.

Anyway, I have not been idle. I’ve also been toiling at another public domain clip-art set, which I haven’t yet posted on Flickr.

And on 2/28 I made another pretty good dinner for my mom, a combination of these two recipes—Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce and Pork Chops with Mustard-Cornichon Sauce—but with the addition of mushrooms, and with capers in place of cornichons and white wine in place of chicken stock. Spinach salad and rice on the side.

I also made a couple of decent illustrations for work: on 2/12, I made a sort of homebrew tritone; on 2/18, I tried out a new technique for turning a flat shot into something that looks more lively; and on 2/28 I made the collage that appears on this page, which wasn’t that much Photoshop work in the end, but which did require a surprising amount of image research.

Was this flimsy output what I wanted to achieve during Thing-a-Day 2008? No, but I did make a few things that I would not otherwise have made, and I did discover several other people whose work I really liked, thefabricator and Jason Das, in particular.

It’s been fun. I’ll see you next year.

I’m not sure if anyone has already tried this flavor combo.  I had two big oranges dying to be picked up and I was in the mood for some refreshing citrus flavor.  Thus the orange pancakes were born.  The batter was very easy to make.  Half all-purpose flour and half oat flour.  Maple syrup as the sweetener, with the help of some vanilla extract and plain soy milk.  Freshly squeezed orange juice added the fresh garden smell and taste.  I loved these mild and subtle orange-y pancakes.  Next time I will use orange zest to strengthen the orange flavor a bit.  Overall, it was a great experiment.

I’d promised to make the family fried rice for many many visits now, and finally I got round to it. It’s a good thing that I don’t tend to go out when I visit. Fried rice traditionally is a way of using up leftovers so there’s a lot of flexibility about what goes into it.

cook the rice the day before or in the morning and let cool
dice chicken, cook and set aside
in a hot frying pan or wok, sauté mange tout beans until just tender
add beaten eggs and lightly scramble
add rice, add a splash of water if too dry
return chicken to pan and heat through
season with soy sauce, salt and a touch of sugar

We all know how important a high-fiber diet is, right?

This is a crocheted Triscuit with a slice of cheddar, cucumber, and tomato.

First time attempting this. I took a bunch of recipes I found online and mixed them together and tweaked them to my liking.  It was way too much for me so I shared it with my nephew ^.^ It was okay for my first time (especially a newb cook like me lol) Thing a day rawks cause this month I’ve cooked more than I have in all my 21 years of living

I have been doing things, but I’ve just been lazy in posting them, so here goes:

Day #24: Fried Rice with Bok Choy and Scallions

Day #25: Hummus and Pita Chips

Day #26: Steamed Kale with Miso-Tahini Dressing

Day #27: Commonplace Notebook

(Traditionally, a commonplace book is a notebook where people copy reading quotations as they come across them. This, however, is a book where I’m hand-writing my favorite poems, and perhaps some prose quotes, so I can carry them around with me.)

x-posted

Twoday I made 2 things. The first was with oil and vinegar, and the 2nd was with some nuts or seedpods I found… I made a pattern with them, and they’re really beautiful.

Today I made my favorite salad.  This salad was made for me over 10 yrs ago and ever since then there has be no other.  Not only is it tasty, but it’s easy to make.  The key ingredients are a ripe avocado and the dressing.  Today’s salad included baby romaine lettuce, baby arugula, celery, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes and diced avocado.   The dressing is a simple balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixture  with crushed garlic, salt, freshly ground pepper and squeeze of lemon. Pour dressing over salad and toss.  I also added some freshly shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano. Yum!  Of course, I would advise not eating this if you have an important meeting any time in the near future.  

This was a really yummy dinner with caramelized onions, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and bacon. The boyfriend invited me over for dinner, but once I got there, I slipped into my bad habit of taking over the cooking. Still, it was a joint effort. We ate this yummy concoction over some egg noodles, it was so good. I can’t wait to have the leftovers, I bet it will be even better after all the flavors sit together overnight.

So begins the final week of Thing-A-Day. While I haven’t been as diligent as I would have liked to be (missed a few posts here and there), it has been a really stimulating experience. I’ve so enjoyed seeing everyone’s creativity and ideas and thoughts and images, and I will miss the internal prodding to get my post done before midnight! I’m feeling a bit inadequate and antiquated today amongst all you talented people and hope that by next year’s T-A-D I’ll have the computer chops to upload some photos or videos myself. Yesterday on a whim I decided to make homemade macaroni & cheese for dinner (haven’t made it in years). My daughter was going to take a photo and upload it for me, but we forgot and ate it all up! It was the perfect hearty meal after a tramp in the snow-covered woods! So here’s to mac & cheese:

Homemade mac and cheese.

Creamy and heartwarming and

homely and YUMMY!

Had lunch with a friend today. No big deal, right? Just soup, bread, and tea. But the conversation was great, the feeling was warm and intimate on a cold, gray, damp day in Pennsylvania. Happy. Dropped my friend at the airport for a flight back home. A little melancholy.

Had lunch with a friend.

Food for the body and soul.

Come back soon, my friend.

 

I helped Gram make breaded pork chops. She uses regular pork chops, nothing fancy. I did all the prep work — dip in flour, then egg then what she calls crackermeal which turns out to be crackers that have been ground finely. The chops are then shallow fried. I don’t know what seasoning she puts in but they’re very yummy and never ever dry. It’s an art.

Today I copied this recipe. I only had 1 package of cream cheese so reduced the rest of the ingredients to fit.

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
• 2 ounces canned diced jalapeno peppers, drained
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Copied from allrecipes.com

I toasted french bread to have with it Very tasty!

This post is all about being an overachiever… or not leaving the house all day, I suppose that you can take your pick. To start off the day I made bagels. I’ve never made them before, and I think I should have let them rise a little more, but they still came out yummy. I made 6 - I left two plain, put garlic on two, and cinnamon and sugar on the last two. I’ve already eaten three of them, so I have a feeling these might become a regular feature in my baking routine.

After I ate some bagels, I got back to work on my pants. I finished them off and I’m actually wearing them right now. I love them so much! I hope that I can get the second pair done soon.

I’m also really happy with the way my buttonhole making skills are coming along. I was always scared of buttonholes, so I never used buttons in my sewing until recently. That said, I think I’m getting the hang of it:

And, last but not least, I also finished up the crocheted wrist warmers. Ahhh, now my hands are nice and toasty as I type!

Only a few days left!

Molto buono.

I had good Sunday. Sunny, warm, bought flowers, this time pink roses.

Well, at least THIS Sunday was for baking. Crazy busy here today, with grocery shopping, laundry, and baking. I don’t normally do much baking but I’ve realized that I really DO need to keep these energy bars on hand. And I would love to make at least most of the bread we use instead of buying it, keeping the ingredients a little more simple and natural. And I had bananas that were going bad, so the only remedy for that is banana bread, right?

Well the energy bars were a no brainer since I’ve made them so many times, but I’m on my 3rd try with the bread. Today’s recipe was a bit better than the other one I’ve been using but I had to trade out some whole wheat flour for white. Oh well. I’ll keep working on it. The banana bread came out super tasty. I actually didn’t have enough bananas, the Daddy ate one this morning (he’ll eat anything!) so I chopped up a peeled apple, cooked it to soften and mushed up the chunks a bit and threw them in. Best banana bread every. Banana-apple-walnut bread. Even the First Grader decided to try it, and then asked for seconds.

I made this cheesecake for today, but we ate most of it before I remembered to take a picture. It is just a plain cheesecake, with a little bit of orange zest thrown in that gives it just a hint of citrus flavor that makes the sweetness of the cheesecake pop a little. The crust is made from cinnamon graham crackers.

I haven’t made pancakes much in the past few weeks.  I’m usually a huge pancake fan.  I mean I can eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I haven’t been cooking lately but making a stack of pancakes doesn’t feel like work at all.  So this is my new pancake mix: coconut-banana-cranberry flavor.  The sweet and rich combination of coconut and bananas is highlighted and contrasted by the tangy cranberries.  I highly recommend eating these pancakes with vegan margarine.

Coconut-Banana-Cranberry Pancakes
(makes 6-7 large pancakes)

1 cup self-rising flour (or all-purpose flour plus 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt)
1 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup coconut cream
3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla soy milk
1 over-ripe banana, mashed
1/2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 to 4 1/2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1/2 + 1 Tbsp. dried cranberries

1. Sift the flour and oat flour with baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
2. In another bowl, mash the banana, and add coconut cream, soy milk, olive oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup.  Mix well.
3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients gradually.  Mix the batter well.  The batter should be runny but not too thin.
4. Use a paper towel to lightly grease the pan and then put it on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, cook your pancakes away.

Today I went to a raw food restaraunt…

Raw Food Restaraunt Song