teal and tulle

For the past month or two, Beverly’s has featured a customized Mod Podge birdhouse project. After walking by it for weeks on end, reaching the point of being inappropriate, I decided to pick up the brochure and materials to make one for my grandmother’s birthday.

Step 1: Paint birdhouse

Step 2: Apply Washi tape

Step 3: Paint fine coat of Mod Podge & colorful twine.

Step 4: Gift away

As I am my own worst saboteur, I found myself in the kitchen baking chocolate cookies last weekend. Simply because I wanted them.

Did I even work out for them? I walked from the living room to the kitchen to make it happen, so yes Absolutely not.

I wanted to try something new, and came across a series of chocolate crinkle cookie recipes. The cookie seemed simple enough, and they turned out fantastic. Several days later the cookies are still soft and moist. The dusting of powdered sugar adds a great texture to the cookie as well.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients

1 C unsweetened cocoa powder
2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp almond extract (vanilla works here too)
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C confectioner’s sugar

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix together cocoa, granulated sugar, and oil. Beat in eggs one at at time. Add extract.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Pour into wet mixture and blend. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, roll into confectioner’s sugar, and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool for a minute on the sheet before removing to cooling rack. Cookies will need to cool down before eating because they are soft until set.

In our little neighborhood, there are streetlights that line the walkways. Nice and bright, they create a sweet little film noir look in our neighborhood.

Oh, and they shine into our bedroom.

All. Night. Long.

Clearly I need an eye mask since throwing rocks at the lights is probably against the homeowner’s association rules.

I don’t know if anyone has actively searched for an eye mask, but they are harder to find than you would think. What you do usually find is something hideous from the drug store for post-eye-operation or what you have leftover from your last red-eye flight (swore you’d never do THAT again). 

Ends up, sewing an eye mask isn’t too difficult. I found a great mask template here.

Step 1: Trace and cut out your fabric and stuffing for the mask.

Step 2: Pin the items together, inside out, including your ribbon band (I missed this step and added it on after the fact, by ripping out stitches and inserting the ribbon, then restitching. Learn from my mistakes, young grasshopper). Place pin “markers” at the top of the eye mask to tell you where to stop sewing. You should leave a gap of about 3 inches so you can pull the material right-side-out.

Step 3: Sew.

Step 4: Pull fabric right-side-out and finish the top portion with a hidden stitch.

Step 5: Rest easy.

I love a good miso soup. We have limited options for this kind of meal in our area, so imagine my interest when I saw a miso ramen recipe in the most recent issue of Rachael Ray Magazine.

I will admit, I was skeptical. I’m sorry, but what does miss-evoo-garbage-bowl-yumyums-Rachael-Ray know about ramen soups?

Well, probably not much. But, the professional, urban Asian chefs interviewed in her last month’s magazine sure did. I will say, it wasn’t as good as a ramen served in a hole in the wall you’d find tucked away in SF or LA, but for being an at home recipe, it did quite nicely.

I made some modifications to the recipe – adding more ramen noodles, swapping the tofu for chicken, adding a boiled egg.

Miso Ramen Soup, c/o Rachael Ray

Ingredients

1/2 C vegetable oil
2 TBSP crushed red pepper
2 TBSP thinly sliced garlic
6 C low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, stems discarded and caps chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 C soy sauce
1 1/2 TBSP sugar
3/4 oz unpeeled fresh ginger, cut into 2 or 3 large slices
4 oz fresh spinach, choppe
2 C shredded chicken
4 3oz packages instant ramen (discard season packets)
Salt
1 boiled egg

My aunt’s birthday just came and went, and in lieu of buying her a 2nd birthday card, I opted to embroider one instead.

Why?

Because I am a glutton for punishment like coordinating my gift details together.

Trace three different sizes of circles on your card.

Punch holes along your trace lines with a thumb tack and embroider in coordinating colors.

Last weekend I was that party guest. The one who thought to herself “You have ALL day to pick up an appetizer to share. Just go later.” Funny how “later” morphs into the end of the day when you are busy watching The Office reruns doing other things.

Finally, having run out of time to hit the store, I turned to what I had in my kitchen to pull something together. Good thing we had some avocados from our last CSA shipment, along with some fresh cilantro, as I used those ingredients to pull together a homemade guacamole. I have found so long as you have avocados, you can just raid your spice cabinet and refrigerator for like-minded ingredients (lime juice, cayenne pepper, Tapitio) and come up with a winner. The recipe below is one I developed and use most regularly.

Guacamole

Ingredients

2 avocados
1 clove garlic, crushed
3-4 TBSP salsa
1 large green onion, finely chopped
1/4 C lime (more if necessary for flavor)
1-2 TBSP cilantro, chopped
Tapitio
Light dash of cayenne pepper
Salt & pepper

Preparation

Mix all your ingredients together with a fork. Taste and adjust your heat and lime as needed.