Recipe goodness… March 17, 2009

So, although I have been knitting a lot lately, i’m not ready to show off any FO’s just yet. However, I have also been cooking up a storm and I thought I would share a few things with you. First off, folks have asked about my pie crust recipe that I use for quiche, which I LOVE to make on a regular basis. Here is my version of a quiche crust which is really a tweaked version of Angry Chicken’s Pie crust:

Makes 1 Quiche Crust:

1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup unbleached reg. flour
1/2 Cup Corn Masa
1 stick of butter
A small Dash of Salt
5 Tbsp of ice cold Water

Directions: Cut the butter into the flours and salt. Make a well in the center and add the cold water. Roll out between sheets of Wax paper to make the transfer from cutting board to pie pan as easy as possible. Shape edges of pie crust. Voila! Super simple.

I love the flavor the corn masa gives the crust and so does everyone in our household. When I use Pepper Jack Cheese, pasilla peppers, corn and green onions it’s a tex-mex delight!

Also, this afternoon I tried my hand at making butter. Yep, homemade butter! I got the idea over at, you guessed it, Angry Chicken and when I saw how easy it was, I had to try it. I used the food processor method as I am still in the honeymoon stage with the one Nick gave me for the holidays. It was so easy and it was over before I knew it! Amazing! I’m about to try it on some homemade bread that is currently in the oven made from this book. Here’s what the butter looked like after I finished:

Anyway, stay tuned for info on when my first pattern will be debuted for FREE on the Jimmy Beans Wool website. It should only be a few more days…

FO Fair Isle Hat. February 26, 2009

So, here is the fair isle hat that I started last week and finished a couple of days later. I have just been lazy (and working on another invent-as-I-go knitted piece) and haven’t posted it yet. So here it is! I’m also still working on those patterns I am promising to debut this month at Jimmy Beans. They will probably be out mid-month in the e-newsletter along with video reviews. So stay tuned! Anyway, here is my lovely hat. I am pretty pleased with how it came out.

I had to rip it out and re-draw the grid 4 times! It was kind of a PIA (Pain in the Ass) but it came out pretty nice. I can still see ways to change it for the next go-round but I suppose if I didn’t I couldn’t really call myself a designer then could I? Anyway, I am really excited about the new piece I am working on right now. I’ll just leave you with a little clue, it’s the perfect little spring-colored sweater and will be great for layering. Also, it’s quite girl-ish. I’m loving it!

Also, i’ve been obsessing over this home collection by Orla Kiely for Target. I read about it on the Kitty Genius blog which I have been reading for sometime. I just love Ashley’s artwork! Anyway, I love the pear tablecloths and the chair cushions. I am probably going to invest in some. The best part is that the tablecloths are huge and far too big for my little vintage formica kitchen table. I’ll probably cut them down and use the remaining fabric to make matching dishcloths or potholders or napkins! Oh the beauty of sewing machines! I love it.

Getting hammered and eating Quiche. January 22, 2009

So, I didn’t exactly “get hammered” in the drinking sense. Today Nick and I drove to Carson City to go to the amazing hot springs they have there. It’s worth the half hour drive to get out there just to soak in the amazing water for a few hours. I swear the water has healing powers! My back has been acting up for over a week now and it finally feels better! I love the hot springs, primarily because the pool is not so hot that you can actually soak until you are so pruney you would swear your extremities are about to fall off, but also because it is huge. You can actually swim laps there.

Pretty happy after a good long soak.

Actually, the best thing about the Carson Hot Springs is the Hammer. It’s really just the pipe that comes directly out of the actual hot spring and into the pool. If they turn it on at just the right speed, the super hot water and the pressure can be just enough to loosen up ANY tense muscles. In my case, usually my back. Now, you may be thinking, a developed hot spring? How is that better than a natural spring? Well actually, let me tell you. It’s great. There is no cleaning the sand or dirt out of your bathing suit afterwards, it’s just as natural as it comes directly out of the ground and into the pool, and there is more temperature control so you can stay in longer. As the water is constantly filtering through the pool and draining out the other end, it’s not stagnant either and there is no need to chlorinate. In other words, it’s awesome! I’ve been going to the Carson Hot Springs for years, and I never feel like I go often enough.

Otherwise, it’s been a nice relaxing day off. Nick and I slept in and then I got up a bit before him and brewed some coffee from an amazing Organic local roaster we recently discovered, Blind Dog Coffee Roasters. I then made a quiche with a somewhat Tex-Mex flavor to it. I have recently been modifying my pie crust recipe when I feel like a more Spanish flavor. I love the recipe that I got from the Chicken a while back, but sometimes I will cut out one of the cups of flour and instead use one cup of corn masa flour. It gives the crust a nice corn flavor and definitely a more Spanish flavor. Add a little chili powder, and pepper jack cheese to the mix and then top with avocado and you have a really tasty meal! We’ll be eating leftovers of this tomorrow for lunch. Mmm.

How pretty is that?

Other then that, this evening will be filled with some knitting to work on my Prudence sweater, watching Lost, then early to bed. I’m up early tomorrow to teach for Sierra Nevada Journeys–my former employer with AmeriCorps–at one of the local elementary schools for a few hours. Should be fun!

Off to camp September 7, 2008

So, later today, i’ll be back at camp for a week. So excited, but also sad to be away from home for another week. I feel like this summer has not been very productive in terms of the stuff I wanted to do around the house. I really wanted to grow a garden this year but that didn’t exactly happen as I was gone so much. I wanted to brew more beer but we just couldn’t get it together to do that either. Oh well, beer can be added to the fall projects and the garden will have to wait until next year.

My parents are visiting for the weekend. My dad is in Reno for a golf tourney this week and mom came up for a couple days to hang out. We went to Johnny’s for fantastic Italian last night and I baked this pie for desert. Notice how fancy I am getting with the pie decorating:

This pie was strawberry, blueberry, rhubarb. Can you tell I’m obsessed with rhubarb?

Anyway, Nick, my parents and I played cards last night and then Nick and I taught my mom how to play Ticket to Ride…this nerdy train game that we love. My mom like it so much she wanted to play twice!

Also this weekend, we have 3 doggies in the house! Wallace of course, Nick’s parents’ dog Bhodie, and my parent’s beagle Baily. It’s been quite the circus. Here is Nick this morning with the dogs in our ridiculously ugly yard, trying to get them to do tricks for treats…we had mixed results.

My mom brought with her the used serger that she bought for me recently. We will be setting it up along with my yarn winder today in my new in-house crafty space. Pics of that will be coming soon. In the meantime, we made a frittata for breakfast with sauteed onions, summer squash and potato with cheddar on top served with ambrosia melon and toast with my homemade strawberry jam…yum…

Hope everyone has a great week! See ya’ll in a couple days…

My favorite mornings… September 4, 2008

Involve this:

Wake up!

And this:

Silliness

After an evening of amazing Indian Food last night thanks to Schmoxy (my friends from camp, Gecko and Fox aka. Schmoxy, who used to be a professional chef, are staying at the house for a few days), watching the Republican Nat’l Convention and feeling sick to our stomachs, and Apples to Apples, coffee and some quality dog time were much needed. Also yesterday, Fox showed me how to make New England Style Mustard pickles! They are a cold fermentation so we just bought all of the pickling cucs Whole Foods (aka. Whole Paycheck) had in stock and used a bunch of the random jars we had lying around the house. Here they are!

Pickles!

They should be ready to eat in about 5 days! Very exciting! Not only that but this is two days in a row for the blogging…I feel accomplished!

You probably thought I died at River Prom… August 14, 2008

Not so…I have just been out of town for the last week and a half in probably the most beautiful place i’ve ever seen in Nevada…Lamoille Canyon. Sadly, I forgot my SD Card and couldn’t take photos the whole time! I will have some soon but in the meantime here are are photos from the craziness that was this year’s River Prom.

SNJ Ladies

George, Eric, Me, Nick, Matt and Elle

Yep, there were 65 of us.

Sunday night was my boss, and good friend Jonathan’s birthday. We threw him a surprise party and I baked him a birthday pie. This time it was Peach-rhubarb and it was amazing! Also, this time it was much more pretty then last time so I was able to take a picture and not be ashamed. I used the same crust recipe from Angry Chicken, and just winged it for the rest. The Peaches and Rhubarb came from last Saturday’s Farmers Market and were so delicious! Here is my lovely pie…it’s so pretty isn’t it?

Peach-Rhubarb Goodness

Last night, after a full day of moving our office, I went to this amazingly beautiful place we Nevadan’s fondly refer to as “the Playa.” It is this amazing place in the Black Rock Desert (where the famous Burning Man festival happens) that is a dried up lake bed and has this very fine, silt-like dirt that dries in very cool cracked patterns. Anyway, we (Alison, Veronica, Jonathan, Nick, Wallace and I) drove up there to watch the media shower and say good-bye to some fellow AmeriCorps friends who are moving on very soon. It was an exhausting day but so worth the drive to the Black Rock. The Playa is seriously one of the coolest and most beautiful places on earth. when you walk across it, you literally feel like you are walking across the surface of the moon (or at least what you can imagine it must be like, plus a little gravity). Here are a few pics from that little journey…

The Playa at sunset

Nick's Tootsies.

Alison, Veronica, Me, and Nick with Wallace.

Wallace, lovin the Playa.

I’m making quiche tonight for dinner, i’ll let you know how that turns out later…

The Santa Rosa’s and Wallace update… July 29, 2008

So I thought I would begin by saying that Wally Dog is fine. He had Tonsilitis. I know, right? Tonsilitis? Silly Wallace. Anyway, he’s on antibiotics for another week but he already sounds better. He even reluctantly posed for a picture for me this morning out in the yard (he’s a little camera shy sometimes)…

So, I realize I didn’t post much last week but that is because things got a bit crazy. I did bake the Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, but in standard new-to-blogging fashion, it slipped my mind entirely to take a picture of it. However, it was probably the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. I got the crust recipe from Angry Chicken here and for the innards I sort of winged it, but this is pretty much the recipe:

3c Chopped Green Rhubarb

2c Strawberries

3/4c Organic Unrefined Sugar (you could use regular to i’m sure)

1/4c flour

1tsp cinnamon (I like heavily-spiced things, you could probably cut this in half)

1/4 tsp salt

~Mix all the innards together, throw inside the pie crust and top with a lattice design and bake (with a baking sheet underneath it at 375°F for about 40-50 mins. I don’t remember the exact amount of time I baked it as my oven bakes very unevenly and I had to just keep checking it and moving it around. According to all the pie recipes i’ve seen, 40-50 mins seems to be the norm. I wish I had a picture to show you of my face when I tasted it, because seriously, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I even had a piece the next day for lunch. No seriously, it was my whole lunch, I felt like a little kid doing something naughty. The pie itself wasn’t beautiful, but even a master artist spends years perfecting his art… The Rhubarb was just right right amount of tartness and the pie wasn’t too sweet at all (I did cut the recipe down a bit on the sugar.) In short, it was perfect. I plan to make more soon, so I will remember to take photos then and hopefully they will get prettier to look at so that respectable photos can be taken. Either way, this recipe was a winner.

*Note*-I made my crust a couple of days ahead of time and used half of the recipe to make a quiche. After sitting in the fridge for a couple days, it needed a bit of water to moisten it before I rolled it out. I had never made a pie from scratch before, but after struggling with the quiche crust to roll it out, I came up with the genius idea to roll it between two sheets of Wax paper. I’m sure this was something I learned in 7th grade home-ec, but that has long since left my mind. I felt pretty pleased with myself as I very easily rolled out the dough for the pie crust in between those two sheets of wax paper. For, the novice or first time pie-maker, I highly recommend this technique as you can then just remove one sheet, then use the second one to flip the dough into the pie plate . It makes that transition a lot easier. Anyway, enough about pie, i’m getting hungry…

Anyway, lastly, I wanted to share an exciting experience that I had this last weekend. Myself and 3 of my co-VISTA’s attended a Leave No Trace training in the Santa Rosa Mountains in Humboldt County about an hour out of Winnemucca, NV. You may ask yourself, where the hell is that?!?! Well, it is one of the many beautiful mountain ranges that Nevada has tucked away in it’s vastness. We aren’t known as the mountain state for nothing–Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state! Anyway, I took this Leave No Trace backpacking course (you can learn more about LNT here) and it was fantastic! Not only am I now certified to teach others about LNT, I can hold official classes on it and such. Pretty exciting! Anyone who is not familiar with the principles of LNT should really check it out, there are many ways to incorporate LNT into our daily lives. The trip was a lot of fun, and definitely not short on hilarious moments–one in particular when I lost my footing trying to scramble around a fallen tree in the trail and fell backwards completely “turtling” myself with my 50lb pack on. (Turtling refers to when you get pulled backwards by your large, heavy pack, rendering you unable to right yourself, like a turtle.) Yeah, we all got a good laugh out of that one. Anyway, here is a picture of one of the many groves of Quaking Aspens we hiked through.

Have a fantastic day!