Friday, February 24, 2012

COOKING: Fondant Roses

I made some pink and white roses today out of marshmellow fondant, trying to get the hang out working with different ways to make them. This fondant was the first time I made it without measuring or recipe. Instead, I kept adding ingredients until it felt right to me. And it's the best dough yet!

Here's the roses:







COOKING: Lemon Chicken

Another Pinterest recipe (that I'll have to link later), I made lemon chicken tonight. It was full of herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc) and it was super flavorful. It was a bit dry, so next time I think I'll add more liquid to create a thin gravy at the end. The chicken made the house smell amazing! I'd definitely make it again.

CRAFT: Apron #2

Finally finished after days of having to sneak around Katie to use my sewing machine, here's apron #2. I did pleating and ruffling for this one, and the body is made differently than last - the top part is shorter and then skirt is longer, as I was using the blue fabric as more of an accent than a base. Here's how it turned out:




Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Apron Prototype #1

I finally managed to finish apron #1! This is my first prototype for my bakery line that I'll be working on to sell. The pattern is my own and it needs a few adjustments, so I learned a lot from this project.
In my rush to sew around my baby's naptime (as that's the only time I can machine sew due to her big fright) I made one huge mistake - I had sewn the ruffled skirt on UPSIDE DOWN! I realized it way too late and didn't have the energy to undo the double ruffle and the seam, so I left it be as it's just for me.

I also made the ties extra long for one size fits all/ for it to fit me when I get pregnant.

It was originally double sided but due to some mistakes it's no longer, but the future aprons in this pattern will be. This one is now just heavy duty, which I need anyway!

Here's some pictures:





I'll be making a new pattern for my next apron, which will be more complicated and hopefully just a girly!

And here's my little seamstress in training (she's my ribbon manager right now!)

Monday, February 13, 2012

COOKING; Zucchini Parm

Contining the Pinterest Cooking, I made Zucchini Parm. I don't have the link for this, but I hardly followed it anyway because I decided I didn't like it. Instead I cut it up, added butter, then poured on Italian breadcrumbs, parm cheese and mozzerella cheese and broiled them in the oven for about five minutes.

Next time I'd use eggwash instead, dip the entire zucchini in breadcrumbs, and add more cheese. Instead of broiling, I'd roast them for a while longer.



CRAFT: Apron WIP

I'm making my first apron! I'm going for a girly apron with ruffles, hearts and cupcakes!

Here's the progress so far:






I had to stop (before I could even finish sewing on the bottom ruffle!) because after about an hour of work, Katie developed an unfortunate fear of my sewing machine and screamed like crazy about it. Even a nap didn't help, so I'm waiting to put on the purple ruffle, the heart pockets, the heart neckline and the straps!

*This apron is two sided, by the way. The other side is a lavander.

COOKING: Supplies




I bought these the other day! One is for a three tiered pillow cake. I can't wait to experiement with it but even the two top tiers makes A LOT of cake!

There's also an embosser for some fondant fun, and chocolate molds.

COOKING: yummy smoothie

I made this yesterday:


I can't fully tell you what it is, because I basically went through my kitchen and threw anything that sounded good in. But it was delicious! It was about a cup of frozen strawberries, half a cup of ice, half a cup of blueberries, a 4 oz container of vanilla yogurt, an unknown amount of orange juice and blackberry lemonade, and a few other things. I was really craving something sweet and we didn't have any, so this was a great alternative!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

COOKING: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches


My second Pinterest recipe I tackled was Crock Pot Pulled Chicken because the picture just looked so yummy and I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen (gotta love when yummy recipes line up like that!)

This came out delicious, but there's a few things I'd change from the original recipe, which can be found HERE.

1) I NEVER cook with frozen meat. It's one of my cooking no no's. So obviously I disregarded that and used fresh chicken breasts.

2)I changed the cooking time. It says 6 hours for frozen meat, less for fresh. At five hours I checked and shredded my meat. It was still raw on the inside. I'd DEFINITELY cook much longer for frozen meat than 6 hours, if I were to use it. I'm not sure if she meant on HIGH instead of LOW temp, but I let my chicken simmer on low for 6 hours, and then on high for 2 more. I usually let it go on low for 8-10 hours, especially when cooking roasts.

3) I didn't have an entire cup of Italian dressing so I used somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4. Still came out wonderful, didn't miss the rest!

4) This is a note to my future self. FUTURE SELF: DO NOT MAKE THIS WHILE PREGNANT! Even though the end product is delicious, I know what sets of my pregnant nose. The strong, oily scents of BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, Worchester sauce and onions would immediately send me bent over the t oliet, so, like sour kraut did last monty, this was my monthly free pregnancy test. However, once it was cooking, this smelled delicious all day long.

I'll definitely be making this again. Not while pregnant, of course.

5) Because of my love for all sandwiches to be toasted, I put the meat and double cheese into the bun and toasted it on 400 for about 5-10 minutes. Once I took it out, I added a tomato, which really added to the flavor. Though I admit, I'd eat the meat without anything extra - last night I put some in a bowl and just ate it with a fork.

Very easy recipe.

COOKING: Pizza Puffs



Pizza Puffs were my first Pinterest recipe I decided to tackle this week. I have a few of them to do, but these sounded yummy. I  miss the old days (re: before having a baby on the outside of me) when I used to make homemade pizza with yummy spiced dough. I didn't feel like doing all that work (a good four hours before even cooking) so I thought these might be a good shortcut.

While they were pretty yummy, they didn't taste like pizza to me. More like sauced up sausage muffins.

I got the recipe from HERE

I substituted chopped green peppers for the pepperoni because I wasn't in a pepperoni mood, and used Italian mild sausage, first boiled and then fried up in a skillet. I used a lot of both sausage and peppers (probably more than was asked for, I didn't measure!). I enjoyed having more "toppings" than "muffin". I also added A LOT of cheese.

These were an enjoyable snack but I don't think I'll make them again. It moreso made me miss my original pizza more than satisfy the craving!

CRAFT: fabric

I got my fabric today that I ordered last week. I've been wanting to make girly, ruffly aprons for a while now and I'm finally going to get to it. I need a few things for them yet, but so far I have the main fabric pieces and the coordinating color thread. One is victionian cupcakes and the other has bakery words all over it.



Hopefully by next week at least one of these fabrics will be turned into an apron!

Something a little like this is what I'm going for probably, with a different neckline, pockets and tie strings.: