Sadly, this blog is a bit sleepier than I'd like these days. Pop over here if you'd like to know why.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Yum-Ditty-Yum-Yum

I haven't decided what to call these little bundles of biscuit-wrapped-potatoes / carb-delight yet. But they are good.

Potato Filled Biscuits

Make them and taste for yourself.

Ingredients:
1 tube of pre-made biscuit dough
2 small to medium-ish baked potatoes
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green onion, chopped
a few pinches of Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup (or so) grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Add oil olive and yogurt to a medium sized bowl with potatoes, mash them up
3. Mix in garlic and green onion, add cheese
4. Salt and pepper to taste

It looks like this:

Potato Filled Biscuits

Next, pop open the tube of dough.
1. smoosh out the little biscuits flat

Potato Filled Biscuits

2. put a dollop of potatoes in the middle

Potato Filled Biscuits

3. wrap the biscuit up tight around the potatoes

Potato Filled Biscuits

4. plop the biscuits in a muffin pan

Potato Filled Biscuits

5. bake for 11 mins

6. get 'em out of the rack to cool

Potato Filled Biscuits

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Birds for Dickey

It's pretty easy to form a friendship in high school with someone when both your last names are phallic references. It takes a little more work to keep the friendship alive when one of you uproots and resettles states away.

I made these little twirly bird tea towels for a friend to complement her (what I imagine to be) darling 1920s studio apartment. I stitched the birds facing opposite directions so they can look at each other and chat while hanging. I also had to free hand much of the purple bird. That led to slight wonkiness, but overall, not bad. Pattern here.

Birds for Dickey

Happy Birthday, Dickey!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Arctic Blast '09

Ugh. Let's be done. Please?

Arctic Blast 2009

Friday, January 23, 2009

MLK Jr Loved Homemade Bread

I can't say that definitively, but most people do, so I feel like it's a safe assertion. Naturally, I spent the MLK Jr holiday in my kitchen baking bread and making soup.

It was my first bread attempt aside from a failed batch of pita bread several years ago. I had it in my head that bread was hard, but this bread... pretty easy. I followed this basic recipe from justpeace.org. I liked the way it turned out but I think I'll try for something more savory next time. It was really good slathered with homemade pesto.

Bread

Now the soup! I followed this celery soup recipe from 101 Cookbooks. It was good at the time but I can hardly bear to look at it now. I added a few noodles because I saw someone else do it... mistake. Kinda gluey after awhile. Plus, it makes a lot.

Celery Soup

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Gnomes

All of my dishtowel embroidery gifting left me with a single dishtowel left over. I was planning on stashing it with all my crafting supplies when I realized that I could make myself something! I came across a cute little pattern of a gnome from Badbird's. I figured I needed about four of them to be truly happy.

My dishtowel is now a little gnome village.

Gnomes!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Vermicomposting Love

Did I ever mention that I was a guest blogger at Trying To Be Greener? Well, I was! You can see my post here. It's all about the worms.

Trying To Be Greener let me know today that the post was picked up by this site over here.

I'm blushing a little bit. They said it was "comprehensive."

That's pretty neat.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Arctic Blasted Embroidery

After I had finished all of my handmade holiday gifts but was still trapped in the house due to snow... I attempted to keep my sanity by making Arctic Blast 2008 gifts.

I decided to customize hankies for a couple of friends based on their interests. One likes to dress up as Link from the Legend of Zelda and has high hopes for convincing a tattoo artist to inscribe a triforce on his hand. (I know, he's a lot cooler than he sounds). It was kinda obvious what type of hankie to make him.

Link

The other likes really insane movies that basically freak me out yet nonetheless intrigue me. Like, nunsploitation...this stuff is for real? Wanting to keep with the idea of nuns but not wanting to do any horrific embroidery, I decided to go with a G-rated angle.

Nunsploitation

As far as I could tell, they were excited by the product of my nerdiness celebrating their nerdiness.