March recap

It's been a while since I posted, so it's only fitting to do a recap of March.
In the kitchen: For our St. Patrick's Day and green food lab potluck, I made green mac and cheese:

There was a pork roast in the slow cooker, served with bbq sauce, mashed potatoes, and salad

We found a new Cajun place in Hoover, The Cajun Cleaver. It's a butcher's shop that also sells frozen Cajun dishes. We had their shrimp and corn soup (terrible burnt smell, didn't bother Tom too much), crawfish etouffee (it was spicy rather than flavorful, but overall okay), boudin link (the ratio of rice to other ingredients was off), and Andouille sausage (that was good). Overall verdict, La Crosse still has better Cajun food than Birmingham).

I had one apple and one overripe banana that needed to be used. I also had pie dough in the freezer, so I made mini pies. Banana pie is something from home that I love. Home version: cook banana with sugar until black, use in pie filling. My version, mix banana with lemon juice and brown sugar, use in pie filling. The added bonus, the small pies (there were 6 total) were perfect to pack for lunch.

 St. Patrick's Day: we were out and about that night, which is unusual for us home bodies.

Last weekend, I took a quick trip up to Nashville to visit BFF Susie Beth and her family. This was the first time that I saw their newly bought house, and I loved Julia's (their 19 month old adorable baby) company. It was really nice to catch up with Susie and her hubby. I left Nashville, energized and inspired (we did a lot of brainstorming for the wedding).

Feeding the ducks and the geese with Julia

This past Friday was the defense deadline for students graduating in May, so the week was full of public defense meeting, including Melissa (from Tom's lab), who defended on Thursday. Congratulations! Woot woot!

On Wednesday, I had this stomach bug that made me pretty useless that day. I was tired for the rest of the week, and have been caught falling asleep on the couch every now and then.  I even took a nap on Friday, even though it was Tom's birthday. Being sick meant that I didn't have a gift ready for Tom :( I made it up by being his chauffeur on Friday. We first stopped by the store to get his gift (a very good bottle), then to Best Buy, and finally (after trying several stores that had 20-30 minutes wait time) Buffalo Wild Wings.

I was able to run a few errands this morning. I bought detergent and CVS-brand Pepto for $1.46. I like savings like that. I just clipped all my coupons, something that I hadn't done for a few weeks. After this post, I will be doing our meal plan for the week. I'm also hoping to post our past months budget early next week.

Ooohh! We also got an amazing surprise on Friday!! We can't wait to try it. It's going to be hard to save this Saison for our anniversary. 

Hope y'alls March was great! 






 

Tasty Tuesday

In the past few months, I've been really indulging my cravings for eggplant and Brussels sprouts (not cooked together). So last Thursday I made my version of moussaka, which is layers of boiled potatoes, white sauce, broiled eggplant, and meat sauce. I really liked it. It also made for some tasty leftovers for lunch the next day. Yes, I forgot to take a picture. 
On Friday, Tom said that the leftovers would be great with garlic bread. So as soon as I got home, I put the bread machine on, and made a two pound batch of dough. One for garlic bread for that night and the other for pizza some other night.
I made three variations of the garlic bread. One with just garlic and cheese. The other with garlic, chopped jalapenos, and cheese. And the last one I reworked the dough with chopped jalapenos and cheese inside it. I forgot to take pictures :(
On Sunday I made pizza for brunch, in two varieties: regular pizza (meat sauce, mushrooms, and cheese), and breakfast pizza (egg, green onions, meat sauce, deli meat, and cheese). They both turned out great but I was more impressed with the breakfast one.

 

We're having a pot luck on Friday at lab. The theme is St. Patrick's Day/green food. I wanted to make a potato dish but got vetoed by Chantelle. So I'm going to dye food green - in the form of mac and cheese. I'll try to remember to take pictures of that. 

Oh, I gave in to my Girls Scout cookies craving, and ordered three boxes of Samoas last Friday. I've "hidden" two boxes. We'll see how long they will last.

Life lately

Major event: There was a fire a few blocks away from the house. I was video chatting with Grace (from whom I got a postcard!woot woot!) and kept hearing the fire trucks in our neighborhood. I somehow missed the first hour. Still managed to get a picture from the balcony. Tom and I also went for a stroll in the neighborhood. We went as close as we could before being stopped by the smoke (we maintained a safe distance and complied with authorities on scene). No injuries have been reported. However, this was an apartment complex that students and visiting scholars use (both Americans and foreigners). Sadness.

Shopping: Lately, I have been hitting an average of 6-8 stores every time I go shopping. The thrill of finding the best deal usually keeps me going, and at times I come home without having bought anything. Last weekend though, I bought craft supplies, including a sewing machine. This past Saturday, my 3 hour shopping spree included finding two new pairs of jeans and two dresses. I was a bit surprised by the jeans because both were a size smaller than what I usually get. At first, I thought that the store labels their clothes wrong. There have been news reports about how stores would label a true size to a smaller one, just to make their customers feel good and buy the items. I then remembered that all but one of my current jeans are from this same store. Anyways, at the next store, since dresses run on the smaller size, I picked up the same dress in three different sizes  and tried them in order of bigger than actual, actual, and smaller than actual. To my surprise, I fit in the smallest one. I was very happy.

Sewing machine update: I re-did the downstairs curtain. I will have pics later. I love the machine. Thanks Em for the recommendation. I will have to play with it some more. I have three more curtains to make.

Crafts: Here are a few paper flowers that I made with streamers (for the green and yellow roses, and the pink rose/peony) and coffee filters for the large peony. They were part of the Pinterest Challenge and are crafts that I wanted to try and see how pretty/easy/time consuming/costly they would turn out.These are somewhat arranged in the cut bottles that I made a few weeks back. I am debating putting a decorative wrap on the glasses - ribbon, lace, doily, burlap, or leather twine.
Coffee filter peony are the cheapest and easiest. Takes about 15 minutes to make one. Next level: dye the filters.
Green and yellow piece: comes out at ~$4 a pop including the Styrofoam hemisphere. It took me about 5 hours to make one and there were some ouch! from the hot glue gun. That time also includes me changing the set up at least twice.
Pink flowers: saw this from Scrapbook Etc. magazine from Jen. I did not like the unclear instructions in the magazine and there wasn't much more online to help with those. It took me about 15 minutes to make one, but they are very delicate. I have to find a better way to hold them together.

I also made some wire picture holder from 18 gauge steel bought from Home Depot. Next level up: put picture (I just happened to have this picture on hand, Tom and I in front of Vince Lombardi at Lambeau Field) on cardstock and find a more creative way to stand it up. Maybe using wine corks.

It's been a dream of mine to have a wreath up throughout the year. I finally got to this task, in time for St. Patrick's day. I made a yellow yarn wreath to which I will pin different things as we go through the year. This month, we have felt shamrocks and roses. I've rearranged the roses so they are more open. Yes, those are Mardi Gras beads re-purposed as a handing handle (here is the link to one of the tutorials for the wreath: http://www.danielleburkleo.com/2010/10/diy-yarn-wreath-with-felt-flowers.html)

Tasty Tuesday

And the slow cooker saves the day(s). I had a beef stew with potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and peas in the crock pot on Sunday. We are also trying some quick cooking brown rice. I plated the rice and stew in containers for a quick grab-and-go lunch. In the morning, I just add lettuce to the bowl, grab pre-bagged grapes, and a yogurt. Lunch and snacks are ready!

Oh March!

For March, I'm
Excited: about my new sewing machine!
Worried: about the weather - we are having 20-30 degree swings
Watching: Big Bang Theory re-runs and Revenge
Reading: The newspaper? Real Simple magazines
Listening to: NPR's Car Talk, Says You, and other funny shows
Creating: Curtains
Cooking: More slow cooker meals
Loving: Quiet early afternoons, drinking coffee and reading
Hoping: my friends and their families are okay after Friday's tornadoes
Looking forward to: my upcoming trip to Nashville (date to be set), booking our trip to Alaska, and planning a trip for our dating anniversary

Finally Friday

A shout out to my high school BFF, Angie, who now lives in Australia. I received this in the mail at the beginning of February, and it made my day!
Thanks Ange! I loved reading from you (follow up from this post) and I realized that you read my blog! 

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

Crock pot to the rescue this weekend. On Friday, we talked about slow cooker meals at lab. I came home and decided to make a slow cooker meal. Poor planning for Friday's dinner, but great for the weekend. I didn't have to cook this weekend and could run errands and work around the house.
I made a pineapple chicken - canned pineapple chunks with the juice, chicken breast, sliced onion, sliced carrots, sliced yellow pepper, a few dashes of soy sauce, and a few dashes of teriyaki sauce. Cook on high for about 4 hours until chicken is cooked. Serve with rice, and add dashes of tabasco. I had recently purchased some quick cooking rice - I didn't like it as much as regular rice, mostly because I couldn't get the directions right.

Bottle Project - Part 2

So the goal of this project was to create centerpieces from empty glass bottles. The idea is to use the bottles as vases, which means cutting the bottle. This involved some trial and a lot of errors.
If you do this, please use safety glasses, work gloves, common sense. Have a sink full of water and make sure that the fire extinguisher is on hand. After cutting, the edge is really sharp. Since these are purely ornamental and we don't plan to touch them, we are forgoing the sanding step. No one was hurt during this project.

Sunday Feb 12 - trial 1: using fire to score the bottle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWYjMlYH50
Basically soak a piece of twine (I used crochet yarn) in acetone (I used 70% rubbing alcohol), and tie the twine around the bottle. Set the twine on fire to "score" the bottle. Then drop the bottle in a sink full of cold water. Tried this with a beer bottle (yes, I tried it with the label on). It worked!

Saturday Feb 18 - trial 2: proceed with a wine bottle. Tried three different kinds of wine bottles and relighting the twine several times. Nothing. This wouldn't even score/crack/scratch the bottles. Bummer :(

Sunday Feb 19 - trial 3: bring in the big guns. Well, I went to Micheal's and bought their bottle cutter kit (I had a 50% off coupon from the Sunday paper, and a gift card). The kit has a glass cutting blade on a stand to score the outside of the bottle, and a metal bar that you insert inside the bottle and hit the bottle at the score line from the inside. Tried it on one wine bottle. It worked! Yay!

This is the bottle cutter. Yes, that is a 15 ml Falcon tube. It contains mineral oil. The instruction said to use any household oil (but not cooking oil) between two cuts. Mineral oil is a household oil right?









Monday Feb 20 - trial 4: uh oh. The  metal bar did not want to go in the other types of bottles. We tried putting the bottles in hot water and then in cold water after scoring it, but to no avail. Bummer :(


This is the metal bar. The loop at the bottom is the part that you use to hit the bottle. It is also the part that will not fit through the neck of some bottles. 













Sunday Feb 25 - trial 5: The idea is if the tool didn't work, I would return it and scrap this project. I scored the bottle with the tool, then used a candle to heat the bottle at the score line. Then I ran some tap water on the score line and it worked! Yay!

I cut all the bottles that I had in the house (only greenish and clear ones) in less than 2 hours. In Part 1, there were the champagne bottles that had residue that would not come off the bottle. I cut those as well. I figured I could use some pretty ribbon or scrapbook paper to go around the bottles and hide the residue.









Next trial: This technique produced some sharp and rough edges. Most of the time it happened when I heated one spot too long and it stressed the bottle beyond the score line. I just saw a YouTube tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXngPx3w3M)where after scoring the bottle, you pour hot water on the score line and then run cold water. This produced a smooth edge.
Also, the glass cutter does not produce one continuous score line. I guess that will come with practice. There two models of bottle glass cutter, one at Hobby Lobby and the other at Micheal's. From the YouTube tutorial, it looks like the Hobby Lobby one might be the better tool. Oh well.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this.
Tom has to give his approval - he may request that I sand down the edges. I may say no.

Bottle Project - Part 1

Almost all centerpieces have some sort of glass/vase. We decided to forgo buying vases/mason jars etc... and decided to re-use what we have: wine bottles. This a two-part post: Part 1 is removing labels, Part 2 cutting the bottles.
Part 1: Remove labels.
We have a project that has been on going for two years. We have a board that we use to rate beers and wine that we encounter. We also save interesting bottle labels just for fun (like Tom's Dixie Dex corn whiskey).
To remove labels: Put hot water in bottle. Soak the bottle in hot water. Wait for about 10 minutes. If you want to save the label, I recommend peeling the back label (if you don't care for it) and start at one corner. Experiment with that one, before peeling the front one. If the back one is not peeling easily, put it back to soak.

Note: this is not always successful. I feel that there are five outcomes:

1. Success. The label is off the bottle, with no residue on the bottle. This is easier with glossy labels. I found that local wines also come off easily.

2. Success. The label is off the bottle but there is residue on the bottle. Use some elbow grease and a kitchen sponge and try to rub off the residue. BFF Laura's mom taught me that the damp corner of a kitchen cloth works wonders to get this off.
3. Same as part 2, except that no matter how much you rub, the residue will not come up. This is great if you don't care for the bottle.
4. Part success. The label tears but you can fix it with decoupage glue. Let it dry after peeling and then try to put it back together.
5. Failure. The label is ruined. The residue will or will not come off.

I think a lot of it has to do with luck - you never know which labels will come off easily. The above picture was a champagne bottle. All three had the same result. You can still read the label (not shown) but it is super thin since most of the label stayed on the bottle. I couldn't get all of the residue off.
Part 2, coming up tomorrow.