Honey Lemon Fruit Salad

After the mass amounts of junk food intake at the graduation last week, this week I’ve really been craving fruits and vegetables. I raided the produce section for all of my favorites and decided to make this simple fruit salad. It has watermelon, apple, nectarine and kiwi, tossed with a simple one to one mixture of honey and fresh lemon juice. It is so very delicious, and since it has the lemon juice it keeps well in the fridge for a few days without the fruit turning brown. This is so perfect for summer!

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

I love twice baked potatoes. If they weren’t food, I would marry twice baked potatoes. So, when my sister and I were talking about a side dish to make for a party at her house (during the weekend of our brother’s college graduation!), we were sad that twice baked potatoes would be too much work for 27 people. So, we decided to turn it into a casserole! It was a hit, and was all gone by the end of the night! The recipe is below.

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

• 7 lbs baking potatoes
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 5-6 tbsp butter
• 2(ish) cups milk
• bacon bits
• shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
• salt and pepper
• sour cream for serving

Wash the potatoes and poke each a few times with a fork. Bake at 350 F until done (tender when poked with a fork). This will probably take 30-45 minutes. Quarter and peel the potatoes. It’s ok to leave a little bit of flesh on the peelings, actually a little preferable. Toss the peelings into the bottom of a casserole dish (we used a disposable turkey roasting pan, it was a great size for this).

Put the flesh of the potatoes into a large bowl. You want to work quickly so the potato innards stay warm. Mash the potatoes with the cream cheese, milk, butter, salt and pepper until they are a good consistency, maybe a little more wet than your average mashed potatoes since they will be baked again. Layer over the skins in the baking dish. Top with bacon bits and cheese. (You can also add anything else you usually enjoy in your twice baked potatoes, such as green onion, garlic, chives, etc…) Bake until it is all warm throughout and the cheese is melted.

This can also be made ahead, and stored in the fridge for a few hours. Take out of the fridge, warm to room temperature, add your toppings and then bake. So, not only is it yummy, it can also be a time saver since it can be mostly assembled in the morning for a large diner gathering!

We served this with a little sour cream on the side, and it was completely gone by the end of the night, with tons of compliments! Enjoy!

French Bustle

I’ve never bustled a wedding dress before, and I was a little nervous working on my best friend’s dress, but I think it came out alright. I tweaked it a little more after we took this picture so it doesn’t hit the floor quite as much anymore, but she wasn’t wearing shoes when we did this, so I left it a little long. (As an aside, I’m not sure that I could wait less than two weeks before my wedding to get shoes, but that’s another story!)

It looks really pretty when she moves too, and it only takes a minute to put up or down. I think the best part about a french bustle is that it is all hidden on the inside of the dress, so it’s easier to make things more functional without having to also worry about making them pretty!

Nintendo DS Cover Tutorial

My very nice roommate lets me use her Nintendo DS all the time. She has been keeping it in a little styrofoam sleeve that it came in, but it was starting to fall apart. So, the other night when she was out, I decided to give it an upgrade, and came up with this:

Here is how to make one of your own!

Materials Needed:
Scrap material (less than ½ yard should be fine)
Fusible interfacing
Closed cell foam (see example here)
Velcro (sticky or sew on is fine)

Instructions:

1. Cut out the following pieces from material:

• 6 pieces that are 4½” x 6½”
• 4 pieces that are 1½” x 4½” (side piece)
• 4 pieces that are 1½” x 6½” (edge piece)

Cut out the following pieces from interfacing:

• 6 pieces that are 4½” x 6½”
• 2 pieces that are 1½” x 4½”
• 2 pieces that are 1½” x 6½”

Cut the following pieces from closed cell foam:

• 3 pieces that are 3¼” x 5¼”

2. Iron the interfacing on to the matching pieces. For the edge and top pieces, you will only attach interfacing to two of the four pieces because these do not need to be as stiff as the front, back and flap.

3. Pin two of the 4½” x 6½” pieces with right sides together. Sew along three edges, leaving one of the shorter ends open. Repeat with the other two pairs.

4. Clip corners.

5. Turn right side out and press.

6. Insert the closed cell foam into the pocket that you’ve made. It should have a bit of wiggle room inside this pocket, enough to topstitch around. If you need to trim it smaller, this is the time to do that.

7. Turn the edges in of the open side and pin. Topstitch closed. I switched thread here to a contrasting color; you can if you want as well. I used a topstitching needle for this part to get neater stitches. Continue topstitching all around the outside edge for all three pieces.

8. Do the same thing for the edge and top pieces. Stitch on three sides with right sides together, clip corners, turn right side out, and press. Topstitch opening closed, and also the other short edge.

9. Pin one of the side pieces (1½” x 4½”) to one of the larger pieces. Sew together. Repeat with the other side piece.

10. Pin and sew another one of the large pieces to the sides that were just attached to get this:

11. Now it starts to get tricky. Pin and sew one of the edge pieces to the front of the “tube” that you have made.

12. Now pin and sew the newly attached edge to the other side.

13. Take your last remaining large piece and edge piece; pin and sew them together.

14. This step is particularly tough to execute. I had to move my sewing machine needle alignment to the left to get it lined up right. You will be sewing through a lot of fabric. Pin and sew the edge flap that you made in the last step onto the main body of the piece. Make sure the seams will face the same way as the others (out).

15. Attach your Velcro. Stick it on if you have the sticky kind. I had the sew on kind, so I just sewed it on by hand, just catching the top layer of material.

16. You’re finished! Now, go and travel and play your DS in style!

Here’s a few more views of the finished product:

Here’s an easy-to-print version in pdf: nintendo-ds-cover-tutorial

If you make one, or have already made something similar, leave a note in the comments, I would love to see what you’ve made!!!

That’s Just the Way I Roll…..

As promised, here is another attempt at one of the wonderful recipes from Baking Bites. I multiplied the recipe by 1 1/2 because that is the amount of yogurt I bought (two individual serving cups). It made so much dough; I was afraid it would take over the kitchen! But they are so spectacularly soft and yummy.

I had one straight out of the oven with some butter, there’s nothing like fresh rolls, still warm so that they melt the butter, yum! I’ve also made some egg salad sandwiches and some buffalo chicken subs on the longer rolls. I’m so glad that I’m on a bread kick lately!

Peanut Butter Chip Brownies

These delicious brownies were made from this recipe over at Baking Bites. (Has anyone noticed that in general, I’m in love with her recipes? In fact, look for another one coming up soon here!) I replaced the nuts with 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips – I reserved a handful that I didn’t mix into the batter and sprinkled them on top right before they went in the oven to give them a pretty look.

I also reduced the baking time by 5 minutes and didn’t use the water bath at the end to cool the brownies. I like my brownies a little undercooked so they are fudgier, and I can’t not eat a warm brownie straight from the oven. The really excellent thing about these brownies are the edges are really chewy, not crispy or hard. Also, they are chocolate and peanut butter so they have to be great!

Conclusion of the Quilt Chronicles

After a very busy day of quilting and embroidering, the quilt is finished! I used the same dark blue of the backing and the middle stripe to add a wide binding, which I top stitched closed using the same light blue quilting thread as the rest of the quilt. Here’s a wide shot of the whole quilt, finished and ready to go.

I then embroidered the Japanese characters for marriage and love into the upper left and lower right corners. Here is marriage:

And love:

And finally here is a picture of it all folded up and ready to go.

I am happy to report that it was very well received, and I think that the extra touch of the embroidery really helped make it special. Surprisingly, just as with the last quilt I did and gave away, I’m a little sad that it’s finished. I really enjoy making these, and to give them away is always a little bittersweet!

Coconut Shrimp Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Last night’s Lost dinner was most excellent. It was pretty warm yesterday, so my original dinner plan of sloppy joes and mashed potatoes didn’t sound very appetizing. This was an amazing alternative. I breaded some raw shrimp in coconut (flour first, then egg, then coconut) and pan fried them. It is really easy to burn the coconut, so the oil shouldn’t be too hot!

The salad is just a baby arugula mix. The peppery flavor of the arugula was a little strong for the lightness of the dressing, so next time I might go with baby spinach instead. The dressing was fresh lime juice, honey and olive oil. It was like a lime kick in the pants, which is awesome if you like lime as much as I do. This recipe is definitely going in the must have again, over and over category!

Cucumber Sproutlets

The cucumbers have sprouted! Aren’t they adorable? They grow really fast – some days about 3cm in 12 hours! Once they get their first “real” leaves, I’ll put them in the big pots outside.

I also planted the other seeds outside – some lettuce, basil, lemon basil and green onions. Hopefully they will sprout soon!

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Banana cake with peanut butter chips and peanut butter glaze. I love the combination of peanut butter and bananas, and this cake was no exception – it turned out great! I replaced the butter in a standard glaze with peanut butter and it worked wonderfully. I used about half a bag of peanut butter chips for this recipe, although next time I might think about using the whole bag since they are a little sparse in the cake.

Knit-Obsession

I have a definite problem with these dishcloths knitted from cotton yarn. The problem is that I can’t stop making them. I buy the cotton yarn whenever it is on sale (which is too often!) and I will make them until I’m out. I don’t even need to look at my hands anymore when I am knitting them – it is mostly garter stitch, with a few yarn overs thrown in for good measure. I am especially fond of these, with the brown and green they remind me of Andes candies!

Anyone need some dischloths?