Nachos!

It has been extremely hot here these past few days. I always find it a challenge to get excited about eating anything when it’s this hot, especially since using the stove or oven for more than a few minutes is out of the question since we don’t have air conditioning.

Last night I made these nachos - they were just perfect. The base was refried beans and melted jack cheese, the warmness of which was offset by lettuce and black olives. On the side is some salsa, sour cream and guacamole I made from the excellent recipe posted by Catnip and Coffee.

I tried to make this the healthiest version of nachos that I could - I used vegetarian refried beans, low fat sour cream and tried out some multi-grain chips (which were actually pretty good!).

As I was putting this all together, I realized that I felt a little silly plating out nachos for myself. Ever since I started blogging, I automatically try to make a pretty presentation even though I’m going to sit in front of the TV and nosh it all down in under 15 minutes. But then I thought about it a little more, and it really makes dinner feel a little bit more special, so I think I’ll keep my strange little habit!

Cool Pasta Salad

I made this pasta salad for a barbecue this past weekend. It was very refreshing, since it was about 95 degrees out! It has rotini pasta, cucumber, green pepper, muenster cheese and black beans with italian dressing. The beans give it a nice little burst of protein without having more meat, which was good because we had the largest pile of ribs that I have ever seen!

Wild Kingdom

Having a little rest on your coffee table, this tiny snake looks pretty calm and harmless….

…but when he shows up in a place you would never expect, he might give you a little fright!

I made this little snake with my newfound crochet skills - just single crocheted a tube starting from a spiral bottom, starting from the head with variegated camouflage yarn. It would have been a great idea to stuff him as I went along, but poking all the stuffing in there later worked out eventually. I also threaded some copper wire inside to give him some bendy-ness, although if I was going to give this away to a small child I would probably skip that part. He did have some shape forming abilities without the wire, just not as good.

The only problem I have left is that he needs a name, preferably one that starts with an S. Any ideas?

Granny Square²

For those of you who mastered crochet long ago, this post will not be too exciting (unless you can envision this as a meager start to an afghan). For me, however, it is a huge step up that I finally figured out how to make a granny square.

Now it seems so simple, but I really did struggle with this! I finally got it through my head with Crocheting for Dummies, which I found at my local library. The book has very clear descriptions of the different stitches, with tons of pictures (both animations of each step and photos of what the finished product should look like). I definitely recommend it to anyone struggling as much as I was with crochet! Now, on to amigurumi!

The Garden - It Grows!

Just a little update on my balcony garden. Apparently when you put young cucumber plants into 40 mph gusts of wind, the cucumbers do not win. So, I had to start over with the cucumbers, but this batch is doing much better! I have two pots, but only one is doing really well. Soon I’ll thin these out and put a couple of the good ones into the other pot. I love how once they start going, there is nothing stopping them!

Also going very well is the leaf lettuce. I think that this may be my favorite to grow, mostly because I can have a little fresh lettuce at every meal, and I don’t have to worry about finishing up a head of lettuce before it goes bad. Also, if cut right it will grow a second crop pretty quickly. It’s so easy to eat healthy when all the food is growing right outside your door!

The basil and lemon basil are starting to come in now as well. They are just starting to get their second leaves, soon they will probably shoot up as well. I can’t wait for pesto, yum!

One of my other favorite summer garden treats are green onions. I love them in just about everything, I’ll even eat them plain, dipped in a little salt. This was often how we ate them at dinner growing up, when grandpa gave us the surplus from his garden, so it reminds me of home!

Hopefully it will only be a few more weeks before things start becoming ready to eat - I’m sure you’ll see more before then!

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!