new recipes and quiche kick fo'sure..

sundays have become the big cooking day at our casa. we make a few things to make meal planning easier during the week. i'm sure a lot of people do this..


i have been trying to break out of the usual, routine items. 
soo whatcha making?
chicken vesuvio. i picked up a cook's illustrated magazine that was dedicated to slow cooker recipes. i mean, they even had one for lasagna.. i mean really, how could i leave that at the check out counter? 

yeah, i didn't cook the vesuvio in the slow cooker. i didn't want to wait that long. as far as first attempts go, it wasn't bad. i feel like it needed to be richer... maybe in the roux.. in the wine flavoring? 


speaking of wine.. last saturday with decent weather, we invited the mf's over for the first barbeque of the season.. we grilled fresh halibut, green beans and they brought a wonderful salad. i haven't really been drinking beer these days and thought i'd load up on some wine options for the evening. i recently tried two new ones with one of my favorite whites..
quinta da aveleda has become one of my favorites. it has very subtle citrus flavors, not too fruity! 
the alianca also a Portuguese wine, was just a good. there is something about these vinho verde wines. they aren't super sweet. they aren't dry. they are perfect. crisp. refreshing! 
paco y lola.. this  is a spanish white. let's be honest though, by the time the unicornist and i got this one opened. i couldn't tell you if we really tasted those bursting peach and green apples crisp and fun flavors. 

tell you what thought, i'll buy'em all again!
            i also used my cuisinart for the first time..
               made a quick avocado dressing if you will for the halibut. 
                  i wanted to keep it simple, avocado, lime, flat parsley
                     and greek yogurt. perfect. 

now sunday.. it's the beginning games for the stanley cup. so our casa is all about the hockey right  now!
since some of these games are on sunday, i'm cooking before and during. so i gotta choose things that don't need to much of my time or attention. quiche!
as ya know i love the quiche.  it's easy to make. it makes breakfast before work super quick and let's be honest the cheap two for one pie crust tastes soo good. 
last weekend, i made two. one of which was a bottom layer of fontina cheese with parsnips on top then kale then the egg mixture and parmesan. 

i also made granola bars.
i used a receipe from ina garten. i added cranberries and cashews. next time i think i'll do sunflowers and maybe some dried mango...
we were quite happy with how they turned up. 
yummy!


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-granola-bars-recipe/index.html












this weekend i am making yes, two more quiches! the ole stand by.. BACON with sharp cheddar... and a veggie sweet potato, carrot, broccoli with a little green pepper on top with cotija cheese. i can't wait.

for something more substantial..i'm also making black beans with corn, peppers and cotija. that will be an extra lunch or dinner salad. 
altough i've been in the house on one of the most beautiful days we've had in a long time, i feel so productive. i'm ready for the week.


and the since the sun is still shining away, i can now go and enjoy it!

kicking it up a notch..

i don't make new year resolutions... instead i "practice" new year reflections, new year assessments.

where am i? what am i doing with my life... do i like what i'm doing? where i am? 
and the bigger question, if some of the answers are less favorable, what needs to change? 
a little more focus on me, is what is in order for this new year. 
 so far i've been moderately successful. i'm still doing pilates, twice a week when work doesn't interfere with the morning class times. i even tried my hands (and feet) at jazzercise this past week. although, we were quite achy the next few days, we are all in agreement. we're going back next week!
i've started knitting again. picked out a pattern that i liked regardless of whether it was "too difficult".. i mean, there were abbreviations that i didn't understand but shhhit, i can break it down and get it done! 

sewing. 
      i've been sewing again too! 


agan, the things that make us feel the best are sometimes the things we tend to let slide during the 
                   day to day grind. 
                   nope!      
                   that's not what this year is about. 

it's been a while but i started to do some stitching..

i was going to attempt to make some holiday cards. 
it's been a while since i've done that. 


sadly i only have like four actually done.   ... and they don't even take that long to make.  oy vey! 


i missed a few birthdays the past few months as well.

          ho hum.                
someone told me they wanted a card so naturally i started stitching.... 
what else can ya do?

  

all you do to me is talk talk

oooo... ooo...mister kotter

delays ahead

seems like every time i sit down at the computer to update my blog the computer decides it hates me.

that's fine.

i mean who really has anything to say? 

who really needs an "outlet"?   
the previous two posts were done over the past few weeks...so when i refer to dates you can pretty much bet that it occurred a while ago. not yesterday. or the other day.

i have a plastic cup on my desk at work where i fill it up with staples. otherwise they just go all over the floor... in the end it turns out like this....

the only difference is currently the cup is red and longer. i've been wondering if i should try resin-ing them. that would be pretty neat-o just a cone shaped stack of staples. i bet it would make a nice paper weight.
nicer weather kind of equals prime time to resin. hmm i should see what the mc61 thinks.

depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface

i guess that's just one perspective. and this is another. 

that's my long stitch book i made. i plan on putting content on every other page however, i've got other projects that are cutting in line...

oh no you didn't...

oh. 

yes. 

i did! 

finally. 

i've been dreaming and craving the potato onion pie from those good ole chi-town days..ahh leo's lunchroom you are still one of my favorite places um, yeah, fifteen? no more than that... twenty years later?! 

too bad the new owners never cared about you. 

(very sad face here)

anyways, i think it turned out purdy gouda! 

roll the dice and see what you get..

ahh another rainy day in portlandia! after dragging my sorry butt out of bed, blowing my nose, sneezing my face off until it hurts. ... i've decided to embrace the lovely rain.

oh yes, a jedi mind trick... reverse psychology. 

i LOVE rain!

another good class last night. i've done 4 hole stab books before however, i've never done the tortoise.

              ooh, ahh.

i'd say for a first time "stab" at it, i did alright.

it's funny you totally forget how making these books is easy and accessible. i mean, it can be just a little paper and thread. makes a good gift. of course, it could be fancier with more decorative paper or a design patterned on the pages.

from right to left: the tortoise stab binding. the four hole stab binding. a five hole pamphlet, a four hole pamphlet and a three hole pamphlet.
note to self i should make more of these and send them to friends.

forecast calls for rain on and off .. through may?

i suppose this is what we should just naturally expect when living in the pnw.. but a girl can dream that it'll start to feel more like spring and less like winter when it's april... right? 

good thing we've got our hands to keep us busy and warm. 

last night we exchanged our books in class. each person got to talk about their book, design, pesky roadblocks.. mine was different than everyone's book... first, the obvious, i choose the folding book that has sixteen panel blocks, meaning four rows of four. everyone else did the eight, meaning two rows of four. second, i didn't use photoshop to produce an image onto the paper. 

 my dog doug

only one other person did a hands on design to the paper. 

 and it was funny!

Static quo

R(ed) G(reen) B(lue)

watch more TV

instead i did what i feel i do 'best'... 

i hand sewed the design onto the panels i wanted. 

hmmm can you say biting off more than i can chew? 

or what about setting the bar high?

regardless i was quite happy with my results. the teacher noted that every time he looked at his he felt like he saw something new, different.  it's not to say my book was flawless. i wasn't a big fan on how it flopped around when open. however, since the design i chose had a lot of movement to it, it worked a little.

this is just two books, unfolded so you can see the panels, layout and design.

in the end if i were going to change one thing, i would have used yellow thread exclusively on all the books. mainly because the images were cut up from an ink drawing of bicycles. yellow i think would not only stand out but represent the the yellow lines on roads.

our teacher's book was fennel. great example of design and composition. pretty neat-o

this last image is actually a copy of a perfect bound, hand bound, book our teacher did and gave a copy at the first day of class. most impressive.

SPEAKING OF NEAT-O N' IMPRESSIVE. mc61 made quiches the other night. wowzers, the crust on one of them totally blew up. damn, that IS impressive!

i guess it seems like we make a lot of quiches, crustless or regular. to be honest, i'm not sure what else to do with two dozen eggs? i mean sure i can just eat them individually for breakfast but what else? got ideas feel free to enlighten me. next on my agenda for the coming days, working on that elusive raspberry stitch. designing the knitted blanket with a friend, tending to our garden/backyard project and whatever else.. hair cut. yes. cocktails. yes. also, i thought if anyone had a theme they'd want me to design a book around, tell me that too. i'm open to ideas.