Zucchini anyone?

Rather than crash in front of a movie or with a book tonight after the baby went to bed I decided to bake. This is something I often want to do until I go downstairs after the bed time ritual and decide that I don't have the patience, energy or desire to spend time in the kitchen.

Tonight however I was determined to use the zucchini I bought a few days ago and turn it into something my little girl will eat! She's not a fan of vegetables as vegetables...or fruit as fruit come to think of it. We keep trying, every day, but this is a method that works for us, at least once in a while. I tried Jessica Seinfeld's approach and decided that the subtitle of "easy" was a complete lie. Plus the 2 recipes I tried were disgusting, to adults and child alike. So, it's back to squash muffins and zucchini chocolate chip cookies. The muffins are yummy and far more successful for me lately than zucchini bread - which has been repeatedly raw in the middle, despite lengthier cooking times and a flawless oven. The recipe is made by the walnuts, but since we haven't really introduced nuts to the little girl's diet yet, they only go in the half destined for grown-ups. The cookies are a new venture. Barbara Kingsolver used these in Animal Vegetable Miracle and they sounded intriguing. Lousy cook that I am, I didn't try one as they came out of the oven. We'll try then on a child and maybe on colleagues tomorrow.

Hopefully the whole lot will be better than the very sour sourdough I made the other day that didn't really rise.

HOLY CRAFT!

Note to self: Stenciling with room temperature butter is never a good idea.

I've wanted to do this a while now and only I've just gotten around to it. I have older stencils tacked up on the wall in my office and they stare down, yelling at me to use them on a daily basis. I've become a Jedi master at blocking their demands out. However, today it was impossible to silence them. So I made a car decal.



It didn't turn out how I wanted it to. The contact paper I was using was like cutting through room temperature butter. Joining two cuts and or trying to make a round cut was close to impossible. At first I was optomistic and wanted to do the whole thing. After cutting part of the body out, I had to change my plan. What I started out doing is completely different than my end game... and I'm actually quite thrilled about it.



I was sitting there cutting out Shauns body thinking, "When I get to the face it's going to be beyond difficult." So, I stopped. I had an arm, a cricket bat and part of a body.

I stared at it.

I called it a few bad names.

Then it struck me. Cut out the tie!

I cut it out and laid what I had before me. I LOVED IT. Not only is it a slightly obscure movie, what I had was a wildly obscure decal.



I don't care if no one gets it. What I care about is making the 4 people who live in this town who've seen the movie, smile.

i smile when i look at it

Total Fluke

I needed to not cook tonight. I decided this after making my dinner, while I had my favorite rhubarb dessert soup on the stove. Yeah, what can I say, I'm really good at making definitive decisions. Phblt.

Anyway, I wanted to do something that didn't involve food, and I am really glad that I did. I realized just how long it had been since I played with my crochet hook when I picked it up and could not remember how to start. Yeah, bad. So then I went in search of a project that was small enough to finish easily this evening and not food. This is what I ended up with:



Meet Blimey, the nearly blind whale! I know, you're saying, "Nearly Blind? That eyeball is a gazillion times bigger than it would be really!" I know, I know. But it took 6 tries before I found a needle small enough to fit through the hole in the back so I could sew the eyes on. Hence, nearly blind. Glad I found one. The eyes make a big difference. That and the tail. I got a little crazy with the tail....

yes i know whale is edible. shut up.

Is this a Sign of the Apocalypse?

While in toys r us last week I saw this doll. Now I enjoy scrapbooking, don't get me wrong, but I find this doll disturbing and it brought a lot of questions to mind.
Are they mocking us scrappers?
Are they trying to brain wash young girls into scrapbooking at a very early age?
Is the infant doll suppose to scrapbook? They recommend girls 3 and up play with this little doll. Are 3 year olds suppose to pretend their baby is scrapbooking or are they suppose to scrapbook about their relationship with their fake baby?
Is the baby wearing a Headband of Creativity?

Tailoring advice, please!

It is time, after years of chocolate, raspberry puree, passion fruit coulis, chlorine bleach and other assorted products, for me to start replacing my chef coats. The ones I have, I love. They are short sleeved so they are great in the summer and when reaching in to scrape out 40 quart bowls of cheesecake batter. They are a women's cut so I don't look like I have on my big brother's shirt and weigh another 30 pounds. They also are no longer being produced, although when they were, they were like a hundred dollars a pop. No thank you!

So I found a short sleeved jacket for twenty dollars. The problem is, it fits in the shoulders and chest, and everywhere else is just not right. Lame! I think, maybe, I could tailor it myself. I know, it's sewing, but I can hem up the sleeves and bottom of the jacket, and I think I could take in the sides a bit. But I'm not sure. Should I even try? Just take it to a professional? Whatchall think?

Food Porn!!

After recently purchasing "Fix, Freeze, Feast" I went on a quest to make the best use of my kitchen time by making lots of meals in advance. I'm not particularly fond of cooking, so if I'm going to spend an hour+ in the kitchen, I'd like more to show for my effort than just one lousy meal that my son won't eat, my daughter will inhale, and my husband will pick at & go "meh".

My first attempt was Chicken Curry. I didn't take a picture of it, but suffice to say, it was little chicken chunks with a yellow sauce over rice. Again, won't eat, inhale, "meh". At least I have lots more of it in the freezer.

Then I tried these mexican stuffed red peppers. Mmmmmm. They were mighty good & I have 3 more gallon bags of the stuffing in my freezer!