22
Nov, 2008

kale, conquered

the other night, we finally decided to cook up the bunch of kale i’d picked up at the farmer’s market a week or so ago.  we have this one kale recipe that we’ve tried and liked from martha stewart’s everyday food magazine.  it involves whole wheat spaghetti, bacon and fontina cheese in addition to the kale.  the first time i made it, i thought, ‘hmmmm….. this is good, but it feels somehow not quite like a main dish.  needs a little something extra.’  so we tried chicken.  chicken was okay, but didn’t really add anything to the flavor of the dish and maybe actually blah-ed it up a little.  so the other night when i was cooking it up, i just couldn’t bring myself to add the plain shredded chicken we keep in the freezer to add to dishes.  i had pretty much resigned myself to eating the dish as-was, and then i remembered this recent blog post from orangette. a fried egg?  perfect!  i combined the two recipes into my dinner and ended up with something like spaghetti carbonara with kale.  and fontina cheese.  and garlic.  i have to say that i will probably not eat this dish without an egg ever again.  the yolk smooths out the bitterness of the kale and binds the whole dish together in the most delicious sort of way.  i’m actually looking forward to the leftovers.

for convenience sake, and because i did some tweaking, here’s the new recipe:

kale carbonara serves 4

4 slices of bacon

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lb. kale, stemmed and chopped

1-2 cups chicken broth

1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti or angel hair pasta

1 c. fontina cheese, finely shredded (could substitute another cheese if preferred.  fontina is a bit like parmesan, maybe slightly less sharp?)

4 eggs

1.  fry bacon and crumble into a small bowl.  pour out at least half the bacon fat into a small bowl.

2.  saute chopped garlic in remaining bacon fat until golden.  add chopped kale (in two batches if necessary) and saute until wilted.  season with salt and pepper.  add enough chicken broth that the kale won’t burn and cook until soft (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally.

3.  meanwhile, cook and drain pasta.  toss with kale mixture to combine and add about half of the cheese.  portion into 4 shallow bowls or plates and top with more shredded cheese and crumbled bacon.

4.  fry an egg for each bowl and place it on top of the pasta to serve.

extra delicious served with a thick slice of toast and a glass of apple cider.

Posted in autumn, yum | 1 Comment
20
Nov, 2008

a gift for a friend

i had tea with a lovely friend of mine about a month ago.  we hadn’t talked for a long time and this visit was such a great chance to catch up and deepen our friendship and we both had difficulty stopping chatting when it was time to leave.  she is a knitter and i am a sew-er (i can’t bring myself to type “sewer” as in “one who sews” because that word, well, has another meaning.  is that really a correct word?) and during our conversation, she mentioned to me that she’d always wanted to try knitting with rag strips, but couldn’t imagine sewing all of the strips together to make the “yarn.”  well, i figured that with my easy bias-tape tutorial, i could make quick work of sewing all of those strips, so…i decided to surprise her with a gift of rag yarn!  there was a painting at the tea house that she pointed out and said she just loved the warm red and yellow colors the artist had used, so i decided to go with that as my inspiration.  i looked in several thrift stores for good sheets in reds and yellows and…. meh.  i didn’t find much.  finally, i purchased a light pink and a light grey sheet–both cotton sateen–and three bottles of liquid dye (one red, one yellow and one tan to mute the red and yellowth down a bit).  i dyed the sheets (yellow was easy, red was a little trickier, but not impossible) and then i found this easy knotting tutorial online that doesn’t involve any sewing after all!  i marked the fabric at 1.5″ intervals and ripped the sheets into strips (much to the delight of my kitties), then following the instructions on the site mentioned above, i knotted the ends together and wound them into the balls pictured above.  i think the sheets were queen size (maybe full?) and each yielded about 4 softball sized balls of yarn.  the instructions suggest using size 19 needles.  i’m assuming that means something to knitters?  i gave them to her tonight and she was so excited!  i can’t wait to see what she makes with them (but no rush!).

Posted in crafty stuff | 1 Comment
19
Nov, 2008

a gift that keeps on giving

i saved the best for last!  i wanted to make sure i had photos to post before i told you about this splendid scarf made for me by my minneapolis friend.  isn’t it beautiful?  it’s got this fuzzy textured velvet on the back and then a collection of jewel-toned fabrics that i just love.  the reason i say that it keeps on giving is because i’ve gotten so many compliments on it already that i feel gorgeous just wearing it and it makes me smile even when the weather turns dreary.  thanks, m!  (and little l!)

Posted in crafty stuff, winter | 3 Comments
17
Nov, 2008

minneapolis weekend

this past weekend, we drove up to minneapolis with some friends to visit some other friends and had a very fun time.  and lots of pie.  there’s a little place, about halfway there where we like to must stop for pie whenever we drive up north.  they have the tallest meringues:

and check out the pile of candied pecans on this slice of pecan cream cheese pie (can you see the cream cheese on the bottom?):

i ordered the pumpkin cream cheese and it was lovely.  mr. happy stuff got the pecan cream cheese which just about sweeted him out for the day and the slightly tart raspberry sour cream (visible in the foreground above) was happily consumed by one of our traveling friends.

other non-pie highlights of the trip included visiting the downtown minneapolis library and discovering the “post secret” project display (i didn’t take any photos because i wasn’t sure that was allowed.),

crafting wooden bookmarks using permanent markers and flocking:

visiting crafty planet (although i was very jealous that i don’t live in the area–especially when i saw the awesome finger puppet felting class that was going on in the back of the store.  they were making little monsters!!):

malt and onion rings at snufffy’s:

and staying up until 1:00 in the morning.

we had fun exchanging favorite websites and blogs and chatting about crafting.  i helped my friend create a new banner for her etsy shop and now i know how to make one for myself if i ever get around to doing that.

the morning that we left, we woke up to a dusting of snow and i had to take a few fun photos of that too:

i’m already looking forward to my next trip out there.  maybe i’ll come by train next time!  but then i’d miss the pie….

thanks for a wonderful visit!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
11
Nov, 2008

ghana postal workers

a few months ago, a friend mentioned, in passing, something about the postal workers in ghana and the “music” they make while they work.  just listen to this clip and see if you don’t smile.

Posted in la la la!, stuff that makes me smile | 2 Comments
10
Nov, 2008

fun mail

i love getting packages in the mail.  even when i’m expecting them, they’re still more fun than credit card offers and unwanted catalogs.  they’re even more fun when the person sending them uses a fun fish-decorated box and makes tiny notes on the newspaper padding:

and i do love the way these fused glass pieces turned out in the end:

thanks again, rebekah!  you went above and beyond!

Posted in crafty stuff, fun stuff | 1 Comment
08
Nov, 2008

hot shower

sometimes you don’t appreciate the little things until they’re gone.  apparently, i accidentally unplugged the water heater yesterday, so this morning, when i woke up, groggy with the early morning, stuffy and coughing from my head cold, aching in weird places from raking the leaves yesterday, i realized with chagrin that the only shower available to me would be a chilly one.  mr. happy stuff quickly diagnosed the problem and plugged it back in, but there was no way the water would be warm before i needed to go to work, so i just jammed a hat on my head and shuffled, sniffling off to work.  i picked up 8 dozen donuts and two carafes of coffee in preparation for my monthly popular program, “donuts with dad” and idly wondered if i’d bought too many donuts.  sometimes i end up with more than a dozen or two leftover.  no worries.  today, we had record attendance–somewhere around 130 people.  happily, i now have a lapel microphone and a tiny speaker that helps me to be heard even in the back of the room without having to shout.  i think the program went pretty smoothly, all things considered.  and my favorite part?  my co-workers said they didn’t care if i went home early after the program.  so, i went home after everyone else had gotten their lunch breaks.  and i took a four hour nap.  and then i got my hot shower.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
06
Nov, 2008

women’s retreat

last weekend was the annual women’s retreat for our church.  as always, it was a time to reconnect with friends and take the time and space to just breathe.  i napped.  i went for a run.  i made some beautiful cards.  i ate some cheesecake.  i stayed up until 2 a.m.  ahhhh….. thank goodness for that extra, time-change hour.

Posted in autumn, stuff that sparks a glow in my soul | Comments Off on women’s retreat
05
Nov, 2008

this block’s heading to hawaii! (can i justify hand-delivering it?)

i was lucky enough to spend some time yesterday morning and this morning in my craft room.  i love spending time in there.  i lose track of time and my brain gets totally soaked in whatever project i’m working on and i always leave the room feeling so much calmer.  i wanted a pretty short, immediate-gratification project, so i brought out this month’s common threads fabrics from amber in hawaii.

although they seem to be all the rage these days, i haven’t personally done a lot of “plan as you go” log cabin blocks, so this one was fun for me. after i chose my center image (love that birdy fabric with the line drawing flowers!) i just started building, one side at a time. and i only had to rip out one seam for a re-do. i hope you like it, amber!

i love how this flower ended up looking like it was wearing a roof for a hat!

Posted in crafty stuff | 3 Comments
04
Nov, 2008

halloween from head to toe

i know these are a little late, but i had so much fun with these little elements of my outfit last friday that i had to share them with you.  mr. happy stuff thought i looked like the wicked witch of the east.

Posted in fun stuff | 2 Comments