Just a Minute
After more than an hour, the bus was dropped off its jack, the driver gave a wave of his hand, and we all filed back onto the bus. I slept fitfully the rest of the night, and awoke in the morning on the outskirts of
Accent Pillow
Today I made a second accent pillow for our bedroom. My mom gave me the pillowcase sometime last year; today I put a filler pillow in and hand stitched the pillowcase closed.
A Pretty Pink Purse
My daughter asked me to make her a purse from the pattern I used last month for Christmas gifts. I found the bag pattern via Pinterest from the blog Very Purple Person and I love it, its so simple and versatile. Its reversible, so Viv picked out two fabrics from my stash – she chose a pink sheet with butterflies, and a vintage curtain with flowers. We worked on this project together, she did some of everything but she got bored about halfway through so I finished it alone.
Decorative Pillow Using Paella Rice Bags
I have a long term project for this year (or hopefully just this winter/spring) to redo our master bedroom so that it doesn’t look quite so much like a college apartment. I’ve been contemplating the look I’m after for quite awhile now, but the physical transformation has been on the back burner. The color scheme will be mainly greys, white and black. This is one of the small projects for the bedroom – a decorative pillow for the bed. Spain is near and dear to us, so this decorative pillow is a little tongue in cheek reference to that beautiful country:
I used paella rice bags to embellish the front of the pillow (the back of the pillow has the paella recipe off the back of the rice bag as well) and used a blanket stitch on the edges of the pillow to echo the stitched detailing of the bags. The cover fabric is leftover yardage from our living room curtains, and the pillow inside is re-purposed from a throw pillow we’d stopped using when we got rid of our couch. I generally have no trouble finding Matiz Paella Rice – look in the rice aisle of any moderately well-stocked grocery.
Here’s a detail of the rice bag:
Chorizo Hash a Caballo
I’ve had a packet of Spanish chorizo sitting in the fridge for a few days that didn’t end up in our New Year’s Eve paella, and I’ve been contemplating how to use it. Today I had an inspiration, the best kind where I ended up using a few other ingredients that were also on the clock to whip up this chorizo hash.
Ingredients
- 6 Yukon gold potatoes
- 4 chorizo sausage links
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 12 oz spinach
- 1/2 cup beef stock (or water)
- 4 eggs
- salt
- black pepper
- butter (for frying eggs)
Directions
- Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 10 minutes, until they are starting to soften but are not mushy. Remove them from the water, let them cool until you are able to handle them, peel them and chop them into rough cubes.
- In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the sausages and a few tablespoons of water. Cover the pot and cook, turning the sausages occasionally and adding water if needed, until the chorizo is browned and cooked through. Remove the chorizo from the pan and slice it into 1/2 inch slices.
- Add the diced onion to the pan, stirring occasionally until the onion is softened and brown. Turn the heat down to medium and add the beef stock (or water) to the pan and mix to incorporate the browned bits from the bottom.
- Add the potatoes to the pan, then dump the washed spinach on top and put the cover on. Let the spinach cook down for a few minutes, then take the cover off, stir it up, and add the chorizo back to the hash. Let everything cook together for a few more minutes while you get plates ready.
- Fry an egg for each serving – put some chorizo hash on each plate and when the eggs are ready, add an egg to the top of the hash. Serve at once! Its not quite as good cold.
A Cosy for my Kindle: Making a DIY Kindle Cover from Fabric Scraps
I got a Kindle for Christmas this year, which was very exciting. I’ve got it loaded up with some books, downloaded a few from the local library, and I’ve even already finished one. Its been so fun to use, and I like to keep it handy in case I have a few minutes to read, so its been sitting out on the end table, the counter, or my nightstand. With two little kids in the house, however, that screen was starting to look mighty unprotected. Then today I wanted to toss it into my bag to take with me, and I realized that was a scratch or 30 waiting to happen – thus, the idea for the Kindle cosy!
Its got a pocket for the Kindle to slide into, with a front cover that folds over and is secured with a button. I used scrap fabric from two of my Christmas projects, and strengthened both the front and back covers with cardboard to give it more support and protection. I can already see where I could make some adjustments, but I’m happy with it, especially considering I did it working without a pattern. Maybe I’ll need a few more of these – I could match the cover to the genre of the book I’m currently reading!
Northwest Stew with Dried Cherries
Today was the last day of a long winter vacation, spent taking down the Christmas decorations and organizing the garage (our party staging area / clutter stash-it spot for the past two months). I wanted to take advantage of some uninterrupted time in the house to cook something before the rush of the week started up, and I’d had this Northwest Stew with Dried Cherries on my mind since I saw it mentioned on a blog as I searched for another recipe. It’s from one of my favorite, most-used cookbooks: “Simply Classic” from the Junior League of Seattle. Every recipe I’ve made from this book has been a hit, and this one turned out to be no exception. Everyone of us loved it, even the four and two-year olds ate it right up which means it really was a success! I served the stew with mashed potatoes, which went together lovely.
I did make a few changes to the recipe, mainly by including cranberries as well as cherries, cooking the stew completely on the stovetop instead of finishing in the oven, using olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and omitting the sugar. I’m glad I left the sugar out; it was quite sweet with just the dried fruit (I wasn’t able to find dried cherries or cranberries without added sugar).
Northwest Stew with Dried Cherries
Adapted from the book “Simply Classic” by the Junior League of Seattle
Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, boneless
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups yellow onion, thinly sliced
6 oz dried tart cherries
6 oz dried cranberries (craisins)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup beef stock
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, quartered
Directions
- Cut beef into 1-inch cubes. Combine the flour, salt, allspice, cinnamon and black pepper in a plastic zip top bag. Add beef cubes to the bag and shake to coat evenly. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of the beef cubes and brown evenly, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Transfer meat to a medium bowl, and repeat with the next two batches of meat, adding a tablespoon of oil before each batch.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, then add the onions, cherries and cranberries. Cook until the onions are soft and starting to brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Then add the vinegar and water and stir to scrape up and incorporate all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the onions are brown, about 5 minutes more.
- Add the beef cubes and any accumulated juices back into the pot, along with the wine, stock and mushrooms. Cover and simmer on low heat until the beef is tender, about two hours. Uncover the stew at that point and simmer another 30 minutes so that the liquid thickens. If the stew seems too dry, add more stock or wine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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