Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Cookies Anyone?

I am in "new toy mode" as my husband calls it. Last night I was surprised when a FedEx man knocked on my door with a KitchenAid in tow. I have wanted a KitchenAid ever since I killed my mixer last December making Christmas cookies (it was an accident, I swear). I have refused to buy a new hand mixer because I was holding out for a KitchenAid. That ment no cookies, no cakes, no cheesecake, no frosting...no fun. So, when the lovely new gift from my mom arrived last night I was more than happy. Surprisingly, I didn't stay up all night playing with it. I found it a good spot on the counter and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, got everyone ready and off to school and nap before I played. I broke out the cookbook and made some delicious 100% whole-wheat cookies (I am a whole wheat freak). I started out with Ginger cookies for my husband.
Then I made chocolate chip for my oldest.Don't they look scrumptious? I made a plate of each and surprised my husband and his co-workers and I made a plate for the new neighbors upstairs. I love to bake and even more than baking, I love to give away the things I make.

I have to admit I didn't do it all myself. I had a little helper.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Hooray!

Thank you, Mom!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Food can be Pretty

Lately we have been experimenting with fancy foods. No, not expensive foods. Pretty foods. This all started a while back when I decided to stuff cooked rice into a measuring cup (mainly to measure it out for portion control) and serve it molded to the shape of the measuring cup (like they do in swanky restaurants). That (about 6 months ago) was the extent of our pretty foods until recently. Motivated by the abundance of nice restaurants in Portland my husband has begun to randomly make pretty foods. Here are some of our beautiful (and quite tasty) foods:

This is our "breakfast rice" as my 5-year old calls it. It is just basmati rice with butter (hidden under the blackberry), sprinkled with granulated sugar and cinnamon, and topped with a fresh blackberry. This is pretty much what started it all.















This is another rice dish that my husband and I made together for some friends. It is sweet rice (basmati rice with butter and sugar) topped with raspberry coulis (raspberry juice strained from fresh raspberries) and a golden raspberry.













And Finally, this is my husband's pizza margherita (the picture colors are a bit off). It was delicious. It was a very simple pizza with a handmade (by me) 100% whole wheat crust, tomato slices instead of tomato sauce, chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil leaves. That is it. The basil was very aromatic and lended a nice flavor that really brought out the tomatoes (but not too much). So good and so pretty.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Cloth Wipes

I made cloth wipes. I have yet to use them but they are finished. I stayed up until midnight (much to my husband's consternation) to get these bad boys done. I tried them with a binding but I didn't like how it turned out. I think the flannel was too thick and my husband brought up the fact that poop would probably get stuck under the binding. So, I decided to use a zig zag stitch. This was a very easy and quick project. First get a soft flannel fabric and cut an even number of 8-inch squares (you could also cut a piece that is 8" by 16" and fold it in half). Place the pieces right side together and baste around leaving a gap that will allow you to turn it right side out. Clip the corners and turn it right side out being sure to push out the corners. Make sure the raw edges where you turned it through are folded in and sew all around to finish. Like I said, I used a zig zag stitch but you could just top stitch if you like that look better. I had matching threads so I used different colors for variety. They look really good. Today I made a solution so, tomorrow I will get a squirt bottle and give this whole thing a go. I am really excited. I think I only used about 1.5 yards of fabric to make 15 wipes and I got my fabric on sale so it only cost about $3 for the batch. And to make this all a little bit better, if I fold them in half all of my finished wipes fit nicely in a plastic wipe box.