Tuesday, September 28, 2010

No. 6: My embroidery project


So a while ago I told you I was going to learn how to do embroidery, and I did! I used the tutorials here and I also made some up. It was super easy and lots of fun. I decided to do it on a sweater here are some pictures.




I think it turned out pretty cute! I need to find a new project to practice my sweet embroidery skills on.

Monday, August 23, 2010

No. 5: Amazing cookies

I love cookies, I am going to say that cookies are the best treat. Why? Well here are a few reasons. First, they are portable, and can be bite size. Second, they can be a vehicle for lots of chocolate, peanut butter, and many other delicious things. Third, they can be very different, crunchy, soft, gooey, crunchy/gooey, or cakey. Basically cookies are the best! With that said here is a delicious recipe that I recently made:


2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 sticks of butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Chopped frozen mini Peanut butter cups!! Lots of them!

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Add Baking powder , soda, and salt. Add flour in increments (so you don't get a flour explosion.) Add chopped peanut butter cups. Put on baking sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees.


Friday, July 23, 2010

No. 4: I have decided

I have decided that I am going to learn how to embroider. The end.

Hopefully I will have something to show you next week of my new adventure!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

No. 3: Birthday present for the husband


So my husband's birthday was this past week, and he is so hard to get presents for. So I thought I wanted to get him something he could use, and he will be teaching school next year and he will need to wear ties everyday so I thought I would make him one. I found a great tutorial here at Purl Bee. She has the pattern and the instructions, it was super easy and it turned out great. The only thing that my husband said he would want different is that the skinnier end was not skinny enough. So I took some pictures of the last few steps, here they are:








I found the fabric at a Goodwill in Tucson, I had waiting to use it for something special because I thought it was so fantastic.






Here is the finished tie, I think it turned out great!




Saturday, July 10, 2010

No. 2: Avocado Chocolate Chip Cookies


I know what you must be thinking, avocado's in cookies that is the weirdest thing ever! I know that is what I thought too. So I read an article, I can't find it now... but it said that you could replace butter in baking with avocados, since avocados are high in fat. But they have less saturated fat and no cholesterol compared to butter. You might be thinking "oh no this lady is a crazy health nut!" but don't you worry, I LOVE BUTTER! In my opinion there is nothing better than anything cooked in or baked with real butter, not shortening, not margarine. Butter! So now you may be thinking why I would go and ruin a perfectly good chocolate chip cookie with the addition of avocado. Well it was purely because I wanted to see how it would turn out. I just replaced the butter in the recipe for the same amount of smashed avocado. And here is what I think about avocados in chocolate chip cookies:

1. My favorite thing about adding the avocado is the wonderful green color it turned the dough! It was fantastic!





2. Because avocados don't melt like butter the cookies stayed in little balls that was kind of cute but kind of not. I like when my cookies spread out and take true cookie form...these did not.





3. Since I did not like the little ball cookies the second batch I smashed them a little bit with my fingers (to prevent dough sticking to my I wet my fingers just a bit.)






Overall thoughts: I don't know that I would do this again unless I was making them for someone who could not have dairy or I really wanted green cookies.  The avocados don't affect the taste, so they still do the trick if you want something sweet. The texture is just different; they are super moist and chewy.  They are slightly healthier for you, which makes me feel better that I ate like 15 of them!  

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

No. 1

So this is where I will be recording my cooking, baking, sewing, and crafting projects. I think this will be super fun!