Fondue!!! and the next day....

So I have been craving fondue forever. Ok just since Steph's last Bday when we went to Swing in Olympia.....
I finally pieced together a fondue apparatus (from pieces found at the goodwill and Ebay cause I like vintage/used stuff and I am cheap). While shopping at Fred Meyer my wandering eyes spied pre-made fondue cheese!!!! It was 13 bucks but fed my family of four and then some.

I chopped crusty breads, sweet local apples, slightly steamed broccoli and celery into tiny bite sized pieces. We even managed to prevent the children from stabbing each others eyes out with the long skinny forks. Dinner was delicious and took only a few minutes.

Leftovers included apples, bread and broccoli. I turned leftovers into breakfast the next day by making french bread chunks with apple caramel sauce and a fritatta (ms) made with the broccoli and fontina cheeses. It too was awesome. There was even enough left over for second breakfast al la Hobbit style.

Crystal Head Vodka....and bath time.

So I splurged a few weeks or so ago and purchased Dan Akroyds Crystal Head Vodka. The vodka was rather tasty, the best I have had in years but...it is still vodka.

The bottle alone is worth the price. I decided to use mine for bath time.

I filled it with lavender infused oil, foaming soap and some red food coloring. Admittedly its kind of gruesome but pretty cool. yes, I need to clean my bath grout better......

Crafts that I gifted. . . and things I have been up to.

So its been a long time since I posted. I've been pretty busy with work, kids and life in general. I realized I never posted pictures so here are a bunch with brief descriptions.

Above are pictures of the coasters and cards that I made for the Winter Holiday.

Below are examples of wrapping paper.

In my free time I am either reading or putting stuff together hoping it looks ok or sticks. Here are examples of other crafty things I have done recently. 

This mirror was made a long while back and is covered with pictures I took of local Low Impact Developments. They ranged from yupster condos in Portland to tree houses on Bainbridge Island. I thought it was a great way to remember the trips I took to visit these sites and so it hangs by my front door to remind me that we don't have to pillage everything to make something beautiful and livable. 

This one here is a Star Wars case I made. The artwork is from John Karpinsky. You can get his prints and learn more of him at his Etsy shop. I really liked some of the set prints that he has and am thinking about purchasing one of the bigger ones. I think they'd look great matted and hung. I plan on keeping this for myself.  It was an old Sony Micro TV case. 

Last but not least, this is a wool crochet heart I am making for a friend who just had a valve in his replaced.  It isn't quite anatomically correct as I am missing a valve but given the circumstances I guess its ok. I haven't finished the veins yet but will shortly. They are made of a fine red mohair, the rest is bulky wool. 

So that is about it in a nutshell. I anticipate someday finishing the Haliburton Suitcase shelving unit and will post pics thusly. In the meantime, don't forget to take time out to try something new, even if its a small thing. 

Sausage gravy baby

So the kids and I make biscuits all the time. Its something so easy that they can do from start to finish (they still don't taste as good as mine cause they don't yet understand the magic of not overworking the dough...) and they love to snack on them with breakfast or dinner.

Being its winter and all I wanted something substantial to go with the biscuits and decided to try my hand at sausage gravy. Its been since I was a kid really that I have had it but its so basic you don't even need an actual recipe.

Take ground country style sausage (ground sausage with rosemary, salt ect) and break it into small pieces. Brown in deep skillet
Take separate liquid measure and whip some flour into milk. Keep adding to browned sausage till at the consistency you want. You add flour to milk separately and whisk to prevent lumps.

While sausage is browning, follow your favorite biscuit recipe. Top with gravy and snarf.

Holiday extravaganza.

Here is a smattering of various posts all related to the Thanksgiving and winter holidays. (Pictures to follow later, too lazy, spending time with chilluns)

Things I made to eat this year:
Homemade stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Turkey
________________________________________________________________________
Homemade stuffing, no recipe just wing it but guidelines to follow:
One round of rosemary bread, Trader Joe's is pretty good
One loaf of pugliese, Traders Joe's has this too
one fennel bulb
two to four eggs
one large onion of your choice
broth of your choice
butter

cube the bread, dry in oven, place in bowl.
cut up onion and fennel and saute in butta
add beaten eggs and broth together
combine all ingredients in a large roasting pan, add as much butter as you want and roast at 350 till you achieve the desired doneness. Some likes it crispy some likes it soft.
______________________________________________________________________
Cranberry sauce that beats the pants off of the canned stuff.
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar, the real stuff I used organic cane
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, a dash of ground cloves and a few dashes of nutmeg (gives it a bit of heat and smells great)
1 bag of whole cranberries.
Boil the water and sugar, stir, lower heat
add berries and other spices.
wait till berries burst. I take a sieve and fork to mash them down because I don't enjoy chunks in my food.
Simmer for a few minutes more, bottle or place in final dish. Sauce will thicken once cooled.
______________________________________________________________________
turkey
one turkey, size depends on how many you are serving.
sea salt
fennel bulb with fronds
large onion
garlic
olive oil

preheat oven to 350 (if you have HOURS for roasting otherwise 450...)
chunk up fennel, onion and mash hole head of garlic.
take out gizzards/neck etc, replace with onion, fennel and garlic
rub the outer skin with olive oil, massage that baby then add sea salt, rub that in for crunchier crispy skin, yum.
Convection roast or just roast for hours, till juices run clean and the internal temp is what it should be. I don't check temp, I just slit the turkey and look at the color and texture of the meat to determine its done-ness.

Hooch update.

Remember the blackberry hooch? Weeeel, we could have had a great class on the science of propulsion yesterday when I decided to open it. Luckily I was smart enough to place it in the sink and point it away from my face but regardless, a huge explosion ensued creating a splatter of red gooshy blackberry matter for a 5 mile radius.

I got some of the lovely stuff in my eyes and proceeded to run for the bathroom to flush it out. Turns out alcohol in your eyes doesnt fee good. Needless to say the loud sound and subsequent screams on top of the kitchen being sprayed in a gooey red, gore like substance didnt give the husband and kids a warm and fuzzy. They thought I had lost my eyes and rushed around out of concern for my ocular membranes.

Fun time I tells ya.

For those that want to know how it turned out: I was left with a quarter of the bottle in tact and it tastes like a sweet vodka and smells like a lambique. Back into the cupboard it goes till the sugars are fully digested.

Christmas crafts

So this year its small salves, soaps, eye packs, bath salts and coasters. I will post them as I make them,