Recipe Extravaganza

Coming to you from Portland

I decided to finally go through all of my bon appetits from the last two years and pick out my favorite recipes.  I will rarely cook something if I don't have a picture of it to be tempted by, but luckily this magazine pretty much includes a photo with every recipe.  I cut out my favorites and organized them into my recipe book.  Hopefully this will entice me to start cooking again.  I hate getting stuck in a rut and just cooking the same old stuff over again.  There are so many unique and amazing recipes out there, most of which are very simple. 

Isn't that picture on the left gorgeous! They are homemade ice cream sandwiches dipped in melted chocolate, then coated in sprinkles and crushed up candy bars. Yummm!

The recipe on the left here was featured in the restaurant issue and a Portland Restaurant called Laurelhurst Market was named in bon appetit's top 10.  It's steak with onion rings.  I'm planning on making the dish myself and then going to the restaurant and ordering it to compare.  I'm sure mine won't come close, but I'd like to try. 

I spent all day making this cake from a two page recipe in one of my magazines.  The ingredients cost me $24 which included eight sticks of butter and 32 ounces of chocolate.  I was determined to ignore the cost and avoid shortcuts so it would come out perfect.  However, I couldn't find a pasta machine at the store, which was required to make the ribbon for the top.  I thought I might be able to roll it out, but the chocolate just stuck to the wax paper I rolled it on.  Out of desperation I rolled out chunks of the chocolate and molded the ribbon with my hands.  As you can see, this compromised the aesthetic of the cake.  My mom told me it was beautiful, but once you see the picture of what it's supposed to look like it looks like a major fail.  This is the hardest recipe I have ever followed and I am determined to get it right, so I ordered a pasta machine from Target.com (they only have them online), but I got free shipping and maybe it will one day inspire me to make fresh pasta.  Another thing I would do differently is to save more of the butter cream filling from the layers to smooth out the sides of the cake.  The recipe only says to save 1/2 cup, but the cakes end up cooking with a little hump on the top, which makes the stack have huge gaps, leading to the lumpy sides on my version of the cake.  I spent about eight hours making this cake and lots of money and now most of it is sitting in the fridge, because it is so rich that we can only eat a sliver of it at a time.  Was it worth it?  The jury is still out on that one.  

weekend movie review

coming to you from pullman

probably could have done some studying this weekend, but i chose to watch movies.  first was on friday, the dilemma.  it was semi-entertaining.  had a couple of big laughs interspersed with a lot of not laughing.  found myself interested in knowing what happened, but overall, not very invested in the characters' lives. i really love jennifer connelly so that was a plus...but i don't like winona ryder very much, and she was the "villain" so i guess that was perfect.  i don't really understand "bromances" either.  i remember when this movie came out there was a controversy over the "gay" scene where vince vaughn gives a presentation about how electrical cars are gay.  it really was out of place and the writing definitely could have been different there.  overall, would not recommend this movie.

skip it



next, on friday evening/saturday morning (because it wasn't interesting enough to keep me awake) was "bending all the rules". i thought, hey, bradley cooper is in it so it must be at least entertaining.  it was a low budget movie, which would be fine if it was good.  sometimes bad movies can make up for it a little by at least being fast paced, have a couple of good characters here and there, and a good wardrobe.  i just didn't really like this movie.  i really disliked the main character - a twenty-something female who was dating two guys in an open relationship, and couldn't get her shit together.  i'm sure my strong dislike of her reflects on me somehow, but i'm not going to think about it.  i don't think they were going for likable anyway, they were going for "real".  my weekend movie marathons are for escaping, not to watch someone else's crappy life.  would not recommend this movie.  would especially not recommend it if you accidentally don't turn it in on time and end up paying double to the redbox.

skip it

late saturday morning movie was "everything must go".  i thought it was really well done and clever.  reminiscent of will ferrell's character in stranger than fiction, which is the only other will ferrell movie that i can actually remember the plot to.  usually block his movies out.  for instance, i'm pretty sure that i have seen "step brothers" but i have no memory of the plot line.  anyway, liked this movie. 

get it

lastly, sunday morning, was "life as we know it."  it was a good romantic comedy.  predictable, funny, a couple of hot guys, and gave me what i wanted in the end.  Josh Duhamel and Josh Lucas are super cute.  i would like to see Josh Lucas in more main character roles.  would definitely recommend this movie for the entertainment factor.  a good romcom. 

get it

if you would like to see any of these movies they are all available at redbox!  i feel like this post is an advertisement for redbox...
movies I'm looking forward to:
The Ides of March - mostly because ryan gosling is in it, but it actually looks good
New Year's Eve - this movie looks identical to "Valentine's Day" except that is takes place on new year's eve instead of valentine's day; like valentines day it has a ridiculous ensemble cast - but i still really want to see it.

i'm really glad that it rained today.  the rain makes me feel comfortable.  it's really starting to feel like fall.  week six of the semester starts tomorrow.  11 weeks till christmas break.  that sounds painful....7 weeks till thanksgiving break (not much better). 

My projects so far...At least the ones I have pics of

Coming to you from Portland

This is a view of our front yard from the roof.  I forgot to take a before picture, but imagine that there was grass everywhere you see barkdust.  I chopped out the grass around the shape my dad drew and then ordered six yards of barkdust to fill in around it.  All of this over labor day weekend!  The boss man doesn't acknowledge most holidays or weekends as a reason to slack.  The best part was all of the people who complimented me as I worked.  One guy on his bicycle said when I was done I could come by and do his yard next.  Another guy actually slowed down in his car and said, "Nice work!" out his window.  And then there were the half dozen people on their way down to the dog park.  I had no idea we had such a friendly neighborhood.

These are the beams that we replaced all around this house on 26th in Northwest Portland.  There were 26 total.  My dad cut the beams and made the front groove with the bandsaw.  Then he filled and sanded over all of the blemishes (there were quite a few).  Finally, I primed and double coated them with a beautiful dark chocolate color.  Then we actually went on site to install them.  I went up the ladder once and never went back up.  32 feet in the air on something wobbly that isn't secured to anything was just too much for my nerves.  So my dad did all the heavy lifting and walked those beams up the ladder after removing the old rotten ones.  I shaped and hammered metal caps on each of the beams to keep them from rotting from water damage like the old ones.  We put in a ton of work on replacing these beams and they actually serve no fuction to the house.  It is just an embellishment that is supposed to look like it is supporting the overhang of the house.  But they are really just for looks!!  Crazy.  The owner was in the process of having the house painted when we left, so I plan on going back and getting a final shot with the new paint job, which will give the 130 year old house a nice face lift.  Side note: I love Northwest Portland.  If I had a job downtown I would totally settle in one of those cozy looking apartments off 23rd.  I'm almost positive that I would never be able to afford any of the houses in my lifetime, but the ones up on the hill are outstanding.

This is the shot of the roof before we started installing the deck.  I wish I would have gotten a shot of the roof before I cleaned it, because the roof and gutters hadn't been cleaned in seven years, and it was quite a transformation.  This is the part of the roof closest to our backyard and the window directly ahead will become and entrance point from Sister's bedroom.  Eventually we want to extend steps North from the deck so we can use one of the big windows as an entrance.

This is the deck at midpoint, and this is only the first day of production.  It took two days for my dad to frame the whole thing, and I've spent half a day installing the floor boards.  I'm nailing four boards together at a time with spacers, but I'm not connecting them to the deck at all.  The floor boards need to be able to lift up easily for if we need to clean the deck, and the entire frame of the deck was designed to be easily removable for when the roof will eventually need to be replaced.  There are really only a couple of boards holding the whole thing up, but because of their angles to the house, it is an amazingly strong structure.  Another add on we eventually want to do is a bar and seating area that extends further up the roof.  I also want to install a pully system so that we can BBQ on the deck below and send the burgers straight up to the roof!  I can't wait for late night star gazing and summer sunbathing on this little outdoor sanctuary.  A photo of the finished product is soon to come.

sunday afternoon project - organize cards

coming to you from pullman

most of sunday was spent organizing my papers (huge stacks have accumulated), art supplies, old class notes.  this involved buying a lot of Tupperware.  one project in particular was to organize my cards.  I have lots of unused cards and think that maybe if they were organized, i would actually use them instead of running to the store every time i need a card.  i have a card for probably every occasion...just hard to find.  so, had great idea to organize them.  set up camp on my bed so that i could watch a movie at the same time. 

 the "before" picture.  drawer of cards on the left
including a "happy boss's day to the top banana,
from one of the bunch" card that i think my boss
will appreciate (boss's day observed on Oct 17th
 this year - don't forget!); supplies on the right

 addy helped throughout the entire project

 dividers cut and ready to go; my labels were: thank you,

blank, Christmas, invitations, misc. holidays, misc.,

stamps 'n things, and envelopes

some of my favorite "misc." cards were an "I will miss

you" card that never made it to it's intended recipient -

unused, but I remember who I bought it for, and an "I'm

so happy you said yes" - well, to that effect anyway, and

they actually said "no," which is why I still have the card.

 this is where addy chose to spend a large

portion of her time during the project

finished!  very pleased with the final result.

watched no strings attached while i was organizing my cards.  the second movie in my weekend movie marathon (just go with it, no strings attached, and something borrowed).  it was more rom than com.  not a waste of a dollar, or whatever they are charging at red box these days.  some of my favorite moments were when he made her a period mix, when she said he gave her premature ventricular contractions (although i think what she meant to say, was he gives her an AV block; premature ventricular contractions feel like a skipped beat, but it's actually an extra beat that is initiated in the ventricles instead of the SA node; AV block is literally your heart skipping a beat...or two.  i'm sure she wasn't being literal.  As a side note, to this aside, i am having premature ventricular contractions as i write this from having too much coffee), and when he told her she eats like a baby dinosaur.  also, kevin kline was in it, which was awesome.

happy crafting!

countdown: 4 days until fall

fALL sEMESTER mINIBOOK

coming to you from Pullman

ever since i saw my friend amanda start her summer minibook i was super jealous and wanted one for myself. seemed like a lot of work and i was living with my parents for the summer so i didn't have my art supplies with me. as i saw amanda's progress i was even more certain that i wanted a summer minibook of my own. by the time she posted her last installment here i was inspired. but by then the summer was pretty much over and collecting all my pictures and ticket stubs from the summer seemed overwhelming so i decided i would just wait till next summer. then i thought, heck, i can make a minibook for any time of the year that i want. i got some more inspiration from amanda's inspiration at minibook by elise and then got started.

 
i used all my favorite ideas from amanda and elise. and a couple of my own. not much has happened to me so far (besides school), but i'm excited for more picture-worthy stuff to happen this semester so i can add it to my book.

i think i'm going to redo the cover bought cool stamps and some cheap ink. learned my lesson.

 really enjoying the lamination but i don't actually know if the colors will last. we'll see. lamination $1.99 for 8.5"x11"

like to start off the month with my horoscope. usually i get my magazines so far in advance that by the time the month starts that the horoscope if for, i have forgotten what it told me. not that i believe in that kind of thing...but for instance, if it said "on the 6th, you will compliment a guy on his jukebox picks and hit it off..." then i will make sure to be at a bar that has a jukebox on the 6th. just in case.

look how cute addy is!

 photo montage on the right is me making it through my most hated high ropes challenge. made it through again with a little coaching. i sewed the photo sleeve into 4 different compartments. idea compliments of elise.

 i bought an embossing label maker! the picture on the right is of me being stuck because my safety line got stuck and i lost my momentum. left hanging in the middle there. not a big deal of course because of my safety harness, but sometimes you forget about that when you're hanging up there.

 the picture across two pages thing. i'm a big fan.

 date stamp!

 

 things i like this month in cosmo + horoscope.

 half pages...i'm working on using more of them.

My goals:

• Be more creative - channel my inner "elise".  it's hard to get past traditional scrapbooking and really be creative.  i'm good at copying though so i'll do that for now.
• More words.  Besides telling a story with picture...I want to actually tell a story with words.  this will be half journal/half scrapbook/half mementos keeper (so maybe each a third).  i want this to really be a memory.
• i went with the 2" rings so obviously i plan on my life getting way more interesting.  thanksgiving and Christmas break will be in there so it shouldn't be a problem to fill them up.  should change the title to "fall semester twenty eleven" ?
• use more circles.  have a circle cutter now to make this possible
• use more sewing.  only used it the one time.  need to master sewing paper first...not the same as fabric turns out.
• possibly find more things to laminate because lamination makes me happy
• would like to get my own printer working so i don't have to pay through the nose for all the prints.
• use more "clear paper" patterns (apparently they are called overlays), like this one except for vet med and especially these or some even cooler ones that are in my head, but don't seem to exist in real life.  will have to check the scrapbook store in Pullman, Michael's is deficient in overlays.

m.