JemJam

A Review of 2010, part 2 of 2

I'm going to jump right in and finish showing you some of what I did in 2010!

 

July:

Yeah, so I made this dress with my favorite dot fabric.  The frock is long and should get over a year's wear.  

It will get a lot of play because there are 16 panels that I sewed together there...

 

July was getting hot so, instead of working in the garden, I did more sewing than normally during the summer.

I made a little tote for my best bird, I may have started that embroidery in January, I do not remember. 

And a little zipper pouch to go with the tote was very necessary.

 

She loves the bag!  Hooray!  

Oh and I embellished my tee.

 

August:

I *think* that it was August 1 when we made our birds.  She will soon get a post of her own.

 

 

September:

Hmm mmm, all four in five days.

 

Ooh, yes!  Lamb kabobs!  We made some delicious tzatziki that day as well.  Mmm.  Happy Labor Day to us.

 

 

October:

Not going to lie to you right now, I may be ready to throw down with Bobby Flay, does he can jalapeños?

 

I like when I leave the room, some little person leaves there mark.

 

You already know about this...

 

For Halloween, I made Dorothy come true for mine. 

 

November:

Suz needed an apron--who am I to decline?

and who am I to not accessorize?

 

As you may have noticed a small person lives here, she cannot reach the hanging towel in the bathroom, so, she has her own that rest on the countertop for her, and since 2010 was the year of embroidery, I had an obligation to meet.

 

December:

What else was I going to do with this fabric, I mean, besides eat it.

 

A teen bird gets a messenger bag

 

and I had so much time on my hands, I thought that I would start making these:

 

 

 

and these: 

 

 

 and this:

 

Yes, December 2010 lead the way for 2011, which will be the year of the bag.  

You just wait.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

When I told mini me that I was baking cookies, I heard the anticipated pitter patter towards the kitchen. Shortly, we gathered all of our tools and ingredients.

Yes, that scooper is VITAL in this kitchen.

 

From a 42" person's view:

Let's get it started!

 

Toast your pecans while mixing everything else...

Whisk your flour, salt, and soda

Mmm...sugars...

Mix it, mix it good

Add flour mix to butter sugar (here's a tip for chewy, crispy cookies--melt at least one stick of your butter).

Chop cooled pecans.

Add morsels and pecans.

Jimmy would eat cookie dough if allowed--yuck.

Bake for 11 minutes.

Hot!

Warm!

Cool!

 

Gone!

Let's Make Guacamole!

One food that never gets any rest at this home is guacamole--all three of us love it! Our families love it, too. I treat any person unwilling to try it as suspect (I don't understand people that do not love food and I don't care for those people). On this particular day, we made my outstanding chicken enchiladas, which will one day have a post of its own. While the enchiladas are in the oven, we get the guac going. First, get 4 ripe avocados--cut in half.

Remove pits and have the cutest kid in your home throw them in the garbage (we do not compost food scraps).

Next, slice avocados INSIDE THE SKIN. (At one time, I assumed that this was common knowledge, but I have seen a person scoop first, then cut, what a mess!)

Scoop avocado into a bowl w/a metal spoon.

Juice 3 limes, add to bowl use your favorite masher and mash until you have reached your desired consistency, we prefer chunky. Add 1 large minced garlic clove, 1/2 of a chopped red onion, a handful of coarsely chopped cilantro, some salt (I only cook with kosher, ever).

Stir everything together, drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top.

Test the product.

Add more salt if necessary. At this point, I portion the kiddo's guacamole. Now, we dice 2 jalapeños (from our garden) and add to the best guacamole ever on Earth. Yeah, I said it.

No final product picture, boo!

Chicken Pot Pie

I have loved chicken pot pie since I was a little girl, I am not sure that I know a person who doesn't like it. Do these people exist in our country??  

I started making CPP a few years back, I used Joy of Cooking's recipe but, it was a bit labor intensive for me to make often with an infant under one arm. This past Xmas, my husband's mother gave me the Pioneer Woman Cooks, I had not heard of her but, there's lots of pictures in there, so I felt that I would give her recipe a try. I omitted peas because that is on the no travel list of my digestive system and teeth, and throat. Eww. Anyhow, I used fennel (started from seed in our garden!) instead and it gave such a great flavor to the filling.

 

It takes longest to cut all of the veggies than it does to cook the filling. I used chicken thighs (from a local farm), I boil them and I use that water for stock--$3.50 saved, which will be used for a future fennel purchase. Here is the filling complete with me adding thyme (also our home grown) last.

 

For topping, I no longer make a pie crust, I use a biscuit recipe. I never make the biscuits, I nab the closest, most unsuspecting person that is able to read and measure ingredients--they never see it coming. Thanks red-haired brother!

 

While the pot pie is in the oven, I call on my best spoon cleaner under 48 inches...

She approves and all is well and eaten ferociously.

 

Biscuit Time

About every 2 weeks (sometimes more), the kid and I make biscuits.  She, like myself as a child, is eager to help in the kitchen. 

She helped me measure the dry ingredients, all while insisting on using her set of spoons.

Tiny fingers are excited about pulsing.

Never fret, I cut the butter.

Okay, she insisted on making imprints, which meant I had to scrape and re-roll the dough.

We use every bit of dough possible, so I use a large and a tiny cutter.

So far, so good!

They look great!

The babe is really good, she even retrieved a tin that we use for baked goods, I am teaching her to use a spatula.

The biscuits were a little cracked on top, but, when handled too much, it happens.  They tasted great, we don't use condiments and we don't need them!

I took all of these pictures with my phone and I am too lazy to crop and edit them, eh, you get the message.


 

Lemon Overload

Yes, I am that person during the summer, I made lemonade with a few blueberries floating about. Wee E has been helping me pick tomatoes and jalapenos for about a week now, and I made salsa, my own recipe. I cut red roses for the celebration, but, it was over 100 degrees outside and they wilted fast, so did we.

 

 

For dinner, we had sirloin with grilled fennel & lemon topped with fresh thyme and mozzarella.

   

My friend and her newly walking little girl shared a meal with us and the girls played in a little pool, they stayed cool while we suffered. Heather made a cheesecake, which was delicious! She saved the night, too. I buy cherries in bulk, I pit and freeze them and use them throughout the year, sadly I had not noticed that I used all of the fruit, so my cherry pie plan went out the window. Oh well, we shall have cherries soon! I bought some fantastic lemon truffles from a local Etsy seller, (yes, 2 different types of lemon candies and no chocolate) they became our after-dinner "mint." I did not take a picture of them, but, maybe I can get an x-ray...

All the jars are all lined up...

This photo reminds me of "March of the Pigs," as I put the jars on the table, that song played in my head. 

I made cupcakes in a jar, it started with this.  Yes, it looked liked muffins, which, I suppose they are because I put chopped cherries and pecans in yellow cake.  

After baking the cakes, I put them in the mason jars, topped with chocolate frosting, I used the recipe on the Hershey's Baking Cocoa box, and silver sprinkles.

 

Here's one that did not make the cut, I was hungry. 

 

The cupcakes were for my husband's niece, she had a high school graduation party. My sister-in-law and her husband made turkey kabobs and they were fabulous. Who knew sweet potatoes were actually good? I did not.

   

Between courses, E wanted to play on the trampoline, which is not an attractive option when the ladies are wearing dresses, but, you have to have fun sometime, or at least, whatever keeps the baby from crying. 

 

Luckily, we could soothe crying E with a cupcake, she was distraught after being removed from the trampoline. 

Security was tight, she had bodyguards at the graduation... 

New stuff

On Memorial Day, I decided that it was time to hang some new panels, which required ironing and dedication to complete the project. E decided that I needed to spruce up my laptop, you know, for spring.   

 

Sorry kid, you are the Elmo fan here, not me, especially not 2 Elmo stickers! I am loving the new brand. So, now, Jimmy is a PC, I am a Banana. Well, I took no more pictures of the laptop, seeing that clicks of the camera would encourage such behavior, which did not matter, she put about 5 more stickers on my Banana. This is why dads should call home before buying stuff for kids, most likely, it will be vetoed. 

 

Here is E deciding if she should just dump over the pot of soil all in one motion or slowly disperse it among the concrete...she chose the latter.  Again, clicks are encouragement.

 

A new cheese that we loved 

 

A new recipe for me 

 

Another new recipe 

  

And a new hairstyle 

 

Our baby no longer looks weird with a ponytail.

Someone stole my eggs

Not those eggs!  I'll give those away! 

For lunch, I made deviled eggs for the three of us.  I suspected baby would not like the eggs, as she rejected them previously.  Well, I gave her some of the stuffing, which was loaded with cayenne pepper, and she loved it!  I saw her reaching for one out of the platter...

I placed an item in the sink and returned to this!

Well, soon after, baby skipped town for two days!  I was able to rest and teach a friend to sew!  She made 2 throw pillows!  Sorry, did not take pictures!  Also, I made this:

and baby wasted no time turning into this:

Yes, we were at a birthday party.  No, that is not chocolate on her face, it is sand and blood, and it looks like something may be coming from her nose.  

Also, she does not like the when I make her pants, she peed in one pair within an hour of putting on them and another day pooped in this pair--again, within an hour of putting on them!  

(I will probably erase this post by the time she starts school and save it for something big, like her first date).

Fortune Cookies

After years (that's right, years) of pondering, I finally decided that it was time to make fortune cookies. I wanted someone to come over and make them with me, just in case it was a disaster, but, that did not happen. I have baked for so many years, I do not know why I was so afraid of these cookies! Well, they turned out great! I even made them with baby in the kitchen with me. The batter was easy, but, like the directions say, you have to work fast! They harden fast, so I made four at a time, staggering the cookie sheets, as suggested. My fortune says, "I see more of these in the future!"