Ski Men Menu

I don't know if you're ready for this. 

Actually, I don't know if your arteries are ready for this! 

As I mentioned, the husband had a ski weekend with the "boys" in and around Jackson Hole (one the many benefits of living in NW Wyoming).

Since the girls weren't allowed, naturally I was little concerned that their meals would consist of freezer-burned lasagna and grilled cheese. Can't have that! I used the trip as an excuse to whip up some fun and new recipes for the guys.

This week will explore each of the recipes in more detail - and with photo close-ups, of course! The men wrap up their adventure today and I will get the full food review when the husband returns this evening. Since I didn't get to taste everything, I'm relying on a bunch of ravenous, exhausted skiers to give me the scoop! Here's what to look for:

Paula Deen's Cinnamon Rolls

Sausage and Cheddar Breakfast Muffins

Girl Scout Cookie-type Samoas Bars

Oatmeal Raisin Bars

and....

Another Look at Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

See you back here tomorrow!

Well, Aren't You Just Sew Organized

I'm a little frightened to put this out in the universe - we need more snow, you see - but it's time for a little Spring (almost-Spring, feels-like-Spring) cleaning of our little log cabin. It's time to really scrub the tub and floors, vacuum and dust the little places and even bring back some life (err, less "life") to the fridge. 

But most importantly - for my mental health - is the organization of the room affectionately referred to as the place where crafts go to die.  I know, I've said this before and I have made some attempts. But in my defense, it just wasn't the right time before. There isn't even a glimmer of a market or show until May and my inventory is so high on the bath & body end of things that I don't even need to make anything to put up on Etsy for quite some time. Family and friends in the know just ask what I have in the closet... and it's plenty!  

  Consider me laughing if you think this is my space -

it belongs to noodleheadsews from the Craft Rooms Flickr group

There have been some great craft room (and other room) organization posts recently out in the blogosphere, including this article on "How to Stay Organized: 7 Unconventional Tips & Techniques." I'm always so inspired by the craft rooms and workspaces of many of you who post photos of your beautiful places. I've always let the excuses that (1) we are currently renting, and (2) we don't have any more room get in the way of just dealing with it. 

And here we are - I'm going to deal with it the best way I can.... destroy and conquer! It might not be straight out of an IKEA/Container Store/Pottery Barn catalog, but it WILL be better. I already have one project rearing to go - and it involves a curtain rod and an old curtain. Can you even contain yourself? If all goes well, I'll post the whole shenanigan tomorrow. 

Sidenote - although I love this post, I do, I sort of feel like a weird, lonely cat lady writing about craft rooms and I'm only in my mid-twenties. This sidenote is to reassure me: don't worry, you're still awesome. And you don't even like cats.

OK, we're back. Here's where I've been looking for inspiration and motivation this week:

Craft Rooms on Flickr 

"Sew Organized" Articles from Organized Home

Quickly Organize Craft & Hobby Supplies from HomeOrganizeIt 

Organizing Your Craft Room from The Extreme Housewife 

11 Fun Tips For Organizing Your Craft Room from the Fun Times Guide

Craft Room Inspiration from Tip Junkie

A Sewing Room Makeover from ThousandHobbies

Emily's Sewing Room/Library on Flickr by TypeFiend 

Athomesewing's Photo Stream on Flickr 

An AMAZING Directory of Sewing Rooms from Around the Net

Designing a Sewing Center from NMSU 

Organized Craft Room Ideas from HGTV 

Make a Craft Room from Country Living 
All Change - Inside My Craft Room from Dyche Designs

I know that I'm missing a few that I saw this week - send it on over and I'll add it to the list! Here's to a productive weekend!

Sounds for the Weekend: Kate Nash

Can't get enough of Kate Nash- talented AND witty. Score!
I hear there will be a new album in April...

Happy Weekend!

PW Pesto Pizza - The Finale!

The secret's out - I didn't make my own pesto for this recipe. I know, if you're going to make the cheese and the bread, why not throw some things in the food processor and call it a day? I'll tell you why - we have 4, I repeat, 4 jars of pesto in our cupboards. Not sure how we created such a stockpile, but nonetheless, I did not make the pesto...

 

which made this part easy: spread the pesto as evenly as you can on your rolled out crust (see Part Deux below).

  

Wait, hold that thought. Don't forget to sprinkle some cornmeal on whatever you're putting the pizza on to get it in the oven. We just so happen to have a baking stone AND a pizza peel (I told you, we eat a lot of pizza!), so I put a good layer of cornmeal on the peel and made sure that the stone was in the middle of the oven during preheat. About 40 minutes before you think you'll be ready to put the pie in the oven, go ahead and preheat to 500 degrees. Hot and crispy, yes sirree.

  

Following the Pioneer Woman's instructions, sprinkle the pesto with some kosher salt -- or grind it, you know, be creative. Using the thin layers of mozza from Part One, cover the pizza with your cheese.

 

And then come the tomatoes, roma, to be exact. Mmm.

  

With a little grated Parmesan and a little luck, carefully slide your pizza onto your baking surface or peel (unless of course you had the foresight to construct the pizza on the actual surface... ahem). Bake in your preheated oven for 10-15 minutes - I usually bake a little longer until the cheese really starts to brown and get crispy around the edges.

  

At this point, you might as well take a seat and get down to business.

  

There's no holding back when this guy rolls into town. 

I know - you might be feeling a little pizza lust right now. Don't fret, there's enough cheesy love to go around - just check out all the other recipes waiting for you over at The Kitchn. Happy Pizza-ing!

Stomach Savvy - Food News

There are tons of Food News sites out there - and I hope to share lots of them with you! As a pretty avid reader of The Huffington Post (not even sure how that happened), I noticed that there has been just an abundance of food-related articles over the last two weeks, in large part due to the "Week of Eating In" challenge that is going on right now over on HP.

I've been intrigued and inspired by so many of their posts and resources that I figured I might as well consolidate them and share them with you all at once. Here weeeeeeeeeeee go!

25 Take Out Meals You Can Make At Home 

National Margarita Day (I think a post-celebration is OK!)

"One Man, a School Bus and a Plan to Change How America Eats"

$15 A Week Crockpot Diet

Must Have Cookware: 8 Essential Items

Kitchen Staples to Stock Up On 

Butch Bakery Makes Cupcakes for Manly Men 

National Tortilla Chip Day - Today! 

Demystifying Hard Things to Cook 

The USDA's New Food Atlas Tool - AMAZING! 

Delicious Winter Recipes

8 Steps to Truer Food

and last but not least, you just CAN'T MISS this video: 

Baking Cookies With Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

And that's the news.

Crafty Satisfaction: PW Pesto Pizza - Part Deux (Bread/Crust)

I'd planned to do a separate post on this in the near future - so consider this your introduction. I can't get enough of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day - as someone who lives at high altitude, I've found baking really challenging at times.... that is, until someone around these parts recommend that I give this book/method a try!

For those of you who haven't heard about the book, the idea is that you use a basic, no-knead recipe to make a large batch of dough (or small, if you don't eat that much in 2 weeks) that doesn't need any special treatment and can be stored in the fridge until you want to slice off a piece and bake it. Really, I promise, it works just like that. Nothing but yeast, salt, water, and flour.

Which brings me to the bread portion of the PW Pesto Pizza experiment! In addition to the Master Recipe, the original book (they also now have a Healthy Bread book) includes quite a few additional recipes over a couple of chapters focused on flatbreads, ciabatta, pastries, and more. The recipe I used for this meal was the Olive Oil Dough - perfecto!

  

And with a little help from Down South, I was off to a good start!

 

 

After mixing the dough in a stand mixer WITHOUT KNEADING, the dough is placed in a plastic storage container or bucket for a few hours without an airtight seal. I've never seen such a ridiculous rise before this method!

In addition to the crust, I used the same recipe to make a half dozen breadsticks. After twisting two sections together, I sprayed the dough with some olive oil spray, dusted on some italian seasonings, and grated a little romano cheese on top.

 

Ooooh yeah...

  

20 minutes later...

  

Once I was ready to make the pizza - well, about an hour before - I cut a good hunk of the dough off from the main container, dusted it with flour and let it sit for a little less than an hour.

 

On a lightly floured surface, I was able to roll out, stretch, and use my hands to make a thin crust. Unlike other doughs I've worked with to make pizza (and with a husband from Chicago, we make A LOT of pizza) this dough was versatile, soft, and didn't tear once! When you get the dough to the right size and shape (hey, go crazy, make a rectangle), carefully transplant the dough on to a cornmeal covered surface.

Part III Coming Tomorrow: The Finale- Putting it All Together!

Alright, now I feel bad that I haven't exactly given you a bonafide pizza crust recipe. Since not everyone out there has access to the Artisan book/recipe, here's a quick list of thin crust recipes for your enjoyment:

Homemade Thin Crust Pizza from The Kitchn
Jay's Signature Pizza Crust
Thin n' Crispy Pizza Crust from Sugar & Spice
Thin and Crispy Pizza Dough from Country Living
Pizza Dough from Jamie Oliver
Thin Cracker-Crust Pizza Crust from Creatively Domestic

Crafty Satisfaction: PW Pesto Pizza - Part One (Cheese)

In continuing the review of my Valentine's Day dinner extravaganza, here's the first installment of my experiment with the Pioneer Woman's Tomato-Basil Pesto Pizza recipe - and it's all about the CHEESE!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year (ever?) was the Deluxe Cheesemaking Kit from UrbanCheesecraft on Etsy.  I haven't branched out from basic mozzarella yet, but I've been planning my foray into goat cheese as soon as I can get my hands on some non-ultra pasteurized milk. Anyways, one of the best things about making your own cheese is that you can make it in any shape or form that you need it for. Case in point - making mozza for my pizza!

In support of UrbanCheesecraft, I won't disclose the specifics of their instructions, but I do want to share how incredibly easy it is to make your own cheese...

  

One of the integral parts of cheese making is the rennet tablet. According to WiseGeek, rennet is"an enzymatic extract made from the lining of the stomachs of young ruminants, such as cows, sheep, and goats. These animals produce enzymes to help them digest the milk produced by their parents, breaking down the milk so that the maximum nutrition can be extracted from it in the stomach and intestinal tract. These same enzymes can be used to curdle or thicken milk to make a variety of foods."

  

Next up, citric acid - used to coagulate the cheese.

  

Raw or (non-ultra) pasteurized milk - I've managed to hunt down some "local" milk from Idaho Falls and Teton Valley

 

The rennet and citric acid are added at specific temperatures.

Curds begin to form in the milk.

 

The curds are ladled into a microwave-safe bowl...

  

... and separated from the whey to get ready for a litle more heating and stretching to achieve the desired texture and shape.

  

I typically make the mozza into rounds/balls, but in this case I stretched the cheese into long, thin layers to make it easier to lay across the pizza.

  

And that concludes Part One of the PW Pesto Pizza adventure!

Next up tomorrow: breadsticks and a tasty thin crust...

"Curling is Cool Day" - 2/23

 

Curling is Cool - These pants don't lie. 

Yes, it's an official celebration. And good thing - there's a lot to celebrate this year with the Olympic Games... namely the Canadian women, of course! Curling holds a special place in our household - from my memories of Curling Nights with our professors in university - OK, let's be honest, not a great idea for Beer With Profs nights (yes, a real thing - guess you should have gone to college in Canada)... to the husband actually taking Curling as a class FOR CREDIT in college. Although he went to school in Utah, the Salt Lake City games required the building of some facilities, one of which was a curling arena. Utah and I have our issues, but curling isn't one of them!  

I'm still not sure why this little Wyoming town hasn't embraced curling (I'm sure it's something to do with the equipment and know-how needed to prepare the ice), but seriously --- Ice + Hurling Heavy Objects + Potential for Beer Drinking = Wyoming. 

In celebration of "Curling is Cool Day," here are a few things "curled" for your festivities - both for today and when you inevitably tune in to watch some of the curling action during the Games - admit it, Don, the Canadian commentator, is too good to miss...

Cheese Curls

Chocolate Curls

Cinnamon Curls

And just in case you need a little more curling in your life, check out this great clip with Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel:

Want to learn more? Check out Curling Rocks - 

the webpage of the United States Curling Association.  

Crafty Satisfaction: Strawberry Pretzel Squares

I'm playing a little catch-up this week and posting the photos and recipes from our Valentine's Day dinner  and the weekend- the pesto pizza from Pioneer Woman (in 3 parts - homemade mozza cheese, bread/crust, and final pizza prep), Strawberry Pretzel Squares, Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches, and Pupcakes for Argo's birthday.

As I mentioned before, I was looking for something a little different and mostly healthy for a Valentine's Day dessert. The husband's Aunt has brought this dish (or something similar) to family gatherings in Illinois and I thought it would fit the bill --- and help us celebrate National Jello Week, which ran the week leading up to V-Day.

I found the recipe for Strawberry Pretzel Squares on trusty Allrecipes and used most of the low-calorie modifications suggested there, including using Cool Whip Free, Low Fat Cream Cheese, and Sugar Free Jell-O. Here's the recipe in step-by-step photos - note that I halved the recipe in all aspects except the Jell-O and made it in an 8 x 8" pan with no problem:

You'll Need:

2 cups finely crushed pretzels (food processor those suckers)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
12 ounces PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened (or Low-Fat)
2 tablespoons milk (fat free, if you please)
1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (low-cal, if you so desire)
2 cups boiling water
1 pkg. (8 serving size) JELL-O Brand Strawberry Flavor Gelatin (2 is better)
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 quart strawberries, sliced

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix pretzels, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the butter.

 

Press firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake 10 min. Cool.

 

While I was waiting for the crust to bake and then cool, I figured I had enough time to jump ahead and slice the strawberries - it is my favorite part, afterall. 

 

Sidenote - I found that just slicing the berries didn't really end well when trying to cut, serve, and devour later on. If I was going to make this again, I would go for quarters. 

Beat cream cheese, remaining 1/4 cup sugar and milk until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.

  

Spread over crust. Refrigerate until ready to use.

  

I covered mine in Saran and left it in the fridge for hours. 

Meanwhile, stir boiling water into gelatin in large bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water. Refrigerate 1-1/2 hours or until thickened (spoon drawn through leaves definite impression). Stir in strawberries.

  

Spoon over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.

 

Cut into squares to serve. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator. Ours kept really well for about a week! Perfect for red holidays, summer gatherings, or just any old day of the week!

I'm also baking up a storm this week for the husband's ski weekend with the boys... here's a hint of what's to come:

Let's just say that "healthy" doesn't really go with the amount of butter I have in the fridge right now...

The Craft Show That Never Was

Sigh. After months of prep, food poisoning stood in the way of me actually getting all 200+ lotions, soaps, and necklaces to the Winter Market a couple of weeks ago. In honor of all that hard work and lost weekends, here's my tribute to the Craft Show that never was... and introduction to what my poor spare closet now houses until the next show.

 

Prepping for lotion pours and setting the lotion bars

   

Inventing a new way to do a batch pour 

and organizing products for packaging

   

 Cooling the Fierce Winter lotion in new jars 
and a closer look at inventory (lotion, lotion bars, packaged soap)

 It'll all be hitting the Pie Bird Etsy Shop soon!

Celebrate Chocolate Mint Day Today!

The day is finally here - are you ready? CHOCOLATE MINT DAY 2010 HAS ARRIVED! I'm not really sure why it's not a work holiday - guess I need to have a sit down with the boss. All of the preparation, anticipation, stress, and last minute holiday shopping... it all comes down to this:

 Cafe Nilson's Green Mint Brownies

Chocolate Mint Crackle Cookies from Good Food, Good Wine & a Bad Girl

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies from Joy the Baker

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes on Simply Recipes

Pepperminty Chocolatini Drink from Culinary Musings

Chocolate Peppermint Creams on by Jodiemo on Tasty Kitchen

Chocolate-Mint Pudding by Cooking Light on MyRecipes.com

Homemade Thin Mints by A Cozy Kitchen on Tasty Kitchen

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake on the Food Network

Bailey's Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes on BakingBites

Have anymore mint chocolatey recipes from around the web or your kitchen that you'd like to share? Give me a holler - I'll add it to the list! 

Now go out and celebrate like the chocolate fiend that you are...