Shirt FUBAR

Ah.  A few days ago, I decided I wanted to try and sew a shirt for myself.  Something elegant, and just a little dressy to wear to my nephew's baptism on Saturday.  I found this tutorial for drafting a pattern and constructing a shirt.  Nice, right?  I even had some pretty dark red fabric to use, perfect for Christmas.  So, how's it going?  HOW'S IT GOING?!?

This sums it up pretty well.

At least in my case, I'm the only one who ends up disappointed!

And really, it's okay.  The fabric was free, and I am learning from the adventure, if nothing else.

Meximac

Oh look!  It's another post about food.  I like to post about gardening and sewing/knitting projects, too, but the truth is that my garden is asleep for the season, and my other projects take several days to several weeks (most of the time) to complete.  Meanwhile, I have to eat every day, which means I cook most days.  On Saturday I made what I will call Meximac:  macaroni and cheese with a Tex-Mex twist.  It's not good for you, but it is tasty.  It is a cold and gloomy time of year; 'tis the season for comfort food (and extra trips to the gym)!

What you need:

• 1 pound elbow noodles
• 1 pound chorizo
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 to 3 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups milk
• 12 ounces (~3 cups) shredded cheese
• 2 cans rotel
• 1 canned chipotle, minced
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

A note on chorizo:  I really do like traditional chorizo, but then I read the ingredients list.  Now I buy this brand, which contains muscle meat instead of lymph nodes, salivary glands, and cheek fat.  Purchase whatever type makes you happy.

Put a large pot of water on to boil, and make your sauce while you wait.  Start by browning your chorizo.  Toss a tablespoon of butter in to melt.  When the chorizo is cooked and the butter has melted, stir in your flour to make a roux.

When the roux has cooked for a minute or two, stir in the milk.  I did not use enough flour and I have some fat floating on top of my sauce.  It didn't matter in the end, but looked a little gross while I was cooking.

This is my favorite variety of Rotel.  Drain your cans of Rotel and add them to the sauce along with the chipotle and other seasonings.

Keep stirring the sauce and bring it to a bubble.  Reduce the heat to low.

When your water is boiling, add the noodles and cook per package instructions, less one minute. 

Drain and rinse with cold water.

Turn off the heat on the sauce and stir in the shredded cheese.  I used sharp cheddar, but pepper jack or a smoked cheddar would be good, too.

Stir the pasta and sauce together and put it in a 9 by 13 dish.  Top it with a little more cheese and the panko bread crumbs.  Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese on top has started to brown.

Allow the finished casserole to sit for several minutes before serving.  I had meant to steam some broccoli to serve with this, but I got so excited about the mac and cheese that I forgot.

Enjoy!

Pot Roast Stew

I love using up leftovers, especially when I can turn them into an entirely different meal.  Bonus points if I can do so without leaving for groceries.  These sorts of accomplishments make me feel clever and industrious.

On Sunday, it looked like this outside:

It was so pretty!  It was also cold, slippery, and wet.  Once we got home from church, I wasn't too keen on leaving again for any reason.  Luckily, I didn't have to!  The last time we were visiting my in-law's, my mother in law make French onion soup.  From scratch.  It was oh so good, and she sent a gallon freezer bag of the stuff home with us.  French onion soup is one of those things I don't generally make, mostly because cutting up that many onions makes me leak from all my face holes.

I had thawed out the bag of soup sometime mid-week, and still had quite a lot left.  It was still tasty, but I was growing a little weary of having onion soup, and the snow made me want a really hearty meal.  I landed on potroast.  I pulled a beef roast out of the freezer, and a bunch of carrots out of the crisper.  I don't think I've ever made potroast before, so I went on an internet quest to make sure I had a good method.  When it comes to hearty beef-centric dinners, I think of the Pioneer Woman.  She did not disappoint.  I found this recipe on her blog.

First I cut my carrots into chunks, and tossed them in a cast iron pot with a little olive oil.  I cooked them over high heat until they started to take on some color.  Like the Pioneer Woman, I did no peel my carrots.  These carrots are from my CSA subscription, and I know they were organically grown.  I also think that leaving carrots unpeeled when cooking them helps them to stay a little firmer.  I hate mushy carrots, so this is a goo thing.

After I was done with the carrots, I pulled them out and put my roast in.  I seared it on each side for about a minute or so.

Does anything smell better than searing beef?  Maybe garlic cooking in butter...

When the roast was nicely seared, I pulled it out of the pot and deglazed my pan with a half cup of red wine.

Everyone in!  It was at this point that I started to wonder if I shouldn't have found a larger pot.

Then I thought, "meh," and poured as much of the onion soup over the roast as would fit.  In retrospect, I really should have either put less soup in, or found a larger cooking vessel.

I put a lid on the pot, and popped it in the oven at 275 degrees for three hours or so.

After three hours were up, I took my pot out of the oven and pulled all the solids out of the broth.  I shredded the roast with forks and set it aside.

I put all the liquid in my gravy seperator to get rid of as much of the fat as I could.  There wasn't as much grease as I had expected, because most of it had boiled out and was all over the floor of my oven.  Mmm.  Lesson learned.

Everything went back in the pot.  I could have eaten it at this point, but I decided to put it back in the oven to warm back up first.  I served my pot roast stew over baked potatoes, and it was good.

Baby Legwarmers

Carpe nap time!

All of my sewing gets done while Julian sleeps, and most projects take multiple days' worth of naps to complete.  Every now and again, however, I have a project that I can both start and finish during a single nap.  The viking hat I made for Julian was one of those projects.

Today I decided to make legwarmers for Julian.

Damian gave me these socks a few years ago.  I love them.  They are cozy, and cushy, and I wore them so much that I wore holes in the heels and toes.  I didn't want to toss them, though, partly because I am a sentimental fool, and partly because the leg parts of the socks are still in good shape.  These seem to be good candidates for legwarmers.

I cut off the holey feet.

Then I got to work.  My mother in law just gave me a new (to me) sewing machine.  It's super nice, and I am just learning how to work it.  I don't know what this foot is called, but it has a groovy adjustable guide.  I set it up so that my double interlock stitch would line up perfectly along the edge.

A close up of the edge when I finished.

Then I folded the edge under, pinned it, and stitched it in place with a zigzag stitch on its longest setting.  Were the double interlock and zigzag stitch the right choices?  I don't know; I was making this up as I went.

They look okay, though.  Next I had to wait for Julian to wake up so he could model them for me.

He was thrilled.  Or he's teething and wants lunch.

On the move!  I think the flames on his diaper make him go faster. 

This is the best shot I managed to get, and he's backlit.  Oh well.  He stood still for a second.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with these.  Not a bad use of an hour and a pair of socks that needed to be tossed out.

Why Raw?

(Fair warning:  This post contains photos of dog doo.  For real.  If you are offended by dog waste, you probably don't have a dog, and should definitely not keep reading.)

When people find out I feed my pets raw food, I usually get some strange looks and questions.  "Aren't chicken bones bad for them?"  "What about salmonella?"  "Isn't that expensive?"  "Eww!  Why?"

For the record, cooked chicken bones (or any cooked bones) are very dangerous for pets.  Cooked bones, especially poultry bones, splinter when chewed up.  Raw chicken bones, on the other hand, do not splinter and are relatively safe.  I choose to grind up the bones for my cats, but my Great Dane is perfectly capable of doing his own grinding. 

As for salmonella, I have been feeding my pets raw food for six years and have not had a problem.  Do you worry about your mousers (or wild animals) getting salmonella from their prey? 

As for expense, I have found that feeding raw, especially for my dog, is less expensive than quality kibble. 

Why do I do it?  There are a few reasons, I guess.  After doing a lot of reading, I decided that a raw diet is healthier for my pets.  Dogs and cats, in my opinion, are not meant to eat meat-flavored cereal.  My pets' coats are shiny, they are healthy, and they all have a lot of energy.  My cat, Obie, was over 20 pounds when I got him.  I tried different diet foods, and restricted his caloric intake, but he plateaued at 18 pounds.  I finally tried feeding raw, almost out of desperation, and it worked.  He is down to a healthy weight, though he would very much like to be fat again.  My dog, Langston, is a Great Dane, and so is at risk for bloat.  I feel that a diet consisting entirely of kibble would increase his risk.

Feeding raw isn't always convinient.  When I run out of catfood, I not only have to run to the store, but I have to make it when I get home.  I have a large freezer for storing my dog's food.  The chicken backs I buy for him come in 40 pound cases, and thawing and repackaging that giant brick of chicken is pretty gross.  That is easily my least favorite part of this diet. 

Travel on a raw diet is rather inconvinient, too.  I am usually lazy and just buy a bag of dog food for Langston when we travel.  We were out of town last weekend, and this gave me an opportunity to document one of my favorite side effects of the raw diet.

The mighty kibble poop.  This was a gift from Langston, after eating kibble for a few days.

The raw diet poop.  Another gift from Langston, once he was back on the wagon of raw.

Which one would you rather pick up?

I believe in feeding my pets raw, but I also think it's important for people to do their homework and decide what is best for their situation.  I'm not going to scold people for daring to feed their pets commercial food, which is what seems to happen in forums dedicated to raw feeding.

If you are interested, a good place to start is The BARF Diet by Dr. Ian Billinghurst.  (BARF stands for "bones and raw food" or "biologically appropriate raw food" depending on who you ask.)  He also has a website which explains his feeding philosophy (he is also trying to sell you books, DVDs, and food products).  This is how I make catfood, though I leave out the liver (it makes Obie vomit--A LOT), and I grind all the chicken and bones, and cube up the beef heart.

That's my story.  Actually I was out cleaning up after the dog and was so amazed at the difference between the two varieties of crap that I just had to share.  Charming, I know.

Taco Soup

I am a total homebody.  If I don't have to go out, I won't.  Unfortunately, I also have to feed my family, and to do that I sometimes have to go to the grocery store.

We just got back from a long weekend at my in-laws' house.  My mother-in-law has ten siblings, so holidays can get a little nutty around there.  It can be an introvert's nightmare.  Everyone in this family is wonderful, and I really enjoy all my relatives, but it can be a bit...much.  Thanksgiving this year included 26 people in one small-ish house.  So, once I got home, I pretty much wanted to pull the covers over my head and hide.  I was determined to not go grocery shopping yesterday.

But I was hungry.  And there were no fresh groceries in the house, since we had been gone nearly a week.

Luckily, I enjoy a challenge.  I went freezer spelunking and pantry raiding.  Here is what I decided to use for my soup:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 cups dry beans
• 2 quarts turkey stock
• 1 sweet potato (small dice)
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 canned chipotle (minced) and 2 teaspoons of adobo sauce
• 1 pint salsa (mine was homemade)

I also used a quart of water, and a mix of seasonings (no packets of taco seasoning here!):

• 2 tablespoons chili powder (we make our own using this recipe)
• 4 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt to taste

Pick over and rinse the beans.  Simmer them in the turkey stock (or whatever broth/stock you choose) until they are tender.  Use a large pot--you'll be building the rest of the soup in there.

Dice the onion, and peel and dice the sweet potato.  Saute them in a little bit of olive oil until they start to take on a little coler, then add them to the pot of beans and stock.

Brown and drain the ground beef, then add the seasonings.  Add this to the soup pot along with the rest of the ingredients.  Give it a taste to see if you want to add any salt.

Dish up the soup, and top it with cheese, sour cream, and corn chips, if you like.  I was a little worried about how the sweet potato would be in the soup (I added it on a whim when I found it in the pantry), but it was really quite good.  This makes a large batch of soup.  I had over four quarts leftover.  Not to shabby for a cobbled-together meal, if you ask me!

Basketweave Knit Blanket

Once upon a time, I dusted off my knitting machine and started on a half-baked project idea.  My nephew/godson was going to be born in less than a month, and I wanted to make him something special.  Spoiler alert:  it actually turned out!

First, I machine-knitted 14 rectangles (I will call them scarves, because that's pretty much what they are).  Each scarf is 25 stitches wide, 214 rows long.

Next I pressed them, since they come off the knitting machine wanting to curl in on themselves.

I started laying my scarves out, weaving them together and tacking the outside corners.

My work surface isn't quite large enough for my project, so getting my spacing correct was a little frustrating.  Also, even though each scarf was the same number of rows in length, and was made out of the same brand and weight of yarn, some scarves were shorter than others.  If I was a more serious knitter, and didn't just jump into projects with little more than a glimmer of an idea, I might bother to do tension swatches and avoid this issue.  Instead, I just dealt with the problem by fudging the scarves around and eyeballing "even" spacing.

Here it is all woven together.

Once all the scarves were woven together and spaced to my liking, I went around the edges to tie the scarves in place.

This was as far as I had planned, and my blanket looked a lot like a pile of laundry, so I decided to make a gin and tonic and read about dinosaurs for a while.  (The kiddo was asleep for the night.  Don't worry, I don't go boozing mid-day.)

I was amused to learn about the Irritator.  Someone had modified the skull of this species of dinosaur, and when the scientists learned of the tomfoolery, they were irritated.  So they named it Irritator.  Love it.

After laughing about the Irritator for a while, I decided my next step would be to pin the woven scarves to the fabric I was using for a backing to the blanket.  This would help maintain a square(ish) shape.

Once I was done pinning, I tied knots at each intersection of scarves to keep them from curling and to maintain my spacing.

I had intended to use my sewing machine to sew down the length of each scarf, but this ended in a tangled disaster and a bit of swearing.  After dropping the project for a few days (to make a viking hat for my son, among other things), I determined the best way to hold the scarves together would be just to hand-sew a running stitch along each scarf.  I was pleasantly surprised to find how quickly that went.  I think it took me three episodes of Friends on Nick at Nite to finish this part.

Here it is all stitched down.  No baby arms will get tangled in there now!

My last step was to fold the edges of my backing over twice and sew it in place for a binding.  I hand-sewed the corners.  That was way too bulky for my machine to deal with!

Here it is!  I was surprised and very pleased with how well this turned out!  I got to meet my newborn nephew over Thankgiving weekend, and give him his new blanket.  I think it will keep him very warm over the North Dakota winter!