Handmade Christmas

I know it's April, but I wanted to post the projects I made for my family for Christmas.  This large floor pillow was made for my brother and sister-in-law.  It's made of charm squares for the front and that awesome polka-dot fabric I used for my curtains for the back.  I also added a cute little edging out of the scraps of the charm squares.

 I added a small rosette in the middle to give the pillow some shape, but I don't think it survived in the shipping process.

 Here's a picture of the back and my signature star.  I try to put a star on everything I make.  :)

Then I made them a small decorator pillow with a rosette in the middle.  I hope it's not being used a ton because it's kind of fragile.  :P  If it did fall apart, I can put it back together.

I thought the middle of the rosette needed something, so I put a button in the middle - my sister-in-law loves buttons.  :)

The star on the back of the decorator pillow.

 The two of the pillows together.  I hope they like and use them!  :)

 For my dad, I made a bow-tie pillow - because bow-ties are COOL!  I found the flannel at WalMart and got the pattern from Sew4Home.

I was really impressed with how easy this pillow went together.  I stuffed it kind of full and yet left it squishy.  I'm glad I did because he uses it to support his neck while napping in his chair.  :)  He says it's the perfect amount of squishiness.  :P

 My signature star.  :)  I also made a pillowcase for my dad with the same fabric as this bow-tie pillow but when I went to take a picture of the two together, my camera battery died.

 I made my mom and my mother-in-law pillowcases (tutorial here).  I also found these neat flannel prints for my mom at WalMart.  I was impressed with these flannels so much!  They washed really nicely and came out of the dryer so soft!

I also found the doggy prints for my mother-in-law at WalMart.  She is so hard to make and buy for since her only two interests are dogs and horses.  However, every time we visit I notice that she is using this pillowcase - or she takes time to put it on her pillow when she knows I'm coming.  :P

 For my coworkers I also made pillowcases - Christmas pillowcases from fabric I found for half off.  :)  All the little sashing pieces match on all four pillowcases - but I'm not sure if they noticed.

I love creating gifts for family and friends.  Although, for the past two years, I've done pillows and pillow-related projects for everyone...anyone have any new ideas for gifts for this year?!

Mac and Cheese

So, P came home tonight and said, "I'm kind of in the mood for Mac and Cheese tonight," when the discussion of What's For Dinner came up.  I responded with, "Well, do we HAVE any Mac and Cheese?" and he said no, since he didn't buy any when he went grocery shopping.  Yes, sometimes he goes grocery shopping on his own when I don't feel well, or just whine a lot about how I don't want to go.  I know, I'm spoiled!  :P  Anyway, when  the topic of Mac and Cheese came up, I instantly remembered the post over at So Many Veggies, So Little Time on her "Easy Peasy Mac and Cheesy" and decided to try it.  I pretty much followed the recipe to the -T- except I didn't have organic veggies.  Also, I had a brain fart and forgot how many ounces were in a pound and didn't cook enough noodles at first.  But this was an easy fix, I just added more later.  Oh and I used bow-tie noodles again because, well, BOW-TIES ARE COOL!  :)  Except for it being too cheesy at first because of less noodles, I give this recipe  five stars and would make it again in a heart beat.  :)  So thank you Sadie for the excellent meal idea!  :)

A Food Entry

Good evening!  As an adult, I have never really been a fan of cooking.  I tried in college, but found it hard to fix an entire meal for just one person.  Then, when I cooked for more than one, I would have so many leftovers that I would get bored of the same meal after two days of leftovers.  I found it just easier to buy pre-prepared food and just, essentially reheat the food.  However, in the past few years I have been trying to discover my "Inner Woman."  Or maybe I have just gotten bored with eating pre-prepared and tasteless food.  I also have been reading and following a couple of food-related blogs, communities and have been finding myself saying, "I can do that!"  Also, since I now cook for two, we still have leftovers but they don't usually make it past two more servings.  And since P doesn't know how to cook that many dishes, I have been experimenting with different things to make while also going back to my "roots" as they say, and cooking dishes that my mom used to.

The first dish I have to offer tonight could be a one pot dish.  In our family we call it, "The Casserole."  All you really need is some kind of meat, a box/bag of pasta, a can or two of beans, a can of olives and a jar of pasta sauce.  Here we have bow-tie pasta - because BOW-TIES ARE COOL - ground turkey, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, olives and I think a generic pasta sauce.  Boil up the pasta and set it aside.  Make sure to run water over the pasta every now and then to make sure it doesn't stick together.  Next, cook up the turkey.  Once all the meat is browned and a bit caramelized (the way I like it), dump the noodles into the pan and stir.  Then dump the sauce, beans and olives in and stir until everything is covered in yummy sauce.  Let the mixture sit on the stove until everything is warm and the house smells yummy.  Spoon into loverly bowls and add cheese on top if you like.  This dish tastes even better the second day after all the ingredients have had time to meld together in the fridge.  I love taking my leftovers to work.  All my coworkers follow me around asking what the meal is and how to make it!

The next dish I have is pizza!  This pizza happens to be chicken with white sauce, baby Portabella mushrooms, olives and chives.  The crust is a premade one, but P and I both work 40 hour work weeks and we don't have forever to make dinner.  Now, since the crust is premade, all you really have to do is pile on all the toppings, shred cheese on top and bake for 8-10 mins at 400 degrees.  Let cool for a few minutes after baking, then cut and serve.  It is so hard not to eat this entire pizza in one sitting!  I just have to remember how awesome it is as a lunch the next day.  This also made my coworkers jealous as a left over!

One thing I haven't shared with my coworkers is my WAFFLES!  My mom likes to tell the story of how we found a waffle iron while going through my great grandmother's things and me grabbing it, holding it to my chest and not letting anyone near it.  I remember the waffle iron.  It traveled around with me until it finally died.  If I'm remembering correctly, it was round and one of those older ones with the fabric chords.  One day I plugged it in and where the chord attached to the back of the iron popped, sparked and burst into a small fire that quickly died out.  I was sad but also knew the waffle iron lived a long and happy life.  Shortly after, the family got another waffle iron that made those big square waffles.  It died not too long ago and it was replaced by one of those sandwich makers with removable plates.  It was also at my family's house a state away so fortunately, I got a waffle iron as one of the gifts from my bridal shower.  I have to say it makes pretty dang good waffles!  There are many waffle recipes out there but I happen to like the one on the side of the Bisquick box, with a few little additions like cinnamon and vanilla.  I also like to double the recipe so I can freeze the rest and pop them in the toaster for breakfasts for the week.  They are a nice change from toast.

Last but not least, I couldn't finish my first food blog without mentioning my cookies!  I make some pretty good Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Today I had to stick around the house and wait for the cable guy to come by and fix our internet and since I didn't have internet and had to be home all day, I decided to bake.  It also wasn't too hot so the oven didn't heat up the entire house.  I am still getting used to baking in this high altitude, but I think they came out pretty good.  :)  The recipe is the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from the bottom of the lid from the Quaker Oatmeal container but with a few changes, like chocolate and white chocolate chips instead of raisins.  I also change a couple of other things, but those things shall remain a secret.

So, as you can see, I have been having fun in my smaller-than-a-postage stamp kitchen and making some yummy things!  I have to say that it's more fun cooking and baking for more than just me!  :)