Zucchini Recipes and Crafty Drool-Fest.

My crochet projects have been going at a snail's pace these days; for one it's freakin' hot here and the last thing I want is for the wool shrug I've been working on to lay across my sweaty lap; Ew! Two, my poor little garden has needed much TLC this year, I think it's all the late season rain making the fungus, aphids, and worms go crazy and keeps me on guard every minute. I can't seem to get ahead! So, I have been longingly perusing the inter-web and dreaming of all the cool things I could be doing, rather than picking worms from my tomatoes and spraying the crap out of those asshole aphids. One thing that has seemed to develop immunity to the craziness, is my squash plants! Getting bored with the standard, sauteed or grilled zucchini rounds, I've gotten pretty creative to break up the monotony.

Have squash coming out of your ears (figuratively of course)? Try these simple recipes

At about 5 zucchini a week, my squash plants have given me the desire to add variation to the standard squash recipes out there! I still love the taste of squash, so I like minimal recipes that just enhance the flavor and texture of a good piece of squash.

My favorite way too cook it is by first, cutting the squash into thin little shoestrings, adding a little bacon grease to a skillet and sauteing with garlic salt, onion, and chili powder until browned on all sides. Makes a great side dish!

Another thing I love is grating the zucchini, sauteing with some diced tomato in some butter, then adding a a couple eggs and a little milk and scrambling. Great for breakfast, but also makes a great healthy side dish too.

Craft projects I'm dying to do
Check out this adorable recycled masterpiece! Introducing the Ruffled Jellyfish Explosion, Courtesy of Aunt Peaches. Click here for tutorial.

Trash bag chandelier!

Things I'm Lusting Over...

So, I've been a busy little bee making some pretty cute crocheted items, but I'm waiting for the time and energy to take proper pictures of them for the blog...so in the meantime, here are a few things that are definitely on my to-craft/to-make list!

Dottie Angel's 'lo and beholdness' Stool Cover

This is so adorable, and turns any lame stool into a cute little masterpiece. Love this chick<3 














We Are Not Martha's  Cinnamon Toast Crunch Homemade Ice Cream.

For real! I'm totally making this this week.










A Bitchin' Kitchen's Homemade Oreos! 

Yes please! These look amazing.















Enjoy!

Holy Homemade Frijoles!

The other day I tried some refried beans at a baby shower at work...then I tried some more...and some more...until I was ashamed of myself. I asked my coworker why her beans were so amazing because mine are always...well...not this good!  She said her secret was instead of pinto beans, she uses Peruano ( Ped-U-wano) beans.

Native to South America, Peruano beans, also called canary beans, are one of the most common beans sold in Mexico City today and are a staple in traditional Mexican cooking. They are rich and buttery and more yellow in color than pinto beans. Her English is about as good as my Spanish, so through a translator I was able to get some sort of recipe, because of course, amazing cooks don't use recipes, they just know what it should look and taste like.

So, I'm trying these beans out for the first time and seeing how they stack up to my normal pinto refried beans--if your grocery store doesn't have these beans, you can use Northern beans, which are equally as yummy. The key, according to Maria, is to boil your beans with a whole onion and a few cloves of garlic, then flavor your oil with dried Arbol chiles...Gawd, my mouth is watering just typing this! Seriously, these beans will make you ooze back into your chair while your eyes roll to the back of your head. Anyone remember watching the show "Family Matters"? One of my favorite moments from that show is when Urkel is eating something delicious and Laura tries to ask him something; then he exclaims "Shhhhh! ...Not while I'm chewing!" This will inevitably be how you react when eating these beans and someone tries to get your attention. Okay, you've waited long enough! Here's the recipe:

Holy Frijoles
1 pkg dried Peruano beans (or Northern Beans)
1 Onion, cut in half
4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in halves
2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 dried Chile de Arbol, or 2-3 dried serrano peppers
salt to taste


Rinse beans and pick out any deformed ones or rocks...yes rocks, it happens. Put in a large pan and cover with water, add onion and garlic and about a tbsp salt. Cover and boil for 2 hours, until beans are soft.

Meanwhile add the oil and your chile to a large skillet and heat on medium high for about 10-15 minutes. Be sure to turn on your vent fan as your chiles will start to smoke--this is where the flavor comes in! turn to low heat.

Once your beans are soft, drain excess water, you will need some water in your beans, but if it looks like more than a cup, best drain it. Now it's time to transfer your beans to the skillet. Make sure your oil is not scalding-hot by spritzing a little water in. if it pops and splatters, then wait for your oil to cool a little longer. You want your beans to simmer in the oil, but not burn and smoke.

Add your beans and everything else that was in the pot (onion/garlic) to the oil and begin mashing with a potato masher until beans are nice and smooth, add a little water if your beans look lumpy. Enjoy!

If you really want to go all out, make my Arroz De La Weda and Bacon Tortillas and I guarantee you'll be in a food coma!

Retro Glama...and Retro WTF

Imagine a time of innocence, a time of naivety, where women wore heels in the kitchen with made-up faces and A-line dresses. Imagine a world where political correctness was never necessary and where people kept their problems behind shut doors, a world before Entertainment Television and tabloid drama. Thoughts like this stream through my head as I flip through articles from the past stashed away in a file box and left for decades. The above pictures were my favorite WTF treasures I found, along with my absolute creepy fav on the right. Seriously, I think I saw this guy in the Megan's Law website! Oh! And Ken, with the crocheted outfit, including socks...you sure are dreamy too.

First, I have to thank my  hubbz' grandma for giving me some pretty amazing treasures! I was given a box full of crochet magazines and patterns dating back from the 1940's to 1980's. It was so much fun looking through all of these treasures. Just to think some of these patterns haven't been made or even glanced at since the Forties just boggles my mind!

Oh, and the ads! You should see the ads in these pamphlets, hilarious! So many, work at home selling greeting card ads, "Learn Shorthand!", "Become a Christian Writer!", and my favorite "Reduce! Keep slim...use Electric Spot Reducer!"- yeah, nice cover, this is like the retro version of the "back massager" shaped like a rod we all see in the back of Women's magazines today. Yeah honey, we know what you're going to do with that, and it's not being used for your belly...Wink, wink.

Oh dear, here are a couple examples of the lack of political incorrectness I referred to!

         Lucy was in heaven as soon as she pried
the lid of the musty old box from my hands.
She has a weird addiction to musty things.

Above are some of my favorite ads. Besides laughing at ads all day, I found so many cool patterns! Once I figure my way around a video camera, I may post a tutorial for a few of these, they are WAY too cool not to share.

Instant Girlification

Instead of randomly making crocheted scarfs and purses for nobody in particular, I decided to start concentrating my efforts on specific people...mostly so I don't have a lot of shit sitting in my closet, leaving me racking my brain wondering who to give it too.

I made Turdy the Turtle for my sweet nephew, and some random amigurumi strawberries for my crazy 9 year old niece (per request) and now I get to girly-up my littlest niece with some cute little headbands.

My Sister-In-Law has made it her personal quest to make her youngest daughter into a girly-girl; whether she likes it or not, damnit. ;) Since she has lost all hope for her older daughter (I believe I may have had a slight hand in facilitating her tomboyish, dirt-loving, anti-girly-girl persona) Emily is her only hope at having an actual girl to dress up in ruffles and lace.

 So, I made it my mission to help girlify her; the best part is I can do it practically for free since I'm using nothing but yarn scraps! Plus I have the most adorable model ever created, which makes the job a lot easier. Presenting Miss Emily, pronounced "Em-A-Yee" if you are gangsta like my three year old nephew :D.

Making headbands for my adorable neice is a breeze. Seriously, doesn't this little head scream for some sort of giant bow? I've found some really cute little patterns for crochet flowers and butterflies and thought I would share since they are SOOOO easy to make. If you have 10-20 minutes, you can make one of these. Don't know how to crochet? Niether did I four months ago. Here are some tutorials.

I found free patterns for small butterflies, flowers, etc. and then just stitched them to the crocheted band that I made from chain stiches, or single crochet stitches. You can also just hot glue them to a hair clip...but for babies with little hair, the headband works best. Bald is beautiful ;)

To make the headband, just measure the head, make that many chains or stitches, and fasten ends together. After I made a few of them I decided to get creative, I made up my own baby cupcake and flower designs (I put links to similar ones below) and bought rhinestones and cute little buttons (or as the hubbz says "cute, little, baby choking hazards") to ebellish with!

I made up the cherry pattern (seen up top) on my own. So to do it, just follow the "testicle" pattern I used for making the "wocket ship" lip balm cozy with red yarn, then make the stem from chain stitches in green yarn. Seems wrong...but nobody will ever know they were made from a testicle pattern :D

Here are the links to my favorite little designs:
Butterfly
Flower 1
Flower 2
Flower 3
Flower 4
Little heart
Cupcake

Go Ag!

So you think you can craft?

I stumbled upon this amazing find when I was checking out pistachio pictures on Google for a presentation I've been working on. At first I was like, "how does this have anything to do with pistachios?" Then, I took a closer look and was amazed that this entire flower was made out of pistachio shells! How freaking cool, not to mention resourceful! I love me some pistachios and always thought it seemed like a waste to just throw the shells away, they have this really cool shape and hard texture...but I of course am not creative enough to think of something like this.

So I clicked on the photo to find Rebecca Douglas of ReLoved Designs cute little blog. She is one crafty chick and what makes her cooler is that everything she makes has been recycled! From the pistachio broaches (That I bought 3 of) to her jewelry made from buttons and bottle caps, this is a girl after my own heart. Yay for environmentally chic!

I was so excited when I got my broaches in the mail, especially since EVERYTHING had been recycled! seriously, the broaches came in these cute little boxes crafted from cereal boxes, it was filled with shredded paper, undoubtedly from her own home. She even included a cute little handwritten note from a nutrition facts cut-out. So please, go check out, and patronize this chicky, she's pretty bad ass. And, if you want a pistachio broach tutorial, check out her blog!

Lucy even approved...



Yay for cute cubicle decorations!



Killer Mango Ceviche

Summer is right around the corner! Even though the weather has been crazy, my brain has convinced my tongue it's time for Summer food. I LOVE ceviche, which is a lovely, fresh Mexican dish consisting of chopped tomato, onion, jalapeno, cilantro and marinated fish or shrimp; served cold and eaten with tortilla chips or on a tostada...I also love Mango salsa, something about the tart and mildly sweet mango co-mingling with tomato, cucumber, onion, and jalapeno just brings a smile to my face. So I figured, why not combine my two loves to form this amazing conglomeration of flavors! And yes, it is wonderful, and healthy too! I don't know about you, but all the dark beer and creamy, fattening dishes I've been savoring all Winter long are starting to make my pants fit a little tighter...I keep blaming the dryer for shrinking them, but my denial phase has reached it's end; time to start eating better!

Tips before you get started

• Make sure you buy a mango that isn't over-ripe. Mangoes should be slightly soft, but not mushy. Firm mangoes are easy to cut and shouldn't become completely obliterated when you work with them. If you've never cut a mango before the seed is a long, flat, surf-board shaped thing in the middle that runs the entire length of the fruit. You will have to cut around that seed to get the flesh. Easiest thing to do is peel it first, then holding it long-ways, cut downward starting a few centimeters from the middle. Or check out this video tutorial for everything you could possibly want to know about how to choose and cut a mango :)
• If you have never made ceviche before, the idea of marinating your fish in lemon juice over night, then eating the next day without it touching heat may seem a little...unsafe. However, the acidity completely "cooks" your fish for you and the acidity breaks down the fishes' rubbery texture so it's a lot more smooth to your tongue. Just make sure you marinate your fish in nothing but lemon or lime juice! Don't add any water, spices, or salt, otherwise your acidity will be altered and your fish will not "cook" properly. Make sure you submerse your chopped fish with juice. Here is the recipe:
• You can use any white fish you like, or shrimp. I prefer both Tilapia and shrimp

Killer Mango Ceviche

1 Mango, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1 Cucumber, chopped
1 Cup of chopped, lemon/lime marinated white fish/shrimp (see note below)
1-2 Jalapenos finely chopped
1 Tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped
Lemon/Lime juice to cover fish (see below)

Cut up our fish or shrimp into 1/4 inch pieces, place in a  Tupperware container. Add lemon or lime juice and cover. I use lemon, but my mom uses lime, both are great! Make sure you add enough juice to completely cover fish or shrimp. Remember, don't add any salt, water, or spices of you will alter acidity levels! Put lid on, refrigerate for 24 hours. Drain completely in a colander and lightly salt.

Cut up all the other ingredients and add with fish to a large bowl. Combine and enjoy on top of tostadas, eat with chips, or just enjoy on its own.

Provecho!
(Means Enjoy in Spanish)