Reading Democracy in America, cause I want to.

Now that's what I call a harder read. And I'm a bit nervous to post it cause I've tried several different times to read this and have only made it to the second chapter. Oh well, we shall see. Since it's on the blog, it must mean I'm committed this time around.

Doll Creativity Flowing Again

A few years back, probably during finals week, I got the idea to make some rag dolls. I was looking at my Raggedy Ann and Andy pattern and started wondering how I could create Strawberry Shortcake and her friends. After extension research and finishing three of them, my creative streak went dry and I put away the plans for any others.

Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Tart, Huckleberry Pie

Characteristics in Common: All 10" dolls wear the same type of socks - green and white stripes; and they each have the same face design.
Different Characteristics: Beside their individual character clothes, on their face they each have freckles but the color of the freckles correlate with their signature color.
Strawberry - Red
Raspberry - Pink
Huckleberry - Blue - ok his should have been a blue-purple but the "image" I was working off contained faulty information. It showed blue as his signature color. Which is also how Raspberry became part of the equation. The "faulty image" showed Strawberry as having brown eyes, but upon further research it was discovered that she had blue eyes. And although I was generally satisfied with blue freckles for Huckleberry, I couldn't leave Strawberry with brown eyes, so I made up another doll, and there you have it.

Anyways,

This last week, the four of us got together and decided it was time to add two more friends to the group.

Any guess who this will be.

How about this one?








Or this one?
What? There's nothing there you say.
Oh... well it seems (according to the creative voice in my head) it's just as easy to cut out 3 doll patterns as it is to cut out two. And let's face it, this one can't be left out, even if it does mean another trip to the fabric store.

So what are your guesses?

No I'm not going to tell you! Why I should I be the only one that does extensive research on 1980's Strawberryland and all it's occupants?

February's SOCKS!!!!!!!

My very first pair of socks has been made and finished.

So cool with stripes of Pink/Burgundy/Brown & White/Blue-Green/ and Orange. I wasn't so sure about the orange, but it does add an interesting contrast.

It's self-striping yarn, which means I just knit and the pattern develops itself. Very fun.

How about a Side View?

Now the question is:
Do I follow up with a second one that's the same thickness and pattern but a different color palette?
Or do I go with a different thicker yarn and see what it looks like?
Or do I finish the crocheted slipper pattern I started a couple of months ago?

Decisions, Decisions
Option one: Allows me to make the adjustments to my design while it's fresh in my mind.
Option Two: Gets me a warm sock while it's still cold
Option Three: Takes care of a UFO (Unfinished Object)

Hey how about some more terms:
Finish or Frog it?
Finish: Pretty self-explanatory, do I really need to define this one?
Frog it: to "rip it" out and try again

Pretty cool huh, helps me understand a number of those knitting blogs I've been reading.

What a Reading Week!

Can you tell about when I started feeling sick? According to my reading list on the left, I basically started getting sick around the 12th and 13th. Being too sick to do anything and hating to sit in front of the television all day, reading is the best alternative. Of course I chose GLH because she's very good at distracting me from my pains and are quick reads. After 3 of those I've about had it, and was in desperate need of something that would make me laugh. So I chose Ron Carter and his comedies centered in Idaho, both quick day reads. Starting to feel better around the 18th, had enough of television so I decide to read a loaner from my sister. I'm always sceptical about recommendations, mainly cause I'm such a picky reader. So I figure she deserves this after the hard sell she had in getting me to even take it home with me. It was fantastic and I add my recommendation to hers. It takes place after World War II, in England. It's written as a series of letters between the characters, with an woman writer as the main recipient. It maintains a pleasant tone throughout while still allowing the seriousness of what occured with German occupation and bombing to come through to the reader. Definately a step or two above what I had been reading. The characters are quite enjoyable although some of the sub-characters can be difficult to remember, there's so many introduced.

Now having caught up my reading list, I think I need to try a more differcult read, something that isn't completely finished in a day or two; something that makes me take it slow. Which is funny cause that was what I was trying to figure out a week ago before I went down sick.

25 Randomness - Part 2

8 - I always thought Feb. 17 was pretty cool. I liked how it coinsides with March 17th which is one of my favorite holidays, St. Patrick's Day. A holiday about green and the luck of the Irish. I figured Feb. 17 had to be a close cousin somehow.

9 - I was a month late being born. (Rationally, my mom figures the doc got the date wrong) but still I love that story. It pretty much says I'm on my own time table and will get to it in my own good time. (that saying, this post will pretty much circle around this theme)

10 - I was excited about turning 30. I thought all the "depression/old" stigma 30 got, was completely silly. Now that I was out of the 20's I didn't have to do the same thing as I did then. I would be more of my own person in my 30's and boy was I excited about it.

11 - Now 31, that's been the hard year to accept. So late as always, I get the "30 blues" as a 31 year old. I think it's mainly that the "big plans" I had made as a thirty year old came close to happening but then at the last minute got pulled. ;) Still trying to accept that one.

12 - I was never really into makeup as a teenager. It was so much hassle. That saying, I never really had the acne problem that many of my friends had. I remember a cousin (we were close in age and always good friends) told me once how jealousy she was that I had such clear skin. I didn't have much time to glory in that complement, cause my mom quickly pointed out all that would change when I started wearing makeup more often. And sure enough as a 19 year old with college and stuff, I wore more make up and had more break outs.

13 - Along with that I got braces later, as a college student. Can't remember how or why it came about, but figure ... Oh ya now I remember. I went into have a tooth looked out, it was baby tooth that the dentist had figured just didn't have a tooth behind it. He found it was in pretty bad shape, and then noticed there was a tooth above it that had never pushed the baby out. He sent me to the "braces specialist" who gave me three options, the first one involved pulling at least 2 "good" teeth and leaving the bad one which didn't make sense to me ( but I guess it didn't involve braces) Of course I took option 2 which involved leaving perfectly good teeth alone, pulling the "bad baby" and wearing braces to pull the one down and everything else together. (No I don't remember option 3, only that it was more expensive then the other two.)

14. (Could #13 count for two randomness) I know I'm pretty random, but 25 is alot to come up with and I'm about due for another nasty coughing fit.

15. Cookbooks, you know how they separate the recipes into the different categories. The Breads category would be the area I like to play with the most. Meat still remains a mystery to me but I love playing with and learning different techniques of working with bread.

16. Did you know that generally speaking scalding milk doesn't need to be done, because pasteurization kills all the bacteria but when it comes to making bread their is an enzyme in milk that effects the "texture/rising" of bread. And by scalding the milk, it inactivates the enzyme that pasteurization never did. Fascinating stuff I tell you.

17. Talking about bread, my mom is very particular about her freshly baked bread, not allowing it to be cut while it's still hot. Well one time, I guess I caught her in a weak moment and she gave me permission to cut into a loaf that just came out of the oven. Now for you to get the full effect of what happened you need to know that she had her back to me and my dad was facing her and could see everything I was going ;) Remember that! Not letting a rare opportunity like this to go by, I decided that this loaf was special and should be cut special. So instead of cutting normal slices (side to side) I cut it from end to end, one long piece of warm mouth watering butter melting slice of bread. My dad started to point out what I was doing, was interpreted by my mother as just complaining that she never lets anyone cut into her bread/why letting me do it now. So he starts getting "lectured" by my mom and I'm loving every minute of it. ( I don't know if this makes any sense, but oh well) Anyway, he finally gets her to see what I'm doing as I finish spreading the butter on it. Yes, they had their own slices of "Amy's Slicing bread method"; 5 slices and the loaf was gone!!!! No she hasn't allowed me to cut into her hot bread since, but it was still so worth it.

18 - Amy's "Special" slicing method came in handy another time at a family birthday party (no not mine) No one wanted to cut the birthday cake so I took it upon myself to stop the suffering of the little kids who just wanted to have some cake but weren't allowed to touch knives. So standard cake pan cutting procedures: 3-4 across/5-6 down, nice even square servings for the group Am I right? Well I followed that ... sort-of, instead of straight lines, I made them wavy. It was so cool and those who wanted a "big" piece got their big piece and those who prefer a smaller sampling had that option too.

Ok, that does it for me. I'm running low. Till the next installment of "25 Randomness" please have a nice day and if you're not I recommend trying "Amy's Specially Slicing Method". And if this is too much information for you, just let me know and I can cancell the final installment, cause I'm feeling a little exposed.

25 Random Items - Part 1

I got tagged by a good friend to list 25 random "stuff" about myself. It's been a week and I figured this will have to be done piece meal if it's ever going to be done.

1. Grey hairs having be appearing in my hair for the last few years and I can't help but be completely fascinated by them every time I look in the mirror. They hold such a "cool" factor for me.

2. I "over-dosed" on romance novels as a teenager, and to this day, the thought of reading one makes me nauseous.

3. I find knitting very soothing. Funny thing is crochet doesn't make me feel the same way. I love both but knitting has a rhythm that completely relaxes me.

4. I don't follow instructions very well, either with cooking or sewing. I will see a pattern/recipe I like but when I go to make it, I always tend to tweak it someway or another. Which always brings up the question, "if it doesn't work out was it my fault or the pattern/recipe's fault?

5. I love to learn. I will go through periods where I'm fascinated by a specific subject and want to really learn it in depth. As a teenager, I loved "The Messiah" and would go to bed with it playing. That triggered a reading of Handel's biography, followed by other composers.

6. Since High School I've attended four different schools, graduating from three of them.

• Cosmetology School - Cosmetology License
• Business College - Associates degree of General Studies (1-2 semesters more and I could have had one in Accounting or Office Management)
• University - Family and Consumer Science (with my own emphasis in Clothing & Textiles)

I like to consider I chose the "Build your own Degree" Program for my education.

7. I drive a 20 year old car and for my next big "dream" purchase I want to buy a small house. I can't help wondering if I skipped a step somewhere.

Ok, the current head cold I am suffering from has dictated I go to bed.

Meal Preparation on a Saturday

I was informed this last week that the cook was taking a couple of weeks off to go visit her mother. Knowing if I didn't do something over the weekend, I would be starving or eating too much fast food while she was away. I pulled out my recipe books, tagged some recipes, made a list and then narrowed it down to 7 dinner meals I like to cook and trust the outcome. Then armed with a shopping list, I did my grocery shopping. And although I had a calculator in my pocket, I didn't use it, just put in the cart what I needed, a couple of things that sounded cool, and prayed the full cart wouldn't go over $100. $60 was all it came to. I was so impressed and pleased with myself. All that food and healthy and raw materials - no prepared stuff. Ok I did get a frozen lasagna but you've got to have a contingency plan for the night you don't want to do anything but throw it in the oven and eat right away. Right?

So here's the day's work in as little words as I can do.

I came across a powered milk recipe to make your own Hot Chocolate mix. Since I'm lactose intolerant, I've got some powered soy milk that I wanted to try out. It's not so great alone so I wanted to try it with Carob and see how it tastes. Why Carob you ask? Well it seems my "chocolate" allergy morphed with my MSG allergy and it too triggers migraines.
Yeah, no more chocolate for me. Migraines are SO MEAN!!!
(If truth be told, I actually prefer Carob) - what movie is that from?

My Hot Carob Mix
I wasn't sure how it would taste so I only mixed up a 1/4 of the recipe.
How does it taste? :( Honestly I'm not convinced just yet. Maybe with marshmallows and a candy cane to stir it with .... ? We shall see.....

Next Recipes: Meatloaf & Porcupine Meatballs

Onions Separate for the 3 different recipes I'll be using them in.
Meatloaf Recipe
Mix everything together and form into 12 good-size meatballs. Think 3/4 muffin tin size
Place on a cookie sheet and "flash" freeze. (I think that's the term) Basically by freezing them first this way, they keep their shape when put into the Zip lock bags. I was first introduced to this idea when I spent a few weeks with my cousin's family in Missouri. My Aunt Sally would mix up cookie dough and freeze it this way. I thought it was the coolest thing and beat cookie rolls for sure. With these you don't have to get your hands messy trying to cut anything, just pull them out and put them on the cookie sheet. This is the first time I've done it with meat but instead of a cookie sheet, I will use a muffin tin. Honestly I'm not quite sure how it would turn out on a cookie sheet. Could be interesting. Just make a note the meatloaf cooks faster separated into a muffin tin then all together in a loaf pan. Adjust time accordingly
Porcupine Meatballs ready for the freezer.
For those who don't know what Porcupine meatballs are they are your average meatball recipe with rice added to them. I think they're pretty good. The recipe calls for uncooked white rice. I used brown rice, which takes longer to cook and usually doesn't, at least not completely. And since I really don't like the "crunch" factor, I decided to cook the rice for 20 minutes. That way when the meat balls get cooked for the meal, the rice will definitely be cooked completely. Here's hoping. Just don't do what I did which was to double the rice recipe. I figured I would then split the portions with the stir-fry recipe, but I got too into the recipe and added all the rice to the meatballs. So these are one times the meatball recipe with twice the rice. Oh goody, hope I still like the rice aspect after this.

Now to prepare the veggies for a stir-fry and a Pasta Salad
Dense Veggies - Take longer to stir-fry

Pasta Salad Ingredients (including carrots)
I didn't want to make the same mistake I did with the rice so I made sure to separate the common veggies for both recipes.

So Pretty
Less Dense Veggies - cooks faster, bag separately so they can be added later

Chopped and ready for bagging

Now I know I'm going to be using these in the next couple of days so I'm not throwing them in the freezer but you can if you want to. Although the pasta salad ingredients probably shouldn't go in the freezer.

The frozen meatballs & meatloaf bagged and ready, enough for 4 meals serving 3-4 people. I'm pretty impressed with the afternoon's work. I made up four recipes that made enough for about 8 meals. The veggies I bagged together and will make up as one meal, I just know I'll have enough leftovers for a couple of meals. The meatballs and meatloaf I separated into two quart baggies so I only pull out what I need to serve for one meal. (If that makes sense)

After this I cleaned up the kitchen, put everything away and went downstairs to put my feet up. BOY were they killing me. I did it quickly because I was so tired, my feet hurt and I was afraid I would beat the first person who walked into the kitchen and asked, "So what's for dinner"

Note to self: Find a man who will be the kind of husband who understands that after a day like this, he takes care of the dinner, for the good of all concerned. If one can't be found, remain single cause that amount of food should keep you for at least 3 weeks if not a month.

PS: Movie Reference "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
PSS: So much for a "minimum" word post