Suzi

April 10, 2013

Chris and I were recently invited to the wedding of a lovely couple. While I wasn’t able to make a full quilt, I did want to give them a little something homemade. The result is this table runner.

Their kitchen is red (I think!) and I happened to be working on it in February/March. That meant lots of patterns for hearts floating around, and I figured that was appropriate for a wedding. I used this pattern for the hearts, but didn’t sew them together. I then just made the borders as I went.

The back is just stripped, which I think allows it to be reversible for a change.

The quilting is straight lines in each direction making it dense in the corners. I left the blocks themselves alone to make them stand out a bit more (and because it was hard to quilt them without it looking sloppy!).

I finished it off with some candles and delivered it with some other little things from their registry.

Overall it was a fun and quick finish. I hadn’t pieced squares on a while, and it’s fun to see them come together. I figure even if they don’t use it all the time, it’ll work for Valentine’s Day and Christmas instead!

Curried meatballs and apricot rice

Suzi

March 24, 2013

Chris and I were browsing at Barnes & Noble on Friday, and I took a peak at a test kitchen book I’d been intrigued by for a while. The cookbook, Simple Weeknight Favorites, is pretty similar to others we have so I left it on the shelf. However, I did a quick Google search for this recipe to see if someone had already posted it. Success!

It was not complicated but did take some time. I don’t know if I’m ready to make it a weeknight meal yet, but it is worth making again.

We found it…Simple Weeknight Favorites but posted here with one error.
We made it…but it should only have 1 cup of rice in case you try it. We just set aside the extra cup to freeze for a later meal. We did switch to brown rice and it was fine with a longer cooking time. We used turkey, but chicken would be good, too. Other than that we did as written.
We ate it…3 times/6 servings along with a veggie side (we did roasted carrots and parsnips).
We thought…the apricots were tasty, but the meatballs were great (though the onions could be minced so they don’t fall out).

Curry topped sweet potatoes

Suzi

March 23, 2013

We made this meal for the second time a few days ago, and it was just as good as we remembered. It’s not fast owing to the baking of the potatoes, but it is easy and lets you clean up the kitchen while you wait.

We found it...at Three Many Cooks
We made it…The only things we changed were to split a thai chili in half and let that hang out to replace the jalapeno and used the whole can of crushed tomatoes to avoid having to figure out what to do with the rest. We also only cooked 3 sweet potatoes and avoided the scooping and mixing part and just smothered the sweet potato instead.
We ate it…It gave us 6 generous servings with a half sweet potato each.
We thought…It’s probably a better winter meal, but it is is a keeper. Chris loves sweet potatoes, so that really helped, too.

Skillet tuna noodle casserole

Suzi

March 13, 2013

I know we shouldn’t like tuna noodle casserole as much as we do, but there it is. It’s delicious. This recipe isn’t necessarily super fast because it takes a while for things to brown, but it is tasty and doesn’t use a lot of dishes. Which means it wins a weeknight possibility award in my kitchen.

We found it…The Best 30-minute Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, but this recipe is almost identical.

We made it…We always do this dance about which tuna is cheaper/will provide us with all that we need for the recipe, and this time we went with the large can instead of the bags. It was less tuna than called for, but was fine. Though I wouldn’t have protested more. We also just used a half pound of mushrooms since the package was on sale. Other than that, the recipe was followed as is.

We ate it…3 times/6 servings

We thought…We’ve made this before. It’s sort of a fancier version of Tuna Helper, and we like it. Again, probably more than we should.

Russian vegetable pie

Suzi

March 12, 2013

This pie is not Hungarian, much to my dismay. I spent a fair amount of time looking for the recipe under that name, only to realize I’d mixed up my geography. The internets cannot find things that don’t exist. It was especially frustrating because I had found the recipe I wanted to try the week before. I was afraid I’d gone crazy.

We found it… Food.com as written in The Vegetarian Epicure

We made it…As written. It doesn’t specify how much dill, and I would put at least a 1/4 teaspoon. The 1/8 teaspoon of the other spices was plenty. The dough was a little difficult, though I didn’t follow directions well and cut the cream cheese and butter in at the same time. I had to use a bit of water to get it to come together. It rolls out thin, so be prepared for that. We made it one day and baked it the next, so it took a while longer to brown.

We ate it…We’re still eating it, but I’d wager we’ll get 3.5 meals or 7 servings. And mostly because I was super hungry, so it could go 8 next time.

We thought…This was a little weird but quite delicious. We might just use our regular pie dough next time for ease, perhaps using some whole wheat flour. We weren’t sure what the cream cheese added, so it might be easier to skip that next time. Overall it was a hearty meal that we enjoyed once it was finally done baking.

Broccoli, Corn and Potato Soup

Suzi

March 11, 2013

Though I can refer you to a website that again will always have better pictures than me, I did remember to photograph this one.

We found it…MADE

We made it…This time we substituted some frozen ham we had instead of bacon. We always saute an onion and some garlic in the bacon drippings/oil before adding the flour. This time we used Italian seasoning because we were out of thyme and it worked well. I usually take my 4 cup liquid measure and add 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn and then top it off with frozen broccoli because we like our soups thicker. Also Chris love broccoli.

We ate it…6 servings/3 meals for us.

We thought…The fact that this uses frozen vegetables helps a lot. It means it can be made easily or shuffled around if changes plan without the fresh ingredients going bad. Overall, a really great staple soup. It also scales up well – we’ve made tons of it at a time for a big group before.

Red kidney bean curry

Suzi

March 11, 2013

No picture of this one, but it necessitated a post because it was delicious! Also, Smitten Kitchen‘s pictures will always be better than mine anyway. (c:

We found it…Smitten Kitchen Red Kidney Bean Curry

We made it….As described, by using the lower amount of ginger. We meant to put in an jalapeno, and it would have been nice with a kick of spice. You could also split a thai chili and let it hang out before taking it out at the end for some heat. Served over brown rice with a dollop of plain yogurt.

We ate it….6 servings/3 meals for the two of us.

We thought…This was super easy and very tasty. It more than satisfied and we look forward to making it again. Even better leftover.

Curried Singapore Noodles

Suzi

March 7, 2013

This was a quick meal, and pretty good. It would be great with shrimp as it was written, but it works well substituting more veggies as we did, too.

We found it…America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook or here
We made it…by leaving out the shrimp and stir frying broccoli instead.
We ate it…6 servings
We thought…it was quick, easy and tasty.

Dinner table topper

Suzi

March 7, 2013

I jumped on the bandwagon that I’m pretty sure most crafty/sewey blogs on the internets jumped on. Quilters all over, young and old have been making scrappy trip around the world quilts – Quiltville.

I had previously made a full trip around the world quilt for a friend, and it was pretty easy and satisfying. I needed a table topper for our table since place mats often don’t cover enough area and the (cheap) veneer is starting to chip. Wanting to make our table last a little longer into our debt repayment process, I decided the scrappy trip was a perfect project for it.

The scrappy trips around the world encourage you to choose whatever fabrics you have in hand. Luckily I had been collecting some cute fat quarters during various trips, and this gave me an opportunity to use them. I added in some extras from other sewing projects I’ve done here and there. I made 4 blocks, each containing a strip of orange in the center since our kitchen contains a lot of that (as does our whole house…). The cows on the corners were obvious. It is out kitchen after all!

Most of the fabric was acquired because I loved it, and the rest made me think of other people I’ve made things for. That alone made it a really fun project to work on. I only had to pick up a little bit of the trees and the brown stripe/binding. I just couldn’t make any of my meager stash work the way I wanted. The quilting design was fun, and I’m particularly tickled at how the quilting looks on the back. I learned the right ways to start and stop in the middle on my machine, which will help me in my next project.

Of the fabrics I loved, the back was most definitely included. I love paisley, particularly if it’s ugly. I had just enough of this fabric to make it work. Best of all, now the topper is reversible!

I did have a lot of help in the process. Ping decided he’d have to try it out to make sure it was comfortable enough for his spot on the table. Yes, our cat is a pest and often joins us at the dinner table.

What can I say? It’s a good thing he’s cute!

Crispy black bean tacos

Suzi

March 7, 2013

There is really not much to report on this meal, except that it is easy and delicious.

We found it…Smitten Kitchen black bean tacos

We made it…We don’t change much other than shredding our own cabbage for the slaw and sometimes using corn tortillas instead of flour.

We ate it…We generally get 2 meals/4 servings out of it. The second day we usually just eat it warmed up rather than crisped.

We thought…We love this. It’s fast, easy, light and a regular go to in our kitchen.