Straight Stitches

Monday, August 06, 2012

$3.63

Heather August 06, 2012 0 Comments

Hey guys! I've been busy this last week!

I don't know how many of you look at the Facebook page, but if you subscribe to Straight Stitches on Facebook, then you would have seen sneak previews of things I've been working on!

So a while back on Pinterest, I saw this pin -

Love those letters! I need some of those letters!

So I made myself some paper mache letters using cereal boxes, a phone book, flour and water. Dev even helped me make the letters. A good, messy time was had by all.

So after the letters were dry, I painted them with some copper paint and then just hot glued my pennies to them! $3.63 worth of pennies to be exact.

I ended up overlapping the pennies so that more of the letter was covered, but I like the dimension and depth the layering gives the letters.

I also ended up rearranging my copper jello molds when I decided to put these letters over the pantry door. They are now above my cabinets, and there is plenty more room for more molds! Not that I'm happy about that or anything. :)

I am loving the simplicity of my letters, and how they add a bit of shine to my brick red walls. See you guys later!

Heather

Friday, August 03, 2012

Beat It!

Dana August 03, 2012 0 Comments

Beat it! No one wants to be defeated! Something-something-something. It doesn't matter who's wrong or right. Just beat it, beat it, beat it! Just beat it, beat it, beat it! Can you guess what I made this week? For twenty eight years, I thought I hated beets. Twenty eight years! That's a long time without knowing some amazing deliciousness. You must understand, though, the only beets I had ever had were the super-dark purple things that came pickled out of a can. I hate pickled things. Blech! But beets in all their pure glory? Holy cow!

When I went and picked up the CSA I mentioned a few weeks ago, I got two beets in it. I really wanted to try them, so I forced myself to put them in my box. Then I met Richard. Richard is very nice and the farm chef at Hidden Valley Farms. He had some samples out of things he had made with the farm produce. One of the samples was some simply prepared beets. I tried one and then proceeded to have a long conversation with Richard about how he made them. Here's what Richard shared with me:

Roasted Beets

Beets

1 cup water

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Scrub the beets with a vegetable brush and water, and cut off the crowns. Place the beets onto a baking sheet and add the water. Sprinkle the beets with olive oil, salt and pepper and cover with foil. Roast the beets for about 30 minutes or until they are fork tender. Let beets cool and then rub the peels away with a paper or tea towel.

That's it!

Funny, I thought the inside of the beet would be redder. Seriously, the prep time on this dish is almost nonexistent.

There she it, my delicious beet with a fabulous pork chop in onion gravy.

Aaaaaaand there's Mike enjoying his beet. :-) Getting Mike to enjoy vegetables, especially vegetables that have been previously deemed unlikeable, so something like this is always a big accomplishment. When he finished his dinner, the beet was all gone, but he still had some of his pork chop left, and he said to me, "I'm sad I don't have any phat beets left." :-)

This is how I describe beets now: Candy vegetables. They're really sweet and has a really deep, complex flavor. I also found out this week that they're super good for you, so double win! It's a shame that I've gone so long without this delectable veggie in my life, but at least I know about it now. I would be willing to bet money that almost no one would dislike this.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Experimenting

Dana July 27, 2012 2 Comments

Look what I got!

That is one heck of a lot of farm fresh veggies. There is a local farm called Hidden Valley Farm here in Nashville that I love. You can go to their website and sign up for their weekly newsletter, which explains what is in their CSA produce box every week. You can then sign up to pick up a box--$20 for a couple's size and $40 for a family size--or you can ignore it if you're not interested. The couple's box is big! They have also had a pack-your-own box option for the last two weeks, which costs slightly more. I chose this option last weekend, and, because I worked in bookstores for so long, I know how to pack a box very efficiently! Above are my spoils. Now, what to do with all those beautiful veggies?

Remember last week when I featured the veggie-licious Tizza Soup? Well, I started to build on that idea. I ended up roasting the red peppers and tomatoes and cut some corn off two of the cobs and made a really yummy soup. Add some cumin and maybe even a pinch of cayenne for heat, and you've got yourself a Southwest Soup. I'm just sad it didn't make more.

I also roasted all of the zucchini and squash and carrots, washed a leek, and tossed in a few spare artichoke hearts from last week and made a really nice warm-you-up vegetable soup. I added some Gorgonzola to that as an experiment, and it was awesome! Call me crazy, but I have another idea for this soup. I made a TON of Gorgonzola Portabella risotto last week. I ate a lot of it, but I also had to freeze a lot. What if I added that and then blended it to make it creamy and mushroomy and Gorgonzola...y? I know, it sounds crazy--What? Ruin some lovely risotto?--but trust me when I say I got plenty of stand-alone enjoyment out of the risotto by itself. That's just how I am. I am crazy enough to try these mad idea just for a bit of deliciousness. Since I know the Gorgonzola cheese was really good with it, I really think the risotto will do really well well, too.

I have discovered the cornucopia of delicious and healthful food options when you combine vegetables, water, and seasonings. I cannot be stopped! What kind of crazy experiments have you tried in your kitchen, only to discover a new hidden food-treasure?