Freaking amazing baked pasta casserole. Freaking CHEAP, too.

Did you ever think you would read "amazing" and "pasta" and "casserole" in the same sentence?  Well.  Welcome to my playground.

I can't take credit for the original recipe, but as I modified the crap out of it, I will anyway.  Here are the ingredients:

AMAZING HOMEMADE BREAD

Wow!  So I turned my back on Steve the Bread Guy.  Sorry, Steve.  Nothing personal.  I had a bookmarked bread recipe on allrecipes.com, and set out making it.  Of course, I failed to read the bit about the recipe being make for a breadmaker, but that's generally how I roll.

Roller derby. A pipe dream?

I've played roller derby for.... wow.... 6 or 7 years, now. I stopped playing in 2009 because I got pregnant...and really haven't been back.

I miss my lavender hair. =(

Bathroom self-portraits just haven't felt the same since.

Analysis of a Kitchen Cupboard

Why do we amass what we amass?  Do you plan it out & buy it all at once?  I lack that kind of foresight.  My unintentional collection has mismatched itself over 15 years.  Also, I may as well admit now that I went through a very unfortunate 5 year long Crate & Barrel phase.


WARNING:  I make no promises as to the interestingness of this post.

The cute.... THE GODDAMN CUTE

Quote from Anne of Green Gables

Anne felt as if she had lived years since then, but before she went to bed there was a smile on her lips and peace in her heart.  She had looked her duty courageously in the face and found it a friend- as duty ever is when we meet it frankly.

Cooking with ramen

Really?  Yes.  And let's be honest.... don't you secretly WANT an excuse to buy a huge case of ramen?  I know I always do.  Hell, I watched my husband eat a pack of uncooked ramen noodles last week.  Sure, I was a bit appalled, but the fact remains that I'm the one that supplied them.
And you know what?  It's CHEAP.  Soooooo cheap.  The noodles themselves aren't in league with the devil... it's the seasoning packet that you have to shield your soul from.
So here's the ingredients:

We've got:

• 2 tbsp olive or sesame oil
• 1 onion cut in half then into long thin slivers
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 2 c slivered cabbage
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 3 packages oriental flavor ramen noodle packages
• 1 c bite-size broccoli florets
• 1 c water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 t grated fresh ginger
• Sprinkle of sesame seeds

I can haz sewing skillz?

Do I know how to sew?  Nope.  

Does that stop me from wanting this sewing machine?  Nope.

This brings me so much joy.

WTF Hooligans?

Yes, people much smarter and tuned in than myself have discussed why the “youth” rioting in England should not be so surprising. But at the end of the day…. there are law-abiders and law-breakers.

Haunted by Snickerdoodles

I had to make them.
I HAD TO.

And then I had to give most of them away so I didn't eat all of them in 2 days.  But what a sad, sad night it was when the snickerdoodles were all gone.  :(

Poor/cheap/lazy woman's guide to Sangria

Put some sliced lemons & limes in the bottom of a glass.  Bonus points for strawberries.  Add a bit of sugar if you are feeling super fancy.

Shove as much ice as you possibly can into the glass.

Fill up the glass half-way with wine.  WALK AWAY.

Wait until the wine is flush with the ice.  At this point, drink it or add even MORE ice to re-top it off.  

I did mention lazy, correct?  Add impatient.

Also, if you are REALLY hard up, this works with just lemons.  Or just ice and sugar.

NOTE: more fruit adds fanciness points, but subtracts poor & cheap & lazy points.  Do with that what you will.   

Wheatish Bread, Take II

I did it!!  It happened!!!  And then I ripped the loaf all up getting it out of the pan.  Ah well.  They can't all be winners, can they?

Same Steve the Bread Guy recipe.  Well, sort of- I used 3 cups of white flour, and 3.5 c of whole wheat flour.  

I had my *game face* on this time.  No playing around.  Here's the pictures:

Baked Falafel Balls!

Baked falafel balls!  I still had a couple of cans of chick peas, and I was craving falafel, so I gave this recipe a whirl.  Lemme link you the recipes:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jeanies-falafel/detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tzatziki-ii/detail.aspx

I love allrecipes.com.  

They were a *little* dry, but I did bake them and not deep-fry them as suggested.

Maybe you don't mind working with scalding oil & then cleaning it up... and more power to you!  I wanted no part of it.  Not that I thought this at the time, but a wandering, ball-throwing toddler would be an excellent reason to never deep-fry.

The Warrior's Way

Just saw this movie.  Loved it!  People were bashing it all over online…. but what the hell more could they want?  Minimal talking, purely visually interesting.  OH and ninjas that show up in the Old West.

Like the downside cross?  I did!


Are married people supposed to have crushes? Probably not. Okay, then I definitely *DO NOT* have a tiny crush on this guy.  Justin needs to start his sword training.

Wheat bread....will you be mine?

Another week.  Another bread attempt.
Another YouTube video recipe.
No, I don't learn.

Homemade Bread Attempt #1

Homemade bread attempt #1.  Also multiple-picture-blog attempt #1.  Too bad I only know how the bread ended up.
I found this recipe on YouTube.  Okay, okay- mistake #1.  But she had a British accent and was SO CONVINCING.  And I still believe the recipe was fine... it was just my first attempt.
I borrowed my mom's KitchenAid because that's what the British lady said to use to knead the bread dough.  SOLD.  I want one so bad, but I have no where to put it.  *At the moment.*  Anyway, moving on.

I had no idea what was happening.  My dough didn't look anything like the video, but I got tired of adding flour, so I slopped the whole thing in the pan and crossed my fingers.  Here's the pre-rise:

Here's the after-rise and the cooked pics!  It was just okay.  It tasted like sourdough bread, which I do not particularly love, but the husband liked it a lot.


Also, allow me to fetch the YouTube video link & post it.  Watch it and TELL ME YOU DON'T TRUST HER COMPLETELY.

Easy Bread Recipe

Font Test

What's my default font, I wonder?

BTW I am in the process of moving my Tumblr posts over here. I like Tumbler a lot, but I felt it was more of a visual site and didn't allow written user communication.

So please forgive my ugly theme and seemingly super-busy night of cooking as I make the change.

Simple Sugared Strawberries

My grammom used to prepare this for us.  
Start with these two things:

End with this:

If you had whipped cream... it would be even better.  But I take what I can get.