annaramma

Bad Granny or Good Granny?

Out of personal taste and necessity, my house is a little on the granny side.  I like it, and most people seem to feel cozy and comfortable as soon as they walk in. 

As much as I love the occasional doily, superfluous pillow or knick knack, I sometimes wonder if I might have taken things a bit too far.  For example, these kitschy wall hangings.  I think they're fun and retro 70s in a good way; he silvery gold finish adds a little bit of glitz to my low-key guest bedroom.  But do they really just make people think of a dark wall paneling and plaid couches? 

In what I'm choosing to view as a vote of confidence, my friends P and T gave me a new wall hanging to add to my collection. 

Hooray for grandmas!

Missing!

I'm hopelessly addicted to sriracha.  It's so tasty and sweet and spicy.  It's truly fabulous on pizza.  But then it also makes simple eggs and rice amazing.  Ooh, you can also mix it with a little mayo to make a yummy sandwich spread. 

I've never had a hard time finding it at the store, but then I usually pick up a bottle when I go to 99 Ranch.  So now I'm facing a second week totally devoid of sriracha.  People, what am I going to do?!

I'm eking out an existence with tapatio and tabasco, but that's just not cutting it.  I need my sweet and spicy! 

I have been to five different stores and found exactly zero sriracha.  How can that be?  I can buy hemp milk (WTF?!), flax seed oil, bee pollen and frickin' Buddha hands, but NO SRIRACHA!

Help me please.

Frugal Friday: Free Candy!

Okay, not exactly free, but pretty damn close.

I made a fruit salad to go with my rice pudding and ended up with the peels from six oranges.  They were so lovely I thought it'd be a shame to just compost them.  I've never candied fruit rinds before, so I thought I'd give it a try while I had all the ingredients on hand.  I used this delicious-sounding recipe and ended up with these lovely glistening sweets.  The process was simple and even the blanching (to remove any bitterness) was pretty painless.  Any candy that doesn't require a sink full of dishes or a thermometer is fine by me. 

They're delicious by themselves, but I think I may continue the recipe and coat them in dark chocolate.  Orange and chocolate is just such a good combination. 

Now, what are my storage options.  I hear they'll be fine in a container for a week, but there's no way I'm going to eat them all in a week.  Can I refrigerate them?  What about freezing?  I'm going to set aside some test cases and I'll report back.

Marc Johns Prints

Sometimes awesomeness just needs to be shared.  Marc Johns creates dreamy and silly images that are pretty much guaranteed to make you smile (or at least tilt your head to the side and furrow your brow).

I can't exactly pick a favorite, but I'm pretty sure I need his adorable sushi print.

Though his style is unique, I imagine him being a fan of (the late great) comedian Mitch Hedberg (more awesomeness to be shared here).  The captions have a dead-pan bluntness that just crack me up.

Puddn'head Wilson*

I made a mess of rice pudding for a crowd this weekend.  There were quite a few non-dairy-eating folks, so I brought out this recipe for coconut milk rice pudding.  It's easy peasy and you can come up with all kinds of variations.

2 cups cooked rice (medium grain or jasmin)
3 cups light coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 T. cornstarch
1t. vanilla or 1 vanilla bean

1. Add rice and coconut milk to a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Simmer them for about 10 minutes to soften the rice before adding the sugar.
2. Now would be a good time to add any flavorings that would benefit from steeping in the pudding (vanilla beans, raisins, dried fruit, spices or raw nuts).
3. Whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together in medium-sized bowl.  Gradually add 1/2 cup of the rice mixture to the egg mixture and whisk briskly.  This will temper the eggs. 
4. Stir the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. 
5. Remove the pudding from the heat and add any flavorings that should not be cooked (vanilla, liqueurs or fresh fruit).
6. Allow to cool, giving the pudding a stir every few minutes to prevent a skin from forming.  Or cover the pudding with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly on to the surface of the pudding.  Refrigerate until you're ready to serve. 

Possible additions:
- golden raisins, a bit of cinnamon and a drop of rum
- vanilla bean, cinnamon and fresh bananas
- cocoa powder and orange zest
- lemon zest and toasted almonds
- minced candied ginger

*You really should read Twain's The Tragedy of Puddn'head Wilson.  It's good stuff.

In & Out

Impromptu entertaining always brings up two issues for me: what can I serve and what can I bring?

Now I'm fine when I can plan a party and I'm fine when I know that I'm responsible for bringing something, but what do I do when someone just stops by?  What do I do when I'm dropping by and my only resource is my pantry or the 7-11?

Maggie Mason at Mighty Girl has a great suggestion for what to serve when you have unexpected guests.  A Cheese Plate Jar!  I think it's brilliant!  It has everything you need to put out a few nibbles and you can keep it tucked away so you're not tempted to nibble them away yourself.  You see, that's my problem.  If I always kept delectable little bits around, I would always be eating the delectable little bits. 

As far as hostess gifts, I think I need to be better about stocking my pantry.  RealSimple has a list with some good ideas (there's no reason why you couldn't homemake those goodies) and I'm sure searching "hostess gifts" will bring up all kinds of interesting things. 

I think my solution will be to stockpile some appropriate items and make sure I don't leave home without them.  I don't always have boxes of truffles just sitting around the house.  Homemade jam, wine and homemade vanilla would cover just about anyone, but maybe I need something a little unexpected too?  Like wine charms?  Or maybe silly little dollar store toys?  I've seen a party go from nice to kick-ass by the simple addition of Kinder Eggs.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzip!

After running across the Craft Gossip post about my recycled zipper pillow, I realize I never posted about it here. 

Apart from the terrible photo, I'm pretty happy with how it came together.  It's essentially a quilted pillow with an additional layer of zippers covering one side.  The zippers can then be zipped and unzipped to reveal the patterns underneath. 

It's not a particularly useful recycled item, but it is kinda fun.  I thought of creating a zippered story pillow as a kids project.  The quilting would have different pictures, text, etc and the zippers would have pulls or numbers that would move the story along.  I figured a test was in order before I got too far into things.

Of course, things got busy and I haven't followed through on the project.  Looking back on it, I think it could be fun to revive the old project and see what I can make of it.  Time to put it on the list.

Who knew?

So did you know there was a website out there called Craft Gossip? 

I sure didn't.  How could I miss a website that references my two favorite things?  Now I won't malign the site, they don't actually appear to have trashy gossip along with all their crafty goodness*, but they do have quite a few neat-o projects.  I will definitely need to make them a stop on my daily web meanderings. 

As things get busy and time gets tight, I'm starting to enjoy these crafty aggregator type of blogs.  They can prowl the web so I don't have to.  I've found all kinds of wonderful things on the Craftzine Blog and I actually appreciate the relative absence of commenting and discussion.  If I want discussion I'll go to MeFi or Craftster to get my fix.  Sometimes I just want to get a quick glimpse of what's out there.

Oh, and look at that!  They even posted one of my projects from 2007, my cute but useless Zipper Pillow.  Well, I guess I have to love them now, right?

*Maybe that's going to my claim to fame?  Perez Hilton meets My Paper Crane?

Veggie Gifts

I made these cute veggies as gift certificate holders.  They have a little opening in the bag and a loop on the top for hanging.  When you fill them with a folded piece of paper or a gift card, they puff up a bit.  I think they look pretty tasty.

They were super duper easy and satisfying to whip up.  I used acrylic felt (I wanted nice bright colors) and traced the basic veggie shape.  I cut out and stitched the edges (wrong sides together) with the tiniest possible hem.  Then I snipped a slot in the back to allow the gift to be slipped inside.  Finally a sewed the stem and loop in with a contrasting thread.  

I picked these veggies according to the felt scraps I had lying around.  If I had orange, I was going to do a bunch of carrots.  Different shades of green could be used for zucchini, cukes, heads of lettuce, etc.  Other than some wildly inappropriate colors (turquoise and hot pink), white was my last option.  Staring at it, I came up with the idea for a turnip.  The magenta shading was just a little watered-down acrylic paint dabbed on with a sponge.  Now I think it's my favorite.

Of course it doesn't have to just be veggies.  Fruits, animals, random shapes, or just about anything would work.  It let me give a relatively impersonal gift (an REI certificate) in a genuine and handmade way.  Hopefully the recipients feel like they received a cool and useful gift and a little something extra.

Tangerine UFO

Check out this adorable little Tangerine candle.  I can't remember when I first saw it, but there's a handy little instructable here.  It works like a charm, smells delicious and it's such an elegant project.  All you need is a tangerine and a little oil. 

I highly recommend placing the lower half of the tangerine in a warm dry spot (like an oven with the pilot light) and soaking the upper half in a bowl of water.  You can do that while you eat the fruit.  After just a few minutes, the pith will be easier to light and the top won't singe as quickly. 

A table full of these would look lovely, but also a bit eerie.  They really do look like little UFOs.