Birds on the Barbie

After we returned from Quilt Market last week we wanted to have a little cookout with my folks before they returned home to sunny Florida. Jon picked up some awesome steaks and fixings. As mom and I prepared the food for grilling Jon went out to light the grill and what did he find?



Let's take a closer look, shall we?



Now... all together "AWWWWWW"



Needless to say, we put the food in the freezer and went out to dinner instead that night.

In the next week we saw the birds more than double in size and change from fuzzy to feathery. What a great experience for the kids that was! The mama bird was a hardworking one... bringing food & water for her babies 24-7. My girls even set out a little bucket filled with water so she wouldn't have to fly too far for it. :)

Here's a brave little one almost ready to fly the coop...





On Memorial Day (almost a week after we first discovered the nest) we went out to check on the birdies and they had all left. Well, all except for one who quickly took off as soon as we opened the grill lid. We couldn't believe how well he flew! He landed on a tall tree branch and was quickly joined by the mama bird so we knew he would be alright.

With an empty nest on our hands, and a house full of hungry guests, Jon and grandpa set out to clean the grill right away. Here is grandpa scrubbing hard as Jon sprays it from a distance with the pressure washer. They both got soaked! The rest of us watched and laughed from inside the house.



The girls and Auntie Alicia prepared a scrumptious side of veggie skewers...



Getting ready to grill... YUM!



We kicked off the Summer season with a super yummy grilled feast of steaks, potatoes, corn & veggies on our bird-free grill. Boy, that pressure washer sure did a job on the grill... I don't think that thing has been this clean since it was brand new!



Oh and we even grilled a hot dog for Uncle Sean and Auntie Alicia's dog, Scooter.

How was your Memorial Day?

Three handcrafted gift ideas

As promised, here are a few ideas you can do quickly at home without a lot of effort or skill needed. And if, like me, you are feeling like you're cheating on your Handmade Pledge, these ideas oughta get you back on track...

1. Peppermint Bark
(Oh, lovely, delicious, tempting peppermint bark)



All you need is:

• 1 package of white or dark chocolate morsels
• About 6 - 8 candy canes or a handful of those cute round peppermint candies (I know you are all in deep admiration of my technical lingo here, but try to contain the applause until the end)
• Peppermint Extract

Here's how you make it:

• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Put all your candy canes or peppermint rounds inside a heavy duty zip-lock bag (the freezer bags are great for this). Then take it to the garage and pound on it lightly with a hammer until all candy pieces are smashed down to dime size or smaller.
• Melt your chocolate morsels according to the directions on the package. Since I don't own a double boiler, I opted for the microwave method and it worked just fine. Just remember that the white chocolate is a bit more stubborn than the dark. It starts to harden a lot quicker than the dark chocolate, so you have to work twice as fast!
  NOTE: It just occurred to me today that not all packages of morsels have melting instructions on the back (I usually buy Ghirardelli, which does, but the Hershey brand doesn't) so if you need to know how to melt them in the microwave, a good rule of thumb would be to start slowly... like 30 seconds on medium power, then take it out and stir it . If the chocolate is not melted completely then microwave again in 15 second increments until it's completely melted. :)
• After your chocolate morsels are melted, add 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract and stir quickly. Immediately, pour mixture down on your cookie sheet making sure it is spread evenly.
• Drop peppermint candy pieces down on your chocolate mixture until it is covered evenly. You can even push some down with a spatula or a fork.
• Cool in fridge for at least 10 minutes (I always cool mine for about 1/2 hr.) Break into odd sized pieces and enjoy!

P.S. You can do the double layer kind too, with dark and white chocolate. I opted against it because my family members are pretty divided on what kind of chocolate they like. Jon won't touch white chocolate with a 10-foot pole, and I prefer it to the dark!

This is an excellent gift idea! Just prepare colored tins with a layer of parchment paper and fill with your homemade bark. Tie the whole thing with a bow and add a handmade gift tag... just like the ones below.

2. Handmade Gift Tags



If you're like me and have kept all your old Christmas cards from years past, this is an excellent craft to do quickly one afternoon and even get the kids involved.

• Just buy a round paper punch at any craft supply store, 1.5" - 2" diameter works great!
• Punch out your old cards. No need to center the design... the wackier the better. I used some of my ModGreetings overages for this project.
• Then using a hole punch, punch out a hole near one end of your circle (about 1/8" from edge),tie a piece of ribbon or jute through it and VOILA!

By the way, I am loving the look of brown craft paper with natural jute for my presents this year. It has such an earthy, organic feel, dontcha think? Add to this my recycled gift tags and I'm feeling pretty good about my pledge. ;)



3. Framed photos



I must say that a framed photo is about the easiest, cheapest gift you could ever make that will be received well by all. Well, that is, if you follow these simple rules:

1. Grandparents LOVE pictures of the grandkids, so knock yourself out.
2. If the framed photo happens to be a gift for a more distant relative or a friend, you'd better make it a picture of themselves or their kids (chances are they won't be putting a picture of you on their wall... just saying!)

Photos don't have to be professionally shot to make a good impression. A candid photo or fun snapshot can make a great gift if presented creatively! You could even use a cool picture shot at a park or playground. Get yourself some premium quality photo paper and print them at home, or take your photos to your local photo lab for an enlargement. Most of them will do these in 1 hour!

The frames can be thrift store or garage sale finds. Nothing too fancy needed! Spray paint is your friend. And you can even embellish your painted frames using buttons, shells or found objects and a little hot glue. Let your creativity roll...



Hope everyone is having a fantastic Holiday season! I've been sewing up a storm, how 'bout you? I promise to share my handmade gifts with you all after Christmas (since my family and friends all read my blog it would kinda spoil the surprise!) ;)

Sophie: Sweet. Silly. SEVEN!
(warning: photo overload ahead!)

The invitation: these went out in pink envelopes, of course!



The party prep: I finished the last of the 5 ModBloom-shaped aprons for the Lil' Chef sets the morning of the party, talk about last minute! I love how they turned out. Each girl got a different apron with matching oven mitts and chef hats...



The Lil' Chef sets were stuffed inside personalized pink goody bags and accompanied with mini cookie cutters and candy-covered pretzel sticks...



Here's a closer look at the five goody bags. And yes, that's Sophie's beloved Nintendo DS with games & accessories at the front...



The dining room became "party central" with an explosion of PINK! I got those Chinese paper lanterns at Walmart... they're from the Martha Stewart collection. Fresh flowers completed the mood and made the room smell oh, so sweet!



A closer look. The place settings, table cloth and drink umbrellas are also from Walmart. I had all intentions of making a patchwork tablecloth out of my Petal colorway of Andalucia, but I just ran out of time. (I'm still gonna try to make a Christmassy one with all the Fire prints!)



My sister, Caty, made a scrumptuous bread pudding (for the second time this weekend... we gobbled up the first one on Thanksgiving Day!)



Even Jon helped out in the kitchen by breaking down the bread into little pieces...



And yes, Caty is wearing a Moorish Tile apron I whipped up right before the party.
(Useless tidbit of the day: did you know that Moorish Tile was the very first design I ever made for Andalucia? Yep, the whole collection pretty much stemmed from it. I developed Flowery Stripe and Tiny Flower by extracting portions from Moorish Tile and repeating them in different ways.)



I worked on the sleep-over cake. It looks kinda gross here but you'll see... after the girls decorated it, it turned out pretty cute!



THE PARTY! The girls had a great time dressing up as Lil' Chefs. They got to make personal pan pizzas first...



Sophie and her cousin, Asja...



Sophie and Sydney...



Sophie and Raeesa...



Sophie and Jordan (with her tattoo-filled face)...



Asja and Sydney...



While their pizzas were in the oven, they decorated their Nilla Wafer "faces" for the sleepover cake (some took a bit longer than others! LOL!) ...



The sleepover cake:



The birthday girl:



Me and my baby!



The girls played dress-up and tag for a while (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of that!) and then it was sleepy time. We set up 5 sleeping bags in the basement and the girls collected pretty much every plush dog & cat in the house to keep them company at night...



The next morning we woke up to a great surprise from Mother Nature:



All in all, a great time was had by all! Thank you all again for all your great party suggestions!

Prepping and playing...

I've been prepping for the Holidays and Sophie's b-day non-stop these past few days, but I just noticed most of my "prepping" also fell into the "playing with fabric" category, so I thought I'd share some of the fun little projects we've been doing around here. I got my yardage from MMF last week and it couldn't have been better timing!

The girls and I made this fabric garland over the weekend. It was the perfect "lazy Saturday afternoon with the kids" project. It was so easy and painless and used up a lot of the scraps I had lying around my studio. If you guys are interested I can put together a little tutorial, but it's really easy, I promise...



I also started filling up an empty wall in my office/studio. I'd been staring at this blank wall for months trying to figure out what the best artwork for it could be and one day it dawned on me. I ran into a box of vintage embroidery hoops that belonged to my mother-in-law (like 30 years ago!). This little project took me all of half-an-hour... another quick & painless little home project!



Then I thought I'd share some of the things I've been making for Sophie's b-day slumber party. Yep, you guessed it... it's a "cooking class theme"! Sophie absolutely loves to help in the kitchen so this is the perfect themed party and since there are so few guests I thought it'd be fun to make all the party favors... as in an oven mitt, a chef's hat and an apron for each girl! YES, I'M CRAZY! (pssst... I'm still not done! I still have to make 3 more aprons... eeek!)



Some of these have a different fabric on the back side...



Oh, and the girls will also get some cute cookie cutters and mini-wisks in their goody bags. Hope they like them!



(pssst... I'll have a pattern for the oven mitts, chef's hat and flower-shaped apron available soon! The apron is adorable, you'll see. It's all drafted and ready to go, I just have to get it printed!)

I'll share plenty of pictures of the party next week. Oh, and speaking of... there is still time to enter the Mommy & Me giveaway! I will pick a random winner tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day) and announce it on Black Friday! So go ahead and leave me a comment!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Cook It. Blog It! has moved!

As with everything I start, I had all the best intentions when I founded the Cook It. Blog It! club back in June of this year. I planned on weekly updates, features, contests and what not. But typical me, I bit off more than I could chew (no pun intended... well, kinda!) I got a little busy with fabric design, market preps, post-Market stuff and family and just could not keep it up. Your requests to join the blogroll kept pouring in and I am truly sorry that I have not had the time to add the last few dozen on there.

So, I've enlisted the help of none other than our sponsor, Nikki of Gourmet Momma. Actually, I have more than enlisted her help. I've just plain handed it over to her... she will do a much better job at keeping this club updated than I ever could, believe me. And with her culinary background and kick-butt graphics experience, I just couldn't think of a better person to head up this endeavor!

So, without too much ado, I present to you the new & improved COOK IT. BLOG IT! (drumroll please!)



You can now send your requests over to Nikki and still browse the existing blogroll for lots of yummy recipes (we have about 100 members!!!) She even has a a way for you to grab the code for the sidebar logo... way to go, Nikki (I was never able to figure out how to do that! LOL!)

Oh, and don't forget to add your pictures to our Flickr group!! It is still the same group... I've just added Nikki as an admin.

I just cannot wait to browse your blogs for some yummy Holiday recipes... I'm finally in the mood to cook again! And speaking of cooking, I am totally obsessed with Peppermint Bark, anyone else?


I swiped this amazing photo from The Food Network. I've never made the stuff myself but I just got a bag of it this morning and it's nearly gone! I'm thinking I need to make some. So, is it as simple as it looks? Just melted white chocolate, crushed candy canes & peppermint extract? Or does anyone have a secret to make it extra special?



Ooooh, and check out this dark chocolate version I found on Simply Recipes. Again, not my photo, but I'm totally salivating here!!! Plus, this is one that Jon would actually enjoy, since he HATES white chocolate with a passion (weirdo!)


OK, has anyone had this version from Williams Sonoma with BOTH white and dark chocolate? It looks amazing! And I'm reading TONS of reviews from crazed fans out these saying it's the best thing since sliced bread! GOSH, here I go again, drooling on my keyboard.

Let me know if you have a fave peppermint bark recipe... the little bag I bought this morning is almost all gone!

Cook It. Blog It!
Homemade Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls
and Thai Tom Yum Shrimp Soup

I recently discovered this great little Asian store in town, called Shanghai Market. Jon and I are huge fans of all Asian food... Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and of course, Philippino (since Jon is half-Philippino). I spent nearly 1 hr. in there, even though it's just barely bigger than my own kitchen. The owners were delightful to talk to and offered so many words of advice on how to cook the various dishes I was inquiring about. The wife even offered to call me next time she attends an Asian Cooking class... YAY!

I walked away with the following items, plus some yummy fresh herbs & spices, to make 2 of my family's favorite dishes: Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls (a.k.a Goi Cuon) and Thai Tom Yum soup.



Vietnamese Summer Rolls
Ingredients:
Spring Roll Skins
Fresh Raw Shrimp (figure around 1.5 per roll)
Vermicelli (one small package)
Vietnamese Pork (comes pre-cooked in a roll)
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Mint
Fresh Basil

To make your Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls the first thing to do is to soak your spring roll skins in warm water until they are softened. In the meantime you can shell & cook some fresh raw shrimp, boil your Vermicelli until soft, thinly slice the Vietnamese pork roll (it comes pre-cooked), and slice up your fresh cilantro, mint & basil.

When you are ready to start rolling your Summer Rolls, it is best to set up your ingredients in assembly-line style so you can move through them rather quickly, because if your skins start to dry up they will break up as you roll them.

In this picture you can see my assembly line... the cooked vermicelli on the bottom right, followed by the thinly sliced pork in the middle bowl, the shelled & deveined shrimp, and finally the fresh cilantro, mint & basil up at the top :



Lay your moist spring roll skin down on a clean flat surface and pile up your ingredients near one end of the skin, in the order show above. Begin to tightly roll the skin around the fillings. You may mess up a couple of times and break the skin, but that is OK... practice makes perfect. I wasted a couple before I figured out just how tightly to roll them without tearing them. The best way to do this is to roll it once just so the fillings are barely covered, then you fold in the sides and then continue rolling it until it is all encompassed.



Refrigerate rolls until ready to serve.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls are not fried. They are commonly served cold as an appetizer with a dipping sauce. For the dipping sauce I mixed equal parts of the ready-made Spring Roll sauce with some Fish Sauce and served the rolls 3 to a plate like this:



Thai Tom Yum Soup
ingredients:
Tom Yum Paste
Canned Straw Mushrooms
Fresh Raw Shrimp
Vermicelli (optional)
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Lime

Bring 3 cups of water to boil and add 2 spoonfuls of Tom Yum Paste to create your savory broth. As the water is boiling add your raw, shelled & deveined shrimp. Continue boiling for 2 - 3 minutes until the shrimp are pink. Remove from stove and add the straw mushrooms and fresh cilantro to your soup.

Right before serving squeeze about a half fresh lime into the broth and garnish with more fresh cilantro. Voila! Savory Tom Yum Soup:



You can also add cooked vermicelli into this soup (like I did on ours) but the traditional Tom Yum does not have noodles.

If you want to create a milder version for the kiddos, mix your tom yum broth with about equal parts of chicken broth. If your kids (or you) cannot tolerate spicy foods at all, you can always make this with just the chicken broth and add the lime & herbs for flavor.

Enjoy!