To heck with the pre-wedding diet — it’s Valentine’s Day so I ate a cupcake!
I used the Magnolia Cupcake recipe and it was the maiden voyage of the spiffy new cupcake pan from Williams Sonoma that TheFirstChild and SweetiePie gave me for Christmas. It’s awesome — it holds 24 cupcakes, it fills the whole oven, and I love it!
If you’re on a diet, give it a rest and have something fattening today. I hope you very sweet bloggy peeps have a Divine Valentine’s Day!
XOXO,
Anna
Whoops! That was a little unintended mini-blogging break. TheManoftheHouse was hogging the computer doing taxes all weekend. Or as I call it, the yearly affirmation that my filing system sucks.* Moving right along.
I’ve been tagged by the loverly Cami to do the seven weird things about me meme. I’ve done this meme a few times before, so, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m going to list seven weird things that I love.
1. I love TheManoftheHouse. He’s by far the weirdest thing I love. We’ve surprised more than a few people that we’ve survived this many years, including ourselves.
2. I love dipping french fries in soft ice cream. Yum, Yum. Milkshakes qualify too.
3. I love knitting socks. Oh sure, it’s not weird to most of you, but some goonball at work once told me that it was weird, so it qualifies.
4. I love shoveling snow. Especially late at night when everything is eerily quiet. (Hmmm, that might qualify more for the original intent of the meme — shoveling snow isn’t weird…loving it is.)
5. I love TheEmptyNestChild. He’s pretty weird too. He’s more like a dog than a cat, maybe because we’re dog people at heart.
6. I love reading/learning weird facts. Or weird stuff in the news. Makes me feel just a little bit more normal.
7. I love making boxers out of fun fabrics. These are boxers for the boys for Valentine’s Day this year, skillfully modeled by Giselle SweetiePie. I tried a new waistband application this time — the previous versions have always used the elastic with channels that you sew on so the fabric gathers up. The boys complained that the waistbands were too bulky. Hopefully they’ll like this version better.
I made three pairs this year, for TheFirstChild, TheSecondChild, and for my new nephew Boo. Poor Boo though, he’ll be receiving his boxers late as I won’t be able to get them in the mail until Thursday. Guess he’ll just be receiving them 364 days early!
I’m supposed to tag seven people, so how ’bout some newer bloggers (well, some are newer) … Stitchin’ Friends, Colors Outside the Lines, In the Garden with Miss Jean (who currently has a to-die-for sugar cookie recipe posted), Muddling Through, Quirky Bags, and Patches, Pieces and Me, and YOU. If you haven’t done this yet. Give it a shot and let me know so I can read seven weird things about you!
XOXO,
Anna
*You can skip this part. It’s just my yearly TaxRant. I really don’t mind paying taxes — I know we all must share the burden. But I REALLY resent how long it takes to prepare taxes. Time that could have been spent sewing. What kind of cornfed system are we working with here? You add stuff in, then you take stuff out? Are you a stripper with breast implants? Go ahead and deduct them! Are you sick and the Dr. told you that you need more exercise? Put in a pool and deduct it! Growing pot in your basement? Ok, that one’s a stretch, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Why can’t they just say “How much did you make? Ok, send in X percent?” Fair for everyone! How hard could that BE??? The End. Aren’t you glad?
Randi over at I Have to Say is in need of some new recipes, so she’s hosting a recipe swap. What a fun idea — I’m in need of new recipes too, so the timing is perfect. Thanks for hosting Randi! (And, how cute is this recipe logo that Randi made?)
For my entry, I’m sharing my family’s favorite Chicken Hash recipe. I found this recipe a few years ago in a Food & Wine book and we love it. It’s a very versatile recipe, you can make it with freshly cooked or leftover chicken, turkey, beef or pork. If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out. If you like green peppers, throw them in. You get the idea! The little bit of thyme in the recipe gives it a distinct flavor and we especially like the addition of an egg on top. If you leave the egg yolk a bit runny, it creates a wonderful gravy to coat your hash. (And look Kim, no mashed potatoes anywhere!!!)
3 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan of salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.
In a large nonstick frying pan (I like to use a cast iron skillet for excellent browning), heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Add the onion, garlic, and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are browned, about 6 minutes. Add the chicken (if you’re using leftovers, wait and toss them in at the end), 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, the pepper, and the thyme. Saute until the chicken is almost cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan.
Wipe out the frying pan and then heat the remaining 3 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat. Add the drained potatoes and let cook, without stirring, for 6 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, stir the potatoes, and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes longer. Stir in the chicken and mushrooms, the cream, and the parsley. Cook until just heated through, 1 to 2 minutes longer.
Fry an egg over-easy, and serve on top. Serves 4. YUMMY!
Before I go, I wanted to show you this awesome little necklace I recieved from Junie Moon. It’s a thank you gift for participating in Junie Moon’s Bandage Brigade. Is that the perfect little thank you gift from Junie MOON, or what? June — I just love it. I’m so touched by your thoughtfulness. Wow. I’m so pleased that I’ll have something to wear that will remind me of you and your kindness. Thank you from the bottom of my heart June, I’ll treasure it always.
XOXO,
Anna
We’re having the weirdest weather here in the midwest. Huge thunderstorms last night. We went to bed with four inches of snow on the ground and woke up to find heavy fog and all the snow gone this morning. Thunderstorms again tonight — just so odd for early February!
Enough about the weather, I thought I’d show you how I wasted occupied my time while waiting in the airport last week.
Last spring, PamKittyMorning showed a little button card with some crochet around it. Since then, I’ve wanted to try crocheting on paper. Why? I have no clue. It was fun to crochet again and I kept my waiting frustration to a minimum. And just so I didn’t completely waste all that time, I did get a little knitting done on my monkey socks. These little valentines required a lot less thinking though, so I worked on them the most.
When I returned home from my trip, I mentioned to Jade that I’d discovered Japanese quilting books while in NYC. (If you remember, Jade gave me my first Japanese craft book a few weeks ago.) I wandered into Koni-HoweverYouSpellIt (the Japanese book store) and I was amazed at the number of Japanese quilt books that were available. I could have come home with a huge pile full of quilt books, but I behaved myself and only bought two. I’m not sure I ended up with the two I thought I did — it was so difficult to choose and I think I confused myself. Anyway, Jade mentioned that she’d like to see them, so I cobbled together a few of the pictures from the books I bought.
Both of the books I bought ( ISBNs 978-4-89396-936-1 and 4-391-62072-3 — I have no idea why that first ISBN is so big) have around 50 projects in them. I think these books are a great untapped resource and I’m seeing more of them in my future. Very exciting!!!
Go check out Randi’s post today and get digging in your recipe box! I’ll be back Thursday night with a recipe to share and I hope you will too!
XOXO,
Anna
It’s been another exciting day on the travel front, and well, I’m going to bore you with my little story because 1) it’s my blog, and 2) your reward will be the second part of this post. I started my day with pretty low expectations of getting home tonight because of all the storms in the midwest and on the east coast. Things went pretty well and we were only 1 1/2 hours behind schedule when they boarded the plane (not bad considering all the cancellations and delays on the schedule.) AFTER the FULL plane got all settled in, the stewardess flight attendant announced that oh, gee, one of the crew was over the maximum hour limit for working that day. Oh. Come. On. Could they have told us about that BEFORE we went through that big loading hassle? We sat on the plane another 20 minutes while they talked to “operations” to get another crew and then they finally just canceled the flight. Personally, I think it was planned all along and they just didn’t want so many passengers milling about in the terminal. Hey. Here’s a plane over here. Let’s just put all those people in there for an hour and clean up the terminal congestion a little! Ah well, I’m safe, warm, and dry and I’ll be going home tomorrow, so it could be a whole lot worse.
So, now for the aebleskivers part of this post. When I was a little girl, we went to my aunt’s house one year and she served us aebleskivers, or danish pancakes. (Or could they be swedish? Maybe norwegian? Our ancestors were danish, so I’ve always assumed they’re danish.) We loved them and we’ve been making them ever since. A few years ago we made an interesting discovery though. My side of the family remembers having them with butter and syrup. My aunt and my cousins all insist that they’ve never had them with butter and syrup, but ALWAYS with butter and jam. Our side has never had them with jam. But we ate them all together at least once, and maybe twice. So, which side of the family has alzheimer’s, hmmmm???? (Since this is my blog and my story, I’m sure you know the correct answer to that question.) All I know is butter and syrup are THE only way to go! You’ll need an aebleskiver pan for this recipe.
3 eggs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. milk
2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
Separate eggs and beat egg whites until stiff. In separate bowl, mix all other ingredients. Fold egg whites in very lightly.
Put just a bit of crisco or vegetable oil in each pocket of the aebleskiver pan. Then fill each pocket about 2/3 full of batter. Keep heat on low as they burn easily. When dough bubbles, gently turn each aebleskiver over with a fork, or, to keep this post crafty related, a knitting needle has always worked well.
The uncooked dough will pour out as you turn the aebleskiver and it will make a ball of dough. Cook until the bottom is browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve your aebleskivers with butter and SYRUP if you want to have them the way we had them at my aunt’s house when I was a little girl!
So. What’s on YOUR aebleskiver???
XOXO,
Anna