Once a Month Cooking, part 2

My mom came for a visit last week and we completed all the recipes that I hadn't previously, and added several more. Turns out we love having the lunch options. They defrost by the time it's lunchtime, and it allows my leftovers from dinner to stretch further. I don't know that its actually saving me any money, since we have to buy extra groceries to make the lunch options, but it's great.  So here's the picture of my freezer, nicely packed with lunch and dinner options. (The breakfast options are in the freezer door, so they are not visible in the picture.!)

There were more, but we have eaten three freezer bags worth of food in the last week, since I'm such a slacker when it comes to posting here.

Once a Month Cooking

This month I decided to try a new cooking strategy. Playing around on Pinterest, I have seen so many ideas for freezer cooking, and after following numerous links, I finally hit on the best website. Once a Month Cooking allows you to have one big cooking day, freeze everything, and then only have to do minimal cooking the rest of the month. I thought "This is fabulous!" and immediately called a friend and planned a joint cooking day.

Fabulous was not the word I needed. My friend and I make awesome cookies in a two day marathon, so I figured we would do even better cooking full meals. Somehow, we didn't accomplish our entire menu. We had a lot of fun making what we did but only finished about a third of the recipes. Admittedly, we enjoyed a tornado watch in the basement in the middle of cooking, but I think I overestimated what we would be able to accomplish.

Since Friday, I have slowly worked to finish the rest of my meals. I have washed two loads of dishes, and made a mess of my counters three times.  But I have all but three of my meals completed and frozen. Yay me! If I can remember to, I will take a picture of my full freezer to post here when the rest of the meals are frozen.

Cat on a Quilt

If you have cats, then you will understand today's post. We all know that kittens generally want to be right in the thick of whatever is going on, even going so far as to jump into our laps to see what it is we're working on that can be so much more important than petting them. My kitten is no different. If I'm crocheting, she is right beside me, batting at the yarn wrapped around my fingers and being hooked. If I'm cross-stitching, she is in my lap, watching the thread go in and out of the material. When the hubs and I want private times, she is.....well, you get the picture.

Which brings me to today's set of pictures.

"This is mine."

"This is mine."

"This is mine, too."

"Oh, I like the blue version, too! This is also mine."

She even has to test them out while I am sewing the bindings on. Every time. Do you know how hard it is to turn the quilt to access the unfinished sections of quilt edge without violating the Prime Directive of Fuzzy Law (which of course is --Do NOT, under any circumstances, move the fuzzy!)?

I will say, I have noticed that neither of my cats knead on the quilts. Which is good, 'cause I might have declawed them myself if they had started that abhorrent practice. They'll knead on the fluffier blankets, but not the quilts. Which leads me to the conclusion that kneading doesn't fluff up the surface they are about to lie down on, it helps squish everything down. Quilts are usually made with low-loft batting, so they need no squishing. They are perfect. Made just for cats. Didn't you know that?

Happy Valentine's Day (and a quilt, too)!

Yes, I know that it's actually the 15th and Valentine's Day was yesterday, but I awoke this am at 5:40 so I could make my hubby the biscuits and chocolate gravy I wanted to make him yesterday (alas, I was without enough Bisquick). The biscuits are done, the chocolate gravy has been thoroughly enjoyed, and he has left for work. So now, I am wide awake at least an hour before I normally would be. Unless substituting, of course.

Sitting and playing around on ye ole Facebook, I saw a post from my cousin about her new babies, and said to myself, "Self, you have not yet showed the completed I-spy quilts for the twins!" Well, I can remedy that!

Two matching quilts, side by side. 88 different I-spy fabrics in each quilt, for a grand total of 176 different I-spy squares! (I have become obsessed with I-spies. That's what happens when you start swapping!)

A little bit closer detail. I used the Disappearing Nine-Patch tutorial from Obsessively Stitching, but I'm sure there are others out there. Be forewarned. If you start following Care on Obsessively Stitching, you may become as obsessed with I-spies as she and some of her followers - like me!- have become!

Here you can see the quilting detail performed by my fabulous machine quilter Jean, as well as the AWESOME striped fabric I found to make the binding with. I loved both of my binding fabrics so much, I went ahead and bought a full yard of each to make binding out of, so we'll be seeing these bindings again soon!

You can't see the quilting detail very easily in the pictures I got of the blue and orange quilt, but it is a cute half moon and stars pattern.

The newly arrived twins live about 7 hours from me, so unfortunately there are no pictures of the twins enjoying the quilts yet. But rest assured, the babies are healthy and adorable!

Liz Cakes, Part Deux

I have had so much fun playing with cupcake design. When I fist began playing out of the Hello, Cupcake series I made them for family and friends, and occasionally for DH to take to work.  It wasn't long before his coworkers began asking if I could make cupcakes for them personally, or for a child's birthday. So I began experimenting. Here are some of my favorites.



Mickey's Clubhouse: I used jumbo cupcakes to make the base of the clubhouse and Toodles, and marshmallows to make the shoe.




A Scooby-Doo party: The Mystery Machine and Scooby-Doo.....




......and Velma, Fred, more Scooby, Shaggy and Daphne. The characters were made with chocolate melt wafers.




Optimus Prime: I borrowed the design basics from Robo-Cup (What's New, Cupcake) and found a first generation toy online that I sketched out. I used silver metallic sugars, chocolate covered mini doughnuts and mentos. The head was a vanilla wafer dipped in chocolate melt wafers, the face hand drawn very carefully.

I think Optimus is my #1 favorite.



Liz Cakes!

One of the neatest things about the new Blogger Dashboard is being able to easily see which pages people are viewing. It seems that people really enjoy the cute cupcake designs, and I realized I still have many cupcakes that I have not posted!  So here are just a few....



DH's birthday cupcakes, from What's New Cupcake




Fat Cats, from Hello Cupcake




Fake-out Backyard Grill, from What's New Cupcake

 I love making all these cupcakes. They can be pretty time consuing the first time or two that you play with the decorating ideas, but as you get the hang of it, things seems to get easier. Word of advice? Wear a large apron and keep a damp washcloth nearby for wiping your fingers off as you get icing and other yummy treats on them. I truly believe that the icing seeps into your bloodstream via your pores, so you'll get a big enough sugar rush without having to eat the cupcakes (unless, of course, you want to!!)

I can't wait to get my hands on the newest book, Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie, Oh My!  But to be honest, I've also been making some of my own designs. I'll post them tomorrow!

Today

I have been sub-ing and cleaning for the last few weeks. In the last 2.5 weeks, I have worked 8 days! I am currently booked for 7 days in February, with dates scheduled in March and May! Things have been looking up in that regard.

As for crafts, I finished and sent quilts to my cousin and her beautiful new twins (boy and girl!!) and have begun crocheting another baby blanket. I have made it through about half of the stash of baby gifts I posted earlier, but have been unable to finish them due to thread issues - as in...I ran out! Must wait until pay day on the 15th to bulk up the stash. Bummer. I have also nearly completed my honeymoon scrapbook. I go to a scrapbooking group once a month, and have been working solely on the honeymoon. I am down to the last 6 two-page layouts. And we have a retreat weekend coming up!! I will be able to finish the book during that weekend hopefully!

Now all I have to do is remember to post here regularly!