Pattern: Little Felt Puppy

Yep, getting creative again! Little Felt Puppy pattern is available in the store. Next up, Little Felt Bunny!

Little Felt Puppy pattern.

Pattern: Little Felt Kitty

A simple little pattern for a little stuffed felt cat. It's about 6 1/2 inches tall, very easy to make. The kids were circling like sharks when I was sewing them, they couldn't wait to get their hands on one!

Pattern is for sale in the Etsy shop.

This will, time and energy permitting, be a series. Next up, puppy.

Easter gifts part 1

Pattern from Bugga Bugs on Etsy. Very cute!

Now I need to make another set for the other kiddo. And I've (finally) got some new patterns in the works...

Mmmmmm, cookies...

That would be an oreo stuffed inside a chocolate chip cookie. Great fun to make with kids, although it tastes...pretty much exactly how you would expect. Like an Oreo and a chocolate chip cookie.

They'd be a lot of fun to take to a party, though!

Recipe: Veggie stuffed twice baked potatoes

My kids go to a great daycare centre. One of the things I like is that they have a full time cook, and since my kids apparently eat everything they are offered at daycare, she must be doing something right!

Last week the bigger kiddo told me I just HAD to make 'the yummy potatoes we had for lunch today'. After some consultation with the cook, I came up with these, which I guess were close enough to be eaten today at lunch with great enthusiasm.

Twice Baked Vegetable Stuffed Potatoes

Bake however many potatoes you want until they are done (it's handy to start them in the microwave and then finish them in the oven if that will take too long). Let them cool off a bit, then slice in half and scoop out the interiors of the potatoes, reserving the insides in a large bowl. Put the skins back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the filling. I didn't really measure, but for 5 potatoes I used about a tablespoon of butter, about a half cup of grated cheddar cheese, a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan, a half cup of thawed frozen corn, and a half a cup of thawed frozen peas. Mix all that together with the potato interiors.

Dump the veggie mixture into the potato skins and bake another ten minutes or so. Serve with some grated Parmesan on top. Kid friendly! Carrots or spinach or broccoli would work nicely for the filling as well.

The Seasonal Table. Shelf. Whatever.

Our little seasonal shelf, assembled from various things around the house and some of the kid's Christmas presents. The snowflake garland was made from a tutorial at Wee Folk Art.

The gnomes have a house made of Lincoln log type things, with the wooden cat cutout from Clickety Clack on Etsy. The trees and the rainbow stacker are also from Clickey Clack.

Closeup on the snowflakes. Plus a few pine cones, of course!

Now I need to track down my red felt to start on a Valentine's gnome and appropriate Valentine's decorations...

The Winter Gnomes

When I cleaned up the Christmas stuff, I was looking at the two empty shelves that in the past have always been major junk magnets. They were the home of the Christmas village until yesterday. And it occurred to me, I've always wanted to do a sort of nature table type thing, and here I had two empty shelves that would be perfect!

I don't have good photos of the whole thing yet, but here's a closeup of the two gnomes I made last night, Mr. and Mrs. Winter. They're drinking hot chocolate out of some acorn cups.

From behind:



The idea is to add and subtract items based on the seasons, so they'll be here for a while. Probably a heart gnome or two will join them in time for Valentine's day...

(not calling this a nature table - there's a lot of synthetic up there, because I don't particularly like working with wool and I'm putting things together based on what's in the house. Pretty sure the silver 'snow' fabric is about as removed from nature as you can get! Call it a seasonal table instead. Seasonal shelf. Whatever.)

Why hello there!

Wait, I have a blog?

So life got really, really busy there, and blogging went out the window for a while. And I've got such a backlog of things to write about, not the least of which is the new baby that took the above photo, my Canon Rebel XS that is making me completely obsess about photography.

So, more posts to come! Most likely with a lot of pictures! I did some epic Christmas crafting this year that I am very very pleased with, and decided to get all Waldorf and set up a seasonal table, with associated crafting for that, along with lots of cooking and zhu zhu pet clothing making (never thought I'd be making hamster clothes...).

Here's to 2011!

Week 25: Egg and Cheese Pie, Again

The first veggies of the year were ready from the garden this week! That tiny tomato (an heirloom variety called Matina) was delicious. Hoping for lots more of those, that real tomato flavour is just impossible to get anywhere other than your own garden, unless you are willing to shell out the big bucks.

I forsee many tomato recipes in the future, but for now, I wanted to do something with the zucchini and the broccoli. So I decided to modify that Moosewood cauliflower cheese pie.

Egg and cheese and veggie pie:
I am really in love with this recipe, you can pretty much alter the fillings to suit whatever you have lying around. It's easy and delicious!

The crust is made of potatoes and, in this case, shredded zucchini. And a bit of salt mixed in. Toss with one beaten egg and a tablespoon or two of flour(you can also leave these out, this crust I actually forgot both the flour and the egg!). Grease a pie plate with butter, then line with the mixture (this is maybe 2 medium potatoes and a half a zucchini? you want to be generous, since the potatoes will shrink as they cook), bake at 425 or so for about 20 minutes. Brush lightly with olive oil and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or so to brown.

(anyone have any tips for how to get the potatoes to not turn kind of gray? I think it might have been the particular potatoes I was using, but next time I'm going to try tossing the shredded potatoes into cold water before I make up the mixture).

When the crust is nicely browned, shred cheddar cheese over top, and add in your veggies. You'll want to pre cook the veggies a bit, just to start them off and maybe get a bit of colour on them. This is garlic, broccoli, and zucchini lightly sauteed with some garlic. Onions are great in this, but I wanted to have a fighting chance of my kids eating this, so left them out.
Top with more cheese.
Pour in a mixture of eggs and milk. I used 4 eggs and maybe a scant quarter cup of milk. It's really guesswork, based on the size of your pan and how much you piled in the veggies!

Return to the oven and bake until the eggs are set:
About 25 minutes for this one. It was really yummy, and yes, the kids ate it! A slice of this makes a great lunch at work the next day, too. It also freezes pretty well, so worth doubling the recipe and putting one in the freezer.

Now I just need to solve the grey potato problem...

Garden explosion!

My garden is very, very happy.

The weather has pretty much been ideal, so everything is growing like crazy! Plus there's been enough rain I haven't really had to worry about watering.

Tomatoes! Ripen! RIPEN!!!

OK, probably not yet. But soon enough!

I've lost control of the tomatoes, again. I tried, I really did, but man, you miss a couple of days and bam, the tomatoes are out of control.