Alix

Tatoes and butter are heading for an overnight in the fridge. The mixture is a little… sticky? Not sure how that bodes for tomorrow.

Okay, second take of Quinoa was a cinch!

I soaked, re-soaked, and rinsed, then added to the pot with 1.5 cups of water instead of 2. Brought to a boil, then left simmering for 12 minutes and it was perfect. Woot!

I tried eating a bit with some Parmesan and green onions, but the green onions I had were really overpowering. I’m going to try it with different stuff throughout the week, though in the long run I think I may stick to The Whole Kitchen recipe.

Okay – making this was a bit of a nightmare, but of my mostly own doing.

Recipe: http://thewholekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/cinnamon-spiced-quinoa.html
Tutorial: http://www.squawkfox.com/2008/08/12/how-to-cook-quinoa/

First, I began soaking the quinoa, thinking I would get a mesh strainer at lunch, but last night was a late night and the strainer shopping got put off for after work (and a nap… and swimming). So I think it soaked a little too long. Also, in the tutorial it says to dump the water and soak in clean water after two hours. I did do that, but lost some of it in the process since I was just using my hands to strain it. And then I lost more when I was getting ready to cook it because the strainer I bought was way too small (I blame lack of sleep).

Okay, so all strained and in the pot, I added water—without taking into account how much quinoa went down the drain. Oops.

Anyway, once the quinoa, water, vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon stick were in the water, the boiling and simmering were a cinch. Unfortunately because of the water issue I ended up having to strain it, since it was cooked before all the water was boiled. Also unfortunately when I strained the water out, the sugar, vanilla, etc. went with it.

So, I took it out, fluffed it, and added half a tablespoon of butter and a couple teaspoons of sugar back in.

And it was good! I think it’ll be better cooked properly, but it was really good. The one thing I felt it was missing was pecans, but I really like pecans and cinnamon together.

I’m going to try cooking it again on Wednesday, a bit more carefully, hopefully with a bigger strainer from IKEA, and a lot more sleep. Plus, I’ll take pictures!

01. September 2009: Cinnamon Spiced Quinoa. I want to start off with something easy and try something new (quinoa at all is new to me).

02. October 2009: Gnocci. Something I’ve wanted to try for forever. I’m going to try it using Pamela’s Baking Mix.

03. November 2009: Peanut Butter Finger Mini Cheesecakes. A use for leftover Halloween candy. :D

04. December 2009: Fudge. I haven’t picked an exact recipe, but I plan on making a boatload of fudge for the holidays.

05. January 2010: Granola bars – I’ll modify the recipe in 1000 Gluten Free Recipes by Carol Fenster. I’ve made granola, but not bars.

06. February 2010: Hush puppies – also from 1000 GF Recipes, but I’ll sub the sorghum blend with Pamela’s. If that doesn’t work, I’ll retry later with something else (but not sorghum, it doesn’t agree with me).

07. March 2010: Pita bread. I need to get Bette Hagman’s book for this. I put this in March because it will require special flours, and hey, tax return! Also, not so hot out yet that the oven will cook the apartment.

08. April 2010: Quiche – undetermined recipe. It’s something I want to try. I might make a pie crust, I might not.

09. May 2010: Flourless Chocolate Cake – not sure on this recipe, either. I have a few saved.

10. June 2010: Roasted Cinnamon Nuts. This may get moved up and replaced. I don’t know if I can hold out almost a year to make them.

11. July 2010: Crumpets!. That recipe uses a flour mix that has “gluten free wheat starch” (seriously, wtf?!), but I bet I can find a mix over here to at least try it with.

12. August 2010: Ravioli. This’ll require making my own pasta, so, a big challenge for me.

I’ve finally started cooking again. I know, over a year! But I’m sorting it out, finally. I’ve actually cooked three new things recently – corn tortillas, granola, & poblano enchiladas.

Tonight I’m sitting down with my cookbooks and Evernote recipes and coming up with a 12 month plan. One recipe per month, and then I’ll finally clear this goal and move on.

We kept the basil alive for 8 months, which has to be some kind of record for me. We’ve had two pots of parsley, both of which bit it within a couple months. The first oregano went about 2 months after the first parsley, but we haven’t replaced it, yet.

We were also growing tomatoes and peppers, and they were great until Shawn gave them some plant food and they died overnight. Not sure what happened there. The tomato plant only ever gave us one tomato and the pepper plant kept growing mushy, small peppers, so we’re obviously doing something wrong.

Everything we put outside keeps growing mushrooms in the pots. Yikes.

So far the basil and oregano are simple to keep alive. Make sure I open the blinds at least every other day, and water when dry.

Parsley is being picky. The leaves turned yellow, so I moved her out of the sun, but then the water was not drying and she was wilting. So fearing root rot I put her outside in the shade to dry – and she looks great, but still wet. So I’ll leave her on the table today and see how she looks.

Either way, it’s going way better than previous attempts at growing, so I’m thrilled.

A gazillion more to go. :D

Taking a break to catch up financially for a semester or two, but having 4 A’s behind me is nice.

There is so much to do here. Local city websites (and their event calendars) make it easy to keep going with this goal. We are constantly finding new places to explore, and hope we never stop.

Started a new, higher interest, savings account. Once our old savings account is replenished a bit, I’ll move the regular deposits to there.

I’ve had parsley, basil, and oregano growing in the window since we moved to the new place. So far, so good, though a few of the parsley leaves are a bit yellow.

Cooking with them is awesome.

We decided to move apartments instead of house buying just yet. With the economy the way it is, we’d rather feel things out a tiny bit first. We hope to revisit the issue in two years.

We have found out that if I remove gluten from my diet – I cycle! It’s exciting, but I feel my body is really damaged from the years of eating gluten, so we are going to wait 1-2 years before trying again. That still leaves a good amount of time to get back to TTC before hitting 35.

I found out recently that I have a gluten intolerance, so no more wheat, rye, or barley (or anything that might be cross contaminated) for me. I do want to jump in to learning this new way of baking/cooking, but the supplies are crazy expensive, and I’m having to slowly acquire all new spices, so it may be a bit until I get in a cooking groove again.

I need to learn to use it!

The day after I bought it I sat down with the manual and learned to wind a bobbin and thread it. I took that opportunity to zigzag some clothing fabric to pretreat, but then it took me a week to find a steam/dry iron and counter board (amazing how hard that was) so I could actually sew.

Today I made my first bag—to hold sock knitting projects. I had to pick out and resew every seam twice and it’s still a bit… off, in a lot of places, but it isn’t embarrassingly bag for a first FO in 20+ years.

I plan on making that pattern again, but in different patterned fabric (the whole project only takes 2 fat quarters, some interfacing, a zipper and thread). Hopefully to come out better this time. I may wait until I can get some thicker interfacing for it. This one wasn’t quite as stiff as I want. Plus classes start Monday which will put a dent in my crafting time.

4. Aluminum knitting needles
5. 3 balls of crochet cotton

So, I wasn’t going to mark this until I’d knit a sweater. Well, I still haven’t knit a sweater, but I have knit bags, scarves, shawls, cozies, hats, cat toys, cat beds, headbands, mitts, blankets, (many, many) dishcloths, blankets and several pairs of successful socks.

So, I not only am willing to say that I’ve learned to knit (though, really, I think it’s a lifelong learning process—there are so many variables), but also that I’m totally hooked on it.

Feel free to add me on Ravelry.

I noticed Sears had the Kenmore 15358 on sale $20 off last week so I grabbed one. So far, so good. The manual is excellent, and with almost no sewing machine experience, I wound a bobbin, put it in, threaded the machine, and zigzagged the edges of some fabric so I could preshrink it, without an problems at all. I just need an iron and away I go on making stuff!

I’m finally making good biscuits. I haven’t tried it with a traditional recipe yet, but whipping cream biscuits (2c flour, 1.5T baking powder, a bit of salt, and 1c heavy whipping cream), pressed down to one inch, and cut into 9 squares, but not separated at 450F for 15 minutes = very tall, fluffy, and yummy. Yay!

Besides the baked cheese sticks last month (which I made several times because they were stupidly good), I also played with wonton wraps. Those were overbaked a bit, but still alright. I mostly did garlic cream cheese, but put nutella in a few others. Next to try ravioli with them.

I’m not sure what to work on this month. Maybe homemade mac & cheese? I still, sadly, use a box, because I can’t seem to get it not-greasy without using American.

I’m starting up with classes again—all signed up for two classes this semester and two classes next semester. I’m still years (and years) away from my MLIS, but all forward motion counts, eh?