cookin' machine.

photos from smitten kitchen


Tonight I made some tasty yummies. Thank you Smitten Kitchen. I baked cookies and pancakes, but these aren't your ordinary tasties. Oh no. Key Lime Melt Aways & Sour Cream PANCAKES!!!! muhahahaha! Oh and I made a blackberry syrup for the pancakes. It was a goodnight. Next time I will share the nom nom's.

Blackberry Syrup Recipe:
* 2 cups blackberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup water

Preparation

Bring berries, sugar, and water to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until fruit is soft, about 30 minutes. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing gently on and then discarding solids. Serve syrup at room temperature.

OY...Hummus

We had a hummus disaster yesterday. Dan made a promising hummus with my new FOOD PROCESSOR!! Very excited about that, but sadly the hummus didn't turn out too well. We got dried garbanzo beans, and soaked them over night; However, you should cook the beans before you grind them up with the rest of the ingredients. We did not. So it really really did taste raw. Not a good taste.

here's the recipe we were trying: Click Here. Hopefully...we can make a better batch.

ginga-in-my-belly....

muahahahaha! I just had a tasty, tasty drink. It involved Ginger liquor, Gin, lime juice and ginger beer. We had a bit of a time trying to find the Ginger Liquor, but apparently Canton is the most popular. I had to go to a fancy liquor store in Midtown called Mac's. You can get the Recipe here: Gin & Ginger


Dan Approved. :)

Dog For Rent

Oh to own a cute little hoverdog, aka a Corgi. but but...what's this? I could rent one?? I made the joke today, of wanting to rent a dog for the park. Then it hit me! I bet the exists...and it does...FLEXPETZ. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I can understand people missing a pooch now-and-then, but you don't get completely attached to it. Plus, do you have different dogs every time you rent? I'm not sure. It's a cute concept, but it kinda takes the joy out of owning an animal. However, at least you don't have to clean up after it all the time, and take it to the vet. That's kinda nice. ha.

FLexpetz

A Gentlemen's Tea Time

Please Mind the horrible screen shot. eek.


When I was a little girl, one of my favorite films was "Little Women." You know, the 90's version with Winona Ryder. I can't forget the part where they dressed up in men's clothing and acted out parts of Jo's plays. Ever since, I thought it'd be fun to dress up in Victorian Gentlemen's Clothing and have tea time. Tea Time! with scones and cucumber sandwiches! nom nom nom. Since we're Gentlemen, top hats and monocles would be a must.

To Get Started, we must have TEA! Here are a few of my favorites! Honey would be great with all of them.



It wouldn't be tea time without a nice tea set. I saw this at Anthropologie, and keep drooling over it. So pretty.



And You might need a tea cup. Yep, that might be a good idea as well. Another find from anthropologie.



In order to have tea time, you need some yummy snacks. Here are a few I like. Such as SCONES! I found an amazing recipe (thanks to Smitten Kitchen).nom nom...scones Also, tasty chocolate earl grey macaroons Gourmet mag. recipe. Oh and Cucumber sandwiches! Cucumber yumminess.



Okay, now for the Dapper, Victorian Gentlemen part!


mustaches. Jacket with Tails. Cane. Monocle. Top Hat.

Enjoy!

I fell in love....

Since the cold has been horrible, all I want to do is sit at home in my bed streaming netflix movies. Tonight was one of those nights. I was planning on drinking a whole bottle of cheap wine with my lentil soup (after I already had wendys). Yes, I know...very lame, I know.

On my journey of finding gross wine, I stumbled upon this awesome label design. I had to buy this wine, and I didn't drink all of it. I had one cup and was satisfied. It did the job of breaking the day off me, and then fell to a nice sleep.

Back to the label...OMG, look at it!! Since my lastname is Armstrong, the word "strong-arm" is a big part of me. I had a good friend in college stamp "Strong Arm" as my nickname for 2 years. I saw the name first, then the handwritten type. Oh man, Oh man...and the illustrations.

It has that "Where the wild things are" feel to it. A kid like art, on an adult drink. Priceless. Here's more about the artist and the wine: Strong Arms

List of DIY's I need to get into....for realz.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. I feel like you're just setting yourself up for failure, However; I do believe in goals. My goal this year is to do more crafts. I'm not going to give myself a deadline, just ideas of what I'd like to do. I found some projects that I'd love to learn to do.

1. Potato Printing: Project 1



2. Oragami Tulip Bouquet Project 2



3. Decal Mugs Project 3



4. Bath Bomb Project 4



5. Super Soft Rug Project 5



6. Designing Greeting Cards

Mark me up, Denmark!

Grain Edit, did a story on this beautifully designed 1962 Denmark Christmas Seals designed by Erik Petersen. Each Stamp is an "old trade." I would love it if one designer from each state take the idea of this and make it their own for that state. Who knows, it might have been done already.

Article Here: Grain Edit