I *Heart* Jane Austen

Okay Tina, I'm counting on you to go to Bath for this year's Jane Austen Festival. I want pictures and a full report so that I feel as if I had really been there. I know it's a long drive but too bad. According to Google Maps it's less than three hours. See, not so long.
*Photo courtesy of Topicsites.com

Sewing Obsession

People are always talking about your fabric stash or your yarn stash. Well, I'd like to suggest that hidden deep in the heart of every seamstress, quilter, knitter or whatever kind of fiber you work with (except for dryer lint which is dumb) is a scissors hoarder.

I'd also like to present pin cushions as a wee bit of a problem in the hoarding area, as well as seam rippers.

I'm just sayin'.

My sad Kitchen

My stocked pantry is in such a sad state. You know how I know this??? We don't even own a drop of soy sauce. I know... cause I have looked since lately I have been craving fried rice.... and an essential ingredient in fried rice is well soy sauce.

So then I thought, well, how is it made??? The wikpedia says that it is fermented soy beans and other stuff, well sorry, if I am out of soy sauce I am surely out of soy beans especially the fermented kind.

It's 1:15pm, Do You Know Where Your Cell Phone Is?

I'm usually a pretty smart cat. I rarely do anything dumb...most of the time. Today is one of those rare instances where I did something pretty darn dumb.

I gave my cell phone, my only device available to call out of the house, to Lily to play with. Keep in mind, y'all, that Lily is still a non-English speaker. She cannot communicate to me where in the hang she has put the phone. Why do I continue to give her my cell phone to play with? That is a really dumb thing to do. I even looked for it in the toilet, because you never know.

You know what's even dumber? I needed the phone in the first place so I could call Del at work; now I can't find the phone so I said to myself, "Hey, I'll just call Del at work and have him call my phone so I can find it."

Ummm, duh Joanna, you cannot find your phone with which to call Del to tell him to call your phone which you cannot find. So then I said to myself, "OK, then I'll call Mom and she can call my cell phone."

...I just don't know what to say to that. Here's me, still looking for my cell phone. But never fear, I think I've got it now that I cannot call anyone on my cell phone, whilst still looking for it.

Have a nice day!

Kitchen Frustration

Why is it that the more I make a recipe, the worse it turns out? Why does it seem like I must use a brand spanking new recipe every time I make something for it to turn out well? Maybe it's God teaching me how to FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. Yeah, that's what it is, I'm going with that.

Of Fuzzi Bunz and Strange British Food

Johanna is right (isn't she always?), Tina rocks. I got a box, too. Tina has been promosing me this box for a few months now. She finally got off her lazy tuchus and mailed it to me. OK, I admit, its hard to call a mother with four children, living in a foreign country, who's kids have been deathly ill and in the hospital even, "lazy", but as I am quite a talented lady, you see I've managed to do that.

First, I am happy to announce that I am now the proud owner of bunches of cloth diapers. I have been wanting to foray in to the cloth diaper world but have been wary to invest the money in case I hated it and so Tina graciously bestowed her Fuzzi Bunz and Bumpkins on me. I've got Lily in one already so we'll see how this goes.

Second, let me just say that here in America, I know that we have some really dumb food, like Swiss Rolls for example. What a pointless, waste-of-calories food. But the British just have some downright wacky, strange and off-colour foods. I mean who ever would name a food Spotted Dick (I would have got a link for you there, but I'm not about to type that into a search engine)? Uh, not me. I would be pretty darn sure that they wouldn't sell. But I guess in the UK, they go for things like Spotted Dick. We all tried it and thought it was almost as good as carrot cake, only it had raisins in it. Why didn't they call it raisin cake and why is it a pudding? These are things I just don't understand.

She also sent CurlyWurly. Yummy. This tastes just like a Sugar Daddy (also a dangerous word to type into a search engine), only coated in chocolate. Ho-boy, you can't go wrong there.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Tina! I don't really think you're lazy, you know. I was just joking about that.

Crafty? Of Course.

I know you're probably going, "sheesh, does Joanna do anything but cook?" I know, it sure does seem like I slave in the kitchen all day long and sometimes I do, heck, sometimes I do that barefoot AND pregnant. Hahahahaha! OK, I think I may need a nap. But look, look what's on my sewing machine! Projects. Woohoo! Now hold your breath while you anxiously await the pictures of the final products.

Cuisin-love

I tend to be a bit old fashioned, in case you hadn't noticed. I don't have a mixer...OK, so they sent a European-plug mixer, but still, I haven't replaced it. I mix everything by hand. I've even made meringue by hand. Now that's dedication. I don't have a blender. I mash potatoes with a fork. I knead my bread myself. Recently, I've julienned and shredded by hand. I figure if my ancestors didn't need all these new fandangled devices to survive in the kitchen then I don't either. Except for the waffle iron. So what?, you say. Exactly!

Whenever I go to a Korean restaurant I am served this delicious side dish that is Korean radish, julienned and it's sweet. As far as I can tell it has no name and there is no recipe. I really wanted to make this stuff and as it's not in my new Korean cookbook and I can't find a recipe online, I was just going to fake it. But the thought of julienning two whole Korean radishes really was very daunting. They sat there and sat there and sat there. They started to get soft. Eek, I better use them, eh?

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OK, so today I tried to make some baby food for Lily. Green beans. For our wedding, Del and I were given a Chopster, a teeny little food processor. I've only ever used it to make my famous black bean soup...OK, famous may be over stating it a bit. Infamous may be better since I did drop an entire pot full of the stuff on my parent back screened-in porch. But, I digress. So, I tried to puree the green beans in my chopster and all it did was chop it. I guess that's why it's called a chopster. This is when I realized that I NEED A FOOD PROCESSOR. I am beginning to be a pretty decent cook and it's sad that I don't have one. Forget the "my ancestors" bit, let's get real in the kitchen!

I go to my doctor appointment and when I get home THIS is waiting for me!!! I can hardly stop using it! I can't believe I've been away from my beloved Cuisinart long enough to type this out. All this to say that I used my brand spanking new food processor to shred the radishes in 1.2 seconds flat and developed this recipe for a yummy Korean radish...salad, of sorts.

Korean Sweet Pickled Radish

2 cups Korean radish, julienned or shredded

1/2 cup carrot, julienned or shredded

1 T vinegar

2 T sugar

1 t salt

2 t wine

1 T mirin

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Put it all in a bowl and mix it up. It's good almost right away, but obviously if you let it pickle a while the flavors are better. Enjoy!

Speaking of Food...

Okay, it is too funny that Joanna started a post about food today because I just knew I had to post this when I got some food this morning. I participated in a new program my church is doing called Angel Food Ministries this month. This ministry collects donations of food and some food surplus from restaurant suppliers and packages it up and sells it in boxes through local churches. It allows anyone who wishes to participate to buy a box of food for $30 that has a retail value of twice that or more. Then they take any profits and use it to feed people who cannot feed themselves. I think it is a pretty neat program! It is my first month to participate and I went to pick up my food this morning. You get a menu ahead of time that lists everything that will be in the box and one of the items this month was "honey pork sausage." Sounds good. When I got home an unpacked the food into my freezer, I cracked up when I saw the package.

Obviously not from around here! If you cannot read the smaller type, it says that it is from "England's Oldest Family Owned Butchers", and under the Honey Pork it says "Authentic British Style Bangers - 10 Percent Rusk." Now, maybe Tina (being practically British herself now) could have looked at this package and known immediately what to do with it. I, on the other hand, have never heard of a "banger" referring to food, and I have no idea what rusk is. It doesn't sound so appetizing though. So I looked it up. Turns out bangers are just sausages, and rusk just refers to twice baked bread - I am assuming in a sausage that means bread crumbs. Anyway, ever since going to London 10 years ago and marrying a British Bloke, I have been interested in all things British. I looked up banger's recipes and discovered Bangers and Mash. Check it out for a picture and serving idea! I'm not sure when I'll serve these up, but I am looking forward to it!

The Twelve Days of What?

OK, this has nothing to do with ornaments or crafts or sewing or homeschooling or kids or anything like that but I saw it over on Nerd Family and I had to share. Please watch, it's so darn funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH0OLKAXw3I