Roll with the Brushes

I’ve worn make up once. My mom had to apply it for me. It was for my brother’s wedding, five years ago.

My husband likes to tell me how I sat there perfectly still, afraid to move, as my mom put the make up on me.

Not wearing make up has its perks.

If I well up during a corny tv show/movie/commercial, no issues here; I save money, which I can then spend at Costco; and, I can sleep until the very last second in the mornings.

But the downsides to not using make up are that when one of your coworkers asks you to sew her a make up brush bag, you need to be e-mailed pics of what exactly a make up brush bag is, and, when you blog about your creation, you have to use pens instead of make up brushes in the pictures.

For a non-make up user, I think I made a pretty good make up brush bag.

The bag has two rows of slots for your brushes, a flap to fold over/protect the top of your brushes, a nice roll up feature, extra fabric at the end to make sure there is full coverage, and a tie to keep the roll together or to use to hang up your brushes.

Bear Does Not Fit in Vest

Here’s an easy, one-night sewing project: a hooded vest for a toddler.

Mine is going to my little niece. Will she be more interested in the ribbon? Probably.

I used a flannel animal pattern for the outer fabric and a soft white fabric for the lining, with quilt batting for some extra warmth. Not that she needs the extra warmth… she’s a little heatball.

Sewing for little kids and then blogging about it is just not as fun without the little kid modeling the results and looking all cute. Too bad the bears could not model the vest, like they did for the quilt.

Inspiration

I’m Allergic to Peas

“I’m allergic to peas” — that’s what I used to tell people. And it is a true statement.

A few years ago, I went to an allergist who told me I was allergic to peas, even though I never had a bad reaction to them. But I disliked peas, so that’s what I told people as my reason for not wanting to eat my peas.

Recently, I really started liking peas. So when I saw this recipe for Peas with Baked Ricotta and Bread Crumbs, I knew I had to make it.

But the thought of just peas and ricotta for dinner seemed daunting to me (in almost the exact opposite manner than daunting usually is). So, I added garlic fries (from Trader Joe’s)!

After the fries, come the baked ricotta.

To bake the ricotta stick it in the oven until it browns on top. Once the ricotta is browned, sprinkle on some bread crumbs and put it back in the oven until the bread crumbs are browned too.

Scoop some on top of the fries, and smoosh it down.

Then pile on the peas, which were sautéed with some butter, diced onions, a bit of lemon juice, salt and pepper. (The recipe calls for fresh peas, but I used frozen.)

Lastly, eat until you are no longer allergic to peas.

etc.

Wish I had Esquire Network on our television, so I could watch The Getaway — a food/travel show hosted by celebrities.

Speaking of television, we just finished watching Sherlock on Netflix. Great show, but pretty disappointed by Watson’s blog.

Planning to make Banh Mi and Pineapple Upside Down Cake Doughnuts this weekend.

Oh, and I want this cuckoo clock from Etsy.

 

Rainbow Cookie Cake

This past weekend was the last days of my husband’s 20s. We don’t really celebrate birthdays that much, but I did make him burgers and fries for dinner, since he had been wanting a good burger for a while.

He made his into a “double,” as he calls it.

As you can tell, it took a lot of concentration for him to eat it. He was stuffed and in pain afterwards. Thus, he made his last bad decision of his 20s.

Luckily, we had already had some cake earlier that day.

I made him a rainbow cookie cake. The cake was delicious (although, I think I enjoyed it more than he did).

Here’s the recipe:
(I adapted the cake recipe from here and used the icing recipe from here.)

Ingredients:

2.5 cups flour (sifted)
3 tsp baking powder
4 sticks of butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
7 tsp almond extract
red, green and yellow food coloring
1 jar seedless raspberry preserves
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz semisweet chocolate

Combine sifted flour and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, combine softened butter and sugar. Mix until creamy. Mix in eggs and almond extract.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Separate the batter evenly into three bowls for the three colors. Thoroughly mix 8 drops of the food coloring into each bowl.

Pour each bowl of batter into an 8″ round pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 26 minutes.

While the cakes are in the oven, make the icing. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it just starts to boil. Pour the heated heavy cream over the semisweet chocolate in a bowl. Mix until chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool (I put it in the fridge).

After cakes are done cooking, let them cool. Once cooled, lay the green layer down, cover the top with raspberry preserves. Then, place the yellow cake on top and cover with raspberry preserves. Lastly, place the red cake on top.

Once icing mixture is cool, spread on top and sides. Let cool in fridge for icing to harden a bit more. Then, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Serve and enjoy!

Peking Duck (Bone) Soup

I love this soup. I have no idea how other people make homemade soup, but my friend recounted how his wife makes soup with a peking duck bone and I copied her.

When we go to Flushing (Queens, NY), we stop by this peking duck stand for a small snack.

(Grocery shopping in Flushing is also a good excuse to stop for some bubble tea.)

After they carve all that peking duck, they sell the bone. And, surprisingly, the bone is popular!

The soup is unbelievably easy to make.

Chop up your bone so it fits in your pot.

Pour water in the pot — I used approximately 10 cups. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour to get the broth nice and tasty.

After an hour, take the bone out, let it cool for a few minutes so you can handle it, and cut off any excess meat from the bone. Put the meat back in the pot and discard the bone.

Raise the heat to medium/medium-high.

Drop your noodles in your pot. I like to use a handful of these dried udon noodles because they are easy to store and last forever. It’s also easy to tell when they are cooked because they get pretty plump. Stir them around in your pot, cooking it for a few minutes before adding the vegetables.

Add your cleaned and cut veggies. I used bok choy.

Let it simmer for a few more minutes, stirring as necessary.

Scoop it out, grabbing some noodles, veggies and duck for each bowl, and serve.

This soup is great because it requires very little effort and has a ton of flavor.

(We also added a poached egg — Crack an egg into the pot a few minutes before scooping out the soup, careful not to break it. Let it cook for approximately 4-5 minutes in the simmering broth. Carefully scoop it out into your bowl.)