KWerner's Color Inspiration Challenge # 32

I'm going to make this one short and simple. It's my second time participating in KWerner's Color Inspiration Challenge and I thought with all the practice I had been getting with other projects, that I'd do a lot better than this.

First, here's my sketch. Excuse the 2 year old scribble mess. I did it on MS Paint.

Dude, that turned out smaller than I wanted!

Anyway, I wanted the candy cane to be my focal point. The light red swirls were meant to be embossed flourish. I hoped to find some red Christmas light stickers, thickers or something to put on top of a cream colored ribbon. When I went to the store, I couldn't find anything that fit my layout so I winged it.

Here's how the card turned out. Ugh! My eyelets are crooked, no candy cane (the chipboard piece was too big!), and it looks all wrong. *sigh*

Cooking: Lion's Head Stew

Since the weather is getting chilly, I decided to make Lion's Head Stew for dinner tonight. Justyn and I went to a restaurant that serves an awesome version of this dish. Tonight, I tried to make it better than the restaurant.

This time I decided to take pictures of each step since I haven't done that yet... or at least I don't think I have. I'm too lazy to search on my own damn blog to check haha! Anyway, I started out by mixing the ground pork with dark soy, grated ginger, scallion & sesame seed oil. Then I rolled them into balls and coated them in corn starch.

I deep fried them in some peanut oil until they were a nice deep brown color.

The dried shiitake mushrooms were reconstituted in some hot water and sliced. I rinsed the eensy beensy shrimps in some water.

The mushrooms, sliced ginger, scallion, and napa cabbage went into my pot to saute for a bit before I added some water and beef broth (I didn't have any chicken broth).

When the liquid came up to a simmer, I added the meatballs and let everything simmer for 10 minutes. I also added a mixture of broth, soy sauce and cornstarch so it would thicken the soup.

Then the rice noodles went in for another 8 minutes.

Ta-da! I didn't think it was as good as the restaurant, but it was still very good and comforting for a winter's night.

More Goodies (drive-by post)

I don't have time to tell you much about these but I can say that it took me a LONG time to do these three. Ugh.. the reindeer especially was really hard to put together, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. These were inspired by KWerner's design once again.

http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/2008/10/oct-15-garden-at-two-peas.html

I wish I was more original and just as creative, but I'm not. What I am is tired so I'm going to bed!!

Crafting Craziness

With the holidays coming up I decided to make some little gifts for coworkers and friends. I got this idea from Jennifer McGuire and also used Kristina Werner's design.


Here are their videos:


Jennifer McGuire's - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjGhA-sRzk0
Kristina Werner's - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkgHFPMvi-I


They were really easy to assemble and fun to make! I still have a lot more to make but I thought I would share what I've done so far.

New Project!

First, let me apologize to the foodies for not cooking lately. It seems as though my new projects have taken most if not all of my cooking time. Since cold weather is upon us, I will be cooking more since braising is my favorite method of cooking. You'll be seeing a lot of braised dishes in the upcoming months so don't worry.

Second, here's the project that I've been working hard on since early last year or maybe even earlier! It was such hard work.... hee hee. There were contributors though. I did not do all of this on my own. Thanks go to Tina, Jason, Angel's family and others for helping me consume enough wine for me to make this wreath. The wreath isn't entirely covered all the way around with corks, but I'm sure it won't take long for me to finish it. The front of it is fully covered so that's good enough for now. Right in time for the holidays!

An Early Thanksgiving @ Tina & Dave's

Tina & Dave invited us over to their pre-Thanksgiving party which was yesterday. She works at a flight attendent for Southwest so she doesn't work a normally Monday through Friday 8-5 job like the rest of us. I snapped some pictures and chatted with some pretty chill peeps. I might have even met a scrapbooking buddy! I wish they did this on a Friday or Saturday night but it was a good time regardless. Thanks Tina & Dave! All the food was delicious and you're welcome for me making the gravy. Hehe...

Probably the highlight of the night next to the turkey. This guy put some whipped cream (from the spray can) onto a little girl's face so for revenge... welll.... take a look at what happened haha!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary!

Justyn and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary as husband and wife over the past weekend. I bought him a Fossil watch and he took me to one of my favorite scrapbooking stores to buy cardstock among other random things. For him to even step into that store with me and pretend not to be bored off his rocker is a gift in an of itself.

Anyway, the night before that he took me to Ruth Chris Steakhouse since I had never been. Our waiter, Josh, explained to me how hot the plates get. Yes, at 500 degrees, I know I will burn myself if I touch the plate. I think they have an obligation to tell all of their customers that just for liability reasons. We ordered off of the prix fixe menu which included salad, meat course, two side dishes & dessert. Here's what we ordered:

Me: Caesar Salad - Yum, but overdressed.

Justyn: House Salad - Blah. Oh yeah.. almost forgot. See all that pepper on his salad? The pepper grinder guy literally stood there for 2 minutes grinding out pepper. My hubby is such a pepper addict!

Me: Petit Filet - Seriously good steak... and I burned my thumb on the plate :( The filet was extremely tender and juicy. I would say that this is the best steak I've had to date. It could've used a little more seasoning but otherwise perfectly cooked.

Justyn: Mixed Grill - The crapcake... yeah I meant to do that. Crap. Justyn liked it though. His stuffed chicken was awesome. I should've gotten that instead! Just kidding, my steak kept me happy.

Me: Creamed Spinach - I thought it was bland, but Justyn liked it. I felt it was underseasoned.

Justyn: Hash Browns - What I liked about our waiter and the restaurant was that they let us pick hash browns even though it wasn't a choice on the prix fixe menu. The hash browns came out crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside. Simply served with ketchup. I could've eaten the whole plate!

We shared the bread pudding with whiskey sauce. It was such a decadent dessert after a big meal. We didn't finish it but it definitely satisfied Justyn's sweet tooth.

Oh yeah, and I also had a couple glasses of the Yangarra 2007 Shiraz. Our waiter described it as very fruity with a long finish. Normally I'm very skeptical about descriptions on wine.. you either love it or hate it. To my surprise, it was exactly how he described. I had him write down what kind of wine I had so I could add to my favorite wine list.

He'll probably get mad at me for posting this but here's the anniversary card Justyn made for me. Awwww.... I expected a child's messy card, but he actually thought this out pretty well. When I went into the office to check on my craft area, it looked like it exploded with cardstock everywhere, but I can't get mad at him for making this for me. Lub you Bee! Even though....