Jaded's Kitchen

Saturday, June 13, 2009

KWerner's Color Inspiration # 54

Eek! If I hadn't checked the deadline today I would've missed posting my card. I wanted to try using Gimp to make the picture better but I just don't have time.

Today I need to make Jamaican Jerk Beef mixture for puff pastries because we're going to a BBQ tomorrow and today I need to make some mini artichoke quiches for an artichoke themed party.

Anyway, one of my friends needed a couple "thank you" cards and she really adored the Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday Loving Words stamp set so she requested that I incorporate that stamp with Kristina's color inspiration challenge this week. So, here's what I came up with.

One of my other friends sketched out some other designs that would be more cohesive. I may use those sketches for another challenge :) Thanks Selena!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Scrapbooking

Besides the card I made last night, I haven't really done much cardmaking. I guess it's mostly because Kristina Werner hasn't posted a new challenge in a while. I don't blame her though. I know she's got a schedule of her own just like me. I don't ever think a person should be chained to a blog just because people want you to. We all have lives to live. OK fine, confession time. I totally check her blog every day just to see if there are any updates heh. What can I say? I'm a total fan girl.

Anyway, I really hated seeing my craft supplies sitting there unused and neglected so I tried thinking of another way to utilize everything I've bought so far. If I'm not going to make cards, then how about I try to scrapbook. I gotta tell you, I hate scrapbooking. I always struggle with layouts because I'm working on a larger surface area. With cards, it's easy to balance things and fill up space. I am at a total loss when it comes to scrapbooking. I've posted some previous scrapbook pages but I wasn't completely happy with them.

Thanks to Rebecca Leighann, a Garden Girl on twopeasinabucket.com, she came out with this (http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/userblogpost.asp?id=41856) sketch which helped A LOT. I had some issues with picking the right picture and cutting it down to the right size but as I played around with the layout, I finally got it to where I was completely satisfied with how it turned out.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Ribbon Flower Card

Man! 4 posts in a row? I'm on a roll heh.. though this will be the last one for tonight. Time for bed soon!

I found this really cool tutorial on youtube by Chris416Ward. You basically layer folded ribbon on top of each other and what you get is a pretty flower. I decided to try it out tonight and made a card with it.

I combined her technique with Dawn McVey's paper leaves :)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKnothlq3_4&feature=channel_page

Cooking: Pasta w/ Tuna, Spinach & Chili

After an awesome weekend and a tiring day of work, I needed something quick and somewhat healthy. I actually didn't intend to cook anything tonight but I spotted this recipe a while back on SeriousEats.com. (Recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/05/dinner-tonight-pasta-with-tuna-arugula-and-ch.html) I had to substitute arugula with baby spinach since the store didn't have any. Either arugula is super popular or people don't cook with it very often.

Anyway, while the pasta was cooking I sauteed some chopped garlic, lemon zest & chili flake in some olive oil until it got nice and fragrant.

Then I added a couple cans of tuna.

I had to wait until the pasta was done before I could finish the tuna mixture since I needed some of the pasta water to make a sauce.

After I added the pasta water and lemon juice, I added the tuna mixture to the drained pasta and mixed it.

I added the baby spinach and let that wilt for a few minutes.

Here it is! This dish was definitely not something I would make on a regular basis. It just seems too simple but at least Justyn enjoyed it.

Weenie Roast, Leyla & Cormac's Party & Ken's Birthday

It must be the beautiful weather or coincidence but we had 3 parties to attend to. 3!! We either have nothing planned on the weekend or it's super busy. I mentioned in my previous post that I made Jamaican Jerk Beef Pastries for the two parties.

The first party we went to was the WeenieRoast 2009. I love going to this particular party because Drew always makes really good smokey flavorful tri-tip in his smoker. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Doesn't that look delicious?

We couldn't stay long but I snapped a few pictures of people before we left to go to the next party.

Leyla's house was next. It was Cormac's birthday so she invited a bunch of us over to celebrate and hang out. The food was again, amazing. This tiny Thai chick made this unbelieveable food. Savory tapioca balls filled with pork and little yummy bits, chicken wings, seafood salad & lettuce rolls. Oh man... she totally trumped my measly one dish of pastries heh. I was relieved that she brought all of that because I was starving by then. I would've eaten all of it if we stayed longer heh.

People pics...

The last stop of the night was Ken's surprise birthday at Old Wagon in Downtown San Jose. Melanie organized all of it and if I hadn't checked my voicemail the morning of, we would've totally missed out. I'm glad we didn't though cuz I had a blast! It was the perfect ending to a long day. Happy Birthday Ken! :)

Cooking: Jamaican Jerk Beef Pastries

Well that sucks, I thought had more pictures of the cooking process for these pastries but I don't. At least you get an idea of what went into them. I actually made the meat mixture the night before so it had time to cool before I put them into puff pastry. I got this recipe from Gourmet magazine. Their recipe was actually for deep fried dumplings with won ton wrappers but I didn't want to fry anything (it's a pain in the ass) and I wanted them to be somewhat fresh when I brought them to a couple parties the next day.

Jamaican Jerk Beef Pastries
1 lb. of beef (I think I used 80/20)
4 tbsp of plain breadcrumbs
1 cup of chopped scallion
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
chili garlic paste (the actual recipe calls for Jamaican hot sauce but I couldn't find any)
4 sheets of puff pastry
egg white (to make the pastries golden brown on top)

Saute the scallion, onion, curry powder & thyme in some veg oil and season with salt and pepper until the onion is softened.

Stir in the beef and breadcrumbs until everything is combined thoroughly. Add the hot sauce and mix until combined.

Then you just let the mixture cool until you're ready to wrap them in puff pastry.

I would tell you the reaction of the people who devoured them but let's just say the tray I brought to the party was gone within the first 5 minutes. This happened with my BBQ pork puff pastries too. I bet it's the combo of meat in pastry that makes them so good. Or the love I put into cooking them heh.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

"Scribble This" Challenge

Hooray for Lisa Spangler's first challenge! I gotta give props to the girl since she fixed the issue so I could actually see the image and participate. At first I was a little confused with the challenge at hand, so I asked one of my camera savvy friends to help me out (thanks Selena!). I also saw Savitri's pictures which helped a bunch.

As for the card itself, eh... I think I took the white a little too far. I tried using all white because that's what I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I'm thinking about scrapping the card and redoing it but we'll leave this up until that happens.

I used transparency as a mat (sp?) for the "flowers" and the sheet itself has some white Staz-On stamped polka dots. I should've added some interest with some actual stitching or poked holes but too late now.

The pictures below were taken from my tiny craft space with my lamp and office light on. Other than that the room isn't all that bright.. ooh do you like my creepy picture?