Next: try sugar cane.

You'd think that it would be good right? Sugary? Caney? Delicious..errr...y?

It wasn't.
It tasted like water chestnut.
Gross.

Xie Xie!

I made this quilt for my brother Shadow's graduation present. The design is "Chinese Coin Quilt" cuz I guess the pieces look like a stack of Chinese coins.... I dunno...

Anyway- this quilt passes off TWO things on my to do list! MULTI-TASKING! The first was actually making a quilt with the Chinese Coin quilt design. And that was on the list just cuz its a pretty cool design.

The second part was to make a quilt with a gradation of color. We didn't have a pattern for this quilt, but we just kind of figured it out from pictures, and that left the color scheme up to me! So I sorted out the colors maroon, gold, green, teal, blue, and purple according to their hues then skip counted up and back down so as to not repeat the different fabric pieces up and down the scale. I LOVED the result and might just make one exactly like it for me!

Mamma Mia! One of the things on my "To Do" list is to learn how to make good Italian food. It is going to take a little bit of practice, but what I've learned so far is that, in order to make good Italian food, you're gonna need to prepare yourself for a lot of butter usage. And by a lot of butter usage, I mean be prepared to not eat all day prior to the meal, and then go running for 1/2 hour to work off all of the calories! But boy howdy, it is sooooooo good!
This is an asparagus pesto phyllo dough roll up. We call them asparagus taquitos-- I think that's maybe a little sacrilegious in the Italian cooking world, but hey, I'M the chef here, and that's what they are like. Next think you know, we'll be making a lasagna taco!

I, Beautiful Lady, hereby solemnly swear, NEVER to make a lasagna taco.

These are the regional equivalent to a spinach gnocci (pronounced knee-oh-key). We have a FABULOUS Italian cookbook called the Italian Farmer's Table that is an absolute must have. This gnocci is served with a butter sage sauce. After making them, we decided that these would be better with a thicker, heartier sauce-- like an alfredo, but they were still so, so, sooooooooo good!

Lastly, these pictures are of our Leek and Pancetta tarts. These were the highlight of our meal. I cannot describe the bliss that you will encounter when you try these tarts. They come from the same cookbook as the previous recipe, and all I can say is- try it! Please try it!
Spaghetti-Os? Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever (I will never have enough "evers") EVER again.

You'd think with being home in Iowa that I'd have more time to post things on here- what is there to do here anyway but watch the corn grow? Alas, that seems to not be the case. But no worries! I have been still passing things off!

And another thing, I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia, and feel a little worried about this whole blogging thing now. She got so obsessive about it! Gah! What if that happens to me?!

*deep breath*
I'm thinkin' that it won't-- seein' as how the average update period is about a month...

So that's that! Side note over-- off to the meat of the post!

My mom and I are taking a few cooking classes this summer, and the first one was a Dutch Letters class. For all of those out there that don't know what Dutch Letters are, imagine a cloud pillow of buttery flakeness engulfing a sweet, dense almond dream filling that practically (and literally) melts in your mouth. That, my friend, is a Dutch Letter. Ew. Did you just drool?

Well, we learned how to make them at this class! Now remember, what are the three secrets to French cooking? 1. Butter! 2. Butter! and 3. Butter! And that's pretty much what we did here to make that pillow of buttery flakeness. So good. So good.

That is our cooking preparation area. Note the variety of different rolling pins. It is very important (apparently) to find the rolling pin that works just right for you. And every good chef has at least 2 rolling pins that serve different purposes. Apparently I'm not a good chef, cuz I only have one and I got it from Ikea...

Those are our final product! Typically Dutch Letters are just an "S" shape, but seeing as how I am the chef here, I decided to switch things up a little bit. A word of explanation for the seemingly unsensical and cryptic message (is it pronounced "klahs" or "close"? "Lives" or "Lives"? Who knows!) My roommate KTLN received some Valentine themed window stickies as a party favor. We, being the single and oh, so eligible, attractive, wonderful, and humble bachelorettes that we are/were decided to spurn the "singles awareness day" theme and rearranged the "Kiss" and "love" stickies into the above message. Clever? I'm thinkin' yes.

ANYWAY! Pass off-- one cooking class and making homemade Dutch letters.

As you can probably tell from the sudden influx of blog posts, it is summertime.

And I am at home in Iowa

waiting for my background check to clear so that I can start my job. I figure that I need to write down some goals for this summer-- you know, things I can pass off.

1. Learn to play the ukulele well. A friend of mine and I went to a "learn to play ukulele in your elementary school classroom" class at BYU a few weeks ago. UKULELE IS THE FUNNEST THING TO DO IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!! GAH!!! Anyway.
2. Go to Springfield, IL to the Abraham Lincoln Museum. HISTORY!
3. Learn how to whittle.
4. Get buff arm muscles from splitting wood.

That's all I can think of right now, but there is sure to be some more things added to the list. Until then!

Nightgown,

Floral, quaint
Gown for Nighttime
Wonderful, Jane Austen-esque, prettiness
But not for Around town

That, my dear readers, is a cinquain poem (kind of-- the last line is not following true cinquain style...) Sometimes ya just gotta write a little poem- you know? Is there a better thing to write a poem about than a nightgown? I submit that there is not!

Well, school got out a week ago, and I came home and went immediately to a quilt retreat (or quilt camp as one of my friends called it!) Generally at such events, one sews quilt tops and tries to absorb the incredible quilting talent that is percolating throughout the room. But, see, I have been making quilts since I was a young tyke, and, though none of them are truly spectacular, I really like sewing clothes more. SO. I worked on my seamstressness at this quilt retreat- and boy, howdy! It was FUN!

The below picture is the nightgown that I made. I LOVE IT! It is very Jane Austen-esque, don't you think?
"How long could that have taken you? The delicate pleat! The gathered cuffs! The seamless armholes!" you might ask. "Not long, I dare say, not long," I would reply. "What a fine seamstress you must be! But what could you have possibly done for the other 2 days you were there?" You say incredulously. And I'll tell you! I made a double-breasted crazy floral, collared jacket! COOL!

"I do not profess to be an expert in the field of fashion (though my friends say I have quite the eye) but I can tell you, there is a shocking lack of satin!"
-- Jane Austen's Emma

But it still needs buttons, so you'll just have to hide and watch for those pictures.

Sew Easy! Sew Fun! Sew fast!

(There have got to be a MILLION other little play-on-words for this)

I have had this Buttercup bag saved in my bookmarks for a couple of years now. It has been taunting me! Cute little purse out of 2 FAT QUARTERS?! Is such a thing possible?! Could it be true?! NO WAY!

BUT YES! YES! IT IS TRUE!! I did not have any black semi-fancy purses (in fact, I did not have any purses really...) SO. Being the professional seamstress that I am (*cough*) I figured, why not make one? So I did. The above is the result. SO easy! SO fun! SO fast!

But of course, black is boring. And I am DEFINITELY not a boring person. And because I made it, I can do anything I want with the creative license that comes with seamstressing, so I made the lining rainbow fish scales fabric. Ahhhh. Perfect.

Opening the purse is like a party for your eyes!