Caradamom Saffron Bitters

Most people just think bitters are for fancy craft cocktails or your aunt's Old Fashioned, but I find bitters to be a refreshing and aromatic addition to sparkling water.  

Usually, but not always, containing an alcohol base, bitters are basically herbs, roots, or other aromatics in a concentrated, or bittersweet form.  Bitters have a long and slightly sordid history.  Well before prohibition, they were used medicinally and the British added them to drinks to help cover the taste of quinine which was in tonic water and used to fight off malaria.   When prohibition came along, bitters were still available since they were considered "medicinal" and despite their frequently high alcohol content are still sold as alcoholic non-beverage products and taxed as such.  Totally weird politics going on here. 

The best thing is, you don't need to buy the super expensive fancy bitters; you can make them yourself!

Miso Cookies

The recipe called for miso paste and half an egg -- I had to make these cookies!  Sorry, I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  My book club dinner/meeting is tonight, and I'm assigned to bring a dessert.  I rarely make desserts but, when I do, I love to make desserts with a unique twist.  So I'm looking at recipes from one of my favorite websites, japanesecooking101, and that's when I saw the recipe for Miso Cookies.

Eat Your Vegetables!

Some women collect shoes, and others purses, clothes, or knick-knacks but not me!  Nope, I collect cookbooks!  I just love to pour over the pages, oohing, aahing over the photos of all that delicious food!  I love to cook the food, too, but now that our kids are out of the house it gets to be a chore adjusting the recipes for just the hubby and me.  Which is why Eat Your Vegetables, Bold Recipes For The Single Cook by Joe Yonan caught my eye.

And Now for a Total Geek Out

 My husband and I were on our way to meet some friends at a local wine bar and found ourselves to be a bit early and so stopped into what I thought was a comic book store next door. 

It was a comic book store, but also a total geek out vintage shop full of toys, games, and other ephemera from popular science fiction and fantasy.   Each area of the shop was given to a different show or movie, like Star Trek, X-Men, or Star Wars. 

When I saw this Darth Vader, I knew I had to have it.  I had actually owned one of these when I was about 7 or 8 and foolishly sold it at a garage sale when I had moved on to other hobbies, like collecting model horses.   But what is it?

Decorate your light switch covers.

I think generic light switch covers are so ugly.  Our living room has a double light switch, and the first time I saw that huge ivory-colored plastic cover I knew it would have to go.  So I cut a piece of illustration board, grabbed my acrylic paints, glue, an art card, and made a new cover.  That was 15 years ago, and it's still on our wall.

Coffee-Macadamia Nut Biscotti

One my souvenirs from my trip to Maui were macadamia nuts still in the shell.  I've had some difficulty deciding what to do with them since I don't have very many, and it's not like I can run to the store and buy some more.  I found a recipe for Coffee-Macadamia Nut Biscotti on foodnetwork.com that looked interesting so I printed out the recipe, grabbed some nuts, a hammer, and headed for the front porch to get comfy on the cement steps.  

52 Weeks of Sewing: Week 2: Altering a T-Shirt

Unless I know exactly what I am buying and have worn it before, I rarely buy clothing online.  It never seems to fit like it should and it feels incredibly wasteful to me to ship something back even if it is free shipping.

But a few months ago (ok, let me think, it might actually have been last summer, oops) I fell victim to an online sale at one of my favorite shops, Pin Up Girl Clothing.  Their dresses are adorable and I've actually gone to their shop in L.A. to try things on so I know what I can buy online later, but they had this awesome Star Wars vintage style t-shirt on sale and I read the reviews on sizing and thought a large would be ok.  But then it came and it was swimming on me.  I think it's supposed to be a little loose and meant to show off a bra or tank top underneath, but I felt like I was wearing a muumuu.

My old sewing machine wasn't so hot with stretch fabrics so I set it aside.  Now, however, I have my new Brother sewing machine, multi-tasker that it is, and I just knew that I could now tackle this teeny tiny project.  

Is Your Home in Need of an Energy Audit?

 If you own your own house and you have drafts that you can feel or high energy bills or are unsure whether your walls are insulated or not, it might be worth it for you to get a home energy audit. 

A home energy audit is a process in which your house is assessed on its energy uses versus the overall efficiency of your house with energy conservation as the final goal.  We've only been in our house a little over two years and now know enough about our energy uses (extreme waste because of baseboard heaters) that we decided to bring in some professional help to guide us in steps to make our house as efficient as possible.   It's not free where I live, but it is heavily subsidized to encourage you to take part.

Fried Rice

When I make rice I like to cook a big batch.  It takes as long to make as a small batch, and the leftover rice comes in handy.  I use it in soups and stews, mix with a bit of soy sauce to make rice balls, or better yet -- fried rice!

Fried rice is so quick to make, and uses only a few ingredients.  A little green onion, an egg or two, and a few cups of day-old (at least) rice sauteed in some oil with a sprinkling of soy sauce.  That's all you need.

I like to add diced carrot and yellow onion, and some peas when I make fried rice, but you could also add corn kernels, asparagus tips, zucchini -- whatever you have on-hand.  Fresh or frozen vegetables work equally well but I prefer using fresh (with the exception of peas), and frozen vegetables would certainly make the preparation quicker and easier.

A Birthday Treat for Mom: Dorayaki

When I was young, every December we'd pile into the car and make the big drive from Puyallup to Seattle to shop at Uwajimaya, a large Asian grocery and gift store.  Mom would stock up on ingredients not readily found in our local stores.  My brothers and I would fill up our baskets with delicious Japanese snacks and sweets, and Dorayaki was one of my favorites.

What is Dorayaki?  Quite simply it's a pancake sandwich that's filled with a sweet red bean paste called Anko.  In Japan it's a popular treat to have with your tea.  My mom loves them, so I decided to make some for her birthday.

Asian Cooking 101: Tofu and Rice

Tofu and I have had a love/hate relationship my whole life.  I've always hated it until about two years ago when I started to eat less meat, and tofu became one of my main sources of protein.  The more I ate tofu the more I liked it!

My son, Kevin, lives in Seattle, and when I go up to visit we always grab lunch in the International District.  A couple weeks ago I had a delicious green papaya salad with seared tofu.  The tofu was so fresh and delicious with a wonderfully plump texture.  I assumed their tofu was made at the restaurant, and wondered if I would have to learn how to make my own tofu!  Then I found this little gem at H Mart!

A Bird Visitor Keeps the Pets Entertained

 This morning I was drinking coffee, checking my email and suddenly there was such a ruckus from the cat and the dog over by the window.  I ignored it for a bit but then Vincent's yowling drew me to the window to take a look.  A Flicker!!  A Northern Flicker, to be more specific. 

Vanilla Sugar

Among the souvenirs I brought home from my vacation was this packet of vanilla beans that were grown on Maui.  Vanilla Beans are the seed pod of an orchid (Vanilla Planifolia) whose flowers have to be pollinated by hand.  The beans are then harvested by hand, and then cured for several months before they can be used for cooking and baking.  No wonder vanilla beans are so expensive!

I have not used vanilla beans before so I decided to start with an easy project:  Vanilla Sugar.  So easy to make that I'm adding it to my to-do list for this year's Christmas gifts. 

A Painted Lampshade

 A couple of months ago we finally bought a new sofa.  We had been living with a small, beat up leather sofa for the last 10 years and while it worked in our old house, it was far too small for both the living room and for us.  We upgraded to a sofa that could fit both of us and the dog and the cat, all at the same time!  

But I found I wasn't using the new sofa much.  Instead I would curl up on one of our small arm chairs with ottoman across the room.  I realized it was because I had no proper reading lamp for the new sofa.  And much of the time I spend in the living room I am reading.  We weren't sure what kind of lamp to get (another decision!) and then some friends of ours came over and offered to give us a big modern lamp that didn't work in their house anymore.

Yay!  It fit perfectly!  But there was only one problem.

Felt Yardage Equals Just A Felt Pillow

I am trying to make some larger felt yardage and despite the fact that I have a pretty big studio, I have been struggling.  Wool shrinks around 30% from layout to finished product so to get anything in a large size (like enough for a cape, like I want) you have to start really, really large.  And you can make two layers at once using a resist but I didn't want to try that yet as I am still experimenting with pre-felts and layout in general. 

I started by making a smaller, test piece on a small table for a sample.

Time to De-Clutter

 I am hitting up the Spring cleaning a little late this year, but better late than never!  At the beginning of the year we started to change our diet into a more Mediterranean style diet with a lot less processed foods and more lean meats/fish, olive oil, tons of fruits and veggies, and nuts.  Nuts.  I try to buy things in bulk and then all the little bags get stacked up and I think I am out of one nut and buy more and the other day my husband was going through the cupboard and asked, 'Why do you have 3 packages of pecans?  And not any almonds?'  It was time to take action.  Hopefully these jars will do the trick.   

While I was at it, I realized we needed to clean up the sloppy front entrance to our house.  We always wanted a nice entry way and now we have been in this house a year and a half and have a nice entry way that looks completely slovenly.  I kept thinking we would get some sort of wardrobe to put there but it never happened.   

This is a step in the right direction but I just need to keep control of the shoe situation.  

Finally, the opposite side of the entry was getting pretty cluttered too.  The fireplace screen is there to block the dog from getting to the cat's food.  But I think it just looked cluttered.   

Enter red leather bench!  This solved a whole bunch of problems.  I put all the hats and gloves that were cluttered around the shoes into the bench for easy access.  The bench has the extra bonuses that we can move it into the living room for extra seating at parties and use it to take our shoes on and off in the entry instead of tromping dirt all over the house.  We are still going to feed the cat here but I just move the screen blocking the dog in the kitchen to in front of the food when the dog is loose.  

And the cat has a new place to perch too.  Now I only have about 10 other spaces to tackle!

When the Cookbooks Almost Took Over the Kitchen

For years turning into decades, I have studiously kept my cookbook shopping to a minimum.  If I bought a new cookbook, I would donate an old one that I didn't cook from that often.  I don't know why I felt I should keep the cookbook clutter to a such a minimum.  I mean, cooking is one of my favorite hobbies.  I have no problem hoarding beads or fabric or art books, but cookbooks I thought I should keep in check.  I allowed myself 2 shelves next to our stove and that was it. 

But something snapped in me at the end of last year and I started going cookbook crazy.  I discovered the Jerusalem born chef Yotam Ottolenghi for a start.  I also acquired some cookbooks as gifts and I started buying Heidi Swanson's cookbooks (of the 101 Cookbooks blog) after following her recipes online for several years.  The cookbooks started over taking the kitchen island. 

Simultaneously, I was losing space on my counter.  The one major flaw of our kitchen is that there is no proper pantry, so I have to tuck food away into nooks and crannies.  I finally realized I could move the cookbooks out of the way and clear the space at the same time.

Ikea to the rescue!  Now, I actually did not want to shop at Ikea.  I tried to shop local.  I tried to find interesting modern furniture from new and used shops near my home and came up with absolutely nothing.  A few stained, wobbly shelves at a couple of different "antique" (read: junk) stores and country kitchen yech at the couple of local house boutiques.  So I compromised and went to Ikea.  

And I have already filled up my new bookshelf!  I thought I would have a ton of space to fill in a few more cookbooks.  

The counter looks great now and the oatmeal and extra spices are up off the counter as they should be.

Now this time, I really mean it, no more cookbooks than what I can store in this shelf.  Let's see if I can stick to this for another 10 years.

38 Things: Make a Coffee Table (A Bowling Pin Coffee Table)

We have desperately needed a coffee table since we moved into our house nearly 6 months ago. (can you believe it?  Six months?  Wow, time goes by fast!)  Instead of buying something, I decided on my list of 38 Things I Want to do Before I Turn 39 that I should make something.  I don't like having a house full of furniture that looks like a showroom.  I know I can't make it all, but I like to have funky, one of a kind character pieces in my house to liven things up.

First, I sourced the butcher block top from a piece of IKEA furniture we bought for the kitchen.  We combined 2 island tables together with one large counter and this small one was left over.  Next, I realized I had a whole bunch of bowling pins collecting space in the garage and thought they would be perfect for legs.  Then I didn't do anything about it for 2 months until I convinced my friend Patrick to help me with attachments.

We cut 5/16th steel all-thread from Home Depot into 5 inch lengths.  Then we used a drill press (OK, Patrick used the drill press; I watched) to drill approx 2" through the top layer of plastic and into interior made of wood.  Next we threaded the all-thread into the bowling pins.  We did this by screwing on 2 nuts on one end of the all thread and then using a wrench to twist it into the pins.  Then I cut the all-thread lengths to 1 1/2"--that was enough to go through the block and washer and have enough room to be screwed tightly with the decorative brass nuts.  A very helpful man at Ace Hardware helped me to figure out the best hardware to use.  Finally, I worked out what pattern I wanted the bowling pins to be, drilled the holes and then assembled the whole thing! 

It only took a couple of hours.  The pins are a tiny bit wobbly and so we might make a triangular base for each end to stabilize them.  But I needed it finished since I was hosting my book club last night and it worked great to hold our books and drinks!

Art Studio Re-Do Part 1

Here's how my studio looks right now.  After we moved in my dad put a really nice epoxy coating on the floor as a house warming gift.  Step 1.   It took a while because I had to move everything to one side of the room and then he did the coating and then after 3 days I was able to move everything to the other side and then he applied the rest of the coating.  It looks sharp: shiny gray with white and black speckled texture across the top. 

Step 2. Finally, last week we had this gas heater installed.  I had a few different contractors give me bids and they all wanted to do something completely different and this ended up the most affordable as well as handy that it is up out of the way.  Only the installers screwed up the wiring and had to come back and fix it and they also forgot to seal the venting so they are coming back today (only after I called them to bug them) to fix that.   I swear everyone is out to short change you in the construction business.

I was about to start painting today and went out and under the heater was a big puddle of water.  At first I thought maybe the heater was leaking or had condensation problems?  But now we realize it is actually seems to be seeping in from the wall.

Ruh-roh.  If that is because the roof is leaking into the walls and into the garage I will have a really really big heart attack because we just can't deal with that right now and the rainy season lasts until May around here!   I may just go in there and start painting anyways.  It's got to be done at some point. 

Easy Way to Save

Moving into a much larger house than our last one has been a steep learning curve in terms of wasting and using resources.  I have always prided myself on trying to be as energy efficient as possible.  We only have one car, we use front loading washer and dryers, we use the air dry cycle on the dishwasher, I reuse my own bags, I take 4 minute showers, I compost our food, I refuse to water the lawn in summer.   But I have been feeling like a bit fat hypocrite since we have moved into this house. 

Our first utility bill about knocked my socks off, the electricity part of the bill being $381 and that was just for 5 weeks!   At our old house with the heat pump, the electricity was more like $60 for 5 weeks in winter.

I don't know how the people that lived here before just let things go they way they are without trying to make it better!  I keep finding incandescent bulbs in fixtures all over the house, the fridge was set far too cold, the dryer isn't working correctly and takes over 2 hours to dry the clothes, the hot water heaters were set to scalding, the baseboard heaters either won't turn on or won't turn off.  It baffles me that people can be in such denial of their wastefulness!

The other thing that we realized that was broken was the toilet in the master bathroom.  The floating device would never properly engage and so water was running constantly.  Also, it was a big, water wasting tank.  So we bought a toilet kit to fix the leak and when Trevor ran to the store to get another part he also came back with this dual flush handle.  So simple and easy to install and is already cutting our water usage on that toilet in half!

Now I just have to convince Trevor to let me get rid of the hot tub.  I know he loves it, but we rarely use it and I am disgusted by how much electricity it must be taking to keep that monster hot.