Star City Doughnuts

Mike, Jodie, and I made PW's Doughnuts on Saturday.  

We made them wrong.  The dough should have rested for a whole night (not four hours) and then it rested too long and deflated before frying.  No worries though...they were still delicious!

Jodie made a raspberry and a chocolate dipping sauce.  The still warm glazed doughnuts with the sauce was too good.  

 

When we open our restaurant we're going going to serve glazed Star City Doughnuts as dessert.  We were imaging the different dipping possibilities.  The two we made, peanut butter, strawberry, served with vanilla ice cream, or blueberry sauce. We could even do a Star City Doughnut Hamburger!

These doughnuts are going to be made again soon! They were super a.w.e.some made incorrectly so I can't wait to make them the right way.  They'll probably be out of this world delicious!

Eye Spy

My baby cousin just had a baby! I finished this quilt (only 4 days late!) during Snowed in Weekend.  I am so smitten with the Moda fabric which is Love U.  David said it was too much cute and said that in 10 years we have to have a boy!

This is the bag that I made to ship the quilt in.  I put 3 pockets on it so hopefully Mama will be able to use it.

This is the whole quilt! I used the panel from Love U and one charm pack.  There is a light pink binding (which is still my least favorite part of quilting!)

On the left is the back of the quilt and the right is the front.  In all of the letter panels I free motion traced a shape.  The cupcake is by far my favorite!

 

I had to include a picture of these owls! Too Cute!

 

The back.  Orange is my favorite color so I included a lot of it.  

Hopefully she is able to use it with the baby.  It'd be really great to play "I spy" with it when she is a little older.  You can use the letters, the pictures, and the border to point things out.  It's a little big for a newborn but it'll grow with her. 

Inspired

Mike blogged his first blog so I thought we should update here!

We've been cooking a ton, playing video games, and quilting! 

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  The weather hasn't been quite warm enough to venture into the cold without these quilts wrapped around us!

I finished two quilts around Christmas time. 

Here is David's.  It's stressful working on a quilt for someone else! I'm glad to have it done and he loves it. 

 

I think next time I do a 9 patch design I'll do it off of a soduku game. That way nothing will repeat! 

 

  This is my Christmas Quilt. 

It's small but juuust big enough for me to cuddle under! I used the raw edge tutorial over at Cluck Cluck Sew and then worked on an overall design that I liked. Instead of quilting it I tied it. The binding on this one is almost perfect! Five quilts in and I'm getting better each time!

I'm holding off on starting a new quilt even though I'm dying to do one!

The Alaskan Rockfish

Tonight for dinner we tried something new. My parents went to Alaska on a vacation for their anniversary. When they came back they had pounds and pounds of fish. I was lucky enough to have rockfish, salmon, and tuna brought to us when they came to visit Roanoke. I decided tonight that it was time to cook a fish that I had never heard of.  I found this online at Cooks.com and it sounded pretty darn good.

1 1/2 lbs. Rockfish fillets
1/2 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. minced parsley (optional)
1/4 c. melted butter
2 tbsp. lemon or lime juice
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Place fish fillets in shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with almonds and parsley (optional). Combine butter and lemon or lime juice; pour over fish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven 10 minutes, uncovered, until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 10 minutes. Serves 4-6.

Well, the fish took more than the 10 minutes thatI estimated. I thought it needed more salt. But you know what? I think most things need more salt. All in all it was pretty good! The almonds stole the show. I thought they were wonderful. I don't know if I would choose Rockfish of over fish like salmon, tuna, or talapia.

As sides we made two things. First, Sauteed Spinach with lemon butter and a dash of balsamic vinegar. I wish I would have thought about adding some garlic cause that would have made it a lot better.

Second, baked sweet potatoes and russet potatoes sprinkled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. The potatoes were placed in a Pyrex and cooked at 400 for an 1 hour.

Sunday I am smoking some sort of meat in preparation for Thanksgiving. We will let you know.

Good thing we love pepper!

The husband is in pain because of a dentist appointment yesterday.  He wanted food that he’d actually be able to eat and requested Velveeta Mac and Cheese and country fried venison steak.

This is what you should do if you cook things correctly.

Otherwise...The play by play without pictures because I’m not a good blogger. Clearly. 

• Cut up the 2 lbs of leftover Velveeta that you have in your fridge.
• Measure 3 3/4 cups of dry macaroni instead of four. Cook according  to package directions or until macaroni sticks to the bottom of the pan.
• Get butter out of fridge. Curse because you don't have 6 tablespoons.
• Wonder if Country Crock is the same as margarine and use it anyway.
• Melt CC and add 1/2 cup of flour to make a roux
• Add 2 cups milk and "stir continuously" after you reread the recipe and realize your mistake. 
• Get black pepper and dump about 1/4 cup in, scream, curse, and then scrape out as much pepper as you can. 
• Add Velveeta and stir until it melts.  Add macaroni. put in two dishes (one to freeze for an awesome dinner later).
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

(I topped the one that we ate tonight with lots of Ritz crackers and put the other one unbaked and labeled in the freezer.  It’s going to be super good with ham steak later in the winter.  It’s just as easy to make two as it is one!!)

The husband made an awesome country fried steak.  It was like magic.

We debated making green beans for healthfulness and decided against it.  The pepper debacle actually turned out great!  

Plate it up, add Frank's red hot, and demolish!

Post Script: I'm voting no more Velveeta after this mac and cheese is gone until the Superbowl.  I'm just sayin...

Quilting for the husband

This is my husband's quilt in progress.  One day we went to Joann's and spent two hours picking out fabric.  Then we placed it all on the table, looked at it, and walked out.  He couldn't find anything that he liked and couldn't "see" the quilt. 

Insert the local quilt shop to the rescue!

The ladies there (and even the customers!) helped him picked out all of this fabric while I wandered through the shop.  The difference in the LQS and the big box is astounding! I had no idea how much I would love just walking in and wandering around.  Of course, I never can resist buying just one or two pieces of fabric.

His favorite fabric is the woods (shocker!)  He is happy with all of the fabric and my sewing skills.  Not everything matches up and I'm going to have to fiddle a lot with the direction of the woods but it shouldn't be too hard. Working on a block or two a night while watching TV. 

Now I've got "1408" on and have to devote all of my attention to the first scary movie of the Halloween season!

first

This is Chili. He's the most awesome dog on the planet. 

I wanted to take him on a run but couldn't because we've lost the collar that actually fits him.

Today I ran the first Couch to 5k run.  I feel pretty awesome an hour later! It's 30 minutes long and my ipod touch made it bearable.  The Greenway is minutes from my house and I've never walked on it for more than 3 minutes.  Running past and near the river is beautiful! I probably should not have decided to start a running program on the first day of a cold weather snap.  Maybe trying to set myself up for failure? I hope not.

Chili should be able to run with me on Wednesday. I'm tracking down his collar tonight!