wild mushroom and stilton galette

amy sent me a recipe for THIS galette and i linked from there to the wild mushroom and stilton one on her blog from that day.  as soon as i read those words my mouth watered.  i LOVE mushrooms and i LOVE blue cheese.  especially stilton, it is my favorite.

so, i tried it.  it wasn't as hard i thought it'd be (i was expecting worse after reading the smitten kitchen blog) but the frozen butter did bend my pastry knife (i just dumped it into the food processor instead) and my dough didn't turn out as pretty as hers.  i'm not a very patient pastry maker.  that is probably why my biscuits never turn out right either.  my crust was good - awesome flavor - but not as flaky as i expected.  i also had to add more water because i couldn't get all the flour to get into the ball.  eh, i made it work.

SO anyway, the mushrooms weren't anything fancy, i was limited to only what they had at lowes foods (which is just "normal" wild mushrooms) and i also didn't let the dried ones soak for 30 minutes.  within 15 minutes they were cooled and hydrated.

the rest is history.  when it was baking, a lot of the butter ran off the pan so i had to have a drip pan underneath the one that it was cooking on.  it was really messy while it was cooking...

but WELL worth the mess.

the smell in my house was so yummy.  it smelled like fall.  the warmth of the herbs and the richness of the butter and cheese and 'shrooms.  oh man oh man oh man.  it was all i could do to wait to eat it.

but i did and i had 2 pieces.  nathaniel had 1.  it was really rich.  very filling, and very tasty.  it'd be a great side-dish for a steak or an appetizer just a "light" heavy dinner.  (i.e., just a couple of pieces and you're full, but you really don't eat that much but you DO get plenty of fat when you eat it... remember, there is over  stick of butter in that thing!).  and, i did an eggwash on the crust which she didn't do.  either way mine was u-g-l-y (and totally has no alibi)!


so, here are my pictures.  if you want the recipe and a better "what to aim for" idea, then please visit the original website!!!

dragonfly reflection card [cased]

i cased a zindorf card (her original and tutorial is here) tonight.  i picked this one because i had access dragonfly stamp in a set that i borrowed from connie, a lady in my club.  plus, it looked easy and since this month in club will be "brayer technique month", i thought i needed to brush up on my brayering.  SO, i practiced with this card since michelle zindorf created this card and had such a great tutorial for it... 

for those of you who are like "who's michelle zindorf?"  she is to brayering in the art of stamping like michael phelps is to the butterfly stroke in the sport of swimming.  if there were gold medals to be won, she'd have them all!!!

i think that i picked this particular card of hers because, for some reason, i thought my sister in law (amy) would like this one. amy, do you like dragonflies?  if not, i wonder where i got that from!

 
i've already mentioned that i always... make... things... in... pairs.  so, i made two, of coarse!  make sure you look at the original card to compare how mine looks.  not as cool as hers ( i didn't have anything to border it with, so i just improvised with a smear of ink directly from the pad).  i also used a little different colors.  same scheme, though.

incidentally, our official "brayer technique card" will be another zindorf card.  well, a version of it.  but since i KNOW my clubbers check my blog (some of them anyway), i'll not say which one and leave it a surprise.  the only hint(s) i'll give is that it uses a stamp that we (i) use a lot, i didn't have to buy much of anything for it (except a lot of embossing powder since we always seem to plow through that stuff at club meetings!), and it'd be really easy to make a halloween card using it!!!  or, a christmas card... just have to use your creativity with the colors!  my next purchase will be a color coach.  i'm in desperate need of color help (prepare for subject change) in both the stamping world and my wardrobe.  :)  i think this fall i'm just gonna buy black and gray.  can i pull off monotone?

watermelon lemonade

this is a modification of THIS recipe which i'm sure is good as is, but - i didn't have all their ingredients, i only had fresh stuff.  so, i made up my own version.

this is how i made mine.

* 1 small watermelon from dad's garden - it was super ripe and very sweet - i cut it in half and put all the middle part that didn't have seeds in it in one bowl, and the part that had seeds in it in another bowl ( i didn't intend to "deseed" it by hand...).  and, this one was sweet right out to the rind. also, i should mention that holly and i ate a lot of it as i cut it up, so i HARDLY used the whole thing in this.  i'd say i probably had about 4 cups of melon pieces (without seeds).  they weren't cut pretty, i was just scooping with a spoon.  (another idea would be to use a seedless melon - then you wouldn't have to worry with seeds!)

* i juiced 5 large lemons with my hand-held juice thingy (you know the thing you twist and it catches the seeds).  i probably had about 1/2 to 1 cup of juice from those 5 lemons.  they were really big.  i didn't measure it.

* i pre-made and cooled some simple syrup but i didn't use all of it. i put 2 cups of water and 1 cup of cane sugar in a pot over med-high heat, stirred, and got it to a boil and then i let it cool.  it was brownish since it was cane, but it didn't matter when i used it in the lemonade. we don't have any regular (refined) sugar in our house anymore. 

so, i used mom's food mill to mash the juice out of the seeded part of the watermelon.  that way i got the juice but left the seeds (and pulp) to that part of the watermelon. that was quick to do and didn't take 2 minutes. i love her food mill and i probably use it twice a week.  i need to buy one for myself and give hers back to her. but, eh, while i got it, i'll keep using it!  this is the perfect use for it too.  (i use it a lot to seed things like cherries and grapes and puree cucumber soup and things like that too... i have such texture issues and having a food mill has opened up my world to smooth soups!!!)

ok, so next i put the watermelon (without seed part) in the blender with the juice from the food mill and turned it on low.  that didn't take but a few moments to puree also.

it all went into my pampered chef mixing pitcher that melissa gave me years ago (i see that it is discontinued now, what a bummer) along with the lemon juice and then i added the simple syrup to taste.  i ended up adding about 1/2 to 2/3 of  what i had made.  how much simple syrup you add would be based on how sweet your watermelon was, and mine was pretty sweet.  if yours isn't really sweet/ripe then you'd need all of it.

you can also dilute your lemonade with water to stretch it out but i liked mine full strength. the original recipe recommended adding up to 6 cups of water but i just can't do that.  i DO think it'd be good split about 50/50 with seltzer water or ginger ale.  OR, mixed with gin or vodka.  it is good on ice even as the ice melts.  it'd probably make a good margarita base if you added more sugar (and lime rather than lemons).  last night i ground some mint leaves with some raw sugar in my mortal and pestle and added it to a glass - sorta like a watermelon lemonade mojito without the alcohol.  that was yummy too.

my kids love it too! the bright pink of this reminds me of koolaid. you know, my kids have never had koolaid?  they've had OJ, applejuice - and lots of fresh made juices.  never anything made from a powder (as far as i know, anyway).  so, this is just one more fresh-made juice to add to their palate!  even kendal drank some of it.  he isn't a watermelon fan.  holly is, and because of that, i suppose i'm lucky that any of it made it into the blender.  it was a race against her mouth to get this lemonade made!  she smelled the melon as soon as it was cut... and came running!

so, if you try it, tell me what you think!

no tv = i actually made some cards.

made 4 cards.

for club next month we're going to be using the brayer.  so, i was trying to find cards (one easy one, this is/was going to be the "easy" one - which it was very easy) to do using the brayer.   so about a couple weeks ago, i guess, i found this card and fell in love with it.  probably becuase it had yellow, green, and orange in it.  my three favorite colors.
 
so, mine didn't quite work out like hers.  i didn't have that awesome background paper like she did.  the first 2 i made ( i always make things in pairs) were the pink/green but the ink washed out the pattern of the paper i had.  so, i tried to find something with more pattern and that did much better.  the pictures don't do the card in the front justice.  it actually looks quite fabulous if i don't say so myself!  it'd be a great birthday card for a kid or a man. unfortunately, i think the paper i ordered for the club version of this card won't be enough pattern for it too work for the "club card" - so i may need to find something else.  we'll see. 

Check out this entry I found on Shutterfly Summer Freedom Contest.

Check out this entry I found on Shutterfly Summer Freedom Contest. please go to shutterfly and vote on my contest entry! kate (and mark), you should plug this to all your friends since it is of you guys!!!

random crap

my finger hurts where i sliced it.

i miss my design star or color splash or whatever HGTV program i usually watch during nap.

holly just woke up for a brief moment saying YOW!  YOW!  YOW!

i'm about to go have a glass of watermelon lemonade.  think i may grind a little mint and sugar to give it a punchy flavor.  wish i had some gingerale and rum.  oh, and about 15 more days of relpax to blast the migraine that'd cause!

i need to make some cards.  i have ideas, great ideas.  but, just not the desire to create them.  my desk is too cluttered i think.  but, i don't want to clean it off.  wish i had the TV to watch so i could take a nap.  can't sleep without the TV.  OH, i'll miss degrassi tonight.

women's sizes

most everyone knows that at the beginning of the year, we made a lifestyle change (i.e. diet?) and both nathaniel and i have lost weight.  around april or may, i stepped it up a notch and eliminated meat from my diet and also did a major liver/gallbladder and colon detox (both herbal, obviously).  this gave my weightloss a boost and around the end of june, i reached a loss of 25 pounds (depending on what you consider my start weight...  nathaniel says i started at more than what i consider my start weight, so he thinks i lost more than that, he thinks it is ~30 ).

so for the past few weeks, anyway, i've been sitting at the same weight or +2.  i decided to do the liver detox again while mamaw was gone to missouri (sometimes i think mamaw's food is what gets me fat! it is so dang good...)  i haven't weight myself this week but i am intentionally going to avoid the scale until next week.

SO anyway, i was just thinking about and discussing the fall and money with nathaniel  thankfully, unemployment was reinstated (still waiting to hear from and hoping for good news from the last job i interviewed for...).  we're down to just 1 car now (eliminated both the car payment, the car tax, car insurance, and extra gas) and we also turned off our direct TV (we don't need satallite, right?).  after the new year we'll be able to turn off (yes turn OFF!) our cell phones.  that'll save us a ton right there!  of coarse we'll have to get long distance on our house phone, but that'll still be cheaper than our cell phones.  nathaniel loves saving money so this just makes him so happy i know.  in the mean time, i get to sit at home with no cable.  hahahaha (only dora movies to watch... or, i can just blog during nap since there isn't any TV to watch. like now!)

so anyway back to my original point.  this fall, none of my clothes are going to fit.  i hate to admit this, but last fall (and even this past spring), i was a size 16/18.  yesterday, the kids and i walked over to kohls when we went to the grocery store to get a pair of non-jean pants for myself since i had none and i can't wear jeans to work. a skirt would have never made it last night since i was bending and squatting and lifting and climbing... it was "new line" night and i had the most fun working.  i always have a great time there at gymboree.  too bad they only work me 5 or 6 hours a week!

i tried on a 14 first (out of habit) and i could have jumped out of them.  i haven't tried on pants in SO long there really was that much difference.  i really don't think you can look at me and tell it - mainly because i still wear my old shirts (oversized...) but when i put on clothes that actually fit me, i look like my old, pre-pregnant self (i've never been skinny)!  well, i guess i still have a little extra belly where my skin stretched during the pregnancy but that's not a problem,  just my little reminder of the two most important things in my life.

so i grabbed a size 12 and bought them without trying them on.  they fit pretty good last night.  now that i've been wearing them (today) though, they are a little loose.  can you believe that?   from a size 16/18 to a size 12... and still loosing hopefully!

and this is without adding exercise!  i'm waiting until the fall for that.  i hope to run again.  no way could i have run with all this weight on my bones.  i had to loose some so i could do it again.  i'm gonna wait for the sweet potatoes to come in so i can eat them and run like i used to.  those beauregard sweet potatoes that marlene used to bring me helped me run 5 to 6 miles back in washington... those things were made of pure running fuel!  i would never even break a sweat.  of coarse our hills will impede me, but, i'll have to get used to them.  damn hills.

OOOH no more degrassi.  i'm gonna go through withdrawals.....