Let's try this again...

We all begin with good intent...

I vaguely remember starting this blog 3 years ago. Then, life, or fear stopped me from continuing, I honestly can't remember which.

Since the last time I wrote, I've moved to another state, gotten engaged, and will be married in just over two weeks. Also in that space of time, I have cooked, baked, and crafted a number of things and learned a lot along the way.

I think the best way to start on this blogging business is to set some standards for myself. Since I have a tendency to do too much, I will go against my usual pattern and start small.

So, going forward, I will post once a week on Sundays. Until I get into a groove the posts may be a bit scatterbrained at first, but I do have some ideas and one big project that I can share -- my wedding dress!

So, if anyone is reading this (and I hope someday someone might ), be gentle and bear with me as I figure all of this out.

~Andrea

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Recipe Week 4: Pasta Carbonara

I'm still playing catch up a bit. I made this recipe a couple weeks ago. It was a pretty easy weeknight dinner, and reminded me a bit of homemade mac n' cheese.

It is pretty simple to make. You start with fresh pasta.

Then, cook some diced pancetta in a pan with oil and add it to the pasta.

The cheese sauce is made from a rich, heavy cream, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and egg, all whisked together.

Finally, the sauce is added to the pan and cooked on low heat, otherwise the egg will scramble.

All in all, this is a very easy weeknight meal. I got about 4 servings worth out of the batch.

Recipe is found here on Spoon Fork Bacon's website. While you're there, poke around a bit, they have a nice selection of both savory and sweet dishes, and many of them are Asian recipes you can make at home.

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Recipe Week 3: Cookie Dough!

So, while I have been good about trying new recipes, I'm still getting into the swing of blogging about them every week. Brace yourselves for a bit of backlog.

I had preordered this book when it came out and, as the name suggests, it is chock full of decadent cookie goodness.

So, to branch out from Joy the Baker for a bit, I tried the most basic recipe in this book: cookie dough.

This cookie dough is a little different than what I'm used to. The is no egg, no baking powder or soda. It is not meant for baking, it is meant for eating. Which is pretty much the most amazing thing ever.

It is a pretty simple formula that anyone who bakes cookies would be familiar with: cream butter, add sugar, add dry goods, add chocolate chips. The recipe normally yields about 1 1/2 cups. Not wanting to eat all that myself, I cut the recipe in half ( and still ended up with 1 cup of it. I think my division skills have deteriorated ).

I split it up into 2 containers, ate one and put the other in the freezer. I've found it tastes better out of the freezer -- it has more of the consistency of cookie dough you buy in a tube. Also, although the recipe says you can eat it immediately, you really should chill it a bit first, it tasted a bit off to me until it had some time in the fridge.

Below are my alterations to the recipe -- enjoy!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
(adapted from The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook, by Lindsay Landis,  pg 12 )

Makes about 1 cup

1/4 cup butter
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 1/8th cup all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips ( or add more, like I did. Chocolate chips aren't meant to be measured )

1) Cream butter in an electric mixer.
2) Add sugars to the butter and mix for a couple minutes until fluffy.
3) Add in milk and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
4) Mix flour with salt, and then slowly add this to the batter with the mixer running, tapping it in until it is all incorporated.
5) Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Transfer to a container and chill for about half an hour before eating ( or you can eat it immediately, but it might taste a bit funky ).

Dough will last 3 days in the fridge. I had it in the freezer for about a week with no ill effects.

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Recipe Week 2: Lemon, Lime & Thyme Cookies

For my next recipe, I tried another Joy the Baker recipe ( I'll branch out to another author next week, I swear! ). This one is from her cookbook on page 190.

The recipe is basically a shortbread recipe with a little bit of fanciness added. The first unique bit is that the sugar is changed to citrus sugar by rubbing in lemon and lime zest.

Next you cream the butter in an electric mixer.

Then, add in the sugar and some thyme.

Once the rest of the dough is mixed together, roll the dough in wax paper. The recipe says to chill at least 3 hours to overnight. I made mine a couple days ahead of time.

Once you're ready to bake them, you just roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. Simple!

These cookies are slightly sweet and go great with a big glass of milk. They were definitely a hit with my family :)

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Project #4: iPad Case

After I made my new purse, I wanted a new case for my iPad as well. I followed this pattern for the slipcase, but I added about 4 inches to the length of the main body so that the top would fold over more.

I also doubled the width of the pocket and folded it over so that it was lined. Before I folded it in half and sewed it, however, I added a piece of velcro to the pocket so that the stitching would be hidden. I stitched the opposite side of the velcro to the exterior fabric before stitching it to the lining fabric.

Other than that, I followed the tutorial pretty much exactly.

I made it a little too wide, so the iPad shifts around a little in the case, but for a first attempt I think it came out pretty well :)

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Recipe Week 1: French Onion Soup Sandwich

Joy the Baker is a genius. If you haven't visited her site before, I highly suggest clicking this link here and checking it out. Her writing is so bright and cheerful ( and honestly a little manic sometimes, but I find that charming ) and her recipes range from healthy smoothies full of kale to delicious cakes that I can only describe as pure decadence.

But when I saw the words "French Onion Soup Sandwich", I just HAD to try it, and I think it was a lovely way to start this little project of mine.

This recipe is pretty simple, just time consuming. Once the onions are caramelized, it only takes a couple of minutes to put together the sandwiches. But it's an agonizingly long amount of time to turn this:

into this:

For me, it took about 45 minutes, during which my apartment smelled incredible and I had to use every ounce of willpower I had not to just give in and eat something before I could have my sandwich for lunch. Joy says to check the onions every 4 minutes once you start caramelizing them, and I would highly recommend just setting a timer on your phone and doing this religiously, because every time I checked on them they were getting close to being glued to the bottom of my dutch oven, and if I had lollygagged getting to the oven I would have been disappointed by a burned batch of onions.

Once they looked brown, I added in cooking sherry and stirred until everything loosened from the pan. Then it was just a matter of grating the Gruyere cheese, assembling the sandwich, and grilling it on my cast iron griddle:

The recipe can be found here. The only change I made to the process was I used sweet vidalia onions instead of white onions, because I prefer their flavor and, honestly, they make me cry less when I go to slice them up :) 

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Project #3: A New Purse!

So, almost a month ago now, I bought a new iPad. Unfortunately, the purse I had been using religiously for over a year is entirely too small for an iPad. So, there was only one thing for me to do :)

I purchased a limited edition kit from Charlie's Aunt. However, you can buy the pattern here and you can also buy some of the fabric at her site here.

All I needed to purchase was a yard of lining fabric and the interfacing. Here are the materials all laid out:

And then after I had cut out all of my pieces:

I didn't take too many pictures of the construction process. The pattern is exceptionally well diagrammed, so as long as you follow along well it is pretty simple to put together. The only adjustment I made was that I sewed the buttons to the flap before I stitched closed the side so that the stitching is hidden. Sewing buttons is still one of the things I'm messier at, so hiding my hand stitches is always preferred.

Here is the finished product, with plenty of room inside for my iPad. Also, you can see the coin purse I made before. It's been handy for keeping the purse organized.

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