Paper Christmas Ornament -"Porcupine Ball"- DIY

Yesterday a DIY for this fun "porcupine ball"ornament was posted on the lovely blog How About Orange.

SEE TUTORIAL HERE!

I really liked the look of it, but I decided to try in with something other than white paper.

First I made one out of pages an H&M magazine. It came out fabulously colorful! (so much so that I made another today!)

Then I took pages for the old dictionary, left over from this project , and made one with those (harder, because the pages were thin and delicate, but I love the look!).

 You should DEFINITELY try and make some of your own. They are a little tedious, but kind of fun once you get used to the rolling. Mine are perfectly pointy or symmetrical but...eh...whatever. I like 'em.

 

 

 Lots of porcupineish fun!

The hope is that this weekend I will get a mini Christmas tree to put in my room, then I will hang these (and all the other wonderful things I have been making!) on them and I will be SO HAPPY!!!!! I also might try and make a giant one to hang off my ceiling fan (as it is too cold to be using it). The possibilities are endless! It would be fun to make some with scrap book or wrapping paper!  

What will you use? I would love to see pictures if you make some!




*and you know what is great? I just realized all my "DIY", aka Do It Yourself,  posts are tagged as "DYI". Good job, Bella. Way to make NO sense. Do Yourself It? *sigh.

Awesomebella Cooks- MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER

What did I cook this week?

THIS!

 I made Manhattan Clam Chowder, using THIS recipe (well...sort of... I looked at, thought it over and did things just a tiny bit different. But I more or less "followed" it.)

Normally I am a HUGE New England Clam Chowder fan, but as one of my sisters cannot eat milk, a dairy based soup would be no good. So we went for the tomato base like the manhattaners do...

Pictures of the event...

Lots of chopping. Celery, onions, (I wish I had a picture of the massive pile of onions. SO many tiny onions pieces. So much eye pain!  I took one, put them in the pot and THEN realized there was no camera card in my point and shoot Olympus...) garlic, potatoes, and parsley.

 Garbage bowl.

Used 4 of these. Super fishy.

 Steaming pot of a rue (not in recipe but I started the soup that way because...it is the right way!) onions, celery, parsley, olive oil, tomato paste, and a vast amount of clam juice.

 Added this (home-canned stewed tomatoes. Canned by either my grandmother or my mom? Not sure) and one can of diced tomatoes into the pot. Threw in the rest of the herbs. Added potatoes (although I should of added them before the liquid so there would be less splashing. Duh, Bella.) and brought it to a boil. Covered and let cook until the potatoes were soft.

Last, I added the clams (do it last or they get rubberized. Like, even more so than they normally are.). 3 whole pounds of clams!

I love clams, especially when involved in chowder. Obviously fresh clams would be better, but there was no way I was going to buy, cook and shell 3 pounds of them. No, no, no.

 

* MMMMMM!!!

Side note, NORMAL clam chowder (aka the Right  New England kind) has some sort of pork product in it. Usually the rue is done with pork fat and not butter, and quite often there is bacon or pork bits in the broth. But as you know, I don't do meat (and I cannot tell you how many times I've gone to a restaurant having a hankering for clam chowder and end up leaving disappointed because they only make a porkish variety). So, to please everyone, I cooked up some bacon, chopped it into bits (oh my did my hands smell meaty...), and served it on the side so that everyone who wanted meat in their soup could sprinkle it on top! Huzzah for innovation and meat removal!

Dinner was served with a salad and crusty Italian croutonish bread (cut in slices, brushed with oil olive and put under the broiler until crunch. Good for soup dipping.).  
All in all, very tasty.


What will I make next week? Well... I actually have no idea what I will make next. I am still thinking about that. Might be pasta. I haven't done pasta yet and we all (I) know that pasta is the best food in the world so...


Check the blog next Tuesday to see what I come up with on next week's Awesomemonday! Happy cooking, everyone!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING/Project 25-TwentyFive-25

First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!
What are your plans for the day? My family will be watching a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, going to watch an actual road race (tradition in our state) that will be passing by my Dad's office building, and then heading out to my grandparent's farm for time with aunts, uncles and many, many cousins.

Now, I have to be honest and say that thanksgiving IS NOT  my favorite holiday. I don't like it very much at all (*gasp!) but I do have good reasons. Heres why:

• I have a problem with people picking one day of the year to be thankful for what they have. That is just...so American! I believe that if we are thankful for the lives we have been given, the people we love, and the blessings God gives us that we should live like it 365. Not just one Thursday in November...I mean, it is a nice idea and I understand how it started but it has become very distorted. I feel like it should be a lifestyle and not a calendar holiday...
• It seems to me that the whole idea of thankfulness has almost been lost in the commercialization of the holiday. You are SUPPOSED to be thankful for what you have, but it ends up being a holiday of greed for more. Think about it! What comes to mind when I say "Thanksgiving." For most Americans food is the first thing in their brains. A close second would be the day that comes after- Black Friday. As of when does being truly thankful for what God has provided involve gluttony and excessive shopping?
• Reason three is a personal one. I am a vegetarian, so I don't eat the turkey and I just don't like cooked vegetables very much...I basically eat BREAD on thanksgiving, so it is a weird experience. But that reason doesn't really count, so just ignore it.

All in all, thanksgiving is a good day and we should be thankful for another year of life. We should be thankful for the freedom that we have in this nation. We should be thankful for the people around us and we should celebrate the love that we have for them. We should honor God by thanking him for his never-ending love and provision. I just wish we would do it more often...


All that being said I would like to introduce to you my latest idea.  

"PROJECT 25-TWENTYFIVE-25"

What the heckito am I talking about? Well, as I was thinking about thankfulness and how I should do more of it on other days of the year I came up with little idea of how I could put it into practice. I realized there are a lot of people in my life who I am super grateful for. I am surrounded by awesome people who love me for who I am and encourage me into who God wants me to be. Those people mean so much to me and I don't know what I would do without them. But I also realized, while I am extremely inwardly appreciative of them, I very rarely thank them for what they do in my life. Ooooops. So I decided I would send some handwritten thank you notes. Twenty five of them, in between Thanksgiving (the 25th of November) and Christmas (the 26th of December) (see it all makes sense now!) Sounds like a lot, and maybe thank you notes are a little bit lame, but it is a good start. I want to honor those people who mean so much to me and a thank you note is a simple way to show some of my gratitude. Plus, who doesn't like REAL mail!?

Here is how I'll do it.

First, I formed a list of 25 people who need some thanking. But I cannot show you this list, as if you are on it that would be a surprise ruin-er. This post kind of ruins it too but...erase it from your memory if you think you might be someone I am thankful for. Ya'll know who you are...

Then I printed up a bunch these:

I am going to cut them out and include them in with the thank you card, just to give a bit of explanation to the recipient. 

I took some thin cardboard (my came from the inside of a package of tights, but you could use like a cereal box or something) and traced out a stencil. Then I carefully cut out the letters (HARD STUFF! Rounded edges are no fun!) with a box cutter knife (because one lives in my desk... but you could use something more tame such as an exacto knife).

With put the stencil onto a blank note card (or you could make your own with paper. Be as facy as you want. I was going for "a simple thank you" look) and held it in place with a ...bobby pin (yup. I keep box cutters on my desk, but I could find no paper clips...). I took a sharpie and simply colored in the letters (spray paint crayons, pencils, markers, or just about anything else would be other options).

SUPER simple. Again, feel free to be more elaborate. I decided to let the card be plain and then have elaborate, heartfelt words inside.

That is all there is to it, friends. I am going to make a bunch of these and send 'em out. ANY ONE WANT TO JOIN ME? Any other particular ways you like to express thanks? I would love to hear about it!

Have a wonderful thanksgiving and don't forget to keep living in thanks the other days of the year!

Awesomebella Cooks-FISH AND CHIPS!

Last night my favorite chef, Jamie Oliver, and I made some tasty dinner.

Well...no...unfortunately Jamie did not actually HELP me, but I did use his recipe to make this week's awesomemonday meal!




Classic, Brit-Style FISH AND CHIPS!

True story. Why fish and chips, you ask? Though I may be an American girl with mostly Italian and Hungarian heritage, but I am a 100% British Chick at heart.  I love, love, love England (and Ireland...and I haven't been to Scotland or Wales, but I probably like them too...). I've been twice, and a trip to England isn't a trip to England unless Fish and Chips from some tiny little place on the streets of London is involved.

Yesterday I attempted to replicate that pleasant experience at home. I used THIS RECIPE (times like 3 in order to feed my massive amount of family) and it worked out just smashingly. Although it was a tremendous amount of work making enough to feed everyone I think it was worth it. Not sayin' I'll go through the trouble again but I did have fun. I cranked up my ipod, kicked it onto shuffle (funny story, my ipod is really old and sometimes it gets stuck and locks itself onto one song and it did that last night. But guess what song? Replay, by Iyaz. You know, the one that goes"...nanananaeveryday, like my ipod stuck on replay." Super ironic?)  and had a glorious time. And at the end I got to pretend I was in England! Trust me, you can't get much better than that.

Photos of the process:

First thing, LOT OF POTATOES!!!! Here they are all whole, and really, really dirty. They got washed, peeled and cut into "chips" (oh no, not french fries, not long and starchy rectangular shapes, CHIPS!). So, so, so many chips.

 

The vast amounts of starchy wedges were then blanched (aka fried for just a couple minutes until soft, b ut not golden) and taken out of the fryer. The secret to french fry chips success is the double fry!

Once rid of excess oil and cooled down they went back into the oil (by the way, Jamie said to use vegetable oil, but I chose to use peanut instead.) for around another 5-6 minutes until they were all golden and crispy. Dried. Salted. Devoured. Oh mmmmaaan, they took forever but the end product was so very delectable. So very much so that in my excitement I forgot to take a photo of the finished product. Sorry.But believe you me, they were good!

Now for the fishy part.

Cod. Lots of it. (I used 2 plates full. And I cut the bigger pieces in half.) Jamie says Haddock is also acceptable. Whichever.

*mmmm... sushi... 

*reminder: "Aren't you a vegetarian?" Yes. And no. I eat fish- a "pescetarian" technically. It is complicated. 

*disclaimer: I'm kidding! While I do adore sushi and find raw fishes to be delicious I did not consume any of the raw cod. Salmon is just way better...

Okay, now here is where things get a little crazy. The batter for the fish. 

This batter consisted of 1 beer (Guinness, if you care. Please everyone remain calm. Cooking with alcohol is safe for all ages! Cooks off as soon as it hits the heat.), some whipped egg whites and some flour. Sounds nasty. Obviously looks nasty. But really, you have no idea. This stuff was...wow. You know how when you add flour and water you get paste and you can do fun stuff with paste like...make pinatas? Weeeellll, when you mix beer, eggs and flour you get something sort of like that only weirder. This is apparently a traditional way of battering fish (and it is good!) but I am telling you the stuff was like glue. As I was using it was I coming up with a mental list of other uses for it. Let me share with you

• Paper Mache. Oh, you could stick just about anything together with this. I think you could probably get some newspaper, paste it all up, form it into a CAR and it would hold.
• Tiling. You could for sure lay down some tile with this.
• Spackle. Yup. It has all kinds of household uses, this beerpaste does!
• Roofing tar. I bet it doesn't heat up and try to melt your skin off like normal roofing tar does, and it is biodegradable...which is probably why people don't actually use it on roofs...
• Adobe house. Yes, I do believe I could make a whole house with it!
• Spa-like face mask. But why you would want to spread that grossness on your face is quite beyond me...  just a suggestion.
• Mud fights. Only...with fish batter and not mud...

Alright, I will stop now. But I am telling you this stuff was just ridiculous. As I dip the fish into the bowl it would try and adhere me to the fillet of fish. I had to wash my hands after each dip otherwise I might have been sucked into the bowl forever. Good times.

Oh, one last note on fish battering. Jamie said to dip it in the batter and then put it in the fryer, but the first time I did this the batter just...exploded...off the fish and then the fish fell apart and it was a big failure. So I instead dipped it in the beer/eggs/flour mixture and then dipped it again into some straight up flour. That seems to help it stay on better? It is also a good idea to make sure your fish is dry before battering it.

 

Pretty legit, eh? It was majorly delicious, if I do say so myself. Even my fish-disliking father and sister ate it! Success!!!!

One last photo:

Obviously if you are going to do something you have to "do it to the hilt." That is at least how I do things. Fish and chips would be incomplete without Malt Vinegar. Make sure you have some of that to go with the meal! Put it on the chips, put it on the fish, or just drink it out of the bottle (actually no, I'm joshing). Also, feel free to serve your fish and chips all wrapped up in newspaper. That is the traditional method, and the one I had intended to use, but unfortunately my family decide they wanted to recycle all our newspaper the day before. Oh well, it was still delicious! Successful Awesomemonday where I awesomely cooked! Yet another thing to cross off my cooking accomplishments list!

Next week? Stay tuned. So far I've done southern, British and...whatever you would consider shepherd's pie to be? Next week I am thinking about keeping the menu on the East Coast side of things. I plan on cooking up one of my favorite meals from my "homeland" of New England! And it will also be delicious. Obviously. Just wait and see!

I know sometimes you wonder too...

Remember when we wondered together what 144 wee/granny squares would look like spread out over a table? (see here) Well, today, just in case you were wondering, I am going to show you more pictures of wee squares doing...the other things wee squares like to do...

If you sew in all the strings and stack them up by color they look like this:

And if you buy 2 pounds of black yarn and go around all the edges it starts to look like this:

Or, if you are feeling ridiculous (apology in advance for the nonsense and bad photos), you can grab a handful...

 Raise them to the skies...

 Let them take wings...

 And watch them as they soar! 
*the goal was to get shots of them raining down from the ceiling but alas that did not work out as I had seen it in my mind. Someday when I have a beautiful D-SLR camera I will have a beautiful remote to go with it!*

I'm sorry, are you sick of hearing about my colorful crocheted squares yet?  
They will be a blanket soon!
I am so excited!!!!!! I am the best 19-year-old (not)granny EVER!