Month: May 2012

A Book of Well-Wishes

64 Arts

Thank you for your patience, last week, while I worked on the cookbook. You’ll be happy to know (I hope!) that the week off from blogging helped me accomplish the lion’s share of the editing I was faced with. If you want to secure your own copy of What to Feed Your Raiding Party at a discount, I’ve opened pre-orders here.

Now, as promised, back to our regularly-scheduled creativity!

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Since before Todd and I got engaged, I’ve been a constant reader of Weddingbee.com. Even though it’s wedding-centric, many of the DIY projects the blogger-bees present have applications far-exceeding the wedding world.

Last week, Miss Coyote (each bride-to-bee has their own moniker) posted about making a simply-bound book from all the cards she received at her bridal shower. And I thought to myself, Self, you could do that!

Here’s how the cards I’ve received over the past year and bit are usually displayed at home, in the folded French memo screen outside my door (folded because I have no place, currently, to display it fully extended).

Cards displayed on French Memo Screen

This is all well and good (and what I designed the screen for), but after a while it starts to get full and I keep knocking into some of the larger cards at swinging-hand height as I exit my office. Many people would just toss them but Todd is especially good at picking out awesome cards for holidays and birthdays.

In case you didn’t click over to weddingbee, Miss Coyote tried rings, first, but settled on ribbon to bind her cards together through punched holes. I’ve shown both with the image below, using some spare cards I had lying around.

Ring and Ribbon-bound cards

I wanted something a little less intrusive to the cards’ fronts and, since the current art is bookbinding, this seemed the optimal time to dust off my rusty stitched binding skills.

I knew of Coptic or Chain Stitch book binding, but all my sources used it with a cover–another thing I didn’t want to fool with. By the power of Google I finally found this awesome tutorial of how to do cover-less coptic stitch binding and it got me where I needed to go. I’ll leave the curious to check out that link for themselves, and show you the early steps you’ll need before the stitching takes place.

First put your cards in the order you want them (I opted for more-or-less chronological) and, if all different sizes, get the bottom corners to all match up. Clamp them together so you’ve got your hands free for the next steps.

The clamped cards

Figure out your shortest card and measure the length of it. Mine was just a smidgen under 6 inches. Make a mark 5/8 inch or 1.5 cm or so from the top and bottom of this shortest card. You want an even number of holes, so divide the space between those first two marks evenly. I didn’t bother with exact math, just eyeballed it. It’s okay.

Cards marked for cutting

Now you have to make the holes. You can punch each spine individually, but that’s time consuming. Instead, I suggest a small saw across the width of the spine. I couldn’t find my hacksaw (it might have gotten tossed in the last move) and Todd didn’t have one, but he DID have an amazing idea: a pumpkin carving saw! It worked perfectly. Just make sure you make enough passes that you make it through all the card spines.

The cards, after being cut along their spines with a pumpkin saw

Once that’s done, unclamp the cards and check each spine to make sure it’s got all 4 (or however many) holes. If not, use the mini-saw or a needle to punch through in the right spots.

Checking from the inside of each card that the holes were cut all the way through

After that, start your stitching. My card book has 19 signatures (cards, in this case, in a book it would be folded sections of pages) and it took a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix to sew them. If I’d owned a curved needle (it helps get around the stitches as you work) it would have gone even faster!

Finished card book, spine-view Finished card book, view from the outside in

Now that was a fun, quick project if ever there was one!

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Oh, and I’ve got a giveaway going-on over at Nibbles ‘n Bites; all it takes is a comment to enter!

Summer-Ready Redskin Potato Salad & Giveaway!

Nibbles

Redskin Potato Salad from What to Feed Your Raiding PartyThe temperature is rising and the sunny days of Summer are just bursting with cookouts, pot-lucks and pool parties. A creamy potato salad is great for these get-togethers because it can be made up to 2 days ahead and the flavor actually improves as it sits!

Frequently, a potato salad either features an oil-and-vinegar dressing or a mayonnaise-based dressing. My recipe actually uses both: the lighter dressing goes onto the warm potatoes, infusing them with flavor as they cool, and then follows with the mayonnaise dressing enriched with eggs and chives. We cut our mayo with sour cream for a lighter, tarter finish but you can also use Greek-style yogurt if you prefer.

Incidentally, this recipe is from my comic book cookbook, What to Feed Your Raiding Party, which is currently available for pre-order.

Redskin Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 lb red potatoes, diced, skin-on

Dressing:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp prepared mustard
1 1/3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2/3 cup diced onions
2/3 cup diced bell pepper
2 Tbsp chopped chives
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Place the diced potatoes (about 1″ cubes) in a large pot with enough water to cover by about an inch. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes pierce easily with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, combine the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

3. Drain the cooked potatoes, place in a large bowl and pour the prepared dressing over the cooked potato pieces. Toss or stir together the two bits so that each piece of potato has a chance to be covered in dressing, being careful not to mash the potatoes too much, and place, covered, in the fridge until cool.

4. Add the eggs, celery, onion, peppers and chives to the cooled, dressed potatoes.

5. Combine the mayonnaise and sour cream in a small bowl and then add to the rest of the ingredients, stirring to mix everything together.

6. Add salt and pepper, if needed, and chill until it’s time to eat (both you and the potato salad).

Serves 8

Calories per serving: 203 | Carbohydrates: 27 g | Protein 5 g | Fats 9 g

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To dress the warm potatoes, most people would just whisk the ingredients together. For the longest time, though, I’ve used a shaker bottle from Tupperware that has graduated sides (measure-markings) and a little wheel towards the top that helps aerate whatever you’re shaking. It worked fine, but the pop-on plastic (both for the top and the pour-spout cover) aren’t always the easiest to manage if you don’t get them lined up just right.

So when OXO gave me the opportunity to try out their new Good Grips Salad Dressing Shaker, I was thrilled to see how it compared.

The top half screws onto the bottom half and creates a great seal–no worries of flinging the dressing around with this one–and the pour spout is easily worked with a single finger; no prying! Plus, it’s pretty to look at, and a well-designed gadget always wins my heart.

OXO Salad Dressing Shaker OXO Salad Dressing Shaker dressing the potatoes

With sides marked with cup measurements as well as ounces and milliliters, I’m tempted to use this for mixing cocktails, too!

oxo giveawayOXO was kind enough to send me two of these little gems, one for me and one to share! So if you’d like to win your own Salad Dressing Shaker, leave a comment below! You’ve got until Sunday, May 20, 2012, at 5pm EST to enter the giveaway. Since this is part of my usual post-share with Circle of Food, comments left on this post in either location will be included. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 21, 2012.

This giveaway is open to residents of the Unites States.

FTC Disclaimer: I was provided product from OXO to review and share. All opinions expressed are my own.

Cosmic Cocktails | Cancer | The Sensitive Soul

Sips

When researching this week’s sign and cocktail the immediate thought I got, reading about the Crab’s nurturing and protective nature, was of a lioness protecting her cub, or an angry momma-bear.

Sensitive Soul Astrological Cocktail

Maybe it should have been a little more Finding Nemo and less Jungle Book (we are dealing with a water sign, after all), but the comparison is still there. Cancerians are very protective of the siblings and friends. They sympathize and empathize with alacrity and are very intuitive beings. They’re not selfless, however, and feel their own emotions just as strongly as others (if not more so). Real or perceived slights are felt keenly and they can get into a righteous funk to end all funks and lay on the guilt trip with a single look or sigh.

Mood swings? Don’t mind if they do!

That said, they make great mentors or caregivers. I can see them being fabulous advocates for children or animal charities, very compassionate souls.

All this sensitivity wasn’t giving me much to go on, drink-wise, so I had to cast a wider-than-normal net for intel. That’s when I found Celestial Living Arts and their handful of articles about food and astrology (usually I just take my cues from Parker’s Encyclopedia of Astrology). For each sign they have a food avatar and Kataka (the Sanskrit name for Crab, whereas Cancer is the Latin) is represented by the watermelon.

Oh, hello, inspiration, how nice to see you again!

CLA related these two because of the high water content of the food. To me it screamed a “wave” of water-ocean-beach-sand-summer that is particularly fitting for our Crab friends, so watermelon would be a key flavor. But what else? For their delicate sensibilities, peach was another must-use (bruise like a peach?), either as nectar or schnapps, and then all we needed was a good base.

The Sensitive Soul

2 oz Green Tea
1 oz Watermelon Schnapps
1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker over ice and shake, imagining yourself one of the ice cubes being tossed about violently, crashing into your fellow ice cubes. Feel terrible for the ice cubes and decide to make it as a stirred drink next time, explaining in detail why you’ve made the choice not to shake your cocktails  to anyone within earshot, because feelings can only be sufficiently felt if they are shared with others.

Either way, strain it into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a wedge of watermelon.

Tea, being mostly water, as well as a soothing drink on its own, seemed an appropriate base for this deep-feeling sign. When I drink it, I get the watermelon up front with a slight undercurrent of peach, while Todd tastes it just the opposite. In fact, this was one of Todd’s favorite cocktails to date. He’s a Pisces, maybe it’s a water-sign thing?

Make it So—aka Planning vs Execution

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Almost all the guides out there start the countdown at 12 months. A couple will go so far as to mention 18 months out, but it’s pretty rare. So, if you’re settling in for a nice long engagement (18 months, 2 years, maybe 5 if you’re wanting to walk across that stage and get your PhD before walking down the aisle to get your MRS), can you really start planning that far out?

Yes and No

Yes, absolutely, you can start making lists and pulling together inspiration and maybe use this extended time frame to adopt some healthy habits or ditch some unhealthy ones, all in preparation for starting the next chapter of your life. Go for it!

But can you put down deposits and buy a dress 3 years out? You could, but I’d advise against it.

Things change over time–styles change, wants changes, trends come in and out of fashion–and putting down dollars sets things in stone. Or at least risks cancellation fees. I’m not overly worried about a trend going out of favor but still wanting to use it 2 years from now, but it’s worth a thought that a location you scout and reserve today might not even be in business 2 years from now! And with the economy still taking its time to bounce back, so many places close up shop or get new owners, it’s just not smart to pin your hopes on location A or Dress Z with so much lead time involved.

So what do you do in the mean time?

You plan.

But, wait, you just said we can’t plan because what it someone closes or someone else comes up with an idea we want to do instead and might have wasted our moneyandohmygodijustdon’tknowwhattothinkanymorewhere’sthechocolate?!

Shhh, shhh, there there now, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to confuse you.

The difference, to me at least, is that planning is dreaming and list-making and researching. The other stuff? The paying of deposits and signing of contracts? That’s the execution phase–aka the getting things done time.

I once read that planning a wedding of any scale or scope takes, on average, 20 hours a week during the first few months and then another 20-40 in the weeks closer to the actual event. That’s like a second job–no wonder you need a honeymoon afterwards!

But think about it: would you really want planning a wedding to be like ordering a fast food meal?

“Yes, I’ll take Rustic Wedding Combo 2, upsized, with a side of Cupcake in a Jar favors.”

“That’ll be $12,000, please pull up to the first window.”

If so? Head to Vegas, m’dear, where they really do have drive-thru chapels (though I can’t guarantee the cupcake favors).

For the rest of us, planning is the fun part, but it’s still a lot of work. And, if you’ve got the luxury of a long engagement, you can spread out those 20 hours/week into 2-3 hours per week for the next year without hitting overwhelm or running out of time.

Now, me, personally? I’m a dive in head first kinda girl and limiting myself to 2.5 hours of planning/research a week would be torture. I just love it too much to not think about it during every 3rd available moment. So that’s when scenarios and what-ifs come into play, so I can feel like I’m getting something done without actually committing too soon.

Of course, if you’ve been following along, you know we went ahead and booked our venue at 19 months out. Did some of those what-ifs cross my mind? Absolutely and then some! But, for me, the stress of not being able to make real plans and the limbo feeling we were in far outweighed the what-ifs.

Just make sure everything you talked about with your venue is in the contract and keep that contract in a safe place. If there’s a staff or policy change between now and then, verbal agreements aren’t going to hold up the way that contract will!

How far out did you start to put down deposits and made contract decisions?