July Stockings

Finished up just in time!

I actually stitched them earlier in the month (way earlier) but put the finishing aside and then.................totally forgot they existed. I came across them last night while I was organizing stacks of crap some stash hanging around my living room and whipped them together. Not sure how much I like the wedding ring one though? The stitched part is so much smaller than the stocking template, it looks weird to me? I thought about trimming it/sewing it together so it was right on the edge of the cross stitched part but that would make it a lot smaller than all the other stockings I've done and I know THAT would bother me too so I left it as is. I'll just chalk this one up as "Not One of My Favorites" in the series. /shrug

It was a week of bad mojo for all my projects, I guess. I've been working on a pair of socks with my Watermelon yarn and was making good progress, was up to the toe on the SECOND sock...........and realized I had knit the leg too long by not ONE, but TWO pattern repeats. And I'm not going to lie - I contemplated how much it would bother me that one sock would be longer by about two inches than it's mate. Anything to avoid ripping out a few days of work. But OF COURSE that would bother me because it's such a STUPID mistake and who wants to be reminded of that? lol So I eventually came to my senses and  ripped it all out so I could start the heel/foot part all over again. (Which is where it sits for the moment because I think this project and I need a Time Out for a few days. Hurt feelings on both sides and all.) If you're not royally screwing up your knitting here and there, you're not doing it right.........right? lol

Here's a neat not-quite-a-recipe recipe for Corn on the Cob from Tasty Kitchen that I tried yesterday that came out wicked good. It looks odd - almost like you are cooking your corn in soap water. But the corn really *was* the best ever. Didn't need anything to accompany it other than a sprinkling of kosher salt. And I'm usually the sort to glop butter alllllllllllllllllll over my corn on the cob. I'm not much of a butter lover in the larger scope of things and almost always prefer my veggies plain steamed or roasted with a little olive oil, with two exceptions: corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. I just *have* to have real butter for those and that's that. Heart valves be damned, I say! But this came out so good it honestly didn't need it.

It's been a bit of a crazy week.

The hubby had this week off on vacation so we've been here, there, and everywhere, did a bunch of shopping and had a bunch of great food.

 To that end, we finally managed to go to Bobby Flay's burger joint up at the casino. It opened up last fall and we've been meaning to go since but, enh, we're not really casino people. There are only two casinos in the state and they're both only 40 minutes or so away from my house but, even still, before this week I'd only been to each of them ONCE in the last TEN YEARS. I hate the cigarette smoke, I'm not enticed by free booze because I almost never drink alcohol, I'm bored with window shopping after about 15 minutes, and I'd rather spend my money on 'stuff' vs. pumping it into a machine that (let's be honest) is not going to give it back to you. (A long time ago the slot machines were sorta fun when they took quarters. There was something neat about the clink, clink, clink of quarters pouring out of them when you won your hand but they did away with that and now you either use a casino card or big bills. Pffffftttttt. Boring!)

But having only been to Mohegan Sun once before, it was interesting to poke around for a while. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep/dead the first we went (it was the end of a VERY long day) so I was fuzzy on the details. And Bobby Flay's place was pretty AWESOME. I even ordered my burger with CHEESE. Honest to goodness CHEESE. On my BURGER. I've never done that before in my life. lol (I don't like most cheese........which is putting it mildly.) But I picked a Santa Fe burger and it had 'queso' cheese to go with it's black corn tortilla chip/pickled jalapenos topping and I thought I would give it a try.

 I love that fake-as-anything Velveeta queso you make using Ro-Tel and, while I didn't think THAT was what was going to be the type of cheese they were serving, I thought all the flavors would blend together nicely. And they did. I was a little disturbed getting cheese on my fingers (gross gross gross) but it tasted great. It was definitely a one time thing though - I'm not suddenly a cheeseburger lover or anything. lol

Oh and I got to go to A FABRIC STORE TOO. It's been a long long long time since I've been to an actual fabric store. I love browsing through fabric stores but there are NONE around here. NONE. Even the Walmarts don't bother with fabric anymore. *sad*  I wouldn't go back to living in the city but I do miss the 'little' things sometimes like just being able to drive 15 minutes to a Joann's whenever you need a little trim or some buttons. (Shopping for that stuff online just isn't the same.) That being said, I have 4 big-ass storage drawers full of fabric from ages and ages ago when I DID live near fabric stores so it was mostly a looksy thing. Mostly...................

I did succumb to these two packs of fabric quarters. *pets* They were on sale and the green ones match the Blackbird stockings I'm doing right now. (I think they match anyway. They match INSIDE MY HEAD but I was going on memory. So that could turn out badly. lol Well see how it goes when I go to put them together.)

Why is it so freaking hard to find an UNCORNED beef brisket around here in the CT/RI area??????????????

Corned beef is great, love it on rye with a schmear of really GOOD mustard.  But sometimes you want to slow cook your own brisket with other flavors, you know?
I've been systematically looking for one for a month now (4589 food bloggers blogging about their Passover briskets will do that to you) and struck out at: Stop and Shop, Shaw's, Big Y, and Dave's Marketplace. Finally found one today at BJ's. Just a huge ass piece of drool-worthy brisket!! Now what to do with it?

Go with a recipe from P-Dub or do something closer to the BBQ Beef aka Heavenly Goodness that I adore and generally use flank steak for. Decisions, decisions.

Happy Easter!

Or almost Easter as it were as there is still one day left to go.  We're all godless heathens (aka lapsed Catholics) in this house so there are no big plans for the day other than cleaning the basement (still drying) and acting pokey. I think I had wanted to cook a ham (because I'm never going to NOT want to cook a ham) but I forgot to pull it out of the freezer to defrost so that's out. Oh well. I'll be happy the whole thing is over if only for the fact that I've eaten MY OWN WEIGHT IN PEANUT BUTTER EGGS this month. *burp* Those things are pure evil and I have NO willpower when it comes to eating them in moderation. NONE. Zero. ZILCH.

Okay, here's my LOST posting for this week.....

It was funny because 3/4's of the way into this episode, I turned to the man and said that it was a good season except for one little fact: NOT ENOUGH DESMOND. And who shows up at the end of eppy? My BRUTHAAAAAAAAA. *squeeeeeeeeee*

Don't mess with this one. *skeered*

New Recipe - Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings

Recipe Link.

Photo credit: Steamy Kitchen

These are sinfully good. It made my face go like this: o_0  Which I was surprised by because I generally don't like making chicken wings at home. (I pretty much only like them when they are fried and I try to avoid deep frying at home, except for making french fries once in a while. I deep fried chicken wings ONCE. ONCE. And the guilt that followed dogged me for at least a week, maybe even two. lol So now I just occasionally get my fix when we eat out. Somehow deep fried restaurant food is more acceptable than fried food made at home. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES PEOPLE. It just is what it is.) Other than grilling them once in a blue moon during the summer months, I never make wings. Ever. But the food bloggers have been out in force this month with the wing recipes (gearing up for the Super Bowl) and this one grabbed my attention. I only made 8 (whole) wings out of a big family pack because I didn't want there to be any leftovers in case I didn't like them but, wow, was that a mistake! We gobbled these up and made sad faces when we realized there was no more. All that was left on our plates was steamed broccoli and, whoaaa, VERY POOR SUBSTITUTE!! lol I still have the other half of the pack left to cook up so I might just makes these again later this week. :)

Mods: Nothing major. I poked small holes all over the wings before cooking so the rendered fat could escape and to help them get crispier. This is essential, I think, because chicken wings nowadays are so so so fatty. I also turned them halfway through cooking and switched to 'broil' near the end to also help crisp them up.

Oh! And I also made hummus for the first time too this weekend. Something I've been meaning to do for a loooooong time. It's so easy to buy pre-done, eh? Verdict: unbelievably yummy and well worth the little bit (and it really is a VERY easy thing to make) time to do it yourself.. I added more garlic to mine because I worship at the altar of Toxic Garlicky Mouth Fumes and needed to make an appropriate monthly sacrifice, *ahem*, but you certainly don't NEED to do that - the recipe is just fine as is. :)

New Recipe - Lemon Parsley Pasta

From Budget Bytes

(image from budgetbytes.blogspot.com)

Or newish recipe because I've done lemony type pasta things before. But I saw this post last week while browsing that site and it looked so yummy I knew I wanted to make it right away. And it *was* yummy. Ate it with some grilled chicken and grilled yellow squash, and, oh, NOM NOM NOM. Delish!

Mods: I used fresh basil instead of parsley because I had that on hand. (I think it would also go well with cilantro but I have Big Massive Inappropriate Love for cilantro so YMMV.) Added a pinch of red pepper flakes to the lemon/garlic/oil mixture. The lemon flavor was quite delicate, I think next time I'll give it a a tablespoon of lemon juice in addition to the zest. I wouldn't want it TOO lemony but I think, for MY palate, I could kick it up a tiny notch. :)

Note: the recipe has one small error in it in regards to pasta cooking time. No biggie but if you really were to cook angel hair pasta for 10 minutes like it says you could very well end up with a pile of mush. 4-5 minutes will do it for that size pasta.