Back to it

I was able to finish so much stuff in the final days leading up to the start of spring semester. I am going to be teaching over-full time, so my time now belongs to students.

First off, I picked a design for Mug Rug Revival! I hope my partner likes it!


I even quilted it up and finished the binding. Zomg, I love this backing fabric. I had just enough in my scrap bin and it was difficult to part with it. Please give it a good home, partner!



















So here is the finished product! The heart is so much bigger than the mug because I think love is bigger than caffeinated beverages (unless of course you love caffeinated beverages!).

Here is some super tasty rye bread. It turned out so delicious! Two loaves of it went into the freezer to be provisions for the semester since I won't have time to cook. (Recipe here)


One of the loaves went towards Rueben sandwiches. They came out so incredible! We bought the kraut at a local German restaurant because their kraut is magically creamy and delicious. Couple that with nice corned beef, swiss, and homemade Russian dressing and it would be difficult to not be amazing. (Russian dressing recipe is over here)


Then we have some feijoada (pronounced: fay-joe-ah-duh) with sauteed kale and rice. This is a Brazilian recipe and was so insanely tasty. There are 6 leftover bags of this in the freezer!  I kind of frankensteined the recipe out of two that looked decent. My original struggle with this recipe was the cuts of meat they all called for. Originally this was a slave dish in Brazil, using the cheapest cuts of meat, but now it uses some fancy stuff that I couldn't find locally. I used 2 pounds of black beans, 1/2 lb of bacon, 1.5 lbs of beef tips, and 1.5 pounds of pork sausage. Basically I used all the veggies and seasoning listed in both recipes, but added the veggies towards the end. (Recipe 1 & Recipe 2)


We also made Greek food. I didn't take a picture of the tirotrigonas (cheese puffs) but here is the pastitsio. So delicious but so messy. When I was a little kid, an elderly Greek woman told me that "pastitsio" actually means "every dish is dirty" which is totally believable, but I still try to make it at least once a year.  One whole leftover pan of this stuff is in the freezer! This is a family recipe but I could get it for you if you really want it. :)


I also got the mini heart sample quilt back from the quilters and finished the binding up.


Here is a close-up shot of the quilting which was done by Kenneth Butler of the Quilt Cottage.


And here is a horribly lit overall shot of the quilt! It really didn't turn out as bad as I expected, though it still isn't my style.

Lastly I made up some reusable snack baggies for my cousin and her brand new husband. They are taking a cruise for their [delayed] honeymoon, and I am a big proponent of taking snacks off the boat with you on cruises. I mean, you totally payed for the food! 

Anyways, two of these have velcro closures and two have foldy over type closures. I like the velcro ones a lot more because they keep in little stuff like blueberries and nuts but I can see the allure of both so I would suggest trying both and seeing which fits your needs. I used rip stop nylon from JoAnn's for the lining on both (meaning I subbed it for the melted plastic bags in the flippy turny one). This was done for two reasons: 1) I take my own grocery bags so I really don't have leftovers and 2) My chemical engineer boyfriend says that as long as the bags aren't scorched, there shouldn't be any issues whatsoever but for some reason, melted plastic near food just stresses me out. [Said the girl who once ate food that was microwaved in a styrofoam container]. (Velcro bag tutorial & foldy bag tutorial)

Today was my first day of classes and I am exhausted already. This might be because I have had to be up ridiculously too early every day this week for various reasons that are luckily not ongoing. It could also be because I just had almost a month off from teaching. Oh well. Six and a half weeks until spring break!