Flakey cheese-filled triangles with herbs = YUM!

Phyllo dough... Where to start...

This is the first time I've used phyllo dough. I've always been a bit intimidated by it due to the extra instructions regarding how to keep it from drying out. (I'm in Colorado, everything dries out in a matter of seconds.)

It turns out that phyllo isn't hard to work with at all. It's just shoot-

yourself-in-the-head tedious: remove damp cloth from pile of phyllo, take one strip, re-cover pile, brush with butter, remove damp cloth from pile of phyllo, take another strip, re-cover pile, brush with butter, repeat...

After folding up the first one, I decided I'd already had enough of the project and that I wanted to be done. The 3-inch strips of phyllo became 5-inch strips and the teaspoon of cheese filling became a heaping tablespoon.

I have endless patience for some repetitive tasks, but this was not one of them. I could easily imagine some chubby Food Network chef saying, "this is a great project to get your kids involved in the kitchen!" Um, only if you want to your kids to hate you...

I was ready to chuck the remaining phyllo in the trash, but Aaron rescued it a few seconds before it entered the panda's mouth. (The kitchen trashcan is shaped like a panda.) He's going to try making baklava over the weekend.

Despite all the whining, the cheese triangles turned out great and were delicious. The herbs (mint, dill, parsley, chives) and pine nuts helped make the feta cheese seem very light. And despite all the whining, I'll probably make these again. Just not for several months.

The recipe is from, From Tapas to Meze, by Joanne Weir. There is tons of herb chopping in each recipe, but this is one of the best cookbooks ever.

Thank you, Erica!

Homemade tomato soup from a recipe inside of my head and mini-grilled cheeses on seeded baguette. Yum.

And a special "Thank You!" to Erica for giving me the soup and sandwich plates for Christmas last year. (Or was it my birthday? I forget.)

From deck to table

My jalapeno plant has been working hard. Despite the cloudy and rainy weather, it has made four baby jalapenos, one of which went overlooked for long enough that it turned red. Due to their diminutive (one inch) size, they became a garnish for tonight's green curry.

In their garnish state next to some Thai basil.

Yummy Thai green curry with eggplant and tofu.

Mini-footballs

This evening I set about making some hard boiled eggs. Most people would call them "Easter Eggs", but those of you that have spent lunchtime with me over the past few years know that died eggs show up year round.

The box of egg dye comes with nine colors, three of which do not require vinegar to fully dissolve. These three colors are quite nice: strawberry, pink, and purple. The dye pellets are divided into two pouches, one with three, the other with six. I naturally assumed that the pack of three contained strawberry, pink, and purple. Not so. It has brown, green, and some other color I haven't tried.

Brown? Really? They sell brown eggs at the market, why would I pay money for a dye pellet and then invest time in dying an egg when I can purchase in a pack of a dozen? I am pretty pleased with how they turned out; I have three mini-footballs. However, I would have been even more pleased if they were one of the other colors in the dye box.

On a different note, I have been working for the past three weeks. Upon starting, I commented to Aaron that my unemployed days were filled with Sponge Bob and Rachel Ray and that I was unlikely to encounter such cheerful and optimistic people at work. Unfortunately I was right. However, the job is temporary so I'll be back to days filled with Sponge Bob and Patrick Star at the end of May.

What do I think of the pie?

Goodness gracious it's delicious that's what I think of the pie!

I thought I had everything I needed to make a cherry pie except pie crust.

Aaron was getting pie crust on the way home from work: pie crust - check. There was a bag of frozen cherries in the freezer that were intended for Aaron's chocolate cherry stout: cherries - check. The rest of the ingredients are staples right? Sugar and cornstarch: we have to have those. Except I discovered a bit too late that we don't have cornstarch.

Here is a brief listing of some the baking ingredients I found in the cupboard:

- Unbleached flour (plus one extra unopened bag)
- Granulated sugar, extra fine granulated sugar, AND powdered sugar
- Corn syrup
- Cornmeal
- Glutenous rice flour AND non-glutenous rice flour
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, pink Himalayan sea salt, AND salt smoked in chardonnay oak barrels

But no cornstarch. So instead of cornstarch I used arrowroot. I also used Amaretto instead of almond extract.

Six mini-pies for Pi Day! Happy Pi Day!

Clementine?

Overall this shirt turned out better than the previous shirt, but I think I like the other one better.

I made Simplicity 4077, blouse E without the ruffle on the button placket. The pattern directions for the button placket were so insanely confusing that I originally just tried making it up. I finally realized that in the pattern's convoluted language and the diagram that magically goes from not sewn, to sewn with the buttons attached was instructing me to sew on the placket and then turn it inside out. (Why not just say this, why show the button facing sewn on two of its four sides and not just say: "turn inside out"?) The pattern calls for five buttons, but I used eight buttons in four groups of two. I hate how blouses puff open at the chest, so I tried to avoid that by adding an extra button in that area. It seems to have worked so far.

The fabric is brown with white dots from JoAnn. It was super cheap and says, "do not use for children's sleepwear". I assume this means that it isn't sprayed with anti-flammable chemicals rather than doused in lighter fluid...

Do you remember how Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, didn't know what to do with his hands during his first post-race interview? I feel like that when taking pictures of shirts. I've taking some pictures without something in my hands but my arms just hang there and look out of place. Hence, this time: would you like a clementine? They're delicious.

Also, two shirts means I can get a serger now, right?

That person's trash is my treasure

Hooray for blue snowflake pyrex casserole dishes!

My views on used/vintage items are quite simple: disgusting. But there is one exception to the rule: kitchenware. This mostly because a lot of baking and dish items I like are no longer being manufactured, including blue snowflake pyrex casserole dishes and oddly large pretzel containers.

There is a flea/antique market that has had the same pretzel jars for $42.50. So when I saw this one for $13.00 I grabbed and hugged. Note to self: you lose all bargaining power when you're caught hugging things.

The pretzel jar will likely hold thread. I'm not too excited about having to reach in and dig around for the desired color, but I just did a strength test on my current thread box, and no, it does not support my own weight.