Cuteness!!

At work every week we have a meeting, and each week someone different is in charge of bringing a snack. Most of the time people bake cookies, buy a cake, bring some chips, etc. etc.

Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Out of Control. It was my week this week, and I wanted to make something fun and also get a chance to release some pent-up energy the culinary way.

Have y'all seen this site? If not, please check it out and follow Bakerella. I first discovered her when she was featured on my fave blog, Pioneer Woman, and I drop by her site occasionally. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I couldn't resist her Father's Day cheeseburger cupcakes. They are so adorable!!!! I sometimes make cheeseburger cookies for Art, which consist of two vanilla wafers, a grasshopper cookie or Thin Mint, some coconut and icing, but these were more labor intensive and way more adorable.

This is how mine came out (ML is the abbreviation for our building):


They were a hit!! Please go to Bakerella's site and make them.

Of course, nobody wants to be my friend at work anymore because I clearly am Out of Control, but you know what? You will do some crazy things to avoid calculus.

THE. DRESS.

I contemplated waiting a little bit to post this, since I clearly JUST blogged about the bridesmaid dress, but what the heck.

First of all, I must report. Since I measured myself for this pattern, I've dropped two dress sizes. Yes, yes, I can hear you all saying "QUIT WHINING ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT!!!!!" I'm not necessarily whining about that, but what I am whining about is that my cut dress no longer fit!!! I suppose it's better than if I GAINED two dress sizes, but when I put the finished dress on I was somewhat bummed out.

That, on top of all the first-timer mistakes, made me less-than-confident to wear this dress to the wedding.

But nobody noticed anything and it was just fine!! I probably won't have time to change the imperfections about it before the July 4th wedding I'm going to, but I don't care. I'm very happy that I was able to do this!!

I'll start with some pictures of the finished product (I'm sorry about the horizontal-ness... not sure how to fix that):



Man, I just love looking at that yellow fabric. It's probably the prettiest yellow fabric I have ever seen.



And then I might show you what the back looked like. Whoops.



That was a zipper issue. And I really have no idea how to rememdy this one. I cut the pattern the way they said, and I can make the pieces fit together, but for some reason installing the zipper set it off SIGNIFICANTLY.

Speaking of the zipper, I picked an invisible one. Why? I enjoy self-torture. That's the only reason I can come up with for wanting to do double the work.

Since Bernina wants $45 for an invisible zipper foot, I pulled out my mom's Singer from circa 1965. Isn't it a beaut?



This sewing machine is the marathon runner of sewing machines. It's the one I learned on, and I'll tell you, it works just as nicely as my three-year-old baby.

Here's a picture of the way the dress looks from the back. Fortunately, the zipper crookedness is less apparent here:


You can really tell how poorly the dress fits from this angle. That neckline is supposed to hug my neck, not droop down like that. PS - check out my new haircut! Do you want to know how I fixed that? I'll keep it real for you... I folded the shoulder seams over and ran a straight stitch right over them. I kind of felt like a pageant mom fixing my kid's dress at the very last minute with safety pins.

The neckline (not shown) was also troublesome, and I didn't have enough fabric for an even hem all around. So shoulders, neckline, zipper, hem... there were problems all over the place.

And you know what? I'm the only one who noticed any of them!! I rate that... SUCCESS!!

All in all, I'd give myself a C+ on this dress. I've definitely found a new part of sewing that I like, but I'm very relieved to go back to quilting and needlepoint for a while :).

Except when I see things like this. Then I want to make clothes all day long.

Let me know what you think!! :)

Hemming 101

So, a friend of mine recently asked me to hem her bridesmaid dress for the wedding I went to last weekend.

I said sure, because I do things like that. I have a guilt complex.

The bridesmaid dress was polyester, but that stiff bridesmaid-y material, which I have never worked with. Actually, little did my friend know that this was my first hem ever.

So, I took to my #1 resource, the Internet. God love the Internet. There was a rolled hem tutorial that walked me step-by-step on how to hem such a thing, and it worked out perfectly.

Here's the before picture, of my friend standing in the dress once my mom and I pinned it up:


The next step was to take the pinned edge and measure and mark 5/8 in. up and pin and press on that new line, then stitch. Trim the excess, roll down 5/8 in., stitch, done!

Here's my pinning:



And here you can see that I pinned on the wrong side, so I had to take the pins out verrrrrry carefully while I stitched!



Here's the finished product, all hanging up and ready to go!!!



Nobody at the wedding noticed it was a totally homemade hem, which was obviously my goal!

This was the only sewing I did before the Praxis, so I'm glad it was simple!

Back!

I promise I have not abandoned this blog!

Praxis... DONE (won't get the results til July, not talking about it until then!), Art's visit... DONE. Now I have a relatively normal life until August, when I go to Texas for a month!

I got to sew a few times during my hiatus, and cook a recipe, all of which I will post probably later today after class.

Until then!!! Welcome back!! :)

Make that a large hiatus...

So, I took a placement math test today at the community college, thinking that I would sail right through considering, you know, that I want to teach math?

Well, I did NOT do as well as I would have thought. In fact, I didn't do well at all. I got through maybe beginning algebra and beginning geometry, and then pretty much bombed the rest. As you can imagine, this has been quite upsetting, because I'm taking the Praxis test in about four weeks, so panic has ensued.

Unfortunately, this means NO sewing until after the Praxis. I really need all the spare time I have to study and to prepare for this exam. If, in a world gone mad, I do have time to squeeze in a recipe or a few stitches, you will be the first to hear about it! I take the exam on June 13, and the wedding is the 19th, so the dress must be finished between those times. Since I only have a few stitches on the skirt to do, I think this shouldn't be a problem.

So anyway, adios for now (Oh, that's right, I'm also supposed to be learning Spanish right now... WHO do I think I AM when I sign up for these things?!??!)... but I will return! :)

Chicken Mushroom Goulash. Changes lifes.

Let me just warn you.

This, my dear friends, is my favorite recipe ever. Ever ever ever. It's so mushroomy and warm and paprika-y. You'll die for it, I promise.

I don't really promise that. But it's delicious and easy and makes a ton of leftovers. It started out as this Rachel Ray recipe, but I've altered it to suit my tastes. Mainly, I quadruple the amount of mushrooms.

If mushrooms were a man, I would marry him. If you don't like mushrooms, first of all we are no longer friends, and second of all you can omit them if you want and add other veggies. But please try to like mushrooms. They are a lot of what is good and decent in this world.

First, go to the store and buy this stuff:


That two bags of frozen gnocchi, two pounds ground turkey (I used the superlean stuff and it was still outstanding), two pounds of white mushrooms, olive oil, butter (I shamelessly use margarine), 1 can tomato sauce, 1/2 C. sour cream, one onion (or two halves, because two halves make a whole. See, I'm going to make a great math teacher), a couple cloves of garlic, a bell pepper, an optional jalepeno, and a lot of paprika. The paprika is what makes goulash goulash, so go get some. And I didn't take a picture of chicken stock, but you'll need some of that too.

Can I tell you how I choose my peppers? By how curious their stems are. A little quirk of mine. And please, if you do add the jalepeno, do not chop it and then rub your eye. It is much more painful than it sounds.



And if it's Cinco de Mayo and your mother loves you, she will bring you one of these to enjoy while cooking.


Why didn't I make Mexican for Cinco de Mayo you ask? Because I believe America is a place where different cultures can live in harmony. Mexico, meet Hungary.

Geneva conventions happen in my house.

The first thing to do is get about two tablespoons butter and two tablespoons olive oil and get 'em hot. I use an electric skillet, because, well, I live with my parents and that is what they have.


Then, brown the chicken until thoroughly cooked. This takes a while, so use the time to chop up some of your veggies. Or drink your Corona. I won't judge.

After the chicken is browned, move it to the edges and dump in about half your veggies. Your kitchen will start to smell amazing right about now.


After those veggies have cooked down, dump in the rest.


While these are cooking down, this is a good time to boil the water for the gnocchi. So go do that.

After the veggies are nice and soft, season with salt and pepper, mix it all together and add the tomato sauce and chicken stock. Let it come to a bubble.



This picture shows just how much paprika I like to add. I think the recipe calls for 2 tsp. paprika. Rachael Ray, I love you and your food, but that is not enough paprika for goulash. I add close to two tablespoons. And I'm not sorry about it.


Once the spices are mixed it, add the sour cream to thicken. Turn the heat down to a simmer. Your water should be boiling by now, so go ahead and plop in your gnocchi (please do not burn yourself by plopping!). When the gnocchi are finished, they will float, like this:


Drain, perhaps in your brand new sink colander your mother just bought. But if it's fine mesh like this, put a paper towel down. These dishes were a bear to do.


Dump the gnocchi straight into your skilled with your mushroomy, paprikay goulash and stir to coat.



Yum. Yum yum yum yum yum. I could eat this every day. I mean that. THIS is comfort food!!

Mini Hiatus!

No crafts or cooking for a few days!! :( Today I have a paper to write (tracing the theme of heroism through Beowulf, Grendel, Hamlet and Animal Farm - sounds like something you did your freshman year in high school? Me too.) and a lot of studying for my stats test tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, Art's brother and I are driving up to gorgeous Steubenville, Ohio (please substitute the words "dreary, smelly, and depressing" for "gorgeous") to watch Emily graduate!! Art unfortunately can't make it but the rest of us should have a nice weekend together!!

Then, on Sunday, Charlie and I are driving back in the morning, I'm making homemade killer brownies for my mom, and then I am moving into my dorm room on campus!! I don't have my work schedule quite yet, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to come back home and work on my dress (I'm not bringing my sewing machine to campus).

However, I have a fab fab FAB rainy day recipe to post soon, so I'll get to that when I can!! I'm really enjoying my job so far and can't wait to settle into my new room!!

Until next time!