Vegetable Soup

I made a huge batch of vegetable soup on Sunday in our crock pot. Several months ago I made a goal of trying to make a big batch of soup once a week. Other than this week...I think I only did this once. Sigh.

I was happy to use the chicken stock that I froze after Eric and I roasted a chicken. Something feels so right when you aren't wasting anything (we had a couple of old-ish tomatoes too that I wouldn't eat, but made it in the soup too!). I crammed as many fresh vegetables that could possibly fit in one large crock pot, and I added some chopped fresh jalapenos for a little heat.

This week is incredibly busy. I'm giving an exam in all of my classes this week, I desperately need to get my grades set up, and I need to finish writing final exams...but the end of the semester is so close...I'm happier than a student counting down.

P.S. The boyfriend loves this soup too......WIN! (His brussell sprouts and carrots usually end up on my plate.)

Beaded Collar

This is what I've been working on for a couple weeks now. The idea came from Meghan Nielsen who made one (and posted a pattern) from this vintage inspiration.

I was going to sew my own collar, but I'm so glad I ended up using her pattern. The collar lays (lies?) beautifully around the neck. The beading took me 15 hours or so. I ran out of the pearls and had to go back to Michael's. They were out, so I had to head to another Michael's. And the number of knots the thread got while I was beading was ridiculous. Every night of the past couple weeks Eric will ask, "what are you going to do tonight?" and I would just look at him and he'd go, "beading?".

I took some pictures throughout making the collar, but I don't have that SD card with me. I sewed the scalloped collar from some heavy duty off-white fabric I had. If you're curious to see what the steps look like, you can go to the link I posted for where I got the idea.

P.S. I got a new camera lens! I'm so happy with it.
P.P.S. Happy Friday and late Thanksgiving. Eric and I are in Houston enjoying time with some of his side of the family.

happy birthday friday

Happy Birthday Kara! (don't worry Kara..that pepperoni and ricotta looking stuff is totally vegan.) Eric and I will be meeting up with our friends tonight to celebrate her birthday with lots of homemade pizzas and beer.

Lemon Scones

I made lemon scones last night. They're delicious alone and ridiculous with a touch of honey butter (I forgot how much I love honey butter.) Recipe here.

It's a rainy morning here. I go into work later on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I teach an evening class on those nights. It's always really hard to go get up and leave on mornings like this after you've had three hours to relax in the morning. I almost end up running late to 11:30 meetings because I can't pull myself away from something I've started, and I never run late.

espresso dark chocolate chip biscotti

I've made biscotti once before (here) and switched the recipe concept slightly. I read the blog Angry Chicken, and she commented that she completely cuts out the oil when she makes them. I did a compromise between that idea and the normal amount of oil; I used about 1/8 a cup of oil when a normal recipe calls for a 1/2 cup.
(If you completely cut the oil, you are probably limited to only dunking to eat them, but I like some nibbles without dipping into milk or coffee.)

Here's the recipe I used:
2 cups flour (I used half white and white wheat)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon instant espresso
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 teaspoon lemon extract
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
really good dark chocolate chocolate chips
a dash of milk

You follow the standard steps like you can find here. They are basically twice baked cookies. You bake the two blobs, let them cool for about 15 minutes, cut them into slilces and then bake the slices more (at a lower temperature.)

* Recipes suggest that when slicing, use a serrated knife. I thought it was much better to use a sharp chef's knife and just press down very hard. The serrated knife seemed like it was going to crack the biscotti and took more effort.

FFFriday!

Happy Friday! Eric and I will be at Fun Fun Fun Fest all weekend. I can't wait to see M83.

jalapeno cilantro sauce

I'm currently in love with the fresh jalapeno + cilantro flavor. There's a banh mi sandwich that I love to get from a trailer that has lots of mayo, fresh jalapeno, and cilantro. Eric and I were with some friends for happy hour last Friday and tried some chicken sliders that I think were ground chicken, mayo, cilantro and slice of jalapeno. YUM.

Last night I cooked some white fish (frozen), made this sauce and made tacos. I used butter lettuce to make a lettuce shell and Eric had tortillas. Both were so good.

You can find various recipes for a sauce like this, but ours went something like this:

2 cloves garlic
3 jalapenos
3 handfuls cilantro
2 tablespoons mayo
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
sriracha
salt + pepper
lime juice

Just put everything in a food processor. This is delicious on fish, tacos, burritos, you name it.