I am also working on another blog (!) for my local free paper.  I’m going to chronicle the transformation of my apartment, and everything related to keeping that up.  Hopefully that will be as fun as I think it is going to be.  That should be launching in a couple of weeks.

But for now I’ll leave you with the pillowcase cover I made for my couch.  It’s going to look fantastic if I ever get it done…

So I’m planning an overhaul of the apartment – that includes the common room, my  bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom.  But I’m desperately trying to do this on a budget.  We’ll see how this goes.

I first decided to plan out exactly what I needed to thrift/buy/make to have an apartment I’m comfortable in and one that looks good as well.  I discovered Better Homes and Gardens’ Arrange-a-Room, and I had a lot of fun planning out my new space.  For example, here is the common area before:                         

And after:                  

I added notes in pink so I would know what I need to move from other rooms, buy from thrift stores, or buy new.  As you can see, I also plan on recovering my couch, recliner, and chair so they all match.  (I will post real life before and after pictures as well, so you can see the glorious golden corduroy couch.)

I started to draw out floor plans by hand, but this one is much more fun.  You can specify the room size by feet, so your virtual floor plan is to scale.  Hope you enjoy this feature as much as I did!

ETA: You can see my other rooms and my plans for them here.

My coworker was reminiscing the other day about her father frying up some zucchini flowers with a bit of olive oil and garlic.  I was intrigued, because I had never hear of such a thing, but I loved the fact that you could eat zucchini flowers.  (I’m a big fan of using the most you can of both vegetables and animals.)  So I was delighted to come across a vendor at the market on Saturday that was selling the flowers by themselves!  Instead of just frying them up, however, I wanted to make something with a little more sustenance, so I stuffed them, similar to stuffed peppers.

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

• Zucchini flowers (I worked with about 10 of them)
• 1 whole zucchini
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1/4 c. shredded Italian cheese (I had leftover Parmigiano-Reggiano)
• 1 c. marinara sauce (I was lazy and used store bought, or you can learn how to make your own here.)

1. Wash and cut your zucchini in half lengthwise, then into 1/2-in. pieces.  Place them on a foil lined cookie sheet and drizzle the olive oil over them.  Season with salt and pepper, and broil both sides until softened and slightly browned.  
2. Put the zucchini pieces in a skillet and mash them up the best you can.  Add the ground beef and cook on medium heat until browned.           
3. Wash the zucchini flower, both inside and out.  The petals are delicate, so be gentle.  You can remove the pistils and the stamens from the inside, but I let mine in.  Stuff the zucchini flowers with the beef and mashed zucchini mixture.  Place the stuffed flowers in a baking dish and cover each flower with the shredded cheese.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the flowers for about 10 minutes.                                                 
4. While the stuffed flowers are baking, heat up the sauce.  I put some leftover zucchini and ground beef in for flavoring.                                 
5. When the cheese is golden brown and bubbling, take the baking pan out of the oven.  Serve the stuffed flowers with the marinara sauce.

I thought this was a great and slightly unusual dish.  There are a lot of variations you could do – I’ve read about zucchini flowers in soups, stir fries and salads.  I can wait to incorporate this into my meals more often!

Strawberry Rhubarb Freezer Jam (makes 4 cups, I made a half batch to fit my jar)

• 2 1/2 c. rhubarb, peeled and chopped
• 2 1/2 c. strawberries, hulled and cut in half
• 1/4 c. water
• 3 c. sugar
• 1 package strawberry Jello

1. Prepare the fruit. 
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and the fruit to a slow boil.
3. Mash the softened fruit into a puree.  Stir in the sugar and bring back to a boil.  Add the packet of Jello and bring back to a boil.  Stir constantly.
4. Pour mixture into containers.  Let cool and either store in the refrigerator for two weeks or in the freezer for a few months.  Do not store at room temperature.

I spread this on some crumpets and it was very delicious!  It tasted fresh, and the combination of the sweet strawberries and the tart rhubarb is amazing.  This would be great on English muffins, on bagels with cream cheese, even spread over pancakes.  I don’t mine is going to last much longer than a week!

Watermelonade

Originally uploaded by maryagon

The boyfriend got me a cute vintage bike for our one year anniversary, so I’ve been riding it around the neighborhood. Luckily for me, my grocery store is only two miles from my house, so yesterday evening I biked down to pick up a few things. I got a nice, small watermelon that I was looking forward to enjoying that week.

But when I got back to my apartment, I was pretty much dying of thirst (it was warm, and I’m a little out of shape). I remembered I saw a recipe for a delicious and refreshing sounding watermelonade on epicurious, so I decided to make that instead of eating it whole.

Watermelonade (makes 4 cups)

• 1 small seedless watermelon
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Ice

1. Cut the watermelon into small chunks.  Puree in a blender or a food processor.
2. Place a mesh strainer over a measuring cup and pour the puree through it.  I pressed the puree a bit with the back of a soup ladle to get the most juice out, but that made the watermelonade a bit pulpy.  I ended up straining it twice.
3. Pour the strained juice into a container and add the sugar and lemon juice.  Mix well.  Serve over ice.

The end result was indeed very refreshing.  This would be a great picnic drink – easy to make, and good for you!  (The watermelon is 92% water by weight, and a great source of vitamins A and C!)  This is making me think of what other fruits I can make into “-ades”…

ETA:  I just tried it with some club soda – very yummy!  This combo is a little less sweet and by adding club soda, it will make your batch last longer!

I just signed up for a 2 month stint for Wardrobe Refashion and I’m pretty excited.  If you’ve ever seen my closet, you know it is crammed full of stuff – and I probably wear a good 85 – 90% of it.  But I was hoping to reuse that last 10% to make something new, instead of spending money on new clothes.

Last night I started cutting up a button-down shirt and I will hopefully be able to make a skirt out of it tonight – I will definitely  be documenting everything here in detail!

The Pledge

I had bookmarked this craft eons ago, because I thought it looked like a cute and easy project.  I turned out, when I actually had the time, that is was pretty easy, and I liked how it turned out.  I got the fabric squares at Joann’s several months ago, when they were on sale for a dollar, so I stocked up.

I first read through the original directions on Martha Stewart, and originally I was going to make my own stencils – I was thinking a bird series or some cute little woodland creatures.  But unless I have the exact outline to look at, my freehand drawing is pretty abysmal.  (Lifelike proportion?  Who needs that?)  So I decided to use the provided wren stencil.  I drew the stencil to the size I wanted on an index card, then cut it out.  I ended up using 5×5 canvasses, but I didn’t realize the originals were pretty big.  (If you watch the video on the website, you can see that.)

In the end, I think I preferred the smaller sized canvas.  They look very cute together on my bedroom wall.  I want to do a similar project with larger canvasses, but use actual silhouettes, along the lines of this.  I’m sure it will take me another eon to get that done.

I finally got around to doing two things in my kitchen – cleaning out the  refrigerator and going shopping for real food (not milk and cereal anymore).  I found a little jar of cherry-cognac sauce that someone had given me as a gift.  I had used it before on vanilla ice cream (yum), but looking on the label, it suggested using it on meats, such as pork.  So, luckily, I had a lot of pork chops and thinking of something fruity to go along with the cherries,  I found a recipe for cranberry-walnut taboulleh.  Overall, I liked how the sweet fruity flavors complimented the meat and the bulgur wheat.

Cranberry Walnut Tabbouleh (you can find the original recipe from Cooking Light here - I didn’t have some ingredients, so I improvised.)

• 1 cup bulgur wheat
• 1/2 c. chopped dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
• 1 c. boiling water
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
• 2 minced green onions, white and green parts included
• 1/4 c. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

1. In a bowl, mix the bulgur, cranberries and boiling water.  Let sit for 30 minutes.
2. While this is soaking, add the olive oil to a skillet and roast the walnuts in the oil for several minutes – this is to release the flavor of the nuts and infuse the oil with walnut flavoring.
3. After 30 minutes, add the remaining ingredients and toss.  Can be served immediately or refrigerated.

Cherry-Cognac Pork Chops

• Cherry-cognac sauce (mine was pre-bought)
• 3 pork chops
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Season the pork chops with the herbs, salt and pepper.  Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and spoon a Tbsp or so of the cherry-cognac sauce over them.
2. Place baking sheet under the broiler.  Broil for several minutes, until cooked about halfway through.
3. Flip pork chops over, reseason and again spoon about a Tbsp on each chop.  Continue to broil until completely cooked.

I ended up making an extra pork chop for lunch, which is sure to be delicious.  My only issue was with the tabbouleh – I didn’t have several things the original recipe called for.  I thought I had lemons, but I had to use lime juice instead, and I ran short on that, so I think the tabbouleh was a tad dry.  I also sent the boyfriend on a Wegman’s run before he came over to get the parsley and the mint.  When he got to my house, the conversation went a little bit like this:

Me: (as he brings out two gigantic bags of herbs) “Where is the mint?”

Him: (pointing to the bag that looks suspiciously like cilantro) “Right there.”

Me: “This is cilantro.”

Him: “But it was in the bin marked ‘mint’.”

Me: (taking it out and smelling it) “This is definitely cilantro.”

Him: “Hmm, well I thought it smelled like cilantro, and I thought it looked like cilantro, but it was in the mint bin, so I concluded it must be mint.”

Me: (slaps palm to face)

But nevertheless, the tabbouleh was pretty good.

I had seen a couple examples of hand carved stamps elsewhere, but instead of following someone else’s instructions, I kind of winged it.  (It wasn’t that difficult – pretty self-explanatory.)

To do this yourself, you will need:

First, decide what image you want to make a stamp of.  I decided on a cute little robot I drew.  You can also use tracing paper and trace an image from anywhere, or you can use a freshly printed image from an ink jet printer.

Make sure to not make your image with too many small details – even the details here proved to be a little difficult to pull off.  Make thick, heavy lines, and I went over my outline a couple times so it would be easier to rub off onto the carving material.  I used a bone folder to help rub the image, but you could just use your fingers.

Next, cut out the stamp.  I used my X-Acto knife to do this.  I recommend cutting a half-inch outline around the image instead of cutting right on the lines – this makes for a flimsy stamp, as you can see with my robot legs.  (I actually had to superglue one of them back on – shhhh.)  You can carve out the parts of the outline you don’t want to show up in the printed stamp. 

Next you will use your carving tool to carve the shape of the stamp.  Keep in mind the parts that you carve will show up as white when you print with the stamp.  Go slowly on the more detailed parts – the effort will be worth it.

At this point I ink the stamp and print it to see what shows up.  Usually there are a few stray pieces I need to chip away at.  I made two test prints, and the third one I was satisfied with.

There you have it!  A pretty simple process with pretty awesome results.  These homemade stamps are really only good for simple images, but have so many possibilities – like your own designs!  I’m still in search of wood blocks to mount the newly carved stamps on, but that is a project for another day.

I had some free time today so I decided to get back into baking while the weather was still cool. I really like making cupcakes, and I always wanted to try them in ice cream cones. These turned out to be pretty cute.

I was too lazy to make the batter from scratch, so I used Pillsbury’s confetti cake mix. I got 24 flat-bottomed ice cream cones and filled them, leaving about a half to three-quarters of an inch from the top.

I then baked them according to the directions on the box. Some of them overflowed a little bit, so I tried to clean them up the best I could.

While the cupcakes were cooling, I made vanilla and chocolate buttercream frosting

Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 1/4 c. milk
• 7 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder.

Using a mixer, combine the first four ingredients. I find it easier to mix a cup of the sugar at a time, with a tablespoon or so of the liquid. Divide the frosting in half, and then mix the cocoa powder into one half. You now have both chocolate and vanilla frosting.

I then piped the frosting on the tops of the ice cream cones using a star tip. I only had a small one, but I would recommend using a large one, both for ease and a more ‘ice-creamy’ look to the frosting.

I then decorated the frosting with sprinkles and cinnamon dots for cherries. As you can see, my sprinkles were left over from Christmas cookies, hence the red and green. Voila! You have cute cupcakes!