Paper Piecing - Kitchen Aid Mixer

I have been wanting to try a paper pieced pattern for a while. I always see them and think they look so amazing and hard. This pattern and tutorial from Why Not Sew?  are so easy to follow. I would never be able to come up with a pattern on my own but it is definitely not as intimidating as I originally thought. It did take a bit of work trying to get my printer to take the freezer paper but in the end it worked. I love the end result, I am not sure what I am going to do with this. I have seen some people make a cover for a Kitchen Aid mixer but I don't want to cover my mixer I love its shiny Red colour in my kitchen. I will save this for a while until I can find something to do with it.

If you are looking to try paper piecing this is a good pattern to start with, there aren't too many little bits and it comes together so quickly.

Little Things to Sew - Cozy Winter Hood Yoda Hat

I saw these versions of the Yoda hat on Girl Like the Sea and Homemade by Jill and knew that I needed to make one for my Star Wars obsessed little guy. The pattern from Little things to Sew calls for a thicker warmer fabric, I wanted it to be a bit lightweight for playing so I just used some flannel I had on hand. I just skipped the ear part of the instructions and it came together really quickly. I drew my own template for the ears and put a bit of quilt batting in the ear to help give them a bit of structure. I attached them to the sides. I also just used some of the flannel instead of ribbon for the ties. It is a really easy pattern to follow and it came together in less then and hour.  I think he loves it

Meal Planning Week 4

Saturday, June 22
Salmon Patties and Rice

Sunday, June 23 
MacRae Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice and Steamed Broccoli

Monday, June 24
Chicken Diablo with Rice and Corn

Tuesday, June 25
Spaghetti with Meatballs
The spaghetti noodles were left over from a batch Andrew made last month and we just froze them. The meatballs were just something I made and didn't use a recipe for.

Wedensday, June 26
Almond Stir Fry 
We made this again because everyone liked it so much

Thursday, June 27
Veggie Sloppy Joes with veggies
Turns out what I thought was sloppy joe sauce was some veggie chili. I really need to label things in the freezer. I made some homemade buns because I thought we were having sloppy joes. It worked out we ate everything anyway.

Friday, June 28
Homemade Shake and Bake Chicken and Rice with some corn
I just through some spices and salt and pepper in with some bread crumbs. I wished I was paying attention because it was so good.

Saturday, June 29
 lasagana with homemade noodles.
Andrew is the pasta maker in this house. He made the noodles with Jack and he used the lasagna recipe from Pioneer Woman. It was so good and made enough for basically two smaller lasagnas. So We froze half for lunches or a night we don't want to cook. The noodle recipe is just from the kitchen aid book that came with pasta attachment.


So this month we went a bit over budget by about $15 dollars but I blame that on being sick and buying some extra stuff but I also did quite a bit of baking this month that I didn't take into account when making the plan. I hope that I can keep it under budget in July.

Brown Sugar Raisin Bread.

I am pretty sure there are healthier recipes, but I had all the ingredients on hand for this one. It was one of the few rain days here in Berkeley and we were trying to find indoor activities. We made a 

 fort and built a cardboard house for his lego guys. I brought out the ironing board for some much needed height and those black binder clips and some string are amazing for building forts. All things I wish I knew about when I was a little kid. I used to make forts all the time. One summer my mom let me take over the dining room and I made a giant cardboard house that I kept up for practically the whole summer. I also forgot that one summer as a teenager she let me set up my tent in the back yard and I ran an extension chord to it and had a lamp and a stereo and I even pulled my mattress out side. We had the best sleepovers out there. 

This bread usually one lasts about a day in our house. It makes some delicious toast, warm out of oven is the best. 

Peach Pie

So I have become pie obsessed and I figure the more pie I make the easier it will be. So we are being inundated with peaches from the backyard and what better way to eat all those delicious peaches than a home baked peach pie? I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I am obsessed with her recipes and so far they have all been amazing.

Cutting the butter into the flour, I got this pastry blender in Jr. High from two of my friends.  

Ice Water

I can never get it all together but it seems to all work out 

Blanching the peaches to get the skin off

Tasty Peaches from the tree in our backyard

LAttice top, this one doesn't look as pretty as my last pie but it was just as delicious

I burnt the edges a bit. I was cooking dinner while the pie was baking and forgot to check the pie. Other wise it was so good. 

Meal Planning Week 3

So this week was a total bust, Andrew was sick on the weekend and Monday Jack went down and then I was sick all week. So we dropped a few meals because I was a zombie and really didn't want to cook.

Saturday, June 15
Turkey sandwiches with Havarti and cranberry sauce, Chips and fresh veggies.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Sunday, June 16 Fathers Day
Peasant Toast for Breakfast inspired by the Blue Fox Cafe. We just make some french toast with a nice seedy bread and top it with sliced bananas french vanilla yogurt and almonds and a drizzle of honey.

Sun-dried tomato and mint pesto with fontina and arugula sandwiches from the Rebar cookbook. The mint is from the garden and really made the pesto so fresh and yummy.

Making a star wars video on Fathers Day


Monday, June 17
Chicken Fried Rice

Tuesday, June 18 Sick Day
Quinoa Burgers with Salad but I was sick so instead
Andrew brought home some soup and Bread from the Berkeley Bowl

Wednesday, June 19 Still Sick
Phad Thai from the Rebar Cookbook (I was still sick so I just made some eggs and toast)

Thursday, June 20 Last Sick day
Falafel Wraps ( we just use tzatziki instead of the tahini) instead we had
California pizza kitchen frozen pizza and some sort of boxed chicken nuggets for Jack.

Friday, June 21
Rotini pasta with Italian sausage.
I found this recipe in a magazine and it is actually really easy and so good.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I asked Andrew last friday if he wanted some sort of treat for Fathers Day. We had already picked out all the special meals but I wanted to make a favourite dessert. He chose strawberry Rhubarb pie, I love to eat it and hate making the dough. I thought I found a fool proof recipe from the Pioneer Woman but then I tried the dough from Smitten Kitchen and it was amazing. When I was trying to gather it into a ball and it kept crumbling I thought it was going to be a disaster but I kind of forced it together and put it into the fridge  to chill.

When it was time to roll I was pleasantly surprised that it rolled out perfectly. I have never had a pie that didn't fall apart at some point or another.

With some crazy cheap strawberries and garden rhubarb this was probably the best thing about the weekend. I now dream about this strawberry rhubarb pie all the time. I just love things that come from our garden. The recipe calls for quick cooking tapioca which I couldn't find so we just used some organic tapioca starch. It wasn't to runny, but next time I will try the quick cooking Tapioca. 

I then attempted a lattice pie top, which actually seems really confusing but I just googled a video and watched some lady do it and then I realized its actually super easy. I get all bent out of shape about pie dough but this recipe is just so good. 

So go to smitten kitchen and use this amazing recipe.