Rice Pudding

Awhile back, Jason and I became obsessed with rice pudding after eating at the infamous Rice to Riches restaurant in New York. When we moved to Miami, it became our main goal in dessert life to find or create the perfect rice pudding recipe. We spent months slaving over the stove, debating whether to cook the rice in water first or just milk, use cream, add raisins, what to do, what to do....

Eventually, we came across an old recipe book and found a simple recipe for stovetop rice pudding. We did some tweaking and here's what we came up with. And you lucky devils get the final pick!

2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1/2 c long grain rice (we use Jasmine)
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
nutmeg

Heat the milk and cream in a medium saucepan until just boiling. Do not scald. (It helps to use a candy thermometer so you don't go overboard on the heating. Hot milk likes to boil over pretty quickly and make a big ol' mess). Add the rice and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook over low heat for 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add sugar and vanilla. Let sit for 10 minutes or so to thicken. Spoon into dessert bowls and top with a pinch of nutmeg. Serve warm. OR let cool down and refrigerate overnight. It's super yummy cold too.

ENJOY!

Moroccan Stew! YUMMERS

I found this recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog and knew right away I had to make it. The writer mentions that she first had Moroccan stew at Chez Omar in Paris, and when I read that I was all "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD ME TOO ME TOO ME TOO! I ate at Chez Omar in Paris too!" (well I said that in my head anyway).


So, it was Moroccan Stew for dinner the other night and it turned out nicely. We added some carrots to the recipe, thinking you can really never get enough orange in a butternut squash stew. The problem was, I was too cheap-o to buy saffron and couldn't for the life of me find any preserved lemons. The flavors came out a little bland, although they it was much better the next day. So, if you decide to make this recipe, spring for the special ingredients. I think it would make it much, much better.

Also, as an added bonus, you get to make couscous, which is pretty much the most fun grain to cook. It fluffs up so quickly! Like magic!

Enjoy!

I can Mashed-Potato

Every night I have this dream.

Woven Scrap Journal

I'm pretty sure every craft-dork out there has always wanted to make their own journal. (I know I have) So I was super excited when I came across this tutorial on how to make one out of stuff you already have.

Here is my version of Diane Gilleland's Woven Scrap Journal. I think next time I'll do a better job of color-coordinating, but this works, I guess. I used some old sheet music for the paper and some pages from the latest Anthropologie catalog for the inside covers. whaddya think??

Happy MLK Day

I can never get enough of this tune. Enjoy, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.




And if you haven't done your service for the day, buy yourself or someone you like a lot a pair of Toms shoes, where for every pair of shoes you buy, one pair is donated to a child in need.

Miami Contemporary Dance Company lower class prices!

Miami Contemporary Dance Company has lowered their rates from $18/class to $14/class!

10-class cards are down from $150 to $1o0.

check out class schedules and other info at www.miamicontemporarydance.net

Leg Warmers

I've been thinking long and hard about what my next knitting project is going to be. I really really want to attempt my first sweater, but I want to make it with some quality yarn, and the holidays left me a little low on cash. So, I think some legwarmers are in order.

Easy-Peasy Leg Warmers

by Megan Grewal

I found these babies, and I think I'll get started tonight, using some leftover yarn from a blanket I made awhile back.

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

Click the link to find out how to enter in The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!! from Grosgrain

Cure for a cold

I've been battling a cold, and it was time to make the old trusty ginger-lime tea. This stuff is potent, but kicks the sniffles right out of me every time!

Ginger-Lime Tea

1 medium ginger root, peeled and chopped
2 limes, quartered
1/2 cup honey (give or take)



Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the ginger pieces to the water and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Squeeze the juice of the limes into the water and drop the limes into the water, rind and all. Let simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the honey. Drink warm.
I drink this stuff as often as possible until it's gone. Usually over the course of one or two days. It does the trick every time! (but beware, it's spicy stuff!)

Happy Birthday!

Today is Jason's birthday! So, what better way to celebrate than with homemade chocolate cupcakes!

If I had lots of money to go shopping right now, I would buy...

1/11/09 by emmaneezer

business card case!

So...I've got this horrible cold that I've been battling for the last few days and I just so happen to have today off (thank goodness). So, after connecting with my inner Lara Croft playing Tomb Raider for about an hour, I decided it was time to finally put myself and my sewing machine to good use. And look what I made!

I followed this super easy tutorial from splityarn and made a little case for my business cards. I found the button in my mom's stash of buttons, I think she said this one came from a nightgown she made for my older sister when she was a little tyke. I think I found a good new home for it.

NO to the CPSIA!!

Read this really important post at Threadbanger about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which could force a lot of indie designers to close their doors come February.

After all these months of a serious etsy obsession, how could I have not known about Etsy Labs?!? There are all these fantastic tutorials like "make your own stamps"
and a template for envelope making
And if you're a total craft dork like me, you understand why this is so exciting...

Fajita tortilla!

If you've never made tortillas from scratch, you really should because it's SUPER easy! It's also a great way to practice your skillet flipping skills. All you need is some pre-cooked cornmeal and water.

Make the dough according to the package directions. Form dough into golf ball-sized balls and press into tortillas. If you don't have a tortilla press, you can just roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper (like I did). They also look a little less perfect this way, a little more "homemade".

Cook each tortilla on a really hot, dry skillet flipping occasionally so it browns easily on each side. When the tortilla starts to get puffy and bubble up, it's done! Now, we made these last night and ended up with a LOT more dough than we needed so we were still cooking tortillas one-by-one for about an hour after we had finished eating dinner. So in the future, a large griddle might be a better option. Still, plenty of leftovers for breakfast burritos and ham and cheese tortillas. YUM!


We used our tortillas for some chicken fajitas with sauteed green peppers and onions with fresh tomatos, lettuce and cheddar cheese. This may be more of an "American" style fajita, but what the heck, if it tastes good, eat it!

(And of course, the sour cream falls off right before I snap the photo.)

new space

My lovely mother bought me a brand new sewing machine for Christmas this year....So I cleared off the mess of desk space in our tiny apartment to now function as my "handmade" space. Here's the new space! (I know it doesn't look like much, but you should have seen it before!)


Now all I have to do is learn to sew!

Dechristmasifying

I'm super excited to be starting a blog... it's actually my New Year's resolution this year. I've spent way too long reading other super sweet blogs, and I decided it's time to start my own. Now the trick is to keep with it...

I meant to start on the 1st, but was a bit sloooowwww... So here's a recap of the first few days of 2009.

Dec. 31st: Jason and I went to Sea World for New Year's eve. Yeah, Shamu is pretty cool. And those cute dolphins get me every time.


Jan. 1st: GEORGIA FOOTBALL at the Capital One Bowl. GO DAWGS!


Then...The Koi's have an amazing New Year's Day tradition of having close friends over for a big feast. Hot Pepper Soup, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Black Eyed Peas, Cornbread, Chicken Paprikash, Cucumber Salad, mmm mmm mmmmmmmmmmmm

Jan. 3rd: Today we spent the afternoon helping the Koi's "de-Christmas-ify". All those Hallmark ornaments really add up after 31 years of collecting!