Turned Creative

After a discussion the other day with my friend JT about unnecessary features on products, I found myself biting my tongue. I’m getting a new camera this weekend, and it has a video feature. JT happens to know quite a bit about video ‘stuff’ and is kinda snobby about it. Of course he was knocking the video feature on the camera I want. I explained that I don’t intend to use it, because it’s unnecessary. If I want a video of something, I’ll use a stand-alone video camera. Period. That being said, I found myself wishing I had brought my camera to Paige’s practice the other day. I remembered that “hey, I have my phone!” The camera isn’t that great, and didn’t like the dim lighting in the gym. Cady suggested I try shooting a video. I had forgotten all about the video feature on the phone. She’s so smart – I swear that kid’s bound for greatness. I quickly realized how wrong I was when talking to JT. It’s so incredibly handy having video capability so readily available. I spent the m...

No work for me today! My employer grants employees 8 hours of paid time off to volunteer in the community. I’ll be spreading the love today throughout the town. I do need to check voicemail and e-mail a few times throughout the day – after all, how will I save the world if I’m not on top of things? The girls and I baked some cupcakes (red velvet cake) over the weekend. The “no taste-red”, “pink,” and “burgundy” from our friends at Wilton were used to make them look pretty. The coloring made them taste pretty bad and the girls would only eat the ones without the food coloring. We used Wilton’s heart shaped edible glitter to make them look awesome. Mission accomplished. They looked good, and the glitter tasted like sugar. I learned my lesson about pink and coloring through. I’ve used other colors by Wilton in past projects and they tasted great. Can anyone shed some light on why reds and pinks taste so bad? And don’t say it’s because I can’t cook.     ...

Remember the other day when I said I bought a pattern from the knit shop ? I finally got around to taking some pictures of the final product. I didn’t like the bunchy look of the top of the hat in the pattern, so I made is square. Isn’t the sweater awesome? I’m still not sure I can bear to part with it – it’s my first one. It’s too big for all of the girls’ dolls, so I have no justification for keeping it. Besides, it will look really cute on Jinal’s little boy when he gets here next month. I hope it fits him – I think he’ll be tiny. I know what you’re thinking – and don’t worry; only three of the buttons on the sweater are functional.

Martha’s recipe text that day was for beef stroganoff. I’ve eaten it once, about ten years ago. JP cooked it for me. I couldn’t remember if I liked it or not, but I wanted to do something nice…doesn’t happen that often. The recipe seemed easy enough. What could go wrong? I grabbed everything I needed – a pound of beef tenderloin, salt & pepper, canola oil, an onion, white mushrooms, beef stock, Dijon mustard, and sour cream (sigh). Easy enough. – so far so good. I sliced the beef (confession: deligated this to JP – I don’t like touching raw meet) into two-inch-long strips (one inch wide, 1/4 inch thick). I tossed them into the pan with the oil to brown. Then I set it aside. I sliced the onion into strips and added it to the skillet to brown. I wasn’t as grossed-out by the oil when I was cooking it as I am looking at the shot now. I added the mushrooms. And let them brown. Gorgeous. I couldn’t wait taste these.   I added the Dijon and the broth and ...