Click at Your own Peril

Merde.

Scheiße.

Stront.

Mierda.

and, oh &$#%!?!, who knew?

Boo

And the Halloween candy is officially out at the grocery store. The better to get your hands on candy corn?

Actually, I have been thinking about something Hitchcockian this year, ever since my sister found this browsing through costumes at Amazon. DIY ideas here.



P.S. Who knew?

Dear Blog,

Oh, Blog. I haven't very good to you lately. It's not you, I promise--this one's all on me. I think I just needed some space.

But absence makes the blog grow fonder. I've missed you, Blog, and I want to give this another go. What do you say...take me back?

xoxo,
e

Homemade Butter, or Thank You, Lord, for Not Making Me Lactose Intolerant

A couple weeks ago, Susan over at the home of the world's best fiber farms had seven days of giveaways to celebrate the launch of their new website. Among the awesome prizes were three copies of Kathy Farrell-Kingsley's The Home Creamery, one of which I won! (There might have been a tiny celebratory dairy dance when I learned of this. I can't be sure.)

This seemed serendipitous because I'd been talking with my dad about making cheese and buttermilk just a few days before, and thinking about it off and on ever since I saw this post over at Angry Chicken. When the book arrived, it surpassed my expectations, because it's a combination of dairy recipes (yogurt, butter, cheese, etc.) followed by recipes using those products (lemon scones, buttermilk onion rings, eggplant parmesan and chocolate sour cream cake, just to name a few). There's a helpful glossary and a resources list in the back, too.

I didn't wait long to make something...just long enough to get to the store for some heavy cream.

I decided on the butter recipe because it's not complicated, and I conveniently had a fresh loaf of homemade bread thanks to my dad. A jar, or any sealable container, really, is pretty much all you need.

It doesn't take long before you can see the butter begin to separate. Bonus: all the shaking is a good arm workout. And if you're left weak and tired, don't worry--you'll be able to replace those lost calories in no time.

After pouring off the buttermilk and rinsing (yes, rinsing) the butter, this is what you have left. Add some salt, work any excess liquid out, and voila, butter!

Slather a somewhat obscene amount on the carbohydrate of your choice. Repeat as necessary.


Really, it tastes so much better than store-bought, and you get to brag about your accomplishment...

Thanks, Susan!

Swoon

It just makes me happy that there are people in the world who think of these things...

"Her Morning Elegance," by Oren Lavie, from the soon-to-be-released cd The Opposite Side of the Sea.

New loves

Dexter. I don't have Showtime, so I hadn't seen this until my sister loaned me season 1, discs 1&2. I was hooked after the first episode, and am now on season 2, thanks to Netflix.

The lambcam!

Appletiser, my new favorite way to get an apple a day. Found at my local health food store.





These felted wool Layaway slippers from Simple. I used to pad around my apartment barefoot all the time, but lately I've been wearing these. Simple's site says of these that they "feel just like marshmallows hugging your feet." Though I personally think that my feet encased in marshmallows sounds gross, not to mention sticky, these shoes are great. (The full confession: I had a $20 coupon for Piperlime, so I bought another pair of these, backup for when I wear the first pair into the ground because I have them on constantly. That's how much I like them.)

Leverage, which reminds me a little bit of another favorite show, Hustle.


Poladroid. Serious fun, and it's free (though you can make donations on the site to help support it). Also, it's totally addicting; check out the Poladroid group on flickr.

This Christmas, Santa brought me a kidney infection

It's low-grade, I'm on antibiotics, but, I mean, come on. What kind of Christmas gift is that? Especially after two episodes of the flu and a nasty cold in the past two months. [My New Year's resolution? I resolve to avoid germs.]

Aside from that, my holiday was pretty great. My sister came home for a couple days, which was a lot of fun. And I made/bought/received some fun stuff too. Not too much in the making catagory, but co-workers got jars of fudge (from this recipe) or maple pepper pecans (from Nigella Express).

I carved the stamps, and just glued the paper circles to the jar lids. A little ribbon around the edge, and voila. I like how they came out, but they're pretty basic compared to some of the great stuff I saw on a few of my favorite blogs: the polka-dot boxes full of all sorts of goodies at the Chicken & the Apple (love!), assorted fantastic-ness over at the Small Object, and salted carmel goodness at Super Eggplant.

Confession: not one of those photos makes me want to up my gift-packaging game, they just make me hungry.

Other crafting included these container ornaments for a few friends. Each one has their initial on the lid and holds a pair of earrings. These were created out of a sudden "Crap, how do I package these?" moment after making the earrings, and they're perfect (and easy). I tapped a small hole with a finishing nail in the side of a 2" coin tin, placed a small piece of wire to form a loop, and attached an ornament hanger. More pics here.


My favorite "made" gift, though, were the stamps I carved for my sister. A tiny house, my sis, Harvey, Moppit, and my sister's boyfriend.


I didn't do a ton of shopping this year, but I managed to check off a lot of my gift list through Etsy, with stamps at Norajane, a French Pet Lobster tee from Xenotees (a big hit with my sister), a mini original from Justin Madson, and a Tinysaur from Kelly Farrell. My dad also scored one of Alec Thibodeau's letterpress lunar calendars from Tiny Showcase.

And speaking of TS, I treated myself to a small holiday gift, too: Jen Corace's "Snow Storm" print and an autographed copy of "Hansel and Gretel," which is quite lovely.

And our final Christmas gift? About a foot of snow. It's very scenic, but mostly I'm just glad to be curled up on the couch with the fleece blanket my sister made for me and a hot cup of tea (about my 9th today, I think. Oh, kidney infection, you're a card).