Archive for February 2011

Garlic Chicken Strips

Posted 23 February 2011 by
Tagged As: , | Categories: In The Kitchen | 1 Comment

I’m still learning how to cook. A good friend of mine gave me the book Jamie’s Food Revolution, and I’ve been slowly cooking my way through it – not in any methodical way, but randomly choosing recipes from throughout the book on a whim.

One night I decided on a version of Jamie’s Crunchy Garlic Chicken recipe. I made it pretty much as written up in his book, using President’s Choice knock-off Jacob’s cream crackers. The online version of his recipe says to use “saltines” (like Premium Plus), which I suspect would result in a slightly different taste and texture vs. Jacob’s cream crackers.

(more…)

How to fail at making fudge, step by step

Posted 18 February 2011 by
Tagged As: , | Categories: In The Kitchen | 4 Comments

I remembered that I had frozen some fudge resulting from an earlier attempt at making real old-fashioned fudge, which I described previously. I took it out of the freezer, took a photo…

…and threw it into the garbage.

Then I embarked on my most recent attempt at fudge. I used the same recipe I always use, because I am determined to make this recipe work for me. I only did a few things differently this time: I used real butter instead of margarine, I didn’t double the recipe, and I waited till a couple degrees past soft ball stage.

I took pictures as I went along this time.


2:25pm – Add cocoa, milk and sugar to a large saucepan. (Yes, that’s a keyboard in the background. The best lighting in my apartment is by my computer by the window.)


2:28pm – Heat. (more…)

Inspired by Vegas 4: droog

Posted 7 February 2011 by
Tagged As: , , | Categories: Decor | Leave a Comment

Finally, my final post in the Inspired by Vegas series. It only took one month to post them all. If you missed the other posts, make sure you check out Part I, Part II, and Part III!

I don’t know much about Droog except for what they have revealed on their website. I visited their newest location, within the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. As soon as I spotted the store from the casino floor (ha), I felt as if I was being drawn in by a magnet. Once inside, I wandered aimlessly at the array of weird and wonderful objects. The shop featured quirky pieces of furniture and other things for the home. When I asked if I was allowed to take photos in the store, the Droog employee’s reply was, “Of course! Take as many as you like.” So I took a photo of every item that struck me as particularly weird, unique or interesting.

(Click on an image below for a larger pic.)

If you’re interested in buying or browsing through more designs by Droog, the Droog website has an online store.

Inspired by Vegas 3: Holiday decor

Posted 7 February 2011 by
Tagged As: , , | Categories: Decor | Leave a Comment

Yes, I am fully aware that we’re well into February and the title of this post contains the phrase “Holiday decor.” This post would have been appropriate had I posted it when I planned to (around the beginning of January) but, for lack of a better reason than being a sorry procrastinator, I am inappropriately posting it during the height of Valentine’s Day season.

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? I haven’t ever done so, but I know some people do it. I undecorated my mantel in mid-January – I removed the Christmas decorations and replaced them with our small collection of decorative items. To refresh your memory, the Christmas-y mantel looked like this:

Christmas 2010

and before that, my seasonally neutral mantel looked like this:

Pre-Christmas 2010

and after I removed the Christmas decorations, up until this weekend, it looked like this:

2011

OK, I didn’t remove all my Christmas decorations. I couldn’t bring myself to put away the bottles filled with sparkly twigs and faux leaves. I loosely followed this 6-step vignette tutorial from Apartment Therapy, as I have never deliberately created a vignette before. (more…)