Paper crafts, a recycled wreath!

I was bored. I needed to do something with my hands. I had a pile of magazines lying around. I was also perusing my big list of website links for crafts and projects. This, seemed a perfect solution!

Lisa over at the The Red Thread Blog gives a lovely tutorial for a paper wreath, using wrapping paper left over from her advent calender project. I started perusing through the fashion mags I had lying around, and came up with this!

Purses and earrings and shoes, oh my!

I had some pretty Gold ribbon lying around in my stash, so I used that to create the bow and loop to hang it! I am very pleased with the final product, spending an afternoon stapling away while watching TV was very satisfying. I also found a picture of Greta Garbo in one of the magazines, and she takes pride and place near the top. This is on my bedroom door now, a hint of femininity to disguise the disaster zone that lies within. My room's a bit of a disaster since class started again.

Happy Fat Tuesday!!

It's a bit late, but I think I'm just turning into a night person anyway. Nonetheless, pancakes!

Ingredients for my Mom's homemade pancakes

(makes a lot, about a week's worth f breakfast if you're eating about 2-3 a day)

Wet:

2 1/2 cups of Milk

1 egg

2 tbls melted butter

Dry:

2 cups of Flour

4 tps of Baking Powder

2 tbls of sugar

pinch of salt.

-Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients into another, preferably the container you plan to store the batter in.

-Mix the dry into the wet in small batches. Stir thoroughly to eliminate lumpy bits.

-Place batter in the fridge over night.

-To cook, heat non-stick frying plan on medium heat. Stir the batter once more before use. Ladle out batter unto centre of the pan and tilt the pan to allow excess batter to fall over edges of pancake. Cook to desired doneness (it's a word now, get over it), and serve. 

*Fruit in the batter should not be stored in the batter overnight. It's much better to have it freshly put into the batter, and just as you pout the patter into the pan. I threw strawberries on today's serving because I had them and had forgotten about them until I opened the fridge again for the Maple Syrop.

Risotto!

I actually made risotto. Yep.


I consider this a hard recipe in the sense that I've heard some horror stories about how easy it is to screw up. Once again, I must thank Canadian Living for the recipe! I added mushrooms, they weren't there originally, but I think they make it better.

Smoked Cheese Risotto

By The Canadian Living Test Kitchen

roll over and click star to rate

This recipe makes 4 servingsTop of Form

Ingredients

2 cups vegetable broth 2 2cups cups(500 mL) (500 mL) vegetable broth or sodium-reduced chicken broth
2 tbsp butter 2 2tbsp tbsp(25 mL) (25 mL) butter
1 tbsp olive oil 1 1tbsp tbsp(15 mL) (15 mL) olive oil
1 large shallot , (or half small onion)diced1 1large shallotshallots, (or half small onion) diced
1 small clove garlic , minced1 1small clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt 1/4 1/4tsp tsp(1 mL) (1 mL) salt
1-1/2 cups arborio rice 1-1/2 1-1/2cups cups(375 mL) (375 mL) arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine 1/2 1/2cup cup(125 mL) (125 mL) white wine
4 oz smoked cheese , (such as provolone, mozzarella or Gouda),shredded4 4oz oz(113 g) (113 g) smoked cheese, (such as provolone, mozzarella or Gouda), shredded [I used smoked Gruyere, works great for this recipe!]
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese , (approx)1/4 1/4cup cup(50 mL) (50 mL) grated Parmesan cheese, (approx)
2 tbsp minced fresh chives 2 2tbsp tbsp(25 mL) (25 mL) minced fresh chivefresh chives or parsley

4-5 mushrooms of choice, either White button or Crimini are good, chopped 

Preparation:

In small saucepan, bring broth and 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) water to boil. Reduce heat to low and keep warm.

In large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the butter and oil over medium-high heat; saute shallot, garlic and salt until softened but not coloured, about 3 minutes. Chuck in mushrooms and stir.

Add rice, stirring to coat and toast grains. Add wine; cook, stirring, until almost no liquid remains.

Begin adding 4 cups (1 L) of the broth mixture 1/2 cup (125 mL) at a time, stirring after each addition and letting rice absorb most of the liquid before adding more, about 20 minutes in total. Taste before adding last cup (rice should be loose, creamy but not mushy and still slightly firm in centre).

Add smoked cheese and remaining broth mixture; cook, stirring, until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese and remaining butter. Sprinkle with chives, and more Parmesan if desired. 

Cool eh? Check out my attempts to be fancy by adding a flourish of green onions. 

Soooooooooo good. Really pleased with how this turned out. Keeps well in the fridge as well.

On a side note, two of my friends got married recently. We're all quite thrilled and proud of them for tying the knot. And for providing a sushi free-for-all as part of the reception. It also provided my new favorite quote about sushi. The groom and his family are East-Indian/Trinidadian and the bride's is Chinese. The groom loves his Chinese and Japanese food, specifically sushi, but it's not for everyone.

Groom's friend: Dude, do your parents even like sushi?

Groom: No. But they're gonna!

 Congratulations Keith and Sally!! All the best for the future! 

News update and countdown!!

I'M GOING TO PARIS!!!

Right.

So my program offers a yearly, intensive 3 week study abroad course in Paris, meeting archivists and curators, going into archives and repositories and generally gallivanting around Paris. The draw was today. I got picked. So happy. 

A bit sad for the people I know didn't get their names picked out of the hat, which sucks quite a bit. I will do my happy dance and screaming in private as a sign of respect.

However, I think I will celebrate further by having French Toast for breakfast over the weekend. It'll help my jaw too, I had a wisdom tooth come out a few days ago and while the surgery itself went beautifully and I don't really have any pain, my jaw's a bit stiff. It's given me a great excuse to have a lot of chocolate pudding, cherry jello and peach yogurt at all times.

I'M GOING TO PARIS!!    I'll stop now, however a countdown will start popping up as soon as the flight is booked and a set leaving day is picked. Tentatively speaking, May 8th-26th.

Spring Rolls and Reading Week.

A break has come. I'm on my reading week as of Monday. I don't count the weekends since I work 9-5 Saturday and Sunday. Can't have it all can you? At the very least, it means time to cook!

To celebrate, I tried a spring roll recipe I found in the recent issue of Canadian Living. They were nice enough to put it online as well, so here it is!

Shrimp Spring Rolls!

Shrimp Spring Rolls
By Andrew Chase and The Test Kitchen
 

Ingredients:
1 lb frozen shrimp, thawed, peeled and deveined


1 can (227 mL) water chestnuts, drained and chopped


1 green onion


1/4 cup chopped cilantro


1/2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger


1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch white pepper


16 square spring roll wrappers


1 egg, beaten


Vegetable oil, for frying

 

Dipping Sauce:


3 tbsp rice vinegar


2 tbsp water


1 tbsp julienned fresh ginger


2 tsp granulated sugar


1/2 tsp minced seeded hot red pepper 


1 pinch salt

Preparation:
Dipping Sauce: In small bowl, stir together vinegar, water, ginger, sugar, hot pepper and salt until sugar is dissolved. Set aside. 



On cutting board, cover shrimp with plastic wrap and, using bottom of saucepan, smash until flattened and broken up; transfer to bowl. Add water chestnuts, onion, cilantro, ginger, salt and pepper; mix well.



Lay 1 spring roll wrapper on work surface with point up; shape 2 tbsp shrimp mixture into 3-inch (8 cm)long log across bottom third of wrapper. Roll up, folding in sides, until only 1-inch (2.5 cm) triangle of wrapper remains. Lightly coat triangle with egg; roll up. 

Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 2 hours.)



In heavy-bottomed skillet, heat 1/2 inch (1 cm) oil over medium-high heat just until ripples appear; reduce heat to medium. 

Skimming oil between batches, fry spring rolls, turning and increasing heat if necessary, until golden and filling is pink in centre, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towel–lined plate. (THEY DO NOT TAKE THIS LONG TO COOK. 30 seconds per side seemed to be more than enough) Serve with Dipping Sauce

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this recipe was and they were so tasty! Instant (and better) Chinese food! You can also use the leftover egg for a single egg plate of scrambled eggs or a tiny omelet. Also, smashing shrimps with a frying pan is fun, and a good way to get your roommate out of her room, wondering what the hell you're doing.

Photo geekery. ACTIVATE!

So. Much. Photo conservation.

We just got back from a weekend of photo geekery! The Photographic Materials Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Artifacts hosted their bi-annual winter conference this past weekend. Professionals from all over North America and Europe came to present and discuss issues and new discoveries in photo conservation. Phenomenally boring to most people, but super fun for us!

Eight of us drove up for the two day conservation road trip. The PMG was nice enough to host a gala as well, which was held at the Museum of Nature in downtown Ottawa. It's a beautiful old building that has had a recent renovation to include a lovely reception hall. We were treated to some very nice catered finger food and a bar! The museum was also in charge of the table centre pieces, which we played with after a while.

RAAWWWWWWWRRRRRR!! (Ooo, crackers!)

As it turns out, conservators like their alcohol. not only was the free-ish bar stocked with nice wine and beer, they had had a Vodka luge made for the reception. That would be a vodka dispensing ice sculpture.The older guys were frequenting sneaking shots when the bar tenders weren't looking. Quite the fun evening.

We also learned a very interesting way of dealing with unexpected disasters in the conservation field. I may have to carry holy water and a rosary in my tool kit from now on. Note the word "again" at the bottom of the slide. This presentation was a retelling of how things can happen without any warning in the preservation process. 

For now, however, back to Toronto, back to school and back to work. And back to home cooked meals... except that my roommate and I ordered sushi the Sunday night I was back. It was glorious. I have had home cooked since, and will post soon.