Asian stir fry mix remixed

Yup, the same frozen Asian stir fry mix from Ralph's added to whole grain pasta.  And, the best part is that it's (the vegetables are) totally microwaveable and it still comes out nice and not too limp the way microwaved vegetables sometimes do.

Bullet Bill

Another little collaboration with my friend.  I'm sensing a Nintendo theme here.

Chicken and "Asian stir-fry" mix

Hooray for totally easy meals that look complex :)  I found these bags of frozen "Asian stir-fry mix" vegetables on sale at the grocery store and bought them because I totally love the combination (I'm not sure what makes it Asian, but I'm not complaining).  Green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions.  Chicken was cooked the same way as I did here, and after I took the chicken out of the pan, I just threw the frozen vegetables into the leftover oil and sauteed them until the onions were translucent the mushrooms were soft. 

Another delicious and economical dish.

Did you know that when you search Kirby, the top hit is a vacuum store?

I'm afraid I don't have the pattern that was used to make this Kirby, it's quite well done.  I just added the detailing on the face after my friend finished crocheting the body.  She hates finishing, and I have a love/hate relationship with finishing, so I offered to do it for her.  I had limited colors of felt so Sharpie cheeks it is!  Also, I've only recently discovered the wonders of using felt for intricate detailing on crochet things, I used to crochet everything.  Felt is much nicer (and I only have to glue, no sewing!)

Scientists have the best humor.

 

via Improbable Research

This apparently isn't the first time someone has snubbed the abstract.

I lol'ed.

A step up from plain pasta: Peas and tuna pasta

This meal was pretty darn tasty and pretty much composed of random things I had in the cupboard.  And I think all together, this dish cost me around $1 per serving. 

-Can of water-packed tuna (not as healthy as the oil packed but still good) (I probably used about half for one meal)
-Frozen peas
-Mini shell pasta
-Dash of salt and pepper

This was inspired by a Real Simple dish but that one was for a cold pasta dish, and I like my food hot ;]  All I did was cook the pasta, cook the peas in the pasta water, and put tuna into the bowl.  I didn't even have to cook the tuna; I just put the hot pasta and peas on top and mixed it up.

Economical and tasty. Not bad.

Apparently, strawberries aren't actually a "berry"

I love quick little projects like this strawberry that require minimal finishing :]  I'm especially loving the pattern for the leaves at the top, this is the best one I've come across yet.  I found it at the Make Little Things blog somehow in my trawling of the great wide internets.  I'm still on the hunt for the most perfect strawberry pattern, I feel like this one could have been pointier at the tip of the fruit ;] But now I'm just nitpicking.

Also, it is a very special strawberry-blonde's birthday today. Something like 16 years I've known her now, and I'm quite happy to make that another 16+ years :]

Fanfare

I think this is so beautiful plus the music really makes this video. I've always wanted to learn how to dance, ballet that is.



 via {frolic!}

I can't believe this is actually an ad spot for Chloe.  Well done.

Incidentally, I've been taking ballroom dance classes at our Rec Gym. It's surprisingly loads of fun.

Shent

What is a shent? (A little bit of humor, definitely pokes fun at Rachael Ray and some other Food Network hosts)
TL;DR: shirt < Shent < tent

 I have this shirt, from Wal-mart I think, that's been tucked away in a drawer because it hangs like a tent on me.  And with the wintery season upon us (San Diego winter, but I'm a SoCal girl and it's cold to me), I decided to take in this shirt so that it looks nice and it'll lay nice and flat under other shirts/sweaters.

I didn't take a before picture with the shirt on me because it was cold and rainy on Sunday, and I didn't really feel like changing out of pajamas. Believe me when I say it looked awful on me.

Flipped the shirt inside out and laid a t-shirt over that fits much better.  Drew in new rough seam lines with some leftover chalk from my teaching days and pinned it up.

Sewed it up with a ball point needle for my machine (better for knits to give it some stretch).  I just used 2 parallel straight stitches although I've heard zig-zag stitch should be used on knits.  I didn't even cut off the excess since I'm lazy. 

Yay, done! Nice wardrobe staple for the late fall/winter.  Hopefully my seams hold up well in the wash.

It's definitely Monday today.

You know how I know it's Monday today?

When I got to work this morning, it took me nearly 45 minutes to get started on any of my experiments because I had to take apart my scope and replace the bulb.

It's going to be a long week.

+1 to Cooking Skill. Your skill in Cooking has increased to 2.

 I used this recipe for Sauteed Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Pears from Real Simple, but since I didn't have some of the ingredients and I didn't want to buy them, I left out the 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and 1 tbsp tarragon.

I love the recipes on Real Simple mostly because it says things like [Sauté the chicken until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes per side].  This helps me a ton because I have no idea how long it is until chicken is "done", and I poke at it every 2 minutes to see if it's still pink inside. 

Also, why was this sweet potato yellow when most are orange inside? Sweet potatoes are deceptively heavy, the one I picked out ended up being about 1.5 pounds!

It was delicious! But just a little advice, don't spend so much time taking pictures and congratulating yourself on making an edible and safe-to-eat meal that your food gets cold. Just saying :)

Now I have leftovers and lunch for the next couple days, yay cooking at home!

And I have leftover chicken breasts from the package I bought, so maybe a savory chicken dish next? The sweet potato and pear were obviously a very sweet combination for the chicken.

For the happy lovebirds

I made these as an anniversary gift a couple of months ago for my friends who got married last year.

I might be a terrible gift-giver because these are the most impractical thing ever. Especially for two young people with very little extra space in their apartment. But that's my thing I guess, giving impractical gifts to people.

For my generation:

Amazing. I can't believe it's all over.