Three days off in a row always makes me more productive... and I like to think it makes me more creative. I think I'd make an excellent "stay-at-home" partner. Too bad I have to work and am thus crabby 3/4 of the time! So, the weekend's creativity started in the kitchen... I've been a home-cooking machine. I made homemade mac and cheese this week... yum. And tried out the mustard greens that came in last week's box... learned something very important: I hate mustard greens. As a vegetarian, it pains me a little to dislike a green... they're ridiculously good for me and so versatile, but mustard greens are just not my cup of tea... so bitter. Blech. Anyway, they looked pretty cooking and on the plate, but my eyes and taste buds did not agree.
Later in the week I made Japanese Vegetable Stew inspired by the daikon radish we got. I learned something important again... Miso is apparently extremely difficult to track down at 7 p.m. on a Thursday. Finally found it at my fourth store (Whole Foods, in case you're wondering or looking yourself) and was able to whip out the delish veggie soup with a miso base. I doubled the recipe, cause I like me some left over soup, but I would recommend that you cut down on the sesame oil, as it was extremely potent, masking the miso flavor somewhat. I also added a turnip to the recipe and used bok choy instead of the napa cabbage, just on preference. My last tip would be to only throw in enough pea pods for the first serving and to throw them in for only about 1-2 minutes, as I let mine cook with the rest of the soup, and they got extremely mushy and slimy... gross. I ended up picking them all out when I went to put the leftovers in the fridge. Otherwise... really tasty. I was a little leery of the use of sweet potato in a veg soup, with that much saltiness, but it was probably my favorite part... though the turnip was also an excellent idea on my part. You could probably substitute the turnip for the Daikon if you can't find it at the store.
Now, on to the craftiness. I'm working my butt off to stay ahead of the impending holidays. So far, I feel like I'm winning. I have 7 people crossed off the list of 30. Yay! So, I was on a sewing kick these last few days and here are the results:
This is my first attempt at a sewn scarf. I'm all about the knitted scarves, but I have so much random "end piece" fabric and remnants left over from other projects that are not really big enough to do much with, aside from quilting them, and we know that I'm not the world's best quilter. :) So, the remnant scarf. I've seen these all over on crafting sites and in crafting magazines, so I took a shot. It turns out that I have a lot of red, black, and white fabric with some yellow accents. Handy how the color scheme just worked itself out! Anyway, here I am modelling the lovely scarf. I fortunately had enough black fleece left over from a previous project that I could do the backing as well. Yay!
This is my mama's bag. It's purple corduroy and the fabric circles are appliqued. I'm slightly addicted to applique, particularly after I learned the "dryer sheet method." The liner is the same wild fabric of the applique circles. I actually bought the remnant thinking it looked like something my mom would like, but had no use for it, but I think it goes perfectly with the purple corduroy and it's a sneaky wild side to this bag.
This is the "wildcard bag." I have so many things I'm doing for holiday gifts, that my list got a little unruly, so I just started writing "bag, hat, scarf, etc." by all the names I'm quickly adding. It's a bit daunting, but I feel like it's going better than years past attempts. Anyway, this bag looked a little "French inspired" so I added the words in fabric paint. I printed off a font I liked and free-handed the lettering. I think it turned out well, actually. If you end up getting this bag for Christmas it's because I think you're exotic and sophisticated, not because I couldn't think of what else to make for you :)
Sounds like the mustard greens were too mature. When they're still young and tender, they're more lightly pungent than bitter. If you find yourself needing to do something with them again, I'd suggest dressing them with something sour like lemon juice and maybe some chopped chili to make them more palatable. Otherwise bitter greens if they are aren't too tender can be boiled, the boiling water discarded and then incorporated into something like a hotdish and that reduces the bitter.
ReplyDeleteMiso is great! feel free to stock up on Miso paste, since as long as its refrigerated it will last almost indefinitely. I only use it occasionally, so my tub of it has been around for about a year and a half so far ;)