f u l f i l l m e

I should have announced this a while ago, but I've been secretive. I'm moving off LJ onto my own site. I'll post a link here when everything is ready.

After some random Googling, I stumbled upon this recipe for deep fried shrimp balls at a blog called Tastes of Home. We happened to have all the ingredients except green onions (and fish sauce, which I don't use), so I decided to make it. I substituted finely minced yellow onion for the green onions and put them in the food processor bowl with everything else.

DH fried them while I took a shower -- he's better at it anyway. The recipe only made 9 balls, so I decided to add a salad in additional to the fries. The shrimp balls went well with the JD sauce I made (again substituted the yellow onion with no discernible difference), but I could imagine serving them with a multitude of sauces, including soy, chili, or sweet & sour. They were delicious, with the smooth texture of shumai stuffing, but next time we'll have these as snacks or appetizers instead of a main course. Maybe next time we host a game day I'll add these to the arsenal.

x-posted.

A coworker suggested making enchiladas lasagna-style instead of rolling them. So I layered the meat, salsa, cheese, and tortillas in a baking dish. I based it on a recipe at posie's place, but made the following alterations:
- Chicken was from the meat counter and steamed
- Omitted passata and red pepper
- Skipped garlic & herb cream cheese
- Was too lazy to convert 25g, but I'm pretty sure I used way more cheddar than that
- Used 2/3 lb of chorizo (because they come in casings and are about 1/3 lb each)

For future reference, 200*C is about 400*F.

I also added a little water to the fajita seasoning and mixed it in with the meats. I only used the seasoning on the bottom of the pan so it wouldn't stick -- nothing in the layers except what was on the meat.

x-posted.

Last night we had pulled pork sandwiches with Jack Daniels sauce. So good. I bought Kaiser rolls with cheese on them and made some (freezer) fries.

( Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches )

Notes:
I used a 3 lb pork shoulder for my 4-quart slow cooker and layered onion slices on the bottom of the crock. This made enough for about 6 sandwiches, not 8, though our Kaiser buns were bigger than a regular hamburger bun. The pork was soaking overnight in two 12 oz. bottles of Henry Weinhard's rootbeer and cooked for about 9 hours the next day.

I started making the sauce first and when it was almost ready I took the pork out, separated the onions, and shredded it. Then when the sauce was ready, I mixed about half of it in with the pork and stirred it up.

( T.G.I.Friday's Jack Daniels sauce )

Notes:
I bought pre-roasted garlic, so I just used a handful from the jar. The reduction took closer to an hour than 45 mins. I didn't like that this recipe used small portions of certain ingredients; then I didn't know what to do with the rest of it. For example, I bought a 14oz. can of crushed pineapple, but I only need a teaspoon. Also, the grocery store I went to only had medium sized bottles of Jack Daniels, so I had to buy the whole bottle and only use a teaspoon of that. At least with the pineapple I could always eat it, but I doubt I'll ever drink the remaining whiskey.

x-posted.

I know I'm totally lame for not taking a picture, but I made the cake last Thursday and it was late by the time I finished so I didn't have any natural light left. Also it wasn't that pretty and we ended up eating the whole thing within three days or something like that. The recipe was so delicious that I had to post it here.

The cake had a wonderful balance of spices, and the cream cheese frosting was a fantastic compliment. I was a tad bitter about the frosting. We don't have a stand mixer or even a hand mixer, so I had to make the frosting by hand. I do have an immersion blender, but the whisk attachment is crap. It was still tasty, but just a bit lumpy.

Also, the cake was dense and a bit of heavy, so if you like your carrot cake light and fluffy, this isn't for you.

( Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting )

Fresh-baked cookies with ice cream. Delicious.

I haven't gotten the photographer pictures back yet, but here's one taken by a friend.

• Bouquet and boutonniere (plus boutonnieres and corsages)
  
• Shawl
  

Much to my surprise, I ended up redoing the tail of my shawl on Friday night. At first I only shortened it, but the seam was bothering me too, so I pulled it out to reattach. I've never been very good at attaching crochet pieces together, so after a few minutes of frustration, I decided to just screw it and redo the whole thing.

The shawl ended up 4 rows shorter than it was, and while I liked the length of the original one, it seems a little more proportionate to my height this way.

I can't wait to see all this stuff come together in 3 days!

You can tell I'm burnt out because I decided not to redo the tail as I was originally planning. As soon as I finished attaching the hoop, I just felt finished. So I got up, took pictures, and here I am.

Not sure how I feel about it yet, though. I don't think the tail is going to bother me, but I'm not sure what the feeling I have is. Possibly the same feeling I had when I finished the corset: a mixture of fatigue, relief and slight dissatisfaction. The pic on the right is a little caped crusader, but it shows the contrast and pattern clearly.

Last night FH said, Just forget the purse. You don't even need one that day; you're not going to be carrying around your stuff anyway.

I knew he was right. I had already realized that my half-assed attempt at sewing a purse wasn't going to fly. And I had basically just wasted two nights of hard work.

The real kicker was that the shawl hoop was in yesterday's mail, but I didn't get the mail till this morning. So I am annoyed that if I had only checked the mail yesterday afternoon, I could have been working on the shawl last night instead of wasting my time on a purse I wouldn't even end up wanting.

Oh well. At least I'll be done with all my stuff tonight. With the purse 86ed, the shawl is the only thing left to finish. I'll fix the tail tonight, attach the hoop, and be done. With everything. Now there's a concept!

I'm not at all pleased with the corsages and boutonnieres I made for the family members last night, but they'll have to do. What bothers me most is that I know I could have done better, but I didn't. I was so proud that I haven't had the eff-it attitude I've always had, yet something just wasn't the same when I made these. I didn't realize it last night, but I figured out what the problem was when I came home today and started on my purse.

I'm running out of steam.

I've been working nonstop since we got back from Europe, and I'm just... done. I started new duties at work; that combined with the crafty wedding things have exhausted me. On top of adjusting to my new duties, I put in at least 4 hours on wedding stuff when I get home in the evening, plus full days on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm tired all the time, and I'm sort of just waiting to snap. Last week I told my boss that I am at a point where I will stop and give myself a break if I don't think I can finish, but I will be sad if I can't. I realize now that what that meant was, I'm going to finish, period. I'm a completist, and I want to cross the items off my list from finishing the task, not from giving up.

Projects I need to complete this week:

• Bouquet and boutonniere (plus boutonnieres and corsages, above)
  
• Purse
  
• Shawl

I may skip the embroidery I was planning to do on my purse in the interest of time and sanity. It would have looked really pretty, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm done for tonight.

The shawl is technically ready except for the hoop adornment (which is important in terms of both design and structure) I'm waiting for in the mail. I had to buy the part on eBay because I could not find anything locally. The seller said she shipped on Monday, so I'll have it later this week. I'm hoping it arrives sooner than later. The catch is, I'm not exactly happy with the shawl: I want to redo the tail. Doing so wouldn't take more than an hour or so, but that means undoing work I've already done, and that is a little depressing.

( Some close ups )


Alright, here it is. The bouquet I didn't even want. ~_^

I was originally planning to use orange, yellow and goldenrod felt as well, but when I had everything together, the off-white and white felt with orange and yellow embroidery thread looked better. The felt colors were too strong for what I wanted -- it was inmate orange and really bright yellow. I wanted softer tones, so I stuck with my orange and cream. I was also going to add some dark green to the mix, faux fern leaves with ivory embroidery, but the forest green was too dark for the colors and I didn't have another green.

In any case, I'm pleased with how it turned out. I've never done anything like this before, and it was actually a lot of fun. I was thinking of offering to make some for some friends who are getting married soon, but I don't know if button bouquets are their style.

As I have been prone to do lately, I unfortunately underestimated the time I would need to complete the bouquet. I made the boutonniere and 24 stems in considerably more time than I thought the project would take. I just finished arranging them, but we don't have any natural light right now, so I'll post pics tomorrow. I did make the boutonniere earlier in the day, so I can post that, at least.

Hopefully I'll finish the shawl this weekend, but we'll see. A while ago, I finished the poncho I made for my mom in a few evenings of frantic crocheting, but the way my estimates have been, I'll probably finish closer to next weekend T_T

I read somewhere that imitation is the best compliment. I hope that's common knowledge, because I decided to make a button bouquet suspiciously similar to those I saw on Offbeat Bride by princesslasertron. I usually like to support the original creator and purchase from the artist whose work I like, but I can't spend $250 on something that will just sit around after the wedding. If I haven't already said this, one of my rules of thumb is If it's going to be useless after the wedding, don't spend money on it. That was why I didn't want a bouquet. It will just sit around after the wedding, and we don't need more stuff.

But today, during the brief moment I could spare a thought for myself, I realized I want a bouquet. Not a floral one, though -- I don't like cut flowers -- a button bouquet.

What's funny about this whole mess is that I chose a button bouquet, rather than origami or pom poms or what-have-you, because I have a tin of orange buttons leftover from my orange blossom crochet hook case, yet somehow I ended up at the store buying MORE buttons.

The even more funny thing is that I had several good, logical reasons for not wanting a bouquet from the get-go, and now at the 2-week marker, I changed my mind for a very silly reason.

As I bucked more and more traditions, I also deprived myself of many bride-y items, and I realized I want a bridal identifier. If we were to walk into a Jamba Juice after the ceremony, nobody would be able to tell we just got married: he won't be wearing a tux, and I won't be wearing a white dress or veil. Not to say that all weddings have these elements, but they are universally recognized as wedding garb. A bouquet is something so unique to a bride that even a non-floral one would identify me as a blushing beauty that day.

I'll post pictures tomorrow when the lighting is better. The bouquet and boutonniere should be done by then. *knock on wood*

Big, big thank you to valleyviolet for all her advice, support, and cheerleading through the process of making my first corset. I couldn't have done it without you!