What's for dinner? What's in the fridge?

Of course the down side to having a break from working is having a break from getting paid. It's dinner. We're out of everything. We've got a fruit bowl with oranges (3lb. bag on sale for $1) and some bananas. We have some frozen stuff we've stocked up on, but very little produce. We're sick of Boca burgers. I can't believe I'm out of soy sauce. (I can't believe I can't afford to buy soy sauce right now!) We have dry goods like rice and lentils but no broth.

So I did a little internet recipe searching and came up with:

Orange Sesame Ginger Chik'n with Brown Rice

Throw some brown rice (jasmine, basmati, whatever) in the rice cooker and whisk together this marinade:

2 Tb. sesame oil

1 Tb. soy sauce (I had 3 packets from a take out sushi from one of our travels)

2 Tb. honey

juice & zest of 1 orange

2 cloves garlic minced

1 Tb. fresh ginger minced

I thawed out a 12 oz. bag of frozen Quorn Chik'n Nuggets and marinated them for about 30 minutes. Then sauteed a little bit of onion (thinly sliced) and one more garlic clove in some sesame oil, threw in the marinated chik'n chunks and browned it, adding all the marinade. I sprinkled a teaspoon of corn starch so the leftover juice would thicken into a sauce (or at least a glaze).

Serve over the rice with some cilantro. Here I've pickled a little bit of red cabbage and carrot with rice vinegar, sugar, and a little sriracha garlic chili sauce.

It was a hit. And I didn't have to leave the house or do any shopping. Just gotta get to Friday!

New Quinoa Recipe for the New Year

I'm so happy to have a little time to cook and try out new things. I have only a week before school starts again, so I'm going to try to get a lot in!

We got the latest issue of Vegetarian Times in the mail and it has recipes submitted by students, including an excellent quinoa salad. Which I made. And am eating as I sit here typing this. It has a lot of tabouleh/arabic salad components, which of course are Zipper's favorites. And it has the added bonus of quinoa's magical properties and toasted pine nuts for crunch.

Quinoa Salad (from Veg Times with Zipper modifications)

Boil about 6c. of salted water and add 1 1/2 c. quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is tender (about 15 min). Drain quinoa and rinse with cold water. Drain again.

Toast 1/2 c. pine nuts in a dry pan. Don't let them burn.

Finely dice

1 english or 2 regular cucumbers (peeled, seeded) (2 1/2 c.)

2 tomatoes (3/4 c.)

1/2 red onion (about 1/2 c.)

1 bunch parsley

Toss quinoa, pine nuts and veggies. Add zest and juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 c. olive oil.

Salt & black pepper to taste.

Makes a large batch (it's supposed to serve 12). It'll be great next time I have to bring something to a potluck!

Quilting in the New Year

I've just discovered I fit into a category: Modern Quilter. This is an actual term. A glance at my list of crafty bloggers there on the side will give you an idea of what that entails. Mostly non-traditional forms, creative patterns, lots of bright colors with solids. And the celebration of a prevailing aesthetic of "wonkiness." Yay! (this means my inability to sew in a straight line will not deter me!)

For the past couple of years, all I want for my birthday is a gift card from the fabric store. Since my birthday is in late November, this gives me a chance to stock up on supplies to keep me busy through the holiday season. (one year I gave my parents handmade bathrobes and pajama pants and something like pencil cases for Christmas, thinking they would cherish gifts sewn by their daughter. I'm still not sure they realize I made them... they never said..)

This year, I didn't have a chance to buy fabrics until after the holiday, but I've blown through my fifty bucks, mostly in pre-cut quarters. I stacked them up with some of my leftovers from previous projects-- I like the spectrum! Oh the possibilities!

The local Jo-Ann's here is rather small and always packed, so just grabbing quarters gives me the chance to just grab a bunch of different bright colors I like and GO. And I got queen-sized batting. I'm excited. I am also the proud new owner of Boo Davis's Dare to be Square Quilting. I have a couple of cream and taupe fitted sheets that we no longer use, so I've had my eye on them to cut 'em up and work them into a quilt (I've also saved a lot of beloved pajama pants that I've worn literally to pieces...I'm thinking jammies and sheets used to make a quilt that I will continue to sleep under has a nice poetic quality).

I was initially going to make the "Does Not Compute" robot quilt for my first project for the new year, but fell in love with the look and name of the "Two Left Feet" pattern. So I cut and stacked the 304 pieces---
And started putting them together, one by one. This was mind-boggling because each of the 20 major blocks was TOTALLY different, but also because the colors of the one in the book were blue, gold, and brown. My dominant colors were red, blue, and "other" (green/yellow/orange). So for all the blue pieces in the pattern, I subbed in my reds. For the book's golds, I used my blues. This got REALLY confusing when I would look at a blue strip in the pattern and a blue strip of fabric in my hand and wonder what I was doing next...
But I made it through-- I think I started cutting blocks on Dec. 30 and finished sewing the rows together on the 4th-- and now have a great quilt top... that Zips won't get off of.

After I spread it out on the bed to take this photo, she parked it (as you see here), and then tuckered down and stayed there all night. Then all day the next day.

I'm glad she likes it. I worried when I was picking the colors that with all the red and blue and white, it would look patriotic-- but I think the blues are more mediterranean and the overall effect of the different fabric patterns is kind of Japanese. I'm going to use one of the taupe sheets and some leftovers to piece together the back of the quilt-- then comes the tedious sandwiching, machine quilting, and binding. I think I may do the pj pants mini-quilt before that happens. (to get back into the groove of quilting and binding before a queen-sized project) Hopefully before school starts next week!