(First: please scroll down for another post featuring 'one yard wonder' projects!)
Not the real recipe--a fakeout that tastes reeaaaally good.
This makes about a cup and a half.
SECRET BURGER SAUCE
1 Cup mayo
1/4 C French Dressing
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
Onion powder to taste--or about 2 T finely minced fresh onion
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
dash salt
Mix it all up and store in a jar. Let it mellow in the fridge for a few hours to blend the flavors, giving it a stir every once in a while. Enjoy on burgers or anywhere else you'd like.
This reminds me of recipes for Thousand Island Dressing. The difference seems to be that you use French dressing here instead of ketchup. Imagine, someone at McD's changed one ingredient of a classic recipe and created the standard for 'secret burger sauce'!
I'm linking to "The White Blue Sky" to join in "Culinary Evolution." Hop over there for a yummy-sounding Barbecue Sauce recipe!
http://thewhitebluesky.com/2010/06/week-7-culinary-evolution-tangy-homemade-barbeque-sauce.html
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
New One Yarders
Here are two more projects from the One Yard Wonders book. (This thing is underlining and I don't know why--I can't even see an 'underline' icon.)
On the left is a folder for holding CDs. I keep mine in the compartment between the front seats, but the pattern also shows you how to add elastic to put it over the visor.
The project on the right is a trash bag. The original has straps made from matching fabric, but I have a ton of ribbon so I used some of that instead. This bag has a pocket in the front. I'm not sure what it's for, but I guess I'd put plastic bags in there.
It's tied behind the passenger seat. That way, I just have to reach back and put in my trash, and I never even have to take my eyes off the road.
Both projects were very easy, as are most of the items in the book!
Again, apologies for the underlining!
PS, I'm linking over to "The Trendy Treehouse" to join in Creative Share today.
http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/2010/06/creative-share-blog-hop_29.html
Friday, June 25, 2010
Mike's birthday and thrifting
My wonderful husband, Mike, is 56 years old today. We went out to breakfast this morning. I'm not sure what we're doing for dinner. We usually go out on Friday, mostly the Taco Bell or diner route. I offered to make him burgers, but we'll see what he wants to do.
Meantime, on a totally different topic, I've been thinking of some new clothes for fall. I want to work around green, maroon (or burgundy) and beige. I can make the tops and I even have a green jacket that is almost finished. But I don't like making pants--they never fit right for all that work--so I thought I'd just check Macy's and Sears on line to see what was in style. I also looked at some tops for the heck of it.
Well, pants are pants. I'm pretty conservative so I'd only go for regular-looking ones, not anything with fancy embroidery or cut outs or bling. One thing I prefer is a wider waistband. It sits more comfortably against my stomach, which is hyper sensitive. (I hate elastic, btw.) So there wasn't much that was interesting.
But the tops annoyed me. I'm sorry...$40 for a t-shirt? Just 'cause it has a little bit of ruffling? You're joking, right? I don't care who's name is on it, it's a blasted t-shirt!
Anyhoo, I had about five more bags of 'stuff' to get rid of, so I headed back to the trusty thrift store today. I don't usually have much luck with clothes (most of it is either too shrunken or faded) but today I decided to plow the racks. I found 4 tops that cost me less than $12 for all of them! 2 are tanks, one is a fabric of woven cotton, striped, with three buttons down the front and a collar, and the last one is a peasant blouse in knit. The peasant blouse may end up being a PJ top, but that's okay because I need one for summer.
So here I'm posting again with no pictures. Boring! I have a way now to get my pictures on the computer from the camera, and I have a cute "One-Yard Wonder" project to show off. Next post, I promise!
If you read this far, thank you! I tend to talk too much!
Meantime, on a totally different topic, I've been thinking of some new clothes for fall. I want to work around green, maroon (or burgundy) and beige. I can make the tops and I even have a green jacket that is almost finished. But I don't like making pants--they never fit right for all that work--so I thought I'd just check Macy's and Sears on line to see what was in style. I also looked at some tops for the heck of it.
Well, pants are pants. I'm pretty conservative so I'd only go for regular-looking ones, not anything with fancy embroidery or cut outs or bling. One thing I prefer is a wider waistband. It sits more comfortably against my stomach, which is hyper sensitive. (I hate elastic, btw.) So there wasn't much that was interesting.
But the tops annoyed me. I'm sorry...$40 for a t-shirt? Just 'cause it has a little bit of ruffling? You're joking, right? I don't care who's name is on it, it's a blasted t-shirt!
Anyhoo, I had about five more bags of 'stuff' to get rid of, so I headed back to the trusty thrift store today. I don't usually have much luck with clothes (most of it is either too shrunken or faded) but today I decided to plow the racks. I found 4 tops that cost me less than $12 for all of them! 2 are tanks, one is a fabric of woven cotton, striped, with three buttons down the front and a collar, and the last one is a peasant blouse in knit. The peasant blouse may end up being a PJ top, but that's okay because I need one for summer.
So here I'm posting again with no pictures. Boring! I have a way now to get my pictures on the computer from the camera, and I have a cute "One-Yard Wonder" project to show off. Next post, I promise!
If you read this far, thank you! I tend to talk too much!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Just...hi
Just wanted to say a quick hello! It drives me nuts when I visit a blog I love and the blogger hasn't written in it in months. I don't want to be like that. (Not that my blog is so interesting, LOL!)
Nothing much is new. Father's Day was very nice. The kids and I gave Mike a blue-ray system plus the movie "Avatar" to watch on it. He really enjoyed that. We had a barbecue for dinner. Mike would eat burgers every day if he could.
Friday night, my daughter Katherine surprised us with a dinner out. I happened to have a Restaurant.com certificate for $25 at a new Italian place, so we went there. Mike and the owner have known each other for years through the gym they go to, but I didn't know that when I got the certificate. (It was verrrry cheap, btw, maybe $4? You totally have to try Restaurant.com if you haven't already. And if you use Paypal, see if they've got a deal going on.)
I have to tell you it was one of the best meals I've ever had in my life! Certainly the best in years. Mike and I usually hit the diner or Taco Bell or Wendy's on Friday night, but Katherine insisted on someplace much nicer. You know how sometimes you treat yourself to a special place and it's such a let down? Not Martino's! I had duck in a raspberry-apricot sauce that was perfect--love the crispy skin. And, OMG, the spinach salad! Put goat cheese, cranberries and toasted nuts on a salad and I'm totally there!
Mike enjoyed his veal parmigiana, and Katherine had a nice pasta dish with vegetables. We won't even talk about the amazing desserts. Okay, I had a piece of toasted coconut vanilla layer cake that sent me to heaven. Mike had Mississippi Mud Cake and Katherine had a Napolean.
All in all, a beautiful treat from our beautiful daughter.
Ha, I just realized this was a little bit more of a post than 'hi'!
Nothing much is new. Father's Day was very nice. The kids and I gave Mike a blue-ray system plus the movie "Avatar" to watch on it. He really enjoyed that. We had a barbecue for dinner. Mike would eat burgers every day if he could.
Friday night, my daughter Katherine surprised us with a dinner out. I happened to have a Restaurant.com certificate for $25 at a new Italian place, so we went there. Mike and the owner have known each other for years through the gym they go to, but I didn't know that when I got the certificate. (It was verrrry cheap, btw, maybe $4? You totally have to try Restaurant.com if you haven't already. And if you use Paypal, see if they've got a deal going on.)
I have to tell you it was one of the best meals I've ever had in my life! Certainly the best in years. Mike and I usually hit the diner or Taco Bell or Wendy's on Friday night, but Katherine insisted on someplace much nicer. You know how sometimes you treat yourself to a special place and it's such a let down? Not Martino's! I had duck in a raspberry-apricot sauce that was perfect--love the crispy skin. And, OMG, the spinach salad! Put goat cheese, cranberries and toasted nuts on a salad and I'm totally there!
Mike enjoyed his veal parmigiana, and Katherine had a nice pasta dish with vegetables. We won't even talk about the amazing desserts. Okay, I had a piece of toasted coconut vanilla layer cake that sent me to heaven. Mike had Mississippi Mud Cake and Katherine had a Napolean.
All in all, a beautiful treat from our beautiful daughter.
Ha, I just realized this was a little bit more of a post than 'hi'!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Ruthless Decluttering
Yeah, I'm still here. Most of what I've wanted to blog about involves photos of things I've made, but I lost that wire that connects the camera to the computer. We had carpeting installed (berber in neutrals--I love it) and several rooms were topsy-turvy. I'm still looking for things despite the fact I really tried to keep it all in some kind of order.
It flips me out how much you can accumulate. It doesn't look like all that much when it's in drawers, baskets and closets.
Worse than the wire is that I can't find a paycheck, either. I might have to ask my boss to rewrite it for me, but I'll keep looking.
Having to plow through all this stuff, I got it into my head to up my decluttering. As I've posted before, we'll be downsizing from 11-ish rooms to maybe 5 or 6 within the next year or two, so I have to get rid of things!
I was looking at my shelves of fabric scraps. They are nicely organized by color in bins that generally match--pink in a pink bin, blue in a blue basket. You get the picture. But I've got 25 or so photo albums stored up in the attic that I want to bring down. I need a place to put them.
So here's the ruthless part...I managed to get rid of about 90% of my scraps! Yeah, really! Honestly, if you haven't used it in...uh, five? Seven?...years, you ain't never gonna use it!
So donate it to charity! I have 2 huge bags of nice scraps (and I'm talking decent sized, at least to combine for a quilt or to make doll clothes) to bring to the Salvation Army Store this week.
Not sure yet what I'll do with the empty baskets but they'll find a place or be donated, too.
Oh, and I also got the nutty idea to clean out my crafts closet today. I reorganized, got rid of stuff and put it back in a way that makes it easier to find things. I'm not done yet, but the biggest thing I did (and here's being ruthless again) is that I cut back on my yarn by about 30%. I simply got rid of those half-balls of leftover yarn and yarns I didn't like working with. I don't like baby weight or bulky, fancy yarns. So out they went.
The back of my SUV looks like I live in it. But my office is 75% cleaner. This is more than a one day project, but I got a good start.
BTW: today is my youngest son's 20th birthday! We gave him a digital camera. I also bought a metal bucket at Christmas Tree Shops (cool store) that I filled with treats like Pringles chips and hot fudge sauce and candy. That made him very happy because he wasn't expecting it.
It flips me out how much you can accumulate. It doesn't look like all that much when it's in drawers, baskets and closets.
Worse than the wire is that I can't find a paycheck, either. I might have to ask my boss to rewrite it for me, but I'll keep looking.
Having to plow through all this stuff, I got it into my head to up my decluttering. As I've posted before, we'll be downsizing from 11-ish rooms to maybe 5 or 6 within the next year or two, so I have to get rid of things!
I was looking at my shelves of fabric scraps. They are nicely organized by color in bins that generally match--pink in a pink bin, blue in a blue basket. You get the picture. But I've got 25 or so photo albums stored up in the attic that I want to bring down. I need a place to put them.
So here's the ruthless part...I managed to get rid of about 90% of my scraps! Yeah, really! Honestly, if you haven't used it in...uh, five? Seven?...years, you ain't never gonna use it!
So donate it to charity! I have 2 huge bags of nice scraps (and I'm talking decent sized, at least to combine for a quilt or to make doll clothes) to bring to the Salvation Army Store this week.
Not sure yet what I'll do with the empty baskets but they'll find a place or be donated, too.
Oh, and I also got the nutty idea to clean out my crafts closet today. I reorganized, got rid of stuff and put it back in a way that makes it easier to find things. I'm not done yet, but the biggest thing I did (and here's being ruthless again) is that I cut back on my yarn by about 30%. I simply got rid of those half-balls of leftover yarn and yarns I didn't like working with. I don't like baby weight or bulky, fancy yarns. So out they went.
The back of my SUV looks like I live in it. But my office is 75% cleaner. This is more than a one day project, but I got a good start.
BTW: today is my youngest son's 20th birthday! We gave him a digital camera. I also bought a metal bucket at Christmas Tree Shops (cool store) that I filled with treats like Pringles chips and hot fudge sauce and candy. That made him very happy because he wasn't expecting it.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
A fancier apron
You can probably guess this is no 'one yard' apron, LOL! (Click on my header, then scroll down for my clothespin apron post). Frankly, it took me forever to make this. The fault is more mine than the pattern--I am notorious for not reading instructions and proceeding on my own. This is not a good thing if something is totally foreign to you (even after 40 years of sewing). That zig-zaggy bottom was a pain in the neck. Silly me, I tried to sew it 'right sides together,' because that is what you usually do. No, in this case, you fold down the raw edge on the eyelet then lay it on top of the gingham. No twisting and turning necessary.
I like the back, although I'm not used to aprons that criss-cross like that. I have to figure out the straps when I put it on.
Oh, and that really is a Target bag on Sunny the Mannequin. I don't know what they cover dress forms with, but slipping things on and off of them is really difficult--too much traction. The plastic bag makes this easier.
I'm linking to "Sew Cute Tuesday" today:
http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/2010/06/sew-cute-tuesday-60110.html
Go pay Misty a visit!
(BTW, this is my second post today. I also posted for "Tammy's Recipes" for "Kitchen Tip Tuesday.")
EDITED ON THURSDAY TO LINK TO:
"It's So Stinkin' Cute" Thursday
http://itssewstinkincute.blogspot.com
Check out the cuteness on Julie's blog!
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