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Friday, July 16, 2010

How to Make Leaf Earwires

Marking this awesome handmade earwire tutorial for future use!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hot Hot Hot Jalapeno Cheese Bread!

This is James' new favorite, it is gone the same evening I make it. I add lots and lots of jalapenos to suit his taste, so you might want to scale back a bit - you've been warned! :-)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup water
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons seeded and chopped canned diced jalapeno peppers
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast, for all bread machines

Set your machine to 1 lb. loaf, light crust. I also sprinkle some extra cheese on top during the last 10 minutes of baking.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread - Bread Machine

I'm marking this great recipe on my blog, it seems to be the easiest place to store recipes these days while running around the kitchen with a baby in my arms!

For this recipe, I set the machine to Fruit and Nut, for a 1.5 lb loaf. Raisins were added at the beep (2.25 hours left). Delicious!

1 cup water
2 tablespoons margarine
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup raisins

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Handmade Earwires

From a great Etsian's blog...

Free Jewelry Making Tutorial #1: Handmade Earwires

I have been wanting to start making my own earwires for quite some time, but it's been one of those projects that just keeps falling to the bottom of the pile. I finally carved out some time to do it, and I was so pleased with the results that I thought I would put together this free tutorial. I'm hoping it will be the first of many jewelry making tutorials that I will post here, but we'll see how things go - I'm not making any promises.

You will need:
round-nosed pliers
flat-nosed pliers
wire cutters
20" of 20-gauge half-hard sterling silver wire (to make 10 earwires)
a Sharpie pen (fine point) or 1/2" wooden dowel
metal file (or a nail file will work) or deburring tool
silver polishing cloth
metal hammer and block (optional)

1. Cut a 20" length of wire from your spool.

2. Begin to wrap the wire around the Sharpie pen (or dowel), holding it tightly against the pen/dowel.

3. Continue wrapping until all of the wire is coiled, keeping coils neat and tight.

4. Remove coil from pen/dowel; it will spring open a bit (mine ended up being about 11/16" in diameter after I took them off the pen).

5. Using your wire cutters, snip off one end to get rid of any part that isn't perfectly round.

6. Continue snipping the coils, one at a time, to produce ten circles. (You may end up with one more or less, but 20" of wire produced 10 earwires for me.)

7. File both ends of each wire section to remove any rough edges.

8. Grasp one end of the circle with your round-nosed pliers, near the end of the wire.

9. Turn the pliers towards the inside of the earwire to form a small loop.

10. Grasp the other end of the circle with your flat-nosed pliers and bend slightly outward.

11. Polish and, if you wish, hammer the earwires. (Mine are un-hammered.)

Some people make these with the loop turned to the outside, but I like the clean look of this version best (at least today). Feel free to experiment and develop your own style!

These earwires are easy to make and comfortable to wear, and they give a more modern, distinctive look to your designs than commercially produced earwires. I hope you find this tutorial useful; if you have any questions or comments, please let me know!

Of course, if you would prefer to purchase some of these earwires from me, you can do so here.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Monday Weigh In!

Hmph! Not happy, not happy at all. BUT, slow and steady wins the race I suppose. I lost 2 lbs. this week. I was hoping for more since I have given up ice cream and am on a temporary alcohol detox.

The "OMG This Is So Good" bread recipe

This is in my Breadman baking away right now and WOW my house smells amazing! I've tried a version of this before, but decided it needed more apples and more spice, so here's my OMGTISG bread :)

Cinnamon Apple Raisin Bread

* 2 large Eggs lightly beaten
* 0.25 cup Milk
* 1.5 cups All purpose flour
* 3 teaspoons Baking powder
* 1/3 cup Butter melted
* 1/3 cup Sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon Salt
* 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon light brown sugar

When beep sounds, add:

* 1 small Apple peeled and roughly chopped
* 0.25 cup Raisins
* 0.25 cup Walnuts chopped

Preparation:

Add ingredients in the order recommended by your machine, although I mixed all the wet ingredients together, and all the dry together. I then put the wet at the bottom, and the dry on top, and that worked well.

Bake in the machine, using the cake or light crust cycle, for a 1.5 pound loaf.

I also recommend adding 1 tablespoon of flour to the apple, raisin, nut mixture, to keep them from clumping together, and to absorb some of the moisture from the apple.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

So I went crazy the other night

...crazy with the lucite that arrived from Beads4all...LOVE them. She included a free gift with my order and I just couldn't stop pairing various textures and colors together. I think in the end I produced a pretty good lot of earrings, and next up: necklaces. The photos of them turned out nicely; getting used to my Nikon D40 and jewelry close-ups.