One Pillow To Rule Them All

Nerdy title, I know. Ok, so I love having pillows out that match my seasonal decor, but we live in an apartment, so we can't go around buying seasonal pillows every season, there's no room to store them. Here's my simple solution.

This yellow pillow is good for spring, summer, and the first half of fall, but November through January I want it to be a dark green plaid, but I want a pillow case that stays closed, comes off and on easy, and doesn't involve using notions of any kind (buttons, snaps, zippers). Basically, this is a lazy girl's pillow covering.

Lay your pillow on your fabric and fold the fabric over the pillow. 

This is to measure where you want to cut for the width of the pillow, and also getting an idea of how much lengthwise fabric you have to work with.

Cut the fabric. See how I didn't leave much of a seam allowance? I want my pillowcase to be snug. Now, this fabric I'm using in Hesse pictures is a woven fabric, so there's really not a lot of give, but I made this same kind of pillow covering in red with a knit fabric, and I was even stingier with my cuts because I knew the fabric would stretch. I'll show what those pillows look like at the end of the blog.

Hem the ends of the fabric. I used a serger because that's all I have right now.

If you're using a fabric with only one patterned side, make sure it's ugly side out. Fold your pillow like you're wrapping a present, folding he excess fabrics over one another.

Pin the ends down to the fabric beneath in both sides and make sure it's taut and even. Does anyone know if I spelled taut right? Ye Olde Spellcheck didn't stop me, but I'm still nervous about it. 

Pull the pillow out of the case. Lay fabric flat and reform pillow case without the pillow.

Sew up both sides. Yay! That's it. Now turn the pillowcase right side out and stick your pillow in it.

That's it. It took me, like, five minutes per pillow. Too easy not to try.

Here's a picture of I've of e red pillows I also did. It's a stretchy knit, so I made the pillow case a little smaller than I would have if it was woven.

Here's what the backs look like once completed. Ok, happy sewing!

Spaghetti Squash, Noodle-Replacer

Hi friends. Ok, I love noodles. I wish I could eat them every day, but that's a lot of carbs, so I don't. This is a meal I made earlier this evening, using a Spaghetti Squash as the vehicle for my home made tomato sauce. Enjoy.

First, I had to bake the squash. James poked some holes in it and we threw it on a cookie sheet (to prevent drips) and put it in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes on 400 heat.

Much later, I whipped up the basic version of our sauce. It gets more complicated when you add more veggies, shrimp, chicken, cheese, tofu, whatever, but we just made the basic vegetarian (vegan, really) version because it's just a Thursday, nothing to get too excited about. Here's how you make it.

Throw a couple onions chopped up about the size of a dime into a pan with either extra virgin olive or coconut (also chaste) oil. Sorry for making chastity jokes about cooking oils. I'm only human. Ok, so add some minced garlic (I add a couple teaspoons worth at least because garlic is my eternal flame) and cook until the onions start getting all see through. Now sprinkle on some sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper if you're into that kind of thing, and some basil/Italian seasonings of choice. Today I used a spice called "Pizza Seasoning" because the bag was leaking and I panicked. It turned out.

Then add a can of diced tomatoes, drained a bit, but you don't have to use a strainer or anything, just push the top down after you use the can opener and get rid of the stuff that drains out easily. Then, let the tomatoes simmer for about ten minutes and it should start looking like this picture up top.

After an hour and fifteen minutes, carefully remove your squash from the oven. I say carefully because they are round and heavy, thus likely to roll and potentially cause multiple safety hazards. Cut it down the middle and grab a spoon and scoop out the part that looks like pumpkin guts (stringy with seeds). Once that has been dealt with, use that same spoon and rake the squashy innards around and gasp in horror and delight as they begin to resemble spaghetti noodles. Now all that's left to do is to combine squash and sauce. Wanna see a picture of what that looks like? I'm going to assume you all said a resounding "Yes!" and show you a picture.

Usually I make a pretty plate to take a picture of for the blog and then I eat it, but James was sick of me always getting the attractive food, so this was his plate. It's not even that pretty at all, actually, but compared to my plate, it's Kelly Kapowski. If you were born in the eighties and don't know who that is, shame on you. Extra points to the nineties-born who got that, and everyone else is exempt. 

Well, that's really all I have for today. Oh, wanna see what my dogs are doing right now?

I shone a desk lamp on them to take this picture and they still didn't wake up. Unbelievable. 

Home-made Spring Rolls

Hi friends. So, I love spring rolls, and I had a friend who had sucessfully made them in college, so I decided today was my turn.

I bought these spring roll wrappers at my local grocery store in the international food aisle. 

I made some white rice, which I meant to put inside the rolls, but as you'll later see, I totally forgot about it in the first three I made. Embarrassing. 

I cut up avocados, ran a peeler over some carrots, and grabbed some broccolli slaw (minus the dressing, obviously) and grabbed some sprouts. I added a little garlic to the avocados because I love garlic.

I dipped the wrapper in a pan of warm water for about ten seconds, when it was just starting to get a little bendy.

I filled it up with delicious veggies and forgot the rice completely. Sigh, typical Alicia. Anyways, then you have to fold it pretty fast. I wrapped it like so:

Left side over and tighten as much as you can without breaking it, fold in both top and bottom ends securely, roll right side in.

This is the first one I did. It's not very pretty, but I think I did an ok job.

While taking a picture of the first three spring rolls I made, I noticed the untouched rice.

I then made two more just so I could make some with rice. 

These were surprisingly easy to make, and I'm almost positive that they're vegan, so if that's you, eat up, they're super good. You can pretty much put whatever you want in these, the veggies I suggested in the recipie are just the veggies I had in my fridge. Be creative! Have some fun! Ok, happy cooking!

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Hi friends. You know what I like to have during the holidays? Popcorn. Popcorn tins, fresh popcorn, kettle corn, and my new favorite kind: peanut butter popcorn!

Here's a step by step guide to making this delicious snack food.

First, you must know and appreciate my beautiful friend Anne, queen of popcorn, home-made frosting, and all things gourmet. She came over to my house and taught me how to make this yummy treat.

First, make some popcorn. Use white kernels if you have them. I forgot and used yellow. It won't ruin the flavor, but white kernels are better. I forget why. I'm sure it's a fine and noble reason.

Ok, so you make the popcorn, put it in a big mixing bowl and set it aside. Easy enough.

Make sure you have these three ingredients: sugar, peanut butter, and corn syrup. I chose light corn syrup and natural peanut butter because this is not a healthy snack by any stretch of the imagination, and I wanted to lessen the damage.

Put a half cup of corn syrup in a small pot on the stove, heated to medium low.

Add a half cup of sugar. Stir continually.

When it looks like this, it's time to add the peanut butter.

Add a half cup of peanut butter.

Stir and remove from heat.

Ugh, the lighting over my counters is so dismal. Please forgive. Ok! So pour the mixture over the popcorn as your stir it in. Stir with some swiftness so you cover all your popcorn before the mixture cools too much. 

You can let it cool or eat it right away. Yum!

Thanks Anne! Best popcorn ever!