Betsy!

This is a vintage Sunbeam stand mixer from 1937. It runs like a dream. I shall name her Betsy.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 Stick of Butter, Softened
2 Eggs
2-3 Overripe Bananas
2/3c Sugar
1 1/3c Bread Flour
3/4t Salt
1/2t Baking Soda
1/4t Baking Powder
1t Cinnamon



Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Mix the butter, eggs, bananas, and sugar together, using a potato masher. There can be small chunks of banana, as in pea-sized, but you want it pretty mashed. In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients and then mix your wet and dry with a spatula. I added half a cup of chocolate chips to one loaf and it turned out well, although choco-banana is not my fave. You could also add nuts or anything else wierd that you like.
3. Heavy grease a loaf pan, pour in the batter, and bake for about 50 minutes. Let the loaf cool for about 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Butterfly Feeders

Ingredients:
Small Mason Jars w/ Canning Lids
Cellulose Sponges
Twine
Aquarium Rocks
Sugar
Water

Directions: 
To make these butterfly feeders, we cut small triangles into canning lids and pulled half of a sponge into the triangle, so that a portion hangs out and the rest stays within the jar. We half-filled the jars with sugar water (1 part sugar to 3 parts water, heated on the stove to form a simple syrup) and added aquarium rocks just for funsies. We tied the twine around the jar before adding the lids. Finally, we placed the lids on tightly and hung them in the tree! You have to check their sugar water levels every now and again, but mine have stayed pretty full and very clean for a week now.

Teacup Bird Feeders

Ingredients: 
Teacups
Saucers
E-6000 Glue
Chain
Birdseed

Directions:
Glue the teacups to the saucers, following the instructions on the tube. Loop the chain through the handle and attach to a limb. Add bird seed. It's that easy! I haven't added birdseed yet, because I live in Oklahoma and it's still super crazy high wind season right now.

Jewelry Storage Solutions

For this piece, just get a cheese grater and spray paint the sucker. This grater was $3 at Wal-Mart and was getting a little rusty. I have a pretty amazeballs microplane and a small food processor now so the grater was just collecting dust. I already had a cheap can of black spray paint, $1 from Lowe's, so this basically cost me nothing.

I fell in love with this bud vase at Hobby Lobby and bought it even though I never buy fresh flowers. I spray painted a dowel rod black and now it holds my bracelets and rings. 

I found these pretty teacups at the flea market last weekend, with the intent to use them for bird feeders. They're actual china, so too delicate for what I had in mind but perfect for this. I used e6000 glue and some Command strips to turn these into necklace holders.

This is made from a plate, bowl, ashtray, two candlestick holders, and a whole mess of E6000 glue. All of the glass items are from Dollar Tree. Ironically, I bought everything for this before those other things, for the express purpose of holding my jewelry. Now this is superfluous. Anyone wanna buy a jewelry/appetizer/whatever stand? ;)

Cards Against Humanity - My Deck

I'm working on my Cards Against Humanity deck, and this is my "write-in" card list. I've culled every official CAH expansion, main pack versions, holiday packs, spinoff card decks (Crabs Adjust Humidity, etc.), and friends' decks. I still need 38 more white cards. Halp?

Easy Tomato Bisque

Ingredients: 
2 Medium Yellow Onions
1 Head of Garlic
3 Cans of Diced Tomatoes
2 Cans of Tomato Paste
1 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
3 Cups of Chicken Broth
Basil
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

 
Directions:
Begin by caramelizing two medium yellow onions, toss in a full head of diced garlic, add three cans of diced tomatoes (or four large hothouse tomatoes), two small cans of tomato paste, and stir to mix. Add a cup of heavy whipping cream, along with basil, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste. Finally, stir in a box of chicken broth (about three cups), and simmer until to your desired thickness.

Chicken "Pot Pie"

My garlic cheddar biscuits make men weep.

I do not even know why we call this chicken pot pie. There are no pots. There is no pie. Instead, it's a chicken casserole kinda thing but with biscuits atop.

THE CHICKEN PART
1 tablespoon Butter
Enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to sauté the onion until caramelized
1 whole Onion, Medium Sized Diced Fine
A whole bunch of chicken. I use about 1/2 of a pack of boneless breasts or 1/2 of what I end up with after boiling and deboning chicken quarters.
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
A thing of celery, minus the yellow middle, sliced.
About half a pack of carrots, sliced.
1 teaspoon Rosemary, Dried
1 teaspoon Sage
2/3 cup Flour
1 box-like container of Chicken Stock; I think it’s about 3 cups.
Halfish of a bag of frozen peas. So just under a pound?

THE BISCUIT PART2c All-Purpose Flour
2T Baking Powder
1t Sugar
1 Salt
1t Garlic Powder
3T Shortening
4T Cold Butter
2T Parsley
1 1/2 cups Cheddar Cheese
3/4 cup Milk

FOR GARLIC BUTTERRemainder of the stick of Butter
1-2t Garlic Powder
1-2T Parsley

FOR FILLING: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.1. In a large pan melt butter over medium high heat and add olive oil and onions. Saute until onions are caramelized.
2. If using whole chicken, add it now and brown it. If using cooked chicken, skip to the next part.
3. Add chicken, garlic, celery, carrots, rosemary, and sage. Mix to combine.
4. Add flour and stir to coat chicken and vegetables about 1 minutes.
5. Slowly stir in chicken stock to prevent lumps from forming.
6. Add peas and cook until mixture thickens.
7. Place mixture into a 9"x13" pan.

FOR BISCUITS:1. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and garlic powder. Mix until combined.
2. Using a pastry cutter or fork cut in butter and shortening to the flour mixture until butter resembles peas.
3. Stir in cheese and parsley until well combined.
4. Stir in milk until barely combined being careful not to over mix.
5. Drop 12 equal sized biscuits over filling.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until mixture is hot and bubbly and biscuits are cooked through.

FOR GARLIC BUTTER:1. Combine all ingredients in bowl and microwave until melted.
2. Brush over the top of cooked biscuits directly out of the oven.

Headlines of the Week (or Whatever)

The Most Hilarious Stills from Live’s “I Alone” Video

The Calaveras of José Guadalupe Posada

HOUDINI'S GRAVE: The final resting place of the great escape artist, where some still gather to wait for his escape from death

Kern Your Enthusiasm: The Genius of Jenson’s Roman, or How Nicholas Jenson Created a Perfect Typeface 600 Years Ago

Johnny Cash's dark California days

Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

In Defense Of Ms. Hill: It’s finally time to stop letting folks from outside of our community tell us how to feel about Lauryn Hill

What I Learned After Taking a Homeless Mother Grocery Shopping

My boyfriend lives in a dumpster: When Jeff began his year-long social experiment, students wanted to know how it could possibly work. So did I.

Finally, the flying car may have landed: Slovakian company AeroMobil to unveil prototype of ‘world’s most advanced flying car’ in at Vienna’s Pioneers Festival