Taco Seasoning

I gave this one a try because, amazingly, I had everything I needed.  It is perfect for me.

Taco Seasoning – (slightly adapted from Barefeet In The Kitchen who adapted from allrecipes)

4 tablespoons of chili powder

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, stir together all of the spices. Store the seasoning mix in an airtight container.

I tested the mix by making enchiladas.

3/4 lb. ground beef

1  tablespoon of taco seasoning

6 corn tortillas

1 pint jar of tomatoes from my very own garden

1 small can of green chiles

chopped onion

shredded cheese

Brown beef, breaking with the back of a spoon, then drain off any fat.  Add taco seasoning and about a cup of water.  Simmer until water is pretty much gone.

While meat is simmering, add tomatoes and chilis to a small saucepan and simmer.  I let them reduce about a third and then pushed the mixture through a sieve.  I ended up with a nice mild enchilada sauce.  I like this so much that I will never buy a can of enchilada sauce again.  (Also because I bought a case of green chiles when they were on sale.  Yes, 24 cans.  Laughable for a German-American.)

Fill tortillas with meat, onion and cheese and roll tightly.  Hahaha, it's just a suggestion because I can't do it!  I put three tacos in my favorite cooking-for-one Pyrex baking dish.  It's 3 cups, 7x5x1.5 inches and has a plastic lid which makes it nice for refrigerator or freezer.

Cover with sauce, a little more cheese and bake at 350° until top is crispy.  Perfect!

Count Me In

Every month I get  newsletter from Superior Threads.  Bob, who owns Superior Threads, is Josh's uncle.  (Josh, my bud, was our Payroll intern.)  The last thing in every newsletter is a joke.  This was in the newsletter today:

BOB'S SUPERIOR JOKE
	A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway outside Washington, DC.  Nothing was moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on the window.  The driver rolls down the window and asks, "What's going on?"  "Terrorists have kidnapped the entire U.S. Congress and they're demanding a $10 million dollar ransom.  Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, collecting donations."  "How much is everyone giving, on average?" the driver asks.  The man replies, "About two gallons."

Penny Update

On Monday February 4, 2013, Canada stopped minting pennies because well, the same as it is here, they cost more to make than they are worth.

Those Canadians.  Everyone has health care,  there are sane gun laws and they have ended the wasteful expense of minting a penny.  Perhaps it's all that cold air that helps them think clearly.

It's the US zinc lobby that keeps the expensive penny in pockets here.

On the Needles 2/15

A joyfully sunny day today!  So here is one week's worth of work on the Baby Surprise Jacket.  By the end of last night's class, I had finished row 14.  I actually knit 18 rows because I had to rip out and re-do the first four rows.

It's pretty exciting to add another color and I have two more colors to add as I go along but the main color will be the green.  This is only a 4 week class so to keep on schedule I will need to get to row 45 by next Thursday.  I'm stoked!

(The math so far:  14 rows = 2088 stitches)

HBE

Because of the new stove top, I've had to do some "eggs"-perimenting with the timing of hard boiled eggs.

For years I believe I used Martha's method which was to place eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 16 minutes.  It's possible that the 16 minutes had been adjusted for elevation but regardless, that was no longer working on the induction unit.  So, there has been much adjusting of times as well as the bring to a boil temperature.  Finally, today I was successful!

4 eggs straight from the fridge placed in my smallest saucepan*.  Cover with cold water an inch over the top of the eggs.  Bring water to a boil using the second to the highest setting. When boiling begins, cover and turn off the heat but leave pan on heating unit.  Wait 20 minutes.  Pour off hot water, crash the eggs around in the pan and fill with cold water to stop cooking.  Peel and enjoy.  This works for me.

*  I starred this because I try to use the word sauce as much as possible.  I say it out loud for no reason at all except that it makes us laugh.  I say it like Jacque says it... sew ssss.  Really, it cracks us up every time.  (Ha! an egg joke)  That's him under the bowl of eggs.

Common Sense or Otherwise

It's been talked about for years and yet no one in Congress seems to be able to act on this very easy cost saving measure.   It costs more to mint pennies than they are worth.  Way more.

Nice article this morning from the PBS Newshour's Paul Solman that you can read here but this video is entertaining and to the point:

Dash off a quick email to your representatives in Congress about the "cents" of ending pennies.  This should be a no-brainer, fps, so perhaps there is a penny lobby.

BSJ

I took a knitting class on Thursday night at Heindselman's to learn the Baby Surprise Jacket.  That's the first five rows hanging on the refrigerator.  I don't keep it there but it is hard to take a picture of anything identifiable because the circular needles coil themselves at the smallest of opportunities.

Yesterday, I ripped out the first three rows I did in class because my count was off by one.  It was marker confusion on my part so I started it over and now I have completed 6 rows.  It's pretty easy knitting but I say that before I have gotten to the M1s.  They concern me because I am not sure how they are supposed to look in process and so they always look wrong to me.  The M1s happen on row 11 so even though I wanted to stay in today, it might be best if I knit like crazy and then run over to Heindselman's and have someone watch me and verify that I am doing it right.  The class is four weeks but I think it would be good if I had more than 10 rows completed by next Thursday.

I'm using some new needles called Velocity made of nickle coated brass.  I think that's why I am zooming along!

There will be stripes!

An Icon... Gone.

It's a sad day.  I'm pretty sure there are not many out there that use their iron everyday, probably only quilters and other sewists, so the news that Hasbro had chosen to replace the iron piece was not really a surprise.  Still, I think I am going to have to buy a Monopoly game today before the irons are all gone.  I'm looking at it as an investment, not really, I just want one of those irons for a charm.  First I'll check at a thrift store or two.

I've never cared for the intensity of Monopoly players but I did laugh though to read a player's comment that he will continue to use the hat as his game piece, turning it upside down and calling it a toilet.

W.O.T.D.

Procraftination noun: sewing, knitting, quilting, etc. to escape from dusting, mopping, cleaning or doing your taxes.

Okay, that's my definition and maybe I posted this w.o.t.d. before but I ran across it again and it makes me laugh, ruefully, every time.

The Happiness of Wool Socks

I could have titled this post, The "New" Laundry, but really, my wool socks kept my feet so cozy during our long frigid winter weather spell.  I am grateful so I take a bit of extra care with them so they will be at the ready when next winter rolls around.

One of the bloggers I follow said she washes all her wool socks by hand and I was ready to do that but my sister the knitter said nah, throw them in the machine.  Not wanting to be sorry about it, I tested machine washing with the grey socks, not the handmade gold/brown socks.

They washed up like a dream and even though Carol says she puts hers in the dryer, I prefer to hang them.  I did have one pair of the grey socks accidentally get into the dryer and I was semi-hysterical when I pulled them out but they survived just fine.  I looked them up on-line and they should not be in a hot dryer but low to medium is find.  In fact, all the care symbols on the labels had me so confused, I googled it for some definitive definitions and found a wonderful table here that can be printed.  I have a copy in a sheet protector hanging in the laundry room.

And speaking of laundry, I have become a convert to this:

Specifically to the spray which removed what appeared to be a grease based stain on the back of my white fleece jacket as well as a tomato based dinner stain on the front.  The jacket was purchased with the stain on the back and had a note attached that because of that stain it was a crazy bargain and a white jacket that came with a stain would be low stress.  Hahaha!  So true!  Of course, now it is a stainless, sparkly white.

IMHO, the OxiClean is superior to Shout, etc.
 

A Thrifty Baby Quilt

This quilt is made from scraps left from a quilt top I donated to a humanitarian project in Jan's ward many years ago but the fabric was originally moved here from Illinois.  Heavy sigh.  Because it all coordinated, I was determined to get a baby quilt out of the scraps without having to buy any additional fabric.  It looks like it could be a boy quilt but the prints all have flowers or leaves.

 

What appears white is actually a cream color.  The borders are muslin.  I was short about a 12 inches when I sewed on the binding and found a solid blue scrap that matched remarkably well.  One block has triangles that are pieced as I had less of the cream prints than the others.  Still I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Even the batting was a scrap and it is also pieced, as is the back.

The quilt had been sitting in a pile, pin basted and just waiting to be quilted.  When I was finishing the quilting around the outer edges I found an uh-oh.

 

The dark blue piece on the left is too short by about an inch and a half and one of my roommates was snacking!  Name begins with D.  I patched the short section and the chewed edge was still long enough that those ragged edges could be trimmed off.  Honestly, they are not starving, those big dogs.

Quilt is 39"x39". 

Finish #2.  Off to a good start!