New Items

I listed a few new things recently.  Head on over to my etsy shop to check it out!

What I've been up to: In pictures!

I've been Jigsaw puzzling...

 Trying out new weaves and making new jewelry (soon to be properly photographed and posted on etsy)...

Baking for the volunteer that is leaving us at work and heading off to college...

Coming up with a display for a jewelry craft show (and subsequently being bored out of my mind at said craft show because it was a complete flop)...

 And to top it all off I found a new friend at the Renissance Faire this weekend!  His name is Wingsley the second of House Fuzzypaws.  And yes he is indeed a winged wolf/dog.  I owe the fantastic name entirely to The Boy who names things better than anyone.  

Not pictured here is the lightbox which I finally got sorted out somehow.  I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I've been afraid to touch it much since it got straight.  My to-do list this week includes photographing and listing all the new pieces I made, so stay tuned to my etsy site for the influx!

The other major thing on my to-do list for the week is coming up with a preliminary plan for Christmas so I can get anything that needs to get started early started now.  Any suggestions for crafty gifts that you all care to share?

Chicago Food Swap

So there's this new thing showing up across the country called a food swap.  I don't remember where exactly I first heard about it, but I was thrilled by the idea and immediately signed up.  Basically you make a bunch of food items and bring them to a location and swap them with other people for the food items they made.  Awesome!

The one I did was at the beginning of June and I baked up a storm for it.  I brought bagels, tortillas, and chocolate cookies.  In exchange I came home with some pretzel rolls, whoopie pies, jams, limoncello, salsa, popcorn, banana bread, and fudge.  It was a fabulous haul!

Delicious!  I've also signed up for the next swap in August.  So far the plan is cinnamon butter, tortillas, and multigrain bread.  I can't wait!!

Cooking Week 25: Regional Italian Beef

I live in Chicagoland.  When it comes to regional food we're known for our hot dogs, Italian beef, Deep Dish Pizza, and since I'm close to Wisconsin- Brats.  I don't like the first and the last and since week 26 was going to be pizza, I didn't want to do two pizzas in a row.  So I set upon making Italian Beef from scratch for Father's Day dinner.

I found my recipe here.  And loved being able to use my crockpot on such a hot day.

I served it on classic Gonnella rolls with oven fries and salad (not pictured because I forgot).

I'm back!

I apologize for the extended unexpected absence.  Things have been a little crazy here in the ThunderCrafts household and between that and the heat, I haven't felt much like posting.  I'm back though, with plenty to share in the upcoming days.

Short post for today since I have to figure out how to make my new light box (light tent? not sure what the official name is) stand up straight.

Any suggestions?

Cooking Week 23: 20 minutes or less pan fried pork

20 minutes or less is a lot harder than you think.  My first idea of a meal that I usually make that I thought for sure would be under 20 minutes (garlic, olive oil, pasta, and broccoli) took only 10 minutes cooking time, but more than 20 just to boil the water.  Fail :(

My next plan was stir fry.  I picked out a recipe which I'll be making tonight only to realize that it requires the chicken to marinade for an hour.  Fail again.

What I wound up with instead was something I wasn't planning on using for the challenge, but I realized after the fact in fact only took about 12 minutes to make!  This is why there are not many pictures of my pan fried pork cutlet.

I found the recipe on Pioneer Woman's site (I love her!) and am very happy with it.  Basically you heat some oil and butter in a skillet while you dredge the pork cutlets in a spiced flour then  fry about 2 minutes on each side.  Super quick and very tasty.  I paired them with some microwave broccoli and roasted potatoes not included in the 20 minute challenge (as they took about 25)

This will definitely be a repeat recipe for me, although the boy requires I serve gravy with it next time.

Sheep!

The previously mentioned party was for my friend and ex-coworker who moved to NYC who is back for a few weeks before she goes galavanting around Europe for the summer.  Said friend LOVES sheep ( I suppose this makes it appropriate that she'll be spending 6 weeks in Ireland then) so I decided to make the sheep cakes pictured on the cover of this book.

Mine didn't come out as nicely as the books but she was thrilled with them.

The base is made of pound cake and the heads are milano cookies.  You dip them in melted frosting tinted black.

I had problems with the melted frosting hardening on the cookies and sheep feet.  I had them in the fridge and freezer FOREVER, well past the suggested 30 minutes, and they were still tacky when I was working with them.  Perhaps I had too much frosting on it, but I was thinking it would have been a lot easier if I had used chocolate ganache instead of frosting.

If you want to give them a try check out the book from your local library and try your hand at the sheep or any of the other ADORABLE creations in the book.