Chunky Crochet Rug: Stashbuster!

Posted on by melissa

We have many needs for rugs and mats around our house. We need some in the garage, in the kitchen, on the balcony, on the patio, and in the craft room. I have a few rug craft projects going right now and I hope to cover all of our rug needs through the clever use of various kinds of yarns and fabric scraps. This chunky crochet rug currently resides in the doorway of the craft room, but will eventually help decorate the patio. The project has so many possible variations and presents many opportunities to make use of your yarn stash!

Improve Your Cooking: 6 Tips for Cooking Simple

Posted on by Stephen

There are some compliments that stick with you. Recently one of my wife’s cousins made a point of coming up to me after dinner at a family potluck and said, “those carrots you made were on point. What did you do to them?” I told him that my carrots tasted good because carrots are good. I just got out of the way and let them do their thing. That got me wondering. Why is “getting out of the way” so difficult? Why is it so tempting to over complicate food? Maybe we feel a need to put our “stamp” on a particular dish. Perhaps we start cooking without a clear direction in mind. Whatever the reason, it got me thinking. It got me thinking, oddly enough, about 1987.

Winter Picnic Hat: Textured Crochet Hat Pattern

Posted on by melissa

I’ve made several hats in the past six months. In fact, I added it up and I’ve made 16 hats since September 15. But a woman can never have make too many hats. While looking at Pinterest, I convinced myself I needed to make a textured crochet hat. I wanted one with some braid-looking rows and maybe some puff stitches! After playing around with post stitches and increases, I made this: the Winter Picnic Hat! Eating and BBQing outdoors in the winter requires proper attire. Hence the winter picnic hat! I’m excited to share this free crochet pattern in two sizes!

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad

Posted on by Stephen

This black bean and corn salad began in a small garden in Woodburn, Oregon. On Wednesdays I drop Benjamin off at his Grandma & Papa’s house. We execute a trade. They get Benjamin for the day, I get a box full of fresh vegetables from their garden. Ok, it’s not really a trade. Benjamin loves going there and would get to with or without a box a vegetables returning home with me. It just sounds more dramatic that way. In the box is usually some combination of corn, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers. My drive home is largely spent thinking about the donuts I am going to buy on the way and what I’m going to do with the amazing produce sitting in the backseat of the car.

How to Make time to Craft: 8 Tips

Posted on by melissa

A couple of people to whom I’ve shown a crochet work in progress or a finished craft project have said to me, “I don’t know how you make time to craft!” And while I wish I had the power to stop time, I do not. I have the same number of hours as everyone else. But I haven’t always been able to figure out how to use them for creative work. When I decided for sanity reasons I needed to “make” time to craft, I made a schedule prioritizing it. I was able to make time to craft by making it a priority. “Make it a priority” sounds simple, but it involves doing some work figuring out what gets in the way of actually spending time doing what you want to do.

Roasted Potatoes: Crispy and Creamy

Posted on by Stephen

For a long, long time my roasted potatoes were okay, but nothing to write home about. I wanted a crispy exterior and an creamy interior but it seems I was always sacrificing one to obtain the other. If the outsides were crispy the insides were undercooked. When the insides were just how I wanted them the outsides had moved from crispy to crunchy–a world of difference when you’re talking about potatoes. My world was crashing in around me. Then everything changed.

Potato Basics: Getting the Most from Your Potatoes

Posted on by Stephen

Potatoes are such a staple of our diet that improving the quality of the potato dishes we cook means greatly increasing the quality of our meals in general. Think about the weight of a brick. Every year the average American eats the weight of 17 bricks worth of potatoes. That’s 110 pounds of potatoes per person, per year. It’s easy to see how it happens. Hash browns at breakfast, chips with our sandwich at lunch, and roasted potatoes with dinner. The next day it’s home fries, a bowl of potato salad, and mashed potatoes. I could easily create a menu for a week without repeating a potato dish once.  Maybe it’s because we eat them so frequently and in such quantity that potatoes are so easily taken for granted. Whatever the reason, it’s time we start paying more attention to the potato.

Cooking Creatively

Posted on by Stephen

Try as I might, I am unable to create an apple. It’s probably a good time to come completely clean rather than letting the truth come out one slow drip at a time. I can’t create a carrot either. Or a cow. Or a tree. What does it mean to create? What does it mean to be creative or to show creativity? While I can’t make any of those things out of thin air, what I can do is arrange them in certain ways. I can manipulate them with heat or cold. I can cut them. Combine them. I can control quantity and portion sizes. Granted, I can’t create an apple. But I can create an apple pie. That’s what it means to be creative in the kitchen.