chimesblog

So a long long time ago, I had a birthday party. Yes. In October.

Regardless, you’re getting a recipe, so ignore the un-timeliness of this post. As you may know, I’ve been obsessed with everything spicy. Including chocolate. Chipotle chocolate to be precise. So for my birthday I made a spicy chocolate flourless cake. Because, as you may also know, I quit eating gluten in hopes of fixing my tummy troubles [ it worked ].

I used the Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe from Simply Recipes. But there was one major problem: I couldn’t find chipotle anywhere. Apparently WalMart has it [ for future reference ]. So instead, I ground up about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper in the coffee grinder and added that.

Also, this is the easiest recipe ever. It’s basically 1 bag of chocolate chips [ semi-sweet or darker ] + sugar + butter + 5 eggs + any spices you want to add. And the end product? It’s like a slice of chocolate that’s the consistency of cheesecake.

[ melt the chocolate and butter together ]

[ stir up the eggs and sugar ]

Did I mention Danielle helped me bake? She’s my favorite baking partner-in-crime and we live so far apart we hardly ever get to do this anymore. My yearly birthday get-togethers are usually when we do such things. Last year we made Guinness Cupcakes.

[ grind up the spices ... or use chipotle ]

[ mix all together ]

[ bake in a springform pan ]

<

[ serve! ]

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It’s about time.

I follow a LOT of crafty / quilty / foody blogs. In case you haven’t noticed via my Pinterest stream.

I’ve seen a little badge on a lot of the really good blogs I follow. It looks like this:

What is the process pledge? And why is it important?

Well … it applies to quilt blogs apparently, according to the originator, r0ssie blog, but I think that it should apply to everything when you post a tutorial or a recipe.

Here’s what she says about the process pledge:
“The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision. I know that many of us are already posting about our thinking on quilts and the processes involved from start to finish, let’s do more! And let’s post about quilts as we work on them. I want to see more half-done quilts, not just the finished thing with a journal entry about the process.”

This is the pledge:
“I, ________________, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there. ”

Okay, so I already do this because I never finish a damn quilt.

Tee. Hee.

But seriously. There’s more.

I think it’s important to show where your inspiration came from, and if you’re making something that somebody else made that inspired you, then you damn well better credit the source. Even if it was from a free tutorial.

My mind has been spinning on how I credit things on my blog, and I think I’m going to make a change. No more posting recipes or instructions for things that aren’t MINE unless they are modified. If I made something using exactly the directions given elsewhere, then give the link for crying out loud (and save myself some work).

Anywho … that’s it. I’m wanting to show more works in progress in hopes of finishing some stuff. And maybe some sketches. Sketches are always cool.

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I recently became obsessed with knitting leg warmers. It started with knitting a pair for Stephanie for Christmas, and then I kept making more.

I used this pattern for Electra Leg Warmers that I found on Ravelry. I cast on 40 stitches for myself and Steph, and if I were to make them again, I might even go 36-38. I have small ankles.

These are great stash-busters — they take about 2/3 a skein of worsted weight yarn (and could take less depending on how tall you want to make them). You could easily modify them to add stripes of color if you truly want to stash bust. They knit up in about an hour a piece.

I don’t have a picture of hers, but here are 2 pairs that I knit for myself …

[ in grey ]

[ and blue ]

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A while back I mentioned that I won a giveaway from Kukoshop in Japan.

I got this awesome package in the mail before the new year. So many cool things inside!

Everything was in this adorable plastic bag with some interesting English translation from Japanese.

I was excited to receive this “Cotton Time” magazine, with tons of projects and templates for projects, but alas, it’s ALL in Japanese.

Adorable notecard set that I’ll put to good use.

Stickers from the 100 yen store

A cute illustrated postcard

Travel kleenexes — ohirune time  is “nap time” in Japanese apparently. There was a picture of a cat sleeping on the top pack of kleenexes. I just thought the word “ohirune” was cute.

Washi tape, with what looks to be a toilet on it

a button with a weird-looking dude on it

grape gum or candy — I am afraid to try this. Grape flavor makes me gag.

And the most exciting part? 8 fat quarters of Japanese fabric.

Thanks so much, Karen!

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So I know you’re all in “get fit and trim” and “eat healthy” mode.

But you know, you’ve been doing that for 3 whole weeks now. And the that means you’re probably pretty much done with all of that crap until January 2013.

Want something so naughty even I won’t eat it?

That’s right. You do.

Juicy. Lucy.

That sounds kind of gross.

Trust me, it is awesome. I had a bite.

I’m not going to tell you how to make them. Because we didn’t do it right. I refuse to use processed cheese, even if it’s for something as unhealthy as this … so our version wasn’t so juicy.

But these guys will show you how to make them.

Here’s how ours turned out.

Okay. These look delicious. But seriously. I didn’t eat one.

Traveling to Minnesota? Try one of these bad boys at one of these restaurants.

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It’s been pretty cold the last few days. I didn’t have any coverage for my ears and I’ve been rocking the old lady shawl [ ie. I took an adorable cowl and figure-eighted it so it acted like a hood too ].

I decided to whip up this bad boy. It’s pretty warm. Not to mention cute. And it only took 20 minutes.

I might actually write up a pattern for this and put it on Ravelry. Stay tuned!

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Ke$ha would have been proud of these nails.

I did this over New Year’s after seeing a tutorial on Pinterest.

You can use any color for a base, I chose a glitter color by OPI that coordinated with the glitter I was planning on putting on the tips. The trick is that the glitter should be different sizes in order to get the cool effect.

Anyway, this is a LOT of fun, and you should try it. If you do, send me your pix and I’ll do a roundup of glitter nails.

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Guys … guess what? My stuff is in the ArtVend machine at Wheatsfield.

See that? Super cool! 40% of the proceeds go to support  local art.

[ you should go buy one of my zippy bags ]

[ here are some of my other zippy bags that aren't in the vending machine ... in case you're curious ... they are on my etsy shop ]

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You voted, and the winner of the cookie for this month’s Cookie of the Month Club subscription was chocolate covered ritz peanut butter sandwiches, or as my family calls them: Bark cookies.

For the record, I really wanted to make Meltaways. Buuut I know my dad and Grandpa will really love getting a big package of these babies.

Also, mind didn’t turn out as pretty as Spoon Fork Bacon’s rendition (photo above). But, I used dark chocolate instead of almond bark and whole wheat crackers. They taste the same, and they’re covered in chocolate, so nobody is ever going to be able to tell I healthed these up a little bit. A little bit. They are still chocolate covered ritz crackers with peanut butter.

If you’re interested in making these, you don’t put much peanut butter on the inside. A little dab will do you. Same with the chocolate. And using a double boiler (or my makeshift double boiler — hot water in a pan with my pyrex bowl of chocolate on top) is the best method to keep the viscosity of the chocolate good for dipping.

I made about 60 of these. For the record, I ate 4.

In case anybody is counting, these are 4 points +. Per cookie. Try not to eat more than one.

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Mark’s brother-in-law likes MJ probably as much if not more … okay … who am I kidding? Nobody could like MJ more than me.

Anyway, I had a threadless shirt lying around and I decided to make him a pillow out of it. I like how it turned out. I think I like it better than if the shirt would have fit the pillow because I added some contrasting patchwork on the side.

[and it's envelope-back, so if it's too cheesy for him, he can easily change it out]

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