KITCHEN: Ad Hoc Fried Chicken

I don't know how it happened. One moment, I'm entrenched in studying, trying to understand the subtle nuances of hearsay law, working, concentrating, determined to try to salvage a little nugget of knowledge that I might remember in less then a month. Then suddenly, my mind goes blank. I wake up, drooling on my keyboard, staring at a photograph of fried chicken on my laptop. Somehow, in the moments between Federal Rules of Evidence 803 and 804, I found myself sucked into the world of food blogs, and like a magnet to a refrigerator, like a fly to elephant dung, landed on a recipe for fried chicken. This particular version was from Ad Hoc, a Thomas Keller dig way out in California. A recipe for a dish that has become so revered, Williams-Sonoma even has a kit for it. A recipe so compelling that I have been googling it for the past hour. Is it really that interesting? Or is evidence law just that painful?

Personally, I love fried chicken. Eating it, and making it. My last attempt was nearly perfect. I had painstakingly cut up a whole chicken, a technique I've mastered from watching YouTube videos**. Well, long story short (just in case Mom is reading this - love you!), let's just say my mother intervened when I wasn't looking and altered the recipe. :)

Oh, and do you want to see what happens to people when they don't get their fried chicken? Then please, watch this immediately. It's LOL funny.

Check back in a few days, I'm planning to make the Ad Hoc Fried Chicken using the Williams-Sonoma kit this week for the Fourth of July. I'll take pictures. Save your appetite!

**YouTube has several videos on cutting a whole chicken but I like this one the best. She is very easy to follow and I've been successful with her technique.

PAPERTREY DAY AT THE BEACH

Ahhh summer. I have to enjoy it vicariously through my stamps since I'm too busy studying to do much else. Maybe we'll go to the beach for a couple hours next week, I'm feeling the need to get out of the house.

Anyway, isn't this cute? I was thinking of a really colorful beach towel when I made it. I stamped the background using the stripes from Let Freedom Ring and stamped it using colors from my Gaugin & Lautrec Palette Cubes (Paris Lights, Claret & Beaux Arts Blue). I used the same colors on the flip flops, then overstamped the thong using fresh snow and embossed with white embossing powder.

Recipe
Ink: Palette:Paris Lights, Claret & Beaux Arts Blue (Ellen Hutson)
Stamps: Let Freedom Ring, Day at the Beach (PTI)
Paper: Raspberry Fizz and Stampers Select White (PTI)
Accessories: Cosmo Cricket Snorkel green ribbon, unknown brad, white embossing powder

A FLORIDA WEEKEND

A few photos from our weekend...

John Bonner Nature Park - Largo.
The blue circle is around the little waterfront pavilion we hung out. Nice to find a gorgeous park within a few hours of our home.

Old sails provide shade in a community garden project.
I love it so much that I am going to do something similar in our backyard.

Sunset along the River

One of many dolphins we spotted on the bay today.

Happy (day after) Flag Day

RECIPE
Stamps: Let Freedom Ring & Text Style (Papertrey)
Ink: Pure Poppy Red & Fresh Snow (Papertrey), Blue (Palette), Tim Holtz Distress
Paper: White & Kraft cardstock (SU!)

GUIDELINES II: ENJOY LIFE

This is sort of a wacky color combination right? Summer sun, raspberry fizz, ripe avocado and dark chocolate are used with the Star Prints, Guidelines II & Text Style sets. The sentiment says "Enjoy Life"

Everything from Papertrey. Let's leave it at that!

So - go forth and ENJOY LIFE :)

Have a great week!

Disney Bind-It-All Mini Scrapbook

This is a project I started awhile ago for a friend. We went to Disney to celebrate graduation from graduate school, and I wanted to make a little mini-book to commemorate the fun. I made it 8 x 8, and used my bind-it-all to put it together.

The first picture here has a little embellishment created using a piggy tale sliding door. The little door slides up and down, so there are two pictures in the frames.

The Typhoon Lagoon Disney waterpark scrapbook layout has some interactive features also. I added some panels that lift up (I used my SU tab punch to make the "Lift Here" portion) and this allowed me to add lots more pictures then would normally fit on an 8x8 scrapbook page.

I used mostly Creative Imagination papers from my LSS and brads and other embellishments that fit my red, white, yellow & black color scheme that I've been hoarding.

The rest of the pics can be seen in the photo album for the mini-book. Thanks for looking!

Disney Mini-Book Photo Album (click to open a page in Flickr)

Basic Grey Porcelain

No time for a post today, just a card pic. I hope you are having a great week!

Recipe:
Paper: Basic Grey Porcelain, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream & Sweet Blush
Ink: Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet, Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress
Dies: Spellbinders Labels 4, QuicKutz Flourish
Miscellaneous: Kaiser Green Pearls, Making Memories Crystal Brad, Hero Arts Rhinestones, Anna Griffin Brass Stencil

Hello Kitty Teacher Card

I made this Hello Kitty card using school colors for one of the office staff at Lizzy's school. There are few little Hero Arts gems being used for buttons, and the outfit is supposed to be a grey shirt with black & white polka dots. Sorry for the crappy photo!

The die is a Sizzix Hello Kitty die that I used in my Big Shot/Big Kick.

This could very easily be a graduation or birthday card, just substitute the appropriate sentiment.

Thanks for looking!

Take Time to Relax: Papertrey Ink Day at the Beach

This very simple card was inspired by some of Nichole Heady's creations posted during her Day at the Beach countdown. The card base is raspberry fizz, the flops are stamped with fresh snow, and then the little thong image is overstamped with with some berry sorbet. The box is outlined with a white gel pen. Simple! Not as cute as hers, but it's not too bad. I put some little Hero Arts gemstones on each flip-flop.

Happy Tuesday & thanks for stopping by.

Que Sera Sera Anniversary Card

This was a ten-minute card. I found out at the last minute that two long-time family friends are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today. Can you imagine? Me either. With that in mind, I wish I could say that I spent hours planning and perfecting this card, as certainly a 65th anniversary warrants something really special.

But let's be real, there sometimes just isn't time for that. This is one of those situations where being a stamper and having a stash comes in handy. I was able to pull enough together to make a decent enough card in a short time. And really, isn't that what this hobby is about? I know for a lot of people it's purely a matter of creative expression. And I feel that way as well, but I also do it for the practicality of it. There are so many occasions that require greeting cards, it's very satisying to be able to put it together myself.

I don't know what's wrong with my photos these days. Maybe I should try to put together a light box? It really ended up being a pretty card, mostly because of that Que Sera Sera scrapbook paper from K & Company. I don't know either of the stamp companies, but I cut the butterfly out and colored with Prismacolor pencils. Gold embossing using powder keg gold EP.

Thanks for looking!

Oh Happy Day Teacher Card

This card is similar to the School's Out card from a few days ago. It uses the same Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper and Papertrey Day at the Beach stamp set.

I've finally found a nice place in my dining room stamp area to keep my sewing machine set up. I see this done on so many cards, and I love the look. It's very easy, just like sewing on paper. The only thing I have to remember is not to put adhesive where I think I might be sewing. The adhesive gums up the needle and the presser foot.

SUPPLIES
Paper: Pure Poppy & white cardstock (Papertrey), Snorkel patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Versafine Plumeria, Palette Claret, Papertrey Fresh Snow, Tim Holtz Tea Dye & Broken China Distress
Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities, Cosmo Cricket Snorkel ribbon, brads, sewing machine

Birds Galore

Good news, Papertrey is going to replace my lost polka dot flip flop stamp. Kudos to them for having such great customer service. I think it's a smart move to be flexible about allowing customers to be flexible when a single stamp from a set has to be replaced.

Here's today's card. Maybe a little too busy?One thing I changed after I took the photo was stamping the bird in berry sorbet, which is a little darker(same colorI used for the "thanks" sentiment). This really pulled the whole card together.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Stamps: Inkadinkado Birds Galore, Stampin' Up!, Cornish Heritage Farms Polka Dot Backgrounder
Ink: Papertrey Berry Sorbet, Stampin' Up! Pink Pirouette, Tim Holtz Distress Tea Dye
Paper: Que Sera Sera (K & Company), Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart & Vintage Cream (Papertrey)
Accessories: Bling (Prima), Rubon(K & Company), Ribbon (Cosmo Cricket)

School's Out! Teacher Card

How's this for a teacher thank you card? LOL. I know that not all teachers would really appreciate this one (I know I wouldn't - I haven't had a bikini bod in a veeerrrry long time), but the teacher I have in mind will probably like it.

The supplies should all look familiar. The stamps are from Papertrey Ink's "Day at the Beach" set, and the patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket Snorkel. I also used some Snorkel ribbon, a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a few other miscellaneous items.

Speaking of my stamp set, I lost one of my flip flops! Ahhhhhh! It's the polka dot flip flop. It's so cute and it's my favorite of all the stamps. I've looked everywhere. Such a bummer. That's one problem with these little clear stamps, they are very easy to lose and super hard to fine. Please cross your fingers that I find it!

SUPPLIES
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Snorkel, Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze & Tangerine Tango, White (Papertrey)
Ink: Pure Poppy (Papertrey)
Accessories: Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities & Double-ended tag, brads, sewing machine, ribbon (Cosmo Cricket)

The Joys of Summer

Another teacher card. I don't have much to share today so I'll just leave you with a picture of the card. All supplies are from Papertrey, except Prismacolor pencils and white EP.

Justrite Graduation Card

pic removed for privacy reasons

Happy Monday. And so the graduation slam begins. Between today and next week we'll be attending a half-dozen graduations and parties. Ugh. I'm happy for the graduates, but honestly - I find the ceremonies tedious. I thought law school graduation was painful enough.

Anyway, I made these for two young men graduating from high school, using the JustRite stamper. I really need to order the new alphabet sets from JustRite, because I am still really annoyed that the older alphabets are not vertically centered. Hopefully the recipients won't notice. I used custom paper from our LSS, which carries a wide variety of papers for the local high schools. The monogram is centered on the SU! Top Note die, and everything else should be self-explanatory.

Thanks for looking!