THE Sweet and Sour Pork

21 years ago I bought Chris this cookbook.

We have used it a million times since then and again last night. We had the discussion about how much we love this book and how everything we make is so awesome and then it occurred to us that we have only ever cooked one recipe out of it. Sweet and Sour Pork--well actually just the sauce. This is what that page looks like--well used.

The reason we ever made it in the first place is a lovely restaurant called Chan's on Dunn Avenue in Jacksonville. We used to go there EVERY weekend when we were dating and still living in the same town. We still go there when we can, but mostly just during the day now because the area is questionable at this point. The food is still awesome but it is a really long drive for us now. The people who own it still remember us when we walk in the door...hugs and kisses all around 20 years later.
Anyway, we made this then because we were poor and couldnt afford to eat expensive, snazzy sit down Chinese food every weekend. We are making it for the same reason now. That sauce is the best thing ever and can be poured over all things edible. Chris has honed his recipe over the years but we always have to refer to this book. We love it, the kids all love it, anyone who has ever eaten it loves it. It has been a staple around here for 2 decades.

To make it you need this. Well, you dont need ALL this pork, but you need some. This roast is particularly large.


And this.

A can of pineapple wouldnt hurt anything either.

The meat turns into this.


And then this.

I never said this was health food!!

Chris's sauce looks like this.


And at the end it all looks like this.


This is the low carb(ish) version with no rice, but obviously rice is excellent to soak up all that sauce.

THE Rowe Sweet and Sour Sauce
1 bottle ketchup (18 oz)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 slices (or many more) sliced fresh ginger root
1 lemon
1 can of pineapple with juice--tidbits or chunks

Mix it all up in a saucepan--just the juice from the lemon obviously--and bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 45 minutes until thickened up and yummy. The end.

Try it. You wont be sorry. Or if you want, come over and we will make it for you. We are nice like that.

Simplicity 3835

I wear too many t-shirts and I need to remedy this. I need one of those hip and groovy mom looks that some people manage to have--no not "mom jeans" but cute stuff. Hip little shirts with nice jeans and some ballet flats--or something... I dont know what or I would be wearing it already. I have trouble finding shirts that I like because my torso is like 500 miles long. With as many costumes and the like as I make I have learned that I have to drop the waistline 4 inches to get the fit right. Very annoying. So, I went and got a couple cute, easy patterns to make a couple and supplement my Target tshirts.
This is the shirt I made today.
It was a trial version--done exactly like the pattern told me with no improvising or altering. The ubiquitous Simplicity 3835 from Built by Wendy.
You can google this pattern and find a billion versions because it is a much talked about and well loved pattern with modern crafty sewing girlies. I used some paisley-esque cotton that I had lying around. I still LOVE some paisley--any color, any style--because I am a good 80s girl. It is this guy's fault.
This pattern is very easy-peasy. It only has 3 pieces and an elastic measurement. I cut the arms out a little wonky because the dresses have the same body as the shirt. I had to fold the pattern all bunchy to not cut off the dress part and it pulled the edges up funny.

I will fix this next time.

Getting this neckline perfect was the hardest part but even it only took a few minutes of fiddling.


I will share my favorite tool in the whole entire world with you here. Essential for threading elastic and drawstrings through casings.
This is called a bodkin and it is the bomb.

I used it for the neckline of this shirt and I use it constantly for costume making. They are cheap and everyone in the world needs one.
Anyway, I like the shirt and I will make more. Good everyday shirt and takes hardly any time at all.

Fancy Bun

So, yesterday I was in Costume mode and looking up--wait for it--BELLY DANCING HAIR! I came upon this technique that i thought was about the most awesome thing I have ever seen in my life. I thought perhaps this was common knowledge among people who actually take time to fancy up their hair but, upon discussion with my work peeps, I have found that it is not. So, let me be the gal to enlighten you!



And then, if you are full on lazy and cheap like me, you can peruse this little beauty so you can get the donut thingy on the cheap out of your own closet! This video has captions for the words since i think this chick is speaking some Asian language we would not otherwise understand...just go with it. Oh, and use a brown sock for heaven's sake. And one sock is plenty unless you have some super-long hair.



Cool, huh?! Told ya!

Barf

This is in my yard...boo. Mowing stinks.


-- Post From My iPhone

Snacks on a stick!!

Snacks on a stick, originally uploaded by Rowetopia.

There has been an insane amount of interest in my birthday on a stick from February, so I decided to post some more pictures, some previously unseen in public, so that the snacks can be more closely studied for better copy-catting...I am a big fan of copy-catting.


Going from right to left we have cheese cubes on a stick and green grapes on a stick. My sticks were purchased at Party City and look like these only much more colorful. They come in a multi color pack of about 20 for pretty cheap. Less pokey than the bamboo skewer. Other options would be chopsticks or the plastic swords for shorter "sticks". Or chop the sharp end off the bamboo skewer. Also, the cheese cubes were originally intended as "dinner" and were going to share their skewer with some little smokies. I then decided that the hot skewers would be a pain in my be-hiney so i quit that idea.


Here we have Rice Crispy squares cut into cubes alternated with marshmallows on a stick and then pretzel sticks rolled in white chocolate bark and then in some sprinkles. These are sprinkles look all fancy, but what they really are is all the little remnant sprinkles from the bottom of about 5 different bottles in my cabinet. This process uses a heck of alot of sprinkles so be prepared for that. Put the sprinkles on a plate for rolling. The Rice Crispy squares are the store bought ones because they seemed like they were more likely to stay together....and because i was too lazy to make the real ones.


There is not really a good picture of the cup on the far left, but this one and the top picture sort of show it. It is a combo cup. Some of the skewers are pink marshmallows alternated with white marshmallows. The plan was to paint Kirby faces on the pink ones, but honestly....i gave up on that one pretty quickly. The other one is the piece de resistance--the Milky Way on a stick. That's it....really. Just one on each stick. Snack size.

Click on any of the pictures for the flickr feed of more pics!!

Corsets for toddlers!!

Corsets for toddlers, originally uploaded by Rowetopia.

So, as I otherwise accomplished absolutely nothing yesterday and was feeling out of sorts over it, I thought I would tackle some costume prep for the Tennessee Renaissance Festival in May.
The one place i did manage to get to yesterday was Jo-Ann Fabrics--which is a store I LOATHE but is a necessary evil if you are going to sew anything since fabric stores are a dying breed in the world. Dont get me started on that....
Anyway, I found this linenesque fabric and i do love me some embroidery that i dont have to take a needle to, so i bought two yards in hopes of making something cute for the Baby Girl out of it.

My basic method was lots of rectangles. I measured under the armpit to the waist and waist to floor. Did a double layer of fabric for each--for easy lining. The most oddball part was getting some sort of strap that made sense. Ribbons would cut into her shoulder too much and she is a pain with untying ribbons at the shoulder, so I just did a simple wide strap that meets in the middle of the back. I wont get into how much it made my brain hurt to get these positioned correctly between the layers of fabric--inside out and upside down.

Once the straps were on I just used the proper length of the rest of the fabric and gathered it at the top, sewed it to the front of the bodice and flipped it. I pinned the lining to the back of the skirt and sewed it at the waist kinda in the ditch. I wish in hindsight that I had made the bodice a hair shorter, but oh well.

So, an hour later and at least the outer part of her costume is the finished.

She still lacks a shift underneath, but I got some really cute green crinkle gauze for that. Crinkle gauze is somehow a requirement to go to Renaissance Festival--they check you for it at the gate, I think.

I mean, really...lacing on a toddler is just the best. And I think the embroidery pattern turned out quite nice. The open front will be good at keeping her from tripping in the dirt while walking but I am going to get some thicker ribbon for the lacing---maybe in red or orange to stand out against the green shift and yellow bodice. I just used what I had on hand for the pictures.
Overall, I am happy with it and Caris seems to like it fine....she wore it for hours because it looks like a "crown lady" dress and she does love one of those.

Baby chicks on order!!

I ordered the spring baby chicks today. We are splitting with Heather this year because we certainly dont need 15 more chicks. I am trying to diversify my egg colors this year so I have chosen the following...

Salmon Faverolles-

These are a French breed and have a nice feathery beard as well as laying tinted cream colored eggs. I dont have any light colored egg layers at the present so these will be pretty.

Next are the Araucanas or Easter Eggers

.

These, of course, are my personal favorites because they come in a variety of feather colors so you never know what you are going to get AND because they lay blue/green eggs.

And then lastly, the Cuckoo Marans. This was my big debate this year because I do NOT like roosters. These only come "straight-run" which means they just pick up random ones and put them in the box without differentiating between females (pullets) and males (annoying rooster cockerels). I like my chicken "girls" to just be able to lay their little eggs and go about their business without any big ugly roosters clawing them on their backs and harassing them.

Unfortunately, a rooster or two is inevitable when you order straight run and I have two already.

Such was my dilemma, but I caved. Why you ask?

Because these eggs are the coolest!!

And this chick here is the only one who's got them!

I am willing to put up with a couple stupid roosters to get those super nifty chocolaty looking eggs. I cant wait!! There had better get at least 3 of 5 being pullets or Cackle Hatchery and I are going to have "words".

Nashville loves a guitar

IMG_0021, originally uploaded by Rowetopia.

When you come to Nashville, you can see many things. We have a building shaped like Batman's head, we have our own full-sized Parthenon and we have a much maligned group of humongous, naked statues dancing in a circle in the middle of the road. Another thing Nashville likes a whole hell of alot is the guitar. They are everywhere.

In our family, the baby girl is particularly fond of this little instrument. She can spot one from a mile away--no matter how obscure. Her constantly pointing them out and our love of all things odd and kitschy have inspired me to start taking pictures of them. Here goes...

I will add more as I come across them.

The Liver-Lip 12th Birthday Extravaganza

IMG_6005, originally uploaded by Rowetopia.

Friday night we hosted a big fat slumber party to celebrate the Big Girl's 12th birthday. Everyone had a great time (i hope) and played an obscene amount of video games. It was very obvious the generation we were dealing with when they all piled into the van. In the car with me was 1 iphone (my only contribution), 3 ipod nano's and 6 game boy ds's. There was constant discussion of Link, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner and the Edward vs Jacob debate(Edward is way hotter says ME). Click on any of the photos to see the full photostream at flickr.




Tiramisu was served along with giant pizzas for a bit of an Italian food theme---also because the Big Girl does not like icing and therefore does not care much for cake. She does, however, love the crap out of some Tiramisu.





All the wild things in the bedroom...ignore the fact that my child's closet doors are not yet installed. Pretend you dont see that part.


Many, many hours logged with butts plastered to this couch...see controllers in hand.






Pizza time--flower headbands for party hats.






Yea, well, mom sort of forgot to get candles. I found this one in the bottom of the cake decorating drawer in the kitchen. It is an orange balloon....her alternative was a pine scented tea light. Anyway, tiramisu is not conducive to multiple candle support...too wiggly.






Yes, my gift bags matched the decorations.






Ipod touch...






Twilight board game...






Spastic, hyperactive group hug!!






This was the slumber part...yes, 5 girls in one queen size bed...figure that one out?!


Happy Birthday Liver Lip--you are awesome!! We love your old self very much!!

Girls Day Out

Our favorite outing--Costco for pizza....




And then visiting the giant guitars!!



-- Post From My iPhone

Monkey dress

This is the fabulous monkey/guitar/nannerpuss dress. Miss Babygirl and I went to Textile Fabrics which quite possibly the coolest place on the planet and found this just-perfect-for-her material. I had just bought Simplicity 3511 the day before with the intention of making some cutie summer dresses for her, so that is the pattern i used.

Textile Fabrics has just a terrific selection of cute contemporary fabrics, but it is extremely pricey. This particular print was nearly $20 per yard so i went with the bare minimum of 3/4 yard for the whole dress...i had intended to use a contrast for the yoke, but was lazy and didn't. Thank goodness, too because this pattern gave me hell. The dress is simple really but the directions were atrocious. I thought I was following them at first but realized I had pieced the thing together completely wrong half way through and had to rip it all out and start over.
This is the finished project.

It is really cute on her and nice and loose and cool for summer. I will use this pattern again since it has other sleeve options and also a shirt/pant option but i will cease to read the useless directions. Just winging it is what i should have done in the first place.
Oh, and as a testament to my scrimpiness with this expensive cotton, here is the tiny bit of leftover...not even enough intact to make a matching headband.