Chef Messy

It's all good.

I admit it. I've been choosing other things over blogging.  For one thing, I've actually been cleaning my house.  I know this is shocking!  Chef Messy is supposed to be, well, MESSY!  This recent burst of tidy energy goes against everything I usually represent, but it's true:  The beds are made, the cat is fed, the laundry is, well, not completely done, but not invading every corner of the house, either.  The "dust buffalo" have been chased away, and the aliens taking over the back of the fridge have been thrown out.

The other thing I’ve been doing while not blogging is, of course, knitting!  The sweater was a flop, but all was not lost.  In the four days between the sweater-frogging and the end of the Olympics, I finished a pair of socks.  (Photos will come later.)  This is officially the shortest amount of time I’ve ever spent knitting socks, so I’m going to consider myself medal-worthy after all, especially since I ALSO managed to exercise, get the dishes done, and cook decent food for dinner even with the sock project going on.

Life just feels almost a little too zen right now.

Olympic Progress Update: RRRRiiiiiippppp!

Before the Women's Short Program last night:

After:

Yep, I'm sorry to say that this one probably isn't going to work out.  If my Lucky Wrap Sweater ends up badly, I'll probably be really bummed.  But to be honest, I was sortof suspecting the Twinkle Hoodie wasn't going to work out all along.  You know when you're knitting super-chunky yarn that it can't fit tightly or it will look too bulky.  Surprisingly, even though I worried it would be tight, the body fit OK.  The shoulders, on the other hand, were all wrong.  Besides that, the sleeves made made my arms (one of the thinner parts of my body) look like elephant limbs.  I was half tempted to finish it just so that I could say that I did, but a poor fitting sweater isn't worth a gold star on my blog.

The good thing about chunky yarn is that it knits up quickly, so I don't feel like I've lost anything major by ripping it.  If I really worked nonstop, I probably could knit it back up before the end of the Olympics.  But I don't know if going a size up is really going to fix anything.  Frankly, I'm also not in love with how seed stitch looks in a sweater this bulky.

Looks like I'm out, folks.  Oh well.

Olympic Update

It's coming along.  This was my progress as of Thursday Night.

Please let it fit, please let it fit, please let it fit.....

Random Friday

1. We caught a mouse in our house last night (And when I say "we," this mostly means "Ryan.")  My unproductive pacing of the kitchen likely didn't help the mouse-catching process.  I'd rather have a flesh-eating spider in the house than a mouse.  I'm not fond of the idea of sharing my underwear drawer with a disgusting, disease-infested critter.  At the same time, it makes me feel bad to see any little creature dead.  Rest in peace, little gross mouse.  I think we might have to get a cat.

2. These are recently discovered artsy-craftsy blogs that inspire me:

DaciaRay.com - I don't think there's anything this girl doesn't do.

Bella Dia - Nice photography, fun sewing projects

SouleMama - Knitting, cards, stitching, all kinds of fun stuff

Lotte's Sketchbook - Really beautiful, simple sketches (discovered at Dooce)

If I had it all to do over, I would have majored in art.

3.  These are things I need to post pictures of:

My sketchbook, which is now full of clips I like, from the magazine-cutting frenzy I went on last weekend.

My Olympic knitting project--the Twinkle hoodie, of which the body is now finished

4.  Ryan is interviewing for summer internships right now.  Oddly enough, I'm not stressed out about it at all.  I have faith that we'll end up where we're supposed to end up, and as long as he enjoys what he's doing, I'm happy.

5.  Over-Possessiveness (Another Conversation with Matthew):

Matthew:  "Yucky Nose!!!"

Me:  "I know, Bud, I have a yucky nose, too."

Matthew:  "No, MY yucky nose!"

Me:  **Honking, as I blow my own yucky nose (the joy of preschool is that there is no end to boogies in your house.  When this is all said and done we are going to have immune systems of steel.)

Matthew:  "Mine!  MINE!!!  MY YUCKY NOSE!!!!!!  MINE!"

The end.  Doesn't get much more random than this.

I only have one exciting thing today.

I am officially my own dot.com!

www.chefmessy.com

I can be found at the new place or the old place.

The whole reason for this move is that my mom can never find me.

Toddler-Friendly Cookie Decorating

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  At some point, Ryan and I decided we would abstain from the holiday, mostly because I think it's dumb.  It's miserable for single people, and I, as a married person, don't want my husband to bring me flowers just because the calendar tells him to.  We usually have a nice dinner together, but we don't make a big deal out of it, and I prefer it that way.

But there's no getting out of the preschool Valentine's Day party, and you all know me well enough to know that I am NOT buying dumb little square WalMart boxed valentines!  No, sir.  No Spiderman valentines in this house.  We have to make things complicated.  It's just what we do.

It took me a while to figure out a crafty, creative project that Matthew could really help with.  I didn't want to completely make his Valentines for him, but he's a little small and short on attention span for most projects.

But he loves to help make cookies.

I remember decorating cookies with some little Mexican kids when I was a missionary.  The woman who was in charge of the project was brilliant.  Instead of frosting the cookies, we painted them with paintbrushes!  (Frosting with a knife or a spatula can be so fiddly for kids.)  I fooled around in the kitchen until I came up with a simple, paintable frosting.  My recipe isn't as good as hers (which had a really great "sticky" consistency to it), but it worked for our purposes.

Cookie Paints

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk or cream (add less if you want thicker frosting)
• a few drops of vanilla
• gel paste food coloring (gel paste is great because a little goes a LONG way and gives you such bright colors.  Careful not to use too much, though, or your going to taste more chemical than frosting.  I used 1 color--2 drops in one bowl, 1 drop in the next, and half a drop in the third)

Mix butter and sugar into a paste.  Whisk in milk.  Add food coloring.  Paint.  That's it.

So much cuter than Ninja Turtle Valentines, right?!  I'm sure you could also use really thin royal icing for this, but I just think royal icing tastes nasty.  I wanted our cookies to be cute AND toddler-friendly.  Plus, we had so much fun making these!  Even Ryan got into it.

The best sugar cookie recipe I've ever used, by the way, is this one:

Sugar Cookies

From the Lion House Cookbook

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbs milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar and butter.  Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Shape dough into a ball and chill for a couple of hours.

On floured board, roll out dough (about 1/3 at a time), and cut shapes.  Thicker dough will make softer cookies, thinner will make crispy ones.  Bake at 400 on lightly greased cookie sheet for 8 minutes, or until light brown.  Cool on a rack.  Decorate.

Lazy Saturday

I consider the science of weather-predicting about as accurate as Mama Kasamba's Psychic Network.  So, even though we had heard rumors of a storm, I was not expecting to walk down my stairs this morning and see this:

I have no plans to leave the house today.  I'm a little worried about Ryan, though, who is driving to Philadelphia today for a job interview.  I'm trusting that he still has his mad-Utah-snow-driving skills.  In Utah, life goes on as normal, even if 2 feet of snow is on the ground.  In Virginia, however, the world stops, and I see no reason to do anything today but stay home and make homemade biscuits and such.

Baking Powder Biscuits

From Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (a really great cookbook)

(These were delicious.  Sometimes there is nothing better than the basic of basics, and who can resist warm biscuits right out of the oven on a cold morning?)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 Tbs. baking powder
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 2 cups heavy cream, plus more for brushing (I used whole milk since I didn't have any cream on hand, and they turned out great)

Preheat oven to 400.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Cut in butter (I use my food processor for this).  Pour in cream and fold to combine.  Dough will be sticky.

Turn out dough onto floured surface.  Pat into 1-inch thick round, and cut 2 1/4-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter (I actually just use our cups).  Place on unlined baking sheet and bake, rotating halfway through, for 20-25 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Makes a dozen (I cut the recipe in half, since there is no way we will ever finish a dozen biscuits at our house!)

Ready To Go

Lucky has been set aside (though I worry that if I stop, I'll lose momentum and will never finish it!).

Work stuff is finished (I've been working at home because Matthew is sick).

Munchies have been baked.

Spanish Macaroons

(Almonds, Oranges and Cinnamon.  Mmmmmmm.....)

from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

• 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons ground almonds OR 2 1/4 cups (18 oz) whole blanched almonds, ground (I grind my own because it's easier for me to grind them with my handy kitchenaid grinder than to find preground almonds)
• 1 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
• zest of 2 oranges
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 large egg, plus 3 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350, line 2 baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper.

Mix together almonds, sugar, orange zest, almond extract, and cinnamon.  In separate bowl, beat whole egg together with egg whites.  Pour eggs into dry ingredients and mix to combine.  Mixture will be sticky.

Form walnut sized balls (about 30), and bake 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.

Olympic project is swatched and ready to go.  30 minutes to cast on!

Happy 500!

Margene told me she was lucky.  I should have known she would post the 500th comment!  Do y'all think she goes from blog to blog counting comments so that she'll keep winning prizes, or is she just really lucky!?  One way another, Margene, in my opinion, is so talented at making bloggers around the world feel like one big community.  She is always one of my most faithful commenters, so I'm happy that she's the lucky girl who will get a box of truffles from the famous Lexington Cocoa Mills.

Don't worry, Margene, your box won't be half-eaten!

To everyone else who always stops by and comments here, and also those new lurkers who posted in the last few days, thank you for always reading my little thoughts and offering yours!  You make it fun to blog! 

Now, let's see how long it takes me to get to 1,000!

Odd, yet strangely addictive.

Let me just preface this post by saying that I was in a strange, experimental mood.  Ryan knows this usually means trouble.  (Oh yeah, and let me also say one of you is REALLY close to winning a prize!)

You see, I rarely cook the same thing twice.  This means, even on an average day, that the boys are my kitchen guinea pigs, often to their detriment.  On an experimental cooking day, the results are generally either blissful or disastrous.  OK, maybe disastrous is more likely, but that is the WHOLE point of experimenting, wouldn't you say?  What fun would experimenting be if not for the possibility of complete and utter destruction?

One of the problems with never cooking the same thing twice is that eventually you are going to crave something specific that you've already made dozens of times.  Let's use brownies as an example.  Sure, I could use the same old tried and true brownie recipe that I already know and love.  But what if there is a BETTER brownie recipe out there?  What if there is a brownie that will not just make me eat the whole pan, but will make me weak in the knees while I eat the whole pan!?

What if this brownie involves....chili powder!?

I had to find out. 

Maybe the problem is that I have seen Chocolat, where chili-infused chocolate drives people mad until they have more.  Truly, these brownies were more bizarre than bewitching.  However, we each snatched a piece, for experimental purposes only, and drowned out the spice with some vanilla ice cream, which will fix just about anything that goes wrong in the kitchen.  Ryan voted the experimental brownies a flop.  (A good guinea pig is always honest.)  Matthew wanted more, but Matthew would eat chocolate-covered lima beans if you offered them to him.

Then, an odd thing happened.  I woke at 6:00 a.m. thinking of chili powder.  No, chocolate.  No, chili powder AND chocolate!  Brownies!  Must have brownies!

Rather than indulging in an entire pan of brownies for breakfast, I brought them to work, hoping that they would be finished off by the end of the day.  Next to the pan, I posted a note that said, "These were an experiment, consider yourself forewarned."  I was amused to observe those who had originally exclaimed, "Chili powder!?  In brownies??  You're kidding me right?" These same test subjects kept creeping past and cutting off larger and larger chunks.

Those brownies, within an hour, were long gone.  I swear I only ate 3.

Subtly Spicy Chocolate-Chili Brownies

From Everyday With Rachael Ray Magazine

• 8 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces (I like ghiradelli)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus extra for pan (sometimes whether or not you use unsalted butter in recipes doesn't really matter, but it is really important here.  Spicy+salty+chocolate is not a good combo.  If you really have to use it, omit the salt.)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• extra bittersweet chocolate, shaved into curls with a vegetable peeler (optional, but fun)

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter 9x13 baking pan

Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat and whisk in both sugars until smooth.

Combine flour, cocoa powder, chili powder, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk eggs, one at a time, into chocolate mixture (make sure it's not too hot).  Add flour mixture and stir until smooth.  Pour into pan and bake until set, about 25 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes and serve with ice cream and chocolate curls.

I have come to the conclusion that certain people in this world just have a death wish.

I spend plenty of time with a good number of crazy people every day, myself included.  But there is not a single soul who I know and love personally that has reached this level of insanity.

On the way into the Shriner's Circus at the Roanoke Civic Center, Ryan told me, "When I was a little kid we went to a circus in Logan where the tightrope walker fell off the rope, and there wasn't a net underneath."

"Did he die?"

"No, he broke his neck and was paralyzed.  You know what it's like when that happens at a circus?  There's a big thud, then everyone gasps, and the whole stadium goes quiet while everyone wonders if it's just part of the show, and then the paramedics come, and all the kids leave crying."

So, I don't think Ryan really fully enjoyed the above show of bravado by seven Colombians with a death wish.  This stunt was directly followed by four half-naked girls lounging underneath dancing elephants, and then 5 motorcyclists looping around the inside of a 20-foot orb around a terrified cheerleader.  The reason circus people are considered crazy is because, well, they are.

When I was nineteen I worked at a summer camp where they ran a circus training program.  The guys hired to run the activities were australian trapeze artists.  They were really hot.  This doesn't really have anything to do with anything.  I'm just saying.  And they smoked pot and I-don't-even-want-to-know-what-other illegal substances ALL the time.  That could explain it.  Circus people could just be high all the time.  Though I don't know how they would keep their balance if that were the case.

Anyway, Ryan and I were in awe at the crazy people, Matthew was just in awe.  It was a good time.  There were monkeys.  I'm happy anytime there are monkeys.

These aren't monkeys, they're just my boys.  I just didn't want there to be any confusion.

Instead of a real blog post, I'll just make this little announcement.

Whoever posts the 500th comment on this blog will win a prize.  That is all.  Have a nice day.