So, I forgot to take a before pic, but my skinny jeans had kind of stretched out wince I bought them and so I wanted to take them in. Since I don't have a sewing machine up here, but I had a school break starting and some needles, I decided to hand sew it. So here are a couple of halfway done pics. I took it in about a 1/2in-1in.

 

 

 

So, then here is both legs done. And now I have a cool white seam on them! :)

 

 

And finally, here is a close up of the stitch that I used. I forget what it's called, but it's nice and sturdy.

 

 

So, this is a recipe inspired by several pictures on pinterest that I sort of just made up. It was super yummy in the end. Basically, it was shrimp pan-fried in butter, Italian salad dressing, and lemon juice, with cherub tomatoes, added later, sliced in half and fried some in the same pan as the shrimp. The noodles were just cooked and drained and then I made a basic white sauce to pour over the noodles and added paprika, salt and pepper to that. added the shrimp and tomatoes and then it still didn't have a bold enough flavor to me, so after dishing up, I drizzled some more lemon juice on top and it was yummy! In the 'staged plate' pic there are a couple fresh tomatoes and some of the leftover French bread from the previous post.

 

 

Here is something that was inspired by a meal one of my roommates will make occasionally. My version has shrimp pan-fried in butter and a tad of Italian salad dressing. (Btw, this picture is from the first time I made it, but I revised out the kinks and that's the recipe I'm giving) Maybe halfway through cooking the shrimp, I add frozen broccoli and then put a lid on it to steam it for a few minutes. About the same time that I add the broccoli, I start boiling water for Ramen noodles, I made them at the beginning gthe first time and they were a little soggy by the time I actually added them. But then when those are both done, I de-tail the shrimp-cause mine have the tails still as you can see in this pic-and then I addthe noodle to the pan and add more lemon juice and soy sauce. A strangely delicious combination! Bon Apetit! :)

 

Homemade French bread, which was quite delicious. Although, it was a little bit more dense than usual, but that be because not thinking, I slashed the tops halfway through cooking, then realized my mistake later. but it still tasted delicious and with the leftovers I made this:

 

 

Bread pudding! Which my roommate was kind enough to let me use some boysenberry jam which is on half of it, I wish I had put it on all of it. yum! :) Here is the recipe I used, thanks to my mother for finding it for me! : http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bread-pudding-ii/ Although I didn't have quite as much bread as they used so I only ended up needing about half or so of the mixture.

Banana Bread again, although this one had quite the adventure with it,

I'm a little surprised it was still edible after all it went through. :P

 

 So, first off, you're supposed to mash the bananas with sugar butter and a egg and then separately mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) and then mix it all together.

Well, this was not my cooking day because for some reason I read the recipe wrong or something

and put the flour in with the wet ingredients. This was just the beginning. Realizing my mistake, but it being to late to take the flour out, I tried to sort of mix the wet ingredients around the flour, but that didn't work too well, because the flour was on all the bananas.

 

 Luckily I hadn't put in all the flour-again, this was not normal cooking day, I was scatterbrained like crazy!- because my bananas had a lot of nasty bruising that I cut off so I thought I would just not put in quite as much flour or sugar. bad idea really. But then I decided that I wanted to put in the full amounts because really all that might happen with slightly less banana is that it would be slightly less banana-y, but sadly I didn't decide to add more sugar or flour, which if you remember goes with the wet ingredients, until after I had plopped the baking soda, powder, and salt on top of the wet mixture area.

 

So, then realizing I could've mixed the rest of the dry ingredients together and then added them, and adding to rest of the sugar on top of the wet area, I tried to sort of mix the sugar and wet ing. around the area with the bs, bp, and salt and then since it was too late to mix the dry ingredients separately, I just dumped the rest of the flour on top and sort of mixed it with just the wet area with the other dry ingredients and then after that, I just mixed the rest  of it all together and dumped it in the pan. Let's just get it in there and hope it's edible, right? Not quite. I forgot to grease the pan first.

 

So, I scraped as much as I was willing to try to get out, smudged a bunch of butter on the bottom, poured the batter back in and then threw it in the oven, curious for the result. Amazingly enough, it did taste like yummy banana bread in the end, but what an adventure, I tell ya what! :)

 

 

My grandma's beignet recipe! It was a little more pancake-y on the inside than I wanted, but there were still really good. And I didn't set the apartment on fire by frying! Yay! :)

 

Last night's dinner. It was mashed potatos (authentic Idaho spuds :P) and lemon rosemary asparagus. mmm :)

 

Tuna pancakes! This is a classic at my house! It's eggs, tuna, crumbled saltine crackers, a drizzle of milk and mustard for flavor. I didn't have any worschester sauce, but that can also be added. All the measurements are guesstimated, and fried like a pancake. :) And then I always add salt.

 

A homemade strawberry slushie that I made before I left for school. It was frozen strawberries, water, fruit drink powder, and I think there was a little bit of sugar as well.

 

simple mashed potatoes, pan-fried mushrooms and asparugus.

 

First time making deviled eggs for myself, and they were delicious! :)

This recipe is found here: http://realmomkitchen.com/13028/beef-and-broccoli-slow-cooker/

Beef and Broccoli {Slow Cooker}

By Laura on October 30, 2012in beef, Chinese, crock pot

It is Slow Cooker Week here at RMK and I have some tasty and easy slow cooker recipes in store for you. Today we begin with a simple beef and broccoli dish. No need for take out, this is easy to make and quite tasty. The main thing about this dish is you have cut cut the beef into slices. Get your butcher to slice it for you when you get it from the store or place it in the freezer and slice it when it is partially frozen (which is what I did).

Beef and Broccoli {Slow Cooker}

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, cut into slices
• 1 cup beef broth
• ½ cup oyster sauce
• 1 (12 oz) bag frozen broccoli florets
• ¼ cup water
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• hot cooked rice, to serve over
• sesame seeds, optional for garnish

Instructions

1. Place beef slices into your slow cooker and pour the beef broth and oyster sauce over the beef.
2. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or 3-4 hours on high.
3. When beef is about ready, cook broccoli according to pkg directions in the microwave.
4. In a small bowl, combine the water and cornstarch together until well blended and there are no lumps. Add the the cooked beef mixture in the slow cooker and stir to combine.
5. Once broccoli is cooked, drain off any water and add to the beef. Stir to combine.
6. Cook for another few minutes in the slow cooker until the sauce is thick. Serve over cooker rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Serves 4-6.

 

So, I followed the directions and this was my result:

 

It was soupier than I wanted it to be, but the flavor was great!

 

Viola! :)

 

 

Spam, mayo, and cheese sandwich with pan-fried asparugus.

 

Avacados!! :D Simple enough prep. ;)

 

Super yummy banana smoothie. It was about 1c. milk, 2 small/med. frozen bananas, and maybe 1/3tsp. vanilla. Yum!