I've Cracked the Code!!!

So. I love hummus. Like, LOVE it. Like, if it was a choice between my fiance and never eating hummus again, it'd be a tough one... well, maybe that's a bit extreme but you see what I mean. I really like hummus.
Thing is, I'm really picky about it. The only kind I've ever really gone gaga over is Sabra. And that totally goes against my thrifty nature, to insist on spending $3 for a tiny container of the stuff premade.

So. A few months ago, I set out to figure out how to make the stuff. Disaster ensued. I tried so many different recipes that ranged in flavor and texture from inedible to eh... So I started researching and basically combined ideas from about a dozen different recipes and even more tips and finally got it. Seriously, a fully homemade, fully delicious, fully addicting hummus recipe.

Now, here's the thing... I used dried chickpeas. It's not essential, but in this case, I highly recommend it. And, really, considering how well both hummus and cooked chickpeas freeze, it's not so much work because you can make a bunch of extra and freeze it. Anyway, here goes.

3 cups cooked chickpeas (that'll be about 1 1/2 cups dried)
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tahini
2 T. Canola oil
pinch salt

Start by soaking your chickpeas over night. Drain then and cook them in enough water to cover by about two inches. Normally, you'd cook chickpeas for about two hours, but in this case, I'm going to tell you 2 1/2 hours because you want them to be really creamy once you put them through the food processor.
When the chickpeas are finished cooking, reserve 2/3 of a cup of the cooking water and drain off the rest. It's VERY important to process all this while the chickpeas are warm so if you've cooked them ahead, you'll need to rewarm them in the microwave or on the stove.
In the bowl of your food processor, combine garlic, lemon juice, reserved cooking water, and chickpeas and puree for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until smooth. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Add tahini and puree for about 2 minutes, adding the canola oil as it goes. Season with salt to taste.
There's a couple tricks at play here. First, grinding up the chickpeas while they're warm helps to mellow out the garlic a bit. And overcooking them gives them a smoother consistency once you grind em up. Plus, the starchiness of the cooking liquid helps with the creamy texture too.
Yeah, it's that easy. And you're welcome.

And of course, hummus is a dip... so you need something to dip it in... and for that, I made my first ever non-breadmaker bread... actually, it was skillet pita bread and I'm really proud of myself because it came out amazing.
Granted, it doesn't look like the pita bread you buy in the store (it actually looked a little more like naan) but anyway, yum.
I can't take credit for this one. It's this recipe that I got out of the September issue of Vegetarian Times and seriously. It's worth all the effort. I mean, take a look... yum. (and yes, I realize it's not round. Seriously, it's so good, I'm not even concerned.)

Lessons Learned, or, Why I’ll be sacrificing my Friday night

So. I’ve been working on a test version of the pattern I plan to use to make my wedding dress. Before I bought super fancy wedding fabric, I wanted to try it out on some basic cotton to make sure A) the pattern isn’t too uber-complicated (I hate using other people’s patterns to begin with, so when they get too complicated my eyes tend to glaze over and all the words jumble together) and B) I still like the dress once I’m wearing it.

But of course, being a thrifty kinda gal I can’t just make a dress for no reason. So I picked some nice funky cotton in colors I loved and figured I’d make it so I could actually wear it. And a couple weeks ago, I looked at the calendar and realized like, whoa, Widespread Panic shows are comin’ up crazy quick! (As I write this, crazy quick= tomorrow.) I decided what better occasion to crank out that dress for than to pretty up and get my groove on with JB and the boys... So I got to work. The pattern isn’t so hard, but there are some intricate patchwork pieces that need to be worked. So you need to be in the right frame of mind. Which is where the lessons come in.

Lesson number 1: Don’t drink and sew. For sure not one of my better ideas... but spontaneity happens and who am I to argue? I was groovin’ away on the dress one Saturday afternoon and friends started showing up... Not gonna kick em out... not gonna stop working... but the wine, now that was my downfall... next thing I knew, I drank the whole bottle and I’m spending my Sunday ripping seams... Seam ripping is the theme of this post in fact.

Which brings me to lesson number 2: Only sew when well rested. The pattern has a zig zag design at the bottom which is formed by a series of triangles sewn together into rows, and then the rows are sewn together to create the complete pattern... you get the right pattern by arranging the triangles in the right color order... which I did quite nicely. What I didn’t do in my sleep-deprived state last night was check to make sure I was sewing the final row onto the bottom of the skirt right side up. So now I have a beautiful zig zag pattern until you get to the bottom where it just looks like random geometric shapes... so I’ll be spending my lunch hour today ripping those stitches out... and there’s a lot of them. And since once I realized I had done it, I decided to stop working before I hurt myself, it means that in order to be groovin’ in a new dress by Saturday night, no night out for me tonight... I’ll be home, with my sewing machine and some tunes... but no wine, I swear!

Keeping it my own

So I have a long-awaited wedding update for you (translation: I’ve been slacking).

I’ve started collecting glass milk bottles from one of our local dairy farms. These are going to hold the flowers for our centerpieces. Which I did a trial run of last week. I decided I want sunflowers and they looked so amazing at the farmer’s market that I picked up a bunch to try my hand at arranging them. Here’s what I came up with.

A couple things... First, I don’t think I need quite so many in there, which is good because the farm I found to provide the flowers charges by the stem. Second, I tried this tip I read in a DIY wedding book about putting a drop of bleach into the water to keep everything looking fresh and nice. I don’t think it works. It didn’t keep the water from getting scummy and after a couple days, the flowers weren’t wilty but they looked like paper and the centers were bulging out like crazy. I’m thinking I’ll stick with my original idea of picking them up the day before and not arranging them till the morning of the wedding. Also, it may or may not end up being sunflowers, since I'm thinking of growing them myself so I'm still deciding.

In other news, I finally settled on a dress design (I think) and I’ve started working on a mock up of it, to make sure I like it on me.

But honestly, I didn’t really want to talk about any of that today. And none of that is why I started writing this post. I’ve been struggling a little bit with the wedding planning... and honestly, I’ve mostly boycotted it for a while now. And it’s not because I’m having doubts or am thinking I don’t want to get married (dear god no!).

I think it’s more the wedding itself. Wedding planning is hard business. I thought I knew what I was in for, since I’ve done this once before. But not even close. See, the problem is I’m older now. And I know more clearly what it is I want. And I’m more stubborn. Which is to say I’m not afraid to insist on what I want. The first time I got married, I was young. I had no idea what I was doing and I wasn’t paying for it (not even for the pretty frilly underwear under that way too poofy white dress).

But now, well, I’m a bit older and a bit (I hope!) wiser... and for sure more set in my ways. And Fiance is too. He knows what he wants, too. Correction. WE know what WE want. But other people still know what they think we SHOULD want.

Oh, and then there’s the cultural geography issue. I was born and raised an East Coast girl. A Jersey Girl, to be more specific. Go ahead, I know you’ve all got a picture in your head now. But guess what? That’s not me. Never has been.

Which is (part of) why I jumped at the chance to move to the Midwest to be closer to my betrothed. And now, we’re working hella hard to plan a wedding that fits who we are. But that also means we’ll have about 50-75 Jerseyans flying in for the event. Which, if you’re used to Jersey weddings, might be something of a non-event.

And this is where the problems start. Because every time I make a decision, or come up with an idea, it gets met with... “well you can’t do that...” and when I ask why, my mother usually says something like “well that’s just not how it’s done.”

And by the end of one of those circular conversations I’m so frustrated I’m begging to go to Vegas or get married at a Phish concert!

The thing is, I don’t really want to elope. Our wedding is important to me. And the kind of wedding we have is also important to me.

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with A Practical Wedding. Meg is awesome. And between her posts and the graduate and undergraduate posts she runs, I get tons of insight that, I hope is helping me to navigate this whole mess.

And here’s what I think I’ve figured out. People look at a wedding as a right of passage, which it totally is. But, a lot of people also look at it as this huge affair filled with obligations that you have to adhere to because “it’s always been done that way,” which it’s totally not.

The way I see a wedding is that it’s the first time you’re starting to build what Meg refers to as your baby family. So many people look at having a child as the start of your family. And when people get pregnant, they generally sit down and discuss what values they plan to instill in their children. But a baby family’s values are established from the moment that baby family is born (which, in many cases, is waaaaaaaaaaaaay before an actual baby comes along).

To me, your wedding is your first opportunity to really figure out and establish your baby family’s values, and let the whole world know what they are. In my case, it’s my chance to say that extravagant, fancy, super expensive parties are not my style. And I personally don’t believe they’re necessary. And that my baby family does not believe in going into debt over unnecessary things like rented tables and chairs when the lake house we’re having the party at has more patio furniture than a Home Depot garden center.

Even using a hodgepodge of patio furniture, my crafty self would make it beautiful and amazing. And really, it’s impossible for a wedding to not be beautiful and amazing. No matter what the decorations are, when two people are looking at each other all like, dear god I can’t believe I get to spend the rest of my life with you and that starts today, like, right now.... well, who the hell cares what they’re sitting on??

Which is the point I was trying to get across when the pizza fight happened. Apparently I didn’t do such a good job. Fiance is a very picky eater. He doesn’t like A LOT of things. I don’t want my new husband starving at our wedding. So the one thing we both love is pizza. We decided to use Streetza pizza to cater our wedding... out of their lunch truck. I think it’s an adorable idea. Our friends think it’s super cool. My mom thinks it’s tacky.

“You can’t have relatives flying in from a thousand miles away and then feed them pizza,” she says.

My response: “really mom, because I thought they were flying in to celebrate with me because they love me and want to see me happy, not because they were craving filet mignon. I’m pretty sure they can get that in New Jersey.”

The circle continues... she has started to back off a little bit, but every once in a while, she just can’t help herself. But I’m not giving in this time. Tradition can be a great thing... and I’m sure we’ll incorporate some in ways that feel right to us. But this wedding will be a reflection of our personalities. And traditional isn’t really in the description for either of us.

More projects...

So, I realized after my last post I forgot about a couple projects.

1. save the dates/invitations. I'm taking a slight shortcut here. This site, e.m. papers has some adorable templates for invites and stuff. It's way cheaper than ordering invites. You download the template, fill in your own info and print them out yourself. Easy peasy.

2. The guest book. It's not a book, exactly. We're setting out squares of fabric with fabric markers and asking our guests to write us a message on a piece of fabric. After the wedding, I'll sew them into a quilt. So fortunately, most of the work will come after the wedding.

I know, I know.... it's a lot... so to keep myself from panicking, I'm also making a list of things I've decided to delegate.

1. The food. Originally I thought I might do the cooking myself. I was immediately told no. It's probably for the best.

2. The favors. I don't really care that much about favors. But since we basically live in the beer capitol of the world, we decided it would be cute to give out beer koozies with our names and the date on them. The website we're ordering them from lets you use your own image to make them extra personal, but I'm making Josh do that.

3. Bridesmaids dresses. I'm not even picking them out. I picked colors and now it's all up to my 'maids to decide what they wanna wear.

Don't say I didn't warn you....

Well here we go. Let Project Wedding Commence.

I thought I'd start by detailing the list of projects I've decided to tackle for the wedding... and then you can tell me how insane I am... The list is pretty lengthy and based on it, it'll probably seem like I'm way more organized than I am.

My plan of attack is this: front load all the decision making so that a few months from now, I know everything I have to do, and all I'll need to do is actually get it done. So here goes...

1. Make my dress (yes, really). I've already found the pattern, which I purchased from Etsy seller Metropolitan Frock. The pattern is not actually intended to be a wedding dress which, I think, is part of why I like it. It's just a basic summer dress pattern but once it's made up using a fancier, white fabric, I think it'll be perfect. I still need to go shopping for fabric, but initially I'm thinking raw silk...

2. Flowers. I'm doing the table arrangements and bouquets. But I'm keeping things super simple. I'm using all sunflowers. I found a cut flower farm about 40 minutes from my house called Stems. It's an organic farm that will either do your arrangements for you, or you can buy the flowers in bulk and do them yourself. I've spoken with the woman there who said sunflowers picked in early June will have heads about 3 inches wide. So I figure, for the bridesmaids, three blooms is plenty, a single bloom for each of the moms, either 5 or 7 for my bouquet, and then on the tables, I'm using glass milk bottles with 3 blooms in each. The only X factors right now are, I'm not sure yet if we're having a flower girl and I'm trying to decide if I need flowers to decorate the ceremony location. It's outside at a lake, so it's pretty breathtaking all on its own, but I was thinking of some hanging vases at the end of the rows of chairs...

3. Other decorations. We're stringing lights on the trees and around the tent poles. I'm also going to take jam jars and put some with candles in them on the tables (I'll probably use mung beans to anchor the candles) and then I'm going to paint some blue and green, put candles in them and hang them around the yard. (Forgot to mention, we're having the whole thing at Josh's family's lake house.)

4. The cake. I'm actually still waffling on this one. We're pretty set on having cupcakes instead of a big cake, which would be much easier. But still a lot of work. We'll see.

5. Tablecloths. I hate the look of the ones you rent. I'm going to buy a bolt of fabric and do it myself.

Garden paradise

Once again, I am a bad, bad blogger.... I apologize but it's been a crazy few months... new job, new apartment, GOT ENGAGED!!!!

Anywho...... for the one or two of you who have stayed loyal, I'm back. And I am in garden heaven. My new apartment is the first floor of a duplex, which means we have a front porch all to ourselves and full use of the backyard. (It also helps that we've got an in with the landlord)

So... being in my first grownup home with room for planting, I went a little crazy... It started with a few filler perennials along the driveway (Queen Anne's Lace and Lily of the Valley). Next came the vegetable garden. I definitely went a little overboard there. I discovered the seed savers exchange, where I found all kinds of heirloom varieties of veggies... omg... not even kidding I'm in love. I planted about 8 different types of tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, broccoli, pumpkins, and some type of melon I've never heard of but it looked in the picture kinda like a cantaloupe.

Then came herbs in pots on the front porch... we tried lavender, applemint, basil, garlic chives, Italian parsley, cilantro, rosemary, tricolor sage and silver-edged thyme.

Next, I went for some pretty annuals for the front yard... a flowering cabbage plant, marigolds and celosia. And finally, hanging baskets on the front porch. A few we just bought, Ivy and some stuff I don't know what it is... but some I planted myself with zinnias, appleblossoms, celosia and something else I can't remember the name...

but the point is, now, everything is exploding! I've already frozen up my first batch of pesto and I'm about to start drying some sage and thyme... still figuring out what to do with the chives... I'm thinking potpourri with the lavender... I tried mint ice cream but I wasn't crazy about the results. Could try it again, but I'm on the hunt for other things to do with it too. I think I can make a homemade mint extract with some vodka.... might be something to try.

On the veggie garden front, I believe a day of tomato sauce and canning is in my near future... and I've already decided the jalapenos will make some kickass poppers... other than that, I'm open to suggestions....
Anyway, here's some awesome garden porn for ya...




Oh yeah, one last thing..... I should warn you... for about the next 11 months or so, this blog will probably be pretty wedding centered... I warned you early, this blog would be about whatever I feel like crafting... and we're doing the wedding DIY style... that's right, this crafty bitch is crafting a wedding... so there ya have it. Starting with my next post, we'll get going on all the DIY projects I've planned for the wedding (which, by the way, is scheduled for June 11, 2011)

WOO HOO!!!!

OK everyone, I did it... this is just a quick post to let y'all know that finally, my Etsy show is up and running... just a few items right now, but I'm continuing to add stuff, so check it often... anyway, here's the link... check it out! Let me know what you think! Go! Now!