chirp, chirp, cheap, cheap, cricut

any cricut lovers out there? this one's for you!

i happen to love my cricut, but i did fight getting one for a long time. my mom bought a small one and when she decided she wanted a big one, she offered me hers, i declined. about a year later, my mother-in-law did the same thing. this time, i said sure. even after i got it, i still wasn't convinced i'd use it that much. i've always loved crafting and making things, but i kind of felt like it was cheating. silly, i know. i started out thinking i'd just use it for scrapbooking, but i love it so much, i've started making cards as well. heck, i even made art for the wall in our old bathroom to match our shower curtain. woodland creatures, of course :)

that being said, there are two things you should know about me: 1. i don't like waste and 2. i don't love spending money. so, two of the things i really like about the cricut are that i can always get my paper either on sale or with a coupon and that i can start anywhere on any scrap of paper, i don't have to use a new sheet every time. one of the things i wasn't too happy about was that once a cutting mat ran out of sticky, i'd have to buy a new one. that meant, i had to spend money and i had to throw away unrecyclable plastic. double boo! but, not any more. here's a step by step on how to wash and re-stickify your mats. it's easy, really. and you probably have some of the items already.

1. start with an old used mat

2. wash it off, but how? at first i tried regular old soap and water with a plastic scrubber. that was taking too long and wasn't getting off all of the old sticky stuff. i tried a corner with nail polish remover and found out that was a bad idea because it not only took off the sticky, it took off all the guides as well, oops. 

 nail polish remover, bad.

i looked online and saw that you can use brake cleaner, but i thought, "hey, i have WD-40, let's give that a whirl." what do you know? it worked! 

after i sprayed the WD-40 and let it sit for a few minutes, i started scraping it with a pallet knife. it came right off. see that line of yellowy, lumpy stuff? that's the sticky coming off. i started at the bottom and worked my way up. once i got it all off, i washed the mat with soap and water to get the residual WD-40 off and hung it out in the sun to dry. (i wouldn't suggest drying it with a towel, it will get fibers on it)

3. i masked off the edges with painter's tape so that when it runs through the machine it's not sticky under the wheels.

4. and lastly, i sprayed it with a low-tack spray adhesive. this particular brand is easy-tack by krylon. wait a few minutes, pull off the painter's tape and voila! good as new. now my conscience and my wallet are happy.

happy crafting!

so easy, even i can do it

today, i'm just going to share a recipe. one that i got from my mom and modified. really, i modify it just about every time i make it. have fun with it! it's funny, i never thought i, of all people, would ever be sharing recipes, but here i am at my second one.

this is a cold vegetable soup called gazpacho. here's a wiki link if you'd like to know the origin and whatnot... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazpacho i made a fresh batch today for dinner tonight, and i didn't even have a single disaster, yay me! i hope you like it...

Yields: enough for my husband and i to each have a bowl for dinner and me to have lunch the next day

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. V8 juice (i buy generic and it tastes just as good)
• 12 oz. spicy V8 (also generic, but if you have Snappy Tom in your store, it's yummy!)
• about a 2 second pour of apple cider vinegar
• 2 pinches of cumin (i use BIG pinches, i love the stuff)
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• cucumber
• a couple of stalks of celery
• green pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic (more or less, it's up to you)
• about a cup or so of italian bread crumbs
• rosemary or other herbs from your garden?

Prep:

• i like to mix all the liquid ingredients, salt & pepper together first to get the taste how i like it before i start adding the veggies
• cut up all veggies into bite size pieces and add to mix (i like to keep mine in pieces, but if you'd like a creamier soup you can throw the veggies in the cuisinart) try other veggies, too. these are what we like, but i'm sure it would be great with your favorites.
• today i'm trying something new, fresh rosemary from the garden. i chopped it up into fine little pieces and threw it in (about a teaspoon or so.) i just thought though, you could probably put in a whole stem or 2 of it and then take it out before you serve it, hmmm.
• add bread crumbs
• chill in the fridge for a couple hours or overnight to marry the flavors
• enjoy!

i know better than to cook

when we moved into our apartment we were having some issues with the garbage disposal. sometimes it would work great and other times it would shake the whole sink and counter so badly it would shut the water off. finally one day i took out the rubber piece in the drain and saw some plastic in there. weird. i took it out and it was some really thick industrial type plastic. i have no idea where it came from and thought i better alert the manager. i talked to the maintenance guy and he told me it was a brand new "very expensive" disposal and i shouldn't put plastic in it. duh. i said, i didn't, i thought maybe the previous tenants did. he said, it was installed since then, "what did someone come in and put plastic down it before you moved in?" yeah, jerk. my theory is, when they installed it, it had some plastic pieces that were supposed to be taken out and weren't. in any case it was working regularly now.

that brings us to yesterday afternoon. we were invited to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's place for bbq and i wanted to bring something. i remembered a friend at the audubon society had made a delicious fingerling potato salad for one of our events, so i decided to try that. one of the ingredients was lemon juice so i bought a lemon and was squeezing the juice into a little liquid measurer that my mom had gotten me. it's basically a shot glass with measurements on it. i finished with it, put it in the sink and went about preparing the rest of the ingredients. i steamed the potatoes in the pasta boat my mother-in-law got me and when i took the potatoes out, i put the boat in the sink and filled it with hot soapy water. i washed everything and had some lemon peels that i wanted to put down the disposal to make it smell nice. the sink was still full of suds so i dropped a peel down where the drain was and started the disposal. oh. my. God. the noise was awful! in my stressed haste i inadvertently turned of the water instead of the disposal, of course, so it ran even longer, oops. i stopped it and took the rubber piece out of the drain (which doesn't fit all that well and has a very large opening for things to slip through into the disposal) and saw what looked like ice. i didn't remember putting ice down there. i reached in and realized when it cut me that it was actually glass, not ice. oy. well, at least it wasn't plastic! he hadn't mentioned no glass in the disposal, hehe. so, it was glass, but from what? oh, wait, where's my little shot glass measuring cup? aha, oops. i started telling my husband, damon, oh no, this is my fault, i did it this time! shit. now what? the last thing i wanted to do was call maintenance!


part of me thought, why not just run it and finish the job? it seemed to me, it would sharpen the blades. besides, i already got the big chunk out when i reached in before and it had done a great job with the rest of it so far. i looked online and what do you know? that's exactly what it said to do, run it. i guess back in the old days salespeople would even encourage you to throw a glass coke bottle down there from time to time. i turned it back on and voila, it chewed it up like a champ. so, would i encourage you to throw glass in your disposal? no. but if it slips in, don't sweat it too hard. it will sounds terrible and i would be careful of pieces flying out, but otherwise, it'll be ok.


oh, and the potato salad was a hit!

Recipe:

Fingerling Potato Salad with Gremolata Dressing

Great for salads because they hold their shape once cooked, these fingerlings are steamed, which enables them to retain more nutrients than boiled. (I couldn't find fingerling potatoes at Trader Joe's anymore, so I used their "teeny tiny potatoes" instead) The gremolata-inspired dressing (with parsley, lemon, and garlic) adds a twist to this side.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3/4 cup)

Ingredients:

• 1/2  pound white fingerling potatoes
• 1/2  pound red fingerling potatoes
• 2  tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1  tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1  teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1  garlic clove, crushed and minced
• 1  tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1  tablespoon capers, drained

Preparation:

1. Steam potatoes, covered, 12 minutes or until tender. Cover and chill.
2. Combine juice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl; slowly add oil, stirring well with a whisk. Stir in rind and garlic; let stand 10 minutes. Stir in parsley and capers.
3. Cut potatoes into quarters; add potatoes to juice mixture, tossing to coat.