Learning Everything From A-Z

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

N is for Noodles - Crafting Through The Alphabet

N is for... Noodles

This was one of the first projects that I was certain I would do. My mom suggested it when we first started brainstorming what crafts I could do. This was another of those that looked so easy... but did not turn out quite as I expected. I used this recipe to make my pasta. The first part of it was easy enough. Until I got to the part where I had to actually form the noodles and roll them into thinner pieces. The pictures made it look so simple! But, as much as I thought I had put enough flour on the counter and on the rolling pin, the dough continued to stick to the pin and stick to itself. It didn't pull apart easily and when I rolled it, all of the noodles were knobby and weird-looking. I took no pictures. But! I did eat them with freshly made pesto - I'll link to the recipe here. It was scrumptious but not exactly photogenic.

M is for Macrame - Crafting Through The Alphabet

M is for... Macrame

This was not my most successful project. I'm not terrifically good at knotting so an entire craft revolving around knotting clearly wasn't going to bode well for me. But, this project has always been about learning new things and working outside my comfort zone. So, I went for it. I combed through Pinterest for good macrame ideas. There are tons of them, of course. I eventually decided on this one for a macrame planter. I love succulent plants so the prospect of having a cool planter to put them was appealing. The directions looked so easy when I read them! Stretch out the jersey fabric, roll it up, knot it? Piece of cake! Actually doing this, however, was something else entirely. Stretching the fabric was perfectly doable but I was clearly doing it wrong because it didn't roll up, it was stretched too thin. So, instead, I leave the strips as they were and used those. My planter was, as a result, a lot bulkier than what was pictured. So, macrame was not my best project but at least I tried!

L is for Liquor - Crafting Through The Alphabet

L is for... Liquor

I agonized over what to do for my L project. I waffled back and forth about what to make. The answer came to me at work, of all places. My manager had, amazingly, remembered that I was doing this project and asked me how it was going (it's amazing because I genuinely don't remember telling him about it). As usual with that kind of conversation, people started making suggestions. One of my friends randomly turned around and said, "liquor." I'm pretty sure he was joking, actually. But, it was a great idea and I promptly started looking up infused liquors. I found this great chart and used that to make grapefruit vodka for my mom and blackberry vodka for me!

Sadly, for some reason, I took no pictures of this process. I had some friends over for drinks and we had vodka tonics with my blackberry vodka. I don't love vodka so I actually still haven't finished the bottle. But, it was a really cool project! I've done it again with earl grey steeped in vodka - now that vodka I could drink all the time. Mixed with some sparkling white wine and a lemon twist... mmmm.

K is for Kite - Crafting Through the Alphabet

K is for... Kite

I've wanted to make a kite for years. Ever since I saw that the Banks children made their own kite in Mary Poppins, I wanted to make one myself. I read the Sherman brothers' autobiography and they talked about how their father used to make kites all the time. So, when Kat first got me into this project, I knew immediately what my K project would be.

The only downside is that the kite is a little heavy and probably too fragile for use as an actual kite. But, it does make for a nice decoration next to my Mary Poppins poster!

I used this tutorial to make it.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

J is for Jam - Crafting through the Alphabet

J is for... Jam

My mom has long told me that jam is super easy to make. After reading a whole slew of Pinterest articles suggesting otherwise, however, I'll admit that I was a little dubious. My mom insisted that all jam requires is fruit, sugar, and pectin. Funnily enough, my mom makes jam without pectin.

My mom is one of those amazing people who makes things without recipes. It's amazing but difficult to learn from. You ask them how to make such and such thing and they say "oh, you know, a little bit of this and some of that, enough of that." With jam, my mom said "you know, some sugar and some fruit."

I am not one of these amazing people so I looked up a recipe on Pinterest and found this recipe that uses fruit, sugar, and lemon juice. It has no pectin in it but I feel that the consistency is just fine without it. Here is the recipe:

http://m.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/ufmcewm/articles/91254/Quick-and-Easy-Strawberry-Jam-Recipe-without-pectin-

Now, the recipe says to have 16 oz. of strawberries. I had a carton of overripe strawberries, some of which looked pretty rough so I tossed them out. End result? I had no idea how many ounces of strawberries I was using. Thus, I lessened the sugar amount to 1/2 cup just in case.

So, having never made jam before, I was a little nervous. But, I have to say, it's kind of magical. The strawberries pretty much melt into gooey goodness and your whole kitchen smells like dessert.

Conclusion: I'm never buying jam again. The homemade version takes about twenty minutes to cook, plus some cooling down time. It's fresh, it's much more flavorful, and you know exactly what went into it. #thatsmyjam

I is for Ice Cream - Crafting through the Alphabet

I is for... Ice Cream

Ice cream! (And peppermint hot fudge sauce)

The recipes were taken from the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book!

Ok, at this point, you've probably figured that I went pretty broad with the term "crafting." I sewed, I cooked, I baked. At this point, my idea had been to learn as much as possible and to learn things that I was genuinely interested in. After starting my Sewing through the Alphabet project, it has occurred to me that I could keep up with this whole theme and do a Baking through the Alphabet and Cooking through the Alphabet. Will I actually do these projects? Maybe. Maybe not. If I do, I'll cross the bridge of repeating already done projects when I get there. In the meantime, I've really enjoyed learning as much as I can. And I'm going to keep doing that!

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