Recipe: Holiday Leftover Pork Stir-fry

When my family gets together on Christmas Eve to open presents, we always get a nearby local restaurant to cater dinner. Ham, pork, various southern sauces, sandwich buns, and sweet tea make up our Christmas Eve fare. This super quick recipe comes out of a desire to eat something other than another pulled-pork sandwich. Leftover pork or turkey? Stir-fly!

• A few slices of already cooked meat, such as pork or turkey (cut into stir-fry strips or cubes)
• About 1 cup of veggies (either frozen or leftover from the holiday dinner)
• 1/8 of an onion, choppped
• 1 bag instant rice (or about 2 cups of your favorite rice or rice substitute)
• Soy sauce
• Garlic powder or another seasoning to taste

1. Start cooking the rice as directions indicate or per your preferred method.
2. Add a bit of olive oil to a medium-sized skillet on medium-high or high heat.
1. If using frozen veggies, go ahead and put them in the skillet and cook until they are pretty much cooked through. Then add onions and continue to cook. Stir consistently.
2. If using fresh or thawed veggies, add onions just prior to adding veggies. Cook until all veggies are cooked through.
3. Add a small amount of soy sauce to the veggies, stir, add salt and pepper.
4. Stir meat into the skillet and add more soy sauce. Sprinkle a pinch of seasoning of your choice over the stir-fry. I would use either garlic powder or garlic salt.
5. Serve warm over rice.

Enjoy!!

Favorite Love Songs

Don't take the title of this post too seriously. If you, like me, have fallen into the category of hopelessly-single-but-faithfully-waiting-for-the-guy-God-has-for-you-while-[seemingly]-everyone-else-is-getting-married, this is the post for you.

Here I have compiled a list of my favorite love songs of various genres, many country, many Christian, some serious and some not-so-serious. I hope it inspires you, single ladies, to keep waiting for Mr. Right. I hope, for those of you preparing to say "I Do," this list could serve as ideas for your reception, guest gifts, or marriage playlist. Enjoy!

Funny and/or Upbeat

• "Hold On" - TobyMac
• "Let a Country Boy Love You" - Jon Wolfe
• "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" - The Georgia Satellites (fun and southern - love it!)
• "Falling in Love" - Ben Rector
• "Lucky Guy" - Mockingbird Sun
• "She Is" - Ben Rector
• "Guys Like Me" - Eric Church
• "You and Me" - Ben Rector
• "Take Me There" - Rascal Flatts

Fun to Dance To

• "Dancing in the Moonlight" - King Harvest (So much fun to dance to!)
• "Why Don't We Just Dance" - Josh Turner
• "Never Gonna Let You Go" - Ben Rector

More Contemplative

• "Country Boy's World" - Jason Aldean
• "Enough to Let Me Go" - Switchfoot
• "Who Are You When I'm not Looking" - Blake Shelton
• "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not" - Thompson Square
• "Head Over Heels (In This Life)" - Switchfoot
• "Lead Me" - Sanctus Real
• "Dancing in the Minefields" - Andrew Peterson
• "God Gave Me You" - Dave Barnes / Blake Shelton
• "The Day Before You" - Matthew West / Rascal Flatts

Super Slow

• "When You Say Nothing at All" - Allison Krauss
• "Oh My Dear" - Tenth Avenue North
• "Beloved" - Tenth Avenue North
• "I'll Be" - Edwin McCain
• "You and Me" - Lifehouse
• "Daughters" - John Mayer

Father-Daughter Dance Possibilities

• "Butterfly Kisses" - Bob Carlisle 
• "And Then They Do" - Trace Adkins

Rock-esque Love Songs

• "Falling In" - Lifehouse
• "Life After You" - Daughtry
• "Show Me What I'm Looking For" - Carolina Liar

Praise and Worship (for worship at a Christian wedding)

• "Made to Worship" - Chris Tomlin
• "Happy Day" - Tim Hughes

I hope to keep adding more, so stay tuned!

Recipe: Egg Drop Cookies

Looking for an easy recipe for something fun and simple to make for Christmas bake sales? My family has been making "egg drop" cookies for as long as I can remember and it's always something we look forward to at Christmas time. Here's my adapted recipe:

3 egg whites (save the yolks!)
3/4 cup of white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring (or extract)
1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, or other additions (see below)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix egg whites with a hand-held mixer on medium-high until they are frothy.
3. Slowly stir in vanilla flavoring, salt, and sugar while continuing to beat/mix the mixture.
4. Continue to mix until the mixture is stiff, creamy white, and thick. 
5. Fold in chocolate chips (or other ingredients)
6. "Drop" onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly toasted around the edges. Remove from oven.
8. Let cool for 2-5 minutes, then remove from parchment paper and enjoy!

Of course, everyone has their own variations: Check out these recipes with chocolate peppermint, mocha chip, peanuts, and fruit-flavored Jello. These cookies are also called meringue cookies, although they typically don't taste like meringue (they get the name from the shape).  Enjoy!

Recipe: College Student's Easy Mac and Cheese

Looking for an easy, one-pot, on-a-budget mac and cheese? Try this!

Ingredients: 

• Dry Pasta - I prefer shells (2 cups, about 1/2 of a 1 pound bag/box) 
• 1-1.5 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese - I prefer medium cheddar
• 1+ tablespoon Milk
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

1. Bring water in a pot to a boil on the stove. (How much water? Fill a medium pot half way.)
2. Add pasta.
3. Keep stove on high and allow to boil for 5-6 minutes. Turn heat down if it starts to boil over. 
4. Drain. Return to pot. Keep stove on low.
5. Stir butter, cheese, and milk into the drained noodles. Add a pinch of salt and pepper for taste. 
6. If needed, continue adding milk or cheese in small quantities until a desired thickness and color is reached.
7. Enjoy!

Pinterest Works: Gnats

Hey everyone! Like many of you, I love Pinterest. Lots of great ideas organized with colorful pictures. So. Great. I want to blog about the ways I have used this interesting website and its many ideas in real life, and I'm going to be titling those kinds of posts with "Pinterest Works" so you can find them easily.

I have been living in my new apartment-style dorm here at college for three days so far. Yet in that short time, my quad-mates and I have discovered we have a problem: gnats. Little fruit-fly gnats. Ick.

Thankfully, Pinterest quickly provided a solution that I believe is working. We'll see in the morning! It's apple cider vinegar (some sources say adding a couple drops of dish washing soap helps) in a jar with a funnel (we used a mason jar and an extra syllabus taped together). It traps the gnats in the vinegar. Success!

Next Project: Gloves!

Well, I'm back from my wonderful trip to Asia and I've been knitting a pair of gloves for a friend of mine. This is my first attempt at gloves and, let me just say, I'm learning a lot of knitting techniques. For example, this is my first time knitting an entire project on double pointed needles! 

This is the pattern that I'm using. It makes a design on the back of the gloves, but because the yarn my friend gave me is self-striping, I 86ed the design part and kept everything else. Here is a picture of the work in progress, and once I finish the second glove, I'll put up a final picture. It's not perfect, but I think she will still like them. I head back to college this Saturday, and I hope to have most of the second glove completed by then. 

Until next time,

Alex

Sewing A Zipper into Knitted Fabric

After knitting up this clutch wallet, I needed to sew on a zipper. I read over some advice forums and posts online, and then I set about to do it by myself. Below are some pictures for my Knitter's Way to Easily Sew on a Zipper. Make sure, for this pattern, your zipper doesn't open at both ends. One end should open and the other should have a stopper.

You'll need:

• Your finished product
• Your zipper (7" long for the clutch wallet)
• Matching thread
• Sewing needle
• Yarn/Tapestry needle
• Scissors

Hold the zipper (unzipped) up to your finished product and find where you would like to sew it in. If I was making another one, I'd move the zipper a bit to the right, so there isn't a gap where the zipper stops. More about that later.

Next, holding the zipper up to the side of the knitted fabric, sew using this method, in which you go back up through each previous down stitch. (For more information, see the Pickin' and Throwin' Blog, where that method is from and where I got some ideas.) I found it best to use a double strand of thread. (Sew through the bulky edges created by the line of stockinette.

Side View

Top View

Now, it turned out my zipper was a bit too long, which is good. I folded the excess zipper into the bag and sewed it in along the edge. When you sew the next side of the zipper, you'll start at this same end, but use a new length of thread. 

Inside View

So one side is done! Proceed on to the next side. (Make sure to unzip before starting to sew.)

Then noticed I left too much room between where the zipper stops and the end of the enclosure begins. (Remember when I mentioned that before?) So I opened the bag and sewed the two ends of the zipper together. This gives them support.

Sewing the ends together

And then it's finished! Make sure to snip all leftover strings and bits of yarn. Enjoy!

Top View

Side View

Top view with money inside

Knit this Easy Clutch Wallet

I came up with this pattern when I needed a small wallet to hold my foreign currency for a trip. Enjoy the pattern and my tips for finishing the wallet while I finish completing this blog. You can also check out my personal blog here and my 30 Before 30 Project here.

Yarn: Worsted weight
Needles: Straight size 8
Notions: Yarn needle
For Finishing: 7" zipper, thread, sewing needle

• Cast on 28 stitches
• Knit 1 row
• Purl 1 row
• K1, m1 (using the backward method), k until 1 st remains, m1, k1
• p2, m1, p until 2 sts remain, m1, p2
• Pattern row 1: *k1, p1, repeat from * until row is completed
• Pattern row 2: *p1, k1, repeat from *
• Repeat the two pattern rows until desired length is achieved (knitted fabric will be folded in half)
• Knit pattern row 1 again
• p2, p2tog, p until 4 sts remain, p2tog, p2
• k1, k2tog, k until 3 sts remain, k2tog, k1
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 1 row
• Bind off 28 stitches (relatively loosely)
• Fold in half and sew up the two short sides using a yarn needle and excess yarn
• Sew a close-bottom zipper into the long side. (See my post on sewing in the zipper and finishing the wallet.)

See this project on Ravelry!

Under Construction

This blog will be under construction until August 2012. Please come back then! I will be posting an occasional post before it is officially completed. Thanks!