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mmm… homemade salsa

salsa

Tonight we stayed in and grilled up some salmon for dinner, along with some steamed asparagus and baked potatoes. Our menu seemed a little dull, so I decided to jazz it up a bit with some salsa for the salmon. I imagine this would also taste great on grilled chicken.

Tomato, Basil and Mandarin Orange Salsa
Adjust amounts to taste. I didn’t measure when I made this, so these are approximations.

1 large tomato
1 mandarin orange
10 chopped basil leaves
1 T finely diced onion
1 T white wine vinegar
1/2 t kosher salt

Cut and de-seed the tomato, then dice. Peel the orange. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice off the pith (the white, thread-like stuff attached to the inside of the peel). Then dice, cutting between the sections. Combine the tomato and orange with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes. You can whiz it in a food processor a bit if you don’t want it so chunky. Serve on grilled salmon or chicken. This would also taste good on bruschetta!

salsa

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father’s day gift #1

T’s Dad already got his Father’s Day gift. Man, Priority Mail is fast! I just sent it Tuesday afternoon!

Last week I was cruising through my RSS feeds, found this cute tutorial for handmade hankies, and thought these would be perfect for my father-in-law. I used some brown and white cotton fabric from my stash. The rolled hem was easier than I thought it would be and didn’t take long at all. I hope it holds, though. This was my first try and I’ll be so embarrassed if they unravel!

hankies

hankies

I’m busy working on my other handmade Father’s Day gifts. Time is running out. I hope I don’t have to gift any works in progress!

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tutti frutti tote bag

When I was little, we used to go to a snowball stand on Joppa Road called My T Fine Snowballs. I remember the tutti frutti flavor was this brilliant, saturated blue color—kind of like my latest tote bag. Details over at kundhicreative.etsy.com.

tutti frutti tote bag

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floral tote bag

Remember the daisy tote bag? I’ve been working on this pattern a bit. I wanted to give it a little more structure and eliminate the hand stitching on the straps. I’m also messing around with the gusset size. Here’s a look at number two:

floral tote

floral tote

I’m making my third one right now. The second one was 75% reclaimed fabric (I bought a fat quarter of the floral fabric. I couldn’t resist!) The third one will be 100% reclaimed fabric. Stay tuned for pics!

p.s. The floral tote isn’t for sale. It was a birthday gift for Lauren.

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red and orange striped pincushion

I’ve been really busy. I sewed a t-shirt dress for M, finished one tote and working on another, made some bibs, started a new knitting project and almost finished a pair of socks. I’ve really got to get some more pics up on the blog! For now, though, I’ve got a felted pin cushion. Details at kundhicreative.etsy.com. Isn’t it cute?

pin cushion

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the most amazing dinner

broccoli chickpeas

This was the easiest and most amazing dinner I’ve made in a long time. I don’t know if I was just hungry or if it was all the garlic in the burgers or maybe the glass of wine, but I can’t wait for the left overs tonight.

First, I decided to take some of the dough from the fridge to make hamburger rolls. There isn’t really a hamburger roll recipe in my bread book, so I emailed Zoe for advice. (Isn’t the Internet cool?) She steered me in the right direction and the rolls turned out great, although I didn’t do a very good job shaping them. They were kind of oval.

Then I made Jessica Seinfeld’s Burgers 1 recipe. These were heavenly! T thought they were heavy on the garlic, but M and I both LOVE garlic. I made her a mini burger and I’ve never seen her scarf down meat that fast before. I used the pureed cauliflower for this batch. I’m curious to try the pureed carrot version. I made the burgers oval shaped to fit the buns.

The side dishes were so simple, I’m almost embarrassed to rave about them. Broccoli and chickpea salad and corn. Frozen corn. Microwaved with a teeny bit of Smart Balance. The broccoli and chickpea salad recipe is below.

Broccoli and Chickpea Salad

I accidentally bought chopped, frozen broccoli instead of the florets. Have you ever done that? It’s like eating broccoli crumbs. I created this recipe to make the broccoli seem less crumb-like.

1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup of frozen, chopped broccoli, microwaved until hot
1 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t dried basil
1 t kosher salt

Combine everything in a bowl. The broccoli will make this a warm salad. It tastes good chilled, too.

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reading update

Once I made a list, joined a book group and got down to business, reading at least one book a month hasn’t been hard. In fact, some months I’ve read more than one. My next book is The Namesake. Everyone keeps telling me I need to see this movie, but I’d really like to read it first. Hopefully I’ll put a dent in it over the holiday weekend. In the meantime, here is a recap of May’s books.

I breezed through this book. There are some really great ideas in here for “upcycling” clothing. I didn’t read it cover to cover including the patterns like I did with Bend the Rules Sewing, but it definitely got my creative juices going.

I liked this book. It reminded me that creativity doesn’t always start with Crayola. I made a list in our “things to do” book of some of the activity ideas that are too old for M right now, but there are lots we will start incorporating in our day to day routine.

This was a book for book club. I liked it ok. It was a fast read: started and finished it during the slow hours of our garage sale. I expected it to be more inspirational, but it has a lot of serious themes that just made me kind of sad. I didn’t see the ending coming, either.

This is considered a juvenile book, but there are a lot of adult themes. If M were to read it when she is older, we’d have to discuss it for sure.

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felted wool pincushion + bread

I’ve been sewing up a lot of pin cushions. They’re so cute and easy to make. Plus, I’ve got lots of small pieces of felted wool just begging to be sewn into something fun. I plan to list more in my shop over the next week or so.

pin cushion

Also, I just know you’ve been dying to know how my bread turned out. Well, it is awesome! It’s the easiest, fastest and best tasting bread I’ve ever made! So far I’ve baked the basic boule and cracked loaf recipes. I think I might make another loaf this evening. I’m hoping to sneak more and more whole wheat flour in this recipe and have this replace T’s sandwich bread.

boule

loaf

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crocheted laptop tote bag

crochet laptop bag

I’m really in love with this bag. I was very close to ripping out the blanket because I didn’t have enough yarn to finish it. Then I looked at it folded up and it screamed tote bag! This one is very hard to put up for sale. Details over at my etsy shop.