Alternate Uses For a Tortilla Press

A tortilla press is a very handy tool to have on hand if you happen to be someone who needs to (or wants to) make a lot of things from scratch, don't have a noodle press, and are not a big fan of rolling things out. Maybe not the prettiest or most elegant turn out, but definitely gets the job done. So far I have come up with two alternative uses.

Along with making flour or corn tortillas, it can be used for making--

gyoza or won-ton wrappers:

or noodles, such as noodles made form oat flour or buckwheat flour:

If you don't want to repeat anytime soon, make a larger batch of any of the above and freeze the leftovers for later use.  Just make sure to really flour the gyoza wrappers or to put wax paper between the units of tortillas you think you will use at a go, or you will have to thaw the whole batch to get them apart.

Pie for Pi Day

Raisin Sour Cream Pie. Except I substituted yogurt and clementine juice for the sour cream and lemon juice because, well, that was what I had in the fridge.  The spoonful of custard I snuck as I was pouring it into pie shell at 11:59 and 45 seconds tasted a-okay.  Will enjoy a nice slice with dinner tomorrow night for the official tasting..

Of Rosemary and Teabags

It's been a quiet few days spent recovering from illness, but I am finally getting a bit of my energy back.  Was able to spend a little while in quiet pursuits this morning. 

My rosemary plant got a much needed trim.  

All his height was glorious but getting a bit unwieldy for the windowsill. Hopefully,he will grow back a little thicker and a little less tall.

Over the weekend, my parents came to visit, and my mom passed on a fascinating article on mixed media collage art titled "Tea and Entymology."  (You can get the article as part of a free download of articles from Quilting Daily if you sign up to get their emails.)  In it the artist dried out used tea bags, and then drew ink line drawings on the leftover paper after emptying out the bags.  Apparently you can then apply the paper and image to your collage using acrylic matte medium.  Who knew? A really fun use for old tea bags!

Happening to have quite a collection of tea bags collecting in a dish on my counter thanks to the "recovering from illness" bit, I thought I would give it a go. 

 Several tea bags carefully emptied of their tea leaves.






I then took a pen and made an attempt at tracing/free-hand copying a few images from a better homes and garden magazine onto the tea paper.  One word of caution, the ink does leak through the paper on heavier lines, so if you are rather fond of the photo and wanting to use it for something else, you might want to copy it first.

My new collection of tea paper drawings.

A Morning Walk

Lights on a morning walk. The sun just beginning to trace its way above the treeline.

A Little Wall Art

Birds on a Wire

Name That Veggie

Living alone, working full time, and having several projects going on in my "free" time often translates into repetitive meals. Heavy on the pasta and cheese; low on the vegetables slowly decaying in my crisper. Which brings me to a genius idea proposed by Zach and Clay over at the blog Bitten Word. A Vegetable Board.

What is a vegetable board? A paper or board posted somewhere in your kitchen to track all the fresh vegetables currently residing in your refrigerator. A simple idea that has a real possibility of killing two birds with one stone- inspiring better eating and saving a few more perfectly good veggies from the trash bin. Especially useful for an easily side-tracked gal like me who is attempting to balance frugality with healthy eating. They actually proposed it back in July of 2010, but somehow I forgot about it and let it slip down to the bottom of my someday list. Until today.

I have already appropriated a small white board to the cause. Here's to a week of better eating!

Spaces

I have moved to a lovely apartment with high ceilings and lots of blank white walls. Given my tight budget and the fact that my furnishings tend to include more books and bookcases than anything else, I have had a bit of fun improvising solutions to these blank spaces. Hodge podge "art" from random things I found in my boxes as I was unpacking. Little combinations of things that make me happy, and hopefully, make my guests feel welcomed and comfortable and as though they really do want to come again. Even if their choice of seating in my living room is wood chair, storage bin, or camp chair!

a strand of Christmas lights and silver ornaments adds a cozy feel (and a bit of needed light) to my living room

an airy fabric (intended for a skirt once upon a time) lends a bit of sophistication to my card table

assorted bottles collected over the years gives a touch of interest to my kitchen cabinets

a piece of framed fabric adds a bit of graphic art to my long buffet table

and my favorite,

a collection of paper lanterns -picked up from the dollar store and languishing in a box for years...., combined with some bright yarn and a re-purposed fork, fill a corner of my study with a cheery mobile ( The re-purposed fork was a gift- a leftover from a project of making a wind chime/mobile from flattened silverware for a camp fundraiser.) To give a concept of the scale of the mobile, the diameter of the smaller lanterns is 6" and the diameter of the larger lanterns is closer to 10".