Jamaican Curried Lamb with Rice & Peas

I've been jonesing for some Jamaican food lately and since the closest Jamaican spot to us is a good hour away with traffic (and there's always traffic, even on a Sunday), I decided to look up some recipes online. My usual recipe site (allrecipes.com) didn't have much in the way of highly rated Jamaican recipes so I looked elsewhere. I finally chose this Jamaican curried Chicken recipe but decided to substitute lamb (and beef!) for the chicken (I didn't realize until after I'd finished cooking that there was a curried goat recipe on the same site. Dummy.



(source)

The video on the recipe page was very helpful as there were additional tips in the video which were not in the written instructions.

I couldn't wait the two hours the recipe calls for to marinate the meat, after a half hour i grabbed the meat from the fridge and got to cooking! Next time I will absolutely marinate the meat for the full length of time as I think that will make for a much tastier dish. I also omitted the potatoes and used carrots instead. I got the peeled baby carrots from the grocery store and cut those in half. I used 5 tablespoons of curry because other recipes I found did not use as much curry as this recipe called for, and I though 5 may be too much. Turns out the curry was not overwhelming at all and to be honest, I think adding that final tbsp would only have made this dish even better.

I served the curried lamb (and beef) with brown rice mixed with canned black-eyed peas.

Yum yum yum! It had the same consistency as the curried lamb/goat I get from Jamaican restaurants. It was pretty tasty but I think it would have been loads better if I'd followed the recipe to the T. Next time, I won't change a thing

Great recipe. It definitely satisfied my craving for Jamaican food. Hubby really liked it and that's no small feat.

Rhinestones, rhinestonebuckles, swarovski crystal

craft glue E6000 to adhere the crystals
Crystals (purchased from Art Beads.com)

Rhinestones: $3.54 per 144 (bought 3 packs so there were extra for other projects)-$0.11 per invite http://stores.ebay.com/Sweetpeas-Beads-and-Treasures

purchased my rhinestones from Margola Corp. They are located in Manhattan on 48 W 37th St between 5th and 6th Ave. My rhinestones are 1" diameter and I paid $105 for 10 dozens. They come in various sizes and shapes, the bigger they are the more it cost. It takes about 5 weeks for arrival and minimum order is 10 dozens.

On #27. Donate to a new charity - Part 1

I thought this would be the easiest task to accomplish and thus cross off the list. Boy, was I wrong. I'm now so conflicted and I'll tell you why.

My first stop was on the intranet at work where there was an article reminding all employees that the flood victims in Pakistan need monetary donations and my company would match all donations as long as we donated through a specific charity. It was a no-brainer, donate to a charity and my money would count twice as much thanks to the maching policy. Yay. Not so fast there hon. My donation is from my tithes, and if I strictly adhere to Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse", would helping flood victims in Pakistan be considered the storehouse? Would this charity be bringing food and the word to the people? Or would they just be bringing food? If it's just food then I don't think it qualifies.

I've always been of the opinion, since I left my last church, that the storehouse is not stricly necessarily, the church. I have decided it's okay to give to charities who spread the gospel - and if they cater to orphans and widows while doing that then hey, that's infinitely better. Right?

I decided not to donate to this charity and cause solely because the money I'm using is my tithe. Well, also because I have previously donated to this charity. I wish there was a clear definition of 'storehouse'. Jesus was all about the fatherless and widows, but do they constitute the 'storehouse'? Hmm...

So I decided to keep looking for a new charity that passed my criteria - proclaiming the word of God while hopefully caring for orphans and widows.

Thirty-two by 32

I've been thinking about challenging myself to accomplish certain things for a while. With all the goings on in my personal life it's been too easy to spend day after day watching paint dry and the seconds tick away without being motivated to do much of anything. I've finally decided to push myself to get back in the swing of things and I came up with the following list. Most lists that I've seen on other blogs are 'thirty by 30' lists but given that I passed the 30 milestone a few months ago, I figured I'd give myself a realistic time-frame and thus came up with a 'Thirty-two by 32' list. Here's hoping I actually accomplish most of these tasks by my deadline.


1. Finish and order wedding album
2. See a basketball game
3. Visit an aquarium
4. Take an international vacation
5. See a 3D movie
6. Eat like a vegetarian once a week for a month
7. Take a swim class
8. Start my PhD
9. Go to an art museum
10. Bake a cake from scratch
11. Invest in the stock market
12. Become a US citizen
13. Backup my computer
14. Go to a comedy show
15. Sell something (anything) on Craigslist
16. Go wine tasting
17. Discover wine I actually like (?) #16 might help
18. See a football game
19. Go back to Disney World
20. Get a new Handbag
21. Have baby
22. Cook something new once a week for a month
23. Go to the opera
24. Decide on a brand for my stationery business
25. Attend a letterpress workshop
26. Give up fast food for a month
27. Donate to a new charity
28. Commit to a new church
29. Umm…’address’ my closet
30. Go on another short-term missions trip
31. Get the complete collection of LOST
32. Buy 18K gold jewelry

Can't draw? No problemo

Heh heh. You have no idea how happy I am to have found this post below. I can't draw to save my life. Seriously, I've tried, like, so many many times but what i endup producing is no better than my 4-year old niece's artwork. Great work from her, major FAIL for me. My inability to draw anything but sickly looking stick figures has never really been a problem but now with my desire to create truly unique invitations, it's evident that I have to produce unique illustrations for these invites. Well, have no fear, Miss locket is here!

This post details steps to re-create any picture as an illustrated drawing.



I can't wait to find a picture I love and re-create it!

From Miss Locket's post:

Step 1: Find a photo of the image you would like to draw. Scale it down so it prints to a size you want to use.

Step2: Print said image (it doesn’t have to be color).

Step 3: Get your Sharpie ready (or other fine tipped pen that will bleed through the paper)

Step 4: Trace the major lines of the image. It’s a good idea to include the fine lines too so you know where to add shading (a.k.a. lots o’ dots).

Step 5: Flip your paper over. You should see faint lines where your tracing has bleed through.

Step 6: Re-trace over the lines with your Sharpie. Using your best judgement shade different parts with a series of dots and darkened areas. This part does take a little more intuition, if you are worried about messing up draw the shading with pencil first then go over again with the Sharpie (I haven’t tried this, but I am sure it would be fine).

Ahhhh….progress

Step 7: Admire your work :)

Step 8: You now have a “hand-drawn” illustration of your choosing. You can scan this into your computer and with some fine editing it can be saved as a vector for use in your projects. Keep in mind this is the mirror image of the initial photo so you may want to flip it in a photo-editing program. You could also make a copy of the image first so when you scan you will have more of a “true-white” as a background.

Step 9: Play with your drawing on your computer.

Here is an example of what you can do with your “drawing” using a little help from Photoshop:

It only took me about 10 minutes to “draw” this flower from start to finish.

The time-consuming part came in with the computer editing. It’s my guess that the less detailed the drawing you have the easier it will be to extract and save it as a vector. It is also probably dependent on how you plan to to use your drawing.
In the peony example I wanted to only have lines with the background empty, this meant I needed to go in and remove the “white space”. This was somewhat time consuming, but well worth it. I now have a peony vector to use in any project. (PS…I am no graphic designer so I may be using the wrong term, I always forget what the difference is between raster/vector)

nest

Today was one of those days I wished I had my camera with me. In the parking lot of the building in which I work, I came across this intruiging fragment of a bee's nest. I wonder how much history this little fragment keeps a secret. When was it built/constructed, how many bees did it house? how much honey?

So much history, so many stories, all untold.

How to tie a bow

I can't tie a proper bow to save my life. Who knew it could be so difficult to tie a fuhreakin bow?! I went a-goolin' and this was the best instructional video I found.




(source)

Book plates

Found these by searching for 'ornate banner' on istockphoto.

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-4617020-book-plates.php

Gocco tutorials and other helpful info

Leave it to me to jump on a bandwagon waaaaay after everyone's off it. I'm anxiously waiting for my Gocco to arrive from Japan. Let's hope it actually shows up and I haven't been gypped. hmm.

Gocco tutorials:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marissandrew/sets/72157604646119803/with/2428650421/

http://flowerpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/pg-11-gocco-registration-tutorial.html

http://definitelydifferentcraft.blogspot.com/2008/08/gocco-part-ii-how-to-family-reunion.html

http://www.getcrafty.com/blogs.php?user=dilettantecrafter&entry=5305

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/01/16/gocco-q-a/?comment-page=2#comments

http://www.blue22.net/print_gocco_comparison_chart/

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/07/03/borrowing-ideas-gocco-napkins/#more-57436

http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/10/22/save-the-date-5/#more-37427

Guess what I bought on a whim...

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/m/mWk5gQDN1XCJnkULAYcIsWQ/96.jpg

Yup...a Gocco.

You betcha.

From Japan at that.

Adios Script

Scrap all I said before, I am totally in love with this font...

Adios Script by Alejandro Paul . It's an amazing open type font with numerous possible substitutions, swashes and flourishes. The only thing I don't really love about it is the $99 price tag although, considering the amount of work put into creating this font that price sounds pretty good. Still, I've yet to pay for a font but this may be the first...I dunno...

My new obsession

http://marketplace.veer.com/type/UMT0000472#specimen

Also, good info here on fonts

Drink me!

So cute. And a free download of the pdf as well. Can't beat that.

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?source=reader&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftrulysmitten.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fdiy-friday-drink-me-bottle-tags.html

One word...

Wow...

Gourmet Mushroom risotto and Baked Salmon

For the longest time I've been dreaming of making risotto. I'm not sure why I've held back from cooking it as I love eating it in restaurants. Maybe I always thought it would be pretty difficult to make, I'm not sure.

Well, today, I finally picked a recipe I found online and actually cooked up some yummy risotto. My go-to website for all things recipes is allrecipes.com. it's a fantastic site with user reviews and 'top twenty' recipes in different categories so you have the option of selecting only recipes that multiple people have tried and rated highly.

I made the Gourmet Mushroom risotto and it was pretty tasty. The recipe has a five-star rating after 656 reviews, that's pretty awesome for a recipe especially on a site like allrecipes.com with seasoned cooks who sometimes give harsh reviews. Now I must say that I didn't follow the recipe completely. The final step calls for adding Parmesan cheese and butter but I decided not to add these in an attempt at reducing both the calorie and fat content. As yummy as the risotto turned out, it must be majorly yummier with Parmesan cheese added. But...oh well.

I also made Salmon marinated in soy sauce and seasoned with lemon pepper to go with the risotto.

Nice lunch.

Previously a four letter word...

Previously? Still?

Divorce used to be a four letter word where I grew up. It was very rare. Most parents I knew had pretty shitty marriages but they would die first (one unfortunately, literally) before admitting their marriage a failure.

Infidelity was a rampant as having breakfast. Physical violence was tolerated, afterall, such was life in a marriage.

Most married women I knew growing up would meet up with their married friends, gripe about their marriages, husband's faults, infidelity, and then ran home to have dinner waiting for the same husbands when (read: if) they came home.

It trickled down, my male friends thought nothing of 'two-timing' a gal. It was actually a thing of pride. Of course, gals do it too.

I'm sad.

A couple I know is currently going though ...something.

One of them was unfaithful.

Not much shocks me but I must say I was sooo heart broken. I did not expect this to be said of them. Either one. Will they survive? What does 'survive' even mean in a situation such as this? Is it 'surviving' to continue in the marriage? Or is 'surviving' getting a divorce from someone who so callously betrayed their spouses trust, and then finding their own two feet again? Is there a correct answer? Is there only one answer?

Why is infidelity so common? Why is something so painful, hurtful, debilitating, world-shattering so easily commited by the one person who vowed to do anything but...