Farinata Recipe

Farinata

Last night I made a delicious farinata for dinner. The name literally means "floured" and is a popular street food in the Liguria region of Italy. I first tasted it when I studied abroad in 2007 and finally got around to making one. It's a dense pancake-like dish made from chickpea flour, and made a simple, delicious dinner when paired with some steamed veggies.

I think simple is my new thing. 

I loosely following this recipe from the Minimalist

Basic Farinata: (serves 4ish generously)

4 cups warm water

3 cups chickpea flour (Bob's Red Mill)

2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste

2 tsp black pepper, plus more to taste

5 Tbsp olive oil

• Preheat the oven to 475*
• Fill a large bowl with the water and slowly whisk in the flour to prevent lumps
• Let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hr, but as long 12 hrs
• Skim any foam that has formed on the top and add the oil, salt & pepper. You can add any other herbs or sauteed veggies at this stage if you want to get creative.
• Pour the mixture into a very well greased baking pan (mine was 9 x 13 and worked perfectly)
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until crispy golden brown and cooked throughout.

 Farinata

This was amazing and next time I am going to experiment with some more flavors and a little less oil next time. Although, I might just keep it simple.

DIY Gold Sequins T-shirt

I was over at Say Yes! to Hoboken and saw a project I had to try myself. Liz took a regular pocket t-shirt and used gold elastic trim from the fabric store to jazz up the mini pocket. I just happened to buy a bunch of white pocket t-shirts from Target the other day, so it was fate.

I always find a new project to try whenever I stop by Say Yes! to Hoboken out so check it out if you please. The full step-by-step instructions for the pocket embellishment-ing is here.

Read on for my version...

So I headed to G Street fabrics, but they didn't have elastic sequins strips, only non-stretchy trim. The main difference is that mine has border of thread around the edges, but I wasn't happy with how mine looked after I pinned it down. I felt like you could see the edges too much. Blast, this always happens when I try to copy someone else.

Well, as you can see from this picture, I was already toying with the idea of gold trim around the neckline, so I decided to go with that look and save the cute pocket project for another time.

I sewed down both side of the strip with my trusty Brother, careful not to puncture the sequins (there were a few casualties). A few sequins fell off along the way, but I just saved those to hand sew into the point in the front to neaten things up. At this point, I was still debating the pocket, but decided it might be too much gold. But if I were to do it again, I might just go for it.

Finished project: 

 

I love how the gold adds such a little pop. Oh, hey there, I'm just some gold sequins peaking out on a Tuesday, no big deal.


These little bird scissors are the best for making little cuts. I got them at Sally Beauty Supply and I use them for everything.

Now I just need to find more things that need gold sequins...shouldn't be hard!

The House

(I deleted the outside photo of the house just in case I get famous and get stalkers)

There she is. Looking pretty good for 101 years old! Stay tuned for some before and after pics of some small(ish) projects being done.

I have a meeting about a job tomorrow... in bocca al lupo to me! crepi !

I want

everything from this seller on etsy. Especially this hive. That's all.

Altoid Tins

So sometimes I think there are not enough hours in the day. Where does all the time go?? Then I remember that I do things like this:

This robot tin was made in the likeness of Tyler's mom for her b-day. She has crazy hair, is holding a wine glass, and has a big heart. One of her bot-hands is a light bulb, because she has a lot of good ideas. Also, she has a lot of bling. Tyler is the creator of this masterpiece, but I hope to take a crack at it soon.

Just Google 'Altoid tin crafts' and you'll find all kinds of stuff out there. Like mini toolboxes! I thought these would be perfect for holding extra screws, bobby pins, or any other little things.

 

First, I drilled holes in the top for the handles, so I wouldn't chip the paint.

Then,  I spray painted the tins with primer, and then 2 coats of red paint. 

(You can leave the tins together or bend the hinges apart to get better paint coverage like I did)

After letting them dry, I screwed the handles on. The handles are metel eye straps used on boats, so you may have to go on a little hunt for these if you don't live near water. 

  

The perfect size for eyeglass repair kit

 

Just Two Sheds Having a Good Time

I saw this post over at Poppytalk and thought it was such a good idea. Its an outdoor area made by building two sheds facing eachother, and using the space on-between as a porch. 

I like the lamps, too.

Nautical Themed Pashmina Afghan

Just kidding, its a nautical themed DIY tank top. I love my new shirt and love that it cost me $5 even more. Wish I could take credit for the idea, but I copied this shirt almost exactly from an Ali Foster Patterns tutorial.

Before:

-$5 navy tank top from Old Navy

-3" strips cut from an extra flat sheet I had in my fabric basket

I used Fray Check on the edges of the fabric rather of folding over and sewing the edges.  (You can see the little bottle in the right on the picture next to the scissors). I had never used this before, and so far the edges of the strips have not frayed at all, but we'll see after I wash it.

You can see the more detailed tutorial over at Ali Foster Patterns, but I basically gathered the strips into ruffles, pinned them down on the neckline, and them stitched all the way around.

 

After

I love knowing that no one else has this shirt, and I think I'm going to tackle at least one clothing DIY a month.