Amanda's Been a Busy Bee!

Amanda, here. I've got a LOT of catching up to do! I've been very busy the past while. Aside from setting up the legal and financial side of Nimble Toad, I've had many other adventures the past couple weeks that I'd love to share with you! This will definitely be a photo-heavy post. My favorite kind.

First off, Brandon and I tried a new cooking experiment this weekend. We had four people to cook dinner for, some random odds and ends around the house, and we'd been watching the food network a lot lately. So we decided to try something new.

We sauteed some chicken in bacon fat, with the bacon still in the pan, then once they were mostly cooked, we added onions:

Then Brandon put some pineapple slices in the oven to give them a nice, grilled look:

This part was Brandon's idea, and they turned out great!

Then we put the whole thing over brown long grain rice and added okonomi sauce:

Super yummy. ^_^

So, that was our little cooking experiment this weekend. And you know it's a success when I'm eating pineapple, because I don't usually like pineapple.

Next up... Let's see... I'm working on making my own pin cushion. I took a scrap of fabric and some cotton balls and I'm just finishing sewing it up:

I have just one little bit of sewing left and it will be done.

For some reason, I felt compelled to make my own instead of buying one. It just seems like such a simple thing; it's just a tiny pillow, right? And it doesn't even have to be pretty. Something tells me i'm missing some super important detail and I'll be eating my words soon. But at least I got to pick a pretty fabric:

I think it will do the trick.

Once I'm done with the pin cushion, I can start the third bracelet in that series I showed you last week.

Okay now for the fun part. This weekend, I went on a garage sale adventure with my roommates and my boyfriend. My roommates are moving into an apartment together and need kitchen stuff, so we drove all over looking for garage sales, and we found a TON of them. I got a few choice pieces.

I can't explain why, but I love vintage luggage. I've been looking for an old suitcase for a long time. I want to rip out the lining and put in some funky, bright fabric on the inside. Well, I found a suitcase that's funky enough on its own, it definitely does not need my help:

How cool is that? check out that color! Screaming bright orange. Perfect for me. ^_^

It was marked for $8, but I was able to talk him down to $6. I'm so thrifty.

It's in great shape: not very worn, and the inside is clean.

Now I just need a vintage train case that I can re-line the inside with funky fabric. I want to use it for my sewing supplies. Then I'll be happy. Vintage luggage, who knew?

So, I also got some great crafting supplies. I found this old mirror for 75cents. I'm going to repaint the frame, and sell it:

Someone did an awful job of painting it, so I wanna do something funky (that's my go-to craft adjective, can you tell?)

I want to accentuate the little details, like do a bunch of different colors.

What color scheme do you think I should go with?

So, then I also got some crafting materials. I got this lacey cloth (it was someone's blinds, I got 4 panels for 4 bucks) at a garage sale near my house:

Dunno what I'm gonna do with it yet, but I figure it's always useful to keep collecting bits of cloth and thread and yarn, etc... especially when they're super cheap!

Then I got this at the thrift store... It's a bit of a mystery:

It's a brighter orange than it looks here. Kinda like the suitcase.

What is it? It's too thin to be embroidery floss, but it's on the wrong kind of spindle to be thread. I'm gonna use it as thread. Anyway, it was really cheap.

Okay so, I had one last project I wanted to show you. I've been having some problems with litter training the rats lately, so I decided to eliminate the top shelf of their cage and replace it with some tubes for them to crawl through. My goal here was to reduce the number of corners they could 'go' in. They like to go on the top shelf, so of course that was the first thing to go. But they love the new tubes! Let me show you:

Here is a side view of the cage. New litter tray is on the bottom-left, and the new tubes are on the top-right.

The two ends feed them to their two favorite spots:

This end takes them to the level with the nesting box.

This end feeds them almost right into the hammock.

I was really worried they wouldn't use it, but I was walking by the cage and I saw this:

I was much relieved. ^_^

Alright, that's it for now. See, I told you I'd been busy!

Noodles on the Brain (Amanda's old blog)

I recently decided that I need to commit myself to a personal quest to make ramen noodles. Like, real ramen. In real soup. With vegetables and meat and delicious broth from scratch.

Oh, and did I mention that I want to make the noodles from scratch? Yeah, it's a crazy project. It should take me a long time to get it right, but getting there is half the fun, right?

So, for my first attempt, I got the noodle recipe off the internet. I will likely look for varying recipes and tweak it as I go. It calls for flour, salt, eggs and water. It's really, really basic - however, getting the noodles right takes real skill.

Alright, so I mixed the dough, let it sit in a damp paper towel for half an hour, then I rolled it out.

That's Stacy and Eric's beautiful new cutting board. They got so many nice things at their bridal showers - I'm going to be so spoiled by the time I move out of this house.

Then, you have to fold the dough over a few times (with LOTS of flour in between so it doesn't stick) before you cut it.



Sometimes it's hard to choose which pictures to use - Brandon does such a wonderful job.



That knife is another totally nice kitchen utensil that I will miss when I move out. It is so sharp, it cuts through everything like butter. It's pretty much the only reason I was able to get the noodles as thin as I did, and they were still a bit too thick.


It was really hard to keep the water at a rolling boil without it boiling over, so I had to keep turning it down and back up, which was one of the major flaws of this project.


So, we had some beef broth in the freezer leftover from my last pot of cabbage soup (Hal made bread bowls - I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures). We heated up the broth and added some onions and lettuce.

Brandon had the brilliant idea of adding a touch of sesame oil to the soup.



Okay, so the broth was thin and the noodles.... they were doughy. Frankly, I'm labeling this a failed attempt. They were pretty bad. Here are the things I think went wrong:
-I didn't knead the dough NEARLY enough
-I didn't let it sit long enough
-I didn't slice the noodles thin enough
-I couldn't keep the water at a rolling boil

So now I know what to look out for for next time. Hey, it's a start, right? And since they started out terrible, they can only get better!


One other project before I leave you:


Knitting! It's been a while since I've picked up a pair of knitting needles, but this project has been going pretty quickly. It's a baby blanket for my stepsister - she's having a baby shower this weekend. I'll take a picture when it's done so you guys can see.


I've got all kinds of news about my crafting company, but I'm going to hold off for a while, until I have more to show you. Lets just say, get ready to change the URL for this blog on your bookmark menu!

Passover (Amanda's old blog)

I have lived in Kalamazoo for four years now. Most schools - especially universities - do not have breaks for Jewish holidays. This is true for Western, which means that for the past three years, I've been away from my family on Passover. This is usually a difficult time of year for me. Passover is my very favorite holiday, and it's really important to me to be with my family and celebrate.

But this year we did things a little differently. I decided to hold my own seder at my house in Kalamazoo and invite all my friends. Everyone was really excited - everyone brought a dish and we had a lovely seder. And of course, I want to share it all with you!

I've never cooked a big meal before, so there was a lot of coordinating and planning ahead of time. I emailed back and forth with my mom for weeks, getting recipes and instructions and compiling my grocery list. Last weekend, I did the grocery shopping and as much of the cooking as I could get done ahead of time.

Then I cleaned the house on Wednesday, attended my lab section a day early so I could have Thursday off, and I spent the whole day Thursday cooking, cleaning and getting ready. I got out my beautiful Menorah-pattern table runner and matzo cover that my aunt made for me for my Bat Mitzvah. I borrowed my brother's cup of Elijah (thank you, Max!) and my mom's haggudahs (thank you, mom!). The table looked lovely:


I got that plate at Pier 1 years ago. It makes a lovely seder plate - look how well it goes with the table runner!
I love Stacy's tiny purple wine glasses. I'm very jealous.

Check out the table runner:

It's so hard to find Jewish-themed prints that aren't tacky. My aunt has such a good eye, I'll really cherish that table runner forever. I was so excited to finally use it, it's the first time!

Most people sat on the couches - you're supposed to relax on Passover, so it worked out nicely! So I just stacked the plates and let people get food cafeteria-style from the kitchen.


Plates and silverware, ready to go. And my cloth "napkins." Look how clean that couch is! I've never seen it look so good!


You don't even WANT to know what it looks like the rest of the time.
You can probably just barely tell, but that red bit behind it is another couch. We have stadium-style seating in our house, the couch behind is on a big wooden platform. It's pretty much the best living room setup I've ever seen. And it's GREAT for throwing parties! ^_^

And I got out all my favorite serving dishes. If you didn't know this about me yet, I'm a huge Fiestaware enthusiast. I also have many other non-fiesta dishes that I absolutely love. So, having people over gives me a chance to use some of my nicer serving platters that spend most of their time packed away.


That green disk pitcher is the crowning glory of my Fiesta collection. I LOVE having an opportunity to use it. And the little black bowl with the geometric designs inside. Everything was lovely.

So, I got the turkey in the oven that morning, made stuffing, heated up the soup, boiled some carrots.... And then people started arriving!

I didn't get any photos of the seder itself, I took 2 breaks while we were eating to get photos of everyone sitting around the room. And they ALL turned out fuzzy! I was in such a rush to get back to the party, I didn't even hold the camera still. Well, I suppose it's the mark of a good party, right?


On the right is my good friend Josh, who was the only other Jewish person there. Next to him is Todd and Todd's beau Rogan.
Can you see the seder plate? Shank bone and everything!


Todd and Rogan again. I love Rogan's quirky fashion sense. The bow tie! The horn-rimmed glasses! So fifties. I love it.


Val and Mike drove out all the way from East Lansing. You can barely make out Eric through the glare.


Om nom nom! I'm totally digging on Mike's hat. It's kind of hard to see here. Shaky camera hand. I should've put Brandon in charge of pictures.

Eric was a huge help. The timing of the meal and the seder were perfect - because he helped me serve people and manage the food. I couldn't have done it without him. What a great friend.


Stacy looking lovely!

I told people it was casual, but Stacy loves an excuse to dress up. I wish you could see the whole dress, it's adorable. I'm so jealous. She got it in Japan!


Apparently Hal didn't want it on record that he attended. Or something. He was on his laptop during the whole seder. Silly man. ^_^




Gini and Will sat on the loveseat in the corner. Gini wasn't feeling too well, so I gave her EXTRA matzo ball soup. She's trying to go vegetarian, but she ate the soup because she knows chicken soup made by a Jewish woman is a miracle cure. ^_^



I'm not really sure what's going on here. Someone off to the right must have said something awfully strange.


We played musical chairs a lot - people kept changing seats. Here, brandon is getting some boxed wine.

We had 3 kinds of wine: Manischewitz because I thought everyone should try it at least once - most people ended up liking it! I also bought a bottle of Mogen David, and I wanted a white wine. This seemed like a good opportunity to try boxed wine. I've never tried it before, and it's supposed to be a good way of keeping the wine. Most people won't switch over, though, because boxed wine has a reputation for being bad. Anyway, we had one box of white and 3 bottles of red.


And then, there was the aftermath:

All in all, not that bad. We were really responsible and put everything straight in the dishwasher right away. All that's left are wine glasses and serving platters.


See? Mostly wine glasses. No biggie.


OH! And I almost forgot! We didn't get ANY pictures of it ,which I'm very upset about because it was gorgeous, but I ordered a flourless chocolate cake from Waterstreet, a wonderful coffee shop in Kalamazoo. They have their own kitchen and they make delicious foods using local ingredients. They have lots of gluten-free options, which means their cakes are Kosher-for-Passover! Todd and Rogan picked it up. It was gorgeous. It was so fudgy and delicious, everyone enjoyed it.

While we ate dessert, Eric thought it would be fun if we watched the Passover episode of Rugrats. We were all laughing and reminiscing about old cartoons. And scarfing down cake - there was none left!

It was a fantastic evening. Honestly, the best Passover ever. I'm so happy to know that my friends take an interest in my religion and heritage - plus, most of them are history geeks or religion geeks, so they all really enjoyed the seder for intrinsic reasons. We sang Diaynu, we did the ten plagues, we dipped parsley in salt water. They were all fascinated by every tradition and they all read from the haggudah. It was so much fun. I feel so loved - truly, this is the way to spend Passover, surrounded by your best friends.

Chag Sameach! Next year in Jerusalem!

And I hope you all have a lovely Easter this weekend, as well. ^_^

Finally (Amanda's old blog)

I got my camera fixed! My wonderful boyfriend Brandon fixed it. Lookit the cutie!


Yowzah. Well, anyway. Let me show you what I've been up to! I think this is going to be a food entry, because that's what I have the most available photos of at the moment.

So, a while back I made some ADORABLE onigiri. For those of you who don't know, onigiri are Japanese rice balls. Sometimes they have filling, sometimes they're just seasoned on the outside with a light flavoring. The Onigiri FAQ on Justbento.com has a lot of great information.
So, when I make mine, I use a bit of an unconventional filling. I sautee chicken, carrot and onion in soy sauce with a bit of brown sugar and just a dash of lemon juice. When it's all cooked, I put it through the food processor so it's chopped fine and I can spoon it into the center of the onigiri while I'm making them.


I make them by hand, because I'm hard core like that. You have to keep your hands wet with salt water, otherwise the rice will stick. These are the traditionally-shaped ones, and some egg-shaped ones:


The black-looking stuff on the outside is nori. It's toasted seaweed. I have a bad habit of adding mine after I make them instead of waiting until I'm going to eat them... so the nori gets soggy. It's way better when it's crisp. But they look so cute with their little nori wrappers! Onigiri are so delicious. They're a comfort food - a really basic staple in Japan, and they're surprisingly filling! 3 of these puppies is plenty for a meal.

They also make great bento box foods. I didn't put any in this one, but this was one of my favorite recent bento boxes:


Let's see if I can remember everything that's in it. On the bottom left we have a spicy soy sauce carrot salad. I just sautee the carrots in sesame oil and soy sauce with a bit of hot pepper paste melted in (got the recipe off of Justbento!), they're sitting on a bed of lettuce, though you can't see. They're surrounded by raw green beans, cut to fit. Bottom right has vanilla yogurt with frozen raspberries and blackberries. It's covered in saran wrap so it doesn't spill. Top has sticky Japanese rice with wavy-cut red peppers, sesame seeds, and a hardboiled egg molded into a flower and cut width-wise. The little fishy has plain soy sauce - I didn't end up using it. The carrots were plenty flavorful enough.


Here's the whole setup. I apologize for blurry pix.
I have my lid with my favorite chopsticks taped to it, and a Kashi granola bar that I crumbled over the yogurt. That was a very, very good lunch. Extremely filling, and super healthy! I love my bento boxes.

Ok so this one isn't terribly exciting, but I made homemade iced tea! I was at the drug store and I saw some Arizona Iced tea, which is a big weakpoint for me. It's full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup but it's SO YUMMY. Brandon talked me out of it, and when we got home, I set out to make my own. I put it in these lovely oversized mason jars and chilled it in the fridge. So heavenly:


So, I just took about 4 or 5 green tea bags and 1 lemon tea bag, and boiled them in a pot on the stove. I added some white sugar, palm sugar and honey. Not much, really. Just a bit of each. It was perfect.


Alright, that's a lot for now. I'll try to remember to get some photos if I fry up any of those potstickers. I really wish I'd had a working camera when we were making them - the setup I use to make them is sort of elaborate. They're a big project.

I'm pretty proud of myself for cooking more, eating at home more, and just eating healthier overall. I think food is a great project - it's good to be in control of what you put in your body.

Ta ta fa na!