Recent Failures and Successes

One of my current projects (I have a lot) has been to find a veggie burger recipe that equals or surpasses the frozen burgers in the store. My only attempt prior to the one below involved lentils and is not worth repeating. This one sounded promising: plenty of shredded potato, carrot, and zuchinni - I even photographed the whole process in preparation to share it with everyone.


This is the only picture I'll actually share - if you want a veggie PANCAKE recipe, this one will work. It tastes okay, but it's not particularly satisfying on a bun. I've found another recipe and plan to test it out later this week.

A recent success was this Super Delicious Cake! My sister Jess made a Serbian cake for Easter last year (complete with The Best Frosting Ever), but I'd say mine is a possible contender. Thank you, Taste of Home magazine. This is their Chocolate Strawberry Celebration Cake (with poorly drizzled ganache...but it was oh, so good) from the January 2010 issue.


I've also started cutting pieces for my second quilt. This has actually been a work in progress for over a year: I've been writing on all of the fabric since March 2009. I love the colors, but I've decided to add some blue pieces...which means more writing, ironing, and cutting before I can actually piece the thing.

Testing 1, 2, 3

How many blogs have I had so far? Umm...several. I always seem to start them in an effort to communicate with a specific group of people, instead of just keeping one for the sake of keeping it.

So what's been happening lately?

Cooking: On Wednesday, I revisted my favorite "Oven Chicken Cordon Bleu" recipe on the occasion of lunch with my sister & brother-in-law. This time I omitted the dijon, used Italian breadcrumbs instead of cornflakes, and wrapped everything with bacon - which worked out awesomely, since it held those babies together! Yum!

Crafting: With Baby Colton's blanket finished and given, it's been high time to get to work on Baby K's gift (he could arrive any day and this gift has to be sent pretty much across the country!). I'm using Knitpick's shine sport, which is soft and lovely to work with. Can't tell you what exactly I'm making - it's a surprise!

Church: One of my co-workers recommended North Ridge Church, so at the next opportunity I'll be checking it out! They have a pretty nifty/helpful web-site (although there's no staff info and I couldn't find doctrinal info) - if you check it out, be sure to look at the "Cardboard Testimonies" video. They're also having a Holy Week drama that I might check out on Good Friday.

Lately I've been attempting to do some language learning during my knitting. After mini-trials with a few different programs/languages, I think I'm sticking with Indonesian! It helps that I've already got a little headstart from some studying I did in the fall, and there's the added advantage that it's related to several other languages. Will I ever use it? I don't know - but there's nothing wrong with giving it a shot!