Sunday, March 16, 2008

TBIS, Chicken and Artichokes, Crafting Day 139


Sheep bag #2, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

You've hear of TGIF, everyone knows what that means of course, but do you know the counterpart, TBIS....too bad it's Sunday. I love Sunday mornings! I love to sit and read the Sunday paper in my pj's and sip coffee. Often my BF makes whole wheat pancakes though this morning we had a thick slice of Sweet Oatmeal Bread. This is definitely my favorite recipe for bread at the moment. Sometimes, I don't get out of the Sunday morning mode until noon.

Sunday is also the day I have to finish up things I haven't done yet on the weekend, like laundry.
Secret to felting technique
OK, well that wasn't exactly regular laundry. But, I did that too, believe me. This is a photo which shows my "secret recipe" for felting sweaters which is: 1 pair of old jeans + 9 tennis balls + a small load of hot water + a small quantity of laundry detergent, agitate for a minimum of 10 minutes.

I also made Sheep Bag #2 which was a custom order for a friend of a friend. I really love the way it turned out, though i was definitely challenged a bit to get a bag out of this vest:
Felted vest for my next bag-Crafting Day 123
There was very little sweater left after I cut the main bag out, so I had to get creative with the straps (a black sweater I had pieces of came to the rescue).

For dinner, I made "Chicken and Artichokes" and we were joined by my daughter, the grad. student. All in all, a pretty wonderful day. By about 7 pm on Sunday though I start dreading the fact that Monday morning will be here before I know it. Which leads me to think TBIS, I'd really like to start the weekend over!

And here's the recipe from tonight's dinner. which came from “Easy Gourmet from Stanford”, the Stanford Mother's Club cookbook I got in about 1970. The original called for large quantities of butter but you can reduce it to a minimum.

Chicken and Artichokes

Ingredients:
3 lb chicken, thighs and breasts (quartered or smaller)
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp pepper
Butter or margarine and oil
1 or 2 12-15 oz cans artichoke hearts, drained (frozen may also be used)
2 Tbl flour
½ cup chicken broth or consommé
¾ cup sherry
At least 6 or 8 large mushrooms, sliced

Directions:
Season chicken. Brown in a little oil and remove. Sauté mushrooms in butter. Sprinkle flour over mushrooms; pour chicken broth and sherry over them. Cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken; bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Add heated drained artichokes for final 10 minutes. Serve over rice. Serves 6 (at least)

4 comments:

Knitted Gems said...

Love your new sweater bag. It looks great!

woolies said...

Tennis balls!! I never thought of using tennis balls!!! I have a llama going in for felting in the next day or so - can I steal several of my dog's tennis balls??
PS Where are you coming near Tucson?? It IS supposed to warm up. I hope.
:0)

HomeMadeOriginals said...

By all means, try the tennis balls. I play tennis so it helps with the supply of these as after you play with them a while, they are only good for dogs or for felting.
I'm headed for Green Valley, actually.

*jean* said...

Yumm!!!! I'm definitely going to make this and how nice are you to share your felting secrets??? Your bags and wristlets are lovely!!