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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Dirty Rice and Dragons

*gigglesnort* that title sounds like a really, really bad movie. It pretty much sums up my evening, though. Made a cross between dirty rice and red beans and rice for dinner tonight and have been working steadily on my cross stitch.


Dinner wasn't as pretty, but I'm pretty sure it tasted better than the cross stitch would have. Kidney beans, rice cooked in chicken broth, smoked sausage, onions, garlic, and spices vs. cotton fabric and thread...Hmmm...

Oh! And the new crochet hook I ordered came today! Such excitement! Yep, that's my life, one thrill after another.

Cajun Rice Dinner

3C. Uncooked rice
6C. Chicken broth
1lb smoked sausage, sliced
2 T oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t paprika
3/4 t salt
1/2 t oregano
1/4 t thyme
Sprinkle cayenne (more it you like it hot)
2 T Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed.

Bring broth to a boil, add rice, cover, and cook 20 minutes, until broth is absorbed and rice is tender.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and sausage, cook until onion is tender and sausage is browned. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add beans and seasonings and stir together.

Stir sausage mixture into the rice. Add more Cajun seasoning as needed.
You may add 2 stalks sliced celery and/or 1 chopped bell pepper to the skillet when you cook the onion if you like, my family doesn't care for them.


Friday, December 16, 2016

Taking a Break

Except for new orders, I'm taking a break from crochet. And from FaceBook, for that matter. I kind of go in cycles; I'll crochet constantly for a few years, then I'll get a bit burnt out and switch to my other obsession, cross stitch.

That's what I"ve been working on the last 10 weeks or so. I'll post it here because I've mailed it off to its new home, and it should have already arrived (well, maybe tomorrow). I've sent it to a dear friend for Christmas. It's a pattern I bought nearly 20 years ago to make for my mom, but I was starting to burn out on cross stitching by that time, so it never got more than started. I picked it up a few times over the years, but never got much done. In nearly 20 years, I had gotten about 1/4 of it done. By staying away from FaceBook, I finished the other 3/4 in just over 2 months! Unfortunately, I'm almost 17 years too late to give it to my mom.



I've now started on a new pattern...a dragon! I'm ot generally into scifi/fantasy, but when it comes to cross stitch, I tend to gravitate toward it. I think it's because of the bold colors and the variety of colors. It keeps it from getting boring.



Maybe that's why it too so long for me to finish this one. It has a lot of colors, but they're all rather muted.

The new pattern has metallic thread and beads, so...nothing muted about it! The beads go in all those empty squares (not the big empty blotches, those are just areas I haven't stitched in yet).