Thank You Knitstress!: Beer Bread

When I saw the recipe for beer bread posted by Foxy Knitstress, I was intrigued by it's simplicity. Can you truly make yummy bread with just a mix of self-rising flour, some sugar, and a beer? I tried it out tonight with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I didn't have the right size loaf pan so I justmounded it into an oval and put it in a too-big pan. I basted it with butter about 10 minutes before it was to be done, and it was great. Like a giant biscuit you can slice, with a yummy crusty outside.

I made alot of food tonight, chicken cacciatore in the ol' crockpot (organic free-range of course), alfredo sauce for our vegetarian friend (ok, so the alfredo came from a container in the grocery store), steam-sauteed asparagus with carrot and zucchini matchsticks, salad, and a vinaigrette......but the beer bread was definately a starring item.

I feel like I should distribute packages of self-rising flour, sugar, and butter, to broke punk rockers and say "Hey guys, if you wake up all hungover and have one beer left among you, you can stoke yourselves out by making this easy and delicious bread!"

*May 25th---BEER BREAD UPDATE!

I found another post about beer bread on a very excellent crafty site, the Do Stuff!Leethal Zine Blog, which is well worth checking out for a bazillion other reasons as well. That chick is on fire, and she makes awesome hats.

Crafts En Route

While traveling in India I really enjoyed having a nice set of colored pencils with me and my small sketchbook of thick black paper. Luckily, a friend of mine gave me a cool pencil roll right before I left. Once situated in the lovely village of Aranmula, a super nice chick named Vicki from the UK gave me a tube of strawberry scented glue. Then I was all set to be my crafty self.

I love utilizing the paper I tend to collect while traveling (like plane and train ticket stubs) when I'm actually STILL there. I get home with less stuff that most people term "garbage". (Of course, I still have a ziploc full of it.)

MOO Cards!

A few months ago when I was supposed to getting ready for my trip and being too anxious to do so, prefering to do ANYTHING but get ready.....I read a post of Meshell's about MOO cards, and thus, discovered them.

I was so excited that I could have cute little full color cards made with slices of my flickr pictures, I had to do it right away (at about 3 AM). They arrived shortly after I had left for India, and I was bummed about that because I was really anxious to see them. I made my boyfriend bring them to me when he met me in London. One of the first things he said to me was " I know you probably want to see your awesome cards now."

Today I found the link to Splatgirl's tutorial for making MOO pockets on Craft:Zine. I short-cut the learning process and ordered one from her Etsy shop.

I'm Back!

I am finally home again after 2.5 months out of the country and there is much to blog about! First, some cleaning though.....

I'm a bit stymied in the craft department by the state of this room. To aid my roommates in some renovations they were gonna do while I was gone (haha), I cleared a bunch of my stuff off of the loft and crammed it in here. They just moved the door frame and started building a staircase over this little room yesterday, so I will have to wait a few more days before messing with it.

It feels like I have been away from all my cool craft stuff FOREVER, so I can't wait to make stuff. For now, when I get the chance, I'm gonna focus on the yarn projects. They are all together in a bag and don't require me to dig through anything to find their components.

Hope all is well with all you crafty people out there!