This morning I’m participating in a blog swap with Ohio Blogging Association’s All State Blog Swap, so today’s post is by Nidhi of Nidhi’s Nidhizzle. On this day, bloggers from around the great state of Ohio are guest posting on one another blogs as a way to help to get one another in our blogging community.  (Here’s a full listing of blog participants.)

Nidhi has some fantastic ideas for re-making old things into something totally unrelated and new again.  She’s showing us how to make a cute necklace – a cool way to accessorize for dinner out.

Introducing Nidhi:

Hi, I’m Nidhi from nidhizzle.com. I write about arts&crafts normally, so I’m going to give you a “recipe” of how to make a necklace from parts you have lying around your house! That is, if you have jewelry parts just lying around your house. Actually, if you’re not a regular crafter, you probably don’t have any jewelry parts just lying around your house. So you might have to buy some ingredients.
Start out with your ingredients.
Thin Gold Chain, like you’re about to go fist pumping but only a little bit. As long as you want it.
Embroidery Thread, like you’re about to embroider something but remember you hate embroidering
Necklace Clasps, not sure if that’s the name but that’s what’s in that blurry plastic baggie
Plastic Jewel Beads, I used green and clear but you can use whatever color you feel like obviously. JK. You have to use green and clear, otherwise the recipe won’t turn out perfectly!!

Start by threading your thread through the gold chain. Ok, you don’t really have to use a gold chain. You could have totally used silver. Tie a knot (but not the knot) around the gold chain so it’s seat belt securely fastened.

Put all your beads on the thread and tie a knot at the other end. Then, realize that you accidentally have created a necklace that you can’t fit around your head and must figure out a way to wear it.

Chop the gold chain in half and attach the necklace clasp things. That part was a little blurry to me since I’m particularly terrible at attaching clasp things. But somehow, I managed to make it work like I was one of Tim Gunn’s mentees. You can too!

Sit in your kitchen wearing your jammies and your necklace for 20 minutes because you forgot to take off the necklace. Oops. Oh well. At least you looked fabulously accessorized!

Thanks for reading!

What happens when you stick your bottle of wine in the freezer to cool quickly and forget about it?  Wine slushies….. I’m sorry, I didn’t have an ice bucket and I thought that was the easiest way to do it.  I’ve thought about making a wine granita.  That’s where you put a liquid in the freezer in a shallow layer and scrape it around every so often mixing it with the liquid that’s left, to create a true wine slushie.  Truthfully, I was sure I was creating some sort of really big snobby wine faux pas… until I found out what they’re doing in Chicago.  Do you think we could do this ourselves?

Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park Hotel offers the perfect adult beverage, in a popsicle. Back by popular demand, this year’s winesicles offers some delicious and frozen options for wine lovers. Come to eno wine room inside the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park for an adults only sweet summer treat.

Red, White and Blueberry!! – Available for Memorial Day Weekend

• Brachetto d’Acqui
• Sweet White Wine
• Blueberry Infused Simple Syrup
• Water

The winesicles mentioned below are available from Memorial Day through the end of the summer. Each one is available for $5.

Muscatsicles

• Muscat (semi-sweet)
• Orange Juice
• Pineapple Juice
• Simply Syrup
• Pinch of salt to Finish

Sauvignon Rouge-Sicles

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Apple Juice
• Cranberry Juice
• Simple Syrup
• Lime Juice

Sauvignon Blancsickles

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Lime Juice
• Grapefruit Juice
• Simple Syrup
• Apple Juice

Champagnesicles

• Orange Juice
• Lemon Juice
• Simple Syrup
• Pineapple Juice
• Pinch of Salt to Finish

If you are thinking about making your own winesicles – I suggest you take a look at Growing a Green Family for their molds without BPA (Fairmont Chicago are you BPA free in your molds?) This is a seriously cool idea.  Have any of you made wine slushies, or winesicles?  Let me know how it comes out. Since alcohol freezes at a lower temp, you may only get slushies and not ~sicles.

Here is a link to a winesicle recipe to try:

Bottle Note – Wine on a Stick

This post goes out to my daughter – CG (College Girl). She’s visiting for the week, and she and her brother have been taking turns cooking dinner.  Tonight, I asked her to roast some potatoes in olive oil and then inspired by Rachel’s post at Hounds in the Kitchen,  I asked her to roast the Bok choy, I had in the fridge.  I said the bottom was almost a bulb, but had leaves coming out of the top and it wasn’t ferny like fennel.

The phone conversation went something like this:

CG: Does it have red stems and dark green leaves?b

Me: No, that’s Chard.

CG: Does it look like celery with red tips/

Me: No, that’s rhubarb.

CG: Does it have a white bottom with leaves coming out of the top?

Me: What kind of leaves?  If it has roots coming out of the bottom and goes straight up like celery, only it’s the leaves.  They’re white on the bottom and it turns green, but it’s not a leaf like a lettuce leaf – that’s leeks.

CG: What if it’s like a turnip on the bottom but red and has leaves on top ?

Me: That might be a beet.

CG: Wait – there’s something that looks like celery ?

Me: Is it ferny on top – that’s fennel (it was actually celery I think – no ferns?).

Me:  Look in the other drawer.

CG:  I think this is it, I found it.  She actually looked it up online after the phone call to make sure.

Terrific dinner.  Bok Choy sliced in half and drizzled with olive oil and roasted in the oven in a glass pan. Fingerling potatoes sliced in half drizzled with oil, sprinkled with herbs (sage, rubbed) and roasted in another glass pan and lamb flank steaks sizzled in a grill pan.  CG did a fantastic job on dinner.

CG told me that I need to label my green vegetables.  Truthfully because I get the Weekly Fresh Market Bag – I pay a monthly fee, and get bags of veggies once a week from the grocer, I have tried more vegetables this year than other years.  Most of them I have seen and tried before, but the Bok Choy was a new one for me as well, and I thank Rachel for the idea of how to cook it.  She has a nice photo also – we ate ours, so no photo.

My husband gave me the gift of time alone today – so here’s a quick wish for a Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Cookerati moms and mom-like people.

Enjoy!!

When I saw the title – Baking Basics – I thought it was a tutorial type book teaching baking from the ground up – like a textbook.  I was wrong, this is more about simple and basic baking, that anyone can do.  Mostly desserts, these dishes are easy but delicious.  Most of the recipes are one or two pages, but there are a couple of longer ones.  The ingredients can be found in most pantries and are used in more than one recipe with a few surprises here and there. I received a copy of Baking Basics and Beyond by Pat Sinclair to use for a review.

As a food consultant and recipe editor, Pat Sinclair knows how to put together great recipes. The book starts out with basic baking instruction, that is used throughout.  Sprinkled here and there all through the book are tips and tricks.  This is all in addition to great recipes.  The recipes include biscuits and breads, coffee cakes, brownies, crisps , custards, cheesecakes, cakes, pies and yeast breads.

There are nice photos, though not a photo for every single recipe but for quite a few. The pages are glossy, with easy to read print – which I find is very necessary these days.  The measurements are shown two ways – one is the metric conversion in case you need it.

All of the recipes are really good for the novice baker or someone who just enjoys baking tasty desserts.  I recommend this for a college kid, someone starting out, a homemaker who would like to bake for the family and anyone who would like to do some basic baking.

I tried out some recipes, in my next post, I’m going to share  Fresh Strawberry pie – the perfect Mother’s Day dessert this year since strawberries are at their peak right now.