Image Credit: Yummly.

To get an idea of how impressive the food should be, football announcer John Madden brought back the popularity of the Turducken during the Thanksgiving Day game. For those of you who don’t know, the Turducken is a de-boned chicken, stuffed into a de-boned duck which is then placed inside a de-boned turkey and then cooked, sometimes stuffing or sausage meat is used to fill the cavities not taken up by poultry. Sounds delicious, I know. If you could find a way to get beef in there then it would be my idea of heaven, but that’s was just for the Thanksgiving game!

Image credit Wikipedia.

Sorry to any vegetarian readers, but I’m allergic to fruits and veg (seriously) so meat has become my best friend. I’m getting a little off topic. The Superbowl spread has to be awesome and that’s what I’m here to help you with today! This culinary creation is inspired by a dish from Japan where you can actually order it from Pizza Hut! I have no idea why this was never made on Iron Chef, but ladies and the two or three gentleman who read this blog, I give you…THE PIGS IN A BLANKET PIZZA!!!! *choir of angels*

As you can see it’s a pizza, but the crust is made up of pigs in a blanket!!! Brilliant!!! I’m gonna guide you through making this, but I would like to start by saying that if I could have gone to shops and bought crescent dough for the pigs in a blanket, I would have. It tastes so much better, but it’s pretty hard to make and you can’t buy it in stores here. The reason I didn’t use puff pastry is because I takes about 30 minutes to bake and the pizza takes 15, so it would burn.

You will need:

• Flour
• Oregano
• Salt (I use garlic salt because we love garlic)
• Sugar
• Dry yeast
• Sausages
• Pineapple
• Ham
• Basil
• Tomato paste

Then REALLY start by combining 3 cups flour, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar and 3 tsp yeast. Yeast varies from type to type, so see how much you will need against how much flour you’re using and whether it needs to be dissolved in water first.

Mix everything up and then make a well in the middle and add 1 and a half cups warm water. Mix that up until it it makes a rough sticky dough.

Pull a stupid face because your hand looks like it’s mutating.

Pop the dough onto a well floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. I like the folding technique. Once it’s come together in a nice ball, pop it into a well greased bowl and cover it with cling wrap. This needs to sit in a warm area to rise, I fill my sink with about 4 inches of fairly warm water and put the bowl in that. Let it rise for 30-45 minutes until it’s doubled in size.

Does it looks like this? If so, congrats, you didn’t kill the yeast!

At this point you can work out how many sausages you’re going to need.

Deflate the dough by dropping it onto a floury surface once again and then flatten it. At this point you need to work out how much dough is going to be your pizza base and how much is going to be for wrapping your sausages. I put two thirds to the dough and one third to the sausages. This gave me a medium crust and plenty for wrapping.

Roll out your sausage dough into a square (or if you’re an idiot like me then a circle for some reason) and then cut the dough into triangles. This is much easier if your dough is a square…roll your sausages up in a triangle of dough. If you REALLY like your guests then at this point you could also wrap the sausage in bacon and add a little cheese. Mmmmm heart attack-y!

Smooth your pizza dough to fit your pan and place the wrapped sausage around the outside. I used a little bit of water to help them stick.

For my sauce I use tomato paste and a sprinkling of dry basil.

This is going to be a Hawaiian creation, so I added ham and pineapple.

Add some cheese and it’s almost done! Stick it in a preheated fan forced oven at around 170c (330f) for 15 minutes

Done!!!

Just in time for some stupid eating poses!!!

Seriously, it tastes awesome. I meant to brush on an egg wash over the sausage dough, but I was REALLY hungry at this point. Eat the pizza part then dip the pig in a blanket into some ranch/BBQ/tomato sauce, you’re gonna love it! Yummy! Now sit back and enjoy the game. GO PATRIOTS!!!!

Then several coats of glitter paint.

Then it was just a matter of piling on a lot of cute paper clay food I’d made several years ago.

I did so by layering it all and hot gluing as I went.

You can never have too much whipped cream on a project like this.

Gaps filled with beads, pearls, diamantes and cabochons.

DONE!

A good way to get out the pink glitter that’s been building up in my brain and make a gift for someone I know will love it, now I just need to get the rest of her package together :D

Arrange them together how you’d like, I prefer to have one main piece of interest, a couple of  smaller things and then ribbon and lace dangling down.

So this is going to be the main part…

And then dangling ribbons and lace behind it…

Glue the pieces together one by one.

Then the ribbons on the back.

Add a little metal link to the back so you can attach it to a strap later and cover all of the back with a piece of felt.

And that’s all there is to it!

Pretty phone/bag/whatever strap for a girl who likes pretty things and it look all of around 10 minutes to make.

This is a fantastic way to use up old things from your craft stash too so it’s win/win!

• Lace
• Thin ribbon
• Thin wire

First thing’s first, decide how long you want the usamimi to be and cut the lace to that length.

Lay it flat on a table and place the ribbon over the top in the center like this. If you prefer you can pin it in place.

Stitch down either side of the ribbon so it forms a tube with the lace. You want to get as close to the edge of the ribbon as possible so it looks neat and tidy. Sew one of the ends shut too but leave the other open as we’ll need to shove the wire in it.

You should have something like this…

Now cut a length of wire which is a few inches longer than the lace.

Fold the end of it over and twist so it forms a loop like the photo below. This loop will stop it poking out of the ends between the stitches.

Poke it into the tube between the lace and ribbon.

Thread it through all the way until you reach the other end of the lace.

Twist the other end of the wire into a loop as well.

Poke the wire in so it’s completely inside the tube and stitch it shut with some thread.

Taadaa! you have a very pretty and versatile usamimi which you can use in the traditional way or in so many other ways because it’s basically a bendable piece of lace.

I’m very tempted to make a bunch of these in different colours because they’re a really good way to top off an outfit :D

It should form a thin side and a thicker rounded edge which will end up being the round part of the petal.

Repeat with all of the petals so they are ready to work with. If you want you can dip your finger in water and smooth down any cracks in the edges but I prefer to leave them or even exaggerate them as it creates a really interesting effect.

To for the rose, start with a small petal and roll it between your fingers like this:

Roll the bottom of the petal together a little harder so it forms a stem:

Now add a slightly bigger petal and roll it around the other side so it encases the edge of the first petal.

Add another petal so it’s edge is in the middle of the second petal. As you go, roll the petals with a little bit more force at the bottom so the clay squishes together between your fingers to form a stem. Be careful not to disturb the petals when you do it though.

Continue adding petals this way going around the flower in a circular pattern starting the edge of each petal 1/3rd of the way across the previous petal.

Just keep going until you think you’ve got a good size and let it all dry!

If you want you can clean up the stem and roll it a bit more evenly, I generally cut it of so the flower sits flat in whatever craft I’m doing.

Do you guys have something you automatically make? I seem to just make these on auto pilot whenever I get clay in my hands XD

Can you imagine a Bergamot done in this style? Completely deco? I totally want to make one!

The Christmas displays were so cute, if I ever become rich and decide to change my tree I think I’ll stick a little Billy Idol head to this one:

Argh just drool everywhere so much bling!

Bling pens!

And the coolest anti theft system ever, the rings are attached to bling weights under the counter *_*

Best part though? GIGANTIC DIAMANTE COVERED CHAIR! I need one of these for at home!

I love going in there so much, the staff are always so friendly and never pushy. In fact the lady that was serving us that day was so nice that I wrote to the manager to give good feedback about her (I think good service should be rewarded!). To say thank you for saying thank you they mailed me a trinket box *_* That is just so… nice! And I had to write back to say thank you and it ended up being a big circle of thank yous that become quite confusing hahaha!

I can’t believe how nice that was! And just from that one attendant being so helpful they now have a very loyal customer in me. I think other Australian retailers could learn a lot from good in store service like that because (generally speaking) the retail service in Aus is very much below the rest of the world.

Now that I’ve gotten my current obsession out of the way, let’s revisit an old obsession: Melbourne Architecture!

Melbourne skyscapes will never cease to amaze me.

There have been butterflies absolutely everywhere at our apartment the last few months. I don’t know where they’re all coming from but they keep getting stuck inside our windows and it’s adorable.

So pretty but there have been bees too which seem to think the stars on the windows are flowers *_*

Silly bees, these are flowers!

This is one of my favorite buskers at the moment, his little skeleton is a puppet who sings old classic songs and dances too. So cute!

Ice chocolate at Koko Black, I never thought I’d say it but I think I’m sick of stores like Koko, I’m much more interested in trying smaller out of the way places. When we have some more money James and I want to start exploring the city every week and going down all of the alleys we miss when we’re in a hurry then ending each trip at a small cafe. I think that would be such a nice way to spend a weekend.

I could take my sketch book and paint while we sit.

And we could take more photos around town, I’m really starting to enjoy photography with my new camera. This is my favorite photo of James ever.

Realistically I think we’ll just end up doing more of this…

Hope you enjoyed the snapshots, what have you all been up to this week?

• 2 Timtams
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Thickened cream (heavy cream/whatever the type of cream you generally eat with cake is called in your country, something with at least 35%+ fat)
• Sprinkles
• Fruitcake (not really needed but I had some spare to use up)

Now I see a lot of people making these fancy looking desserts in fancy looking wine glasses etc. I love how pretty they look but I also hate eating out of them because it’s hard to get the last bits out and the ones we have are small compared to regular glasses so I say screw prettiness, go with the biggest cup you have >:D

Left: Very pretty. Right: Realistic of how much I want to eat chocolate.

So this is the simplest concept ever: layering!

Stick a spoon full of fruitcake in the glass and pour a spoon of cream on it. If you’re not using fruitcake you can substitute with regular sponge cake or more chocolate biscuits.

Add some blueberries and chopped strawberries.

Roughly chop the Timtams and add some.

More cream!

Continue layering deliciousness until you get to the top.

Lastly add the sprinkles and enjoy!

eat while watching crappy movies or playing video games.

Took around 5 min to make and as the cream melts into the Timtams it forms the most delicious mush in the universe. *craving again*

Food Friday is as healthy as ever ;) Next week I’m going to share my budget recipes, money is tight here at the moment so we’ve been cooking frugally. Sometimes the best comfort food recipes are the cheapest! ^_^

What you need:

• Fabric
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Wire

First thing you need to do is work out how long you want the usamimi to be and cut a rectangle of fabric to that size. Fold it in half on the long side (so it’s very thin and long) and cut the ends into slightly curved points. The photo below shows what the points should look like unfolded.

This is what you should end up with, two points on each end.

Fold it so the good side of the fabric is on the inside and start stitching at the crease. Go up to the point:

And back down the other side.

Continue stitching all the way down the side until you reach the end of the other point.

Tie off the thread and leave the other end of the point open.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole at the point.

If you need to, use something pointy like a pen to help push it all through.

You should have something along these lines:

Cut a length of wire a few inches longer than the fabric is point to point. Fold one end of the over and twist so it forms a loop. This will prevent it from poking through the stitching on the other side.  Push the piece of wire into the usamimi through the hole and all the way to the other point.

In the other tutorial I wrote the wire was stitched around the outside of the fabric, that works best if you have very thin wire, this technique works best if you have thicker wire.

Once the wire is all the way in, twist the other end in a loop too.

Fold the edges of the hole under and hand stitch it completely shut.

Test it out by twisting it together and you’re good to go :D

Very simple to do and super quick if you do them on the sewing machine too. If your fabric is very puffy you might like to topstitch the sides to flatten it a bit but I actually prefer the puffiness.

Hope you guys enjoyed, there’s a video version of this coming soon too!