homemade v-day cards

cheesy scrapbook valentine by laura: adorable, sweet, kissy, valentine by dylan:

Frozen Meal Co-op

me and dad circa 1985.

I come from a family (i.e., father) who gets excited about living on a tight budget. We purchased food, office supplies, and housewares in bulk; mom cooked dinner from scratch nearly every night; Dad recorded/cataloged movies off the satellite dish instead of renting/buying/theaters; we packed snacks and meals for road trips instead of stopping...

Of all the thrifty habits my family developed, my favorites by far are the frozen lunches in our deep freezer. For as long as I can remember my parents have had a deep freezer containing milk crates filled with ziploc bags of frozen soup and chili. To avoid the costly (for $ and health) habit of eating out for lunch, Mom would (and still does) make 1-2 big pots of soup a few times a month for him to take as lunch. Dad bags, labels, and freezes the bags flat and then "files" them in crates. At any given time there are 6-8 types of soup, chili, and pasta in their freezer. I've always planned to follow suit when I grow up and have a deep freezer. Now I'm excited about doing more than just soup.

My friend Jess just pass along the following story about a freezer meal group, and it has me daydreaming about all the freezer-friendly meals I could be making and sharing... (click the picture for the site)

anyone interested?

Sweater and Snow Walk

Matilda has a cardigan. It's a human cardigan altered just for her. I'm a far way away from perfecting clothes for her, but I guess I've got to start somewhere. She's really proud of it, as you can see in the second photo :). She's all dressed up for a major family snow walk.

































Dylan and Matilda in the Wahalla Ravine

Homemade mayonnaise

Ciabatta, tilapia, spinach, lemon, a hungry husband... but no mayo! What's a girl to do snowed in, craving a fish sandwich?

A quick search for homemade mayo and I found this. Dylan has a mustard phobia, and I LOVE lemon, so here's my adjusted recipe for aioli (basically mayo with garlic):

1 egg yolk
1 tb fresh lemon juice
1 t white vinegar
1/2 t salt plus more to taste
3/4 c olive oil
1 t finely minced garlic

I used a whisk to beat all but the oil, then whisked in a quarter cup, one teaspoon or so at a time.

The last 1/2 c I drizzled and whisked in very slowly. This all took about 10 minutes, but by the end I had 3/4 cup of legitimate mayonnaise-like delicious sauce for our sandwiches. I'd nearly broken a sweat in our 62 degree kitchen and I'm sure burned at least as many calories as are in 3/4 c of olive oil ;).

Final product:

Meisters

I know this is a little ridiculous, but one of the reasons I haven't blogged as often as I wish is because I created this from my lauradolle account. I don't use that account anymore. I use a meister account. And every time I think about blogging, I know I have to sign out of my meister account and log into dolle. Well I finally fixed that. And added another Meister to the mix. Dolle-made is now a group blog with Laura Dolle, Laura Meister, and Dylan! I'm not sure if we'll hear much from Dylan, but he has the ability to blog now. We been discussing starting a new blogger for our adventures as Meisters, but for now I can't part with dolle-made. And meister-made will never sound as good.

Lazy Blogger

I want so badly to be a regular blogger. but life is so hectic, sometimes.

Big news:
Dylan and I were blessed with a sweet-tempered, vegetable-loving puppy in October. Her name is Matilda and she's wonderful. Here she is in her homemade scarf (XL sweatshirt arm). We recently poked ear-holes in it. She rarely leaves the house without it.















Other news, last week, for the first time, I poached something other than eggs. Quick dinner for 5 friends= tilapia and salmon fillets over sliced onions, zucchini, and summer squash. With thyme and white wine. Baked covered for 25 minutes. And mashed potatoes.

Pasta with Edamame and Salmon

One of my favorite things to have on hand are Wild Alaskan Salmon Burgers from Costco. A bag of 12 costs about $13 and they cook in 5-8 minutes. They're super versatile; I eat them on buns, salads, with pasta, with eggs.

For a lazy, quick lunch today I boiled some pasta, added frozen edamame 5 minutes before it was done, and put a salmon burger in a skillet. When the pasta and edamame were cooked, I added them to the burger, flaked it, added a little olive oil, lime juice, dill, red pepper, salt/pepper.

delicious.