Salmon Croquettes

Remember the french bread I made? After it started to get stale, I stuck it in the fridge to keep it fresh longer, but ran it through my food processor to make panko bread crumbs first. Panko bread crumbs are basically white bread that has been made into crumbs, and not seasoned. I love that panko can be made with all sorts of bread, so using what I have on hand is perfect!

Since I had some panko to play with, and I also had a can of salmon, I decided to make some yummy salmon croquettes! Mmmm. These are wonderful with a dab of sour cream.

Salmon Croquettes
1 can salmon
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c panko
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dill
1 T shredded carrot
1/3 c finely chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 c panko for coating
Oil for pan frying

Mix all the ingredients, except for the 1/2 cup of panko and oil, in a bowl. Spread the remaining panko on a plate. Form eight patties carefully with the salmon mixture, and gently coat the patty on both sides with the panko. In a hot frying pan heated on medium-high heat, swirl enough canola oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan (about a Tbsp worth). When the oil is hot, test with a bread crumb to see if it sizzles. Once it sizzles, gently add four patties , making sure to leave them alone once they hit the pan so they won't break up. Cook for a bout six minutes, or until the bottom is lightly browned, and then flip it over. Cook the other side until lightly golden, then serve warm with a dollap of sour cream.

Be sure to flake your salmon as you mix!

The patty is almost impossible to see here.

Sizzling in the pan! Mmmm

Salmon croquettes...minus one for my daughter.

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Teddy Bear Celery Cuts

Today I washed and cut up all of my produce for the upcoming week, and stumbled upon something really cute. If you cut celery just right, you can make adorable bear shapes! These will make a great decoration for my bento lunches, and any other cute food dress up. These bears are really easy to make, but you can only make a few of them because you have to cut them out of the branch part near the top of each celery rib. If you pick a celery stalk with several ribs, you can make more bear cutouts than if you use a sparse celery stalk. Here's how to cut them out:

Place knife about 1/8" above the indented part of the celery and cut.

It should look like this. Or close to it.

Cut on the indentation.

Teddy bears!

Bow of Hair

I found this video on youtube that shows how to make hair look like a little bow, and I had to try it out on my little girl. It is really easy to do, and it stands out more than a regular hair bow. For my daughter, I added a hair tie that had a cute little doll on it, just to up the cuteness factor (which was added after the ponytail was bent in half and then split, so she had two hair ties in her hair). Here she is, all "dolled" up:

Her doll sits right in the center of the "bow".

From the back, it looks just like a little bow.

To learn how to make this, watch the video below.

Easy French Bread

This technique is great for people who have some experience with baking bread. I have decided to bake all of my bread from scratch, so this technique is perfect for me. To get started, let me give you a list of ingredients:

4 C Flour (I like bread flour)
1 T Yeast
1 T Salt
Very warm (not hot) water
Extra flour for kneading
Water to make steam
Oil to grease cookie sheet

This guy is seriously brilliant. I have to say, for the minimal effort, this bread is pretty tasty. After I bake my bread, a few days later, if there are leftovers, I put them in my food processor to make bread crumbs, and put them in a bag. These are called panko bread crumbs, and they are wonderful to cook with (more posts on that later). Let me know how your bread turns out if you give this a try. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!



By the way, I use the bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches, using cheddar slices, and they are out of this world delicious!

Quick Macaroni and Cheese Bento

I found the cutest pasta at the local market on Friday. It's teddy bear shaped! Since it was time for lunch, and I had just done a ton of dishes, I didn't feel the need to dirty up much more with cooking lunch. So, I made a tiny batch of macaroni and cheese with 1 cup of the bear pasta. I boiled up some water, added a pinch of salt, and then filled the box with pre-cut cucumbers and pre-peeled carrots. I then got out a slice of cheddar cheese, and cut out a bear shape using my rice mold. With the leftover bits of cheese, a teaspoon of butter, and 2 tablespoons of milk, I made some simple macaroni and cheese using the hot, drained pasta. Then I filled the rest of the bento with half of the pasta and my daughter set to work eating it. To save time tomorrow, I took the other half of the pasta and made another bento for the fridge. This time I used a leaf of lettuce to separate the pasta, and added some grapes and cut cucumbers to switch things up a bit.

This is the coolest carrot I've ever seen! It grew wrapped around another carrot!

The first bento, with the cheese cut-out.

See? Teddy bear pasta!

Mmmm, pasta and some fruit and veggies.

Here you can see how it all fits with the lid on.

Vintage Skills: Hand Embroidery, Basic Daisy

Hopefully all of the practice with basting and back stitching has encouraged some confidence and excitement to move on to more challenging stitches. The basic daisy is a fun embellishment for clothing, purses, handkerchiefs, greeting cards, and much, much more. If the daisies are grouped together, they create a lovely floral decoration, especially if different colored threads are used. This technique is not difficult, but it may take some practice to really get the hang of it.



Vintage Skills: Hand Embroidery, Back Stitch

The back stitch is a very important basic stitch in embroidery. It outlines beautifully and adds special detail to both simple and complex designs. This stitch can also be used to mend clothing if a seam becomes ripped or loose. The concept of this stitch is to start the stitches just close to the end of a line, but not at the end, and go backwards to make the first stitch.