Project Progress

From the looks of this blog, you wouldn’t think that I’ve been doing much craft-wise, but I really have. The projects, which I’ll try to photograph soon:

1. Last night I finally cut out the pieces for the Duro dress I mentioned in my very first post. When I’m using one-of-a-kind vintage fabric, cutting is kind of a traumatic step for me because it’s the point of no return. I put it off until the urge to create is overwhelming, and then just dive in.

When I was cutting last night though, the foremost concern in my mind was how to stop my pesky cats from crawling all over the fabric and under the pattern. They LOVE the crinkly sound of the pattern paper and insist on playing with it, so while cutting I had to work around Delicious (smaller pest) and Adventurous (I’ve never met a ruder pest). Their only redeeming quality is their collective cuteness. And sometimes I’ll end up with a funny picture of them. (I promise that this won’t degenerate into one of those “cute pictures of my cats” blogs, though I will admit to a large weakness for cute overload)

2. I combined a thrifted red and black men’s flannel with a long-sleeved black tee to create a cute fall top. I haven’t taken pictures of it yet, though.

3. Steven and I re-finished our coffee table. A leftover from our old roommate, it was a large beat-up wooden desk from which the legs had been removed. We took off the old finish, put on a new one (white), added short silver legs, and replaced the handles on the drawers with industrial silver ones. It turned out pretty good for our first furniture project, although there are some flaws that kind of bother me. It’s a great improvement, however, and I think that it’ll look cool with the new couch and chair we purchased last weekend (our first non-Ikea or thriftstore furniture!). Stay tuned for pictures.

4. Until we get our new furniture in about six weeks, almost everything in our living room is either thrifted or left by our former roommates. This includes a large, very comfy, but atrociously ugly denim sofa (old roommates’) and a thrifted office chair. Extremely unfashionable, but then so is our budget. The only reason the office chair is still in our apartment is that it used to be Steven’s desk chair, but he replaced it for something more comfortable and upon moving it to the main room discovered that our cats love to scratch and climb all over it. We figured that this was a much better outlet for their destructive tendencies than other furniture, so we kept it, but its days are now numbered. Knowing that removing a scratching device without replacing it with an enjoyable alternative was a bad idea, we built the cats a scratching post this weekend.

We scrounged wood of the perfect dimensions from the apartment’s parking garage (free), bought some nails and 200 feet of sisal rope (~$10), and built a structure that the cats couldn’t even wait until we were finished with to begin using. It’s always nice to get such enthusiastic and unequivocal reviews.

Muffins!

Muffins are an amazing breakfast food that have been unfairly maligned. These convenient little capsules of goodness can contain the perfect fuel to start your day, but they’re usually more like cupcakes without the frosting. Bran muffins, on the other hand, are the boring, nutritious member of the muffin family that everyone knows are good for you, but most people don’t look forward to eating. This is the problem that I set out to solve with my muffin experimentation, and solve it I did, as far as I’m concerned.

I started with this recipe for “Classic Bran Muffins”, from allrecipes.com, and modified it to be both healthier and more delicious by halving the sugar and oil and adding apple and spices. I usually make a double batch of these and freeze the excess to thaw in the microwave as I want them.

Granny Smith apples are an excellent choice for these, and Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal is the only bran cereal I’ve used, but I suspect substitutions for other of these ingredients would be fine. I’ve also very successfully used Ener-G Egg Replacer when I didn’t have eggs, and next time I make them I may try substituting soy milk for the buttermilk to see how a vegan version would taste. Sometimes I add nutmeg, but they’re excellent without it, too.

They definitely taste better than they look!

Spicy Apple Ginger Bran Muffins

2 cups bran cereal

1 apple, grated

1 inch fresh ginger, grated (approximate)

1 cup lowfat buttermilk

2.5 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tbsp nutmeg (optional)

1-2 tbsp flax seed meal (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups if using muffin tins, skip this step if you have silicon cups.
2. Mix together bran and buttermilk; let stand while mixing other ingredients.
3. Grate or finely chop apple and peeled ginger (a food processor works well) and stir in with the bran and buttermilk.
4. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran/apple mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, dry spices, flax seed meal, and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture, until just blended, and generously spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Do not overbake!