Fried risotto cakes

Oh, you were on a diet??  Feel free to leave immediately.

I often have leftover rissotto after I make it, and luckily this time I had more than usual because it contained shitake mushrooms*.

Our kids hate mushrooms.

In order to make it appeal to those that like their food as unhealthy as possible, I thought I would try frying them into “cakes”.  It wasn’t too hard to do, and they STILL didn’t like them.

I did, though.  Mmmmmm mmm!

Recipe:

Leftover risotto
1 egg
panko or bread crumbs
oil to fry

Make sure the risotto is cold before making into about 1/2 cup balls.  It makes them stick together better, so you can probably throw the bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before making them.  Take the egg and wisk it up with a little water in a shallow bowl that will allow for dipping.  Put the crumbs into a flat plate.  I usually start with about 1.5 cups and add more, as needed.

When the risotto is cold, get the oil heated up in the pan.  Make the risotto into balls, flatten, dip in the egg and then cover with the breadcrumbs.  Fry up a few minutes per side until nice and golden brown.  Take out and place on paper napkins to absorb the grease.

Serve right away.  With a big salad.  Or with sauteed spinach and catfish.

*Making risotto with shitake mushrooms isn’t much different than plain risotto.  I used dried mushrooms, and about 20 minutes ahead of making the risotto, boil them in about 3 cups water.  When done, take the mushrooms out of the broth and add another cup or two of chicken broth.  Heat up and use this as the broth for the rissotto.  When you are about to add the last cup of broth to the risotto, also add in the mushrooms and continue on with the recipe.

On the to-do list

Due to an active weekend of activities, parties and traveling…I didn’t get a chance (or energy!) to get anything sewn.

Currently, this is a work in process on my sewing table.  I will have to rip it all apart or start over with new fabric as the zipper and sides aren’t meeting up right.  I hope to have time to redo it this week.

Then this is what is on the docket for future projects…

I am going to try to remake this dress from Chasing Fireflies.  This lovely pile of chiffon, lycra nylon, silk and embroidered sheer will become a dress for our little princess.  I am thinking this will be her annual fancy birthday dress…so no hurry on this one.  I have until May. ;)

This is going to become a ruffled bikini, inspired by this one, only with my pattern that has more covering.

This is going to become a pillowcase dress, inspired by this one. I have never made a pillowcase dress before, though I see them around a lot.  The lace will be lined with a lycra nylon fabric, so it will be quite comfy to wear.

These sparkly bits of stretch chiffon will become skorts for Anya.  I’m planning on doing something like this, which she already has in her closet from last year.

Then this will be another fabric filled cushion for the little man.  It is a thick, suede-like material.

That is all in no particular order, of course.  I am hoping to get summer stuff done before landscaping season begins, since my time to sew goes down to zero at that point.  Anya will get more skorts this year with matching tops.   Kai has a bunch of t-shirts, so I think he will only need maybe a few pair of shorts.  Hopefully, I won’t have to sew too much of a summer wardrobe for them.

If only there were more hours in the day.  :)

Gratitude – Week 2

I am grateful for our little family.  Brian is reading the kids Rangers Apprentice.

We are grateful that our little kids get along.  Not always…but they do get along pretty well for being so close in age.  This was taken one night this week after dinner when they were watching Scooby Doo.

 

I am also grateful that I don’t feel the need to get down on myself for missing several days of my self-imposed assignment.  It was a busy week.  A few other non-picture related things I am grateful for this week:

  • We didn’t get in an accident today going to or from my cousins house.  The drive back home was replete with a bit of freezing rain, but the temp stayed warm enough that no black ice had formed by the time we got home.  Whew!  I hate driving in that stuff, but we got home safe and sound.
  • I am grateful for good friendships.  We had a party at one of our good friends’ house on Saturday night, while the kids stayed home with their favorite sitter.  It was fun for all.
  • I am grateful that we have had a pretty mild winter until this past week.  It finally got below zero, but not getting these temps until the endish of January it pretty fantastic.

Now hopefully this week will be better with me remembering to take pictures. :)

Praying

Our friend, Mr. Daddy, is currently is surgery to get a lump on his thyroid removed.  It’s 95% that it is cancer.  He’s had a tough few months, and this was kind of like the cherry on top of the sundae of loads of bad things happening.  He’s got a wonderful perspective on it all, of course.  

Here’s to you, Mr. D…

Last week, another friend and co-worker was diagnosed with choroidal melanoma in her eye.  She is a little over 40, has 4 little boys and will likely lose vision in that eye.  Six in one million get diagnosed annually in the U.S. with this disease.  Unfortunately, the odds were not in her favor.

Cancer just sucks.

We are praying that they will both recover from these dang diseases.   

Praying real hard.

A new laptop bag

I have been meaning to make myself a new laptop bag for work for so many months.  My current bag does not fit my laptop because it is a large size (13″ wide).  I also wanted the bag to fit some work for bringing home, if needed.  I have needed it several years, but just had not gotten around to making one.  Not sure why, since bags are generally fairly simple to construct…unless you add lots of extra features.

I found this fabric in the uphostery remnants at my local fabric store, and luckily had a pretty lining fabric that matched.  It is a nice neutral color, but still rather cool looking.  It is kind of a off color, between a metallic gray and tan.

I only put one pocket in on the interior, so this was a pretty simple bag to construct.  Well, it would have been if I had remembered to put the interfacing on the interior piece before sewing it up.  Seam ripper to the rescue!  You really need to have some structure on these bags.  I used some stiff Peltex interfacing I had on hand.

If you notice, I could not get both of the handle flaps into the seam on the bag.  It was toooo thick.  Even if the foot was all the way up, there was no way it would all fit under there.  I had to compromise and only put one section into the seam.

I also added feet to the bottom of the bag, reinforced with some cardboard and 1″ foam padding.  The laptop will probably need some cushion in the bottom, so I added the foam to that end.

The exterior is that “sticky” plastic fabric.  Knowing that I was going to make more things with this type of fabric, I found a teflon foot on Amazon for my machine.  It doesn’t work perfect for my machine, but it fits good enough.  It sewed up really well, and totally worth the $20 it cost.

The hardware was definitely the most expensive part of this bag.  I need to go stock up on this stuff at Joann’s because my local fabric store charges a lot for bag hardware.  I’m sure they don’t get bulk goods discounts like Joann’s does.

I still need to make a wristlet that matches the laptop bag.  Hopefully, I will have some time over the week to make it.  I have been working a fair bit and then working out when I can, so my sewing time is pretty sparse right now.

I need to get a handle on trying to fit everything in, as Spring is just around the corner…right???

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