Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Aprons and Other Things for sale has a new site!

After discovering that The Giggling Gourmet was already some lady in South Africa, and wanting to keep the door open for any plans God may have in the future that are bigger than mine currently are, I (with the help of some wonderful suggestions) have a new name!



Logo is still a work in progress, but the website it up! Head on over to http://theruffledowl.blogspot.com/ to see all the apron designs, baby quilts and more!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Win An Apron!

Okay folks.

I was The Giggling Gourmet until I found that some lady in South Africa had beaten me to it and copyrighted the name! Fiddlesticks!

So now I need a name for my little side shop I'm setting up.


If you come up with the winning name, you win a free apron!

(Men, you can get a manly BBQing apron in a manly fabric if you want...other than that I got nothin' for ya!)

Here is the criteria:

The name has to be original (google or bing it to make sure)

And that's about it!

You can submit as many suggestions as you like for multiple chances to win!

It can be abstract like Film in the Fridge

Or explanatory like Hand Made Charlotte

I make aprons, the occasional quilt, I cook, I write, I hike and I like to laugh.

Leave your suggestion in the comment section on either this post or Your Morning Cup to be entered to win your very own ___(you fill in the blank)______ Apron!

Deadline is...well, let's tentatively set it for a week from today - Tuesday, October 12th. If I got nothin' by then I may extend it.

What're ya waiting for?

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Fabric Choices!

Fabric I currently have available is up!

This doesn't mean I can't always get more if you don't like any of these, but personally I think its a great selection to start from. I'll be making myself one out of the blue ticking with cranberry trim...stay tuned!

Fabric Choices

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

New Apron Pics!

Check out the Aprons For Sale page to see a pic of "The Beth" apron!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

It was a Stupidly Hard Detox

That lasted just under a week!

I felt SO bad, so listless, so achy, so irritable, so LIFELESS that when I told the doctor how I was feeling she thought I had the flu and told me to stop the MediClear shakes but continue the elimination diet.

But...the whole reason she wanted me to DO this was for the detox...not to see if I was allergic to anything!

So that night after explaining it to Matt and barely nibbling at our boring dinner and lying on the couch (as I had been for 6 days), Matt took Roy on a walk and proceeded to text me, "So, want me to order a pizza?"

It took me 2.6 seconds to decide that YES. I wanted a PIZZA. GLUTEN. DAIRY. TOMATOES. PEPPERONI. I want it ALLL!

And Matt picked up a 6 pack of beer to boot.

And by the next morning I was completely recovered.

Glory glory hallelujah!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Stupidly Ridiculously Hard Detox

That's supposed to be good for me.

Sigh.

I know it probably is.

Doesn't make it any easier, though.

My naturopath recommended I do a three week detox while drinking the MediClear Plus protein powder.  I do know detoxes are good. They give your body a break. Even fasting, in moderation, has been proven to be healthy. It gives your body a chance to fully digest things and heal itself.

And so we're doing this thing.

Here's a rundown of what we're giving up:

COFFEE!!!

Dairy (oh my sweet butter how I miss thee already)
(and that includes eggs)

Gluten (BREAD, people, BREAD!)

Sugar. And chocolate. Sniff.

Beef. Pork. Sausage. Bacon. Oh bacon...how were you ever once a sin?

Soy (as stir fry fanatics, do you know how much soy sauce we go through in a month?)

Peanuts. Solid staple of my diet right there, people.

Alcohol (last night's dinner would have gone perfectly with a chilled Pinot Grigio...)

Tomatoes (I can't even have salsa?!)

Corn ( or tortilla chips?!?!?!)

Grapefruit (oh. okay. darn.)

That's the gist of the list.

Yikes.

We started yesterday morning and Matt and I both had headaches all day from the caffeine withdrawal. Or maybe the EVERYTHING withdrawal. Because its the end of day two and I still have a headache...though not a full blown migraine, thankfully.

So, as we go through this journey I thought I would do what I always do...blog about it.  Because recipes that are THIS exclusive are pretty darn hard to find, I thought I'd share them here. That way if you ever want to torture yourself in the future you know where to turn.

Day 1

Woke up and had our first MediClear smoothie. Hmmm. This stuff needs a kick...pomegranate juice or orange juice or something acidic to cover up that protein-y taste.

By nine I was irrepressibly groggy and my non-sweetened herbal tea was NOT cutting it.

I had made Lentil Soup the night before so we would have easy lunches all week. Little did I know Matt would eat half the big batch the first day.

That night for dinner (after a two hour nap because both of us were too headache-y tired to do anything else), I had some chicken legs with thigh meat that still had skin. Heated up some olive oil, patted the chicken dry and salted and peppered the little leggies and let them cook until crispy golden.

For our Mushroom Risotto I sautéed half a yellow onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then added the arborio rice and sautéed that a minute or so. Then I added a cup of chopped onions and twice as much chicken broth as rice (in this case 1 cup rice to two cups broth) and lots of pepper. A few stirs, brought it to bubbling, then put the lid on and put it on low for 20 minutes.

Then we heated the oven to 425, chopped up some carrots, new potatoes, the other half of the yellow onion, and some garlic. Tossed it in olive oil, salt and pepper and let it roast 20 minutes or so while the rice finished.

All in all it looked like a meal we would eat on any night of the week.

Day 1...we conquered you.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Breakfast for Dinner

So this is nothing new, but I love having breakfast for dinner.

We're heading into a detox next week, so we're trying to eat up all the things we can't have. Like eggs, bacon, and toast with butter.

So that's what we made last night for dinner!

So if you're feeling that cooking up some pasta and chicken and making a salad is just too much work, throw some bacon on the griddle, whip up an omelette with veggies inside and pop in some toast.

Good times...good times...