Crafty Club June Meeting

It's that time again! Our June meeting is on the 29th at Argonne at 7 pm. The food theme is red foods. So far we will be having pizza, spanish rice, pasta salad with tomatoes, cherries and strawberries, raspberry secret agent bars, and something red and yummy to drink. Hope to see you there.

May Crafty Club

It's that time already! Crafty Club is this Friday, the 25th, at Moran Prairie. Our food theme is Mexican in belated honor of Cinco de Mayo. I know people have been looking forward to Mexican food :) Kandy is bringing a Mexican salad with crab, I think Cindy is bringing chicken enchiladas, and I am bringing horchata. If you plan on coming email whatever delicious dish you are bringing to prevent repeats.
Trivia: Did you know Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexican Independence Day (which is September 16th)? Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla, which was a surprise victory for the Mexicans over French troops.
Hope to see you Friday!

March Meeting Already!

I am playing Blog catch-up today! Our March meeting is tonight at 7 pm at Argonne. The theme is Green Food, or Irish cuisine. I hope the rain doesn't wash you away. See you tonight.

February Meeting

Our February meeting was at Wilma's lovely home. In honor of everyone's favorite February holiday (President's Day, of course!) our food theme for February was Favorite Food Pairings. No red hearts at this meeting, but we did get to listen to Twilight Breaking Dawn while we ate. Wilma had some lovely snow-themed music for us to listen to while crafting. Luckily the weather cooperated. There was snow in the lyrics but not much on the roads.

For dinner we had baked potato soup, green salad with raspberries and candied walnuts, asian fruit salad, green onion tofu cakes, apple slices with caramel sauce, brownies, and chocolate malt milkshakes. Everything was delicious, as usual!

I hope to see you at the March meeting, and I hope the rain lets up for a bit so our crafts don't get wet!

Mango Sticky Rice Recipe

Here is the recipe for the Thai dessert I made. It sounds daunting, but as long as you have your cheese cloth it is easy. You can use regular rice, but the texture is more like pudding if you use sticky rice.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups glutinous (sticky) rice
1 1/3 cups well-stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large ripe mangoes (chilled whole in refrigerator)
Zest of one lime
Preparation:
To prepare the sticky
rice:
Working in the sink, put the rice into a large bowl with plenty of water;
stir well by hand. When the rice has settled to the bottom, pour off most of the cloudy
water, refill and repeat until the water runs fairly clear. Soak the rice in
plenty of water for 6 to 8 hours, preferably overnight (the grains will absorb
water and grow in size). When ready to cook, drain rice well. Line your steamer
with a cheese cloth and pour in the soaked rice. (Susan uses her rice cooker.
Fill the rice pan with water and turn it to high. When the water boils but the rice
filled steamer on the cooker). Cover and steam the rice approximately 30 to 40
minutes, or until tender (check water level in pan occasionally, adding more
hot water if necessary). When rice is translucent and somewhat tender, it's
done. While rice is steaming, in a small saucepan bring coconut milk to a slow
simmer, stirring constantly (hard boiled coconut milk will curdle). Add sugar
and salt; stirring until sugar is dissolved; remove from heat. Keep mixture
warm. Reserve approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup coconut-milk sauce; refrigerate
until cool and thicken slightly.
Transfer hot cooked rice to a bowl
and stir in coconut-milk mixture. Stir well with a spoon to make sure all the
grains are well coated. Let rice stand, covered, approximately 20 to 30
minutes, or until coconut-milk mixture is absorbed (the rice should be a little
mushy). NOTE: Rice may be prepared up to this point
2 hours ahead and kept covered at room temperature.
Just before serving, peel mangoes
and then thinly slice by cutting lengthwise through flesh to the stone; discard
the stone. Sprinkle with lime zest and pile the mangoes on top. Serve at room
temperature. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

January Crafty Club

Despite our lovely winter weather 6 people made it to the January meeting on the 20th. In honor of the Chinese (Lunar) New Year we had an asian feast. 2012 is the year of the water Dragon. We ate General Tsao's chicken, orange chicken, fried veggie rice, Janelle's veggie salad with homemade dressing, a veggie tray, hot tea, chocolate chip cookies, and mango sticky rice. Four people participated in the white elephant gift exchange. Diana gave away even more gorgeous yarn and knitting needles. I took way too much yarn, so let me know if you need some. No one ever need run out of yarn!

The more meetings we have the more I hear about our many hidden crafting talents. Some of these crafts (like dying fabrics and yarns, making soap, wood carving...) aren't exactly crafty club friendly due to meeting room constraints. But as spring draws closer I keep thinking maybe would should try some meetings outside this spring. We could also have some of our members teach us how to attempt some of these crafts. Soap making is something that would have to be done in someone's large, well rentilated kitchen, but I think it is a possibility. I like to tie-dye, but that is a warm weather activity in my opinion. I am just brain storming here, no pressure. Just some food for thought.

We are still deciding on the February meeting date and food theme. Get your suggestions ready and check your email for voting. Maybe we can do red foods?