Odds and sods

I have a few more items that I have neglected to post.  This post will be a round-up of those items.

First, I did this in the beginning of January.  I took a class at Collage in Portland.  It was for feather-earring making.  I made these two in class and I have supplies to make another pair, which I haven't gotten around to yet.

They're quite sturdy, sturdier than any feather earrings I have ever bought.  I've yanked on them by accident and they've been fine.

I also did a bit of baking.  I'm really getting into baking lately.  I made some cornmeal muffins, which I neglected to photograph before we scarfed them down.  I also made these cheese biscuits.

I baked a dozen of these and this was all that was left by the time I remembered to photograph them.  I'd also like to do cookies and cupcakes, with icing, but I'm supposed to avoid having too many sweets and I know I won't be able to resist the temptation.  Somehow, I have aversions to healthy things but never to sweets.

Speaking of aversions, they've made eating a bit difficult.  I can't deal with a lot of protein foods right now, including dark meat of poultry, cottage cheese, eggs, or tuna, basically anything a poor person can afford.  I can have peanuts, nuts and seeds, peanut butter, ground beef, and the white meat of poultry.  Also, I can't have tomato sauce or ramen noodles.  I made this pasta dish to eat around my aversions:

This dish is a pesto-cream sauce with chicken breast and roasted acorn squash on top of spaghetti.  I did not make the pesto myself, as it's hard to financially justify making your own pesto unless you grow your own basil and have access to a cheap supply of pine nuts and good parmesan (it's not hard to justify it based on taste, however.)  Also, I don't have a pasta machine or I would have made fettucini. I did make the sauce myself, which was technically a bechemel rather than a cream sauce but the taste is similar.

Jason is really getting into brewing.  Baking and preserving are my domains (we share cooking) but he is all about the brewing.  The only help he needed making the last batch of ginger beer was in sterilizing the jars.  Otherwise I declare him our household brewmaster!