The 2nd Annual Mills College MFA Table-Tennis Mac-Off Tournament of Champions Winners!

We won one part!

Last Friday, I won the Mac & Cheese cooking contest for Chris...
(Mine's in the pink casserole)

As you can see, there was some pretty stiff competition:

Not only is that a baked tower of mac, it was also set on fire. That's right. Fire. Every entry was fantastic, though. I pretty much could have eaten all night long. Altogether, I think there were nine entrys, including one plate of bacon. Just bacon. It took fourth place.

Unfortunately, neither Chris nor I were any match for Doug's prowess in both the Table Tennis and Pellet Shooting arenas... Congrats, Doug, on winning Master of Arts!

The lovely and amazing Gina took these pictures... thanks to her for that and the use of her oven for reheating the mac I carted from Sacramento. Speaking of, there were some recipe requests, so I've posted it below... The original recipe came from Kathryn (thanks Kathryn!), but I modified the hizzy out of it. Here's my version:

Serious Mac & Cheese
16 oz. pasta (I like mini penne) - cooked al dente
2 cups cottage cheese (whole) - creamed
8 oz. sour cream (whole)
3 eggs - slightly beaten
1/2 of a whole nutmeg - freshly grated
salt & pepper - to taste
6 cups cheese (I like 1/2 & 1/2 sharp cheddar and
gruyere) - freshly grated*
*I avoid pre-grated cheese in general because
of the extra additives and weird texture...

Preheat your oven to 350°. Mix the cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs, nutmeg, salt & pepper in a large bowl until well blended. Mix in the grated cheese (reserving 1/2 to 1 cup for the topping), then the cooked pasta. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour - until top is nicely browned. Eat, eat, eat.

That's it! You don't even have to make a roux! Yaaaaaay!

Beverly's Pincushion Contest

I won!

For this:

Thanks Beverly's!

More Gifties

For Doug's Birthday:

Pattern from Animal Mascots

(ISBN-10: 4391624206, ISBN-13: 978-4391624205)

On Crafting Japanese

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For Rhiannon's (FIRST!) Birthday:

My own pattern!

Because she's a cowgirl.

See?

Check me out!

On Daily Outfitting!

Bivalve

Sqeal!

Wendy of Knit & Tonic mentioned my pattern in yesterday's post! I squeal because this is one of my very favorite blogs... Not only is she a very talented designer, but the lady is Funny. That's right, capital F Funny. Even if you don't knit, the blog will crack you up, guaranteed...

Private Benjamin

Japanese Super Fun Animal Plush!

I acquired some Japanese craft books via Etsy to help in my sewing endeavors... I'd like to make my own patterns, so I wanted some help in the construction, since I'm quite a beginner. My first project from them was this:

Alligator from Animal Mascot

(ISBN-10: 4391624206, ISBN-13: 978-4391624205 )

On Crafting Japanese

For Kathryn's (belated) B-Day,

made with vintage velvet from my bedspread as a child,

cotton fabric, wool felt, beads, and embroidery floss.

This book is pretty popular and fairly easy to find (on Etsy or Ebay) and has super cute designs with clear pictorial instructions (the text is all in japanese). I also picked up a couple without names (as in, I can't translate the names):

I haven't seen these anywhere else (I got them on Etsy), and they are pretty fantastic. The instructions are not as clear as Animal Mascots (and the projects are a bit more advanced), but I think I'll do alright with them still... There are more pics of them on my Flickr.