Go Buy This Guy's Stuff!

I'd like to start off by saying I'm not being paid for this...And if I were I'd probably just spend all the money buying more of this guy's shit because it is AMAZING.

If you are  in/near Central Texas and like pointy things that are super awesome, swing by the Craft Gallery on Highway 6 in Waco or the local flea market and buy ALL THE THINGS.

I have several pieces from his collection and his knives totally rock...I have one I've had for about 3 years or so and have yet to have to sharpen it.  After a move.  With lots of cardboard boxes.  It is still sharp.  Not to mention, it looks awesome.

He makes weaponry of all sorts, artsy pipes, traditional artsy tattoo gear, and even some cute creepy little figurines and cutlery.  Its all made from scrap pieces, broken things, and mostly things that would other wise end up in a landfill somewhere, so if this isn't green I don't know what is.  So, without further ado, here's tons of pics of sharp, pointy-stuff porn.  If you like his stuff, don't forget to follow him on facebook and tell him how much his shit rocks!

Follow Modern Savage on Facebook!!

I have to say something about this pipe...I mean just look at this little guy!  Its like Jiminy Cricket in pipe form!  Its adorable!  If I had it, I'd name it George and pet its little antennae.

The two on the right are an old-school artsy tattoo set.

<3 The Wookie Wifey

Chicken Stock

Another easy-to-make kitchen staple.  You control the salt and the depth of flavor...MUCH better than the canned shit.

You can start off with whatever combination of meat you want.  You can make stock out of white meat, dark meat, or a whole chicken - doesn't matter.  Stock made with both will have a nice balance to it, while dark meat stock will be heartier and more richly-flavored and, of course, white meat stock will be much lighter in flavor.  Whatever you decide, toss your birds into a pot with water covering an inch or so above them and set them on high.

Let it boil down, adding water so it doesn't all boil away...After a few hours you should have the above.  :)

Run it through a strainer or cheese cloth and set the meat aside to do whatever you want with it.

(Hint:  This is a really good time to make chicken salad.)

Spoon the oils off the top and let the broth cool...

Then, spoon it into ice cube trays and freeze it!  There ya go!  From-scratch chicken stock ready for recipes whenever you need it.

<3
The Wookie Wifey

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe.  It is simple, tastes great, isn't too sweet, and freezes like a dream.

To start off, here's the starring line-up.  I personally think the cookies taste better with organic peanut butter, but it is up to you.

First, add 1/4 cup of butter to your bowl.

Then, 1/2 cup of applesauce.

1 cup sugar... Raw works better, but white is all that's in the budget at the moment.

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

2 cups of flour...

1 cup of peanut butter.  You can even use crunchy if ya want.

After the flour, add 1/4 cup of milk (I used skim), the mix it all up with either a mixer or a fork, whatever.  This mix will get pretty thick, though, so make sure your  mixer can handle something like this.

If you have a cookie press, load it up and pipe some cookies on to some wax paper.  If not, then just roll 1-inch balls of dough, then press them flat with the back of a spoon or fork.  Slide them into the freezer for about 2 hours, then you can move them from the wax paper into a freezer bag or container.

Ignore the splatter on the back of the freezer.  The vegetable stock?  Yeah, I did that the same day I did this and apparently there was some splashage.

Splashage.

Yay for new words!

Anyway, since I doubt you have room in your freezer for the gazillions of cookies this will make (I make them rather small, admittedly), pop the dough in the fridge between batches.

If you have a cookie press, I hope you are better with yours than I am.

Some of my cookies came out cute, but some came out...

Well...

I did finally get the hang of the heart-shaped press, though, YAY!  Score one for the home team.

Not quite sure how to stop the y-shaped thing in the middle though...Maybe flip them over next time?  It is disconcerting.  It makes them look like they're about to go out to a bachelorette party.  Which is great and cute, but these are just for everyday eating, not for a naughty party.  Its not like I'm just sitting around and suddenly am struck with a craving for penis-cookies.

Well, since these have phallic shapes on them and are the ones in my freezer at the moment, then maybe I do!  O.O

Whenever you get a craving for penis-cookies (or the other shapes), preheat your oven to 350, pop them in for 10-15 minutes depending, of course, on whether you like your cookies soft and chewy or crunchy and crumbly, and there you go!  These really do taste about the same whether you bake them right away or whether they've been sitting in the freezer for a while, so they are very convenient to have on hand.  An easy way to make a few cookies to satisfy a craving without making a HUGE batch every time you get a sugar craving.

<3
The Wookie Wifey

Egg Salad

Here's a super quick and easy egg salad recipe I use with TONS of bacon which makes it so very yummy.  We don't use eggs much around here, so its a good way to use the extras up before they go bad.

First off, fry up 5 pieces of bacon.  Whether you want it crispy or soft is totally up to you.

Then, after it has drained, chop it up, (or tear, I find tearing it is easier and quicker), toss it in a bowl with 6 hard-boiled eggs which have also been chopped up.  I suppose you could tear those, too, but that would be pretty messy.

Next, add a teaspoon of garlic powder and two teaspoons of onion powder to the mix.  I like to use these in egg salad because I want the flavor of both, but don't necessarily want to bite into an onion or piece of garlic while noshing down on an egg salad sandwich.  For some reason chunks of onion are perfectly, entirely acceptable in tuna salad, but not in egg salad.  I'm weird that way.

Next, chop up a pickle slice.  This was a kosher dill, the stacker kind that are sliced length-wise.  If you use regular slices, I'd say use about 4, more if you like a very pickle-y flavor to your salad.

Add about 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I use the kind made with olive oil), half a tablespoon of spicy mustard, and stir it all up then salt and pepper it to taste and there you have it!

Pile it on a sandwich or a salad - either way it is delicious and super simple!

<3
The Wookie Wifey

Vegetable Stock

This is such an easy staple you can make and keep on hand and later on I'll be posting dark chicken stock as well.  Stocks are good to have around because they can add a depth and richness to otherwise bland foods.  Making stocks on your own is good because you can control the amount of salt that goes into them as well as controlling what/if any spices and herbs go in.  Basically, if you DIY this you can control the entire flavor and I like that.  This one is a vegetable stock, so its vegan and vegetarian-friendly (duh).

This is one of the easier things to keep on hand.  When I chop vegetables for another recipe, instead of throwing away any good parts or hearts I cut out, I just rinse them and stick them into a container in the freezer.  Once I have a few containers, I toss it all into a stock pot and boil it up.  Due to that, this stock was made with green and white vegetables because that's what I'd been cooking with mostly for the last week or two, but almost anything can go into this.  Sometimes you'll have green stock and sometimes you'll have tomato-based or carrot-y stock.  Just adds to the fun, really.  :)

I used roughly:

2/3 head of cabbage
4 stalks celery (mainly ends/parts I'd trimmed off, just not the leafy tips)
1 cauliflower heart (the inside chunky part I didn't use for the actual recipe I'd made with it)
3 green onions (what was left of the green parts and the white, too, I just peeled off the outside layer, washed them, and cut off the roots)
1/2 an onion's worth of chopped onion (frozen leftovers)
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup parsley
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp pepper
4 cloves garlic
salt to taste

I used two stock pots for this, but only photographed one.

Toss it all in the pot and then put just enough water to cover it all up.

Bring it to a boil and let it go for about one hour.  Covered or not, your choice.  Just add more water if it gets low if you leave it uncovered.

After about an hour, everything should be wilted and kind of questionable-looking.

At that point, you can strain it into another pot to get all the vegetables out of it.  If you have a cheesecloth or fine strainer to get all the herbs and such out, then that's good, too.  I don't.  Its no biggie to freeze it with the herbs in it.

Freeze it up in some ice cube trays, and there you have it!  Just pop however many cubes you need straight into your recipes or thaw before hand.  Cooking pasta, rice, or couscous in this stuff makes a world of difference.

Easy!

<3
The Wookie Wifey

Random Photo Post 2 - Wild Critter Edition

Yay for random photo posts!

Here's some snapshots I've taken.

Yes, that is a wild chipmunk.  I happened across him and he ran into a rotten, hollow log next to an old barbed wire fencepost.  He bitched at me the entire time I took the pictures.  Just chattered his little head off.

This little guy was super curious.  I didn't zoom in.  I just bent down on the ground to get a closer shot and he came over to investigate.

You have no idea how much patience it took to get this photo.  That is a wood bee.

Of all the critters, this one appears to be the most angered by having its picture taken.

<3
The Wookie Wifey