Food Fun and Furry animals that go.. meeeeh!

Its been a busy weekend.  Saturday was a fun little housewarming for Heidi, and I got the chance to try a new recipe - Fried Risotto Balls!  I also brought a Caprese (tomato, fresh mozzerella, and basil salad with olive oil and basalmic vinegar) as my back up dish in case the balls bombed.  But luckily - the risotto balls were a hit because.. anything fried tastes better!

Recipe for Fried Risotto Balls:

2 boxes of risotto
fresh wild mushrooms (shitake, oyster, portabello - cut into small pieces)
2 cloves fresh garlic
2 heaping table spoons shaved parmesean
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
vegetable oil
1 tblspn olive oil

Saute 2 cloves (pressed) garlic in olive oil until just starting to turn golden, and add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are cooked.  Set aside and prepare risotto according to box directions, add cooked mushrooms and garlic when you add the packaged spices.  Add parmesean and stir to melt.  Remove from heat and allow to cool 2-3 hours.

Scoop out risotto and shape into balls between your palms and roll in the bread crumbs.  Fry in very hot vegetable oil until golden and set on paper towels to drain excess oil.   Sprinkle a bit of parmesean on top of balls and serve warm.

At Heidi we met her very cute cat Morpheus - and what is a blog without a photo of a cat?  He was adorable, and got a nice ball of cotton yarn from Wendy to drag all around Heidi's house, and spent a good part of the afternoon with his head in my purse.  I'll leave it up to you to wonder what sort of things I have in my purse that attracts pussy.

Today was Alpaca Critter Crawl!  We met for lunch at The Linkery - which won rave reviews from all of us, and we'll all be back for another pass at stuff we didnt get to try this time around (sliced pork chop wrap for me).  We went to visit A Simpler Time in Crest California - which is a family run farm with about 24 animals.    We met Barbara - a woman who looks AMAZING after having 9 - yes I said 9 - children.  We got to tour the farm and get into the pens and bribe some alpacas to come closer with grain.  They are very skittish animals, except for one adorable little black female that Mary Kay got to nuzzle with.  Afterwards we went to The Grove and got some coffee.  I managed to not by ANY fiber or yarn today.  Yay me!  It was hard let me tell you.

AND.. I've even finished something!  Behold - Bea Ellis's Traditional Hat Kit.  I sent an email to Bea Ellis and told them I'd lost my pattern and was willing to buy the pattern if they would sell it to me separate from the kit.  She sent me a replacement pattern for free!  Now that is some nice customer service.   I used three colors instead of the traditional two, and did a makeshift braided cord because I dont really like pompoms.    I think it turned out pretty well.  Too bad its 80 degrees in San Diego right now. 

And -- to be able to balance the kitty cuteness - another photo of my dog trying to beg for a bite of my dinner, but being blinded by the flash.

Comments

[jillian]

You hat turned out so well. I like the colors as well. Hmm. Do you have catnip in your purse??

[Inky]

ugh, still jealous of you all in san diego. sounds like it was fun.

love you in the hat--it gives you a sort of norwegian badass look. yo.

[spaazlicious (wendy)]

AAgh, blinded by all the adorablility! I think my favorite was the little Nubian, I think I completely missed the point of the fiber crawl (okay, not completely, since I did buy fiber). Thanks for the recipe for your tasty balls!

[Tiffany]

I love the colours that you chose!! You have to love the Bea Ellis customer service. What a sweetie-pup-pup :D