Making Candles

"My obvious conclusion was, Fuck Etsy! I'll make this shit myself!" 

-- Joe Valeri 

One night I lay in bed shopping online -- browsing I should say. Someone had posted a link on Facebook to their friend's Etsy site, and I had started browsing around for various things. Eventually I concluded that I wanted to buy something local, something affordable, something practical. Maybe candles... 

My first ever candle - with homemade hemp wick

I clicked around for awhile, checking the prices of various candles and vendors, until I saw one person selling these mismatched, unmelted "candles" made in salsa jars. She had merely collected all the leftover chunks of wax from the other candles she made and tossed the chunks into her husband's used salsa jars. Each "candle" had several chunks -- of different colors and scents -- piled into the jar, with a wick in the middle. But then she didn't even re-melt them. It would be like dropping a bunch of crayons into a juice glass, sticking a wick in it, and selling it online for 6 bucks (plus shipping :O).

My obvious conclusion was, Fuck Etsy! I'll make this shit myself! 

... Candle making ensued ... 

I really enjoyed it, and now I have a dozen candles around the house. I can burn candles constantly and it's basically free. Any color, any scent, any size ... it's very cool -- definitely a hobby I will return to. (Click here to see a photo essay of my first candle.)

My first set of candles in progress - I even decoupaged the glass on some of them.

I'll do more candle making posts to show all the pictures I have. I think I should do one post with all the supplies and instructions for how to make them as a reminder to myself. And then another post with some of the finished the products -- although several of them have been burned by now.

Double Hot Dogs

Double Dogs!

I've been eating hot dogs this way for a couple of years. It is, in my opinion, the way to eat hot dogs. You want Hebrew National all beef franks.  They're long, skinny and delicious. So you need two. But not two dogs in two buns -- you want to double 'em up. A pair of Hebrew National all beef franks fits perfectly into a sausage roll. Top with your favorite condiments and enjoy. Personally, I like pickles or relish, Heinz ketchup, and yellow mustard. Lightly toast the bun on the top rack of the grill -- toasted on the outside but still soft inside. So freaking good. Tonight I made this with some grilled green pepper on the side.

Double Dog & Grilled Green Pepper

Devour it!

Add JoeSoCrafty?

"In the interest of interdisciplinary inspiration, to cultivate creative crossbreeding ... the blogs will be combined!" -- Joe Valeri

When I started doing this blog (and a couple others) the idea was to create different blogs to document different hobbies, projects, phases, etc. I haven't yet created a "Crafting" blog, but I've been meaning to -- and I need to decide whether to create it separately or fold it into the mix here. My thinking has evolved a little bit, and I'm not so sure I want to create a new one. I can see reasons to keep them separate -- and I can see reasons to combine them.

I already added the gardening stuff into this one. Originally this was called JoeSoBakery, and it was going to be just about baking. But I realized that was retarded because I only bake something a couple times a year. I cook fairly often -- both trying new recipes and mastering those I already know -- so I ended up expanding to include all cooking in general. 

I have a separate one for my radio show podcast and DJ mixes. But what should I do with crafting?  I feel like the radio show and the DJ mixes are their own separate thing -- they're a product, almost a brand name, so to speak. So I think it makes sense to package all of that together. It's still "JoeSoHeady," but the weblog remains strictly dedicated to the radio show and DJing. If you want to listen to the show or check a set list you won't have to scroll through posts about planting broccoli or sewing pajama pants out of flannel sheets.

Right, so that brings me back to the crafting.

When I don't have a lot to do (e.g., single and lovin' it) I tend to do more of these hobbies and projects. A couple years ago I did a few sewing projects. Recently I went through a candle making phase. Cooking -- that's an ongoing thing -- but getting into cooking -- that's something I could say goes in phases. So all these things fill the same kind of role -- hobbies, interesting things to do, skills to learn, serious yet fun, practical but whimsical, etc.

I probably do anywhere from 1 or 2 up to 10 or 12 crafty projects over a year. Sometimes I'll stick with the same craft for a while and do several projects, and sometimes I'll just kind of check it out and move on. So it doesn't make sense to have separate blogs for each craft. I would only have 1 or 2 entries each. 

It does make sense to keep crafting separate from cooking just because they are clearly two different things -- but they do fill a similar role for me. It makes sense to combine them because there aren't going to be a ton of posts to either one. If I only do a handful of cooking blog entries and 2 or 3 craft projects over the course of a year, those would both be pretty weak blogs. 

But what about the practical purpose of making the blog in the first place? I mean, who cares if the blog is "weak" because it only has 3 entries over a year and a half period? If the point is to have a place for me to document what I'm doing -- for all the normal, general reasons one would document their hobbies -- then why not keep them separate, for organizational purposes? 

On the other hand ... what about some sort of cross-craft creative inspiration that might occur by combining them together? Crafting projects inspired by work in the garden -- recipes discussed while working on the sewing machine -- furniture ideas hatched over tight quarters in a hot kitchen....

I think that paragraph is the winner! In the interest of interdisciplinary inspiration, to cultivate creative crossbreeding ... the blogs will be combined!

With that in mind ... introducing JoeSoCrafting to the JoeSoCookbook network! Should I start thinking about changing the name again? I do kind of like cookbook still because "cookbook" could be used as a general term -- a collection of ideas for how to make things -- whether you're making a  meal, a dessert, a candle or a pair of pajama pants!

JoeSoCookbook ... a collection of things I've made? 

JoeSoCookbook ... recipes for hobbies? 

JoeSoCookbook ... what's cookin in the mind of Joe?

I'll keep working on the tag line....

Adding JoeSoGarden to JoeSoCookbook

I started a backyard urban garden this Spring and I want to include it in my diverse set of irregularly updated weblogs -- but I didn't want to add another one. I've actually been thinking about consolidating them all together into one JoeSoHeady blog, but I don't know. Anyway, as you may know, I have this one, my cooking blog, which I use mostly to document recipes for myself -- so I have a central location to look up recipes that I've made before, a place with notes and pictures, memories and advice, and if other people can get any use out of it, that's even better. 

So I figured it sort of made sense to include the garden blog in the cooking blog. I mean, I will end up cooking what I grow, so it makes sense. I have one blog for DJing, which includes my radio show podcast; an anti-cable-TV weblog documenting my experiences going off the "cable TV grid" and still trying to watch the shows I like and live sporting events; a blog for keeping track of whenever I exercise or participate in athletic endeavors, like kickball and softball; and of course the blog that started it all in the Summer of 2012 -- Season Tickets, Baby -- documenting my experiences as a new Pirates season ticket holder during those few exciting winning months.

Yesterday I started the garden, took some pictures, and made a blog post in JoeSoCookbook -- and I plan on updating it throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Expect to see many JoeSoGarden posts in JoeSoCookbook!

My yard had this planter box, so I cleared it out and started a vegetable and herb garden!

JoeSoGarden, Bloomfield Edition, in the Ground

I moved into a first floor apartment last Fall, and this will be my first Spring and Summer here. I'm the only one who uses the backyard -- the upstairs neighbors don't even have a back door, so it's all mine. There's a nice planter box on the left side along the fence. Until today it had a few weeds and about a dozen 2 year old onions scattered across one side. But I cleared that sucker out and started my Garden 2013, Bloomfield Edition!!

A week ago I went to Home Depot and bought several seedlings and seed packets:

• 3 (4-packs) of broccoli (so, 12 plants)
• a red pepper plant
• a banana pepper plant
• a cilantro plant
• a basil plant
• a tomato plant
• cilantro seeds
• broccoli seeds
• carrot seeds
• and a bunch of onions

So today I cleared out the planter box, plus this other triangular area that had these old, 2 foot tall, dead plants in it. The soil in the box seemed really nice. I planted the broccoli plants in 3 rows of 4. It should be hearty enough to withstand a frost. I also put in the cilantro plant -- maybe a little early, but I think it should be fine. Then I planted one row of carrot seeds. They're also hearty enough to survive a light frost. Getting the broccoli and carrots in this early miiight allow me to do a second harvest of each. 

When I used to do a garden on Beeler I would always end up with too much of one thing at the same time. All the tomatoes would be ready at once. I remember playing cucumber dodge with dozens of these fat round cukes. When I grew zuchini, I had like 3 dozen huge zuchini all at the same time. So I want to try and stagger things this time. Do less of each item, or half-and-half a month apart.  Also, for the broccoli and cilantro I got seeds in addition to the seedlings, so those will be separate crops if I end up doing both.

cleared out this planter box

broccoli, cilantro, carrot seeds ... planted April 16

2 kinds of broccoli plants

triangular section ... cleared out!
(tried to save these tulips I dug up from the box)

cilantro is in the ground ... maybe too early?
(plus an herb that was leftover ... see that? what is it?)

digital macro mode on camera for close up of cilantro!

Need to Make This Vegan Black Eye Peas

http://thehealthyfamilyandhome.com/vegan-slow-cooker-black-eye-peas/

EDIT: I made my own version, check it out!

Crock Pot Roast

ingredients ready for the crock pot

I'm getting ready to load up the crock pot before heading out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Pittsburgh Style. Well, hopefully I personally won't be celebrating in the full Pittsburgh vomit-inducing, public-urination style tradition. I've actually only been "out" for St. Patrick's Day once in Pittsburgh. It was moderately fun. 

But anyway the point is to load up the crock pot with a nice hearty meal for when we come back. We have some nice pieces of steak that I browned. I cut up a few potatoes and carrots and a couple stalks of celery. I made a low sodium chicken based broth and spiced the steaks very simply with onion salt and gourmet white pepper.

All loaded up!

It's all ready for assembly as desired, and then we'll have a delicious meal waiting when we get back later today!!  

Oh, FYI, it's a rather cool, gloomy morning, so I've been listening to James Taylor while prepping this meal, drinking coffee, and Pomeranian snugglin'.

Almost ready!

So, we ended up staying in all day since it was so gloomy out. We both felt like lounging rather than partying. We finally got the crock pot loaded up around 1. Of course we forgot to turn it on until about 2, but that's ok.

After it finished cooking in the crock pot, we strained out the veggies and made amazing gravy with the liquid. It was all delicious!

Yum!