Every Last Bit

 

She Go!

The "restickable" glue stick works!  It took me awhile to figure out that you only need to use a little bit.  A light application is best.  Otherwise it'll get too sticky.  And make everything it touches all sticky.  And you'll get annoyed.  Trust me.

Here's my test sheet.  After I applied the glue, I stuck the note onto my lamp, took it off, put it on, took it off.  It worked good.

The texture and consistency of the glue is a bit different from what we're used to.  It's a dryish kind of wet . . . almost rubbery.  It works pretty much immediately . . . no need to wait for it to dry.

And because I pretty much have no life, I was able to make a bunch of pads from scrap paper.

I used a stamp positioning thingy to help keep everything all neat.

Restickable Glue

I never knew that there was such a thing as this.  You can turn any piece of paper into a post-it note.  

For example, I could turn these cute Hello Kitty note pads into sticky notes.  Cool, hah!  The glue stick is $4.81 on Amazon.  I got it in the mail yesterday.  We'll see how it goes!

On Da Desk

I did this on ProArt brand watercolor paper that I had found at the swap meet a few years back when I first started getting into painting.  

Watercolor paper is treated with a process called sizing, and as it ages it tends to lose this sizing.

 "Sizing aids the paper in absorbing moisture evenly, and allows the pigment to sit up on the surface where it refracts color more brightly, instead of soaking in and giving a “dull” appearance." 

The paint did turn a bit duller after it dried fully, but the pigment didn't soak through, and I liked its rough texture. Maybe it'll still be usable for a little while longer.

Dd's Pizza Lasagna

 

PIZZA LASAGNA 

 

6 lasagna noodles, cooked, drained**

½ # Italian sausage, cooked, drained

1 small yellow onion, sliced

1 small bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 c  marinara sauce

½ c pizza sauce

3 oz pepperoni, sliced

½ ( 2.25 oz.) can sliced olives, drained

1 ½ c mozzarella cheese

1 ½ c ricotta cheese

 

**dependent on size of noodles and size of baking dish.

In a skillet over medium heat brown sausage. Remove; set aside. Into skillet cook onion, bell peppers, garlic and mushrooms until wilted, about 10 minutes. Add to sausage; set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

In an 8-inch baking dish, spread thin layer of sauces on bottom of pan. Top with single layers of noodles, ricotta, sausage & veggies, pepperoni, olives and mozzarella. Repeat 2 more layers. 

Bake 45-55 minutes, until bubbling and slightly browned around edges. Serves 3-4.

Didi's #1 recommendation for pizza and marinara sauce is Rao's.  Her #2 recommendation is Prego Traditional Marinara Sauce. 

Fried Dried Aku

 Try pan-frying your dried aku.  Ho, she go!!  Sweetie's invention.

Brazi Bites

We had this with pasta for yesterday's lunch.  They're called Brazi Bites.  Landon first heard about them on Shark Tank when the creators were trying to get the sharks to invest in their company.

Wendell found it at Costco.  They're crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside and best eaten fresh out of the oven.

Dd's Hamburger Stew

 

HAMBURGER STEW

 

1 TB olive oil

1 small onion, 1-inch pieces

2 stalks celery, 1-inch pieces

1 small carrot, 1-inch pieces

1 medium Yukon gold potato, 1-inch pieces

¼ c. frozen green beans, thawed*

¾ # ground beef

3 cloves garlic 

2 tsp tomato paste

1 TB soy sauce

2 TB flour 

2 c beef stock

salt, freshly ground black pepper

 

In a stockpot over medium heat sauté onion, celery and carrot in oil until slightly browned.

Add hamburger, garlic and bay leaf stirring until cooked through. Stir in tomato paste, flour and soy sauce. Add potatoes, green beans and stock stirring until thickened. 

Reduce heat; simmer 10-12 minutes until potatoes are cooked through. Remove bay leaves. 

Season as desired. Serve over rice or egg noodles. * Can substitute frozen peas. Serves 4.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival

Shaun Tan is an Australian illustrator/author who has received numerous awards including an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the biggest prize in children's literature.  I own almost all of his books.

Most recently I've been studying the illustrations in The Arrival, a wordless, pictographic portrayal of immigration. Shaun's pencil drawings in this book, done only in varying values of sepia, are magical in their ability to convey the experiences and emotions of being in an unfamiliar, foreign land, and reminds me of maybe how my grandparents might've felt upon arriving here in Hawaii.

There are several videos on YouTube about his books.  Here is one review on The Arrival.

S & B Gravy Mix

HAPPY NEW YEAR, PEOPLES!!  Hope this year will be better than the last.  All we can do is just carry on, yah.  And so . . . 

This is Didi's favorite Japanese gravy mix.

This is what she can do with it.  😲