Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread

My husband took me to a restaurant for my birthday last year where each table gets a whole head of roasted garlic to spread on bread.  I've always liked garlic, but the experience at this restaurant got me hooked on roasted garlic...now I use roasted garlic for almost everything!

When we were having our friends over for dinner, I wanted to serve bread that compliments my homemade Italian-inspired food.  One of the breads everyone in my extended family loves is rosemary bread made with fresh rosemary from my yard.  Why not combine rosemary and roasted garlic?

It was a hit and everyone at the table devoured them---I only got one piece!  The combination of fresh bread and roasted garlic dipping oil was hard to beat. 

This bread is easy to make.  First, roast a head of garlic.  Mash about half of the roasted garlic cloves and mix with 1/4 cup of your favorite olive oil.  Add chopped fresh rosemary to your favorite pizza dough or plain Italian bread recipe when you mix in flour.  After rising, place a baking stone in lower 1/3 in oven and set the temperature at 450F.  When the oven is preheated and ready to go, divide the dough in halves and flatten each dough---thick disk if you like doughy bread, thinner if you prefer crispier bread.  Stab the dough with a fork about 20 times.  Place the dough on pizza peeler.  Spread roasted garlic-olive oil to the top and sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake until the bread turns golden brown. 

 

This bread is great for sandwiches, too!  The sandwich in a picture above is a spicy hummus and sunflower sprout sandwich.  

Necklaces with Little Lampwork Beads

My preteen niece asked me to make 14 necklaces to hand out to her friends on her birthday.  I agreed to make only simple beads since I had less than a week to work on them.  I'm grad that she didn't ask me to make 14 amigurumi! (which I would have said NO).

Her mom offered to pay me for these necklaces so I asked her to go to Red Cross website and make a contribution to Japan tunami relief fund.  It's not a large amount, but small grains of sand can accumulate to form a huge desert, right?

Hedgehog Amigurumi

It's been already a year since I started crocheting amigurumi.  I made this hedgehog about 2 months ago and forgot to introduce him. 

I'm not sure if it would look better if I stitch a little brown nose on this guy...

There is no pattern to share at this moment...I didn't write down exactly how many stitches I crocheted for his body.  That's what happens when I crochet in a car.

Earring Rack and Earrings

The necklace stand is still intact and helping me stay organized.  My earrings were next things on my "things to organize" list.  I found a simple photo frame with a slot for two sheets of glass in the middle at TJMaxx.  The generous depth of this frame allowed me to run three lines on one side and two sets on the other side to accommodate earrings with various lengths.

After attaching eyelets, I realized that I didn't have suitable wire for this project.  I could have ran to the hardware store nearby...but sometimes it's fun to experiment and try to use what I have at home.

After trying everything in my toolbox and supply box, I decided to go with hemp string and polymer clay beads I made about the time I bought the hemp string years ago.  The Gorilla glue was used to keep strings and beads in place.
 

 This baby blue-red pair was the first pair of earrings I ever made with my own glass beads.

 The multi-colored cube beads came from a craft supply store. 

These polymer clay beads were coated with away too much shiny coating.  I learned that I prefer polymer clay's natural look.

I've had these beads (top and bottom) for a long time.  Right after purchasing these beads, I found out that some people make their own beads(!!!) and jumped right into the wonderful world of lampwork beads.