I was featured!

My New Row No-Chain-DC photo tutorial was featured over at Sarahndipities' Make Something Monday!

What an honor--thanks Sarah!

Go check out the other features and link up your own special project!

No-Chain-DC to begin a row

Recently, I saw this video on how to start a new row of double crochet without doing the ch 2 or ch 3. I don't always want to load up a video to try a new technique, so I decided to make a photo tutorial really quickly. Now you can try whichever way you learn the best.

Complete your previous row, and turn your work.

Start your new row by pulling up a loop a little taller than a dc.

Place your pointer finger on the loop to hold it in place.

While keeping your finger on the loop, pull your hook toward you then behind the loop.

Yarn over, and pull through the first part of the loop...

...leaving two loops on the hook.

Yarn over...

...and pull through both loops to complete the dc.

Dc in the next st. They look identical!

There you have it! Have you ever tried this? Am I just slow to catch on to this technique as I was with the Magic Circle? Do you like it? It has taken a little practice to get a consistent size, but I really like the way this turns out.

Tutorials

Tutorials are one of the best things about sharing craft ideas and recipes in the blogosphere, right? T is for Tutorials.

There aren't many here at In the Loop, but here's a compilation of what I have:

Chain Link Scarf

Curly-Q or Curlicue Scarf

Iris Folding - Paper Craft

Bead Crochet Rope Step-By-Step Tutorial

Refried Beans

Chicago Style Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza

Oreo Truffles, known around here as Bloodshot Eyeballs (2nd attempt was much prettier)

I think that's all I have. Did I miss any?

Let me know if you've tried any of these things! I'd love to see pictures.

Bloodshot Eyeballs, aka Oreo Truffles

By request, here's my take on the popular Oreo Truffle recipe.

Start with a package of sandwich cookies, any flavor. Wouldn't peanut butter ones be yummy? I think I'm going to try the mint ones next time I make them.
You'll need 35 cookies.
One 8 oz. brick of cream cheese, room temperature for easy combining
Almond bark or baking chocolate
Holiday appropriate sprinkles or colored sugar

Place cookies in food processor in about 3 batches; crumble completely. You can always put them in a Ziploc bag to bash them, but I didn't want to spend the time or make the noise. The food processor gave me even crumb texture, too. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm an Even-Crumb-Texture Snob. OK, that's not true. I don't think I've ever been accused of that. But it sounds like a fun thing to be!

Let's get back to the recipe.
Mix the crumbs with the cream cheese until they are all incorporated. I'm not sure, but I might try using my mixer next time for this step. It was making my hands extremely sore using a fork since it takes quite a while to get all the crumbs incorporated.

Roll the mixture into small balls. I liked them being small enough to be bite-sized, but do whatever size you like. They are pretty rich.

Place the tray in the refrigerator to stay firm before dipping in melted chocolate.

Melt the chocolate over a double-boiler or in the microwave. The double-boiler method has always been the easiest for me since it stays soft no matter how long the dipping takes.
Dip cookie ball into chocolate and place on waxed paper.
Decorate immediately with holiday sprinkles (if desired) and return to fridge to set.

Ta da! Enjoy!

ps--I was told that I fooled the baker in the crowd because she was convinced that there was no way these were made out of Oreos because they weren't grainy. Rachel told her they were cookies, but the baker was convinced they were cake. Don't you love food that surprises you (in a good way)?

Today's feature

If you're looking for the Handmade with Love Winter Giveaway, scroll down to the next post or click here.

I'm being featured today over at Mandipidy for her "My Readers Are Crafty" week. Check it out and look around her blog while you're there!

I'll be posting pictures of our post-blizzard neck of the woods soon...

Chicago Style Pizza

With permission, I swiped this tutorial that hubby posted on our family blog a while back. After Em told us about her delicious visit to Giordano's, I figured I'd share this fairly simple recipe to make your own Chicago Style Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza at home!

Want to make yourself some awesome pizza?  Follow along carefully (or not) and you’ll soon know how to make Chicago-Style stuffed pizza.  Of course, this is my method, and you’ll find there are lots of methods for doing this style of pizza.

First, you need to get yourself some ingredients.    Yup, my method is not “pick up the phone and call Edwardo’s”.   Here you have the ingredients for 2 kinds of pizza.  I made a sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza and a pepperoni, onion, and green pepper pizza.  If red and yellow bell peppers are priced well, they are a great option, too!


First step: Prepare the ingredients.  I like to have all the veggies chopped and meat cooked (if needed), before I start on the dough.  You can cook your onions and bell peppers if you want a softer veggie in your pizza or throw them in raw if you like a little bite and some fresh taste.



Bob Evan’s Italian Sausage and red onion.  Mmmmmm….look at the steam…can you smell it?


Pizza sauce?  Make your own!  I like to use tomato sauce (Contadina has the best flavor for pizza, in my opinion, but we had the good old Food Club in the house) and season it how you like.


This time I picked Paul Prudhomme’s Magic seasoning.   It really is a good blend for pizza.  It has some brown sugar in it, so it sweetens the sauce a little bit.


Some mood music is always nice.  This day we got “goofy toddler thinks he’s Jimmy Hendrix”.


Here’s my shortcut.  I’m sure anyone from Chicago name Gino would not approve, so please don’t tell on me.  I have found that the frozen pizza dough from the grocery store works really well.  You’ll need two dough-balls for each pizza.  Roll one out large enough to sit down in the pan and overlap the side a little bit.  The second needs to be just a little larger than the top of your pan to be able to lay it on top of all of the ingredients.  This is definitely a “pizza pie”!


Dough #1 is done and filled with a layer of mozzarella cheese, then your ingredients, then a little more cheese on top.  The pan I use is a Pampered Chef deep-dish baking stone.  Make sure to rub a thin layer of olive oil on the pan for easy removal when it’s done baking.  Most restaurants use a metal deep-dish pizza pan.


Lay the second dough on top, roll the edges of both doughs together, and coat the edge of the dough with olive oil.


The sauce goes on top!  Yes, you heard me right.  Keep that sauce out of the inside and cover the top with it.  I like to garnish mine with the diced green onion.


Stick it in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, and voila!   That’s one perfectly baked Chicago Style stuffed pizza.
 

(Mindy back now) Well, I guess this constitutes being a guest-poster! I'll make sure he puts it on his resume ...that I hope we won't have to use for a long time.

A few ideas for variations for you:
We've used our bread maker for the pizza dough a couple of times. This works well if you plan ahead for the time it will take to rise properly (in our machine, about 1 hour 40 minutes total).
We have also found that we like Dei Fratelli Presto! Pizza Sauce as a pre-made substitute. It has very good flavors and seasoning.
Garnish the top with a couple sliced black olives instead of green onions to differentiate between which ingredients you've used in which pizza.

I really hope you try it. It was a little intimidating the first time around, but it is definitely worth it! And practice makes perfect, right? Yum...

Make your own Refried Beans

My new found love is dry beans.

Inexpensive. Good protein. Good fiber.

...bad reputation.

I love to save time and money, and I understand that canned refried beans are super cheap. But when a huge bag of beans is even cheaper and the flavor is so much better, it's worth a try, right?

Here's how:
2 C. Pinto beans. Sort through the beans to remove any dirt (or, as I found one time, popcorn kernels...true story!) Rinse thoroughly. Soak overnight in 6 C. water. They'll come out with the water looking a little cloudy. Rinse thoroughly. This soaking process is part of getting rid of that bad reputation...

Add beans to a large pot and add ~6 C. fresh water. Simmer with lid tilted for 2 hours (preferably more) stirring frequently to get the beans to start breaking down.
Add 1 C. salsa. I really liked Dei Fratelli, but any salsa will do.
Continue cooking another hour or two to allow flavors to blend and water to cook down. Keep stirring!

You can see that my salsa is in and my beans are breaking down. At this point, it was a little too watery. I should have turned up the heat and let a little more of the water cook off, but oops! I just did it later.

Time for the stick blender.

Getting creamier!

Here it is all blended.

Time to check for thickness. This is where I decided to cook it down some more.

Ah, that's more like it!

This recipe works really well as a double batch, then freeze half for later.

How to Crochet a Bead Rope

Even if you've crocheted for a long time, using beads creates a whole new dimension. Here's a little (umm...not really. I'm sort of known for being big on the details...) photo tutorial for how to crochet a bead rope.

If this is the first time you've tried this, feel free to start with larger beads strung on yarn until you get the rhythm of it. It may save your eyesight (says the woman that diligently wore reading glasses while figuring this out).

What you'll need:
Size 10 crochet thread
Small crochet hook, whatever is comfortable for you or recommended by the thread. I used a Size 7 hook that (I think) used to belong to my great-grandmother.
Size 6/0 Seed Beads (larger or smaller depending on your desired finished product)
Tiny needle or Wire needle (This will be very helpful for stringing your beads, but it is not a necessity. I'm too cheap to get the right-sized needle, so I've strung all my beads straight onto the thread. Yep, I'm a freak.)
Some sort of clasp or ribbon for your finished product.

How to:
Begin by threading the beads. It is best to start with a pattern of 6 colors repeating. This will help you as you go to make sure you're working with the right bead in your previous row. It will also create the pretty spiral pattern. My first project included 65 repetitions of my 6-color pattern, and my finished rope is 8" long. My second one was to be a necklace, so I did 150 repetitions of a (different) 6-color pattern, and the finished rope is 19.5" long (not including the clasp). For my picture examples here, I only strung 5 repetitions of 6 colors.
(Warning: Objects in photo appear larger than life)

Ch 6, sl st in first ch to create ring (the Magic Ring won't work here).

Now you'll begin to work in the beads. Insert hook in ch, YO behind the bead (see pictures below)...

...pull through ch and then pull through the loop on the hook (you have essentially done a sl st with a bead). Photo here shows just before pulling through final loop on hook.

Stitch complete: (ugh...these hands are getting embarrassing!)

You will soon see the general direction your rope will be growing (toward you), so at some point, make sure your thread "tail" is not being worked into the center of the Bead Rope. This "tail" will be helpful for attaching whatever clasp you choose to use when it is complete.

Continue with 5 remaining colors. Your first row is done.

Now that your first six beads are on, you will begin to work in what is called the Bead Stitch: the thread that is going through the bead on the previous row. You will always work with the thread inserting the hook on the LEFT side of the bead, shown here:

Then take your working thread (that has the beads on it) and draw it over the bead that is next to the hook; YO behind the next bead of the same color. This is where it is very helpful to use a 6-color pattern so that you know you are using the right bead in the previous row because it coordinates with your next bead on the working thread.

Pull through the bead stitch...

...and the loop on the hook.

One more time, now with the peach:
Insert hook to left of bead, YO behind next bead.

Pull through Bead Stitch...

...and loop on hook. Your newest bead will land on top of the previous row.

Continue until you have used all the beads you have strung (or the rope is long enough, or your eyes fail you, or you are cursing the day you attempted this...but I hope not!).

When you have crocheted on your last bead, your rope will look something like this:

Notice that the top row of beads has the hole going horizontally instead of vertically like the rest of the rows. To fix this, you'll do one final row of slip stitches.

Still insert the hook to the left of the bead...

...and pull through both loops.

Continue around for all 6 beads. Here, as I'm going through the green Bead Stitch, notice that the rose and peach beads are already vertical:

And here is your completed project!

At this point, I crocheted a couple chains and strung on my clasps on both ends so that it was nice and sturdy.

I hope this helps make a little sense of crocheting with beads! It's really fun. If I've confused a point or not explained something clearly, please feel free to ask! I'll do my best to clarify anything. And as always, if you try it out, send me pictures! =)