This Year's Sauce (minus the long cooking time!)

It seems like I keep experimenting with tomato sauce.  I want something I can use on a pizza--not too runny--but not so thick that it wouldn't make a good, quick tomato soup.  Oh, and I don't want to have to spend hours and hours cooking it on the stove (i.e. unnecessarily heating up my whole house which is already August HOT).

Last year when I made sauce, I strained off some of the juice after the tomatoes were cooked but before they went into the mill.  I did that again this year, and I'm not sure if I just had meatier tomatoes, or I didn't mind my sauce not being quite so thick but the texture seemed perfect with no further cooking!  So, we ended up canning 5 quarts + 10 pints of tomato sauce, PLUS 3 quarts + 5 pints of juice that was strained off first (and maybe another 5 pints put right in the fridge to drink or use in soup this week).  

Yay, yay, YAY!!!  Two products at one shot and no long hours into the night of reducing the sauce.  I'm a happy woman, even if I still am up way too late waiting for them to boil in their hot water baths.

For future reference (or yours):

lots of tomato chunks 

peppers, de-seeded and chunked

onions, peeled and quartered

garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

fresh basil leaves----------------simmer altogether in large pots until vegetables are tender (add basil a little later than the rest)

When done cooking (30 min. to an hour depending on how big the pot is) strain tomato mixture in fine enough strainer to remove seeds then process through a food mill.  Save the juice!

Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste.  I used 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 TBSP salt and a tsp pepper for about 6 quarts of sauce.  So delicious!  I can't wait to see how it turns out on a pizza!  When I filled the jars, I used my parents' trick of adding a bay leaf to each one for a little extra flavor.  The juice I seasoned to taste also with sugar and salt before ladling into jars with a bay leaf.

Process in boiling water bath (40 min. quarts and 25 min. pints).

Go to bed and stop asking yourself if all this work was worth it.  =)

Greens and Beans

NOT green beans.  Sorry for the capitalization there--just wanted to be sure to clarify that the post title was not a typo.

Okay.  So we did buy a house, and it is a bit of a fixer-upper (oh, and way out in the country/mountains with somewhat unreliable internet service) so I haven't been doing a lot of new cooking around here or finding time to post about anything to this blog.  Disclaimers.  Check.

BUT, I was just snacking on some leftovers in the fridge, and thought this little recipe might be worth recording and sharing.  Use kale, spinach, chard, what have you . . . 

Greens and Beans

glug of oil
Handfuls of fresh greens, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
chopped tomato (fresh or canned)
2 cups black beans

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:  So simple, you probably don't even need this part.  Heat up the oil, toss in the greens and a little water and fry/steam them a bit before adding the garlic and cumin.  Stir and continue to cook a few more minutes.  Add tomato and finish cooking greens to your desired tenderness.  Stir in the beans and warm.  EAT THIS UP! 

I guess it's just a capital day.

Hope you ENJOY!

Cuban-style Black Beans

I'm not from Cuba.  I don't claim that this is an authentic recipe.  But it was yummy and I want to record the recipe for my own future reference. 

My Cuban-Style Black Beans
yields: huge pot o' beans!

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 green pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, minced
2 bay leaves
4 cups dry black beans
12 cups water

Place in large pot over high heat.  Bring to a boil and let roll for two minutes.  Turn off heat, cover, and let sit for two hours.

Bring beans to a simmer after soaking, crack the lid, and let simmer for two hours until soft.  Remove the two bay leaves.  In a little oil over low heat fry the following:

1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

When soft, add:

1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika

Fry a few more minutes until spices are fragrant, then stir this into the beans.  Continue to cook gently until you are ready to eat.  Add a TBSP of vinegar along with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over rice.  With sour cream and fried plantains if at all possible.

Pizza/Pasta Sauce

I've gotta have a record of how I made sauce this year; otherwise, come next September I'm bound to go searching through my recipe binder NOT being able to find the chicken scratch I wrote down and NOT remembering what I want to do differently or the same.

Whether or not it was written down, I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate the eagerness of my little helper.  Why is it that once kids master the skills for washing dishes/helping can/pulling weeds/______________(fill in this blank with any other mundane household chore you are looking forward to your kids doing) they no longer have the desire to help do these things? 

So, we made sauce (Atticus keeps calling it "salsa") this year.  Early September.  I had mostly paste tomatoes to work with which was great!  And here's what we did:

20 lb. paste tomatoes, washed and quartered

2 medium onions, quartered

6 cloves garlic, smashed

4 green peppers, seeded and cut in large chunks

Simmer tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers together in large saucepans until vegetables are soft (about 1/2 hour).  I also broiled the onions and garlic in a little oil first, but don't know as I'd got to the trouble again.  Strain this mixture and run though food mill.  By first straining it, I removed 3 quarts of juice and made my base thicker.  

My eager helper loved to watch the curls of tomato, onion, and pepper peels come out the end of the food mill.  He noted that it looked like "poop!".  Yep, it really does.

Once the tomato mixture is all through the food mill (and, like the thrifty person you are, you've also run the "poops" through another time or two to get it ALL out), add the following:

1/2 cup sugar

3 TBSP salt

3 TBSP Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

Simmer this on the stove until it thickens.  I simmered it about 90 minutes before removing the bay leaves and deciding to add:

1/4 cup cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Stir sauce while adding cornstarch to avoid lumps (I picked some out while ladling the sauce into jars).  

At this point I really loved the flavor of the sauce and thought it had a good consistency.  Then I had to go ahead and add some sauteed peppers, onions, and garlic to make it chunky.  Not sure I would do this again, but I haven't used it yet on pizza, so I'll give myself some time (maybe about a year?) to think about that.

I used:

2 onions, diced

6-7 peppers, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

little bit of olive oil

Then I stirred in:

______ cup chopped fresh basil

Yes, that is what I wrote down.  Maybe about a cup?  I simmered the sauce another 10-15 minutes before ladling it into clean pint jars and processing it in a boiling water bath.  I added 1/4 tsp of lemon juice into each jar too since I was paranoid about it not being acidic enough with the addition of all those extra veggies.  This yielded exactly 9 pints which should make 18 pizzas!

Any advice, tips, or killer recipes to share?  I'm still a novice at this and by no means have I settled on this as my recipe yet.

Happy canning!

Thai Squash

I came across this recipe for Thai squash some time ago and have enjoyed making it a lot recently.  It's fast, flavorful, and simple to put together once your squash or pumpkin is prepared.  I've been using butternut squash (clearing out the last of last year's crop!).

Here's the how-to:

Peel, seed, and slice two cups-worth of squash (we will understand from here on out that "squash" means "squash or pumpkin") into roughly domino-sized pieces.  See, I always want to make a bit more . . .

locate 30 peppercorns (trust me!) and 2 cloves of garlic

crush them!

Heat up one tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet and add the garlic/peppercorn mixture.  Cook until the garlic begins to brown.  Add squash and one cup of water.  Stir and cook until squash is just soft (5-10 minutes).  When there is still a little water left add 2 tablespoons of fish sauce (trust me!) and one teaspoon of sugar.  Let sit a few minutes until ready to eat.  Serve with rice or on its own as a side dish.  We've eaten it a few times alongside sticky rice and laab.

If you don't have fish sauce in your pantry, you could try substituting soy sauce (I have not tried this) or just go buy the bottle of fish sauce and make more Asian food!  Besides using fish sauce in Thai and Vietnamese recipes I also add it to soups for a bit of saltiness and depth of flavor (like bouillon).

Baby Month (and a recipe link)

So it's June 1st, and I didn't make any posts for the entire month of May.  I guess I was a little busy having a baby and all.  I actually did a lot of cooking in March and April to stock up the freezer with enough meals to hopefully not have to cook for a month after giving birth.  With eight days to go towards that goal and sandwich supplies on hand it looks like I just might squeak by . . .

But I do have a delicious link for you.  Back in the first week of May when I was waiting around for this baby to be born (due April 28), I started getting tricksy.  I tried pretty much every trick in the book to convince baby to be born including this eggplant parmigiana recipe.  Looks gross, tastes AWESOME, did not produce a baby within 48 hours.  But it was still yummy.  I made a 1/2 recipe which was a good thing, as this is RICH in cheese and we had enough for about three meals (two adults, one toddler).  It was labor-intensive (har, har) so I'm not sure I'd make it again unless I had some serious baby-sitting or it was a weekend.  But it was yummy.  Did I mention that already?

The only things I changed were to use cottage cheese instead of ricotta (we prefer the texture) and used basil pesto in the sauce since I had no access to fresh basil.  I also made my own breadcrumbs from some stale bread and Italian seasoning and used that parmesan/romano cheese blend in the shaker bottle *gasp!* instead of the fresh stuff.  But it was still yummy.

See, looks gross (I think I baked it a little too long . . .) 

So I'll end on a sweeter, prettier note.  Baby Girl.  Born 8 days after the eggplant parmigiana.  We love her a LOT!

Buttery Sauteed Cabbage

I made this cabbage (with spinach) to go along with my St. Patrick's Day meal of Irish stew and soda bread (see previous post).  I really liked how it turned out and thought it complemented the stew nicely.  Plus, it was a cinch to throw together.  And it was buttery.

Buttery Cabbage

1/2 head cabbage, thinly knife-shredded
few cups spinach, washed and roughly chopped (optional)
2 - 3 TBSP butter
generous pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

In a hot skillet, steam cabbage in a little water--covered--until tender (about 10 minutes).  Remove lid, add spices and butter and spinach if using.  Cover again and let sit a few minutes for butter to melt and spinach to wilt.  Stir, taste, and add additional salt and pepper if desired.  That's it!  Serve in a pretty bowl.

P.S.  My taste-tester (the adult one) really enjoyed this too!

Hot, Blistered Corn on the Cob!

Have you maxed out your corn on the cob eating capacity for the summer yet?  Well, I was getting there.  We had eaten it fresh a few times, processed two big batches for the freezer (I'm not even sure how much corn I ate while cutting it off the cob!), and had about a dozen ears in the fridge, cooked and ready to eat.  If we could.

Something had to get me re-energized.

How 'bout a bottle of sweet chili sauce?  

In Israel, where they apparently don't grow sweet corn, a little sweet, spicy chili sauce and a few minutes on the grill made even field corn-like stuff go down yummly.

I had to try it.

Here's what you do:  Take cooked corn on the cob, slather with sweet chili sauce (like this--I had a homemade concoction I put up last year), and place it on a cookie sheet under the broiler of your oven until nice and blistery, turning as needed.  

Yep.  That's it!  Of course, if you have the grill all fired up you might as well throw them on that.  But the broiler works just as well.

Watch out lips!!!!  Wowza, I made some hot chili sauce last summer!  It gets all caramelized and gooey as it heats and just sticks to the lips--you know with corn on the cob it's hard to avoid lip-to-food contact.  But yum, yum!  Even my taste-tester (who normally doesn't offer up feedback) volunteered, "this is really good."  He liked it cold the next day too.

So if you're getting a little tired of corn already, try this to spice it up a bit.  Or a lot. 

Ethiopian Plate

Wow. I com-PLETE-ly missed August! Not like I was getting ready for a baby, spending as much time as possible with ALL my sisters, and attending (plus helping with) two awesome weddings!

Somehow, I did find time to cook too, just not time to blog. And, honestly, I should be in bed now--preparing my body to give birth--not squeezing one blog post in first. *sigh*

But just to tease you . . .

I had a short Ethiopian food craze last month. Two meals (since I'd made tons of injera the first meal). Homemade injera (wish I could get it nice and tangy!); red beet and lentil salad; potatoes and green beans in tomato sauce; and spicy lentils. Definitely a meal I could repeat any day (besides all the work it takes).

The injera recipe came from a cookbook I have--they were surprisingly easy and fun to make, although I think I need to work on my technique a little to get them to be a more uniform thickness. It was like making crepes (that don't stick to a dry pan). Let me know if you have a kicker recipe!

Long Beans

Here's one from the "archives" (of pictures I hadn't sorted and made use of yet). Long beans which I found at our local farmers market back in November. And cooked shortly thereafter. They were too beautiful to resist (though they look a little snake-y in the pan)!

I didn't want to break them up, because that would make them look just like normal green beans. So, into the pan with a little oil, then pesto. If you remember my post a while back on pesto, I had forgotten to mention that one of my favorite ways to use it is on green beans.

Sprinkled with a bit of parmesan cheese and served up with some steaming "black bean-butternut-rice-etc. casserole" and mixed greens.

Cook's Word: A bit crunchier than your normal green bean--I kept cooking them but they never got truly soft. Which is okay, because I don't mind an "al dente" bean. The length definitely made them a bit of a choking hazard, though, so I would probably cut them into small pieces next time. The flavor combination of beans with pesto? Winner!

Salad in Season

The plot. I am assigned to bring salad for a dinner with two friends.

I headed to the farmers' market on Saturday with pretty low hopes for finding salad greens. And my hopes were met. Only arugula and kale. Hmmmm . . . I tasted and was offered a deal for two bags. I picked up a bag of each plus some radishes and broccoli. A bit letdown, I was.

At the grocery store later, I found some beautiful red pears, green onions, a bit of bleu cheese, and pecans (for pie, but I thought I could steal some for salad).

Assembly time. The stems of the arugula and kale came off, and the leaves torn a little. I threw these into my shallow blue bowl with fancy rim. Next, a layer of thin radish slices and broccoli florets. Finally a swirl of pear slices and sprinkling of toasted pecans, chopped up a little. I waited to add bleu cheese until I was sure my friends would like it.

Dressing. This I got from my friend Barbara. Simple. Not the healthiest, but delicious and all-purpose. Two parts mayonnaise (I use "lite") to one part each of sugar and vinegar. Yum! I added a bit of freshly-ground black pepper too.

And don't you know. That salad was a hit. And I'm seriously thinking about re-creating it right now . . .

Broccoli Soup

Don't think I haven't been cooking just because I've been lax about posting here. I have so many little pieces of paper with scribbled notes and lots of photos floating around. Making time to grab hold of the right notes and the right pictures together just hasn't been at the top of my "To Do" list recently. My list from this morning--for example--included: calling a massage studio, cleaning my bathroom, putting canning jars away, and collecting money from a few people. But it said nothing about blogging (or laundry, which desperately needed putting away--see how that was past tense? I actually did that even though it hadn't made the list!).

Well, this isn't a blog about my life. It's about cooking. And I was able to find the scrap of paper that goes along with these pictures, so here you have it . . .

Creamy Curry Broccoli Soup

3 cloves garlic, smashed open
1/2 onion, chopped
glug of olive oil for sauteeing
1 TBSP butter (or just use more olive oil if you want vegan)
2 chicken and one vegetable bouillion cube (or all veg again)
4 cups water
5 cups broccoli pieces (I use stems too, since it will get pureed)
1/2 tsp. green curry paste

Method: Saute onions and garlic in olive oil/butter until soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until broccoli is tender. Process in blender or food processor until smooth. YUM!

Here's a picture of the curry paste I used. I suppose you could use red or yellow paste too with similar results. Sorry it's a bit blurry.

Cook's Word: I love pureed soups! So easy to throw everything in a pot and not worry about chopping just so since it'll all get whizzed to oblivion anyway--and I love the way the flavors meld when you blend a soup! I definitely like adding curry paste to this to make it a bit more interesting than a classic broccoli cream soup, and I'm thinking of doing this with pumpkin too. Beware, it gets hotter each day!

Special thanks to Mr. Froggy for helping to stir the soup!

Butternut Pie

Nothing novel here. Just take your favorite pumpkin pie recipe and substitute an equal amount of butternut squash puree for the pumpkin! This is for those of you who are lucky enough to have an abundance of butternut in your garden. Or for those of you who don't want to mess with cooking a whole pumpkin.

I just cut my butternut into small pieces, peel, and cook them with minimal water. When soft, I mash them roughly with a fork and let them cool a bit. When you're ready to make pie filling, lob all the ingredients into a blender. This ensures that the squash will get smoothly pureed.

Happy autumn cooking!

"bitten"

Taste-tester reports that the pie is yummy but a little too spicy. Cook's note-to-self: hold some of the cloves next time!

Pumpkin Gnocchi

While my husband re-heats leftovers, I have a few minutes to do a quick post before we enact "Computer-free Monday Evenings". (I'm getting reports that something bad might happen to me if I go around violating computer-free nights too freely). Yikes!

So, quick . . .

Pumpkin Gnocchi

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart. She e-mailed it to me. Just kidding! It's right here if you want to check it out. Since I pretty-much followed the recipe, I won't re-post it on this blog.

The gnocchi itself was fairly simple--flour, pumpkin, nutmeg, and cheese--while the sauce was a bit more involved.

Once this is mixed together, you roll it into ropes, cut into pieces and then boil them. It's a dumpling-pasta thing that is very soft and a little chewy. See a very poor picture below of the gnocchi emerging from the boiling pot.

First impressions: sorta flavorless with an overly-rich sauce. I think I would have preferred them with a tomato-y sauce, make it more like pasta.

Taste-tester says: "It's really gnocchi--like gummy bears with gravy." (to understand this comment better, you really should look up a pronunciation for "gnocchi")

Cook's Word: I think I'd make them again because it's a simple, fun, fast pasta thing to do. We liked them better lukewarm, and the texture kinda grew on me after a few days. I should try the more traditional potato variety too.


Now. Leftovers are hot, and "Computer-free Mondays" start in "one", "two" . . .

Southern Summer

Now if fried green tomatoes and corn cakes don't make a grand southern summer-time meal! And the smell of frying! I've got kind of a love/hate relationship with that smell. I love it fresh when I'm snitching hot fried green tomatoes from the draining plate, but after an hour or so if I leave the kitchen and get a whiff of that burnt/fried smell in the air, it can about turn my stomach. Ugh.

The corn cakes are topped with some homemade yogurt and salsa, while the fried green tomatoes are accompanied by some of my tomato chutney from earlier in the summer. This meal, while somewhat deficient in color and variety, was chock-full of veggies (corn, tomatoes--red and green, onion, green pepper). I started off by just making the fried tomatoes, then used the leftover soaking mix (milk, egg, salt pepper) and dredging mix (cornmeal, flour, cayenne) as a base for some corn cakes. They were a bit too wet, but delicious none-the-less. Thanks, Tabitha, for the inspiration!

One parting shot of the 'maters. . .




Now, doesn't that plate of fried food and bright yellow table look just like a true southern diner?

Zippy Roasted Sweet Potatoes

While waiting for the pictures of my sweet potatoes to load, my spider solitaire win rate took a one percent dip. Grrrr . . .

But here I am in my cozy little house, the dishwasher humming in the kitchen from company dishes last night and a rapid-fire dinner put together this evening in honor of the half bottle of wine that was left over. But more about that another time.

For now, I want to talk about sweet potatoes. Peeled, cut, tossed with butter and spices and roasted for about 30 minutes. Delish! I served them up with some tomato and basil sauce-less pizza and a bowl of olives. No plates. No utensils. Just fingers and good food!

Pre-cooked

Cooked

Let me attempt a recipe:

2 cups peeled and cut sweet potatoes (mine were like thick home fries)
2 TBSP butter, melted
1/4 tsp powdered rosemary
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all that, add some fresh oregano or thyme sprigs, and throw it in a 350F oven. Check them periodically with a fork to see if they're soft enough. I think mine were in about 30 - 40 minutes. When they're cooked through, broil them a few minutes for some crunchiness. Let them cool a bit, then dump into a bowl and have at it! Forget the forks.

Beet the Heat

We've been throwing these in a pot, cooking, peeling, and slicing them to put in the fridge and eat on over the course of a few days. Great alone or with a little salt. I love beets! Today I fancied them up a bit with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, and fresh oregano. Mmmmmmm . . . perfect afternoon snack for a hot summer day.

Summer Love

It's all about fresh, homegrown tomatoes and sweet, pungent herbs picked out of the garden.


Case #1: Buttery Sage and Tomato Omelet

In a few teaspoons of butter, saute some fresh chopped sage and diced tomato a few minutes. Not long enough for the sage to wilt and lose its color! Whip up your eggs (I used 2) with some salt, pepper, and a dash of milk and pour over the tomatoes. Next comes the hard part. Turn down the heat and resist the temptation to touch it until it is nearly dry-looking on top. Then get a spatula under that thing and flip it! Turn off the heat and let it sit in the pan a few moments to completely cook the eggs. Slide onto a plate, top with cheese, and give thanks to God for fresh tomatoes and herbs!

Of course, if you want to make it a real, full breakfast, you must have fried potatoes on the side. I cut up my potatoes, add some water and zap them in the microwave for about 4 minutes to cook them. Then I transfer to my iron skillet with some butter or oil and fry over low-med heat until they're browned. Salt, peppah, nothin' bettah! Here I ate them with some fresh tomato chutney.

Summer Love Case #2: Eggplant-Tomato Stackers with Pesto Pasta

Right off the bat, I have to say these stackers were less than ideal. Maybe they needed more salt, more oil, more pesto, or just needed to be totally re-done. I simply brushed eggplant slices with a little olive oil, spread on a bit of pesto, slapped a tomato on top and baked in the toaster oven at 350F for 20 minutes or so. Not particularly tasty. Salt helped. I think another time I would fry the eggplant first, salt the slices, top it with goat cheese--YUM!--and then add diced tomato and fresh basil with more salt and pepper. Or something like that.

As for the pesto pasta-yummy! Check back in for a pesto discussion later.



Case #3: Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Diced Tomato and Basil

Pretty, no? Especially on that blue and white plate! Scrambled eggs--make 'em like you like 'em. I like mine a little browned just so I KNOW they're done. Topped with fresh diced tomatoes, chopped basil, and parmesan. I loved how it looked, liked less how it tasted. Maybe too much basil in too big chunks. I think next time I will mix the tomatoes and finely chopped basil with a little olive oil and salt before topping the eggs.

Ah! Summer love! How quickly your beauty fades! How fast you all go to seed!

Squash Blossoms

About a month ago when it seemed that all our volunteer vines were only going to produce ornamental gourds, I picked off a few handfuls of blossoms to cook and eat. Not really knowing how to prepare them, I looked to the internet for recipes. Most of them called for copious amounts of cheese and frying. Not really my style. I whipped up my own mixture for the filling: labane, an egg yolk, cooked and grated beets, raw grated zucchini, and salt & pepper.

Slitting the washed blossoms open down one side, I removed bugs (three bees! and a few little stripey guys) and reproductive parts then spooned in about a teaspoon of the mixture I'd made. I closed the blossoms and placed them into a small baking dish.

When it was full, I brushed the blossoms with the egg white, sprinkled them with bread crumbs I had on hand in the freezer, and chucked them in the toaster oven at 350F for about 12 minutes.

I was truly amazed when they came out at how firm they set up! I half expected the labane mix to ooze out and make a total mess of this dish, but the labane stayed inside the blossoms, and they were easy to pick up and eat as finger food! (I have some very game friends who helped eat all these).

Cook's Word: Would I make these again? Sure! I couldn't really taste the squash blossoms themselves, so I think I'd add a few more spices to the filling for better overall flavor. I loved the magenta color that the beets added!

Chop Salad

Two bits of inspiration here:

1. A real foodie of a co-worker who's always saying "Alton Brown-this or that" reminded me of my favorite TV chef, Jamie Oliver (okay, so I don't watch TV so it's not a high honor, but I like his style).

2. Hordes of lettuce in the garden. No kidding.


So I went online to watch some Jamie Oliver cooking videos for some culinary inspiration (which, as you can see from the infrequent blogging, had been somewhat lacking around here). I watched a few, including a video for "chop salad". If you want to watch click here. So cute! I love his expressions, especially "It looks like a bit of a dog's dinner" about the salad because it's not very pretty!

If you don't watch the video, the idea is just to get all your salad ingredients together on a big cutting board and start chopping them together. I did this for my home group and had a few avid onlookers.

Once you've given everything a first, rough chop, you add the lettuce and do a fold-chop-fold-chop deal until you have the consistency you want. Dress it, toss it with your fingers, slap it in a bowl and eat! Not much to it, but delicious with all the fresh garden veggies coming in now and fun to make!