All posts by Jackie E-S

Jackie E-S is the owner of HeartStrings FiberArts, a showcase for her growing roster of original pattern designs. As a certified master knitter and teacher, Jackie continues to share her love of knitting and knowledge through design and publication of skill-building pattern instructions, and conducting workshops, programs and demonstrations. Her interest in the fiber arts extends beyond knitting and spinning to include weaving, dyeing and all needle arts. She also enjoys contract bridge and music.

Jackie-O-Lantern Tortilla Pizza Pie

Looking for a fun and quick fixin’ treat for Halloween? Join me in making pizza with yummy edible jack-o-lantern details.

Have you always dreamed of carving the ‘perfect’ pumpkin? As a kid, I found that harder to do than I thought it would be. Before I even had a chance to approach being an ‘expert’, I moved to Cajun country in the deep south. Believe me, carved pumpkins don’t last long around here in the heat that persists well past Halloween! They wither up quickly and get pretty gross (rotted pumpkin smell is yuck!)

So I’ve come up with some other ways to practice my talents in making jack-o-lanterns. Join me in making a Jackie-O-Lantern Tortilla Pizza Pie.

Slice a piece of Jackie-O-Lantern Tortilla Pizza Pie

INGREDIENTS

  • Plate-sized flour tortilla (i.e. soft taco wrap)
  • Salsa
  • Cheddar cheese
  • Fresh Jalapeno or sweet green pepper (your choice, depending on your taste preferences and availability)
  • Cajun smoked sausage (andouille) or other meat topping that can be ‘carved’ for the facial features (e.g. pepperoni or slice salami)
  • Optional: Red hot sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

Get all the ingredients and cooking tools gathered together and then you are ready to get started on assembly.

Ingredients and cooking tools for Jackie-O-Lantern Tortilla Pizza Pie

Assembly

STEP 1 – Put flour tortilla in pan.

Note that I am planning to use a stove-top non-stick sauté pan for ‘baking’ the pizza.

STEP 2 – Spread some salsa on the tortilla.

I prefer green salsa, but red salsa is good, too. My taste buds have gotten used to hot and spicy here in Cajun country, so the hotter the better.

STEP 3 – Grate cheese and sprinkle amount desired over salsa.

I prefer extra-sharp cheddar, but ya’ know, any cheese is good. I haven’t ever met a real cheese that I didn’t like. I don’t recommend those imitation processed cheeses though.

STEP 4 – Clean and slice pepper in thin strips, reserving top of one half as the ‘stem’ of the pumpkin. Place strips and stem as shown in picture to mimic a pumpkin.

Did you see those sweet green peppers in the picture? Those are from my own plants, still producing peppers in bunches like grapes even now this late in the season!

STEP 5 – Slice sausage and ‘carve’ triangle and small rectangle pieces for eyes, nose and teeth. Place similarly to that shown in picture as a guide, or just be creative with your own facial features and expressions!

Assembled Halloween tortilla pizza

Baking

Cook on stove over medium heat for 7 – 8 minutes, or until cheese is melted well and bottom of tortilla is crispy.

Did I mention it stays hot where I live well past Halloween? Well, no use heating up the house by turning on the oven, and stove-top will work just fine.

Here is the ‘baked’ pizza. Isn’t it cute?

Baked Halloween Pizza

Serving

To amuse the kids (or even grown-ups!), shake some red hot sauce ‘blood’ over the mouth. (or substitute catsup if you don’t like it as spicy as we do here in Cajun country)

Slice in wedges and eat it up ’til gone. 🙂 Let me know how you like it.

Slice a piece of Jackie-O-Lantern Tortilla Pizza Pie

Have fun and bon appetit!

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Bearfoot Over the Shoulder Shawl KAL

Join me (Jackie E-S) over at the Mountain Colors Yarn group on Ravelry for a Knit-A-Long (KAL). We’ll be knitting the Bearfoot Over the Shoulder Shawl that I designed for using any of the lovely and colorfully dyed Mountain Colors fingering weight yarn.
Bearfoot Over the Shoulder
 

This easy to wear shawl/cowl combo is a different angle on the one-sided Möbius. It takes just one skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot or Crazyfoot yarn http://www.247locksmithsnearme.com/residential-locksmith, making it relatively quick to knit. The lace stitch pattern is easy to work and memorize, so you’ll be able to relax while  watching the colors flow off your needles.

How to Participate and have a chance to win the prize from Mountain Colors!

1. Purchase a skein (or use one from your stash) of Mountain Colors Bearfoot or Crazyfoot 2. Get the Bearfoot Over The Shoulder Shawl pattern at Ravelry. 3. Post about your project in the official Mountain Colors Bearfoot KAL thread! 4. Share your progress with other KAL’ers, ask questions, and get tips on knitting this lovely, yet easy lace shawl from Jackie. 5. Post your finished Bearfoot Over the Shoulder Shawl photo in the official Bearfoot KAL thread by November 10, 2014 for a chance to win a great prize from Mountain Colors Yarn. Will you join us? Bearfoot Over Your Shoulders Shawl

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October Prize Drawing: Luxury Smoke Ring Kit

I’m giving away a Luxury Smoke Ring Kit at the end of October over at the KnitHeartStrings KAL site. Will the lucky winner be you? You can win luxury yarn in choice of natural gray or natural white, and your choice of either of these 2 patterns to make a beautiful smoke ring.

Flared Lace Smoke Ring
Flared Lace Smoke Ring
Smoke Ring with Lace Edging
Smoke Ring with Lace Edging

What is a smoke ring, you ask? It is a versatile accessory you can wear laid on your shoulders as a dressy cowl neckline, or pulled over your head for light-as-air warmth without messing your hairdo. A smoke ring is also sometimes referred to as a natchaq.

The Luxury Smoke Ring Kit you can win includes —
  • Personally autographed, hard-copy pattern for a smoke ring; your choice of either #A45 Smoke Ring with Lace Edging or #A49 Flared Lace Smoke Ring
  • A continuous skein of luxury yarn (50% baby alpaca, 25% merino, 25% angora) that is enough to complete the smoke ring of your choice in the color of your choice (either natural gray or natural white); the yarn has been washed and skeined, and is ready for you to wind into a ball to knit your smoke ring

To Participate in the October Prize Giveaway

Click on over to the Monthly Prize Giveaway page at the KnitHeartStrings KAL site to see how you can win the October Smoke Ring Kit.

The random drawing will be held right after I tally the entries at close of October 31, 2014. I’ll announce the winner as soon as possible after that. I hope the winner will be YOU! Good luck.

yarn for smoke ringp.s. I hope you will join us at KnitHeartStrings for the Smoke Ring KAL this month. If you are not yet a member of KnitHeartStrings, you can Join Here

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Make It Your Own

Using Ravelry projects for HeartStrings patterns as an inspirational resource

An underlying principle of my HeartStrings patterns has always been to offer “Yarn-generic patterns for creative freedom using yarns you like”.

Of course, for the sample model(s) pictured in the patterns, you might initially be swayed into envisioning the project in only that yarn. But please don’t feel locked into that — I whole-heartedly give you my permission to use something other than the specific sample yarn I show. In fact I ENCOURAGE you to make the look your own in the yarn YOU like.

Thanks to the many knitters who take the time to share their project information and information on Ravelry, you can use these as inspirational resources for ideas of making HeartStrings patterns your own, in your own way, with the yarns and colors you like, and more!

Here’s an example to demonstrate a few of the many features offered by Ravelry to help you.

Below is a snippet of an example pattern page at Ravelry. This one happens to be for the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole.

suggested yarn

Note: One way to pull up any HeartStrings pattern page at Ravelry is to go to the Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer Designs/HeartStrings FiberArts store on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/stores/jackie-erickson-schweitzer-designs.

The “Suggested yarn” field is usually the yarn that was used to knit the sample model pictured in the pattern. By no means does this limit you to using only that particular yarn in the color shown though!

Click on the “yarn ideas” tab to see all the yarns used for this pattern by Ravelry members who have posted their projects.

other yarns used by Ravelry members for this pattern

Click on the “projects” tab
to see the actual projects for this pattern that Ravelry members have knitted or are knitting. Note: If you are not a Ravelry member, you might need to join (it’s free) to view other members’ projects.

Most members post pictures so you can see the colors they used and other insights to knitting the project, or how the article can be used or worn.

projects for this pattern shared by Ravelry members

If you use the Stash feature of Ravelry, the “In my stash” field even identifies possible yarns for this pattern that are in your stash!

Ravelry identifies possible yarns for this pattern that are in your stash


Ann F. wrote: “Thank you so much!  The Ravelry site gave me ideas, showing me that I have some latitude in the yarn I choose. I’m heading now into the basement to check out my cabinet of stash. ;-)”

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Vegetarianism and Veganism vs Local Produce

For a while now, there has been a heated debate about sustainability – can we really preserve mother nature and tackle global warming by changing our eating habits. Most dispiritingly, Harvard scientists told us that we can eat less than an egg a week to save the planet.

Now, this seems like a very tough price to pay, and especially when managing our food intake in the grams is a challenge in itself and definitely something to consider when you have the free time – but who does?

With this being said, it’s also important to note that sticking to the ‘Plate the Planet’ diet, you will also be saving 11 million lives a year – this is no joke. We can change our dietary habits and completely revolutionize how we interact and affect the environment.

The Success of Eco-friendly Diet

For this to be successful, though, countries need to be economically strong. You see, a country where people are considered poor won’t be able to cherry-pick what they eat. In most cases, they will just eat because that’s pretty much what they have.

But the truth is, things never have to be all about us eating specific foods. Smaller countries that have plenty of arable lands and know how to farm and use it will definitely be at an advantage. After all, a small population and plenty of lands would allow pretty much any country to farm the land and produced a well-balanced diet of meat, vegetables, dairy and more.

You see, there is no issue there. Yet, to enforce this, people need to also give up on some fruit and vegetables, as well as import meat. If salmon isn’t caught readily in your waters, you might want to avoid it, because it has been overfished.

If an avocado isn’t something grown in your region – which it most likely won’t be, then eating one avocado every two weeks might be your absolute maximum you want to do. Other than that, you will want to remind yourself that some food is more readily available to your country.

Vegetarianism and Veganism vs Local Produce

For example, dairy products are generally bad for the environment, but if you live in a low-populated country with big land, then a diary may not be an issue. On the flipside, in places like the United States, people are consuming too much meat and dairy as this is a staple – the burger is the stuff of life, Americans would say.

Yet, everyone should adjust their diet to the environment’s needs, but more importantly – to what food is available locally. Some food would still need to be shipped of course, but creating a less ‘globalized food industry’ would mean that people wouldn’t have as much of an impact on the environment.

Even an overweight 90 kilos man probably needs just about 2,000 – 2,500 good calories a day, or less, and this is less than one kilogram of food a day. It’s really no biggie and as long as you watch out and use good calories in your diet, things should be okay.

You can further help the environment by cutting out all unnecessary purchases, such as snacks, sauces – which are some of the worst things you can eat in the first place – and others.

Helping the Environment Through One’s Work

Believe it or not, you can be helping even now. Need to hop out of the house for five minutes? Perhaps you needn’t take a car after all? Many locksmith experts, for instance, prefer to ride a bike to the place where they have to do a job – simple as that. When you book a service with an established company such as 247locksmithsnearme.com, the experts will usually arrive on the back of a bike, as long as it doesn’t take them too long of course.

Sometimes cars are an absolute necessity, but the truth is, you can still manage your car time well. Some people would have to burn through $2,000 of gas while other people could last on $300 for the entire year. The key is to always keep yourself active. Some people just don’t mind hopping out of the house on a bike, as it’s much cheaper and when considering the awful traffic, it could be equally handy.

Nobody really wants to harm the environment. When we do, we do so out not of malice – but rather convenience. We don’t have time to examine under the microscope or consider what we do to the environment with our cars. After all, we have responsibilities and we have to make ends meet. As long as we are consciously doing our best, that’s fine.

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