Five on Friday

I can't say whether this will become a regular feature here on my blog, but I've got lots of random things to share with you and I thought this might be the best way to do it.  Who knows though, this might be a good way to round-up all those ideas that I get during the week but never get around to actually blogging about.  =)

1.  It's Friday, obviously.  Fridays in Lent = no meat.  I know for a lot of Catholics the Fridays in Lent also mean that fish is for dinner, but let me share a different idea with you.  One of my goals for the past year or so has been to learn more about Indian cooking.  I'm taking baby steps here I'll be honest, but early this year I bought this book

and so far I like it a lot.

Indian food is a great idea for meatless dinners because there is so much variety in Indian cuisine and so many vegetarian options.  Here is what we had for dinner last Friday.  From the book above, I made corn with mustard seeds

and a simple cabbage stir-fry.  Yeah, I'm not sharing the pictures I made of that.  There is also no picture of the cabbage dish in the book.  It just isn't the prettiest thing to look at, but it is very tasty.

In my quest to find the perfect chana masala recipe I made one from smitten kitchen

served in Chinese soup bowls, because they were just the right size for this.  This recipe is close to what I'm looking for in this dish, and in fact with a few minor tweaks this will be the recipe that finally enables me to cross that item off my list.

Oh, and I am not going to apologize for the photos, but I will say this, I need to practice!  And get out the kitchen stool.  Seriously, I'm only 5 feet tall.  Some of the photos of my food would improve a lot if I did just that one simple thing.

2.  Amy Sorenson has been blogging all week at Write.Click.Scrapbook. on the topic of Use Your Stuff.  Today's post features "Bits & Pieces," and I was happy to contribute a layout for her post

3.  More paper crafting

Cards inspired by a fun new line from Jillibean Soup and by the fact that spring is finally beginning to show signs of arrival where I live.  I say that as I look out the window, at the rain.

4.  These are blooming right outside our front door

I have no idea what they are called but they make me happy every time I see them. 

5.  Finally, I did get one of my goals crossed off last weekend. 

I'll share the full story... soon?


Have a beautiful weekend!