Sew Easy: Pillow Cover DIY Tutorial

We're starting to get settled in the new place and now adding some finishing touches.  One of the items I wanted to update were some old pillow covers.

Easy Pillow Cover DIY Tutorial w/ Envelope Closure

Difficulty: Very Easy

Time: 30 minutes

Materials:

• 1 yard of fabric (this one is Premier Prints Penmanship) for 2 18x18" pillow cases

How to:

• Cut rectangle of fabric for your desired pillow size and add 7" on one side
• I wanted my finished pillows to be 18x18" so cut a rectangle 18x25"
• Hem your short edges.

• Fold your rectangle into a square with overlapping edges (this is where the extra length is used) and sew down the sides

• Snip each corner right above your sewn edge so that when flipped outwards, the corners will be crisp instead of slumped inwards from the excess material

• Turn inside out and stuff - you're done!

What the back of the pillow looks like

I prefer these pillows:

to these:

Easy update!  :)

Mom's Kitchen: Salted Egg Yolk Crab Recipe

On one of my visits to Hong Kong as a kid, we once tried Salted Egg Yolk Crab (called Golden Crab there) and LOVED it.  Fast forward a couple decades to San Francisco where I delighted in finding it at Hakka Restaurant.  Mom, I can never say enough about this woman, decided to find a way to make her own version because she knew how much I craved it.

Prep Time: ~20 minutes (not counting the crab chopping time)

Cook Time: ~10 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 Dungeness Crab 
• 2 Salted Eggs - steamed 
• Corn Starch
• Cooking Oil 
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

• Heat up your wok on medium with about 3/4 cup of oil 
• Let's assume your crab has already been chopped (sorry, squeamish)
• Clean the crab and lightly dust with corn starch (enough to cover all the crab pieces) and salt.  The coating should be very light - not like a batter.  This is enough to give it a bit of crispness and allows the yolk to stick.

• Toss the crab into the wok and let cook a few minutes.  Do not stir at this time or all the coating will fall off.

• Flip after cooking for a few minutes

• Once fully cooked, place crab on a rack to allow any excess oil to drip off

• In a separate pan, heat up a little more oil on medium
• Place your 2 steamed salted egg yolks (this won't work with regular egg yolks) into a pan and mash

• Toss the crab into the yolk mixture and coat.  
• Once coated, you're done.  It's time to eat!

Enjoy!