Chicken Pot Pancakes

We tried out Rachael Ray's Chicken Pot Pancakes recipe with mixed results. You toss cooked chicken, peas, carrots, celery, and onions in pancake mix, cook the pancakes like normal and then top with a creamy sauce. It's such a fun idea, but there are definitely some things I'll do differently next time around.



We forgot to pick up actual pancake mix and used some waffle mix that we already had on hand, but they turned out a little too sweet. I'd like to try it again with 'real' pancake mix next time, but am happy to my own batter from then on if that is still too sweet.

We also noticed that you can not even taste the chicken in the pancakes. It's like it wasn't even in there. I'll definitely be mixing up the ratios when we make these again.



I did make one large change this time, and that was the sauce. I am not a fan of dill, and a tarragon and mustard sauce was just not screaming 'chicken pot pie' to me. I used a base of Cream of Chicken soup, thinned it out and added spices, and it turned out perfectly.

Mirrored Ambigrams

I was surprised to get a couple of requests for mirrored ambigrams recently. I don't usually have a lot of hope for mirrored flips, but I did some sketching and these seemed to actually go together pretty easily.



"Learn to Suffer" Mirrored Ambigram





"Blessed" & "Cursed" Mirrored Ambigram

Shrimp Shumai

I finally finished putting together the recipe for the declicious Shrimp Shumai. It is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, but I ended up changing enough that I needed to type up my own version.

Shrimp Shumai



I really liked the layout I used for the old picture of this one and copied it again.

Logos

I've had a lot of requests lately for logos & other graphics for businesses. I usually just stick them in with a normal 'ambigram drop' but thought it would be fun to put a bunch of them together in a separate post.



"Skinny Dip" Ambigram Logo



This one was actually from a long time ago, created for a swimwear store. The owner painted the logo on the wall in the shop & said he got a great response. (I'm not sure why I didn't post this earlier. I think there was mention of sending a different pic of the painting & so I was waiting on that). The painting looks great!





"Kings Army" Ambigram Logo
Not sure what kind of company this one was for ~





"Twisted Tricks" Ambigram Logo
For a magician that I've worked with before...





A few designs for the sexy snowmoblie gear at Sled Divas ~
"Divas Snow Gear" Heart Logo


(The girl and snowmobile are from her own logo, not my design)

"Snow Divas" Ambigram


"Divas Snowgear" Ambigram




And this "GTF 289" logo was designed by the customer of this "Grace" & "Faith" ambigram. The letters spell "Eph" upside down, for Ephesians 2 8:9.

"GTF 289" Ambigram Logo



Most of the Old English style religious ambigrams were ordered by this same customer, including this recent design ~

"Blood" & "Power" Ambigram Logo

Ambigram Drop

The first five of these are actually sketches that never turned into a final design. I thought they were worth sharing, and some have pretty fun fonts!

"Jaxon" Ambigram Sketch, v.2	"Jaxon" Ambigram Sketch, v.3
"Garrett" & "Michael" Ambigram Sketch, v.1	"Garrett" & "Michael" Ambigram Sketch, v.2
"Love Life" & "Live True" Ambigram Sketch, v.2	"Love Life" & "Live True" Ambigram, v.3
"Persevere" Ambigram	"Maisie Ann" & "Eliza Jayne" Ambigram
"Caden" Circle Ambigram	"Paige" & "Colton" Ambigram

Homemade Pasta

One of the gifts I got for Christmas this year was a pasta extruder. I had always seen pasta makers more like this one and did not even realize the extruders existed, so this was a fun little surprise!



The extruder comes with 5 dies to make different shapes. This time I opted for the largest one, the rigatoni (top right in the pic).



I believe I followed this recipe for the dough, but it may have been this one. I do know that I added in a little olive oil and some herbs for some nice coloring. The mixer did not handle the dough too well and so I had to finish it off by hand and then started extruding!



Next time I will do this as two man job, but Justin was busy with the baby. It would have been nice to have one person cranking and one person cutting, and then switch jobs after a while. By myself it was slow going, but soon I had a pile of pasta!



And here it is, all buried in a pile of broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and Alfredo sauce ~



A very tasty meal indeed! The pasta turned out very dense, unlike any pasta I've had before. I'm not sure if that is just the texture of homemade (which I've heard is very different), or if I was way off base with my first attempt. I've got a few other recipes I'd like to try and I'm sure there is always room for improvement. But not bad for my first try.

Random Designs

Here are a few non-ambigram, non-heart designs that I've made. I am always surprised to get these requests, but they can be fun to work on.

"MAE" Initials Design Sketch	"ASLK" Initials Design
"SC" Initials Design	"DS" Initials Design
"NILE" Initials Design	"Faith" Design
"DAR" Star Design

Lots of Heart

In spite of all of the ambigrams and other designs I've been posting lately, I still have a ton more that I need to share. I've been busy!

"FN" Heart Design	"AGR" Heart Design
"Melissa" & "Lou" Heart Design	"Oscar" & "Noah" Heart Design
"MVVS" Heart Design	"K&C" Heart Design
"Jokers 2011" Heart Design	"Dalanie" & "Gabrielle" Heart Design

Ambigram Drop

"Steal Kill Destroy" & "Life Abundantly" Ambigram	"No Regrets" & "Strength" Ambigram
"Taylerre" & "Treasured" Ambigram	"Leonhardt" Ambigram Cross
"DeMartini" Ambigram	"Honor Cherish" Ambigram
"Doug" & "Darek" Ambigram	"Jaime" & "Ezra" Ambigram