DIY Laptop Sleeve

Since my mom just got a new laptop, I decided to make a case for her prior to our mini-travel graduation weekend.  As I decided all this very last minute, I took absolutely no pictures of the process.  But that's okay, because I followed a very well-documented tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.  (Although I don't really like their definition for length and width.  I nearly cut the wrong sizes because of it.  I think length should be the largest inch number, not width.  Or I could just be crazy.)

Anyway, Penga-Mom was kind enough to snap some quick pictures from her end and email them to me, yay!

As you can see, I used some awesome sushi fabric (bought in Hawaii a long time ago).  I had been sitting on this fabric for a long while because I didn't know what to do with it, but I think this works pretty well.  Penga-Mom loves sushi afterall.  Looking at it makes me hungry.

Front

Back

I added four extra inches to the length (my definition, not the tutorial version) of the bag so that she'd be able to put the laptop power supply inside too.  Though functional, it wasn't the best design decision, as the bag is kinda floppy looking without the tight form fit of the laptop.

Anyway, the bag is pretty nice.  There's no unfinished seams poking out, and it's nicely padded with a layer of fleece between black lining and sushi fabric.  I'm thinking I need to ditch my own boring, store-bought neoprene sleeve and make another one...

If you have a lappy, what kind of case or sleeve do you have? Something fun?

Solvang

Whew! This past weekend was a complete whirlwind of driving and seeing and eating and celebrating.  Two of my cousins graduated from college, so we trekked down the California coast once again to support their success.

Along the way we stopped in Solvang.  It's a super-charmy Danish town just above Santa Barbara.

Usually we just do a quick pit-stop for cookies and pastries, but this time we decided to walk around a little more.

Though the main thoroughfare of Solvang only spans a couple streets, I love how all the buildings fit the same style.  There's bakeries and little boutique stores spattered all over; touristy, but in a good way.

I particularly wanted to go to the Rasmussens store pictured below - I had heard that they sold imported fabric.  Though (predictably?) I walked in looking for Danish import fabric, I walked out with Japanese imported fabric.  >.>"  At $10 a yard, it was a bit pricier than my usual $/yard allotment, but I figure it's okay since it's not a run-of-the-mill Joanne's print.

While stopping for fudge to bring to Friend E (thanks to him for letting us crash at his place again!), we saw a horse trolley walk by.  We may have ran down the sidewalk chasing it for a picture...

And of course, the best part of Solvang is the pastries. Oh, shortbread, you delicious buttery thing you!

Pictured are almond and raspberry tarts, shortdough raspberry cookies (Penga-Sis and I refer to them as Danish Pop-Tarts),  and a Danish waffle with cream and jam inside.  So good.

Cultural towns are always a treat to visit, and we stop by Solvang nearly every time we go down south.  If only for the cookies!  Have you been there before? I've got to learn how to make an almond tart. Mmm.

Curry Pan

My sister's been on a curry kick lately, so this past weekend we tried to make curry pan (bread).  We used this youtube video for the recipe.

First, aromatics.  Onions, garlic, ginger.

Then, ground pork.

And the fun part - curry powder, katsu sauce, soy sauce, a little flour, and a can of tomatoes! At first I was like, whaaat..tomato sauce in my curry? But it doesn't become too tomatoey, promise!

Lastly, tofu. This time I used some extra firm stuff so it wouldn't disintegrate into mush.

At this point you've got a curried version of mabo tofu.  It's amazing, and whatever we didn't use for the bread we ate with rice.  Definitely a keeper recipe!

Now onward to the pan! Penga-Sis cut some crust off the Asian-style bread we got from Ranch 99.  It's called "family toast", and it's fluffy and fat and a little sweet.  (Delicious with some peanut butter or honey for breakfast, mmm.)  It's called family toast because when your family comes over they eat all of it.  That's my theory anyway.

She pinched down the edges as shown in the video, and dabbed it with egg.

Add filling..

And press shut.

We could have used the sandwich press for this, but our family toast was quite large and would have resulted in the loss of some bread real estate.  (I like things with as much filling as possible!)  In any case, we kept the breadcrusts and snacked on them later on, so no waste.

Dipping the whole sandwich in egg like french toast,

We rolled it around in some pan-crisped panko (breadcrumbs).

A short 15 minute bake and the curry pan is ready!

It was pretty good, though not as tasty as it's artery-clogging cousin, the fried curry pan.  The slightly sweet toast was a little strange with the curry - not bad, but different.  All in all, there were so many extra steps to make the pan (though admittedly less than making actual bread from scratch), that I'd just make the filling with rice and keep it simple next time.

Have you had curry pan before? I have half a bag of panko left to use.  Have any good recipes involving panko?