Blog Archives

Fun Food Friday Recipe: Chicken Fingers

2/13/2018

Fun Food Friday: Chicken Fingers Recipe

Last week, our Fun Food Friday edition of LIVE From the Kitchen with the Shibaguyz featured one of our favorite fun foods: Chicken Fingers! Basically, we make fried chicken in little boneless strips that are perfect for kicking back with at the end of a long week.

This week included the usual laughter and mayhem, we answered questions from our viewers, and, yes, Jason wore The Apron (if you've seen it, you get it). We also might have climbed up on our soapbox for a bit of a rant about affordable, accessible, local food… so don't miss that!

Give these a try and you'll never look at to those nugget things the same again… we promise.

The Shibaguyz Fun Food Friday Chicken Fingers Recipe

If you missed last week's show, you can still watch it on our Facebook page here: Shibaguyz on Facebook and leave comments and ask questions there… we answer them all! And don't miss out on another LIVE episode! We're LIVE From the Kitchen every Friday at 5:30pm PT (1:30am GMT) on our page here: Shibaguyz on Facebook

Crochet First-Stitches Series: Wrapped First Stitches

2/13/2018

Crochet Wrapped First-Stitches

It goes without saying that crocheters H-A-T-E that wonky edge that comes from working a chain up and counting it as the first stitch of the row. ACK! In this post, we continue our quest to clean up those edges with better alternatives for the first stitches of a crochet row. If you missed the others in this series, jump on over HERE and HERE to catch up. You go ahead… we'll grab a cup of coffee and hang out until you return…

WELCOME BACK! What did you think of those? Pretty nifty, eh? Yeah… we've used those two a lot but those linked first-stitches are the BEST! Right? Okay… moving on…

This week, we're giving you all another option for the first stitches of a crochet row: the Wrapped First-Stitch. Wrapped first stitches start by using chain-ups to achieve the height needed for the next row of stitches then you work a slick little wrap around and a yarn under to put the loops on your hook. Yup… a yarn UNDER… more on that below. The result is a little thicker than a linked first-stitch and is definitely thicker than a regular double crochet stitch. But, with the right weight of yarn and hook size, this could be a viable option for you in a future project. As with all of these techniques, be sure to use your practice swatch to determine what works best for the crochet fabric you are making for your project. One more reason to swatch that keeps you from having an unfortunate mess later on.

In the end, you will have a sturdy stitch that stands up well to sewing and adding on a border and it certainly eliminates the gaps from those chained first stitches… ACK! After you try this one, leave a comment and let us know what you think. And, if you like this one, share it with your friends and on social media… just tag us with @Shibaguyz so we know you like it!

Alrighty then… here we go!

Fun Food Friday Recipe: Pizza Dough

2/7/2018

Fun Food Friday: Pizza Dough!

If you tuned in with us for last week's Fun Food Friday edition of LIVE From the Kitchen with the Shibaguyz, you saw flying dough, our super-special tip about bread proofing boxes, and, of course, Jason's infamous apron. From that episode, we're giving you all our recipe for pizza dough! This could not be easier to make and you'll be SO happy you did. Just do yourself a favor and try it once… then try to go back to store bought, delivery, and frozen pizza. ACK!

You can do this… and, if you need a couple of tips, you can go to our Facebook page and watch a recording of the live show there. Just go here to see it: Shibaguyz on Facebook

And don't miss out on another LIVE episode! We're LIVE From the Kitchen every Monday and Friday at 6:30pm PT (2:30am GMT). We're live at that time but you can see all of them on our page here: Shibaguyz on Facebook

WHAT YA NEED

2 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling (Jason's Note: Using bread flour will give you a much crisper crust. If you don't have bread flour, you can substitute all-purpose flour which will give you a chewier crust.)
1 cup water, room temp to just slightly above tepid
1 teaspoon sugar
1 envelope (1 tsp) instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Crochet First-Stitches Series: Linked First Stitches

2/6/2018

Crochet Linked First-Stitches

The Steps To Making A Linked First-dc:
Pull loop on hook up to slightly taller than a normal loop, ch 1, insert hook in first chain from hook, yo and draw up a loop (2 loops on hook), insert hook into first st, yo and draw up a loop (3 loops on hook), [yo and draw through 2 loops on hook] 2 times.

As we showed in last week's Stacked First-Stitches tutorial, wonky edges are easily banished to the far corners of the multi-verse with the wave of a magic wand. What??? You DON'T think your hook is a magic wand?!? Yeah… you know it is. And we're going to show you one more spell for banishing wonky edges that even the students of a certain magical school would be envious of (see how we didn't violate any intellectual property laws or infringe on Ms. Rowling's work?).

Remember that first-stitches are what we use to replace those awful "chain 2 and count as first double crochet of row" instructions. ACK… oh, the wonkiness!! In our series, we're covering the four types of first-stitches and this week, we're talking about Linked First-Stitches.

Now, we did say that all four of the first-stitch techniques have their use and that you should use them where fit best as determined by your practice swatch you make before starting a project. That said… linked first-stitches is the technique we go to more often that the others when it comes to making a neat, clean, tidy border on your crochet fabric. Not only does it look FAB when left as a raw edge, but is is SOOOOO easy to work into when sewing seams or picking up stitches for an edging or an accent band of stitches. In addition, linked first-stitches work WAY better than other first-stitch techniques when it comes to taller stitches… more on that at the end of this tutorial.

So, without further ado, here is the step-by-step tutorial for making the Linked First-Double Crochet stitch.