My house is FULL of love

and so many more revealing secrets, or, if you know me better than myself, as it seems that most of my friends do, not so revealing, yes, you will get a full meal, 1 night's - 3 weeks stay and life guide tour as an all inclusive package and I will not charge you for the first mind awakening moment, or 3. Yeah, I know I am an open book. Thanks to people for translating the rest to me.

This mindful dinner was brought to you by:

Open and Accepting Friends
Red Wine
and Whole Foods;
including - Wild rice and lentil pilaf ( don't try this at home) It's a lot more complicated than I would like to admit
- wild rice blend, red lentils, Penzy's Fox Point Seasoning, salt, pepper

- Kale, pepers, onion reduction vinaigrette:
1 onion, diced, sauteed in olive oil 2 tbs
1 tbs red onion jam, in a pinch, blackberry jam will work, or fig
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 pinch red peppre flakes
1 tbs vinegar
cook onion over med heat until clear, add remaining and combine evenly, pour over greens
1 pepper, red, orange, yellow, sweet, sliced and seared off
Kale, 1 bunch, separated into pieces and steamed off, mixed into bowl with other ingredients

Sweet Potato Medallions:
peel, slice evenly and boil 3-4 med sweet pot.
when 3/4 fin, 7-9 min boiling, pull, rinse and set aside
grill, however you can to create grill marks, mmmmm
set aside until serving remainder

Serve all of the above with love and in the most accepting environment. It will serve the soul and the body.

Enjoy with friends.
Best meal I have never broken bread over.

this was a bad idea

It's late, too late for me to be doing anything comprehensive, especially after 2 hrs 45 in the gym. So, I needed to eat, and blog, ok, I can cook at this hour and I think that healthy would be a good idea, why not throw efficient on top and have an emotional conversation while unpacking the groceries and cooking and prepping meals for the next day. Good Idea, gone terribly wrong.

I was in the process of making juice for the morning, taking the pulp to cook it down and make stock, all while making this lovely dish for myself.

Intended healthy post gym dish:
Miso Soup 1 tbs
1 egg
1 lg pinch of seaweed
1 tbs diced scallion
drops of sesame oil and sirracha

sounds yummy and healthy and refreshing right?

That was a great big yes until I tried to accomplish too much and placed the leftover carrot pulp into the pot with the soup. Oops! Ok, so I think all is not lost, carrot in soup is great, this can't be that bad. NOPE

Couldn't make it through the bowl, pretty sure I should call poison control, thinking about how to recover this violation, with cheese perhaps? Maybe just sleep.

Any way, life lesson learned tonight kids, slow your role, especially in the kitchen. Shit gets real in here.

simple pendant

today was about nothing more than chill. I needed to take it easy as I am finding that I do actually require down time. So, in that vein, I created a simple necklace out of a beautiful piece of red dyed wool yarn that I had found and a beautiful ceramic test tile. Both are treasures found on past adventures stored for later usefulness. Thank you past self. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday as much as I did mine.

making jewelry with my girls

I started this project four years ago with the Visual Arts Center called SOHO, it was to be a mentor with a group of girls that badly needed one and get together to cook, make art, talk and just take time to be together. My girls name was Gabrielle, she unfortunately had to move away in the middle of the program but we've been keeping in touch ever since. It's off and on, but a phone call here, text there, and occasional postcard are nice from one to another. Today I spent a better part of my afternoon at Vis Arts making jewelry with all four years worth of SOHO girls and talking about heart health and awareness. There was zumba and good food and fun photos. It was a really nice time. I made a braided bracelet for my girl Gabrielle and am going to send it to her with a little love. Thanks Sally for reaching out. It was a really fun afternoon.
Love and inspiration was also sent my way via a friend in Philly, Thanks Mandy! What a great gift to come home to on a lovely Saturday afternoon. I will take treasures in every form I can. Check out what the post man left at my door. New Glass Beads! So Beautiful. Why would anyone ever want to throw these away?

17 hour day

this is what you get when you work for 17 hours straight. It's the end of a long day, I found some stray office supplies and set up shop in Team Eight's space for a quick min to snap a pic. Congrats guys. The place looks great and the party was awesome.

Paper Key Tags
+
Paper Clips
=
Earrings

Cocktails & Crudités

I know what you are thinking, and yes, that is my dinner. The reasons for this lackluster attempt at making something are many, some of my own doing, but mostly that I have no time to myself this week, especially today and tomorrow. I have been gone from the house so much and sick in bed for the rest of the time that, Kivi, our 3 Y.O., is so attention starved that she will not leave me alone upon entering the house, she is here with me as I type. The following dinner is healthy, well, mostly, and quick.

Step 1
Cocktail-
Reaaaalllllyyy Hot & Dirty Martini
Absolute Peppar
olive juice
olives
ice
- I don't think I need to explain.

Step 2
Crudités -
carrots & celery, wash and cut
olives - place in bowl, and Martini!
cheese, open bag of cubed cheese

you will really enjoy this healthy and simple RAW and gluten free meal after repeating step 1, oh, a couple of times.

feeling old

I am having a little bit of a pity party, not sure what brought this on. So I pulled out some old lady pearls and thought, what could make this fresh? Nothing fresher than some flowers! Felling a little less old now, more senile. Found strand of vintage fake pearls finds new life with printed paper and tag rings completed with flower grommet.

Minimal Evening Wear

Or, I feel like poop but am too stubborn to give up. Here is a lovely assemblage of glass pendant and found gold chain. Five Million Dollars. I am a genius.

cause for celebration?

Not really, I just needed to pop out a piece for the evening so I made a quick brooch. Champagne basket catch, epoxy, magnets. Quick, simple and delightful, exactly what I needed for the evening. I feel like crap, so now off to my miso and neti pot. Sweet NyQuil dreams to all, and to all a good night.

a little glam

It's a lovely grey Sunday evening that is prompting me to go clean the basement and subsequently my jewelry bench. I found on it the previous earrings that I made, I will state now, in haste, and a few other sorted beads awaiting a project. Little did they know that this was their night. Welcome into the world the latest pair of earrings, hammered silver, enameled glass beads and silver wire.

with a little help from my friends

today was cray. First of all, I woke up at an un godly hour for a Saturday, 6, should be no where near the front of the alarm clock queue. Second, I am pretty freaking sure that I have covered all points N, S, E & W on the lil RVA map. My car and I are tired and of the TWO trips that I made to the grocer today neither, sadly, was for me or my house hold. This, my friends, leaves me with no other choice but to pull something out of my magical fridge, that just somehow, thank you Riva, seems to still hold edibles.

I really will need to go to the grocery store.

Dinner this evening, late, evening consisted of the following:

Peanut Curry Sauce, well, sot of, al-a-Riva: not so sure what's in this, but it was pretty good, although not really curry. I added a chopped onion sautéed in peanut sauce and heated through.

Steamed Rice - don't even ask. If you have to ask, you obviously haven't been paying attention.

Steamed Veggies - chopped carrot, zucchini, broccoli and placed in steamer basket over rice. It's not magic people. As the rice cooks, so too do your veggies. Nummers.

Pile rice on plate, pile veggies on rice, cover with that sauce stuff, (really have no clue, even after eating it, what is in the damn thing.) top with cashews.

Pretty good for night, what is it now, 7, 8 maybe having not gone to the grocer. Whatever. We ate. It was an adventure. The most fun out of all of it, as I type, there is the lovely sound of jazz, running water and clinking dishes coming from the kitchen, because I am not doing them. I cooked, after all.

cooking for a crowd

Tonights focus was on the lovely company that came to call this evening. Karen, Madeline and Olivia came over for a much needed visit this evening and I needed a crowd pleaser.

QUICHE! or Quie-chie as my sister once called it is great for everyone unless, you are a vegan, then, it's not the best option. But, omnivores delight in cheesy goodness. AND it's palatable for lil mouths.

Quiche:
7 eggs
1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/3 c pasta sauce
1 bag spinach sautéed
2 c greens sautéed
pinch of salt and black pepper

hand mix all of the ingredients but the eggs in a bowl, place in an oven safe dish and then cover with slightly beaten eggs. work your fingers or a spatula through the egg and greens mixture to make sure that it's evenly dispersed throughout the dish.

bake until puffed up and solid to the touch, or if you would like poke it with a spaghetti stick and if it comes out clean, it's done. 25-35 min at 365

Rice and Lentils:
steamed rice (we have been over the preparation of rice before, by now you should have caved to my command and purchased yourself a damn rice cooker. I will not cover how to steam rice again.)

lentils, 1 lb of dry lentils to 8 c water, simmer for 20-25 min or until tender in a pot that is large enough to handle the load. Want to punch it up a bit, add 1 tbs of veggie bullion.

Serve the quiche with the lentil rice. Great for little mouths.

Pear Tartlets:
ready bake biscuits in a can - halved and placed in the bottom of muffin pan wells to shape while baking
pear butter - apple sauce works well here too
1 thinly sliced pear
1 tbs honey

bake the biscuits until golden brown 5-7 min at 365, let cool, remove from tin, plate, cover with 1 tbs pear butter and a few slices of pear, dust with cinnamon. If you have the munchkin crew that I had this evening, just skip all of the solids and give them the jar of pear butter and a spoon. If you are smart, you will place them in a kiddie pool or trash bag, something easily hose-off-able, as it seems that pear butter gets everywhere and is a great adhesive.

put your big girl panties on and knead

I am having kind of a shitty day. So, I am making something that almost always makes me happy, Pizza! Not just any ole pizza, but take your frustrations from the world out on some dough and then overindulge on something closer to love, pizza.

Pizza Dough:
4 1/4 c flour
1 1/2 c water
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

proof the yeast. Ok, I realize that this might be a new term for some folks, so, all this means is you have to wake it up. Feed it and give it a bath. How this is accomplished, warm water, not hot, you'll kill it. Warm water, 1/4 c, sugar, all of it, and yeast get mixed in a mug and get to hang out together on the counter for 20 min or so until it's all bubbly, then you know that they are awake, fed and ready to party.

mix the salt, and flour in a large bow, use a whisk, dry, it will help break up the flour and make everything an even consistency.

Add the rest of the water, the proofed yeas mixture and olive oil to a mixer, add the flour mixture in slowly and blend together.
(I have a bread machine. I realize that not all people have a bread machine, so this will prove to be a rather difficult part of the process. You could use a mixer on a low setting and a pre warmed oven to raise the dough, or you can give up now and Google the number to your local Papa John's. Or you can put your big girl panties on and hand knead the dough. It's really your call.)

Toppings, or the fun part:
I used what I found in the fridge, what else. (As you can see, I really don't prepare very well, I just, adjust accordingly to life's plan for me, which, this evening, included pizza.)

I found:
meatballs in the freezer, which got sliced
parmesan cheese
2 onions
1 potato
1/4 jar of Newman's Own Pasta Sauce
rosemary in my back yard
red pepper flakes
olive oil

This was turned into:
2 cheese pizzas
1 meatball pizza with red sauce
2 potato, onion and rosemary dusted with parmesan
1 puttanesca, with a lil bit of everything leftover

happiness is this, a very, very good friend who is willing and able to carry the weight of the world when you aren't exactly up to the task on your own and roughly one bottle of wine. That is exactly what I needed.

Ciabatta Birfday Breakfast

Happy Birthday to my awesomesauce husband who makes me want to rise and shine each day. I hope this helps you on your way to being the amazing person you are each and every day.

Ciabatta Bread French Toast-
2 day old ciabatta bread, dries out a little, absorbs the egg mixture better, 5 thick slices
4 eggs
1/2 c milk
1 tbs butter

cut, crack, beat, mix, dip, drop in a hot buttered pan, toast evenly on both sides until golden brown


With Apple Compote -
dice up 2 apples
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
1 tbs butter
1/3 c honey


sauté the apples in butter over medium heat for about 8 min covered in lidded pan, this is important as it keeps the juices in
add the cinnamon, cloves and honey and stir through just before serving.


Serve hot with one birfday candle for the occasion.

hammer it out

It's been a really long and tiring day. I found a pair of earrings this morning after I got beaten to a pulp by my personal trainer. They needed to be turned into something new. So, after my crazy day, I found some silver and bent it up and hammered the hell out of it. It actually made me feel better. Here's the result. Have a good night. I know I will. Hello shrimp and Blue Moon.

Lunchtime find = new necklace

Spencer's parents came down to take us to lunch today for his birthday, which was awesome. Equally awesome was the lost earring that Lisa found and I turned into a necklace. It had a few missing pieces and was a little worn looking but I added a few gems and a chain and instant found art. This necklace brought to you by a still full tummy thanks to Terrants Cafe.

Curry for my tummy, so yummy, so yummy.

After a long weekend of working too much and partying way too much, I wanted something simple for dinner and am still refusing to go to the store for more than a handfull of essentials. Curry ingredients usually tend to just exist at my house.

Veggie Curry -

chop up into roughly the same size pieces all of the following

carrots
potatoes
broccoli stems, save the floretts for something later in the week, they will just fall apart in this

barely cover these in water in a large pot and bring to a boil to cook them through, 7-9 min

dice one onion and 3 cloves of garlic and sauté in a separate pan with 2 tablespoons of ghee, if no ghee, olive oil will do just fine. And yes, I do just have a jar of ghee in my fridge.

after the onions have cooked through slightly add the following;
1 can coconut milk
1 can pumpkin puree
1 can garbanzo beans - strained
2 tsp sweet yellow curry powder
1 tbs veg bullion
1 tsp powdered ginger or fresh if you have it
1 tbs curry paste
fresh ground pepper
juice of 1 lime
zest of one lime

after the veggies in the large pot have cooked through, fold in gently the sauce mixture

let stand for 5 minutes and thicken and let the flavors meld, trust me on this part.

Serve over brown rice. Enjoy with a loving partner who will listen to you complain about the love loss of your weekend.

dining creatively

I have been busy, really busy, that's the reason that I started this blog, to keep a little piece of each day for me and force myself to acknowledge that I need this creative space that I am creating. So, it's no surprise that as I was at a really nice dinner with a couple of friends, that it suddenly dawned on me that I had completely forgotten the day. I hadn't made a thing. I started scanning the restaurant for objects easily disassembled and reassembled into a beautiful art piece.

I thought for a moment as to wether or not I coule manage to get into the kitchen and ask them if I could cook, but that quickly disappeared when I spotted the cork sitting on our table, we had ordered a bottle of wine to share. I fumbled through my purse for moment, and indeed I had a few tools and pieces that I could use to make a pair of earrings.

I dissected the cork, cutting it length wise down the center, cut a bobby pin in half and bent it with a pair of mini pliers and took the earring hooks out of the current pair that I was wearing, which I had just removed because they were catching on my sweater, and used them to complete the pair. TaDa! I had a new lightweight and funky pair of earrings in a lil over 5 min at the dinner table. I liked the exercise, but I think I will leave the MacGyver stuff to Spencer. Though all that crap I have in my Mary Poppins purse did come in handy.

Rise and Shine!

Breakfast, I am worthless without it. So, as a nice start to my morning, I whipped up a mix of all the odds and ends in the fridge (still avoiding the grocery store, my barometer is how many servings of fruits and veggies exist in the fridge, if it gets to less than a day's worth, then I MUST go, ugh) and came up with this lovely lil concoction.

Egg Taco:
Remember those leftover egg whites, add them to 2 whole eggs and blend well in a bowl
handfull of remaining scallions ( always a must in my fridge, if you chop them up when you get home from the store, they last much longer)
shredded cheddar, nice handfull, mostly for flavor, but helps the egg stay in place in the tortilla, and who doesn't love cheese?
2 whole wheat tortillas

fry egg with the slightest bit of butter
throw scallions on top

micro the shredded cheddar on the tortillas, makes the cheese all melty and the tortillas pliable
divide the now omelet in 1/2 with the spatula and fold into the tortillas like tacos

Berry Good Smoothie:
1 c frozen berries, Trader Joe's has a great mix that I always have on hand in my freezer
3/4 c pomegranate seeds
1/4 c cranberries, fresh
1 c plain yogurt
1 c almond milk

blend, baby, blend!


quick, easy, and if not so quick for you, portable.

Happy Friday Y'all

An evening for earrings

Tonight's quick little piece is not as inventive as I thought that it was going to turn out to be, given the amount of time that I allowed myself to conduct this portion of my life, not much, I can't say I did that bad, but I could do better.

Silver and amber glass post earrings.

One of the lucky lady friends will be inheriting these. Hmmm, now for the who?

A Lil Italian on a Rainy Wednesday

Yup, that should do the trick. Major carb craving, plus cold, wet night ='s PASTA! My god I love a good dish of noodles with anything on top. This evening was just that, as I asked the nightly question of my fridge, "anything in there?"

So, here's this evening's off the cuff creation:

Pasta a la Fridge Scraps:
I had,
3/4 c cauliflower roughly chopped
1 onion, halved and then sliced in thin 1/2 ringlets
7 crimini mushrooms, sliced thinly
2 eggs
a dab of parm chs

handfull of a mix of whole wheat and regular dry pasta

thank god for olive oil in large quantities
SALT!!
and a dash of crushed red pepper, which, by the way, really does not go bad, EVER. I think this stuff predates Spencer and I.

Boil pasta, salt water, trust me, this really does make a difference.

Open that really nice bottle of christmas wine that you got from your lovely co-worker, thanks Kirsten!
pour liberally, you are making Italian-ish tonight after all.

Do all your chopping and whatnot

get a large skillet nice and hot, add a tablespoon of liquid gold
throw in all the veggies at once

get em nice an golden to caramelized brown, you want those good bits of char in there, that means flavor.

strain your pasta, remember, save the water, this will come in handy for soup later on, promise.

crack and separate your eggs, white in tupperware, for a nice egg white breakfast treat, yolks in a large bowl, so you can stir in pasta in about 2 min.

add a little olive oil to that bowl with the yolks, whisk together

grab 2 servings worth of pasta, you know what this looks like to you, everyone's different, it's ok.

quickly toss it around to evenly coat, if you leave it alone too long, you will cook the egg in one solid, gross, lump, even coating people.

Pile high in 2 bowls, divide up the veggies and toss that parm on top!

dig in while it's hot. Have the remaining bottle over dinner, if the other person dining with you is lucky you will share.

Look Tere, I made JEWELRY!

Motivation, time, energy, space and materials. The stars have aligned and I started , finished and DELIVERED my first piece of real jewelry in 2012! It's exciting. Happy (belated) Birthday Shaun.

Earrings:
Silver
Copper
Glass Beads
Found Objects
Love

Stir Fry - Quick and Easy

Long day of Dr's appointments left me with a rumbly tummy and little motivation to make a big effort cooking but I was motivated to eat healthy so I pulled all of the veggies out of the fridge and whipped up a quick stir fry.

Stir Fry:
Chop all veggies and tofu to about the same size so cooking time will be even, I shoot for 1 x 1 cubes
cauliflower 1 1/2 c green bits included
4 carrots
1 bell pepper
1 onion
mushrooms 1 c
1 pkg extra firm tofu

Steam Rice, 2 c - I used a wild rice mix, but it's really whatever you prefer

Sauce:
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs chili pepper paste
1 tsp plum sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce

Pour 2 tbs veg or peanut oil in large skillet, layer in all your veggies, harder/ denser ones on the bottom so they all cook evenly. Pour in 3 tbs hot water when everything starts to sizzle and then cover with another large pan or lid, let steam out for 5-7 min. Make your sauce on the side in a bowl, and when 5-7 min are up, pull off the lid and let the steam cook off for 1 min, then pour sauce over evenly and stir 1-2 good times, don't over stir.

Serve over your steamed rice. Good for 4 hungry adults.

Soup for a Solitary Sunday

Trying to maintain the sense of balance in the house by cleaning out things that have been too long neglected and having to go in for an emergency work session has left me no choice but to create something quick and that does not require babysitting. Intro soup. A quick dish created with leftovers and already hands on goods left bubbling on it's very own for a few hours until I am good and ready to eat it.

Split peas and carrot soup:
4 c vegetable stock - (I make mine at home, rather than buying, it's cheaper and I think better for you, but that's just me. I save all the bits one would throw away from veggies when cutting up to make pretty or consume. Carrot tops and peelings, celery butts, onion and garlic skins. Save up until you have about 6 cups, if you don's cook regularly, you can freeze as you go, with a gallon ziplock freezer bag. It all cooks down the same. Add 6-8 C of water and 1 tbs salt, bay leaf and peppercorns and let simmer away on a sunday morning while reading or cleaning. Save the stock for up to 10 days in fridge or 6 mo frozen in cup size take out containers.)
4 c water
6 carrots sliced in circles
1 onion
1 bag split peas
1/3 c diced up ( leftover ) ham bits
1 clove garlic
1 tbs (leftover) bacon grease
2 tbs veg stock paste
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp worchester sauce
bay leaf

lat all simmer on the stove for about 2 hours until good and melded flavors.

enjoy with crusty bread or crackers

Fake Crimmus Pancakes

I will constantly be posting recipes for pancakes on this site, because I have yet to make the perfect pancake. Most of my concoctions consist of floppy and half hazardous looking pasty white creatures that are barely fit for the family dog, if this applies. So, I will try and try again. This morning, I was stricken with the pancake bug. I NEEDED to make them and nothing was getting in my way, except the lack of a main ingredient in the fridge, milk. NO WORRIES, I got this. Soy Milk Nog to the rescue! Good idea in theory, bad execution. So, the bad pancakes were remedied with plenty of jams. Next time pancake, I will get this. (don't get your hopes up folks, it's been years and the only hope I have of making half decent flap jacks is a big yellow box of "home-made" help.)

Pancake Fail 1/7/12 -
2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 c silk soy nog
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs butter

beat wet and dry in separate bowls, combine wet into dry, beat gently, not too much, or you will make them rubbery, or if you are me, they will always be rubbery and I am stacking the evidence up to a magnetic forcefield of anti pancake waves, or the like. Pan fry with butter, always butter unless you hate yourself, then, do whatever you want. They are ready to flip when the still battery side is producing bubbles at a rather rapid rate. You are on your own for the other side, but let's hope for you and whomever else will be ingesting them that golden brown is where you find the undersides when you peak.

Good luck and gods speed.