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Archive for the ‘Cooking and Recipes’ Category

Got My Cookin’ Groove Goin’ On

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Today, I started the cooking for the party on Saturday. I love doing this, but the last time I had a larger more well equipped kitchen so this has put a little crimp in my style and speed. I could have used two ovens today.

I made a batch of buttermilk rolls which will be used for sandwiches with freshly grilled pork and turkey tenderloins. Here they are rising:

And finished baking:

I have to make one more batch.

I made a triple batch of pecan tassies:

And a double batch of the family favorite, chocolate mint brownies.

And finally, caramelized onion focaccia – two of them. This is so good. The dough has mashed baking potatoes and the topping is red onions with balsamic vinegar.

Tomorrow, I will do more rolls, a roasted red onion, roma tomato, eggplant dip and some fudge wreaths.

M & M are spending the night so that Lisa and their parents can take in a movie. I think they will be here until mid-morning so I hope they don’t mind if I get some cooking time in.

Tomorrow afternoon, Lisa and I are going to REI to get rain gear. Mr C gave me a set that is the wrong size. Lisa needs some rain gear to protect her when she rides her scooter around San Francisco.

Lisa gave us this beautiful painting. You can see it here.

I will share some of my other great gifts later.

By the way, I am feeling so much better today. I think I have finally survived the latest bout of the crud.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes | 7 Comments »

A Burst of Christmas Spirit

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

This morning Mr C and I slept in. It seemed like a good thing to do on the longest night of the year. This morning we spiffed up the house and I finished arranging the nativity sets and putting out some decor. Here is the beautiful nativity set made for me by the ever so talented Kristin. (She will soon be in Oregon for the holidays and I get to spend a day with her!!) This is on the buffet in the dining room.

It was raining quite heavily so I called Steph to check in about what we might do this week-end. The weather was not conducive to visiting any outdoor holiday venues. So, we decided that M & M would come over and make cookies with me and spend the night. It was so lovely to have this burst of happiness and joy.

Miles loves to wear my Santa hat. He also has the stuffed word “Cheers” wrapped around his torso. Gotta love this outfit.

Here are our Spritz cookies:

. . . decorated by M & M.

Here is Mia in a more grown-up moment, catching up with the New Yorker:

She brought her birthday present from her Mom — this adorable squirrel. I am in awe of that tail!

Speaking of her mom, we can now announce the book deal that she and her friend, Maria, in Portland, ME, have with Princeton Architectural Books. Their photography blog, A Year of Mornings, will be published in a book next fall. We are so proud of them. They were approached by another publisher and so it has taken some time to work out the details and get a signed contract.

Thank you all for the commiseration about my fender bender yesterday. Today, I drove back out to the scene of the crime so that I can make an accurate diagram for the police report. I will turn that in to the DMV on Monday morning and put it behind me until after the holidays. Lisa arrives on Monday and I am looking forward to a week of family fun.

I am wishing a very happy holiday season for all my blogging community.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, M & M | 2 Comments »

Slam Bam – A Dent in My Holiday

Friday, December 21st, 2007

. . . but nobody got hurt.

But, first, a photo of my Christmas Table Runner. Mr C says this is his favorite of all the runners that I made.

OK, I woke up feeling pretty good. I noticed that the stores were opening at 8 am. So, ate my breakfast, got dressed and headed out to finish my Christmas shopping. I am toodling along in the inside lane, the car on the outside lane was stopped and then I see a car pulling out of a shopping center, in front of the stopped car and aimed right at me. I slammed on my brakes, she hit my front fender and then the whole side of my car scraped against her license plate and front bumper. Total damage to my Lexus, probably $5-7000.

We both pulled into the parking lot. She had two very small children and a school age boy. She said he had a school field trip and she was picking up a lunch for him. I called Mr C to see what I needed to do. I got her name, her driver’s license number, her license plate number. She showed me the insurance info. I saw that it expired March ’08. I wrote down insurance company name and phone number and policy number. It was her mother’s car. She says she lives with her mom and takes care of her as she is terminally ill.

The kids were crying, the little boy was anxious to not miss his school trip. I said I would call her later. I was just so happy that no one was injured.

I went on and did my shopping. When I got home, I called my agent. He said that I have 72 hours to file a police report – required when the damage is over $1500. He said that since it was not my fault, I needed to file a claim with her insurance. Whoops, phone disconnected. I am getting nervous. I called her. She said she would find the right number and call me back. No call. In the meantime, we got back with our agent who tried to track down the insurance company with no success.

I called the driver again. The phone rang and rang and rang. I remembered that she told me she had caller ID and didn’t need me to give her my phone number. I called again on my cell phone and her son answered. After giving me the run around about her not being home ( I could hear her in the background), I told him to tell his mom that she needs to talk to me and that she needs to file a police report.

I am feeling bad about this. I could tell that she is a young mother without much — driving her invalid mother’s car. But, I can’t have my insurance cover this without filing a police report and I have to give them her information and I don’t want her to get in more trouble by being in denial. Sigh…..

So, what did I do while all this phoning and detective work was going on? I was making Mrs. Maus’s Fruitcake a recipe from Martha Stewart. Mr C loves fruitcake and since we are doing an open house next week, I thought I would make some. This is what 6 pounds of fruits and nuts looks like.

I also got my studio organized and put the piles of fabric away and swept up all the trimmings. There are lots of trimmings with the mod log cabin runners!

Tonight, we went out to dinner. I enjoyed a wonderful roasted beet and fresh pear salad and sauteed sole with spinach. I had enough left to bring home for lunch tomorrow. It was delish.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Holidays, My creations, This and that | 13 Comments »

A Beachy Good Time

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

We are home, catching up on e-mails, putting stuff away and still looking for ways to use leftover turkey — tonight it was Turkey Enchiladas.

Day One (Wednesday): We arrived at 4 pm, and soon after we hit the beach to witness the first of some glorious sunsets.

Our beach house was only a couple of blocks from the beach in the quaint and lovely little town of Manzanita which is just south of Canon Beach. We ordered pizza from the nearby pizzeria. After dinner, we played Monopoly. Miles and Mia had played the junior version and really impressed us with how quickly they picked up the regular version. In fact, Miles ended the game with the most money and real estate. We were having so much fun that I almost forgot to make the pumpkin pie!!

Day Two (Thanksgiving Day): I jumped out of bed later than I had planned, but I still got the 20 pound turkey in the oven by 8 am for our early afternoon dinner.

After breakfast and before we needed to cook the res of the meal, the family went back to the beach for a morning walk.

Here is Mia sitting on this funky bench. Please note that her doll, Melissa, is safe in her arms.

The weather was sunny and brisk, and we all worked up a hearty appetite. I rushed back to the house to start cooking. The rest of the family showed up a little later with Mia in tears. Melissa was missing. they had backtracked and searched in places where they thought she might have been dropped, to no avail.

We made up some stories about what might have happened to her. She was swimming to Japan and would be adopted by a little Japanese girl. Or, she was the new toy for some happy dog. Mia gamely played along. She made this poster to post in case someone had found her.

After we had stuffed ourselves on turkey and all the proper accompaniments, we headed back to the beach with the poster, for one last look.

Mia was despairing of ever seeing Melissa, again. I bought the doll for her one day when she and I had a special outing together. She always has the doll with her and so I was quite excited when I looked down and saw her in the sand. I wish I had taken a photo of the pathetic sight!! I started doing a happy dance. So, here she is with her very happy Mia.

Feeling relieved, Steph, Mr C, Mia, Melissa and I took a walk in the glow of the setting sun. And here is the sunset photo of the day.

Day 3 (Friday): I love having Mia around because she has so much energy. She is always up for a walk on the beach or an opportunity to go shopping. Steph, Mia and I took a girls walk on the beach in the morning. I took lots of photos of interesting flotsam and other beach stuff. (Clickable to see larger.)

After lunch at a local restaurant, we drove up to Oswald West park, which is Stephanie’s favorite spot on the Oregon coast and now I know why. We hiked down to the beach. which was sheltered and it was so warm, we were able to shed some of our layers. M & M played in the water and climbed rocks. We stayed until it was getting dark.

Day 4 (Saturday) The Barnes family left to go home to their new kitty and to meet up with friends today to cut their Christmas tree. It was our only cloudy, drizzly day. Mr C and I drove to Canon Beach for lunch and to walk around town, but it was chilly and rainy so we came back to Manzanita, where we found a nice sale on shoes and each bought a new pair.

Day 5 (Sunday) We awoke to another beautiful day, and we were able to take a last walk on the beach before we left for a beautiful drive back to Portland. You can see all of my photos on my Flickr site.
It was a wonderful way to spend the long week-end. I think we will do it again. I went internetless and survived. I read The Road by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale describing a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted years before by an unnamed cataclysm which destroyed civilization and most life on earth. I read the book in a period of 24 hours. I was riveted by the story, and I am begging Mr C to read it so that I can discuss it with him. If you have read this book, let me know what you think of it.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Family, Holidays, Just for Fun, M & M, Travels | 10 Comments »

Thanks!

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Sometimes, I feel so blessed to have old and new friends stopping by my blog to comment, share and give me advice.

I forgot to mention what a chuckle I got out of the traffic light comments about the piece I cut up last week. Now I am wondering if anyone in the crit group saw traffic lights. I have looked at that so many times and never saw a traffic light and now it is haunting me!!

Also, thanks to the new readers who have found me and have made such lovely comments about my work. It means a lot to hear from you.

Thank you for the good wishes to get better this week-end. I think I had a 24 hour virus with swollen glands and general malaise. I began to feel better yesterday afternoon. Mr C took me out to dinner, and I had a miraculous recovery.

Tonight, I made dinner for the family. Here is what is left of the lasagna.

A couple of weeks ago, Steph, Mia and I had a conversation about fondue. Mia thought chocolate fondue sounded pretty good, so tonight, I thought I would surprise her.