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Archive for the ‘Cooking and Recipes’ Category

Here I Am!

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Oh, you probably didn’t even miss me. I have been futzing around. I made this Weight Watcher’s zero points vegetable soup. I was down .8 pound today. On Sunday, I ran into Chico’s and grabbed an outfit a size smaller than I normally wear, and it fit!!!

I finished the curtains for our bedroom redo:

This was complicated by the fact that Penney’s did not have enough of the hooks at the store whee we bought the rod. So, on Sunday we drove across the river to another Penney’s, and they didn’t have them either. Every other color except Sienna Bronze. Then we went online to order them, only to find that they were back-ordered until the middle of November. I then called the Vancouver, WA store where they had them and would put them on hold. So yesterday, we drove out across the Columbia River and picked them up.

Here is the rug which we found. It has natural dyes and is silk and wool, loomed in India. I love it.

Now, we are waiting for the new track lights to get here so that we have reading lights over the bed.

I have also been working on my last round robin piece which is a collaged page for a journal. Since, I am the last and there were two pages left, I am doing two pages – just because I can. I will post photos tomorrow. I am waiting for some glue to dry so that I can foil one of the pieces.

Today, I took my camera out to photograph the glorious fall color. We have berries in just about every color you can think of. All photos are clickable to see a larger view.

The trees are wearing beautiful colors, too.

Someone was growing a great pumpkin.

And how often do you see toy horses hitched up on the street?

Actually, you can find them all around Portland. Go here to find out more about the horse project.

Today, I have been cooking and cleaning because the great ladies of STASH are coming.

Salad Days

Monday, September 3rd, 2007

I love my fruits and vegetables, and some times, I like them together. Yesterday, the family came over for a barbecue and I made Judy’s edamame and orange salad. Today, I had it with some teriyaki chicken, yum!

Last night, we had Hermiston seedless watermelon for dessert. I know that I have had a watermelon salad someplace this summer and it was good. So, I surfed through web looking for some recipes.

watermelonsalad.jpg

Using what I had on hand, here is my recipe. Seedless watermelon, chiffonade of basil, thinly sliced red onion, arugula, feta cheese, lemon juice, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was delicious. Very fitting for a warm last day of summer.

Today, I tried to get some work done for my journal quilt which needs to be shipped to Houston, soon. I have the plan in my brain. I need to do at east 3 techniques from the Journal Quilt book. I am using some of my discharged fabric. I also want to print a photo on fabric and I will make a new thermofax screen for screening a design. I needed to print with my large Epson that prints extra large stuff. I needed to replace one of the 7 ink cartridges. The store where I have purchased them near me has closed. So after some phone calls, I found them at Compusa over in Tigard.

Mr C volunteered to come with me. We stopped and gassed up the car and ran it thorough a car wash. The headed across the river. I did not bring any directions with me. I just had an idea where the store was. Mr C calls this driving by feel — it makes him nuts!! But, my intuition worked and there it was!!

Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on printing something on paper that would be the right size and color for my piece. I did not have a lot of success. Now, I have to wait until we get back from our trip. I may have to go to idea # 2.

We are leaving in the morning for Woodinville, WA. I don’t know if I will have Internet access, but I will remember my camera. We expect to enjoy some great food, do some wine tasting and get in lots of walking. We will have rain for our drive tomorrow, but it looks like it will clear up for the rest of our time.

Pink Shibori and Copper Bamboo

Monday, July 16th, 2007

These are the working titles for my latest pieces. I finally had an epiphany for the binding of the ink shibori piece. I had just barely enough pink shibori left to piece a very narrow binding. I think it really works. Thank you to those who e-mailed me privately that you like this piece. I don’t ordinarily work with pink, but here is the think about me and fabric and color. When I find a combination of colors and fabrics that just work together, I get excited and off I go. I think thee is someone out there who would love this piece in their home. I stained a piece of bamboo with green paint which I will use for hanging this. Here is a closeup of the binding.

pinkshiboricloseup.jpg

Here is the full piece:

pinkshiboribamboo.jpg

At our STASH meeting, Gale had a great idea to use a motif from the small print fabric on the bamboo section, which is what I did. I have fused this piece to felt so that I would not have to do a lot of quilting. I used one of my fancy machine stitches where the fabrics come together. Here is a closeup.

coppeebamboocloseup.jpg

Here is the piece which I have cropped. It still needs to be squared up and the edge satin stitched.

copperbamboo.jpg

Once the edge is done, I am going to do some Japanese fabric collages and post cards. I also need to get cracking on my Journal Quilt for the IQF show in Houston. I think it needs to be done by September. Then I need to start work on a piece for an invitational show, titled, It’s Good to be Green. That will be done in recycled green Japanese textiles.

Yesterday, we had family dinner. We grilled chicken sausages from New Season’s market with sweet corn and wild rice salad. Steph has a great way to serve sweet corn. Cook the corn, melt some butter, pour it in to a plastic bag with some fresh squeezed lime juice, add the corn and shake — voila, instant buttered corn. I had mine with a spritz of fake butter and lime juice.

This is the second time that I have made this wild rice salad. It is so good and so healthy. Here are the green beans sauteing in olive oil and garlic.

greenbeansaute.jpg

Here is the recipe:

  • 3/4 cup wild rice cooked according to package directions.
  • 1 cup green beans, cut in two inch lengths
  • 1 clove chopped garlic
  • 1 tbs. olive oil
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup red pepper, diced
  • 1/2 cup cucumber, diced
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
  • 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley
  • 1/2 cup pistachios
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tbs. olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice. Cool to room temperature.

Saute garlic in olive oil for 1 minute. Add green beans and cover and cook until tender. Cool to room temperature.

Mix cranberries, red pepper, cucumber, basil, parsley and pistachios in a bowl. Add rice and green beans. Mix in olive oil and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. (You may use more olive oil, but I like the lighter taste of lemon juice.)

Here is the salad before adding rice and green beans.

wildriceslad1.jpg

And finished:

ricesalad2.jpg

Bon Voyage

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

M and M and their parents are leaving on a jet plane in the morning — off to visit the other grandparents in North Carolina. Mia told me that it is hot there – really hot. I told her that I knew this to be true from personal experience.

This morning, I turned my self in to Weight Watchers. I get a really good deal through Kaiser Permanente so thought I would give it 12 weeks. I am saying this out loud to all of you as I need your support. I am not going to tell you how much I weigh, but I will report my weekly loss or gain, right here for you all to see. We also get a free health club membership, so that is next on my list to do.

I came home, had lunch and headed to Westmoreland for a hair cut. Hi, Tonya!! I ran into Tonya, the daughter of the owner, who looked at me as if she knew me and she did — at least the blog me. Turns out she is one of those crafty young women who follow my daughters’ blogs and so checks in on me occasionally.

I offered to help Steph get ready for her trip by entertaining M & M this afternoon and making dinner. She dropped them off mid-afternoon. Miles hung out with Grandpa while Mia and I went to the farmer’s market and the grocery store to shop for dinner.

Here are our baked goods: apricot tart, mini chocolate bundt cake, two kinds of bread.

farmersmarketbakedgoods.jpg

Mia selected the veggies: green beans and carrots.

farmersmarketveggies.jpg

This lettuce was so fresh and lovely – 3 heads for $3.

farmersmarketlettuce.jpg

Mia couldn’t wait to chomp on the carrots. She ate four, before dinner.

miaeatingcarrot.jpg

For dinner we had, linguine with shrimp, arugula and lemon oil, green beans, fruit salad with raspberries and blueberries from the farmer’s market, and bread and dessert from the farmer’s market. Yummm!

Thank you all for the good wishes for surviving my latest allergy attack. I am still suffering from vertigo in the morning. By later in the day, I feel much better.

Finding My Groove

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

For too long, my sense of well-being has been marginal, to say the least. I feel as if I have lost my sense of direction. I want so much to have my vim and vigor back — to relish going for long walks and to find joy in doing the mundane tasks. But most of all, I feel a need to find my way artistically — doing what I love most.

On Sunday, we finally had the long awaited get together of Terry’s extended family with mine. Her son-in-law, Cayo, moved here last year with her daughter, Emily, from Ecuador. He is an architect and wants to figure out how he can get in to the filed here in Portland. My son-in-law, Jack, is an architect. So, we wanted to get them together with the possibility of Jack providing some help and encouragement for Cayo. Cayo and Emily have a 2 month old beautiful baby, Sofia. I had planned to get pictures, but I was having so much fun holding the baby and visiting — I neglected to get any photos.

I did get these photos of the salads that I made. The first is one of my favorites: black bean, corn, tomato and avocado.
blackbeansalad.jpg

And a pesto pasta salad with grape tomatoes.

pestopastasalad.jpg

Here are M & M engrossed in their mini-litebrites that I bought for them. Mia is wearing the vest that I knitted for her with the tie dye skirt I bought to go with it. Don’t you love Milo’s summer haircut?

litebrightmm.jpg

Yesterday, I had to catch up on 3 weeks of homework for my EFM class – whew!

So, today, I thought I would get in to the studio and do something very creative — not! But, I just couldn’t get in the groove. I did some work on the SDA web site. Played some computer solitaire. I shortened the sleeves on a new shirt and added some elastic to a new pair of pants that don’t want to stay up. Played some more solitaire. Arranged an art date with Terry and June for Thursday.

Then, I decided to do a little thread doodling ala Kristin. She is posting one every day and is improving her technique. So here is my only creative endeavor for the day or the last two weeks, actually!

threaddoodle1.jpg

I guess you can tell what these items are, but I have a long way to go so I shall join the doodle a day, maybe!