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Archive for the ‘Cooking and Recipes’ Category

On the Menu, Today…

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

And we continue with the cooking and eating!! Hope you had a great day, too.

Our weather was quite rainy, so an indoor egg hunt was in order. Lisa and Clay bought all the goodies and hid them.

inddoregghunt

I couldn’t wait to bite the ears off my rabbit.

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Mr C went berserk over his Easter basket. Maybe it was all the ham slicing he did at Trinity this morning, preparing for the outreach dinner.

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Lisa and Clay were leaving this afternoon to fly back to SF, so we didn’t have our usual Easter dinner feast. Instead, I prepared a brunch.

A cheese/broccoli/egg casserole — a family favorite:

prysnac

A fabulous Paula Dean French Toast Casserole:

frenchtoastcasserole

And sausage and bacon:

sausagebacon

Steph made a beautiful plate of fruit and I mixed up another batch of Blissinis:

miaandfruit

For dessert, a delectable assortment of Moonstruck truffles and chicks:

moonstrucktruffles

I think I am done cooking and entertaining for now. I am looking forward to working in the garden and the studio this week.

Is this a Food Blog?

Friday, April 10th, 2009

I have been cooking again. Tonight, I entertained the family and Lisa’s Portland friends were our special guests. Clay is a vegetarian so I made a middle eastern meal, heavy on veggies with some lamb kefta kabobs for the meat eaters.

lisaandfriends

Here are the dinner guests: Amy Ruppel, Pablo,  Trish Grantham, Lisa, Mia and Clay. Pablo is Trish’s adorable chihuahua.

clayandstephandjack1

There is Clay, again, and Steph and Jack. They are all waiting patiently for Mr C and I to put the finishing touches on our feast.

veggiesreadytoroast

Veggies ready to roast.

roastedveggies

Here they are roasted – yumm!

couscouswithspinach

Couscous with spinach and feta (Clay and Lisa helped to make this.)

Here are the lamb Kefta Kabobs before grilling. I forgot to take a photo after, but they were great in pitas with a minted yogurt sauce. Steph made a delicious salad with so many good things, like roasted corn and almonds and goat cheese.

lambkeftakabobs

We had ice cream and Easter cookies for dessert. I’m tired. G’Night.

Birthday Lunch

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

stashlunchgroupToday, I made lunch for the STASH group for Terry’s and Linda’s birthdays. This morning I made a time line for the preparations. I felt quite organized and on top of things. I needed to run to the store to buy some cheese for the top of the quiche. I couldn’t find Vacherin yesterday and decided to google a substitute. My plan was to put the quiche in the oven to bake. This was to take an hour and the cheese went on top at the end. I was rushing off to get dressed when I was hit with a massive nose bleed. They have been getting better, but once in a while, I get blind sided. It wouldn’t stop. Mr C to the rescue. He found the cheese at Trader Joe’s and I relaxed and and waited for the nose bleed to stop.

I had plenty of time to finish all the details. Here are the champagne flutes with fresh mint waiting for the Blissini — equal parts pomegranate juice, orange juice and Prosecco.

Here is the scrumptious quiche – with wonderful crust from scratch. I like this quiche because it was heavy on the veggies with less eggy stuff.

asparagusquiche

I also made molten lava cakes for dessert. Here they are before I baked them.

lavacakesprebaking

I made a salad with blood oranges and almonds which I plated with the quiche.

birthdaylunchplate

And the decadant dessert — molten chocolate lava cakes with strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberried. It was sooo good.

birthday-dessert

That was my art for the day. I am feeling liberated. House is clean. I am caught up with registration work and Lisa and Clay are coming tomorrow. I don’t even care that the rain is coming back.

A Good Saturday

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I had a great day today. I made more progress on getting every thing reorganized down in my office and studio. It is not quite finished, but I had to fit in some fun time, too. We had some nice sunshine today so we enjoyed a long walk with my favorite four legged companion. I love her ears and nose!!

maggie2_09

After lunch, I got out my vintage Japanese textiles and started arranging possible color combinations for a collage for the Fiber Art for a Cause Reverse Auction.

I ususally do reds, yellows and golds, but I really want to do something a little different this time. Here is a palette based on turquoisy fabrics:

turquoisetextiles

This is turquoise with a little more orange:

turquoiseandorangetextiles

Here is a set based on blue as the anchor color.

bluetextiles

And finally, oranges and browns.

orangeandbrowntextiles

I am really leaning towards the turquoise with lots of orange. I like to select large and small prints for variety.

Tonight, we had a dinner with friends from church. I was responsible for the salad. I really did not want to go to the store. I had some nice baby greens on hand.

babygreens

I candied some walnuts in balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and olive oil.

candiedwalnuts

Granny Smith apples, sliced and splashed with lemon juice.

grannysmithapples

Add some Gorgonzola cheese and you have a yummy salad.

delicioussalad

I am really enjoying all the comments on my anniversary blog. Keep them coming. I will select two winners on Monday.

Giving Thanks

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

The table is set. Pumpkin and pecan pies are baked. One turkey is roasted and has gone to Trinity’s Thanksgiving feast for the community along with Mr C who is helping to prepare the meal. Our turkey is soaking in an apple cider brine, (thanks for the recipe Marie!) and will go in the oven soon. The Portland family will arrive this afternoon, and Steph and I will cook the sides and stuffing.

I am thankful for the creative life I have been given. I am thankful for my loving family and that we are all spending the day with loved ones even though we can not all be together.

I am thankful and hopeful now that Barack Obama has been elected our President.

I am thankful for all of you who check into my blog now and then to share my crazy musings.

Oh, and I am thankful that Mr C has cleaned up the drywall mess in my studio and office and put his work on hold until January. My stress level went way down and I slept like a baby last night.