Susan has been telling me that I can guest post, so here we go.


This morning we had tea and oranges.  It made me remember that the simple things are sometimes, well most of the time, the best things.

I couldn't help but think of the great song (one of those desert island songs to be sure), Suzanne, by Leonard Cohen.
       
 "She gives you tea and oranges that come all the way from China"


Now on to the oranges.   They were Minneola oranges.  Not from China, but I think you get the gist.  

They were what an orange should be; sweet with juice that runs down your face as you savor a segment. 

I was transported back to my childhood trips to Florida.  The oranges at the roadside stands were  just like these oranges I was eating in my kitchen.   The thin, hard-to-peel skin was mottled with black spots.  But, there was always an explosion of juice as a reward to the challenging peel.

What a great way to start a Saturday morning.

                                                        Glenn

road crafting

have you ever wondered what it was like to craft in a hotel room? 

well, wonder no more!

yes, that IS a sewing machine amongst the tin/boxes of supplies

this is the second year in a row that i find myself creating stuff for Katie's show from a hotel room.

i know that housekeeping staff have probably seen it all, but maybe, just maybe this is a first for them...

piles of vintage paper being clipped, folded, glued and clamped into all sorts of configurations

i like to spread the sparkly stuff, it's quite festive, don't you think?

i really do wonder what the housekeepers think about my magical mess

Nesting Swap Box

After admiring all the participants' craftiness for a while, I decided to join an inspiration box swap hosted by the Speckled Egg.   Heather set the theme as "nesting". 

 

I got the notion of creating a specimen box.  The rules of the swap stated that you must with a large match box, embellish it

I decopaged the inside of mine with vintage encyclopedia pages pertaining to all things aviary.  To aid opening the box I sewed a vintage brass button on the side as a pull.  I painted the sliding outer cover (which will appear in other photos) and the exterior of the inner box black.

and then fill it with "inspirational items".

vintage French embroidery floss, vintage beaded flower and tiny vial of vintage "pearl" beads

The outside of a completed box.

 

 I cut out the center ofthe outer sleeve to imitate a true specimen box.

It is just as fun to decorate the mailing box.

back of mailing box

I received very pretty boxes from three talented ladies that I will feature in a later post.

Pink Gold

A couple of days ago, the pot at the end of my rainbow looked like this.

After a minimal amount of work the contents of this pot looked like this.

When the plate was clean we looked like this.

The corned beef was extra extra delicious-not because we had the help of leprechauns or the luck of the Irish.  Our secret is that we "corn", or brine, the beef ourselves.  That way we have control over the flavor.  It is easy and sooo much more interesting than store bought.

A final glamour shot of the succulent beef.

 

Mini Meltdown

Yesterday afternoon I looked at this lonely little bowl and decided I should go to the grocery store to procure something to fill it up with.

Last Saturday Glenn discovered a new Ben & Jerry's ice cream that I became smitten with immediately. Of course, the ice cream lasted about twenty-two minutes (I AM exaggerating here, but not by much). So off to the frozen food aisle of the grocery store I went.

But, I could not find the new variety any where amongst the vast sea of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I started wondering if I had dreamt the whole experience. The panic really started setting in. Usually I am able to spot the most obscure items with ease. I even read all (or so I thought)the tiny shelf-placement labels looking for a trace of what was now the most important thing in the world to me. If Glenn was not at a business dinner he would have gotten a frantic call from me.

Just as I was about to resign myself (and the cute bowl at the beginning of this post) to an ice creamless night, I looked in the bowels of the freezer and found this lurking behind tubs of Chubby Hubby ice cream.
Meltdown averted. I almost broke into the Hallelujah chorus right there in aisle five.

Let me tell you as a if-it-is-not-chocolate-it-is-not-a-dessert kind of girl, this ice cream is AWESOME. It takes copious amounts of self-control for me to not eat the entire container by myself in three minutes flat (and I hold the world's record as the slowest eater). But, (there is always a "but"), in the interest of full disclosure, I doused the ice cream in chocolate Magic Shell. I can never be parted from my beloved chocolate!

Pretty Pajaki

Before Christmas, my mom and I were out running errands and decided to stop at the Polish Art Center in Hamtramck. It is filled with so many beautiful handmade things. Because of my Polish heritage, I find the items that much more lovely (I guess it is a nostalgic sense of ancestral pride).


Hanging from the ceiling were dozens and dozens of tissue paper chandeliers, pajaki, as they are called in Poland. Most of them were brightly colored. However, there were a couple of faded beauties. I only saw price tags on the brightly colored pajaki. Even though they were reasonably priced for such an exquisitely detailed handcraft, they were a little out of my league (It was right before Christmas when I should be buying gifts for others!). On a whim I asked how much the faded ones were. The faded pajaki were a fraction of the cost of their bright cousins. The owner explained that traditionally, families replace the pajaki every year around Christmas. In other words, I was interested in what was clearly last year's model! Oh I felt so smug getting the chandelier that I thought was the most beautiful for a discount.


Even though it was a little difficult, I waited until after Christmas to hang my beauty. So, in honor of Glenn's January 9th birthday, up went the pajaki along with some paper garland I made. It looks so pretty!

The Unexpected

Dad and me at our favorite place in the world: the beach

When I haphazardly launched this blog in January 2009, I had no grand plan. I started blogging with only a couple ideas. First of all, I would focus on writing and photographing my crafty endeavors. Secondly, I would keep an upbeat, kind of Pollyannaish tone.

My first idea sort of undid itself. Even though I only have a handful of blog posts under my belt, I see a clear trend of food/eating as a subject matter. That is O.K. - food is a fine thing about which to write. I mean everybody has to eat!

It is my second self-imposed directive that has prevented me from neglecting my blog for so long. The happy tone that I wanted to use in this blog has been temporarily silenced. My family and I were abruptly thrown into the dark dark world of grief and mourning on May 18. My dad unexpectedly died. There was no warning, there were no signs that he had a sick heart.

During the summer I thought that I was ready to write about the lighter parts of life. As a matter of fact, I thought it would provide a good escape from my grief-laden world. I had taken a slew of pretty photos and had plenty of happy/beautiful/tasty things I would have loved to share on this blog. But, I had no desire to do so. I thought that waxing on about the breathtaking beach in Florida or the fabulous food in New Orleans (both of which I experienced in the second half of 2009)would be hollow - if not to others, at least to myself.

There are no two ways about it, I can not completely flex my creative muscle without acknowledging the emotional havoc I have been going through since May. I really really want to continue blogging. I have no intention of turning my blog into a cyber-therapy session. And, anyway, right now my grief is too raw and too intimate to share.


Hopefully, I will be back better than ever, sharing my latest culinary adventure or a paperlicious-crafty-wonderthing.

Guess What We Have Been Up To

I'll give you a little hint - a visual hint at that . . .
I would not be surprised if you think that we have been conducting some fascinating science experiment. For those of you who know Glenn it would be a logical guess. I think he qualifies as an amateur scientist. His specialty? All things plants related, the more obscure and wacky, the better. Exhibit A: The hundreds of carnivorous plants he propagates and grows.

But I digress. Actually, I was giving you a little more time to figure out what we are doing with that apparatus straight out of Chemistry 101 pictured above!

Bonus points for those of you who recognized the piece in the photo as the bottom half of a syphon coffee maker (SCM). Yes, that is right, a coffee maker. It caught my eye while browsing a local antique mall, Carriage Town Antique Center. I thought it looked cool and Glenn loves making and drinking coffee - a perfect example of form meeting function. Adding to the allure of the item was the attached note reading that a veteran of Vietnam purchased this while serving in Japan. Being that the SCM was manufactured and purchased in Japan all the included instructions were in Japanese. After some research on line we were ready to give this baby a go.

The SCM kind of looks like an hour glass. Water is poured in the bottom chamber and after it is heated (in our case with an alcohol-fueled burner) to boiling it is sucked/syphoned to the upper chamber that contains the ground coffee. After a minute or so of active brewing in the upper chamber, the heat source is removed and all water, that is now brewed coffee, flows back to the lower chamber and is ready to be enjoyed. There is a scientific explanation for the phenomenon. Glenn told me it is Boyle's Law for all those who would like/need a more thorough explanation.

I am not a coffee drinker, but Glenn loves his "joe". He could not stop ranting and raving about how great the coffee made in the SCM tasted. "Clean" is how he described the coffee. I guess he means that it tasted strong without any of the oily after-taste!

While doing my research, I discovered that there is a whole sub-culture out there of devoted SCM fans. SCMs are still being manufactured. Some coffee houses use the SCMs as novel way of brewing coffee. There is even a place in San Fran that installed a whole bank of SCMs.

If you see one of these babies out there, purchase it - it is a lot of fun and apparently hip in certain circles!

Magazine Love

I got extremely excited reading the May issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

First of all, there was an article about the great alcohol being produced in Oregon. Included in that article was the very same elixir that Glenn brought me back from a recent business trip. Gin is my poison of choice, and Aviation gin may be thee choice of that choice! Even if you think that you do not like gin (you're out there, I know, I've heard your stories), if the opportunity presents itself, you MUST try this gin. It is so pure and clean. I know, I know those words are overused in food description, but they are so accurate in this case. I am smitten with the characteristic juniper berry and pine taste of gin. However, these flavors are precisely what others loathe about gin. What makes Aviation so good, and so worth trying, is that those flavors are there, but they are not cloying and do not linger. This gin gets to the point and then relaxes in a refreshing sort of a way.

The second article that got my juices flowing was The United Plates of America. It features a state by state (yes, all 50 of them) list of "what to buy, what to eat and what to drink" in each state. I loved seeing that Better Made Potato Chips made the cut. Ironically, just the day before, while scarfing down a bag of Barbecue flavored chips, I mentioned that I thought Better Made chips, are indeed better made, and a very fine chip! Glenn was equally pleased that Bell's beer was also mentioned (for the record he also agrees with Bon Appetit's assessment!).

It was kind of cool to recognize some of the items and places mentioned in the article. In my humble opinion, there were a couple of places that were overlooked. Glenn suggested that I make some sort of list/running column on my blog to share what we consider to be culinary gems. Glenn travels a bit for work, and when he goes by car, I frequently join him. Being that he spends the day working, I have some solo time on my hands, yeah, I know it's hard, but someone has to do it. A big chunk of my time is spent looking for scrumptious places to try what I call local flavor.

OK, so back to Bon Appetit, the third thing that I really liked was the article , Big on Pig. When I first saw the article I broke out into a huge smile and squealed (pun intended). You know how I feel about all things pork. All the recipes in the article are written by pork master extraordinare, Bruce Aidell. We frequently consult his book, Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Pork, and know we have some new recipes to try - yum, yum, yum!

Well, I have really let this blog post get away from me. Inspired by Bon Appetit, I sat down ready to tell you about one of the best road trip food experiences. Instead I got semi-side tracked describing other foodie things, oh well, I save that tale for another day. But, I will give you a hint, think pork!

ERIN GO BRAGH

Have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day!

You are the Sunshine in My Life

A fleeting thought


As I was walking back to the house from getting the mail I felt the sun. I mean I really really felt the sun - felt it like I have not felt it for months!

It was so nice to feel that warmth - a warmth like no other - no fire, no furnace, nothing feels as good and as life giving as the rays of the sun.

Apparently, I am not the only one who was enjoying the sun. Glenn announced that some bulbs are starting to poke up in the garden when he came home for lunch today. The earth must be feeling the magic of the sun as well.

I hope all of you are able to enjoy these subtle, but so important, rumblings of Spring.

We are now Cheeseheads

No, we did not move to Wisconsin. We have a plethora of fresh, homemade and highly perishable cheese.

Our truly homemade ricotta was used in blood orange/ricotta pancakes and calzones. Both creations were divine.

And we have mozzarella coming out of our ears. We both took the class so we have double the amount that was described as, "having enough to open a small pizzeria." So does that mean we can open a large pizzeria? Luckily it is all good. Unluckily, it is recommended that we eat it within three days. I never thought this possible, but I am a little sick of cheese. Anyone up for coming over for fondue tonight?!

Random Friday

I have some random thoughts.



I received an untraditional, but greatly appreciated Valentine's gift from Bob and Kelly. They run the CSA that we belonged to last summer. As well as providing us with awesome produce, they raise chickens, cows and pigs.


That brings me to my V-day gift. Bob had his pigs butchered and processed. Pork is my FAVORITE meat. I adore almost all parts of the pig. Bob gave me (and, I guess Glenn too, even though it was a little bit difficult to share) a slab of bacon. When I say slab, I mean slab - I was able to slice it into nice thick strips. Oh, I was in heaven sniffing all that smokey goodness on the way home from Kelly and Bob's.

I am closely rationing this delicacy. On Monday we made spaghetti carbonara - delish! And my plans for the remaining bacon bring me to my next random thought.

Those of you with delicate/sensitive palettes, please brace yourself, or skip this next part all together. And, those with an adventurous approach to food, please read on. I am toying with the idea of creating a chocolate bacon cake a la this candy bar. Chocolate is my lifelong #1 food, so I thought I would try to combine two of my food favorites. So, my question to you is, are any of you interested in a recipe for chocolate cake with chocolate bacon ganache? I am up for the challenge!

Last random thought, and it is in keeping with the food theme. Last night Glenn and I made ricotta cheese. It could have not been any easier. We are debating about how to use this special cheese this weekend. He is pulling for calzones stuffed with our delicate ricotta and fresh-from-the-garden tomato sauce (well, at this point, it has taken a detour into the frosty depths of the freezer). I am thinking of pairing the ricotta with some blood oranges. Last week we bought an entire case of blood oranges, about 80, for $10.00 and I am trying to get creative before they go bad. Related to all things cheese, we are taking a cheese making class at Zingerman's tomorrow.

Have a fun weekend!

It's Coming Up - The Best Chocolate Day of the Year!

Oh, I know what you are all thinking. No, no, I am not referring to the obvious day. The BEST day for chocolate procurement is February 15 (yes, the 15th, not the 14th).

Traditionally, the 15th is the day the stores roll out the Easter candy. One of my all time favorite* chocolates is Hershey's Eggs.

*I have a bit of a Jekyll/Hyde relationship with food. On one hand, I like and appreciate fine quality, hand crafted food. On the other hand, sometimes the siren song of the junky, questionable-quality food is just too strong and I cave - think Pillsbury crescent rolls, dollar store cheese puffs, etc

So, the Hershey's Eggs fall squarely into the junky category. However, a little bit of my shame was erased when a serious professional foodie, Sean, who works at Ann Arbor's foodie nirvana (also known as Morgan and York) guessed (and subsequently agreed) on ONE try what the all-time-best Easter candy is.

I know you are all dying to know what makes candy so special. First of all, it is only made at Easter (absence DOES make the heart grow fonder). Secondly, it is like the sophisticated more refined sibling of M & Ms. The candy coating is crunchier and the chocolate is creamier. It certainly does not hurt that the eggs are about double the size of a regular M & M.

Now, you all know what I am doing this Valentine's weekend, or at least the second half of the weekend; stalking the candy aisle at Target

post note - just before posting this entry, I did a little googling and found that I am not alone in my love for Hershey's Eggs. More alarmingly, when I went on the Hershey's Easter candy site, I did not spot my beloved eggs - have they, too, been discontinued(do not even get me started on the disappearance of some of my favorite things due to the economy)? More investigation is in order.

Talk to Me People

Already I am at a loss for words. Well, not really, but at a loss for words that I want to put into the blogosphere!

However, I thought a post was in order due to the fact that I (think I) removed the you-must-have-a-google-account restriction on leaving me a comment.

So for all you people who wanted to comment on my post(s) (you know who you are Kelly, Maggie, G. etc.), please give it a try.

Hmm, I think my next step in this blogging adventure will be to add some photos.


Take care!

How About a Little Arm Chair Travel?

I know I am not the first to say it, but I am so sick of this cold cold winter. The fastest cheapest way to escape this perma-frost (and those of you who have been to my home know how accurate that statement is) is to let my mind take a little trip.

Some people hear a song or smell an aroma (or odor) and are instantly somewhere else. Me, I taste a certain food, and presto, I am in another place.

The other evening Glenn and I dined at the Mega Coney Island (desperate times call for desperate measures). I ordered, well actually Glenn did too, a gyros with a side of fries. While I stacked the fries on the open faced gyros, I immediately was back in Greece and the year was 1994.

Have you ever had a food experience that is so perfect that all other similar food experiences are measured against it? Gyros in Kolanki Square (Athens, Greece) would be one for me.

Everything, I mean everything about it was perfect. For starters, gyros in Greece, need I say more? Secondly, Kolanki is a very nice part of Athens were everything is clean and cute. The gyros stand was on a pedestrain street that had little bistro tables sitting under twinkle-light festooned trees. I am sure that I went there for lunch on occasion (remember I was there a whole semester), but it is the evening/night visits that easily come to mind.

The standard gyros at this particular stand was stuffed with freshly sliced, perfectly seasoned lamb, homemade tzatzki (the Greeks do not hold back on the garlic, yum!), Mediterranean-sun riped tomatoes and french fries. French fries on a sandwich, as opposed to next to the sandwich was a new thing for me. (As noted earlier, I still prefer my fries on the sandwich.) And, to top it all off - a draught Heineken. Beer at a fast food joint (that was what the gyros stand essentially was) was quite a novelty for the college-aged me! Oh, it was all so good.

I have searched high and low, but a more perfect, or even equal, gyros has eluded me. Athens anyone?

this post is dedicated to my Grecian twin, Jenny T - I hope you are reading this girl!

Aborted Social Experiment

On occasion over the past year I have told people that Glenn and I would not be updating our television/television services to accommodate the February 2009 digital transition. After gazing at me with a puzzled look most people would tell me all the things we could do to continue receiving the new digital television signal.

Yes, cable/satellite is offered in our area. Yes, we know about the government rebate coupon for digital converter boxes.

No, this was not about money or technology. This was going to be our (I mainly mean my)GREAT SOCIAL EXPERIMENT OF 2009. I kept on thinking how great it would be to not be lured into watching something that probably numbed, or maybe even destroyed some of my brain cells. It would be like old times - we would spend our evenings being productive or finding a more "noble" form of entertainment (enter a lot of NPR listening and the viewing of documentaries on DVD). I was so excited to try this out. I even felt a bit proud of my determination.

Oh, we had our critics: "How long do you think it will last?" "How long will your marriage last without TV?"

Like I said, I was bound and determined. My resolve started failing the slightest bit when the "number of days until the digital transition" icon was on the bottom of my TV screen. However, I started to go into panic mode when one of our PBS stations made the transition early. Well, the black hole that appeared where channel 28 used to be really made it hit home. They were not joking or exaggerating - they really took away my signal. O.K., I told myself, be strong, you have a strong enough character to go with out TV. Then, my second PBS station suffered a similar fate. And, for the record, the majority of our TV viewing would be on PBS. The time for strength, determination and principle was over. Getting the new digital signal was my new priority.

In my state of distress I remembered that my parents had an extra (a whole different story) flat screen TV that would probably be able to receive the new digital signal. So, it was, in the end, Mom and Dad who saved the day. Yes, I am happy to report that the new TV, does, indeed, receive the digital signal.

But, it is even better than that. There is a whole world of digital only stations that I can now view. It's kinda a hybrid of old school TV and cable/satellite. Depending on the time of day and the weather, I have been able to get a station called RT (Russia Today, just in case you want/need to know the weather forecast for any major Russian city), a similar station devoted to India and my current favorite a PBS special station called Create (a bunch of how-to shows).


Man I am in H-E-A-V-E-N - so much for my great social experiment!

I've Finally Done It - My (Blog) Inauguration

I have been thinking of doing this (writing a blog) for a while. Others have been urging me a little more strongly than I have been urging myself. When I signed up for a certain blog subscription I had to create a google account. While doing so, I was given the chance to create a blog. I figured if I could create a blog within my limited computer attention span, I would do it.

I have no idea what this is really going to look like. I have very little technology in my life. I do almost all of my internet surfing at the public library and do not own a digital camera. The thing that I (and probably everyone else) really likes about certain blogs are the photos. We'll see how into this I become and maybe, just maybe I'll take the digital plunge!