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Archive for the ‘Cooking and Recipes’ Category

Wonderful Weekend

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

What gorgeous weather. Great house guests!

I have been busy entertaining and enjoying the great out of doors, but I have managed to get in a little more studio time. I played with aspen trunk and leaf placement this afternoon. Everything is pinned in place. I can see that the one set of leaves is a little clumpy, might want to work on that.

Last night, we had our first party on the deck. We had the family and two of Lisa’s artist friends here for dinner. I had vegan fare of chicken seitan and mushroom kabobs and lamb kabobs for the carnivores. We also had lavash and tzatziki, roasted potatoes and couple of fabulous salads. I made blackberry/apricot puff pastry tarts for dessert with coconut bliss vanilla ice cream. Here are some photos.

Pensive Miles. So handsome!

Lisa and Pablo, her friend, Trish’s. chi.

Steph and Mia with Pablo.

And Scooter, being a good boy! He got his summer do yesterday.

Tonight we are off to our monthly Sojourners dinner. I am taking salad. Better get to it and make myself look presentable.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Family, My creations | 8 Comments »

Meeting My Deadlines

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

I am feeling so much better, but a little tired. Maybe because I have been moving at a pretty good clip to meet my deadlines. I have a very busy week.

I finished Kimono III and you can see it attached to a bamboo hanging rod. I attached the other two to rods, also.

Today, the family came for dinner. I made roast salmon on a bed of potatoes, peas and parsnips. Steph made delicious brioche and lovely arugula salad.

When Steph was a little girl, if her birthday occurred near Easter, I made her a bunny cake.

I thought it would be fun to make her one again this year. It is a more adult version — coconut pound cake with dark chocolate frosting and toasted coconut garnish.

He is a little scary looking, but he tasted delicious!!

Tomorrow, I have guild board meeting in the morning. Then, I have to finish all my work for the Japanese Garden show. I want to dye some scarves and perhaps make some postcards. Everything has to be delivered on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I have a committee here at my house all day, working on selecting slides from the guild slide library that will represent a retrospective of guild activities and work. These will be digitized and the rest will be donated for study or thrown out. Slides are now obsolete!!

We won’t have STASH this week because Gale is in Arizona visiting her sister and Terry is working for the census and Beth is over at her beach house. It is Terry’s birthday tomorrow and I was hoping to celebrate, but we will have to wait until next week.

I hope you had a lovely holiday!

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Family, Holidays, My creations, Vintage Japanese textiles | 4 Comments »

Kimono II

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Allergies be gone — I have things to do! I have made it through the day with a little help from my drugs and a saline rinse. We are entertaining 3 other couples for dinner tomorrow night. It is our Sojourner’s group from the cathedral. I am cooking the main course; others are bringing appetizer, salad and dessert.

I spent the morning making Ina Garten’s version of Julia’s Beef Bourguignon. It is rather labor intensive, but so worth it. I prepared it today so that all I have to do is warm it up tomorrow. It is one of those dishes that improves with time. Tomorrow, I will also make au gratin potatoes to accompany it.

This afternoon, I finally had enough energy to finish the design for Kimono II and got it fused to the batting. This time, I cut the vintage kimono fabric into 4 inch squares. I quite like this one. Here is a detail:

Tomorrow is taken up with house cleaning and dinner prep and on Sunday, M & M arrive for 3 days. They will be in school on Monday and Tuesday, so I will have a window of time to get some more studio work done, like quilting this piece. I might do another of these while I have the fabric spread all over my studio.

It is Friday night and movie time with Mr C. Hope I can stay awake.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, My creations, Vintage Japanese textiles | 9 Comments »

Bad Dog!

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Since I do not have a house full of company and I am not doing a fancy party for 50 people, I do not have a lot of cooking and baking to do this year. I do love to do holiday baking so I decided to make some of my Christmas coffee cakes to share with the neighbors.

Back in my Earth Mother days when I wore a bandanna on my head and bell bottom jeans, I used to make breads and coffee cakes to sell in a local store in Los Gatos, CA. I altered a yeast coffee cake recipe to make it more healthy (well, sort of). I use half whole wheat flour.

After the dough rises, I roll out a rectangle and slather with butter, cinnamon, sugar, cranberries, raisins and walnuts. I roll it up and slice and arrange the slices into a Christmas tree shape. I made four of these.

After they baked, I went out to join the throngs doing their last minute shopping. I don’t know why, but I do enjoy the thrill of the last minute dash.

When I got home, I found that Scooter had helped himself to some of the rolls from two of the trees. Mr C fell asleep after my very stern warning that I did not have a safe high place for four pans to cool. I was more than a little upset. So, only two neighbors are getting goodies.

I am doing Christmas dinner and Steph is doing Christmas eve. I have my menu and shopping list ready and will run to the market early in the morning. I have some gifts to wrap and desserts for Friday to prepare. Oh, I must make the requisite mint brownies for tomorrow night.

I probably won’t post tomorrow, but who knows? I wish all of you the happiest of holidays. Eat, drink and be merry!

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Scooter | 6 Comments »

Over the River

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Today was Some Thursday at Someones House (STASH), except we went to the Pittock Mansion and out to lunch, instead. I wanted to give my friends scarves as gifts. This morning, I decided to do two more. These are silk chiffon which I wrapped around a thick rope and then squirted with chartreuse, turquoise and black. I rinsed them in water and threw them into the dryer with a towel. While I got dressed, they dried and were ready to wrap.

The Pittock Mansion sits way up on the western hills. Reva and I live over on the east side of Portland, across the Willamette river. We met Beth, Gale and Terry at the mansion because they live over in the western hills. Here is everyone waiting in the cold for the mansion to open.

I was not particularly enamored with the overdone interior decorator holiday decor, but I loved seeing this beautiful building which has fabulous views. Here is Mt Hood from the mansion.

I was enamored with this shower which is the precursor for the modern day multiple shower heads.

Some photos that I took.

We went to the Chart House which sits up on a hillside with a panoramic view of the Willamette and the East side of Portland and beyond. There is Mt. Hood, again. My house is down there someplace.

It was a great day with friends. I came home and made Mr C a stew of beef, mushrooms, onions and brown rice with a fabulous stout from a brewery in Eugene. It added a wonderful richness to the stew. I made broccoli to go with it.

I finally dragged myself into the studio at 9 pm and watched The Office and 30 Rock while I got some quilting done on the pink piece. I have to finish it tomorrow, but first, we are going to take Scooter out to the boonies to cut down a Christmas tree.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Cooking and Recipes, Out and About in Portland, Quilting Friends | 3 Comments »

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