triumphant mid-week return: oh and three good things

So a thousand apologies for a long long absence. It was not of my own making, per-se, though it did involve some issues with comcast. Everyone knows how long it takes to get someone to come fix an internet problem (it's like they figure if they take long enough you will just give up) so anyway, enough of that, as it's fixed and it's no longer a problem. Yeah!
So, there have been a number of projects which have occurred in the intervening time, which I may not have documented quite as well as I would like, but I will share what I've got, just give me a few days to sort it out and all that. And now some good things to add, just reminders you know.
One: asparagus. Which is, you know, fantastic in general.


Two: Getting back to an old project. When my parents went to Italy over a year ago I decided to make a quilt out of all the yellow fabric I've been collecting. And I decided to make it without a plan, and with pieces one inch or smaller. Because, I mean, that's just such a good, practical and easily executable idea. And of course all those tiny seams. That's real easy. So I finished all the blocks (i.e. they were what seemed a 'reasonable' size) and then, I tried to put a back on them, but it didn't really work and it all got tangled, and stuck and a big big mess.
So I folded it up and stuck it on a shelf and forgot about it. Because that was easier than fixing my mess. Now I should mention, my mother is incredible. And she spent hours slowly picking the tangled stitches out so that I could begin again, or continue rather, without loosing so many many hours worth of tiny tiny seams. And then, on a short visit home she worked with me to get it to a basted-and-ready-for-quilting place. And looking like a quilt. And therefore makes me want to finish it so much more. I know, I know, another project. But what's just one more.

Keep an eye out for updates on it's progress.

Three: last but not least, IT'S RAINING! which is always fantastic. If nothing else the smell. And the shiny wet leaves. And the fact that I get to wear my rainboots. And, well you get the idea. I really like the rain.

Any who, more baking, more projects to come. Just wanted to get myself started up again. Into the habit and all that. Stay tuned.

mid-week: three good things

I am going to try to do this each week, three images of nice, good or cheerful things, to help push me through the rest of the week. Wednesdays always seem like the point to get past, and sometimes, well, a little motivation never hurt. So here goes.
One: Someone brought me magnificent flowers. And they are still blooming!


Two: New shiny shoes, note the reflection of the sequins in this pool of sunlight I found on the floor. These were one of my victorious finds at the Oakland Museum Womens Board White Elephant sale which my roommate and I lucked out in catching on it's last day, Sunday afternoon. It was a fantastic warehouse full of junk and goodies intermingled. I also got a few projects, trays to collage and a strange broken belt buckle I plan to turn into a brooch but these shoe just called out to me, in all there shiny glory. I like having fun shoes, it gives you a smile when you look down.


Three: waking up motivated to do something about the bananas going bad in the fruit bowl. Which is nice because it results in a warm batch of banana nut muffins for breakfast. And to bring in to work for some deserving fellow employees, a mid week boost spread around. Win!

new work?

So I made this box, and it is so like the ones I have made in the past (my senior show was a series of over a hundred of these Joseph Cornell inspired shadowboxes with their little three dimensional collages) It has the same re-occurring motifs' of house and twig tree, but this time with a twist. Note the floating shelves? Yes I do believe I've been looking at far too many design blogs.......oh yes.


Thoughts?

whomever came up with bacon, i would like to thank

So my mum was coming to visit, which seems to always provoke me to aspire to cookery heights previously un-thought of. This time it was quiche, full of cheese and bacon (which I had only cooked for the first time last Sunday) and asparagus (which I had
never attempted before) as well as a dessert (strawberry tart with a chocolate/ricotta/mousse/cream filling), naturally.
The way I seem to be settling into cooking revolves around a sudden inspiration, and a lot of internet searching (i.e. how to cook asparagus, which I might add comes up with some interesting stuff) and then sort of cobbling it together from that. So I looked at several quiche recipes from which I took the bacon and asparagus idea, and basic cooking temp/time and then improvised from there. First I started out with crusts.

One for the quiche, in a pie pan, and one for the dessert, in a tart pan. Next I cooked asparagus, with butter and salt and pepper. It smelled amazing. I am so thrilled this was so easy, and I will most surely be integrating asparagus into my cooking in the future as it has now been demystified.

At the same time I was cooking the bacon and onions (full stove huh. I wish I had another arm sometimes), pre-cooking the crust, and mixing up the filling. Which was mostly egg, cream, and ricotta cheese. Oh and some grated swiss as well. This filling was concocted out of the various dairy products I had in the fridge, which just happened to be ricotta and swiss. An interesting combination and one I may not have attempted otherwise. How fortuitous.

When the asparagus, bacon and onions were all cooked, I dumped them all unceremoniously into the crust.

And then poured the filling over and baked it for half an hour, until the house smelled unbearably good and we were all drooling. And it was bubbling and the cheese was browning.
It was so good in fact, and we were so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product until it was half eaten, half gone....half left?

I would say it was a success. Thought that may be mostly due to the cheese. And the bacon. I mean how can one go wrong with such glorious ingredients?!
Oh and then there was dessert, or rather, um, first there was dessert. I mean we ate the two in the traditional order, but, due to the fact it had to chill in the fridge the tart was actually made/assembled before the quiche.
So the steps were something like this:
Fresh organic strawberries? Check.

Pre-cooked and uber buttery tart crust? Check.
Chocolate filling? Check.

At this point I spent far to many harrowing minutes slicing the strawberries into infuriatingly imperfect discs. And eventually I acknowledged my failure to make my delicious but un-traditionally shaped berries at all triangular and figured 'hey if it tastes good no one will notice the strawberries are messy' and threw them on as they were (it probably wouldn't occur to anyone but me to see the strawberries as messy at all, but I am just weird like that and wanted a certain shape of slices).


And it didn't look to shabby in the end. Chilled in the fridge while all the quiche prep and cooking and consuming took place, and then was removed, admired briefly and then eaten.

Next time more chocolate. But that's a given. Still, yum indeed.

home decorating and some experimental biscuits

I've been seeing lots of plate collections displayed on walls recently, on apartment therapy (which I follow obsessively) and several other decorating blogs and magazines. As I have a small collection, and have taken up painting plates with patterns and botanicals as an additional hobby, it seemed like it would be a good thing to try to cover one of the spots of patchy paint on our living room walls (a shoddy job was done, I would love to repaint it.....another project).
First I assembled all of my plates, including the ones I had painted and considered a few different ways of laying them out.

Then I made hangers for all the plates, using some 20g florist wire and directions from Martha Stewarts craft site.

...And started hanging them, with no particular plan.

...And Voila! a plate all, which, hopefully, I can continue adding to as my collection grows.

In other news, I made a batch of biscuits with grated cheese in them, which turned out fantastically, crisp and buttery and glorious. And I also made some orange currant scones, however, distracted by the glorious deliciousness of the biscuits, and some sweet potato fries, I left the scones in a tad to long,and so they are definatly a bit on the crisp side, but were happily consumed at their intended picnic.


And finally, here's a view of my newly tidied dining room table, with red patches where the vinyl on the chairs was wearing out, my fantastic quilt with some tin circus plates, and of course, the new place-mats.