L'Esistenza Bellissima
the most beautiful existence always unfurls itself
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Bitty Baby's Arrival (or: ...and the family expands...)
Hubby, Bitty Baby, and Moi
Even though I got the epidural topped off, it wore off some right at the end. Oh yeah; that was fun. :P
^^^
But my goodness, seeing that little face.... It overshadowed all.
With the exception of Sweet Pea getting to hold her new baby sister for the first time. And being at home with our two beautiful girls in the beginning of a new chapter of life.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Daring Bakers - June '09 Challenge or, I BAKE AGAIN!!
I was intrigued by this challenge because I had never heard of a Bakewell Tart/Pudding before! I made my tart... er... pudding in stages. Not my fave way to do things, but it definitely works with a "working mom/chick" schedule.
Tasting it after it chilled, I wasn't really impressed with the flavor, so I added a few teaspoons of lime juice, and it became Grapefruit-Lime Curd. Then, I wished that I had just made lime curd, as I adore limes - but I still had the rest of the tart/pudding to make.
NEXT (a few days later), I made the crust. I wasn't going to mess with that frying pan screen again, and didn't know where the hell that strainer was, so I bought a sifter at "Mega Lo Mart" on the way home from work so that I could sift my dry ingredients. =:D Excellent!
I probably used twice as much almond extract as the recipe called for, because I dreamily turned the little bottle over to sprinkle it into the bowl and it just came gushing out. For some reason, almond extract just *smells* to me like it would slowly and dramatically ooze out of the bottle and into the bowl. I don't know....my crazy imagination.
So that waited until another day, when I finished it all on a Saturday night (whoohoo, that's me, the party animal!) -- speaking of animals, for some reason that night we were overtaken by flies! =:O I'm still trying to figure that out. But suffice it to say that they drove me NUTZOID while I was trying to mix and bake. ANYway . . . I rolled out the crust and cut it into circles (with a plastic drinking cup from my credit union - how high-tech!) that fit perfectly into my muffin pan for mini tarts/puddings. They really turned out cute!
Close-up of the layers
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Summer at the Farmer's Market and a Fruit Salad
Sweet Pea and I loaded up into Kat's car and off we went. Our intent was to leave and get up there early and beat the heat, as the last week or so has given us temperatures in the 90s with heat indexes of 100 degrees or so (for non-Southerners, Temp + Humidity = Heat Index, or how it "really" feels outside).
Although the Farmer's Market isn't the biggest one you'll ever see, it has grown over the years and now includes quite a few other things besides fresh fruits and veggies. We saw a dude selling wooden flutes, several people selling jewelry, and even one booth with crocheted items (though why anyone would want a cuddly crochet hat in the middle of the summer heat is beyond me). We wandered through and looked at all of the produce first to see what all was out, and then grabbed some lunch inside the River Market. Kat had gumbo from a Cajun stand, Sweet Pea had cheese pizza, and I enjoyed some sushi and a peach smoothie with "bubbles" or boba - also known as black tapioca pearls (yeh me - the weird eater - imagine!).
Refreshed after our travel-around-the-world lunch, we ventured back outside and dropped a couple of dimes on produce. I got orange bell peppers (my fave!), purple potatoes (more on them later), summer squash, a nice ripe-feeling canteloupe, and a loaf of wheat bread with sunflower seeds. Oh yes, and a potted mint plant as well as a potted basil plant. Mmmm.
After we got home - and after I took a nap because the heat had completely SAPPED me - I got to thinking how much I wanted to cut into that canteloupe. I'm typically not big on melon, and didn't realize until several years ago that canteloupe was actually GOOD. But it has to be ripe, and the melon you get in most stores and restaurants is rarely - if ever - ripe. However, I had a good feeling about this canteloupe I got and, while getting supper ready, I had an idea of a potentially yummy fruit salad that I just had to make. So here you go:
Strawberry-Canteloupe Salad
2 c. fresh strawberries, chopped
2 c. fresh cantaloupe, chopped
1 fresh lime, zest and juice
Fresh mint, minced
1/2 to 1 Tbsp. sugar (optional)
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Toss to mix ingredients thoroughly. Chill thoroughly, stir well, and serve. Top with whipped cream if desired.
I think I've mentioned this before, but outside of baking I am SO the Approximate Cooker. So adjust the quantities to suit yourself - equal amounts of the berries and the melon, enough lime juice and mint to blend throughout the mixture, and a little sugar if you wish (I added just a bit so to soften the taste of the lime). Had I had any fresh ginger on hand, I think that a little bit would be good in there as well. Next time....
This is an easy One-Bowler and is an awesomely light and cool dessert during the hot season - not to mention it is healthy! YAY on all counts!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Cheesecake....
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Now, I actually wasn't worried about the top of the cheesecake, since I had candied some kumquat slices (recipe below) with which to adorn it - it was the fact that I had already instructed her about twenty times this morning to leave things alone until I told her specifically to do something. It was just the principle of it all. Ahhh, mother- and wife-hood!
16 kumquats, washed and sliced into rounds approx. 1/8" thick
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Shark, anyone??
Anyway, these are some old pictures that I had on our old computer, which crashed, and that I forgot I had on the ol' memory card until I started transferring pic files yesterday. Insta-blog! ;D
Last July, we went on a trip with a group of friends who know each other through our university. Some I went to school with, some I'd met since I graduated, and some I had only "seen" online via our email listserve. We all met at Jekyll Island, Georgia and spent a week:
~Going to the beach~
~Going shopping~
^^ Sweet Pea & me during the middle of a nice little tantrum she started throwing in the middle of one shop on St. Simons Island - ahh, memories! If I look in control there it surely did not last....
~Eating good food~
^^ Spring rolls that one of our friends, Buzz, made from scratch one night
~Touring the island and admiring the beautiful old buildings~
but mostly just hanging out and nuturing some awesome friendships.
^^ Jekyll Island Club brunch, L to R: Doc Mary, Nita, Jan, Lynne, Gail, Siri, me
^^ Siri, Cindy, Kym
^^ Terry & John
^^ JJ, Neels, Gail, & Lydia
^^ L toR: Boat dude, Hubby, Doc Mary
and the second time with John, Siri, and me.
Siri's shark - not big enough to keep, though.
L to R: Siri, me, boat captain, John
Thus, with the sweet taste of salt water still clinging to our lips - even if in memory - we decided to cook up some of our spoils once we returned home. When Hubby went with The Gals, they decided to go fishing for shark, so we ended up with several steaks in the freezer. If you know us, you know one defining thing about us: Our adventurous palates! So Hubby and I were both salivating like Pavlov's dog when he threw these onto the grill. I swear to goodness, I can't remember what he used for seasoning....will try and remember to ask him and update if he actually remembers.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Struggling to Get Regular....
My parents are both retired, and Dad has gotten into finding old tractors and restoring them - which is great since he's a mechanic by trade and is one of those people I want around me if the Apocalypse ever actually occurs - and he tells Sweet Pea that these are THEIR tractors. So the week for S.P. will include entertaining and being entertained by Proper Southern Ladies, as well as learning the finer points of self-sufficiency and riding around on my parents' property on whichever John Deere she and Dad decide upon at that moment. Life is good for the Pea. :)
So while we have a quieter home for several days, some of the goals on my neverending list of Stuff I Have Got to Get Done are:
- Get the freakin' laundry caught up and put away (instead of frantically digging through the pile on the couch every morning)!
- Get the freakin' dishes cleaned in totality and put away (instead of wishing that we could just eat off of paper plates until Jesus comes)!
- Get the floors clean - swept, mopped, and vacuumed (instead of wishing a street cleaner could fit through our front door and scrape off my floors)!
Clean, clean, clean....everything clean! Beat Hubby and make him clean! Yesss!
As well as:
- Catch up on organizing. What to organize, you ask? Ha! What's NOT to organize?! OK, really...if I can just get things cleaned cleaner than they have been in the last long while, I really won't focus on this very much as I will have earned myself some "ME" time.
- Catch up on my scrapbooking. With Baby Sister on the way, I must-must-MUST get farther along on Sweet Pea's stuff than I have gotten over the last 6 years. It's shameful - if I actually thought about it - and I have this table behind me with hundreds of $$ worth of scrapping things that has been neglected for so long that Hubby thinks it is now a storage place for some of his crap, as well as the old printer he replaced and that I have no idea what he wants to do with. Inconceivable!
- Get back into the baking that I have been missing. Really. Missing. With the job I started last summer (stupid crazy job that I regret taking, except that the other one bored me to tears, but where my perpetual "not using the gifts God gave me" lament continues) I've been thrown off even more than I ever thought I could be. It's been a struggle to just do the things that MUST be done....much less the things that I enjoy and that make me ME, that make me HAPPY. Yes, it's been a sad little hole I've been sitting in, folks, and I'm trying my best to crawl out of it. By darn. So cooking and blogging and writing about food, and my amateur attempt at food photography - I'm doing it all.
- Just doing things I like to do. Window- and mini-shopping at Tuesday Morning-type stores. Over-shopping at Whole Foods. Playing my guitar. Writing. Pondering. Spending time outdoors. And the like.
So those are my plans for the week. Sure, I don't expect to strike 100% of that off as completed, but just knowing that I'm going to focus on these things that have been all but forgotten kinda gives me a lift. There's a hopefulness that's been gone for a while that I'm gonna get back, by gosh. And I'm really looking forward to doing it and putting it on here.