Recipe Rursday: Not-Your-Every-Day-Hummus

Beet Hummus, fit for a unicorn, 7/18/10.

Yes, it's hot pink hummus (made from roasted beets) and it's still sitting in the fridge. I'm afraid I didn't love it and will be pawning it off to a co-worker. But it was worth the try. Eating it on/with cucumber rounds (recipe suggestion) may be the solution, but I'll leave that experiment up to you. Recipe: Beet Hummus (from Simply Recipes). My only alteration was that I threw in a can of chickpeas to dilute my heavy hand with the lemon juice. Taste tests before and after the chickpeas: "well, it's not terrible." Maybe I couldn't get over the color.
Note: Co-workers loved it and beet hummus is a great sandwich spread. I give in.

Classic Hummus with Jalapeno-Cilantro Pesto, taken 6/30/10.

The original recipe, "Hummus with Jalapeno-Cilantro Pesto," is from the cookbook, Blue Eggs & Yellow Tomatoes (amazon, half.com) and it's a winner. We've even had requests from family for a repeat. The pesto: jalapenos, cilantro, garlic, green onions and parsley, + olive oil & S&P. (We tried another recipe from Blue Eggs... last year - check it.)

And because I know you didn't get enough of the unicorn hummus...here's one for the road:

7/18/10.

Socks

1/15/10

Ever seen a cat that sleeps with its face against the wall? Socks, my parents' cat (& the last of 4), has been doing this for a few months now. She sleeps on the stool every night (and often for chunks of the day) and my parents keep the light on at all times, since she seems to like the warmth. Cookey.

Dad & the Didgerydoo

My father is has been making me laugh for as long as I can remember. His humor, however, is of a unique tenor. And maybe it'd be more appropriate to call it mild-insanity. You don't believe it? Here's a little peak...Dad's demonstration of the Didgeridoo. And yes, there's a Didgeridoo sitting in my parents' living room back in St. Louis.

For those of you who took Latin, shall we say Q.E.D. (Quod erat demonstrandum)?

Song for Misses Palin

Made me laugh, had to share. It 'breaks down' near the end (at about 2:10). fabulous....and, "I love you".

Recipe Rursday: Chris' Sofrito Bean Burritos

Way back when Chris was 'courting' me, he made mushroom & sofrito black bean burritos for me for dinner. Soon after, at my request, he made an entire tray for me to eat all week. How could I not go out with him? The key ingredient in this dish has always been the sofrito that he throws in with the black beans. The final results are other worldly (unlike unicorns, which may have been from this world).
Sadly, I cannot include the precise proportions in Chris' dad's sofrito (shown above), since it's due to the hand of the master. But I do know that it includes a combination of recao (also known as culantro), green bell peppers, white onion, garlic, olive oil, and cilantro. I also know that while it resembles Goya's Recaito in appearance (as a green base/paste), nothing compares to this family recipe.
[sidenote: If you're looking for mild or subtle flavor (or, if you're my father & your favorite condiment is ketchup - love you, dad), don't bother investigating further. ]Basically, the black beans are cooked up with the sofrito (Chris' recommendation: don't be shy with it) until the beans have reduced a bit. Then load them into tortillas with cheese & avocado. We normally use shredded cheddar, but sometimes it's a use-what-you-got day. They're ready to eat, but you can also fill a casserole dish & bake them with cheese on top. The sofrito goes with everything, including soups & our favorite, beans & rice.

The Gorgeousness of Fall

This weekend our friends, Jared, Kimberly, and little Rowan, drove up from nyc for a visit. Saturday night, we caught up, made plans for a podcast (to replace the Ricky Gervais show), and examined the likelihood of hypnotism revealing past-lives. Rest assured, my friends, I am not alone in my crazy theories about unicorns and psychics. Rowan proved to be beyond cuteness and maybe the most jovial little-one I've ever come across. His continual laughter? Incredibly charming. Made me want to stop being so serious all the time. Between unicorn rides.Sunday we lucked out with gorgeous weather & perfect timing for a drive out to the orchard we visited last fall. We had a picnic, walked through almost the entire orchard & pumpkin patch, and ate raspberries right off the vine. Never a fruit more sweet. Too bad for my fruit-phobic partner. More photos to come...

Happy Friday

Happy Friday.

New Hair

Finally, no more drab blech a-top me head. I needed this new hair more than you could possibly imagine. Jaclyn, thank you!
(Just realized this hair coloring would make it really easy for *me* to be a pirate this Halloween. Pirate news: Johnny Depp is returning for a Pirates #4?).

When childhood explodes on a page...

A re-do of the Josie (Halloween, 2001) page. Paint & embellies added.
For Scrap Mojo's latest challenge: The title is actually a bumper sticker, "Everyone Remember We're Only Visitors Here." I used a plastic onion bag for the bow/flower & Band Aids in the upper left hand corner. Clearly, I channeled my inner teenager for this one.

Roger Williams Park, aka Gorgeous Land of Frolicking Unicorns

Unbeknownst to me, we live very close (15 min.?) to an incredibly gorgeous 40-acre park. I've been playing with the photoshop actions, so a few of these are far from natural. All the same, enjoy.

Roger Williams Park, Providence.
Taken 9/7/08.

Shopping Handmade (a more serious shopping guide)

My last shopping guide wasn't really serious, so I'm being more serious (my forte) this time. Here are a few handmade goodies that are actually worth getting (as opposed to plastic stocking stuffers) for your shopping pleasure:

Branch Zip Tote $34 from Three Potato Four. Oddly enough, I like this tote because it would perfectly match the cloth napkins that Anne & Ashley bought us as a housewarming gift when we moved here. Not sure how they could be used together though. Maybe a picnic? (found through IndieFixx)

Not handmade, but over the summer, I almost bought these Folk Dinner Plates $36 by Thomas Paul at the Curiosity Shoppe. They were going to be for my mom, but they wouldn't really work with her kitchen & china. Still, they're lovely. (the Curiosity Shoppe also has the paper pinhole camera mentioned earlier, but for $25. A deal?)

Finally, I've been eyeing the prints sold at The Black Apple Etsy shop all year. When they popped up on Elsie Flannigan's blog (pic shown) I realized that a set of 4 would look even better than a single print. I'd choose a different set of 4 though. Each print is so expressive and charming without being cheesey. My favorites: the Pirate Girl, Little Enid, Mysterious Genevieve, and the Rock N Roll set of 2 prints. I considered buying the Rock N Roll set for our new niece who is due at the end of this month, but its probably too early. And buying something for someone else's wall is tricky. Home decor can be a very personal endeavor. All the prints are so cute!!

Pirate vs. Rockstar, Halloween Smackdown

Last week we had a small, last minute Halloween get-together. A few came in full costume awesomeness, while "the costume box" from my closet was forced on those who came naked. Chris was a perfect Captn. Jack, Jason came as a rock-star, literally, and Theresa, a New England equestrian WASP. rider from Connecticut. Theresa's sister Marie was Donna Summers? and Doug's was either Moses, Jesus, Cesar, or (what I thought) King Triton from the Little Mermaid. My costume morphed from a renaissance roller-girl to a sheep wearing Buffy the Vampire Slayer's jacket. Don't ask. Sad news: I dropped my camera 15 min. into the party. It's currently in IL getting fixed. And no photoshop access to brighten up the pics (another tragic story). Most of the pics here are from Jason's camera.