Do you know the name of this plant? I've tried planting cuttings in a pot with dirt, and it just doesn't thrive. It seems to prefer being in this bowl with only stones and water - no soil - to being planted! My friend J. gave me the cuttings. He keeps his planted in soil, under a glass dome and it's very happy.
I made up a recipe for gluten free oatmeal raisin cookies this evening. They turned out really well! I combined elements from two different recipes: one, my favorite gf chocolate chip cookie recipe from Gluten Free Girl and the other, the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from The Best Recipe (which, unfortunately, isn't available online).
Lately I've been checking in on an interior design blog that's new to me: Apartment Therapy. They run a program every year called "The Spring Cure," that's a series of assignments to clean up and organize your home. This year there's also a kitchen-only version called, "The Kitchen Cure." I haven't officially signed up, but I'm inspired! I cleaned out the fridge & freezer last week. Today - my big ol' junk drawer.
It's quite satisfying. I threw out some junk, saved a few things for the Shambhala Center tag sale in the fall, and I found a few things that I thought I'd lost! It may be dull to some, but to me it's a pleasure.
Friends from the Shambhala Center in Northampton gathered for a hike on Mt. Tom in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
I've never hiked in the snow before. It was a warm day, the snow was soft and a little slushy in places. Walking in the snow was challenging, and the mountain was beautiful.
The view from the Dry Knoll, looking toward of the Oxbow (part of the Connecticut River).
It was a more challenging and fast-paced hike than I'm used to, but it was a great day!
I don't usually post this sort of thing, but I thought the gluten free readers of this blog would like to know that King Arthur Flour - long a great source for traditional baking information and baker's ingredients and tools - has a whole new line of GF baking mixes, online recipes and information about gluten free baking. It looks like a wonderful resource! Click here to visit the King Arthur Flour gluten free website.
A chilly walk along the rocky Shawangunk cliffs at Minnewaska State Preserve.
Climbers spotted ahead . . .
Someone waits patiently, in her fleece jacket, for the safe return of her people.
There's not much to say about it . . .
. . . just a passing train I had to wait for on my way home this evening.
I'm recovering from a nasty little stomach bug. Many years ago I learned about three macrobiotic foods that restore beneficial flora to the digestive system: miso soup, sauerkraut, and uzu tea. I could never deal with the tea, made from arrowroot powder, tamari and umeboshi plum, as I recall. But I like miso soup, and sauerkraut is okay. They really do help! Click here for the recipe I used. I made the simple kombu dashi (kombu stock), which added some depth to the soup. I also added some gluten free tamari to the bowl. Most miso has wheat (and soy) in it. I used locally made South River Azuki Bean Miso, which contains no wheat or soy ingredients.
Stephen's show at KMOCA opened on Saturday evening.
There was a great turnout . . .
with friends of all ages!
"She Sells"
A Girl and a Gun . . .
. . . indeed.
Wow! I followed the recipe from Jill Santopietro's Tiny Kitchen video for tangerine sherbet. (The delightlful little bowl is by Shelburne potter Molly Cantor.)
I started with the most amazingly juicy tangelos. Did you know that a tangelo is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit?
I zested 2 of them, then juiced the whole lot by hand.
There are a few more simple steps. Go the NY Times website and follow the whole recipe if you want to try this.
There it is, churning about inside the machine . . .
Holy smokes! The most delightfully light, delicate tasting sherbet I've ever enjoyed. If I'm going to keep exploring this sort of thing, you'd better come over and share some . . . or else I'm going to become quite a chubber! :-)
Here in the Northeast US, we usually have a brief respite from January's below-freezing temperatures: the January Thaw. It began yesterday with daytime highs soaring into the 40s! (he he)
This charming couple looked quite content, noodling about in the little unfrozen section of the pond.
I have a long, sporadic history of making pieced cotton pillow covers and quilts. I made my first quilt in 1977. In the early 1990s I happened to flip through a copy of A Treasury of Amish Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman in a fabric store. Inside those pages I discovered the Amish quilt pattern called Broken Dishes, and I've been fascinated by it ever since. I love the straightforward, graphic use of solid colored cotton fabrics that Amish quilt makers employ. And Broken Dishes is barely a pattern at all - the order of the triangles is the only requirement. The color arrangement is random - or so it seems. As you can see below, I made considerable effort to orchestrate the arrangement for this pillow.
Here are the triangles, cut from 2" squares, laid out on the counter. I spent quite a bit of time moving them around until I was satisfied.
The finished top. I think I managed to keep all but one row in the desired order! I adore the fact that a mistake like getting the pieces out of order is easily incorporated into the whole.
Here's the cover stuffed with a 20"x20" down & feather pillow insert. Hey, what's that black fuzzy thing on the right side?
Oh . . . it's my little helper, Miss Bettie!
The other night I made the "White Bean & Escarole Soup" (I substituted spinach for the escarole) from Mollie Katzen's "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" cookbook. It was good, but a little bland for my taste. This evening I was inspired! I cut up an Applegate Farms Chicken & Turkey Andouille sausage, browned it in a little olive oil, and added it to a bowl of the hot soup. With the corn bread - holy smokes - what a yummy meal!
I followed the recipe from "The Best Recipe," using the butter & a little vegetable oil option instead of the traditional bacon grease. I love it when I find a recipe that's gluten free in its original state!
Looking up . . .
up . . .
down a little . . .
And at the floor . . .
Here's my gluten free version of David Lebovitz's Fruitcake Bars, also known as "Friendship Bars." No disgusting, neon green and yellow candied fruit here - just honest to goodness dates, apricots and nuts. All I did to make it gluten free was switch the 6 T of all purpose flour for 2 T each of tapioca, sorghum and sweet rice (mochi) flour. Whilst baking , it filled the house with the most divine fragrance. And they're delicious too! Click the link above for David's recipe.
You may recall that last year I went a little wild cutting paper snowflakes.
. . . this year I made even more! I couldn't resist filling my huge living room window with them. Each flake is attached to the glass with a few tiny bits of scotch tape.
This is how it looks inside, in the morning light . . .
. . . and from outside at the same time.
It was a little scary getting up to the top row of window panes - it's a good 12 feet up from the floor, at least. Click here for Camilla Engman's Snowflake Tutorial at Studio Violet if you'd like to make your own. Welcome Winter!
