The Story of Tigerlily

Pictures for "The Story of Tigerlily"

Once upon a time there was a tiny kitten named Tigerlily. She lived in a tiny house of love. She was very happy there because her humans loved her...and spoiled her rotten. But, even with all of their love and all of her toys and accessories, the tiny kitten was lonely...and tired of chasing her tail. She wanted a friend. So, one night she ventured out of her warm house of love into the dark night, in search of another. When she reached the edge of the woods she hesitated; slightly afraid. But, she carried on, knowing that she must if she ever wanted to find what she was looking for. Eventually, she happened upon a tiny door in a tree. She knocked with her wee little paw, and waited. The door opened and out came....you'll never guess.....her fairy cat mother!!!!! Her fairy cat mother spoke to her with kindness, and gave her some direction: "my kitten, what you seek is not here...it is back in the direction from which you came...just moments from your home....once you reach the edge of the woods, take the main road, and make your second right and then your first left.". Tigerlily left her fairy cat mother and went back towards town, running now; she wanted to be back in her warm house of love, but even more than that, she wanted to find another. Eventually, she reached the place her fairy cat mother had told her to go..it was an ally; quiet and dark....empty....but wait...a tiny noise...Another! Tigerlily took the other by the paw and said "come with me to my house of love. My humans will adore us and spoil us both." So, there, in the house of love, live Tigerlily, her humans and, of course, her other, all as happy as happy could be.

Pictures for "The Story of Tigerlily"

Found Nature Art

The story is short and sweet.  My daughter and I went outside.  I found this leaf that had been drained of all it's color.  My daughter found these twigs and snapped off the ends.  She took my leaf and wrapped its stem around the twig end.  I liked it...it inspired me.  We collected more twig ends.  I stained some watercolor paper with tea and adhered the objects.  The end.

Grain Tasting: Quinoa

No pictures, (it wasn't very pretty anyway) but on Quinoa:
I used a recipe from AllRecipes.  It had carrots, celery, onions, garlic, vegetable broth, Turmeric, and basil...oh, and Quinoa.  When I opened the bag of super-grain , I recalled the adjective from my bible-ish cookbook and the Quinoa package: grassy.  Well, no kidding, it really smelled like grass.  It actually had me a bit concerned.  I rinsed the Quinoa, as per the instructions and added it to the concoction.  The aromas from the dish were already wonderful--I think I have a soft spot for the smells that emanate from carrots, celery, and onions...It's this savory-sweet, subtly rich smell.  I'm happy to report that there were no grassy aromas filling my home as a result of adding the Quinoa to the simmering pot of goodness.  About 30 minutes later, while putting it into a dish to store for dinner, I snuck a little taste (which, normally I don't do...yes..strange, I know...maybe I'll blog about it).  I was pleasantly surprised.  I tasted the vegetables, the spices, and no grassy flavors whatsoever.  It was really a relief, because all I kept thinking while rinsing the grain was, "Why the craze about this grain if it tastes anything like it smells?  Are people turning into livestock, craving lush, green pastures?  I'm no cow and I refuse to like anything that tastes like grass, fad or no fad!"

To be honest, I can't, at this moment identify the flavor that the Quinoa had--I will have to find out tomorrow by eating it a second time...The beauty of left overs: second chances at tasting things correctly.  I'm just glad I'm saying that I will continue eating Quinoa and, no, people are not turning into grass-fed livestock.

Grain Testing Take One

Since going flexitarian, we have been consuming more rice lately.  Not really knowing about rice, I've been sticking with white rice.  Well, that got boring real fast once I made a few rice and bean dishes, so I decided to try out some different varieties of rice.  This was the first night with new rice, and what a relief it was.  I made Basmati Carrot Rice to accompany Maple Glazed Salmon and my family's favorite style of Green Beans (sautéed with garlic, soy, and a touch of sugar).

The rice dish was a tad on the dry side, but the aromatics and flavors of the rice made up for all that.  It had this great nutty, asian flavor, and the ginger gave it a nice tang.  I went light on the cayenne for the sake of my daughter, so there was really no spicy-spice at all. My husband and I do enjoy spice, and really miss it when it's not there.  The rice dish was a great compliment to both the beans and the salmon due to the fact that they both incorporated an asian flavor--soy sauce.  Simple description of tonight's dinner: nutty, sweet, and salty. The textural variety also stood out--I think I was so impressed because the grain was anything other than white rice.

bakefest

Last week was the week of baking.  Well, not the whole week.  But two days of baking is a lot for me, considering I really only bake around the holidays or when I have to.  On a whim, I decided to make coconut macaroons.  I had never had them before (I know, your mouth is agape), and wanted to try them out after stumbling upon them while looking for some coco-nutty girl scout cookie my cousin and I were attempting to identify via the internet.  I found this recipe on All Recipes dot com (yea, I just did that).  It had 676 reviews and had a 4.5-star rating.  Also, the creator mentioned that these cookies had won first place ribbons at the state fair.

Not even registering what the recipe called for, I added the ingredients to my grocery list.  The night I chose to make them, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and blindly decided to prepare them after dinner came out of the oven.  Well, thank my lucky stars, I had not created a disaster for myself.  These cookies were by far the easiest cookie I had ever made.  The recipe consisted of a whopping five ingredients: flour, coconut, salt, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract.  Everything went into a big bowl, was mixed by hand (literally), and then dropped onto a cookie sheet with an ice-cream scoop.  The recipe said it would make 12, but it really made 16, and they were each about the size of a golf ball....Which is apparently pretty large for a macaroon.  I popped the cookies into the oven and plated dinner, which was still hot.  AMAZING.

dinner was also a recipe found on all recipes.com.
It's rigatoni with cheese, spinach, zucchini, and mushrooms.
Also amazing.
I've made it twice, and I really am not known for repeating recipes.

I also baked an AMAZING carrot cake on Friday.  I found the recipe on Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy.  The cake was for my aunt's birthday.  It turned out amazing.  It was a layer cake, which I love, because then there are more places to put the cream cheese icing, which I can never get enough of.  There was crushed pineapple in it, which was new to me as far as carrot cakes go, but it was a lovely compliment to the slightly citrusy cream cheese icing, which had orange extract as well as vanilla...the icing was pretty much identical to an orange cream-cicle, but oh so much more refined in taste.  I used toasted walnuts instead of pecans, which just appealed to me more at the time, but I'm sure pecans would have been equally delicious.  My only regret was adding the gel "happy birthday" after making the icing all pretty and peaked.  It would have been perfect, but I had to go that one step further.  I had intended on drawing a carrot on it, but then my husband says to me, why don't you just right "happy b-day"?  Well, that happy birthday idea completely overwrote my carrot idea (completely by accident) and I didn't catch what I was doing until I was half way done and all the way disappointed in the text.  Really, I know it looked fine, but remember I am a perfectionist, so fine is not good enough.  But anyway, the cake was a hit, and really, all that matters is that it tasted DELICIOUS.  Oh, by the way, did I mention I forgot to photograph it? TOO BAD.

Quality Activity Time

Yesterday, Le Foo and I spent our first OFFICIAL hour of activity-time together.  Her behavior has been needing some tweaking lately, and my wise mother recommended setting aside one hour each day to spend time doing an activity of Le Foo's choice (unless of course it's nice out; then it's a given that we get outside to the park).  This probably seems silly to some, but as a mother who stays at home and takes care of virtually everything household related, and then some, it is easy to lose sight of your number one priority; YOUR CHILD.  I find that I spend my days, while she is at school either working on cards, or tending to our home.  When I pick her up, we come home, and I head for the kitchen to begin preparing dinner.  We eat together, and then she plays for a bit or goes to get ready for bed, depending on the time.  I LOVE cooking, but also must admit that I do often, get so caught up in making meals that take some time to make, that I forget that there are simpler dishes to prepare, leaving more time for Le Foo to get the attention she needs.  And, really, what is one hour out of the day?  If one hour of attention means an evening with significantly less managing and disciplining my child, then one hour I will give.  Last night I could see a change in her behavior.  It was pleasant to be with her--after we finished the activity, I made dinner and she planted herself on the floor, right outside of the kitchen to color and chat with me.  She was content and so was I.  I'm sure this won't work everyday the way it did yesterday, but I to try take this child-rearing thing one day at a time.

I repurposed an empty jam jar for this project.  I soaked the jar in hot water to remove the label.     The empty, clear jar was pretty as it was, but I figured we could make it a bit more "kid pretty" with some tissue paper and watered-down glue.  So, last night, we chopped up a bunch of tissue paper, in every color I owned of course, and set to ourselves to the task of covering the jar.  Although the jar was small, we managed to work on it together, in peace.  It was fun and Le Foo was so excited when she was able to handle just a little while after we had finished it.  The whole thing probably took us under an hour to make.  It was also great timing, because in school, she had just finished learning about recycling, the mantra being "reduce, reuse, recycle" (which she already knew about from the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson)

A Project for the OCD in us all

I have this odd fascination with hexagons.  I have several paintings that incorporate hexagons.  I get very excited when I find images with hexagons, especially when they repeated to make "hives" or varied in size.

I found this awesome project about two weeks ago.  It is the first pattern I have ever purchased and it cost me a whopping $5.99.  I must say that the pattern was worth every cent.  I just like looking at how the designer laid the whole thing out and the photographs are lovely.  There is even a tutorial on intarsia knitting.

The project fits in perfectly with my love of hexagons and my OCD tendencies.  I found it on Ravelry.  It's called the Beekeeper's Quilt.  This quilt is simply amazing--I love that you knit up these tiny little 3" diameter hexagons, and, once you have your desired amount, seam them all together into one giant (or not so giant) blanket.  I only say giant, because I set my standards high--I plan on making the banker rather large.  The "hexapuffs" (this is what the designer refers to them as, because they are puffy from the stuffing) don't take long to knit up at all, so can be done whenever you have 20 minutes with nothing to do.  This fits in great with my life--I like to do a lot of different things, but never finish them in one go around.  I also really love the idea of using lots of different colors and/or types of yarn (all similar weights of course) to make this patchwork quilt.  I can't wait to find a not-so-little basket to start my "hexapuff" collection in.  I just have to hope one of my three cats does not decide to take a liking to puffy hexagons, or they will have to be squirreled away to safety in a closet somewhere.  I would love to say I will be ready to seam it all together in a year, but since I plan on making a bedspread out of these, I really can't say...I don't want to say...Because I will be mad at myself when I'm not done in a year, guilt and all.  Ahh, to be one's harshest critic...It's really not the life.