Friday, February 29, 2008

Comfort Food: Squash Soup

I've had a crazy week, so last night on the way home I decided the perfect dinner after a series of long long days would be blended curry squash soup.

In my head, I called it comfort food. But, that got me thinking about what that phrase really means- the last comfort food post I had was on peanut butter cookies I remember making as a kid, which seems more like canonical comfort food- its from my childhood, its sugary and fatty and delicious, and its definitely a treat. This soup is not like anything my mother ever made me, its not fatty or unhealthy or even particularly treatlike, but its one of my go-to recipes whenever I want something yummy that takes just enough work to make you feel like you cooked, but not so much you can't muster the energy when you're tired. Maybe as an adult, thats one form of this kind of comfort... learning how to put in just enough effort, in just the right direction, on your own behalf to make yourself feel better.

At any rate, whatever it is... here's the soup!
Basically, there are millions of versions of it, everyone I know has their own. Mine starts with a coarsely diced onion, coarsely diced granny smith apple, a whole bunch of ginger, some curry powder, salt, cayenne, and a dash of cinnamon. Brown it all in some oil.

Then... the squash. Butternut, acorn, just something yellow. Usually I throw in a sweet potato, too (but today I forgot).

After chopping up the squash, cover with water, and boil until soft. Once its soft, throw it in the blender and mash it up- I like to only blend it just enough, it tastes good just a bit chunky.

And after that all thats left to do is... enjoy!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Website Wednesday: Cat Cam

Woops, so, this one is going up slightly late...

This one has been around for a while, but its still awesome... this guy has affixed a camera to his cat (Mr. Lee), to see what he is up to. Its pretty amazing, the main thing that seems crazy to me is the quantity of cats he sees during the day! Who knew?

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/index.htm

(I could do this to Charlotte, but I'm pretty sure it would document things like, food bowl, litter box, couch, food bowl, couch, window, food bowl, couch, and so on...)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I've been tagged!

Ok, I've been tagged by bananaheadpancake... here are 7 random things...

1. I'm a tagging newbie, this is my first time ever! I have no idea what to do! yikes!

2. I love good margaritas, and even am one the holders of our secret family margarita recipe (because who's most likely to have a family margarita recipe? a crazy pack of Norwegians, yep). In addition to margaritas, beverage-wise, I love hefeweizen and coffee.

3. My first moviestar crush was on Steve Guttenberg, followed not long after by Crocodile Dundee, because apparently as a 10 year old I had not only unusual, but widely varied, taste in men.

4. I have an obsession with flip-flops. You can never have too many.

5. Even though I'm usually pretty patient, sometimes I only fill up my car's gas tank part way because I get SO BORED waiting I can't stand it.

6. I love animals. Besides my lovely Charlotte, I really love dogs, and I REALLY love basset hounds. I have been known to cross streets to pet basset hounds.

7. I do yoga, pilates, tae-bo, and a number of hilarious other forms of exercise in the middle of my living room. I live in a studio apartment, so this is at great risk to my tv and pretty much anything else I own, but I can't resist Billy Blanks!

Ok, I'm going to pass the buck to... BlahBlahBlah, Field Notes from an Evolutionary Psychologist, secret life of daydreams, Pointless Nostalgic, Paint Floats, TheVintageZoo, DharmaDesigns

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Sunday Shopping Alert: Alicia Block

I've been admiring this artists work for a while now, so she will be this week's feature! Alicia Block is a self-taught photographer from Michigan, who's been on etsy for quite a while now. I think her photographs are really beautiful... they have a very haunting, graceful, nostalgic quality to them that is really unique.

This is one I particularly like-- it is called 'Incomplete'...


You can see more of Alicia's work at her etsy shop or at her website

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Makeover!

Well, my crafty life has undergone a makeover, courtesy of a massive bout of spring cleaning and a new table from Craigslist! Here is the old area where I kept my stuff-- I have a studio apartment, space is tight! (of course, this picture is also taken on the messiest day ever)...

AND... here is my new work area! Taaaa-daaa!


See? Much better! And, in honor of that, I made some new earrings- I liked them so much I made one for me and one for etsy!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Mermaid Spirals

I've had these stones for quite a while, but never used them because I wasn't sure about their crackly appearance. But, while going through my random leftover supplies a few weeks ago, I ran across them again and thought I'd see how they looked in context... and, I love how they turned out- something about the silver wire and the sort of rustic looking texture make me feel like they're seaglass even though they are quartz. They got their name because they remind me of something that would have fallen off an old ship, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and been kept for years and years by a sea nymph or mermaid (because yes, it turns out, sometimes my imagination is cheezy like that).

So, cheezy story or not, here they are in all their glory, and you can see more about them at my shop...

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Website Wednesday: The Fail Blog

Ok, here is the next regular feature to hit the presses... I'm going to feature different websites... blogs, cartoons, games, news stories, whatever. At least until I run out...

First up is one of my favorites, it is called the Fail Blog, and it is reliably hilarious. Check it out, you'll see...

http://failblog.wordpress.com

Sunday Shopping Alert: PurposeDesign

I've decided to start a few regular features on here... this is the first one to make an appearance: the Sunday Shopping Alert. This is going to be a weekly feature of different etsy sellers who's stuff I like (admire, covet, want as gifts, etc).

First up is purposedesign, a seller from Montreal. Her work combines functional cooking supplies with great design- my favorite are the test tube spice racks-- the spicelab rack and spicelab bar (well really, I'm a scientist who likes to cook, what else could I ask for). Here is the spicelab, and below is the etsymini... check it out!



Springtime Pendant

Continuing my obsession with vintage chandelier prisms, I made a new pendant a few weeks ago. Its pretty different than my other pieces, but I like it. It has the same smokey coppery pearls I used in my last necklace, but where they look almost like metallic brass rivets in that piece with the dark wood, here with the prism they almost have a lavender-ish tone, which was an unexpected surprise. I think they look almost like little branches with buds on them... perfect for spring!



(you can see more about it here at my etsy shop)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentines Day!


In honor of this (basically non-eventful) day, I made Red Velvet Cupcakes to take to work. For whatever reason, there was no Red Velvet cake mix at the store (I like to bake, but I'm a cake mix kind of girl), so I used plain vanilla, put some cocoa powder in it, and then started to add food coloring. I have to say, it takes a spectacular amount of food coloring to turn that much batter red. Not to mention, that, given the teeny size of my kitchen, there appear to be random spatters of red EVERYWHERE. But, all in the name of dessert (and, as I read somewhere today, desserts is just stressed spelled backwards).

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Change it up...

So, you might or might not notice a small change in the scenery around here... besides the fact that its all reorganized and differently colored, I had to learn to edit html to force blogspot to put a column on both sides of the page, which I'm quite proud of (well I didn't learn to do much, but I did learn to follow these instructions but hey, either way.).

Shortly thereafter, I learned via the etsy forums that papyrus, my banner font of choice, is apparently the most cliche and overdone font of all time and everyone who knows anything hates it. Well, I'm not usually one to buckle to this kind of peer pressure but there was such a massive ourpouring of papyrus-bashing, I went out into the big world (beyond my built in drop down menu and into the internets on http://www.dafont.com/), and found my very own new favorite (Japanese brush... on my new banner). Man alive, certainly wouldn't want to have a lame font!

So, with all the changes, I'm feeling pretty spiffy!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

The Accidental Photographer

This is kind of funny, the other night I needed to take a picture of these earrings to show a customer, and since it was dark out I couldn't use my usual photo set up. So, I took this on the top of my laptop (silver mac), on the coffee table, in the glow of the TV. Of course, since I didn't plan it, put almost no effort into it, and probably can't re-create it, it came out way cooler than the rest of my photos! Ah well, at least I have this one!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Tiger Wood

I ordered these awesome ebony tiger wood beads a few weeks ago, and have been waiting to figure out just what to do with them. I ended up combining them with these dyed freshwater pearls I have, and love how it turned out. I especially like how the pearls are side drilled, so that they are all offset from each other. There is something about the tone of the pearls that almost makes them look like metalic rivets, giving this sort of industrial feel to it even though all the materials are natural. I really want to keep it, but have resisted, and listed it here...

Friday, February 1, 2008

Something to Procrastinate with

So, this website turns out to be a little addictive... you can see how fast you type, and it keeps updating you when you get a personal best, and tells you how fast you go as you go. I know, I know, this sounds like it might not take that long. And it won't, if you're not ridiculously stubborn and competitive (like some people around here), in which case you won't be able to stop.

http://www.keybr.com/

Needless to say, I'm hooked.

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