Green Cabbage Salad

Here is one of my favorite summer salads. It refreshing, tangy, crunchy, spicy, and a little sweet.

It involves green cabbage, green apples, scallions, and almonds.

First, you chop your cabbage...

Next, chop your apple...you could use jicama too if you wanted...I have... then, chop your scallions....

Last, toss your ingredients in a big bowl and add sliced almonds...But wait...you must have some delicious dressing to accompany this salad delight....

Chop finely half of a tablespoon of fresh ginger and half a tablespoon of fresh garlic...add some soy sauce...

Don't forget to add a dollop of your favorite honey....then add your 2 to 1 ratio of vegetable oil and seasoned rice vinegar and some salt and pepper....

Then stir... This is what I get.... Its yummy... I think I'm going to go eat some right now!

Sunday Lunch Indian Style

I love the idea of the Sunday Suppers which is a blog about a cooking class on Sundays. So I wanted to do a Sunday Lunch. I Love the idea of a family and friend meal on Sundays. It seems so old fashioned and communal.Here is my table finally set. We were all pretty hungry.

Here are some ingredients and such I was prepping before hand. What a mess. I need a real photographer when I do something like this.

Here is the table pre-food.

Here are the delicious lambs chops. They were marinated in yogurt, cumin, ginger, turmeric, clove, coriander, and green chili. Then roasted in the oven.

Its fragrant basmati rice with cardamom and clove. Below are sauteed cauliflower,onion, green and red peppers, and turmeric. I love that turmeric yellow.

The condiments might be my favorite parts of Indian food. This is cachumber. Its basically Indian fresh salsa. It has chopped tomatoes, red onion, Serrano chilies, and vinegar. Its good with a lot of other things like scrambled eggs the next morning all wrapped up in naan.

Here is my own cheating chutney. I use apricot jam here because its what I have in my fridge. I heat up a sauce pan hot and then turn it off. I put mustard seed in it, let them pop, and get a little brown. The seeds go everywhere, but its kind of funny. Then I add the jam and seasoned rice vinegar and stir until it all melts while putting on a med/low flame. Then I add red chili flake and heat on low flame for about 5 to 6 minutes. You have to keep an eye on it because it will burn if you are not careful. Then you let it cool.

The chutney goes perfectly with the samosa which were store bought. I like the ones from Fresh and Easy. I know they are store bought, some people think that sucks, but hey I'm 8 months pregnant and my favorite Indian restaurant is 35 miles away. I brush them with olive oil before I put them in the oven. It gives them a crispier texture after baking.

Here are the samosas and a delightful cocktail of fresh mango puree and Asti Spumanti. I had a couple of sips. My Husband and best friend polished off the rest of the drinks. The combinations are so sweet and spicy. This would be a great easy appetizer before going out or a light dinner if you add a salad.

This is the clean up before dessert. My Oh My I certainly look my 8 months pregnant in the background and here is my daughter. Do you think she could stay still so every picture of her is not blurry? Do you think she could keep her clothes on?

Yummy ginger sour cream cookies for dessert! They are soooo super soft and not too sweet. They went perfectly with the mango sorbet. Now this is in no way a traditional Indian dessert just some Indian flavors. I wish I had more right now.

I forgot to include a picture of the spicy dahl which are red lentils with fried spices like cinnamon stick, clove, cardamom, ginger, garlic, and onion. Its probably better because it didn't look so pretty if you know what I mean. The picture in my cook book has them looking yellow orange but mine always look brown afterwards even with the lemon squeeze. I hope you have a Sunday lunch or supper with some people you love or at least go eat some Indian food!

Give Away

There is a give away on Akane's blog from the Etsy shop PodgeHodge. This is the picture I like the most. I love the hair! Here is Akane's banner from Etsy as well! She has some very pretty jewelry. You should visit her blog if you are interested in this contest. Click here to visit here blog!

This is the first time I advertised someones give away. It wasn't so bad. Usually I am pretty lazy if I have to jump through a couple of hoops.

Green Things

Here is a birthday gift I bought for my friend Kristi. It looks more green in person. Lately I have been all about green and its color associates. The pendant is from OliviaMoon on Etsy. She has a great shop. It hurt to give that mermaid necklace away! Oh and there is another image of the mermaid on the other side.

Here is her little lovely all wrapped up in green tissue with a little paper pom I made. I love gift wrapping. I'm a sucker for it...especially if sparkly little tags are involved...speaking of which I haven't finished the ones I keep saying I need to finish... instead Ive been practicing my silk screening skills. Ill show you some photos of that tomorrow...maybe. Speaking of green I wish I had a little more of it...but don't we all.

Naked Ladies

It is naked lady lily time in my garden. They are remnants from the last owners of the property.

This is what I assume. They smell heavenly. I was trying to take pictures but...

My daughter just couldn't help her self and insinuate herself into the photos.

She looks so cute to me. However she couldn't stay still... so the photos of her are blurry.I still think she is pretty though.

I hope you have or can have some naked ladies of your own.

Instead of Finishing Tags...

I made cupcakes. I cheated though. A couple of months ago I bought a discounted mix of Meyer Lemon Cupcake mix for like 64 cents. My oven is both traditional and convection. So I kind of get nervous about using the convection oven.

So for 64 cents this was the perfect experiment! They took 17 minutes. The box said 25 to 30 minutes. So I saved some time.

The frosting was lemon cream cheese. This was homemade. I just cant do store bought frosting...I just wont do it. Anyway they turned out super moist and delicious. Wish you were here to have some.

One More Project Complete

Here are my latest block prints. They are currently drying so I can photograph them for the shop. Next some sparkly little bird tags. I would like to thank Wow Wow Wubzy for keeping my little darling occupied!

What's Been Going on with You?

Well , Sunday my husband tore open his foot and we spent some time at the ER. He is fine. He has just been a little laid up if you will. The good news is we did have some yummy tomatoes and eggplants this week I cant wait to cook 'em up tonight.

I also cleaned up my board. It had old orders and art work posted wherever. So I took that stuff down , added some other art work , and posted a recipe from Sunday Suppers I wanted to try this weekend.

Here is a sampling of my used jars and bottles I plan on using for upcycled containers for flower arrangements.

Here is one of the cutest little succulent terrariums my husband made for me! It has little sedums ,string of pearls, a tiny graptoveria, and little polished rocks. I totally love it. He is so creative.

And finally, here is one of my projects completed. They are 2 more cahiers with floral bursts on the front and backs of them. I need to post them to my etsy shop when I am done here. I hope you all had a nice week and have a good weekend. Hopefully I will be able to post more this weekend as well.

The Free Wedding

Basically a bunch of vendors got together and decided to put a mock wedding on! But in the end

They decided to give it to a real couple.

How freakin lucky is that? I cant tell you how much I love this wedding!

The colors are amazing! Its great inspiration for my 10 wedding anniversary next year.

You can read the story at ONCEWED.

You can also see more photos at OURLABOROFLOVE blog...They did the photographs!

The dresses were also made by SOHOMODE a fellow etsian!

What a beautiful job you all accomplished!

Paper House Treasury

Today I was featured in a treasury! Hooray! It was made by Curious Gravy. It is called Paper House, It featured quite a few block printed cards. The purple lanterns are mine. Here is the link if you wanna check it out! I was also in a different treasury the week my dog died by citycreations...so never got around to posting it.

Bornay...How Lovely You Are...

I sometimes like to click on the peoples comments on other blogs...and when I do Sometimes
I find fantastic little surprises...Like Bornay a florist in Barcelona Spain. They have a beautiful beautiful blog.....

And I think you should check out how truly gorgeous it is...I have and I keep going back and back and back. I am a nerd but that's just going to have to be okay.