Zero 7 - Ghost Symbol

one of my favorite blogs to visit is askforthemoon...lately Anna has had these fabulous little posts about songs and the most visceral part of it...i think its kind of cool...especially since i post a lot of music here too...anyway... this song makes me want to write tragic stories...it really does make my heart ache when i hear it...

here are the lyrics: whenever I'm staying you're going away...i learned to part with a smile on my face...now I'm too good at letting go...too easy to say no....

Dishes

I was cleaning the glass shelves of my dish and glass cabinet...

And i thought...how pretty does this look?

I know...its kind of weird taking photos of glasses and dishes...but who said i wasnt weird...

hope your weekend is going well!

Hey Turkey Lips

Thanks to everyone who sent me turkey wishes...i hope your day was lovely too...here is my mom's plate from last night...i did the cooking...just simple dishes...maybe i will try something fancy next year...

Never Tear Us Apart - Beck

I heard this cover on one of my favorite blogs...KnowThyself...james always has something insightful to say... inxs always reminds me of the 80s....so today while checking my facebook i took a quiz for my totally rad 80s boyfriend...you know who i got???? freaking paul reubens aka pee wee herman...it is kind of funny though...i thought maybe i would get john taylor from duran duran... one of the questions was do you like your man with makeup(john wore makeup maybe not like nick rhodes but he did) and another inquired if you would like your date to have a grey suit...check...john taylor did...and then voila paul reubens...thats what i get from taking a fb quiz!

moody

It was dark cold and rainy this weekend...so i baked shortbread with toasted almonds....
no there wasnt any left by the time actual night arrived...

recipe adapted from gourmet

1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted almond

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup superfine sugar

2 cups flour

cream together softened butter sugar vanilla and salt...then add flour in gradually until a soft dough forms...mine didnt really look like a dough it was a little dry and crumbly....so i placed it into an ungreased tart pan and with a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of it smashed that puppy in there until it was evenly spread out inside of the pan...i then place most of the almonds across the top and baked in a preheated 350 f oven...it took mine about 45 minutes but i think my oven is not getting as hot as it used to so you make bake your in less time...the shortbread should be a golden brown color...let cool in pan on a rack for about 15 minutes....finally remove from tart pan and have fun eating or photographing! oh and i didnt score mine i just cut it like a pie with a very sharp knife!! let me know what you think if you bake it!!!

Quantic - The 5th Exotic

Hope your weekend is smmmoooth like this....

Projects and Nieces

Daniel let the girls make succulent pots....they had a very good time doings this....how cute are they?

Cake and Pizza

I made a pineapple upside down cake with pecans for the girls on saturday....

Needless to say....it was only a hit with daniel and i....

But the girls loved making their own pizzas....i made meyer lemon red onion rosemary and Parmesan ones with whole wheat dough....daniel's is the one with gratuitous amounts of feta mozzarella caramelized onions and garlic....can you say yum?

The girls made basic cheese ones....

I wish had some now....the lemon pizza was REALLY good too!

we had leftovers with breakfast the next day....so fun!

Here is the recipe for the cake if you would like

for the caramel portion of the cake

1 stick of unsalted butter and one cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

fresh pineapple or canned (drained)

cake

3 cups regular cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1c whole milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 sticks butter

4 large egg yolks

1 whole peeled pineapple cut up how you like it (core removed)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chopped pineapple(leftovers from the whole pineapple)

melt butter and add brown sugar on a medium heat stirring until smooth. I poured this into a buttered and floured 9x13 glass baking dish. Then place your pineapple pieces or rings on your mixture and sprinkle your pecans around.

Cream your butter and sugar in your mixer or how ever you personally do that. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until fluffy. In a large mixing bowl, mix or sift all your dry ingredients together. Then add your milk and dry ingredients in 3 batches beginning and end with flour mixture until combined this is when I also fold in chopped pecan and leftover chopped pineapple( i try to make sure the pineapple is not to wet or juicy). I bake this cake in my convection oven at 350 f for about 50 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out not wet with batter and the cake is firm in the middle. If you stick it in too far you will hit the caramel mixture. When done cool on a rack for about 15 minutes. Then I use an offset spatula to loosened the cake around the edges and carefully flip out on a baking sheet or you could use a large platter. I put the sheet on top pf the baking dish and flip. Sometimes the cake sticks but what can you do? Sometimes we just eat it out of the pan with out the flip. You could also split the batter up in non stick round cake pans too. The cake is very soft and delicate and great with coffee. So invite the girls or guys over and get cooking. Let me know what happens if you try this! Enjoy!

Nujabes - Psychological Counterpoint

Here is some cool music for a cool day...rest in peace sir....

Art Projects

This past weekend my oldest nieces came to spend the weekend with us....

Here are some projects they worked on....the above is my daughter's monster....

The girls made flowers and we glued them to nice paper....i think they did a really great job....i told them for christmas i would frame them for them....more to come!!!

September

During the harvest moon in september....

We went to the park....

And had a moonlight picnic...i grilled pork tenderloin and homemade flat breads and brought 2 different roasted vegetable salads...we had fun and i cant believe i forgot to post these pictures...

Election

Yesterday when i logged into my pc i clicked on an article about obama on the election....the disturbing thing about this were the comments left behind....its amazing how openly hateful people are when they are thinking themselves anonymous....its these times when i am embarrassed by the citizens of our nation....its one thing to not like someones policies but to be so nasty and personal....it makes me wonder how far we have come as a nation and how our bigotry is just sitting there silently waiting for a moment to be revived because some people feel comfortable bringing it out into the open because they like stirring the big pot of ugliness for the all mighty dollar....why oh why are people so afraid of the other....its just plain sad....here is one of my favorite bob marley songs...enjoy!

The Winner Is....

Bekah....congratulations....you are the proud owner of my screenprinted bag!!!!!
I will email you tomorrow!