Pretty Darn Great

Definitely Ambrosia

I hadn't had Ambrosia Salad in forever. I could remember that sweet semi-solid salad of marshmallow and canned fruit from my childhood (in school lunches? from family potlucks?) but couldn't tell you when the last time I'd had it been. And I'd certainly never made it as an adult.

But a while back I wanted to make a not-too-difficult From-the-South dessert and looking through The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook found a recipe for the stuff and decided to give it a go. It was ridiculous easy.

(Above) First you add the fruit

(Above) Then you add the marshmallows and coconut

Add in the sour cream and put it in the fridge for a while the viola - its done. And completely delicious, as well as thoroughly unhealthy (canned fruit not-withstanding). But totally worth it.

(Above) Ambrosia - done and delicious!

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Recipe: Ambrosia Fruit Salad from the The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook (ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3275-8) 

Notes: The pineapple chunks were pretty big, out of the can, so I did chop them into quarters so they were about te same size as the cherries and mandarin oranges.

Watermelon-Mint-Feta Goodness

Had a very tasty watermelon-feta salad a few weeks ago and was curious to try making it myself. With a package of still-fine feta that wasn't getting any fresher, a very large mint plant, and about 8 million watermelons available at the store the time seemed right.

(Above) The ingredients gathered up

Chopped up half the watermelon into 1/2-inch pieces, yielding about 8 cups and a juicy mess, then wiped up the watermelon and chopped up the mint. When making the salad tried some different proportions, my favorite was: 4 cups watermelon, 1/3 cup feta, 1 tbsp chopped mint, salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

(Above) The very tasty end result

May add some more feta next round, but wow was this good and just about the amount of effort I can expend on a lazy summer sunday!

Bay to Breakers? Check!

I have a list of things I want to accomplish before my birthday this year. And yesterday, running the Bay to Breakers 12K in San Francisco, I got to check one of those things as done!

(Above) With my very heavy medal, at the end of the race

Growing up in the Bay Area I remember hearing about the race every year as a kid, and I think one year back when he was in High School going to see my brother David run in it. I was never much of a runner then but since I've started running the last few years I thought I'd give it a go.

It was so much fun! The course is gorgeous in a San Francisco way - starting near the Embarcadero, winding through city streets, through Golden Gate Park, and then down to the ocean. There's that killer Hayes Hill in mile 2 but most of the course slopes slightly downhill. Watching the people dressed in costumes was fun; they did a lot to cut down on floats and drunk people so it was a pretty tame crowd. I WISH they'd banned nudity - I had to hear miles of complaining of the lack of nude women while averting my eyes from the 10 or so nude men who we passed bouncing around. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

But the best part of the whole thing?  Running the race with my brother.  Appreciated him  staying with slow-pokey me, it was great to get that long time to catch up as we jogged through the city.

(Above) My brother David and I at the finish line

Afterwards our folks took us to Fentons (delicious old-school ice cream parlor over in Oakland) for post-race sandwiches and ice cream. David's boys tried on the race medals, my father made sure Everyone at the restaurant knew that we'd run the race, and I snagged some toasted almond ice cream; a thoroughly wonderful time was had by all.

 

Interested in trying out it for yourself?

Where: Bay to Breakers 12K, in San Francisco CA (http://zazzlebaytobreakers.com/)

When: The next one is on May 20, 2012

Warnings: Registration does tend to fill up early but as of right now with registration nowhere near open you have pleeeeeeeeeenty of time. In the meantime head over to Fentons (4226 Piedmont Avenue / Oakland, CA || http://www.fentonscreamery.com/) and grab a sundae.

Making Cascarones (Or Ways to Get More Confetti In Your Life)

It's Easter and you're looking for something fun and different to make. Or maybe you like surprising people in your life with showers of small pieces of paper scattered all over their heads and shoulders (and clothes, and shoes, and floor and etc etc etc). Either way, consider making some cascarones.

(Above) Some cascarones, filled with surprise and confetti

So what are these things? Emptied and dyed eggs, filled with confetti, sealed off with some tissue paper.  Once their done up, their whole reason for being is to be cracked over some unsuspecting person's head. Hilarity ensues. And probably relief, since if the person thinks they're getting beaned by a raw (or even a cooked) egg I imagine one filled with relatively harmless confetti would be a step up.

They're not quick, but they are easy to make.

Step One - Empty out the eggs. I used a knife to start a hole at one end, making sure the hole is big enough to let the egg out whole. You can use the eggs whole or separated for recipes, of course since here all you care about are those empty shells.

(Above) Holding an egg with a too small hole

Step Two - Wash and Clean Out the Eggs. Once they're emptied, rinse the eggs out with water. You may also want to use your finger to fish in the eggs and remove the membrane clinging to the inside then give another quick rinse.

(Above) Egg all clean, index finger with the membrane

Step Three - Dye the eggs. Made up some green and blue egg dye (3/4 cup hot water, 1 tbsp white vinegar, and a bunch of food coloring), because I had brown eggs I left the eggs in for a long long time. Because the eggs are hollow they'll float so gently push them in the dye until they fill so that they'll get more completely covered. Leave in the dye until they're the color you want. carefully take them out  (emptying the dye from inside them).

(Above) Dye-ing away

Step Four - Let Them Dry. I put the eggs on the ends of cocktail stirrers, put the stirrers in a short glass, and let the eggs dry overnight. The next morning they were looking cute and ready to go.

Step Five - Cut Up Some Confetti. Since I was working with green and blue eggs I made up some very small blue/green/white confetti.

(Above) Dried Dyed Eggs! And Confetti!

Step Six - Fill the Eggs with Confetti. I made up a a funnel out of waxed paper and filled the eggs. Was glad that the confetti was small, since it made it slide in easily!  When each eggs was about 3/4 full I moved onto the next one.

(Above) All Filled Up!

Step Seven - Paste Tissue Paper Over the End(s). I cut out small squares of tissue paper (small enough to not overwhelm the egg, large enough to cover the hole), applied glue stick to the paper, and pasted it over the end of the egg. I used two layers of tissue paper pasted over each other, contrasting colors offset at 90-degrees.

(Above) Mid paste, one layer on one to go

Was going to leave it with only one end covered but my artistic accomplice recommended pasting the squares at both ends. Since I didn't take his earlier suggestion to use the eggs as clown noses  I decided to give it a shot. Am glad I did, it balanced them out well.

Step Eight - Enjoy! Haven't broken any of these babies yet, almost don't want to. Planning on giving one or two to my god son, maybe taking one to the party I'm going to tonight,  and hiding the rest for my own use. Because, really, if anyone's going to be surprised by ones of these being cracked over their head I don't want it to be me!

(Above) The cascarones, looking cute and complete!

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Instructions: Followed the instructions from Prudent Baby (http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/04/how-to-make-cascarones-confetti-eggs.html)

Warnings: For the love of puppies don't use brown eggs! Mine look pretty but way more subdued than I'd like.

Tweet! Tweet!

Not Twitter, darlings, but another excursion into Paint by Numbers!

You'd have thought I'd learned my lesson from my experiment with the form last year. Truth is though maddening it was fun and completely satisfying in the way that only something highly focused can be.Sure the lines and colors are set out but even if you're basically following the plan there are so many potentially interesting digressions and variations.

So this time its a scene is of a couple of yellow and gray birds, in a blooming tree on a spring day.  The starting point?  A piece of very detailed printed posterboard, a mess of paint pots, and a brush I can already see won't be up to the challenge.

(Above) Ready to apply that first bit of paint

Will post pics as I go; Hope to finished in the next couple of weeks. Was told by my favorite art connoisseur that I wouldn't be able to pull the same don't-paint-the-animals dodge in this painting as I did in the last but of course I completely reserve the right to do so.

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Pattern, Materials: Its the Goldfinches Paint-by-Number Kit, available from Herrschners (http://www.herrschners.com/Product/Goldfinches+PaintbyNumber+Kit.aspx)

Warnings: Same as before - Don't stress, you'll have plenty of paint; Remember to rinse your brushes after using them (they don't do well when left in paint overnight); Be prepared for it to take a while; Be prepared to get a little addicted.

 

Hairdo for a Frida Kahlo Costume - Check!

I have thick hair. Really. It takes my hairstylist about 35 minutes to blow dry it (I don't even bother trying on my own) and if its not seriously thinned out my ponytail is as thick as my wrist. And most of the time I adore it. But the part I don't? The thing that's been a source of frustration since I was a little girl? The way that it braids up.

(Above) Hair down

(Above) And braided up

When your hair is thinner the length of your hair and of braids is about the same. But when its thick, all that hair needing to be wrapped takes up a lot of length. There's no way around it - thick hair means fat noticably shorter braids. And while that was a drag when I was a little girl envying other girls' long braids, its even more frustrating for dying-to-try-that-Heidi-braid-hairstyle me.

Still, determined to to make it work and armed with a very helpful tutorial from Refinery29 I gave it a go. I was able to do the braids of course, and juuuuuust got them to meet at the top of my head.

(Above) First look

But within seconds a bit peeped out from one of the braids.

(Above) Emergent strands

And we won't even talk about the foolishness at the top of my head.

(Above) Lots of bobby pins and flyaway strands

Though this 'do makes me look like I'm about to break into some Mexican Folk Dancing, I'm definitely going to keep practicing with it as a nice alternative to a bun for work or other circumstances where I don't want to think about my hair for the day. Because goodness knows with the number of bobby pins I had to put in my hair, I'm not planning on taking it down until absolutely necessary.

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Instructions: Have seen a variety of them online, but the recent one from Refinery29 (http://www.refinery29.com/the-perfect-summer-braid-we-can-t-wait-to-try) for me.

Warnings: Have lots of bobby pins on hand; Don't be dismayed if your braids don't really meet (and if your hair is shorter than mine and they do, don't tell me!)

From Mixtapes to Mix CDs - The Wonder of Valentines Mixes

Have a long tradition of making and receiving valentines mixes; I organized an exchange of them this year because hadn't done it in a couple of years and frankly a radio diet exclusively of NPR news doesn't bring a ton of new music into my life.  So if you a) live in my apartment building and b) are one of the people who I'm doing a Valentines Mix CD exchange with you got one of these lovelies looped over your doorknob today.

(Above) A bunch of the CDs, ready for delivery

Had originally planned on doing a mix that was half would-love-you-to-stay and half for-goodness-sakes-just-leave songs but decided to be valentines optimistic and made a mix of songs about that wonderful terrifying thrilling feeling of juuuuuust falling for someone. It makes me happy to hear it. And so far from friends have received a mixes ranging from Country Love Songs to one about Having Sex on the Floor of a European Dance Club. Can't wait to see what my creative friends will deliver next...

The Best $30 I've Spent In A Long Time

Have been on the search for reasonably priced light-up reindeer, found this 6.5 foot tree on walmart.com for $30 and figured for the price it was worth a shot. Got home ridiculous late tonight and even then when I saw it arrived of course had to put it together immediately.

Oh. My. Goodness. It's so damn resplendent. Amazing. Staggering in a so very fake way.

(Above) In its fully lit glory

Was totally easy to put together, from box to lights-on was under 10 minutes (and that was me being very deliberate).

(Above) Packaged up

(Above) Bottom layer on

Love love love this thing. Since most of my ornaments are left over from my 1970's childhood they'll fit right in on it. Can't wait to put them on tomorrow - though am itching to do it now not even I can justify staying up half the night to decorate....

(Above) Angel on!

Biscochito Baking Saturday!

Had a delicious Saturday thanks to darling Donna - we spent the early part of the afternoon enjoying a dessert buffet over at Citronelle, and then the rest of the afternoon baking oodles of biscochitos.

(Above) Donna taking a sec to pose, mid cookie assembly

As I said earlier, biscochitos are a New Mexican christmas cookie, sort of a shortbread with anise. Different families have their own recipes and we used her aunt's.  The recipe was written in a  combination of English, Regular Spanish, and New Mexican Spanish, moving between the three throughout.  There was no oven temperature or cooking times given so we made a guess.

(Above) Me with one of our many sheets of cookies

Since the recipe was made with 2 cups shortening and 7 cups flour, making about 8 billion cookies, we had plenty of chances to try out different cookie thicknesses, baking times, and cookie sheet arrangements.

Some (thankfully only half of one tray) didn't work out.

(Above) In case you were wondering, the back part of my oven runs hotter than the front

But the vast majority did.

(Above) The multiple cooking racks levels of cookies left even after Donna took her cut

The cookies are absolutely delicious. Crunchy and melty and not too anise-ish. These will definitely be on the menu for Three Kings Day this year.

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Recipe: A recipe from Donna's aunt.

Modifications: None; baked them at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Warnings: They're good as are but next time will either crush or grind the anise next time so they're more flavorful and less seed-ish.

Really Good Butternut Squash Soup

A couple of Sundays ago spent the day cooking for a very pregnant dear friend of mine.  A gang of us got together to make meals to freeze so that they had easy things to heat up and eat once the baby was born.  One of the things we made?  Some really delicious looking butternut squash soup. 

So when I saw some butternut squash on sale at the market I picked a couple up and got to roasting.

(Above) The squash, ready to bask in the oven

(Above) And afterwards, prepped to puree

Used the same recipe as the group of us made - easy to follow, only required some chicken stock, nutmeg, and milk (all of which I already had on hand at home). Took only a short time to make and was delicious.

(Above) Lunch!

(Above) And the extra soup for later

 

Interested in trying your own hand at it?

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup from Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Butternut-Squash-Soup-1181)

Modifications: None, other than I may have used a little more squash than called for (am not entirely sure).

Warnings: None, it was totally easy!