7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi

So, I Bought These Socks....

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You know how the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that?
Well, I bought these socks. 
Let me back up. I'm angry at all my socks. 
I walk about 100 miles per week. 
And for about 90 of those miles, my terrible ankle socks are slipping off my ankle and down underneath my heel in a big knot that makes me stabby. No matter what brand I've bought over the last few years, after a few washings, they all turn into the amazing disappearing sock. It's maddening.
The ones that don't slide go too high up on my ankle so that my weird tan lines are even weirder. What happened to good elastic/lycra/whatever that kept your sock on your foot? Probably the same thing that happened to cotton shoelaces that stayed tied and leaded gasoline. 
I ordered some new socks on Amazon last week - Nike socks - and I received them and they looked great. They were all bound together with that little plastic stick thingy, so I just broke that sucker and threw them all in the washer without looking at them. 
Then I tossed them in the dryer.
Then I realized my horrific mistake.
When I opened the dryer, I happily picked out Nike sock #1 with a pink swoosh. Then I reached for Nike sock #2.
OMG.
It had a blue swoosh.
I HAD PURCHASED SIX PAIRS OF SOCKS DESIGNED TO GO THEIR MISMATCHED SOCK WAYS BY DESIGN.
WHYYYYYY? Why not just make them all the same color so that if I had two socks on I was good to go? Why must you complicate my already complicated laundry/sock mismatched life with this wrinkle? Why do you hate me, sock people?
Socks should be two by two, no matter what.
Like on the ark. Pin ItDesigner: Lydia FiedlerStamps: Two by Two, Itty Bitty BannersPaper: Whisper White, Fan Fair DSPInk: MementoTouch Markersbg3 bg5 y36 br101 B182 bg178 R4 f124 b63 yr23 y34Accessories: Bitty Banners Framelits, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Two Way Glue, Poppy Parade Ribbon
I made this card for both a VSN challenge and for the Touch Twin Color Challenge - I focused on the aqua, of course. 
I love this sweet new stamp and the banners and matching framelit. I had SO much fun coloring this and adding a teeny bit of glitter. 
So nice to play with things that match. That have a natural pair. Unlike my new socks. 
Oh. PS - I really like the socks. But if you see someone with a pink swoosh and a blue swoosh, please just politely look away. 
Loveyameanitbye.

Today - a Bunch of Scrap

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As many scraps as I have, you'd THINK I'd use more of them to make all those fun CAS scrap happy cards you see all over Pinterest.

But do I?

Only when someone tells me to.

Like Jeanne.

Today's Free For All Friday challenge is to use scraps, so by golly I did!

I used a scrap of Fan Fair DSP from the new catty and the shockingly lovely Stippled Blossoms set to make a quick and easy CAS card. I made it 6 x 6 to accommodate three of those pretty flowers, which are stamped with Tangerine Tango and Early Espresso. See how amazing the coverage is with the new firm foam pads on DSP? Remember how hard it used to be to stamp on DSP? No more, people - we are liberated! The greeting is from Friendly Phrases.
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Got a load of scrap? Come play along in the challenge. I'd love to see someone else's scrap for a change. :)

Loveyameanitybye.

Bored? Well, get some inner resources!

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There were some long, involved discussions this weekend in social media on the topic of childhood, kicked off by this article, called Spoiled Rotten.

It's really an amazing article and got very strong reactions from all my friends.

Many of our observations were the same. For example, when I was little, if my parents had people over, we were sent upstairs for the duration of the event. We were not running around jostling margaritas out of people's hands or pawing the olive tray. Adult events were for adults, and children were elsewhere. Now, that is not the custom.

We were also not really part of the conversation if we were in public with my parents and other adults. They had adult conversations and we either talked to the other miniature humans present or just hushed. :)

There were tons of kid-centric events - it wasn't like we lived in the kid gulag, but there was a very distinct border between adult life and kid life, especially in public.

One of my friends said "we understood we weren't the center of the universe, our parents were." They were, after all, the ones providing us with the Matchbox Cars and Stretch Armstrong, so it seemed quite fair at the time.

We were also expected to go amuse ourselves in the summer and other non-school periods until such time as we were fit to be paid to do something.

The same friend said that if she declared she was bored her father would respond: "Bored? Well - get some inner resources!"

Can you THINK of a better piece of advice for ANY human than that?

That should be on a monument somewhere.

It's funny, because in the tweet before she told me that, I saw this quote come through...


“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ― Maya Angelou

Isn't that the truth? I think artists get this because we get into self perpetuating frenzies of creating from time to time. Usually this ends up in some sort of massive shopping spree as well (cough - holiday mini - cough) but we understand how being creative makes us more creative with our very DNA.

This is the thing that a "run off and play" childhood gave me, in my opinion. I created a lot of my universe, and I do still to this day. And it makes me very, very happy.
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Stamps: Life SharedPaper: Watercolor Paper, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Fan Fair DSPInk: Midnight Muse, Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Brilliant Blue, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Pacific Point, Pool PartyAccessories: Paintbrush, Dazzling Diamonds, Tacky SprayTechniques: Frosting

Now go outside and play.

Loveyameanitbye.

Declaration of Independence

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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


Pin ItStamps: Pleasant PoppiesInk: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Poppy Parade, VersamarkPaper: Whisper White, Poppy ParadeAccessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Aquapainter
So it is written, and so it shall be.

Happy Independence Day.

LoveAmericameanitbye.


I'll Follow You Until You Love Me...

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If you allow yourself enough time, great revelations will sneak up on you and yell BOOOO! 
Pin ItThese products are sneak peeks from the upcoming Holiday Mini - let me know if you need one! :)Stamps: Googly GhoulsInk: Memento Tuxedo Black, Old OlivePaper: Whisper White, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSPAccessories: Self-adhesive Googly eyes, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, TouchTwin markers: BG3 & BG5
I had just such a moment today. I'm off today and tomorrow so I'm focusing on things that make me happy - walking, stamping, reading. I made this cute little fella after a leisurely food trailer lunch with my sister and brother in law - oh wait - want a picture?

Yes, these are the best tacos in the world.

Anyway, I came home to play with my new Holiday Mini Catalog goodies, and when I had made a card, I went to take a pic and my camera battery was dead.

Insert space-time continuum here. And a little serendipity.

For some strange reason, I decided to listen to something while waiting for my batteries to charge I had previously posted but hadn't heard in a long time, which was this.


I honestly have no idea why I picked this today, but I've always been so drawn to this performance. It's so passionate and perfect. I never saw anything like this in 6th grade, that's for sure. One of the things I love the most though, is that after you get lost in his soulful rendition of the song, (which is pretty less than average when not performed by him) he stands up, and he's just a little boy again. He was completely transformed by the performance, and by his gift.


If you really listen to the words, though, there is a great lesson in there, enhanced by his complete brilliance.


And no - it's not to stalk a celebrity.


It's career advice.


Don't you wish you could go back in time and have someone tell you to follow the things you were most passionate about until they loved you back? Skip all the other stuff and "stalk" what you love? Not let filler jobs or time or space or people get in the way?


I can tell you from personal experience that life is completely different when you do that. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Is there a word stronger than yes? Insert that word here. 


You should go out right now and find a kid to tell that to if there's not one in your own house. If that fails you, tell a grownup.
Life is too short not to stalk what you love. :) Make it love you back. Follow it until it does.
Loveyameanitbye.

5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe

Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Chili Pepper

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The pepper crop from Concord Farms is rolling in, and we've been using them as fast as we can. We have pickled a bunch of jalapeños, used fragrant green bell peppers for the filling of a socca crepe, and been lit on fire by some unidentified pepper that looks a lot like a devil's horn.


We are pepper-rich these days with almost every kind of pepper you can imagine -- except poblanos.  No poblano, no problem-o. This is a dish similar to the ubiquitous "Chili Poblano" you will find on the menu at most Mexican restaurants.We used the light green variety of Anaheim peppers in the place of the poblanos with delicious results. 


Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Chili Pepper

6 Anaheim peppers (about 5 inches long)
1/2 pound smoked Gouda (shredded)
1 cup canola oil (for frying)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Spiced Batter (recipe follows)
Chipotle Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)
sour cream 
Mexican crema (to garnish)
finely chopped pickled jalapeño (optional, to garnish)


Using a paring knife, make a slit all the way down the long end of the pepper without going through to the other side. Gently open the pepper and insert your knife in order to cut the seeds loose from the top of the pepper. Pull out the seeds with your hands. Stuff each pepper loosely with the Gouda cheese. Repeat until all peppers are stuffed. 


In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, heat the canola oil until it shimmers.


Dust each pepper in the flour in order to allow the batter to adhere to the pepper's slick skin. Roll each stuffed pepper one at a time through the Spiced Batter and make sure every surface is covered. (This will keep the cheese from leaking.)


Lay the pepper into the hot oil and allow it to cook for about 2 minutes before turning. Once all sides are golden brown, remove the pepper and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 350-degree oven to keep warm. It's best to fry the peppers in batches of 2 or 3.


To serve, place a spoonful of the Chipotle Tomato Sauce onto the center of a plate, top that with one Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim, and garnish with sour cream and pickled peppers. It goes well with rice and beans on the side.


Spiced Batter

1 egg (beaten)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)


Mix the egg, flour, water, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Use a whisk to work out any lumps. The batter should be thicker than pancake batter.



Chipotle Tomato Sauce 

2 cups chopped Roma tomato
1 smoked chipotle pepper (from a can)
1 cup sweet onion
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

Place the tomato pepper, onion, chili powder, cumin, and tomato paste into the work bowl of your food processor and blend until smooth. Place mixture into a medium pot over medium heat and allow mixture to cook until thickened. Stir the mixture often to prevent the bottom from scorching. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.


eaTABLE Supper Club: June 24, 2012

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What a night! On Sunday, we cooked a 6-course dinner for 16 people under the stars in a beautiful outdoor kitchen. We couldn't have pulled it off without our wonderful hosts, the Fishes, and our friends Margot McNeely of Project Green Fork, who coordinated and decorated, and Jody Moyt, Executive Chef at Owen Brennan's, who kept things calm and moving forward in the kitchen.


This is the third eaTABLE supper club event presented by us here at The Chubby Vegetarian. (We did all-vegan comfort food last fall for comforTABLE. And our first one with a Latin theme back in 2010 was actually the first eaTABLE!) 


It's hard work to prepare and present so many dishes to so many people in an unfamiliar kitchen. It's usually an all-weekend event for us from menu planning to shopping at the farmers markets, to prepping the sauces and ingredients, and then packing, transporting, and unpacking. It's fun, but can be a little head-spinning. Why do we keep doing it? It's simple, really. This particular group of people are such an appreciative audience. They are there for the experience and to try something new, so that is what we wanted to give them.



We called the menu comporTABLE, which means 'appropriate and suitable'. Since we were eating poolside out in the heat, we wanted to keep the food fairly light. Here is what we came up with for the menu:



1. Banh Mi Spring Rolls
Local Shiitake Paté, Cucumber, Do Chao, Sriracha

2. Corn + Fennel Stuffed Squash Blossom 
Grilled Zucchini, Crookneck Sauce, Fennel Pollen


3. Grilled Watermelon Steak
Jewel Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Honey-Lime Vinaigrette

4. Deconstructed Potato Salad
Truffled Grilled Potato, Five-Minute Egg, Pickled Mustard Seed, Greens


5. Chorizo Stuffed Pepper
Chipotle-Tomato Sauce, Corn Nuts


6. Buttered Baguette Ice Cream 
Peach Jam, Gianduja


We had a blast cooking and are so glad that we were asked to participate this time. In other news, we will have information for you this week about another upcoming TCV dinner at an East Memphis restaurant in late July; we would love it if some you would be able to attend!