Orange To Eat and Wear

Happy Sunday!

Spur-of-the-moment salad I threw together made with grated carrots and broccolini lightly sauteed in olive oil and garlic, topped with orange wedges, served on a bed of spring greens, and dressed with a splash of my homemade herb vinegar (fresh oregano, thyme and red wine vinegar). Yum-yum!

This reminded me of some of the jewelry I've made that had orange in them. It's a color I seldom use but does give some drama when I do get to use it. So here's the orange stuff to wear!


What have you done with orange, lately?

My Life In Herbs...and Beads!

The days have been gorgeous and definitely relaxing. I'm enjoying this summer more than the past summers. My herb "garden" (in-a-pot!) has been flourishing that I've been using fresh herbs in my cooking almost everyday. My son was a skeptic at first ("o-oh, Mom's experimenting again.") but he's now convinced that Mom knows best as evidenced by the delicious meals he's eaten!

Let me introduce you to the herb "garden." I've got cilantro (my favorite!), french tarragon, lemon thyme, golden sage, rosemary, lemon balm and greek oregano. I've tied a bunch and started to test drying them. So far looks good.I decided to do some herb vinegars as well. I have rosemary, sage and garlic in apple cider vinegar. I also did a bottle of the thyme and a sprig of oregano in red wine vinegar. I love red wine vinegar. I prefer red in my vinegars and white in my alcohol!

So from the pot to the bottle, here are my babies! Hmmm, wondering what recipes I will use these herb vinegars in.Later this week, I'll do some in olive oil and sunflower or grape seed oil. I haven't decided what concoctions I'll do.

Oh, yes, I do continue to bead. I'm not working on specific projects, more like mental doodling. I'm mostly doing practice work and trying to conceptualize new techniques. Where it takes me would be another adventure!

Heavenly Hummus

I know this shot is totally unappetizing but just to let you
know I didn't get a chance for a food shot because my guests
just scooped the hummus straight from this container.
So this is "bottom of the barrel" shot so to speak :)

Hello! Here's the recipe for hummus I promised to share.

INGREDIENTS
2 cans chickpeas (I prefer to drain and rinse the chickpeas)
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon
1-3 large cloves garlic, peeled (number of cloves depends on how much you love garlic. I do 3 but that might be too strong for most people)
2 tsp. sesame seeds
3-4 shakes of ground cumin
2-3 shakes of paprika (I like spanish paprika or pimenton)
1/4 c. water
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro or parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend on low speed or pulse depending on your machine's capability. You may need to stop at intervals to push down the ingredients. If the mix is too dry, dribble in some olive oil or water (whichever you prefer. I love olive oil so that what I would use). I suggest adding a tablespoon at a time of the liquid so you don't make a mistake and end up with too watery mix. Be patient. I like to blend it to the same consistency as peanut butter.

When done, scrape the mixture on to a serving bowl. You can garnish it by dribbling just a bit of olive oil on top, a light sprinkling of paprika and the parsley.

Serve with corn chips or pita bread. I like to take pita pockets, toast them in a toaster and slice them like pizza. Then your guests can spread the hummus in the pita pockets slices and munch away!

You may also notice that I skipped the Tahini in this recipe. I didn't find any in my local grocer and didn't have the patience to run from store to store. You can make your own tahini by blending lightly toasted sesame seeds with olive oil in a food processor. You'll need to get the right proportion between seeds and oil in order to create the right pasty consistency. Again, adding the liquid little by little as you blend it is better than ending up with a watery tahini mixture.

Have fun!

De-Tox!

My best friend from college, Cheryl, finally got a chance to come and visit me. Her last trip here to the US was about 4 1/2 years ago. She stayed over from Monday and left yesterday. Her son, Sean, who had formed a bond with my son, Iggie, was also here so the two had a marathon of gaming and whatever teens do on the internet these days that don't get them into trouble. Needless to say it was endless chatting for Cheryl and me, trying to catch up on the latest news. We had marathon chit-chats from early mornings till late nights with the usual eating binges and glasses of pinot grigio, reisling, cabernet sauvignon and morning mimosas!

Today, I'm trying to be good and put my eating back on track. I got out my juicer and citromatic. I juiced the oranges and the apples, strawberries and grapes went into the juicer. Heavenly breakfast!

For lunch I had homemade hummus (I'll share the recipe later this week), avocado, broccoli sprouts, lettuce, sesame seeds and tomatoes in a whole wheat wrap. I didn't think of taking a picture of that one, sorry :)

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and Mike wants to take me to my favorite Italian restaurant so the eating will take another step back but it will be worth it!

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms out there!

Foodie-licious

In an effort to satiate my teenager's ever growing palate, I try to come up with new recipes. I have never been the type to looks at cookbooks and follow recipes to the tee. More often, I would embellish or make up an ingredient or method on my own. Hmmm...almost sounds like I'm talking about my beadwork.

At any rate, back to recipe talk. I thought I'd share this one with you. It's a completely original recipe. I often look at what I have in the fridge and pantry and put them together. For lack of a better name this dish is hereby dubbed "Everything Italian Italian Sausage." It started because I just want to do a dish using Italian sausage and have other Italian ingredients and, of course, cooked in about half an hour.

Everything Italian Italian Sausage

5-6 Italian Sausages (sweet, mild or hot depending on your taste. I used sweet for this recipe)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cans sliced mushrooms
3-4 tablespoons white beans (canned)
1 14 oz. can Contadina Stewed tomatoes
2 tablespoons Italian Dressing
Oregano
Parsley
Celery salt and pepper to taste
1 can black olives, quartered

In a large deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Brown the sausages whole just to get them started. The objective is to just brown and firm up the sausages so you can easily slice them into bite size pieces for the dish. After slicing the sausages, return them to the skillet. Add the onions. Brown some more until the onions are slightly caramelized and the sausages are brown on all sides.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the skillet. Stir to blend all ingredients. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Serving suggestions:
· Serve over pasta
· Serve with garlic bread on the side
· You can also add some cabbage to the dish

Bon Apetit!