Life is in the Details

Everyone needs their own chocolate stash

lisacohen — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:33:00 -0400

I decluttered a bit of space in one of our kitcehn cabinets and now I have easy access to my chocolate stash. No more digging behind bowls to try to get my daily piece (or more than one as has been the case lately <<insert guilty grin and blushing cheeks>>.) The only change from this photo from a few days ago is the Maya Bar is now in Mike's chocolate stash as this is much more his type of bar than mine as it's very orange-y.

How about you? Do you have a chocolate stash? Have you tried the declutter-one-thing-a-day method yet? I love this approachable way of tackling a big project, by the way, and have slowed down my efforts as I'm not really doing one thing a day every day at this point. It's more likely because I've been tackling collections of things. Where I've been spending a bit more time, say 20 minutes instead of 5, reorganizing/spring cleaning, etc. This weekend, I just recycled a whole row of scrapbooking magazines from a bookshelf - so that counts for 50+ actual items if we're really keeping track - that I haven't looked at in years to make way for an unplanned scrapbook album relocation that happened on Friday when we ditched our entryway table (upon which said albums were housed for the last 8 years or so) for a bench where we can sit down to put on our shoes. Our entryway is much less cluttered now and that's so nice to come home to. More on that and other happy home happenings (try saying that 5 times fast) in another post.

Breakfasts Around Here Lately

lisacohen — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:28:07 -0400

My savory green soups for breakfast have been momentarily interrupted to enjoy the signs of spring: asparagus! I can't get enough lately (add artichokes to that list but that's normal for me this time of year). This is so simple... Especially if you already have leftover asparagus, a hard-boiled egg, and a tasty lemon shallot vinaigrette already in the fridge as I did. This particular breakfast was from the other day. The chickpeas were leftover from a big pot of beans that I made too (which will eventually become another version of hummus)... But other mornings I subbed in rosemary roasted potatoes, another time roasted fennel. It's really whatever you happen to have on hand.

Green smoothies have been on the menu for a few weeks too. Yay, warmer weather! I've missed you! Please stay a while!! This morning I made Ryan's favorite for him as usual (chocolate cherry almond butter with spinach - I made his an extra large portion since his teeth were hurting and he was in pain chewing his daily cheese/avocado breakfast burrito... Poor little guy and loose teeth coming out/new back ones coming in) and I made a separate one for me (which I went to bed last night thinking about. Am I the only one who thinks about the next day's breakfast before bed?! Hahaha!).

I used the leftovers from Ryan's smoothie - a small bit wouldn't fit into a leftovers jar - to which I added two big collard leaves and a pear that was languishing the fridge. It was so good! The pear was subtle and the collards tasted so fresh and verdant. I felt vibrant as I was drinking it! When was the last time you felt vibrant eating or drinking something?! Man, what a great feeling that is!

I've had a couple of mind-opening moments with collard greens in the last few days. The first came when I used a collard green as the outer layer of a miso carrot tofu avocado wrap with cashew butter tamari dipping sauce (adapted from a recipe in Sprouted Kitchen). This morning's green smoothie was the second.

I'm so sorry, collard greens, for not being more open to you in the past. I was a closed-minded fool. Please forgive me.

Travel art journal beginnings

lisacohen — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:15:00 -0400

Mike and I are taking a dream trip together this summer and I'm envisioning lots of time for walking, wandering and savoring. I want to take along a funky art journal to record my thoughts and to encourage me to find a good park or boulangerie in which to relax and paint or write.

It turns out I didn't have to buy a thing for my signatures. Whenever I paint on paper either for a painting or my larger art journals, I grab a big sheet of Fabriano and begin cutting it down to fit the project size I need. Usually, this means that I'll have some small strip leftover and this was the case when I made my most recet larger art journal. I had a whole bunch of strips that were 6" high and 30" long (though some were 6" by 9" and even smaller like 4"x6"). I had been holding onto these thinking that I'd make them into small postcard size sheets for on-the-go paintings but mostly they just sat there since I've been painting on large canvases whenever I've made the time to paint. When this project came to mind, I realized these bits and pieces would be perfect trimmed a bit here and there and folded in half.

Here they are just folded with nothing else attached to them or embellished at all. I folded some in the middle in varying places so there will be added interest. You'll see what I mean as this project unfolds.

I grabbed my washi tape container knowing I wanted to incorporate these in somehow.

I grabbed some ledger paper, vintage wallpaper scraps, and scrapbook paper too.

See the varying sizes of the watercolor paper... You can see some of the small strip off to the top right too.

More paper.... stash-searching. Grabbing some colors that interested me. The color palette that evolved was that of turquoise, orange, and magneta (with a little green thrown in, but not much).

I just did a Google search to find a good representation of the colors and found this (it's not exact but it's close):

You can see the pin here.

Some tranparencies are going to be in the mix too.

More stash-searching.

Here's one spread below that contains a map of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris (printed from Google maps) attached to scrapbook paper with some tape and glue. This is one of the pages that doesn't contain any watercolor paper as I want a good mix for places to attach menus, business cards, photos, or writing.

I spent a few hours with this project on Sunday (yes, it was blissful!!) and have more to share.

I was reading Pam Garrison's blog and followed a link she had to her friend Mary Ann's blog who just took a trip to Umbria (we'll be in Umbria for 3 nights too, but in a different city). She did an amazing watercolor travel journal and also has classes on making funky books just like this!! WOW! Thank you, universe, for the inspiration and the sign that I'm going in the right direction. She also has online art bookmaking classes that I just signed up for, in which the projects are similar to this... fun and funky and experimental. Her style is different than mine, in that she favors different colors schemes and patterns, but I love that she is easy-going, down-to-earth and a learn-as-you-go kinda gal! Reading her recent blog posts and seeing her watercolor sketches makes me want to read her archives with a cup of tea. <sigh> I hope she created a class of her most recent work because I would TOTALLY sign up for that.

Thank you, Mom, for the Mother's Day gift. I used it to buy one of Mary Ann's online classes and I'm so inspired that I can't wait to finish up writing here, do my workout, and get down to my studio to PLAY! It was hard to go to sleep at night because of all the ideas swimming around in my head. Days like this are so JUICY and good!

Riesling Wine Tasting

lisacohen — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:06:59 -0400

Has it really been a month since my last post? Time has been like that over here. The days pass as quickly as the turning pages in a book. Sometimes it feels like a Captain Underpants flip book. In a flash it's a new day with a whole new set of things to do and places to go. There's so much to tell but instead of trying to go back and recapture everything from all of the days that I've missed I'll jump in and start with last night's wine tasting because that's what fresh in my mind, though there's also home stuff to share (no kitchen cabinets yet though) and art-making.

Last night I had some friends over for my favorite tasting so far: RIESLINGS! (not focusing on sweet side of things... we did that before in a few others, notably our first meeting where we compared dry vs a sweet; again, when we had our dessert wine tastings)

For the evening, I made Strawberry Leek Quesadillas (from Sprouted Kitchen whose which I adore), a spicy black bean dip & chips, and Deb's cheese straws (they are the stick-like things-of-deliciousness pointing out of the mall glass cups in the photo below). Note to self (and you): If you are going to make the cheese straws don't even think about making only one batch. Double or triple it and you (and your kids) won't be disappointed when there are no leftovers. I've made this mistake twice. Ouch! I'm going to go into my Evernote recipe file on this and put this reminder in BOLD so it never happens again. The Strawberry and Leek quesadillas (with goat cheese, mozz, fresh pepper, and cilantro) were really interesting (in a GOOD way) too and I definitely make these again. The brown rice paper tortillas were tasty. The texture was a little crisper than my whole-wheat tortillas so I'm really digging them. You can find them in the frozen natural foods section of many grocery stores. This was my first time having them and it's nice to have a change every once in a while (and they're great for those needing to be gluten-free, like my friend Claire, who wasn't able to make it last night).

Seven of us were able to attend last night's tasting and it was so delightful to gather with good friends (some new and some old) to catch up on life. Our kids are getting older and their interests have taken them in different directions so I don't often see these people everyday as I once did. Get-togethers like this are essential reconnect and keep the fabric of our friendships strong. Thank you to everyone who could make it last night and for bringing such yummy food (cheese, fruit, crackers, chocolate chip coffeecake, various hummi (did I just make that word up?), pita chips, cream puffs, Kalua brownies.

As for the tasting... I liked every. single. one. I. tasted. That's never happened before, but see... Riesling is just my kinda grape. It's versatile. It's bright. It's well-balanced. I like it dry. I like it sweet. I like it anywhere in between. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get an amazing tasting wine (though you can if you want to). It's perfect.

The wine notes for this tasting are listed on my Wine page up top in the navigation bar or can be viewed here. I originally had bought 2 other bottles of wine to include in the tastings, Eroica & Trimbach but left those out to keep costs down as they are both $17 each. I still have them in my wine stash and I can assure that Mike and I will enjoy those sometime in the near future.

Oh, and I was lucky to have a helper with the cheese straws construction.

Happy Monday!

The Big Reveal: Master Bathroom Cabinets #DIY

lisacohen — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:54:41 -0400

The before and after shots of our master bathroom cabinets - the test run before attempting the much larger job of painting the ones in the kitchen.

After much variable-overlay-hinge searching (they don't make them anymore), hinge spray painting, similar-in-results-size-5-wood-screw searching (they don't make them either or at least they don't have them in hardware stores anymore), much sanding (though not quite enough since there are places the paint didn't adhere as well as I'd like, aka "I will not be using Behr paint for the kitchen project" Principle), and sweating to push/screw those stupid size 6 screws into a size 5 hole with my brute force alone in some pretty tight spaces against the wall (and a manual screwdriver), we now have bathroom cabinets that feel like new! They are wonderful! I absolutely love them!

I have a newfound respect for handymen. And cabinetmakers. And kitchen/bathroom contractors.

Yesterday, Mike and I bought paint for the kitchen project. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping to be approached at the hardware store by some TV remodeling show wishing to help me with my renovation project. This one is going to be a much bigger job. If all goes well, I'm looking at starting to do the sanding on Tuesday after I finish teaching yoga.

Scenes from this weekend's wine tasting

lisacohen — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:35:48 -0400

This past Sunday I hosted a monthly wine tasting where each us brought a bottle of a favorite wine. There were lots of tasty ones this time around! Let me tell ya... we have good taste!!

I brought a bottle of what *used to be my favorite* (Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, $17-20) before starting this monthly-wine-tasting-with-friends idea this past September and I wanted to see if I would still consider it a favorite. Know what? It's not anymore! I'd much rather have an Alsatian or German Riesling (or even Pacific Rim from California for $8, which is awesome for pairing with any and everything) or Gewurtztraminer instead now. So I'm really happy to have started out on this adventure because now I know more of what I like! I confidently order wines in restaurants and know with almost certainly whether I'll like it or not. Very cool. And, not surprisingly, after all of this experience I've racked up in the comforts of my own home, I'm very ticked off when I see the crazy wine markups for bottles of wines at restaurants. So I've effectively made it impossible for myself to order a bottle of wine while at dinner and much more likely to open my home more to have friends over to share a glass or two with them. Which is how I find myself in the situation where I'm starting a second wine tasting gathering with another group of my friends that I know from when my kids were in preschool but who I don't often see much anymore. This is just too much fun!!

The appetizers I made for this wine tasting are Grape Salsa with Goat Cheese Crostini from The Sprouted Kitchen (http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/home/2009/11/12/grape-salsa-on-goat-cheese-crostini.html) and Edamame Hummus (http://ohsheglows.com/2012/12/12/edamame-hummus/). Both were great and I plan on making them again in the future!

Next month's theme is Rieslings From Around The Globe. I seriously can't wait for this one! Then, June is Sangrias.

Photos from my lunch/cooking play date

lisacohen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:49:53 -0400

My first cooking-lunch-playdate went so nicely and we are definitely going to do this again!! Thanks Donna!

Lunch

lisacohen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:53:59 -0400

I'm packing up a few things and heading off to my friend's house for a lunch cooking get-together. FUN! What's on the menu? I sent 4 possibilities via email and my friend chose Menu 4: Bánh xèo (Vietnamese veggie-filled pancakes in a sweet spicy soy sauce) and the grapefruit salad.

[The recipes are from Plenty and Burma, respectively.]

Cranberry (or Cherry) Chocolate Chip Scones

lisacohen — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:55:00 -0400

These make a fairly quick and delicious treat to bring over to a friend who's going through a difficult patch. They show love and kindness... because you're that kind of person.

Save one or two or three for yourself because you know you deserve some love too. Eat one slowly while sitting on a porch listening to the birds sing their springtime songs.

Wrap them up in some parchment, tie it up with a pretty ribbon, and deliver to to a friend of neighbor. Then they'll know how much you care.

We need to take care of each other and spread throughtfulness.

Pass it on.

Cranberry (or Cherry) Chocolate Scones

(adapted from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking Cookbook)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (8 3/8 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour or 2 cups whole barley flour
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (1 7/8 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) cold, unsalted butter
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces) dried cranberries or cherries
3/4 cup (4 1/2 ounces) chocolate chunks or chips
1 large egg
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Milk, for brushing the tops
Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flours, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Using a fork or pastry blender or a mixer with a paddle attachment, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the dried fruit and chocolate and stir with a fork just to mix them in.
Whisk together the egg, buttermilk and vanilla. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and stir lightly and quickly with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead two or three times.
Divide the dough in half and pat each into a circle about 1/2 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter. Cut each circle into 8 wedges.
Transfer the scones to the baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake until the scones are puffed and golden brown, about 22-25 minutes. Serve warm.

Succulent Grapefruit Salad

lisacohen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:57:00 -0400

Here's what I wrote about this recipe from Burma: River of Flavors on 101Cookbooks Library:

This was a fresh and wonderful salad that relies on a few of the staples that I've already made from this book: toasted chickpea flour, crispy shallots, and shallot oil. I left out the shallot oil because I tasted the dish before adding it and thought it tasted perfect just as it was. Besides, the sweet, crispy shallots still have that flavor and mouthfeel of the oil that they were cooked in so it helps complement the grapefruit's acid well without the additional oil called for in this recipe. What I didn't expect was how much a unique and nutty flavor the toasted chickpea flour gives to the overall dish.

Now that I know what it tastes like I can see adding it to many things to give it a bit of depth. Aside from the usual salads, soups, tartines, steamed dumplings, and more to add this powder to, I'm thinking it might make a superb popcorn topper!

The salad recipe says that it serves 4 but by my observation they mean a small portion for each person. I halved the recipe and ate it all myself in addition to some more Green Pancakes from Plenty.

Instead of supreming the grapefruits I cut the grapefruit in half as if I was going to eat half for breakfast and then used my grapefruit knife and got all of the fruit's section out. This was so much easier so if you don't like supreming citrus like me and don't mind not having the elongated fruit shape that comes with that preparation, then this is the way to go.

A blanket suggestion that Ms. Guguid makes in the book to help vegetarians with substitutions for the ubiquitous dried shrimp powder and fish sauce, used in many if not most of the recipes in this book is to use toasted chickpea flour for the former and tamari/soy sauce for the latter. I took these suggestions here and they worked wonderfully.

My suggestion is to top with some sort of green or serve on a small bed of mixed greens (sliced thinly or not, you decide). I used a few cilantro leaves atop the salad and it makes it more appealing visually. You could do the same with sprouts, pea shoots, thinly sliced lettuce, parsley.... whatever you have really.

Succulent Grapefruit Salad

adapted from Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Diguid

Ingredients

2 medium grapefruits
scant 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes and drained
3-4 tablespoons toasted chickpea flour (see this recipe)
2 tablespoons fried shallots (see this recipe)
1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
salt, to taste
cilantro or other fresh green (parsley or thinly sliced lettuce), for garnish

Directions

Segment the grapefruit however you'd like to get the flesh free from the pith and put it in a medium bowl. If you want to supreme the grapefruit you can watch how it's done here (go to about 43 seconds in). Save any juice for another use. May I suggest drinking it right as you work?!
Add the shallots, toasted chickpea flour, fried shallots, tamari, and salt and toss to combine.
Top with cilantro leaves to garnish and then serve.

Here's what my fried shallots looked like:

Here's the toasted chickpea flour process:

The chickpea flour in a warm skillet over medium-high heat at the very beginning. (Chickpea flour is also called besan at international markets <-- much cheaper than garbanzo bean flour in the gluten-free aisle).

About 10 minutes later it takes on a tan hue.

Here's the side-by-side comparison in better lighting:

The cooled toasted chickpea flour can keep in a dry glass jar for a few months ready to sprinkle atop your kitchen creations whenever you feel the urge.