Cookies, Holidays, and Photography Show!

Hello and happy holidays to anyone who still reads this blog. A lot going on lately so there hasn't been much baking this holiday season. Gasp. I did make a carrot cake a couple of weeks ago and this past week I had a taste for chocolate peppermint cookies (photo above). Instead of researching recipes I just combined a couple of my own and it worked out fairly well. I took my base cookie recipe from this and the icing recipe from this. I smashed up some of those yummy, soft peppermint candies and sprinkled them on top. They are sweet but deelish.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day will be packed full of cooking and baking and wine and turkey brining and foods and wine and good friends. AND WINE. So looking forward to it.

On a side note, I'm doing another photography show at Kitchen Sink. My work will be up until January 31st so if you're in the Andersonville area stop in and see.

Above two photos generously contributed by Roberto.  Happy holidays all!

Gallery Show & Photography Sale

A lot going on these days. Deleting my Facebook and Twitter accounts back in June has given me more time to focus on things I want to do. Specifically focusing on creative outlets. I've always loved photography and have been taking and editing photos for years. An opportunity came about recently to be a part of the newly formed 8x8 Gallery. With limited time I managed to pull everything together and learned a lot in the process. There are things I would definitely do differently but I suppose that's all a part of the learning process.

Tonight is the opening night and I'm so excited. Looking forward to seeing old and new friends. And my apologies to my blogger friends. I will catch up with you soon!

Chive Flowers!

I just got back from Ohio where I was visiting my family. My dad is growing chives. I had no idea they have such beautiful flowers.

He is also growing asparagus. Unfortunately, those are the only two things he is successfully growing because the deer eat everything. I mean, everything. The deer love the asparagus but my dad has it fenced off so they can't get to it. Thank goodness.

He used to have flowers all around the house and a huge garden. Because they are tearing down forests in surrounding cities, the deer are foraging for food in people's yards and gardens....and eating everything. Such a shame really. They are just innocent hungry animals that have no choice.:(

On a lighter note, if you like these pictures, I have them for sale here. They are high quality prints on canvas. All pics are taken and edited by moi. :)

Changes

It really has been ages since I blogged. The banner that I had up was my snowflake banner. Yikes! It is now updated and fresh and summery looking. Ahhh. I want to say a big fat thank you to anyone who still reads this and/or checks back to see if I've posted anything. Smooches to you.

I recently moved and as everybody knows, moving is stressful. I hadn't moved in almost 5 years so my brain conveniently erased all memories of moving. As soon as I packed my first box, all the lovely memories came flooding back. Packing and me, we are not friends. But, we have been in our new place for over a week and are unpacked and settled and ready to resume some normalcy.

I've realized lately that I really miss blogging. It really is a stress reliever at times. I also miss baking, which I haven't done in ages. I think Rob misses it too. So tonight, I shall bake in my new kitchen for the first time!

In my blogging absence, I have been spending a lot of time taking and editing photos and posting them on Instagram. I have found a great community of people on IG. It's become somewhat of an addiction. Here are a couple photos, taken from my rooftop:

Western sunset

Eastern Skyline

This move is a first of hopefully many changes for me. It's time for me to do different things in life and I'm looking forward to what the future holds.

If you like the pictures above, you can purchase those and some of my other photos here.

Now I just need to decide what to bake tonight...

My Bumpy Pumpkin Update!

My carved pumpkin! I did a drawing years ago of a sleeping moon. I always wanted to carve something similar on a pumpkin. My pumpkin was not nearly as detailed as my drawing but I'm happy with it.

Sleepy Moon Pumpkin

The original Sleeping Moon drawing

So, not quite as detailed like I said. I mean, it would have taken me 7 hours to replicate that drawing so it's close enough!

Rob got creative and decided to carve the back of the pumpkin. Ha ha. The back was really bumpy and he made a scary face. A friend of mine said the pumpkin had split personality. I think she was right!

Scary!

Illustrations

Long gone are the days of my little Post it note drawings. I am now using Adobe Illustrator. My old way of doing illustrations was, well, backwards. I love working in Illustrator and I'm slowly teaching myself how to use it (with a little help from Rob). Here are a couple I did recently. I didn't spend a lot of time on them so they aren't perfect but I'm pretty happy with them. And I'm excited to make new illustrations!

 

Summer Sunshine

On my way into work today the sun was beaming through the train windows. I sat in a seat where the sun was hitting my face. It was so bright and it hurt my eyes but it felt good. It was warm and rejuvenating. I could almost imagine that it was summertime. When it gets to this point in the winter I get really restless. I have aches and pains and I just want warm fresh air and sunshine. I guess it's the mid-winter blues. I long for the days of heat and sun and beaches and flowers and green grass and ice cream cones and hot cement and sweat and shorts and flip flops and Saugatuck and farmer's markets and thunderstorms and the smell of suntan lotion and mojitos on the back porch and outdoor concerts and casual strolls through the neighborhood and....SUNSHINE. Soon, very soon. :)

Favorite Cookies

chomp chomp chomp

Since it's the holidays I wanted to compile some my favorite cookie recipes that I've blogged about into one post. Here are some, in no particular order:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies - This is a favorite. A great combo of chocolate and mint!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies - Ooooh these are delicious. I love peanut butter and chocolate.

Maple Sugar Cookies - A yummy Martha Stewart recipe.

My Mom's Sugar Cookies - The BEST sugar cookies in the world!

Almond Balls - A new favorite!

So when I started writing this post I really felt as though I've blogged about a lot of different cookies. Well apparently not because the 5 cookie recipes above are the only ones I've ever blogged about! So my New Year's resolution is to: Bake more cookies and blog about all of them.

No go make some cookies. :)

Let it Snow!

It’s hard to believe Christmas is in five days. I am now finally feeling festive and inspired to bake (and eat!) lots of Holiday cookies. I am not a fan of snow or cold and there is snow in the forecast almost every day this week…and I’m actually looking forward to it. This is surprising even to me. I love being in my kitchen and watching the snow fall and smelling deliciously delicious cookies baking in the oven. Mmmm yum! I guarantee though once Christmas is over I will be cursing it every chance I get. But for now I shall not be a scrooge and I will enjoy it!

Let it snow!

And Autumn Begins...

Cheesy

I made some yummy low(er) fat baked macaroni and cheese this past weekend...in a cast iron skillet. It was deelish! I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Say "cheese!"

Post it Note 'How-to'

Some people have asked me about the drawings on my blog and whether or not I do them myself. Yes, I do. Aside from baking I do love to draw. I'm drawn towards whimsical things and I like to give life to inanimate objects. I used to scare my friend Miranda with Blizzards from Dairy Queen. I would scoop out faces in the ice cream and then talk in a funny voice as the Blizzard. It would really scare her. One time I took it a little too far and made a really scary face with a big gaping mouth. I was talking in an evil growling tone. She freaked. She literally got out of the car and went running towards the woods. I laughed and ate my scary Blizzard.

I've been enjoying making fruits and veggies come to life. How can you not crack a smile when you see a pumpkin or an eggplant smiling?

I wanted to do a post about my process of making them. I call them Post it Notes because I sometimes draw them on actual Post it Notes. Hopefully the Post it Note people will not sue me. I'll change the name if I have to. Or offer them baked goods.

So I start out by physically drawing something. I know I could just draw it in Photoshop but I like to draw on paper.

This one had a little more detail than normal so I drew it on a large piece of paper and not a Post it Note since I needed more room. Once drawn, I scan the image and it looks like this:

It's impossible to scan it and not get little specs and imperfections so I open it up in Photoshop and clean it up, fill in gaps and fix any imperfections. Then it looks like this:

So much better! Then I start filling in colors. I always do the background in yellow because of the whole Post it Note theme. Maybe one day I will be daring and switch things up. But not today:



Oh look...he's almost finished. This part is the most fun because I can play with lots of different colors. Once I'm happy with the colors I touch up any final imperfections and then I have this:

A happy apple! Now c'mon and smile. :)

Eggplant

I have to say I’m not a fan of eggplant. Yack! Honestly though, I haven’t had it many times so I don’t have much to compare. The last time I had it was at one of me and Rob’s favorite (and convenient) Thai places called Noodle Zone. Noodle Zone is BYOB. I love BYOB places. I wish every restaurant in Chicago was BYOB. It saves mucho dinero and you don’t ever have to worry about a restaurant not having your favorite drink. Anyway, they have a dish called basil eggplant. I finally tried it recently and was not a fan. No, no, no. I’m going to stick to the basil chicken or the green curry with chicken...Mmmmmm. If anyone out there in the blog reading world has any recipes that involve eggplant that do not taste disgusting (ha ha) please share. I’m willing to try new things and give it more of a chance. Meanwhile, isn't this the happiest eggplant you've ever seen?

The happiest eggplant ever

Autumn

In just a little over two weeks it will officially be Autumn. It's truly one of my most favorite times of the year. It can be very bittersweet for me. I love the warm weather of the summer and the transition into fall is really spectacular. Crisp air, the smell of changing leaves, maple and pumpkin flavored baked goods. That is sweet to me! But the bitter part is the fact that winter is just around the corner. Yuck! Maybe on Thanksgiving I can eat myself into hibernation then wake up around April? If bears can do it why can't I? I could use a few extra months of sleep....

This pumpkin loves Autumn

The Happy Zucchini

My neighbor recently gave Rob and I more zucchini. I love having such generous neighbors! Rob found a great recipe that used up all the zucchini that we had. I'll post the recipe in my next blog but until then, here's a happy zucchini...

Just for Fun

You say potato, I say post it note...

Blueberry Post It Note

I predict some recipes involving blueberries this weekend....

The Happy Blueberry

Happy Thanksgiving!

gobble gobble

Maple

I love maple flavored things. I grew up in Ohio and when I was younger my parents would always take me and my siblings to the Geauga County Maple Festival. I would get sick from all the maple candy I would eat. My dad and I would always get these things called maple stirs. It was maybe about 2 ounces of hot maple syrup in a little styrofoam bowl with a flat wooden spoon. You would stir the hot maple syrup until it started to cool. After what seemed like hours of stirring it would harden into maple candy. My dad is a scientist. He would always explain to me the boiling point and solid and liquid and how it related to the stirring and cooling and all these things I didn't listen to. I was only wanting to frantically stir to get the maple syrup to harden. I was so impatient. To this day he will explain things to me in scientific terms. The difference is that now, I listen to him.

Thanks Dad.

Your Weekend Post It Note

Have a great weekend! Now go drink a beer.