BlogDog

I've sorta run out of creative juices lately-- at least for cooking and such. It maybe because it's just too darn hot! All the pets have been sleeping all day... see? :)

I have been working on other kinds of projects. I started a new quilt, found my old stamp collection (yeah, I guess I'm a geek) and an old cross-stitch I never finished. I have finished a few pottery pieces in the past few weeks and never showed you all, so here goes:
This is the one using an old muslin design, a trivet.

This is a vase I finished last week. I don't know if I like it, but it's my attempt to copy a Newcomb pottery design from the 30's.

This piece I finished today, so it hasn't been fired, and the color will be a dark teal.

Here is my friend Jo. working on her piece. She requested that I not show her face because she doesn't have on any makeup! :) She's so talented! This is an oil jar.

Also, J's been working on this children's book all summer. I'm so proud of him! He's finished and the story is really good! I know that now he wants me to start on the illustrations... he's requesting an illustration per paragraph! I don't know if I can do that much. School starts in 3 weeks!

Hope everyone has a lovely week and doesn't have to be in the heat too much. Drink lots of water!!!

Cookbook Junkie Confessions #2- 7-Up Cake

Cookbook Junkie Confessions #2: Patty Pinner's Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories

Actually, I look at this one often and would like to use it, but never really am all that into baking. I love this cookbook for its photographs- old family photos from Ms. Pinner. She shares short stories about her family and growing up in the 60's. Some of her family members include Cud, Aint Jessie Mae, Uncle Sam, Cud'n Bernice and My My. Makes my family's names seem so boring.

The book is a real treasure chest full of secret family recipes, and today I wanted to try one I hadn't before: Aint Marjell's 7-Up Cake. Some of the others I wish I'd try: White Potato Candy, Luscious Lemon Ice Cream, Big Mama's Nana Puddin'... the list goes on and on. I have made My My's Strawberry Layer Cake.... so delicious. If you click above on the book link, the recipe is available there.

I have a really cool old Kaiser (German) Bundt cake pan that I used. I'd never used it and since I'd heard others complain about it being a pain to grease the pans, I was a little nervous that the cake would stick to the edges. Thankfully, it came out of the pan just fine.



Aint Marjell's 7-Up Cake

1 and 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup 7-Up
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Grease and lightly flour a 10-in tube pan or Bundt pan.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and lemon and vanilla extracts. Gently fold in the 7-Up 1/4 cup at a time. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 and 1/4 to 1 and 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

4. Transfer the cake from the oven to a wire rack. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Unmold the cake onto the wire rack to cool completely. Transfer to serving platter and dust with confectioners' sugar.

It was much like a very rich pound cake with a hint of lemon. We had some orange-vanilla ice cream with it! Very easy to make, very rich but good for a summer cake. Would highly recommend this recipe and the cookbook!

Cookbook Junkie Confessions #1- Herbed Baked Eggs

I'm addicted to cookbooks. I don't even know how many I have and over the past few years, I've aquired more cookbooks than I can really use. I think I only actually use about 5 of them, so I feel like it's time to get rid of some and learn to use the ones I have. This month, (really August), I'm going to get out one I haven't used for some time (or at all) and find a recipe I've never made.. make it... and decide if the book is really worth keeping. I'll share the recipe and maybe a photo.

Perhaps other folks would be interested in doing the same thing this August? I think it might be fun to share recipes and such about cookbooks... because so many on the market look really, really cool. So, if you are interested, please leave a comment so I can check your blog to see what's cooking.

Cookbook Junkie Confession#1: Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris

I went to Paris in high school and remember every meal so vividly. Everyone should have the chance to go at least once in your life, especially if you are a woman. A very feminine city. This book's recipes reminded me of some of the food, and seems to be pretty straight-forward. Nothing too complicated, no ingredients I'd have to travel to a big city market to find, and not much time in the kitchen. This morning we tried the Herbed-Baked Eggs. For this recipe you do need gratin dishes (the same kind of dishes that creme bruhlees are made), one for each of your eaters.


Herbed-Baked Eggs
Serves 4

1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic
1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
2 TBsp minced fresh parsley
2 TBsp grated Parmesan
12 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 TBsp unsalted butter
kosher salt
freshly grated black pepper
some toasted French bread, crossaint, or brioche

1. Preheat the broiler for 5 mins and place the oven rack 6 inches below the heat.

2. Combine the garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and Parmesan cheese and set aside. Carefully crack 3 eggs into each of 4 small bowls or teacups (you won't be baking in these) without breaking the yolks. (It's very important to have all the eggs ready to go before you start cooking).

3. Place four individual gratin dishes on a baking sheet. Place 1 TBsp cream and 1/2 TBsp butter in each dishes and place under the broiler for about 3 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

4. Quickly, but carefully, pour 3 eggs (from bowls) into each gratin dish and sprinkle evenly with herb mixture, then sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Place back under the broiler for 5 to 6 minutes, until the whites of the eggs are almost cooked. (Rotate the baking sheet if they arent' cooking evenly.) The eggs will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Allow to set for 60 seconds and serve hot with toasted bread.

Maybe my gratin dish was too deep, but the eggs did not cook in the middle. I cooked them about 8 minutes and did not want to brown too much more. The herb mixture on top of the eggs was really delightful. Overall, it was really tasty! I definetely will be keeping this book and trying more recipes.

Vacation Is Over. Where is Everybody?

Before we know it, school will be starting. What a great summer it has been ! We had a great trip to the shore last week. I know people talk bad about the Jersey shore; it's crowded and all, but it's so much fun. I think most people that go probably went as a kid, like me, and most people are from Philadelphia (like my family). My dad went as a kid and his dad went, too. My dad doesn't like it anymore, but I'm always up for going. I have my favorite spots and think it's just a great place for taking kids. This year we took our niece!

My Top 10 Favorite Must-Do Things in an Ocean City Trip:

1. Get Shriver's Fudge. This year I couldn't get J as excited about the fudge- he was more interested in other goodies on the boardwalk, but I left with plenty of their delightful yummy fudge. About maybe 8 years ago, my cousin B and I came and stayed at the beach for the summer. One night she woke me up in the middle of the night, fire in her eyes, saying, "Were you eating some of my fudge? I heard the wrapper moving and I know you did." Yes, it's that good. You wake up having nightmares that someone's stealing your fudge. For the record, I did not. I was sleeping. Check out all the crazy flavors.

2. Hit the beach. Love the beach. Usually go to the same one every year. Always a bit crowded, but I never mind it. Luckily, the weather was great all week. One day I took my neice to this water park and we had a great time. I should have brought more sunscreen though, because I left with a terrible sunburn. One of the days I buried my niece in the sand and a swarm of kids joined in on the fun... they wanted to help if they too, could be buried and sculpted into sharks, muscle-men, and mermaids. I buried at least 5 kids and my arms were killing me. Always fun, though. J has really gotten into boogey-boarding and that's fun to watch him tackle the waves. Read a great book called Icy Sparks and lathered on the sunscreen the rest of the week.

3. Hit the boardwalk (over and over). The house is only a few minutes walk (less than a block) from the boardwalk and beach, so we've got no good reason to stay home too long. When I was a teenager, my cousins and I walked up and down the boardwalk checking out all the cute Jersey boys. One of my cousins, H, said the boardwalk was a meat market. She was no fun. She wanted to stay at the house and listen to operas. Not B, S, and I! We walked up and down that boardwalk. We had so much fun! Really the most perfect place to be a teenager! This year we rented a surrey one morning- J and our niece had a good time going down the ramps, for me it was a little scary. The thing didn't have the greatest brakes!

4. Go downtown. I usually go to the bakery and the old downtown in the mornings, but it was so hot every morning that I only did that once. I love the old downtown- reminds me of simpler times. Took my niece one morning and here she is in front of an old ice cream parlor.

5. Eat lots of stuff that's bad for you. Like Mac and Manco's pizza (every day!)-- it is the best pizza in the world. Hands down. Funnel cake. Cotton candy. Gelato. Gelato. Any kind of treat you can imagine, they have here.

6. Do Fun Stuff. We played Putt-Putt, went to a water park, went to a mini-theme park called Wonderland. I can remember riding so many of these rides as a kid, and I hope our niece enjoyed all the rides. She's fearless when it comes to rides, and was willing to try the ones we adults wouldn't. We'll have to do let her try those when she's taller-- she was upset that she's "short for her age" and couldnt' ride many adult rides. Here we are on a scary ride for me.... Can you guess what we were riding?

The Ferris Wheel! They weren't really that scared, but I was. I was so scared to be up that high, I think I'm now scared of heights. Look what we saw below us only a quarter of the way up, and imagine only being held in place on the Ferris Wheel by a single bolt!

7. Take a fun day trip. Margate's fun because of Lucy the Elephant; Wildwood's fun. This year, though, we headed to Cape May. There's a great zoo there, and it's free! Since it was free, I thought they might not have very much, but it was huge. Had almost every animal we could think of. Afterwards we headed to Cape May. It's a great town to see old Victorians.

8. Shop. The shops there always seem to have things in stock that VA stores won't have for months, but I'm beginning to be a little old to wear some of the stuff- like sequins belts and huge earrings. But I did find some very classy vintage-style dresses.

9. Watch some TV. I won't lie. We don't have cable. So, I do like to watch all those channels I miss out on: Style, Bravo, Food Network, HGTV. J wanted to watch ESPN. Our niece wanted to watch Animal Planet, Animal Planet, Animal Planet. We never found much that all three of us wanted to watch, so we now know lots about Animals! :)

10. Get Some Color. A long time ago, when I went with my cousins to the beach, I had a dream of a beautiful tan. I'm Armenian, and my dad and most relatives tan beautifully and darkly. They use tanning oil, the one that smells like coconut. My cousin S and I are the only fair-skinned cousins. We thought we could change all that my using the same coconut oil, along with some Sun-In, and spending every waking hour that the sun was up in the sun. That resulted in really bad looking sunburns with bleached out hair! We looked so bad, I'm sure. But now we can laugh. We even bought matching dresses a few times! We were such geeks! My only hope now is that I can just add some color to my very pale skin!

That pretty much sums it up!

I was looking forward to reading some blogs when I got home, but everybody must be on vacation from blogging! Where is everybody? Have you left blogland?

Beach Bums

We're off for another vacation-- this time to Ocean City, NJ. I have been going there since I was a kid, and so I'm excited to take a our niece with us this year. I have so many great memories of Ocean City with friends and family. Although every year it gets more and more crowded, traffic gets crazier than ever, I think I'll always want to go. I love Shriver's Fudge more than anything (so do you, Bec!) and there's nothing like Mac and Manco's Pizza. Salt water taffy. Wonderland. The beach is crowded lots of the time, so we hit the boardwalk, go for bike rides, or head down to Cape May. Can't wait.

Here's an old Ocean City postcard...



When I was little, they still did messages like these (planes flying by leaving puffy messages)... now they just fly by with signs that drag.

Have a great week!

Some Goodies!

So my candy swap package arrived yesterday! We had a good time tasting all the fun candies inside.... I live for candy! I've never been a chocolate person, but anything chewy will cheer me up! It's almost a guarentee that I will leave Walmart with either Haribo Gummi Bears, Werther's Chewy Caramels or Strawberry Sour Straws. Inside the package from my swap buddy Heather was:
chewy Gobstoppers, Smarties, Chewy Red Licorice, Sour Belts, Banana-Marshmallow Circus Peanuts, Strawberry-Banana Jelly Beans, Gummi Pigs and some fun flavored Nerds! Heather- Thank You So Much! I love them all! .

Last weekend I went to Anthropologie in Rockville. I got a few fun things - some little glass doorhandles. What I was most excited about was that they had some Oilily Perfume! I know it may sound weird, but I've worn this perfume since about 9th grade! My cousin from Germany gave it to me one year, and I just love it. It's just so cheery. They have a few Oilily shops here in the US, but the ones in Europe are so cool. They have all kinds of funky clothes that are way too expensive, but always give me some good ideas. Did you hear about the guy trading the red paperclip for a house? Well, he had a few trades between, and you can read all about it on his blog! I think it's such a cool story.

I wanted to share a website I found that I think everyone should try. I can't seem to get a copy of my results posted here, but, according to them, my face looks like Katie Holmes- you know, Tom Cruise's fiance. I don't see the likeness, but it's fun. It's free, and you download a photo of yourself (you can have other faces in the photo). Just make sure it's a straight-forward shot. They'll do a scan and then tell you which celebrity you look like! I'd be really curious to see what the results are for some other folks!

Have a great week!

Weekend Update

We had a very nice weekend! We didn't head downtown to the typical tourist spots- instead we found this place. It's the headquarters of the whole society. There were an old mansion and as you explored, you ran into things like a tree-lined (former) clay tennis-court. There was a butterfly garden and nature trails; on one of the trails we came so close to a young deer that was sorta ok with us being nearby. I've seen deer throw up their tails to warn you to back off, but this one kept lightly stomping his front foot. I could have hung out with this guy and his 2 friends for a long time, but J. just didn't find it as interesting as I did. I think I would have hugged the deer if they'd of let me... By the way, if you like this kind of thing, Boxerwood Gardens is just as impressive if you live near Lexington. Today I finally finished some projects that I'd had hanging over my head- my friend's baby quilt and some pottery that I needed to finish. I shipped the quilt off right away- can't wait to hear how she likes it. She's having a boy, and I'm so excited for her! I think, as I'm working on quilts, of all the different kinds of quilts I'd like to make for friends and family, but since I still don't know how to machine-stitch, my hands and arms have got to have a rest. For the record, I did have my mom come over to show me how to use the machine, but it was not working (of course)!
I had found these vintage hankies that I wanted to use on the quilt, and so I was looking for as close to vintage as my local fabric store (Le Wal-Mart) carries. They've got a pretty random collection of fabrics.

So, as I said my arms need a break from quilting and pottery-holding-scraping. I think I'm ready to head in a different direction for a while. I'm wanting to get back into cooking. I feel a little bad. J's been eating LOTS of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches, cereal, chips and dip lately. I think I should dust off the ole cookbooks and put them to good use. I'll share a recipe later after I decide what to make!

Nevermind! Dinner was a complete disaster. Shrimp and Grits... we were so looking forward to it, but the shrimp was overdone and the grits were disgusting. How can someone mess them up? well, I read the directions wrong the first time-- too much butter. The second time, I realized that I had used directions for INSTANT grits and not the ones I had in a container. At 9:45, we gave up eating our Shrimp Soup and pulled some taquitos out of the freezer. I tried!

Gigi

Someone asked me why "Cha-Cha-Gigi"? Well, in college I made a series of 50's-inspired prints with a poodle named Gigi who liked to dance around Paris at some of the more famous places. I love poodles! They're prissy and spunky, and I've been accused of being those things-- guess I am. So, my classmates took to calling me Gigi... there you have it!

Even though I love poodles, I don't own one. I have a rat terrier who is now 3 years old. Lulu. She's such a happy, sweet dog, and like a lot of terriers she's full of energy. She's confused about her size, I think, because she's not intimidated by large, scary dogs. She's got no problem going after my parents' Shar-pei.

Well, I'm going to take a few days off of blogging. Got lots to do- finish a quilt, go to DC, clean house. Hope everyone's week goes well and have a great weekend!

Independence Day!

Fourth of July is always lots of fun here in Lex Vegas. I'm sure there's not quite as much to do as in a BIG city, but I think we do pretty well for a small town. For about 2 days, there are hot air balloons all over the county. They start at VMI and end up in random spots about an hour later. This is what I saw yesterday morning, right across from our house!


I met up with my friend A. for some flea marketing downtown. There was supposed to be a pretty good one up at VMI, but it was tiny, so we headed elsewhere. I found a few cool things, but I'm glad we kept going, because I really landed a jackpot. We found a group of paintings and the prices on them were unreal. I've seen some really crappy paintings sell here for over $150, and to find something like this for $65 was too good to be true. I asked the dealer for his best price and he knocked off $15!!!!! He didn't look at the painting at first, and after I'd paid, he looked at it and his eyes popped out of his head! I feel a little guilty, but he has ripped me off many times :) I love this painting. I don't have anything like it. I found a home for her already, and I wonder who she is and when it was done. I'm guessing sometime in the early 60's. I would be happy to cover every wall of our house with original work, but I think we'd be broke.


Later, J's sister came to spend the evening with us. We headed to our friends K&T's house to BBQ and then head over to town to watch the fireworks. I really enjoyed watching the kids enjoying the fireworks. The youngest was scared of the fireworks, but at the same time, could not resist watching them. She reached for the moon but couldnt' catch it! :) Afterwards, we headed to our house to do some small fireworks... they surely woke up all the neighbors, though, because they sounded like a war zone. We had a fun time.



Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

Two Years!

Today we have officially been married two whole years! It's been an amazing journey to today; seems like time has just flown by ! To keep it simple, private, and sappy-free, I'll just say we had a very special day together and I can't wait for Anniversary #3! I wonder what it will be next year... a trip to Paris? Rome? Venice? I'll cross my fingers... Love you, J!

Richmond Photos, As Promised

I've been a little beat since the kids left and, to be honest, I miss them! It was fun borrowing some kids for a few days, but who knows what it's like to have 'em for real!

Last fall, my friends and I met in Richmond for a day of fun! We've been friends for so long-- preschool and elementary school. You might recognize A., as she lives here. H. and R. live in Va Beach, though, and they never come home enough! They're just having too much fun. I promised to send these photos to them, but never am too good about that. Just for giggles here they are.

We did some shopping & ate at a great tapas restaurant downtown, and wanted photos taken. A very drunk German man freely shared strange personal information with us in exchange with taking our photos!

I'm up for another Richmond trip!!

Drive-In Photos

Just a short entry. Wanted my cousin to see some pics of A&J at the Drive-In and after camp. We played some ball before the movie started, and they pretty much passed out in back of the truck once the movie started. Chef Messy and her husband joined us at the start of the movie, and, although we froze, it was a lovely nite!