Lucky Weekend

This past weekend, it was Oktoberfest in La Mesa, where I met my husband 21 years ago. He lived on Lemon Avenue and I lived about three blocks away......also on Lemon Avenue...

Now that we have moved from Lemon, we have to drive and park, so this year we were able to find a spot right by his old house and asked the lot attendant to take a picture of us.

I always had walked downtown to the affair; back then it was a more authentic Oktoberfest with German dancing, food, and of course beer. I would stop by a certain bar for a draft beer and it was always crowded and a lot of fun activities going on (normally I don't drink beer too much, but it was a kind of tradition back then). Now it is more of a large craft fair, with a beer garden all fenced off and way away from any festivities, not really that much fun because of all the people and strollers, etc.....but let me get back to my story...

Actually to make a long story short, I was walking home early evening on Saturday October 4, 1988, down the Lemon Avenue alley behind the bar, and as I passed by Steve's little house, the only one in the alley, several men approached me and began to harass me with sexist comments, and he came out and told them to quit bothering me. It turned out he knew these men as they would come around each Oktoberfest and drink a lot of beer and get very bold and ask to use his restroom! Pretty soon, the girlfriends of the men came out of the bar too and we all started talking and joking around outside his house. He offered me a beer, but I just thanked him for assisting me and told him I was going home and then to get something to eat. We got to talking about Mexican food, so next thing I knew, we had hopped into his Chevy truck and went to the local Roberto's, with the others following along. I invited them all back to my place to eat the take-out carne asada tortas and I would make coffee before everyone drove back home.

That's when I found out that Steve's elderly, widowed mother lived right across the street from me, also on Lemon Avenue!

I'll leave the rest of the details private, but, we were married one year later and have been inseparable ever since! We go the the Oktoberfest every year and we used to always eat at Roberto's, but they changed ownership and the carne asada is no longer as tasty, so we abandoned that tradition years ago, however we still walk down that alley and reminisce.

In another week, we will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, on October 14. We like to make memories rather than give gifts. Since the traditional gift for 20 years is China, we have decided to go out to a nice Chinese restaurant in the Gaslamp, and that is also significant since our first "date" after meeting was at a Chinese restaurant!

I know, kinda corny, but we love doing things like that that have meaning only to the two of us......

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit....

Beans for breakfast, beans for lunch....we just love beans. One of our favorite hearty breakfasts is made using refried beans, spread over toasted English muffins, topped with a few thin slices of ham, a slice of tomato, then thin slices of cheese. I usually heat up the beans and ham first so it gets nice and hot. Once assembled, it is baked at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese melts (I use my toaster oven). For fun, we alternate slices of Monterrey Jack and mild Cheddar. You have to cut it with a knife and fork to eat it, but you will not be hungry for at least 5 hours after eating this.

Everyone probably knows how to make beans, I use a few ham hocks, a sliced onion, and small red beans. When the beans have simmered 2 or 3 hours, and are nice and tender, remove the hocks and render the meat, smash a few beans against the side of the pot to thicken then, season with salt, a little vinegar, and hot sauce. Serve over pain white rice and make Jiffy cornbread (I use my toaster oven). Serve with additional hot sauce, and onions soaked in vinegar. You will feel full for the rest of the day!

This is a cool lemon from our tree.

Yikes! Neon is Here!

We have been having hot, dry weather here in Paradise this last week. Yesterday, I was watering some plants on the patio and I spotted this little snake looking up at me as it sipped some water off the pavement. As soon as I went in to get my camera, it got spooked and started to slither away, so I only managed to get this shot. It disappeared so fast, while shaking it's rounded, black head at me that is just out of the shot.....the amazing thing is that as it entered the little garden a few feet away, it changed to a green color and slithered up the branches of the Hawthorne bush and completely disappeared! We named it "Neon" and hope it is happy now, here in Paradise. It is more afraid of us, than we are of it, but I wondered what kind of snake it was, it looked black and yellow before turning green.....it looks big here, but is really only about the size of two pencils end-to-end. After some research, I decided it was a baby California King snake, I tried to upload a video from YouTube, but it failed, however, I did manage to post it to my Facebook. It looks just like the one I saw, doing the same thing mine did.....

This was the pave-style floral design we made in floral class yesterday. It will be wilted in a few hours with this weather....sigh....I got the flowers fresh from Trader Joe's right before class. They open at 8:00a.m., and have the freshest, nicest flowers, this bouquet was less than $6.00.

I thought this would be a also a good spot to show my decorative bowl I made in ceramic class. I used a sprig mold I made to create Miss Kitty faces on a slumped free-form slab, then after bisque firing, used Easy Stroke glaze to color the faces, then clear glaze over all, then placed pieces of glass to melt into interesting shapes, they came out looking kind of cool!

Just had to show Miss Kitty trying to stay cool resting her head on the chair rung....pretty smart!

Shrimp cocktail for two for dinner; too hot to cook for sure....I always try to keep frozen shrimp (Trader Joe's again) in stock, so I just defrosted them under cold running water, then mixed a sauce of ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Then made a bed of lettuce and celery, placed the shrimp on top, spooned the sauce over, and served with Saltine crackers. A very yummy, light, and cool dinner for a hot summer night here in Paradise!

Just Need ID and Money

Sunflower smily face I made at floral class yesterday; that is Joe Lizura, our local meteorologist, predicting higher temperatures in El Cajon....supposed to be back in the 100's in a few days, sigh....

Here's my latest creation, needle felted design on felted sweater, a lightweight evening bag for your ID and money......oh, and a lipstick of course!
Started with a picture of a pretty floral arrangement I made, copied the design using needle felting method.

Fulfilling a Promise :)

A few weeks ago, and a couple of failures later, I decided I was ready to make the simple purse I had been promising myslef I would complete. I had some free Saturday morning time, so went to work and within a few hours, I was done......Since I already had somewhat of a master plan; I knew the basic shape and design and that I just needed to hand sew the outer felt, and machine sew the lining, then hand-stitch it in place. I was deciding on embellishments, so I needle felted a design to coordinate with the colors and pattern of the lining. It came out so cute!! Anyway, I am using it as a sewing/felting kit and I just love how it looks and functions so have been re-inspired to keep experimenting with my techniques. As previously mentioned, I have now studied my book a little more and have new information, such as using dissoluble stabilizer when machine sewing felt....for now, I intend to mostly hand sew with embroidery floss or silk ribbon and I know my machine will appreciate that =^..^=

Then I made stuffed mini sweet peppers I purchased at the 99 Cents Only store. They had the nicest produce yesterday, stocked up on beautiful celery, carrots, onions, raspberries, and limes...I couldn't resist these colorful peppers and I remembered I had made stuffed peppers like these once and wrote the recipe down because it was easy and good. I don't really even like sweet peppers always, but I like them prepared this way and they smell really good cooking. I am serving them later, re-heated, with some leftover sauteed kale with ham and garlic, and some frozen stuffed potatoes, also from 99C. It is too hot still to cook at night, so I have been busy cooking this morning, to last us a few meals. Red beans with ham hocks are boiling away now, to have for a nice late lunch with Steve tomorrow with fresh cornbread.

I imagine most folks know how to make beans, and cornbread using Jiffy mix is so easy, but you may be interested in the stuffed peppers. Here's how I wrote out the recipe, since I only had half a dozen or so peppers, I halved the recipe, for the meat, and breadcrumbs...I did use a whole egg, and whole can of soup, and didn't change the seasonings, except a little less salt. They came out really good and I had a little extra filling, so I just baked it in patties next to the peppers.

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey

6 medium green bell peppers (I used mini Hungarian sweet peppers)

1 cup soft breadcrumbs (rye is good)

1/2 t. salt

dash pepper

1 egg

2 T. minced onion (I used red)

1 can condensed tomato soup, divided

Cut off tops, remove seeds from peppers and steam shells for five minutes (in microwave steamer). Let cool till you can handle them.

Combine stuffing and mix with HALF a can of the soup.

Fill peppers, then bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Spoon rest of soup over each pepper and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes, no longer than an hour.

Note: if you have leftover filling, shape into patties and bake and serve alongside the peppers.

Birthday for Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty had her fifth birthday, so we decided to give her a little party. She participated just like she knew what she was doing! She got a new cat couch scratching pad, some special kitty foods, and some toys.

We had an herb crusted rack of lamb with roasted potatoes and steamed artichokes, then fresh peach and strawberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

The meal turned out really well and Miss Kitty (and us) had a good time here in Paradise.

Here is a simple cobbler recipe:

Two to three cups of fresh fruit cut up (I used fresh peeled peaches, and strawberries)

Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup sugar (depending of sweetness of fruit, we like it tart), sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 2 tablespoons of softened butter

Mix together in a baking dish

In a mixing bowl, add in 1 cup of Bisquick, about 1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and enough milk to make it smooth but still thick enough to hold it's shape

Dollop onto fruit mixture and bake at 375 for about 40 to 45 minutes till bubbly and biscuits are light brown on top. Let cool for 15-20 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream

If At First You Don't Succeed LOL and Try, Try Again

Cut out slipper tops, decorated with needle felting, beading, embroidery

Slipper pieces ready to sew

LOL My feet do not look like these!

This was my first attempt to make slippers out of my brown felted wool sweater. I got the directions off the Internet. The process was pretty straightforward, trace your foot, cut a pattern, cut four pieces, sew, etc. Well, I decided to needle felt a butterfly on each top and added some beads and outlined with embroidery. Good plan, but the instructions indicated not to add seam allowance since the wool would stretch....wrong...this wool did not stretch right and they turned out terrible, unwearable. I will cut the design out and use it in another application such as a bracelet or embellishment. LOL and try again. These other pieces will next be turned into a lined purse. This time I bought an instruction booklet with a lot of cute ideas and another slipper pattern. Now I just need another sweater to felt. I combed two thrift stores yesterday and came up empty-handed except for some wool yard swatches.

Try, try again!

Here are snaps from the book I bought, Vivian Peritts is the artist:

Stay tuned.....

Kimchi Three Ways

This is kimchi fried rice using leftover cold rice. Delicious with Costco's roasted chicken.

This is leftover kimchi fried rice with added sauteed slices of hot dogs for a perfect Saturday night meal watching the game.
This is my second batch of kimchi pancakes, almost using the rest of my kimchi, still have enough for one more batch. This time I used all-purpose flour instead of rice flour, and tasted the same to me. I saved one for the next day and ate is as a snack (cut into quarters and re-heated slightly in microwave for 20-30 seconds) dipped in a little soy mixed with fresh lemon juice.

I am convinced kimchi is very good for you, as most cabbage is, I'm glad we like cabbage in all forms. Steve liked all these dishes too, a little spicy, but tolerable. I've already gone over the recipes for kimchi and the pancakes, and in case you don't know how to make fried rice, here is how I make it:

2 cups leftover cold white rice

2 slices thick bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped

Wesson oil for frying, depending on amount of rendered bacon fat

2 eggs

salt and pepper

2-3 green onions, chopped

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

(Kimchi, about 3/4 cup, drained and chopped up, optional)

In a large heavy skillet, over medium-high heat, cook the bacon pieces until almost done, don't make it too crispy, rendering the fat. Add the onions and saute till translucent, about three minutes. Add some more oil (you want about 4 tablespoons total), usually about 1-2 tablespoons, bring up the heat and add in the rice, breaking up the clumps of rice as the heat softens it. Continue to stir fry for about 4-5 minutes, till rice is starting to brown a little. Make a well in the center, pushing the rice to the sides of the pan. Crack the eggs in the center, and scramble, stirring occasionally till almost well set. Bring in the rice from the sides, and incorporate all the scrambled eggs in. Add the salt (to taste, not too much) and pepper, green onions, and sprinkle with the soy sauce. Stir well and serve.

Oops, I forgot the kimchi, I actually did when I made this, so I simply dished out the rice, stir-fried the kimchi for about 4-5 minutes till softened, then mixed it all together again ;)

I like to add a little more soy sauce and lemon juice, or fini dini (a Guamanian dipping sauce made of soy, vinegar, mild peppers, lemon juice, and green onion) . Refrigerate any leftovers and enjoy another day mixed with cooked, sliced, hot dogs, spam, or any meat you have leftover.

My family learned how to make this fried rice back in the late 60's (I was in my early teens) when we lived on Guam where my father was stationed while serving in the Navy. I think it is a combination of Filipino and Guamanian cuisine. We used to use "Calrose" rice, which had to be rinsed before cooking, so was starchier, and firmer. Now I just use regular long-grain white, basmati, or jasmine rice. Incidentally, for the luaus on Guam, Guamanians usually made "red rice", I think using annatto powder which gives a subtle flavor, and beautiful color. I don't know if that is Filipino, but a lot of the recipes influence others, I could go on and on about the food on Guam.......wonderful!

I hope you try kimchi and cook with your kimchi. It is so good.

Just another day of cooking.....here in paradise.

Felting is fun

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about taking old or thrift shop sweaters, felting them in the washer, then making cool stuff like purses, slippers, potholders, coffee cozies, stuffed toys, quilts, really endless possibilities. Apparently any yarn made from animal fur will felt, but best to have 100% wool, cashmere, angora, alpaca, or even mohair...........anyway, I went to Goodwill yesterday and looked at every label on every sweater and came up with these three, all 100% wool.....the creamy white knit was a special find, made in England. The brown one and the blue and white one were made in China, and had Chinese labels, and were very beautiful as well......What I really wanted was a full sweater, no zippers, (to make pillow covers) but these will work fine and were all very inexpensive, I got these sweaters, plus the silk ribbon embroidered purse (to inspire me; it was brand new for only $1.50), all for under $10.00!

Not being experienced with this fascinating craft, I just threw them in the washer on hot water, and they shrunk over 50%, aren't they cute looking? Anyway, I washed them twice, then dried on hot and now they show no weave and are felted, supposedly they will not ravel when cut into pieces. I'm trying a slipper set for the brown one...a combination of sewing and crocheting techniques...and what to do with all those arms I will be cutting off??? I'm very afraid of cutting them yet....I think I need some more inspirational ideas, but at least I already have all the materials on hand now......I want to do some silk ribbon embroidery on the pieces, I have a lot of silk ribbon and I love making pretty flowers.

The more proper term for this process is called "fulling", making felt out of already woven or knitted fabric; but a more modern version using the washer and dryer. "Felting" is done to fibers making them into fabric, and is actually the oldest form of fabric known to humankind, predating weaving and knitting...fur has directional scales and kinks and when agitated and rubbed together, join and shrink up into a strong fabric........I can already tell you that I see a trip in my not-to-distant future to Joanne's to buy a felting kit. I've seen this done on TV and can't wait to make some felt.

As for the old sweaters, next time, I will first cut off any zippers, so they will shrink more evenly, and enclose them in a pillow case before placing them in the washer; there was a lot of shedding! Also, I have been reading more about felting/fulling and some reports say that as long as the fabric is at least 80% animal fur, if should felt. I need to find a lightweight one for embellishments........I would love a cashmere or angora one.......thrift shops look out, I'm coming......

I know how I'll spend the next rainy day here in paradise.....

Make that sunny day! It is going to be in the 100's today in paradise, so I added this bounty of supplies to my felted sweaters. Miss Kitty took to them right away so I have to wait till she moves off to inspect them.

Good time to go make more kimchi pancakes....then I will have some sort of project done with felting before the day is done!

Miss Kitty approaching my bounty with keen interest

Immediately plops down and sniffs everything

Liking the wool packages, good biting material

I think I'll stay here awhile longer....

Three hours later.........

Cut the collar and sleeves off the felted brown sweater, sewn together with silk ribbon and embellished with a round cut-out felted by needle felting tools and sewn on with more silk ribbon. Very ametuer for first attempt, but I think it's kinda cute and I want to learn more.

Not like Denny's!

These are kimchi pancakes. I made several recipes for kimchi, I am still waiting to taste the more authentic one I made to ferment properly....anyway, I made a kimchi salad last week, using Bobby Flay's recipe from the Food Network. It came out kinda soggy, so decided I would use it to cook with. I also added some fish sauce and a little more salt two days ago and let it ferment more since I understand the pancakes are best when using well-fermented kimchi.

The pancakes came out really tasty. Like a lot of foods or recipes I am unfamiliar with, I try to research all the recipies I can find, then come up with the easiest and most simple way to accomplish my goal. I wanted to try a kimchi pancake so bad, so this is how I did it:

1/2 cup kimchi, chopped up

1/2 cup rice flour or AP flour

3 Tablespoons kimchi juice

scant 1/2 cup water, may not need it all

1 egg

good dash salt

4 Teaspoons grapeseed oil, or vegetable oil

Heat an 8 inch heavy non-stick skillet over medium high heat, while heating, mix up your ingredients (not the oil), and it should be a somewhat runny consistency, add more water if needed.

When pan is hot, pour in two teaspoons oil and swirl around pan. Spoon half the mixture into the pan. Stir around a little, then just let it cook for about 2-3 minutes, till almost set on top and light brown on bottom. Flip and continue to cook 2-3 minutes more. Remove to plate and repeat with remaining oil and batter. Stack cakes, allow to cool slightly (for easier slicing), then slice into quarters.

Serve with dipping sauce made of a mixture of lemon juice and soy sauce, and hot sauce if you like it. The kimchi is already quite spicy with red pepper, so I didn't think it needed hot sauce.

After eating and enjoying some of the kimchi pancake, I just left it covered on the stove, then had to come and have some more as a snack, there are still two quarters left for a snack tomorrow! I will be making these again and again until my kimchi is used up.

Kimchi fried rice just around the corner here in paradise.