Lots of cooking!

Last night I started working on my Edible Book entry - made 7 cups of red buttercream frosting. This weekend we're going to make some kielbasa for Easter dinner and don't forget that next Wednesday is the Chili Cook-Off Benefit!

I'm also starting to think about growing things .

Southern Sweets

Last week I got a recipe swap package from Jen in North Carolina - she sent a really great book of recipes (that I can't wait to try) and some cranberry and chocolate chip biscotti...Delicious!













Then yesterday I received my first Candy Swappers package in the mail from Lisa in Atlanta. She sent a overflowing box full of hot chocolate, Dolce Bits, Sweet Georgia Brownies, chocolate, Cadbury eggs, praline pecans and Peach Buds.

Gingerbread People

I was doing some Edible Book research and came across The Cookie Sutra : An Ancient Treatise: that Love Shall Never Grow Stale. Nor Crumble. Good thing this is a family affair!

Exhausted

It's been a long day. After work I am heading directly over to the Film Fest to volunteer from 6-10pm (dinner break) then seeing the midnight showing of F*CK with husband and friends.

Is it bad that I already feel like I need nap?

Buds

Jeanne has been posting about her signs of spring.
I can't resist to show what's in my front yard.



























On a much sadder note, I don't think that my orchid is going to bloom. See how the one bud has turned a funny pink color and looks like it is dying???

What's going on?

I have been very busy this past weekend volunteering and watching movies at the Film Fest. I think I've seen 6 movies so far...only 5 more days to go.

I've started trying to perfect my vegetarian chili recipe for the Cleveland.com Food Forum's Chili Cook-Off Benefit for the Autism Society of Greater Cleveland. I am very nervous about the event! I have never entered a food contest before...well, one time I entered a pie contest and it didn't go so good. Please come down, support a good cause and have some chili at the Great Lakes Brewery on April 5th!

Oh, my Secret Pal sent me a great St. Patrick's Day package!!! Thanks SP7, I can't wait to find out who you are!!!

looking forward to Friday

What is going to make my Friday grrreat:

• Cleveland International Film Fest is starting
• St. Patrick's Day - don't forget that the parade route is different this year
• The Bishop giving dispensation so I can eat corned beef & cabbage without feeling guilty
• Honey Hut opens for the season - have a scoop of Pistachio!

Linguine & Red Clam Sauce

I saw Martha Stewart making this recipe on t.v. a few years ago. Since then I've made it a numerous times - it's one of those dishes that's pretty easy and at the same time impresses guests. This is how I do it:

Linguine & Red Clam Sauce

1 lb dried linguine
2 Tbs olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 (6 oz) cans chopped or minced clams, 2 with their juice
1/4 c. white or red wine
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
3/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes (or more, to your taste)
salt & pepper
1 Tbs butter

Directions:
In a skillet (with a lid) large enough to hold the pasta later on, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and slowly cook, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add everything else - clams, wine, tomatoes, red pepper flakes and S&P, to taste, keeping in mind that the clams and their juice are salty. Stir, reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer till thickened, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Cook pasta & drain while sauce is simmering. Add drained pasta & butter to the sauce and mix well in skillet. Cover and cook 1 minute.

When I'm out walkin' I strut my stuff

I met my friend at Pickwick & Frolic last night, where we had the worst waiter ever, only 2 drinks (we were thirsty - one reason why he was deemed a "worst"), crispy hand cut fries and medium done burgers. We didn't feel like ordering very much food before going to a concert and had planned on going to the martini bar for some appetizers but they were closed. Why?

The third girl in our group showed up and we walked over to the House of Blues to see the Violent Femmes 25th Anniversary show. When I bought our tickets the only ones available were in the upstairs - and they were not all together. So like everyone else, we sat in seats that technically were not all ours. The 2 seats that were together were all the way on the end of a row - so that you could not see ANYTHING.

Anyways...not quite sure what I was thinking but while I was sitting in someone else's seat I decided to be a rebel and snap a picture. I totally got busted and yelled at like a high schooler. But I wasn't sent back to my seat! Hahaha.















The Violent Femmes are old dudes but are so weird and cool that they completely mesmorized for the entire show. What entertainers! I didn't know anything about them before the show except that I like to dance around to Blister in the Sun at social gatherings - mainly weddings and on New Year's Eve.

Gordon Gano (the lead singer) looked like someone you would not want sitting next to you on an airplane. He wore this big red t-shirt and I think either a pair of sweat or fast pants. Too far away to tell, but gross either way. My friend told me he "used to be the cute one!?!"

Brian Ritchie played all kinds of different instruments including something that looked like a stick, a xylophone, shakuhachi and conch shell!

My personal favorite was the drummer Victor De Lorenzo - he was so cute dancing around, banging on stuff.

twelve22.org

My order from twelve22.org came today. Anna Torborg's site is beautiful and the print is adorable...makes me think of spring!

Pita with Black Bean Salad

My work is participating in Meatless Mondays - "a national health campaign to help Americans prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer - four of the leading causes of death in America." The problem is we're only "offically" doing it for 4 weeks. Personally I think we should do it ALL year.

Week 1 - A very easy and quick recipe to make during the week - don't be shy with the spices.

Pita with Black Bean Salad

1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked black beans (or canned black beans)
1 tomato diced
1 cup romaine lettuce, shredded
½ cup green onion
garlic powder to taste (for more flavor, roast whole garlic gloves and mince)
ground cumin to taste
3 TBSP reduced fat Italian dressing
whole wheat wraps

Mix all ingredients except bread. Marinate
for 1-2 hours. Fill wraps. Serve immediately.

Aphrodite Cakes

I found this recipe on Barbara Fisher's blog Tigers & Strawberries last summer and have kept trying to find an occasion to make them - her writing is very persuasive. Friday they were my contribution at a friend's party.

For some reason her site was down this morning so I am posting the recipe below. I followed the directions exactly and 1 batch of dough made exactly 6 dozen cookies. 1 batch of icing was way too much for me, it probably was enough to ice 2 batches of cookies. It contains a very secret ingredient...sshhh.

Aphrodite Cakes

Cookie Ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Icing Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter
4 ounces light cream cheese
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 tsp. rosewater (or to taste)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Sift together flour and remaining ingredients and gradually add sugar to mixture, beating until well combined.

Roll into 1" balls and flatten slightly onto and ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes (I baked 12 minutes): Do not brown.

Allow to cool a minute on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer to wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To make icing, blend together butter and cream cheese, then blend in the powdered sugar. Add rosewater and enough cream to bring it to a spreadable consistency.

Add food coloring to tint it pale pink (I used 1 drop of red), and pipe rosettes onto the cooled cookies.

What's left out of 6 dozen on Monday morning:

Edible Books...yummy

I went to a really beautiful used bookstore called Loganberry Books (all the way on the East Side) for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society hosted a great lecture on the history of Pop-Up Books. I sometimes can't believe how many places there are that I've never been to in Cleveland!

Loganberry has a lot of events coming up, including the Edible Books Festival contest on April 1st. If you don't want to enter you can still come---for a $2 donation you can cast a vote and help eat the edible books. Categories are: Most Appetizing, Most Bookish & Most Creative.

Also, here's the link to the International Edible Book Festival.

Orchid

This is an orchid I bought from the Holden Arboretum's 2005 Orchid Show - which is more of a sale than a show but whatever. It had blossoms on it when I bought it and they eventually fell off. It lost a leaf and then grew a brand new one. I've had it over a year now and these are the first buds to appear...the anticipation of them opening is crazy! This is a very slow moving plant. I better not kill it.

past weekend

This past weekend we were pretty busy...

Friday - We went to Dot Schnider's show at 1300 Gallery - there were sooo many people there! Ate dinner at Minh-Anh where the food was very good, but the service was very bad. Our waitress, Ms. Cranky, should have done all of us a favor and took the night off. I had shrimp szechuan with asparagus, red peppers, mushrooms and pineapple - all of my favorite things! Afterwards we stopped for some drinks at Hoopples - if you've never been there, you should try it. The wall behind the bar is a huge window. It's just about the greatest view of Cleveland you can see. Warning - cash only.

Saturday - I worked all day, like every Saturday :( My husband brought me Nate's for lunch :) I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it before, but Nate's is our FAVORITE restaurant. Either we go there or get take-out every Saturday. Then we cleaned the house and moved some furniture around. When we got tired and decided to visit our friend who bartends at the Grafton Street Pub in Lakewood. Grafton was a stop on a bar crawl that night. It was like locusts - they came, they drank, they left.

Sunday - We felt like going for a drive. Jumped in the car and headed to IKEA where we bought shoe racks so I don't have to store all my shoes in a big laundry basket anymore. Exciting! We stopped and visited my in-laws on the way home, scored dinner and watched some Ice Dancing.

Since I am obviously giddy with my new camera here's a picture of some Sausage Shoppe hot italian sausage (delicious!) with home made tomato sauce. Enjoy!

My Cheese Sandwich...

with ham.

BBM4 - Singapore Package!

I was very lucky to have the lovely ST, a "born and bred typical Singaporean who loves a spicy chilli crab", to be my BBM4 partner! Thank you so much ST for putting together such a great package. I really enjoyed opening and trying all the goodies! And thanks to the Food Ninja for hosting a really spectacular round of BBM!

I received a Chinese New Year themed package that included a note explaining some New Year celebrations and traditions, a CD of traditional Chinese music with a modern twist, a package of gift envelopes, mango dessert mix (I think it's like pudding), pepper salt prawn spices














pineapple tarts her aunt made














& super cute mandarin orange jelly candies!

truffles

How can something so delicious make your tummy feel so bad?
I've only eaten 2 today...but it's still early.

My SP7 Valentine

My very generous Secret Pal sent me a HUGE Valentine's package that I got yesterday...yippee! She sent a handmade card, candy, candle, stitch markers, soaps, note cards, a pink dishcloth and much more...thank you SP7 so much!















I started working on a pair of Voodoo wrist warmers from Knitty. This is the first time I've used double pointed needles - a little confusing but fun.

Lamb Stew

We stayed in on Friday - very odd, but very nice. I finally was able to make Tina's West Side Market Stew. It took about 3 hours and was worth every minute. I pretty much followed Tina's recipe exactly, even including some optional rutabaga & parsnip (1 of each). How rooty! But couldn't restrain myself from adding an extra pint of Guiness and some fresh rosemary.