First Tulip Watercolor Painting

One of the best parts of spring is the glorious color after the white winter and gray and muddy early spring.  I love tulips and daffodils particularly.  Next will come the lovely fragrant lilacs.

In an effort to begin painting spring flowers I watched a YouTube video on painting tulips.  Mine look very little like the lovely loose tulips in the video, but they were fun and a pretty good first effort, in my view.

Loose tulips, first effort...

Because I wanted to make a greeting card for a friend, I looked at the different card blanks that I had and likes the Kraft card blank the best.  This is that card with an envelope behind it.

Newsy BIts: Furry Friends

Recently there has been a lot of furry activity at our house.  In fact, in the whole community there has been a lot of black bear activity and controversy over the last six weeks or so.

Well, for our two cents:  last Friday night we had gone to bed and around 10 PM I heard a couple of thumps.  I asked Dear One if he had heard the noise.  Since he was asleep, he had not heard it.  Even so, he crawled out of bed and went to the east side of the house.

When he turned the light on, there was a big black bear going through our large wheeled trash bin....the thumps having been when the bear pulled the bin off the porch and down the steps to get a better handle on the contents.  He continued his trash-picking project, then, not finding anything but some crumpled up aluminum foil of any interest at all, he sauntered off to the compost pile.

Dear One finally came back to bed and fell instantly back to sleep.  I could not sleep...

The next day Dear One decided we should bring the wheeled trash bin into the kitchen at night, so that is the current evening activity just before bed.

Last night he had just gotten ready for bed and heard a noise.  This time it was a fat raccoon who was working on our closed recycling bins next to where the wheeled trash bin stays during the day.  Tapping on the window did not dismay the raccoon so Dear One opened the door and off trotted the creature.  A few minutes later:  more noise.  The coon was back!!  More encouragement to leave and he went away for the night.  I wonder if he will be back tonight.  There really is not much interesting in the recycling bins since everything is rinsed before inserting into a bin so I don't understand the attraction.

For myself, the furry friends that I am nearest are very enjoyable! 

On my trip to visit with our Western children and grandchildren I am at the middle portion of the trip and am with son number one and his family including his daughter who graduates high school soon.  They have three very darling little fur balls who have to be closed up in a room behind a shut door if I am to sleep without kami kazi foot attacks all night!  They are so cute....sleep all day, racket around all night.

Taiwan, Moscow, and Geneva

Tai--black,  Mossie--gray striped, and Gennie--white with black feet and face, are the sweetest, cutest little creatures.  Son number one said he would send two of them home with me. (They already have three adult cats, though one is 20 years old and close to expiration...) When I sent that message home in an email the response was: "No."  Just no.  I will enjoy them while we are together.

Breakfast Banana Oat Bites

Creating a treat for our early morning friends can be a daunting challenge.  It is nice if the treats are at least a little bit healthy though sometimes I just go with easy and fun.  These Breakfast Banana Oat Bites are a little of all three.


Breakfast Banana Oat Bites
Makes 12 bites---depending on what size scoop you use.  I used the 2-2 1/2 Tablespoon scoop.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup oat flour--make this by putting 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats in your blender and blend until it is powdery.
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup pureed overripe banana -2 or 3 depending on size.  Blend these in a blender so they are really a slimy banana puree!
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup sweetened coconut shreds

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cover a rimmed baking sheet with either parchment paper or aluminum foil.  Feel free to spray grease the paper to insure that the bites will release from the pan. (That is the whole reason for putting something under the bites: so they will release from the pan.  With no oil, butter, or other greasy thing, they don't have a real mind to leave that pan...)

In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, i.e. the oats, oat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until well blended.  Add the chocolate chips and coconut at this point and blend again until chocolate and coconut are covered with floury mix. Add the banana and vanilla to the dry mixture, and stir well until combined. Use a portion scoop and place scoops of the batter (about 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons) on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 14 to 15 minutes.  They should be set and a very light brown.  If necessary, cook another two or three minutes.  Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes then remove and let cool completely on a wire rack

The original recipe is found at:

http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/   Deena Burton called these treats Banana Oat Bundles.

Breakfast Banana Oat Bites

These were somewhat popular.  I think the addition of the chocolate chips and coconut actually made these very nice. 

Chocolate Dipping, At Home, Alone...

This evening some of the ladies at church were having a chocolate-dipping party in preparation for Valentine's Day. I planned to go; in fact, I had made some coconut cream hearts this morning to refrigerate over the day and had measured out the Ghiradelli chocolate and coconut oil I was going to use for dipping. I had even prepared a container with some red and some pink Wilton candy melts for decorating.  After a day of activity I had a sick headache and knew I would be very poor company.  Also as the time arrived to leave, I did not feel up to the drive so I stayed home.

By the middle of the evening I thought I might as well bite the bullet and do the chocolate-dipping even though I would miss the company of so many dear sweet sisters...so I dipped.

This is the result:  homemade Twix and homemade coconut cream hearts.  No, you are certainly right, they do not look very good, but Dear One had no problem choking down a few samples.  The rest have been put into the freezer until another day. In fact, for the Seminary kids on Monday.  Don't you think these would be a fun early morning treat?

Coconut Cream Hearts

Homemade Twix

Massaman Curry!

In the past week I have had the opportunity to participate in the interviewing process for the hiring of a new administrator at my most recent alma mater.  The people managing the interviewing process were thoughtful enough to provide food during the mid-day meeting times. I was introduced to Massaman Curry". It was so delicious that the second time I saw it I asked about it.  Today I made it for our supper with a few changes.

Massaman Curry, the way I made it.

3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons lime juice
3 Tablespoons fish sauce
3 Tablespoons curry paste (I used red curry paste)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/3 cup peanut butter
4 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup sliced carrots
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk

In a small bowl combine brown sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, and peanut butter. Add the coconut milk and stir.  (In actual fact, I just realized I failed to put in the peanut butter!!! Oh well, next time...)

Put the sliced carrots in a steamer and start steaming while you cube the potatoes.  Leave the skins on the potatoes or take them off if you want.  When you have the potatoes all cubed, toss them in on top of the steaming carrots while you do the next step.  I did this because I wanted the carrots to be fully cooked which concerned me if I followed the actual recipe.

Put the vegetable oil in a saucepan then add the curry paste and ginger. Stir and cook for about one to two minutes then add the bowl with the seasonings and stir well. Finally, add the steamed carrots and the partially steamed potatoes.  Mix well then cover and cook on medium low for ten to fifteen minutes.  Serve plain or serve over noodles or some other thing.  We ate it over black beans.

Most times you will see this as chicken or beef massaman curry. And there is almost always tamarind paste as part of the seasoning.  We did not have any in the pantry so I just left it out.

This tasted very good even with the glitches in it.  If you have inflammation in your body, you will probably begin to get better because the ginger is VERY apparent. I may have overdone it a little bit but it was still edible...

Cake Pops!

In the past I have seen several "cake pop" recipes.  They seemed interesting to me.  Earlier this week I was talking with our daughter who had a need to make some cake pops.  She need to make a sample batch prior to working with the Young Women who may be the makers of cake pops for one of their upcoming big events.

This morning we received a call from her.  She said, "Mom, did you see the picture I sent?"  I had not so I immediately checked it out on my iPad.  WOWEE!  Those are some beautiful cake pops!

She said she did not use frosting to mix with the cooked cake.  She used strawberry jam.  It tasted delicious. 

She did have multiple problems with creating the pops especially after dipping them in chocolate.  Apparently they like to crack.  She said one cake mix makes about 30 pops but your net cake pops with one cake mix is actually about 20 pops due to breakage, etc.

She browsed for "troubleshooting cake pops" and found lots of useful information.  She found the first one she looked at to be the most helpful.

This is such a great idea but I don't think I have enough self-control to make any.

Cranapple-Walnut Cake

A quick and easy, very delicious cake with multiple flavors and textures is this cranapple-walnut cake.  The genealogy of this recipe is lost to time, but it is possible that our friend Cathy may have given it to us.

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Cranapple-Walnut Cake

1 3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2  cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour (you can substitute half whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda                                               

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg                                                           

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs                                                                                  

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups  chopped, peeled cooking apples                                     

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

8 ounces fresh, whole, raw cranberries

Cream together the brown sugar and vegetable oil.  Add eggs and vanilla, and beat well.  Sift together the flour and dry ingredients.  Add  flour mixture to the sugar/oil/egg mixture and combine thoroughly.  Stir in apples, cranberries, and nuts.  Bake in a well-greased 9” x 13” pan, 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Notes:  If you don’t have fresh cranberries, frozen ones work, but don’t thaw them first, just bring them out of the freezer at the last minute and stir them right in with the nuts and apples.  Also, if you are a little short on the additions, you can add a few chocolate chips. Another “also”:  if you don’t have nutmeg, I have used ground allspice and it was very nice.