for the love of cereal

I met up with my mom and sisters tonight for "girls' night out". My mom has been wanting to see the new movie Julie & Julia, so we went out to eat only to then watch a movie of other people eating. Let me back up here a minute.... Though I come from a family of excellent cooks, creating things in the kitchen has always been a foreign concept to me. Open my cabinets any given day, and you'll find 6+ boxes of cereal (of which at least two of which will be Hearty Morning by Cascadian Farms--my new fave). My cooking philosophy is simple: if one can mess it up, it can be called "cooking". I don't care if it came in a box or you only need to add water--it counts. Anyway, my sisters were inspired by the movie. I, on the other hand, identified most with the scene where Julie, trying to make poached eggs, follows the directions to perfection only to look down into her steaming pot to see the disgusting mix of watered-down, oily egg mixture. Gross.

My 7 Wonders of Cooking:

• Timing multiple dishes to be ready at the same exact time
• Cooking two things in the oven when they require different temperatures
• Translating: dash, dab, smidgen', and all those other words my grandmother cooks by
• Properly estimating quantities when cooking for more than 2
• Buying the right quantities when cooking for 2 so that there aren't a bunch of perishable, miscellaneous ingredients left over
• Making homemade sauces and salad dressings
• Cleaning a cast-iron skillet without using soapy water
  

My sister, Heather, bakes for hire and creates fantastic cakes and the like. To her, cooking is a creative outlet, a challenge to take an ordinary concept like a birthday or wedding and turn it into something both tasty and unique. Here are a few of her latest creations:

"breakfast cake" complete with coconut shavings as hash browns

"sushi" cupcakes (sugary goodness!!)

"easter egg cupcakes"

"slumber party" cupcakes complete with teddy-grahams for each girl

special event cakes (my wedding cake is 2nd from left)



I think my biggest problem is inspiration. It always fascinates me when people go to the store and pick up seemingly random, unrelated items and then magically pull together a delicious meal. Perhaps this is why I enjoy cookbooks with beautiful photographs of the finished product--I have proper motivation that there is light at the end of the tunnel and promise that the end result is worth the trip to the grocery, mess in the kitchen, and stress of meticulously following the instructions for fear that the slightest error will result in an inedible disaster. One of my favorite cookbooks is The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, published by Murdoch Books. The front section of the book helps one learn sources of protein, fiber, etc without meat, and each of the pages with recipes feature large, full-color photographs of vibrantly colored dishes. (I am admittedly a 5 year old when it comes to "picture books" for cooking. Sure, they can write the story of how flour and egg come together in the end and live happily ever after in a cake, but unless I see the step-by-step photos, there's little chance that story will ever be told in my kitchen.)

Here's a recipe from that book that is really easy to make and has a beautiful presentation:


Tortellini with Nutty Pine Sauce
(serves 4-6)

1 lb cheese tortellini
2 oz butter (there's no such thing as too much butter, though!)
3.5 oz chopped walnuts
3.5 oz pine nuts
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 t chopped fresh thyme
1/4 C ricotta cheese
3 T cream
**1 large package fresh mixed mushrooms
**large bunch of fresh spinach

Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water until al dente. Drain and return to the pan. In skillet, melt 1-2 T butter and cook mushrooms until brown. Add spinach and let wilt in warm skillet. In a heavy-based pan, add the rest of the butter and heat until foaming. Add the walnuts and pine nuts; stir for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add parsley, thyme to nut mixture. Add nut mixture and mushroom mixture to pasta; stir.

Beat the ricotta and cream to make sauce. Stir into pasta mixture. Serve immediately.

**Josh and I added mushrooms and spinach to the recipe and love it. Also, we typically double the sauce mixture (cream/ricotta cheese), but it's really just a matter of preference.


I have to admit, for such an easy recipe, this seems to always make an impression when we serve it. I made it for some friends earlier this year, and they loved it. It's hearty enough to stand on its own, so fear not meat-eaters--you will leave your dinner table satisfied.

Hummmmm, maybe there's a little Julia Child in me after all...

Ashley.



Lisa: I still believe in protecting animals' rights, but that still doesn't excuse what I did. I'm sorry I wrecked your barbecue, Dad.
Homer: That's okay, honey. I used to believe in things, too.

Sew, it may be time.

When I was a freshman in college I decided to make a quilt for a good friend of mine. Never one to shy away from symbolism, each piece of fabric was chosen specifically to represent a particular theme (renewal, creativity, innocence, love, peace, etc...). The small, asymmetrical scraps of found fabric came together in the end to form a butterfly as the central focus of the quilt. As was with the quilt, I later discovered in life that seemingly incomplete, fragmented parts all come together in the end to create something beautiful--the collective "me"--we need only step outside to see it.

Though this experience is my only legitimate sewing challenge, it seems that a lot of the projects I'm drawn to right now are sewing related. The plan is to start small and not overwhelm myself with a huge, intimidating task that will make me put off the next sewing project for another 9 years. I'm in search of interesting fabrics and hope to discover a local fabric store with vintage/modern patterns that don't cost $20-40/yard.

Perhaps I'll break down and buy some online......







Cool fabrics, where you be?

Ashley.


"Arrange whatever pieces come your way."--Virginia Woolf

hello

Today is one of those days where in search of creative inspiration, I find myself having spent the past 3+ hours lost in my own virtual world of handmade art utopia. The Internet and I have become good buddies over the past three months with my TV-Free-Summer still going strong. It's not that I watched that much television before (The Office, 30 Rock, and the occasional Scrubs rerun), but having totally eliminated TV from my day has awakened parts of me that have been sluggishly dormant for far too long.

I've been on a big creative fix the past few weeks: filling pages of my sketchbook, browsing design books at the bookstore, scheming up what I'd do to the exterior of this house should we ever decide to buy it... The list goes on and on. And speaking of lists, I've already compiled 2 different lists of holiday gift ideas to make this year. For the past few years, there has been so much commotion that I hadn't really made an effort to find my inner artist. It feels good to have rediscovered this part of my life, to get a new start to old things.

My friend Chris recently recorded a CD and asked me to design the CD and case for him. I'd never done this type of thing before, and I really enjoyed collaborating with him on it. He wanted to incorporate an old-fashioned microphone into the CD and merch items as part of his brand extension. Below is the final product:

Front:

Back:


His CD release show is coming up August 14th in Knoxville. You can check out his music site at http://myspace.com/chrisperkins.

And not to selfishly hoard my Web surfing discoveries, here is one of my recent cool finds from local artist Jennifer Simpson at www.happyphotography.blogspot.com:







I'll post more later, so until then.......

Ashley.


"We don't see things as they are--we see things as we are." -Anais Nin