Meep!

I have a new Christmas ornament

Let the awwww begin

Big news: I am 4 weeks old now!

Single scoop of lime please

Okay, here is something to look at while I think about my next post.
2009 Kawasaki Ninja 650


HI MOM! ;)

uh....

Are you tired of looking at the meaty lasagna? Me too, but at the moment I don't have any great photographs to post or lies stories to tell. So what's a blogger to do?

More culinary experiments in Flatland

Alternate title: Is that a meaty lasagna you have there or are you happy to see me?
I had the notion to make a lasagna with polenta instead of pasta. Here is a cooked polenta with sun dried tomatoes, herbs and cheese. I have spread it on a foil lined cookie sheet for it to cool off and firm up. When it was cool enough to touch, I flattened it with my hands to spread it out and make it evenly thin all around.
Vegetarians avert your eyes. This is Angus ground beef 86/14, quite lean, with thyme, oregano, bay leaf, salt & pepper.
The pre-cooked onions and mushrooms, and 2 cloves of garlic.
Onion and mushroom mixture added to beef. Not pictured is the tomato sauce I poured in a few minutes later. Cook till most of the water has evaporated.
Time to make the layers: begin with polenta base
add meat & sauce mixture, dot with ricotta cheese..
cover the ricotta cheese with mozzarella slices. Repeat.
Stratum lasagnum: Polenta, meat, cheese, polenta, meat, cheese. This is not on the weight watchers menu.
Final layer covered with grated Parmesan. Place this in preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until the mozzarella is melted.
This is the polenta I used. I didn't notice I bought a flavored variety- it was good, but I wonder how the plain polenta would have been.
Be sure and have some wine while you cook. ;-)
It's okay to peek, especially in the name of photography for blogging!
The final product. Melty, cheesy, meaty, & good.

I'm hungry..

..and I need feathers, or someone to knit me a scarf and hat. Please?

A few videos worth watching

There isn't much I can add to what Bill Moyers has so eloquently stated in his T.V. journal. So without further ado please go and visit Bill Moyers Journal and watch the video about the making of the movie Playing for Change, then go to the Playing for Change website and get more information if you are interested.

A book written just for me

Brought to us by SPOGG the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Hopefully I will benefit from reading this book as I'm sure my blog is overflowing with punctuation and grammatical errors. Help me SPOGG!



Here is the link to Amazon.

Unplugged from the internet today

I got this book earlier today and just finished it. What a sweet story!


If you want to read a blurb about it you can clicquez this link to Amazon.com
.......

I keep looking at this and wondering what to do next. I have made changes to the figure in the lower right, but haven't photographed it yet because I'm too embarrassed to show it. I am stuck. help!

Don't do crock

Crocs... they're ugly on me and ugly on you too Steve-o. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
They are comfortable though, I'll give 'em that much.. but uglyyyyyyyy!

Sorry doods I didn't take this picture and I'm unable to give proper attribution.

Started another painting

I don't know where I'm going with it yet.


The colors on the left side are left overs from the camera painting. I tried to mute them somewhat with white. The green was going to be used on the camera background before I changed my mind and went with the orange. There is a female figure penciled in on the bottom right. If you click on the picture you can see it a little better. I'm stuck at the moment.

Camera 3

Orange background after deciding that I didn't want to try and mix up a chartreuse-ish green. I don't want to appear like I am copying ideas here, but I knew that orange would make this pop nicely. I'm still undecided as to the shadowing on the lens but tonight I made it more purple so it would have the same feel as the rest of the camera. Maybe the trick is to make the side of the camera where the strap is a bit darker too. I'd like to know what ideas you have, so feel free to dispense your 2¢ in the comments section. Tanks!

...oh dear

anyone want to place a bet on how this will turn out?



Keep coming back for more suckage.

Camera

Far from finished. This is the camera from the picture in the previous post. Done in the similar style to Raymi's painting although I'm not sure since I have never asked her how she works. Mostly I want to say that she inspired me to try painting. I like her style. She seems to go for it without too much fussing or sketching-- again I don't know if this is true or not since I've never asked, but in any case watching her paint made me ask myself "what the hell am I so hung up about?" Click the link below to see her chair painting. Click on her name above to go to her main blog page.


Raymi's chair

A sturdy travel companion

This is my first serious camera purchased for me by my dad before I went to live with family in France for a year. It was a big deal for me to get this since I'm sure we didn't have that much money for such expensive things. I'll cherish it forever.

End

The poll is now CLOSED. Thank you for your perspir participation.

Things that had nothing to do with the other post are moved into a post of their own and given an extrodinarily long title.

Remember these?
Not my EKG, but prolly more like my brain waves as I attempt to RElearn some crochet stitches for the 1000,000,000,000,000,000,00 th time!!! AAAaargh!

Food porn update

90 minutes later through the magic of modern day technologies I am able to share with the entire blogosphere my recently procured food stuffs: Grilled vegetables salad, General Tso's surprise, pan fried noodles with vegetables. I had a little bit of the Gen. Tso's and grilled vegetables and am saving the rest for tomorrow.


I hope you enjoyed the amazing, hot, fresh, up to the minute blogging . I mean, I dug out my Etch-a-sketch, and ran out for dinner. Now I need to take a break from being so staggeringly awesome. Later.

What did you do today?

I'd love to have more of this again tonight. This was yesterday's lunch/dinner. Very yummy!

General Tso's surprise- all vegetarian too. I enjoy a ride on the veg-o wagon from time to time.
Yesss! I just found the to go menu I brought home... they are open till 10:00 P.M. tonight. I'm going to bail on this post and go get some munchies.

The Poll is still open.

Cooking and art/processes are tied at one vote each. It's not too late to cast a vote! Thank you to those of you who have voted. ♥♥♥♥

:::Update::: Breaking News:::
TWO votes are in!

Meet a friend

Here is one of my bird friends. Isn't she pretty?

Oh people..

Why do I bother?

I'm tempted to end this blog and do my own thing elsewhere so I don't get any expectations from you visit the blog several times a day but say/ do nothing type people.



☹ ☹ ☹ ☹

I'm looking for inspiration

Don't be shy click on one choice, click on vote, then click view to see the results.
No one will spam you [Mom], you won't be hijacked to some bad website [Mom], it won't give your computer a virus [Mom]. And you will be helping me out by inspiring me -- especially if you choose to write other ideas in the comments section. :-) Thanks!

What would you like to see more of on the blog?
More cooking
Horse pictures and stories
Art and your process
Nature photography
I will tell you in the comments section
Stories? I just come here for the pictures
  
pollcode.com free polls

Lime bars- a culinary thrill in the making

Here is the crust for the lime bars. Butter and sugar-- gulp! Very good.. and I have to remind myself NOT to pig out when the bars are done. For those at home taking notes I am using an 8x8x2 pan.
Here is the lime, egg, more sugar, and a little flour mixture that is poured into the crust. The brown speckles come from coconut that I swiped from a coconut tapioca pudding mix. [Thievery in the kitchen is good.]
Uh oh.. not enough crust-o. Check out my diagram of crustological stratum. B.t.w I hope you all appreciate the extra time spent photo-chopping pictures on this blog.
The pudding which is now minus a few pinches of toasted coconut.
Hey now, nice tan!! This looks nothing like my fellow blogger's version of lime bars. Check it out, and don't tell me it's due to the fact I don't have a green parrot in the photo.
The tan is due to the fact I blog and surf the web while cooking. This, boys and girls is a no-no. Just look at the evidence:
Since I have no Severe macaw to sample my dessert and tell you how delightful it is I will have to take on the responsibility myself. First impressions.. Ow it's HOT! Kidding. It is very cake like at the edges and quite moist towards the middle. Very limey, and not too sweet ( I couldn't stand the thought of adding 1 1/2 cups of sugar so I made the filling with only 1 cup.) As if 1 cup of sugar isn't enough already. I'm sorry I didn't have the lime zest to throw in there, but limes were too expensive when I went shopping for them.
I have to say that Nellie and Joe's key lime juice is pretty good to use in this recipe- and for key lime pie for that matter. It is unsweetened and contains some lime floaties too (don't ask me what they are as the fluid isn't clear)--- okay this sounding like a toxic waste liquid. Back to the lime bars... The final vote: very yummy, but don't eat too many -remember there is a whole stick of butter in that crust!

Lentils are falling

Why is it one seldom if ever hears a weatherman say "hail to the size of lentils"? I suppose it isn't as dramatic as pea sized, or nickle sized.. or even hail the size of golf balls!
I had lentil size hail. Ho hum. I'll let you squint at my photograph to spot it.

More fun in the kitchen

I'm going to make lime bars today.
Meanwhile a thunderstorm is looming at the edge of my neighborhood. It has gotten very dark all of a sudden.

We're both damp :)

My friend and I had a spray bottle shower.

She has a brief post about the event on her blog.

One day in May

I haven't done much the past few days except roast garlic, bake beet & carrot crisps, then eat lots of garlic and beet & carrot crisps. Being avid readers of the Flatland blog you know this already- so let me tell you about one day in May when I was in the Bay Area at the family compound, lounging poolside behind high stucco walls.


I soaked up the bright sunshine, and filled my lungs with warm, dry air as I prowled around the estate with my camera. However I had this odd feeling that I was being followed..

He assured me however that his fair coloration would not draw attention as we wandered about the property together. He was right. He was a pasty-blond kitty and blended in nicely with the surroundings.

Since the fauna had found me, I moved on to the flora..


Then kitty and I sought shelter from the hot sunshine and played guitar hero together. He really had an advantage over me with those dexterous, pink paw pads. My score was abysmal.