Cuz sometimes ya just gotta. . .

I love Etsy. I really do. Each day I visit the site, browsing the highlights of the day, and, of course, checking my own listings.

I'm a firm believer in 'what goes around comes around'. I like to support other artists, asI believe it will come back to me, in some for or another. Appreciation of handmade goods has brought me a taste for things that I would otherwise not splurge on.

Body Butters are one of those things.

For some reason, I was really drawn to try this product from Skin Journey. She had beautiful simple pictures with some wonderful looking "stuff" inside the jars. I hearted it and finally went and bought some when I got some money for an order in my shop. I chose two scents, Republic of India, and Rolling Hills of France. The names just sound luxury, don't they?
This one is tempting, too!


I was very pleased when I got them. They do cost me a bit more than the all-natural lotions I have been using. But they are SOOOO worth it. They have provided a perfect amount of mouisturization during both the warm Summer months, and the cold days we've been having lately. They are quite heavily scented. Something I really like in a product. I like to be able to get whifs of it now and again thru-out the day. I also like others to tell me I smell good. :)

Falling for Soup

I know, I know. It's a cheezy blog title. But I couldn't think of much else to call this. It's Fall, the wind is blowing like crazy outside and it's freakin' cold. We had some spectacular foliage during the past couple of weeks. That ended quickly, as it does every year, when the wind comes and rip all the leaves down from the trees. Still plenty are hanging on, but I'm staying inside during this chilly windy day.

I've made 2 pretty good soups lately. Last week I made Wonton Soup. I've never made that before. I have made wontons, and I usually have the wonton wrappers on hand to make hor-dourves (or however the heck ya spell it) and stuff that's snacky like that. I chopped up some onion, carrot, cauliflower and portabella mushrooms, sauteeing it with some ginger and garlic. I seasoned it up with some Rice vinegar, Braggs Liquid Aminos, black pepper and sesame oil. This filling got carefully put inside the wonton wrappers, sealing with water. I think I'll use a bit of flour and water paste to seal them next time, as they easily opened up in the broth after cooking.

The broth was made using a bouillon paste, water, chopped garlic and minced ginger, more braggs, black pepper and some torn Nori sheets. I do like the convenience of this bouillon paste I've tried, but I think it's too salty for the suggested proportions.

Next time I'll add less bouilion or more water. I added some leftover pan-fried tofu, half a can of chopped baby corn, and carrots.


The soup was pretty tasty. I'm not really one to put an exact recipe, cuz I just sorta wing it. If you can't figure out how to make this, well I guess you can google it. Or just go back on the internet and complain about it.

Last night I made some kick-ass Lentil soup. Again, kinda salty, and I forgot about the saltiness as I added some celtic sea salt. Today I'll add more water and try to remedy it.

The lentil soup was made from sauteing one chopped onion, 1 cup each sliced carrots and parsnips, and some garlic. I always season the veggies as I cook with salt and pepper. Then I added 1/2 cup lentils and about 5-6 cups of water, with the appropriate (too fucking salty) amount of bouillon base. I let it cook for about an hour and it was fabulous.


I got tagged!

7 things ya may not know about me:

I throw my "composting" stuff out into the woods in the back yard. Nothing brings me greater joy than to see rotton tomatoes bouncing off trees and pineapple tops getting caught in the limbs. The cats often run after the missiles.

When I was in 9th grade, I farted in Math class. I had bent over to pick up my pencil, and "whoorrenn" came out of my butt! It was those school desks like this:

It sucked.

I HATE dirty mirrors

My husband and I got married in a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas. It was awesome.

Sometimes when I'm at home by myself I won't shower for up to 3 days. I just run for cover when the UPS guy comes.

When I was young and we went camping, (I have NO idea where this place was) we discovered a bike trail that went down into the woods. The trick was, you had to turn quickly or bail out to avoid going over the cliff and dying. I guess we were good on bikes.

I hate raw onions. I've been cooking with them a lot more lately, but if I get something that happens to have onion in it, it's pretty much a ruined meal for me.

Now I'm gonna tag Kate, Marlena, and Julia & Erin.

I suck at drawing

Yup. I'm a seamstress who really can't draw or sketch worth a crap. I wish I could draw like those designers on Project Runway. It's like a flip of the wrist and there's a dashing woman in a floor-brushing dress with zippers as the strapping and waistband. The drawing comes so effortlessly!

Here's an example of the sketch of a recent dress I put up on the website.

I mean, the dress isn't that bad, but there's no body. That's because I hate drawing bodies. They end up looking like aliens or something. Like this one:
Her neck could go on for days and her tiny feet will cause this child to fall forwards with just the nudge of a pinky on her shoulder.

I should be using colored pencils, too, but where are they when I need them?


WEBSITE HAS BEEN UPDATED
I updated the website yesterday. My dumbass forgot to post the measurements on the new pants I put up. There goes a bunch of potential customers. I usually get the highest amount of traffic on my website the days I update. I doubt someone is going to come back to a website hoping the idiot webmaster added the much-needed information for them to get the pants. It's up there now, so that's that.


FAILURES
It has become such a joy for me to go check out the failblog.org website to see what idiots have been photographed and then submitted to the website for our enjoyment. My favorite one yet is this guy on a bike:

Enjoy!

How ya got here

Here's some of the latest keyword searches to get to this blog:

• Rothbury Festival Boobs
• Dolphins-curry
• Bitchin BBQ sauce
• Fleece Panties
• Where to find Shrooms
• Stitchin potatoes
• Bitchin fabric
  

Chic Pea Cutlets

So everywhere in the Vegan blog world are people talking about this fricken Chic Pea Cutlet recipe. You're damn right I tried that sucker out! I had to wait a while to make it so I could get the Vital Wheat Gluten.

I just copied and pasted this from one of the numerous websites with the recipe.

• 1 cup cooked chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth or water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated with a Microplane grater
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
• Olive oil for pan frying

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, mash the chickpeas together with the oil until no chickpeas are left. Add the remaining ingredients and knead together for about 3 minutes, until strings of gluten have formed.
2. Preheat a large heavy-bottomed nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Meanwhile, divide the cutlet dough into 4 equal pieces. To form cutlets, knead each piece in your hand for a few moments and then flatten and stretch each one into a roughly 6 by 4 inch rectangular cutlet shape. The easiest way to do this is to form a rectangle shape in your hands and then place the cutlets on a clean surface to flatten and stretch them.
3. Add a moderately thin layer of olive oil to the bottom of the pan. Place the cutlets in the pan and cook on each side for 6 to 7 minutes. Add more oil, if needed, when you flip the cutlets. They’re ready when lightly browned and firm to the touch.

I didn't have lemon zest so I didn't use it. And I used regular Paprika. I only cooked up 2 of them, and still have 2 left. My overall concensus of this recipe? It's aaaa-ight. I mean, it was good, you know, a tasty dinner by my lonesome. But I'm not sure if I'd actually go thru the trouble of making it again. I much prefer my vegetarian Salisbury Steaks to this, which I can't remember if I've blogged about before--if I have not, I will! I served the Chic Pea Cutlets with some mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, and sauteed mustard greens.

Here's what the process looked like, cuz I know some of you just HAVE to have pictures:

1. Mashing the chicpeas. *note to self: use the food processor next time

Adding the remaining ingredients:

Now I've got 4 patties, and you don't.

The over-browned cutlet:

And my mouth-watering meal for October 6th:

For my mushroom gravy, well, it's just thickened vegetable stock with mushrooms in it. I mean, really, that's what it is. I don't put nutritional yeast, or any of that crap in it--which could possibly improve the flavor. Nope, I just sautee up some baby bellas (or whatever I have) with some garlic, add veg stock (sometimes I use the potato boil water) and thicken it with good ol' corn starch. I like my gravy pretty thick, just so ya know. I think I will try to bake the remaining 2 as described in some of the directions on other pages.


In other news, the Maryland Mt. Airy Fall Festival was a complete joke. As with most festivals, the entry form will say something along the lines of "you have to make your stuff, don't bring imports from China". Yet each festival, there are always people selling this crap. It just pisses me off. We (the REAL hand-crafters) work really hard to bring you all this kick-ass one of a kind stuff. So to get there and see the main streets lined up with Pampered Chef, Arbonne, and Pittsburgh Steelers Nylon rucksacks for sale, well, I guess it wasn't surprising. There was just no sense of organization, as to where the hand-crafters and the resellers were seperated, because they weren't. I packed up my stuff Saturday night and did not return Sunday. I'm not usually one to bail out on things--I like to see it thru. But this festival can just suck a fart out of my ass right now. If you want a GOOD craft/art show, get GOOD crafters and don't allow this made in China BS take over our craft world.

*end of rant*

Please join me this weekend at the annual Berkeley Springs Apple Butter Festival! White trash on the outside, but artsy chic on the inside!

Look for my purple booth on Fairfax by the Monuments!

Oh, and when you click on the picture, you'll see Jody, from Oasis Cafe, wearing my batik t-shirt and leaf & turquoise earrings.