My Heart (Felt-Covered & Blue)

First concession to Valentine's Day since I was 8 yrs old or so. . . .

More Fast Food: Creamy Pasta with Smoked Oysters and Veggies

Originally, I had hoped to deconstruct the CPK tequila chicken fettucine using spinach & chive linguine pasta from TJ's, because E and I love that dish. However, I haven't finished collecting the ingredients, so instead I assembled (not much actual cooking involved here) this dish with a sauce of tahini and non-fat Greek yogurt (lately, my default), canned smoked oysters, fire-roasted red and yellow bell peppers, and marinated artichoke hearts. Today, I used more tahini than yesterday, as I'm a huge fan of tahini.

Later, I topped my dish with some smoked Norwegian salmon I picked up at Costco with Jaime. It's about the same price as TJ's and much less salty. The only problem is that there's so much of it for me to finish. . . .

A Tree Grows in G * l * t *

After visiting a few beads stores (Bohemian Crystal, Berger Beads, and Beads and More) in Downtown LA, a few storefronts away Emrah and I picked up this miniature manzanita tree, which rests atop the dresser and holds my strings of beads, reindeer headband, and new deco-style feather headband.

Originally, I had wanted to paint the tree gold and hang strings of origami cranes from the branches, or wrap copper wire around the branches with crystal flower "buds" on them.

However, I really like the natural coloring of the branches, and it's a convenient and decorative way to store my beads, jewelry, and hair accessories.  A few weeks ago I had purchased a fuschia cymbidium orchid plant from TJ's to brighten up the drab bathroom, but Downtown LA flower stores sell gorgeous orchid plants for cheaper.

Here is a close-up of a flower I made last year with thick stainless steel wire and a few beads I re-used from a hair vine I made.  If I make more flowers, I'll use copper wire from the hardware store.

Invasion of the Paper Cranes

A few years ago, after receiving a Borders gift card from one of my aunts, I ended up buying a few origami books and finally learning origami, something I'd always wanted to do. At my mom's house, the paper fruits of my effort are scattered around: a kangaroo, birds, fish, starfish, other animals, linked paper balls of luck, etc.

Our apartment decor is rather boring, so my goal is to create an origami paper crane mobile hanging from the (many!) hooks on the ceiling. Relative to the other origami animals, cranes are quick and easy to fold, and their shape is so easily recognized and lovely, that it seems worth my time to fold them.














My paper cranes hanging out on the TV

Monster Pizza

This weekend Jaime visited from SF, and Saturday night we made pizza with red bell peppers (roasted in the oven), goat cheese with herbs, brie cheese, homemade marinara sauce made with grape tomatoes, spinach and walnut pesto, apple-chardonnay chicken sausages with lamb casings, marinated artichoke hearts, and sweet potatoes.  It's not very pretty, but it was muy sabroso!

monster "everything" pizza

Fast Food: Creamy Fusilli with Bell Peppers and Artichokes

Tonight I made a quick pasta with a creamy sauce of non-fat Greek yogurt and tahini over brown rice fusilli, topped with fire-roasted peppers, marinated artichokes, parsley, and red chili pepper flakes. All ingredients from TJ's. I didn't even heat the sauce up, because I like my bacteria as live as possible.

Shrimp Wontons

Our second meal together was shrimp wontons.  The steamed wontons fell apart, but our second attempt--frying both sides and steaming--was successful and delicious.

Shrimp Wonton Recipe:
wonton wrappers
1 lb shrimp
large handful of sugar snap peas
scallions
garlic
ginger

Emrah frying the wontons

 

            Tasty fried shrimp wontons!

Live Rock Crabs: Struggling with our food

In mid-December, rock crabs at our farmer's market cost only $4 for three crabs, so we cleaned and boiled the crabs, and christened the new apartment with a nice meal of crabs, pasta, and salad.  

NB: Next time, we plan to freeze the crabs for half an hour to sedate them, and then boil them.  After our meal, we became extremely drowsy.  Perhaps stress hormones released by the crabs caused our extreme fatigue.

Susie holding a cleaned crab before placing it in the pot of boiling water