Sunday, February 28, 2010

Early Morning Front Page...

I slept through my Ruffle Ring being on the Front Page of Etsy this morning! It's more fun to be awake when it's happening, but I'm grateful either way!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Running Playlist Help

I'm running my second half marathon in a few weeks. I could REALLY use some help with my playlist! I've added a few new things since my last half marathon, but 13.1 miles is a long ways and stale music makes it feel even more ridiculously long. Even though this changes almost everyday, here are my current running favorites...what are yours?? please??

2. 11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas
3. Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs
4. Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys
5. Kiss with a Fist - Florence + The Machine
6. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
8. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga (I know, I know...I can't help it...I love it)

Monday, February 22, 2010

2 years ago today...


was the best day of our lives...
and it's only gotten better each day since...

Happy 2 year Anniversary to us!


Monday, February 15, 2010

New Jewelry + Eggplant "caviar" recipe


I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Ours was adorable. Nothing fancy, just an overall great day. Well, the Eggplant Caviar I mentioned last week, but hadn't tried yet - turned out great. It's soooo good. So, here's the recipe and below it, a couple notes about my small adaptations:

Eggplant Caviar
2 medium eggplants
2 large cloves of garlic
1 medium onion, outer skin removed, but left whole
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 TBSP tomato paste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp cayenne (or to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Assorted vegies and bread for dipping

Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Cut a slit into the fattest part of each eggplant and stick in a clove of garlic in each. Rub the eggplant and onion with 1 TBSP of the olive oil. Roast the eggplants and onion on a baking sheet for about 40 minutes, rotating frequently, until the eggplants are collapsed and the onion brown. When done, cut the eggplants lengthwise and lay cut side down on several layers of paper towels to drain. When cooled enough to touch, peel the skin off and cut in quarters. Cut the onion in quarters too. Puree the onion and eggplant in a food processor. Add the rest of the olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, cayenne, salt and pepper and puree until very smooth. Check for seasoning and serve with bread and/or vegies. It's good warm or cold.

**I didn't have tomato paste, so I added about 1.5 TBSP of balsamic instead of just 1 tsp. I also added a bit more lemon juice and a little more olive oil since it was lacking depth without the tomato paste. But, it turned out wonderfully! YUM! Next time, I will add a couple more garlic cloves in the eggplants - the roasted garlic was outstanding!!

And, last but not least, a few more pieces of jewelry to share. The first 2 are already in My Etsy Shop, the other 2 should be listed today or tomorrow.



Thursday, February 11, 2010

Valentine's Day Menu

Everyone is gearing up for Valentine's Day! It's a sweet holiday (I use the term "holiday" lightly...and "sweet", not so lightly). We usually don't give gifts, but spend the day eating...our favorite thing :). I wish I had a great Valentine's Day photo from the past, but since I don't, I'll share a sweet little Strawberry Cheesecake shot from the restaurant CORE in Tucson that I took last week.

The hubby and I always stay in for Valentine's Day dinner and I try to make something fabulous for dinner - and inevitably go overboard with the number of courses. Dessert is always the most decadent part and I'm usually too full to really enjoy. So, this year I'm going light on dinner so we can enjoy dark chocolate fondue with Dandies vegan marshmallows, raspberries, bananas and tangelos. Yum!

For dinner we're having Eggplant Caviar (from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein) and Brown Butter and Sage Linguine. I haven't tried the Eggplant Caviar yet, so if it's any good, I'll post the recipe. As for the Brown Butter and Sage Linguine - insanely good (and easy).

Brown Butter and Sage Linguine
1/2 lb linguine
1/2 cup butter
2 garlic cloves
1 cup torn fresh sage leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
Freshly shaved Asiago
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook linguine according to package. Place butter, garlic, sage and pine nuts into a skillet and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes. The butter should be a dark amber color, but don't burn it! :) Add cooked pasta to the skillet and gently toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Remove and serve with freshly grated Asiago. Serves 4.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Showing off my gems

Well, I'm back from Tucson and it was a great trip. I even got to sit in the sun! It was fantastic. However, trying to manage the gem show is nearly impossible :), but I got a ton of new stones and met some new vendors that I'm so excited about. I uploaded a bunch of photos of my new gems to my flickr photostream, so check them out! Here's a photo of the whole load for now!

I also have some new items that I had been working on before I left for Tucson that I finally finished up yesterday. I've only added the Smoky Quartz Ring to my Etsy shop (because I love it the most!), but I hope to get the rest up tonight or tomorrow. That's all for now - just a quick little update...I'll be back with more soon.