Garlic Flower Buds

This is the second draft I started in July, 2011. These pictures had to be taken in April or earlier when fresh garlic is in season. These are garlic flowers and I was told that they are edible when I bought them. It did have a mild garlic flavor.

Sauteed garlic flowers with chicken and whatever the green leafy vegetable I had. It was ok. The flowers were a little tough so I cooked it longer than I should have. Figuring out the right cooking time is always a challenge when I cook new ingredients. It would have been better in a strong sauce like black bean sauce.

Ghinji and Renjirow

I started working on this post in July of 2011 and forgot about it. My extreme laziness would not allow me to rewrite so I'm posting it as is.

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I made a slightly larger frog Renjirow 2 months ago.  The only thing I did different for this one is to use a 4mm hook instead of 3.75mm hook I usually like to use.  I just wanted to see how loose it would turn out to be.  It didn't get as loose as I thought.  I used the same yarn for all three frogs.

Ghinji was my newest cat...the reason I have to put it in past tense is that Ghinji and Renjirow are on their way to Japan.  They will got their separate ways, however, I have arranged good families to adopt them upon arrival.
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"Sora, you need to practice yoga. Someone this inflexible cannot be called a cat"

Sloths have taken over my brain...oh my brain

It's been over a year since the last post. I did not have time or energy to devote for creating things and, as a handmade junkie, I need my fix now. There is a list of things I want to make over the summer such as more crochet aliens and something to do with sloth.

Sloth! I've been obsessed with sloths for about two years. It all started when I adopted Slowpoke at the thrift store (owned by a local animal shelter) I used to volunteer once a week. My first impression was "What is this ugly plush that resembles a middle aged man in whole body suit?" I mean, look at him

and compare it to this picture (<- click). They have to be related. His unattractive appearance made me realize that no one would adopt him and he would eventually end up in the dumpster behind the store along with other items no one wanted to buy. His adoption fee was two dollars. His only friend is a baby devil duck. However, his happy sloth genes keeps him smiling even after everything he went through: being abandoned by his owner, getting squished into toy basket at the thrift store, and being brought to home where two scary felines roam.

After that, I kept noticing numerous sloth pictures and videos all over the Internet. They are everywhere. It is some sort of sloth brainwash. It's even on my tofu package.

If anyone wants to join me and adore sloths, check out these videos:

Yawning baby sloth


Baby sloth bath time


Sloth crossing the road

Being Elmo

Wow.   I just watched one of the most inspiring movies I've seen in a while.  The movie is called Being Elmo, a documentary film about a guy who's behind the most famous red furball we all love.  I can write more about it but it's probably the best to take a peek.  Here's the trailer (don't forget to pause the music player above):



It's simply amazing to see someone who had so much passion about puppets as a teenager and started creating his own puppets.  I became speechless (good thing since I was in the theater) when I saw a muppet came to life---without Kevin's magical touch, it's just bunch of fabrics and threads.  Of course I've heard about Jim Henson's name before and I knew he created my Kermit (I'm thinking about roasting the pig...you know who) but I never even thought about others who supported the Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.  Living in problem filled society, the majority of the documentary films we see are depressing and hopeless.  It's really nice to find a movie that's uplifting and warm!  If you are lucky enough to live in a city where you can watch this movie, drop everything and go see it.  I caught the very last screening in Tucson and I'm soooooooo grad that I checked the Loft Cinema's schedule at 5pm this afternoon.

It's Finally Cold Enough

The warm weather stuck around longer in Southern Arizona this year.  Although I hate cold weather and I never look forward to winter (I wish I could hibernate!), there was one thing I couldn't wait to do this winter: to try the blanket I finished knitting in March.

This blanket is large enough for two adults to share on a couch.  I have hard time staying awake for a movie under this soft and warm blanket.  My cats are also in love with the blanket and they try to take it from me every chance they get.

I fell a sleep several times while I was knitting this blanket...that's how comfy this blanket is!

Sundried Tomato & Oregano Bread

 

I have a bad habit of taking food pictures and forgetting about them.  I think I baked this bread when I made garlic prawns.   Sundried tomatoes in olive oil was kneaded into the dough and the dough was topped off with feta cheese and fresh oregano.  If anyone wants to try this at home,  any pizza dough recipe would work.  I used about 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes with oil.  Kalamata olives and wild mushrooms would make great toppings on this bread as well.  I usually bake this type of bread on a baking stone at 450F.

Speaking of baking stone, I've always wondered why many baking stones or pizza stones come in rounds.  Yes, that's the most common shape for pizza, but it simply isn't long enough to bake long loaves.  It's not as practical as a rectangle stone.  If anyone is interested in getting a rectangle baking stone in the US, the one from Williams-Sonoma is reasonably priced and works great.  I bought mine from there about 5 years ago. 

Gardening in Arizona

One of my favorite greens is arugula. It is a versatile super veggie I can use in many dishes including salad, sandwich, risotto, and pasta.  I first started growing my own in a container when I was living in Texas.  Although the summer heat in Texas is sometimes unbearable, the humidity was good for my plants.  That's something we don't have in Arizona, and gardening in dry heat has been a challenge.  Arugula is doing all right so far, but I have to water every day. 

Earlier this year, I planted rapini, or broccoli raab, in a container (pictured above).  Although it didn't get as tall as I wanted it to be(probably because I planted it too late), it was delicious sauteed.  I need to make a in=ground planting bed for this type of veggies for next year or this fall.  Greens seem to have hard time growing in containers.

Food for Wine: Garlicky Spicy Prawns

Instead of picking wine for certain food like most people do, I often decide what to cook based on what I want to drink.  As it gets hotter in Arizona I shift from red wine to chilled crisp white wine.  One of the dishes I love with chilled Sauvignon Blanc is garlicky prawns.  It is a flexible recipe.  As long as I keep the essential ingredients (prawns, garlic and olive oil), I can add or subtract ingredients depending on what I have or what I'm in the mood for.  I threw in some fresh oregano from my container garden. 

Click on Read more for the recipe.

More Necklaces

I found pictures of necklaces I took in March and somehow forgot to mention on a blog.

These lampwork beads are larger than what I normally make. 

When I was organizing craft supplies, I found a necklace I made long time ago(below).  I made a mistake of leaving this necklace where my cats can get to and one of the cats chewed off the cord.  I'm grad that he didn't accidentally swallow the rock!

Things That Kept Me Busy in April

April is usually one of the most pleasant month in Arizona, but it wasn't a case this year at least for first two weekends.  The first weekend happened to be the 4th avenue fair weekend in Tucson and it felt like in June.  One of the vendors at the fair told me that it was so hot that people weren't even stopping to see merchandise.  Only the hat shops and drink vendors had great sales during the fair.  The second weekend was insanely cold and it felt like back in February.  I volunteered at Spring Shearing Festival at Kathy's ranch in cold drizzle.  I was really looking forward to see shearing of animals but I was too cold and wet to stand in a rain.  I was spinning with a drop spindle in a garage where three other people were demonstrating wet felting, continuous strand weaving and needle felting until I could no longer feel my hands.  I spun rest of the day in a shop.  Call me a wimp, I don't care.  I can't stand cold weather.

I went back to the ranch on Monday to see the rest of the animals (who got too wet to be sheared on Saturday) getting sheared.  By the time I arrived, all alpacas and llamas had been sheared and they looked pretty strange with their new haircuts.

I saw angora goats and sheep sheared.  I didn't know the brown hair on sheep was actually sunburn and hair inside was a beautiful black color.  Another surprise was that how fibers from each sheep differ.  Just like our hair feel different from each other, wool from one sheep was much softer and finer than the fiber from her barn mate.  It was nice to see how fibers I spin were collected from animals.  It requires continuous hard work to raise animals for fiber and then process them (wash, color, make roving/batts, spin) for sale.

We had our Easter dinner at my brother-in-law's house and I was in charge of veggies and rolls.  I baked plain dinner rolls and herb-cheese dinner rolls on Easter morning.  I served asparagus with roasted garlic-lemon sauce and it was a hit.  All the veggies including sauteed broccoli and broccoli stem and cucumber salad were all gone and it was a happy surprise in a not-so-veggie loving crowd. 

I started volunteering for Humane Society last December and I've been enjoying working special events such as Cover Dog Photo Shoot and Doggie Fashion Show.  The largest fundraising event for Humaine Society is Puttin' On The Dog (P.O.D.) and it was on April 29 this year.  I helped baking dog biscuits before the event and kept filling coolers with drinks and ice for other volunteers during the event.  I just realized that I forgot to take pictures!  It was a fun event with lots of dogs, food from local restaurants, and animal lovers.  I met Maya, a therapy dog who is a pitbull.  We don't usually expect a pitbull to be a friendly visitation dog who visits nursing homes and children's hospitals.  Meeting someone like Maya reminds me that we're product of environment and even certain bleed of dogs commonly believed dangerous can have a nice temperament when they are raised in loving environment.  I'll be volunteering for P.O.D. every year.  Now I understand why this event is nominated in various local media's favorite charity event polls.

Horseback Riding in Sonoita

My husband had a surprise for me on March 20.  He told me not to plan anything that day so that we can go hiking.  A hiking wasn't exactly what he was planning to do---he took me to my first horseback riding in Sonoita, Arizona.  First, we had brunch at a small restaurant called Canela Bistro with pleasant ambiance.  We both enjoyed house made smoked machaca & eggs.  

He booked horseback riding with Arizona Horseback Experience.  There were 7 others (5 from out of state) riding that afternoon, but I was the only person without prior riding experience.  The lucky horse who had to let the beginner ride on his back was Chief, a 23 year-old horse. 

Chief didn't act like an old man, I mean horse.  As his name suggests (although that's not why he was named Chief), he wanted to lead the group and he followed right behind the horse a guide was riding.  He made my first 3-hour horseback riding very memorable.  I really enjoyed riding on a beautiful sunny Sunday.  It was truly a nice surprise.

Next day, my inner thighs were sore from riding as my husband predicted.  It was well worth the pain!

Things That Kept Me Busy in February-April

I haven't been able to update my blog as much for last three months or so.  It's not that I didn't make anything---I have to be really sick to put away my craft tools and kitchen knives---I've been busy running around and I didn't take my time to share what I was doing. 

I took a diving trip to Bonaire for a week with my husband in middle of February and got my diving fix.  It was my first shore diving experience.  Diving whenever I feel like was nice, but we both missed diving off a live-aboard boat.  All we have to think about on a live-aboard boat is next dive---we don't have to worry about what time a supermarket closes on Sunday or which restaurant to go out for dinner.  Bonaire and other shore diving destinations are for people who can stay two weeks or longer and rent a condo.  The picture above shows slave huts where slaves who harvested salt used to sleep.  The huts are so small---I can't imagine how it was like to come home from hard labor to this little hut and to be crammed in there with other slaves like sardines. 

After northeastern Japan suffered earthquake and tunami on March 11, I joined Japanese Association of Tucson's fundraising and helped with two events.  The first bake-craft sale was on March 19 and I was there selling baked goods for almost 12 hours. Members of Odaiko Sonora entertained us with their strong performance in the evening.  Some people waited three hours to dine in at Sushi Yukari who donated 50% of the sales of the day. 

Another fundraising was held on April 10 instead of association's semiannual picnic.  We had yard sale and craft sale outside and Japanese food sale and bake sale inside Sushi Yukari.  It was an unusually cold weekend in Tucson and I was still a little cold even in my heavy leather jacket and long boots during craft sale.  I sold some of the earrings and polymer clay beads I made.  This fund raising was a great success as well.

More Local Soaps from Southern Arizona

Last Saturday, I went to 4th Avenue Fair in Tucson mainly to get soap which I became addicted to since last year.  Since I knew that the temperature would rise to 90's in the afternoon, I decided to be there when the street fair opened at 10am.  By the time I got to the Network Navigator LLC's booth, it was pretty hot and display soaps were getting soft.  Luckily, soaps for sale were stored in much cooler shaded area.  I bought 8 bars all in different scent.

Just like SoAP's soap, these soaps don't have overpowering fragrance and they smell very natural.  I do miss SoAP's coarser soap for hand washing, but the texture of these soaps are great for bath or hand washing.  The price is reasonable: 4 bars for $10.  I'm looking forward to use a lavender soap as soon as a sage soap I'm using right now is all gone.

Bees!

I'll be posting bee pictures on my picture blog site for a week or so to personally celebrate and thank what bees provide us.  Also, Animal Planet in Canada is showing a documentary film The Last Beekeeper on April 18 (8pm EST) and April 19 (12am EST).  This is a shocking film for many of us.  I wish Animal Planet in the US had the same schedule as Canadian AP but they only show shows like The Haunted and I Shouldn't be Alive over and over.  Anyway, here's a trailer:

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite things to do in Southern Arizona is to go to farmers markets.  Local honey is sold at most of the farmers markets in area and it comes in variety of flavors depending on what flower the honey came from.  Honey is the most obvious product we'll miss without bees, but there are so many other crops we'll lose if bees are not there to pollinate.

Wine Glass Charms

When I made wine glass charms for my sister-in-law, I totally forgot to take pictures before dropping them off at her house.  That's why I'm posting these pictures 2 months later.  I used mostly odd beads I can't really use with other beads for jewelry.  These beads are perfect for wine charms since their unique appearances are easier to remember than 'just pretty' beads.  I also used stone and glass beads I purchased long time ago and had no other use for.  I think I missed a few but the charms with my handmade beads were all photographed. 

The charms are now displayed on a wire tree along with other wine accessories.  She got this tree (with round ornaments to hang) from her friend for Christmas but she liked it so much that she decided to hang wine glass charms year-round.  What a great idea! 

What did I get in return?  Free room and board (including daily litter scooping!) for my kitties in her guest room while we were on vacation.  Guess who got the better end of this deal?