Month: April 2015

Priorities

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“I am often struck by the fact that the modern world is full of affected knowledge & information that, when you get right down to it, is only relevant to the extent we grant it relevance. We have become very good at procuring & prioritizing things that are not fundamentally all that important – cars and computers and cell phones come to mind – even as we have become less good at providing for ourselves the things that are downright essential: Food. Shelter. Water. Warmth.” -Ben Hewitt

This quote speaks to my Luddite heart.
Seen via Falan Storm on Instagram.
https://instagram.com/p/2CpsSkOzOr/

A Chore Became Art

Hooray for my recent art projects*! They made me more open to helping my DH with a long overdue house project – painting the stucco around a sliding door we put in. It’s about time. It’s only been FOUR years since we put the door in, haha! ;-P

Openness to helping due to recent art exposure: +1

Painting really rough stucco: -2

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Work in progress

As I was scrubbing…. er, “painting” along, the hashtag in my head was #slowesthousepainterever DH finished his other project and came to the rescue with a roller.

…. and we discovered – Oh look! The paint we used does not match the wall! Frick! Now what? The most straightforward thing to do was to paint the rest of the wall. But I just couldn’t face slapping more paint on the stucco. And then I thought – What if I Zentangle it?

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Serendipitous art! For zero foresight, planning, sketching or anything, I’m pretty happy with how this came out. This project went from #slowesthousepainterever to #izentangledmyhouse ! Haahahaaaa!!!

Today’s Zentangle tool: cheapie, 3″ brush. This ain’t your Micron pen!

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Hooray for spontaneity!

Chore turning into art: Priceless

*I learned about Zentangle last year. Before that, I believed “I can’t draw” and “I don’t like art.” I didn’t realized I had art inside me! My Zentangle albums are here and here.

Test Kitchen: Poaching Eggs in the Oven

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Today’s cooking adventure: poaching eggs in the oven.
Score: B+

I adapted a “poach a dozen eggs in the oven” recipe:
– I didn’t want to buy a muffin tin
– Will using cupcake liners work? Let’s find out!
– Cooked in the toaster oven

Baked at 350° for 15 minutes, plus 2 more minutes while my chili was in the microwave. A big part of the appeal of poached eggs for me are the runny yolks, so these are way overcooked for my taste. It’s hard to tell that by just looking though! The eggs stuck to the paper a bit, but not too badly. They also got a rubbery skin, similar to the “baked egg in avocado adventure” (remember that?!). I’d try this again! And cook for shorter time, and maybe less heat. Uses a lot less water than boiling on the stove.

Source recipe: http://cookingtipoftheday.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-make-poached-eggs-in-oven.html?m=1

Test Kitchen: Baked Egg in Avocado

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(From March 13, 2015)

Hahahaaa!! If I used Pinterest more, I’d post this as a #fail. This recipe looked simple enough, but nooooo…. I learned a bunch of things though. I might be willing to try again. I’d better – I have a Costco-sized bag of avocados.

Score: D

Recipe: http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Baked-Eggs-Avocado-Recipe-30787252

Lessons:
– Scoop out more avocado before adding the egg. I thought I scooped out enough. Nope.
– The recipe says to put the avos in a baking dish and get a tight fit. That’s so the avos stay upright and the egg doesn’t spill out.
– My eggs runneth over immediately when I cracked them into the avos. That caused a nice, glazy skin to form. #fail
– The avo skin gets very soft after being baked for 15-20 minutes. And they are quite hot. I was not willing to hold the “food item” with one hand and scoop with the spoon. I ended up peeling the avo skin off and knife-and-forking it. Since the egg had skinned over, it did not mind being manhandled.
– Taste: It tasted like warm avo and egg. Big whoop. Haaa!!