arbor is done!!

The arbor, in all of it's seussical glory is done. It is wonky and wonderful. It has taken on a life of its own. As you can see from the photos there is nothing right about it but that is alright.....it fits in really well here.

wedding!!!

Scott and Angela got married on Saturday at the Firestone Brewery. It was a wonderful event. We got to meet Angela's family for the first time. The food at Firestone was wonderful as was the prewedding dinner at Mattei's Tavern. Scott and Angela arranged for a limo to take all of us to three wineries and then to dinner at Mattei's on Friday. I will upload more photos a bit later.

Santa Maria Sun

The article came out today in the Santa Maria Sun about the paper boxes that were painted. You can see the article here
http://santamariasun.com/art/3229/art-on-the-box/
Of course I hate the picture of me but it is fun to see everyone elses boxes.

sweet potato enchiladas

made these for dinner last night and they were to die for.


Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Servings: 6

Ingredients:
5 sweet potatoes
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
4 green onions, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying
12 (7 inch) corn tortillas
1 (19 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat, and boil the sweet potatoes until tender, about 30 minutes. Cool and peel the sweet potatoes.
2. Place the sweet potatoes in a bowl, and mash them with the cream cheese, green onions, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper until well mixed.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and grease a 13x9 inch baking dish.
4. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-low heat, and fry the tortillas, one at a time, for about 30 seconds per side. Remove the tortillas with tongs, and drain on paper towels.
5. Place about 1/3 cup of sweet potato filling down the center of each tortilla, roll it up, and place filled tortillas seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce over the tortillas, and sprinkle with Monterey Jack cheese.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until the enchiladas are bubbling and the cheese is beginning to brown.

Geocache

Jerry and I tried our hand at geocaching on Sunday. This is where someone has hidden an object - usually a container with paper, pen etc inside it - and you sign the paper and/or take and/or leave a treasure. We were in Buellton on Sunday and thought we would give it a try. We found three but the funniest part was when we were trying to find the cache at the McDonalds at teh outside tables. The coordinates put us there as did the clue and we are looking under the tables and all around them. At the far table was a homeless man watching us. Eventually we got to his table and he looked at us and said "And I thought I was crazy". We all laughed and we explained what we were doing. He just shook his head and said something like "And I thought I had problems". We didn't find that one and will try again when we were down in that area. We did have a good time with him tho.

Pad Thai for dinner

The Santa Maria Sun box got delivered on Friday and as soon as I know where they are going to locate it I will let you know. Next Thursday the Sun will be out as will the photo of my paper box.
I'm making Pad Thai for dinner tonight and thought I would share the recipe.....

Pad Thai
4 ounces dried Thai rice sticks - I don't use these...I use linguini pasta instead

3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined
3/4 cup 1/2 inch pieces firm tofu (about 6 ounces) no I don't put this in because Jerry makes faces when I do
1/4 cup finely chopped radishes
2 teaspoons paprika
1 large egg, beaten to blend
2 cups bean sprouts
2 cups green onions, but diagonally into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped roasted unsalted peanuts - don't put these in either...see tofu
lime wedges

Soak dried rice sticks in large bowl of warm water until just tneder, about 1 hour. drain rice sticks well. Or cook linguine according to pkg.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add shrims' stir fry until pink and opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Add tofu, radishes and paprika to skillet; stir fry until tofu browns, about 2 minutes. Add egg, stir until set, breaking up with spoon, about 1 minute. Add drained rice sticks (or linquine), bean sprouts, green onions, fish sauce, rice vinegar and sugar. Stor fry until headed through, about 2 minutes. Transfer to serving dish. Top with chopped peanuts and serve with lime wedges.


This comes together really quickly so have everything prechopped and ready for the skillet. I do squeeze the lime over the dish once it is on the plates. ssssooooo goood.

The Santa Maria Sun box is finally finished. Tomorrow I will spray it with a sealant and then the sucker can go out into the world. This is the finished front. You can see from the previous post what it looked like before the transformation

The word SUN is made out of red rosin paper that has been sealed and painted then sealed again

One side of the box.......

close up of hands

close up of crazed cows

other side of the box

close up of farmer

close up of tractor

the grapes are made from painted red rosin paper

back of box, painted and the stamps are ones I carved

Top of box made from cut outs of painted red rosin paper

arbor on hold & a recipe for dinner

The arbor has been put on temporary hold because this is in my living room. What is it you may ask. Well, it is a paper dispenser for the Santa Maria Sun. The yellow plastic part pulls down and you reach in and get the paper. I have it because I am part of a project to decorate several of them, not that I am decorating several of them, I am decorating this one, and then they will go back out on the street for a year after which they will distribute them to other artists and the process will continue. Why is it in my living room you may ask......it is too damn cold outside to work on it out there so here it sits in my living room. At least this way I will see it and will HAVE to work on it to get it out of here. The theme is agriculture.....I am not good at agriculture and have been struggling with this. I will post updates as it proceeds.

In the meantime I am making dinner which I will share the recipe for........

Zucchini with Chick Pea and Mushroom Stuffing

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 30 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour
Servings: 8

Ingredients:
4 zucchini, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 (8 ounce) package button mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, or to taste
1 (15.5 ounce) can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a shallow baking dish.
2. Scoop out the flesh of the zucchini; chop the flesh and set aside. Place the shells in the prepared dish.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions for 5 minutes, then add garlic and saute 2 minutes more. Stir in chopped zucchini and mushrooms; saute 5 minutes. Stir in coriander, cumin, chick peas, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Spoon mixture into zucchini shells.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until zucchini are tender.

I am serving this will salmon which is seasoned as follows:

DRY SUGAR RUB
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
dash of cinnamon

blend all ingredients for dry rub
Season both sides of the salmon and cook either on a greased grill or in a skillet with some olive oil. The seasoning is sooooo good.

I bleed for my art.......

Ok so the pictures showed up backwards......I swear that I will never figure out how to make the pictures in order. If you look down to the third picture you will see why I was bleeding for my art. Here tho is the beginning of the grouting process. Grouting is not for sissys.....especially when it is black grout. I cannot use gloves when I do anything at all because I have to actually feel what I am doing and because of this my hands were completely black when I finished this small part of the grouting. And the grout sucks all the moisture out of your hands so my hands were black and pruny...ya know, like shriveled up. I am going to have to do this a little bit each day because I don't think my hands can take a lot of grouting at one time. And yes, that one column that I started grouting is leaning...the styrofoam kinda settled and that one part leaned. Jerry says it looks like something from Dr. Seuss. So now my arbor is Seussical.

And now you will see why I was bleeding for my art. The glass you see on the top is stained glass that I cut into pointy things and inserted them into the very top of the arbor. Anyone that has worked with glass knows that when you get pricked or sliced by it you bleed all over the place. My fingers were bleeding, the side of my hand was bleeding, there was blood dripping onto the tiles. It was a mess. So after a trip to the bathroom and several bandages later I got the stained glass glued in. I dread having to grout up there.