Book Review: Gift It From Scratch

Gift It From Scratch by Kathie Lapcevic

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book by Kathie Lapcevic is just lovely. I enjoyed the recipes, along with the the suggestion on how to gift each of them. I love to bake and cook so gifting from the kitchen is a very personal gift that contains a lot of love and heart. It is something I do often and I always am looking for new recipes and ways to gift homemade food from my kitchen - so this book was perfect for me.

The recipes are not ones I have seen in other food gift cookbooks. I was pleased to see that Ms. Lapcevic uses whole natural ingredients. You won't see processed foods in these recipes. Many recipes could easily be converted to vegan. I noticed also that many of the ingredients I have right in my kitchen as normal pantry supplies. I always am pleased when I can find everything right at home. Makes it easy to gift on short notice when I can bake or cook something as a present. 

She also suggest looking for containers at second hand stores. I have almost eliminated all plastic storage container in my home and the thought of having to give someone a gift in one really doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about adding more plastic to our environment. So recycling/repurosing containers from second hand stores is a delightful idea when trying to be green. It also makes it easier because you aren't using one of your own containers and crossing your fingers you will get it back.

I made the Turkey Pot Pie recipe and both my love and myself made happy food noises with each bite. We were talking about arm wrestling for the last pieces the next day for lunch. It was that good. I have to say I had never made pot pie as it just sounded like a scary recipe to me. I cook. I cook fairly well. Pot pie sounded hard to me so I never attempted it - but I am so glad I tried Ms. Lapcevic's recipe. I now know I will be looking out for pie plates at thrift stores this summer as it is going to make the perfect gift for friends at Christmas time.

I like how the chapters are divided in the book and the tips at the beginning of the book. It is easy to follow, the recipes are straight forward, and the gifting ideas are charming.  Over all this book is just lovely and I recommend it for anyone new to gifting from the kitchen as well as those of us who have been for a while.

Recipe for Turkey Pot Pie going to be posted to my blog tomorrow.

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Book Review: Photo Craft

Photo Craft: Creative Mixed Media and Digital Approaches to Transforming Your Photographs by Susan   Tuttle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really love this book. If you are new to digital photography and want to transform your photos into some more artistic - then this book is great place to jump into exploring all the variations you can do to create interesting artistic photographs.

This book gives good basic first time knowledge as well as those of us who have been transforming our photos already. It has in-depth step by step instructions. It gives good break out sections that give other options or tips to help in the process. It includes digital projects using Photoshop Elements as well as mixed media art projects that incorporate your photography.

I like how this book is set up as it is by 2 authors Susan Tuttle and Christy Hydeck.  They alternate, but also add in their own tips to each other's projects. It is great to have both views coming together to create amazing ways to transform your photography.

You will learn to transform your photos by using this book.



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Mail Love

Mail love from a good friend. Just what I needed a book and chocolate because those are the ideal gifts for me. Thank you Tammy! So sweet of you to send me this package.

Books

Library Remodel

Our library moved in the spring to another location to do a remodel of the existing building.  They re-opened this week and it turned out really nice. (The library I go to is Mesa County Central Library.)

The top 2 photos are pieces of art by artists we know, but all of the art throughout the building is really good.  There is a piece behind the check out counter that I really love, but couldn't get a good photo of it because there were so many people there with the grand reopening. This first photo is of a piece called Green Jelly Beans by Mary Mansfield and the second piece is I think Dream of Trees by Diana Woods.

The third photo is just of the lights - I really liked them, but really hard to capture them on photo. They are much prettier in person.  The last photo is of the patio.  The screens to let light on to the patio are made to look like book shelves.

I wasn't able to get many photos as it was just so crowded.

52 Lists - Week 16

I love to read. I often have several books on my nightstand.  I keep track of the books I read on Goodreads.com and love that I can have it on my phone and scan barcodes in. This was a hard list to not keeping adding more and more to. You can see the books I have read this year so far I have read 54.

Week 16 - Favorite Books
The Valkyries - Paulo Coehlo
The Pilgrimage - Paulo Coehlo
The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo
Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Outlander series - Diana Gabaldon
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
The Gifts of Imperfection - Dr. Brene Brown
Life is a Verb - Patti Digh
Inner Excavation - Liz Lamoruex
Brave on the Rocks - Sabrina Ward Harrison
Return to Love - Marianne Williamson
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1  - Mary Oliver
Home Comforts - Cheryl Mendelson
The Mermaid Chair - Susan Monk Kidd
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Four Agreements - Miguel Ruiz
PoemCrazy - Susan Wooldridge
Living the Creative Life - Rice Freeman-Zachery
Green Guide for Artists - Karen Michel
The Artists Way - Julia Cameron
Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg

Challenge: I will read...
A Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg - which I did start to read and decided I wasn't ready to read it although it looks like a good book just not a theme I want to read about right now.

The Host

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked Twilight series and can't wait to see the movies. It is geared for young adults, but I was one of the many adults that enjoyed it. I was worried Meyers wouldn't really capture an adult audience, but this story and how it is told is an amazing read.  If you weren't a fan of Twilight I say still pick this up, because this was such a better story than Twilight. This book just pulled me and captured my attention on so many levels for me. 

I read this book in two nights.  I probably could have finished it in one night if I had started it a little earlier in the evening.   It was a little slow and hard to follow at first, but then I was sucked into the story and didn't want to put it down.  It made me laugh, cry and really feel for all the characters.

Wanderer is kind and smart. She is emotionally and mentally strong. With a big heart...she doesn't want to hurt anyone.  She thinks of others first.  While she was the character that I liked the most, there are other characters great characters. Melanie is strong and tough - both physically and emotionally.  She is most like the average human. If in the same situation they would act like her. Ian was another character I enjoyed also-  almost more then any of the other males.  He was able to see what the group was doing to Wanda. He changed and saw beyond the human's fears.

I felt the characters were developed well.  They suffer and their core ethics and morality are tested, but provide emotional release and show those better parts of ourselves. Love conquers all --- even across species. That isn't exactly a new theme, but Meyer really tells  great story  bringing  the situation to life - transporting us through it.


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Now the movie will be coming out in March and they released a trailer yesterday....looks pretty good to me. Can't wait to see it.

Life in Points

* We have been traveling quite a bit - just day trips or a few days here and there. But soon we will be taking a longer trip. We will be going to see my sister and her family. After a few days with her, we will go do a work project and then after the work is done, we will spend the weekend with Tammy as we will be in her neck of the woods. We see her again in November. She will be spending Thanksgiving with us.

* I have my follow up for my doctor coming up this week - for the sciatica. He did a treatment of cortisone that lasted 10 hours. Then he prescribed a pill that was for 5 days, but my doctor and my pharmacist were really at odds with each other on the drug. After taking this drug and seeing how I reacted, he will know better how to treat me. The drug worked great except for upsetting my stomach just a little bit which was the pharmacist concern. But the positive of the drug it brought my pain down to zero on a pain scale and the most it would go up to is a 3. It still even almost a week after it has been done hasn't brought my pain back up to where it was before (a 7 was pretty much my daily consistent pain level).

* Yesterday we did yard work. Both of us are not fans of it.  I have bad allergies that really just cause me to be miserable because I would love to have some of a garden, but just can't keep up with it. And it isn't fair for it to fall to Michael when he dislikes yard work.  This was icky yard work we had to do yesterday - pulling weeds. We have rock landscaping, but weeds come up in them and with my sciatica being as bad as it has been there has been no way I could do it before now.  It was hard to do it yesterday. Michael  ended up doing the backbreaking stuff. We had put it off until we couldn't any longer.

* The first of February is our anniversary, but the 1st of every month for the last 9 years Michael says Happy Anniversary.  We laughed that our morning was spent doing yard work - fun fun! But really I am thankful that we can have of course lots of fun together, but also make things we don't like doing go a little faster and better by doing them together.  We can laugh and have fun even when pulling weeds.

* We were out of town recently and when we arrived back in town we decided to get some errands out of the way before heading home. One thing was to go to the library as I figured I had some book waiting for me. I came with a HUGE pile.  Michael shouted from the car on my way out of the library carrying the huge pile of books that I didn't need to check whole library out. The lady in front of me got a chuckle. But the sad thing is that huge pile of books I only have like 3 left to read as I am going through a book a day still.  I got through the Anita Blake series. All caught up again...I had been 3 books behind, but reread the entire series.

Inner Excavation & The Sound of Paper

Inner Excavation: Exploring Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media by Liz Lamoreux
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this book up at the library and well that was a mistake - a good mistake. Because it made me want to go out and purchase the book right away so I would have time to fall into it the way I wanted...from the moment of reading the first pages I knew it was a book I need to have available in my studio/home always. It is a book for exploring and that takes time...longer then just having a couple weeks of it checked out at the library. But I am so glad I picked it up there so I knew without a doubt this is a good book and will be deeply personal but playful and fun. I can't wait to buy it and jump into ready to explore myself in a different way. Thank you Liz Lamoreux for creating such a lovely book.

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The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am really stuck. I am scared of creating. This book is what I needed to read right in this moment. Working through some of the exercise has helped me pinpoint some of the fears and I believe will help me start moving forward. I checked this book out of the library, but have put it on my wishlist as I do think it would be a good book to have when needing when having doubts, insecurities and just being blocked in general.


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Green Guide for Artists

Green Guide for Artists: Nontoxic Recipes, Green Art Ideas, & Resources for the Eco-Conscious Artist by Karen Michel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book! I checked it out from the library and can't wait to purchase it.  It is a must have for artists who want to use safer, nontoxic, greener materials in their art. It is divided into 4 chapters/sections...

* Greening your Studio: talking about product safety and just being safe in the studio, green paints, mediums, canvas and such
*Green Recipes: making paints, paint recipes and adhesive recipes
* Green Projects: bookmaking, paper-mache, using found objects and other green projects
* Green Artist Gallery - info about each artist in the gallery and examples of their green art, it also has a resource guide

Each section had such great information. Often much of the information was things I didn't know, recipes that I could make right now in my kitchen without much effort, projects and inspiration that made me want to create right away.

The book itself is so lovely to look at just thumbing through it. But it is just so full of good information for artist who want to start using green in their studio.  You might be able to find all the info online, but I would much rather have it in my studio and use because it just a great book.


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Sinking

This month has been hard on me. Really hard.  I will be glad when August gets here.

The end of May my sciatica came back and it is just getting worse and worse.  To the point that this month - I can't stand or sit very long. Laying down seems to give me the most relief at this time, but still is very painful and have to readjust positions often.

Because I am in such pain, I am falling behind on things around the house and other things such as working on my website and doing art. But I have been reading like a mad-woman.  I am going through a book in a day or two.  My library requests aren't keeping up with me so in between waiting for them - I am rereading the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.  I have most of them so keep pulling them off the shelf in between my library books.  I am almost to the point in the series where I stop liking the series.

I am also reading the Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning and going to reread her Fever series after the Highlander series. If you haven't read anything by Karen Marie Moning and like bodice ripper type books - read her.

Books are the only thing keeping me from drowning right now.  When I am in this kind of pain cycle, it starts to bring me down. My depression starts weighing on me and I feel myself sinking into it.  I get why. I understand it logically but trying to fight it has nothing to do with logic.  It has nothing to do with even seeing it happening - even though recognizing it is good so I can see I need to fight it. It is just hard and tiring.  Books though have become the only thing that keeps my mind from sinking into it.

So that is where things are at the moment. I just thought I would try to get a life update posted so that people didn't think I fell off the earth.

Brene Brown and Harry Potter

Source: pinterestdresses.com via Sarai on Pinterest

I am a big fan of Brene Brown. I try to read everything she writes, all the clips online I find, podcasts she does and so on.  I just value everything she says because it really hits me, makes me think and has helped me figure out things I have been struggling with for such a long time.  I just appreciate her words of wisdom.

So yesterday she did a post on her blog using Harry Potter to help with her teaching.  Made me adore here even more being a Harry Potter fan. :)

"Shame is the big daddy of dementors, but we're stronger. Expecto Patronum!" ~ Brene Brown

Brene Brown

Brene Brown on Listening to Shame.  I think she is the best - always amazing. 

A Credo for Making It Happen

I adore Danielle LaPorte.  She really speaks to me in ways that have helped Michael with his business but also helped me with my art.  She now has a book The Fire Starter Sessions. Before she wrote the book - it was an ebook/eworkbook and I have it and it is excellent so I know the book will be great and plan on getting it. But this video she did as a little teaser for the book is excellent and inspiring.

Date a Girl Who Reads

I love this - it is long but so good.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow. She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book. Buy her another cup of coffee. Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice. It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does. She has to give it a shot somehow. Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world. Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two. Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series. If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype. You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads. Or better yet, date a girl who writes." – Rosemary Urquico

Story Cubes

Source: storycubes.com via Darby on Pinterest

I was reading this curated list of books for TED Bookstore....and on it was this game called Story Cubes. It looks like a lot of fun and would be great to help kids use their imagination.

Reverb 2011

Last year Reverb really affected me in positive ways. I just didn't let that positive force that I started out with - continue. I let some things trip me up and then I stayed back and stagnant - again.   This year Gwen Bell isn't doing Reverb but a couple of her Reverb 2010 co-founders are and I am using prompts Kaileen posted. I might change a few out and add in some of my own though. 


Prompt: Where did 2011 begin?

2011 started with me getting my migraines down so that they didn't impede on my quality of life so much. I get them still, but before it was about 22 days out of a month that I got migraines.  Now I get them when a couple times a month and maybe up to 7 a month. But down from 22 to 7 is AMAZING!   My doctor that helped me with this has left the clinic I go to but he was my ROCK STAR for 2011.  

Prompt: Who did you meet?

I met people I have known online for years.  

We met Colleen and Scott after knowing her just a little bit online. They lived on the other side of Colorado, but were visiting family who live in GJ.  They were also in the process at that time of trying to decide where they wanted to move.  We are thankful that they decided to move to our side of the state and are about an hour away now.  We were lucky enough to spend some quality time with them soon.  They have become really good friends and we wish we could spend more time with them. 
I also met someone else I have known online for quite a long time. Kathie at Two Frog Home.  Kathie and her significant other Jeff invited us for dinner when we were in Montana.  It was an amazing night and I wish so much that we lived closer together.  Kathie is one of those people I have always had on a mental list of people I would love to meet - and I am so very grateful that happened in 2011.  
I thought and continue to hope we might get to Montana for Michael's work one more time  in early 2012. I keep my fingers crossed as I would love to spend some more time with Kathie. 

Prompt: What books did you read?
Not as many as I would have liked to read.  But I did read the Karen Moning Fever series mostly because my cousin talks about them quite a lot and then she sent me the first book.  So I got hooked on them.   

I also read the Harry Potter books - first time I had picked one up. I started and kept on going to the end. I am hooked on the movies too and watch them several times a month. 
I read a couple books by Brene Brown and they deeply impacted me.  I really saw through so much guilt and shame I had/have still working inside me.   


I read probably close to 100 books this year. I just haven't logged them all into Goodreads.com yet. 

Prompt: When did you struggle?
I didn't struggle this year a lot - but really I feel like I just gave up on some things.  It was hard due to health reasons so I did struggle there because I couldn't do anything. I felt like I was in a prison - if I took the trash to the curb - I coughed and needed several hours if not all night to recover. Just little tasks sent me over - because I couldn't breath.  That happened in the end of July I was hit with really bad asthma attack and after that I just couldn't breath right.  That went on for 3 months and then I started to heal some but then it came back.  Oddly enough after this ER visit I had recently - my breathing problems went away after taking the powerful antibiotics. I am grateful it did. I mean still have some wheezing and little asthma problems but not like the 3 months were I couldn't sleep because laying down made me choke and cough.  Luckily I am feeling better and just still struggling with some health issues but not to the extent I was before. 

This is Home

I have been on a Narnia movie kick lately and I love the music from all 3 movies.  This one the artist talks about how when he wrote this song for the movie he kept in mind when his father read the books to him when he was young. I thought that was cool that he enjoyed the books and then did a song for the movies. The books are great....I should read them again. I haven't read them since I was a little girl.

Anyway....beautiful song. This is home - just makes me so grateful for Michael and that this is home with him.

Millionaire's Shortbread

This recipe is from the cookbook Baked:New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and they are the only thing I have tried but all the photos in this book make me want to try everything but I am not sure I will. I have checked this book out from the library and I going to admit this out loud or I guess more like in black and white print....I loved the look of this cookbook. It was the typography, the graphics, the styling just made me want to pick it up and dive into baking! And in reading the recipes I want to make many of these recipes. But I won't touch some of them because they are just going to take too much time for me. I am not a patient baker. I love to bake but I am not patient. And some of these recipes (including this one I am about to tell you about) include patience. And although I am sure the recipes in Baked:New Frontiers in Baking are worth the patience - I just am not sure I am the woman up for the job of testing that out. But I did for this recipe and the bars in the end were worth the effort. OH MY!

These are not bars you can just easily whip up in 30 minutes to an hour. This requires a whole afternoon. They are time consuming and messy to make. As I said I wasn't sure they were going to be worth all the effort but Oh MY! These bars are HEAVEN! Probably the best bars I have had in a very long time. If you are wanting rave reviews, have the time and don't care to make a mess, take the time to create these.

And I suspect that many of the recipes from the cookbook would end up this way - with rave reviews and worth the time and effort.

These reminded me of an upscaled Twix candy bar so I cut them in long skinny bars instead of squares.



for the Shortbread
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 /12 cups all-purpose flour
1 large egg yolk, slightly beaten

for the Caramel Filling
28 ounces sweetened condensed milk (two 14-ounce cans)

for the Chocolate Glaze
6 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes

for the shortbread:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter together until blended.

Add 2 cups of the flour and beat until well combined. Add the egg yolk and beat for a few seconds, or until just combined.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Dust the top of the dough and your hands with a little flour. Use your hands to gently work the dough into a 6-by-6-inch square. You will have to turn the dough and sprinkle the top with flour as you go. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup flour on the surface of the dough. Fold the dough over and knead until incorporated, then flatten the dough into a rectangle. Transfer the rectangle to the prepared pan and press it into the pan.

Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

for the caramel filling:
Stovetop Method: Put the sweetened condensed milk in a medium heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of boling water over low heat. Cook for 1 to 2 hours, until thick and caramel colored. Remove the bowl from the pan and beat until smooth.

Microwave Method: Put the sweetened condensed milk in a large microwave safe bowl. Cook at 50 percent power (medium) for 4 minutes, stirring briskly halfway through, until smooth. Cook on 30 percent power (medium-low) for 12 to 18 minutes, until very thick and caramel colored, stirring briskly every 2 minutes, until smooth.

Pour the caramel filling over the cooled shortbread and place the pan in the refrigerator until cooled, about 2 hours.

for the chocoalte glaze:
In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the chilled caramel layer and use an offset spatula to spread it into an even layer.

Put in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the glaze hardens.

Remove the pan from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving so as not to crack the chocolate glaze. Cut into squares and serve.

The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 4 days.

NOTES:
- made caramel via microwave method and much like when I make my maple fudge recipe - it boils up and over the bowl - so be prepared for a mess in the microwave
- I would add 1 tsp vanilla to caramel
- I added just a bit more chocolate as I used dark chocolate chips instead and had a little left in my bag and didn't want to put them back in my cupboard so used the rest so my chocolate is a little thicker then pictured in the book
- I just melted the chocolate mixture in the microwave instead of on the stovetop and it worked fine

Reading Along

I caught the end of a Q&A teleseminar with Brene Brown today and I told Michael after that I wish I could hear her speak more. My wonderful love Michael said google her name plus mp3. I hadn't even dawned me to do that. Nothing much comes up but the first link is a quality link because it is her site. I have read a lot of things on her site but not everything and well this part I hadn't read or noticed. It is a workbook/podcast to do a read along with the book I am reading right now. I am so excited to have found it. I did notice that the book cover of my book is a little bit different - different subtitle but after listening to her first podcast - it sounds like it is the same book.

I am just so excited to listen to the podcasts and read the blog posts that go with them. The book has just given me so much insight to my life and I have had many light bulb moments.