Greek Spiced Baked Shrimp

Decided to try a very different recipe the other night and it turned out pretty well. It's really easy to put together as well. Interestingly spicy and warm--perfect for a winter's night.

Here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Start by chopping 1 medium onion and 2 garlic cloves and adding them to a warm pan with about 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Add 1/4 tsp of salt. Saute until clear, about 5 minutes.

Add 1/2 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice to the onions and mix well, about 30 seconds.

Chop one (28-ounce) can of whole tomatoes in juice, drained, but reserving the juice. Add these with a moderate amount of juice and a pinch of sugar. Allow to simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Season 1 1/2 pounds of fresh or well thawed and drained large peeled and deveined shrimp and then stir into the tomato sauce.

Transfer to a 2-quart shallow baking dish and add 1/4 pound (2/3 cup) of feta, crumbled.

Put in oven and bake until just cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread or steamed brown rice and a green salad. We served it with some sauteed green beans. Enjoy!!!

Afternoon at the dog park.

Razzle Dazzle.

Finally, after eight or so years of taking photos on film, I broke down and bought myself a Canon t2i DSLR. I've had it for two and a half days and am already enthralled.

It's been a long time coming.

Here's some fun we had last night at the Grant Cutler and the Gorgeous Lords show at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. Nice, open, mellow space with some good sound and even better lighting. It fit the mood of the music perfectly.

Harvest Time

Cooking and comfort food is what this season is all about. Warming oneself up to brace against the chill of the environment. For that reason, I have been continually replenishing my cup with hot coffee and spiced teas and for that reason, stalking all types of cooking blogs. Here is an adorable Latvian one.
We are visual creatures as well, which is why I watch this modern Latvian cooking show every Sunday.
For my crafty English-speaking friends I favor Craft Magazine for creative ideas and of course, Martha Stewart for the downright classic.
Good eats!

Ah-mazing.

Yeah, it's been a while.

Saw this and it inspired me so, I just have to repost it. Check out the Provakateur blog. These guys are on to some really good design without throwing away their conscience. Add in a little cheekiness, and you've got the perfect package.

Fired up.

I tell you, it's becoming harder and harder to know what's in what you buy these days. It seems that around every corner there is new information that comes to light that impacts my purchases. Recently, I was thoroughly exasperated when one of my all time faves, Target, recently decided they would jump into the political contributions game (don't think that my devotion is that unwavering).
But in a bind, I always look for a positive solution. And it seems that there's a new wave of wonderfully awesome, beautiful, and socially conscious women out there who share how to navigate these things without having to live in a burlap sack, as my sister would say. Here are a couple of my favorites:
No More Dirty Looks is a couple of gals I've started to follow. Who knew that we were absorbing thousands of chemicals every day through our cosmetics and that the majority of these ingredients are never tested for safety? (Who do they think we are? Mindless drones?) Anyway, these two beauties make figuring out how to be natural with your cosmetics fairly effortless. And, admit it, what girl hasn't wanted to play around with making her own makeup? Summer soup to keep that skin fresh? Yes, please!
This comes after picking up a used copy of Gorgeously Green at Half-Price books--an easy read with a plethora of painless clean-up-your-act suggestions that you can decide to do at any pace you feel comfortable with. Now, the author Sophie is posting her own videos of how to make commonly purchased household items fast and green on her website. Sunscreen? Check. Household cleaners? Check. Even the luxurious extras we've come to expect in our lives, like face masks and expensive moisturizers. Check and check, minus the cost and the yucky stuff.
Add to this Craft and others who make DIY not only easy, but stylish, and you've got yourself on a roll.
Love--it.
The point is: knowing my stuff is better for me and for everyone else around me makes sense and also makes me feel good.
What are your suggestions?

Botany of Desire

Before Michael Pollen became nationally known for his best-selling book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he was just a good journalist who wrote interesting things about how we as humans interact with nature. One of his fantastic works was 2002's "The Botany of Desire," a look into how four plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes, evolved with humans to use us just as much as we use them. Now, the wonderful folks over at PBS are broadcasting a documentary based on the book. Those in the Twin Cities can catch it on TPT next Wednesday, July 28th at 8:30pm.

YES, YES, YES.

Wish I was in NY. Patiently waiting until September... Official website

Happy Friday!

We bury our secrets in the garden.

I am writing to you all after another busy week. The newest project has been to do a little more research on the family tree. Truth be told, it was originally much more about looking into Dallas' history, since I am fascinated by the fact that his family has been in this country around the same area for an extraordinary amount of generations. Being that my family were more recent immigrants, I thought that I knew all there was to know--I have information about almost all of the lines all the way back to their original country of origin, meaning that I've gone about as far as you can go without travelling to find more records. But I was proven wrong...by a large margin. Case in point--there is much more to know about the McLaughlins. Maija had experimented with a free trial of Ancestry.com and found some good stuff, enough to get me inspired, but I knew one place I could go to get real meat, and that was the Conway clan up in Canada. We had come across my great-grandmother's relatives by accident in the ancient days of the internet, but this time I was given a full-blown report--eight generations back (That's my great-grandfather Michael Patrick McLaughlin up on the left, doesn't he look like my dad?). And I noticed something that I never noticed before--that my great-aunt Veronica had a child, and long story short, I have second cousins that nobody knew about. Through the powers of the internet, I found one and emailed him and presto-changeo! new family. Next up Dallas and the Taylors, the whos whats and whens of the American South, what the hell their original ancestry is, and all of the mixes in between.
Go ahead, give it a shot of your own.

YES.

Double Team: New Moleskine sketchbook and Mpls St. Paul Mag summer issue from Half-Price Books. Booyakasha!

The Fourth.

Any day that has enough room for several adventures is a notable achievement. Typically, I don't do much for the Fourth, this probably coming from my immigrant upbringing, so when a couple friends suggested to come over and BBQ, I jumped all over the idea. You see, my girlfriends are incredibly creative and cook wonders and this always inspires my own creative cooking process. Brazilian music from 88.5 (40 years of Jazz!) set the mood and with a big mug of good coffee at hand, I got to chopping all of the fresh produce from our CSA in WI. We had picked up organic beef and both spicy Italian and apple chicken sausages at Trader Joe's for grilling-- that was D's job (as I neither remember how, nor wish to be in charge of cooking meat). I whipped together some garlic and fresh rosemary olive oil and spread it on top of young red potatoes and beets, which were roasted in the oven until soft and crispy. Wild Rice from the Red Lake Nation was mixed with sauteed young onions, peas, and sliced portobellos. Rachel brought a fantastically tasty multi-colored pasta salad with a simple vinagrette and Beth contributed the largest amount of fresh fruit I have ever seen, in the coolest dish I've ever seen, a giant palm tree, whose center was filled with creamy vanilla yogurt and brown sugar. Dessert was equally to die for, Rachel having yet again outdone herself in the baking arena by bringing Peanut Butter Tart Bars and Lime Bars with Pistachio-Graham Cracker crust. We played the wish to nap away by challenging ourselves to a game of Mindquest, which was probably more hilariously frustrating and non-sensical than entertaining.

The Minnesota summer has become hot and muggy, but in the evenings, the humidity is like a blanket keeping you warm in the cool summer breezes. At 9:30pm, with dusk just starting to set in, we walked down several blocks to the lake and spread out a king-sized comfy quilt on the grass to await the show. Paul shot prolonged exposures of various illegal firework activity leading up to the main event, and Beth pulled out homemade caramel corn, which was so addictive that I had to work hard to restrain myself from eating the entire batch (recipe below). There was a big crowd, the outline of hundred of black heads and lawnchairs visible in the shadows right up to the reflective edge of the water.
When I was wee, I used to watch the fireworks most summers out on White Bear beach with my grandparents staring into the sky. Watching the colors explode above the water was just as magical a sight this year as it was when I was small. There's something about laying on the grass with your friends on a warm summer night that can't be beat. Thanks guys.


Beth's Caramel Corn (Yum!)
Old Dutch Puffcorn
1/2 lb Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
Heat oven to 250. Pour corn in a roasting pan. Boil the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup for 2 minutes. Take off heat. Add 1 tsp of baking soda. Pour over corn-stir. Bake 45 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Pour on wax paper. Separate into kernels while still hot.

Above skirt by Boden, an classy and sporty clothing line out of England.

Pirate-ism

Feeling the burning fires of creativity today. Who knows what will materialize.

Game. Set. Match.

Here would be my ideal pirate outfit today. I can't believe they make this jacket, I am so so so in love with soft and mean.

Biker Jacket: Madewell (if not translated in the picture, it's sweatshirt-like material)

T-shirt: Urban (Who can resist their angsty super sales?)

Countdown: T-minus Five Days

So we've have less than a week to go. We went up to the barn yesterday with the first load of items: tables, tents, wine, garlands, flower boxes and more. There's been enough rain that the grass has gotten tall and green and the goat kids are full of energy romping around the yard. It's been a pleasure to see the evening light getting longer and by the time this weekend rolls around, it will join us well into the night. I've finally allowed myself to get a little excited, but there is still a great deal to be done. It's amazing how many little things need to be in place for such a laid back affair to happen. This evening included buying collard greens, baked beans, and stuff for mac and cheese to be made the night before. We're keeping everything as local as possible and nixing any hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. Everything is going to be made by family, mostly my mother and aunt who are in charge of the wonderful cake, Latvian potato salad, and other things I'll keep under wraps for now. Maija has been a wonderful sidekick, keeping me laughing through all of the stress. In fact, my whole family has been fantastic, jumping in everywhere they are allowed. D and I are looking forward to getting all the work done so we can enjoy it.

Shout out.

For various reasons I will not begin to describe, my photography has gone stagnant for the past three years. Note to self: I think it's time to get back in the game.

Registration and Libraries

On one hand, picking out things for people to give me as gifts makes me extremely uncomfortable. It's as though I'm running out on the street screaming "I want this!" in people's faces. I'm the kind of person who doesn't mention that it's her birthday when people forget. I'm more of a behind-the-scenes instead of in-the-spotlight gal, which Dallas reminds me is hilarious considering that I'm planning a big party for our wedding. However, the part that I do like is the fantasy of our own beautiful place, picking out pieces that would fit together perfectly and make our house a home. I have a big imagination, with room for all kinds of scenarios, and it has only become more wild and out of control with the fact that Dallas is a builder. So I often comment to him, in passing, "would you make me that?" and the answer is always yes (though i've probably imagined enough projects by now to keep him busy into his early nineties). The above dresser from Anthro has a certain amount of whimsy in its rustic sensibility. I love libraries and English wood panelled rooms, so the classic leather furniture fits that nicely.

We've been discussing what to do with the hundreds of books I already own, how to organize and display them nicely (building floor to ceiling bookshelves is project #243 on D's list), when I came across a nice little article Craft linked me to.

I like the idea of organizing them by color, though my system will probably be more intricately organized by genre and author. How have you organized your bookshelves?

This is NOT the dress.

But you get the idea. Hourglass silhouette and short. My lace top is the same length, but actually has more detail and beading and is a completely separate piece with buttons all the way down its back. The dress has a subtle swirl print and is also embellished with little pearls and lace. Now it's off to find the accessories. Any suggestions?

Par Avion.

I just keep on finding myself cool crafty things on the internet.
This Dead Letter Office font will be useful.

baby, it's cold outside.

taking a mental breather from getting back to work.
Just me and fred tonight, snuggling under the covers, watching a movie I know I am wise not to subject my fiance to (btw gals, 500 Days of Summer is fantastic...and has a great soundtrack).
Last night was reading. Just found this illustration so joyful, I had to share. It reminds me that as cold as it is right now, i can keep on like this until it's time to go out again.