Covet of the Week #3

Sometimes, your heart just isn't in it. My covet this week is true love. It’s been a painful week. I’ve been nursing wounds and healing. Hence no blogging. I’m not going into details, there is no need to share every little thing with the entire world. My family and friends have been fantastic; supportive and loving.

I’m back to feeling like life is better, if not fantastic. Next week I’ll step up to the plate again, but my heart was just too bruised this week, and my brain power focused elsewhere. If anyone wants to send a little positive vibe action my way, I wouldn't turn it down.

Thanks.

Covet II

Can you have both good design and sustainability? Apparently so. David Trubridge, the world salutes you.

To market, to market

Thank you Onion.

Not so much

Remember this book?

Ummm...bad idea.

Slacker

I know, I know. No blogging about crafts, or food, or the garden. I told you I get easily distracted.

I’ve been promising to tell you about the champagne from our trip to Castine. Really, it just was the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. I don’t know a lot about wine, but I’m trying to learn. Abu knows more than I do, and he’s helping, and I’m trying to read more, and try more. I like reds, mostly, and I like them big and fairly dry. I tend to really enjoy traditional French wines; Cabernet and Bordeaux are my two favorites. We’ve been trying a lot of Spanish and Chilean wines lately, and have found those very good. Often they have some spicy and chocolate under notes that I find very appealing. At any rate, while in Maine we met this fantastic couple from just outside of Melbourne, Australia. Phil and Rochelle are very warm and funny, well-traveled and intelligent. And, just our luck, Phil is a master wine-maker! They had brought a couple of bottles with them from last year, and the final Friday we were in Maine, we got to try their bubbly. God, I wish there was a way to buy it here in the states!

Keep an eye on the winery and label. If you can find a bottle anywhere, pick it up. You can read more about it here.

Coincidence?

Last night, on HGTV’s Colorsplash, David gave a firehouse a new outdoor patio area. These little “poufs” were used. Today, they are on sale at DWR. Hmmm….seems fishy.

Covet

A new feature! Something beautiful or fun, craft or home related. Today is the first week.
As usual, beautiful things for your home from DWR.



Can I have the plant, too?

Glass Ceilings

It seems like no matter what women do, we just can never really reach those upper echelons of our chosen fields.

No woman has ever won an Academy Award for best director, and only three have ever been nominated: Lena Wertmuller for 1975's "Seven Beauties," Jane Campion for 1993's "The Piano" and Sofia Coppola for 2003's "Lost in Translation." A woman has never won the Directors Guild's top honor, either, though six have been nominated.

Troubling. I once took a fantastic class at UVM called Feminist Art Theory and one of the most interesting articles we read was an essay titled Why have there been no great women artists by art historian Linda Nochlin. The final answer came down to a similar essay and thought process by the late great Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own. Women were never given the proper training, support, and freedom to be able to study their chosen craft/field the way men have always been able to do.

*sigh* Keep the faith, sisters.

Je me souviens

The big find of our trip? Abu’s lucky stop into a little antique shop in Bar Harbor, Maine. We had just come down out of the hills of Acadia National Park and were poking around, looking for a souvenir, hoping to find a little ice cream (gelato was found instead) and a bathroom. We popped into this great little shop that specialized in Asian and East Asian pieces, and this is what Abu discovered:


Beautiful, isn’t it? Apparently it’s a souvenir from a Spanish Mosque, created circa 1890. The detail work is fantastic, and the lower insert is an actual photograph taken of the mosque. The Arabic isn’t perfect (yes, my love can read Arabic- how cool is that?), so Abu was able to dicker down a bit on the price. We are trying to find just the right place to hang it.

Last night’s diner was courtesy of Debra Madison, sesame tofu. Here it is getting all soaked up:


I know, it doesn’t sound fancy, but it was fantastic! Marinate firm tofu in 2 T dark sesame oil, 1 T light sesame oil (I substituted peanut), 1 ½ T sugar, 5 T balsamic or rice wine vinegar, ¼ t. red pepper flakes, 1 ½ T chopped cilantro, and ¼ cup tamari soy. I used the rice vinegar because our balsamic is very sweet and with the sugar I thought it would be too cloying. When I make it again, I’ll use a bit less soy sauce, because it was, honestly, too salty for me, and I love salt!

Let it marinate for at least 1 hour, drain and reserve the marinade, fry tofu in non-stick skillet for 5 minutes on each side with 1 T. sesame oil. Add reserved marinade and let cook down. Serve over brown rice with sesame seeds and garnish with cilantro.

I also made a quick Sweet Broccoli Stir Fry (my own recipe). You’ll need:
Broccoli florets, green beans, cleaned and prepped, and 4 large sliced mushrooms- either white button or baby bella.
1 T olive or peanut oil
¼ Cup finely chopped red onion
1 medium garlic clove, split
2 T freshly grated ginger
1 T honey (roughly)
¼ to 1/3 Cup Mango or Orange juice (I used mango)
¼ t. ground ginger, if needed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

I was making enough for 2 people

Start by blanching Broccoli and Green Beans for 1 minute then plunge into ice water to stop cooking process. Drain well. Heat a skillet on medium and add oil. When hot, add onion and garlic and stir occasionally, cooking until onion is slightly translucent. Add grated ginger and stir, cooking for 1 minute. Remove garlic clove. Add broccoli, green beans, and sliced mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, cooking until broccoli just starts to get a bit crispy and green beans are slightly tender. Now add the honey, stir and taste. If needed, add the ground ginger and a dash more honey. Stir to coat. Add the juice and let simmer for a few minutes.

It was FANTASTIC. Seriously, please try.

No pictures of the finished product, cause I was too hungry and just wanted to eat.

Wow. I never even got to talking about the Champagne, which I promised I would do in my last post. Okay, next time for sure.

Well fed, well rested, and tan

Castine, Maine is, quite possibly, one of the prettiest places I have ever seen in my life. It’s old. The town was settled in 1610, which makes it older than Plymouth Plantation. The houses are big and beautiful; Colonial’s, Victorian’s, and farmhouses. It is a little slice of Americana, even if it is a tourist town. But not too touristy, if that makes sense. It’s just pretty and quaint, and located right on the mid-coast of Maine. I mostly shot film, so I’m waiting for those to be developed, and then will have a lot more to share.

This was looking out of our loft toward the harbor,


and this


was taken by a kind soul by a pond in Acadia National Park. The restaurant there has the best popovers I’ve tried in my life.

We ate great seafood, saw lots of little towns, laid on the beach, went sailing, got tan, drank good beer every night (except for the champagne, but more on that later), and took several naps.

I also developed a new guilty pleasure- “Scott Baio is 45 and single”. Thank you, VH1, for your inspired programming. Watch it. You’ll feel so much better about your life.

For a few more digital photos of the journey, click here. And more later, I promise.

Now I have lots of work to catch up on.