Yummy Recipes for a Bridal Shower

 

Today was our friend’s bridal shower and I brought a cheese log, cheese spread, Crasins, cheddar cheese and crackers.

For the cheese log, this was the recipe I followed:

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted Pecans, divided
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Mix cream cheese, Parmesan and 1/4 cup nuts.
2. Shape into 8-inch log. Roll in combined remaining nuts and parsley; press gently into log to secure.

I did not toast the Pecans like they said; to form it into a log, use plastic wrap. Source of recipe: http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=107845

 

The other recipe I followed came from this website and was shared by a woman name Janet: http://southernfood.about.com/od/cheesespreads/r/bl30629z.htm

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh basil leaves
• 3 medium cloves garlic
• 1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• fresh basil leaves for garnish

Preparation:

In food processor, process basil and garlic until finely chopped. Add cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, walnuts, and olive oil; process until smooth. Transfer spread mixture to a serving bowl and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Both recipes were really good! The Basil Cheese Spread is basically a pesto made with walnuts mixed in with cream cheese. I thought about putting carrots and celery with this one too. I did not have time, but I am sure that would have been a hit.

3 garlic cloves blended in the food processor does release a good amount of their oils. That being said, if you want to get by with 2, it can certainly work. The dip by itself without a cracker has a garlic punch to it (which I personally find it amazing in taste). When you add a cracker or something else, it tames the garlic and does not seem as strong. Again, it is up to the person making this, but I found everyone really liked the dip as is.

We can’t forget about the amazing basil! Yummy! We have leftovers too, so tonight’s dinner should be some pasta and basil :D

Add some Crasins, cheddar cheese and parsley to garnish and you are all set! The Crasins tasted really good too with the cheese log on a cracker. Basically it’s the same concept as fruit (grapes, wine) and cheese, just with cranberries and cream cheese.

Hungry?

A Little Surprised & confused

I was looking at Young House Love’s post today: http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/04/thanks-in-bloom/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YoungHouseLove+%28Young+House+Love%29
They had a link in there to a pillow from ZGallerie:

So I followed the link and came across some pillows that is " practically the same...just a different color" as my sister says instead of what I wrote: look just like mine!!
I bought this pillow last summer 2010

Well, actually I bought 2. I got them from Home Goods for maybe $15 each or less than that? I don’t really remember now.
Anyways, I am a bit surprised as it turns out that they are selling these pillows at ZGallerie! (If you have ever walked into their store, love <3 at first sight)
Look:

http://www.zgallerie.com/c-7-pillows.aspx?pagenum=0
Pretty similar right?? Their pillows go for $49.95 each! (Yeah, I saved about $70 for 2) and it seems they just have those two colors.
Now my question is when did they come out with these pillows because I don’t remember seeing them but I got mine a year ago. Maybe someone out there will let me know if they ever sold those green ones. I don’t remember my pillows ever having a tag on them for that store either.
The other ones on their site are amazing too! So while I’m at it, here are the ones I like (including those posted above):

Yeah. I would go broke
I like their texture, embroidery, silks, fun prints, luxe feel, and for some of them a warm beach day feel or Mediterranean. Well, at lease that’s what I get out of it! :)

A Day Out At Baylor (Heavy Image)

Earlier this afternoon, Nick and I went out to a King James Bible Exhibition. I think why the exhibition is here is because it was a part of a conference that they held on campus for this weekend, up until tonight (Saturday). Which of course I must brag on Nick…he presented a paper at the conference and his topic was recorded and will be used for a radio news feed in Australia! I think the station is ABC, but for them, it’s like our PBS here. The whole point of the King James Bible’s celebration is for its 400th year mark! Crazy!
We have a gorgeous library on campus that is also a museum. It is the Armstrong Browning Library (here is their site if you want to look at it http://www.baylor.edu/abl/index.php?id=45905 ) and it is dedicated to both Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning by the late Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. Pictures do not do it justice, but here are a few of my favorite room! (Also, we ran out of time so I couldn’t take any more than I did from today)

Just imagine that urn being about an average women’s height and then compare that to the rest of the room’s grander.




Alright, I won’t gush over the room anymore :)
For the exhibit we were not allowed to take any photos, which made Nick really sad (that’s alright though…I was just impressed that he was reading all of the ancient Hebrew scripts and scrolls…smarty :D ) This is the description they had on the site though:

Over 100 rare and ancient Bibles from one of the world's largest collections of Bibles and related documents of the Judeo-Christian tradition will be on display to enhance the international conference, The King James Bible and the World It Made, 1611-2011.

There were some really old relics in there! Including a small portion to the Dead Sea Scrolls and cuneiform writings in stone; found this on Google for you as an idea, but the ones we saw were much smaller in writing and not as polished looking as this one: http://megkaminski.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/cuneiform-and-the-sumerians/
I also learned about the Wicked Bible! :D  Apparently, in the 1630s they were trying to make so many copies of the King James Bible that there were a few screw ups. I think they had to revise it like 40 times! Anyways, in Exodus 20, where they list the 10 Commandments, verse 14 should read “Thou shall not commit adultery.” Well, they forgot ‘not.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible
BTW, to read that, all of the lower case ‘s’ looks like ‘f’ and were ‘f’ is supposed to be, it still looks like a ‘f’ so “false” looks like “fafle." Just thought that may be helpful.

There was also a P36 P39… apparently it was a letter written by St. John (I believe his own hand written/original) Although, I don’t remember it b/c it was crowded in there and I didn’t ask Nick that many questions because it was a bit over whelming with the people and our time constraint; so even though he told me "it is really cool to see this while we are here," I didn’t know until I was in the car going home what it actually was…bummer!

This is apart of the museum and I am allowed to take photos of these.


Now for the gorgeous day!

Famous Baylor University building. The top dome is made of 24k gold! Crazy, but pretty!

Ceramics for the Family + a Canvas piece

While we were in Kentucky, we had the fortunate event of being about 4 1/2 hours from my Mom’s side of the family – this enabled Nick and I to get to know them better and see them more, which meant paint stuff for them! Originally I had painted a mug for one of my Uncle’s back in 2006  for Christmas:
So, because my other Uncle, Mike, loves fishing and bass and he kept taking Chris’ every time he visited, I decided to paint his own. Now, painting from 2006 to 2009 there is a notable difference in the 3 years considering skill and different art techniques. So, Chris, you have an original, but Mike has a more advanced painting. Both still made with love though!
Anyways, enough chatter… here is the one I painted for Mike:

It is a travel ceramic mug, but apparently it does not travel with him at all, but stays on a shelf. Oh well, I guess it’s safer that way!

(Disclosure: these were original paintings I found online of the 2 bass mugs. The first I painted was from a t-shirt design, and the other was from an artist, that I do not remember his name, but I remember getting the picture idea off of a blog post by some man named Micheal Davis who had posted the painting. I usually Google pictures for designs to sketch. )

Here is a tiny nativity set I painted for Mom. It is still ceramic, but I used acrylics instead of under glaze paints and no firing it in the kiln.
She already had a beautiful set she painted for herself when us 3 kids were much younger; but of course, I am usually slow to making her stuff when it comes to art, I don’t know why, she should have first dibs.. so this was small and travel size and perfect for a plane ride for gifting.
This is one I did for us. It is now glued into an iron wrought frame/key hanger which I can up load that and other painted projects later:

Here is another tile I painted for my Grandma (one that was close to us when we lived in KY). I wished I painted one like this for myself too. I loved the colors and birds, but for now I just keep the pattern :D


That’s all for now! I have painted so much stuff for friends and family (and displays while I worked at the ceramic studio) that I wish I took pictures of them all. I really need to get back into it too, I need to keep up my skills :)
Here’s a non-ceramic related piece I painted for a friend and their baby about 2 years ago now (wow, Zoe is growing fast!)

More artwork to come later!