Friday Food 07-17-20

High on the list of things I am missing these days are desserts!  I suppose this is obvious if I am willing to drive to Long Beach for a carrot cake.   I've always been big on desserts, which has made me big in reality, I suppose.  And I look back at pictures of desserts I have eaten at restaurants and long to look over a dessert tray at a fancy joint!  Here are a few memorable choices. 

From Solare at Liberty Station, San Diego  Feb 2013

This sphere is semifreddo with a filling of raspberry and a light coating of cookie crumbs.   I can't remember what it was called on the menu - not a word I have ever seen.

  I checked with Solare and found that their name for this spherical desert is "Sfera".  I believe they have named it after this sculpture:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfera_con_Sfera

Cutting it open reveals the raspberry heart.  The semifreddo was different in this, more like frozen mousse than ice cream.  I think this is one of the best desserts I have had in quite a long time. 

Also in San Diego at a Japanese restaurant. 

This was a huge scoop of green tea ice cream heavily drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Memorable.

Also at Solare   September 25, 2012

I can't give you the exact name, but it was a ricotta lemon cheesecake with a lovely crust served on a plate decorated with lemon sauce and strawberry sauce. 

In my dreams!

#   #   #

KoKo time again 07-16-20

KoKo has a bed on my sewing machine table, just to keep watch on what I am doing.  

Sometimes he lets me do my thing and just takes a nap. 

He looks like a different dog when his dark back is hidden. 

#   #   #

Wordless Wednesday July 15 , 2014 07-15-20

#   #   #

Agapantus season 07-14-20

Agapanthus are such a beautiful blue and growing them clustered together looks like a piece of the sky has fallen.  

 I love the plants and also the shadows they make on the sidewalk.  

Each individual flower in the cluster is so perfect .

 But now the season is almost over and the seed heads form clusters on long stems. 

Each "ball" of seed pods glistens in the water from sprinklers like weird chandeliers.   When dried and the seed pods removed the bare stalks make interesting additions to dried flower arrangements. 

#   #   #

Money Laundering 07-13-20

I am not new to money laundering.   In my preteen years our stepdad would let us take all the money in his wallet/pockets to launder it.  I don't know why, we just wanted to do it.  We would fill a dishpan with hot water and detergent and dump in all the paper money and coins, swishing it around and actually scrub  some of the coins with a fingernail brush.   After rinsing we dried everything with old towels and then ironed the paper money.  When we returned everything he gave us something, maybe a quarter.   I think this happened several times during one summer, but I don't really remember.  

In my car I keep change in the pocket made by the handle on the driver's side and use it for drive thru coffee and sometimes tolls.  At one time I put it in a Baggie, but that was inconvenient so I just dump it in.  But last week I discovered that water (or coffee?) had gotten in there and the coins were corroded and some were stuck together.   Yuck!  I dug them all out and put them in a dishpan, which caused me to remember my previous money laundering experience.  

There was quite an amount totaling almost $15 - quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, a paperclip and a safety pin.  

The pennies were the worst and I gave them two consecutive soaks in vinegar with salt and still had to scrub some to identify them as pennies.   I didn't need to make them "like new", just clean enough to know they are pennies.  

Since the plastic Baggie didn't work well and just dumping them in created a problem I decided to make a Tyvek "bin" to fit in the space so I could remove all the coins at once. 

i just used an old Tyvek envelope, measuring and folding and sewing it together.  Looks like it will work well and I won't have sticky coins if liquid should get in with the coins.  

This was a little side "adventure" that made me feel good because I had solved a problem and created something useful.  In these days of the isolation it was a good project for me.  Simple pleasures.... and all. 

Now to get back to several projects in progress that I keep avoiding.  Maybe this small success will lead to more. 

#   #   #

Quilts in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection - Freddy Moran 07-12-20

This post is from  September 24, 2008, and I am reposting it today because it is Freddy's birthday.  As far as I know she does not have a website or do e-mail or Facebook, so the only way to wish her Happy Birthday is to send a card or call her.  

This quilt is very bright as are most of Freddy's work.  Sorry I don't have a better image. 

"Orange Peel Surprise" Freddy Moran 1997 

62" square  Cotton fabrics. 

I saw Freddy sewing the binding on this quilt in the hotel lobby at PIQF in Santa Clara. It was instant love! I didn't even ask the price when I told her I would buy it. Several months later I received the quilt and the bill. I was surprised at the price, but, as you see, I paid up and added the quilt to the TCQC. The moral is, I suppose, that one should ask first and then decide. But don't wait too long, a really great quilt will be gone in a flash - I have missed several by waiting too long to decide.

This quilt was sewn with Karen Stone papers in Freddy's unique choice of fabrics and colors. The 'surprise' is on the back - a wonderful bright fabric with cupcakes and hats and noisemakers. I always tell viewers that there is a birthday party on the back.

Freddy does not have a website.

#   #   #