Thursday Jake and I went to our friends' house for a pumpkin carving party. I took home some yummy pumpkin seeds to roast. I have a recipe for a spicy version I typically use, but I wanted to try something new. This morning, I threw a few spices together, roasted the seeds and let them cool slightly. I ate a few and could not stop. They turned out so good — crunchy and savory with a hint of smoky flavor. I had to hurry and take a picture before I devoured them all. The key ingredient in these is smoked paprika. Regular paprika and Hungarian paprika have completely different flavors. I would use smoked or the flavor will not be the same.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
INGREDIENTS
pumpkin seeds
garlic powder
onion powder
sea salt
smoked paprika
DIRECTIONS
To prep the seeds before roasting, clean the seeds in a strainer under running water, removing the pulp from the seeds or let soak in water for 5 minutes. Spread seeds out on a baking sheet. No paper towel needed. Allow seeds to dry for several hours or overnight. Another option is to turn the oven on the lowest setting and bake until they are dry.
When your seeds are dry, preheat oven to 400. Drizzle olive oil over the seeds. Sprinkle lightly with garlic powder, onion powder, ground sea salt (not the flakes they are too large) and smoked paprika. Toss around to coat all seeds. Bake in oven for 7-10 minutes until the seeds are a light golden brown. Stir once during baking. Let them cool for a few minutes and serve.
sprinkled with spices before baking
Here are a few more letters I've created for some friends. I feel like I'm finally getting close to catching up on my projects. I still have several more items to work on, but it feels good to cross some items off my list. I've also spent a lot more time in my design room, which gets me into the mindset of creating new things and to keep painting. One of my next big projects I'm getting ready to start on is a large canvas painting for a friend. My goal is to have it done before Christmas.
Madi
Maleea
Karis
Experimented with a few TtV shots.
Yesterday evening I drove out to the small town of Spivey, Kan. to pick up a box of vintage cameras. These are my favorites out of the box. There are about 10 more that I got but they are 80's models and not as cool (yet). I was so ecstatic to come across these items. The price was incredibly low, and I couldn't say no. One of the movie cameras still had film in it. I wouldn't even know where to start to get that processed. I put batteries in it, turned it on and it works like a charm — sounds pretty sweet too. I have quite the camera collection going now, I just need to figure out how to display them all.
I wasn't sure what to think of these pillars at first. I was hoping they wouldn't stay there, because my view wasn't looking so good. Then I noticed a person walking in the dark area of the pillar.
And then the curtain dropped to reveal this! An even better view.
The platforms lowered and raised several times during the show.
Matthew Bellamy in his shiny silver suit.
The piano came out to play.
Experimenting with light.
Bellamy's one of a kind piano.
The end. I usually record a few songs on my Flip, but I forgot to bring it. I know ... I couldn't believe it either.
Yay for fall weather and warm, spicy soup! I haven't blogged about food in quite a while, so I'm very happy to share this post with you. I made this soup on Sunday and have enjoyed it for lunch everyday so far this week. This recipe comes from the Cuisine at Home magazine, the source for most of my favorite recipes. I'll be posting more recipes from this October issue soon. The cream soup is thickened with a roux and then cheese is added for texture and flavor. Cheese can easily separate when added to a hot soup. Here's a few suggestions from the magazine to prevent curdling:
{1} Don't let the soup boil or the cheese will break when it hits the boiling liquid and curdle.
{2} Use an acid like wine or beer to help prevent curdling.
{3} Be sure to use whole milk. It's high milk fat content means it's less likely to curdle.
Yeah, we drink skim milk 'round these parts. (well Jake does) so I added some heavy cream to the 3 cups of skim milk to add more fat to the mixture.
Makes about 8 cups.
Southwestern Cream of Chicken Soup
from Cuisine at Home Issue 83 Oct 2010
INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 poblano chile, seeded and diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. hot chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
6 tbsp. all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups whole milk
1 cup beer (such as Corona)
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry converted white rice
2 1/2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges
tortilla chips
DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a large pot. Stir in bell pepper, poblano, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin and coriander. Sweat mixture until peppers begin to soften, about five minutes.
Whisk in three tbsp. flour to coat vegetables; cook two minutes. Whisk in milk, beer and broth until smooth. Bring mixture to a simmer. Stir in rice; simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
Combine cheese with remaining three tbsp. flour in a resealable plastic bag; toss to coat. Add cheese to soup a handful at a time, stirring to melt completely before adding the next handful. Add chicken and cilantro to heat, 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish each serving of soup with lime slices. For a crunchy addition, add some tortilla chips!
Check out other orchard entries at:
Recently, I created some custom Halloween letters for a friend to hang in her booth space at a local antique mall. You can't tell by the picture, but the black areas are covered with a superfine glitter. An overall subtle sparkle, unlike the Twilight vampires when hit with the sun. Did I just admit knowing that? Moving on...
If you're interested in some custom letters, please email me at inspirecreatebake @ gmail .com, and we'll work out the details. I'll ship anywhere in the states.
Hello friends. I am back! Even though I was only M.I.A. for three weeks, it felt much longer. I missed sharing my little world with you. I thought a break from blogging would free up a lot of my time to work on other projects. It did to some extent, but I seem to have little free time, no matter what I temporarily remove from my day-to-day activities. When I'm given extra time, I'll just fill it with something. If I could function without sleep, that would be awesome. Alas, I'll keep plugging away, working on my projects and blogging again. Thanks for sticking around!
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Graphic designer, baker and a photo taker. Inspired by Jesus, photography, stellar design, all things creative, cooking, the arts and funny stuff.
I prefer to visually tell stories through photographs; whether a trip I was on, a dessert I made or a recent vintage find. Art is all around me, and I capture it whenever I can.
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