The Naked Face Project

Have you heard of The Naked Face Project?  I just found out about it last night through a mailing list I’m on.  I was intrigued and interested, largely because I have been makeup-free and hair-styling free for most of my adult life, whether for good or bad!   Part of my reason for not wearing makeup comes from the fact that I don’t like the way it feels on my skin.  I also value authenticity and wearing makeup makes me feel like I’m trying to be someone I’m not (not that you can’t wear makeup and still be authentic!) But I also have to admit that I’ve been genetically blessed with good skin.  I don’t do my hair because I don’t like the feel of the hair dryer, its noise and heat.  And it takes too much time.  I’d rather be enjoying a cup of tea and reading a newspaper article instead of doing my hair.

I have more thoughts I want to share on this, when I have a chance. Growing older and living in California and now in Houston has sometimes made me stop and reconsider my easy-going ways.  I’d love to know what you think and if you’ve heard of the project.  It ends on March 31 and they’re encouraging other women to join them, even if just for the day!

Chicken Paprika

This dish has become a new holiday favorite.  My stepmom makes it for us when she comes down at the holidays!  In fact, it's what we had for Thanksgiving dinner.  My husband and I want to find a quicker way to make it so we can enjoy it more often, perhaps with boneless chicken breasts.

 

Chicken Paprika with Spatzle

1 3 - 3.5 lb cut up fryer

1/2 C flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 C butter

1 Large chopped onion

2 Tbsp paprika

1 C chicken broth

1 C light cream

1/2 C sour cream

In bag, shake chicken in flour, 1 tsp salt, and pepper 'til coated. Save 2 Tbsp flour. Brown chicken in butter, pour off fat, but return 3 Tbsp to skillet. Saute onion 10 minutes or so. Add paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, and broth. Bring to boil, lower heat. Add chicken, turning to coat. Cook, covered, 30 minutes or 'til tender. Remove chicken. Stir in cream. Make paste of saved 2 Tbsp flour and sour cream. Slowly stir into pan. Cook, without boiling, 'til thick. Add chicken. Serve over spatzle.

Spatzle

3 C sifted flour

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp white pepper

3 eggs, beaten

1 C water

1/4 C melted butter

Combine flour, salt, and pepper in medium bowl. Make well in center. Add eggs and water and mix thoroughly. Scoop up dough onto spatula or lage spoon and cut off small pieces with a knife directly into a boiling pot of salt water. As dough bits rise, scoop off with a slotted spoon. Place in covered bowl with melted butter and keep warm as the rest cooks.

{Water}

Today was all about the water: a trip to the aquarium, a walk on the beach, coming home and taking a bubble bath with a book. I love these murals on the sea wall in Galveston. It was overcast and breezy today, a bit warm and humid. We hadn't had a free Saturday in months and enjoyed the sense of, well, freedom to take off and have a mini-adventure for the day. Have you had any mini-adventures lately?

Small Victories

My quest to lighten the load in our home continues. Earlier this year, I did something I never thought I would do: recycle 10 years (!!!) of Martha Stewart Living magazines, including duplicates that I'd picked up at library sales. I lost count around 165 copies. I had recycled many other periodicals that I'd been hanging on to, but for some reason felt compelled to save the MSL ones as reference materials. As it turned out, once I actually sat down and started going through them (absolutely no idea how I had the time for this), there ended up being very little that I actually needed to save. I clipped craft projects and a few recipes to save, and that was that. I couldn't help but think about how much MSL and other home magazines are so very much like fairy tales for adults: perfect home, amazing dinners with beautiful friends, clutter-free rooms. I think they reflect the way we want our lives to be more than reflect how they actually are. As a reader and former library employee, I adore magazines, but I have had to stop some subscriptions just to slow the flow of stuff into the house. It also seems that many magazines just don't have nearly as much content as they once did - edited down for quicker reads for today's busy people. Of course, I still receive some mags, and I still have some piles sitting around that need to find their way to the blue bin...

Tying up Some Fun

I don't have a lot of time for craft projects these days, but I had a tie-dye kit that had been sitting in my closet for years and finally decided to put it to use. A friend and I dyed onesies and little t-shirts for the wee ones in our lives. We also used Rit liquid dye in buckets to make easy versions of the ombre clothing in stores this spring. Our favorites were the ones with the top third dyed blue, the middle left white, and the bottom third dyed green. In the wash, the dyes ran enough to dye the middle white section a lighter bluegreen. Easy fun!

Now it's time to get back to laundry and dishes...

Icy Gardens

It's been a weird winter in south Texas - many days warmer than average (mid-70s and humid today - blech) but we've also had many freeze warnings. I haven't been out with the camera much in the past few months, but I couldn't resist this frozen puddle in the backyard with the ornamental pear leaf encased within. It made me happy to see ice in the backyard, happy to find icicles hanging off of my truck one morning - I love chilly weather. I know that increasingly warm temps are just around the corner, along with decisions to make about what to do in the garden (keeping it simple this year, as I repeatedly learn that I don't have the energy in a Houston summer to tend a garden effectively), decisions to make about traveling in order to escape the heat for awhile. What decisions are ahead of you right now?

T Tuesday: Afternoon Tea and Thinning Out

Things have been a little quiet on the tea front lately, but yesterday I enjoyed a delightful afternoon tea with a friend and one of her other friends at a little tea house in the area. With my pot of jasmine and their Earl Grey, we enjoyed cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad, samosas, and more. (I wish I would have thought to bring my camera!) It was a fun change of pace from the coffee in paper cups that is typically imbibed during dates with friends. This morning I am enjoying Tazo's Berryblossom White with my little dog stretched out by my feet, gnawing on a chew toy. His devotion is quite endearing.

I am slowly continuing my thinning-out project: pictured are a few items that have made their way to Goodwill. I had had them for a long time, and I found myself wishing that I had been taking more pictures throughout this decluttering process to remind myself of the progress I've made. The crazy floral tin was bought at a thrift shop during college in Vermillion, South Dakota; I began making the afghan in 2001 but never finished it and by this point no longer like the color choices I made or have the patience for it; the old lamp I bought at a garage sale in high school and after nearly twenty years of not having rewired it, it seemed time for it to go, hard as it was. I ended up keeping the marbles because they were so pretty to photograph. These items in particular carried memories with them.

Do you have any decluttering tips?

A Tea Kettle From My Past

We've had sporadic internet problems due to a lightning storm, but we think (hope) the problem is solved now...so I'm back for Tea Tuesday! I have been rather obsessively going through closets and clutter these last few weeks. I even opened up the pile of sketches from Drawing 101 that had been taped up between two big pieces of cardboard for many years, sight unseen. (Drawing 101 was a very long time ago!) I enjoyed seeing the sketches again, and felt kind of sad that I haven't kept up with drawing, even if I have done lots of other arts and crafts in the meantime. I was intrigued by how many times the tea kettle in the bottom drawing showed up in the still lives - our professor obviously found it worthy of repeated attempts. The other images are also momentos of my past: the violin that I haven't touched in years, the Chuck Taylors that I wore in high school and college, my Great Uncle Louis who often visited for Christmas during those years. I kept these sketches, although many of them ended up on the curb (after being photographed if I liked them well enough - thank goodness for digital photography.) I was surprised that I finally let them go, since I tend to be very sentimental. But a big part of me is feeling that by letting things go, removing them from my home, I am making room in my life for new things.

T is for Transcendent

Just yesterday we returned from Pennsylvania, where we were blessed with a new goddaughter. The church her family attends has recently been beautifully restored after a fire. The icons that cover the walls and ceiling of the church are wonderful and a great joy to see. Being a very visual person, one of the things that drew me to the Orthodox Christian faith was its embrace of the visual and multi-sensory (a nicely holistic approach to worship), its use of icons to remind us of Christ's life and the lives of those believers before us. I love that when I enter an Orthodox church, I know I am in a church and that I am there to worship God; countless visual reminders help me focus on this fact. Some moments are truly transcendent.

Stash Moroccan green mint and Raspberry Zinger were the teas I enjoyed when not at church! They were a nice change. Of course, not much time was spent sipping tea on this trip. My husband spent quite a bit of time folding paper airplanes for our godkids to throw across the room, and we also spent time drawing and doing a little art project. The weather was delightfully cool compared to Houston. You can find more Tea Tuesday participants here.

T is for Twin Cities

A week ago we returned from a quick trip to Minnesota to visit family. One of the highlights was visiting the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, which was hands down the largest one I've ever seen - two blocks' worth of vendors. I was enthralled by the heaps of bright veggies and couldn't resist taking photos, although I did feel a little self-conscious shooting in the crowd - hence quick decisions about composition, etc.! We enjoyed some of the produce grilled, some of it raw, some of it steamed. I had quite a bit of quiet time on this trip to read, so I kept it simple and drank decaf Lipton and Constant Comment when I wasn't eating veggies! I've visited farmer's markets in Santa Fe, Rapid City, SD, Cannon Beach, OR, and Minneapolis this summer, but haven't made it to any in my own neck of the woods. For as large as Houston is, the farmer's markets here just aren't that impressive.

T is for Tasty

S'mores, anyone? I wanted to share this yummy dessert from one of our meals in Oregon - skillet s'mores! Graham crackers on the bottom, chocolate in the middle, and the best part - toasted marshmallows on top. I know it's Tea Tuesday today, but I confess I drank some Sleepy Monk coffee with this dessert instead of tea. The coffee was delicious, and the next day, we stopped at Sleepy Monk itself for some of the best hot chocolate I'd ever had. The chocolate whipped cream was perfection, thick and substantial. I brought some of their coffee beans home with me...I think it's time to go brew some up...
Smore's memories you want to share?

Traveling Tea

Often when I travel, I bring along a little assortment of tea. It seemed especially important to do so for last week's trip to Oregon, since I knew the weather would be cool and I'd likely be spending a lot of time reading and wanting a warm mug next to me. Tazo's Joy - their Christmas blend - has long been a favorite, and I stock up as soon as it appears around Thanksgiving.

Tea, of course, wasn't the only yummy thing about our visit to the coast. Here are some other highlights:

~Many hours on the beach, walking and reading.

~Finding peonies at the farmer's market! In July!

~Freshly baked cookies from Waves of Grain, a local bakery - moist and perfect.

~Enormous sugar snap peas at the farmer's market, perfect for snacking on at the beach, a long favorite.

~The constant sound of the ocean.

~Being able to sleep with the windows open - so incredibly quiet and cool.

~The glistening shore at low tide, mist and fog.

~Exuberant gardens around town.

~The silouettes of mountains and evergreens on the horizon (Houston is really flat.)

~Being able to wear sweatshirts, scarves, and even hats in July (Houston is really hot.)

So make a cup of tea, close your eyes for a moment, and imagine you're soaking up some of this peace as well.

More Tea Tuesday here.

Happiness

We recently travelled to the Oregon coast, and let me tell you, I was a very happy girl. It had been nearly ten years since I had been back to Cannon Beach, and fourteen years since I spent a summer in college working there. It's beautiful whether it's foggy or sunny, but there is a wonderful cheerfulness when the sun is out and shining on the water and the wet sand. Most mornings we went out to catch low tide, which is also the time to find sand dollars resting on the shore. Most people are out looking for clams, but I'm just interested in the sand dollars. Fortunately, I was not disappointed!
I'm sure I'll have a lot more to share about this trip in upcoming posts. What are some of your favorite vacation memories?

TeaForte

One of my most recent tea discoveries is also one of my favorites: my tea forte ceramic infuser. I had been using unbleached tea bags to brew my loose leaf jasmine vanilla because modern infusers always seemed to contain plastic (which I did not want to mix with hot water - all those chemicals) and the old fashioned spring-loaded types always seemed to leak tea leaves. This is an elegant solution. The metal base screws off so it can be filled with tea leaves, and it rests in its own little matching tray. I see they have several other plastic-free infusers displayed on their webpage. Thank you, Teaforte!

The Flowers of Home

Is it silly to admit that one of my favorite reasons for going home to South Dakota in the springtime is to be able to visit favorite flower species that just don't grow in Texas? It's true, though. I plan walks along routes that I know will take me past favorite gardens or to places in the parks where poppies grow on their own. I carry the camera in my trunk and have been known to pull over to take photos of flowers when I come across them around town. A local gardening society does a wonderful job with the gardens at the Journey Museum; huge swaths of iris, columbine, and wildflowers meander through boulder-strewn beds. Orange poppies spring up every year along Rapid Creek in an undeveloped park; they are remainders of the gardens of homes that were lost in the 1972 flood. People are sometimes very generous with their garden flowers, handing out bouquets of peonies and irises without even being asked (including the bouquets pictured here, which were given to me right on time for my birthday, just by coincidence!) Of course, the lilacs are also a big star, and if you don't have any bushes of your own, you may have discovered places to cut a few branches to bring home with you. Flowers are certainly a way to celebrate spring! Do you seek out favorite gardens in your town?

T is for Taos

After we left Santa Fe on our May roadtrip, we drove north to the town of Taos to meet an old friend for lunch. We had many miles to cover that day, but decided to make one last stop to visit Taos Pueblo, a Native American settlement that has been continuously occupied for over 1,000 years. For some reason, I'd never heard of this pueblo and was astounded to learn that there are actually dwellings in North America that have been inhabited for that long. The tribal members who live here do not use modern conveniences. They haul water from the creek and use kerosene lamps. Every year, another layer of plaster (mud and straw) is applied to the buildings, perhaps best seen in the middle photo of the church window. The igloo-shaped dome in the fourth photo is a traditional oven for baking bread. Originally the dwellings were entered through the roof, but today doors have been added. At one time, a very tall wall surrounded the village, but it has been shortened to a few feet. I'm glad we stopped here before heading back to the plains.

As for tea these days, I'm still stuck on my jasmine vanilla, although I did break habit and use Tazo's delicious Joy blend with my homemade crepes yesterday!

These photos are by my husband.

A Surprise

I was delightfully surprised to find a complimentary copy of Somerset Life in my box yesterday - another one of my travel journals has been published. It's a lovely spread, pages 100 - 101. Thanks, Somerset Life!

T is for Travel: Georgia O'Keefe

Last month, my husband and I set off for our annual road trip north. Instead of heading straight to South Dakota, we swung west to New Mexico. I'd been wanting to see Santa Fe for some time and we both yearned to be in the true West again, with its dry air, varied landscapes, and huge spaces. We were not disappointed. One particular goal was to visit the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. I have admired her work since high school and had only seen a handful of her works in person. The museum was our very first stop in Santa Fe, and I was treated to a few dozen of her paintings. I spent much time admiring a series of three seashells, the canvases only about 8x10 inches. Their smallness surprised me, given how bold her work is. And I was delighted to see her portrayals of cottonwood trees, landmarks in the West, and a favorite of mine. Outside the museum, I smiled to see lilac bushes blooming against the adobe walls in the town. (They don't grow in Houston.) The next day, we drove out to Ghost Ranch, where O'Keefe lived and painted for many years. My husband took these photos of the scenery at the ranch. The sources of her inspiration were clear. An artist/retreat colony is now found on the grounds, and perhaps someday I'll be able to return for a workshop. It was fulfilling to finally see these places, after years of wanting to. Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to drink tea in New Mexico, but I'm enjoying my old standby jasmine vanilla now that I'm home.