Holiday Blessings

  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season!   I know I have enjoyed every minute of  it.  This is a cherished  time of year, made even more fun by being a part of so many other people’s holiday giving through my jewelry.  Christmas orders started back in November, and I’ve been hammering away in my workshop like one of Santa’s Elves ever since! 

My mom has been here helping me most of the month, and I’ve taught her how to ball silver, bend earwires, and bend and flux stacking rings and bracelets.  We had a little assembly line going!   This was a morning’s work ready to solder and  turn into shiny treasures. 

Peace descended once again on Christmas Eve, and we’ve been relaxing and making the Christmas Puzzle for a couple of days now.  My mom is the puzzle expert, and I’m the cheering section.  We only have one big table, so we just set the placemats right over the puzzle pieces at mealtime, lol!   And of course, the dog loves every minute of having everyone home with  lots of visitors, fun and laughter!

There is nothing  like this cozy, blessed week between Christmas and New Years, and now that I’m self-employed, I can enjoy it  to its fullest. 

 

 

Of course, there has been a lot of cooking going on, too.  One of my favorites is the delicious brie and dill strata that we discovered last year.  I think it has become a yearly tradition now.  (Ha, ha, these days, who can afford brie more than once a year…)  Here is the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens website –  enjoy!

Baked Brie Strata

• 2  small zucchini, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices (2 cups)
• 6  1/2-inch thick slices crusty sourdough bread
• 8  ounces Brie cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 4  Roma tomatoes, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices
• 1  cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed
• 2/3  cup evaporated skim milk
• 1/3  cup finely chopped onion
• 3  tablespoons snipped fresh dill
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/8  teaspoon pepper
• 6  to 8 cherry tomatoes
•   Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

1. Cook zucchini, covered, in a small amount of boiling lightly salted water for 2 to 3 minutes or until just tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, spray a 2-quart rectangular baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange bread slices in the prepared baking dish, cutting as necessary to fit. Sprinkle half of the Brie evenly on top. Arrange zucchini and tomatoes on top of bread. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

3. In a bowl combine egg product, evaporated skim milk, onion, dill, salt, and pepper. Pour evenly over vegetables and cheese. Lightly press vegetables down with back of spoon to be sure everything is saturated with egg mixture. Cover with plastic wrap; chill for 4 to 24 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap from strata; cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 25 to 30 minutes more or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 8 servings.

Make-ahead tip: Prepare and chill casserole for up to 24 hours. Bake as directed.

Settling into the Season…

I love everything about Fall.  Smelling wood smoke and feeling the crisp crunch of leaves under foot.  The sweet anticipation of the holidays (before the panic sets in), the softness of a warm sweater, and the lovely cozy feeling of waking up under my favorite down comforter. I don't usually like stones in the yellow/brown family, but the two gorgeous star sunstones I have are a definite exception.  I set one of them into a simple ring, and it positively oozes with that lovely cozy fall feeling.  Of course, the photo props  helpfully left on my garden bench for me by a busy squirrel help, too.    I

 

And if it’s November, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  I’m already browsing through Thanksgiving recipes.    Working at home has brought back my love of creating food that is both good to eat and pretty to look at. I just received my annual beef order from my best friend who raises cattle.  I can’t remember the last time I cooked ‘store-bought’ beef, or had produce from the grocery store.  Our local farmer’s market is still open, so I had a lovely pile of beautiful sweet red peppers this week, the last of the season, along with a bunch of tasty fresh baby spinach and kale.  In addition to my pancake experiments, I’ve also been inventing various meatloaf recipes with the bounty from the farmer’s market.  This week’s version was especially tasty, so I thought I would share.  Now, the reason I make meatloaf  is to get a day’s worth of nutrition into a nice portable little item that can be frozen and/or sliced up for sandwiches, so don’t laugh at my weird list of ingredients!

Confetti Meatloaf

1 lb lean ground beef

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup chopped onions

1 large red pepper, chopped

a nice pile of finely chopped spinach and kale (probably 1-2 cups)

1 clove of garlic, put through a garlic press

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup milk or water

1 egg

Stir everything up until well mixed and it kind of holds together.  Turn into a 9 inch loaf pan, and cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour.   I served mine with butternut squash and green beans. 

So, what have I been working on besides meatloaf?  I’ve been making some new designs in copper, and these earrings, titled ‘Dot on a Wall’ (not the most inspired name, I admit) turned out to be my favorite.  They are a simple abstract  design, with a bark-like texture from my favorite Fretz hammer – definitely going to be adding them to the Abstractions Market at 1000 Markets.    I’m thinking of doing similar designs in both brass and silver, too.  These are a great size to wear, not too big and not too small.  I’m also working on a winter series, and the first pendant is already posted in my Etsy shop.  It’s a cute little golden snowflake on a background of reticulated silver and a lovely little blue topaz for an accent stone.  My favorite new pendant  is this one, which I really love, named Permafrost.  This is a luminous  moonstone the color of pale green moss on a dangle of subtly reticulated silver.  I’m just loving the combination of the frosty reticulated silver with the pale green.  I am trying to do time-consuming processes like reticulating sheet silver in between other jobs so I have enough to play with when the inspiration hits me.  I never tire of the unique textures and feelings that can be achieved with reticulation!

That’s all for now.  Time to let the dog out and get supper going…..see you soon!

Works in Progress, White Chocolate, and a Thank You

I've been busy as a bee in my Etsy store lately, and I'm sooo happy for that! Sometimes I think I must have been crazy to quit my day job and take such a risk, espcially in times like these, but I think it just might work! I'm working on a wholesale order for a little shop in a mall - handmade in a mall, how great is that!! Yay for handmade! I'm also getting ready to teach a class tomorrow - Introduction to Fire - which focuses on fusing fine silver. I'm really looking forward to it. Fusing is how I got my start with the torch, and it will be fun to 'pass the torch' to others....(sorry 'bout the pun, could't resist)


Also wanted to say thank you to my blog friends who have tagged me and sent me several lovely awards!! I promise I'll be posting and sending out my tags soon - I'm looking forward to spreading the blog love to some great new blogs I've come across lately!


Lots of things on the bench this week too. I'm working on a custom order with a prong set stone. Thanks to Jen, I've been pushed to finally get going on using my little stash of faceted stones. I've got a ring planned with a gorgeous 8mmm Irai Citrine. That one will be called Mountain Sunrise. Hoping to get it done this weekend after Saturday's class, along with the labradorite one started a while back.




I've been working on a buttercup pendant for a customer this week, too, and now I think I'm going to do something with pansies next. Check out all the tools that go into one teeny little buttercup.....sheesh!

And then I've got a couple of copper leaves going. This one will be called Dragonfly Spring, and have either a blue topaz or rainbow moonstone "raindrop" on the leaf. Probably the topaz, I think, kind of like April showers.

I think this burst of new things is fueled by the fact that I ran out of tea, and am back on coffee this week. Out of cream, too, so I melted squares of Green and Black's organic white chocolate (left from Christmas baking projects) in it. Wow, unexpectedly delicious!! I really didn't even think I liked white chocolate all that much, but this is just totally fabulous. It has 40% cacao in it, so there is a definite chocolate taste, and it also has a lot of real vanilla bean flecks in it, along with milk, so it actually is like cream when you put it in coffee. I'm going to have to make some white chocolate chunk cookies with this stuff - or maybe some of the incredible looking White and Dark Chocolate Mousse. And then eat a lot of salad.........

See you guys later, gotta get to "work"!