I love this plant. Photographs don't do it justice; it is too difficult to capture both the cascading abundance of bright, green leaves as well as the detail of the dainty, delicate flowers and curlicues of the vine. I have seen the flowers in pink too, which is also very pretty. My research tells me that it's native to Mexico and Central America, and I know it grows well here in Austin, but I am wondering how well this plant would do in Portland. Both Austin and Portland are in the same USDA hardiness zones (8-9), so that's promising.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Antigonon leptopus
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Crazy Delicious & Callanetics
vanilla caramel,
and lemon ice cream.
I was pretty experimental with the recipes, and the results varied, but the lemon turned out really really good. So you'll find that recipe below. Other flavors I'd like to try making are: cinnamon, ginger, pineapple, chocolate, cardamom (or something that somehow incorporates cardamom), coconut, almond, other nut flavors, coffee, lemon blueberry, lime, orange...I could go on and on. And I want to experiment with different sweeteners. And raw cream, if I can get it (I already regularly have raw milk on hand), that would be ideal.
Lemon Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
Juice of 4 medium lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon zest (*optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Whisk together all ingredients in a large bowl until blended. Transfer to ice cream maker.
Note
This recipe contains raw egg, so if that freaks you out, you can skip the bowl and use a sauce pan instead, and, over moderate heat and stirring frequently, bring ingredients just to a simmer. Then remove from heat and let cool before transferring to ice cream maker.
*Wanting maximum lemon-ness, I used 2 tablespoons of lemon zest when I made this. But the little bits caught and accumulated on the mixer piece of the ice cream maker, resulting in clumps of zest in the ice cream. So in the future I might try making the zest smaller (it could have been smaller) or just skipping it altogether. I think it will still be plenty lemony without it.
Luckily, helping to counter all this ice cream madness, I've been exercising pretty regularly the past few weeks.
I've been using (and liking) this 1-hour workout, which I have on dvd. It's an oldie but a goodie. My mom use to do it a lot when I was little. The exercises are gentle and slow paced but you can really feel your muscles working. And I have a feeling, if I keep at it, it could be just the thing to really improve my posture, which I am so tired of being crummy. There's also a more advanced version, Super Callanetics, that I've got my eye on. I've also been regularly taking the babe in a jogging stroller and walking to a nearby track and circling it four times (1 mile), alternating running and walking (baby permitting--lately she is not particularly fond of being in a stroller, so sometimes my running is interrupted by taking her out and carrying her).
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Family Jewels


Monday, May 25, 2009
Fried Chicken
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Black Apple-esque Doll
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New Old Couch + Lace Table Cloths Curtains
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mother's Day Paper Cut (#1)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
1 11.5 oz. bag of milk chocolate chips (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter*
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 tspn salt
Additional Supplies
24 mini cupcake liners
24 capacity mini cupcake pan (you could probably do without this but it makes things easier)
Directions
Fill the cupcake pan with liners. Melt chocolate chips in sauce pan over very low heat, stirring frequently. Spoon about a teaspoon of melted chocolate into each cupcake liner and spread out if needed to cover the bottom of each cup. Refrigerate in the pan. In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt and mix thoroughly. Once the chocolate in the fridge has hardened (about an hour) remove and add a bit of the peanut butter mixture, about 1 heaping teaspoon per cup, evenly distributing all of it. The peanut butter should be pressed down enough to give room for a final chocolate layer on top. Add the remaining chocolate layer (re-heat chocolate if needed). Refrigerate again until firm, about an hour.
*A note about the peanut butter: The amount of maple syrup and salt added to the PB depends on how sweet/salty it is to begin with, so more or less of these ingredients may be needed depending on the peanut butter used. For this recipe, I used organic MaraNatha "No Stir" creamy peanut butter, which is salted and just lightly sweetened.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Is that egg on your shirt?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Dad's Hooked Rug + Nest (For Reals)
In other, unrelated news, we've been monitoring a bird's nest in our yard for awhile now and just the other day we finally got a glimpse all of its inhabitants.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
A Dollar Well Spent
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sewn (Not by Me) Gifts

And this amazing quilt was made by another good friend, and very talented designer of fabulous jewelry.
The edging of the quilt top and the entire other side is a minty green flannel. And she used a natural fiber batting (bamboo, I think).