Country Breakfast

Just a simple country Breakfast.

I woke up after a leisurely morning of sleeping in at the River House.  My Father had this waiting on me.

Buttermilk Biscuit and Sausage Gravy.

An Easter of Pysanky

Nana brought her egg decorating kit, which she had housed in her garage for years.  Every year she took it out with intentions to decorate eggs in this method.  And each year she put it back because it would be "too much work."

This year we stuck it out.  And with amazing results.

Pysanky is the Ukrainian method of decorating eggs.  It is translated as "to write," as you draw lines with bees wax.  It is extremely time consuming, but yields beautiful results. 

There is also an interesting amount of folklore attached to them.

"Pysanky with spiral motifs were the most powerful, as the demons and other unholy creatures would be trapped within the spirals forever. A blessed pysanka could be used to find demons hidden in the dark corners of your house."


"Pysanky held powerful magic, and had to be disposed of properly, lest a witch get a hold of one. She could use the shell to gather dew, and use the gathered dew to dry up milk cows. The witch could use bits of the eggshell to poke people and sicken them. The eggshell had to be ground up very finely (and fed to chickens to make them good egg layers) or broken into pieces and tossed into a running stream."

Silly, right? (taken from wikipedia)

Boiled eggs, apparently, dry up into nothing and leave just the shell.  I always thought they would spoil.  Alas, they do not.  Well, we shall see what happens with these.

And of course, there were some casualties . . .

And we will definitely repeat this next year.  With a little more know-how.

And it was a lot of work.  And very time consuming.

For more information on Pysanky, click here.

Mike and Vanessa's Wedding

I had a blast!  

Apparently I should be a wedding photographer in my spare time...

Congrats again De la Rosas!!

A moment in the sun

Oh, how good it felt just to sit in the sun!  I had a moment to myself to dine al fresco and absorb the suns rays.  My skin welcomed them as a long lost friend.  

I had forgotten that I love to get my endorphins from Vitamin D.

It was lovely, and I plan on doing it again whenever I can.

Gingerbread Cupcakes and a moment of pause...

I can't even remember when I baked these.  That's how long it's been and how busy I've been.

I want to say somewhere in late January?  It's April.  OMG.

April.

Life has been a whirlwind of working, moving, working, traveling, working . . .  you see the trend.

These cupcakes were a final ode to the holiday and winter season.  They were, in fact, delicious, though I can't fathom craving them now.  Oh well.  This would have been so much more appropriate in January . . .

Perhaps this is one of those perspective moments.

A chance to catch my breathe, a chance to restart, a chance to get back in touch with what is important.

Thank God for second chances.

 

Like these cupcakes.  I may have misread and therefore mis-measured the amount of baking soda for the recipe, therefore causing them to expand rapidly and spill over their baking pans and liners.  Yep, I did that.  Nothing a little glaze can't cover.  And I made up for it with the glaze.  Try a framboise butter glaze.  That's right, delicious and alcoholic.  And then some pink sanding sugar, which I affectionately call Barbie Sugar, on top, and ta-dah!

Okay, so you can kinda tell . . .

I'm not concerned.

So here's to being back in my own apartment after living out of a hotel room for most of this month!  And to Spring, and to rest!  *raises invisible cupcake*

*now wishes she had a cupcake*

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 cup unsulphered molasses
• 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

As for the glaze, I can't help you much.  Sometimes I just kinda wing it.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 jumbo muffin tins with paper baking cups, and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a boil. In a bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground spices, salt, and baking powder; set aside.
   
2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light. Beat in the brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses, baking-soda mixture, and flour mixture. Beat in the eggs.
   
3. Fill the cupcake papers three-quarters full, making sure that the batter is divided evenly. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center of them comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cupcakes cool a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
   
   
    Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Living

A Compilation of Bird Nests

Before the leaves of Spring came I started noticing and photographing bird's nests.  They were exposed to the world from Winter's shedding of leaves.  They had a certain beauty to them.  Each intricacy was made with care to raise their young.  How special.

 

Flowering Trees Pt. II

Dogwoods, Cherry Blossoms, and White Wisteria!!!

I'm in Production Week of La Dolorosa.  

Work all day, rehearse all night, sounds like a plan to me.