From the mail box - Dolomiten
Not all the Alps are in Switzerland! This beautiful view is in the North part of Italy. The Dolomites are now a UNESCO heritage site. Did you know that they speak German in this part of Italy? I didn't either.
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April 29, 2011
April 28, 2011
From the mail box - York
This card comes from Andre who took a day trip to York recently & picked up this card. I like the graphic punch quality of the B&W with that Red TelePhone Booth.
York seems to be the name of the county, shire, town and the castle - so it can get confusing.
This is one entrance to the city called Bootham Bar (very old!.) The gothic cathedral behind the gate is called the Minister or the York Minister.
Thanks Andre! I learned a lot reading about the city of York & got confused about how Englishmen remember where they are :D
April 27, 2011
From the mail box - Rashie Racers
Thanks Kate! this is a colorful post card from Adelaide Australia. The artist is Andy Baker, and he did an series of life guard paintings called "tight caps & white zinc series"
April 26, 2011
From the mail box - Snow Fesitval
This is the Hakodate Magistrate's Office for the 60th annual Snow Festival in Sapporo, Japan. It is not a glass building but a snow sculpture!
April 25, 2011
From the mail box - Barcelona
this post card comes from the fairy tale architecture city on the Mediterranean of Barcelona. The photo shows Tibidabo mountain in the foreground. Atop the mountain you see a large Catholic church - Temple de Sagrat Cor - and amusement park - look for the ferris wheel.
It's subtle, but a little peculiar that Luiseme wrote upside down on the back! Interestingly the stamps have a stethoscope and pills on them. They don't seem like stamp imagery.
April 23, 2011
As promised - a peep at cupcakes
Here are the chocolate cupcakes I made this weekend. I used some marshmallow Peeps as decoration on top because I thought they'd be cute on the green frosting. The cake is a minty double chocolate cake, the frosting is a white chocolate mousse with mint. This isn't in the range of peppermint patties, but it is bright for spring.
April 22, 2011
From the mail box - Notre Dame
an unusual square postcard - from France (how crazy is that?)
I climbed the stairs in the bell tower in that church!
WTS posted a great view from up there.
April 21, 2011
From the mail box - Slovakia
I am not sure where the wind mills are in Slovakia, but the card comes from Bánovce nad Bebravou which appears to be farmland and countryside. It feels like there is a lot of hidden history in this place, but you can check the numbers and percentages
April 20, 2011
From the mail box - model of San Domingo Taipei Taiwan
this card is pretty neat! I haven't seen a paper model card before.
The subject is a real place - Fort Santo Domingo - with an interesting place in history.
April 19, 2011
from the mail box - Adelaide
Sarah sent me this card from her town. She says that the river running thru the city is called the Torrens. It looks like a fun way to see the city. Has anyone ever visited and taken a river cruise?
Oh and check out the color on these stamps!
April 18, 2011
From the mail box - Tongeren, Belguim
This is from the oldest city in Belgium! The underground caverns and local ruins are an important archeological archive since the town was a Municipal center for the Romans staring in about 15BC. Of course, there is a museum that houses many of the artifacts.
April 15, 2011
Weekend around town
Double yolk, I've seen...but never a double kiwi! weird & cool no?
What are you up to this weekend if you've already finished your taxes?
Check this out!
Saturday on the North shore - check out Rosie's Garden at her Spring opening event. She'll be having some free goodies from the new bakery. It's right on on Rt 1A in Newbury.
Weather reports shows a perfect afternoon for kite flying just up the road at Crane Beach in Ipswich is perfect!
I'm planning to make some spring themed cupcakes for Sunday. For sure, I'll post if they look good
From the mail box - Red Church, Minsk, Belarus
Such a sad poignant story to the construction of this church. Lero , the young artist who sent me the card, told me in the note that the young daughter was an artist who dreamed the design of the building and asked her father to build it before she died.
It is another church that was converted to other uses at one time - a film studio apparently! there is something quirky that I like about that.
Interested in Stamps? Lero sent me some good ones!
April 14, 2011
From the mail box - Rio
An Ariel view of the sports complex in Rio de Janerio. I like this view because it reminds me that while Copacabana parties do happen, it is a a significant city in world economies. It has more people that LA, interesting topology, and world famous beaches! And don't forge that the 2016 Olympics will be held there. Should be a wicked good time.
April 12, 2011
From the mail box - Spokane
This is from Leanna - she is a crafty friend of mine, and she also does Postcrossing. For the past 3 years, she has run a 7 mile race that passes by these figures in Riverfront park. She's in training again for the upcoming race. This year the race is on May 8th - if you're there give her a cheer!
April 11, 2011
From the mail box - Poulsbo
Wow I had this one pegged wrong!
Where do you think this is?
a hint?
Viking Fest is an annual tradition...
did you know or did you guess?
this is a village in Washington state. Home to Sluys Bakery with world famous bread.
Norwegians love the landscape and cold in the homeland :D
April 10, 2011
Wandering links
ArtBreak
Nice selling & sharing site for the fine artists or collectors.
Personas Always freaky stuff coming from MIT.
Old Fashioned Milk Paint
Artist Susan Logoreci I ran into recently - I like her work
April 08, 2011
Opening Day at Fenway
The Sox aren't off to a very good start, but today is the first Fenway Park game of the season. Yankees are in town. The F14s will fly by around 2 and shake things up.
Other things this weekend?
MFA is opening a kaleidoscopic trippy glass exhibit of Chihuly flowers and forms
Toro y Moi, made a ripple on Etsy not too long ago, is actually a musician (not a tote bag maker) He's playing on Saturday at the Brighton Music Hall. Let me know if you go. Check the local calender for other shows - Neil Young, Cake, Buffalo Tom and Kylie M are all stopping in this month
Final shows at the Huntington of Educating Rita which ends on the 10th
More from New York, the Big Apple Circus in on City Hall Plaza on Sunday. A Dance circus with acrobats and contortionists, for $15 it sounds fun if the weather is nice especially! Can't go wrong with live entertainment for the price of a movie...
From the mail box - the Peak Tower
This is the Lion's Point Pavilion on (Victoria's) Peak Tower where you go in Hong Kong for the best views of the city. I liked this image, but I loved learning more about Hong Kong too.
April 07, 2011
From the mail box - Rome
I really like this image.
But am astounded by how far this idea had to come to get to me! Lidia Is a Chinese student studying music in Poland, but she is traveling in Europe & finds this card in Italy. Phrew.
April 06, 2011
From the mail box - Kaunas
Yes, at first glance I thought this was from Kansas. While it seems like a lot of brick, I've never been there; so it seemed unusual. I Imagine that there are stranger things...
This is not Kansas but Kaunas, the 2nd largest city in Lithuania and a center for education and students. It's like Boston in that the student population is quite large! Gotta love a college town.
There aren't any land marks on the photo indicated on the post card, but poking around on Google Earth, it looks like the matching white towers are St. Francis Xavier Church, which was used for a time as a gymnasium! for kids! before a restoration effort to return it back to a house of worship.
April 05, 2011
Bananas Foster Cheese Cake
It was a co-workers birthday, so it was the perfect excuse to try the Bananas Foster Cheese Cake recipe from the Bon Appetite Recipe book I got recently. I love the regular Bananas Foster dessert. Sadly my Honey won't eat bananas so making an entire banana cheesecake is out of the question!
This got rave reviews. I wasn't sure I liked the cinnamon; but other folks did. (I might try nutmeg if I have a chance to make this again) I also wasn't super impressed with the crust, but it was not offensive. Again, if I get a chance to make this in the future I might experiment with a slightly salty nut crust where the nuts get toasted.
The base is essentially a banana cheesecake. The Fosters part is that you pour caramel over the top after it's done. I was not impressed that the recipe called for a jar of caramel. Anyway, the cake recipe would also be nice if you wanted to decorate with chocolate, Nutella, or peanut butter and skip the caramel.
I made some minor modifications to the original recipe that comes from the Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild of 2006.
Crust
3/4 c APF
3/4 c pecans
4 T melted butter
5 T light brown sugar
3 t vanilla
Filling
16 oz neufchatel cheese
1 1/4 c sugar
3 T corn starch
3 lg eggs
2 c bananas*
1 c low fat sour cream
2 T lemon juice
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
Topping
1 c low fat sour cream
1/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla
caramel sauce (recipe calls for jar - I made mine myself)
rum (muuummmm rum)
nice ripe but not mushy bananas for decorating
You'll need a 10 inch springform pan, a roaster or other oven safe vessel to make a bain Marie and tin foil to make sure water doesn't leak into the spring form. Parchment paper is optional.
an electric mixer, a cuisinart food prep blender is really helpful, rubber wiper, measuring stuff, bowls, spoons, and a platter to make it pretty.
have all ingredients at room temperature. set oven to 350. Rack in center of oven
cut parchment paper to fit bottom of pan and wrap the outside with at least 2 layers of tinfoil to keep water out.
Start heating some water for Bain Marie
Make crust
fine chop pecans in cuisinart. add flour, sugar vanilla mix with a pulse or 3, then add in the melted butter & mix till it starts to come together. empty into springform & press to make level crust on the bottom only. use the bottom of a smooth measuring cup or plastic wrap to compress it.
Make filling
In mixer bowl beat cream cheese. add sugar in a stream while beating. add corn starch. push down sides of bowl as needed. add eggs one at a time. beat until just combined. add banana, sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla & cinnamon.
Pour into prepared pan; place in roaster and add hot water to reach 1 inch up sides. (this is your bain Marie)
Bake until center is just set - book said 1 hr 15 min - I had to go 1 hour 30 minutes and it might have been better with an extra 15.
Remove cake from water bath, have the topping ready at this point and keep oven hot.
Make topping
Mix sour cream, sugar and vanilla in bowl until blended.
After you remove the cake from the water bath, spread the topping evenly over the top and continue to bake for 10-20 minutes, until it is set. (without the water bath)
Turn off oven and let the cake sit in the cooling oven for 2 hours.
Refrigerate - covered - overnight.
To decorate
banana slices & caramel sauce **
spoon extra sauce on cake slices.
* I keep bananas in the freezer that are just a bit too ripe to eat. I peel them first and put in a plastic bag. For this recipe I think they were too ripe/soft/wet. Usually these are great in Banana Bread. This recipe needs bananas at that perfect moment in time when they have no underripe tannins, but are not too soft and moist.
** caramel sauce
April 04, 2011
From the mail box - Ceska Bridges
This is the Bridge of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Prague. Sent to me by Stamslav who lives in the city & crosses this bridge almost every day. Prague is one of the cities I'd most like to visit so I was very happy to receive this one.
Especially with such lovely stamps :D
One looks like an old fashioned covered bridge you might find locally here in Vermont. The other is the Mariansky bridge. (Milan Komínek is the structural engineer on record.) It's quite beautiful.
April 02, 2011
Go on - get out of the house
Sadly the Rex Sox didn't show too well on Opening Day...
And alternate side street cleaning starts this week - don't forget to more your car off the odd side.
There are some concerts next door at the house of blues that might be what you need to sweep away the winter cobwebs
Gogol Bordello Russian Gypsy Punk Rock tonight - still tickets for them at the House of Blues. I love the song preview & videos. this is music to get you dancing!
Bizarre Animals 2.0: On the 8th at 7pm the Museum of Natural History at Harvard is having an exhibit and performance. It reads as experimental, and I wonder what the curator thinks of it all
Sucker Punch, Battle of LA are still in theaters...
Did you catch them yet or are you waiting?
Got the kids? Diary of a Wimpy kid is getting good reviews.
Anyway - get out of the house.
April 01, 2011
slo-cooker chicken
My slow cooker passion is tempered by my love for baked goods.
My favorite pot is the smallest one (1.5qt) since there are always 2 for dinner :D There are always enough leftovers but not so much that I hate eating them
Slow Cooker Sherry Chicken
about 1 lb frozen boneless chicken parts
I usually use about 3 small ones & like to mix them up: a breast & 2 thighs for example
one big onion
sliced into leaves
can of condensed cream of chicken soup
as is/don't add water
optional: can of mushroom pieces
frozen pearl onions
bay leaf
spoon of Dijon mustard
cook in slow cooker until dinner (4-6 hours)
To finish ~ I cut the chicken into smaller chunks and add back in to the slow cooker with:
a splash or 3 of sherry
Add in some black pepper
I also add in some green bits like parsley or peas
turmeric if you want to up the color or want to add more of it to your diet
I do cut the chicken into smaller pieces before serving. Serve over rice or noodles (my honey loves it with egg noodles)
If you're feeling decadent and skinny you can sprinkle some of the crispy onion rings over the top