Well, it's been awhile since I've visited my little blog! The past few months have been a whirlwind of moving, settling in to a new job and a new apartment, exploring my new city, making new friends, and just generally adjusting to changes in every area of my life.
Baton Rouge has been great so far. It's certainly a far cry from life on the east coast! I'm finding that aside from having a lot of nice people and a ton of amazing food, Louisiana is a place where one can really be oneself. There's certainly no shortage of diversity here. I find it very inspiring when it comes to my art, and I find myself wanting to embrace my inner steampunk, goth and vampire a lot more than I ever did while living on the east coast!
Today is the first day of the new year. Last year I decided that I wouldn't make any resolutions. Instead, I resolved that I would, quite simply, make my life better in some way over the course of the year. I figured that some opportunity would present itself that, if I took it, would improve my life in some way. I wasn't wrong. I did improve my life in many ways... some exciting, some creative, some difficult, and some very unexpected. It was a lot of work at times, and fun at others, but on the balance, things improved quite a bit. I ended the year with a new job in a totally new part of the country, and am on my way to making a good group of friends here. I also started my Etsy shop, challenged myself creatively, and proved to myself that I can be more than just a hobbyist when it comes to my creative pursuits.
So, I think I'm going to stick with the same goal for 2012. I am resolved to strive for a continually better life, and to take advantage of the opportunities that will surely present themselves. Here's to life constantly getting better! Happy New Year!
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
This, That and the Southern Thing
Well, it's taken me a few days to get back here after the blog hop last week (which I hope you enjoyed, by the way.) On Thursday and Friday, I had to fly to Louisiana in the midst of massive flooding here in Central Pennsylvania. Luckily, the travel part of it worked out fine - I got there and back safely, and had an awesome time in between.
Since I got back, I can't stop frying up green tomatoes. They're not exactly a typical food here in PA, but every time I head south of here, I seem to regress into some kind of fried green tomato obsession. Luckily, I have an overabundance of them in my garden. The tomatoes never really got ripe this year, which I'd been lamenting up until now. On Sunday, I pulled a recipe off the internet, and it turned out to be a fantastic one. They turned out just like the ones I had in Baton Rouge, so I've decided to share the recipe with you.
BEST FRIED GREEN TOMATOES (from AllRecipes.com)
Ingredients:
4 large green tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
Directions:
1. Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Discard the ends.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat.
3. In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels.
To memorialize my fried green tomato obsession, I even created an Etsy treasury (because Etsy treasuries, of course, are currently my way of procrastinating when I don't want to do anything more productive.)
Delicious, eh? And perfect for September. While we're at it, I also made this one on the same day, and then realized that I'd coincidentally made two treasuries named after old movies, neither of which had anything to do with film:
At any rate, fall is definitely in the air here. It has been for awhile now, but to be honest, there's only one thing that ever makes it sink in for me that fall is really here - the return of all my TV shows. This week starts most of the CWTV shows, including one of my very favorites, the Vampire Diaries. The end of True Blood this past Sunday night will be ameliorated by the return of Elena, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, et al. Last season ended with a huge bang, so I can't wait to see what happpens this year - and is anyone else excited to see Damon finally step up and be the "good" vampire for a change?
Anyway...
The last thing I have to mention tonight is that I've recently been featured over on Artsnark's Artifacts. As you know, Stacey, otherwise known as Artsnark, is one of my very favorite Etsy artists and has contributed significantly to my growing ACEO collection. She has been kind enough to feature an interview with me and to host a giveaway of one of my items - a pair of snowy owl lace earrings perfect for Halloween. So be sure to check out the interview and leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway!
Since I got back, I can't stop frying up green tomatoes. They're not exactly a typical food here in PA, but every time I head south of here, I seem to regress into some kind of fried green tomato obsession. Luckily, I have an overabundance of them in my garden. The tomatoes never really got ripe this year, which I'd been lamenting up until now. On Sunday, I pulled a recipe off the internet, and it turned out to be a fantastic one. They turned out just like the ones I had in Baton Rouge, so I've decided to share the recipe with you.
BEST FRIED GREEN TOMATOES (from AllRecipes.com)
Ingredients:
4 large green tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
Directions:
1. Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Discard the ends.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat.
3. In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels.
To memorialize my fried green tomato obsession, I even created an Etsy treasury (because Etsy treasuries, of course, are currently my way of procrastinating when I don't want to do anything more productive.)
Delicious, eh? And perfect for September. While we're at it, I also made this one on the same day, and then realized that I'd coincidentally made two treasuries named after old movies, neither of which had anything to do with film:
At any rate, fall is definitely in the air here. It has been for awhile now, but to be honest, there's only one thing that ever makes it sink in for me that fall is really here - the return of all my TV shows. This week starts most of the CWTV shows, including one of my very favorites, the Vampire Diaries. The end of True Blood this past Sunday night will be ameliorated by the return of Elena, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, et al. Last season ended with a huge bang, so I can't wait to see what happpens this year - and is anyone else excited to see Damon finally step up and be the "good" vampire for a change?
Anyway...
The last thing I have to mention tonight is that I've recently been featured over on Artsnark's Artifacts. As you know, Stacey, otherwise known as Artsnark, is one of my very favorite Etsy artists and has contributed significantly to my growing ACEO collection. She has been kind enough to feature an interview with me and to host a giveaway of one of my items - a pair of snowy owl lace earrings perfect for Halloween. So be sure to check out the interview and leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Ghost Koi Pond
Someone just told me that my fish tank looks like a ghost koi pond. BEST THING EVER!
You can feed them, you know... just click on your mouse somewhere in the tank to sprinkle some "food."
You can feed them, you know... just click on your mouse somewhere in the tank to sprinkle some "food."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)