Craft:along 2009 August Project: Spa Ginger Cookies

This month’s Craft:Along 2009 hosted by Africankelli and Finny Knits presented multiple probabilities for us to consider: create patchwork placemats, sew door draft-stoppers, or bake cookies.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

My choice was making the yummy Spa Ginger Cookies. After baking, you dip one end in powdered sugar. The taste is just the right combination of gingery spiciness, a delicate chocolate, and a bit of sweetness. Take a stack of cookies, tie a pretty ribbon around them, and you have a little treat to offer your neighbors.

The recipe was created by Saucy’s Sprinkles and featured on Craftzine. It’s easy and quick, give it a try.

Lingerie Bags

Women have used bits and pieces of fabric and other materials for ages to either enhance or minimize their body shape. Historians believe the first recorded use of lingerie was by Egyptian women about 3000 BC. There’s something about a frothy bit of lace, whether worn under a silk dress or a pair of jeans and t-shirt, that appeals to the very soul of our sense of femininity.


Source: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historical Site

Even Eleanor Roosevelt used a lingerie bag. Her bag is monogrammed "AER" (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt) and made of silk and satin. It’s on display at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historical Site near Hyde Park, New York.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Last night I finished making a new lingerie bag for an upcoming trip. The cross-stitch design and project materials were ordered months ago from Pique & Pique, a shop in France. The front is linen and the back is cotton. There’s a tiny crystal “diamond” sewn in both design elements.

I’m starting another of these bags, this time using black embroidery thread. When finished, I’ll post the new version as well as share photos of the vintage lingerie bags in my small collection.

Resources

• A History of Women’s Lingerie article at Random History
• Picque & Picque home page
• Picque & Picque lingerie bag
• Picque & Picque cross-stitch chart leaflet

Blessings Friday: U.S. National Parks Free Weekend

Get your hiking boots on, pack a picnic, and find your binoculars. This is the third and final weekend national park entrance fees will be waived in 2009.

Tomorrow and Sunday, you can ease through the gates for free—especially nice at such parks as Canyonlands National Park where visiting the Grand Canyon requires an entrance fee as huge as the canyon itself.

Source: National Park Service

Before you leave your money at home, be mindful that the fee-free weekend applies only to entrance fees and does not affect fees for camping, reservations, or special tours.

Enjoy this opportunity for adventure and have a great weekend. Don’t forget your National Parks Passport book so you can record your visit by adding the park's stamp found in the visitor’s center.

Daring Kitchen’s August Cooking Challenge

Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is our host for the August Daring Cooks Challenge. She chose a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes by José Andrés from his U.S. TV show Made in Spain.

Spain’s cuisine is heavily influenced by easily available seafood; however, because I’m highly allergic to seafood and cuttlefish certainly cannot be found in Tucson, I substituted chicken.


Source: Hulu

Equipment

• 1 Chopping Board
• 1 knife
• 1 medium saucepan
• 1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)
• 1 Saucepan

Sofregit

Cooking Time: aprox. 1 hour

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 Bay leaf
• Salt
• Touch of ground cumin
• Touch of dried oregano

Directions

Put all the ingredients in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft. Taste and salt if necessary.

Allioli (Traditional Recipe)

Cooking Time: 20 min aprox.

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
• Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions

1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish (in my case, Chicken) and Artichokes


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh ones are not available)
• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
• 300 gr (2 cups) short-grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person (½ cup per person)
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions

1. Cut cuttlefish in little strips.
2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add the cuttlefish.
3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean and cut in eights.
4. Clean the mushrooms and cut in fourths.
5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish, then add the artichokes and mushrooms.
6. Sauté until the artichokes are golden in color.
7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed.
8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”).
13. Remove pan from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

School Colors

Here in Tucson, the University of Arizona is revving up for a new semester. Excited students and anxious parents are showing up to haul stuff to new dorm rooms and settle in before classes begin Aug. 24. All the activity reminds me of my own days at university.

I’m surrounded by the red, white, and blue of the Wildcat colors here. However, when I matriculated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, our school colors were green and a sort of gold-yellow. The color combination never really appealed to me, but they wouldn’t let me be boss of the university and change things.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I cross-stitched the school’s seal in those colors from a pattern purchased years ago at a shop in Wilmington.


Source: UNCW http://www.uncwil.edu/

The university has since changed its colors; I like these better than the old—so someone somewhere was allowed to be the boss of this after my time there. I’ve been wondering whether to re-make my project using the new colors. It’s somewhat like having an identify crisis. While I’m pretty flexible and accepting of change, I think my already completed work is just going to have to stay as is.

Resources

You can usually buy such designs in local needlework shops in towns fostering colleges/universities, generally independently-designed charts—just ask the proprietor. If you’re interested in stitching designs offered online representing your own college or university, here are just a few sites to explore. I’m sure you can find one for your particular school if you search.

• Michigan State and University of Michigan at Free Patters Online
• University buildings of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Purdue) at Heartland House Designs
• University of Kansas and Kansas State University at Timberlane Studios
• University of Miami at The Cross Stitch Station, Inc. site
• University of Mississippi at University Depot

Adventures 2

Ah, adventures—the very word invokes exploration of new places, trying novel activities, and seeking innovative experiences. It’s all about enjoying life and what is offered us here on our little planet.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

My Dad was in the U.S. Army and we moved to Japan when I was a three months old. This is my mom and me on my first cruise—coming back from Japan in 1953.

I’ve been very lucky in my life in having opportunities to enjoy amazing experiences—I’ve cruised the sky in a hot-air balloon, met Elvis Presley in person when he was stationed in Germany, parachuted out of a plane, sunbathed topless in the Canary Islands, encountered a Blacktip Reef Shark snorkeling in the Turks & Caicos, enjoyed a night swim with luminescent plankton in Puerto Rico, zoomed through the jungle canopy on a zip-line in Puerto Vallarta, and so on and on. My life has and continues to be most excellent.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Even as a toddler, I craved adventure. Here I am as a little cowgirl rocking my little horse as hard as I can, 1954, Ft. Ord, CA.

I recently read a great article entitled 5 Key Ingredients in the Search for Happiness found here. Essentially it cites the 5 ingredients as:

1. Introspection
2. Freedom
3. Compassion
4. Generosity
5. Contentment

What makes us happy means we also need to identify what makes us unhappy. My personal happiness comes from simply enjoying life—embracing new opportunities as adventures that enrich my life immeasurably.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

My sister (on left) was visiting my now-ex and me when we lived in West Berlin, Germany and the three of us had an opportunity to be in a movie featuring Shelly Winters and others—costumes, makeup, the whole works—it was fun.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

This is the top of a Black Diamond run in Heavenly on a family ski trip. I look like I know what I’m doing, don’t I? It’s not true; every time I ski you can hear me shout “Whoa” over and over the whole way down the run. Some adventures call for such theatrics.

If your heart and spirit craves adventures, the following sample of resources will spur you on whether you’re an adrenalin junkie, seeking something tame, or just want to explore the world from your own home.

Resources

• Adventure Blog
• Adventurous Wench
• Adventurous Women blog
• BootsnAll Travel
• Brave New Traveler
• Camels and Chocolate
• ChicSpeak
• Gridskipper
• Literary Traveler
• National Geographic Adventure
• Outside Magazine
• Sisters on the Fly
• The Adventure Blog
• The Lost Girls
• The Mindful Tourist
• Traveling Thoughts (Mary Around the World)
• Tut’s Adventurers Club
• World Hum

May this day gift you with an adventure that lifts your spirit and makes you happy.

Adventures 1

I love adventures—and there’s an adventure around every corner if you only look for it.

Today my adventure is hiking in Sabino Canyon in the Coronado National Forest. Many people think Tucson (or Arizona in general) must be like the Sahara Desert—miles and miles of nothing but sand. This is very far from the truth and visitors are quite surprised to discover we have plants of all sorts (besides the ubiquitous cacti). Sabino Canyon is in the mountainous area of Tucson and a beautiful creek feeds a plethora of trees and wildlife; it’s a wonderful introduction to the Sonoran Desert.

Hiking is part of my walking program which I’ve been sharing with you lately. To keep myself from getting bored and abandoning my getting-healthy plan, I seek a new trail every other day to explore.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend and neighbor Cindy stopped by and surprised me with gifts to help on my adventures.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

She brought me a new waist bag for hiking with water bottles in compartments on the side. There’s plenty of room for my binoculars, field guide, mini-first aid kit, emergency food, and other supplies. There’s even a pocket for my iPOD with a little opening in which to insert my headphones cord—this will come in handy.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Inside the bag I found two books about hiking, trail maps and safety information, along with a lanyard for lip balm. Hiking in the desert is much different than other places and has safety issues that must be addressed. This is such a delightful gift and I’m grateful for Cindy’s thoughtfulness. She’s joining me on the Sabino Canyon expedition.

It’s time for me to leave for my hike. Tomorrow I’ll share how to find adventures and happiness on a world-wide scale along with resources for exploring via your home computer. Maybe what you discover will inspire an adventure of your own.