It’s Always Good to Mix It UP:Mixed Media ATC
Couch Talk
The weeks have been flying by and August is already upon us. Thank you for all of your encouraging comments last week regarding cyber/charter school. We received our enrollment emails from the school and are just waiting for computers and supplies to be delivered. What a relief!! And none too soon. The school has started putting families on a waiting list because so many people are pulling their children out of school and looking to cyber/charter school from home. We made it just in the nick of time.
Do You Get in a Rut?
I have been making a list of all the things that I need to sort around the house and one of the larger tasks was my cookbooks. I love collecting books with history, beautiful pictures and recipes that are tried and true. When we were first married, I would pick up a cook book with recipes native to the area we visited. I would try a recipe and then shelve the book. Since then, they have been hidden away and collecting dust. We tend to go through periods where I will make the same few recipes over and over again because it’s easy. I think it has been a year since I tried a new recipe for dinner.
But since I have been going through each cookbook, one page at a time, I have discovered why I bought these books in the first place. I made a list of the recipes in each book that I want to try and placed them at the front so I don’t have to search. I am endeavoring to try at least one new recipe a month. I can’t be to adventurous so I thought I would start out small.
A new dinner (and not from our cookbooks) we have added to our weekly menu at the suggestion of a friend is Chicken Shawarma and homemade Pita bread. I made this last week for our 14th anniversary dinner. While my homemade pita’s were slightly under cooked, we loved the Chicken Shawarma. The chicken was yummy and a bit spicy. My hubby suggested a sauce as the chicken and bread together seemed a bit stodgy (too much Great British Bake Off for us). I bought Tahini sauce but he wasn’t a fan so I will be trying out a new sauce this week, probably with a greek yogurt base. As for the pita’s, I don’t always want to take the time to watch bread rise, so I am trying Naan bread from Aldi this week instead.
I have been wanting to try Asian cucumber salad for ages. I love getting this whenever we eat out Asian food. Thanks to my cousin, we have a few garden grown cucumbers that I turned into this Spicy Chinese Cucumber Salad. It was so delicious with just the right amount of bite. I almost ate the whole thing in one sitting.
I have done quite a bit of baking this week, but I didn’t take pictures. I surprised my kids with sourdough chocolate chip pancakes as well as banana chocolate muffins. Crazily enough, they wanted to know what the occasion was and why I was making hot breakfast on a day other than Saturday. Can’t spoil them too often or they will expect it every day.
7th Anniversary ATC Swap
ATC Sent
The post seems to be slow and I have not yet received my ATC from Mia, but I am hoping it will arrive any day now. Instead, I will share the ATC I made for Chris.
I used some scrap fabric and paper towel to layer underneath a die cut and a PaperArtsy image.
And I received a lovely card, ATC and some goodies from Chris in return. Here is what she sent me.
Thank you, Chris for sharing your beautiful creations with me! That tea cup stamp is lovely and perfect for this tea loving girl.
Tea Day
I am joining the T ladies, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Last week, I shared my new new tea which hadn’t arrived yet. Well, it is here I am loving the smell and the taste of this Positively Tea Company, Organic Lychee Green Tea, Loose Leaf, 1 Pound Bag
Where is your favorite place to gather recipes online? I have a whole binder full of them aside from cookbooks so please drop a link of some blogs so I can check them out.
Happy
Kate
Lovely mail art goodies you received!Love the beautifully layered ATC you made as well.
Cookbooks? Ha- I have such a collection- and I have gone thru them and made a list on a paper in many of the books for recipes I really wanted to make:):) Starting to go through them again to purge and take another look at what I did make (usually I made and asterisk next to the recipe on my list) or still need to try.
Happy T day!
Like you, I have many pamphlets and small books on the cuisines of places we have visited, but I rarely try them. For example, I have a wonderful African cookbook (actually purchased in Paris because I haven’t been to africa). But an unnerving number of recipes call for the meat of the cane rat, rather than any meat that I could manage to obtain in the American Midwest. I did manage to make one recipe from the book: chicken, of course. So it goes.
be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Wow Kate. How impressive. You are going to make me hungry. Your latest meal, new with chicken, looks lovely. Actually, the onions look wonderful, since I always love any onion that is cooked.
LOVE that ATC you sent to Chris. Love mine, too!! Chris is always generous to a fault. I like the envelope she chose for you, too. Cute postage stamp, too. I think they cost extra, since the British PO prefers to meter their mail.
Your tea looks lovely. I was especially drawn to the colors. Thanks for sharing your ATC and the one you got from Chris, as well as your tea with us for T this Tuesday, dear. And thanks again for the lovely, lovely goodies you sent.
You got loads of lovely post, enjoy! Chicken shiwarma is tasty. It’s sold at every snack bar in Israel, so I ate it a lot when I was there. Lovely crafting from you, too. Have a great week, take care, happy T Day, Valerie
Lots of cooking done there! I must admit I gave a lot of cook-books away, I kept Jamie Oliver´s, but that man gives so many tips online I don´t even need the books!
I have some on how to decorate food for when my Nieces come over (but they always show up by surprise).
I got heaps of great recipes from fellow blogger Jan and… hmmm. Jamie and Genarro show it all on Facebook!
I thought about buying Jamie´s new book, but what for when he gives the recipes for free there?! LOL
Happy-T-day to you!
Happy t day Kate. Glad the school situation is working out. What a crazy school situation it is this year. Here no one yet knows what they are going to do. And the baking sounds good. Last week I made banana bread and this weekend I made sourdough pancakes also. I think they are some of the best pancakes. And nice happy mail too! I like your latest art also. Hope you don’t get rain from the storm coming north. I’m not sure where in PA you are. Happy T day. Hugs Erika
So glad that all your teaching supplies are on there way and you beat the rush – yay! It’s fun trying new recipes, we try to make something new each week and have lots of recipe books like you to be inspired by …lol 😀. I’m loving your layered artwork and the tea sounds so delicious, I’d happily join you for a cup today! Wishing you a Happy T Day! Take care! Hugs, Jo x
First time visiting you!! I love to cook too. I got rid of a lot of cookbooks when we downsized but their number is creeping back up!!!
Fun post. I enjoyed reading of your food adventures and hot breakfast on a weekday – lol. Your ATC is stunning! You got a lovely package from Chris as well.
When I look for recipes online, I’m usually looking for a specific recipe or to use specific ingredients. I often end up at Allrecipes, The Food Network or Epicurious.
Happy T-day and have a lovely week! Hugs, Eileen
Wow, I’m glad you got your children signed up before they instituted the waiting list. Looks like many others think that is the best route to take. I get in plenty of ruts, so I can relate. But you were very productive, going through your recipe books and putting lists in the front, of recipes to try. Great idea. That chicken looks delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe. It looks easy enough that I might be able to do it. (I’m not good with complicated step recipes.) One thing I miss during my self imposed covid-19 Lock Down is Chinese food and Indian food. I haven’t tried Middle Eastern, but the ingredients for the chicken sound tasty. Beautiful artwork. I love that bowl your tea is in. Happy T-Day!
I am so happy you got into the school. About cookbooks. I had collected my grandmas, my moms, and my own, and had way too many! I just gave them away to good will when we downsized. I am too much of a collector! I put my favorites in a spiral notebook and others in a three ring notebook. Also, I realized I can get most everything off the internet. I just search on google or Pinterest for my recipes.
Lovely ATC and items from Chis. Happy T Day. I am having Twinings Black Current Breeze as I type.
Great that you were able to get your children into the online school program. You were just in time.
Yes, I am like you with cook books. I love to read them though but I only make one or two recipes. I have all Jamie Oliver’s books because they are great to read. He talks about Italy, or his vegetable garden or the school meals. Each one is interesting. His way of cooking is inspired by Gennaro, an Italian, so it is right up my street, having lived in Italy for so long.
But like you, I get into a rut and cook a certain amount of recipes by rotation. When I cook a new recipe and it was successful and we both liked it, I copy it in my hand written recipe book. I have done this over the years and have nearly finished volume three. I tend to cook out of the last book, but every now and then I make myself look through one of the others and I make something I haven’t made in a long time.
Yumm, I love shawarma! In Israel it is street food, and I practically lived on it when I was there. I have made it myself too and the sauce I used was type of aioli, a garlic mayonnaise, and I would buy the aioli in a jar and mix it with yoghurt to make it lighter.
The websites I visit often for recipes are BBCGoodfood, https://www.liveeatlearn.com/(this one is vegetarian) and I love Barry’s recipes at RockRecipes.com. He is in Canada, Newfoundland.
Your Atc is gorgeous. I hope you get Mia’s soon. After all it has to travel quite a bit.
And that tea is fascinating. I’m glad it didn’t disappoint.
Happy T-Day,
Lisca
I got rid of a lot of my cookbooks. I kept my Betty Crocker because it was a shower gift from my mother and I do use it. Now i keep all my recipes online I use Evernote to create notebooks. One is for recipes. I just snagged the pita bread recipe you posted. Thanks! Happy T Day.
I’m using pinterest to save recipes and donated almost all of my old cookbooks. It’s nice, because if you forget your shopping list, you can find the recipe on your phone! I might try the chicken recipe that looks yummy 🙂 Terrific ATC and salad that you enjoyed ~ Blessings on your week!
I can completely understand the online vs in-person dilemma. I’m living it. Jessa will be doing PSEO for her senior year of high school with the exception of choir…if they ever get to sing. All of her college courses are online…so basically her senior year will be done from her bedroom. Not exactly what she had imagined.
Your journal page is amazing! Love the color and texture…the layers. Love your style so much.
Good job trying new recipes from books! Most of the time I turn to Pinterest even though I have a stack of books.
Happy T day!
I really do apologise for not getting here sooner. Hubby had big ideas about getting a long ignored task done but took till mid afternoon to finally getting around to it – every time I thought I would get to the computer he would say he was about ready!!! It was only changing some shelves around and it turned out that I was only a go–fetcher!!! Your ATC is absolutely wonderful – real Kate layers!!! I hope that you can use those bits and pieces – I chose the stamp because I thought your daughter might like to see it!
Your food sounds and looks delicious.I am still making lots of new recipes – a lot of tray baked things which are easy as well as making sauces for meats or veggies!
I use BBC food for a lot of my recipes too!
Good news on the home school front – hope all goes well!
Hugs, Chrisx