Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Summer Fun

Okay, okay, I know I said in the last post I would get back to Design fun, but did I also mention I might talk about food from time to time? Well, at the beginning of the summer I purchased half a share of a farmer's crop and every week we recieve different types of organic vegetables and eggs from them. Every week is usually a surprise - we never know what we are going to get, or how much we will get.

 This last week I recieved the mother of all zucchinis- and it was an adventure trying to think of some good ways to use this vegetable (or is it a fruit?? it has seeds??) Anywho- I shredded the heck out that zuke and then divided up into three portions.


For the first attempt I made a very typical Turkish dish called Mujver or Zucchini Fritters and the recipes goes like this:

5-6 small firm zucchinis, grated  (makes ~4 cups)
3 eggs
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
2-3 tbsp or 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint (depending on how much you like mint)
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup white cheese/feta
1 tbsp paprika
salt
black pepper
~1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil for frying

-Put grated zucchini in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 10 minutes. Squeeze and place in a bowl.
-Mix well all the ingredients except for flour and frying oil.
-Add flour in slowly and mix well.
-Heat oil in a frying pan. On medium drop scoops of Mujver mixture in hot oil. Make sure they don't touch.
-Fry them on each side until golden brown, 4-5 minutes.
-Drain excess oil by placing fritters on paper towels.
-Serve with plain yogurt or garlicy yogurt sauce. For garlicy yogurt sauce beat every 1 cup of yogurt with 1 clove of minced garlic.



 
 
Then I decided to make a savory zucchini cheese bread with walnuts- it's my mother-in-law's recipe, which she makes superbly :)
The recipe:
-3 eggs
-1 cup yogurt
-1/2 cup canola oil
-1 cup grated cheese (mozzerella or cheddar is fine or even feta)
-2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
-1/2 cup grated zucchini
-3 green onions diced
1 tbsp of dried oregano
1 tbsp of sesame seeds and  1 tbsp of caraway seeds for sprinkling on top)
 
Mix all of the ingredients together and pour in a greased glass 9x12 pan at 375 degrees for 40 minutes
 
 

 and lastly a more typical sweet zucchini bread but with cocoa added and chocolate chips (and walnuts- I went to Costco, so I had ALOT of walnuts :))

 2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup bakers chocolate, chopped (optional)


Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together.

Combine eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture from the waxed paper. Mix until smooth. Add chocolate and nuts and mix. Pour mixture into a greased 13x9x2" pan or if you have a similar size just check with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

Bake at 350ºF for 40 minutes.


 okay that was fun--Bon Apetit!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

DIY Part II - This time it's personal.

Okay, I'm back with more fun.. I had a brief stint DIY-ing stuff around my home. I found some chairs someone was going to throw away. Here they are:



They weren't bad looking just old and worn. I also didn't care for the wood stain color, or the seat material for that matter. After cleaning it until I was satisfied all the cooties it might possibly have were gone, I removed the seat and sanded down the frame. I then painted the chair frames a bright cherry red. After it dried I painted over the red with an espresso brown --not very evenly, so the red still popped thru in areas.

I had found an interesting quilted fabric that had a worn looking print of flowers that I liked..


and Voila! There's my big ole' reveal..
I think they look nice on either side of the fireplace, don't you?? :)

Alright I think my next entry we'll get back to some of the best of the oddest of design and environmental endeavours...
until next time!


Monday, August 6, 2012

A little on the home front

Okay, this is just a little experiment. I want to show a little of the projects I do at home for fun.

Ikea has some wonderful patterned fabric--it's not  always something you might put on a sofa, but some large images that are whimsical and colorful-

so my bare stair landing needed some interest...

I bought a couple of yards of a few of the larger scale patterned fabrics and played with them in couple areas that needed some love...

The stair landing:
I took an old poster frame and cut the fabric the size of the poster's image and voila!






I will be adding more to that wall as i get more inspiration...
(Forgive the bad picture, It's hard to get a good angle for the stair-- and yes, that is a brick wall view from our window- but hey at least I can look into the neighbor's house, just 5 feet away :p )


I also needed to clean up our entry with some fresh paint and kid's storage--nothing too fancy and or expensive,
so I took out the ikea fabrics and made the simplest pillows I could with my limited sewing skills- painted the whole space a neutral beige with a slightly glossier finish for ease in cleaning.
ikea also has these panel dividers that are meant to be hung as a divider between rooms, i cut one into three pieces to make curtains for the entry sidelites and window and...
Voila!




I needed some artwork so i painted an old canvas with similar colors from the pillows, and a flower to match the panel fabric..

notice the pillows are different? i started with a big long pillow and kept playing around until i was satisfied with two smaller ones...Btw, the mirror is just an outdoor mirror from Canadian tire that was about $30, and the leather storage bench everyone has seen before - from Zellers for under a $100.

alright tune in tomorrow, you'll see what i did with these ugly chairs: