Muddy in Creekside: Monday AM

Fred,

Keep the cookies and your job with the Animal Rescue League. Great picture though.

Your photo skills are appreciated. Have a good week.

Babs

Barbara,

You are redeemed.

I'm so sorry I didn't look more closely before I posted such an irresponsible post.

Can I keep the cookies now?

Defending Her Life

Dear Fred and all concerned dog lovers,

A close up would reveal that Zoe was licking my fingers. It would not show any food because I do not feed at the table, well... at least with other people's dogs. So there. HA! Indicted without real proof!

Give me back my cookies!!

Babs

Coconuts All

Dear My Friends and family (Ben) and inductees from New Hampshire!

Last night was another wonderful eating and social experience. It is definitely time for me to learn new songs. Singing the old ones is heartwarming none the less. Bob and Tim are the best band I know and having my son, Ben, play with me is always an amazing experience. You guys should hear him drum. Thanks all for welcoming him so graciously. My favorite guest from NH was Mollie! The sweet cocker spaniel...what a cutie! Ann was an inspiration! Also very cute, by the way. Neil and his wife were also lovely and of course the divine Rachel and Ian. What a village we are creating.

I promised the recipe for the macaroons, which I now regret leaving with Fred! heheheh. They were darn good.

Here it is: make sure the batter gets set before you bake. Otherwise they run a bit while baking, but still work out fine. I doubled this recipe for 14 people. My cookies were also fairly large. The recipe is for 2 dozen cookies, but they would have to be smaller.

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup cake flour (sifted)

3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar and salt. When the mixture is warm to the touch and nice and creamy, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla, flour and coconut. Cover and refrigerate for about two hours, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place small amounts ( a tablespoon) or desired amount of the batter on the parchment a few inches apart. Bake for about 15 or 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then place the cookies on a cooling rack.

There ya go ! Bake on!

Ben fried the bananas in butter and brown sugar in a very hot pan until soft but not too soft. Sometimes that worked...hehehe.

The coconut ice cream was online. I used egg yolks for richness. I can post that too if you like.

To me the best part was the warm bananas on the plate with cold ice cream on top and the cookies on the side. Hot, cold, sweet and crunchy..yum!! I am truly a texture freak!

I know that May is full for all of us and may not work. Please hold June 5 for our party, which is a potluck and may substitute if we have trouble finding dates. How about the road trip the end of August??? Sounds like fun.

Love you guys and gals. Hope to see you soon.

Barb and Tim

Thai ing one on

Yep- I knew I would be the first one to have time to blog about our latest dining adventure what with Fred and Rita having "guest speakers" in from New Hampshire including the most spry 92 year old I've ever seen, and Barb having to deliver her son to an airplane this morning(which has got to be a very hard thing to do.) Cosmic Spatula expanded to 14 for the April meeting!
The most amazing thing, aside from another round of FABULOUS food, was that we all arrived actually at precisely at 6:00. I'll probably never get over that. Especially when we have a half hour window. I wanted to get there on time as I was in the appetizer category. It was cool with a chance of rain so our hoped for outdoor appetizers were not practical. Therefore, my Chicken Satay (Thai grilled chicken on a skewer) became Thai- spear 'em with a toothpick- chicken Mcnuggets. But we might have hit upon something there. Think you could even use it as a main course.
I was sure that sometime during the "first round" of couples there would have to be some food failure or at least some food that was just okay. BUT NO. The bar is now raised soooo high! I'll let Rita, our official recording secretary, put in the entire menu. But I've got to get the recipe for Rita's seafood curry which was just right. Curried stuff can get overwhelming, but this was perfection.
Authentic spring rolls- healthy; the salad so pretty with the beets and mango-need the salad dressing recipe too; never tire of asparagus; and Bob has a new appreciation of coconut. I'll tell you what- that Ben sure can fry a banana. Not to mention that he can sure play a guitar too. It's not too many groups that are fortunate enough to have the kind of after dinner entertainment that this group can provide.
So onward toward summer and the opportunities and challenges that will present. The road trip is still up for discussion, and the suggestion to postpone the group for the summer was soundly voted down. Guess I'll just be forced to have more fun and food frolic. Bye for now

Number 4 - at Windblown Studio

It's about great food, good friends, guests, and enjoying life.

I'll let others describe the food. They can do it much better than I. However, I will share with you that I'm very pleased to be married to the person who made the main dish. Wow! And, we have leftovers!

I was fearful of the asparagus, because I was warned that it contained lots of garlic. I don't mind garlic in food, but I don't like garlic flavored with food.

However, I did try Bob's asparagus, and it was very good. All the food was wonderful. What a team!

However, in every party there is one or two who just can't control themselves.

We did capture one such moment on camera.

Not that she was the only one, but she was the only one I caught on camera.

Some culprit feeding our dog, Zoe!

Shame on you.

Bad! Bad Human!

Barbara busted!

One of the side benefits of having such talented friends, is that after dessert is over, the dishes are cleared, the coffee served, and the bellies full, they break out their instruments and play music.

Even the guests come prepared to play. Ben, we thank you for your tender touch on those strings.

And some of the guests actually listen.

For Tim King

Just read that the ancient Assyrians used to say that the gods do not subtract from a man's allotted life span the hours he spends fishing. You might live to be 100 !!

April Cosmic Dinner

In case some of you are wondering, the April Cosmic Spatula will commence on April 24, between 6:00 and 6:30 PM. at Windblown Studio.

Hors d'oeuvres on the porch, dinner afterwards, music, frolicking and laughter follows.

Cosmic thought of the day

I found out something today that I wanted to share with you all.

Scientists discovered a new heavy element that goes into slot number 117 on the atomic scale. You can read about it in the New York Times. The really interesting part of this finding is that they have yet to name it, but they will. “Naming elements is a serious question, in fact,” said Yuri Oganessian, a nuclear physicist... “This takes years.”

So how long has it been since the discovered our moon? Duh?

Cosmic thought for the day.