tofu veggie stirfry

My brother and SIL in Portland have declared 2011 the year of eating in.  Cool.  I'm all for it.  We don't eat out much (but at the end of the post I will list our five fav eats in Uptown SD).  Our family goal is vaguely increasing ayurvedic meals and decreasing animal proteins.  Not a meat elimination here - I'm pregnant with twins and soon to be breastfeeding so I indulge my omnivore cravings.  But a tempering.  Here's some good stuff we had today:

An almost-vegan breakfast: organic flax whole wheat waffles with organic mixed berry puree and fresh fruit salad (cara cara orange, apple, bing cherries and red grapes).  Olive oil spread and organic stick butter were both on the table - everyone reached for the butter.

Lunch was intended to be baked tofu fries with a mixed green salad but I opened the pack of organic extra firm tofu to discover it was cubed.  Oops!  Change of plans.  My 6 month pregnant belly is making big dinners uncomfortable, so I decided to swap dinner and lunch and make a tofu veggie stirfry.  

My so-called recipe: Cook 1 1/2 cups organic sweet short grain brown rice in a rice cooker with 3 1/4 cup filtered water and a dash of sea salt.  'Press' tofu cubes to remove excess liquid (sandwich them in a single even layer between clean dish towels and baking sheets - put a few cans on top and leave in the fridge for 20 min).  Remove the tofu, put in a bowl and marinate with organic tamari, organic rice vinegar, raw honey, organic veggie broth, and fresh ground black pepper.  Minced fresh ginger would be AWESOME but I forgot it.  Leave to marinate for a bit, tossing occasionally.  To reduce pitta (my ayurvedic 'dosha') I eliminated garlic chili paste - but it would be good too.

Meanwhile, chop veggies and place in separate bowls - 1/2 a sweet onion, a medium head of broccoli, 2 carrots (slice diagonally), a big handful of sweet mini red peppers.  Rinse 1/2 can each of mini corns and water chestnuts.

Set a big electric skillet to a low-ish temperature.  {I like the electric skillet because I can put all the tofu in a single, even layer to brown.}  Heat a little organic toasted sesame oil and organic olive oil, then add onions to cook for a few minutes.  Add tofu, stir, and spread the cubes out evenly; reserve the marinade.  Cover the skillet and brown tofu for a minute or two.  Stir and brown another side.  Repeat.  Next add carrot, stir, add reserved marinade and more tamari, vinegar, honey and broth.  Whatever feels right.  Cover and leave for a few minutes.  Next add red pepper, maybe a dash more tamari, cover and wait 1-2 min.  Finally add the rest of the veggies and a few splashes of whatever else (tamari, broth...).  Grind on some black pepper.  Stir, cover, and simmer until the veggies look bright and feel soft.

Put a little rice in a bowl for the kiddo, divide the remaining rice between two adult bowls.  Cover the rice with tofu and veggies.  Sprinkle on some black sesame seeds.  Serve and be happy.

Okay, and just for fun, here are our favorite five dinners out in Uptown San Diego (that's the Hillcrest, Mission Hills,  North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, Kensington area):

1. Adobado Burrito & Shredded Beef Flautas w/ El Perfecto Margaritas @ Ponce's
2. Fish Tacos plates w/ Horchatas @ El Zarape's
3. Rainbow Roll & Crunchy Roll (etc) w/ Crazy Milk Specials @ Sushi Deli
4. Shrimp Pad Thai & Massaman Veggie Curry or Fried Tofu Spicy Noodles @ Bangkok Thai Spices
5. Honey Walnut Shrimp & Chicken Moo Shu @ City Wok
6. Chicken Kabob plates with rice & Hummus  @ Mediterranean Cafe

Ok... that's six.  Oh well.  We love food.

xoxo,
Christy

happy & sad cards

Yesterday was a truly lovely day!  Thanks so much to my family and friends (blogging & IRL) for all the love.  It was also a good day because I made a card from scratch, no sketch, no special inspiration, no CASEing - yippee!  This may not be a big deal to many of the creative and extremely productive folks out there, but I'm just a regular crafty gal :)

My one and only aunt is having a birthday, so I wanted something special.  Cards for aunts scream for florals, but I've never actually purchased such a stamp set (I know, weird).  I do have Round & Round, however, and we're originally Kansas girls so it had to be the sunflower - in golden yellow.  Also purple because it's a complementary color, and I'm loving the spring time weather here (don't hate).  The card base is from the Cricut cartridge, A Child's Year,

I also needed a card for the passing of a dear friend's father.  I did a variation on a set of thank yous from a previous post (link here).  For a masculine look I chose the wood impression plate on linen paper and inked the edges & grains with antique linen ink.  I used my fingernail to further distress the edges (looking a lot better than my usual distressing with scissors).  It's never fun to create a sympathy card, but I Iike this calming, soulful look.

xoxo,
Christy

SUPPLIES:

springtime birthday

stamps - PTI Round & Round (Fillable Frames #8 & Birthday Basics on the inside)
paper - PTI harvest gold, plum pudding, Egg Hunt patterened paper
ink - PTI summer sunrise, plum pudding, dark chocolate; antique linen Distress Ink
accents - PTI harvest gold buttons & swiss dots ribbon, new leaf baker's twine; yellow gems
tools- PTI Mat Stack 1 die; EK Success 1 3/4" circle punch, Marvy super jumbo (blue) scalloped circle punch; Cricut cartridge 'A Child's Year'

dove sympathy 
stamps - Fillable Frames #2 (sentiment), Fillable Frames #8 (frame)
paper - PTI blueberry sky, enchanted evening, linen
ink - PTI enchanted evening; antique linen Distress Ink
accents - PTI vintage cream felt
tools- PTI Woodgrain impression plate, Peace Be Still Collection die

1-11-11 birthday roll call

Oooo - a binary birthday!  I also have someone new to add to my list of fabulous people I personally know with this birth date (see last year's post here):

1. Moriah McSharry McGrath
2. Amy Harms
3. Erin Relph
4. Salma Dahir
5. Baby Leda
6. myself

7. This year a dude made the list - Tony Cirrone who work at the SD Waldorf school ('This song is about a super hero named Tony. It's called Tony's Theme... To-ny!  To-ny!  To-ny!').  

Important historical figures were born on 1-11, but that can be dry so here are some 'celebrities' instead: 
Amanda Peet 
Mary J. Blige 
Naomi Judd

One more I can't resist: Albert Hofmann. January 11, 1906. Swiss scientist in the field of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Trippy.  Makes me want to go on a bicycle ride.

And there you have it!

Today - some birthday crafting, dinner out (sorry, Tena!) and perhaps a Black Forest cake.  There's an amazing Dutch bakery two blocks from our new home - Hans and Harry's (link here).  At 7am on Christmas Eve I waited in line for over an hour to get their fresh fruit strudel.  It was awesome good.


xoxo,
Christy

snowflake thanks

Do you love creating patterned papers?  I do!  For one thing, it's a good way to use a lot of the stamps in a set.  It always feels better to ink up stamps to use, not just collect :)  For inspiration, I used a simple card from Niki Estes (link here) just tweaked a bit.  I think she totally nailed the dove and Fillable Frames #8 combination.

I needed some thank you cards so I stamped a grouped block of sentiments from Inside & Out: Thank You.  I filled in gaps with snowflakes in various sizes and hues of blue.

Blueberry sky and enchanted evening look so rich and gorgeous to me, and they pair nicely with rustic white and smokey shadow edging.

This sentiment from Star Prints is one of my all time favorites.  The dove is glitter embossed so it's shiny and sparkly.

I love this pearlescent electric blue because it's so bright and shimmery in person.  Yay - that's four special cards to thank four special people!

xoxo,
Christy

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Peace Be Still, Inside & Out: Thank You, Fillable Frames #8, Star Prints, Rustic Snowflakes ('Handmade by' image on back of card)
paper - PTI blueberry sky, enchanted evening, rustic cream
ink - PTI spring moss, enchanted evening; Tsukineko Brilliance sky blue ink
accents - PTI blueberry sky saddle stitch ribbon; glitter embossing powder
tools- PTI Peace Be Still die, Fillable Frames #8 die

last post of the decade

2010 came and 2010 went - how time is speeding by!  We had a lovely first Christmas in our new home.  Grandma and Grandpa Compton stayed for a few days and we enjoyed delicious food, good walks, and quality family time.  Santa found the house, and the most loved presents this year were a bike, wooden jump rope, and unicorn pillow pet.

 Now here's to a new year and a new decade!  There's so much fun yet to come!

xoxo,
Christy

christmas cards

Did you catch this adorable folk art card from Betsy Veldman last year (link here)?  It's stamped with the PTI Christmas Friends set and I just fell in love.  I made it into our 2010 card by adding my favorite sentiment from this year's Big & Bold Holiday Wishes set. (And, oh my,  I always keep one 'mess-up' - it looks like I photographed my oops card!)

I LOVE Betsy's design but tweaked it to make it easier for mass production.  Instead of ribbon & bows, I used diecut felt ric-rac and a diecut snowflake.  The turtle doves image went on a separate pieces of cardstock, just in case of stamping mistakes :).  I added texture by running it through a canvas impression plate, then inked the edges since I was not about to sew (did that last year and won't ever do it again).  

I cut Pine's Rustic Snowflake paper into strips that could piece together as unique cards, even with a production line of 55.

 Man, do I love seeing them all lined up!  It was a labor of love - especially when interrupted with a surprise move on December 3rd.  (We had our house on the market but never expected to sell so quickly.  Luckily, the timing was right to get us into our perfect home for Christmas!)

 This message and the fonts from Inside & Out: Holiday just blew me away.  It's exactly what I wanted to say.  These cards were a lot of fun to make... and I've already got some cute papers stashed away for next year's creations!

xoxo,
Christy

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Christmas Friends, Big & Bold Wishes, Big & Bold Holiday Wishes, Inside & Out: Holiday, Peace Be Still, Rustic Snowflakes ('Handmade by' snowflake image on back of card)
paper - PTI rustic cream, Rustic Snowflakes patterened paper
ink - PTI pure poppy, ocean tides; Versamagic sage; Distress Ink antique linen
accents - PTI pure poppy, ocean tides, spring moss felt
tools- PTI Rickrack die, Mat Stack 4 die, Canvas impression plate; Cuttlebug; Marvy heart punch (orange) 

advent spiral

Our four year old had her first candle-held walk through the Advent Spiral with her kindergarten class at the Waldorf school.  This a beautiful Winter ceremony symbolizing the individual receiving their Light in darkness.  

 (photo credit: whitt, flickr link here)

The spiral is fragrantly decorated with evergreen boughs, crystals, seashells, and other elements from Nature.  In the center is a wooden stump with a large candle.  Each child reverently carries an apple holding a beeswax candle through the two and a half turns of the spiral while soft lyre music plays.  In the center the child lights their candle then walks back, stopping to light a candle on the floor and placing a glass lantern over top.

(photo credit: FaerieWaldorf, etsy link here)

Caitlyn tiptoed the entire way as she solemnly carried her candle.  She looked beautiful in her new red and cream holiday dress, cream and red snowflakes tights, and long french braid.  (Of course, her behavior was less than stellar as she waited her turn, but I chalk that up to being Caitlyn.)  In true San Diego form it was an 80º evening so the only thing missing was cold weather.

I also enjoyed the dusk Lantern Walk through Presidio Park for the Michaelmas celebration in November, but there was something truly special about the Advent Spiral.  Although this will be our last year at Waldorf, I know this is a special tradition we will recreate in our home every December.

With peace,

Christy