Tuesday, July 20, 2010

One Book Can Lead To Sew Much Joy...

A follow up to The Adventures Of Super Bunny! Many of you have wondered and asked me if I made any other bunnies, Why YES, yes I did, thanks for asking!

When Momma Bean was here the other week we found ourselves at the book store, of course, and she found a book titled "Socks Appeal" by Brenna Maloney and that little book has brought so much friggin JOY!!! For instanse...Meet Argh, my very first sock bunny! I love him so. I thought the he would look more artsy and have more character if the sock were inside out.
Weiner the Wonder Dog isn't too sure about him. She's waiting to see if he truly wants to be friends of if he's up to no good! The utter joy that I had from making Argh, turned into a whole troop of bunnies!
Meet the gang. Nature Super Bunny, Hypno Bunny, Pink Sister Bunnies and New Baby Bunny!
Nature Super Bunny comes with his own Nature Bunny Super Cape and mask! Every little Nature Lover should have a cape, don't you think? He's currently in the post finding his way to a very special little Munchkin I know in Ohio. Hope he likes his new friend.

These sisters were special made for a pair of utterly adorable, cheek squeezable Sister Munchkins that I'm absolutely in love with! I'm happy to report that they have arrived safely and are currently being squeezed to bits! YAY!
Lastly this cutie went to live with a brand new member of the human race that I look forward to getting to know in the future. She's about a month old now and though I know she's too young right now to truly get to know her bunny, my hope is that one day when she's older and in need of a friend, her mommy will pull out this little fuzzy pal and she'll tell him all her troubles.

This is Hypno Bunny! You will look into her eyes and you WILL love her.

I fell in love with her eyes and designed her around them. She's the only bunny that wasn't made for any specific munchkin. I'm thinking of holding a special Hypno Bunny GiveAway Contest so that my lovely lovies can have a chance to win her for a Munchkin they know. What do ya think? Is that a good idea?




Saturday, July 17, 2010

Homemade Pesto Anyone? Hellz Yeah...

I mentioned that when Momma Bean was here a couple weekends ago she brought me a Thai Basil plant. Well the occassion to use a bunch of it finally arrived and I leapt at the chance. I was surfing my all time favorite food site Foodgawker and found a fabulous recipe I had to try. If you've never been to Foodgawker you simply must have a look. It's food porn for the eyes, seriously. The recipe is for Pesto Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken and it comes from the blog The Parsley Thief by a lady named Katie in Norwalk CT. Here is the link to the Recipe and here is a link to the Home Page of her blog. Her recipes are really great and totally worth a look see even if you don't enjoy cooking, her photos will convince you otherwise.



I followed her recipe exactly except for two things, I used baby spinach instead of arugula and I used half my Thai Basil and half fresh Sweet Basil from the store as I wanted to use my basil but didn't have enough on my plant to make the pesto.



This recipe is GORGEOUS, not only to look at but to eat. This one is a definate 2 thumbs way the hellz up! Homemade pesto is so out of this world that you will never use store bought again.



I love this time off year. The produce is beautiful and everything tastes fresh and fragrant.



What sort of pasta dishes have you been making?

Friday, July 16, 2010

Friday Food Fun...

Yesterday we were watching one of our favorite shows, Good Eats with Alton Brown and discovered that YES, frozen crab is easy and oh so tastey. The episode was Crustation Nation III Feeling Crab. Now I know what you're thinking, Bean, WHY in the HELL would you want to eat frozen crab when you live a stones chuck away from the coast? Wellllllll, just watch the episode and you'll find out. It all has to do with location, type of crab and getting the most meat bang for your buck. Plus, we LOVE eating for cheaper at home, who doesn't?

Today I was out getting my Mane Tamed ;) by the oh so fabulous Lorraine, owner of Lorraine Aprile Salon in Old Town and on my way home I stopped to pick up our crabbie dinner, 2lbs of Dungeness Crab and 1lb of Snow Crab. Sort of a crab taste test evening. I wanted King Crab legs but all they had we ones that were still frozen and I didn't feel like waiting over night for them to thaw in the fridge. I'm hungry now dammit! As you know, eating crab can be a bit messy and since the weather was perfect in the late afternoon we moved our delish meal to the porch! It was so much fun. I felt like royalty sitting on the porch of our ghetto apartment building listening to commuters drive by on their way home to TV dinners after a long day in the hamster wheel. Aw, now this is the life baby.

This is one half of a Dungee with a side of clarified butter! Doesn't it look delish? The clarified butter is sooooo very easy to make. The recipe also came from Alton Brown's show. The butter really does make all the difference.
As for the taste test results...
We both felt that the snow crab legs tasted slightly sweeter but they are a lot juicier/messier and a little harder to get to the meat. The Dungees have a great taste and the meat is WAY easier to get to and there's a lot more of it. So if we had to choose between the two I think we would both go for the Dungee. The price was only a few cents difference between the two, Dungees being slightly more expensive but totally worth it.
So there you have it. Friday at Casa Mohler and Life is Good. What did you have for dinner?

Friday, July 09, 2010

Adventures of Super Bunny and Super Boy...

Some of you may have heard rumor of a new Super Hero in town. Please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to..... Super Bunny!!!

He comes complete with removeable cape and mask. I know of a very cute Crime Fighting, Super Hero Loving Munchkin that Super Bunny was aspecially made for.

Super Bunny was carefully packaged and sent off to meet Super Boy!! YAY!!

The Super Duo meets for the first time. I believe that it was love at first flight. Watch out evil vilans, there's a new Super Duo in town.

Super Bunny and Super Boy display their feats of strength.

Pooh Bear was not to be left out of the party.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPER BUNNY!

A shoulder ride after a long flight.

Super Bunny was invited to a picnic. Among some of the delecacies were sprinkles, fig jam, roasted red peppers and of course every Super Bunny loves anchovies!
After a looong day of fighting crime it's time to sleep. Sleep well Super Duo.

The next morning found the Super Duo on their way to school. Super Bunny was proudly shown to friends with a short demonstration on how his cape and mask are easily removed.
My hopes had been that Super Boy who loves all things Super Hero would like the special bunny I made for him but his utter joy at Super Bunny surpassed my hopes at light speed.
May they continue to have endless days filled with Grand Adventures!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

A Visit From The Fam...

Hello my lovies! Have you missed me? I assure you that all is well here at Casa Bean. I've been so busy visiting family, preparing for friends to visit, as well as a ton of creative projects that there aren't enough hours in the day. Shall I begin to catch you up? The other weekend my charming aunt Susan and her hubby Ed came to visit us. "I was feeling a little homesick for you" she said. Isnt' she the sweetest? I think they are an adorable couple.

Another reason they are so sweet is that they brought Momma Bean and Casper with them!!! Yay! That's Beanie the Wonder Dog on the left with her brother Casper on the right. What a pair!
Among the many places that we ate was Jackson 20. It deserves a mention for many reasons.
They have WAY cool antique metal menu covers and little piggie napkin rings!

Their bathroom is gorgeous. I mean look at that tile, and fresh Ochids? I'm in LOVE! Yes, I photographed the bathroom ;)


They have a brass piggie! The hostess was wonderful, the waitress was fabulous, the food (I had Rabbit Brunswick Stew) was great and it was all shared with loved ones.

One of the things on the MUST DO list was take my mother to the Library of Congress. We got her a library card then went to see about looking up some books. We had a fabulous time, including walking in the tunnel to get from the main building to the Adam's Building where they were sending the books she requested so she could sit and look at them. We had a WONDERFUL time staring at all the Art Deco on the walls, sketching and giggling like only two Book Lovers can.


The view from the King Street Metro station where we changed trains from the Blue Line to the Yellow.


After a hard day of site seeing you just HAVE to have some to die for Tiramisu. I may have found the best in town but I'll have to go back and have another just to make sure ;)

Also on our MUST DO list was visit the Natural History Museum. Always a great choice, as long as you get there before all the screaming children and grumpy parents. Even my mother said "Let's get the HECK out of here before we get trampled". Go EARLY people cause the stampede comes at about 1pm and they are hot, tired, hungry and PUSHY. Personal space people, personal space. You've been warned, you violate it and I'll dart you and put you on display next to the Mammoth as a warning to the rest of the group. Just sayin.

At the Natural History Museum they had a special Butterfly display that you can walk through. They have 400 Butterflies with 52 different species. It was magical. Well except for the obnoxious asian lady and her two kids, but we won't go there.

I was the only one of us to have one land on me. I couldn't believe it. "Mom...mom....MOM LOOK"! I was giddy with delight. Momma Bean said that it was because of my Lemon Verbena lotion.


Did you know there were Bull Mummies? Me neither.

Little clay figures that Momma Bean and I stood and sketched. *sigh* if only she lived closer so we could do this all the time.

Of course I had to take a pic. I mean come on. Thoth is so rare that when you see him you gotta capture it.
What a great trip. I got to show Susan and Ed my town for the first time and Momma Bean brought me a Thai Basil plant that I am very happy to report is still alive and well. You may not know this but I have two black thumbs. Give me and animal and I'm golden but give me a plant and you sentence it to a long slow suffering death. Just ask my hubby, I've killed an air plant. Yep, that's no joke.
Thank you so very much Susan and Ed for taking the time to come out and see me. I hope you enjoyed our town. It was a blast. Love and Hugs to you both.