[Georgiana Haworth (Vikki)]

Good luck! The menu sounds lovely, by the way When I move in downstairs, you'll have to invite me for dinner often. I promise in return I'll help cook and wash up.

[Charlotte Tolson (Izzie)]

My latest crafty spurt comes in the form of painting. Sadly, I'm not painting a picture (my artistic ability ends at the point of stick figures, to the chagrin of my costume designer/graphic artist mother ), but I am painting...things. My grandfather built me some boxes this year for Christmas (my family likes to build things), but he built them in the form of books! So I have two gorgeous wooden book boxes to paint, which is what I'm doing as I type this.

Kind of hard to explain...but I will post pictures. I'm excited to use them, but I have no idea what I'll put in them!

[Stephen Brydges (Emily)]

Did another fan-made trailer for a book (series) I really want made into a film--Hangman Blind. The music transitions are dodgy, but as smooth as I could make them; meh.

[Rebecca Garrison (Emily)]

The Scarlet Pimpernel and the League...go out for ice cream...

(made on a whim after increasingly giggly IMs)



I have no excuses. It just is what it is. And it's pretty terrible.

(She likes the copy + paste function, yes she dooooes...)

[Annabelle Beacham (Betsy)]

Here's some Crafty Christmas photos that I finally got around to uploading.



Oreo truffles. I would not rightfully call these "baking" since they take no skill and don't ever see an oven. But they turn out very pretty and very yummy. I think I ate one or two before my dad, brother, and brother-in-law gobbled them all up.



My twin sister and I attempted to pool our resources and make homemade Christmas presents for our relatives. Here they are, ready to be packed up and shipped out.



Close up of the contents. They included a jar wild plum jam that my sister made, a jar of crabapple jelly (not pictured) that I made, a knitted Christmas dishcloth, and labelled with a homemade tag. The gifts went over so well that we're planning to do it again next year and change up the contents. from year to year.

[Geoffrey Stapleton (Shar)]

Back to posting menus!

We're having a young couple over for dinner tomorrow night. As far as I know, they have no food issues.
I plan on making:

Whole wheat bread
Stuffed flounder (only I can't find mock crab in Boston, so I'll be improvising the stuffing a bit)
Beet soup (it's fairly uninspired: cube beets, carrots and potatoes and boil them for a bit with water and cumin. Whoopee. But people tend to like it anyhow, and the lurid color is very attractive to my kids. Like I said on the c-box, light soups don't excite me much.)
Chickpea burgers.
Guests are bringing a salad.
Vanilla pudding with blueberries suspended therein.
Chocolate cake
Candied almonds

Looking back over this thread, I see that I make the same things a lot. How boring! I'll have to work on the creativity.

[Walter Roydon (Emily)]

I love love love beets. And you can never go wrong with borscht.

[Geoffrey Stapleton (Shar)]

Really? I'm not so into borscht, though my mother loves it. For some reason, this suits me better. A lot of folks I know eat either my beet soup or borscht; only my mom so far seems to like both. The potatoes taste very nice once they've gone all soft and soaked with beet juice, it's simple and healthy, and the lurid color appeals to 3-year-olds. ;-) My uncle, who has himself on the most restricted diet I've ever heard of (fruitarians are doing well in comparison), will even eat it.
I don't think the baby can eat the beets yet--still just the two teeth, and she can't seem to chew even Rice Krispies yet. Still she might be able to handle the potatoes, and she does love feeding herself.
Another great thing about beets, the juice doesn't stain, though I always just about faint when I see my son's sleeves after he eats.
Only problem is, WAY too much chopping involved. Takes forever.

[Walter Roydon (Emily)]

Do you boil the beets and then scrape off the skins? They're a pain to peel, otherwise.

Here's that beet-and-citrus salad I was thinking off. A few other things in there, as well!

Salad: (instructions say to layer the following on individual plates, but you could just as easily toss it just before serving.)

mixed baby greens
grated cooked beets
grated carrots
tinned chickpeas, drained
crumbled feta cheese
roasted sunflower seeds or
toasted almond slivers

Dressing:

1 Tbsp. Dijon (or other interesting mustard)
2 Tbsp. liquid honey
1 crushed garlic clove
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
juice & zest of 1 small orange
3/4 cup safflower oil
salt & pepper to taste

Shake or whisk together and spoon over salad before serving immediately.

[Walter Roydon (Emily)]

I attempted to make a Thai dish last night. Any expert oh Thai cooking would likely dropkick me out the window for what I came up with, in the end, but the tasty end result was rice noodles done in peanut sauce I threw together with peanut butter, a bit of brown sugar, lime juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce & a dash of water; done with a stir-fry of chicken, ginger, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms and red peppers topped with spring onions, cilantro, crushed peanuts and more lime juice. Could have stood a bit more of a chili component, being pretty mild even by my weak standards.