Mersydotes

The cooking bug has bitten me this week, and a Tuesday night seemed like the perfect time to try out a special, new recipe- why not?  I decided to make risotto from a French recipe I recently found, so I pulled out my trusty kitchen scale (everything in grammes et litres!) and gathered the ingredients. They struck me as oddly monochromatic.  White rice, white wine, white onion, butter, olive oil, parmesan, and eggplant.  Is this a recipe or an art installation? I'm always a bit wary of eggplant because of how watery it is.  Even though it seems quite dry and solid when you cut it up, one little eggplant seems to hold about five gallons of water once you start cooking! So I had read in Cooks Illustrated that if you microwave eggplant chunks layered on coffee filters before you cook them, a lot of the water will be released, and then it won't be so soupy.  It worked pretty well- here's the end result: The risotto turned out to be absolutel...

Happy Sunday, Mersydotes visitors!  We hope that you are enjoying your day- it's been a very pleasant mixture of work and play here.  Since the work part is pretty boring (laundry, cleaning, stuff for our jobs, etc.) I think I'll just share the cozy side of things here.  That's what I love about this blog!  It is a very selective look at the tiny things in life, but when you narrow you focus to those things, the whole of life seems pretty peachy keen.  Blog magic! We started off with some blueberry pancakes today, but decided to make them a bit differently than normal.  Usually, we just make regular pancakes with a few blueberries sprinkled on top as they cook.  But that results in blueberry-free bites and bites that are overwhelmed by the sour berries.  So, we tried "blueberry puree" pancakes.  It worked pretty well, but since I was worried that the pureed berries would mess up the consistency of the batter, I didn't use very many....

Sometimes I get excited at the start of a project, but then forget to take any pictures when it's all finished!  Ooops!  So here is a little project that I posted about last month, and that is a new colorful part of our home. We have been using our little birdhouse key-holders near the front door to keep our keys from getting lost (especially mine!).  They look so fresh and clean- I'd love to be tiny enough to live inside! I had painted them and then covered them in washi tape, but since the little perches were a tad too short to keep the keys from sliding off, I added some red sewing pins in order to create little matching hooks and the end of each perch. And sha-zam!  My keys shall never be lost again! ~Mersydotes

Yipee!!  This is actually a tah-dah post where I get to show off a finished crochet project!  Yipee! This blanket was quite a learning experience for me.  I learned how important it is to weave in yarn ends as you go (I didn't and certainly regretted it!), to buy enough yarn at the beginning of the project in case it is discontinued in your local shop (as it was in ours!), and how nice an edging looks on finished projects.  This blanket is made in sea tones from acrylic yarn, and will make a wonderful picnic blanket this summer and fall!  In winter, I can't wait to curl up with it and a hot water bottle and a very long book- toasty warm!  (Here's the technical info: it is 9 rows by 9 rows of five-round granny squares which I joined as I went with an H hook.  The edging is two rows of granny clusters.) The puppies already love it, and I have taken several cozy naps under it this weekend.  My only regret is that isn't gigantic, so I...

The sky was clear today, and the sun was bright.  A perfect, breezy summer day for the puppies to run around outside to their hearts' content.  They each have a different variation on playing fetch, and it's great entertainment to watch them run around in the grass, as happy as can be. Penny has no idea that she's actually playing fetch, and just likes to run for the sheer joy of feeling the earth beneath her paws.  Scampy likes to run after the other dogs, occasionally nipping and tackling them along the way.  But Spoofy is the world champion of "fetch", and I've put together a little photo album to show how happy he is chasing his little yellow tennis ball.  Enjoy! That's one happy puppy! Hope you have a barky-bark day! ~Mersydotes

It's all I have to bring to-day, This and my heart beside, This, and my heart, and all the fields, And all the meadows wide. Be sure you count, should I forget,- Some one the sum could tell,- This, and my heart, and all the bees Which in the clover dwell. (-Emily Dickenson)

If I had to make a guess at what Heaven is like, I think it must be filled with... ...early morning pickup trucks full of sweet corn... ...heaps and heaps of beans... ...and iridescent beetles sunbathing on walls... Happy, heavenly summer everyone! ~Mersydotes