The first thing I saw when I walked through the door. Shout out to all the other Supernatural fans out there! 😀
For years, my reason for not attending comic book conventions was simple: I don’t read comic books. No better reason than that, right? Well, a month ago the Mister (a big video game and comic book fan) asked me if I was interested in going to our local comic con, Wizard World Chicago. I thought, why not? With him working full time and attending grad school, it’s not often we get to spend a whole day together. Plus, my geeky horizons have widened considerably over the past couple years. I still love my books and tea, but now I’ve added things like Star Trek and Firefly to the mix. I still don’t have much interest in comic books, but I figured the convention might still be fun anyway. Turns out I TOTALLY wasn’t giving it enough credit.
Sherlock and Star Wars pillows by Craft Encounters
Tree mugs by Mesiree Ceramics (they had Totoro mugs too!)
This was a tea booth with steampunk flair!
When we got to the convention hall yesterday, it was PACKED. There were hundreds of people in the main lobby alone. Our first stop was the vendor hall, and I was floored by the huge variety of things there. We’re talking Hogwarts house bathrobes, hobbit hole watercolor paintings, leather Celtic journals, steampunk coffee presses, Star Trek oven mitts, and of course all things superhero. We stopped by a gaming room where the Mister played Super Smash Bros, and there were even Q&A panels with Youtube stars, comic book creators, and famous actors. We went to the Firefly panel and saw Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Summer Glau! * insert fangirl squeal here *
Like cars? They had three famous ones on display. This is the car from Knight Rider, but there was also a Mystery Machine and Iron Man’s 1965 Shelby Cobra.
And these are the spoils of my lovely trip to the vendor hall: a custom quote pillow, handmade stoneware Totoro mug, and two custom teas (Red Queen and Irish Whiskey Cream).
This weekend my sister gave me something I’ve wanted forever: one of those slate cheese boards you can write on with chalk! You can bet I was determined to use it in this week’s recipe pictures. Luckily, lotus chips look awesome on a black background! 🙂
I never even knew you could eat lotus roots until I went hunting for this week’s Odyssey recipe, a tribute to the Lotus Eaters. Turns out I was missing out on an awesome snack! These lotus root chips are crispy, delicately salted, and super satisfying (I found the recipe here). Hellooo, healthy potato chip alternative! The best part is that you don’t wind up with a perfumy, floral-tasting chip, even though it’s from a flower. The lotus root actually has a really mild flavor, familiar enough to remind you of a potato chip while still a little unique. You can find fresh or packaged lotus roots in the produce or refrigerated sections of most Asian grocery stores. I found mine at my local Hmart (the kind I used were peeled, boiled slices packed in water).
Reading kits are an easy, cost effective way to make one-of-a-kind gifts for readers. Here are 3 kits based off of classic books, links to items included!
I’ve just published my next guest post for Real Life at Home! In the post, I show how to make reading kits for three classic books: Little Women, Treasure Island, and Peter Pan. They make awesome gifts…or special treats for yourself! 😉
In The Odyssey, Odysseus must choose between facing the man-eating monster Scylla or the ship-destroying whirlpool Charybdis. A tough choice no matter how you slice it, but these Greek pinwheel sandwiches are an easy choice: truly delicious and easy to make! A recipe that I originally found on Hello Healthy, they’ve got all the flavors you’d expect in a classic Greek salad (feta, cucumbers, peppers), plus some surprises (like herbed cream cheese). I love the way the feta incorporates into the cream cheese, and the roasted peppers add just the right touch of crunch.
Happy August, everybody! Our new book of the month is The Odyssey! That’s right. We’re taking the term “classic” to a whole new level this month. Maybe the hot weather’s had me craving a sea voyage. 😉
As you can see, we’ve got a new look around here! You may recall my special post a few days ago, where I explained that some unexpected problems with my previous blog theme had me hunting for a new one. This gorgeous new theme (courtesy of Nose Graze) caught my eye right away, since it’s so customizable. Unfortunately, it took me almost three whole days to get it set up, but I promise I have a good reason:
I wish I could show you what a cutie he is when his eyes are open, but he’s a VERY hungry man when he’s awake. I seriously doubt he’d have much patience for a photo op if it meant he had to wait for food…he takes after his auntie! 😉
This awesome little guy is my brand new nephew (and soon to be godson!). I’ve been staying at my sister’s place the last couple days to help out with the new baby, which hasn’t left much time for blogging…but it HAS left lots of time for baby cuddles and playing pretend with my 3-year-old niece. The toddler and I even colored some leftover sugar cookies (from my Candied Flower Cookie recipe) with some special food markers I had on hand.
 Since July is extra long, we get to do a Secret Garden bonus post! Garden-themed menus leave so many great options for dessert, so I decided to make a companion dessert to go with our Lavender Lemon Eclairs. I’ve been DYING to make candied flowers for this menu, so sugar cookies with lemon icing and candied violets sounded ideal. Like most of our bonus recipes, I’m keeping this one simple, so we’ll mostly just cover how to make the candied flowers (in the ingredients list, I’ve included links to the cookie and icing recipes I used). You can make your own cookies and icing, but if time is of the essence you can totally go with store bought. That’s what I love about this recipe—it can be as involved or as easy as you want!
P.S. The recipe I use for candied flowers was originally published on Food.com.
As you can probably tell, things are looking awfully monochromatic around here. Up until today, I was using a Mojo Marketplace blog theme called Writer. The theme creator sent out an update today that changed the whole theme to something much more “minimalistic”…and much less customizable. It got rid of header menus, backgrounds, pretty much everything. As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper. So I disabled it, and we’re currently sporting a free WordPress.org theme until I find a replacement (still pretty minimalistic, but at lease this one shows menus! Yay!).
Hopefully, I’ll have something strikingly gorgeous ready for you by tomorrow. For now, I’m settling in for a long night of unexpected theme browsing. Three cheers for the caffeine that’s going to get me through it all!
For our Secret Garden menu, I wanted to make a truly elegant dessert. Eclairs (one of my greatest weaknesses) immediately sprang to mind. Of course, they needed to fit the theme of the story, and what better way to tie in the garden than adding a little floral touch? Thus, these lavender lemon eclairs were born! I’m not normally into flower-flavored things, but I found these to be light, sweet, and fragrant in all the right ways. The lavender-infused pastry cream perfectly complements the lemon glaze. I used a pate a choux (that’s pastry dough) recipe from Flavor the Moments and made a variation on a pastry cream recipe from Ricón Cocina. Enjoy!
The Mister and I differ greatly on what makes the perfect ice cream. He’s a plain vanilla purist, while I usually view ice cream as an excuse to combine 12 kinds of candy and cookies together (I’m slowly learning to pace myself). But when I found out that today is National Ice Cream Day, this Raspberry Cordial Ice Cream I posted last July immediately came to mind as a crowd pleaser.
