Please follow me on my new site, GreenTeaLady.com

Thank you all so much for reading my Cooking Up Art blog. I’ve been busy writing and working on a new website. This blog was a stepping stone in launching a dedicated blog site where I actually own the domain. Since my MiLadyCarol.com is dedicated to my jewelry site, I needed a new domain. Cooking Up Art was taken, so I decided upon GreenTeaLady.com. What do you think? I’m still putting the finishing touches on the blog, yet I’ve ported over all my posts and have quite a few new ones wholly or partially written. I’d love to hear your feedback.

To read my further adventures in food, fine art and tea, please join me at

GreenTeaLady.com

I can be found on Twitter at GreenTeaLady

And I am on Facebook as Green Tea Lady

Thank you for your continued readership and support. I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Sunday Relaxing Squirrel

The entire family is currently relaxing on the Majestic Garden Deck at home. By the entire family, I mean our squirrel friend, too. I'm sitting here writing come content for the blog to be posted later, and I've been feeding our pregnant squirrel. I guess she's comfortably full. So full, she just plopped across the railing and stayed. With my camera through the doors right beside her, my only option was the photo machine on my laptop, so the quality is poor. I missed capturing the moment of her right arm also spilling over the edge of the rail. Still, I present our family squirrel draped languidly on our railing after a nice meal.

Adorable.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

MiLady Declares a War on Aphids

I’m sitting on the deck floor with my laptop, sipping tea and editing some text when I look lovingly over at my strawberry pot and see, much to my dismay, aphids. Gah! My strawberries! The nerve!

Did you hear that clatter? That was the sound of the gauntlet clanging on the ground.

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "This means war."

I had seen a few on my roses and put some aluminum foil on the ground under them and I’ve been knocking them off daily with water, but when they dare to encroach on my food sources, the gloves come off and there is nothing save annihilation that will do. So, off to the kitchen to arm myself went I.

Into my old spray bottle I mixed dishwashing liquid, garlic oil and water. I emerged from the house like an old west gunslinger with an eye for business. *cue the ominous whistle* I sprayed my concoction over every leaf on the strawberry pot, lined the edge with aluminum foil, then headed over to the roses to draw yet another line in the sand – or soil, as the case may be. I’ll give the leaves a healthy shower tomorrow morning when I water and then douse them with my Potion of Aphid Annihilation.

I’ll report more from the trenches as the battle progresses. Rar.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

The Art of Loafing: A Sourdough Tale

One of my other new fascinations is bread making. I received a sourdough culture from my dear friend and have been playing with the art for the first time. And it is an art, I assure you. In previous years, I’ve not had the best luck with yeast breads, so this is a leap of faith and determination. MiLady Carol: Bread Warrior. Rar.

I have decided to stick with a basic French bread, nothing fancy, until I understand what I’m doing. I don’t want to complicate matters with heavier grains, herbs and nuts – though that’s the goal. My first attempt saw a great rise and made a lovely interior bread, yet the crust was far too hard. I chalk that up to me following the baking time on the recipe and my oven having a vastly different notion.

My second attempt saw a much better exterior crust – I do sometimes learn lessons – yet, the interior was rather dense. This, I surmise, was a direct reflection of the lack of the dough’s enthusiasm in rising. I noticed the proofing didn’t really show a pronounced effort to froth, yet I hated to waste all that flour, so I forged ahead to rather lackluster results. It was still yummy, yet the slices needed to be quite thin -- did I mention it was a dense bread?

I also have noticed that both times, when I free-formed the French loaf, the dough spread out as much or (as in the second case) more than up when it rose. I’m not sure if this means I need more flour in my mix. Maybe. All these recipes say the texture of the perfect dough should be “satiny.” Well. I guess a satiny texture is in the eye of the beholder, for I’ve not noticed anything I would describe as such in what I’ve made to date. Perhaps with more experience…

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Black-headed Grosbeak

This morning, I had a new visitor to my Birdfeeder Buffet: a Black-headed Grosbeak. Flanked by camera and tea with the laptop on my knees, I finally was able to capture a shot of him after setting up shop on the deck.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Sock-cess!

I’ve been very busy with all my projects. One of the all-encompassing projects has been knitting socks. I had it in my mind to knit Mom a nice pair of socks for Mother’s Day. The only problem: I hate using double pointed needles*. Really hate. It’s not that I’m inept with them, it’s more that I have a very different reason for knitting that tends to interfere with using double pointed needles. The whole reason for my knitting is to give my hands something productive to do while my brain is busy listening. I have always listened better while doodling or making sculptures from kneaded erasers during history class – yes, kneaded erasers can be shaped into schnauzers wearing berets. It took most of the Hundred Years War, yet it can be done.

I digress.

I took up knitting because it’s portable (I can mush a ball of yarn, a set of needles and my project into a plastic bag, shove it into my purse and not worry about wrinkling the yarn), lightweight and easy to stop and resume so I can take notes or participate in the matters at hand. Therein lies the crux of my hatred for double pointed needles: once I transfer my project to them, I must commit to finishing it in one sitting. If I try to place it on the table and walk away, there’s nothing preventing those stitches I’ve worked so hard to put in place from slipping off one end or another. It’s bad enough using them to finish a hat, but socks require them almost exclusively, thus socks have always been avoided with a studious intent.

The thought of socks ran through my mind as a possibility when I heard about a book that teaches how to knit socks using two circular needles. I found it in the library and I taught myself the technique. Then, when I went to the local shop to buy some really red yarn to knit Mom’s socks, they told me how I could do the same thing using just one really long circular needle. Well. It was like a genie decided to grant me a wish when I didn’t even know there was a lamp there to rub. Magnificent.

The only hitch in my grand plan was that Mother’s Day was a mere few days away and I my previous socks were all learning experiences (read: practice socks and a couple of false starts regarding sizing – Mom is not in need of socks that could fit over clown shoes). I hunkered down and finished one sock and had only the leg and cuff to knit on the second.

Oh! I forgot to mention, this book also taught me how to knit from the toe up so I could be sure the sizing was right before I was 1/3 into the knitting. Brilliant! Plus, the cuffs and legs are the easy part. I’m all about doing the hard stuff first. It’s like they know me!

Back to Mom.

So, on Mother’s Day, I presented her with a handmade card and a little bag of goodies. In the bag of goodies, there was the one finished sock. This caused a great deal of joking about how it was so beautiful she’d be happy to just hop around on one foot to wear it, etc. I took out the second sock and promised it would be finished before she left, and it was. I sent her home with a pair of socks in bright crimson red and she has already worn them. Success!

I’ll see if I can convince her to wear them here so I can grab a picture of them. Or, perhaps I’ll just knit myself a pair. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a pair of bright crimson red socks. Maybe it’s time.



* For the uninitiated, double pointed needles have nothing stopping those precious little loops of yarn from falling off the ends while working on a different needle. Usually, 4-5 of these little menaces are used in knitting in the round on an area too small for a circular needle. They are necessary for finishing hats and socks.


Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Backyard Eden: A Work in Progress

Marilyn, this video is per your request. I really ought to make a new one, as this was a few weeks ago. Most of my daffodils are gone and many of my tulips are fading. My veggie patch has grown, and the Lilac Corner is much changed. Perhaps I'll take another video in the morning.



Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Craft Afternoon

After a morning of cooking, cleaning and other chores, I cleared my afternoon for crafting. It was gorgeous outside, so I began by stripping and cutting some bamboo trimmings my friends Kathy and Kenan gave me from their amazing nursery, The Artistic Gardener. Before I had delved too deeply into creating a tomato cage, my wonderfully crafty friend, Kitty, arrived. I set aside the bamboo, made us a pot of tea, and we settled under the umbrella on the deck to craft. While she made a lovely summer necklace, I set out to turn glass jars and inexpensive glass beads into hanging tea light lanterns for the garden.

I used 24 gauge green crafting wire, threaded and wire-wrapped beads into hangers, filled them with river sand and set them onto the garden hooks. Many of the larger handmade beads were gifted to me by Aimee of NewroticGirl. They, also, are recycled in that they were unclaimed projects at the glass school she attends. I think they look smashing in the sunlight.

As the sun set behind the weeping willow in the next yard, I hung my little lanterns on their hooks in one of my flowerbeds and lit the candles. I sat sipping tea and watching the flames dance among the darkening foliage under the waxing crescent moon. I do so love my little slice of Paradise.



Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Tea for Two

I’ve been lax on my posting lately. I have been busily working on my plethora of projects and completely ignoring the computer. If I were to offer an excuse, it might be that the clouds have parted and the big, bright orb is shining in the sky. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s an event and I’m virtually sun-drunk with the joy of it.

What have I been doing? Quite a lot, actually. Today, I’ll share my bistro table project. You’ll remember I had finished the two deciduous trees in the mural room, and I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to add for furnishings. I’d like to keep it simple, open and airy. I don’t want to cover up all those beautiful trees I painted, and I want to keep the floor uncluttered for yoga and setting up a table for a temporary project, if the need arises. I also want to use it as a guest room. I’ve found a small couch that converts to a bed, I added a small plant stand for a lamp and I wanted a little bistro table sized perfectly to hold an intimate tea for two during the winter.

I searched around and didn’t find any kind of table I liked, so I built one using a base I had stored in the shed and a pre-cut plywood round top. I sanded, stained, sanded, stained, sanded, stained, sealed, sanded, sealed, sanded… you get the picture. Then I assembled it and brought it into the room. Now I have a perfectly sized, sturdy little table to hold tea, a nibbly bit and plenty of atmosphere.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Birdfeeder Buffet

… or, How To Make Dish Washing Exciting.



I am usually fairly dutiful about cleaning dishes. I choose not to have a dishwashing machine, so it’s all me. Though it’s never, historically, been my favorite thing to do, I have managed to make my mornings at the sink some of my most magical. I have the fortune of a window over the sink. This window overlooks part of my back yard, a part which I’ve turned into my little piece of Eden. The central view of this window is the Birdfeeder Buffet. I will often stand at the sink to eat my breakfast and drink my tea so I can watch Critter Cinema. This morning, I was rewarded by special guest appearances – American Goldfinches! Last year, I had Lesser Goldfinches, so this is their first spotting of these amazingly brilliant yellow birds.



I also found another new bird to my yard at the end of March which, with the aid of the trusty bird ID book I keep on the window ledge, I identified as a Red Shafted Northern Flicker.

Every day I grow more deeply in love with the little patch of land I’ve cultivated and I feel rewarded by so many delightful visitors to entertain and amaze me.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Homemade Perfume

I am very sensitive. I can stick my nose into a rose growing on a bush or bury my face in a lilac tree and revel is the scent, yet if someone sits across a table from me with a rose perfume, I tend to sneeze and, if I don’t leave their company quickly enough, a headache will follow. And it seems like the commercial perfumes are more aggressive to me than someone walking around with a bit of rose oil dabbed on their pulse points. Thusly, I’ve been making my own perfume for years. I think I bought my last bottle of commercial perfume in the late ‘80s. Over the years, I’ve honed my process. It’s very simple and the result has very controllable levels of scent.

I start with the atomizer.
This is a one-time investment. If your current perfume bottle has a removable top, that’s perfect. If not, find a nice one that makes you happy. I have two 4.25oz. bottles, one for each bathroom, and a small travel bottle I keep in my toiletries bag.

There are two main kinds of oils: essential oils and fragrance oils.
Essential oils are pressed from plants that are oily (roses, orange flowers, citrus rinds, vanilla beans, coconut, etc.). Fragrance oils are made of chemicals that happen to smell like the target scent. Strawberry oil will never be essential because the strawberry is made chiefly of water. There isn’t enough oil in a strawberry to press the essence into usable oil. Neither the flowers nor the leaves smell like the fruit, so strawberry oil is chemically created.

There are all kinds of places that carry essential oils or fragrance oils. The trick is to find the oils that smell right to you. I love the scent of vanilla, yet not all vanilla oils are created alike. The right one on me smells like cookies while others smell like off milk. We are all different, so it’s best to find a local shop where you can test the oils on different parts of your arm, walk away for a few hours and then return to buy bottles of the ones that smell best.

The base scent.
Once I figure out which oils I’d like to combine, I take a little glass bottle with an eyedropper lid and mix them together. I’m a fruity-nutty person, so I mix coconut oil, peach, a drop or two of lemon and a touch of vanilla. This bottle is just the scented oils. I don’t add a carrier oil; it’s all pure, intense oils. This bottle, once I’ve blended it to my satisfaction, will be the base scent that I use in the atomizers.

Much like great pasta sauce or soup tastes even better the next day once the oils and flavors have had time to set and blend, perfume oils need time to really mingle and develop. Once I think I’ve gotten the right proportions, I let the bottle sit overnight. The next day, I’ll rub a drop on my wrist and make sure it smells right a few hours later. By making a whole bottle of the base scent, you have a ready supply to refill your atomizers for months and months without having to repeat this step. Very handy.

Once you have the perfect scent, it’s time to make the perfume.
Run down to the liquor store and find yourself the highest proof bottle of alcohol they have. The alcohol will become the carrier of the scent. The oils blend into alcohol where they would separate in water. I have blended my base scent into a carrier oil like jojoba and used it in pulse points, yet I prefer the alcohol for most situations because the alcohol evaporates quickly and leaves just the scented oil on my skin without any greasy spots. The best alcohol I’ve found is Everclear. It doesn’t have a scent of its own, it’s 190 proof and it cures faster than even vodka. I’ll explain the curing in a minute.

I pour the alcohol into the atomizer bottle, usually 7/8ths full. I fill the eyedropper with base scent and squirt it into the alcohol. This is the part that requires the most patience. It took many days for me to learn exactly how much base scent is necessary for the perfect result, so track how many eyedropper squirts you add. For my 4.25oz. bottles, I add 10 squirts. This makes for a lighter perfume so I can spray multiple parts of my body without becoming so cloying that canaries fall off their perches as I pass. If you are conservative with your spray, then you might want more oil for a stronger perfume.

I mentioned curing and patience. Usually it takes two or more hours for the base scent to really suffuse the alcohol. When I first add the base scent and shake it together, even though I know my proportions are correct, the spray smells more like alcohol than fruity-nutty. If I allow it to sit for at least 2-3 hours (12 hours is better), then I immediately smell the scent without the alcohol. It might take a bit of experimenting to figure out your oil to alcohol ratio. Once I determined this, I taped the ratio onto my base scent oil bottle to avoid re-learning what I once knew. My atomizers are large, so it may be months before I have to make perfume, which is plenty of time for me to forget.

I’d love to hear your experiences and results.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Carrot Art

For me, joy is in the details. I love to spend that little extra effort for the subtle effect that, when noticed, brings smiles to those who see. It is for this reason that some of my carrot slices become flowers or hearts.

I use the simplest of kitchen tools: a knife, a peeler, and a bottle opener.

Obviously, I wash and scrub my carrots well. To ensure that the tools glide smoothly over the carrot, I usually peel the outermost layer to remove any bits of root.

To make flowers, I run the bottle opener down the length of the carrot in 5 equal-ish lines. I run the opener through the grooves a couple of times to make sure the furrows are deep enough to separate the petals.

For hearts, I run one furrow down the length of the carrot, then use the peeler to hone the bottom into a point and curve the top of the heart.

In both cases, I take all the furrowed and peeled bits of carrot and toss them into the soup or use them for a side salad. There’s no point in wasting good food.

Then, I just slice the carrot as I normally would. I pay attention to make sure the integrity of the shape is still in tact as I move through the carrot. If it begins to lose shape, I’ll use the peeler or opener to bring it back.

It really doesn’t take me more than a couple of extra minutes to do this and it makes me smile. After all, how much is a smile worth in time?





Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!