Another art projects in the works.

It took months and months to dig out the over grown bamboo in my back patio area. There was an old chicken coop (at least that is what I think it was) under all the bamboo that I also removed. After cleaning it all up, I still had the problem of the leaves and dust falling from the trees on to my patio table and grill. I picked up a gazebo canopy at an auction (I know I didn't pay much for it) which took me months to set up as I waited for calmer, non windy weather. I'm so pleased that I can enjoy sitting outside with my morning tea or coffee. 

So why the photo. I was making these little houses to do down to the local neighborhood gnome garden in Carmel. Now I'm thinking why not make a little gnome garden in my backyard? I'm not planting anything in the ground as I'm waiting for to see how much the bamboo will pop up again. I'm thinking I'll plant jasmine at some point. 

The little houses are still a work in process, as I slowly gather up the embellishments. The plan now is to put the houses on poles to keep them off the ground and go for an old mountain village by the sea vibe. Hopefully I can keep adding to my collection!

Life of a reseller.

I'm getting ready to do a major overhaul of my booth at Cottage Crafts in Campbell. The first part was to have a 50% off sale to clear out the old stuff. This is to get my ROI (return on investment) back. The second goal and most importantly is to unpack all my back stock stored at my little cottage. I'm running out of room with all the toys I'm buying for the boys. :)

If I do go out picking, I only look for the diamonds in the rough priced low.  

So why the picture? Smoking isn't as common as it use to be at least here in California.  I didn't think there was a resale market for ash trays but I was wrong. Some of my biggest sales have been cigar ash trays. As much as I think cigar smoking is nasty, the ash trays sell well. Also people smoke other things that are now legal so having an ash tray out is cool. Found two vintage made in England ashtrays at the Goodwill for $1.25 each. I'll try and flip them for $10. It was made for both cigars and cigarettes so that was a bonus. 

At the Happy Dragon, we received a huge donation of  high end tea cups. We priced them at $5 each and they've been selling like hot cakes! Not knowing much about tea cups but seeing there is a resale market for them, I thought this vintage mini tea cup would appeal to a collector. Paid $1.79 and will flip of $8.

Daikon Slaw - fail

I made the daikon slaw from the 365 salad cookbook. This is suppose to be a winter salad because that is when the daikon is at its best. I made it anyways.

I used arugula instead of radish sprouts and imitation crab instead of real crab. 

Even with those substitutions, it wasn't good at all. Could have been the daikon was out of season but the dressing did nothing to for the "slaw" either. 

This recipe is a hard pass. 👎

Now I have to think what to do with all the left over daikon! 

Cooking - Life Skill

I was listening to Chris Kimball's talk on people thinking cooking is a wealth thing. That you have to have all the latest high end gadgets to cook good food. He disagrees with this and said cooking is life skill everyone can learn even with basic cooking tools. 

Some of the first comments, were about food deserts and Chris being out of touch with people (low income) not having the time to cook because of having to work multiple jobs or even the money for basic food. I think they missed the point he was trying to make. 

Years ago at the Wellness Center we started a cooking program with the VA hospital. The program taught basic cooking skills along with the social workers who taught life skills, like grocery shopping.  The hospital found that most of the emergency visits (from the same vets) were from poor eating habits. When they got hungry, they would eat quick fast food which would trigger their medical condition. Teaching them what to shop for and how to cook it would reduce the number times they had to go to the hospital. Cooking doesn't have to be a labor intensive if you know the basics. 

For me cooking is a hobby I enjoy but it's also because I can't eat fast food without side effects. Is it more cost effective for me to cook at home, yes it is. Do I agree with Chris, yes I do. Do I whip up fancy meals everyday, no I don't. 

When I was in Alameda, it was a cultural food desert with only two grocery stores on the whole island, Safeway and Trader Joe's. One of the major reasons I moved back to Cupertino was the access to all the grocery stores. 

So the photo, yes it's another fluff cookbook. It's more like reading diary and to see what's on the menu for today. Living in California eating a salad everyday is just a thing, at least in my world. :) Going to try the daikon radish slaw with crab and black sesame seed salad. 

Trader Joe's Mini totes

This photo has been sitting in my daft folder for a while now. 

My daughter took home a set of the mini Trader Joe's bags for the boys. It's cute to see that it's the perfect size for their quick trips to the grocery stores. If they want a snack, they have to carry it. Mees was good about it but Henk who likes to eat wasn't a fan. Carrying his snacks back home wasn't a very "unpleasant experience" from what my daughter said. :)

Auction and China Sets

DGW Auction House - Sunnyvale

I haven't been to the local auction house in months. It's only once a month now (use to be every two weeks) at the end of the month. I've always been out of town or dog sitting so timing hasn't been good. 

I'm trying not add to my huge stash of inventory as I feel like I'm living in a storage unit in my tiny ADU. Slowly working my way through all the boxes. There wasn't anything at the auction that was a must have. 

I did put everything in my booth at Cottage Craft on sale for 50% off just to clear the shelves. My profit margin isn't as high and taking a loss on some things. Part of the reselling game is to get your investment back even if there's no profit. Many resellers hold on to things way too long hoping for a big payday which never comes. They end up with over stuffed storage units. 

One of the debates we have all the time at the thrift store is about the china sets. It's always been a tough sell and it takes up a lot of space. Even knowing the original cost was $$$$ it has not resell value at all. At the auction house there were over 20 sets of china. I stopped counting there were so many. 

At my family get togethers we always used real plates, my mom insisted on it. Over time the china became very worn but I'm happy that it was used and enjoyed. 

So please stop saving your china for only special occasions that never happen. Use it now because down the road after you're gone, it will end up in the landfill. :(

Book vs Movie

I'm just a little jealous of those ladies whose favorite thing to do is read all day. It's not my things and I own that. :) 

I finally figured out I like books that have been turned into movies. I find it interesting to see what creative license the screen writers took and what they decided to keep in.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book was a fun read.  The letter writing format made it an interesting read. I liked the movie, which I saw first but the book goes into so much more detail about what happened on the island during the war. 

I also decided to listen to the audio book but the format of the book, makes the audio book not as interesting. Plus the voices of the actors at times made them hard to understand. 

Next up on my list is "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris. Johnny Depp and Juliette Bonoche were great in the movie. 

Apple Tart

I finally got around to making this apple tart recipe. I had gathered up all the tools needed - mandoline, apple peeler and apple core tool.

I've never worked with puff pastry before so I had no idea that once it hit the hot baked apples it would shrink up into a little ball. 

I didn't use ramekin bowls as the recipe called for. I have them but I wanted to try using a cup cake pan. I was thinking if I made these when the kids come out I want everything in one pan. Was it worth all the effort, did it taste good? Definitely not worth all the effort. The taste was just ok. The puff pastry did make a nice flaky crust but really needed the ice cream topping. I will try it again but use the ramekin bowls just to see if that makes any difference. It just looks impressive with all the layers of thin apple slices and it does bake up fast once it's in the oven. This is a pass and won't make it into my recipe file. 

Mandoline Score

I have been searching for an upside down pineapple cake recipe that uses a  cupcake pan. I would like to make mini cakes for the boys since a whole big cake doesn't store well. No luck so far. 

I did find an apple mini cake recipe that uses a cupcake pan but it requires a lot of very thin apple slices. A mandoline is a must have unless I want to spend hours slicing apples paper thin. I got lucky once again (The Secret working here) and found one at the thrift store. I also found an apple peeler to speed things along.  The bonus is I can now try making apple vinegar with all the peels. With the hot weather now here, all my baking has to happen early in the morning. I made brownies again this morning and I found out I have to make them a lot thinner and not too over bake them. Normal size is too thick, making it difficult to eat once the ice cream is added.  A little under baked also makes it easy to eat when frozen.  

Donabe surprise!

It was a total surprise when I set up my BBQ to find it had a side burner. Of course I never took the cover off the BBQ not even when it was moved to my place last year.  

I've been researching getting a butane stove to use with my donabe pot. The little stoves are easy to find in my area because all the big Asian grocery stores carry them. But I really didn't want to add another specialty gadget to my very tiny kitchen space. I really want to practice using the donabe pot before investing in a new camping stove. Now I have no excuse! 

Busy Busy Week

First off, my blog got hacked and some scammer added a link to their website. I don't add links so please know that's not me. I did remove what I could but I'm sure they're like cockroaches and will show up again!

I finally got some big things check off on my to-do list this week! 

1) It was time sensitive to get the front yard weeded before the ground gets too dry to easily pull the weeds out. I filled two big recycling bins!  Yes, I was a little sore after that.

2) For over a year I've had a huge gas bbq that needed to be set up. I've always liked cooking outside so I'm not sure why I waited so long!  What I didn't know was that my bbq has a side burner that is perfect for my donabe pot! That discovery made me very happy!

3) Since I was out in my small backyard patio, I bit the bullet and set up my portable gazebo. There are two very leafy trees that over hang into my patio, dropping a healthy amount of leaves. An auction lot came up several months ago with a full size hexagon gazebo so I picked it up.  It wasn't an easy task getting all those poles (there are a lot) to line up and not fall over during assembly, plus I'm about 3" too short. Going up and down a ladder was a work out!

Now why the photo.

I ran out of soy sauce, major drama for any Asian kitchen. I stopped off at Ranch 99 and of course had to walk through the produce section. Regular napa cabbages are just too big for one person so when I saw these mini ones I just had to pick them up!  I've been studying up on Asian pickle making and trying to figure out how to make enough just for one person. 

The sugar peas looked good and of course a bag of bok choy.  Nice to have an assortment of greens in the house again!

Majot Goal Reached

Another goal was reached at the thrift store!  The major reason I started volunteering at the Happy Dragon was help get the prices lowered. They were way too high in the housewares even if you weren't a reseller. Customers complained all the time about it. There was a shake up in the backroom and new volunteers were put in charge. They totally understand the chain reaction to having a fast sell through rate. 

Happy to report there hasn't been a complaint about prices in two months!

Being able to sell fast means we can take all the donations that come in. We have more room on the floor to put things out. We don't have to turn away donors who get upset.  

I'm also processing out the cheap fashion clothes so we only have the good stuff going out on the floor. 

Now why the photo.   

I've been looking for some larger shallow bowls. I hate it when all dressing or sauce ends up at the bottom of my other bowls. These came in and only tagged at $1.50 each. Major score!

Sprouted Onion Tops

Having been gone for over a month, I had a few onions "mature".  I had read you can just trim the greens as needed. I did trim these onions once before so it was true, it will still keep grown. 

When I got home, I had over a foot of green onion tops. I made "the good stuff", ginger and onion minced together. There isn't much left the of the onion bulb so I'll be planting it out in the garden. I don't think it will continue to grow but thought I'd give it a try. 

Lesson learned, don't throw out sprouted onions!

Monday Meal Prep.

I know meal prepping has been a thing for a while. My dad wasn't a fan of leftovers but coming from a large family, there usually wasn't anything left anyways. The whole cooking process is my thing and hobby. 

But you can teach an old dog new tricks. I've been making lasagna a lot lately because I want to get the gluten free recipe down before the boys come for the holidays. So either I eat lasagna for every meal for a week (did that with the first one I made) or portion it out and freeze. Since I was on the road for a month, that turned out to be the best idea. 

Monday is my meal prep day. Made a turkey lasagna (not sure I like it) and ice cream brownies - more on why I made those later.  

So what's the photo all about? A month ago I picked up several kitchen items at an auction. I have a tiny kitchen so this small Cuisinart (cost $1) doesn't take up a lot of space and it's easy to move around. I made a batch of the "good stuff" (ginger and green onion), which only took minutes to make in a food processor. 

Cooking for one, a head of cabbage is a lot to deal with so planning ahead is required. I plan to make salads and some pickled Asian sides dishes. 

I made a simple peanut salad dressing from a recipe I found online from Love and Lemons. I had just picked up her cookbook this past weekend so I recognized the name. It's a very basic recipe, but it was good. Using the Cuisinart I didn't have grate the garlic as the recipe called for. I thought it was odd to grate the garlic instead of crushing. I guess saying "grate" instead of "crushed" just sounds more refined. It whipped up in seconds but I did add a little too make garlic. Could be why you have to grated so you don't going over board. :) 

I've tried a few other recipes from Love and Lemons and decided it won't get a spot in my book case. Just not my cup of tea. 

Crafting Fate - Just in Case

one of those "just in case"

It's been absolutely perfect weather here in Carmel. Very sunny and warm but that nice ocean breeze keeps thing comfortable. 

I've been practicing my watercolor brush stokes on the deck in the backyard. Can't tell how peaceful it is with only the sounds of the ocean. I'm trying really hard to make a straight tiny pine tree. I hope to paint all my holiday cards this year but so far they all lean to right. I did bring down all the supplies I thought I would need. I went through more watercolor paper than I thought. Carmel doesn't have any art supply stores so I had to make the drive to Michael's. 

I didn't bring any of my paper cutters with me on this trip because I prepped everything ahead of time. I'm practicing on small squares so cutting the paper down to size was going to be a challenge. Then I remembered I had this binder paper cutter in my car. It came from an auction junk lot and it fell out of the box. It's been floating around in my car for months. It's not the best cutter but it does cut straighter than I could with scissors. It was one of those " glad I kept it just in case" moments! 

Fernandez Farms - Hollister

Fernandez Farms -Hollister

At the farmers market in Carmel there's a dried fruit vendor from Hollister I really like. What I like about their dried fruit is they don't use a lot of sulfur, which is used as a preservative. Using too much gives  the fruit a slimy chemical after taste IMO. 

The other thing I really like are these mini kebabs thingy. I first got them during the holidays while the kids were in town.  I only purchased them ($25.00 a box)  because all the money goes into a scholarship fund for a graduating high school senior. I know it's a labor intensive and as Julia Child would say "a lot of hands touched it". Well to my surprise all the adults loved them! Nice little snack if you just want a little bit of something sweet. 

                           Apricot, Cherry, Pear and Peach.

Halibut Ceviche

My big splurge (food wise) today was hiking up to the farmer's market in town. I went for two things, the dried fruit medley and shrimp with salsa. 

Fish guy as I call him always has fresh salmon and that's how we got to know him. He also makes a very nice salsa over shrimp. Today he had halibut ceviche. I thought I would give it a try. I did ask for an extra scoop of salsa and it was a huge scoop. 

It was good (very fresh) but I would still like my halibut with a nice butter almond crust. :) 

Many, many years ago I use to dive for halibut, really I was the under water pack mule. I didn't like the idea of carrying around dead fish. Felt like I was baiting myself for the bigger predators in the ocean.  Local halibut can get quite large, not as big as in Alaska but still very impressive.  And of course my blog name is in honor of those flatfish!

More Cookbooks

How many cookbooks does one person need? Yes, I stopped by the church book sale again! What I'm looking for are cookbooks that talk about "at the staff table" meals. This is food made for the staff when they all sit down and eat together. It sounded interesting because they use what's available but not enough to serve customers - leftovers. So I stopped by to see if anything new came in. 

I'm an Alice Waters fan so picked up her book "The Art of Simple Food". The Season" book caught my eye because in the small print it said "Nik Sharma of "A Brown Table". Guessing it was about Indian cooking (my stomach isn't a fan) I looked through the recipes and it looked interesting. Who ever owned this book dog ear almost all the pages so much so it looks like an origami project! I think it would have been better if they marked the recipes they didn't like. :)  It's an interesting read (he's a blogger) on his journey into cooking. Now I just have to see if his any of his recipes make my family list.

I did stop by the Yellow Brick Road thrift store to check out their books. The "Gourmet" cookbook there was $18.00! You can get it for 50% on Monday and Wednesday but still at $9.00 it's still high. My copy from the church book sale costed $5 and was in better condition. Pays to shop around!