Take it When You Can Get it

"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." -Ayn Rand



If you are anything like me, you've got a list longer than the January gym line of things that you intend to do in this New Year. Take a look over those to-do's: do the arts figure in? spending more quality time with those special someones? Let me help you check a couple things off your list. For those of you out there in the Twin Cities, we happen to live in a place that has a higher theater per ca pita presence than any other cities in the US besides New York City and Chicago. Though we might be frozen 3/4 of the year, we are blessed with a vibrant arts community and some big corporations to support them. This week Target ponies up some bucks for us to put the finger to the cold and get cultured on the cheap.



Family Style: Each year Target provides free tickets to the Minnesota Orchestra. As of today (January 13th) you can go to the Minnesota Orchestra web site and register for free tickets for your fam to one of four performances geared towards the kiddos. There are 2 different shows to choose from:


"Carnival Animals" Saturday, March 13 at 2 or 4

"Four Seasons" Sunday, May 9 at 2 or 4


All you do is fill out the web page, pick your first and second choice, and you are entered into a random drawing for tickets. It's not a guarantee, but it is certainly worth entering. You will receive your tickets in early February if you are lucky enough to get picked. I have taken my family to past events, and they are wonderful. If you arrive early, Orchestra Hall is full of demonstrations and hands-on activities for the little ones to enjoy. The performance entertained all of us ranging in age from 4 to 40.

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/target/enter.cfm



Adults Only: Are you looking for something arty sans kids, but suffering from sticker shock once you add up ticket prices, parking and babysitter fees? I'll make you a compromise. You'll bring the kids along, but promptly check them at the door while you enjoy some theater at one amazing Minneapolis landmark. Each year Target provides "play dates" at the Guthrie Theater. Here's how it works: for $15 you get an adult ticket and a child pass for your child to attend a class taught in the Guthrie's education wing. This is a screaming deal, take it from me. I took my 4 year-old to one a couple of months ago, and she had an absolute ball. I was able to see a play (that would have normally cost me upwards of $50) and got to recharge my adult engine a bit. Tickets went on sale yesterday, and, just a warning, they sell FAST, so get on this soon. The play dates are as follows:

Macbeth: Saturday, February 27
Brief Encounter: Saturday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 17
M. Butterfly: Saturday, May 1
Dollhouse: Saturday, June 5
She Stoops to Conquer: Saturday, July 17
A Streetcar Named Desire: Saturday, August 28

You can get tickets at the Guthrie Theater box office or call 612-377-2224.

http://www.guthrietheater.org/whats_happening/events/target_play_dates

So ride that generous Target pony all the way to the theater... and have a blast doing it. Maybe I'll see you there!

Buttermilk It, Baby

"A quarrel is like buttermilk, once it's out of the churn; the more you shake it, the more sour it grows." - Irish saying



Though a quarrel is a possibility during today's book group discussion, buttermilk is a certainty. Periodically I find myself reaching for that carton of buttermilk at the grocery store, and, more often than not, I find myself in a panic as the expiration date looms near. What should I do with that buttermilk?

The latest impetus to bring home the buttermilk was spurred on by my recent reading of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Yes, Meryl Streep's performance did entice my husband to give me the boxed set for Christmas, and yes, I have loved the cookbooks. Julia Child provides a recipe for preparing creme fraiche that involves leaving heavy whipping cream to ferment with a bit of buttermilk. I have no cream left to ferment, but plenty of buttermilk reaching it's demise.

I took to the Internet and learned more than I expected about the sour tenant in my refrigerator. The Irish lore tells of buttermilk's ability to cure a hangover. Hmmm- not sure a thick glass of sour milk would do wonders for me after being a bit overserved (except that it might force the voiding of any traces of tequila left in my system.) If simmered with garlic, the Irish also tell that buttermilk can cure many other ailments. If any of you out there are brave enough to try this one, let me know. I'm not quite there yet. American pioneer lore follows us right into the new century giving buttermilk skin softening qualities. I confess, I've been known to buy baby buttermilk bath products from well marketed cosmetic companies. Today, I'm performing a buttermilk cook-a-thon including buttermilk pound cake and buttermilk dip. What a lucky book group I have!

So, lovely reader, you have an assignment. If not tonight then some time in the near future, you must dust off those fabulous aprons, put on your pearls, and make that special someone an old-fashioned treat. There is truth linking hearts and stomachs. If you find yourself without buttermilk, the solution is easy: measure out regular milk to the recipe specifications, then add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to it. Within a couple of minutes you'll see the milk get lumpy. Culinary technicians have a term for this- blooming. Let that milk bloom, and while you're at it, let yourself bloom too.


Old Fashioned Buttermilk Pound Cake

1/2 C butter

1/2 C shortening

2 C sugar

5 Eggs

1 1/2 ts Vanilla

3 C White Flour

1/2 ts salt

1/2 ts baking powder

1/2 ts baking soda

1 C Buttermilk


Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Cream butter, shortening and sugar together in mixing bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Sift Flour, salt, powder and soda together. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix well after each addition. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, turn out on wire rack and cool completely.

See a Little Light

"Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning"

-William Arthur Ward




For a chilly Sunday afternoon- a project. I made a batch of these vintage tea cup candles for teacher gifts this year (as well as having measured success selling some at one of my holiday shows.)



Here is what you will need:



vintage tea cups-the tea cup in the picture came from my personal collection of great-grandma's china. After years of nagging, my mother (who, incidentally, never entertains) finally gave me the china. Included were far too many of these double-handled cups which I have very little use for. Why not upcycle (another new vocab word for your lexicon) these and make them into candles? If you don't have china at the ready, I found many ultra-cool picks at Arc Valu Village including a vintage "Happy Anniversary" cup and saucer that was promptly snatched up and made into a candle for my parents' anniversary gift. Another good source for minty cups has been local estate sales.



wax- I opted for soy wax which I found at Joanne's Fabrics. Not expensive when purchased with the 40% off coupon clipped out of the Sunday paper. One box of the soy wax chips made approximately 10 candles



wicks- Also found at Joanne's. I purchased the pre-formed wicks with the metal holder thingy on the bottom. Though, for a couple of the deeper cups they ended up being a little short.



scent- Readily available where ever the wax was found, however, I tapped into a stash of oils I'd bought for a diffuser from Bath and Body Works. They worked like a charm. I did a quick check recently, and all of the holiday scents are on clearance right now.



I also picked up a cheap-o sauce pan at the thrift store dedicated to wax melting so that I didn't have to deal with a thorough clean-up of one of my cooking pans. There were microwave directions on the wax, but after applying both methods, I thought the stove-top was easiest.



Now that you have all the parts, the process is a piece of cake: wicks go into cups, wax is melted per box instructions, scent is added, candle is poured. Voila!



I've added a little background music for your listening pleasure today (applicable to today's theme, of course)... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnNr6lNxvc

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” -Salvador Dali

So... the peacock sofa is gone. Thus proving, once again, that when I snooze, I loose. Or is it something about birds in the hand versus birds in the bush? Alright, with the use of the word bush, I'm going down a road that is meant for an entirely different blog. I digress.

Today is devoted to a vocabulary lesson. I've come across many new words and definitions as a hunting I have gone. The word I'd like all of you to know is DESTASH. A quick etsy search of this word this morning yielded 1137 pages of product. In layman's terms: destash=sale. I found everything from vintage milk glass beads to a 1950's ad showing a man spanking his wife. Possibly the genesis of Mad Men? The ad was for men's shirts taken from a magazine. The backside (no pun intended) of said advertisement was tauting the benefits of white bread. Brilliant. If only I could turn those magazine pages into a pillow.

I think the future of this blog holds the possibility of a destash biweekly challenge. Today, I'll limit the scope to a destash thematic link. Ready... set...go...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38166096&ref=sr_gallery_7&&ga_search_query=destash&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=3&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Probably not enough feathers there to decorate your existing sofa, but a lampshade? Now you're talkin'. And thus with a link, I fly.

“Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.” - Winnie the Pooh

All to often I find myself on a hunt just for the sake of hunting. So, I thought to myself, why not share all the fabulousness I find along the way? Perhaps this blog is a way of justifying my silly behavior... perhaps is gives me some sense of identity... or perhaps it might help someone somewhere out there find some treasure they can't live without. In any case, I hope it's as fun for you as it is for me.

Here is what you might expect to find among my list of minty finds:

*realizations about life in general* for example:

I found today in spin class that it is okay to crank to the instructed level of resistance because as I ascend that imagined hill, my inner thigh is large enough to reach that resistance knob and inch it down a bit.

*peeks into my ongoing pile of projects* for example:

Over the holidays I came across a necklace that incoorporated several vintage lockets. As all my projects start, I said, "I could do that." So, I busily got to work hunting and gathering vintage lockets to make myself a necklace. Amazingly, I found a locket that had MS engraved on it (my oldest daughter's initials). I found a locket that had Helen etched into a mother-of-pearl heart (my youngest is Helen).... and on and on. Believe me, there are no shortage of vintage lockets out there. You just need to know where to look. That's where I come in. Esty and Ebay were most fruitful in my search. Ahhh, the finished product- see the photo today. I love, love, love it.

*helpful links that might lead you to the find of your dreams* for example:

Before you click on this link, I need you to do some imagining. First, close your eyes. Picture yourself recieving your latest gospel according to anthropologie in the mail. Poor yourself an imaginary cup of english breakfast tea, and sit down on your overpriced couch. Now, start thumbing through those imaginary pages of faux vintage clothes perched perfectly on underfed 20-year-olds. Now you come to the home section. Note the chippy plaster walls and the peeling wallpaper. Take in the intricately carved armoire and the embroidered lampshades. Feel yourself in that room. It's missing something. A sofa, you say? Now you are ready to click on the link... go for it. http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/fuo/1535841045.html

So there you have it... peacocks and all. I'll try to find something every day for your viewing pleasure. I do take requests, so if there is something you've been looking for, I'm the gal to check with.