A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Gumpaste Flower Work

Just a quick post today, have a day off and a list of errands longer than my arm.  Actually, I have a few days off and I have a plan. If I can get the household stuff knocked out that would leave me time to write and to work on gumpaste flowers so I'd have more good stuff to post later in the week. Aha!  Now you see where I'm going with this.

In the meantime, this is one of my favorite wedding cakes from a few years ago for one of my best friends from Eureka Springs. All the flowers are gumpaste. There are roses, calla lilies, tulips, and freezia, and then there are a few blue royal icing piped flowers mounted on floral wires.  Her favorite color is purple, in case you couldn't guess, and it was perfect for the spring. She wore a pale lilac chiffon dress, just beautiful.

The wedding was out in the country in a tiny, one-roomed 100+ year old church in spring, when all the dogwood, both pink and white,  were in bloom.  See a few branches of them in the background of the photo?  It was lovely. The reception followed and was catered by the bride's mother and aunts who are some of the finest cooks I've ever met. Believe me, even though the mother of the bride is stressed out for weddings, no one would have been happy with any caterer's food.  It was fantastic.  Unfortunately, the wedding was great, the marriage sucked.  But, there's always a silver lining.  My friend went on to find her true Prince Charming and is now living happily ever after.

Here's a close-up of the cake set up at home right after I finished decorating. You can see a little more detail:

La Festa Al Fresco: Updated Nannie's Cukes & Onions

My Grandmother, whom we all called Nannie, used to have a weekly family luncheon every Wednesday. Any and every family member who lived in town or happened to be in town or wanted to drive into town was welcome at her table on Wednesday at 11am for lunch.  We all miss that tradition. It was such a great way to keep everyone in touch and to get to eat Nannie's cornbread, Coca-cola BBQ chicken, and Salisbury steak, not that we're a food-self-involved bunch or anything.

One of the summer staples of Nannie's table was was a bowl of cukes and onions fresh picked from the back yard that morning floating in a brine of sugared vinegar water.  I loved the crisp snap, the juicy crunch, and the hot bite of those cukes and onions, but the one thing I didn't care so much for was the way the cukes didn't take long to get liquid-logged.  The cukes didn't actually get mushy but they did lose their snap, my favorite part, after sitting out on the table and warming up a bit.

I haven't had those cukes in a long time but when Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina announced the virtual La Festa Al Fresca picnic the memory of those cukes came back to me and I started thinking about how to remake (everybody from the south's) Nannie's cukes and onions recipe into my own image, so to speak.

Chicken Noodle & Fresh Thyme Soup

I'm trying to get back on the wagon with the whole icky diet thing. I know that noodles don't always scream "DIET" but I'm a rebellious soul (Gene says only when it comes to eating and swearing) and I had to ease back into the prospect of healthy eating.  Homemade chicken soup always works for me.  The broth is filling, much more filling than the calorie count would indicate, the veggies are good and good for me, and the noodles make me feel indulged while less pouty and hateful.  Gene likes the last two parts.

You might think that August is the wrong time for homemade soup but, amazingly, here in southwest Missouri it's been unseasonably cool with temps in the 70's. With the air conditioner turned off and the windows open I've actually been chilly in the mornings and evenings. This morning chicken noodle soup seemed the perfect lunch to warm us up while the fresh thyme taste and aroma brought us back into the swing of a warm summer afternoon.

 

This is my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and hosted this week by Genie of The Inadvertent Gardener, fresh thyme being one of my favorite herbs in the whole world.