january 2018

new year greetings, food & food for thought + sweetheart valentine gifting!


january 2018

happy new year, dearies! i hope you had a most spectacular new year's and were able to celebrate in a way that made you happiest. 

the dearie daughters, like most children, love to literally "tear" open their holiday gifts. yet i always feel so remorseful about the resulting accumulation of discarded wrapping paper that can't be recycled. so this past holiday season, i sewed up an array of cloth gift bags in different sizes, using holiday fabric remnants for our immediate family gift giving. this crafty solution satisfies my guilty conscience, the bags can be re-used every year and everything still looks festive under the tree, don't you agree? (i also created name tags to go with the bags out of wooden clothes pins decorated with festive washi tape!)

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at the end of the holiday season these cloth gift bags and clothes pins can be tucked away with our beloved tinsel tree and ornaments, until the arrival of the next holiday season.

recently i came across this interesting article online which i invite you read here, about how the swede's are currently experimenting with an unusual solution to the blight of fast fashion. it's definitely food for thought! 

and speaking of food, one of mr. dearie's favorite recipes that i make is an easy and delicious red pepper sauce. the recipe itself is a modified from the original by the amazing madhur jaffrey, vegan, but you can add chicken or pork (mr. dearie's favorite) to it if you wish or even garbanzo beans. i make extra batches of the paste since it comes together so quickly and store each batch within its own 32 oz. glass mason jar in the freezer for future meals.

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red pepper sauce

2 fresh red bell peppers, seeded & cut into chunks
1 inch peeled fresh ginger
3-5 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. tumeric
1/8 - 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. kosher salt

5-8 tbsp. of cooking oil
2/3 - 1 cup water
juice of whole lemon

fresh cilantro for garnish
hot cooked white basmati or jasmine rice

instructions

in a blender, blend peppers, ginger, garlic, onion, almonds, spices and salt until a thick paste. (you may need to carefully press down on the ingredients with a wooden spoon at first to get everything to start blending...)*

in a large saute pan that has a lid, over medium-medium high heat, add the oil and heat until shimmering. add the red pepper paste and fry up in the oil, stirring frequently, for about 8-10 minutes.

add water and lemon juice, stir to combine, then cover and cook for 10-15 minutes more. (you can use more or less water depending on how thick you'd like your finished sauce to be.)

note: if adding (raw) chicken or pork, do so after adding the water and lemon juice to the sauce, then cover and cook over medium-medium high heat until meat is cooked through, anywhere from 15-25 minutes.

serve over hot cooked white rice and garnish with chopped cilantro leaves. we also like serve this meal with hot garlic naan, available in the freezer section of trader joe's or many specialty grocery stores.

*at this point, once blended, you can transfer the paste to a clean mason jar with lid (it will fill it up halfway, allowing for expansion) and place it in the freezer for future meal preparation. (i like to label to remind me to add the water and lemon juice so i don't forget!) remove from the freezer and let thaw over 24 hours in the refrigerator before finishing the sauce following the remaining steps above*

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valentine's day is just around the corner and darling dearie makes beautiful, one-of-a-kind gifts for all the sweethearts in your world!

until my next missive...

xoxo,

darling