Friday, December 25, 2009

Pumpkins and Holidays

Happy Holidays to you, your family and friends.
I wish you peace, joy and love.

May you have plenty of opportunities to spend time with your family and friends, have meaningful conversations filled with laughter, and eat wonderful food.

We've already started all this and hope to continue throughout these holidays.

For example, I found a couple of great recipes yesterday while trying to solve an abundance of fresh pumpkin in our house right now.

You see, my Dad created a large garden in our backyard when he and his wife (also my Mom) came to live with us in America. Among other wonderful foods, he harvested 16 pumpkins this Fall and we've been enjoying them in traditional recipes including in porridge, blintzes. However, my short attention span and curiosity drove me look up some new recipes in which pumpkin is a dominant ingredient.

So, I found a recipe for fritters made with pumpkin and curry. They were very tasty and even more when dipped in mustard and/or chutney. I liked them better second day because I could really taste the successful marriage of the ingredients in this fritter.

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, egg, flour, baking powder, curry powder, and salt. Mix until smooth.
  2. Heat oil in a deep saucepan to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, and serve immediately.
  3. Having done these a couple of times, I discovered that to get these fritters round you need to flip them once the dough surfaced. To get the fritters golden on both sides you need to flip them a couple more times.
The other recipe is for sweet pumpkin with some variation from my part. I like to improvise and changed the pie crust to a combination of Whole Foods 365 organic vanilla wafers, Silk Soymilk Natural Nog, and rum. The rest I followed pretty closely.


Whatever you're eating this Holiday Season, may it be filled with love and delicious taste.

Monday, December 21, 2009

A NEW LilianaBead Tutorial Out There - Fancy Ribbon Design



I prefer it when the tutorial is all done and ready to be read, enjoyed and used for guidance.

This tutorial focuses on a design of my own which I call Fancy Ribbon. Layers of color and movement as if it is a fancy ribbon floating in a freshwater stream.

Below are some excerpts - visual and linguistic - to introduce this tutorial to you.



o Learn to detect consistency by studying the heat color in your glass. Red heat color communicates hard clay, orange – soft clay, and yellow – paint. The most advantageous and empowering location is of course on the margins. For example, managing orange-yellow heat-colored glass is much easier.



o After winding discs always hot-fuse them by gently heating them to an orange-red heat color to the side of it rather than from the top. The discs transmit heat unevenly which makes them extremely vulnerable to thermal shock.



o Melt the bead in the upper part of the middle section of the flame.



Steps 15, 16 &17: Encase the bead.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Come Melt Glass and Make Beads at Worcester Center for Crafts

Flames are burning bright at WCC!!!

I'll be teaching two classes this winter and spring in 2010 at Worcester Center for Crafts. One of the oldest craft centers in the nation, WCC has a well equipped lampwork studio and a fresh outlook.



BeginsEndsMeets


01/19/201002/23/2010Tu from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM


03/02/201004/06/2010Tu from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Last night I taught the last class of the fall session. I was so impressed with how in a short period of six weeks each student accomplished so much, becoming aware of and engaged by a new medium. We admired the beads they made, rich in choices of form and color. I felt confident that everyone was well-equipped to continue their new journey.

I enjoyed observing every student persevere at learning from demos, solidifying understandings, and develop his/her aesthetic preferences.

I can't wait to see and share more.