Monday, December 1, 2008

Vegan Nom Nom: Vegetable Kichdi


Indian Veggie
Originally uploaded by Heather Lucille
Vegetable Kichdi

Serves 4 – 6

1 cup basmati rice
1/3 cup red lentils
2 tablespoons butter, margarine or ghee
2 red chili peppers, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
5 peppercorns, crushed
4 whole green cardamoms
4 cloves
1-inch stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon tumeric powder, or a pinch of saffron strands
2 large onions, chopped finely
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 large tomato, skinned and chopped
¼ cup frozen peas
½ cup each cauliflower and broccoli florets
Sea salt
2 ½ cups water
Cashew nuts, toasted, to garnish

Rinse the rice with the lentils in a large sieve.

In a large frying pan, heat the butter, margarine or ghee, and fry the spices over medium heat. When they sizzle and crackle, add the chopped onions and ginger, and fry until golden brown.

Next, add the prepared vegetables, rice, lentils and salt, and stir in the water. Stir and simmer for approximately 15 – 20 minutes until the rice is cooked, adding more water if necessary. Stir and serve sprinkled with the cashew nuts.

This recipe is from Linda McCartney's cookbook "On Tour".

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Headpieces You Want to Wear

A sampling of headpieces made from vintage millinery supplies that will be avaiable for purchase at the "Craft and Fancy" craft fair.
You can see better photos here if you are so inclined: http://flickr.com/photos/haatkinson/sets/72157610113635352/

Craft and Fancy: A Sale of Handmade Gifts by Local Crafters

Craft and Fancy: A Sale of Handmade Gifts by Local Crafters
Saturday, Dec 6 10 - 5
Sunday, Dec 7 12-5
Home Ec Workshop
207 N Linn St

I will be featuring: hand appliqued baby fighting suits, deconstructed flower corsages made from modern and vintage fabrics, hair pins created from vintage clip-on earrings, headbands crafted from vintage millinery supplies + a selection of vintage craft books and kits!!!

Courtesy of Home Ec, the illustration shown above will be available for purchase on tote bags!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Preparing for Craft and Fancy

I've been a busy bee making things for the Craft and Fancy show at Home Ec Workshop on Dec 6th and 7th. Shown here are hair pins made from vintage clip-on earrings!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Halloween Party Invitation 2008

Invitations for our annual Halloween costume/birthday party. I did the drawings myself and downloaded the fonts for free from:

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

The Queen is Dead! Long Live the Queen!

Have a gander at my Halloween photo project on Flickr: "The Haunters and The Haunted: 33 Days of Halloween"! Warning: not for the weak of heart or stomach!

http://flickr.com/groups/894728@N23/

Skullprinting Basics


This is the project I made in "Screenprinting Basics" class at Home Ec Workshop. I drew the image by hand then scanned it into the computer (converted using Adobe Streamline) and printed it out on an inkjet printer - the carbon in the ink creates the reaction with light that transfers the image to the screen. My skull came out brilliantly - I cannot wait to do more screenprinting!
If you'd like to take this class - which I personally endorse - sign up at Home Ec Workshop!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Tough Heart, Tender Heart

Zombies prefer brains but will nom a heart in a pinch!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Devil May Care


Devil May Care
Originally uploaded by Heather Lucille
Day 8 in my Flickr group project "The Haunters and The Haunted: 33Days of Halloween". I got the devil mask at Walgreen's for a few dollars!

The Haunters and The Haunted: 33 Days of Halloween

On October 1st I started a devlish, devious, damned Flickr group titled "The Haunters and The Haunted: 33 Days of Halloween". The premise is that members take a Halloween theme photo ever day in October + November 1st and November 2. Why did I include Nov. 1 and 2? Because my annual Halloween costume/birthday party is going to be on the first and my birthday is on the 2nd. November 1st and 2nd also happen to be the Mexican Dia de los Muertos and the Catholic All Saint's Day and All Souls' Day.
You can view my diabolical, gruesome, disgusting photos here:
You can view all the ghoulish grave robbin' group member's photo submission's here: http://flickr.com/groups/894728@N23/

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Vegan Nom Nom: Squash with Maple Sugar

Locally grown, organic baby red potatoes and green beans.

After halving the squash, I removed the seeds and strings. My half was stuffed with soy butter and brown sugar, my husband's with butter and brown sugar. Halves were next placed in a covered dish with about 1/2" of water and baked in the over for 30 minutes at 475 degrees.

On a recent trip to New England my mom brought us some Vermont maple sugar which we applied liberally to our squashes before eating.

Baby X's Manly Punkin Fighting Suit

Baby Jonas Xavier's mother requested a manly pumpkin themed fighting suit. Aren't pumpkins inherently manly? I made this pattern from a drawing I created.

The orange fabric making the body of the pumpkin is from Home Ec Workshop, and the leaf and stem fabrics are from vintage scraps. This was the first time I used an embroidery hoop on a onesie and it worked like a dream. Baby X may be the envy of all the pumpkins in the patch!


Monday, September 22, 2008

Vegan Nom Nom: Caribbean Rice 'n' Beans + Avocado/Tomato Salad

Another successful vegan meal from Linda McCarthy's "On Tour" cookbook. This evening I made Caribbean Rice 'n' Beans and a avocado/tomato salad with classic vinaigrette. My meat-chawing hubby really liked this dish and I really liked that it was easy and used only one pot. I did substitute lite coconut milk and used lime in the vinaigrette (as suggested by the author).
Rice 'n' Beans
Rice 'n' Beans
serves 4
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound vegetarian burgers, cubed
1 small chili pepper, trimmed and seeded
3 tomatoes, chopped small
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1 cup canned black-eyed peas or kidney beans, drained
sea salt and pepper to taste
In a large saucepan, saute the onion in the olive oil, then add the burger cubes and toss until they are lightly browned.
Add the remaining ingredients, except the beans, and stir well. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for ten minutes. Stir in the beans and cook for a further ten minutes until the rice is tender, adding water if necessary. Season to taste.
Avocado and Tomato Salad with Classic Vinaigrette
Classic Vinaigrette
serves 4

1-2 teaspoons fine or grainy mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, or 2 tablespoons wine, balsamic or cider vinegar
6 tablespoons olive oil
crushed garlic to taste (optional)
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Handmade Halloween Lino-Cut Cards

Halloween – the very bestest, gruesomest, ghouliest time of year! These are prints from a series of Halloween themed linoleum blocks I created. The cards are available for purchase in my etsy shop - http://www.heatherlucille.etsy.com/
Little Punkin Widecrotch is a child (and skeeredy-cat) friendly design. Is he running from a bogey or too candy? Either way he has on fabu stripey tights.
Any self respecting fan of the spooking season knows all about The Raven. Birds in general = horrifying. Ravens in particular = pants pooping horror. Here you can see the carved lino block - and the printed card.
Dioes de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) also happens to be my birthday! This design was based on the colorful, delicate tissue paper flags hung in Mexico as part of the celebration.
Witchy Pooh-pie and her black cat fly in front of the full moon on an errand of mischief!
Mr. Beelzy loves to torment the souls of the damned with his pitchfork. Prick, prick, prick!

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Colossal

My new obsession? Maybeline's "The Colossal" mascara. Admittedly mascaras usually over-promise and under-deliver then leave me grumbling about my poorly spent money. Trust me, The Colossal delivers. It even made my scraggly lashes look like I was wearing falsies. And I still have two small gaps of eyelashes missing from an unfortunate curler incident earlier this Summer.

Yeah, that's right - my eyelashes are THE COLOSSAL.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Cutest Sweater Ever Knit

I found this j'adorable hand knit child's sweater at the thrift store for $1.00. Can you even believe how cute and disapproving little McBunnersons is in her stripey widdle shirt?

If cute could kill, I would be dead on the floor. Can someone please shrink me down "Innerspace" style so I can fit into this gem and wear it every single day and be cremated in it?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Support Your Local Gunfighter

I am never taking my new gunfighter outfit off. Straw cowgirl hat with Sheriff badge (red plastic goes very will with gingham), two silver cap guns with black holsters. Bad. Ass.

BANG! BANG!

Soundtrack = Marty Robbins "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs"

Vegan Nom Nom: Cowpie Cookies

Making these Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies was my first attempt at vegan baking and I think they turned out very well indeed. You can get the recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=111


The batter got so thick that my poor little 70's hand mixer literally started to smoke! Since the batter was so deliciously ooey-gooey thick and sticky I used two table spoons to extricate and from the dough balls onto the cookie sheet.

They do look like cow pies, but they are so delightfully chocolatey, who cares?

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Vegan Nom Nom: Sicilian Bean and Potato Salad

My second succesful dinner from a recipe for Sicilian Bean and Potato Salad from Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook.

The Classic Vinaigrette was very simple and very tasty!

Sicilian Bean and Potato Salad
Serves 6
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
1 pound new potatoes, unpeeled
1 pound green beans, steamed and cut into 1 inch lengths
1 cup cooked or canned haricot (navy) or cannellini (white kidney) beans
1 small red onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
1-2 tablespoons capers
Classic Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes in boiling water until they are tender. Allow them to cool slightly and cut them in half.
Mix the potatoes, beans, onion, black olives and capers in a large bowl. Pour sufficient vinaigrette over the salad to moisten it and toss well. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
(I din't have black olives or capers on hand so I left them out of my recipe. As a result I found that I needed to add a small amount sea salt and black pepper to the dish to make the flavors pop)

Classic Vinaigrette
Serves 4
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
1-2 teaspoons fine or grainy mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, or or 2 tablespoons wine, balsamic or cider vinegar
6 tablespoons olive oil
crushed garlic to taste (optional)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
In a small bowl, mix the mustard with the lemon or lime juice or vinegar. Whisk in the olive oil gradually. Stir in the garlic if you are using it. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
(Both recipes from Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook)

365Bunnies' Appliqued Bunnie Cami

Completed embelished cami for glam 365Bunnies! Just like Bunnies herself I think it's a lil bit country and a lil bit rock-n-roll.
A page of funny bunny sketches I made while trying to create a design for the cami. The red cardstock is what I used as my pattern.
This was the first time I ever sewed a face - after some trial and error (the pink button nose made the bunny look like a piglet) I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

The blue and white stripe ticking fabric frayed much more than I expected. As a result the blanket stitching on the right side of the bunnie's face is a little wonky. Now this lil bunny is off to a nice new home in Memphis!

Vegan Nom Nom: Pesto Genovese with Green Beans and Potatoes

I found a used copy of Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook and this recipe for Pesto Genovese with Green Beans was the first I tried. To make it vegan all I had to do was leave the parmesan out of the pesto. This mouth-watering pasta dish was also a big hit with my non-vegan hubby.
The pesto was very easy to make and was so delicious!

The green beans were so fresh and snappy!

Pesto Genovese with Green Beans and Potatoes

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 25 minutes

6 small waxy new potatoes, unpeeled
3 cups dried penne or fusilli
3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 2inch lengths
4 tablespoons pesto sauce
basil leaves to garnish
Boil the potatoes until tender but still firm, for about 15 minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, cut them into small cubes.
Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.
Meanwhile, steam the beans until tender but still crisp, for about 5-6 minutes.
Mix the vegetables with the pasta and toss in the pesto. Garnish with basil, and serve immediately with warm ciabatta bread.

Pesto Sauce
Serves 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
6 tablespoons freshly chopped basil
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
2/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup vegetarian Parmesan, grated
2/3 cup olive oil
sea salt and black pepper to taste

(Both recipes from Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Vegan Nom Nom: The Red Avocado

Yesterday Stevie and I enjoyed a delicious, liesurely, outdoor vegan lunch at The Red Avocado. We entertained ourselves watching the pudgy chipmunk ransack the patio for food and imagaining what sort of fart noises a chipmunk stuffed with black beans would make.
I had the wonderful Veggieburger Deluxe and a cup of Coconut Corn Soup - the intoxicating smell of which almost sent me into fits. Stevie's Revolutionary Reuben sandwich passed his stringent carnivore test - a test very few vegan dishes pass! I hope we can return soon and try out the dinner menu!

http://www.theredavocado.com/

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Momma Monster Tee

This is the "mother" half of the mother/daughter not-too-scary monster tee shirts. Who could be afraid of a monster with pink button eyes?

This project was the first time I tried using an embroidery hoop - the soft, thin cotton of the tee shirt kept coming loose but I think it helped me keep the balloon string staight(er).


Sunday, August 3, 2008

Fiesta in Your Mouth!


It's been a full two weeks since I went vegan! These Vegan Enchiladas made with sweet potato and black bean filling were the first more complicated dish I have attempted - served with fresh sweet corn on the side. Carnivore hubby agreed he would eat them again with some slight tweaking of the recipe - the sweet potato was a bit overpowering, so I would cut down on that amount and add pinto beans instead. I used this recipe as my guideline: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6023.0

Friday, July 25, 2008

Wednesday's Monster

Special request appliqued tee shirt for the young Miss Wednesday - she likes monsters as long as they are not too scary. Don't we all?
Monster design is not my forte so I asked Stevie to draw a monster for me. His original too scary prototype is shown above. Look at the widdle stuckersons tongue!

How do you sweeten up a monster (who is scary by nature, not cuz he hates ya?)? Give him a balloon and pink button eyes!


The finished tee shirt ready to be mailed to Wednesday. I created a pattern from the original drawing on cardstock then used some of my vintage fabric from my scrap bag which I appliqued using a blanket stitch and Heat Bond Lite. Just don't pop his balloon!