THANKFUL

On my list of things I was most grateful for this year were...

1) the fact that Alexis volunteered to host Thanksgiving at her house this year

2) that those two little imps, who drove me bonkers with their quarreling when young, somehow grew up to be best buddies, and that both of them love to cook

3) that Lex and Nate brought this amazing little creature into our lives

4) that both our kids found their perfect match

and, most of all...

5) that Papa John overcame several life-threatening incidents a few years back, in order to stick around and be a part of it all!

I am one very grateful gal.

PRAY-LINE VS. PRAH-LINE

Although my sister-in-law Priscilla and I may never agree on the correct pronunciation of this delicacy, we do agree on one thing. This miracle microwave recipe for making them, which her Cajun mama Alma shared with us many moons ago, is da bomb! She found it in a microwave cookbook from back in the 70s or 80s, called Tout de Suite. I was making a batch the other day for good buddy Toad's birthday, when I realized it had been years and years since I shared it here on the blog. What with the holidays coming up and all, I thought it might be worth sharing again. Hoo-aah! They'll be the hit of your holiday celebration, I gar-on-tee!

TOUT de SUITE PRALINES

(makes 3-5 dozen, depending on size)

3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 cups pecan halves
1/8 tsp. salt
2 T. butter
1 tsp. baking soda

1. Stir together buttermilk, sugar, pecans, salt and butter in a 4 or 5 quart glass or ceramic dish. Cook in microwave on high for 12 minutes, stirring at 4 minute intervals. (Note: microwaves vary, and you may have to tweak the setting to match your oven. Mine cooks a bit high, so I make these using power level 7, or 70%)

You need the giant bowl because of the next step.

2. Stir in baking soda until foamy.

Cook on high for one minute. (This last step gives the pralines a caramel color.)

Now here is the only tricky part: Beat mixture by hand until "tacky" (about one minute). Drop by teaspoonful on a sheet of foil.

The first ones you take out will be more glossy, smooth and thin.

As the mixture cools, they become thicker, with less sheen.

I experimented with things other than foil this time. Silicone mat worked great. Regular plastic mat, not so much.

So, how do you know when you've reached "tacky"? Well, it took me a few tries when I first made them, but you eventually learn to notice when the mixture starts to lose some of it's gloss and your spoon starts to feel more resistance. I count one-and-two-and... as I stir, and usually by the time I get to 145 or 150, I know it's time to get them out of the bowl fast. If you wait too long, they may harden right there in the bowl. Take them out too soon, they won't ever harden. The good news is, the over- hardened ones make great crumbles to serve over ice cream. The under-stirred ones can go back in the bowl and get stirred some more. Also, I wouldn't recommend making them on a rainy/super humid day.

So, there you have it! You can thank me later. Better yet, thank dear Alma -- the most amazing Cajun cook ever -- for letting us know it's OK to use shortcuts, if the result is just as good as the original!

MY NEW FAVORITE SHOPS

It was bad enough when I just had the one consignment store, right next to my favorite taco joint, where I eat lunch at least once or twice a week. But now that I've found that new one over in Dripping Springs, I'm afraid things may get out of hand. Why, just this week alone I've found this...

and this...

The bread and veggie sections are held together with small pieces of velcro, and when they slide the "knife" between them, they can slice them apart, just like Mom and Dad!

and this...

in gender-neutral colors, no less!

And then, of course, there were the two, barely-worn pairs of shoes that I got for 1/4 the cost of that one pair that came from the nice children's shoe store -- the ones he'd only worn a handful of times before he'd outgrown them!

I'm thinkin' maybe I need to set some limits on how often I'm allowed to visit these shops, huh?
  

SPLORIN': DRIPPING SPRINGS

When I first moved up here my very favorite thing to do was to go exploring in all the little towns hereabouts. Over time, however, I fell out of the habit. I had loved how each one was so unique, with a character all its own. The only one I didn't spend much time in was Dripping Springs, for it had persisted in remaining a bedroom town full of people who commuted to Austin, with almost no businesses other than fast food restaurants and big box stores. Lately, however, I've been hearing rumors of change. So, while our hubbies were off tail-gating with the engineering department over at UT, my BFF and I decided to go check it out. First stop, Mercer Street, where we found a great little children's consignment store called Itsy Bitsy Spider. I will be checking back there on a regular basis for grandkid stuff! Further on we turned down a little side alley to get to a shop called Vintage Soul...

where Paula found a fantastic necklace...

and I found some color-mad earrings so beautiful they made me swoon!

There were several other new-to-me shops such as Starr's Boutique, a way-above-average-for-a-small-town coffee shop called Mazama Coffee Co., and a couple of bars (including one disguised as a barber shop). Then there was the ever popular Mercer Street Dance Hall. Come to think of it, the two-step is something else we haven't done in ages!

About the only thing missing on Mercer Street was a good spot for a couple of gals to have lunch. Luckily, however, we didn't have far to go to reach Epicure, at 1025 Cannon Drive, in an itty bitty  strip mall.

Bacon and Corn Beignets Drizzled With Cilantro Honey

Not only did they have delicious, albeit a tad pricey, food, they also had a couple of muse Edgy Art Woman's magnificent poured paintings on their walls!

Our final stop of the day was at Solstice, the wonderful indoor/outdoor art shop where we got our beloved orange whirligig many moons ago.

 

It was a wonderful day that got me to thinkin', maybe I need to get out and about more?

A DELIGHTFUL DISCOVERY

The Potager of my Dreams

On our last full day at Lucky Star we hadn't signed up for any afternoon classes, so my roomies and I decided to do some exploring in town. First we had to introduce Alexis to The Hunt Store, which LaNell took me to see last time we were both there. Then we went to check out a new place we'd been hearing about, The Market @ Bridget's Basket. 

Bridget's Basket boasts a huge organic vegetable garden as well as a nice little vegetable stand, and while that alone would make it worth a looksee, there is so, so much more to tempt you! There's a little bakery/cafe with indoor and outdoor dining, and a shop that stocks artisanal items (both food and non-food) from local Texas and small U.S. producers. Plus there's a wall-o-wine! Check it out:

 

You owe it to yourself to stop in, next time you're anywhere close to Hunt, TX.

Seriously!

WHAT WE MADE

On our first day at Lucky Star I took two half-day classes, and Alexis spent the whole day in a screen-printing class with the amazing Becky Dawson of One Lane Road -- the same class I took a couple of years ago, when I made these.

I loaded Lex up with my leftover supplies, and she took my robot screens along as well, just in case she ran out of things to do. That never happened, since she was busy making these...

as well as a tote bag and some onesies with funny sayings on them.  However, since friend Jen showed up with a big pack of onesies, plus a new little niece and a friend's triplets to make gifts for, and no clear idea what design to use, she was pretty tickled when Lex offered her the use of the robot screens. But not nearly as tickled as I am, at the thought of my sweet little robots making their way out into the world!

My morning class was Ashley Henry's wired jewelry class, where I made this...

using an old perfume/poison-holding pendant I found in some of my mom's stuff. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, it being the very first time I'd ever picked up a set of jewelry-making tools. Just wish someone had told me to switch the direction of my leaf beads midpoint.

My afternoon was spent having the time of my life in Kelley Walker's marvelous marbling class. She had a bit of a struggle making us leave when our time was up.

The top row was done on paper, but the next two pieces were marbled on white denim.

My plan was to add a lot of beautiful marbled papers to my boxes of hand-painted collage papers, but it's gonna be a lot harder than I thought to tear these beauties into little bits and pieces!

The next morning Lex and I actually got to take a class together, with Austin watercolor artist Heidi Miller Lowell. It was called Let Go, And Find Your Flow. What better way to do that than by painting mandalas with watercolors?

Mine

Lexi's, not quite finished.

I love the one Lex did so, so much! You'd never know she hasn't picked up a paint brush since high school. I'm pretty sure this gave her the itch to remedy that situation, as she couldn't wait to get back to the room and keep working on it.

That afternoon Lex took a leather earring class...

while I took Jennifer Mercede's Beloved Florals and Creatures class. Remember Lulu, the tutu-wearing bulldog that we ran into at Hays City Store not long ago?

Still working on that one.

On our last morning of classes, Lex went off to take Kelley Walker's felt flower wreath-making class...

while I took another of Becky Dawson's classes -- illustration and cartooning. Basically, I just wanted to learn to loosen up in my sketching, and give up the need for perfection and realism. Becky had the perfect cure for that.

She passed around these sheets of paper that were divided into 16 sections, and we had to quickly jot down a couple of professions or styles of people before passing it on to the next person. When we ran out of the usual suspects, we got a bit loopy, and started writing down things like "jokers, tokers, and midnight smokers", and it went downhill from there. When full, she started passing them around again, and we each had to illustrate the next available square, in about 30 seconds! I came seriously close to having an accident before it was over with, we were laughing that hard.

So much fun, friendship, connection, knowledge, and inspiration to be shared and absorbed, in so very little time.