Show Your Work

I love Austin Kleon’s expression, “Show Your Work”.  It’s been a busy few weeks and I thought it might be interesting to show you what has been going on the home front and some upcoming blog posts.  I won’t be able to post the next 2-3 weeks due to my crazy schedule but will pick up as soon as the kiddos are back in school in mid-August.

Was so blessed to find out yesterday that GE (“General Electric”) will be coming out in a couple of weeks to film our family for their documentary series called “Made for Me” where they capture “real people/real kitchens”.  What an honor it will be to have them come and film our family!  We are super excited!

So, since I’ll be away for a few weeks, I thought I would show you the tinkering I’ve been doing.  I am a very visual person, almost to a fault of getting ideas and images stuck in my head.   My mission is to get that image out of my head, captured on camera and ultimately written down on paper.

I have, for awhile now, had an image of capturing a farm series of photos showing the essence of what it was like growing up on a farm.  In this day dream, I want to capture images of my mom in her country kitchen.  I haven’t yet been able to make it back to Kansas for this photo shoot so the next best thing was to capture my mom when she was out visiting this past weekend.  I asked her to show me how to make her infamous hand pies and that’s exactly what she did.  I am so excited about how these pics turned out!  Here is a sneak peek of the future post.  Can’t wait to tell you more about these photos and her pies!

The next thing I’ve been tinkering with is trying to find alternatives to common dishes and “health” it up a bit.  My mom gave up flour and sugar a few years back and it’s always fun trying to come up with new ideas to everyday dishes when my dad and her come out for a visit.  One idea that I saw floating around on the internet was using zucchini in place of pasta for dishes.  I tucked that one in my back pocket and pulled it out this weekend when they were here for a visit.  My husband LOVES Pad Thai so I thought why not make Pad Thai but instead of rice noodles use zucchini.  Worked like a champ.  We ate it all till the bowl was bone dry!  Here is a pic of our “healthy” version of Shrimp Pad Thai with Zucchini!  As soon as I finalize the recipe, I look forward to sharing it with you all along with some other ideas!

We were busy this weekend with the Rocky Mountain State Games (so proud of my daughter’s basketball team for winning their division!).  There wasn’t a lot of time for cooking so my husband fired up the grill and made pork chops while I meddled with a new version of DIY seasoning salt that I will share soon.  I couldn’t decide what to make to go along side with the pork chops so while I was making up some Mango Pineapple Sorbet for my parents, I got the idea to use some of the leftover pineapple and limes and whip up a fun vegetable salad/salsa.  Here is quick pic of how it all turned out!

Lastly, I have been wanting to master tartlets and the numerous variations you can make.  I have been wanting to really perfect the “pastry cream” that goes into the tart but have yet to get the texture and taste just right. Here is a really pretty pic of one of the versions.  As soon as I get it all figured out, I will share the recipe!

Hope you have enjoyed this “Show Your Work” visual post of all my day dreams.  I will be back in a few weeks to update you on all the happenings, recipes and photos!  Enjoy the next few weeks of summer!

Many thanks to all of you for following my journey with this blog!  I can’t thank you enough!

-Elayne

Feel free to share with your family and friends as that’s my sole mission with this project – to share!:  www.sharingourlifeloveandfood.com