Foodie Friday: Capellini with Chicken, Tomatoes and Basil

I stumbled across a Barefoot Contessa episode the other day that caught my attention - usually a pan full of cherry tomatoes will go a long way in catching my attention. She was making Capellini with Tomatoes and Basil. It looked delicious, but knowing my husband I was never going to get away with a "there's no meat in this" dish.

So I set out to make a slightly different version of this that included chicken. I don't always have some of these ingredients on hand and my lack of yard keeps me from growing my own herbs, so I've gotten a bit creative using the items I have on hand.

To recreate, you'll need:
1 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil + dash for Cappellini water
Dash of Sea Salt
Dash of Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp. of Italian Seasonings
Handful of fresh basil, chopped
2 cups Grilled Chicken Strips
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/4 c. Lime Juice
1 1/2 cups Parmasean/Romano cheese
1/2 lb. Capellini

I start the water boiling for the pasta first, because getting the water to boil always takes so long. Put in a dash of salt and a dash of Olive oil - to season the pasta and keep it from sticking together. Don't put in the pasta until the last minute because it cooks up in a matter of minutes.

If you think ahead, you can soak the chicken strips in the lime juice for flavor. I used the pre-packaged, pre-cooked strips from Costco, but you can also cut up your chicken breast and grill it in the lime juice with a little sea salt.

In a separate skillet over high heat, pour in your olive oil and then layer in your herbs and seasonings (sea salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, fresh basil). The oil helps bring the flavor out of the spices. Just a note here too, I pulled several leaves off of a fresh basil plant, lined them up and cut them into pieces with my scissors. If you like the color of the basil, you can save this until the end, but I like the added flavor of putting them in earlier rather than later.

Once your spices start heating up and smelling good, pop in your chicken with the remaining lime juice and let that cook off for a minute, then add your tomatoes. Once you get that cooking, you might throw that pasta into your pasta water, but be forewarned that it will be ready in 2-3 minutes. Don't forget to give it a stir after you first put it in to allow that oil to do it's job keeping the pasta from globbing together.

Get your pasta bowl ready because it comes together fast from here. Check your pasta to make sure it's done. Drain it and pour it into your big pasta bowl. Pour over your chicken/tomato mix, cover all that with your parmasean/romano mixture and toss it all together.

Viola! Dinner in minutes. Hubby had two helpings and actually ate the leftovers. Miraculous!

Inspiration Thursday! Imogen Heap.

In my many, many years of schooling I found the best way to get myself to concentrate was to put on some music. Quite honestly, if I didn't have that music going in my head, I'd be distracted by the many other things I could be doing instead of say, writing a paper or reading that last 300 pages or whatever. I'd procrastinate like crazy. I'd even ~gasp~ clean the house to keep from sitting down to get the studying done. Music definitely provided the distraction that became the focus.

It seems the more complex the subject, the more complex the music needed to be. Just as most art has many layers, so does music. And the best music will inspire art. I suppose that's also true vice versa!

In recent years, the artist I tend to go to for inspiration is Imogen Heap. She layers her music like an watercolor artist layers color. Sometimes it's delicate, wispy even. Other times it's slapstick fun. Sometimes it has a biblical reference complete with samples of locusts. Other times it reminds us of a cause. And there are not many of her pieces I would not listen to every day of the week over and over again. She just doesn't get old for me.

Her newest CD starts with First Train Home, which she says is about being at a party but wanting to be home:

Temporal deadzone where clocks are barely breathing, Yet no one cares to notice for all the yelling, All night clamor to hold it together. I want to play - don't wait - forms in the hideaway. I want to get on with getting on with things. I want to run in fields, paint the kitchen, love someone. And I can't do any of that here, can I?

Her words paint pictures in my mind - what creativity to describe clocks as barely breathing! What about Hide and Seek's, the dust has only just begun to form crop circles in the carpet? Glittering Cloud gives locusts who are about to obliterate more vegetation a voice of reason: Save me, oh save me, save me from myself, Before I hurt somebody else again. And The Walk comes to mind many times in my life (usually when shopping): I feel a weakness coming on.

In recent days, I've been thinking about the "Upcycled Movement" and how we use things others discard to create art. "Immi" has an interesting take on our treatment of this Earth - and it's from the point of view of a mother:

The cold shoulder, folded arms, the looking up. You've never listened and carry on, careless, regardless. This is not a fire drill and if we hold any hope, It's harmonic connection, in stereo symbiosis. These Legoland empires choking out mine, Now you're everywhere, everywhere multiplying around me child. A strain on my heart, This rock can't tolerate anymore. Stop this right away. Put that down and clean this mess up. End of conversation. Put your back in it and make it up to me now.

This really does remind me we've got to be stewards of the resources we've been given and need to be careful to clean up our messes - and I mean that in a purely NON-political way. I love seeing artists who are taking that concept and making art with that in mind. The other day I saw an Anthropologie store window decorated with cut up, spray painted 2-liter bottles that had been shaped into flowers and strung together with old bicycle wheels. From far away, it looked like flowers. Up close, you could see the bottles. How clever!

For me, it's taking buttons that have been pulled off of clothing for generations and making them into wearable art. It's finding the textures and designs that will create a new whole. It's finding colors that are striking and appealing. And I love it. But I digress....


Inspiration can be found in many ways. Music is a wonderful way to find inspiration. Imogen Heap is an amazing artist who often inspires me. And let's face it, who doesn't love someone with the chutzpah to show up at the Grammys with a lily pad and Gary the Grammy Frog? Oh yeah, she's THAT girl!

Vintage Wednesday: Guess this item

It's been suggested my Wednesday post should highlight my love of all things vintage. I'm a collector and treasure hunter of sorts. I love to collect little things that were once an important part of someone else's life, but is now largely obsolete.

This week's vintage find is one such item. Do you know what this is? Some of you may have found it on your Easter table this year. A huge glass flower? No, it's a glass egg plate - or some call it a deviled egg platter.

Apparently, prepared boiled eggs have been popular since the beginning of time. There are surviving recipes of stuffed eggs from the court of Henry XIII. It seems, however, the term "deviled" or "devilled" became popular in the 18th century to describe spicy dishes. Get it? Hot, spicy = Deviled? Clever, huh?

They then became deviled eggs because many recipes use mustard to add a little spice to the dish. I know I used either yellow or dried mustard for a little extra bite!

If I had to speculate without outside information, I'd say the egg plate was created by the Victorians, who loved to add special pieces of china and glass to their table to show their wealth. This is the generation of the celery dish and hooded asparagus server, so to think they invented the egg plate would not be too far fetched.

My reading seems to bear this out. It seems the egg plate started appearing in the early 1880s and continued in popularity from there. They can be made with clear, colored or opaque glass and some newer ones are ceramic with bunnies on them.

This particular dish has what's called a "hobnail" pattern on it - that's because it has all the dots on it. I'm not sure the maker because I was more interested in serving eggs than collecting the plates, but I think it's a lovely addition to my table when serving deviled eggs. And sometimes I'm extra wicked and serve them in the winter instead of waiting for spring!

Swoon made it into Etsy's Treasury!

I'm excited to announce that Swoon was able to create a Treasury on Etsy!

Check it out!!

Working Tuesday: April showers bring May flowers...

Ok. I admit it. I know. I've been obsessed with flowers lately. Alright, so it's not a recent obsession, but the difference is now I'm posting them all over my blog, my website... you get the idea. And I think it's been leaking into my work. Ok, it IS leaking into my work.

A couple weeks ago I got some Swarovski petal pearls in an order from Fire Mountain gems thinking I would use them in some wedding accessories and I think the results were wonderful! I think I'm either going to use them in a comb or in individual hair pins. Either would be lovely!

I'd like to do the same thing with petal-like Keshi pearls, but have wondered if I can actually make a profit on something like that considering the Keshi pearls I liked were somewhere around $250 a strand!

Those flowers went so well for me, I picked up some petal shaped dichroic glass beads in pink. I added some pink buttons for the center and started playing around with those as pendants. The latest I've paired with rose quartz and some golden spacer beads. I'm still playing around with laying out the design, but I'm having fun with that result too.

Last weekend, after spending a day photographing Mama E's garden, I decided to pull together some bluebell earrings from some Czech flower beads that have been hanging around. I've been collecting flower beads for a couple years now and I'm just getting around to pulling together some designs with them - and I'm just getting started with what I've got!

So you'll probably be seeing more flowers. But it's spring, so that's probably not such a bad thing!

DIY Bathroom Renovation - Tiling a floor Part 3: Grouting the tile

Your mastic has cured, right? You've waited at least 24 hours? You've pulled the spacers out from between the dried tiles? Great! Let's grout!

For this step, you should have gathered your tools. You'll need some grout - sanded or unsanded depending on the amount of space between the tiles (ask your local home store employee to help you with your choice if you're unsure). I used pre-mixed because that ensured the consistency was right, but you can also use the kind you mix yourself. You'll also need a tool called a rubber float - it's the thing with the handle in the pictures. This will help you make sure you get the grout fully down into the holes between the tiles as you're grouting. You'll also need a bucket, sponge and some rags. All of these to get rid of the extra grout. Finally, I would suggest getting a good pair of knee pads. Bare knees on a tile floor for a long period of time can be quite painful.

Throw on the knee pads, fill up your bucket, open your grout and go to the furthest corner from the door. With your rubber float, pull some grout out of the bucket and slap it onto the floor. Working in an area of about 1 foot by 1 foot, pull the float diagonally across the tile being careful to push as much grout into the spaces between the tiles as you can. I usually try two coats of grout across the same surface area. Scrape off as much excess grout as you can as you go.

Once you're sure you have as much grout as you can get into the spaces between the tiles, wet your sponge in your bucket and draw it across the tile to wipe up the excess grout. Work in a diagonal movement to keep from pulling the grout out of the floor. It might take a couple wipes to get up the excess grout. I then wipe the surface dry to polish the tiles as I go.

Continue to work in small sections until you've reached the door of the room. Make sure you've packed the grout well in the larger areas - such as the areas around pipes where you've had to cut the tile to allow for clearance. I'd also suggest having a buddy to help you keep your water clean as you go. It really helps not to have to continually get up and down to dump the dirty water and get clean water.

Allow the grout to cure for at least 24 hours - or 48 hours if you are able (check the directions in your grout). Once the grout has cured, you should seal it with a sealant. Sealant is also available in your local home improvement store in the tiling section.

Once you've finished sealing, stand back and admire your beautiful work. You've earned it!

Weekend Wanderings: Oatlands

I've lived in the DC area for nearly 14 years, but I'm still discovering things to see. It would probably take another decade of weekends to get to all the museums, ever-changing shops and galleries in the city and I certainly tried when I first moved here. As I've gotten older it seems like my wanderings are going further afield and I save the treks into the city for when someone visits from out of town.

Last fall, on one of our weekend wanderings, my husband and I stumbled across one of the historic treasures that dot the countryside of Northern Virginia. It's called Oatlands, a home whose core was finished in 1798. It was expanded into a "Federal mansion" in the 1820s and went on to be the home of several locally famous people - including the founder of the Washington Post newspaper. It's now a National Trust for Historic Preservation property and there is some family connection to one of the founders of the Trust - if I'd paid more attention to that part of the tour, I could probably tell you now.

The problem is, I'm completely distracted by the architecture and period furniture when touring the property (and I've toured it several times). The entry has ORIGINAL plaster walls. Original. As in they've not had to be redone since they were put there over 100 years ago. The dining room has gorgeous china laid on a period table, a sideboard with knife boxes to die for. THEN you get to the sitting room that's bright as sunshine. And I always see new things when I hit the library: books, trophies, photos, paintings, the crucifix in the corner...

I love curling up and down the staircases at each end of the mansion - another of the many architectural details I love. And the columns outside have the most wonderful, intricate carving that hasn't had to be replaced since put there in the 1820s when the house was transformed to it's current, Federal style.

But the Oatlands mansion is not the real reason I've dragged my husband and various family members out to the Leesburg area. The gardens are the real reason I go. I've seen them in several different seasons now and each season has something to see. The green of summer is blindingly perfect. The dotting the rolling hills in the fall are spectacular. And the winter, when the earth is supposed to be sleeping, still has glimpses of berries on trees and ordered paths to explore.

You can stroll the tiered garden smelling lavender as you go. A little further, though, and you'll find a little man looking out over a reflecting pool. Just a few steps more and you can rest beside the koi pond. Circle back and you'll see the wishing well. Or you might just turn a corner and find a swan throne awaiting a princess to share some magic.

I'm due for a trip soon. It's spring and I've not seen Oatlands in the spring. Perhaps I'll partake of one of their teas in the converted stables. Judging from the the other seasons I have seen, though, I'm taking my camera. Because I'm sure there's so much more to explore and memories to make.