Blogging Around the World, Boud Does Her Bit

I was invited by Mary Anne of  here  to take part in the Around the World blogging project, which consists of being invited by a previous blogger, linking back to her, there you are, Magpie! and sending you on to other bloggers who have agreed to play, while answering various questions on my art, how I do it, why, and so on.  She is a wonderful crazy quilter and has many other stitching adventures going on at any time you check in there, is being published in an upcoming calendar of crazy quilting, and is a guest lecturer at quilting guilds. Browse her blog for a good read. Make a cup of tea first, you'll want to stay.

Here I have to say that this is not my art blog, this is my cooking, reading, grammar policing, nature watching, pet following, bloviating blog, into which my art life doesn't usually come, though my character dolls, the Dollivers, which I created and which then took on a life of their own do come, all the time!

So I would like to refer you over to Art, the Beautiful Metaphor,  here which is a play on words around the Soccer, the Beautiful Game meme,  to read my findings on this.  I already sneakily referred you to a wonderful blogging poet, at http://redspork.blogspot.com/ a couple of days ago, and my invitations to participate in the BAW were gracefully declined, people too modest to want spotlight despite their massive talents. 

Anyway, back at Field and Fen  I was browsing through Ina Garten in prep for my upcoming meeting of the Bite Club, and thought, hm, can I make something that I can take with me and serve at room temp as a sample.  So I made, or tried to, these Parmesan Crisps.

Now, I readily acknowledge that, block parmesan being way out of my budget, I subbed with grated parm and coarsely grated sharp cheddar, figuring that would help it hold together.


Followed the recipe very carefully, picked fresh thyme, crushed the black peppercorns in my pestle and mortar, all very elemental, and found that the crisps fell to crumbs even after cooling as instructed.  Couldn't be lifted off the parchment paper and onto a rack to cool further. So perhaps block, translation expensive, parmesan has different qualities that make it work, not blaming them, just reporting.  This may a place where you can't substitute.

So, since, as my Mom used to say, it's all good ingredients, I wondered how to rescue this mixture.

Which I did by adding a bit of split pea flour, some milk and an egg, and I made these nice croquettes, a couple of which are great to go with my sweet potato soup for lunch today.  A bit heavy on the salt for my taste, but they sauted up lovely and browned very obligingly for me.

So this is a kitchen rescue, I guess.