Jackie E-S is the owner of HeartStrings FiberArts, a showcase for her growing roster of original pattern designs. As a certified master knitter and teacher, Jackie continues to share her love of knitting and knowledge through design and publication of skill-building pattern instructions, and conducting workshops, programs and demonstrations. Her interest in the fiber arts extends beyond knitting and spinning to include weaving, dyeing and all needle arts. She also enjoys contract bridge and music.
Today’s Chinese fortune cookie read: “A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”
Among the fantastic restaurants here in the New Orleans area, there are some above-par Chinese buffets. My favorite these days is in Kenner, LA. It’s easy to eat ’til full (they have great fresh sushi!). There’s not room in my ‘lil tummy to eat the fortune cookie that comes out with the bill. So I save them up at the house until I have a craving now and then for a bit of sweet. Unfortunately, by the time I usually get around to cracking the cookie open, it is stale since I don’t eat sweets very often. But it is always fun to read the little strip of paper included in the cookie.
Do you believe in these fortune cookie things? This particular saying struck home to me because this week started off as the pits for me. I had a very stressful Monday (problems with internet connection speed running at 1/100th it should have been; seems due to some kind of glitch in the AT&T settings for my business account, but it took hours on phone and a couple of days to get this worked out with them). And now I’ve been struggling the rest of this week with exhaustion.
So finally here on Thursday of this week, I spent part of today getting back to “dirt”. Planted tomatoes, banana peppers, okra, and Thai basil. Just moving and getting back to nature helps me relax from all that worrying and exhaustion.
Why do I let those kind of things worry me and bring me down? Life is too short, they say, right? Still, when things are going seemingly wrong, it is difficult to see the sun for the clouds. Please feel to share our stories, too.
We’re not only in Lent season, but today is also Meatless Monday. So I wanted to tell you about another tasty vegetable dish I concocted. I call it Brussels Sprouts with Indian Seasonings.
I actually made this dish a little while back, but just had not gotten around to pulling the photos and a blog article together to show you. That means you might have to use frozen instead of fresh Brussels sprouts due to seasonal availability, but I think that should work out similarly. Before beginning the cooking, I slice the Brussels sprouts in half so that the flavorings can more easily permeate them during the later stir-frying. I also thinly slice a medium-sized onion and set that aside.
The cleaned and cut Brussels sprouts
I can’t claim much creativity in concocting this dish, as it basically is Madhur Jaffrey’s “Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds” from page 94 of the book Quick & Easy Indian Cooking. After all, Brussels sprout is in the same family as cabbage. I actually liked this recipe used with the Brussels sprouts better than shredded cabbage, maybe because there is more ‘body’ to the Brussels sprouts.
I always love the balance of seasonings in Jaffrey’s recipes, so I used the proportions in her recipe for the flavoring ingredients: fennel seeds, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, salt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and garam marsala.
After heating up a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok, I sizzled the spices briefly to release their aromas. I just love this part. I like to have all the seasonings measured beforehand, as this part of the assembly process goes very fast. Then add the thinly sliced onion and stir-fry a couple of minutes until the “just browning stage”. Then toss in the Brussels sprouts and stir-fry to the degree of doneness you prefer.
Ingredients assembled in the wok
Total cooking time goes quickly — about 10 to 12 minutes total, including time for sizzling the spices and browning the onions. You might like to cook the Brussels Sprouts longer, but I personally find they taste better when not overcooked and mushy. If you start with previously frozen Brussels sprouts, the cooking time might be even less.
The finished dish - Brussels Sprouts with Indian Seasonings
March 20th marks the Vernal Equinox in 2011. In case you are wondering (or might have forgotten), the Vernal Equinox is one of two times in the year when night and day are (nearly as possible) the same. More specifically, the time at which the Vernal Equinox is UTC 23:21 today (hope I have that right, lol).
In any case, today marks the beginning of Spring. So happy Springtime to everyone, my friends.
Unicorn Fibre products are created to protect and maintain the beauty of all fibers…from raw fleece and yarns, to your most cherished hand-knit possessions. Thanks to Anna and Pino of Unicorn Fibres for their generosity in providing samples.
I do not know how or why my parents selected Maurine Smith as my piano teacher. I only recall my Mom saying that I was to take piano lessons so that I could learn to sing (please don’t ask me what her rationalization was; I never did figure that out, either).
This is NOT the way to play a piano. I was 4 years old; not too long before starting piano lessons with Maurine Smith. The first thing I was taught was proper seating and posture.
I was 5 years old when I first began lessons with Miss Smith. The piano was much bigger than me. It would be a few years before I could even reach the peddles or span a full octave. But the advantage of being so young was that I was still like brain sponge; good technique and memorization was learned early and easily.
Daily practice became a way of life (sometimes even when I otherwise would have liked to be outside playing with friends). I learned commitment and perseverance.
Miss Smith had a wonderful way of teaching with easily-understood metaphors to convey just the right touch and tone. She was always encouraging, yet firm. And she wrote ALL OVER my music! Oh, the wonderful memories each of her marks on my piano music now brings back to me of all those years of weekly lessons with her.
When you think about us being together for nearly 10 years, this piano teacher was the next most influential person to that of my parents in forming my life-long character and values. The appreciation and understanding of piano music I gained from Miss Smith in my youth undoubtedly had a relationship to my later aptitude in mathematics. And ultimately in knitting design where melody takes on the form of interlaced stitches. Also, in my later career development and setting up business, the discipline I learned and commitment to practice and perform publicly are things for which I am forever grateful to Maurine Smith.
Maurine Smith and I in front of recital hall. This photo was probably taken the last year I played in Maurine Smith's annual recital. Apparently interior photos of the recitals in progress were never allowed. Considering the performance anxiety I was already going through at any recital, that was probably a good thing.
I continued my piano studies with other teachers after my family moved from the Chicago area to NC. It was never quite the same, though, as when I had been with Miss Smith. And there was never another piano teacher that marked up my music like Miss Smith did. I really missed that, funny as it might seem.
I continued my piano study and practicing while in high school. Yes, that's the same grand piano as you saw before. But I've grown up and the piano is smaller - yes?
Do you remember a teacher that particularly influenced your life?
For me, it was not immediately obvious even as recently as just a couple of months ago. You see, those early years of mine were all just a given — they happened and I took them for granted. Then not long ago, a friend of mine (who is very much into music, too) happened to mention Piano Lessons: A Memoir by Anna Goldsworth. I really enjoyed this read. There were many parallels in this book to my own story, albeit unpublished … and almost forgotten until this awakening in me of memories and discovery of memorabilia long-forgotten in my attic.
I played recital performances 1951 - 1960. These are the recital programs that I found in the memorabilia box for 1958 - 1960.
p.s. The River Forest Woman’s Club, where Maurine Smith’s annual student recitals were held, had an auditorium with movable seating, a small stage and a balcony. When I recently researched this building, it was further described as having been “created to be versatile, accommodating itself to music, dance, drama, lectures, public and private meetings. This main hall has acoustics as good as any other small auditorium in the country. Perfect for small musical ensembles, it requires no amplification for a speaker, even when the hall is full to capacity (about 150 people).” Although electronic amplification is pretty standard today in performances, I was reminded that we had no microphones or electronic amplification in those recitals … Just the natural amplification from the opened top of a grand piano. There are some old photos of the exterior and interior of the building here. The interior is similar to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple, the building having been the work of architect William Drummond who had been Wright’s chief draftsman.
As an aside, the historic Woman’s Club building was nearly demolished in the 2000’s but after a long preservation battle, the current owners acquired the building and converted the building for residential use with very little change to the interior plan.
The Stitching for Literacy program celebrates reading and needlework. Here is your advance notice to make a hand-stitched bookmark now to donate for Children’s Book Week which runs May 2 – 8 this year.
Jen Funk Weber of Needle and ThREAD is again sponsoring an annual drive for hand-stitched bookmarks that will be donated to libraries and schools during Children’s Book Week. The Stitching for Literacy Bookmark Challenge runs March 17 – April 28, 2011.
During this annual Bookmark Challenge, independent needlework shops, guilds, and other groups collect hand-stitched bookmarks and donate them to libraries and schools during Children’s Book Week. The bookmarks are distributed to kids as rewards for reading accomplishments.
This a wonderful opportunity to take a little time out with the needlework you love — make a bookmark that encourages a child to read. Check with your local stitchery shop or library for collection programs they are hosting, or take action yourself to host a program on behalf of a library or school. If you want to participate but are not sure where to donate, Jen at Needle and ThREAD is the point of contact to help you.
For knitters, here’s inspiration and general instructions for a pleated-end bookmark that has a lot of possibilities of embellishment and personalization. The write-up is available for free at the HeartStrings FiberArts site.
There are also more ideas for bookmarks made in cross stitch, etc. at the Stitching for Literacy site.
I hope you will be able to join stitchers all over in making bookmarks for this year’s Children’s Book Week. Feel free to post your comments and ideas here.
p.s. A shout-out to my fellow bloggers in this month’s challenge.
Related Images:
Behind the scenes with Jackie E-S and life at the HeartStrings FiberArts studio.
by Anna Goldsworth. I really enjoyed this read. There were many parallels in this book to my own story, albeit unpublished … and almost forgotten until this awakening in me of memories and discovery of memorabilia long-forgotten in my attic.
