Edible Deception

One of our all time favorite restaurants is in the North End of Boston...
and believe it or not it is not Italian!

It is a raw and living foods restaurant called Grezzo owned by Alissa Cohen, Raw Foods Chef and Teacher.

Anyway, above is a shining example of the artful trickery...it looks like a beautiful piece of grilled salmon...but I don't like fish and I loved this.

What do you think it is?

Give up?

It is papaya...and it's not grilled, in fact it isn't cooked at all!
It was yummy...as is everything there.

They have a "taster menu"...which lets you try many items...fun to get with a friend and share!
Visit their website and read about their mission and see the weekly menus.

Be sure to check out the desserts!
My mouth is watering...

http://grezzorestaurant.com/boston/index.html

Threads

An interesting use of a readily available material.

How clever to turn colorful spools of thread into home decor!

Merry Christmas!

My glamorous mother...

Merry Christmas..For Now

So, I had to use some pictures from last Christmas...

because we are waiting to celebrate Christmas, this year,

until my husband comes home for good in January!

Yea!

While we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday now...

ours will officially be January 29, 2009.

Happy and healthy...to all!

She looks like she has had a little too much eggnog!

From Small Hands

We love to make our teacher gifts. These are from last year.

My dad is a singer, so we gave copies of his holiday CD to everyone with handmade CD case covers. Above are all of the different covers my son (Logan) made.

We have a small, intimate school, so we make gifts for all of the teachers...not just his.

He came up with the ideas, specific to each teacher and I helped him with some of the shapes. We used scraps of colorful paper left over from other projects.

He layered the simple shapes to create one-of-a-kind collages that we popped into the cases.

I thought they were so sweet and ultra personal.

I also like that he sees the value in creating something with his hands and mind.

A good life lesson, I think.

Artful Creature

So this image is beautiful enough on it's own...


The colors, the shape, the detail...dramatic with no help from me.

We were on our way back from Canada and happened to stop at a State Park restroom...and there it was. What a treat. A natural work of art.

Something that could definitely be inspiration for other creative pursuits...jewelry, fabric patterns, painting...you just never know where a muse will appear!

Two for One

We love to make smoothies!

Thick creamy ones...light fruity ones..."green" ones...we love them all.
They are super easy to make and I find it is an excellent way to get more veggies and greens in my kids...with less fight.

One thing I like to do is make a little extra and freeze some. It's nice to have a frozen treat for later!

The smoothie above is made with frozen bananas and tahini. It is thick and sweet. I stir in some vegan chocolate chips just before freezing for some added texture.

Yum!