First (real) Snow of 2008

There's not much else better in life than a coat of snow several inches thick to make the vacant gray of winter beautiful.

Snails

Snails. They are the cutest of slimy land/sea creatures. They're also very tasty. I bought some mud snails at H-Mart this week (my local super Asian grocery store here in Fairfax) to experiment with. I had snails for the first time a few weeks ago at the Viet Bistro located in the Eden Center of Falls Church. (If you're reading this and you're from NoVa you HAVE to go there. Everything is delicious... try the lemon grass eel, too!)

So anyhow... I stumbled across a rather large bucket of snails at H-Mart on Sunday... and for $2.99 a pound how could I lose? So I picked up just a few, about 7 or 8 snails. I wanted very much to enjoy a similar dish as to what I had a Viet Bistro, but I couldn't seem to find any similar recipes online. So.... I winged (wang? wung? haha) it. Here's what I came up with today:

7 or 8 snails of good size (mine were labeled "mud snails" & were 3 to 4 inches in shell height)
fresh lemon, cut into wedges
juice of fresh lime
zest of one lime
1 to 2 tbs hoisin sauce
1 tsp sriracha (or other chili paste sauce) (add more or less, whatever you like)
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
2 scallions, sliced thinly
1 japanese cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced into 1/8 inch pieces
1/4 small onion
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 to 1 whole tsp fresh grated ginger
pinch or two of sugar
salt/pepper to taste

Set a medium pot of water on the stove, add a couple wedges of lemon (3 to 4 which would about half a lemon, depending on how you cut it) and bring it to a rolling boil. After rinsing the snails (still in their shells) drop 'em in. Boil for about 3 to 3.5 minutes, depending on the size of your snails (larger ones take longer, duh) BUT DON'T OVER DO IT --TOUGH MOLLUSKS ARE YUCKY!

When you're done boiling, drain your snails and set them aside in a clean bowl to cool.

In a glass or other non-reactive bowl, add the zest of one lime, and about half a lime's worth of juice. Add all your other ingredients and mix it up. Taste test, if it's too spicy add a little more hoisin & lime, maybe a tad bit more of sugar. But don't be a sissy. This is South East Asian style, in other words... Some like it hot.

To clean the snails... well this can be a bit messy, I blundered my way into figuring out exactly what to do(I just knew I didn't want to eat the guts, lol) I'd link you to a tutorial with photos but I haven't found one to my liking.

When the snails are cool enough to touch, just grab one by the foot and tug gently until it comes out of the shell. Don't pull too hard, you'll get splattered with snail juice. (and by now you've realized they smell like shellfish and you're already going to be washing your hands with lemons...) Once you have the snail out, you try either pulling the foot off or using a sharp, small knife to cut it off. (I prefer the latter) Slide your knife across the flesh and sorta just feel your way around pulling off some of the mucus membrane. Carefully holding both knife and mollusk, cut off everything that looks like it has guts in it. Slice what you have left lengthwise down the middle, and scrape away anything else that looks icky. What you should have is 2 bite sized whitish pieces of snail. Place all your finished bits in a clean bowl. Before adding to all your other ingredients, rinse your snail meat a few times in cold water.

So that's it. Now, after I made this I changed my mind and decided to let it all stew together in the fridge so the snails could absorb some of the flavors. If you decide to do this as well, I would suggest waiting until serve time to throw in the cilantro & the scallions. They will look fresher, and the cilantro taste will be sharper. I didn't think of this beforehand so my dish won't be as pretty.

Now, if you want to be fancy go ahead and serve this over some cooked rice noodles, maybe in a bowl with a bit of dashi or low sodium chicken broth or seafood/fish stock if you have it on hand. At Viet Bistro, our snails were served warm over a cabbage or lettuce, I don't quite recall. Play around with it, figure out what you like and make it your own.

I'm off to meet the off-spring at the bus stop soon. And to run errands... dream up a new tako sunomono recipes.

Read more about snails and Vietnamese dishes!

So it's been awhile...

Well to start, last entry I mentioned preparations for a bazaar... I'm sure you're all just dying to know (4 months later HA!) how things went. Well, to make a long story short I got a load of lame excuses from my bazaar "buddy" and that unfortunately culminated into her not participating at the last minute. So, after having spent a lot of moolah and a whole lot of time working towards this I was very disappointed. Suffice to say, we haven't spoken since.

Christmas was crazy. (Isn't it always?) My mother-in-law came for a few days, we worked super hard on spoiling the bejesus out of my 5 year old daughter, and crafting crafting like crazy. I also picked up a part time job at my local bead shop helping out a few hours a week. I really love working there. Everyone is super nice, and I get to look at all the shinies. I especially like the owner's daughter. She's about my age, super bubbly, and a great business woman from what I've seen so far. Like I said, everyone is so nice!



I got a fabulous new sewing machine for Christmas-


hopefully soon I'll have time to catch up on those sewing projects I'd been putting off. I'm recycling the current doggy bed (it's just so big, we got it on sale before I realized we were getting a wire hair fox terrier, and not a collie) into a smaller doggy bed & a matching pillow for the crate. I got the cutest fabric at Jo-Ann's. 100% cotton flannel with little squirrels all over it. Now, I realize that my puppy probably can't see the tiny pictures but it had great cute factor for us. Kagome LOVES to chase squirrels and anything tiny that moves. (So much for that future hamster pet for my 5 year old "Hamtaro"
lover) I've also got some more draft blockers for the energy inefficient doors, new furniture pillow covers, and a couple pin cushion ideas. I am thinking of trying my hand at patchwork.


Jewelry! Well, since I've been at the bead shop, OF COURSE there's been an increase in my bead collection. I've bought some really neat stuff, and I really want to sit down and use it on some of the ideas I've had. Pictures to follow the making of said pieces. Sadly, that's all on hold for the next few days at least since I have a CRAP-TON of stuff to do for Girl Scouts this week.

Oh yes, I haven't mentioned I'm the Daisy Leader for my daughter's troop. I'm glad I did it because it meant a lot to Skylar but I think it was the wrong time for me to pick up a commitment like this when I had so many other things I'm responsible for and things I wanted to do this year. It's a lot of work, but it was looking like there might not be a troop unless someone stepped up to lead... so I did it. And Skylar is happy and I guess that's all that matters. That's not to say it's all bad, it's just that my plate was very full already. It's really neat getting to interact with other girls my daughter's age. Each one of them has something beautiful and unique about them. I really like that I get the opportunity to share my own interests and perceptions of the world, in addition to the building blocks that Girl Scouts gives young girls. I love to share my favorite retro childhood crafts and see what each girl chooses to make on her own.

Anyhoo.... That's what's been going on lately. I've also been pulling more inspiration from my Morimoto book in the kitchen. I go through phases where I get super bored with food and the last thing I want to do is cook everything from scratch. I think that now, after Christmas, I'm getting a second wind. I've been reminiscing over the dinner date Mike and I had at Morimoto's restaurant in Philadelphia and wishing for a DERICIOUS taste of the rock shrimp tempura & wasabi sorbet. I did the next best thing this evening and made our own sushi after a trip to H-Mart.

Oh, and mmmmmm yan-yan.

Yep. I think that's it for now. Hopefully some projects will be completed soon and I'll remember to post some photos.

xoxo

Long Overdue For Updates

I have some crafty news! On October 6th I & my lovely friend, Ruth, will be attending a bazaar in Oakton, VA. This will be my first show displaying my own work, as well as Ruth's. I'm very excited. As the day approaches more closely and I have more pieces completed I will surely upload some photos & updates.

In other news (and what actually struck me with the fancy to blog today) we have a beaver. Well not *we* as in our house or property, although I did catch him/her on my porch the other day eating sunflower seeds I'd left out for the squirrels. The beaver is actually about 5 condos down from us, it has dug itself a nice cool hole under their cement stairs. I found him this morning when I was walking the dog. Now we've seen him quite a few times before, apparently so have some of the more ... shall we say obnoxious?... children in the neighborhood. Those kids really don't like me- I'm that chick that's always yelling at them for doing stupid stuff. For example, chasing a 35 pound beaver with a stick.

Anyway, I was taking a couple photos of the beaver this morning & I let Skylar come out to see it up close (we were a mere 10ft away from it!) and someone who knows the condo association president
said we should call animal control. Now, in my humble opinion the
beaver is just fine. As far as I know the beaver's been here all summer. We've no young trees for it to strip and other than that hole under those folks' stairs there's no sign of damage from him at all. Besides, it's funny to watch those damn outdoor cats that are roaming around not be able to take it, haha

Anyhow, this lady said that since we've gotten a new management company they'll be accessing all the houses individually and those stairs will have to be fixed. So bye-bye subterranean beaver home. She may be right though, I mean I have to admit I worry when I see the beaver dashing across the busy street and hiding under parked cars.

It's really neat to see wildlife like this up close and frequently. Especially beavers! They're incredibly clever and cute. But then you have to stop and think about just how wrong it seems to have such examples of wildlife in a busy condo development 3 blocks from 2 major highways...


Perhaps I will call someone at the shelter to relocate him when they open on Tuesday. I'll miss watching him.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted...

Well now that the move from the old blog to the new one is finished, you would think it's time for some updates. But, I'm going to Virginia Beach for the next two weeks and then a week after that it's off to Myrtle Beach for the family vacation. So while I'll have time to work on whatever my little heart desires I probably won't have any photos or stories until after July. But who am I kidding? I'll be spending the next month swimming, fishing, crabbing, and building sandcastles with the world's coolest almost-five-year-old girl. Now that's the life.

Welcome!

So my name is Morgan. Obviously, this is my blog. As I slowly work on jewelry and other fun crafty items, I'll display them here along with some how-to guides and maybe just some tips or fun little things I come across.

I also have an Etsy shop. You should visit. Hopefully I will have some more items up for sale soon. Maybe when I get a chance I'll figure out how to make a block of links here on my blog and I can list some of my favorite sites to visit.

Suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Happy Crafting!