Happy Birthday Brother

My digi profile sketch "Uncle Jace's" wonderful biscotti recipe for They Draw & Cook http://www.theydrawandcook.com

Dentist, drummer, banjo player, jewelry maker, cook,
animal lover, husband.
Our "baby" brother and BIRTHDAY BOY!!

Wishing brother, Jonathan..... aka Jock, Jace, Jake, JC, Jon and Steve
(its a L O N G story) a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

That's brother Jock in the highchair (middle of the
last century at one of our birthday celebrations.
Just who's is a mystery).

Bunnies and Brisket / Matzoh and Jelly Beans

Some of my illustrations and little egg books from
The Great Easter Egg Hunt, by Mary Packard /Workman

                         

Arriving together this year.
Two holidays linked from antiquity, Passover and Easter.
Growing up with family Passover traditions.
Clearing kitchen cupboards of everything leavened.
Family seders, Hagaddahs read in Hebrew and exuberant singing. Gefilte fish with horseradish, charoses, brisket and matzah instead of leavened bread. 


My childhood best friend, Pommy, and her family celebrated Easter traditions. 
Baskets of chocolate rabbits, jelly beans, decorated eggs and marshmallow chicks.

These days my Lutheran sister in law makes the family seder complete with gefilte fish, charoses and Passover plate.

Always managed to enjoy the best of both traditions and still do!

My illustration for The Story of Passover / Moses and the Burning Bush
this book was never published, canceled by a corporate merger between 2
publishers (See March 10, 2010 post, The Story of Passover)

Another of my illustrations for The Story of Passover / The Seder

Spork Maestro

Recently, searched the Net for a combination fork 
and spoon eating utensil. 
Thought it might help my blind Mom eat more
comfortably.
Discovered the spork.
Familiar to kids and campers.
I wanted one that fit in with regular silverware.
Discovered the ETSY shop bosen / handcrafted
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Bosen

Mom's first Bosen made spork, photo ⓒ Bosen 2012, with permission

 Bosen, the shop proprietor and craftsperson, recycles

old worthy teaspoons of "good quality and with character",

painstakingly searched for in thrift stores and garage sales.

Then careful grinding, sanding and filing transforms them into

these useful and unique utensils. Often completing the

transformation by engraving a word like "NOURISH" or 

"Eat" on the stem. 

Bosen credits trying to eat penne pasta at lunch with 

a rounded spoon. Studying bronze casting at a foundry at

the time encouraged the thought of creating tines on the front

edge of the spoon. 

And it works magnificently! 

My Mom started raving immediately!

Amusingly, she was eating a penne pasta dish 

at the time.

I immediately sent for 2 more of Bosen's sporks for Mom.

Now I want some of my own.

These 2 Bosen sporks arrived yesterday, photos ⓒ Bosen 2012, with permission

When not "sporkifying" spoons, Bosen restores older steel 

bicycles and finds them new owners in the small town in

on the North shore of Monterey Bay in Central California

where Bosen lives. 

Bosen writes, "I am passionate about sustainable human 

powered transportation which means keeping every last 

bicycle out of landfills and scrap piles. I make a life of 

turning beat up, neglected old bicycles into smooth running, 

useful machines that will serve their owners for decades to come. 

I suggest you bring along your trusty unique Bosen spork 
for when you stop for lunch and/or dinner. Enjoy your meal.

Thanking its enigmatic, conscientious creator/ recycler.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Bosen

Hooray For Fran Manushkin!

Thanks to author Fran Manushkin. 
A delightful introduction to Hanukkah customs 
and family celebration of the Jewish Festival 
of Lights for the very young.

Each night a new candle is added to
the Menorah.
The whole family prepares and dines on
golden latkes, plays dreidel, sings Hanukkah
songs and enjoys chocolate Hanukkah gelt (coins). 

Watched by their playful tabby kitten.                       
Sharing Hanukkah fun and joy for 8 days and nights.                   
In remembrance of a miracle from 2nd century BC.   
A small amount of holy oil in the Temple burned 
for 8 days enabling the ancient Jews time to prepare 
a new supply in order to rededicate their Temple. 
My Art Director at Random House asked me
to set the celebrations in an early 20th century
city brownstone.
At that time most Jews living in eastern cities,
including some of my family, were poor hard-
working immigrants living in cramped tenements.
But that is a different story.
Simple Stickley style furniture remembered
from my Great Grandmother as well as another
Grandmother's Menorah and old family photos
helped inspire my illustrations.

Happy Birthday USA 2011

(click on image to enlarge)

illustration © Carolyn Croll 2011

Uncle Jace's Pineapple Walnut Biscotti - They Draw & Cook

(click on image to view entire recipe / full spread)

So excited, just received this message from the good folks at TDAC (They Draw And Cook). Guess what?! Uncle Jace's Pineapple Walnut Biscotti recipe is 1 of 6 recipes in the Featured Collection  just posted on the main TDAC jumbotron.  http://www.theydrawandcook.com/

The collection is called "6 Recipes with Pineapples!" and will be featured from April 19 to April 22. After that, the collection can be viewed on our Featured Collection Archive page. Its the 3rd one down. A delightful honor from this very cool website!

Uncle Jace's Pineapple Walnut Biscotti - They Draw & Cook

FINALLY!! Very excited to have my recipe (well its actually my brother Jonathan's recipe) that I illustrated, up on one of my favorite websites
http://www.theydrawandcook.com

A pretty good caricature of brother Jon (done from memory). 
Here he is a few years ago, before his forehead got a little higher 
and his hair a little grayer. (He's gonna kill me..........) :~)

Time To Bake The Cookies, Part II

Been making biscotti.
Biscotti means "twice baked".
First bake the dough into
loaves. 

Then, after they've  cooled a bit, 

slice them on the diagonal. 

Bake the slices for 10 minutes

or so. 

Easy and fun to make. 

I've collected many biscotti

recipes and sometimes change

the add ins and flavorings.

This time, Chocolate Mocha 

Walnut, Orange Cranberry 

Pistachio, and my Italian

teacher Teresa's Chocolate 

Chip Hazelnut.

Most will be holiday gifts.

One size fits all and no one

ever returns them.

Personally, I prefer Whisker Lickins crunchy tuna snacks.

PS
I'll be happy to share recipes, should anyone want one. 
Or, just Google your favorite flavors followed by the word "biscotti"
and find more than you want to know.

The Cat Boys and I wish everyone a joyful holiday!  =^..^=

Time To Bake The Cookies

(click on images to enlarge)

Started my biscotti baking.

I like to alter recipes as I go.

Today, chocolate mocha with

walnuts and mini chocolate chips.

Tomorrow, stay tuned. I'll see 

what I feel like making. 

Christina making Christmas treats in my book THE LITTLE SNOWGIRL

Always delightful to see a foreign edition.

Want to guess the language of this one?

Along with the book, my splendid designer Gunta Alexander, 

included this note that someone had posted in the xerox room 

at Putnam. Click on it to share the amusing commentary. ;-)

Small Thoughts

True confession;
Besides books and beads I am easily distracted by miniature
stuff, especially of the handcrafted dollhouse-scale variety.
I once owned a vintage handmade huge dollhouse, 2 rooms
deep like a real house. It was almost as big as my little 
apartment living room, so it had to go. I still have a 2
room "Pine St." shop I made from the wooden crate
in which my French cookware was shipped long ago
No power tools were used in its creation. Working on it
kept me sane during a fallow work period back then.

Upstairs, an artist's studio, downstairs a gourmet
food and cookware shop I dubbed "Small Potatoes.
This morning, my friend Alice from www.thecarrotbox.com
posted some links on her blog 
http://glassfiction.blogspot.com/2010/04/la-prochaine-fois-tattooley-rose.html
that led me to http://www.artisansinminiature.com/ , 
an online miniatures magazine for professional miniature artisans.
They had me on page 1, but to join one needs to be a Professional Miniatures Artisan. 

So, I submitted these two items that I made
for consideration, hoping they are good enough, along with my books and beads to obtain some dispensation.
Here's hoping. ;-)


PS: They've turned me down because the rules say I must be an artisan who SELLS her miniature work. Never fear, I see this as an impetus to do some miniatures for sale on ETSY. Stay tuned.

Rainy Days And Philly

Locally grown veggies at Reading Terminal Market

Relief from a gray rainy Thursday in Philadelphia, PA.

Color, culinary and art and crafts inspiration at 

Reading Terminal Market and shopping

Colorful Chung May Food Market 

in China Town with my old friend, fellow artist 

Pam Newton.

(see post Pam & The Tizman 2/18/09 for

her delightful portrait of TZ).

Reading Terminal Market 

http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/

Chung May Food Market, 1017 Race St. Phila, PA 19107

Hooray For Hanukkah, Latkes!

This year Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins one week from tonight on December 21, 2008. 

The celebration lasts for eight days and commemorates

the rededication of the second Temple at the time of the ancient Maccabees. 

Here is my cover for Hooray for Hanukkah by Fran Manushkin, that I illustrated for Random House a few years ago. In this story the Menorah relates the holiday customs celebrated by the family as a new candle is lit each night until there are eight candles.

The publisher asked me to set the pictures in a city brownstone at the beginning of the 20th century which gave me a chance to illustrate some favorite decor and costumes.

When it came to depicting Latkes, special holiday potato pancakes, there was a humorous discrepancy between the latkes Cathy Goldsmith,  my editor, was familiar with and the latkes I drew in my sketches. My latkes looked like those I had been raised on. They were made from grated potatoes, eggs and matzoh meal which produced the delicious coarse crispy golden fried potato pancakes of my childhood. Her family latkes, on the other hand, as I recall, were made from a smoother potato mixture,  crisp on the outside but more rounded and softer inside. Our "dispute" ended in compromise and this taste-full memory.

LATKE RECIPE - (like my family makes)

(6-ish servings)

2 cups peeled and grated Idaho or Russet potatoes

1 small grated onion

3 beaten eggs

2 1/2 tablespoons of matzoh meal

 salt and pepper to taste

peanut oil

Put grated potatoes in a sieve over a bowl and push with the back of a wooden spoon to release as much moisture as you can.

Mix the potatoes, onion, eggs, matzoh meal together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottom frying pan over medium heat until hot.

Place 4 heaping spoonfuls of potato mixture in the hot oil and flatten each to between 1/2 and 1/4 inch thickness. Brown on one side (about 4-5 minutes)  then use a spatula to turn and brown them on the other side.

Remove when done and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with sour crean , apple sauce or yoghurt.

To good to eat not only on Hanukkah, yum!

Read what Fran Manushkin, the Author, has to say about writing the book, HOORAY FOR HANUKKAH at http://www.franmanushkin.com/hooray for hanukkak.htm