Crowning Glory

What a creative Sunday I had. Sun up to Sun down. I considered breaking all this up into multiple blogs, but I want you to get the feel of how amazing it is to spend the day trying new things and getting so much out of one 12 hr period.
 For me, a great day has to start with a great breakfast. I needed to poach an egg and watch that yolk ooze over something. I had a burger saturday with a fried egg, the yolk was nice, but it didn't ooze, I was fixated on that.
I was thinking greens, but the only thing I had was baby romaine. Now I love a grilled romaine salad, so it was worth a try. I broke the egg into the water, and realized immediatly the yolk was frozen, due to having put the carton on the freezer side of the fridge. But I was committed now, and  actually assumed it would thaw as it cooked. I was right, the egg was perfect. The greens, eh. But the egg, a sprinkle of shaved parm and some sourdough toast was worth it.

After sitting by the fire and finishing up some chores, it was time to move on to creativity round 2, the Crafternoon Event Id been waiting for. A Crowns and Tiaras crafting event in the Gypsy Craft Camp at Roadside Attraction.

It looks somewhat unimposing, but inside these doors I found a soul sister. AND the Gypsy Craft Camp....



Once the rest of the crew arrived we proceeded to construct Crowns. Beautiful, personal, self-aggrandizing crowns! What a joy! There was every conceivable tool, texture, glimmer, sparkle, paper, paint, ribbon and bauble one could dream of. Carol really set up a wonderful camp of enchantment and the 4 of us were not only in our element, but in our glory.



Carol provided a secret recipe Sangria, and Frankie provided some amazing baked goods for our snacking pleasure.

Each and every one of us was delighted with our take aways.



This is a wonderful book. There was so much fun to be had, we could have stayed for days, not just a few hours.
And Im really happy to add, there was still more creating to come....
Round 3...
Once I got home I was ready to try a cooking technique I had seen in Food & Wine Magazine.
'Tea Smoked Shrimp' uses uncooked rice, loose leaf tea and brown sugar cooked up in the bottom of a wok. This concoction will get all smoky and cook your shrimp lickety split, infusing them with flavor that is subtle and a smokiness that for me was divine! I LOVE a smokey flavor and this recipe really brings it. At the same time it really offers an amazing array of varibles for changing the flavor profile.

The recipe recommends covering the wok in foil, and it requires a lid. My wok has never had a lid, so I just used more foil.

I started with plain long grain white rice. Super inexpensive. I added the brown sugar and selected one of my favorite teas, Earl Grey. After stirring the mixture up I put it in the bottom of the wok. Over a moderate heat I watched and waiting until I saw smoke tendrils wafting up.

There is smoke in this picture, trust me.  Once the smoking started, I put the rack in  and placed the shrimp in a single layer. I want to add at this point, you could use any type of baking rack or steamer basket that will fit, but bear in mind a bamboo steamer basket will probably retain that smokey flavor and could certainly impart it on your next steamer meal, so be careful. Then I covered it tightly with foil.

The magic only took about 5 minutes. And these were colossal shrimp. Smaller guys I would check on within two minutes to be sure they dont get to tough. But wow! It was amazing!!

(My food photography is improving, believe it or not.)
I made a quick rustic ponzu with soy and lemon juice to add some tang. But there are so many things I want to try next... hot thai peppers in the rice mix. Maybe a Jasmine Tea, or Ceylon or Pekoe. Maybe some citrus zest and fresh herbs! What about Scallops instead of shrimp?!?! Im thinking that wok is actually going to stop gathering dust.
I will just close by saying the perfect topper to my awesome day was a roaring fire with my super fantastic husband and a movie. MMMMMmmmm. I wish you all days like this as often as you can make them.