Mint used in Main Dish

Thai  Beef-Mint Salad (we like it as an entree):

The recipe shown above is an easy one that we make frequently in the spring and summer when mint is plentiful.  This recipe is from a book K's Kwisine, authored by Harry Kaiserian, a Maine columnist.  It can be purchased here.

Harry says in the foreword of the book:

These recipes are all favorites of somebody, somewhere. The best of the best, so to speak. They represent many, many years of cooking and dining experience and were submitted by a lot of wonderful people for the K's Kwisine column that continues to run since its start in 1987.

Daughter Heidy and I were fortunate to spend a week with Harry Kaiserian and his wife at the Italian Cooking School Scula di Cucina "La Bottega del 30" north of Sienna, Italy learning how to make some traditional Italian dishes. 

Harry was just getting this book printed when we met, so of course I had to purchase the compilations of his favorite recipes.   Every recipe in his book K's Kwisine is a keeper. Give the Thai Beef-Mint a try, and like Harry says: "be bold" and enjoy!

You might also be interested in the recipes we learned to prepare in the villa a Sesta at their cooking school.  The book of Italian recipes is available at the Scula di Cucina website located here.

Dolls Carved from Soap

A friend sent a PowerPoint slideshow that is amazing. Amazing because each doll has been crafted from a bar of soap. See below for the first slide in the series.

Here is the link to the slideshow of  15 intricately crafted soap dolls in its entirety:

 French Dolls in Soap

FloralArtOilsandWatercolors - A new blogspot for artwork

Yesterday was the day for art clean-up, including creation of a new blog for cataloguing my paintings.

The new site is called Floral Art, Etc. and will focus only on art and displaying what I am currently painting.

Most of the oils and watercolors that I saved to computer files are displayed here.  Some are for sale, some have been gifted, but all can be more or less replicated.  Many of those pieces have been blogged about on Nancy's Arts Crafts and Favorites on blogspot, and the references are duplicated there.

Please visit it and offer constructive criticism, if you will.  Thanks!

clean up picture courtesy of this site by Anjum