Ori's Solstice Smoothie and Liss Peach Bliss!

Hello Dears,

I'm coming to you with a little something different today. I just got done with a little smoothie experiment and the results are, well, tasty! I wanted to share the "recipe",  if you can call it that, with everyone. I have two smoothie concepts that are cheap to make and great for summer!

Ori's Summer Solstice Strawberry Smoothie
(note: the fresher, more organic produce will taste better!)

Stuff you'll need:

• a pint of strawberries
• 1 apple( I used a 'pink lady' apple which has a tangy taste to it)
• red wine of choice
• local honey (I used wildflower honey)
• spring water

Stuff you can add if you like:

• tofu (yes tofu, this makes the concoction creamy without using dairy; you can't taste it!)

So basically you have a lot of freedom with amounts used because I just kinda "felt it out" based on my own tastes. I wanted the tangy apple and tangy red wine to compliment the overwhelming sweetness of the strawberries and 4-5 table spoons of honey. I used water rather than ice to really blend it into a juice but if your blender can handle it, ice would really make it nice!

If you don't like red wine or can't have it for heath/religious reasons, try any kind of fruit juice-- especially pomegranate.

Lucky suggested I use this red wine, but it is reserved for close friends!

If you want a sharper, more tangy taste use less honey and strawberries and add more wine. Do the reverse if you want it sweeter. Just be sure to watch out for that one bad strawberry at the bottom of each bushel. It'll get ya!

Liss's White Wine and Peach Bliss


Stuff you'll need:

• 1-3 white peaches
• small amount of pineapple juice
• white wine of choice
• local honey (I used wildflower honey)
• spring water

Stuff you can add if you like:

• peach yogurt (I would not recommend plain yogurt as it tends to be sour)

This recipe, like the person it's named after, is a bit sweeter. It leaves less room for those who don't like sweet-tasting drinks but the natural sugars shouldn't overwhelm you! The white wine you choose may serve to "calm it down" a bit, but like the other recipe you can tailor this one to your tastes.

Once again, if wine isn't your think a sparkling grape juice would be a good replacement, as would a clear soda if you don't mind the less healthy path.

If you try out either of these recipes, let me know your  results! Send me a picture of your creations and I'll post them.

That's all for now, dear!

-Ori

Crafting Day results!

Hello Dears,

Sorry for the long pause in posting. A bunch of happy, fun, life stuff has been going on and I haven't been able to get much done in the way of crafting. Despite such setbacks as a brand new iMac, Diablo III, more responsibilities at work, a more energized social life when I'm not gaming, and tore-up fingers, my friend Liss the Snood-Squirrel and I got together yesterday for a fun day of crafting.

She asked me to embroider a pillow for her awesome dog with the pup's name on it. In return she is helping me with my latest pony project: Zecora. I tried doing Zecora's jewelry in fleece but that just didn't seem to work. So I asked Liss to use her super, 'knit-fu' to help create Zecora's accents. Her's an action shot of our progress!

All faces on this blog are obscured to protect the innocent!

I also made some progress on my white deer bag that I hope to have done in time for the Maryland Renaissance fair. So if you're attending the fair this year, look for the lady with the white deer mask, bag, and awesome kilt attire!

I should also mention that while we crafted I got to see the 1980's film "Bladerunner" for the first time. Not only was the movie itself amazing, but since we watched it on an old VHS (the thing before dvd's for you millenials) we got to see old commercials from 1984 (the year not the book).  It was amazing not only see advertizements from that era, but to see what products still existed today.

One that had me rolling was Fidelity Bank: the commercial stated it was brand new and a new start for NJ, but that bank went out of business when I was in 1st or second grade. Not to mention all the Jeep Comanche adverts...

That's all for now dears, see you next time with a complted Zebra plushie (I hope!)

- Ori