Making Garam Masala

I love to cook Indian style dishes and for that there are a couple of complex ingredients you need; Garam Masala and Tamarind Paste.

Recently I ran out of my Garam Masala and went to replace it. There are MANY theories and recipes for what makes a perfect Garam Masala – almost as many as there are for Gumbo. So, when buying prepared Garam Masala, you never know what you’re going to get.

I bought one that seemed nice but neglected to notice that BLACK PEPPER was the FIRST ingredient. SHEESH! When I say that it was so hot it made my Butter Chicken INEDIBLE, I am not exaggerating; we tossed most of it out.

This led me to try my hand at making my own.

I mean, all I had to do was follow a recipe and simply pay attention to the heat elements. How hard could it be? Not at ALL! This is the recipe I got from Bal Arneson, The Spice Goddess from Cooking TV.

Tune in soon for my “Making Tamarind Paste” post.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon mixed peppercorns
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 5 brown cardamom pods (which I got from Captain Scott Berg, who commissioned the “Flyer Song” video)
• 6 cloves
• Two 2-inch pieces cinnamon stick

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon sticks on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until they are aromatic, 15 to 20 minutes.

Grind to a powder in an electric spice grinder (I used an old coffee grinder).

Store in an airtight jar.

 

This past week I spent nursing my mom and her TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT! Ugh! What a champ she is; what a WARRIOR!

Because of all the meds, pain killers and frankly…all the pain; Mom didn’t feel like eating ANYTHING. However, keeping her strength up was important. Finally, we hit on something she thought she could get down: her world famous (in my humble opinion) Holiday Dressing.

Trouble is, I didn’t know how to make it! This is certainly an embarrassing admission that after ALL these years…I never learned to make it!

–Can’t say that anymore! Here’s the incredibly simple recipe/process. Enjoy! Dressing is not just for TURKEY ANYMORE!

OH, and YES…I sang her a song…but she won’t remember!

Ingredients

1 Stick of Butter

1 Onion

1 Cup (or more) Chopped Celery

1 Bag Seasoned Bread Cubes (Pepperidge Farm is what we used)

Turkey Broth or a combo of Chicken/Beef Broth to taste (add 1/2 cup at a time)

Easy-Peasy Instructions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350°
2. Melt butter in a hot skillet. Soften onions and celery
3. Add to a large bowl full of the bread cubes and stir to mix
4. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time, allowing a few minutes in between for cube expansion, until it’s moist and flavorful
5. Transfer to a baking dish
6. Bake in oven for 30 minutes until browned on top
7. Eat entire thing out of pan with a fork

Recently, I’ve taken a new gig as a book narrator for Audible; who sells digital downloads of books.

Be careful what you wish for because just as I was in the process of setting up my site, preparing samples of my former work, submitting auditions and preparing my office for recording on this level, I was hired by a wonderful novelist named Kaira Rouda to produce a book.

So, as is often the case in my life, I switched gears, turned on a dime and accellerated the set up of my home studio. If I was going to make this work, I would no longer be able to afford renting studio time for this purpose.

I got the gear, set it up and started analyzing my room for sound quality, when I realized I’d need to cover some “703″ and fit it into my windows to baffle noise from the front yard and get some derned curtains to kill some of the bounce.

AT2020 Microphone and Popper-Stopper

Mic set up and...wait...that's my cooking show, "Sing For My Supper" on the computer screen.

I was out looking for affordable curtains…I neede to be funtional but it HAD TO BE CUTE to go in my room. I remembered an article years ago about someone who made curtains out of painter’s drop cloths. Aha!

In searching the net I found tons of bloggers who have done this so in studying a quick DIY tutorial at a cool blog called,  “More Like Home” I was on my way.

I didn’t make them as fancy as she did as I was in a time crunch but I can go back later and put finishing touched on them…however…I think they’re pretty funky the way they are.

Drop cloth curtains in mini-studio

Supplies?: 2 6×9 canvas drop cloths; 4 packs of clip on curtain rings, pins, scissors, ruler needle and thread.

Cute but very functional curtains for the mini studio

Check out “More Like Home” for directions.

The great news is that this new little home studio is perfect for editing my cooking show, “Sing For My Supper” (coming soon to My-TV-Now.com; using the new pro software, Final Cut Pro I just taught myself how to use.

Cheers,
Leslie

My mom always laughs at how I relax on my days off: I transform junk treasures into less junky/more funky ones.  But, if you have read this blog before, you already know THAT!

This time I have two projects which, while arduous, were relatively easy. Stripping.

1. Steel Boxes from the Country Living Magazine Fair:

In October, my dear friend Alex went to Atlanta, GA for a girl’s weekend and an antique fair crawl. This was our second year attending the fair and we had an even better time than last year. Of course, the time spent in great company was the true gift of the weekend but it’s fun to find little treasures for not much money!

Here is a photo of Alex and me at the fair (they had a photo booth, essentially). These two steel boxes, one of which is a lunch box, became…

…THESE funky stripped steel boxes in a couple of hours with only the loss of a bit of elbow grease! Even the personalization by “J. E. J.”, which was on EVERY facet of the box, was intact!

2. The Desk

I have been wanting to refinish this desk since I got it a few years ago, at a local flea market. It’s not easy to see in the photo but the finish was a dark brown – almost black and very oily finish. Everything I set down upon it came up with oil spots!

In this photo you can see the raw veneer that was beneath the oily nonsense…the veneer that needed repairing.

And here it is: stripped, repaired, refinished and with new drawer pulls.

And now it’s time for a nap.

I’ve always believed that if you focus on something long enough you can manifest it as a reality in your life. Sometimes, though, my mind is clouded with fear and busied with details of nonsense; so the thoughts are not clear.

Lately, whenever not otherwise engaged, my mind has been focusing on several topics: Faux finishes for wood, Cooking shows, How to make my new metal objects look like they are old (like the ones in Restoration Hardware) and…more importantly, Who am I?

My dear friend Robin started the “Who AM I?” conversation a few weeks ago. She brought the topic up with regards to her own multi-talented and multi-leveled life and it really struck me.

In my 20′s I knew who I was. After that I knew who I was each time I changed who I was but these days I’m weary of trying on new “me’s” and…well I’m looking for an answer. “Tell me who I am and I’ll just be that” I would pray in the small spaces between the chatter in my head.

I’ve been getting voice messages from a guy named Larry lately, whom I don’t know, who was looking for a glass person who can drill cylinders. I figured if I ignored the calls long enough he’d go away without my having to make another call that takes time and calories.

Larry called twice today but I was in the studio and working and blah, blah, blah. Then after work I stopped at the Publix to get some salmon and walnuts. And, right there in the baking aisle, a woman starts talking to me about “Truvia”.

“This is the only stuff that works” her New York accent randomly offered.

“Pardon?” said I.

“This stuff works the other stuff doesn’t; Splenda and them, they don’t work”

“Are you diabetic” I asked, “Do you mean to say that Truvia doesn’t spike your blood sugar?”

“Yes!” she said, “It really works”

“Cool” said I, “That’s good to know”

Then she stopped me as I cheerfully eased away and asked me my first name. Sandy was hers, she said.

“Leslie, God is telling me you are a very kind person who is very nice to people is that true?”

“Well…Er…I guess I’d like to think so, Sandy”

“It IS true. God is telling me that you are beautiful with many attributes and you should just be WHO YOU ARE”

Well…I mean as far as manifestations go…that’s pretty literal and yet I can’t help but think of the Lili Tomlin quote, “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” I think I meant by “who am I” more like…what am I going to be when I grow up. But, I’ll take a soft-spoken albeit lonely woman in baking goods who needs to tell me I’m nice. I’m good with that.

So, after our lovely salmon dinner, I decided I’d call Larry back. After his two calls today I figured I should just put an end to it. I thought, “I need to call him and tell him he’s got the wrong number”.

Larry was lovely and apologetic but more importantly he told me MORE about metal work and patinas than I could have even known to ASK for. I mean he mentioned he was a metal worker and I just slid in that I had 4-5 pieces on which I was going to create an “old metal” look. Do you know about…etc.” said he.

He told me I could call him anytime for advice. Nice people I have met today.

Moral of the story? 1. Be nice 2. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever stop dreaming.

However you want to say it or find out about it, it’s happening. I’m officially caught up in the hurricane of producing my own TV series called “Sing For My Supper with Leslie Ellis”

Many of you may remember this started as a Vlog post right here on “New on a Personal Note”. I got such a HUGELY positive reaction to the Pilot Video that I typed up a formal treatment, registered it with the Writer’s Guild of America and, of course, took down all the feedback for improvement I got from you all.

So I have two episodes in the pipeline: the first one which I’ll edit and the second which will be a combo from Norway and Nashville footage. I’m currently making a beginning segment with my own “theme” music and everything and it’s really going to be great!

By the way…I’m looking for volunteers to do an episode with me; preferably not too far from Nashville. I need more content if I’m going to sign with the Internet Channel that is hot on the series.

Send me your story, your favorite dish to prepare and we’ll TAWK!!!

In the meantime, I have this wonderful logo designed by my good friend, AWARD WINNING Mystery Novelist, David Lennon and some incredible music from my Santa Cruz band, “The Lost Borders” (Me, Mike Strunk, Peter Wilde, Baird Miller) peppered throughout!

Wish me luck, find me on Facebook and Twitter (@Sing4Supper) to follow my progress!

CHEERS!
Leslie

In the long journey of a Type A personality who is highly self-critical and strives for perfection, a failed marriage is crazy making on a good day. Especially when, as the responsible adult in the relationship, she tied up all the loose ends, held hands as people had nervous breakdowns around her and watched as her ex…well…as they say in Louisiana, “Went to shit and the hogs ate him”.

The problem with tying up loose ends is that when everything is sorted, packed up, labeled, logged and placed where it needs to be, you, The “Tie-er” (which rhymes with lair or TIRE or TIRED) is left with no closure, no outlet for anger, no-nothing.

Occasionally I fantasize about my ex-husband’s death. It’s always something horrible like dying during auto erotic esphictiation which, as it turns out, isn’t actually that unlikely. Or, I think about the money he owes me, my dad, my family – that we will never see – ever. (Of course I didn’t think they’d ever find Bin Laden either so I guess you never know).

And then sometimes I think of the trappings; the stuff. When I left I didn’t want much. What I wanted was to run away and come home to myself again. And, I thought, to do so you have to be stealth; you can’t have distractions.

But the stuff was nice…I could use those pillows, or that lovely teak deck furniture. I know he killed the Myer Lemon plant so I don’t think about that but the Kitchen Aid Mixer in cobalt blue would be awfully nice. And the hotel bed and accessories we bought from The W Hotel catalog – king sized – would be lovely.

However, in this year and a half, as I have watched my lovely Aunt Joan decline into the dregs of dementia and I feel in such a raw way how much she means to me, I miss the Ralph Lauren flatware.

Let me clarify: I HATED the Ralph Lauren flatware. That was yet ANOTHER executive decision my ex-husband made because it was shiny and sexy. But, functional? No. The handles were SO heavy that they fell off your plate, out of your bowl and onto the floor. They were clunky and cumbersome but John wanted them so they are what went on the registry.

My beautiful Aunt bought us almost the entire set of 12 for which we registered and then some; there were anniversary cake servers and Christmas side sets. Thank GOD we were only married for 3 years. I can only imagine how much it all cost her; how much she dreamed of the gift she would buy her precious little “curly locks” one day and, frankly, I get a little pissed off.

How could John, that piece of crap I somehow found fit to love and marry, be in possession of such a gift? A gift that was dreamed of, conceived of and which gave such closure and pleasure to a woman who never had children and for whom I was her only “daughter”. How?

Then I remember how it was HE who HAD to have the Ralph Lauren flatware and it was SHE who bought them for us in great faith that we would use them ’til death do us part.

Hey, I know I am obsessing, over-emotionalizing, endowing, etc. But…what is it called when you take things or do things without caring/OH YEAH/sociopathy.

Tonight I thought, “Jeez. I wish Aunt Joan had called and asked me, “Les, what should I get you that you will DEFINITELY walk away with if you get divorced”. I would have said, “A guitar”.  Let’s hear it for dementia: She can’t remember any of this any more.

Bless her heart....

This evening I was swing sitting with my glass of wine and the backyard critters. We have everyone you can imagine for this area: Squirrels, Chipmunks, Chickadees, Blue Jays, Blue Birds, Yellow Finches, Rose Finches, Wrens, Woodpeckers…even PIGEONS *sigh* and Cardinals.

I love the male Cardinals in the winter. They decorate the sparse but snow tipped trees; they deck the halls way past the holidays. The others come and go as the seasons allow.  But, the red, red, red Cardinals are lovely, foppish, dudes.

However, my all time favorites are the FEMALE Cardinals who’s motley, greyish-mauve, molting feathers make them look like mangy dogs. They show up at the feeder rain or shine, to feed their babies – as well as themselves – and they do it all with BAD HAIR. Every day. Gotta love that!

Christmas Plate from the Kro in Låsby, Denmark

When most people go on a vacation to a place they’ve never been, they bring back expensive or at least special treasures that are unique to that area as souvenirs. I did the same on my recent trip to Norway…although treasures are in the eye of the beholder. Suffice to say, I am as interested in the lifestyle of a new place and the anthropology as I am the sight seeing.

While we were staying with our friends Turid and Oddvar, Turid shared with Casey and me some delicious, “seedy” crackers that she makes herself. After having these crackers for breakfast every morning with some wonderful Norwegian cheese and yogurt, I decided I wanted the recipe. The problem is that to achieve that exact grainy consistency, I needed a special kind of Rye flour; coarsely ground. I knew I could get the other ingredients at home but the flour was really special.

So, my entire box of treasures which I brought home from Norway (with the exception of a blue and white plate made in Coppenhagen which a sweet lady at an inn in Denmark gave to me as we checked out) came from the local grocery store: 1 bag Sammalt Rug (Grovmalt), 1 packet bouillon cubes (to compare for ingredients with ours), some hand soap that smelled like eucalyptus, 1 metric liquid measuring cups in Dls, 1 set dry measuring cups in Mls and a pizza wheel…for cutting the crackers.

I got it all through customs after 23 hours of travel. The agent looked at me with concern and then shook his head and said, “That’s all you brought home with you???”

Here is a pictorial essay of my first attempt to make the Crackers from Kristiansand [Note to self: parchment paper....]

All ingredients with rye flour and measuring cup from Norway

Spreading the dough as thin as possible (harder than it looks!)

In the oven, then out after 10 mins. to slice with pizza cutter, then back in

Ready to slice

Cooling and setting up on a rack for 1 day (in the oven because of the CATS!!!)

Finally they are ready to eat and safely in the cracker tin! Fantastisk!

I love pillows and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I associate them with sleeping or because my mom literally designed and made a pillow out of needlepoint for almost every show I ever did (Next blog post will be about that).

This time I wanted a certain fabric with a certain look and I couldn’t find it anywhere; so I painted my own. Everystep of the way was a problem to be solved: from the color mixing to the measuring out the patterns. I made them as envelope pillows from instructions I found on a YouTube video…gotta love YouTube!

Now, for those of you who are saying, “Um. When did you have the time?” My answer is I’ve been doing this since I bought the fabric in…oh, sometime last summer…one row at a time.

Here is the process in photographs. LOVE IT!

Mixing Colors

Painting the Linen

Several Months of Painting Later....

Laying out the Patterns

Pillow A

Pillow A Back: Envelope Detail

Pillow B

Pillow C