home style mac.

home style mac.
Originally uploaded by janacakes

Oh my goodness, I do like to eat Mac n' Cheese. I cannot help myself. Its a weakness of mine.

I almost forgot to mention here in my blog... last week at the studio we had a Mac n' Cheese party. Yum. I found this great picture on Flickr to use as the invite and then for the evening I made 2 baked dishes: one was a butternut squash dish, ricotta and cheddar cheese mac - looks like orange mac n' cheese but a little bit sweet and full of fiber (the squash) and then I poached 4 lbs of broccoli and put a classic cheddar cheese sauce over the top of all of it and baked it for a while. Yummy. Although in retrospect, the quick poaching and then refrigeration made the broccoli let go of a LOT of water. I think there could be a better solution. Anyhow - the party was fun, it was just me and Aimee and Scott and Tim and a couple other people stopped in, but it was a small affair. Lots of fiber :)

here the recipe for the butternut squash mac n' cheese, its good, and its healthy :) I first heard of it as a way to get little kids to eat squash. works for big kids too

Ingredients

Serves 6

* 1 small butternut squash
* 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
* Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
* Pinch of cayenne pepper
* 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound elbow macaroni
* 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)
* 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated (1 ounce)
* 2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* Olive-oil cooking spray
* 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Split the squash and remove seeds. Roast the squash in the oven until soft. Remove from heat and let cool, remove skin and mash with milk; stir in nutmeg, cayenne, and salt, and season with black pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles; cook until al dente according to package instructions, about 8 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl; stir in squash mixture, cheddar, ricotta, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
3. Lightly coat a 9-inch square baking dish (4 inches deep) with cooking spray. Transfer noodle mixture to dish. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan, and oil; sprinkle evenly over noodle mixture.
4. Cover with foil, and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top, 30 to 40 minutes more. Serve immediately.

more Orange...

I've put some new color combinations in my Etsy shop... new computer mobiles!

And for a limited time I am doing a special - buy any of my new necklace sets and get a computer mobile (color preference is your choice!) FREE - this week only!
this picture may be small - but I am loving it - check out how I can put any computer mobile onto the monitor, nice eh?!

More Photos

I made these cute little slide-top boxes and took some more photos of these beautiful pendants... the box shows how it comes packaged, as well as propping up the pendant for a good view. Better pictures than the ones I took yesturday, I think.

Neck Shots

Okay, so I seriously just need to have a model for jewelry photo shoots - but in the meantime...

in response to a recent discussion at Tea Time (PDXEtsy style) I was inspired to take some shots of necklaces on my neck with no skin showing, (shirt vs. skin) something with a high neck so the necklace is laying on fabric and not skin. I found a pale gray top in my closet that has a big neck, it sorta worked, at least well enough to exhaust my amateur attempts to take a few shots.

Burn Treatment

This was my first bad burn (picture is from back in 2001), and this is my arm slapped down onto my scanner to document the brand. I had been torchworking and I used my mouth as a third hand, holding onto a rod with a gather of hot glass on the end of it... as I reached over to my side to open a kiln door I smelled BBQ and I thought, who's grilling? And then I realized it was my flesh. I had to pull the glass off my arm. Yuck. But I healed. You can hardly see the scar now.

Okay so yesturday a friend in the studio burned herself, torched her finger (rather than the glass) and yes I have done this as well. I have a scar on my right index finger. Well, Jan was alright, she is a tough cookie. Here is my advice for bad burns:

1. Run the burn under cold water (as cold as you can stand) for 15-20minutes.
The cold will be soothing for you and the running water will take away the heat of the burn. If you do not do this, the sub-levels of tissue under the burn will suffer even more damage after-the-fact, as you are sitting there freaking out that you just seriously burned yourself.

Seriously, if you do nothing else - do #1 - it helps immensely

2. Aloe. It helps, works pretty well, promotes healing and feels soothing. It's kinda lame, but easy to have around and it feels good. Also you can get aloe gel from the drug store that has lidocane in it, which will help kill the pain a little (don't use this if you are alergic) - its the gel that people use on sun burns.

3. After-the-fact - don't pop the blister! Let yourself heal properly. A blister will most likely form, if you resist popping it you will prevent infection.

okay - one last bit of advice - there is a great homeopathic remedy for burns, I have had this stuff highly recommended to me and I have seen this save a hand that was burned by a huge glass torch, and I just ordered 2 jars of it (one for home and one for the studio) so I will post again with a review sometime:

Homeopathic Burn Stuff "Keokuk" is the stuff, and evidently its the shiz-nit for bad burns. I have been meaning to stock up on it for a long time. Now is as good a time as any! And now Aquila Glass Studio will have a jar on hand as well!

Featured on Haute Innovations

I have been featured in the Haute Innovations website!

Harmonious Tranquility :: Leah’s Glass Creations

"Who says mobiles are for children?! Bring peace and harmony into your living environment with the mobiles by Leah’s Glass Creations"

My Computer Montior Mobiles

The image is a bit fuzzy... can't be enlarged at all... but I think it does a pretty good job of getting the concept across. What do you think?

I love my brother's feedback: "Ironic. I am getting eye strain just trying to look at the picture." ha!