new track

As a not-your-average-suzie, I wear many hats, some average and some not so average: wife, mother, home chef, photographer, and DJ.

Late to the party, I just discovered SoundCloud. Oh, joy! The site is full of wonderful songs to listen to and download. I even joined and can add up to 2 hours of music for free.

Please enjoy my live mash of two of Claude Von Stroke's songs that I am currently obsessed with: "California" and "Beat that Bird."

Check back for more uploads!

Beat that CA Bird, a mash up by Sparkletrot (me!)

http://soundcloud.com/sparkletrot

First Published Story!

And because I have not posted in months, you are getting a magic THREE posts today!

I was approached by a friend who is a content manager for an MSN site, published worldwide. She asked me to write a fictional story based on a classic portrait of a woman. The guidelines were pretty loose: write a first person account of the woman in the portrait, but with a modern twist. There were some rules here, but mostly they felt loose and vague. Oh, and it must be MSN-friendly.

I was given three portraits to choose from. It was a no-brainer. This shot has always rocked my world and intrigued me since I was a little girl.

Woman with Ermine, Davinci

After a few rough drafts and a few back-and-forths between my friend, the editor and the client, my story was published.

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to write a creative piece. Music, photography and reading are my great escapes. I rediscovered that I also love to tap into the artistic flow for writing.

Falling and Floating, by me:

http://www.womanityglobal.us/?section=walldetails&mediaid=1211856&cpdocid=24462096

Baby Beet Risotto

This should also get you in the mood for fall!

Baby Beet Risotto

By Suz

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1 quart veggie broth

1 cup red wine

2 bunches of baby beets, trimmed, peeled and quartered

1-2 T brown grainy mustard or country mustard

1 cup Sheep’s milk romano cheese, grated (very tasty addition, but can be left out for a vegan recipe)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. heat vegetable oil in medium sauce pan over med-high heat. Add rice to the oil, stirring until coated with oil.
2. meanwhile, bring the veggie broth to a boil, then turn heat to low and continue to simmer.
3. While soup is heating, put beets in boiling water. Boil until al dente, about 15-20 minutes. Remove beets from water, reserving the cooking water.
4. add the wine to the rice, stirring often, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add broth, one cup at a time, stirring often until most of the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding broth and stirring until the broth is gone. Should take about 20 minutes
5. take 1 cup (or more if needed) of the reserved beet water and add to the rice, stirring until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente. Add more water if needed.
6. remove rice from heat. Stir mustard into the rice. Add the cheese and stir until well- combined.
7. add the beets to the risotto and mix- in gently
8. salt and pepper to taste

prodigal post

oh hai, ye 2 faithful readers!

it's been a while.

I keep meaning to write, but life has been busy.

let's see. Summer happened since I saw you last.

Georgetown's Artopia with P (and a robot!)

a rare shot of my teen
and another

sunset at Gasworks park

fun on Camano Island

kiting to glorious colors

on a ferry with friends from LA

us, then & now, 14 years later

R's tag he created during grafitti class

atomic pink for my girl, a new 6th grader!

Ready for fall? I think I may be. Crisp mornings, changing leaves, soccer Saturdays, cozy stews and soups, windy evenings...yes. ready.

saucy recipes

There's a long story behind these recipes...in short, we recently found out through an Ayurvedic naturopath physician that my 13 year old son has pretty severe food allergies to lots of foods we eat. Luckily, his allergic reactions fall into the GI category therefore can be resolved by eating a modified diet.

Basically, he should not have gluten, soy, peanuts, dairy and chicken eggs. In solidarity with my son, I have decided to give up gluten, peanuts, and reduce my intake of processed soy products. As a pescatarian that doesn't eat a lot of fish, soy products have been my go-to protein. I am now trying to use healthy vegetarian protein choices, such as beans, lentils, and quinoa more often. Luckily, my son eats meat, which for a growing 13 year old is very beneficial to him getting enough protein. He is just happy that I can't tell him that he has to eat his tofu!

Over the last two weeks, I have been immersing myself in recipes that we CAN eat. We have re-started our CSA box after a spring hiatus as the doctor said we all should be eating more fruits and veggies. I thought we were doing pretty well, but apparently not quite enough.

One yummy meal we made the other night was based around Vietnamese rice paper wraps, which is perfect for a warm summer evening. We filled them with rice noodles, carrots, cabbage, spinach, basil, cilantro, protein (chicken for the kids and shrimp for the adults), and the following yummy sauces. We used to love Thai influenced peanut sauce, but given that we are not eating peanuts, I modified the sauce using roasted almond butter and it turned out amazing! I also created a delicious coconut ginger curry sauce to drizzle inside the wraps or as a dip.

We all loved this! It will definitely be repeated.

Thai Almond Sauce

(To be used in place of peanut sauce—no peanuts)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce (opt) or 1 teaspoon coconut amino (opt)

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2/3 cup roasted almond butter (no or low salt)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon cooking sherry

2 teaspoons Asian chile sauce (opt)

In a small saucepan, sauté the garlic and ginger in sesame oil over low-medium heat. Add the water, soy sauce or coconut amino (if using either), and coriander and bring to a boil. Add the almond butter and turn the heat to low. Whisk well until the ingredients are smooth and combined. Mix in the maple syrup, vinegar, sherry and chile sauce (if using). Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Makes about 2 cups

Coconut Curry Sauce

1 14 oz can light coconut milk

2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger

In a medium saucepan over low heat, whisk coconut milk and red curry paste until well combined. Whisk in the tamarind paste until combined. Add the minced ginger. Stir occasionally and continue to cook over low heat until reduced by about 1/3. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 1 ½ cups

Wonderful over rice or rice noodles & veggies

Coachella 2010

Todd and I are getting ready for our annual pilgrimage to Indio, California to worship the sun, palm trees, amazing friends and music.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival started in 1999 and aside from a 'bye' in 2000, has been going strong ever since. Booking the most up-and-coming as well as established and respected musicians, the festival now draws around 70,000 die hard fans every year to the lovely Empire Polo Fields outside of Palm Springs in Indio, California.

Ear and eye candy abound at Coachella. Aside from incredible beats, the lush, green, grassy grounds at the festival are also replete with amazing large scale installations, many of which appear at Burning Man. Performance artists, The Do Lab out of Los Angeles, create a mini world that could be called a post-apocalyptic circus with dancers, performers, DJs and glowing plant pods. Cyclecide also makes an appearance at Coachella bringing their bicycle-powered rides to the masses. My favorite sculpture so far was Big-Rig-Jig, a wonder of physics and scale by artist Jeff Ross that appeared on the polo grounds in 2008:

People watching at Coachella is peerless. Southern California is not lacking in very attractive, fit, and stylish folk that all apparently attend the festival. Celebrity spotting is a sport here as well. In the VIP section, we've spotted Steven Tyler, The Hoff, Adrian Grenier, Dita von Tease, Perry Farrel, and Elijah Wood, among others. I even high-fived a sort of incognito Danny DeVito (that rhymes!) outfitted in maintenance overalls and walking with the janitorial crew. It is also fun to spot the musicians who also congregate in the VIP section before and after their sets.

The best part of the trip for us, however, is the crew we go with. Over the years, we have curated quite a posse of creative, intelligent, positive, loving friends that connect up from all over the country to share this experience. Every year, the weekend gets better and better even though we all wonder "how this year could possibly top last year" (and yes, those quotes are on purpose, because someone says it every single year). We have come to realize that each and every person contributes in a way that cannot be matched and for that, each person is in his or her own way, a Legend. 'Legend' has become the individuals in the posse's calling card.

Half of the fun of the festival is the part that we call "Nochella," which means the times were we are not at the festival. Instead, we are creating an amazing experience at the large house we rent for the week. About half the people are DJs, so we have constant incredible music. Two friends are setting up the tiki bar room to be a 24 hour karaoke club. I set up a photobooth in the garage for secret-yet-not-secret photos. We have also created a system of "poolside servers," in which everyone takes turns with a partner to work the pool for an hour at a time, preparing and delivering drinks, snacks and food. Everyone works a little and the rest of the time, one gets food and drink service while chilling by the water or taking a dip. It's a brilliant way to enjoy the pool with your friends!

Costumes and participation rule the school with a Thursday night theme party (last year was Wack Hats, this year it's Wack Face Paint). Vintage Palm Springs attire, such as caftans and tunics are encouraged during lounge time.

A full report will be expedited upon return, but in the meantime, a show of photos from previous years are presented below.

Photobooth & snuggies:

photobooth friends:

photobooth interspecies love:

photobooth cat baths:

costumes:

relaxing:

all day loungewear:

evening loungewear:

Imperial Stormtroopers: amazing outfits:

friends everywhere:

backstage with Adam Freeland:

chillin' at the pool:

VIP section and Tommy Lee:

That's how we roll. Legends: posse UP!

wtf

I am having a serious case of laughing out loud all by myself.

This is a highlarious experiment to find out what's on forefront of the collective conscious. Go to Google and start typing in various questions and see what pops up.

Here's what people are wondering about today:

Why can't I own a Canadian?! Seriously, people?!

Why does my belly button smell?! ok. that's just gross. But I think I can answer your question. Maybe you need to get off the computer and take a bath.

And finally:

Why don't girls like me? Because you ask dumb ass questions to Google like it's some Magic Eight Ball. Plus your belly button smells and you want to legalize slavery by acquiring a Canadian or two.

Seriously intriguing.