Sweet paul

Crafty friday!

Swine flu face mask cover.

First of all, Im not trying to make fun of the whole swine flue thing.

But I did see several people here in NYC today with those white face masks.

And it start me thinking........what about making a cover for those masks?

So here it is, my swine flu face mask cover.

What you do is take one of those paper masks.

Cut the same mask only a bit bigger in fabric.

Sew down the sides and sew on a strip of fabric on each corner long enough to go around your ears.

I cut some flowers and glued them to the mask with fabric glue.

Voila, you have a fab looking face mask.

Happy weekend all!

Caramel and Chanel

Last sunday I was looking at some fashion shows online.

The Chanel show was so amazing.

Not really the clothes, but the scenery.

They had filled a staircase with paper flowers.Must have been like 1000's of them.

So beautiful.

So I started cutting paper flowers of my own.

Decided to use them in a story I was shooting with Ellen Silverman two days later.

Just love the black with the golden caramel color.

Recipe monday

Todays recipe monday is for one of my all time favorite salads.

Pasta salad with roasted beets, squash and chevre. With a honey dressing.

I made this salad years ago, and everytime I see beets in the store I get this urge to make it.

Easy to make, you need to roast the beets first in the oven, once that is done its no stopping you with what to use the beets for.

Soups, salads, pasta, pizza etc.

Well, happy monday and enjoy.

Roasted beets

Roasting beets is very easy.

Just remember to roast red and golden beats separate.

Otherwise the juice from the red beats will turn the golden beats all red.

Serves 4

 

8 golden or red beets, washed and trimmed

4 tablespoons olive oil

 

Preheat oven to 450F, 220C.

Place the beets in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 40-45 minutes.

Use a small knife to pierce them and check if they are tender.

Remove from oven and cool.

Rub the beets gently with your fingers to remove the skin.

Ready to use.

 Pasta salad with beets, chevre and honey vinaigrette

Such a great salad. The sweet beets and the somewhat sour cheese goes so well together.

Serves 4

 

1 squash, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

400 g cooked pasta

6 beets, roasted and peeled

1 bunch baby spinach, washed

100 g chevre

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

salt

pepper

 

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the squash until golden.

Drain it on some kitchen paper.

Slice the beets.

In a large serving bowl mix together squash, pasta, beets and spinach.

Crumble the cheese on top.

In a bowl mix oil and honey and taste with salt and pepper.

Ready to serve.   

Photos by Colin Cooke

Crafty friday!

This is a really cool bookstand made by an old book and some old wood letters.

I found the letters on etsy.com, think they were around $5 for a big bag of them.

So, what you do is that you glue a few letters to the book and then glue the letters on top of each other.

Try first without gluing, so that you know you have a cool design.

Use a hot glue-gun to glue it all with.

Easy and pretty cool, right?

Beautiful photo by the beautiful Ellen Silverman.

A little more passion

Here are some more from my passion fruit story.

Shot by Mister Colin Cooke

Dear Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth

London 

England

Oslo, april 21st 1970

Dear Queen Elizabeth

My name is Paul Lowe.

I am a 7 year old boy living in Oslo Norway with my mother, father, grandmother and a dog called Snipp.

I just wanted to tell you that we have our birthdays at the same day, april 21st.

Just thought you should know.

All the best

Paul

This is an actual letter I wrote to the Queen when I was 7.

She never wrote me back........

Recipe monday

This recipe is for my passionfruit and apple pulled pork.

You can serve it as an open sandwich, in a hamburger bun or with mashed potatoes.

The sweet passionfruit and the apple juice makes the meat so tender and juicy.Its amazing.

Serves 8

1 6 pounds butt pork roast

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1/2 tablespoon salt

1/4 tablespoon pepper

4 passion fruits, just the meat

2 cups apple juice

Place the pork but in a large baking dish.

In a small bowl mix together sugar, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper.

Use your hands, rub all the spices into the meat.

Cover with foil and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Take it out and cover the top of the pork with passionfruit.

Pour in the apple juice and cover the dish with foil.

Place in the oven at 160F, 90C.

Let it bake in the oven for 6-8 hours.

Take it out from time to time to check on it.

When it's done the meat should break apart into small pieces.

Cool the meat and serve.

If you want to make BBQ pulled pork mix the meat with a little of the sauce and some BBQ sauce.

I love to serve the pork on a piece of toast with greens, tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Photo by Colin Cooke

Crafty friday!

This is a really cool craft project.

Vases made of old books.

Looks hard, but with my easy to follow "how to", you will be able to make a bunch of these.

So,

1.Create a template on some thin cardboard.

Draw the profile of half a vase.

Don't make them to complicated, at least not at first.

2.Cut it out with sharp craft scissors.

3.Insert the template in an old book opened on the first page.

With a sharp craft knife cut along the template.

Keep on going until you are through all the pages of the book.

4.Cut of the book's covers and remove the template.

Open the book and fold it backward, before gluing the pages together with a hot glue gun.

Photos by Ellen Silverman

A fruit with a passion!

I was doing my grocery shopping last week and came across these amazing passion fruits.

They where screaming out to me " We want to be in a story, Please take us home."

So I did, 25 of them came home with me.

I called up my friend Colin Cooke and the next day we were shooting them.

Here are the result.

Hope you like!

Recipe monday

This monday I have something extra yummy for you.

This is my maple and passionfruit glazed chicken.

I made this for the first time friday and I tell you it was one of the best chickens I have ever had.

Don't mean to be full of myself, but it really was.

Its all very easy, you make it all in one oven proof dish.

You need:

1 large chicken

salt

pepper

2 pounds small potatoes

8 shallots, peeled and cut in half

10 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 large carrots, diced

10 sage leafs

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup passion fruit pulp

3 tablespoons apricot jam

For the sauce:

1 cup of the chicken drippings

1/2 cube of vegetable stock

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup cream

Pre heat the oven to 400F, 220C.

Rub the chicken inn with salt and pepper.

Place all the vegetables in a large roasting tray and place the chicken on top.

The drippings from the chicken will seep into all the vegetables and make them oh so good.

Stir together maple syrup, passionfruit and apricot jam in a bowl.

Baste the chicken with the mixture.

Into the oven with the beast and roast for about 1 1/2 hour or until the skin is golden and the juices run clear when pierced.

Remember to baste the chicken every 15 minutes with the maple mixture.

Take it out and pour 1 cup of the drippings into a saucepan.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before you start cutting into it.

Add stock and water and bring to a boil.

Let the sauce simmer until halved, add cream.

Cook for 2 minutes, taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the chicken with all the vegetables and the sauce.

They will clear the plates!

Photo by Colin Cooke.