Sweet paul

Crafty friday!

This is a really fun project.

Make your own print on an apron.

Its easy and oh so stylish.

So.

Take a photo of an object. I chose a delft pitcher.

Take it against white background.

Enlarge it 200% and print it out on Lazertran's iron-on ink-jet transfer paper for Textiles.

(www.lazertran.com)

Wait 30 minutes for the transfer to dry.

Then cut out the image and place it face down onto the apron.

Iron the transfer on the apron.

Remember to cover it with the parchment paper that comes in the box.

And voila, you have a very stylish apron.

Photos by my friend Frances Janisch.

One crafty dude!

I went to a craft fair in Brooklyn this weekend and found this super cool " do it yourself" bag kit.

The bag comes with a grid print, needle and yarn, all ready to use.

So I stayed home saturday night and went to work on my bag.

No disco for this guy!

Think it turned out ok.

Now I want to make more.Great gift for friends.

You can find the bag at Start here.

Photo by Alexandra Grablewski

Sugarbomber!

Sugarbomber is a new website devoted to desserts from all over the US.

Sweets eats for food lovers as they say.

Little old me is one of the Dictators over there, so I will submit my NYC dessert finds every week.

Recipe monday

This recipe monday is for a divine banana and raisin bread pudding.

My grandmother used to make bread puddings when I was a kid, hers was always made with raisins.

I added bananas to mine, just think the sweet and warm banana gives such an amazing flavor to the dish.

At the end, just before serving I drizzle the whole pudding with caramel sauce. Its divine.

Enjoy!

Banana and raisin bread pudding

Serves 6

 

Butter, for baking dish

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 sup sugar

2 1/2 cup milk

2 brioche or challah breads, cut into cubes

2 bananas, sliced

1/2 raisins

1 cup caramel sauce

 

Butter a shallow baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla and sugar.

Add milk.

Add bread, bananas and raisins, toss gently.

Let the mixture stand 30 minutes to absorb all the liquid.

Toss gently every 10 minutes.

Transfer to the baking dish and bake at 350 until golden.

It takes about 50 minutes.

Take it out drizzle with caramel sauce and serve.

Photo by Ellen Silverman 

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........