An All Time Favorite With a Southwest Twist

Are you a Mole' lover?   Then you will love this recipe!

Mexican Lasagne

4 chicken thighs boiled for 30 minutes, boned and diced small or equivalent of any cooked chicken meat

1 regular can of black olives chopped

1 white onion chopped

16 small white corn tortillas

1 16 oz tub of small curd cottage cheese

1 Jar Donia Maria Mole'

4 cups chicken broth (from boiled chicken thighs or canned)

Sour Cream

Place tortillas in shallow pan & cover with water and soak for at least an hour.  Mix the chicken broth with the Mole and whisk.  Simmer Mole' on low heat for 4 minutes stirring constantly, remove from heat and set aside.  Grease an 8 x 8 baking dish.  Layer ingredients.  Start with 4 tortillas on the bottom then some Mole then chicken meat, onion, olives, cottage cheese and Mexican cheese last.  Make 4 layers, pressing each layer to remove any excess air.  Finish the top layer with Mole, chicken, olives, onions and Mexican cheese.  Cover with foil (poke a few holes for steam) and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.  Uncover for the last 10 minutes.  When done let it rest for 10 minutes.  Serve with Mole' spooned over the top and a dollop of sour cream.  Beware do not eat this with white clothing :)

For more yummy recipes you can go to Walking on Sunshine blog here.



One Less Tooth to Brush

The big event around our house yesterday was that Mary lost her tooth!  I just love this picture of her.  She just cracks me up :)

 

This is the letter she had me dictate and she signed.  Hmmm do you think her tooth fell out?

 

 

 

Tooth and letter is safely tucked away.

 

 

 

Feeling the gaping whole with her tongue.

 

 

 

See it is right here!

 

 

 

Big smile!

 

 

Peace of Earth Ceramics

Our passion is beautiful ceramic pieces that are useful.  Right now we have a lovely line of ceramic lamps and my husband is in the process of making a line of beautiful funeral urns to honor a loved one or even a beloved pet.  The design technique is unique that my husband created and we have not seen it anywhere.  My husband started making these lamps 20 years ago.  He did it as a hobby and worked full time in the HVAC & R business.  It has become too hard physically for him to do that.  So now he is doing ceramics full time.  We are late in life parents and he is needing to slow down a little bit to be healthy and strong to raise our wonderful blessing, our daughter, Mary. 

 



Mary helping Daddy pour a mold.

 

So now you have our story, here is some pictures of what we make:

 

This is a slide show of the lamps that show their nightlight feature. The light shines out through the design and makes such a lovely pattern of light on the ceiling above the lamp.  These lamps can be customized with a short verse of a poem or scripture.  Also a person's name or special date can be put on it. 

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

The link to our ebay store is:

http://stores.ebay.com/peaceofearthceramics

I also want to share the steps that Rich goes through to make a beautiful lamp like this.

 

 First he makes a form made of plastic and wood.

Then makes 4 sides and gives it several coats of sealer.

He then assembles the pieces into a wooden mold and pours plaster into it and lets it dry like the picture shows on the right.

 

He pours slip (liquid clay) into the mold that has dried.  He lets the slip stay in the mold until the walls of the lamp piece are thick enough and then pours out the extra.  He sets it aside to dry and the next day he removes the lamp piece from the mold.  Then he carves a design in it and hand paints it.  Now it is ready for it's first firing in the kiln that takes six hours.  He is able to do about a dozen lamps at a time.  Then he paints the pieces with a glaze and lets it dry and then fires it a second time for about 3 hours the next day.

 

They turn out like this.  Then he assembles them and wires them with a night light inside the cylinder and a light switch and harp above.  The switch has 3 settings, night light, upper light, and both lights on at once.  So all the wiring is beyond me but he has worked with that kind of stuff for years.  We ship the lamps UPS in a sturdy box lined with 2" foam, the lamp is wrapped in bubble wrap.  We supply a handmade coaster to go underneath it.  We do not send a shade as that is too likely to get crushed and we know people like to pick a shade that matches their decor.  So right now we are asking $129 a lamp which includes shipping and handling. 

 

We also have a facebook page and you can go there to see what is going on in the business and also if you click on the "like" button, you will get an update on our business with new designs and products and also you liking our business builds it on facebook.

 

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/PeaceOfEarthCeramics

For more wonderful stories and people sharing the things they are passionate about go here.

 

T-shirt Time

We got some company t-shirts printed for Rich and I to wear when we go to craft shows to sell our lamps.  Mary modeled one for us.  If you look closely you will see that her tooth has not fallen out yet.  I think the tooth fairy is tapping her toe :) 

Blackberry Pie

The blackberries coming over our back yard fence are just huge! The warm and humid weather have made them ripen so beautifully. I picked a big bowl yesterday morning and decided to make a pie.

 

This is the pie.  I think it is the best pie I have ever made!  Wonderful flavor and nice and firm.

Here is the recipe:

5-6 cups blackberries
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup of corn starch
1 box of 2 pre-made pie crusts

Place blackberries,sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, almond extract and corn starch in a large bowl.  Gently fold the berries until the are well coated with sugar.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lay one unbaked crust in a pie plate.  Spoon the berry mixture into the pie shell.  I had a fancy pie crust cutter to make my top but you could just cut the pie crust into strips and make a lattice work top.  Press the top crust to the bottom crust at the edges to seal the pie. 

Bake the pie for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, then put a sheet of aluminum foil over the top to keep the edges and top of the crust from burning.  Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes, until crust has browned and filling is bubbly.

I am linking up with Walking on Sunshine blog for Foody Friday.  To go there and see many other fabulous recipes you can click here. 

BIG

From what Rich has in his hand (new pumpkin) to Mary's pumpkin in just 3 weeks! I read up on growing big pumpkins and we pretty much did everything they said by accident. So, if all goes well we have a big pumpkin on the way :)

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

A visit from the tooth fairy will be in our near future as Mary's front tooth is loose.  She took a big bite of corn on the cob and exclaimed, "My tooth is loose!"  Sure enough I checked it out and it was wiggling really good.  Now she wiggles it around with her tongue.  I think it is hanging on by a thread but she does not want to pull it.  I remember that with me as a kid just wiggling it and messing with it and my mom wanted to pull it and I didn't want her to.  Mary is pretty excited about it.  It brings a little sadness as I realize how quickly my baby girl is growing up.

Flowers Appear on the Earth

I just love working in my garden in the morning sun!  I stepped out my kitchen door and saw this morning glory and had to capture it on the camera to share with you.  I told Rich I would love for him to carve a morning glory design on a lamp.  That two tone blue with the light shining out through the middle for the night light feature of the lamp would be so beautiful.  So, to the computer I go to start working on a design for him.

This picture also brought a really cool revelation to me about the scripture I use in the header of my blog.  Song of Solomon 2: 10 - 12, "My beloved spoke and said to me, rise up my love my fair one and come away.  For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth.  The time of singing has come."  I have loved this verse from the time I was a teenager.  When Rich asked me what verse I would like on the lamp that he was giving me eleven years ago, I gave him this verse.  That was the first lamp that we worked on together.  He did the design and I picked the verse.  We have kept it as a verse of promise for our lamp business.  Just in the last week we realized that the verse also was a confirmation of direction for us.  The first part of the verse gives a directive to rise up and come away.  Rich did that by leaving the job at the HVAC company, the winter is past and the rain is gone and over, is timing.  Southern Oregon always has a very dry spell from July through the middle of October.  We have regular rain all through the other months of year making our area nice and green but the abundant moisture always stops during the months of July, August, September and part of October.  We have what they call a  Mediterranean weather pattern.  So looking back we saw that is when Rich quit and started on the lamp business was the first part of July.  The last phrase that struck me so profoundly this morning was, "the flowers appear on the earth".  This is so beautifully put by this picture:

   

Living a Dream

I feel like I am living out a dream...  From my young adulthood I have dreamed about having a home based business where I could be home with my kids and work with my husband to make a living.  When I was 26 I took a 4 week floral design course and became a florist thinking that if I got married that I could do this from my house.  I did enjoy being a florist for about 5 years but doing it from my home and being married then did not happen.  God had a different plan.  From our first early months of dating Rich and I have thought and dreamed about having a shop and making lamps with beautiful flower designs on them.  So I knew the skills that I had learned in floral work and office work have dove tailed together to help us in our new venture with the ceramic business.  Another interesting development is in making beautiful funeral urns.  We have been made aware that there is a need for them in our area and because of the tight economy many more people are being cremated.  Rich will be able to make a beautiful urn with hand carved and painted designs with the person's name, dates and short sentiment on it.  Also he is going to be making vases with light shining out through the design and a container on top for fresh or artificial flowers in it, for people to rent as center pieces for weddings or big events.  These center pieces look very sparkly and magical.  I made one for a Christmas banquet a couple of years ago and got a lot of compliments and interest in them.  So that will be our line of things for now, lamps, funeral urns, pet urns and party vases.

Here is a shot of a set of lamps that Rich did for our bedroom.   

Here they are with just the night lights lit.  You can't see it but they make a

pretty pattern of light on the ceiling.

We have been waiting to open our Ebay store because we are looking for affordable boxes and foam packing to ship them in.  This morning Rich made an order of foam from back East that will be half the price of getting it local.  We will buy the boxes local.  So the shipping cost and packing cost will come to about $34 per lamp.

 Here are some lamps awaiting shipping.

Here are some wet cylinders drying on the top shelf.

and here are some bases and molds in the drying selves.

Rich has been busy out in the shop each day getting ready to make more lamps, a new funeral urn and some lighted vases.  Peace of Earth Ceramics is a step of faith for us and we are trusting the Lord for his provision.  We are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do!

Pumpkin Patch

Mary has a baby pumpkin that is growing really fast.  It went from a grape size to a grapefruit size in a week!  We are pinching off all the new pumpkins that come on the vine, so all the strength will go to this pumpkin.  We want to see how big it will get this year.  The vine is in a better spot this year with more sun, so we are hoping for a whopper this year.

Beautiful pumpkin flower

We are propping the vine up in degrees to get the pumpkin to sit on end so it will form in a nice round shape.

We also had this beautiful visitor this morning.  It is a blue heron.  Such a magnificent bird.  I love the way it moves with such grace.