Peace & The Love of Feathers

in photographs: Ashley Marie Howard
whom I love & appreciate so much
click on each photo to enlarge

HIP COOKS!

As most of you know, I have a newfound LOVE for cooking; but not just cooking, HIP COOKING!! There is a fabulous cooking class held in Downtown L.A. and in Santa Monica called Hip Cooks, my mother in law was kind enough to treat me to a few classes & I've been hooked ever since! Courtney was in town for Mothers Day so of course we had to take a class! We did a Spanish Tapas Class; small little "sides" that they eat in Spain while enjoying wine etc. Here is our Menu:
Spanish-style hummus with pita toasts
Candied Walnuts, Cashews and Peacans
Marinated olives
Manchego con Membrillo
Tortilla Espanola
Camarones Bravas - garlicky saffron shrimp
Empanadillas Argentinas
Flan - individual Spanish caramel custards with caramel designs
Sangria to drink, claro que si!

Here is a picture of our Tortilla Espanola, DELISH! And in the back is a yummy simple salad.


Left: Pic of our FLAN! Below: Me, Linda, Lindsay, & Courtney.

This is our saffron Shrimp! Light taste & so easy to make! Doesn't it look pretty!

Ms. Courtney (isn't she cute?) working hard on our Sangria (virgin of course!)

SANGRIA!

We made mini empanadas; pre cooked..

Cooked!

Lindsay & me being weird as usual..

i have a scary neck in this picture! haha

Linds & I were in charge of the cheese & guava paste, so artistic yes? We also made an amazing nut mix, shown here.

Us making our cheese & guava paste ! So yummy!

we put brown sugar with the nuts, need I say more?

Look how great they look!!!

They taught us how to pan flip, here we all are, practicing our new skill Me:

Court:

Lindsay:

Linda:

I always have so much fun at these classes! I just found out they will be opening in a few other states in the next couple years: Texas, Oregon, and Washington! (Jen & Lauren watch out!! I may fly out & make you take a class with me!)

HEADBANDS

Recently I have been designing headbands and different headpieces. I don't have photos of everything, but I wanted to post a few just to share what Ive been up to. I will be selling them in a few upcoming boutiques, but mostly its just a great way to keep busy while Chris studies. I love creating unique, beautiful things. Once I get photos of the other styles I will post them as well. Thank you to Chris for allowing me to indulge, and to these ladies for letting me take pictures of them! Enjoy!