Disney’s Festival of the Arts

I just turned 50 in January, and my hubby did back in August when travel was right out, so we headed to Disney last week for a big celebration. 8 glorious days. Two in each park. Perfect! We didn’t realize the Festival of the Arts was going on at Epcot! Even better! There are little stands scattered throughout the World Showcase that generally have 2 entrees, a couple of beverages and a dessert. They are little taster plates and mostly in the $6-$10 range, so you can have fabulous bites around the world, kind of like global tapas. We had a fantastic time. Let me tell you all about it!

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Bibliophile and Wonders – two book lover’s books!

#bibliophile #janemount #wonders #rhondarubinstein #californiaacademyofsciences #chroniclebooks #lisahaineswright #beloitcollege

Okay, I am a massive bibliophile. I review all sorts of books, but usually just talk to you about cookbooks. Two nonfiction books came across my desk recently that are just too wonderful to keep to myself, though. Well, to borrow phrasing from one of my blogging friends, one is tangentially related to my blog. The first is for book lovers, and the second is for nature/animal/photography lovers. Both have fabulous gifting potential. Thanks to Chronicle Books for letting me use their photos.

Veggiewise Floats

We read Stephen King’s It for bookclub, and I was inspired by Pennywise the Clown to make a nice little produce sculpture to take with. Veggiewise the Clown. I cracked up when my friends were really hesitant to sample my little crudite display. He is a little bit more off-putting than our treats of Halloweens past…..

Edit: September 2019. I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking for a little more detail about Veggiewise, so I thought I’d add it in here. 😀

Veggiewise’s components

Overall face – Cauliflower florets
Hair – Grape tomatoes and irregular slices of sweet red bell pepper
Framing the top of his head – Irregular slices of green bell pepper
Ruffled collar – Green zucchini and yellow squash ribbons create with a vegetable peeler. 
His clown top – Yellow squash, halved the long way and then sliced into half moons
His clown top poofball – Baby carrots standing upright in a happy little bouquet
Eyebrows – Kalamata olives
Eyes – Radishes with green olive irises, and Kalamata olive trimmings and green pepper triangles
Nose – Radish and Kalamata olives
Mouth – The bottom of a sweet red bell pepper. It’s much easier to sculp if you choose a really fat-bottomed pepper. They make the produce world go round. The teeth are trimmed almond slivers over a Kalamata olive background. 

For the dip, I made float out of Kalamata olive slices. They float really well. My dip is ranch, but since this is the old-school Pennywise, it would be heeelarious to make a Curry dip for Tim Curry. I really need to make the new Bill Skarsgård version. That would be some mighty terrifying produce. 

Tools. I am a knife enthusiast. Here’s my collection. I have two very favorite knives for produce sculpture. They are wonderfully comfortable to work with for long periods of time and cut just so well. They are both full tang, which means that the blade runs the full length of the handle, so you don’t have to worry about it ever separating. 

Wusthof Trident Classic Ikon 7” Santoku Knife

Wusthof Classic Ikon 3-1/2-Inch Paring Knife

Okay, I am personally addicted to epic fails. Here’s one that someone sent me that cracked me up to no end. 

And here’s a link to my own epic fail… and some flippin’ delicious popcorn if you need a treat right now. Jen’s defeated Santas. Happy Halloween, everybody!