We hope your new year is extraordinary! (I almost wrote ‘eggstraordinary,’ but I didn’t think it was a good idea to start the new year with a groan.) So, happy 20dozen from Cathy and Ellen … okay, well, Ellen did not have anything to do with this corny copy writing, but she does agree that we hope you have a wonderful new year.

It’s feeling a lot like Christmas everywhere you look! Here in the studio, we look forward to the moment when we can put our little Pantone pine out on the table. Every year we decorate the studio tree with swatches that were left out in the sunny Texas studio too long, thus they were no longer matchable. Instead of throwing them away, we saved them for our little tree … I guess you could call it the Tree of Misfit Swatches. (I just had to link to a clip from our beloved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It’s just not Christmas without at least one viewing.) Which makes me think … Hm? I wonder what color that nose really would be? Perhaps Pantone 200C or Pantone Red 032C?

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas decorating as much as we are! We would love to hear about your unusual Christmas tree adornments or holiday decorations. And, we hope that your holiday season is as colorful and bright as Pantone 17-1463, (recently announced 2012 Color of the Year) !

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday full of family, friends, and all those little projects you’ve been itching to finish for the past few months…  Safe travels, and:

Love, Cathy and Ellen

I was going to send you some photos of the outdoor gourd display that Jim created in some kind of Mr. Martha mood a few weeks ago to impress and amaze visitors as they walked to the entrance of our home studio … but alas, the gourd decor has rotted in such a creepy, furry, mouldy kind of way, that I cannot share them with anybody. It’s as though we are growing a penicillin garden. In fact, I am so glad that it is finally Halloween, so that we can send them on to gourd heaven after tonight. I just hope they don’t scare our trick-or-treaters away. That would mean that I would have to eat all the candy myself! (… hmmm, on the other hand …)

So, instead of sharing our Do-It-Yourself Gourd Garden/Science Experiment with you, we thought we would wish you and yours a fun Halloween with some happy mold-free studio owls. (Well, that last one isn’t very happy … must have had too much candy.) Have a hoot tonight!

Being neither Irish nor a great lover of beer, I like to think of St. Patrick’s Day as an homage to the color green.  In honor of this day set aside to celebrate a visual experience, I was making a list of green things that I love, only to discover that the the top two items on this list no longer exist.  So, with nostalgic abandon, here are some little odes to my top three green-thing happy memories:

#1 The Crayola crayon called “Magic Mint”

Was discontinued in 2003.  I remember a particular summer spent on the Texas coast – swimming, getting salty and a little burned, watching Blue’s Clues, the smell of vitamin E gel, and a box of 120 crayons with an accompanying swatch list for every color in order.  Magic Mint was a translucent light green, a bit more on the blue side than the yellow.  It was light enough that you had to press down till your fingers hurt to get a nice layer of color, but it was worth it.  Goodbye, Magic Mint!  The children of today don’t know what they’re missing.  (As consolation, Crayola introduced “inchworm” that same year, which is not only a nice color, but also a great name.)

Note to readers: the top photo is not of Magic Mint.  I couldn’t get my hands on the now-vintage real thing (although there might be one in the crayon box at Cathy’s house).  These are new crayons from the 120-color box.  That extra wrapper you see there was my attempt to more accurately show the user what color they’re about to get since Crayola only prints 16 different wrapper colors and judging by the wax color alone can be very misleading…

#2 Kirsten Larson the American Girl, and her dusty green dress

Yes, The Pleasant Company “archived” Kirsten Larson in 2010.  At age 9, I thought this green “milking dress” with tiny plum stripes was perhaps the most lovely item of clothing ever invented by anyone.  Never having milked a cow, planted anything successfully, or used an outhouse, I often fantasized about living in 1850s America.  Granted, the 1850s America of my dreams was an unusually clean and happy alternate-universe-version of our own in which nobody ever needed to use the restroom, slavery and diseases didn’t exist, it was always 70 degrees except when it snowed on Christmas, and people used the words “calico” and “molasses” at least once a day.

Reality check aside, there is still a place in my heart for this doll, and her dress, and 9-year-old suburban imaginary pioneers.

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#3 (not discontinued, but green and wonderful) Lava soap

It’s perfect for cleaning paintbrushes since there’s a little pumice in there, but not so much to chap your hands.  Plus, a soap that’s wrapped in paper is always fun to open – carefully – like Charlie opens the chocolate bar that contains the golden ticket. I used to have a soap collection – a huge Rubbermaid under-bed box filled with molded, scented fat and lye.  Mmmm.  It was actually a pretty great (and eventually useful) thing to collect, but maybe that should be another post…

What I love most about Lava soap is that it smells like Trident cinnamon gum, of which Cathy (my mom) used to keep an endless supply in a man-shaped tin near her desk.  When I smell it, I think of visiting my mom at her drawing table, pulling off the tin man’s head (his head was the top of the tin and his body was the bottom), getting some Trident, and probably leaving the wrapper someplace that wasn’t the trash…  Happy memories…

If you have any green, vintage, or Crayola-scented happy memories, we’d love to hear ‘em!

Valentine’s Day is a perfect excuse to make meringue kisses, but it has been a year or ten since I last made them.  While perusing the recipe box, I was torn between two different meringue versions, so I decided to go head-to-head in a Throwdown with myself … Bobby Flay style.  Well, I didn’t actually sneak up on myself and challenge me, but I did try both recipes and present them to two judges (husband and child) to choose the best meringue kiss.  Here is the exciting result of the first-ever Meringue Kiss Throwdown:

Caveat: If you want to try your own Meringue Throwdown before Valentine’s Day, plan to make the quick and easy recipes on February 13 or before, because both recipes are left in the oven for several hours.  And, you might avoid meringue-making on a rainy day, as the damp weather can sometimes affect the airy crunchy texture, thus producing a sweet gummy thing that sticks to one’s teeth … not a good look for Valentine’s Day.

Recipe A:  This meringue includes pecans and chocolate chips, so it is light and airy with sweet and crunchy surprises in every bite. I like to make them small so that I can just pop the whole cookie in my mouth at once … in a polite manner, of course.

Meringue Kisses with Chocolate and Pecans
2 egg whites
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Mexican vanilla)
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with foil.
Beat egg whites until stiff, adding sugar gradually.  Beat at high speed for 5 minutes.  Fold in vanilla, chips and nuts.  Drop from a teaspoon onto a foil covered cookie sheet.  Put in oven, and TURN OFF HEAT.  Leave overnight or for at least 8 hours.  Cookies should be dry and crisp all the way through.  Yields about 24, depending on the size of your dollops.

Recipe B:  This meringue version is a Weight Watchers recipe, so, not only is it tasty, it’s figure friendly! (Only one point for two cookies!) It is also a split recipe, with half vanilla and half chocolate, so it looks very pretty in its presentation.

Chocolate and Vanilla Meringue Cookies from Weight Watchers Weekly
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp distilled white or cider vinegar (I used white)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Mexican vanilla)
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with foil.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy.  Add vinegar; beat until soft peaks form.  Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar; beat until glossy stiff peaks form.  Beat in vanilla.
Remove half of meringue to another bowl; stir in cocoa until blended.
Spoon tablespoons of both meringues onto prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart each, making about 44 cookies–half vanilla and half cocoa.  Or you can make marbleized cookies by spooning 1/2 tablespoon of each type of meringue into a mound and then swirling the two together with your fingers.
Bake until meringues feel dry and crisp all the way through, about 3 hours.  Turn off oven; leave meringues in oven for 1 hour.  (I left them all night.) Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely.  Peel meringues off foil and store in an airtight container at room temperature.  Yields about 2 cookies per serving.

Our first judge, Margaret, chose Version B, because (and I forgot about this concern) she doesn’t like pecans.  While Judge Jim chose Version A, because, he does like pecans.  So we had to call it a tie.  Happily, both versions looked great together after they were packaged for the winning girls soccer team … I know, it’s not really a macho looking soccer snack, but after a tough soccer game, there’s nothing like a little sugar to sweeten the win.

So, happy Valentine’s Day everyone, and as Bobby says at the end of each show, “So to all you cooks out there, keep doing what you do.  But ask yourself this:  Are you ready for a Throwdown?”

A glorious 2011 to all of you from Cathy Heck Studio! We wish you a new year full of cherished moments and bright discoveries.

Greetings from the mobile studio this holiday season!  We are huddled under three feet of snow over here in Lithuania and it is the first time in a while that I have so closely identified with the singers of the Pottery Barn “Hip Holidays” Christmas CD that was thrown into the suitcase at the last minute for a little American musical cheer; dreaming is no longer required for a white Christmas, but the weather outside is indeed frightful.

However, the snow made the indoors of the Tree Cake factory in Ignalina all the cozier.  We took one of those “how it’s made” tours and were able to see how my favorite Lithuanian dessert is put together (like a horizontal stalactite).  If we ever have a house with a fireplace, we’ll be sure to install one of these rotating spits for endless batter-splashing fun…

And here are some freshly-decorated gingerbread cookies to visually share.  We were icing them at the same time as the Austin branch of Cathy Heck Studio was finishing a pfoffen bröd marathon, so I guess making cookies is one thing that’s happening all over the world.

Wishing you all a safe, sweet, and cozy end to 2010!

Cathy and Ellen and all the critters and critterbots at Cathy Heck Studio hope that you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  Merry Merry!

And, if you would like to enjoy a replay of last year’s performance by Neville and his Christmas croon, click HERE. (We tried to capture him singing a new song, but he seems to be a one-song wonder … We’re waiting to hear the results from his DNA test to find out if he is genetically predisposed to singing before continuing his voice lessons. We’ll keep you posted.)

My apologies for posting a recipe before trying it. The Green Stuff from the previous Thanksgiving Jell-O post was forced upon our clan … by me … with all good intentions, but the final reviews were all the same … Yuuuuk. My personal review was: “this is not my memory, and, in fact, this is disgusting.” So, perhaps the recipe I found was not the one I remembered, OR perhaps the memory was much better than the actual dish … which is not a bad way of looking at the world … in fact, I recommend it for movies and childbirth.

So, if you actually tried the previous-post recipe, my apologies. We think that it was the pretend-lime flavor that threw us all over. However, before we completely give up on our happy Jell-O memory, we are going to try it with the Jell-O pistachio pudding. I know, I know … that sounds like it could be even worse, but, several of us vaguely remember using the pistachio instead of the lime. Plus, during the holiday, I found a recipe for Green Stuff using the pistachio pudding in my wedding Recipe Shower box … so this could be a clue, possibly solving the delicious-memory-of-green-stuff mystery. However, I promise that I will NOT post the recipe until we have actually tasted it. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even if you burned the marshmallows or forgot the biscuits in the oven. (Not that that happened around here or anything.)