Ceviche and studio time

It's been a while since I last posted. I wish that I could say it was because I was so busy but that's not really the case. We did have a new friend over for dinner, though.

I wanted to make something that was served cold because of the scorching hot weather we've been having. I decided on ceviche.

I made a trial run the weekend before because I'd never made ceviche before. I used large scallops, cleaned and cut into quarters, and shrimp. I could have used the small Bay scallops but I don't like them as much. I cleaned the shrimp and cut them into three or four pieces, cut the scallops and very quickly par boiled them for a few seconds to give them a head start on the "cooking" action of the citrus fruit. I drained and refrigerated the seafood while I prepared the rest
of the ceviche. I finely chopped one small onion, one jalapeño pepper, a mango, about 1/2 cup of pineapple, a cucumber and a tomato. All of this went into a large bowl with the juice of one lime and about 1/3 cup of orange juice. I added the seafood to this and mixed it together well and refrigerated it until dinner. It was really delicious and refreshing. Just the thing for a Summertime supper.

We have added an additional day to our babysitter's schedule. She now comes two afternoons,consecutively. It feels so luxurious to have two afternoons to myself. When it was just one afternoon a week, I couldn't even think of what to do with the time. Catch up on sleep? Read a book? Unfortunately, I usually did something boring but necessary like grocery shopping or laundry. Now I try to do those things before the sitter comes so I can make the time useful.

After many, many months off I got into my mosaic work again. I'm making a smaller version of one of my most popular mosaics. My hope is to begin making smaller mosaic backsplashes and be able to market them. It feels good to be working on something again. While life with a new baby is certainly exciting and interesting, I'd begun to feel like I'd lost the creative part of myself. It felt like I'd left that in the past and it's good to bring it into the present again. Now, let's see what the future brings.