California Pizza Kitchen's (CPK's) Awesome Artichoke Spinach Dip Recipe Pictorial

Brown the Onion & Garlic in Olive Oil and Butter

Sprinkle in the Flour & Stir

Add in the Chicken Stock...

Add in the Cream (I used Organic Milk)...

and then the other ingredients according to the recipe.

If it seems to "watery", then turn up the heat, keep stirring, 

do NOT leave the stove, turn down the heat when it thickens.

If it's too thick, add some more milk/cream/half and half until it's the right 

consistency.  It should be kinda thick, sorta Thicker than Elmer's Glue.

 

Last step, Add in the Spinach, Sour Cream, and rest of ingredients. 

Try this on Toasted slices of Baguettes or French Bread

...a bit more filling than the chips.

I've made this California Pizza Kitchen Spinach Artichoke recipe twice already. Each time I made it, People Raved about it. I mean it. It's absolutely to "die for". Yum Yum.

When we go to CPK, we sometimes splurge and get this dip. It's delish!  This past Christmas, I decided to make a hot gooey dip for our family Christmas dinner party.  I did some internet research and found this recipe.  I made it, tasted it, and knew that everyone would just love it...it tastes just like how it does at the restaurant. And I was right, everyone loved it. My younger brother even wanted to keep the leftover dip...that's how good it was. 

My sister-in-law told me that CPK had a recipe book. The very next day, I used my Border's 40% off coupon and got their Pasta, Salads, and Sides cookbook. It had this very recipe that I had found on the internet. 

Recently, I made it again because I just wanted to. I shared it with some of our friends....they loved it. OK, enough said. Go and make it the next time you need to prepare a hot dip...like the Superbowl game, Oscar night, the next family get together. It has a lot of ingredients but nothing you probably don't already have or can readily get. And, while it does take a little longer to prepare than your normal dip, it IS well worth the extra effort. 

Here's to a bunch of Happy Tummys!

Here's a link to the recipe online...just Click HERE.

So Excited

This is motivation I've needed to reawaken my creativity.

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Day 2 in Project Runway Dottie Angel Style

Get Ready, Set, Sew!!!

  

The Sewing Room...a selection of both Vintage and Modern machines

My Vintage Pillow Case Apron

And, did I mention the Food? OMG, Angela is the Food Goddess!

This is just Lunch.

It must have been GReaT, bc I'm showing 2 Food Photos Twice!

 

LOved our Constant chatting and getting to know each other,

    

Slip Dresses Dottie Angel Style

Angela's Kitchen

Day 2 of the Dottie Angel Workshop...

The First day of our actual workshop, I call it Day 2 bc I each day that I was there was a memorable day. Little did we know it but we were going to experience Our Version of Project Runway. On Saturday, our 1st day of creating together, Tif eased us into our projects with her Grannie Vintage Apron project.  Each of us brought vintage (aka "old" for those not in the know) pillow cases, variety of vintage fabrics laces and trims to create with. Our first project took 1/2 the day. The whir of the sewing machines, the cursing (wait, I think that was just me!), and chatter filled the dining room converted to sewing room. We had a lot of sewing machines to choose from brought by various gals to share. At the end, each gal had a Gorgeous One of a Kind Unique Apron that really showed each gals' personality and style. Everyone was overflowing and in creative Full Throttle Overdrive.  What a great way to start the weekend!

After the scrumptious lunch prepared by Angela herself, we started on our 2nd project of Vintage Slip Dresses. Side note: Angela is an Excellent Chef Extraordinaire! Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, and Dinner...Wow! A treat for the Tummy. She always had something available for us to eat throughout the day. Fresh Fruit, drinks...tea, waters, coffee, wine, things to nibble on, Fresh Delicious Salads, Salmon, Pastas, on and on and on. She was our personal chef for 4 days straight. Yowzah! She made sure that we were Well fed. Now I know how Oprah lives!  **If you want to sign up for Angela's workshops and adventures, see here... Angels Ritchie's ACE Camps.

Our 2nd project for the day was creating these Gorgeous Vintage Slip Dresses. Many gals had already hand dyed their slips. Coming off the high of creating our lovely aprons, now we were creating pretty pretty dresses. The pressure was on. We started feeling like contestants on Project Runway. Clock ticking, Angela won't feed us until we finished our dresses...OMG! Do I want to hand embroider? Want to add more Lace? Want to sew on more buttons? Cut the hem?  At the end of the day, Everyone's slip dresses looked Diva-licious. We were all thrilled with our Dottie Angel handiwork. 

Tif was thee Perfect Hostess with the Mostest. Like Tim Gunn, she went from gal to gal, checking on each of us, helping us with decision making, giving helpful advice, making terrific suggestions. And Always Always gave Positive Encouragement. Talk about the Energizer Bunny. Tif was Tif but with endless seeming energy. Always calm, always motherly, always always Creatively Positive. The Perfect Teacher. 

Next up...the Big Reveal!

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Looking for Christmas Gifts for loved ones? Please stop by my Etsy shops...Stacy's Designs 88, Blue Lovebirds, and Lilikoi Cottage.

Day 1 of the Dottie Angel Workshop

Entering the "Work Mansion", we're all greeted Dottie Angel style

Colorful Horses are there to Greet Us

Dottie's Work  Hangings on the Walls

Comfy Decorated Couches have been definitely Dottie-fied

The Old Piano is Covered With Loads of Vintage Fabrics and Notions

The Gals Come In and Get to Know Each Other

The Captain of the Mansion...Dottie-fied

Day 1 of my Dottie Angel Adventure...

After depositing all my luggage at the B&B, Louise (my London flatmate) and I head next door to check out the "Work Mansion". From the front door, we know we are at the right place. Everything is Dottie-fied. There are jars of flowers lining the doorway to greet us. When we enter, there are vintage fabric banners hanging from the posts. The dark kinda scary mansion has been given a good once over by Tif herself. It's like walking into a magazine shoot really. Everywhere you look, the dark wood has been gentrified with the Dottie touch. 

In the center of the living room, there are couches and chairs covered in colorful vintage sheets and fabrics of Tif's taste. She's even brought her own vintage covered pillows! Wow! Above the mantel, her embroidered and sewn hangings gaily greet us. What a thrill. I know I made the right decision. No doubt about it now. 

And, when Tif herself walks into the room to greet us, it's like a real life celebrity is in our midst. Really. Tif is just what you would imagine her to be...delightfully british like polite but with a down home loving touch, very energetic but not the type that sucks your energy from you...in fact, you feel her giving you energy, and when she talks, it's just like she's talking to you...each one of us, not leaving anyone out. If you were to bump into her at the local store, she would definitely be the type of person you could easily strike up a conversation with. That's Tif. 

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings as we start working on our projects...

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If you Enjoy reading my blog, Please sign up to get blog post updates automatically sent to your email. Just enter your email in the Far Left Column where it says "Subscribe via Email..."

Looking for Christmas Gifts for loved ones? Please stop by my Etsy shops...Stacy's Designs 88, Blue Lovebirds, and Lilikoi Cottage.

My Dottie Angel Workshop Adventure in Seattle WA

I feel like I just got dropped off to go to College

The Shafer Baillie Mansion B&B on 14th Avenue East in Seattle

The Stone "Bouncers" guarding the Front

A wonderful path in the Garden

  

Happy Pansies

 

The Ground's Security Lion

Pink Hydrangeas down the path

 

 

 

 

 

 

In late September, I ventured off to Seattle Washington to attend an all vintage fabric workshop with Tif of the Dottie Angel world.  I luckily "found" this workshop while checking in on her blog.  The workshop was created by Angela of Angela Ritchie's Ace Camps.  This was the very first time I ever "went away" to attend a crafty workshop.   The perfect thing to get my creative juices going in a different direction for my Etsy shops.  

In the past year, I've inherited a lot of old doilies and hand embroidered lovelies created by people's grandmothers and aunts. When I came across Tif's workshop, I knew this was the very thing I needed to get me going on how to re-use these lovelies with a more modern and usable fashion. 

Here are some photos of my 1st day there. I got dropped off at the front door of the B&B Shafer Baillie Mansion where I stayed with my London roommate Louise for 3 nights. During the day, we were across the street in another Victorian mansion sewing and cutting away with 11 other creative women participants and Tif herself.

More photos to follow in the next days...

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If you Enjoy reading my blog, Please sign up to get blog post updates automatically sent to your email. Just enter your email in the Far Left Column where it says "Subscribe via Email..."

Looking for Christmas Gifts for loved ones? Please stop by my Etsy shops...Stacy's Designs 88, Blue Lovebirds, and Lilikoi Cottage.

A Bird's Eye View of Oahu

Oahu Bound! Ugh...where's this?

      

I think they made us go the Long Way to the Airport.

I don't know where this is...do you?  The clouds look neat though.

 

Here's another shot...does the world look round?

One final shot...I think the clouds look so cool.

Flying back to Oahu from Seattle, Took some shots from our window seat before landing. The clouds looked so pretty. They remind me of cotton candy "splats".  And, I don't know exactly where our pilot flew off to before we landed but it seemed as if we were coming in from the Ewa Beach side of the island. Awful lot of buildings below..could be just Sand Island area. It wasn't the normal tip and dive onto the landing area. 

Our Sunrise Papaya Tree...Just Bragging

Our Very Own Tree Ripened Sunrise Papaya...Yummy!

Side View...Just to Show Off

Our Papaya Tree

Our Papayas are so Sweet and Juicy...with Greek Yogurt, Walnuts, and local Honey

This year, we finally decided to grow our own papaya trees.  We constantly eat papayas throughout the year. The seed are thrown into our backyard compost pile and these little papaya plants sprouted up.  So, we randomly planted the little seedlings and prayed for good papayas. I swear, I had to wait about a year for the seedlings to grow into tall trees. And, it seemed like MONTHS (5+) for the flowers to turn into these globes of orangey goodness. I pick them when they turn a bit of orange to avoid having to beat off the neighborhood birds. Then, they ripen to a yellow/orange in my kitchen near the window. Awwww....Delicious! Utter Heaven! Worth the wait.