Coastal Fog

Ginger Tea

2011-11-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

Ginger is said to reduce inflammation and help sore joints. It's good when you want a hot drink and it's made into a tea. Simply grate or mash a thick slice of gingerroot (I use the mortar and pestle) and pour on hot water. Steep, strain and serve with some honey. I've tried juicing the ginger and grating it, but mashed seems to make the most delicious version. It's great on a cold and wet night. And no caffeine, either.

When we're feeling punk

2011-10-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

I had a cold. Second one this year, that's a record, for me. I'm normally not a partaker of colds. I just don't like them, they don't like me. I like to keep it that way.

But when you are feeling punk, there is a sort of rice soup that is almost universal to any culture that eats rice. You can call it congee, canja, jook, okayu, milchreis, kao tam. It can be sweet, savory or incredibly bland.

Recipe:

1 cup or one measure of rice (I use either Jasmine or Japanese short grain.)
10 cups or measures water. (Yes. That is right. 10.)

Put the rice and water in the rice cooker on the "congee" or "porridge" setting. Let'er go until the rice is broken down and you have a thin soup. Can be made thicker. Can be made with chicken or vegetable or fish bouillon. (Bob preferred it with chicken broth, I like it with either veg broth or water.)

Can be seasoned with: shrimp, garlic, green onions, fried diced pork and fish sauce (nam pla) or for a sweet version, use raw sugar, gur or jaggery (palm sugar) and I like a dash of cinnamon. It is made with milk in Germany. I do not like it with milk.

Notice there is no salt unless you use bouillon or nam pla. I usually eat mine with a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar mix. The savory version is a good winter breakfast (and is what we ate in Thailand, that is, I ate it, Bob went for the Western breakfast.) It is also a good dinner or late night snack if you don't want to eat much. In Japan, we had it seasoned with some kind of sweet-soy-sauced dried anchovy fish. Better than it sounds. Some people kind of poach an egg in it by dropping in a raw egg and lightheartedly hoping the heat of the porridge will cook that egg. Maybe, maybe not. Raw eggs for breakfast are common in Japan.

This is great when you don't feel good. Or if you are not up for much to eat.

Vegetarian Biryani

2011-06-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe I make for pot luck. It satisfies vegans and no one misses the meat or cheese.

Ingredients
For the rice:
3/4 cups basmati rice
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

For the vegetables:
2 tablespoons oil (canola, corn)
1/4 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon peeled, minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs Curry Paste (mild Pataks, or Pataks Biryani Paste)
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
1 cup small cauliflower florets
1 cup drained chick peas (canned are fine)
3 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 small new potatoes (about 6 ounces), peeled and quartered, and par boiled
1 medium carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small zucchini cubed
handful sugar snap peas
1 salt
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons toasted shredded coconut
2 tablespoons toasted blanched, sliced almonds
Directions

Make the rice: I use a rice cooker. Add ingredients and whole spices, cook as for white rice

Meanwhile, make the vegetables. Put oil in a skillet with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the golden raisins, almonds, curry paste and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the chick peas, cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, carrots, and salt. Raise the heat to high, pour in the water, and cook, covered, for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and most of the water has evaporated, about 1 1/2 minutes more.

Top rice with veg in a lasagna pan. Cover with foil.

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, to heat through. Season with salt to taste. Serve, top with some of the toasted coconut and almonds.

Bye bye to the Big Guy

2011-04-02T14:24:00.003-07:00

Departed this earth, in his sleep, 3-24-2011. 54 yrs of age. I'm gutted.

VEGAN THANKSGIVING...third year running

2010-11-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

What do you do for friendship? In our case, though we are confirmed carnivores, we spend Thanksgiving with friends who are vegan. Which means, no turkey, no sausage, no pumpkin pie with milk and egg custard. Still, we do ok by ourselves, and the cuisine can be quite good. One advantage is the "incredible lightness of being" afterwards; no turkey tryptophan serotonin stupor afterwards.

This year, our menu is a joint effort: squash soup, spinach-orange-pomegranate salad, pumpkin pie and the main course is a tofurkey which I am cooking. And stuffing, extra, for sides.

The stuffing requires vegan bread, no egg, no meat, no milk but is actually not a challenge at all. Here are TWO recipes. One is a sweet and savory spelt bread filling for the Tofurkey (which is a theme of sweet-savory-salty contrasts, glazed in a molasses-soy glaze) and a "not-sausage" stuffing based on vegan French bread.

1. Sweet Savory Spelt Stuffing

1 half loaf (about 3/4 lb) of whole spelt bread.
1/2 heart of celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, diced fine
1/4 cup of dried cranberries
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored, diced
2 cups vegetable broth
seasoning: poultry seasoning or your own: I use marjoram, sage, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder melded in a mortar with a pestle.
Smart Balance oil

Method: Saute onion, celery in oil until onion is clear and soft, add in apple, cook till it is semi-soft, add in cranberries cook till soft.
Mix this with diced spelt bread in an 8 inch or 9 inch square baking dish. Toss well to coat the bread (I use stale bread; if yours is fresh, toast the cubes of bread for 10 min in a low oven to dry out.) Add in seasoning, toss and taste a cube. Correct seasoning. Add broth until cubes are well-moistened. Taste again (nothing in here is truly "raw" so you can taste this safely.) Cover with foil and bake 30 min on 350 in the oven or until well heated and slightly crusted on top. You can also bake this 20 min and use to stuff your Tofurkey. For that, we use a shell made of 4 boxes of very firm tofu, pureed, seasoned with poultry seasoning as above plus some dry broth crystals, and pressed into a shell in a colander lined with cloth. (We make the hollow with a smaller bowl after pressing plastic wrap on top of the tofu in the colander. Drain. Put a ball of stuffing in a large baking roaster pan, dump shell on top, glaze, bake for 90 min, basting frequently.

2. Savory "Not-Sausage" stuffing (actually, it's DRESSING, as it's not stuffed into anything, but I like alliteration.)

This stuffing tastes as if there is sausage or meat in it, but it is completely vegan. Will satisfy the carnivore in anyone.

1 lb dry cubes of vegan French bread (I make this in the breadmaker)
1 heart of celery diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 lb of white mushrooms: chop 3/4 of them finely in a food processor, slice the rest or chunk them
Oil (Smart Balance or olive)
Poultry Seasoning or your own mix
2 tsp of Penzey's Breakfast Sausage Seasoning Mix
2 cups of warm vegetable broth or more as needed

Saute onion, celery until onion is clear and soft, add in chopped and diced mushrooms. Cook until they are soft and mushy. Add the seasoning. Taste and correct seasoning. Toss this on the bread cubes in a 18 x 9 glass or ceramic baking dish (again, dry the bread cubes if they are too fresh.) When bread is well coated with the vegetable-seasoning mix, moisten with vegetable broth. Taste again to correct seasoning. Bread should not look dry, but should not be soggy, either. Cover with foil and bake 30-40 min at 350 or until heated through and slightly crusty on top.

Tofurkey

beat 4 boxes of tofu, extra firm, with food processor until grainy and smooth-ish. Season to taste with smoked paprika, poultry seasoning, a paste of vegetable broth or anything you fancy.

Press this mix into a colander lined smoothly with a wet linen towel or wet cheesecloth. Set this over a bowl. Put plastic wrap entirely over the top of the tofu and press down with SMALLER bowl until you have a shell mold of tofu mix. It will drip into the outer bowl. Weight the inner bowl with a can of tomatoes or bottle of jam. Let this sit at least 5 hours or overnight in the fridge.

When you are ready to bake the Tofurkey; oil a baking pan (like a 9x13 glass or whatever fits) place a ball of the apple cranberry spelt (or stuffing of choice in the middle, about the size of the cavity you made in the tofu. Dump tofu on top, peel off the towel, smooth if you like, with a knife. Glaze with APPLE-SOY-MOLASSES glaze (follows) and bake about 60-90 min on 350 degrees F in oven.

Apple Soy Molasses Glaze

1 cup unsweetened, unspiced apple butter
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
1 tbs balsamic vinegar (can use cider or wine)
1 tbs blackstrap molasses

Mix well, brush over unbaked Tofurkey and reglaze as you bake.

2010-05-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

Save on most online purchases

When I shop online, I manage to knock off a few bucks. I saved on my Mothers Day flower, furniture and some kitchen gear. If you are ordering flowers for Mom, this can help.

Rich Chickpea Vegetable Curry

2010-04-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

This thick curry can be made vegan by substituting coconut milk for the yogurt. In all other respects, it is completely vegan

1 can Goya Chickpeas, drained
1 onion diced
2 cups various vegetables: I used turnip, mushroom, carrot, potato, green pepper but you can use zucchini, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower or any mix. Potato is a nice thing to include in any batch.
1/2 large can crushed tomatoes (I used Hunts, sans any seasoning like basil.)
1 cup water
2 Tbs Patak Mild Curry Paste
1 tsp Sweet Curry powder (Penzey)
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp Balti seasoning (Penzey)
1/4 cup unsweetened flake coconut
1/4 cup Golden Sultanas
1/2 cup whole milk or part-skim plain yogurt (or coconut milk)
Canola or mustard oil

Method:
Saute onion in oil until golden and clear. Add in the diced veg and the curry seasonings and coat under low heat until the vegetables are softened and coated well with the curry paste and powders. Add drained chickpeas, coat in seasoning. Add in the tomato and water, sultanas and coconut. Correct seasoning. Simmer covered for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, until the vegetables are quite soft. If you are using potatoes or turnips, this will take longer than soft vegetables like zucchini and green beans.

Off heat, stir in the yogurt. Serve over fresh, fluffy rice either brown or white Basmati is good.

Broccoli Slaw with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

2010-03-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is so easy, it's ridiculous. And it uses broccoli stems, which I don't fancy on boiled broccoli but raw, well...it's another matter. If you like this light, delicious recipe, there are more in this wonderful vegan cookbook: Vegan Table

Recipe serves 2-4 (2 as main meal, 4 for side salad)

3-4 broccoli stems, peel any thick skin and remove dry end
2 carrots
1 Gala, Braeburn, Granny Smith or any good dessert apple, peeled
1/4 cup moist-style dried cranberries
2 Tbs Pomegranate vinegar
1 Tbs grapeseed oil or other neutral-flavored salad oil.

Shred vegetables and peeled apple in a food processor or on a grater. I use the coarse grater.
Stir in cranberries. Toss with pomegranate vinegar and oil.

Serve on a lettuce leaf, or in a bowl or to be fancy, slice an apple thinly equator-style (cross-wise making thin disks.) Lay five disks out on a salad plate and heap the slaw on top.

Cranberry-Apricot Granola Bars

2010-03-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

I despise granola bars. When given one for a breakfast or a snack, I'm depressed unutterably. But bars are useful as quick snacks, and my guy at home can't eat wheat or nuts and he often wants a quick snack-meal. At a buck a piece for sugary commercial bars of little value, it's a poor proposition.

So I developed some homemade granola bars with his favorite ingredients and they taste great--not a cookie, exactly, but definitely slightly chewy-crunchy and full of good ingredients. A few of these will make a good mini-meal.

3/4 cup whole spelt flour (can use any gluten-free flour if you are gf.)

1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder (use rice protein if vegan)

1/3 cup agave syrup

1/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (you can cut this down and add more agave or use rice malt syrup instead to reduce the sugar content.) Or substitute applesauce.

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cornstarch

1 1/4 cup rolled old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup milled flaxseed

1 cup rice krispie-type cereal (can be puffed millet as a variant.)

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup cut up dried apricots

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" x 13" cake pan.

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, and baking
powder. Set aside.

Mix syrup, sugar and oil, blend well. Add vanilla.

Add dry flour/powder ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in. This will make a wet, brown sticky dough.

Wet your clean hands. Blend in the oats, flaxseed meal, flax seeds, rice krispies, dried fruits. Mix until the oats are well coated.

Pat dough into prepared pan. Press it WELL into the pan, using your damp knuckles. The better you press this, the better texture the bars will have.

Bake for 20-25 min until golden brown. Cool COMPLETELY and then
cut into bars. Store in airtight containers or ziplock bags.

Mittens finished. Now on to the hat

2010-02-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

Knitting: mittens from Mostly Mittens

And a hat to match. The mermaid thing on the right is the mitten blocker. To make a mitten blocker, go to your local Dollar Store and find a kiddy placemat. They seem (at least stores around here) to have thin acrylic mats with kiddy cartoon characters. We had Little Mermaid, but I've heard of Spongebob as well. Buy one of these for a buck, and cut it to make a template. I cut one piece for the hand, and a second for the thumb. No need to attach them.

To use the blocker, wet and blot your knitted mitten, then insert the thumb blocker in the thumb. Stretch and arrange, and then do the same with the hand blocker. I find bending the blocker to put it inside the mitten helps. Let dry. Your mitten will be nice and flat. Blocking makes a big difference to knitted mittens and gloves.

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-01T10:10:00.001-08:00

It's New Year's Day, 2010. A new decade, in a new century, in a new millenium. In 1910, it was still shocking to see a glimpse of stocking. Now, we see a whole lot MORE than we'd like to on television and out in public.

What did I do today? I am cleaning my office (sort of) and I made Potage Celestine from Julia Child's second "Mastering the Art" cookbook. This is a leek-celery-rice based soup that is thickened with potato puree and milk. You can make it relatively low fat, but it is best served with a nice pat of butter on top. I chose to rice the potatoes using a vintage Mouli Mill that makes a fluffy, light potato and avoids the glutinous mess that whipped potatoes can become. The soup, however, was pureed with a stick blender before adding the potato-milk liaison. Julia suggests serving with a beurre compose more or less with fresh herbs into butter pats, and I think a chiffonade of fresh tarragon, chives, sage and chervil would have taken this soup to new heights. I used parsley and it was ok. Chives would have been better yet. But I'm not growing any at the moment.

This is an inexpensive soup (2 leeks, a bunch of celery and a carton of organic chicken broth, milk, 4 potatoes and some butter.) It could be made lower fat by sauteeing the vegetables in bouillon powder and a touch of oil. It can adapt to vegan, even, using soy milk and veg broth. But I prefer the classic.

2009-12-19T06:41:00.001-08:00

I've been fighting off a cold with echinacea, hot baths and..it seems I need something stronger. This cold wants me. I don't want it, though. So I happen to know that making onion soup seems to drive the cold away, and eating it on a rainy, cold Sunday isn't a bad idea, either. After I cut up the 2 lbs of onions, I felt completely better, eyes streaming, nose clear. Of course, if you are using Onion Soup as a cold remedy, remember to wash your hands a lot, keep your nose clean and use the soup-tasting method you ought to be employing anyway--which is:

Take a teaspoon and dip out the sample into

A tablespoon, from which you sip. HOLD THE SPOON AWAY FROM THE POT as you sip.

When you have tasted the soup and corrected your seasonings, put the dipping spoon in a spoon holder by the pot for further dips, and put the tasting spoon in the loop in your chef jacket or put it in the dishwasher. The key is NEVER to sip from the dipping spoon. This keeps the soup sanitary for all.

The last time I had REAL onion soup was at Le Pied du Couchon in Paris (near Les Halles.) It features temptingly-roasted pigs' trotters dusted with crumbs and of a deep mahogany brown, skin crisp and curling as a speciality in this old marketing section of Paris, but I am not a fan of pork. So I ordered oysters, onion soup, a salad and the house Chablis, which was excellent. A very nice little lunch.

Real French Onion Soup a la Joanna

Ingredients

2 lbs yellow onions, peeled and halved, then sliced thinly. (A knife is the thing. A food processor can be used but you lose the pain and suffering aspect, as well as the anti-viral properties of the onion gas.)

A heavy pot (I use a Le Creuset dutch oven)

1 tbs good olive oil

3 tbs very good butter (Plugra, or other top grade butter, or at least a good unsalted.)

Melt the oil and butter and saute the onions for 15 minutes with the cover on to sweat out the goodness. Then open the cover and saute them until they are a deep ochre color. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt and a 1/2 tsp of raw sugar to aid the browning process. You have to stir this fairly frequently. I use a spatula to make sure I scrape up the browned bits from the pot's bottom. It will be a shock, but the onions will have reduced from about 1/3 of the pot's volume to a thin sludge of deep ochre onion jam at the bottom of the pan. When the onions are done (don't cheat this step) add in 3 tbs of flour (we use white spelt, but any white flour will do, not whole meal.) Stir for a few minutes to cook out the flour and coat the onions.

Now add 2 quarts of boiling organic beef broth (vegetarians may substitute veg broth) and a packet of Goya beef "cubito" bouillon. If you are vegetarian, use a tbs or so of Vegemite or Marmite instead. Add a half cup of a New Zealand Sauvignon blanc or a 1/4 cup of white grape juice or apple juice if you must not have alcohol, season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Simmer partially covered for 40 minutes. The onion "sludge" will perk up quite a bit at the end and you will have a beautiful, brown, rich soup that will impress anyone.

To serve it properly, you can make it gratineed, or baked with cheese. I do not know a way to make this vegan, so if you are vegan style vegetarian, you are on your own here. (I think soy cheese might work, but I'm not even going to try it.)

You need about 2-3 tbs of cheese mixture per serving. I use 1/3 parmesan, 1/3 gruyere and 1/3 swiss and it has to be imported REAL cheese and even Boar's Head gruyere is not real and I was pretty miffed at paying $16 a pound for rubbery, metallic-tasting "cheese" so find a Swiss gruyere. It's well worth it. Same goes for the Swiss and the Parmesan. Use GOOD cheese. Grate the three cheese and toss. I grate coarsely for this.

You will also need croutes, in this case I cheat and use Ile de France petits pains grilles, which are small thick squares of French bread in melba form and they are actually good. Bimbo brand toasts (Spanish section of the grocery store) could also work. If you want to be really authentic, get a good baguette and slice, toast slowly in the oven until it is hard and dry. Rub with a cut garlic clove and a bit of olive oil if you like. Our baguettes are fluffy little fakers, so I don't bother.

To assemble the soup, take an oven proof ramekin or individual casserole or if you have them, onion soup bowls. Pour in the soup and a tsp of GOOD cognac if desired, then place a croute in the center (2 or 3 if using the toasts instead) and scatter the cheese on top. Bake 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven, then broil at the end to brown the cheese. Placing the bowls on a baking sheet really helps. This is going to be wicked hot when served, so warn the guests, who are probably only used to lukewarm American food and never have seen something served piping hot.

A nice white (a flinty Chablis, or the En-Zed Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc) and a leafy salad of romaine to follow make for a great meal.

Natural & Artificial Pigments New Painting

2009-12-03T00:57:00.000-08:00

I finished a portrait recently and part of the work includes incorporating natural pigments into the mix.

Most of the paints for this work are Daniel Smith (from a paint firm that specializes in some unique inorganic, mineral-derived paints.) But the flesh tones incorporate French ochre, Nicosia Green Earth and Vermilion from Rublev (Natural Pigments)

The vermilion does NOT behave like pyrol red, naphthol red, cadmium red or any orange-red of organic origin. The tinting strength is very high but staining is low, meaning you can tint the rosy blush of flesh to a very precise level. Dropping vermilion (Rublev) into a semi-opaque wash makes an uncanny, glowing blush. No other paint behaves like it. The darkening of vermilion in some atmospheres is said to be mitigated by eliminating a chloride ion. I don't know if this is true, but the beauty of genuine vermilion is unsurpassed. You can also see it here, washing over the pyrol red in the head cloth and the apron.

Natural Pigments is supposed to be adding genuine gamboge, a rubber-like resin that is somewhat toxic and derived from the Garcinia tree of Southeast Asia (Gamboge and Cambodia derive from the same word.) I have a very ancient (1860's) lump of this resin and if you just drop a single, tiny drop of water on it, a brilliant yellow develops. The yellow of true gamboge is one of my favorite shades and I was unhappy in the 80's, when it went out of production. The color is not particularly lightfast compared to Hansa yellow or other yellows used to make New Gamboge. In light tints, you can usually find a substitute, but nothing is really as good as this beautiful sunny yellow. I can't wait to try it.

BANANA FLUFF PUDDING

2009-07-12T08:34:00.002-07:00

Don't blame me if you can't stop eating this. It's really good. A variant of the pistachio pudding (salad.)

1 pkg Banana Cream instant pudding
1 large tube Extra Creamy Cool-Whip
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can mandarin oranges
1/4 cup halved maraschino cherries (optional)

Fold pudding mix into Cool Whip until well blended. Mix in fruit and chill for a few hours.

Variants:
you can top with bananas, use mangos, papaya, coconut.

Sugar Free option (I don't like sugar free stuff but if you are diabetic or dieting...)

Sugar free Jello banana pudding
Sugar Free Cool Whip
Fresh Pineapple and Oranges (this removes the syrup issues of canned fruits)--chopped fine.

Natural Pigments: Not what you'd expect

2009-06-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Icon artists, illuminators and others interested in historic pigments for various reasons (such as reproducing the type of paintings done by the Old Masters in the same materials they used) are being served by various companies that make natural and obsolete pigments used in paint formulations.

For watercolor, even in the last 30 years, pigments have changed dramatically. For example, I could still buy genuine gamboge, a yellow pigment from a latex-producing tree of Asia, genuine vermilion, a somewhat fugitive red-orange mercuric pigment and genuine Rose Madder as well as true Manganese blue. Now, no one makes Manganese blue as it is a very polluting metallic pigment; vermilion darkens over time, gamboge and madder fade. Madder is still made by the original method by Winsor Newton and is still beautiful. Others imitate it (Rose Madder Genuine by Daniel Smith) but none has the true red color of W/N's special formulation.

Now, Daniel Smith and others make pigments from ground gemstones, but Rublev (naturalpigments.com) makes the old style paints found in Russian icons and the 18th and 19th century Old Master watercolors. I've been testing them out and they are quite interesting, but..not what you'd expect.

I'll put up reviews of the colors, swatches and my findings in blogs to follow.

2009-04-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

I recommend When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put by Vivian Swift. This is a wonderful journal but also instructional for anyone wanting to learn watercolor, especially smaller format and with journaling.

It's a BEAUTIFUL BOOK. Click that link to read reviews.

2009-03-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Exetazomichanophobia n.

Fear of using search engines. A word I invented to explain the phenomenon of posting a question on a forum to which you can Google the answer but you unaccountably do not, even though you are demonstrably on the Internet and you can use a computer and even a forum.

You heard it here first.

Turkish Sock

2009-03-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

Using some stashed Kroy sock yarn, I knit up a design of a Turkish sock.

This is designed from Zilboorg's "Fancy Feet" and is done on the fly--a bit tight in the leg but very pretty. As with a lot of Turkish socks, hard to put on but the fit is fine once you get there. And pulling it off is best done by grabbing the heel.

2009-03-05T03:06:00.000-08:00

The winter watercolor class ended 3/4/2009 at the Gibby Center for the Arts in Middletown, DE. In case you don't know, the Gibby is a combination teaching center, studio and gallery on Main Street, next to the venerable Everett Theater. If you've seen "Dead Poet's Society", a film with Robin Williams and Robert Sean Leonard, you've seen the Everett.

Five classes is just enough to get a taste of watercolor--the real learning happens when you repeatedly put BRUSH to PAPER and PAINT. We covered materials, paint characteristics, paper, how to draw if you don't know HOW to draw, washes,, successive layers of glazing, composition, and how to paint faces and figures (Jellybean figures and faces.) But we didn't even have time to get to color harmony, palettes, the chemistry of watercolor painting, and much more. We'll cover more of that in the Spring class, which will focus on getting what you envision from your head to the paper and dealing with the accident-prone nature of watercolor.

I posted a video of how to paint a small painting (ACEO or card-sized) of a watch. Funny, there was a billboard up on 95 in Wilmington some months after I posted this on Youtube, and it looked a LOT like my painting!

Until the Spring class, I'll be posting some lessons here, and eventually we'll move to a better website for the class, but my Blogger is handy right now.

Meanwhile, my class asked for a reading list and here it is:

Hilary Page Guide to Paints

This is an essential guide to learning about paint characteristics, from pigments to color harmonies. It's also really FUN to read.

Watercolor Wheel

This is a great book for learning about color, layers, and consistency of your paint washes and glazes. For some reason, it is out of print (!!!) and I suggest you get a copy even at this price before it becomes scarce.

This is Charles Reid's new book, has all kinds of stuff, from going from photo to painting, and Reid will LOOSEN you up like no other person and help you deal with accidents.

Charles Reid's Watercolor Solutions

FINALLY! A good ALL AROUND BASIC starter textbook with beautiful art.

Watercolor for the Serious Beginner

I'll post more demos, comments and other things in coming weeks, and if any of my STUDENTS want to post some of their work here (I saw some nice stuff from everyone!) email me and we'll do it.

The watercolor is a portrait I did for someone.

Three Women

2009-02-13T04:52:00.001-08:00

New Painting

This is from my watercolor class at the Gibby Center in Middletown, DE. We were doing a lesson on loosening up, and this was the example I painted in class for my students.

Cool Toned Chullo finished!

2009-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, almost finished. The cool toned version is blocking on a towel and needs two tassels on the ear flaps.

The colors I used were from Knitpicks Palette Yarn, a fingering weight Andes wool that comes in 51 colors, some heathered and some solid.

Colors:

Pool (med sky blue)
Blue (royal mid blue)
Iris Heather (pale mauve)
Clematis Heather (dark grape with some gold mixed in)
Huckleberry Heather (reddish purple, very pretty)
Lipstick (pinkish medium red, like Alizarin Crimson)
Cream

The flaps have the Ripples pattern and the main body uses a few patterns I found for Scandinavian borders, the dots, the spiral (not quite right), and the Alpacas for the main motif in the middle. Pool blue applied I-Cord.

Chullo

2009-01-24T02:55:00.000-08:00

I knit up another pair of those Selbuvotter gloves in Palette Yarn (that beautiful stuff from Knitpicks) and then proceeded onto the kit of the Chullo hat from the same place. This Palette yarn is lofty, soft, light as a feather and colorful. And inexpensive. I adore it.

The kit itself is about $20 and can make two hats! Generosity is a blessed trait, isn't it? I had to start the earflaps many times until I remembered how to knit colorwork in flat knitting. I had stopped knitting for some years, and this was hard to remember to do correctly. But after some bobbling around, I got the flaps done and then, ugh, I twisted the hat in joining ears to the knitting-around of the hat body. Ripping banded colorwork? Not worth it. Just start again. Plenty o' yarn.

Finally the hat is done. I re-worked the i-cord applied to edge differently than they worked it--because their method works from the RIGHT side and I think i-cord applied works best from the WRONG side--no color peeking through and the nicer part of the cord shows. This necessitated redoing the applied cord, no split up the cord to apply on either side of the hanging end (where the tassel goes.) Instead, did the hanging cord, applied one side of hat, then worked down on other side and ended in a cord. Then wove edges together. You have to BLOCK with pins to get it to lie flat and also colorwork REALLY requires some blocking. It is a mistake not to block colorwork.

I wore the hat yesterday. Warm. Light. I'm off to make another, using cool tones of blue, purple, and dark pink-red with cream. And maybe some gloves to match.

Glove Love

2009-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, the Lloie Cardigan was a bust--not sure that five balls of the MC is enough; I have 5 each raspberry and plum, so maybe I will make something else. Besides, I turned out to hate the colorwork swatch destined for the yoke. Ripped it all out. Gone.

Meanwhile, I got a copy of SELBUVOTTER: Biography of a Knitting Tradition in which there are mittens and gloves in beautiful Norwegian patterns based on the Selbu rose.

I have knitted 2 pair so far (well, almost 2 pair) in Knitpick's Palette fingering yarn.

Pair #1 is Annemor #17, suggested as the starter, relatively easy. I did it in a suggested colorway Green Tea and Eggplant (no, not a Japanese dinner but a nice green/purple.) Then I decided to do Annemor #15 in Cornmeal and Garnet.

Lloie's Cardigan

2008-12-19T03:18:00.001-08:00

Schoolhouse Press has a wonderful pattern from their anniversay issue (may be sold out on the site but if sold out, Meg has usually leaflets with the patterns. This month is a pullover or cardy with a leaf yoke pattern. The pullover is done in warm unspun Icelandic, but the cardy is done in Shetland jumper weight (a fingering weight yarn at about 6.5 st/in.)

I have a pretty good stash of Shetland from Harrisville Designs, and did up a swatch for the yoke to go with the body color of a discontinued tweed in raspberry with turquoise flecks. Don't know why they d/c'd this beautiful yarn. They have lovely colors and a beautiful palette but these were really special. Must have been in my stash for a decade. Never too late!

I may change up the colors, switching the orange for turquoise, or just doing turquoise as leaves with a banded background. The swatch doesn't use the three colors per row and you can see the transition from color to color is kinda funky. But doing three colors per row on a small swatch? Eh. No.

A Very Vegan Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T09:03:00.001-08:00

Though I am not a vegan, I did have a vegan Thankgiving, sharing a feast with some friends in Maryland. The menu included a tofu-stuffing casserole with gravy, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, green beans. It was all too delicious.

I came away with a recipe for vegan Crock "Cheez"--an imitation cheese that is lower in fat than regular cheese. I made up a batch and it's positively addictive. I love a lunch of cheese and whole grain crackers, with some fruit or raw vegetables. But the fat in cheese makes it not the best item to eat. This crock cheez is savory, low in fat and a wonderful lunch or appetizer.

1 tofu extra firm, 8 oz (about 2/3 a 14 ounce block.)
5 tbsp nutritional yeast,
2 tbsp tahini
1-1/2 tbsp miso
1 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp salt,
1/2 tsp paprika (I used smoked Spanish paprika from Penzey's)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard,
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
blend til smooth. I used a stick blender in the cup attachment; food processor or a suribachi is good.
Let sit an hour in the fridge to develop the flavor.

If you insist on that orange stuff, you could put in some natural carotene food color.

I warn you that this stuff will disappear; even non-veggie people will scoop it up.

Knitting a Chullo

2008-11-26T03:27:00.001-08:00

I'm making Knitpicks' Chullo (Andean) hat. It goes pretty fast once you've done the earflaps.

In progress, up to the first two small band patterns. I am now on the big bands of the llamas. Not hard. Very nice yarn.

The rain on the plain stays mainly to be a pain

2008-11-08T18:32:00.001-08:00

Rain. rain. more rain.....it's November. Usually October is the rainy month.

This is a painting of alliums for Ebsqart's flower-of-the-month

Election Day Cake

2008-11-04T04:29:00.001-08:00

Fruit cakes were made as quick energy snacks for travelers in colonial times (think of them as early versions of granola bars or energy bars, neither of which I like to eat, even in emergencies.)

This is a modern version from the Cullinary Institute, featuring dried fruits, lots of whisky (all you'll get today--the bars and liquor stores close on Election Day to prevent giving drinks to buy votes, yes this kind of ACORN stuff happened in the past.)

Enjoy, and have a free cup of coffee at Starbucks with it, perhaps--as they are handing out coffee for free in honor of the election.

Election Day cake
Makes 1 large cake

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (cranberries, golden raisins, blueberries--even cherries)
1/2 cup American whisky
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk
1 package (3/4 ounce) rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
Butter (for the pan)
All-purpose flour (for the pan)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup confectioners' sugar

1. In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar with the cold water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dried fruit, sugar mixture, and whisky; set aside.
3. In a another bowl, combine the warm water and milk. Stir in the yeast and 1 cup of whole-wheat flour. Sprinkle the remaining whole-wheat flour on top. Set aside for 30 minutes or until the yeast breaks through the surface of the flour.
4. Butter an 8-inch tube pan and dust it with flour, tapping out the excess.
5. In a bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, salt, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon; set aside.
6. Set a strainer over a bowl. Drain the fruit mixture; reserve the syrup for the glaze.
7. In an electric mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment, if you have one) beat the butter with the remaining 1 cup of granulated sugar until light. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.
8. With the mixer set on low speed, beat the yeast mixture into the batter followed by the flour and spice mixture. The batter will be stiff.
9. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a large metal spoon, stir in the drained fruit. Transfer the batter to the pan. Set in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
10. Set the oven at 350 degrees.
11. For the glaze: In a medium bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons of the syrup from the fruit. Stir until smooth; set aside.
12. Transfer the cake to the oven. Bake the cake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
13. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack. When cool, lightly brush with the reserved syrup. Top with the glaze. Culinary Institute of America

A Day of Rest

2008-11-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

Sadly, Sunday was not as beautiful as Friday or Saturday (70 degrees, sunny, beautiful fall leaves. I swear November is one of the prettiest months here.) Clouds, damp and a bit of drizzle. But I got a day of rest. No painting, however.

I made oatmeal cookies, a roast chicken, with rice and cabbage for dinner. Somehow, we were very hungry all day even with a big brunch of potatoes, onions and sausage and poached egg.

Recipe for the cookies:

1.5 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup butter (yes, butter. You are eating cookies, not health food.)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cup whole SPELT flour (can use whole wheat but spelt give this a special taste)
tsp pie spices or just cinnamon
1 extra large egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup raisins
(if you like, you can add dry cranberries, dry cherries and or nuts.)
-----
Cream butter and sugar, add egg.
Sift dry ingredients, alternate with milk.
Batter is a stiff but not dry mix.
Drop by big spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet, bake for approx 20 min at 350 deg. F.
The

Blustery but still remembering summer

2008-10-29T03:54:00.001-07:00

Wow! The weather turned on a dime here. We had hot October days, like Indian Summer. Then it turned cold and suddenly the leaves changed beautifully along the highway. Golds, russets, reds, oranges and the pines were a brighter green. Bam, then a nor'easter and it got down to the thiries, smelled like snow (we didn't of course get any but the mountains in Pennsylvania did.) Now it's just cold and damp. What a difference in a week.

I painted a black-eyed susan for the Flower of the Month on EBSQ.

October Days

2008-10-20T03:36:00.001-07:00

This is some of the prettiest weather I've ever seen. Golden sun, filtered by orange and red leaves during the day, warm as a summer afternoon, then cool nights. The grass is deep emerald from the bit of rain we had in September (it doesn't rain much on this peninsula.) The leaves are delicate red, gold and bronze. Nothing like in New England, but with their own charm, to be sure.

We spent Sunday afternoon after church at the home of friends, Mennonite dairy farmers. Their church rotates the hostess after service, and those that wish, come for a meal and good fellowship. So the usual 8 person dinner table in the farm kitchen was expanded to hold almost 20, I think.

As usual, the men sit conversing separate from the women (they had the parlor or front room) and the gals sat in the main family room. The seating at lunch was by couples. We had roast beef, fresh cut creamed corn (you will never open a can again, after you have this.) Also roast potatoes, jello with crushed strawberry puree (a fave of the kids) and bread with apple butter. There was a choice of sour cream or cream cheese for the potatoes. Dessert was similar to our last lunch at another farmer's--sheet cake, ice cream and a fruit sauce. In this case, it was peaches in a thick sauce, like a pie filling only not as sweet. Someone remarked that the box of ice cream was a lot smaller--the size typical for that brand's specialty flavors, not plain vanilla. I quipped that it was because of the high milk prices and we all had a laugh. When the corn prices rose early this year to sky-high levels, it was a serious question whether dairying made any sense anymore, since milk prices are controlled, but grain prices are not--and cows have to eat, like the rest of us.

After, the conversation continues. The men apparently discussed politics and the world, we women discussed more mundane things such as travel, who was getting married, and how to fix the welt of a suit pocket that tore out when a child used it as a handhold when climbing on Papa. Here, my grandmother's instructions in "invisible weaving" were useful.

We left at 4pm, the cows needing milking. They were glistening black, red and brown in the sun and galloping around playfully. Even they look somehow more radiant in this beautiful time of year.

Sheet Cake with Ice Cream and Fruit Compote:

Make a white sheet cake with white icing--any standard white cake made in a long sheet pan will do, ice with white confectionere's butter cream icing.

Fruit:

Take any fresh fruit and cook down; some ideas are peaches, apples, cherries, blackberries. Sweeten to taste and thicken with cornstarch slurry or arrowroot or tapioca. Serve at room temperature along with ice cream (vanilla) and the cake. A 3" square of cake suffices as a serving with the accompaniments, so you might find a 18 x 9 cake will serve quite a few .

Galbi Jiim and comfort food for the coming week

2008-10-12T17:26:00.001-07:00

I needn't tell you that if you work in the financial industry, last week was a shocker.

This week sounds to be not much better, so I continue my plan of cooking as many dinners on Sunday for the coming week.

I did a spelt noodle lasagna (for the wheat-averse here, spelt is an acceptable substitute.) I make standard noodle dough with white spelt flour and a hellacious number of double-yolk eggs. Spelt absorbs a lot of liquid compared to wheat. But it makes a superior noodle, as any Schwabian hausfrau would tell you. I rolled out flat sheets to the #5 setting on my Ampia pasta maker and made my mom's vegetarian version of lasgagna; egg, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan in a pudding-like mix with parsley and nutmeg, layered with tomato sauce and baked. It's better reheated as it turns out. The leftover noodles I cut into tagliatelle and the big guy got them with tomato sauce for lunch. I ate a cheese sammidge.

Then I did Galbi Jiim, which is a Korean short rib stew. I used boneless ribs we had in the freezer, and I happened to have brussels sprouts, potato and carrot, too. Here is the RECIPE

It came out delectable. I made more soup than this called for (because I like soup) and it tastes rather like French Onion, despite the shoyu addition. I did not use sesame oil--that goes in as a seasoning at the end, for those who like it.

Mediterranean Pot Roast

2008-10-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

I make one pot roast on Sunday to get us through Wednesday, unless I'm doing a chicken or other casserole. No time to cook weeknights, and the budget does not like eating out, much less my PALATE, which is shocked and appalled at what passes for food in our local area.

So here's my recipe for Mediterranean pot roast, which can be varied by anyone to fit their tastes. Picture is forthcoming (it's still in the pot, braising.)

1 large pot roast (boneless chuck, 3-5 lbs)
1 onion, coarse diced
1 celery, coarse diced
2 cloves garlic crushed
chopped parsley, tbs
chopped leftover raw mushrooms, half-one cup (optional)
olive oil
Goya red sofrito
half diced raw tomato
1 cup red wine (we're using a merlot)
1 bouillon cube (we use Goya)
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
pepper to taste, salt if needed
---------
saute meat on all sides until browned, take out of Le Creuset or other heavy dutch oven, set aside

In dutch oven, brown the onion and celery. When nearly clear, add the garlic and stir 1/2 min or so (do not burn the garlic.) Add the sofrito and stir, then the red wine and stir up all the browned bits and boil off the alcohol. You'll have a thick pasty veg combo. Add the cube and water. Mix. Add the parsley, bay leaf and the meat, cover, cook on low for 2 hours OR until it is very tender.

You can add carrot, celery, potato last half hour of cooking or so. For those that like, green and black olives and cherry tomatoes can be added.

Summer's End

2008-09-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

We actually are in Fall! I forgot to mark the day.

It is hot, humid and sultry, due to hurricane remnants. The grass finally greened up again after the summer drought.

I did this square painting for EBSQ's Flower-of-the-Month Show (this month; Queen Anne's Lace.)

Tea in Gion

2008-09-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Big Dude just found some of my lost photos from 2000 from my stay in Asia.

I had gone to Japan for an entire month on one trip, in order to do some training. One side trip from Tokyo was to Kyoto--yes, to Gion, the home of the geisha and this was after "Memoirs of a Geisha" was published. So that was exciting!

We stayed at a ryokan, the traditional inn, and one day, wandering around Gion, we saw a tan plaster statue of a kimono-clad woman posed in the doorway of a teahouse. The statue was beautiful--the color a uniform tan, like tea-stained marble. We gazed at the statue for quite a while. Then, it moved and smiled at us! It was NO statue, this was a teahouse hostess, simply gazing out the doorway in some kind of meditative repose. She was dressed in a plain, light brown silk kimono, but how incredibly elegant.

Naturally, we had to have tea there! I ordered matcha, which I had never had before (despite my Japanese teacher being a tea ceremony master, shame on me.) But I knew I would like it even before the first, bitter, fragrant sip of the green foam.

This is what came on my plate: a bowl of matcha and a sweet, a "wagashi" made of agar-agar (kanten) and sweetened, colored white bean paste. It was in the shape of a tiny fishbowl! I hated to destroy it by eating it, but it was delicious, a pure sugar sweet that set off the bitter aromatic tones of the matcha. A moment to celebrate every sense, including the aesthetic.

2008-09-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is the final version of "Rose Satin Blouse"--a painting of a Northern Pueblo woman done from a photo by my late father. Watercolor on paper.

Works in Progress

2008-09-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a series of watercolors based on photographs my late father did of local native Americans in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I paint watercolors, not nearly spending enough time doing them because I have a busy career doing other things in life.

The first picture is the nearly finished portrait, the other is the starting wash after sketching.