Masks

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you.

Today I am joining  Rain's Art and Dinner Date.

This week's art theme is Masks. I find that idea intriguing, so I started a 2 page spread in my Halloween journal. Everything needed  more time to dry than I planned so that I have yet to finish it.

I drew and cut out a mask.  I painted it black (my first dry) and added some black glitter paste to it (my second dry). While waiting for that to dry, I used some stencil paste and a stencil to add some details to my background (third dry). When that dried, I rubbed in the green paint, which didn't take any time to dry. 

To finish the mask I made the eyes, and added them in, and then I decided to cut the mask in half and add that over the  middle of the 2 page spread. That meant I needed more glitter paste, and I had to wait for that to dry (my fourth dry).

I'm playing around with a story between these 2 TH people, but this is as far as I've gotten.When I get this page done I'll post the results, but for now you can come up with whatever story between these 2 you would like.

I'm going to link my page to Art Journal Journey and Elle's Fairytales, Folktales and Fables: Tell Me a Story challenge even though my page isn't quite finished. In so many fairytales someone is masked or in a costume, usually to trick someone or something else. 

I do have some food to share today.

I can tell it has cooled off, and autumn is here because my cooking desire has been clicked back on. It's been fun to get back into the kitchen and make more than simple hot weather meals.

One thing I made was a huge pot of 15 bean and veggie soup. 

I made my soup in my Instant Pot. My daughter gave me my instant pot as a Christmas gift back when I was still working. I don't use it quite so much being retired, but it is perfect for making bean soup because it eliminates the overnight soaking of the beans. I snapped this next photo when I put my beans into the empty Instant Pot  bowl, and I really like how it came out.

And here's the finished soup. 

Last week I had some leftover French bread that I chopped into small cubes and then used  to make some chocolate bread pudding.

This recipe calls for coco, chopped chocolate, cream as well as 10 egg yolks. It is really decadent for certain. 

And for my daughter's cookout/wedding this past weekend, I was asked to bring desserts. I made a pan of butterscotch blondies with chocolate chips and walnuts.

I also made a casserole of apple crisp. I used a lot of crisp topping so that everyone who had some crisp could get some topping, even if it is more topping than usually would be put on.

I heated it up and served it with vanilla ice cream. After the big BBQ meal my daughter and her husband (that still sounds weird) served us, along with dessert, nobody had any excuse to leave hungry.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great rest of your week and weekend ahead.

What To Do During a Blizzard

The hubby and I hung home yesterday while the wind blew and snow fell. He took lots of naps. We both relaxed and watched several movies. Remember Grease with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta-along with lots of other great actors and actresses? Then we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and also a new film we hadn't seen before, Einstein & Eddington. I really enjoyed that movie. There was some history, some science and some interesting twists of what I assume were 2 real lives.

I also played in the kitchen.

I simmered up some onions.

Made some croutons.

And we had some tasty French Onion soup for dinner.

Perfect on a night when the snow was still falling and blowing about.

I also baked.  Tried my next new baking project,

Attempted a Crisco crust.

Man I made one UGLY crust.

And I squeezed some lemons, added some sugar and eggs and a bit of butter.

Then I poured it into my partially baked crust and made myself a delicious lemon pie.

Even that ugly crust tasted pretty good.

Definitely not going to get a lot of attention with this photo. Good thing for most of us taste is more important than looks.

I also got a phone call telling me I had another snow day tomorrow-well today.

It is just like an unexpected vacation! (Especially since it is the beginning of the quarter and I really have no work to do.)

Hope you are snow free and having a great day!

Being the Homebody

Other than my mini-trip last weekend, life has been fairly quiet as of late. Work, a little shopping, lots of play time in my happy place, some reading and some cooking.  Been feeling the domestic goddess muse.

I already told you about making a lot of zucchini bread and pickles. Using up the garden bounty.

And I've also been in a cookbook reading mode. Can't get enough of them lately. I bought a new one that I absolutely love and can't wait to try several recipes.

Macaroni and cheese, along with the  Croque Madame,  pork with apples and a few other recipes I just gotta try. Love it when you find a book that is not only eye candy but also is one you really want to cook from.

And as you can probably guess from that comment, the photos are gorgeous too.

I also read a graphic novel.

Lucy Knisley wrote another graphic novel several years ago called French Milk.  It was set when she graduated from college and her mom was turning 50. They went and stayed in France for a month, and Lucy wrote the graphic novel about that journey.

This book continues her travels. She is now well into her 20's and off an a sort of solo European adventure.

I really enjoyed it.

Think I need to look into more graphic novels.

I also need to finish reading The Book of Life.

I am enjoying it but it not a fast read. Seems like I have been reading it forever! If I didn't want to know what happens in the end I would put it aside and start something else, because I am getting to that point. There's a little too much "stuffing" in between when things really happen. 

My opinion.

I had to stop and take a break, read a travel book- a series of articles from the LA Times way back in the early 2000's. A fast read-what I needed.

Anyhow, on to some art.

And to celebrate all this soulful harvesting, here's a journal page I made last week,. The bottom is a bit dark and the onion is a bit whited out, but you get the drift. I love this big onion stamp from Fred Mullett. I also love the colors on this page. They are bright but in an autumn way.

And now that it is autumn!

Officially!

Domestication

I sometimes like  being a domestic gardener. Last Saturday was one of those days.

It was cloudy and I wanted to fertilize the garden-get some nutrients onto the soil so the evening's rain could wash it into the soil-give those plants a little time to absorb it into their roots before those roots go dormant. My friend Vicky told me about this fertilizer.

Have you tried it? I ordered a small bottle from Amazon and thought I would see how it works, Will see if it was worth the cost-it was a tad bit expensive. But then, what isn't? I might have to wait until next spring for the results, but I can be patient.

And I planted a bag of crocus bulbs I had picked up at Costco.

Hope I remembered to turn some these so they will grow in the right direction next spring, ha-ha.

But I didn't take care of my burdock problem. The (grrrr) weeds have taken over my rhubarb plot and now there is no rhubarb.

The fall flowers are pretty though. Still, I'd rather have the rhubarb.

And I picked 4 gigantic zucchinis from the garden and decided to try making some freezer pickles.

I have never made freezer pickles before. The cookbook I used said you could substitute zucchini for cucumbers. So  I thought, why not give it a try? 

Super easy. Slice, let sit in salt a couple of hours, add your vinegar "broth", refrigerate for 8-10 hours, then put into Ziploc bags and freeze. Too easy not to try.

This is it. The recipe that is in case you have any interest in trying some.

Tried a bread and butter freezer pickle recipe the other night too. 

These were even easier-slice, put in the ingredients, sit in the fridge a couple of days and then freeze.

 Think I have enough pickles as well as zucchini bread. Either time to get something new to use up my exploding zucchini numbers with or just give up and compost any left overs.  No sense bringing them to work as there's already a big pile for takers there.

This weekend coming up I am traveling. Taking a little journey  Down East, way up on the coast of Maine. I am excited to go, though I am going for my uncle's funeral. A sad reason. But the service will a celebration of his life. I don't expect it to be a huge downer service. Uncle Bob lived 89 wonderful years. He was slowing down but still living a rich active life when he had a serious stroke back in August.

If only we all could live like that.

The hubby and I are both taking Friday off since we need to travel to get there for an early Saturday morning service. Hoping the weather is good so we can do a little sightseeing on our way and make the most of this 4+ hour trip.

I am excited to go back to the area. I have wonderful childhood memories there. It was because of that area that I studied biology in college. 

I am sure I will have photos to share with you next week.

So not much else to add today.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Great Rainy Day

It really rained yesterday. A good day to hang home and just have fun. I pulled out my Gelli plate and had a great couple hours making tons of deli papers and watercolor paper  prints. Just call me the Gelli Print Queen. Ha-Ha!

My paint covered plate waiting for some design. I don't make gelli prints regularly but every few months I get a big hankering to play, and when I play, I make a whole stash of prints. 

I bought this big design roller stamp early in the summer. Wasn't sure if it was really going to work but it worked great. I love the straight lines it makes.

I am always amazed how cool these prints come out. I used some stencils and a plastic disposable knife and some plastic wrap along with my big roller stamp to make these designs. Nothing too fancy. Its all about the layering.

 Then I spent my rainy afternoon cooking and relaxing. I made some of these yummy ginger cookies. These are the best. I haven't made any in forever.

 And in between baking cookies it was a chick flick afternoon. Some days just call for those fun romantic movies you've watched like 10 times before. Still, great to see them.

And I thought I needed to go out. But staying inside and doing things I don't normally do made it an excellent day. How was your day?

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day.

On Paper and Reading

Some recommended reading for you and a little secret.
Did that catch your attention?
First off-
I discovered this awesome paper magazine awhile back when I was browsing at Barnes and Noble's one afternoon. Never a wasted moment browsing a bookstore, but even better when you find something as exciting as this. This is a Dutch magazine but there is an English version too. (Also German.)

 
This is  the latest, just released issue #4.  Ordered mine but it hasn't arrived yet. Can't wait to see what kind of eye candy issue this will be.

 If you haven't seen FLOW, its for paper lovers, but not a strictly crafty magazine even though it contains crafts. There's stories, pages to cut up, great images, and lots of color- both photos and drawings.
Arty but not just about art.
Here's the link so you can check it out  yourself.

http://www.flowmagazine.com/
And for you cooks out there-
I found this blog
(you cooks probably already know about it-
once again I'm trailing behind the pack)
called Joy the Baker.
http://joythebaker.com/
Since I like the blog,
I picked up a copy of her cookbook-
also called
what else?
Joy the Baker.
LOVE it!!!!!
Here's what I want to try out sooner rather than later:
bacon black pepper waffles
avocado pound cake
peanut butter birthday cake
and several more that I won't tempt you with.

I really like the selections in this cookbook, and I'll let you know how they actually taste since I'm making the waffles and the pound cake this weekend.

I hope at least.

And my secret-

And I'm getting ready for my next travel adventure!!!!

The hubby and I leave in a month.  Going to do a little sightseeing, relax, spend some time with our friends in Taos, laugh a lot and have some fun. Get away from this arctic New Hampshire cold.

I hope this last reason to go away is true and the winter freeze doesn't follow us out there. I'm hoping for a bad weather free trip-especially on the traveling ends of the trip.

I went out there last February to stay with  my friends for a week but the hubby couldn't get the time off from work, so I'm taking him  there this year. I really liked it out there, and I'm excited to go back. Not very often I take a return trip to an area so soon.

More to come about this adventure in future posts.

Happy reading or baking or adventuring or whatever it is you are up to today.

zucchini overload

Spent my morning making zucchini bread from a couple of big zucchini's my brother gave me. Ended up making 3 loafs of plain chocolate chip bread, 2 cake size chocolate chocolate chip and also 5 oversized muffins. That's A LOT of zucchini bread.

Was a great morning to do it since it was dark and wet and cool...spent lots of my day in kitchen and made some yummy American Chop suey for dinner too....haven't had that for quite some time. YUM!



Yum! Yum!

The other day I did a bit of holiday baking...made these FANTASTIC cookies from the Black Dog Summer Cookbook. Ginger Cookies made from fresh ginger-these are the BEST! I never tried the recipe before but thanks to my sister-in-law Laurie who made them and brought them to my mother-in-laws...they're soft and chewy, not crsip. They are BIG on taste...Got to go steal one fro the bin I think even though its only just after 9 a.m.

So today we have Dave's office's holiday party- a dinner out really- usually a good time with good food. They say we could get flurries today...and its dark like that could happen. Yesterday I went to Stonewall Kitchen outlet and did a bit more hoiday shopping...and also organized my gifts to see who I had left to buy for, put out my Santa collection and put out holiday dishes on my hutch...now the house looks very HOLIDAY-ish. Got to love it! Week ahead is BUSY too...but will force myself to find a bit of studio down time, get my head on straight time...need to stop letting the little items which take up so muc time become a hassle...I guess that's lessons learned in life and at the holiday season...when there's always so much to do anyhow.

Have a great day!