more sketches

i recently went through and found old sketches ideas and photos. these are the ones i kept. i mostly throw a lot of stuff away. what do you do with your doodles?

Faces

this is one of sophies christmas gifts. we are having so much fun drawing faces. ed emberley has a whole series of these so pick one up and have some fun!

Rachael Yamagata- Be Be Your Love

i love this song. i love her.

carnations

i bought a bunch of little magenta carnations from the market yesterday. arent they pretty? they are making my desk smile. if only the cat would stay away from them.

todays menu

so kim let me raid her citrus this weekend during her husbands birthday

so i made pan roasted chicken breast with garlic cloves and cut up kumquats

i seared everything in the pan and then finished it off in the oven

i served the chicken on a bed of couscous and chopped spinach with feta cheese. i aslo deglazed the pan with some wine and pour that little bit of sauce over the whole thing. it was delicious.

sketchbook

another little watercolour painting from my sketchbook. i also recently bought dip pens and inks and have been using those to line my little works.

yesterday morning

it was raining and cold

so what to do?

i made baked potato and yam fries with a honey dijon garlic mayo and baked eggs to warm us up. it was delicious. you should have been here! basically i peeled the yam and left the potatoes with skin and cut them up match stick style. i tossed them in olive oil with salt and pepper and placed them on a cookie sheet with parchment in a 400 degree oven until they were soft when pierced with a fork. i also stirred up an egg with cheese and spinach with salt and pepper and put them in little ramekins for about 18 minutes and voila. the fries werent crisp but they fed the need and also the sauce was just what i said. i threw it together in a bowl. yum!

spicy nuts

i made these spicy baked nuts. you basically toss them in spices, sugar, and egg whites. then bake them to give them a bit of a crisp texture without deep frying them. i would also use a slotted spoon to let some of the mixture drip off before spreading on the baking sheet. also i used garam masala the indian spices for mine. these would make a great hors d'oeuvre at a cocktail party too. here is the recipe if you want to give it a whirl.

disaster averted

my blog is back up.whew!

full moon rising

i watched the moon rise over the mountains sunday evening. it was truly spectacular. i need a telephoto lens. this is the closest shot my extra fancy camera gets me.

still beautiful

its my peony from the pictures of the vase. doesnt it look equally fabulous almost all dried up?

stars

i painted the night sky a little over a week ago. i wish thats how it really looked.

Today

familiar? kinda.

todays lunch consisted of roasted butternut squash,brussel sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper. i added some grated parmesan, pumpkin seeds, and a sprinkling of nutmeg. no pasta this time. it was very good though.

Lunch

yesterday i made baked chicken and quinoa. it turned out pretty well. i baked two chicken breasts with cumin,salt,pepper, garlic cloves, thinly sliced lemons, and olive oil. I baked them at 400 degrees f for about 40 minutes. the quinoa was made with pecans,dried cherries, chopped garlic and onion, and spiced with a teaspon of each: salt,pepper,garam masala and cumin. it was delicious.

spiced quinoa with dried cherries and pecans

1 cup quinoa rinsed

half of cup

cherries

pecans

1 small chopped onion and a few chopped garlic cloves

1 tsp

salt

pepper

garam masala

cumin

heat pan on medium high with one tbs of olive oil and add onion and garlic when translucent add your spices and stir around. they will dry up the fat pretty quickly. when the pan seems a little too dry i add a tbs of butter and throw in the the cherries and pecans and quinoa and stir around for a few minutes making sure everything is coated in fat and spices. then i add two cups of water and turn the fire up to high until it comes to a boil and then i lower the heat to low and cover for twenty minutes. when twenty minutes is over i turn off the heat and let it sit for about a good five to ten minutes and then uncover and stir.yummy.

citrus

oranges in the morning. i love oranges. actually these are mineolas. also someone came in the middle of the night or early morning last saturday and picked every lemon off my trees ripe and and unripe. awesome,huh?

edit
no not mineola
cara cara
pink navel oranges

sketchbook

here are some little

wonky

paintings

from my sketch book this week.

me

in case you have missed my mug.

my furrow makes me look like i have a butt in my forehead. awesome. no i dont always look this crabby.

kitchen counter

pretty little violet flower

clusters of little yellow aeonium arboreum flowers. yes i know you know i love flowers.

New Years Breakfast

mnmmmm.......

cream yummmmy!

so what do you do when you are butt tired new years morning because you went to bed at two am? you get up and make raspberry buckwheat waffles with syrup and hand whipped cream. dont forget to drink the leftover champagne either. we also ate the bacon right off of the pan we baked it on in the oven. yeah it was good.

Happy New Year

five days late....ooops. so we made sparkly new years hats to ring in the new year at midmight while we banged pots and pans.

guess what? i havent taken the decorations down yet. im lazy.

my neighbor who is a widow came over. we drank three bottles of wine and some champagne with cheese and ham and cheese gougeres.

we also received a jar of syrupy hibiscus flowers to put in our drinks for christmas. arent they pretty? i also saved fireworks from the fourth of july that i lit up at midnight. there are new neighbors dowm the street with children so we took a walk a couple of house down so all the children could shout "Happy New" it was a happy time indeed.