The menu

I did all my food and drink shopping yesterday, and have an official menu for the weekend.  As much as we miss our families, and would be happy to share the holidays with them, Ken and I really revel in a weekend to ourselves to eat and drink.

Christmas Eve dinner:
Manhattans with bourbon soaked cherries
Braised chuck steaks with parsnips, carrots and potatoes
Roasted brussel sprouts with lemon and parmesan
Chianti

Christmas breakfast:
Irish coffee
Reprise of Christmas Eve’s dinner, as hash with eggs
Bacon
Oranges

Christmas Dinner:
Probably more manhattans
Homemade focaccia with homemade buttermilk ricotta
Shrimp over homemade fettucine with roasted red pepper and tomato sauce
Spinach salad with orange and walnuts
Pinot noir

In between all this eating, we’ll watch movies, read books, play games, take the dog for a walk, and most likely, nap.  I’m ready for a charmed weekend.

Happy and Merry to everyone!

(Source: themultiple)

(Reblogged from themultiple)

fresnels and far flung fluctuations    continued

fresnels and far flung fluctuations…

In my best effort to ignore the absolutely perfect day that we had yesterday, I finished the drawings for a portfolio exchange I’m a part of.  Luckily I got a bit of an extension, but I was determined to check this off my to do list.  There are 8 more in the series,  which I’ll put in a subsequent post. 

I fell in love with the shape and idea of the fresnel lens on our honeymoon.  This object of intense focus seemed the perfect image to pair with doodles and imaginings, while I try to regain my artist bearings.  Literally, a guiding light. 

Some of the varied edition I’m working on to send out this week. Feeling a little rusty in the printshop but things are coming back to me. View high resolution

Some of the varied edition I’m working on to send out this week. Feeling a little rusty in the printshop but things are coming back to me.

Hallelujiah! It’s taco night. Monday, being the only night of late that Ken and I both have off, has become the new date night. I love Mondays. View high resolution

Hallelujiah! It’s taco night. Monday, being the only night of late that Ken and I both have off, has become the new date night. I love Mondays.

When Ms. Veronica Siehl mentioned making gazpacho today at the farmers’ market, I nearly raced home. It was the perfect solution. It’s so hot. The weather, not the gazpacho. I love making a giant bowl of gazpacho to keep in the fridge and eat all week. I make mine with lots of basil, and as much as I normally like spicy food, I’ve realized that spicy gazpacho just tastes like salsa, so I keep it mild, add lots of lemon juice and herbs. Delightful.

Things to savor.

One of my gardening books has a section heading “Control Freaks, Rejoice”.  It follows, “Ultimately troubleshooting using smart gardening practices is all about exerting your control on the garden… If that sounds dunting, remember that although the world is out of your control, there is always the garden.” 

While I’ve never had trouble exerting my control freak nature in other situations, exerting control over plants, over nature, has always been difficult. 

Well, in the past two days, I have finally bucked up, and exerted some control.  The irises and lilies that were everywhere, but getting trampled by everything else came out, to be replanted judiciously in the fall.  The rosemary bush was pruned.  The vines covering everything were pulled.  I extended my bed about a foot out or so, planted the beautiful hydrangea given to us as a wedding gift, spread some new seeds after turning some new soil into the clay/rock.  I trained the nasturiums, which turned out to be a vining variety, onto cages so they would stop overrunning my young rosemary.   I transplanted some of my volunteer tomatoes into pots, and all my pots got replanted with the addition to their soil of perlite, the absence of which was causing the soil in my pots to not be loose enough and while everything had plenty of room, was acting root-bound. 

Next up: exert some control over my studio. 

View high resolution