My First Loaf of Bread!

I honestly can't believe I just made a delicious loaf of bread! Several weeks ago I bought some bread flour by accident. I tried it for regular flour for pancakes and it didn't work, so it's been sitting in my refrigerator since then. This morning I was getting something out of my food cabinet and a package of yeast fell out. I like to make what's called "Overnight Waffles" and they use yeast but you can't just buy one pack of yeast so that was shoved in the cabinet soon to be lost to my eyes, lol. Well, I looked on the package of King Arthur bread flour and I had all the ingredients. I added dried rosemary, fennel seeds, dill seeds and a course-ground sea-salt, and followed the instructions. It raised three times and I baked it at 375° for 40 minutes, and VOILA! I can't believe it looks as good as it does, and it tastes incredible. I'm very pleased with myself today!

Making Up an October Pie . . .

Granny Grape Pie—Granny Smith sour apples, Rose's Lime Juice and grape jam combined with graphic pastry for my latest made-up pie. I've read lots of pie recipes and seen a lot of pies, lol, and I'm in the process of trying to create "undiscovered" ones. Instead of using sugar to sweeten the pie apples, I used grape jam. And to keep the apples from discoloring while I was coring and peeling them, I doused them with the commercial cocktail lime juice.  A healthy amount of freshly grated nutmeg and rainbow peppercorns add just the right amount of spice to the sweet-and-sour. Now that I've perfected the classic latticework top I'm starting to paint with pastry, lol.

Apples, Peaches, Plums & Cherries

Oh yes I did! I've been practicing my pie making lately. This is a mixed fruit pie I made a couple of days ago. I peeled and cored/pitted apples, peaches, plums and cherries, all fresh from a farmer's stand in town. I sauteed the fruit with a bit of fresh mint from my garden and rosemary and black pepper. I added a bit of orange juice and confectioner's sugar to make a syrup for them. When they were cooked down, I strained them and added them to a pie crust I had baked first for ten minutes. And no, for this pie I did not make my own crust. I bought the kind you roll out, already made. I've made my own in the past, and I still miss my mother's homemade crust, but honestly, it adds so much time and stress to my life, I wouldn't bother to make pies at all. Maybe this winter, if I'm stuck in the house for a few days, I'll attempt a crust again, but in the meantime, I'm happy to hone my filling techniques and flavor profiles! The pre-made crusts that roll out are quite fine. I put a bit of flour on the counter, roll out the dough a little bit more to make them "look" a bit more homemade, lol. This pie was just delicious!

Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie, lol

One of my favorite songs from my childhood! I can't tell you how many times I played this 45 single over and over and over again in my bedroom, dancing around the room like I was on American Bandstand as only the little Casey could do.

Nantucket Beach Plums

Freshly washed wild beach plums on their way to becoming a deep, dark, and richly flavored homemade jam. Photo by Nancy Wolff.

My friend, and fellow blogger, Nancy Wolff, posted one of her cool family recipes at her Prudent Living on the Homefront blogsite. It's for jam made from beach plums, (Prunus  maritima) a species of native fruit that grows along the shoreline in revered, and secretive(!), spots. I loved the colors in the photo above; it just said "artandcolour" to me.

• Click over for Nancy's easy-to-follow, well-illustrated and step-by-step instructions for Beach Plum Jam, here. And as always, the Prudent Living on the Homefront blogsite is featured in my "Blogs and Websites of Note," at right.

Daffies: Plain and Fancy*

Top and above, Pink Gardens' last daffodils to bloom are these very pretty, and large, Jonquils, with a reddish-orange edge to the central trumpet. Beautiful!

This "fancy" bicolor double Daffodil variety was spotted in front of a beautiful home near the beach.  Next to them were the peach variety I grew up with at my family's home. The photos of them all came out blurry though. Perhaps best savored as memories?

A striking row of Daffies growing near the beach. They were almost as tall as the stately stonewall behind them.

 

Not often seen, a triple Daffodil. The center trumpet is really a flurry of petals, almost mimicking a Parrot Tulip in its petal  shapes and arrangement.

 Daffodils always look great with other spring flowers, Grape Hyacinths and tulips.

The same mix of spring flowers growing right next to a beach marsh. The reddish stems just visible next to the tulips in the back of this flower bed are peonies, just beginning their seasonal journey.

* I can't use the term "Plain & Fancy" without thinking about the great family-style restaurant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of Amish country. I've eaten there a few times in my life, and love their food. They make the area's famed "ShooFly Pie" and even mail out boxed mixes so you can make the pies at home. Read about it, here.

Carrot Confetti Rice: Just Created!

 

Yes. Artandcolour may be extended to creative food dishes!

Inspired by Stan Santos' excellent food blog, The Spamwise Chronicles, which emphasizes fresh, seasonal foods, I created a rice dish today. I'm calling it Carrot Confetti Rice, for obvious reasons! Basically, I grated fresh raw carrots and cooked them in with the Jasmine rice, about 10 minutes. They kept their nice orange color and still taste really fresh. I squeezed the juice of one lemon into the rice towards the end of the cooking time. When the rice and carrot mixture was finished cooking, I stirred in about a cup of teeny-tiny diced raw red Bell pepper and the green tops of a bunch of scallions. I finished it off with the zest of the lemon. It all tastes really bright and looks great on my 1930s pink Depression glass plates, the set I always ate from at my aunt Hoohoo's house.

• Stan's food blog, The Spamwise Chronicles, here. It has also been added to my permanent blogroll, on the right of this blog. I hope all of my loyal readers check out Stan's blog. He updates it daily and has a real flair with the subject matter. All foodies will love it!

Photopourri: Temps Ain't All That's Rising

All Rise! Powder Biscuits, Palm Shadows, Planted Pansies

Biscuits Rising—I did some baking this weekend, freeformed baking powder buttermilk biscuits. I've been working on my biscuit process for a few months, and this batch came out really well—very light and fluffy. Besides the usual ingredients—butter, flour, buttermilk, baking powder and soda and a bit of salt—I added freshly ground dill seeds, rosemary leaves, and cayenne pepper. I was going to use these biscuits with baked fish filets, so I topped them with Old Bay, a longtime New England seafood seasoning. Note the term "freeformed." Most biscuit recipes call for all of the biscuits to be made from the "first rolled" dough, saying that any scraps from the circular cuts be, well, scrapped, instead of reformed into biscuits. Apparently they don't rise as much once they're rolled out a second time. I hate to waste anything, so I don't cut them into rounds at all. I just cut them into vague squares and then whatever shapes the outside edges are. They all taste great, and the added unique shapes always seem to look as great on a plate as perfectly symmetrical biscuits. To me, anyway!

Shadows Rising—Enjoying a few hours of sun outside on my porch, my potted palm is getting used to the stronger spring sunlight. This palm seems to have done better this winter inside than it did last summer outside, so I'm not sure it's going to "live" outside this summer at all. I think from now on I may just put it out a few hours a day.

Spring Flowers Rising—Pansies have made their spring appearance in front of our Post Office for 2012. This little square seems to be seasonally planted with spring pansies, summer impatiens and autumn chrysanthemums and pumpkins. There's a nice large clock on this corner, so if you look up you can tell what time it is, and if you look down you can tell what season it is, lol.

Fabulous Cheese & Soap Arrive at Pink Gardens!

Last week, in time for Christmas, a fabulous gift package arrived from Sharon Springs, New York. Readers that watch the "Green" Network on cable, might be familiar with that town—it's the home of the Fabulous Beekman Boys, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge! Their restored farmhouse, er, mansion, is called the Beekman Mansion, after the original owners of the property, and the guys have created a brand, Beekman 1802, to market their own farm products and  locally produced merchandise. In my package was their main product, a wheel of "Blaak" goat cheese, named for the fabulous ash-covered rind which is, indeed, black in color (and is edible!). Also in this gift package were two bars of goat milk soap and their most recent book, The Bucolic Plague. The packaging is tasteful in the extreme, with perfectly hand-tied string bows and recycled papers. The typesetting on the cards is beautifully done as well, with a combination of striking cuts of Futura and an old-style numeral, which I believe is Garamond. 

Photographed above with a simple colonial pewter candlestick and another Christmas gift, a pair of hand-knit socks. The socks were a gift from a friend of my mother's named Betsy, and I have several pairs of her knitted wool socks which I wear almost every day. The Beekman 1802 gift package was a gift of, shall we say, a dear Phantom friend of mine, lol.

 Seen a little closer, I think the socks match the aesthetic of the Beekman items, lol.

The wrapped wheel of Blaak goat cheese. I've since opened it, and it is absolutely delicious! It is a dry goat cheese, not the spreadable type, and the rind has a subtle flavor of its own. I'm going to be enjoying this cheese for a long time to come!

The two bars of goat's milk soap came in this cotton bag printed with the Beekman logo, each wrapped in the same sort of recycled paper and perfectly-tied string bow as the cheese. Josh is a graphic designer and advertising executive, and his experience and taste are evident in every aspect of the Beekman 1802 experience.

I absolutely adore my hand knitted socks, and as I wrote above, wear them almost every day. This makes pair number seven I believe! I think they would make a great addition to any Beekman 1802 gift package, don't you?

• For the Beekman 1802 website, click here.
• For the Wiki on the Fabulous Beekman Boys TV show, click here.
• For the Amazon blurb on The Bucolic Plague, click here.

Randomness This Morning of the Eve

My friend Mary stopped by the other day with this gorgeous stem of orchids. This variety, 'though I can't remember the name, is my favorite. I love the pale chartreuse and deep maroon color combination, and the stems and flowers are so large and hearty looking!

I loved the choice of wrapping and ribbon, too.

This palm plant is really doing well since I brought it in for the winter. It's actually doing better than it did this summer outside. I think I might leave it in next year. It seems to be trying to play my piano, which is the wooden structure hidden at the bottom, lol. You can just make out a book of Mozart sitting on it and the red and gold silk runner on top of it under the flag. Other vintage items include children's games, top left, and of course, the hand painted GULF GAS sign from the 1950s.

Three dishes of an appetizer I made up the other day wait for the oven to preheat. I mixed equal parts ground chicken and ground unsalted sunflower seeds. I added a few herbs, spices as well as a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil, a little cheese and an egg to hold the mixture all together. I formed them into these mini meatballs, and baked them in a 375° oven. After turning them halfway through the baking process, and rolling them around a bit, they were left in the shape of a small meatball and were very light and tasty. I served them with a very simple peanut sate dipping sauce—basically unsalted peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, 5-spice powder, rice vinegar and water cooked until smooth and of a "dip" consistency.

This is part of a "lawn" I created this week for the 2-year old daughter of a friend or mine's Calico Critters dollhouse. I started with a new Ikea occasional table, and added felt, paper and polyurethane to create this garden path and flower borders. This photo just proves that I can't take a photo anywhere inside and not have a scale model car, or an unfinished piece of art in it. At the top you can see one of my new pieces, one of what I call cardboard "quilts." I've made 35 new cardboard quilted bases, in several sizes, and am working on them with bits and pieces of preprinted paper meant for craftbooking. All of the patterned paper reminds me of those huge books of wallpaper the local paintstore had when I was a child, books I spent hours perusing with my aunt Hoohoo, for just the right color and pattern for whatever room "we" were redecorating at the time. On the right is a 1:18 version of the 2005 Mustang prototype in silver with a red interior and black glass roof. You can also see three painted rocks behind it. I painted those when I was about 8 years old. They're white river rocks I picked up on a family vacation in Vermont. I've also painted other furniture and toys for children, or grandchildren, of friends.

• Vintage, floral child's rocker for my little friend, Deja. 
• Patchwork Hobby Horse for a little boy named Thomas.
• Dinosaur-themed vintage chest of drawers for Nicholas, age 8.

Practice Makes Perfect: Pizza, lol

I've been practicing my pizza skills lately. Above, one of my better efforts from a few days ago—a cheese-only tomato pie with homemade Marinara sauce, recipe below.

I bought this non-stick pizza pan a few weeks ago at a local discount store. I think it was $2.00! I originally bought it to use in my new art projects, as a stencil. The evenly spaced circular holes were too graphic to pass up. But before I could paint with it, I thought I'd try it for its actual purpose, and was really pleased with how it crisped the bottom pizza dough and allowed the pie to cook evenly. I've since bought a second pan to use for art!

The uncooked pizza just looked so perfect, I had to get my camera, lol. I used grated Romano and shredded part-skim Mozzarella on top of my quick homemade marinara sauce.

Quick Marinara Sauce from Canned Tomatoes

• 1 28 oz can of whole, peeled Italian tomatoes
• 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
• 1/2 large yellow Spanish onion
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons basil pesto
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (give or take a bit)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt/pepper to taste

1. Roughly dice the onion and sauté over medium heat in the olive oil until soft
2. Add the can of tomato paste into the onion and stir well. Cook for about a minute until well blended. Add the 1/2 cup of water and mix well. A dry white wine could be substituted for the water
3. Add the large can of whole, peeled tomatoes and stir. 
4. Add the pesto, brown sugar, oregano and salt/pepper. Stir well and cover the sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer.
5. Cook approximately 20 minutes to half an hour, stirring every few minutes

Now at this point, the sauce is "done" for most cooks, especially those Food Networkies! I don't really like my sauce chunky though, so flying the face of current convention, at this point in the cooking, I run my sauce through my food mill. This takes a couple of minutes of going back and forth in the mill, but the result is a very smooth Marinara, and any seeds and skin that might have been left in the canned tomatoes are taken out by this step. I really think the flavors are blended better if you do this step, but by all means, leave it chunky (and pretty) if you prefer!

Bonus Photo:

Once again, I've found a gorgeous rose blooming in town. Even with our early snowstorm, and with November's almost-freezing evening temperatures, this beautiful pink rose has decided to put out another bloom.

Impromptu Summer Afternoon Nosh

Last night June picked a couple of tomatoes from her garden and made this great summer dish for late afternoon cocktails: tomato slices with fresh mozzarella and basil and oregano, all drizzled with olive oil. She also picked a nice handful of her haricot verts, the very slender green beans, and sauteed them with slivers of almonds. My favorite beer-of-the-week is in the background, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, which stands for India Pale Ale.

It's very calming to sit outside in the early evening watching all of the "wildlife" in the yard: squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, birds, woodchucks, deer, turtles, you name it. There are never any chemicals used anywhere on the property, and I swear the animals and insects tend to gravitate here.

Barely visible in this long-lens shot, is a wren that has built a beautiful nest inside this birdhouse. This wren seems to enjoy sitting inside looking out of the entry hole. You can just barely see a glint in its eye if you look right, lol. Reminds me of my friends that used to sit on the stoops of their brownstone apartments in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, lol. It's a great way of watching the world go by, and this wren enjoys watching us eat and work in the gardens.

Impressionistic long-lens view of the baby bunny, lol. We seem to have one adult pair and just one baby this year. There is a healthy uptick in birds-of-prey this year due to climate and the vagaries of the eco-system. This little tyke is currently about half the size of an adult.

New Beginnings, x5

Tinky Winky's new beginning has put a smile on his face 

Tinky Winky, the "gay" Teletubby, lol, has come out from his longtime home in the guest room, to play in the light of the livingroom. My late mother bought him for me for my 40th birthday! He now prefers to sit next to my similar-colored violets, blooming more profusely as the days grow longer. For a bit of background on the Teletubbies, click here. "Uh, Oh!"

My flower gardens' new beginnings

Spring isn't quite here, and snow is in the forecast for Wednesday, but I've cleaned off several flower gardens of their fall leaves and winter detritus. This tiny Feverfew will grow to 3-feet tall, with hundreds of tiny white daisy-like flowers.

My chive pot is going on 25 years old this year. It has been backed into a couple of times, and hit with the snow plow, but is really none-the-worse for wear. I might sand it and give it a new paint job later this spring. I use these chives all season long, in almost everything I cook.

Tiny daffodils are just beginning to show their heads.

The "dead tree" garden's Myrtle, or Periwinkle, in front of Pink Gardens, is really spreading nicely at the base on all sides. This garden is nicely naturalized with several varieties of day lilies, iris, daisies, fox gloves, rose campion, tulips, sedum, and several other perennials.

Young day lilies, iris and Feverfew sprouting.

My culinary new beginnings

My great friend Mary surprised me with these lovely "bleue" eggs the other day when she came over. They are cage-free and organic and absolutely fresh, and besides the very artistic packaging, the eggs were various shades of teal and light blue. For the story of Platine Bleue heirloom eggs, click here!

I wanted to "experience" these special eggs as much as I could, so I used them in three great dishes. First I made a very European omelette with two of them, adding Gruyere cheese, mushrooms, scallions and a tiny amount of truffle oil. Ooh-la-la! Next I hard-boiled two of them, and made a very simple salad from them so I could really discern their flavor. I made a fresh olive oil mayonnaise (a LOT of hand beating; I used a "plain" egg for the mayo so I wouldn't waste a special one), and added a  few capers and a couple leaves of julienned tarragon to the mashed-up hard-boiled eggs. These blue-shelled eggs had very yellow yolks, so the egg salad was vibrantly colored. Very Hamptons! Lastly, I made my favorite simple egg dish, scrambled eggs. I used a spare amount of grated Vermont cheddar, again I wanted to make sure the eggs were the "star" of the dish, sea salt and freshly ground "rainbow" peppercorns, and made Pumpernickel toast on the side. I don't think I've ever enjoyed eggs as much as I did these Platine Bleues! A huge thanks to Mary!

My photoshopped cars' new beginnings, new home

I've begun a second blog, "artandcolourcars" just for my fake cars. I started it a few weeks ago, and have kept it very low-key, though the hits have started climbing in the last week. I will be posting my cars there as I finish them, creating a virtual parking lot as it were for my creations. Please stop by if you've enjoyed my cars in the past. Above is my "proper" 2012 Dodge Charger, the 2-door coupe with flying buttressed C pillars. Link to artandcolourcars here.

My personal new beginning

I've very recently been "discovered" and I didn't even have to sit at Schwab's Hollywood soda counter in a tight sweater—good thing actually, lol, for everyone involved! My car art, which Peter De Lorenzo has been kind enough to run on his Autoextremist site several times in the past few years, has caught the eye of Automobile magazine in Ann Arbor. I'm now working on my second assignment for them, which will be published in the June issue of their magazine. This is my first print magazine publishing credit for my photoshopped cars, and I couldn't be happier. It has been a dream of mine, forever, to have my car art published in a car magazine, but I had given it up a long time ago, along with several other dreams. Well, it's about to come true, and I hope everyone out there that enjoys "my" cars rushes out and buys the June issue of Automobile which is on sale in early May!

A big hello to everyone, and see you next month.