Tiger in a Jar films

For a special treat go here, to Tiger in a Jar films. If you care about food, and where it is coming from and the life of the people behind well-made food, you will love these filmmakers. I discovered them through Instagram, through The Hill Workshops, where you can see a most beautiful film on making pesto by Tiger in a Jar.

Happy New Year!

What is inspiring you in this new year? And what are you wishing for this year? What are you planning to accomplish? How do you hope to grow? Where do you want to go? I love January because it is a chance to start fresh and refocus on what is important in my life. So to answer some of the above questions about myself....some images, of course!

A big plan this year, and every year, is to make art every day. I work in sketchbooks often, and learn so much about my process by doing that. I'm also continuing to explore the poured acrylic work on panels and canvas.

I plan to continue my study of ceramics with Ingrid Bathe. I learned so much last year, and have a lot of work I just glazed and some which is drying, so I'll have photos to show soon. In the meantime here are some artists who are inspiring me in ceramics and painting.

I do not know who the artist is here, but love the form.

Takahiko Hayashi

Kazunori Hamana

Kazunori Hamana

I am part of a monthly book group and we are reading Anna Karenina for the next 2 months. Yes, we felt we needed 2 months! And I am getting so much pleasure out of Art As Experience, the old art school staple by John Dewey. I think it has so much wisdom about getting pleasure out of the everyday experience of living, and that is always a resolution of mine.

And then there is food (as if I have not indulged enough this holiday season), I got out my favorite dessert cookbook, Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert, and made this panforte. Very chewy and hard, but such subtle flavor of orange and anise, nuts and figs. Ummm. And check out the 101 Cookbooks Library here. You can join and then give and get all kinds of cookbook and recipe reviews from ordinary cooks.

I would love to travel this year, and we may have a trip in the works, but we shall see. Above all else I will strive to be patient and maintain my inner peace as much as possible. Heaven knows our world needs more vibrations of peace!

Happy New Year!

Southern Cooking

Edna Lewis

It all started with Edna Lewis's cookbook The Gift of Southern Cooking, which she wrote with Scott Peacock. Well, no, it really all started with my grandmother and my mother, two very proud southern women. I don't remember being indoctrinated, per se, with a love of southern cooking. It was just there. Spoonbread with ham. Corn fritters with maple syrup. Mint Juleps. Lady Baltimore cake. My mother was born in Baltimore, and more than that was, a Ford, and that was a proud heritage, albeit a somewhat infamous one (until you start reading about my ancestor, John T. Ford, owner of Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot). When I read Edna Lewis's cookbook I experience a wave of nostalgia that is so strong. Even though I grew up in Ohio I relate to this southern way of looking at food. And by that I mean the values of loving simple, earthy, natural food. It's not that my mother was a fantastic cook, but it was that she valued the cooking and serving of real food every evening at dinner. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except to share the recipe for the cookies pictured below, and to point you to an article that Edna Lewis wrote about what "Southern" is. It's long, but worth it and you can read it here. And here is the cookie recipe...serve them up with iced tea or lemonade, and sit back and enjoy the rest of summer!

BUTTERMILK COOKIES

MAKESABOUT 5 1/2 DOZEN COOKIES

• ACTIVE TIME:35 MIN
 
• START TO FINISH:1 1/2 HR

JANUARY 2008

Miss Lewis mentions buttermilk cookies, which she pairs with ice-cold lemonade, but as far as we know, she never committed a recipe to paper. When we developed one, the big debate was about texture: Soft or crisp? What you see here is the cookie of your dreams, with a tender interior and the slightest bit of crispness around the edge.

FOR COOKIES

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk

FOR GLAZE

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

MAKE COOKIES:

• Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter 2 large baking sheets.
• Whisk together flour, zest, baking soda, and salt.
• Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in batches at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until smooth.
• Drop level tablespoons of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are puffed and edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes per batch. Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks.

GLAZE COOKIES:

• Whisk together all glaze ingredients and brush onto tops of warm cookies.
• Let stand until cookies are completely cooled and glaze is set.

COOKS' NOTE: Cookies are best the day they're made but can be frozen, wrapped well, up to 1 month.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROMULO YANES

Salad!

Once you get past the opening music, this is a great tutorial on salad dressing by the master of cooking simplicity, Mark Bittman. Go check out the NYT article (here) for 101 Salads! Tis the season.

Vacation Diary

Megan Chase at Perimeter Gallery

We really needed a vacation. I didn't know how tired I was until we were into week 2! We promised ourselves that we would do only what we really wanted to do. That involved going to Mt. Desert to stay at the old-fashioned Claremont Hotel and hiking on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park; several occasions of eating and buying vegetables at Chases Daily, where I had the best blueberry tart of my life this past Thursday afternoon. We saw Megan Chase's gorgeous paintings there also. We went to the wonderful Thuya Garden. We went "a-berrying" as my dear Henry David Thoreau would call it, and made black raspberry crisp. We saw cherished family and went to the Five Islands lobster pound, and to the beach with nieces and nephews. Our darling son came for a visit, and the three of us picnicked at Ocean Point. We helped to save a man who had gone overboard off his boat and had spent an hour and a half in cold, cold water! We went to Sturbridge Village, and to Ikea to stock up on pretty paper napkins. I even made some art. We watched Agatha Christie's Poirot movies until we dropped. I re-read Death Comes for the Archbishop (such a beautiful, beautiful book) for our next book group, and the incredible Art & Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland. You never know what will happen in any span of time, but you can bet it will be packed with life...especially if you are a lover of life.

ribboned asparagus salad

I just had to post a second video on Kinfolk Magazine when I saw this salad recipe. It's not the season for asparagus...but I can start plotting now. See my previous post for more.

Eating and Relaxing

I made these really delicious cranberry upside-down cakes from a recipe over here at Roost blog. I like this woman's approach to healthy, good food. The little cakes are made with almond flour, and they have the perfect balance of spicy, citrusy goodness that I like this time of year. And in my family it is a tradition to bake Sally Lunn bread for Christmas morning. You can find a great recipe in the old Fanny Farmer cookbook. This morning we have been playing with our Christmas presents, which mostly means reading, and enjoying the bright sunshine. I'll post about books soon!

The Makers Project

Morris Kitchen

Mast Brothers Chocolate

Robicelli's

It was time to revisit The Makers Project, Jennifer Causey's beautiful photo project to document people who make things in Brooklyn, NY. I think her photographs are the best. I love her casual, natural approach and her composing eye. I've chosen food related photos here because, well, 'tis the season. But check out all the makers!

Jennifer Causey

Today

I ate summer vegetables with melted cheese, cut flowers from the garden, and started this linen collage on a panel. I want to put much more drawing into it tomorrow and see where it goes. That's about it. Summer simplicity.

Just Savoring Summer

I know, I know. I should be posting about more interesting things. But I just feel this urge to savor the beauty of summer. Already I feel a change in the air, and I want to get every drop of pleasure out of now. I love the softness of the Sheepscot river up at head tide on a cloudy day like it was today, so I made a detour just to see how it looked. I bought some produce at the farm stand, and I made granola. It should be good with a ripe peach and some yogurt for tomorrow morning's breakfast. Maybe I'll get serious tomorrow.

Vacation Time=Wandering

Wandering in any direction I want to...going places in my mind, in actual fact, in books, online. That is one of the freedoms of a vacation I love the most. So here are some places I have visited in the last few days:

Mari Andrews via NapaArtonF1rst

Mari Andrews, her website is here. Her sculptures , installations and works in paper make me want to go right into the studio and experiment.I found her through sfgirlbybay, a blog we all know and love. 

Nantucket garden
 via 2 or 3 Things I know

I love this blog! She finds the best photographs and has eclectic taste I find exciting. This summer she has done some great posts that just make you feel bathed in it (summer, that is). Just look at this garden! I'd like to be sitting in it with a cappuccino right now.

I've been reading. Books. Five at the moment...here are three of them.

When we were in Quebec City last week we went to the top of the city, the citadel, and looked down on the famous Le Chateau Frontenac.

I've also been in the kitchen a little bit. Making watermelon and feta salad, and baking bread with flour we got at a gristmill that has been in operation since 1752.

P.S. John just made these, so I had to revise the post to include them. Warm and good.

We took friends up to Acadia National Park, and looked at the "porcupines" from on top of Cadillac Mountain.

And we've been sitting in the garden, enjoying it, rather than weeding it!

Next week it will be back to work, but for now, it is so sweet to do as we please.