Tuesday, May 23, 2017

bits and pieces


We finally got some rain, 2 1/2” between Saturday night and til about noon on Monday. Everything looks much happier. Sunday, after the previous night's rain and before it began again, I went out to the garden and dug up more potatoes and got two really big ones and a handful of smaller ones. I'm supposed to keep all the little ones for seed potatoes for a fall crop, so say all the country boys in the neighborhood.


Since so many of you were interested in the roasted tomato sauce, here's the recipe I found on-line:

5-6 pounds medium or small tomatoes, stems removed
1 medium head of garlic, peeled (you can chop the garlic if you want but can keep cloves whole if you'd like)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Place the tomatoes on large baking sheet with a raised 1-inch lip. Add the garlic cloves and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Use your fingers to mix well to coat. Top with torn basil leaves and season with kosher (I used pink himalayan) salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake for 4 hours or until tomatoes are soft and bursting (it was 3 hrs and about 20 minutes or so for me so keep an eye on them). Allow to cool then pour into a blender in batches. Pulse 2-3 times then blend for 1 minute or until desired chunkiness. Pour into quart jars or pour into freezer bags to freeze flat. Will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week or 4 months in the freezer.

a moth and a butterfly



You might remember my birthday was last month. I think I mentioned it in a previous post. Our usual celebration is a movie and dinner but we had to wait until the following Friday since the movie I wanted to see, Guardians Of The Galaxy II, didn't come out til then and it even starred my only still living heartthrob, Kurt Russell. I'll spare you the trailer because if you are a GOTG fan, you've already seen it. However the other thing about my birthdays is that I buy my own present. This year I bought a small stone sculpture by fabulous stone sculptor Jennifer Tetlow who lives and works in North Yorkshire, England. I've followed Jennifer's work for several years and I really love her aesthetic so I finally am the proud owner of one of her pieces...Flutter.


my pink crinum lily


One last item of note...another surprise in the mailbox, Barbara at Kittrell/Riffkind Gallery sold another piece for us. I guess if she's going to keep doing that, I need to start making some new work.






9 comments:

  1. It was always important to me buy other artists' work. You done good.

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  2. All looks good. My husband is trying to figure out when to harvest his potatoes at the farm. I told him to dig along the edge of a plant and see what's there.

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  3. Thanks for the recipe. I'm going to give it a go. And I love that gecko. It took me a minute to find him. I saw ginko leaves at first (whether that's what they are, or not) and I was so entranced by them I missed the little fellow.

    Did you get slammed tonight? It was really bad in some places. I-l0 got closed up in Sealy because of tipped over semi-trailers. They seem to think it was straight line winds rather than a tornado, but if you've got 80-100 mph winds, it doesn't much matter what they're doing. Well, tornadoes are worse, but you couldn't prove it by the people in Sealy tonight. I think a couple of houses went down, too.

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  4. The recipe sounds glorious, will have to try it around August. LOLI am waiting patiently for a real tomato.

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  5. We need to get in the rest of our meager crop of potatoes. I am not surprised that your beautiful lizard piece sold. It is so beautiful.

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  6. Hoo boy - I didn't even notice the lizard until I read Mary Moon's comment. I'm kind of at "Fire bad, tree pretty" these days (Buffy reference in case you think I've lost my mind). It is a lovely piece.

    I think I'll pass along the tomato recipe to my dad. We just have the one small plant, so we SHOULD be able to keep up with eating them as they ripen.

    Love your birthday present to yourself! BTW - we had been laying the small moon piece you gave Mike flat, but when Daddy's girlfriend was dusting on Saturday she put it back so that we can see the face from our chairs. And we both thought, "duh!"

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  7. Thanks Ellen - Flutter is so pleased!

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  8. Sounds like a good birthday all the way around esp. in selling your art! Congrats.

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  9. Love this post. The stone sculpture is beautiful, as are the butterfly and lily. We have had many days of rain but have little in the way of color to show for it. Congratulations on the sale! Whew. What a week in the news...Nice to see beautiful things and hear good news. A belated happy birthday to you;)

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.