In My Kitchen.

My lovely friend Celia writes the most delicious blog on the planet... Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

http://figjamandlimecordial.com/

One of the things that she posts about is the delights in her bountiful Australian kitchen. She links to other blogs around the globe so I thought I'd share of few picts of what's cooking here at Casa Del Aguas.

 

A nice batch of bread dough turned into a baguette and some rolls.

 We had some friends over for dinner last Saturday and started off with a cheese board made by the hub. The pale yellow cheese is one of my favorites, "Red Dragon", made mustard seeds it has a kick.

He made the cutting board from a piece of walnut. It's just the right size for passing around.

The hub made parmesan polenta hearts. 

Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.   ~ Julia Childs

 I made a spicy tomato sauce to go with the polenta.

 

Oranges, dates and spicy sugared almonds on a romaine salad in an avocado oil/champagne dressing. 

 Almond sponge cake got a whipped cream and fresh strawberry filling with Nuetella.

The hub also made these steak rollups stuffed with carrots, spring onions and zucchini.

Last night I made Moosewood vegetarian chile, coconut cream corn, chicken strips, also lemon yogurt muffins. The muffin recipe came from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, another Moosewood cookbook that I hadn't looked at in a long time. It was like seeing an old friend.

What's in your kitchen? Do you have a favorite cookbook? Do dish!

Marilyn (aka Maz in Australian) :-)

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"It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about - enjoying things." ~ Julia Childs

Almond Pear Cake

I tried a new cake recipe this morning, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Almond Pear cake.

Homemade apple pie has always been my dessert of choice but this sponge cake is honestly a little slice of heaven. You can watch the video on how to make it here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL06frx38bU

I whizzed up the batter in the food processor instead of using the beater, which worked out just fine.

Happy Weekend,

Marilyn.

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"Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights." ~ Julia Child.

Pencils

For some reason I was going to write this epic blog post this morning, telling you about everything that is going on in my life. I was going to tell you about my adventures taking care of my mom who has short term memory loss, my frustrations with drawing and trying to get things to look like the way I see them in my head, writing stories, getting rain after a year long drought, working on books for months and years and finally finishing some of them, but not all...

But I have a cold, and feel deflated, like an old inner tube.

So instead I tell you about how how every morning  I sharpen a handful of pencils and place them on the left side of the desk and by midnight they are all dull and in a row on the right side of the desk waiting to be sharpened again.

 

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“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.” ~ George Eliot

 

A Day of Art at Rogers Gardens

Is there any better way to spend a Saturday than sitting at Roger's Gardens painting watercolors and hanging out with friends? I'd be hard pressed to think of a nicer one.

I got all my art supplies ready the night before. The bottles are liquid watercolor which makes for brilliant colors.  Brushes? Check. Pencils? Check. All set to go.

 The artists were asked to bring a finished painting to sell. This says "The morning pouring everywhere, it's golden glory in the air. ~ Longfellow" 

 

 My talented friend, Linda Ruddy, was there painting in oils. She brought hot tea and china cups, very elegant. We took over the gazebo for our paint station. 

The gazebo was originally from Main Street, Disneyland. We were grateful for the shade.

 

My awesome mother-in-law, who's a master gardener stopped by and we grabbed some lunch.  You know you're in California when you can get a tofu taco from a food truck.

Me demonstrating how mastic works, just paint on the mastic which a gum rubber then paint watercolor over it. when everything is dry you can rub the mastic off giving you a nifty batik look. This picture was taken by the talented photographer, Teresa Carlisle, who stopped by to say hi.

 Rogers Gardens has lots of beautiful potted plants for sale. 

 

 Some flowers from a hanging basket.

 Linda Ruddy's very fine oil painting. I love the soft colors in this. We talked a lot about the comforting power of art and loving what we love, be it dolls, toys or flowers.

Succulents.

 I started out the day painting with timid colors, but as the day went on I tried pushing the saturation and trying new things.  Whenever a kid would stop by to see what we were doing I offered to let them make their own painting. I was impressed by how fearless little artists are. Our conversations usually went something like this...

Me: "Are you an artist?"
Kid: "Yes, I am."
Me: "Would you like to paint a painting?"
Kid: "Yes, I would. It's what I'm bestest at. I'm really good at art."

Then the kid would take a brush and dive in. I was impressed with their creativity and self confidence. After that I tried to be braver and not worry so much about perfection.

A quick flower study.

There were dozens of artists painting all over the gardens. It was fun to walk around and see what everyone was drawing. So many different styles and mediums! 

 My friends, Karyn and Eden stopped by. Eden and I did mastic paintings.

At the end of the day, after eight hours of painting, I packed up my things and headed home, tired and happy.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, Karyn and Eden, Mandl and John, Margaret and Ronn, Theresa and Larry.  You made a lovely day into a completely perfect day.

And a big thank you to Theresa Marino and all the kind people at Rogers Gardens for making the Day of Art happen. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Marilyn.


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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." ~ Pablo Picasso

A few nice things

Hey, how's your day going? Good I hope. Here's what my life looks like at the moment...

 A basket of kittehs.

 A drawing of leaves

 The Curvy Closet Sewing Club is back up and running. I finally had some time yesterday to do some sewing. Here's Vogue V1197, a cowl neck tunic. It was pretty simple to put together. The pattern had long shirred raglan sleeves but they were too fiddly for me so I cut them off at the elbow.  I also cut a kimono jacket out last night out of scrapes of fabric. 

 "Old Lonesome" out by the pond. 

The fish seem happy enough. 

Hugs and kisses to you!

Marilyn.

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“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things

makes home happy and life lovely.” 

~ Louisa May Alcott 

 

A lovely adventure

Yesterday my friend Annie and I zoomed up to Downtown Los Angeles for an adventure. Our destination was the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

http://www.bobbakermarionettes.com/

 The show had just ended and we where hit with that high pitched wave of screaming unique to five-year-olds who are excited and having a good time. Once they cleared out I got to see where they made the clothing for the marionettes.

 

The hallways of the old building were covered with awards, photos and sketches. The theater's been there since the sixties. It was faded and lovely and a little bit creepy all at the same time.

 

 I want to make one!

Afterwards we parked in downtown and stumbled upon an incredible French place called Noces du Figaro. Here's my Croque Madame with pomme frites. The bread basket had the biggest, most generous bowl of jelly for the bread. We ate like Hobbits.

 Adorable Annie!

 

 It was like a fairyland. Annie bought us macarons. Mine was pistachio and delicious. Annie was adventurous and tried the lavender which tasted like bath salts to me.

If that wasn't enough splendor, afterwards we went to "The Last Bookstore" a massive, wonderful place with new and used books. I don't have a picture of it because I was too busy looking at everything. I bought a book about Ripley, of Ripley's Believe It or Not fame, for the hub, A Philip Pullman version of Grimm's Fairy Tales for me and for five bucks, Things to Make and Do, from 1912.

On the ride home, we ate our macarons and I got a chance to hear the latest cuts from Annie's new album. You can hear her beautiful voice here... http://annierue.com/and here... https://www.youtube.com/user/RUYGA001/videos

I will miss my friend as she goes on tour. When she returns we already have plans to go see the marionettes. I'll be saving my pennies for the bookstore.

Marilyn.

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Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together—just the two of you. ~ E.B. White