Some small things...

...that make me happy right now!

Ok, I know he's not exactly a small thing, but you know what I mean!

From our garden

An intriguing new book - thank you, Daniel! 

This has been blooming since Thanksgiving - so beautiful!! 

In a few minutes I am off to my first etching class of the quarter. As apprehensive as I felt last year, this year I feel nothing but excitement. I have a vision of what I want to create and we'll see if I can make it work...

I hope you are having a wonder-filled day!!

Warm White Bean Salad

It is COLD here today (well, cold for Georgia, that is), and when it's cold I want to cook! And that's what I've been doing. A lot!

Here is one of my favorite quick recipes from one of my very favorite cookbooks from the Public Radio series The Splendid Table:

Warm White Bean Salad with Garlic and Rosemary
from How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/2 slice whole-grain bread, coarsely ground in a food processor (2 generous tablespoons crumbs) (I grind it in a spice grinder - works just as well)
• 3 T fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• Generous 1/2 t fresh-ground black pepper
• 5 large garlic cloves crushed with 1/2 t salt and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tight-packed T fresh rosemary leaves, coarsely chopped
• Two 15-ounce cans organic white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
• 1 large handful mixed salad greens (frisee and romaine, spring mix, or a blend of baby greens)
• Additional salt and fresh-ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a 12-inch skillet or saute pan over medium heat, toast the bread crumbs until lightly browned, stirring often. Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl to cool. When cooled, stir in the Parmigiano and pepper. Set aside.
2. In the same pan, slowly warm the garlic in the olive oil over low heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in the rosemary, blending for another minute or so, taking care not to burn the garlic. It should be fragrant and just beginning to soften.
3. Immediately add the beans and fold them in very gently. Turn the heat to medium. Heat the beans through, about 3 minutes, occasionally lifting and turning them as they heat, as stirring will turn them to mush. Add greens and gently move them around in the pan until they are slightly wilted, 30 second to 1 minute. Turn into a bowl, top with bread-crumb mixture, and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!!

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My daily gratitude list:

* delicious soup in the fridge (it's the cold - it makes me food obsessed!!)
* plenty of sunshine and no humidity
* a warm dog snout on my lap
* another few days with Christmas decorations before they get put away

My Fist Life Book Assignment

In Tam's Life Book class (you can click on the link in my right sidebar if you want more info on the class - you can join at any time), our first assignment was one in which we celebrate our goddess qualities, which I took to mean my inner qualities that I consider positive.

My piece turned out a little grittier than many of the others, because I wanted to work in the style I used to paint in when I first started painting. It makes me so happy to work intuitively in layers like that. That's the style I want to also work in with my etching class. We'll see if that'll work, but I'm excited about it!!

It feels sooo good to be painting again. I've really missed it!

Tomorrow, I'll have a yummy recipe for you - I've been cooking up a storm lately and have much I want to share with you. Little by little...

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Today, I am grateful for:

* hands covered in paint
* a super messy drawing table :)
* veggies roasting in the oven
* soup on the stove top
* knitting waiting for me...

Painting again...

It has been over a month since I last touched my paints and I had this irrational nervousness about picking them up again. So, today was the day!

After about two minutes it was like I just painted yesterday.

I am working on the first assignment for the Life Book class. The challenge for me is to follow the assignment, but do it in my own style and I'm having fun with it! I still have a ways to go, but I love her soft face so far...

I also thought that today would be a good day to start my gratitude list again, so here it is:

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Today, I am grateful for:

*being able to go to my studio and paint

*a fridge full of yummy leftovers(!!)

*clear, sunny and cold weather

*getting back into blogging regularly

*starting my year off with being surrounded by loving people, including you all!!

P.S. Those three little piggies from my last post? All gone! I ate them all for extra luck!! :)

Happy 2012!!

My three little piggies wish you Good Luck for 2012!

Every year, my sister-in-law, Sue, sends me little marzipan pigs for Christmas for good luck in the new year. And because she knows that I love marzipan! I mean LOVE!!

The first year she sent them, we still had our first dog, Moe, a great dane/dalmation mix, a gorgeous big dog. We put the little wrapped piggies under the tree along with everything else and Moe promptly ate all of them. So, now, when I see a little package among the others that says "don't put under the Christmas tree," I know exactly what they are... Thank you, Sue!!

We rang in the New Year with good friends and followed some of their good luck traditions. At midnight, we jumped off chairs to leap into the new year, ate 12 grapes and made 12 wishes, we toasted the new year with champagne and then ran around the block with a suitcase for much travel in the new year. Well, Daniel did the running, I had eaten a bit too much... :)

With all of that 2012 has to be a spectacular year, right?

Happy New Year!!