The Power of Words...

Oh Sweet Summer!

 

A great watermelon salad from Cooking Weekend!

4 cups cold seedless watermelon, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup feta, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
2 tbsp salted pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 tsp fresh mint, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper

dressing
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp orange juice

Combine the vinegar and orange juice. Sprinkle evenly over the salad and serve.

I'm the Only Girl In the World...

... is what my mother said. "You are the only girl in the world that can be sweetened up with jalapeno peppers!" She might be right. They do make me happy! I was grumpy this morning & don't mind admitting it, so Hubby went shopping and returned with this big beautiful bag of peppers. A rose, no thanks, just give me a stinking rose (garlic) and some peppers! ♥♥♥

I made these peppers last week and they were devoured in abouth 48 hours. Not exaggerating. (I'm not the only pepperhead around here ) I will admit I probably ate 1/2 of them. I hope you make some. They aren't as hot as you might think! After slicing I put them in a big bowl of cold water, which rinsed them and removed a lot of the seeds but I did not try to remove the seeds when packing them.

20 large Jalapenos
6 large cloves of Garlic

Thinly sliced not chopped

3 TBS sugar & 5 TBS of White Vinegar

5 Cups of boiling salty water ( 5 C water + 3 TBS salt)

And the clock starts ticking...

On The Easel...

...some new pieces on wood.

Sweet Sunny Spicy Spanish Guitar kind of Day

Yes it's 100 outside but you know I like it hot! Red Pork Chili Colorado, Fry Bread & Yellow Lemon Buttercreams. Yum.

I had some beautiful chops but was craving something spicy & saucy even though it is hot. This is great though because it's simple and you don't have to stand in a hot kitchen fussing over it. This is just 4 large chops cut in big chunks, browned, 2 chicken boullion, just enough water to cover and 1/2c spaghetti sauce (I didn't have 1/2 can of tomato paste but this came out great), 1/2 large yellow onion slices really thinly, 4 cloves of grated garlic, 2 tbsp of chili powder, 1 tbsp of cumin. Stewed for about 2 hours or until pork is tender. Simple and so so good.

I'm experimenting with a fry bread recipe. I'm really trying to work that one out for my son who is thinking about getting a gourmet food truck. I started with a "biga" as though I were making a foccacia bread. I hope it turns out. It looks bubblalicious right now. I will repost a picture to this post if it comes out good so stay tuned. Is there "bad" bread? ...I don't think so!

Don't these lemon buttercreams look so sunny and summery? They will give you a sunny disposition for sure! I scored a bunch of great Mr. Candy molds for only $.50 each and they were unopened and brand new. (Thrift store, I donate then buy stuff. hahaha) I got this sunflower, a frog, pineapple, seashell, rose w/ leaf, turtle, leaf, and shamrock. When I got them I thought I would use them for clay but the recipe looked so easy, and my guys have sweet teeth, so I tried it. The guys loved them and I'm all for easy. If you come to visit you will get these on your pillow and I am now planning to make some for Christmas packages. Peppermint extract is now on my shopping list. Don't worry you don't need a mold to make these buttercreams! You can roll the dough into thin logs and cut into equal pieces or roll them into balls. This would be great for kids to do too! I hope you give this yummy recipe a try.

Buttercream Candies

1 box of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of melted butter

10 drops of food color

1/4 tsp of extract or flavoring - I used lemon extract

Work with hands to dough that sticks together, then roll into log or press into a candy mold. Place on wax paper or parchment paper. Dry for 1 hour then turn over and dry on other side.
Store in cool place. These can be frozen up to 3 months.

Thank You beautiful Charo for helping me have fun while cleaning my kitchen! So Caliente!

Onion Ring Day Come & Gone!

I have onion rings once a year on my birthday! YUMMMM I drifted off to sleep thinking about them. Is that bad? hahaha Actually I didn't drift off much at all because I was so horrified! In all the chaos around here, which there has been plenty, I sent a painting to a person it didn't belong to. Luckily is went to sweet collector of mine in Chicago, she forgave me and sent it back quickly but it made for a rough night. I couldn't get my foot to stop kicking myself in the ... hahahaha

It was some of these Moon Pie's I started painting. I am selling them on Ebay and I'm excited to say that the Heart & Soul Gallery here in town wants them too as well as my mermaids, but that's another post. I just added a new one today. They are so fun to paint. Kind of a combination of my angels & clowns, pushing the distorted boundaries and I like the one big dominate Egyptian looking eye. Better to see you with...

That's alot of Coffee & Paint!

This looks like so much fun. Let's try it with iddy biddy cups!

The video says this is a painting. How do you feel? Do you think this is a painting?

Eggs-cellent Time of Year!

Retro-Mama describes her decor with these lovely fabric eggs as "Barnyard Chic" Love that & ♥ these eggs! Click on her name to visit her site for instructions.
An eggs-cellent way to de-stash all those paper scraps! The instructions can be found at Two Hearts Together.
These just make me happy to look at them! The super easy instructions can be found here at All*You
Aren't these sweet?! Instructions with photos can be found at Chez Larsson.

These lovelies were found at TaterTots & Jello.

Napkins to decoupaged Eggs! Who knew?! Just click on the picture to go to the full instructions at Two Girls Being Crafty.

A Big Shout Out & Thank You goes to these sweet people at Etsy for featuring my art in their wonderful collections! Just click on their names to visit their Etsy Shops. BiscottiPottery, GrooveInTuesday, ForPawsandHome, LovegrenandDaughter, Mouflon,CatCanPaint, and YimmekeDesign !
~*~ Family, Friends, Followers, & Fans I hope you have a Eggs-cellent & Joyful Easter full of many Blessings & Loving Memories! ~*~

Sneek Peek

Meet Miss Bubbles! A few more bubbles & tweeks here & there and she's ready to go to the Olive Hyde Gallery. She is full of eye popping color! I will be selling prints in my Etsy Shop.

"Miss Bubbles"

Happy 4th of July!

Oscar Meyer hot dogs on the grill, my homemade hot dog chili, coleslaw, corn on the cob, dill pickle potato salad, chips & homemade lentil dip (I added a little garlic, salt & pepper) and blueberry cobbler with french vanilla ice cream. What's on your plate today? Hope you are having a wonderful holiday!

Another One...

...but not exactly like the other one. I started over. Started a new painting for the Bee show. While I like the piece I started already (click here to see), there was just didn't seem to be emotion that I wanted and enough vintage feel to her. So rather than re-do her I decided to start another. I will be finishing the first one and selling her in the future but she won't be for the Bee show.
I am feeling better about this new one so far. What do you think? She looks more vintage and has a lot more emotion. Kind of a combination of pity, sadness, sweet compassion & love. I kept thinking she reminded me of someone as she was taking shape last night but I couldn't put my finger on it. This morning while I worked on her a little more the memory hit me! It was the summer I moved from "Fun Sun City" aka Mrytle Beach, SC to the middle of nowhere, the Mojave Desert, CA aka "Hell". Oh yes I know I wasn't fun to be around. Before I met friends I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching old movies, then sleep all day laying out in the sun. Remember those days? To this day American In Paris remains one of my favorite movies. I don't even know how many times I watched it, that summer or in my life, I own that one. Another movie I loved too was Damn Yankees. I'd sing along with Gwen Verdon "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets"! then it would be stuck in my head. Geez I probably drove my parents crazy. Now it might be stuck in your head too! haha When I decided to tell this little story today I couldn't remember her name, so I looked her up and lo & behold there was a picture of her on the cover of Time magazine looking almost like my Angel! I don't know what year this was from.
BTW For those of you that don't think musicals are real life, you should stay with me for a few days. Busting out in song & dance around here happens all the time!

Sunday Scripture

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10