Yummm... healthy dinner at last!

Yesterday we decided to have a nice dinner (and a healthy dinner) . Since my husband will be visiting his mother on Mother's Day I kind of looked at this as my Mother's Day dinner. So when he asked what I would like to have, I replied, well I'd LIKE to have crab legs at Red Lobster but we won't be doing that since we are sheltered at home. We did have the option of placing an order and picking it up and bringing it back home but it's about a 30-minute trip and I really didn't fancy cold crab legs. Another suggestion he had was to visit our local fishmonger who does have high quality fish all the time and we could cook it ourselves, together. He even agreed to have fish for dinner himself! Shocker because that's not something he normally would agree to.

We decided on crab legs for me, and grouper for him. My husband likes grouper and we found several recipes for which we already had most of the ingredients, the only thing we had to pick up was grated Parmesan. The decision was made! Grouper Florentine. Another surprise because spinach is not usually on my husband's list of favorite things... unless it is in a spinach artichoke dip for which we have tortilla chips!

They had some lovely crab legs at the fishmongers and grouper happened to be on sale! After a couple errands we brought them home prepared our meal ...I steamed the crab legs  in our gigantic pot ,  and we cooked his grouper recipe together, I prepared the Florentine  sauce while he cooked the grouper .  We had a lovely evening! Everything turned out right for once. In fact I think I will use his recipe once again without the grouper to make creamed spinach. It was so so good and it reminded me somewhat of Boston Market's creamed spinach but this was even better! Now I just have to find that recipe...

Easter Eve - 2020

I think we were pretty productive today, more than any other day! 

We went for a bike ride yesterday.. loaded up the bikes and headed for Rock Island trail but the parking lot was roped off ...so we turned around and went back and parked at Bushwackers in Junction city... from there we rode the trail to Peo Heights... it felt GOOD... I was surprised because I hadn't been on my bike in 2 years! Anyway we rode out and back to the car. 

On the way home we stopped at Alwan's for some steaks to have today for Easter... they were letting people in one at a time maintaining a certain amount inside. Also only ONE per household (per cart) was allowed... once inside you get in a line and tell the butcher what you want and he goes and gets it... you do NOT get to pick out your steak or anything like normal.. they ended up giving my husband a 1.75 pound T-bone for ME!.. LOL... and he got a bone in ribeye.. we'll grill them today outside...if it doesn't rain.

Then we came home and I started pulling weeds (dead weeds) from around the fire pit while the Mister mowed the front and side yards. He wanted to get that done before it rained.  GOOD timing. And I want to be able to use the fire-pit this year so I also bundled all the weeds and put many in the pit for fire-starter... and more in a tin bucket we have out there for kindling. Then I started raking but had to take a break after a while...  I dragged this cabinet out to the porch that I had been wanting to get rid of, it had been in the front hall waiting to escape for months now.  I called the neighbor to see if she wanted it... she came over to look at it and said her husband would come over and carry it away when he got home from the pharmacy. (and he did). 

Next, I then started on the garage... We needed to put the bikes back in there but I didn't like where mine had been stored so I moved things around and made more space and threw out a bunch of stuff... and swept all the leaves out... its nicer now.. still needs work. but nicer. Then I took the bikes off the back of the car and put them away in the garage. Good Timing... 

I started splicing some videos together for a combined video that I'm making for the North Art Studio artists. It's a fun project and I get to use my new video editing and splicing skills... FUN! We are hoping to post the video online next week... I hope to get videos from everyone in time.


For dinner we were both so pooped that we decided on carry-out from Rizzi's in the city.  We called it in and left to go pick it up around 6pm, right when it began to storm... before we left, Rick got the bike rack off the back of the

car or we wouldn't have fit in the garage when we returned. I backed into the garage for him to do it so he didn't have to do it in the rain... we got to Rizzi's - picked up our food, curbside and came back to settle down to a nice dinner ...but way too much of it! I had Tiramisu for dessert.. yummy, til I found a mustache hair in it... I've been sick ever since... (probably mostly in my mind). After some TV, (we watched some episodes of NCIS we hadn't seen and were catching up)... we hit the hay. But it want a good night sleep for me... I was up at 2am, 3am, 4am and 6am... 

Happy Easter...

Ruth

ps - none of these pictures are real. they are copyright free images off google

Dream... come true.

It started about 3 or 4 years ago... as I rekindled an old flame with art, specifically painting, I had a deep desire start in me to have a studio of my own.  A place I could create art, a place I could offer classes, a place I could discover things deep in my soul. I envisioned this studio in a lofty space overlooking an ocean. Well, not all parts of a dream are meant to be so when a large portion of the dream comes true you just have to realize there might be reasons for the little details to not be included. For example I don't like tidal waves so perhaps not being on an ocean is a saving Grace for me... who knows?

At any rate this summer I was presented with an opportunity to make the bigger part of my dream come true! A local church had previously rented an area of their building to a school. The school was moving to a new space and the church decided to see if any artists were interested in renting the now empty classrooms!  (Ya Think?!!) within 3 months, the spaces were all spoken for and rented out! .. and I was fortunate enough to have one of them. 24' x 30'  Ya!  that's what I'm talkin' about!

The rooms are spacious and half of them have windows overlooking green grass! A wonderful sight for an artist... calming... energizing...relaxing... all the things we need to make art.... or take a nap,... or both! LOL  So... On Sept 8th I had an Open House for my new studio ... below are some pictures taken by a friend. We had a lot more people later on, but these allow you to see some of the room as well... enjoy!

 

  

why is it so hard to center photos in here???

 

 

  

Winter Birch Trees

Yesterday I taught a class at our local college (ICC) on how to paint Winter Birch Trees. There are many, many birch tree paintings out there and they are almost ALL beautiful. This class was to demonstrate how I had painted this abstract background with the trees. It was a great time and I learned a few things along the way as well.

This was a painting I did last year and used several tools to make the spots, mostly fingers but also tried a few round brushes and other tools.I found out at that time just how long it takes to fill in a background. I had time between then and now to forget how long it took, but it reminded us yesterday LOL. As much as I love this painting, some of the results from yesterday's class took my breath away. First of all I stressed to them to make it their own. If they don't like certain colors, dont use them! If they wanted a sky & land background instead, then by all means do that instead of the dots and I got their permission to share their results with you. I will be doing another, based on the inspiration I saw here.

I want to zoom in a bit on these for you... and I took mine out of the mix. I must say I was also touched that they wanted a picture with me in it.. (that's a first!) and I'll post it below also.

Plans need room to grow

As with all good plans mine apparently needed growing room. It's all well and good to set out a daily list, but sometimes I just don't get to the list. Today - however - I unknowingly stuck to the program! YAY for me! Today was supposed to be website day, and I did indeed work on my website!  WOW.

So I managed to post a whole new page where I can put up 'sets' that I work on... mostly ceramic tile sets, but some will be mini canvas sets. Here is the page in case you are interested...

http://www.brushwithmanycolors.com/indexsets.html

So I did manage to get that page created, and pictures put up on it... the whole 9 yards. I even made some changes to a couple other pages.

Here is my most recent...

4" ceramic tiles

painted with acrylic paint

sealed and varnished complete

with felt feet on the backs.

Whew... now, I think I'll take time out for breakfast!

Artful Tribute to America's Independence

An Artful Tribute to America's Independence

Somehow didn't get published for July 4th

The Pink Lady

Well according to my chart, today is Blog day!

Monday - Instagram  --- @ruth.inman (check it out) 
Tuesday - Youtube --- "Ruths Art"
Wednesday - Blog --- brushwithmanycolors.blogspot.com
Thursday - Website --- BrushWithManyColors.com
Friday - Etsy --- Ruths Art Gallery

Today I want to share with you a technique I learned last week and taught last week! It's one used by Picasso himself! Tricking the brain based on what the eye sees.

So let's say you have a photograph of someone you want to draw. It can be difficult to not take in everything all at once and try to get it all "right" in the drawing.  So we learned that if you take the picture and turn it Upside Down... then your brain can't seem to 'take in' what the full overall picture is and it allows you to just draw what you see... line by line, area by area.

First I'll show you a picture Picasso drew, and in our 1st lesson, they passed out copies of this and asked up to turn it upside down and then try drawing it on a pad of paper.  No Tracing... just draw what you see.

The first one is the original, and the 2nd is someone's version of it upside down.

I intended to share MY version but I left it at home and I'm currently at a local coffee shop working.

However, I picked what I thought was a less intensive drawing for my group on the next day

Also a Picasso, I have here the Original, The Original turned upside down, and then my version which I painted before taking a picture (oops). 

 

She looks a bit stand-off-ish, but ... there she is...

The Pink Lady.

New "Fat Bomb" Recipe

For any of you who are following a KETO style eating plan, you have probably heard of "Fat Bombs". They are delicious little treats to help us get more good fats into our daily diet.

I looked everywhere for a coffee flavored recipe. Each one I found, there was something I didn't like about it. One added a cup of crushed pecans... I can't eat nuts. One took several hours to make.. good grief, most fat bombs are made in less than 10 minutes, and "set up" in about 30 min in the fridge.



So my husbands says, "Why don't you just create your own." Hmmmm GOOD idea!  So i did.

I have a recipe I like, so I started with that one and adapted it. Below is the final recipe, and some notes. Enjoy!  I sure did... they are so creamy, they melt in your mouth, you might want to keep them in the freezer, instead of the fridge.

Coffee Flavored Fat Bombs

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond butter
(melt these together in microwave 1 min)

Add to melted mixture:
2 Tbl baking cocoa powder
2 Tbl sweetener of your choice (I used coconut sugar)
1 capful of vanilla extract
Stir well until all dissolved.

On the side, combine:
2/3 cup hot tap water
2 heaping tablespoons Instant coffee

Once the coffee is completely dissolved, add liquid coffee to the other mixture. Stir well. It should be a thick liquid.
Pour into silicone mold or silicone mini cupcake mold.
My batch made 15.
Yummm.
ps - if you don't have almond butter, you can also make these with peanut butter. I just didnt want the peanut flavor taking over the coffee flavor, but it would be interesting.  Next time.

Finding myself... and my art

I love early mornings, maybe Sunday mornings especially. No one is up except me... and the cat. Even the dog has gone back to sleep after being let out for a few brief moments. I grab a bottle of water and anticipate the cup of coffee I can have after I finish this bottle; that thought makes the water go down faster... meanwhile I stumble onto some article to read. There are millions of them out there, and where my cursor lands no one knows...  

This morning I read an account by a woman named Amy. It somehow popped up in an email and caught my eye with a title of "7 lessons I learned While Finding Myself". This intrigued me as I feel lately like I am rediscovering or re-finding MYself. So I read on... it was enlightening, and encouraging. So I will continue to rediscover myself and know that is a good & healthy thing to do (in case I had forgotten that).

While talking about finding myself, I have to include my artwork. That is the biggest step I have taken lately toward determining just who *I* am after all these years. After 35 years of being a Computer Geek (in all facets of that industry) and 13 years of being an Accounting geek, I finally had reached my limit of Left Brain activity, and acquiesced to the pleadings of my Right Brain to come out and play! I've stayed semi-active in arts and crafts over the years but never REALLY gave it the amount of time I'd like to... there was always that pesky job that got in the way. Well, it's time.

I have been painting now for over 2 years ... acrylics... watercolors... mixing the two, and adding "alcohol inks", "watercolor inks", pen, and markers; Basically any and all types of other fun things.  I have found, too, when you make art...you have to share it. You just HAVE to... otherwise, it's like seeing a sunrise and not having anyone sitting there to share it with...so... on to a website, and a Facebook page, and Instagram - all sharing with different people. Oh, there might be a few overlaps, that's ok too... but I have 'met' people that I would otherwise not have and for that I feel happy.

Yesterday I worked on rearranging my website in an attempt to organize the different styles of art I have been creating. I have noticed I like abstract and impressionism the most, so that is what I do. Feel free to take a peeks. You might have guessed the web address already:  

www.BrushWithManyColors.com

No, you don't have to put in the Capital letters, I just do that for readability. 

I try to create (or work on) something everyday... yesterday I hooked up a drawing tablet my husband gave me 2 years ago. It was a thoughtful gift on his part, but I wanted to create with Real Things... not the computer. I think I was trying to break away from the computer and that just didn't seem to fit my plan... so it sat in a drawer, .. until yesterday. It took most of the afternoon to find the drivers for it, get it going and then try to download the software that was supposed to come with it... but in the end I was able to make at least a graphic I was happy with.. It will likely be my July 4th Cover picture on Facebook this year.  Here's a peek:

I love the little bursts I learned to create! But I don't think I'll be creating "art" with this device, I guess it technically is digital art, but my preferred type of art still comes out of a tube and is applied with a brush.

What's in a Week?

Well, in the past week I survived my husband being out of town for the weekend, responded to an urgent call for taking over our Friday watercolor group for one week, enjoyed the 1st Farmer's Market of the season, attended a webinar for building my business on Instagram, and painted...a lot.

None of which are outstanding enough to expound on in a blog post, but yet here I am faced with the white empty page that expects to be filled with something clever, witty or at least helpful.

I think, instead, I will post pictures of what I have painted in the past week, it might be more interesting.

Thanks for Visiting!

Acrylic
9x12















Samsung phone case

His Eye is on the Sparrow
16x20

Acrylic
12x24

One Fish, Two Fish

Alcohol Inks on Ceramic Tiles
4x4

Acrylic Painted Deep Space
Ceramic Tile Coasters
4x4

Water Color study of
Ocean Waves
6x8

 Water Color study of
Cactus, 2nd attempt
6x8

Water Color study of
Cactus, 1st attempt
6x8

Watercolor Techniques

Expect the unexpected ...

This is a little city scape I did to practice a few different techniques in watercolor. You have to be ok with it doing some unexpected things...

NEW Coconut Butter attempt!

Attempt #2 at making Coconut Butter

THIS time... I opened a bag of UNSweetened Coconut Flakes... dumped it in my Ninja Food Processor and let 'er rip... here we are at 3 minutes in. I only had 1 small bag and it isn't the recommended 6 cups... so we'll see.

 It's getting more toward creamy in 5 minutes!

It DID get runny and I put it in a jar, it would have probably been smoother if I had let it run a bit more but I needed to leave so it is at this stage and I put it in the refrigerator.

PS - this was a Salsa jar... so one Small bag makes this much.

A Good Day! and a PLAN

Sorry, this was from Yesterday... and I just saw it sitting in "Drafts" !!

Better late than never?

You know it's going to be a GOOD day when you wake up with NO back pain!  YAY!!! Even the rain won't get me down, at least I slept through the reported 'storm' of 4:30 this morning!  (More YAY!!) So this morning, I have the goal of setting up a schedule, a routine I suppose, of which days I will Instagram, and then Blog, and then there is Youtube, and my website and Etsy!... oh my!  How do you DO it all? I'm not sure but I'm going to try. Maybe I should just try it in that order!... Let's see:

Monday - Instagram  --- @ruth.inman (check it out) 
Tuesday - Youtube --- "Ruths Art"
Wednesday - Blog --- brushwithmanycolors.blogspot.com
Thursday - Website --- BrushWithManyColors.com
Friday - Etsy --- Ruths Art Gallery
OK that's a start!!  Now I have a brain flash, so I have to go PAINT!!!  (that needs to be in the routine too!!)

Hugs All,

Ruth

Coconut Butter

I have been following this Keto eating plan for a couple weeks (and losing weight) and learning new recipes all the time. Also learning that some of the ingredients for these recipes I don't normally have in my kitchen, AND then can be a little pricey in the store. So this morning I decided to make one of the ingredients at home ... Coconut Butter. It's very pricey in the store $9 or $10 for a jar but this recipe assures me I can make it at home for 1/3 of the cost. All I have to do is put some coconut flakes or shred in a food processor and blend until I can't hear anymore!  So here it is, and while I'm typing this I hope my phone doesn't ring as I won't be able to hear it. LOL

We are going on 10-12 minutes at this point, with a couple stops to scrape it down and once to add the 2 Tbl Coconut Oil. So far, it's Very very moist, but it is supposed to get creamy, then runny... still waiting.  I am pretty sure I can come back and update this with pictures, if and when it ever gets there!  Stay tuned!

...So we are 40 minutes in... and I'm hoping we aren't going to burn out the motor in my Ninja! The coconut is very hot and steamy but as you can see, it is NOT creamy nor runny...yet...

Well I think I found the problem....

"You don't need a recipe for coconut butter. ... The flakes often turn into a smootherbutter than shredded coconut does. Do not use desiccated, sweetened, reduced fat or fresh coconut. Tip #2: Both a food processor and a high-powdered blender (like a Vitamix) can make coconut butter..."

So apparently, this is all you will ever get out of sweetened coconut... 

but I have to think there is something i can make with this?? Its so yummy...

I'm starting a new batch, using UNsweetened coconut...

check the next post for the results!

Sorry Ninja... All that work for nothing!

Turkey Burgers!!

Turkey Burgers!!

A few days ago, I said to my Mom... " we should change our eating habits and try eating healthy"
She said, "Ok"
Me: "Really? Will you do that? CAN you do that?"
Mom: "Sure I can do that, I'll do it as long as you do."
Me: "OK!!! We'll put some menus together of things you think you'll like... I already have breakfast and lunch worked out for me. I have a mean turkey burger I like to make and then I have it every day for lunch!!"
Mom: "Oh, that sounds good!"
Me: "OK... I'll get you the ingredients so you can add to your shopping list then on TUESDAY when the kids are back in school, we can make the burgers together over Skype!"
Mom: "OK!"

So I texted the list of ingredients to Mom the next day when she told me she was going out shopping. It was getting closer. I was excited!

Yesterday she texted and asked "How much broccoli do I shred for this? I'm doing it now"
Me: "WHAT?!?! I thought we were doing it together Tuesday??"
Mom: "Well, I went shopping and had it all so I need to do it now."

Oh, well... when I got home that day I had the ingredients also so I threw my batch together and cooked my burgers, so I'll share that with you all here, and it's a good place to keep the "recipe" so that Mom can find it for her next batch! Also, she omitted the spices, ...the onions... and the garlic... so next time she makes it, she's in for a Flavor Treat!!! here goes... give it a try! 

INGREDIENTS

1 - lb ground turkey
1 stalk fresh broccoli
2 long carrots or about 10 mini carrots
1/2 small onion
3-4 cloves garlic
2 Tblsp. dried* Terragon
2 Tblsp. dried* Thyme
salt & pepper to taste

Put the ground turkey in a large mixing bowl. Use food processor or other tool to finely shred broccoli and carrots and onions and garlic. Add to mixing bowl. Then if you want to add grated mushrooms, you can but now add your seasonings. Mix Well.

Use ice cream scoop to portion out meat mixture and form into patties. Patties should be about the size of the palm of your hand. Flatten and put a small thumb depression in the middle on both sides; this prevents it puffing up into a ball. Cook in lightly sprayed skillet until JUST done and turn off heat.

 

When you are ready to eat one:

1. Take 1 burger from ziplock bag and put on small (microwavable) sandwich plate. Microwave for ONE minute, turn it over, (if your rolls are frozen, now is the time to add the roll to the plate) and  do ONE more minute.  (DO NOT assemble the burger inside the roll, it will just get soggy!)

2. If your rolls were NOT frozen, obviously you don't need to microwave them so just get your toppings ready... ketchup, mustard, whole grain mustard, avocado, etc...

3. When done, THEN you can assemble, and add condiments and Enjoy!!