Make It: Collage Writings

A small teaser for the upcoming Aggiornamento Art and Cultural Exhibition opening tomorrow night.

I'm a Winner! - Update

So we received our wonderful drawing from Reading (and chickens) the other day and its, well... awesome.

(note, just so you aren't confused, the drawing is the second image)

I'm a winner!

So I was over at Reading (and Chickens) the other day and noticed an awesome little contest that she was putting together in which there was a drawing for some goodies inspired by nothing more than the goodness of her heart. The goodies were sweet, but I was much more interested in getting one of her trademark drawings, so I do what any sensible person would do: pretend like the drawing included a custom drawing and put my name in the proverbial hat. (its like a situational red herring) Since she's a nice lady, and since I was the only person who was in that particular part of the drawing that I made up, I won!

After many attempts to get me to email her I finally sat down and composed the following. It was so absurd that I figured I'd share it with you all (and posting here fulfills my part of the contractual obligation at the end of the email) So without further ado: my email to Reading (and Chickens):

 

Thanks for graciously accepting my entry into the drawing drawing that weren't even aware you were having. And to boot I won!?!?! woohoo!

My wife seems to think a portrait of me would be fun because I'm kind of the personification of a cartoon character as it is. (fat beardo who is often holding either a baby, a dachshund or both)

However, a fun project that I sometimes subject my family and friends to is the aesthetic version of mad libs (don't have a name for it yet, maybe you can assist in that avenue). Essentially you ask 3 separate people for 3 separate words which you them must incorporate into an image (or object for that matter, but the internet hasn't come so far as to be able to deliver things of the 3rd dimension through fiber optics...yet)

To give some semblance of sense to the would be image it is permissible (read:recommended) that you give the prospective word giver a category to refine their seemingly random word choices.

To further complicate things, other individuals can supply the categories as well.

Since that is highly convoluted, lets set a scenario:

(cast of characters: Artist: a woman who percievably loves reading and chickens, Person 1: her husband a man who loves women who love reading and chickens, Person 2: her son, lover of reading sentences which include exclamation marks, Person 3: Joey, [as noted above] a fat beardo who is often holding either a baby, a dachshund or both)

Artist (to person 1): Give me a category of nouns.
Person 1: Things you'd find in the back of the fridge.
Artist (to person 2): Tell me something you'd find in the back of the fridge.
Person 2: That sticker that explains how the fridge works.
Artist: Hm...very accurate, thank you.
Artist: now give me a category of verbs
Person 2: things you'd do to a penguin
Artist (to person 3): Tell me something you'd do to a penguin.
Person 3: um.. cuddle it, I'm not sure there are any other possible answers to such a question.
Artist: touche', now give me a category of places
Person 3: places you'd never want to work
Artist (to person 1): Tell me a place that you'd never want to work
Person 1: hog rendering plant
Artist: *begins diligently working on a drawing of Joey cuddling a fridge sticker at a hog rendering plant*

See? Isn't that ingenious? It has all the esoteric class of fine art, but all of the shenanigans of blog art.

(rereads the above email)

Ok, on second thought, just post and illustrate the above email, that would be super entertaining.

I'll post it on my blog if you post it on yours!

Saturday Aesthetic Expression: Guy Fawkes Day

Editing error- Post written by Joey on Brittany's account.  We're so "one" we write for each other now!

Today is celebrated throughout Great Britain as "Guy Fawkes Day".  When you think of Guy Fawkes, what do you think of?  As an American the only thing that comes to mind is fireworks (well, that or V for Vendetta)

(photo credit)

But why on earth do those Brits set off explosions on Guy Fawkes?  Cause that's what he did, well...tried to do.

(photo credit)

Guy Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism after his mother married a Catholic when his father died when he was 8 years old.  But he lived in England when being a Catholic was not exactly safe.  So he moved to Spain for awhile and fought for the Catholic Spainards during the 80 years war before returning home to try and "replace" Queen Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch and return England to the Church.  Well, that kind of backfired- with imprisonment, torture and execution.

(photo credit)

Anyway, we're Catholic, and not so fond of all the bad things Queen Elizabeth and her ilk did to British Catholics like Fawkes, St. William of York and countless other untold martyrs for the Faith. Today the protestant Brits celebrate his defeat by burning effigies of the Guy Fawkes and of the Pope, but that's crazy cuz the Pope is great. Queen Elizabeth on the other hand was a bit of a tyrant.

(photo credit)

And you know what they say in ol' Virginny (where Brittany hails from), "Sic Semper Tyrannis" or in other words:"thus always to tyrants" or in other, other words "this is what yer tyrannical ways'll get ya".

I made our effigy of Queen Elizabeth, though before the addition of the portrait of Elizabeth (printed draft quality of course) it was running precariously close to being a little too blair witchy. I dunno, you be the judge.

(photo credit)

In addition to the creation of the effigy, we also decided to rewrite the traditional Guy Fawkes Day children's rhyme:

Remmember remember the fifth of November

revolution and freedom besought.

I see no reason why tyranny's season

Should ever be forgot...

So yea... there is a long tradition of exacting vengence upon those whom you revile or, in the least irritate you, throughout art history. You don't have to know a lot about the interpersonal relationships of Michaelangelo to guess that the fella he painted in hell with the ears of an ass and a snake biting him was probably not "besties" with the famed sistine chapel painter.

 

(photo credit)

Symbolism is such a great thing. I mean, its way better to paint a guy with a snake biting his "special area" than it is to punch him in the face. Less violent, and a vengence that lasts the ages. That guy is long dead, but everyone is still quite clear of how Michaelangelo felt about him.

 better to burn in these fires than in the eternal ones

Similarly with Queen Elizabeth, I'd much rather burn an effigy of her to abate my personal vengeance and pray for her soul to be spared from God's Justice by His Mercy than the alternative.

Its Snowing Outside: Perfect Time to Work on the Garden

As I write this post I am looking out my window onto my backyard which is covered in 6inches of snow and I'm thinking "perfect time of year to work on the garden."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go trudging through the snow to plant seeds or anything but late Autumn and early Winter are crucial times to work on your garden; although, its not what most people think.

The first lesson when it comes to gardening is that making an effective garden is a year-round activity, at least if you want it to be healthy and fruitful. Sadly the majority of hobbyist/backyard gardeners only think of their garden when they walk by the potted plants at Lowes in early Spring. But if you haven't done anything with your garden by then, its too late.

You may recall from some of my dumpstering exploits that I procured a reasonable amount of lumber by which I was able to make two nice new garden beds. Because last year I spent way more money buying dirt and manure trying to fill the bed than I could have ever imagined (let alone the fact that nothing makes you feel more like a fool than buying dirt) I vowed to utilize only free sources to fill these new beds.

An added benefit to using this approach instead of buying commercial top soils and fertilizer is that you can have a healthy organic garden which can produce as well, if not better. To achieve this free, organic, biodiverse soil for your garden bed you first have to understand few things. Well... really only one thing actually: decomposition.

For decomposition of organic materials (the crucial ingredient in any good soil) you need: life (worms, insects, bacteria etc.), water (to encourage the life and to expand the cellular structure of the organic material) and time (often much less than you'd think if you have enough of the other two).

Soil is simply a combination of minerals, decomposing organic matter, water and filler material. If you look at your average commercial bag of topsoil and you'll often see manure, humus, peat moss and vermiculite. Translation of all of those things? Rotting stuff and filler. Just because it is simple though does not mean that it isn't vital in fact Colorado State University is currently engaged in a global campaign to revitalize soil. Plus, as President Roosevelt once said during the Dust Bowl crisis in America, "A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself."

When starting a new garden bed there are several schools of thought in regard to preparing the site, many people will recommend things like tilling, either by hand or with a powered tiller. This is a good idea, as it loosens the soil and introduces air into the soil (something that many people neglect to realize plants need too). However, I'm a bit of a pragmatist when it comes to work, in as far as I don't care to do more of it than necessary. That being said, I prefer the "lazy man's" approach to preparing the site: laying down cardboard.

Charlotte helping flatten out the cardboard scraps.

Cardboard is easily sourced from.. just about everywhere, dumpsters, your own packaging refuse, or any grocery/department/liquor store will gladly give you more than you can take.

(photo credit)

The cardboard that I laid down in our new beds serves a few important functions. First of all, it creates a barrier for preexisting weeds so that they do not spring up from below when it comes time to plant your edibles. While this dense cardboard barrier is enough to keep weeds from popping up it is also permeable, organic matter. Once it has had sufficient water and time to decompose it will provide additional nutrients to the soil as well as be soft enough for the roots of your jack-o-lantern pumpkins to reach down through.

Charlotte's jack-o-lantern "Nice Guy" (ps. thats not a real knife she has)

However, the most important function which this wet layer of cardboard provides is an ideal habitat for worms. Worms are the hard workers that do the tilling and aeration for you, if you just give them the right environment, food and time to do the work. Not only is allowing worms to till your garden for you a less work intensive approach, but it is in fact more effective than hand tilling because it gives the added benefit of worm castings (aka. poo). I'm not enough of a scientist to know precisely how or why, but decomposed material which has been consumed, digested and expelled by worms has a significantly higher amount of certain important garden nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen than if the organic material were left to decompose by itself.

This is part of the reason this snowy, cold, wet, time of year is ideal to do these kinds of garden preparations, because enough moisture (by means of snow), time (by means of passing through the non-growing season) and encouraged decomposition (thanks to expansion and contraction of water logged celluar structures) takes place that by the time next spring rolls around you'll have a lovely dark, rich, worm ridden soil to plant your delicious lovies in.

Enjoying the fruits of last year's soil preparations.

The next step, after laying down your cardboard is to lay alternating layers of "greens" and "browns". Greens are things like: grass clippings, kitchen scraps, rotten jack-o-lanterns etc. Browns are things like: dead leaves, corn husks and mulch.

This time of year is often a great time to layer your kitchen scrap sourced "green" heavy compost because it has already had several months of hot weather, insects (flies, pill-bugs etc.) and moisture to allow for the scraps to compost nicely. Its a perfect time of year to empty out your compost bin into your aspiring garden beds.

Raking in a year's worth of kitchen compost

As for this time of year being a good time for "browns", I think you can look out at your leaf covered lawn and only guess. There are lots of good ways to get "browns" but frankly I can't think of a more universally beneficial strategy than to use the leaves from the trees around you, which so graciously have decided to fall down for easy pickings. You get to clean up your lawn, you get to add nutrients to your garden, you get to provide a insulation to the decomposing "greens" between each layer, and you don't contribute to our already over extended landfills. If you're nice I bet your neighbors will even let you have their leaves too!

(photo credit)

Once you have laid alternating 2inch layers of "greens" and "browns" until your garden bed is full, the last step is: wait. Simply let the worms do their job underneath, the organic materials throughout decompose and the snow, rain, and sun encourage the whole process.

Thanks to a little proactive work in the late Autumn and early Winter you can enjoy soil that retains water, but allows it to drain and is full of rich organic nutrients but resists the growth of unwanted weeds by next Spring when you're ready to plant.

Pork and Pumpkins Are So Appetizing!

Pork and Pumpkin with Bacon and Red Wine sauce, sprinkled with Roasted Pepitas and Pecans!

We went to a party Saturday night, and I promised to bring something.  I was going to make chile, but someone else was already bringing 18 pounds of meat.  So I thought that was covered.  Instead, I made these delicious, incredible, completely invented appetizers. They were awesome.  They were amazing!  They were a huge hit!  And they were pretty to boot.  You should make them for your next fall party- Halloween, All Saint's day, Oktoberfest, or Veteran's Day anyone?  Thanksgiving too!

What do these things all have in common- other than being delicious that is?

 Ingredients-
1 pie pumpkin
1-2 lb pork roast, fat trimmed, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 package nitrate/nitrite free bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces before frying
About 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
About 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper  to taste
1/2 cup red wine
2 tablespoons organic sucanat or other dry sugary thing like rapadura, etc.
Roasted Pumpkin seeds or Roasted Crispy Pecans

What?  You don't keep a pumpkin peeler in your drawer?

 Step 1- Peel your pie pumpkin.  I have several from the garden, but this one was from the store and was a "Baby Bear" pumpkin.  Our Dachshund likes to eat our pumpkins out of the garden, so we're having to fence off the remaining few in an attempt to get them to ripen without becoming Dog Food.  Anyway, peel your pumpkin with an ordinary pumpkin peeler.  If you don't have one of those, a potato peeler will do.

Save the seeds!  But for more immediate use than usually suggested

 Step 2- Cut your pretty peeled pumpkin in half (the easy way is easier- don't try to fight the stem).  Then scoop out the seeds and save for roasting later.  Cut the pumpkin flesh into chunks about the size of the top part of your thumb.  It's finger food, you know?


Here's my pumpkin chunks on the roasting pan ready to go.  I added about half a stick of butter, sliced up all over the place, and a few pieces of fat from the piece of ham I used- just for flavor.  Lard would probably work well here, but I don't have any.

Step 3- Sprinkle salt, pepper, and cinnamon over the whole thing, then stick in an oven preheated to 415.  Roast the whole thing until they are tender but NOT mushy.  20 minutes did it for me, but it will depend on the size of your thumb- ahem, I mean pumpkin chunks.

(Step 3 1/2- fry your bacon.  Cut the bacon into 1/2 inch strips before frying- it'll go faster and be easier in the end.  Don't let them get too crispy- then you can't put them on the toothpicks!  You can do all this while you're chopping and roasting, so whenever you want to make your bacon is fine by me, as long as it's before....)

Step 4- Cut your pork roast up into similarly thumb-like portions.  You could roast along with the pumpkin, but I was afraid that they would take different amounts of time, so I pan fried them in the bacon fat that was left over from cooking the bacon  Which turned out beautifully.  I added salt, pepper, cinnamon and cumin powder to the meat before sauteing.  Then you're left with this-

Pan full of beautiful "Pan Scab" and some bacon pieces

 Step 5- Use that delicious pan scab!  This is the technical part.  Make sure you wait until your pumpkin and pork are done for this part.  Mine was sitting next to me on the stove when I did this.  Don't let it go far!  Make sure the pan is super hot, then add about 1/2 cup of red wine and 2 tablespoons of sucanat (or any dry sugar- don't know about honey, if you use it let me know how it works).  Stir, Stir, Stir like crazy!  Get all that delicious goo into the wine, and let the wine and sugar get nice and thick.  When it starts congealing just a little, take it off the heat and pour it over the roasted pumpkin and cooked pork immediately.  It's too good too wait!  Plus, if you do, you won't be able to pour it.

Just about ready- it's bubbling, but as long as you keep stirring, it won't burn

YUMBO!!

Step 6- Prep.  Take your toothpicks and repeated puncture a piece of pumpkin, a sliver of bacon and a piece of pork.  Over and over until your serving plate looks like this-

Then Sprinkle your roasted Pumpkin seeds over top, and maybe a few roasted Crispy Pecans, if you'd like.  Pecans make everything better to me, so I did.  It just gives you something to scrap the plate with when the meat's all gone.

 Step 7- ENJOY!

A close up of the finished product- pumpkin, bacon, and pork- amazing!

Surprise!  My husband makes funny faces when things are delicious!

Linking up to GNOWFGLINS

Linking up to Real Food Wednesdays!

FauxBucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!

I did it!  I said I would try, and I did- all month I've been working on my "Pumpkin Spice Latte".  Something I didn't tell you was that I wanted to make it as easy as I could.  So easy that a mom with a baby on one hip and a toddler tugging at your skirts can make it.  Now, can you enjoy it?  That's up to the babies!

Speaking of which, as I was typing that first sentence, Beatrice woke up from her nap.  Intermission already?  I've only had 1 sip!

Anyway, I splurged this month on 2 Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks to remember just how delicious they are.  But they're also pumped (literally) full of sugars- mostly HFCS I'm sure, and other goos that only Mr. Starbucks himself can ponder as he wrings his evil little hands.  "Good, good," he says, "I will have them all addicted, and they'll pay me buckets of money to pump them full of corn and chemicals!"  Almost as evil as Mr. Marlboro?  Maybe!

So, I decided to make one myself.  A friend sent me a recipe that had these ingredients:
Coffee, pumpkin flesh, maca, fresh milk, banana, pumpkin spice, vanilla, stevia, and salt


Some of that sounds awesome, some of that sounds weird (banana?  in my coffee!?), and then, what the heck is Maca?


But all that is too hard for the time crunched mom like me.  Maybe mine won't taste JUST like FiveBucks, but it will be delicious and you will LOVE to wake up to this beauty.


What You Need

My egg beater looks like this- only way cooler

• Delicious home brewed coffee of your choice.  I use a french press and love it, but do what you gotta.
• Fresh Whipped Cream. (Raw if you can, non-UHP if you can't)  Seriously, like 1/3 cup cream per cup of coffee.  I whipped it by hand this morning with my brand new egg beater that I found at goodwill for a buck!   I'll take a picture next time I have 2 hands that aren't filled with delicious coffee and a baby.
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Cloves
• Ground Ginger
• Allspice
• About a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered honey

What You Do

• Get your extra large, empty coffee cup (you can order one from us like the one in my picture here) and put NOTHING in it (What I mean is don't pour your coffee in yet.  Leave it empty- this is actually hard for me, I am usually in such auto drive at this point in the morning!)
• In a medium sized bowl, whip your fresh cream with your own choice of whipping apparatus.  I like my new egg beater because it doesn't take forever, but it doesn't over-whip it like my stick blender does.  And it doesn't mean a lot of clean up either!
• When you've got soft peaks, add a spoonful to the bottom of your coffee cup, along with half of your spices.  You can add as much or as little as you'd like of each to your own taste.  My only suggestion is to add MORE ginger than you think you want, and only a very, very small amount of the ground cloves.  Like 1/4 teaspoon or less.  Just a sprinkle really.
• Add coffee to about 3/4 of the cup, while stirring in that whipped cream.  Then keep adding whipped cream a tablespoon at a time, stirring in between each until there are no chunky spots but only smooth creamy goodness.  Reserve about 3-4 tablespoons of Whipped Cream.
• Top your coffee with the reserved whipped cream, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and then drizzle honey off a spoon onto the top of your coffee.  About half way through your spoon drizzling, stick the spoon down the side of your coffee and let it sit there without stirring (yet).  If you like sweeter coffee, add 2 tablespoons, or 3, I don't care!  But honey, use HONEY!  This is the key to making it deliciously sweet like Starbucks without it being uber-nasty-sticky-coat-your-mouth sweet from HFCS.  

Maybe I'll try adding a little bit of mashed pumpkin next time I have some laying around (which will be Monday because it's on my meal plan for dinner that day) but since most people don't want to get up in time to fresh roast a pumpkin for their coffee, I'm leaving it out of my recipe.  Having the spices plus honey does enough for this girl!

Oh, and vanilla?  I've tried making the coffee with vanilla this month, and it didn't seem right.  Maybe I was adding too much?  I'm not sure.  But I'd like to try adding it again, but instead of putting it in the coffee, whipping it into the cream.  This is my first time using whipped cream instead of just fresh liquid cream, so there's always room for improvement.

Have any suggestions?  Questions?  Let me know!  And be sure to enter our 1500 giveaway over here.  And if you ask real nice, maybe Joey'll upgrade you to a pumpkin mug just for fun!

linking back to

Make It!- Making Room for the Rosary

As you may already know, we are a Catholic family. And today, October 7th, is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

It's also my dear sister's birthday.  Happy birthday, Genevieve!  I love you!

I am not nearly as devoted to the Rosary as I want to be, or as I should be.  But recently, I rearranged my house.  I do this pretty often, actually.  Maybe every month or so a room will be completely re-done, or partially at least.  So this is my "Make It" for today, even though technically I did this a few weeks back. 

Our Family Shrine, with Tryptic by Gwyneth Holsten

Make room, then Make A Room, for Jesus and Mary.

Joey and I have always had a small family shrine.  When we were engaged, Joey found a beautiful sofa table at a thrift store, then he ordered a Prie Dieu (or kneeler), and a Resin Crucifix. When we got married we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment.  There, our Family Shrine lived in our master bedroom. Since Joey lived by himself for several months before we got married, when I moved in, I basically filled the second bedroom with boxes from my apartment that I never got around to going through until we moved into our house. So the shrine stayed in the bedroom.  It was seriously dusty- both because it was under the air conditioner vent and because it was never used.  When we prayed together, we either did it on the couch in the living room, or anywhere else.  There was too much visual clutter and not enough space to properly use our beautiful little shrine.

a view from the kitchen door

Then, when I was 8 months pregnant with Charlotte, we bought and moved into our current home.  We set up the shrine in a prominent corner of the living room- and basically forgot about it.   I often prayed my rosary while rocking the baby to sleep, and Joey prayed his while riding the commuter train into class downtown, and when we did get the chance to pray together, it was often while we were lying in bed just before falling asleep- or more often, WHILE we fell asleep.

But I've become more and more convinced that it is more important, especially as Charlotte gets older, to pray our family rosary together, awake, and in a special place.  So I made one.

Tryptic by Gwyneth Holsten, Family Bible, our rosaries (Charlotte's is the prettiest don't you think?), Holy Water, a small Bible for study, and our Relic of St. Roch (not pictured are the statues of St. Roch and Our Lady of Victory)

In our house, we have a small dining room off of our kitchen.  We also have 2 "living rooms"- one in the front of the house connected to the dining room, and the other on the back of the house connected to the kitchen and garage.  I've made the back living room into a toy/play room, which has made my life so much easier!   All the toys have a place- in THAT room!  But the front room has been re-purposed a million times.  And that's where the shrine was.

So instead of having a tiny, squishy dining room and a useless living room, I switched them- partly.  I put the table on one side of the living room with a coffee area on the other side (2 comfy chairs and a table) and the loveseat, shrine and a bookcase in the dining room- now "sitting and praying" room.  The loveseat faces the shrine.  This is amazing!  Now, every time I sit down to nurse or anything else, there's Jesus, in my face!  I haven't failed to pray the rosary yet this month, and even better, Charlotte is reminding me when I do forget.  Yesterday, she brought me my rosary and asked to pray.  I love having that little Holy Minute (or 20) with her and Beatrice in the middle of the day or, like today, after dinner with Daddy too!

View from the new dining room into the old one

So, I made myself a space in my home for prayer, and I'd like to challenge you to do the same.  Not just a space in your schedule, because we all know how ever changing those can be when you have small children, and not just a place in your pocket where you forget about it until you wash your clothes, but in your home for you to share with your children and spouse, and anybody else who may be visiting.  Mother Teresa said "The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of love are always works of peace." And our own Bishop Conley this week recounted the story of a friend who owed his marriage to praying the rosary together every day. 

From my coffee chair

So whether you pray the Rosary, which is a beautiful scriptural based method of meditative prayer, or some other form of prayer and meditation, make room for it in your life both spiritually and actually.

Good Catholic art (again, by Gwyneth) and a little Catholic Library round it all out.

Make It!- Attempting to Sew

As you can see, I have plenty of sewing supplies, 2 sewing machine even! (although 1 doesn't work except to make button holes right now).  I even have a 3rd beautiful old sewing machine that is currently a bedside table in the guest room because i need to get the belts replaced.

 Lots and lots of fabric to pick from.

 This is where i stashed my favorites, so they'd be in sight and would get used.  They're gathering dust.

 I bought this for curtains in Charlotte's room, but quickly decided I didn't like it for that purpose.  But this is my target fabric for my make it today.  I will make something with it!

 I scored this giant box of vintage patterns at an estate sale for $5.  There are some goodies in there, I'm sure, and i was hoping to find a cute little girls dress like on the fabric to make Charlotte and Beatrice matching dresses from.  I didn't find exactly what i was looking for, but look what i did find!

 Yeah, aren't those great?Look at those legs!  But this is during nap time, ans Bea kept waking up, until she finally looked like this. 

And this is why I didn't get to sew this afternoon.  Maybe after bedtime tonight?