Food Wednesdays & Art for Rain

  Hello everyone, and welcome to Food Wednesdays, where we share food posts in the link up below.

     Since this link up is all about the Food no rules except to post anything related to food-a recipe, a cookbook or food magazine you would like to share, a restaurant you enjoyed and would love to share, anything about Food.

   Also beginning today for the month of June we will have Food Wednesdays the first Wednesday of each month only, instead of every week. 

    With summer keeping many of us busy I think this will be easier. Summer months are busy too especially if you are a gardener and preserve your foods, or go on vacations.  We will re evaluate for September.

  Are you familiar with Mary Jane Farm's magazine?  I have gotten this magazine off and on for many years now. It's a magazine I usually read cover to cover. Being in my 70's I still enjoy the magazine and learn something new with every issue. This magazine is more for an audience of younger people I think, but I still enjoy it.  The magazine uses recycled papers which are great for making up your own handmade papers. 

   I couldn't find a current magazine cover but here is one older issue

  This latest issue had some totally new to me summer ideas for making cakes with melons and frosting. I don't get out anymore so maybe you are familiar with these?

  I was assuming that the recipes would also be online, so passed on the magazine and they are not there-sigh. I did find a few from other sites. You cut the melon into slices like a cake, rind off, and then frost it. Thinking this is a cake that would need to be made and served soon after. The Mary Jane magazine had several different recipes using also yellow watermelon, you may spot the magazine in a magazine aisle.

 Found this one online from a different site

Here is a recipe using whipped coconut milk  I think this would be a fun cake if you had several people over The Mary Jane's recipes used several layers like this one-made a prettier cake.

Here is one using cool whip for the frosting

  I also wanted to share a watercolor page that turned into a mixed media page. I will link up with Rain's Thursday Art Day

   I began with a new to me wet on wet watercolor page--I liked it. Had thought of trying to paint a bird in the water, but was a bit leary of "messing up" my page that I liked.  So I added some trees and brush and some rocks in the water. A so so page, as there were elements I liked but not as a whole. I went into my saved magazine paper stash and found the butterfly I cut out, and I found this boy talking to a turtle.  I thought it came together pretty nicely so I added it to my journal book and I enjoyed making this page.

I liked these rocks with the water over them-a little better than the last time I attempted moving water

Now it is your turn to share your Food Wednesdays Post. Please link up with your Food Wednesdays URL and not your blog's URL thank you and have fun.

T Stands for Tuesday

  Hello everyone,

    Those of you in the States that celebrate Memorial Day-How was your weekend? We do not over celebrate this holiday, but remember the fallen. My husband fought in the Viet Nam war and lost comrades, so it is a weekend to reflect-I think many that fought in wars would feel the same. Although here in the States this the weekend to open up summer for many especially homes on water.

   I didn't make anything special this weekend although I did bake us up peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies. I mostly had to be careful as my lower back is still giving me pain-If I was back in Illinois before retirement in '03 I would know who to visit for help-here not so much.

   Many of you here on T enjoy gardening and/or visiting gardens. Are you familiar with the online site Dave's Garden?  I have visited them on and off over the years and this year decided to sign up for their newsletter. I wanted to share a couple interesting articles.

  This first one Legends and Lore Concerning the butterfly  is a very interesting read so wanted to share it with you. The article talks about cave paintings with butterflies, Native American lore and more. Also attracting the butterflies to your gardens

             Photos from this article

The Hummingbirds Journey  If you enjoy the hummingbird or want to learn more I enjoyed this article too

This newsletter also had an article  Predatory Bugs Good Guys in the Garden This one talked about many I was not familiar with

For my drink share this week-I enjoyed a cup of decaf black tea-which I just recently purchased since I didn't have any in my tea stash

and if interested please visit my last post with a video of the lake sounds and close up hummingbirds, and a little art as well.

   This coming Wednesday will be the first Wednesday of June for Food Wednesdays. We would love it if you joined in or visited the link ups for great food posts. Over the summer we will be posting once a month on the first Wednesday of each month. Hoping you drop by for a visit.

Happy T 

Sounds at the Lake Today & Watercolor Practice & Sashiko

   Hi everyone, here in the States we have a long Memorial Day Weekend honoring our fallen soldiers. This is also the weekend that opens up summer, especially on lakes and oceans.

  We were bracing for the onslaught of numerous boaters today, since the weather finally broke into sunshine and no rain-it has been raining for days again.

   We still sit back in the early mornings and enjoy all the birds that come for their seed-at day break, very peaceful still in early mornings.

  A batch of lilies are blooming today so I grabbed my camera and also decided to take a video so even on the backside of the house-not the lake side-you can hear all the boats-surprise hummingbirds flew in and I was standing very close to their feeders. I filled them back up after the video

   I haven't gotten back to weeding in this area as it is loaded with poison ivy and poison oak-just can't get into that again Allot of the iris's that I had seperated out last fall did not bloom this year, so thinking next year I will have allot of blooms.

  Do any of know what kind of lilies these are? They were here already I divided them up last fall. Tiger lilies?

Here is the video I took and if you enlarge to full screen you can see the hummingbirds up close.

  Above is the neighbors dock

      I have not tried wet on wet watercolor yet and wanted to try that this morning.  I used watercolor paper instead of mixed media paper and I think it turned out pretty good, although the paint did not run as allot of videos I watched showed it would.  I wanted the sky to go into the water and I am liking this so far.   Not sure how I will proceed  Perhaps a mandarin duck practice from the book I have been using It needs a few clouds added too.

  For a couple years now I have been wanting to try Sashiko embroidery from Japan.  I have the needles already so I traced out a pattern onto reclaimed jeans fabric and I am using 6 strand embroidery for now. I just ordered a marked pattern of a dragon fly and Sashiko threads but I wanted to try it out today. Jeans fabric was not a good idea to try this out but I think I will enjoy this-more later.

    This is just a running stitch but unlike a hand quilting stitch where the goal is to have top and bottom stitches the same size, Sashiko wants smaller stitches on the bottom.

   In my sewing supplies I found tracing paper for fabric-very cool find. This was probably from my Mom's or Grandma's sewing stash.

   and this is a photo of what I ordered, found on Etsy

  A few days ago I messed up my lower back-stretching for groceries in the car. So it's been very painful, getting a little better today finally. I slept on the floor last night so my back would be straighter.  This is not good since I have so much work to get to outdoors.

  Those of you in the states any plans for your long weekend?

Art Journal Journey Birds

 Hi Everyone, I wanted to make one more journal page for AJJ's theme this month of birds.

   I did a watercolor practice of an oriole, that I wasn't totally impressed with, but I was thinking it would blend in nicely with a collage. I also used India black ink.

  In my paper stash I found a calendar page I had saved-perfect-cut that to size for my journal book, added my watercolor oriole, and I wanted a third bird, so looking in my stash found a page that had lots of images that looked like stamps-found the turkey. I liked the colors of the turkey for this page and it was the third element

Black India ink watered down for different shades

You may notice on the top of the background page to the right of bluebird, I covered up the hole for the calendar  with a piece of that beige area-but added it going a different way the rest of that background

From the bottom scrap of paper that was left over, I cut off the piece of the side that is under the oriole painting-give it a little texture and interest

If you are celebrating - enjoy the Holiday weekend, the rain and storms here will finally stop on Friday and turn quite hot-perfect for all of those crazy boaters that will arrive haha

If you are looking for Food Wednesdays please see the previous post for the link thank you for visiting

Food Wednesdays

Welcome to Food Wednesdays,  I wrote up this post over the weekend and then set it up to post on the evening of the 24th.  

  Over the weekend I am getting comments, how did that happen I am thinking-well searching I goofed and had it post on the 17th and not on the 24th-sigh. Since we already had a link up I left that post up

  and note: this post was not to go live til late today so not sure what is happening with scheduling posts here-oh well

  Please go here for this week's Food Wednesdays  thanks everyone

T Stands for Tuesday

   Here we are again joining friends for T over with Bleubeard and Elizabeth-link in my side bar. You are welcome to join just share a drink related photo.

  It's been another week with lots of storms and rain, and over the weekend we dropped to the 40's f with lots of wind all day Sunday.

  I was able to finish up that gardening area I was working on,  in between the rains. I added allot of bags of soil to this hard clay-which will need more this fall or next spring. I had a large area left unplanted, so I dug out my coffee can of saved marigold seeds and spread that out really thick. These are old seeds so hoping many of them will grow. I also have another tin full of zinnia seeds I will be planting in another area.

  We will need to tackle the tall grass again this week, and I need to learn how to use the weed eater soon. Sadly lots more rain most days this coming week.

  On off days I have played with watercolors for a journal page for AJJ and also another page for  AJJ's theme this month Birds with mixed papers. Here are a couple photos in case you missed those posts.

    I don't have new lake photos this week to share, but I did take this moon photo over the lake before the eclipse.

My drink share this week is a decaf coffee with a splash of my homemade Kahlua This is another handmade pottery cup in my collection of handmade pottery pieces

Those of you that enjoy working with watercolors I wanted to share an article from Winsor and Newton's newsletter this month about the Golden Age of Watercolor 1750-1850  found this an interesting read

  I also wanted to share a beautiful watercolor painting that I received from one of my slow mail friends. It is so beautiful that I have it sitting on my desk in my craft room so I can enjoy it and be inspired.

     Thank you Debbie  of blog View From Harmony Hills

 That's it for me this week Happy T Day Everyone

Art Journal Journey Birds

   Since it has been very stormy early morning and then mostly continuing to rain all day, I decided to play in my craft room.

  I worked on a duckling in the watercolor-ink instruction book I have been using-and well it was a big failure. I forget allot of times that the ink and the watercolor paints must completely dry before I can continue to paint around them or on them-so one area was just a disaster so I tossed it and will try again.

  I looked through my stash of magazine page clippings and created a page in my journal book for AJJ's theme this month of birds.

  My cut outs came from a stamping magazine, and the boy fishing was a painting in a vintage Ideals magazine-so I cut out the credits and attached to the above book page. The background is a water scene from another magazine  I am still working in the German cookbook for my journal pages.

    This page reminded me of a late spring warm day enjoying the water-and listening to the birds sing.

   There is a little bird in the clock and then the two birds in the right corner.  sorry for the glares-these were the best photos after numerous tries.

    Happy weekend everyone, it has been very very stormy here at the lake. The rain continues most of next week-we have had sooooo much rain here in the Ozarks-Missouri.

Birds for Art Journal Journey

  Good Morning Thursday

      I have been wanting to create a page for AJJ's theme this month -- Birds, but I haven't taken any time for myself in my craft until today for a couple weeks now.  I have lots of garden work to do-mostly digging up grass is next on the list, but we are to get rain and storms again today so decided to take a day for myself

   I have been playing with learning about watercolors lately, so my desk was already set up with inks and paints, and a bird I wanted to try to paint.

I cut out the bird I painted, and then looked in my paper stash for a background-wow I found the perfect piece. Then I grabbed saved magazine papers with flowers and cut some out, grabbed my dragonfly stamp, and also a wasabi tape from Japan that I hadn't used yet I also used a quote that was on a tea bag tag

   I am using a German cookbook for my mixed media journal pages 

      Suggest enlarging the photos for better viewing 

I have a blog friend that always suggests less is more--so let me know if you think I got this page too busy.

(Also those of you that participate for Food Wednesdays please see my post before this one thanks)

About Food Wednesdays-Feedback Please

  

 Hi Everyone, especially Food Wednesdays participants.

      Opinions please, the interest in Food Wednesdays has gotten less over the last couple of weeks instead of gaining more interest. I am also getting less that enjoy just reading the post and visiting the link ups.

     So I am asking for your honest feedback. Should we stop the link up end of May, or give it another month? 

    I know many of you are busy with your lives, especially during the summer, and many of you also participate in other art link ups, so this may just be one too many?

   Thank you for your feedback

Food Wednesdays

 Hi Everyone,

   I wanted to thank all of you that commented on the post asking about your thoughts of continuing Food Wednesdays last week.

   Many of you mentioned that you really enjoy the food posts, and I have really enjoyed visiting everyone too and learning new things. The participation has dropped over the last two weeks so that is why I put it out there if you all were wanting to continue with our Food Wednesdays link up.  

   I do know that there are several art link ups already and other link ups many participate in so it was hard to choose a day. Wednesday can be rough after  T for Tuesdays, but then other days have link ups too, and there is only so much time we all have to participate in these link ups. 

  I have decided after May to set up Food Wednesday for the first Wednesday of each month, especially during these summer months and see if we like this and also if we can get more interest of others linking up and sharing food posts. We will decide this coming fall if we like posting once a month or if we would like to post every week again, and/or if you want to continue.

  OK enough of business and on to the Food. If you are a new visitor this link up is all about the Food-so no rules except to share anything about food and to be kind to one another.

   I didn't bake anything this past week and also we ate pretty simply last week. I did make a goulash one day. Larry has never been crazy about this dish but I have always liked it once in awhile.

   Very simple ingredients browned up a coarse ground hamburger and seasoned with below

Cooked up this gluten free pasta, drained added to the meat, and stirred in this sauce.  Simple and good tasting. I made us each a fresh salad as a side

  I ordered a new book that sounded interesting that came in the mail last week. I am really enjoying reading this book. Lots of gardening ideas, and many ideas for drinks either with a little alcohol or none  Amazon had this in a spiral book which would have been nicer to use-but high priced and I didn't find another one online, so i bought this paperback version

The author covers allot of topics, the plants with recipes, she even had garden layouts, and covered tea plants too-that may be interesting to look into for adding to my garden.

   Below is the table of contents-click to enlarge for better viewing

Now it is your turn to share your Food Wednesdays post.  Please share the url for your Food Wednesdays post and not your blog's url thank you  and have fun

Food Wednesdays

 Welcome Everyone to our Food Wednesdays

     Food Wednesdays is a link up to share food posts with each other. Being all about the Food, there are no rules except the topic is Food-recipes, restaurants, cookbooks, history of food-what ever you would like to share with us about Food

   This past week I made us biscuits and gravy for our main meal which I haven't made in some time.  I used to be a really good bread baker but I never have mastered beautiful biscuits.  I did pick up this book a few years ago and I like their buttermilk biscuits-but this time they did not come out as high as I would like.

 I usually use a gluten free bun of some sort for me,  but this time I thought I would use the same recipe for Larry's biscuits but with gluten free flour-they turned out edible, and I was tired when I baked these-so I would try again but change the temperature a bit so they can bake longer. They were pretty good except not quite baked through on some of them.

    To make the gravy I use Jimmy Deans regular sausage in the pound packages, fry up, add milk-I used organic 2% milk, and then I thicken with a slurry of milk and cornstarch. Add a few red hot pepper flakes and freshly ground pepper

These are the wheat ones and some of them I made too small

I add eggs on top to serve.

Last week for some reason I had a taste for a Cool Whip dish I used to make years ago. Cool Whip folded into a drained can of unsweetened crushed pineapple, and a can of sugar free cherry pie filling.  This is always refreshing when it's hot outdoors. I don't look at the ingredients on the Cool Whip label for this or I probably wouldn't eat it haha    An old treat I make once in awhile.

Now it is your turn to share your Food Wednesdays post. Please link up with your Food Wednesday url and not your blog url thank you and have fun

T Stands for Tuesday-Gardening at the Lake

 Hi Everyone,

      With the break in the weather-high 80's f instead of the mid 90's f and no storms as predicted, the lake out our windows Saturday was crazy busy. I spent the whole day planting what I had picked up at the greenhouse (see previous post) so I just mostly heard the loud boat noises-especially the race boats. People are really crazy out there.

   I managed to get all this garden soil down the hill and steps-with a little help from a friend-thank goodness. The soil in this area is really really bad-hard clay and stones In the back left corner is an old tree stump that we will be working to get dug out soon-so I can build my kitchen space for cast iron dutch oven cooking. and to the right of that are long bricks we salvaged taking out a couple of  partial walls into the living room-those were really bad-I think they were suppose to be indoor planters of some sort.

   The iris's here are beginning to bloom, and in front I planted snap dragons, and a couple plants for the butterflies and hummingbirds. All of the iris's in the photos I dug out of one these hills that eventually will need lots of rock to cover it-the goal is to get rid of weeds and grass here.

I moved all the bottle greenhouses over. Most are doing well especially all the creeping thyme ground cover, but I do have several that did not grow-will replant those I was disappointed that the dwarf black eye susans did not grow-except for one plant 

I bought a flat of impatiens thinking I wanted to plant them where the bottles above are-but too sunny there-so planting them in front of these iris's and in that back area of iris's and lilies This area is to the left looking out of the front door. Another pretty iris in bloom

This area is just to the left and back of above photo and another pretty iris

The pink I believe is a peony, I brought over one big clump that had come from my farm girl grandma's farm that I had brought to the woods home when we retired back in 2003. It has finally settled in this year with the first bloom here at the lake house Makes me happy

I had only brought to the lake a couple of my many clay pots I had-this one the bottom is almost gone now, but still useable. Petunias in here and along this edge on top of a stone wall is my very old lavender plant I brought over-still growing, and some mint in here too along with rocks we have collected over the years-do you collect special rocks too?

I planted some of the impatiens in that smaller clay pot

I did straighten out the big copper pot so it is no longer leaning when viewed looking from the front of the house, filled it up with lots of petunias, and over on the old tree stump is another large clay pot filled with petunias as well

   In front are lots of herbs-mints, thyme, lavender, oregano, rosemary and some ground cover type flowering plants, along with some wild violets Over in front of the stump are the three very small hummingbird mints that are already flowering. They should be tall plants-will see what happens. and that green to the right in front of that other rock wall all needs to come out, and more rocks need to go on the wall as well.

 

   I have become a bit overwhelmed with my large gardening project-to get rid of all the grass here and replace with flowers and ground covers. We just had a very long period of cold and so much rain before this warm spell finally. Felt a little better after getting all of these greenhouse plants in the ground. Lots of pretty blooms now

Below is lemongrass, looking it up online it says this will grow very large and spread but I don't think it will survive the winters here Have never planted it before so wanted to try it for tea-any tips on using it?

The three hummingbird mints-which are suppose to get quite large-and one already has flowers

 I am so thankful that we missed the worse of a huge storm on Sunday. We got around an hour of it early in the day, but we missed the worst of it when the storm split near Springfield Mo late afternoon.  The storm was to bring large balls of hale and damaging winds.

You know summer is almost here when you see the pirate ship-this is part of a restaurant on the lake-they pick you up and then take you back home after your meal

We always see these very expensive new docks on the lake going to their new homes

  We have been enjoying the full moon, although I only spotted it when I was bringing in the hummingbird feeders peeking through the tree limbs a couple days ago. Tonight is the blood moon but we may not have a clear sky-we'll see

     For my drink share, after a long gardening day, I made us another strawberry and blueberry margarita Saturday-so sharing my same photo from last week I love these cups as they are insulated and keep our drinks cold. I made a vita-mix pitcher full so there is enough for a glass on Sunday too (smiles)

  The orioles have migrated on, except for a very few of the orchard orioles, and I have not seen any of the grosbeaks for a few days so they must have moved on as well. We have just a very few hummingbirds, it takes awhile for them to find a new location of feeders. We did get a surprise over the weekend seeing a pair of doves enjoying the seeds. 

 

  Happy T and new week.