Wowzie...... I quit my other crazy Chef job to do more and focus on what I am passionate about, now I find I don't have enough time to fit everything in that I'm mad silly about! Plus with more time to cook, bake, read, think, research, visualize, create, drink coffee etc. I am discovering more, more & more, oh my. The world is my oyster! This is fun.Which leads me to my newest discovery, most likely this is old news to everyone else, fresh brewed ice tea, LOVE! note: I am a serious coffee lover and haven't experienced the tea thing, so bear with me, please.It all started with my tired achy out of shape arms/back/body schlepping cases of bottled ice tea, yuck, to the Cowbell, I said to myself, really?Light bulb goes on in my tiny brain and I think brew tea then you only have to carry the concentrate. My bestie who lives in Brooklyn, mecca of trendy food & stuff, told me about a tea company, Porto Rico Importing Company on Bleeker St. since 1907. Ordered up some and nuff said. Next I've got peach and vanilla coming, refreshing.Tomorrow mint.
Mint Tea Leaves, so pretty next I find this recipe for your ice tea & I have it growing in my yard!
Honeysuckle Simple Syrup4 cups honeysuckle blossoms, lightly packedwatersugarPlace blossoms in a bowl, pour over just enough boiling water to cover them. Cover, and let sit on the counter over night, up to 24 hours.After steeping the flowers (they will look totally gross and brown, but smell amazing), strain the liquid into a large bowl, discarding the blossoms. Measure the liquid and place into a large saucepan. For each cup of water, use one cup of sugar. Bring sugar and water to a boil and simmer until the sugar is dissolved, 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. The syrup should keep for up to a month in the fridge. fabulous!
Next peaches, my taste buds are madly in love with this fruit that is starting to come into its season. I bought my first case of peaches yesterday at the Leesburg Farmers Market. Today was the first step in a 2 day process of making peach jam. First you clean, peel, cut up & macerate the peaches with sugar and lemon. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours then tomorrow when I get home I will start the cooking process. So worth the time and effort.I will use the jam for pop tart filling and all sorts of yummy things. I made more tomato jam and red onion jam to go on the roasted pork loin melt for Saturday's menu.Off the jam topic, made Oreo cookies for the weekend!!!!
P.S. Keep the reservations coming for Twinkle Bell Secret Dining Fellowship July 27th event. It is going to be a blast! Thanks for all the support and enthusiasm!!!!! more still life......
XXOO,CherSource:http://luxetrailer.blogspot.com/2013/06/study-in-still-life.html
Study In Still Life Images
Still Life Study in B/W"
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second value study still life i painted this study in class on ...
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21 x 29.7 cm ©2013 by Anonymous Artist
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still life study in gouache once again it s time to study another ...
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Duardo Paz-MartinezBrownsville's2013 Blogger of the YearLocal blogger Bobby Wightman-Cervantes of the BROWNSVILLE VOICE is credited by Paz-Martinez(not known to be related to Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez) as being dangerously close to objectivity, but lacking journalistic training. Bobby is invited back for DP-M blogger tryouts next year. Veteran bloggers Juan Montoya of El Rrun Rrun and Jerry Mchale of the Brownsville Blues were credited with having the right stuff, but chastised for being low performers. Both were credited with the facility to turn
Brownsville's Blogging Also-Ransit around whenever so motivated. The most unflattering associations by DP-M were saved for my Mean Mister Brownsville blog, linking my function to circus master, con artist P.T. Barnum, for whom a "sucker is born every minute," the freakishly afroed boxing promoter, Don King, who would talk up an epic battle between two cucarachas for a buck and Col. Tom Parker, who forced Elvis to toil in all those B movies.Duardo added these sharp words of counsel:"After Saturday's crushing defeats at the polls, it's all he has left. Barton would be wise to re-visit his opinion of Brownsville, to take his brain to quiet study, to come away with a true analysis of what he has before him. The city commission is not the enemy. Something tells me Jimmy would endorse Letty, Roberto and Martin for the U.S. Senate." That's total silliness, Duardo. I was not defeated Saturday because I wasn't a candidate. You won't understand this because you don't live here, but Brownsville lost on Saturday, because the pattern of the mayor using tax dollars to placate his cronies will continue undeterred by a questioning voice or two on the city commission. As for backing this set of candidates on a national stage, that's ludicrous. This blog has tried to carefully explain my view on that several times, but evidently not clearly enough. This is my latest effort on April 27:"That is why local bloggers have spoken out for three flawed, but independent candidates for city commission: Roberto Uresti, Letty Perez-Garzoria and Martin Sarkis. All three have eccentricities, flaws and accents, but none are running for president of the United States. They are running for a unpaid job to provide basic services for the residents of Brownsville and to protect the city's financial, structural and topographical assets."
Governor Rick PerryPerhaps, I didn't speak clearly enough. The skill set for a city commissioner of Brownsville, Texas is different than the necessary skill set for President of the United States or even Senator. Governor Rick Perry suffered on the national stage, well in over his head. Seeing to it that a district's brush is cleared, drains cleaned, pot holes filled and empty lots mowed does not require a Barack Obama skill set. The city commission is not about the grandiose, but the mundane, the basic. The disadvantage in blogging from 500 miles away about Brownsville is the difficulty in actually knowing the candidates personally. On paper Rose Gowen may outclass Roberto Uresti, but Uresti is different, without an opportunist bone in his body. He already embarrassingly outworks the entire city commission in terms of identifying, satisfying basic citizen needs. Had he been elected, he would have worked night and day to run down the individual needs of taxpayers and his phone would have been ringing off the proverbial hook. Gowen has four years of "service," seldom making a peep unless it was a health-related or green issue. She stands aloof, superior, indifferent. Yes, Brownsville lost.Retired nurse Letty Perez-Garzoria would fail Austin's chic test. Garzoria is earnest, straightforward and unlike incumbent John Villarreal, outspoken. While Letty was speaking out at city commission meetings, John Villarreal was being groomed to roll over for Mayor Tony by receiving a United Brownsville directorship. Some say that behind closed doors, Mayor Martin totally disrespected John, calling him a "boy," and ignoring his attempts to participate. While John should have fought back, he wimped away. With the Villarreal victory, Brownsville lost again!
Kim Jong-unUsing Duardo's specious reasoning, by supporting incumbents Villarreal and Gowen and Tony Martinez' plant Debbie Portillo, the bloggers suddenly become "winners." Extending that thinking, those who supported George Wallace for governor of Alabama were winners, just as were North Koreans who chant affection for Kim Jong-un. We can only support or not support candidates who file for the job. Like Rick Pitino, who briefly coached the Boston Celtics in the late 90's used to say to his team and the media: "Larry Bird ain't walkin' through that door, folks."Politically speaking, we could speak similarly: "Julian Castro ain't walkin' through that door, folks."