This week my husband and I were in the Mount Shasta area of far northern California, and I had the opportunity to gaze upon and photograph this majestic peak of over 14.000 feet elevation. Mount Shasta dominates the landscape for many miles. I have seen it in every season, and never grow weary of the view!
In honor of my two hundredth post of the year, I am sharing a recipe that I developed myself. I modified a pumpkin bread recipe from my Fannie Farmer cookbook, which I have owned since the early 1980’s. It was actually my very first cookbook!
I was headed out of town and wanted to use up some zucchini before I left. I also had some plums which I thought would make an interesting addition. This bread is tasty and healthy. I hope you will try it!
Zucchini Plum Tea Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Oil two 4-cup and four 2-cup Pyrex glass bowls (this recipe makes two standard loaves).
Mix 2 grated zucchinis (1 1/2 cups packed), 4 large mashed plums (1 1/2 cups), 1 cup vegetable oil, the juice of 1 large lemon (1/4 cup-I used the juice left from the grated lemon zest in my last recipe), 2 whole beaten eggs, 2 beaten egg whites, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon ginger.
Add 4 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of baking soda. Mix until just blended.
Fold in 1 cup of chopped nuts. Put the batter into the bowls and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. If you bake this recipe in two standard loaf pans, you will need to add 10 minutes to the baking time. Cool and remove from the bowls. Enjoy!
Niagara Falls needs no introduction. Here are my favorite photos from our visit!
The sheer volume of water is overwhelming. Imagine the enormous area that contributes to this tremendous flow of water!
Here is another rustic vase of nasturtiums, this time with a pear to keep it company.
The peach colored flowers are my favorite. I haven’t seen this shade before. My mom had a large bed of these jewel-toned flowers in her yard, and this was her vase. Now it is inspiring a painting!
This is as far as I got yesterday, and then this morning I went outside and drew sunflowers. I have a short attention span! More on this project in another post.
We have a lot of fresh fruit in the house, and it’s all ripening at once! So I decided to use the last two bananas, which were very ripe, and several strawberries, which were starting to mold-I didn’t use the moldy one!
This bread is low fat, low cholesterol, low sodium, and high fiber. It’s also very yummy!
Banana Strawberry Bread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly oil four 2-cup Pyrex glass bowls.
Mash 2 ripe bananas and 8 ripe strawberries in a large bowl.
Mix in 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, and the grated zest of 1 large lemon.
Stir in 3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of allspice.
Add 1 cup of chopped walnuts and blend. Put the batter in the bowls and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and remove from the bowls. Enjoy with your favorite topping or plain, warm or chilled. This wholesome, tasty bread goes great with tea, coffee, and milk!
After the completion of my last watercolor painting, I was motivated to do another still life, this time with some of the nasturtiums from my garden. I didn’t realize how fragrant they were until I began picking and arranging them. Wow! My husband and I were both sneezing. But sometimes you must suffer for art. I had to work quickly, before the flowers wilted and our hay fever got worse, so I completed this project in one day. Now my bouquet is in the laundry room!
I used a pitcher/vase that I found at my favorite flea market, and chose some nectarines to add to the ensemble because they have the same colors as the flowers. Nectarines, nasturtiums: I seem to be into alliterative works of art these days. When I had my still life arranged, I photographed it and drew it using a Goldenrod Prismacolor pencil.
Next I painted the pitcher/vase. This is the opposite of the procedure I used last time, when I saved the pitcher for last. I started with Holbein Cerulean Blue. I would have liked to use a cooler blue, but the Prussian Blue that I ordered is out of stock. Still waiting for that. This blue seemed to work fine.
My next step was Cadmium Yellow Pale for the background, stool, leaves, fruit, and some of the flowers. Then I used Cadmium Red Light for the stool, fruit, flowers, and shading on the pitcher.
To finish this project, I used some Yellow Ochre and Permanent Alizarin Crimson, adding multiple layers of all colors to define the elements of the composition and add shadows, until I was satisfied.
Here is the finished, cropped piece. I’m already wondering what I should do for my next project. Maybe finish a couple of works in progress?
We left our campground in the Green Mountains of Vermont, and drove through the Mohawk River Valley of New York as we headed west on our great cross-country adventure of 2008.
The next stop on our route: Niagara Falls!
It was time to thin the carrots, so I ended up harvesting some tiny ones, along with a few radishes. They are very sweet and yummy! I decided to try some veggie portrait photography.
Remember when you were a kid, and your parent(s) lined you up (if you had any siblings) and said, “Say cheese!” or whatever your family tradition was to get those annual holiday photos?
Our tradition for posed photos was me trying to get our three kids to smile and look “natural” while my husband made faces and gesticulated (don’t ask!) behind my back. Sometimes I got lucky with candids, which I prefer.
It’s hard to take candid photos of veggies once they are picked though, isn’t it? These carrots and radishes need their faces washed, as all youngsters often do. But they sure are cute anyway!
Here is the photo I took of my still life setup before I began my painting two weeks ago.
I used some artistic license, which is evident in the final version below. I am mostly happy with the results. This is the first painting I have done with professional quality watercolors. It’s kind of like a graduation for me! I have been working hard for the past year to try new techniques and improve my skills, and I see real progress.
There is always room for improvement, though, and I will continue to work on a variety of subjects. Whether I am painting a landscape en plein air or a still life in my dining room, I will continue to use Prismacolor pencils with watercolor paint. This combination works well for me.
A week ago, I posted the last installment of my still life of a pitcher with fruit. This began with a photo to capture the moment, and then I worked from the real thing until I had to consume the ripened fruit. I used one of the pears for this recipe.
Now all I have left for models are the pitcher-planter, of course, and one pear (not one of the originals). Today I added another layer of Cadmium Yellow Pale to change the color of the table and brighten the leaves and pears. Then I used Cerulean Blue to darken the background, leaves, pears, plums, and shadows.
I am stalling on the pitcher, because I don’t want to ruin it. I will be adding a limited amount of paint to it, just for the shadows.
When You're Bored 