2016 is over and gone, 2017 has begun. I decided to start this year with a recipe post - my own stew recipe that I make once a year. Stew Day, as it has come to be called in my house, is the day in which I take out the biggest pot I own and make enough stew for a small army. After about 5 hours of prepping and cooking, family and friends descend upon my house - sometimes with bread or salad or other side dishes - and we make merry until the last of the pot is gone (only once has there been a little left over for the next day, and that was when I made 3 pots of stew and set some aside to give to friends who could not make it).
Stew Day in my house is about community, about coming together to renew our strength as kith and kin over bowls of steaming hot steak stew. For that reason it seemed like a good recipe to start the year with.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Monday, December 12, 2016
Making Art in a Time of War: Part One - We Must Keep Creating
"I can't believe I'm etching cups with birds at a time like this."
"My art is so useless."
"I feel sucker punched. What's the point of trying to finish NaNoWriMo this year?"
"Everything I do feels trivial."
In the past couple of months I have had a large number of conversations with friends who, with each new socio-political announcemnet, fatal disaster, and world news event, questioned the worthiness and validity of their artwork. Usually prolific writers I know put down their pens or spent hour staring at blank screens before giving up entirely on getting words down for a day, then for a week, then for a month.
With each new blow to the artistic community, I have listened to sculptures, painters, and writers question the importance of continuing to tell stories and create art. It is disheartening to hear artist who know the collective value of art question their own worth within the community and up until now I have had difficulty in articulating my own internal railing against both the state of things in the world and my friends' despair in responding to them. So here it is: when making art feels useless and writing fiction seems trivial or unimportant, it is even more imperative that we continue to (as said recently at the Night of Writing Dangerously) "battle our dragons" through our fiction and paint our stories in canvas and clay.
It boils down to this:
We Must Keep Creating.
"My art is so useless."
"I feel sucker punched. What's the point of trying to finish NaNoWriMo this year?"
"Everything I do feels trivial."
In the past couple of months I have had a large number of conversations with friends who, with each new socio-political announcemnet, fatal disaster, and world news event, questioned the worthiness and validity of their artwork. Usually prolific writers I know put down their pens or spent hour staring at blank screens before giving up entirely on getting words down for a day, then for a week, then for a month.
With each new blow to the artistic community, I have listened to sculptures, painters, and writers question the importance of continuing to tell stories and create art. It is disheartening to hear artist who know the collective value of art question their own worth within the community and up until now I have had difficulty in articulating my own internal railing against both the state of things in the world and my friends' despair in responding to them. So here it is: when making art feels useless and writing fiction seems trivial or unimportant, it is even more imperative that we continue to (as said recently at the Night of Writing Dangerously) "battle our dragons" through our fiction and paint our stories in canvas and clay.
It boils down to this:
We Must Keep Creating.
Monday, November 7, 2016
NaNoWriMo 2016 - Tea, Finnish Pancakes, and Ricotta
Contrary to the evidence (my current word count which is sitting a good 2000 to 3000 words below my target), NaNoWriMo is well underway for me, and I'm feeling confident in making it to 50,000 words before midnight of this November 31st. Of course, I need to cut back on my baking and cooking experiments if I am to really catch up this week.
I have managed to avoid doing more with my Adagio account this month. Well, unless you count putting together one more writing blend to add to my Writer's Room tea blends: Writing by Candlelight. I'm actually quite proud of this tea blend, and I can't wait until my tin arrives so that I can start brewing it before I sit down for my nightly writing sessions.
Earlier this year I was given a recipe for Pannu Kakku, a Finnish pancake made of
(at least now) equal parts flour, sugar, and milk with 1 egg and a pinch of baking powder per 1/4 cup of flour plus optional additives of lemon zest or vanilla. It's baked in an oven safe skillet (cast iron) that has been preheated at 350*F with about a TBSP or 2 of butter so that it's hot and melted. Roughly 30 minutes later (times vary with ovens I have found) and ta da! a really tasty and easy dish that always feels like a step up from the standard pancake.
I love this recipe so much I make it all the time, each time playing a little bit with the ingredients, experimenting with substitutions, adding different spices and flavorings. But it is a bit time consuming and I need to cut back on making it so that I can focus more on my writing (at least for this month). So yesterday, of course, I made another batch - basic recipe only, no crazy experimentation.
Of course, while I was in the kitchen I realized I had about a gallon of whey collected from the batch of yogurt I made (because of course I decided November was a great time to restart doing that) and decided I should try my hand at making ricotta cheese. (That did not work out at all - probably because it wasn't fresh collected whey, and had been sitting in a container in my refrigerator for a day). So despite making a good push towards catching up on my word count last night, being at home near my kitchen has turned out to be too great a temptation away from my keyboard.
Not to worry, I've left the homestead behind for the day and have decided to go back to writing in cafes and coffee shops for the time being (at least until I am above my target word count), where I always seem to feel the creative bug a bit more keenly than when curled up with my cat, next to a kitchen smelling of cooking dough and hot spices.
And now - back to the noveling. Write On my fellow Wrimos! Write On!
I have managed to avoid doing more with my Adagio account this month. Well, unless you count putting together one more writing blend to add to my Writer's Room tea blends: Writing by Candlelight. I'm actually quite proud of this tea blend, and I can't wait until my tin arrives so that I can start brewing it before I sit down for my nightly writing sessions.
Earlier this year I was given a recipe for Pannu Kakku, a Finnish pancake made of
(at least now) equal parts flour, sugar, and milk with 1 egg and a pinch of baking powder per 1/4 cup of flour plus optional additives of lemon zest or vanilla. It's baked in an oven safe skillet (cast iron) that has been preheated at 350*F with about a TBSP or 2 of butter so that it's hot and melted. Roughly 30 minutes later (times vary with ovens I have found) and ta da! a really tasty and easy dish that always feels like a step up from the standard pancake.
I love this recipe so much I make it all the time, each time playing a little bit with the ingredients, experimenting with substitutions, adding different spices and flavorings. But it is a bit time consuming and I need to cut back on making it so that I can focus more on my writing (at least for this month). So yesterday, of course, I made another batch - basic recipe only, no crazy experimentation.Of course, while I was in the kitchen I realized I had about a gallon of whey collected from the batch of yogurt I made (because of course I decided November was a great time to restart doing that) and decided I should try my hand at making ricotta cheese. (That did not work out at all - probably because it wasn't fresh collected whey, and had been sitting in a container in my refrigerator for a day). So despite making a good push towards catching up on my word count last night, being at home near my kitchen has turned out to be too great a temptation away from my keyboard.
Not to worry, I've left the homestead behind for the day and have decided to go back to writing in cafes and coffee shops for the time being (at least until I am above my target word count), where I always seem to feel the creative bug a bit more keenly than when curled up with my cat, next to a kitchen smelling of cooking dough and hot spices.
And now - back to the noveling. Write On my fellow Wrimos! Write On!
Monday, October 24, 2016
Costumes, Choreography, and Cookies
October is almost gone, which means that my favorite holiday is almost upon us: Halloween! If you follow my Instagram, you already know that I have been decorating up a storm at my new place - stringing twinkly lights and autumn garlands, putting out figurines and witches hats, carving pumpkins and brewing apple cider.
This year in lieu of my normal All Hallow's Eve Mystery Party I will instead be attending a Night Circus Soiree. My costume is well underway, all black and white with circus reminiscent stripes on the main skirt. I have yet to figure out what or where I will put my Reveur's red accent but that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. Pictures will be posted to Instagram for anyone interested in seeing how it ends up :)
A couple of my aerial friends and I are beginning choreography for a silks and/or aerial rope duet (possibly group) piece. If we ever get this circus tent completed we'll even have a place to perform the piece once it's done and we've had a chance to practice it. Even if we're unable to perform it, we'll probably get a few videos of it to share.
Last but not least for this well overdue update: COOKIES! Below is a pic from my first foray into cookie decorating. Pretty cute, if I do say so myself!
This year in lieu of my normal All Hallow's Eve Mystery Party I will instead be attending a Night Circus Soiree. My costume is well underway, all black and white with circus reminiscent stripes on the main skirt. I have yet to figure out what or where I will put my Reveur's red accent but that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. Pictures will be posted to Instagram for anyone interested in seeing how it ends up :)
A couple of my aerial friends and I are beginning choreography for a silks and/or aerial rope duet (possibly group) piece. If we ever get this circus tent completed we'll even have a place to perform the piece once it's done and we've had a chance to practice it. Even if we're unable to perform it, we'll probably get a few videos of it to share.
Last but not least for this well overdue update: COOKIES! Below is a pic from my first foray into cookie decorating. Pretty cute, if I do say so myself!
Friday, October 14, 2016
The Witch is IN
Halloween is coming, and I finally - finally - had a chance to do a bit of house work in preparation. And by housework I mean pulling out the tubs of Halloween decorations I've collected over the years and start going crazy while listening to my All Hallows Eve music mix. So far I've decorated the fireplace (that we're not allowed to use for fire anyways), the stairwell, one of the windows, and a bookshelf, as well as hang one of the wreaths. 
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