Thursday Art Date: Mechanical

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Mechanical. I guess this is what Bugs Bunny's insides would look like as a wind-up wabbit!

Frankenstein's Monster (Boris Karloff) (Watercolour)

I'm no longer in denial about summer ending and I'm embracing autumn!! This time of year, I have an acute case of Halloween fever and I've been thinking about monsters lately! I love the Frankenstein movies...my favourite monster was played by Boris Karloff, but Robert De Niro also did a fantastic monster. A recent version is called Victor Frankenstein and it's so well done! But I think my favourite rendition is Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

Everything about Dr. Frankenstein's monster is mechanical, I wouldn't want to run into him - day or night! But he's what Hollywood would call the "anti-hero"...you are horrified by him, yet you pull for him in the end.

I'm pretty proud of this watercolour - I've often said I CANNOT draw nor can I do portraits...but this one turned out so nice! :)

My Fall Equinox Table Setting

Speaking of mechanical, we had to go to the mechanic on Monday. The button to regulate the heat and a/c stopped working. We were on the hunt for a new mechanic. Our former mechanic took THREE hours for an oil change the last time we went. NOT because he was busy! But because he kept yackity yacking it up with his buddies! So, we found a new mechanic and he did the job fast and efficient, whewf - it's always scary trying to find a good mechanic! Apparently the heat console just gave up from 5 years of wear and tear...everything is made of cheap plastic these days!

Anyway, that left us exhausted so I made my Fall Equinox dinner Tuesday night instead of Monday.

Every dish was inspired by the harvest! We started off with some Canadian Apple Cocktails. Apple and cinnamon with some Canadian Whisky and orange bitters...such a cozy, warming cocktail!

For an appetizer, I made Fried Green Tomatoes with Dipping Sauce. Appetizer I say...this could easily have doubled as a meal. I have never made these before and they were SO SO SO GOOD!!

So good in fact, I can't stop talking about them and I made more last night! Instead of fussing about the fact that hardly any of my tomatoes were red when I picked them, I found a great way to enjoy these green tomatoes! Aren't they pretty?

I was a little apprehensive about frying them - only because I find that the smell of fried oil NEVER leaves the house! But someone suggested grape seed oil. I decided to try it and though there is always a definite fried-oil stink about doing this, it didn't linger and we definitely didn't taste it on the food! Now I may try to fry other foods again! :) (Onion rings, I hear you calling me!!)

The dipping sauce was fabulous. I could eat these every day.

I'm obsessed with these lol...this is the inside, they kind of look like my lemon squares!

Okay, enough about the tomatoes! For the main course, I made an Apple and Butternut Squash Bisque. Really, one of the best soups I've ever made! I tend to make lots of food when I'm in the cooking mood, so we had plenty of leftovers last night.

The pièce de resistance!!! Caramel Apple Tart. Oh...wow. That's all I can say...this started off simply as an apple tart. But I added the caramel sauce at the last minute. I subscribe to a lot of food site newsletters and the caramel sauce recipe kind of fell into my lap right before dinner. It was a GREAT addition to the tart!

That is just a teaser of the yummy food I have planned for the next week! :) See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post! 🐶🐶🐶🐱🐱🐱

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Watercolour Ghosts (October 2017)

October 3rd: Next Thursday's theme is Ghosts and Ghouls. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Lots of Baking!

Hello my Friends! :)

How did you spend your weekend? I spent mine doing a lot of baking. I finally found my toasting bread! It's a yummy Egg Bread that's just a little sweet - made with honey. It's very good toasted with butter!

This is not a dough that will fit into a loaf pan. I actually braided it and baked it on a baking sheet. Half of the loaf is in the freezer until I can finish the first half!

These Lemon Squares are very good. These are just too easy to eat, we finish them up in a day or two so I only make them occasionally now!

Too much lemon sometimes upsets my digestion, so I made a backup dessert: Crispy Oatmeal Cookies. They have some cinnamon and nutmeg mixed into the dough which makes for the perfect Autumn cookie!

For dinner the other night, I tried a new recipe, a savoury Vegetable Cheesecake. It's more like a quiche than what most people know as a cheesecake. It's really good and very filling. If you have zucchinis to use up, this recipe calls for four of them!

Produce is so cheap this time of year so I took advantage and got lots of it! These are very healthy and very delicious Mushroom Burgers, served with fries.

This is a new one for us, Buffalo Cauliflower Fajitas. 

Alex loves the hot spiciness of this meal and he drizzled Blue Cheese dressing on top. 

I can't handle spicy, so I made mine without all the spices. I did use my homemade Salsa and Sour Cream though and it was pretty good. You really need a lot of fresh cilantro to make my version tasty. I'd say that Alex's version was much better.

For dinner tonight I have a Tortilla Soup planned. Tomorrow is the Fall Equinox, do you have anything special planned? I'll be making another soup, this time it'll be a nice mix of Apple and Butternut Squash. I'll post the recipes next Sunday!

Window tomatoes: I had to pick my tomatoes because the nighttime temperatures are hitting the freezing mark now in the mountains. They are mostly green and I'm hoping they ripen up by the window. I used the "Panorama" setting on my phone's camera to get this shot.

Some of the tomatoes were nice and red, I'll be using those up this week.

In total I harvested 74 cherry tomatoes and 68 regular tomatoes (all mostly green). Not too bad I guess, but my secret dream is to be able to harvest over 100 pounds of large red tomatoes!

Cheese news!!! CHECK OUT MY RACLETTE CHEESE!!!! Isn't it gorgeous?? I posted a cheese update yesterday on Rainy Day Cheese Making and honestly from yesterday to today...it got even MORE orange. That's the rind forming! Great progress! It stinks to high heaven too so I know it's going to be delicious! It'll be ready in December - just in time for a Christmas Raclette dinner! :)))))

The Lazy Pet Files: I opened my cupboard to put some clothes away and found Baby Oscar all squished up on a blanket on the shelf. I don't know how or when he got in there but he wasn't in any hurry to get out!

Every morning after the cats finish eating, I put their dishes on the floor so the dogs can lick them clean. Lazy Marlene doesn't bother to get up anymore, she just stretches over to lick the bowls. Can you believe this???

If Leo could live on this cat shelf on the porch, he would. He hangs off it asleep...I don't know how they balance themselves!

As I watch television in bed, Jack often stares at me. Is he sad? Suspicious? Pining? I'll tell you what, I was eating a cookie and he gave me his best "I'm a poor neglected hound dog" face!

See you on Thursday for Rain's Art Date! Our theme is Mechanical, will you join in? :)

Thursday Art Date: Texture

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Texture. I wasn't sure how to add texture to Bugs Bunny at first, then I figured I'd just make him hairier!  What did you come up with for this theme?

I haven't done an abstract painting in a while, so I decided to try to do one that showcased texture. I started off with drops of acrylic paint and my palette knife.

And it somehow turned into this! I sprinkled on some salt while the paint was wet.

As the salt and paint dried up, it left some really nice texture on the painting. This was fun to do! And so was my next project!!

I love doing paper maché and I decided to do my skeleton hands for this theme as well. Here's how I did it:

I had some bamboo sticks that I cut the size of my fingers. I marked out where the knuckles should be and carefully bent the sticks at those points - being careful not to break them off totally; I then wrapped tape around the knuckles. I took some spare yarn and wrapped the fingers, making sure to add extra yarn around the knuckles so the'd stand out more.

For the wrist bones, I wrapped a few bamboo sticks in parchment paper and cut each one in half so I'd have four bones. I used a glue gun to glue the fingers and thumbs together.

The next step was gluing the hands to the wrists and putting large pieces of masking tape around the "fleshy" part of the hands.

Paper maché was the next step. I put these in a sunny window so they dried within 24 hours. 

The last step was to paint them. I used black and grey, then a wash of brown and water to create the look of decaying hands. I'm having fun with them!

This is only one of many paper maché projects I have in mind for the next month or so!

A few foodie photos: I made some coleslaw on Sunday but didn't know what to serve with it. I had plenty of fresh veggies from the market so I made Open Faced Garden Veggie Sandwiches.

I'm really not a vegetable person, but these sandwiches are so delicious with a mix of eggplant, zucchini, tomato, onion and garlic!

And I wanted to show you my babies! I have NINE wheels of cheese aging right now! They are all smelling divine and changing colours as they age. I can't wait to try them! :)

See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post! 🐶🐶🐶🐱🐱🐱

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A drawing I made during last year's spring cleaning

September 26th: Next Thursday's theme is Mechanical. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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