New paintings and regular art updates.
With such a large crop,
bowls full to the top,
I tried-
To decide-
what to do with them?
Each cherry on a stem!
Salad with cherries
fills my belly.
Coleslaw with cabbage
with cherries added.
Now I’ll make jelly
with added cherry,
summer fruit,
so much loot.
Birds are merry
They have cheery
Cherries too!
🍒
The blackbirds sing,
The thrushes too
The robins nest,
Their fledglings new.
A magpie there
And pigeons too?
They congregate
And feed on seed.
Blue tits
and house sparrows,
All had their nests.
Feeding them all
Is our happy chore.
Yes eat your fill,
Of cherries ripe.
We’ve had ours now
The rest, enjoy.
Home made coleslaw (cabbage, carrot, red onion) with reduced calorie mayonnaise. A small piece of brown seeded bread with a bit of pate, a couple of chopped up tomatoes, half an avocado pear and some de-stoned red cherries. Also a few cheese and onion potato crisps. On a Portmeirion plate. Why? Because I liked the colours mainly. I watched a programme about still life last night and the interest that images of food created was fascinating. At one stage still life was seen as the lowest form of art, but the innovations of artists gradually made it more accessible and acceptable. Artists like Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso bought new definitions of what still life meant. Art is fascinating. It’s funny the ideas you can get by staring at a plate of food. X
Used a hoe to pull the branches down and caught all these cherries in a brolly today. It was sunny for a couple of hours and the wind had dropped so we took the chance and dodged the rain showers. Picked loads, but there are loads left on the tree.
Now I’ve got to decide what to do with them. I might add them to some gin. Or I could make cherry pancakes.
This is a glut of cherries. If we were not in lockdown I would be sharing them with friends. It’s the biggest crop we have ever had from the cherry tree. If I could freeze them I would but I think they would spoil.
X
22.4.20, about a month into lockdown. I wonder what was going through my mind? I don’t think I was as nervous then as I am now. I was thinking about food. Now I’m thinking about not going out, despite the pubs opening up carefully and hairdressers and other non essential shops. Do I feel like going out? No, I think this is too early. Especially where alcohol is involved. I’ve seen groups of four or five men walking past the house, looking like they are off for a ‘good night out’.
What can I say. I understand people need to escape. I feel so tense I’m shaking. How do refugees and people in war torn areas survive? We are lucky. The problem might cause massive problems with wealth but I want people to be safe and survive this. Ah well, maybe I will do another drawing x.
My hubby keeps buying eggs but we are not using them up. They are getting towards the end of their life so I will be making an omelette for tea or even pancakes with blueberries and lemon juice.
If I’m making pancakes, I will make a batter from eggs, milk, and flour. I tend to use self raising flour because the pancakes puff up. I’m not one of these thin, crepes, type of pancake people. My mom used to make pancakes in February for Shrove Tuesday. She would add snow water to the batter (yes it used to snow in February!)
So if you want to make them I will try and write a recipe.
First get 2 mugs full of flour. Plain or self raising, this is for a few people so reduce amounts in proportion for one. Put in a mixing bowl.
Then add two or three eggs depending on the size of your mug. (Make a little well in the flour and break the eggs into it.)
Mix together and slowly add around a mug of milk. Add it slowly and stir it in. Keep an eye on the consistency, you want it pourable, like double cream, (heavy cream in America I think?)
Once it’s mixed just put it aside to rest in the fridge (I don’t know why?)
Then get a frying pan, coat the bottom with a small amount of oil, or a spray frying oil or butter. Heat the pan up quite hot and carefully pour the batter in. Tip the pan to spread the batter out till it covers the base of the pan. If there is still wet batter on the top you can pull the pancake away from the edges of the pan with a spatula and let the batter spill into the gap. Turn it over with a spatula when it’s gone golden brown and cook for a few more seconds on the other side. ( You don’t have to toss it).
Sprinkle with sweetener or sugar and lemon juice when it’s on your plate. Add fruit to taste. When you’ve done one heat the pan again. You might not need to add oil as there should still be some left behind.
Continue till you have used all the mix. You can vary the thickness depending on how hungry you are!
X
A shady, spikey creature
Banging bowls together.
Clattering crockery,
Hog food left out for him.
Gobbling and scoffing quickly.
I opened the back door.
A glint in his eye and..
He scuttled off into the dark…
I imagined him saying
“I’ll be back……..”
First of the season, fresh strawberries and extra thick cream (saves having to whip it). Added a tiny bit of sweetener on to the strawberries. I have one that doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste.
When I was young we used to go and pick our own strawberries. You would spend ages in a field searching under leaves to find the berries. Often they were padded underneath the plants with straw to keep the berries from trailing on the ground. I think that’s where they got their name? Summer days when most of the strawberries missed the punnet and fell into our mouths instead. When music by the beatles played out of little transistor radios.
And when we got home? Strawberries with either single cream and white sugar. Or if we hadn’t got cream in, evapourated milk… Heaven…
not neat, but tasty..
Ingredients,
About a table spoon of cooking oil,
Salmon fillet (or not for vegetarian)
1/2 aubergine, diced into small cubes,
1 courgette / zucchini, grated finely
1 sweet pepper cut into small squares
1/2 a can of chopped tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed,
Spiral pasta, 2 handfulls
Method
Heat the oil in the pan, add the aubergine cubes, add the sweet pepper pieces, brown gently then add the grated courgette. Add the tinned tomatoes, mix and cook for a few minutes. Add the crushed garlic and the salmon on top of the mix, cook for a few minutes then turn the fish over. Lower the heat from medium low to low and gently simmer for about 5 minutes.
In the meantime put two handfuls of pasta (I had multi coloured spiral pasta in) with boiling water and cook on a medium heat till softened.
Drain and then add the pasta to the other pan. Serve the fish on top of the pasta and vegetables.
(I grate the courgette because it cooks quicker and makes the sauce feel thicker). You could add a squeeze of lemon juice.
Made a couple of years ago… Now flour is never on the shelves in the supermarket, or if there is there is no yeast!
I think the photo shows we had brie with it, on burleigh ware plates.
It had a very good rise, probably because my hubby used flour and yeast separately. The problem with ready mixed bread making kits is that they don’t always rise well and you have to get the amount if moisture and temperature right so that it is soft enough to rise but not too squidgy. But you can always add extra flour if it’s too wet. The dough needs kneading to stretch it and get the gluten in it working. Obviously this doesn’t work with gluten free flour.
Anyway, looking forward to baking again.
X
Mallaband-Brown