I made a mad dash to the herbs sitting outside my door last night as wet snow fell from the sky threatening to destroy their use in my kitchen. I'm happy to say they are safely tucked away until I have a chance to repot them for indoor use, but I still have to ask, wtf is with the snowfall?
Thankfully I awoke this morning to no signs of it, but feel poorly for the souls northeast of our city who got hit with an amazing 10-20 cm. yuck. too early man, way too early. I remember many a wet and cold Hallowe'en when I was a happy trick-o-treater, but there certainly wasn't any snow. Come on!

What I am enjoying with the new blustery weather is the heat from our wood stove and having my desire to make warm tasty treats return. I'll soon pop out to the local natural food shop to get the fixings for a delicious and hearty breakfast cereal. If you lived nearby, I'd invite you over for a bowl it's that good, but since you can't you can find the recipe below. If you're feeling the homemaker love too, you will want to check out this recipe for donut muffins and then let me know how it tastes...I plan on making mine this w/e. And while you're stuffing your face full of goodness and want something to inspire, check out my new photo find here.

Enjoy!

Yummy Breakfast Cereal
8 c. large flaked oats
1 c. sunflower seeds
1 c. sesame seeds
1/2 c. flax seeds, sliced almonds and cashew pieces
3/4 c. oil (canola or peanut)
1/2 c. liquid honey
Bake together at 300F for 1 hour.

Add cranberries when finished baking.
*Also, if you like coconut or pumpkin seed, they're a good addition too.

It's been a good day.

It started off with a friend telling me he wants to buy this print from me. He has been my best patron yet, thanks Frankie, I enjoyed our discussion about art this morning.

Later I had lunch with a friend whom I haven't visited with in a long time. I felt peaceful listening to her stories about her new relationship with horses and she in turn provided me with some exciting inspiration on my portrait work that I look forward with anticipation to working on.

Afterward I spent time perusing photography related magazines which propelled me further into ideas and long held desires regarding my work. To sum up, I've been in a hovel of art infused dialogue/ideas all day... a precious, quiet place to exist as the day feels quite unlike any other.

I hope your weekend is centered around something which brings you peace and introspection.
♥K

We had absolutely beautiful weather for our Thanksgiving weekend and here are my October markers to prove it:
- a swim in the lake on October 12th (it wasn't freezing, but it was cold and refreshing)
- picked another container full of wild raspberries
- laid out on a blanket reading with no socks, short sleeves and shorts all afternoon
I'm still full from all the food and the waistline on my pants aren't being very forgiving. Needless to say it was a slow run this morning whilst I dragged along all of the turkey, salty and sweets I consumed.
Have a great day friends!

the magic of egg whites and an electric hand mixer

Today I have a new appreciation for egg whites and the electric hand mixer. I haven't done much baking where stiff egg whites are required. Whisking eggs whites in a bowl until they became stiff takes forever, and I don't have that much patience. My experience with an electric hand mixer is also limited simply b/c I've never had much use for one, I don't even know where the one in our cupboard came from. But today I wanted to spend quality time over my recipes for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast to ensure a quality product and so out came the mixer.

Even though it doesn't always pay off, I am someone who typically doesn't spend much time reading labels if my task at hand looks logical and straight forward, which is why I had my hand mixer on its lowest setting for 5 minutes while I switched it between my left and right hand when they got tired. Then for whatever reason, divine intervention maybe, I looked down at the mixer and there on the handle read the numbers of its dial speed all the way down to #10 which read "egg whites". Tentatively, remember I haven't used it at a level 10 before, I slowly moved the dial and right before my very surprised eyes I had stiff egg whites in seconds! Wait a minute, should I be sharing this with you? It makes me sound like a bit of a dork, but I'm not hiding the fact that I'm a complete novice when it comes to electric hand mixers.

I gently folded the egg whites into my batter as instructed and witnessed their magic. They made it so smooth and silky that it simply poured itself into the baking pan. I suddenly thought of all the June Cleavers of the 50's with this magical new tool and how happy they all must have been at making this task so quick and easy. And the result? Minutes ago I took out of the oven a yummy sweet potato pie for tomorrow's meal. I can't wait to taste it.

The salad I'm making is a red cabbage with walnut and chevre - so so good. While slicing the cabbage I happened to notice the beautiful and almost psychedelic patterns of its insides. Check it out. (click it for a larger view)
I wonder if any of the many graphic designers whose I work I see online use food as a source of some of their inspiration? I can see its influence in their work.

Happy Thanksgiving! It's supposed to be a bee-u-tiful weekend with bright skies and warm temps. I'll be spending it at the cabin with good friends and family while we enjoy the garden harvest and drink copious amounts of wine.
Wanted to leave you with a spoof of Art Break for this holiday w/e. I remember watching the real art break as a kid, how about you?

P.S. Just had to write in and say I just picked a basket full of apples from a secret wild apple tree hidden away in my yard - yippee! Now I'm off to make apple tartlets!

some things to learn this week

Albert Einstein lost most of his Nobel Prize money in bad bond investments on Wall Street. (boston.com)

Chimpanzees can identify their acquaintances by looking at photos of their rear ends. (news.nationalgeographic.com)

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling made $10.28 per second last year. (forbes.com)

John Lydon, a.k.a. Sex Pistols punk rocker Johnny Rotten, has filmed a British TV commercial for Country Life Butter (youtube.com)

October is National Sarcastic Awareness Month. Among the instructive examples cited by the Sarcasm Society:
" I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it"
"It's always darkest before it turns absolutely pitch black" and
"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."
(brownielocks.com/october.html;sarcasmsociety.com)