Still Life With Sprouts

Brussels sprouts, who knew,

That I was partial to you?

With cranberries, yum!

Recipe: A delicious, and easy, way to make sprouts with fresh cranberries.

My beautiful daughter makes them this way.

http://lacasadesweets.com/blog/2013/11/14/maple-roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-cranberries/

90% of brussels sprouts come from nearby Watsonville! http://patch.com/california/watsonville/love-em-or-hate-em-but-brussels-sprout-season-is-here

Sewing: Hanky and a Flu Shot (No 2 of 2)

Click on the handkerchief above to help yourself to the whole hanky

Help Yourself to Another One of my Virtual Hankys: My Mullein Mélange

     A couple of virtual sewing* projects help me make the seasonal transition from our California Indian Summer to a, hopefully, rainier cold season. Hopefully that 'cold' part is just going to refer to our slightly lower temperatures, not the stuff that sends me to bed with a big pitcher of herb tea and a Jane Austen novel for the day. I'm also hoping that flu shot I'm getting today will make the cold season flue-less. 

     This article, Flu Shots: Far From Perfect, Still Advised,  (I listened to it as a Health broadcast on NPR, and it's based on an article in the Lancet) had a lot of news about the future of flu shots, for those of us who following the guidelines of the mainstream medical community. I'm really looking forward to the day when the flu shot is something I get along with my every-ten-year tetanus vaccination. Until then I'll get my yearly shot and stock up on virtual hankys.
     I designed the handkerchief above using Photoshop and a photo of some cotoneaster berries I took in my garden. I'm sorry I don't recall where I got the free download of the Pony Express stamp.

* * *

     Tonight I'm going to try cooking some Cornish Game hens for supper. Does anybody else besides me remember when they were in vogue? (It will really date me if I tell you that I remember when they were a hot foodie item.) Did their ancestors really come from Cornwall, or are they just little chickens? :-) 

     I made a number of jars of apricot jam this summer. Luckily I'd biked instead of walking over to the the farmer's market when one of the farmer's offered me all of his leftover squishy apricots for free (!), and my bike has a good sized front basket. So I'm going to pop open one of my jars of homemade apricot jam to make a glaze like the one in this recipe.

      I'm expecting we'll have some leftover chick- I mean Cornish Game Hen meat. So tomorrow, I plan to try out Nellymary's idea from today about using up leftovers on pizza You all remember Nellymary's blog, right? She lives in the land down under. Do Australians still call it that? I'll have to ask Nellymary. She calls her blog, Just Like My Nan Made. I subscribe to her entries by email, in the same way that people can subscribe to this art journal (look for the subscription link in the upper right part of this blog).

 * * *

You might also enjoy this mini Time Travel story

Indian Summer at Edgewood

Part 1: Creekside

Part 2:  Oak Apples

Part 3: Rose Hips

* Sewing: I haven't tried this yet, but am thinking about two ways to convert the full sized design to the real thing. One would be to put one of those fabric sheets into my home printer. I've only tried this once and I had a hard time removing the backing. I wonder if it would work better if I soaked it off?

     The other would be to have it printed it at Spoonflower, where I've made some really pretty fabric with my own designs. They have a variety of fabric to choose from too.

     If you click on the illustration, you should get the larger version. If you have any problems with that, send me an email (laurelshimer AT gmail DOT com) and I'll send you back the full-sized jpeg. Just let me know which hanky you want (or if you want both).

Enjoying the Frutas (y Verduras) of Madrid

PLEASE CLICK on this picture to see more detail.

Towards the end of my week in Madrid, I found this nice grocery store about a three minute walk from my hotel right on the way back from the neighborhood entrance to El Parque de Buen Retiro, which I visited every day.

I waited my turn while I listened to this woman discussing the gazpacho she was going to make with the produce man. There, of course, the produce seller picks out everything for his customer. We don't sully the frutas or the verduras by touching or squeezing them with our fingers. They picked out everything she needed – tomates, pimentón, a little bunch of sweet, yellow cebollas and some nice heads of ajo. I can’t eat peppers, onions OR garlic, and it still sounded good, a nice cold vegetable soup in the ‘midst of Madrid en Julio. Most days it ranged somewhere over a hundred degrees in the afternoon.

La Senora made a friendly joke to me, about how long she'd taken and I told both of them how much I'd enjoyed listening to her cooking plans, since I was just visiting. That seemed to help me out of the tourist and into the visitor category.

This man handed me both a fresh cherry and an apricot to eat while I waited and, after he marked the price on each package of produce, he added in extras to each bag for this, clearly well-known, customer. Grocery shopping in another country is as enjoyable a cultural experience for me as restaurant eating is for the next woman.