Summertime & A New Website

I've been busy working with my lovely husband Brian of Humanity on my new website. Get a sneak peek here.

I've settled on a color palette, my artwork is all set in a beautiful gallery and Brian created this lovely border for some of the photos. 

It's so amazing to see it all coming together and I can't wait to share it all with you soon! 

While we put on the finishing touches, I thought I'd share a few snapshots from some of our every days reading, making smoothies, enjoying bonfires in the backyard, going out for brunch and listening to music...

What have you been up to this summer?

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you much joy and inspiration!

ps. My next online course SERENDIPITY - A Year In Mixed Media opens for registration this Friday!

We'll be painting all sorts of characters and trying out lots of new art supplies throughout the year.

Sign up for my newsletter to get in on the EARLY EARLY BIRD SALE this weekend.

pps. Currently I'm loving tropical smoothies. This recipe is positively beachy:

1 cup almond milk

1/2 frozen banana

1/2 cup of frozen mango (add more to get a consistency you like)

splash of coconut milk

Blend, pour and enjoy!

Find more recipes here.

A Favorite RECIPE: Baked Okra

i love cooking and i especially love cooking with and eating local foods. 

and okra is one of my favorite vegetables. 

i'm really not a fan of vegetables, so i tend to throw them in a blender with a frozen banana and make green smoothies or mix up a vegetarian soup. 

every summer, i always look forward to getting okra in our csa (community supported agriculture). but last season, i'd been so disappointed when a hot and dry summer meant that the okra didn't grow. 

so when i found it at the farmer's market here in florida where i'm painting for the next few weeks, i bought as much as i could eat.

and this is my favorite baked okra recipe. it's super easy and quick to make. 

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BAKED OKRA

-soak okra in cold lemon water for 20 minutes.

-drain and rinse. then toss the okra with a bit of good olive oil, salt and pepper (to taste).

-spread out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until tender.

serve warm. i love to add a little extra shake of jumbo sea salt at the end.

enjoy!

Find More of My Favorite Recipes Here.

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ps. i'll be sending out my newsletter later this week with a special valentine's day coupon inside. 

if you'd like to get it in your inbox, sign up here.

Recipe for Creamy Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

a few weekend's ago, we had the opportunity to head out to the countryside and pick tomatoes at our csa's farm. so i've been cooking up all sorts of recipes to use these incredible tomatoes. 

and since it's been chilly, i cooked up one of my favorite comfort meals...creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese.

i hope you enjoy the recipe!

creamy tomato and red pepper soup

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 medium onion, chopped

3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1 mild or hot pepper

1 bay leaf

12-15 whole tomatoes. remove skins if you'd like

2-3 red bell peppers

3 large slices good-quality white sandwich bread, crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces

2 cups veggie broth

alt and pepper to taste

Heat 2 T oil in a Dutch oven (or really big post) over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and the bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, red pepper and hot pepper. Heat until they start to get soft. Stir in bread and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Transfer half of the soup to a blender, add 1T olive oil (slowly) and process until soup is smooth and creamy. Adding the oil slowly is what gives this soup its creaminess. Transfer back to Dutch over and repeat with remaining soup and oil. Stir in vegetable broth. Return soup to a boil and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

I love to serve this soup with grilled cheese or rustic bread. Enjoy!

I'm looking for new recipes...what have you been cooking lately? I'd love to know!

If you love soup, here are two more recipes for you from my kitchen...

*brocolli cheese soup

*butternut squash and homemade vegetable stock

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HOW TO PAINT A GIRL & HOW TO PAINT AN OWL are now available on-demand as self-study courses! Access the classroom until August 2013...so you can paint when you want, any time, right from home!

Find all of the details & register here. 

Smoothie Recipe: Horchata Style

i love sipping smoothies in the summertime. and this is one of my favorite new concoctions. i was feeling like the sweet, cinnamon flavor of an horchata and made up this recipe, which is not only delicious, and perfect for a sweet tooth, but this smoothie is easy to make and healthy too!

INGREDIENTS

serves 1

1 frozen banana (i freeze them whole without the peel in a tupperware container)

1 cup almond or rice milk 

1 tbs honey or agave nectar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract 

add a few ice cubes if you like

Add all to a blender, serve and enjoy!

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ps. i'm getting so excited for my newest online painting workshop...HOW TO CREATE WHIMSICAL ANIMALS. registration will open next week. class begins in september! 

sign up for my newsletter & be the first to know the details! .

a Perfect Summer Recipe - Watermelon Granita!

last week, we visited the home of some very good friends. they brought out giant slices of watermelon and we enjoyed them in the backyard. it reminded me that nothing can feel more like summertime!

so brian and i picked up a watermelon and froze half of the slices. then the next morning we made our version of a watermelon granita! 

it's perfect for a sweet, refreshing breakfast or anytime on a summer day! and it's sure to add a little extra sunshine to your life!

WATERMELON GRANITA

1/4 watermelon, sliced and frozen

1/2 lime (squeeze and add the juice)

2 teaspoons honey

put all ingredients in a blender and mix until blended, but still icy. scoop into glasses and serve with a lime wedge. best enjoyed right away!

Do you have a favorite summertime recipe? Let me know, I'd love to try it!

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ps. my online painting class HOW TO PAINT AN OWL is now available as a SELF-PACED, INSTANT-ACCESS class, so you'll have plenty of time to paint owls with me, when you want, for at least a year! find all of the details and register here.

pps. Call for Submission! Submit your story to my new blog project CREATIVE SUGAR! Every Tuesday I'll feature a new story... find guidelines and submit your story here! See you tomorrow for a new CREATIVE SUGAR story!

broccoli cheese soup recipe!

even though the weather is getting warm, we love this soup because it's so fresh and healthy (no cream) and we can use broccoli and spinach straight from our vegetable garden! you could even cut back on the cheese a bit if you're watching your diet.

it's especially delicious served with a rustic bread and a little cheddar cheese on top. 

enjoy!

Ingredients

2 T unsalted butter

2 pounds fresh broccoli 

1 medium onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)

2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press

1 1/2 t dry mustard powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

pinch of salt

3-4 C water

1/4 t baking soda (reduces cook time to get out broccoli flavor faster)

2 C low-sodium vegetable broth (we love making our own)

2 ounces baby spinach

3 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (3/4 cup)

1 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated fine, plus extra for serving

Directions:

Heat butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When foaming subsides, add broccoli, onion, garlic, dry mustard, cayenne, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently until fragrant (5-10 minutes). Add 1 cup of water and baking soda. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until broccoli is very soft, about 20 minutes.

Add broth and 2 cups of water and increase heat to medium-high. When mixture begins to simmer, stir in spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Transfer half of soup to blender, add cheddar and Parmesan, and process until smooth, about 1 minute.Transfer soup to a medium bowl and repeat with remaining soup. Return soup to the Dutch oven, and place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Adjust consistency of the soup with up to 1 cup of water. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*this is our variation of a broccoli cheese soup from america's test kitchen 

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ps. not only do brian and i love cooking together, but we just launched a new website too! we're designing and developing websites, blogs and ecourse websites! we'd be delighted if you spread the word! and feel free to check out our new website right here!

i also designed a little button for our new business too! feel free to grab it from the sidebar and add it to your blog! thank you so much for all of your continued kindness and support!

how to - garden vegetable gazpacho!

i'm determined to start a vegetable garden this summer. i've always grown herbs or tomatoes in outdoor pots. sort of as a test, but also just because i haven't really dedicated myself to a vegetable garden yet. i have lots and lots of flowers, mostly perennials, and they are fairly low-maintenance. so i've decided this will be my year for a bigger garden.

one of the things i'm most looking forward to is stepping outside and picking vegetables straight from the garden for dinner. there's something so grounding about it all and it's something i'm definitely wanting more of in my every day.

luckily i have lots of friends with incredible gardens to learn from. and gazpacho is one of those simple dishes that just reminds me of summertime. 

enjoy!

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INGREDIENTS

6 medium ripe tomatoes

1 cucumber, peeled, halved, and seeded

1 bell pepper, halved, cored and seeded

1 red onion

2 garlic cloves

1 serrano chile

1slice nice white bread, crust removed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped chives or basil

Ground black pepper

salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop tomatoes, half of cucumber, half of bell pepper, and half of onion and place in large bowl. Add garlic, chile, and 1½ teaspoons salt; toss until well combined. Set aside.

2. Dice remaining tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper; place vegetables in medium bowl. Mince remaining onion and add to diced vegetables. Toss with ½ teaspoon salt and transfer to fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Set aside 1 hour. The salting of the veggies here is key to really bring out all of the flavors.

3. Transfer drained diced vegetables to medium bowl and set aside. Cut bread into squares and add it and  the liquid that drained from the veggies (there should be about ¼ cup) to the roughly chopped vegetables. Toss it all together.

4. Transfer half of the vegetable-bread mixture to a blender and process for a few seconds. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in ¼ cup oil and continue to blend until completely smooth. Adding the oil slowly is what gives this gazpacho its creaminess. 

5. Strain the soup into large bowl. Then repeat with the remaining vegetable-bread mixture and 1/4 cup olive oil.

6. Stir vinegar, minced herbs, and half of diced vegetables into soup and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours before serving.

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what have you been cooking? i'm looking for new recipes to try in the kitchen this weekend! 

vegetable stock + a pot of squash soup!

we've been making a ton of soup and one of our favorites is this 

butternut squash and apple soup!

the recipe we use at home is inspired by one in our favorite cookbooks, The Healthy Kitchen. it's the cookbook in our kitchen that has the most splashes and sticky pages! and the one we're always gifting to family and friends!

i highly recommend looking up their Vegetable  Lasagna (with eggplant) and the Baked Vegetable Wontons. both recipes we make for nearly every occasion and they're wonderful if you're looking for things everyone can help out with in the kitchen!

for us, the key to good soup is making your own vegetable stock! in summer, we compost all of our vegetable scraps, but in the wintertime, we save them in a container in the freezer for stock. we make enough stock for two pots of soup, saving the extra in the refrigerator so it's ready to go!

celery, onion and carrot scraps brown the best (so it's wonderful if you can add some of those to your mix). we've also loved adding kale and spinach. 

Directions (vegetable stock)

when you're ready to make your stock, add your celery, carrot, and onion scraps with a bit of oil to your pot. cook them until you build up that thick brown (fond) on the bottom of the pot. then add the rest of your scraps and 2 quarts of water and let it all simmer for 20 minutes, then strain and you've got your stock. 

adding the water is what gets all of the fond up off the bottom of your pot and gives your stock that rich color and a ton of flavor!

here's the soup original recipe that we've been inspired by from wholeliving.com: 

roasted winter squash and apple soup recipe!

Soup Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 large winter squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), such as butternut or kabocha, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and quartered
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt
• Chili powder, for seasoning (optional)
• 4 cups Andy's Vegetable Stock
• Cilantro Walnut Pesto, for garnish (optional)

 

Soup Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large roasting pan, toss squash, onions, garlic, and apples with oil to coat. Season well with salt and chile powder. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until vegetables are fork-tender and lightly browned, about 40 minutes.
2. Transfer half the vegetables and 2 cups stock to a food processor; puree until smooth. Repeat with remaining vegetables and broth. Return pureed mixture to pot, thinning soup with stock, if necessary. Season with salt and chile powder; bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Serve immediately, garnished with Cilantro Walnut Pesto, if desired. 

we switch it up a bit by adding celery, carrots and using gala apples. we also like to add in a few cloves and bay leaves (take them out before you blend anything). 

and we make it much easier on ourselves by just roasting the squash (we use butternut or acorn) for 40 minutes in the oven, so you're not watching and stirring it every 10 minutes. 

then, 10 minutes before the squash comes out of the oven, we add the apples, celery, carrots, onion and garlic to the soup pot with a bit of oil. let them roast, building up the brown (fond) on the bottom of the pot for 10 minutes. you really want to cook the apples and veggies down until their fork-tender.

now you can add your stock and squash to the pot and follow the rest of the original recipe! or sometimes, we also like to leave our soup chunky and only blend half the ingredients!

serve and enjoy!

the super wonderful top secret project revealed!

 TITLE: Big Dream Believer. The Original Painting and Prints available in my etsy shop.

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I'd tried my very best and submitted a box of my original paintings to one of my all time favorite publications? And then remember that top secret project I said I was SO CRAZY EXCITED to tell you about? Well, things are in motion and oh my! I couldn't be happier about it all!

In case you haven't guessed by now, I will be featured in Somerset Studio! Hooray! This has been one of my BIGGEST goals this far. I've been looking through all of the Stampington publications with ga-ga eyes, loving everything inside and just imagining how awesome it would be to have my artwork featured too. And now my dream is finally coming true!

I am busy writing a technique article on some of my owl paintings! The article will run in the January/February issue of Somerset, so stay tuned! I'll be revealing just what goes into making some of my most popular owl pieces, and talking a little bit about my life as an artist.

In case you can't wait to hear more, the lovely Malia is kind enough to be featuring a bit about me on her blog YESTERDAY ON TUESDAY! I am so honored she asked to interview me and had so much fun answering her questions! You can read all about it right here!

  

And to celebrate all of this, I've been concocting lots of green smoothies! Now, this may not seem like a celebration drink to you, but I cannot say how much these little smoothies make me feel so full of health and well being!
 
 We've been getting so many beautiful greens in our CSA (community supported agriculture) and I hated for them to go bad, so I started making these green smoothies. Yes, they may look really weird (although I love that beautiful green), but these smoothies are the perfect thing for the end of summer.

I feel so low on energy whenever I'm not eating enough greens, so I have to disguise them in these green smoothies. They really do taste good! I am not a veggie person at all, but with the banana added to this smoothie, you'd hardly know it's a HUGE dose of greens.

SUPER GREEN SMOOTHIE RECIPE

Serves 1 

1 frozen banana (I freeze them whole, without the peel)
1/2 cup apple juice (or any fruit juice you like or sometimes I just use almond milk or water)

1/4 cup yogurt (I love to use Greek yogurt or plain kefir)

a heaping handful of spinach and/or lettuce (sometimes I'll add kale, carrots or tomatoes too)

optional 1 tsp matcha green tea powder or crushed mint leaves

3-4 ice cubes, if needed

Add all to a blender, serve and enjoy!

Too weird for you? Check out my peanut butter banana and strawberry oatmeal smoothies instead!

happy movie night and new prints in my shop!

Title: Serendipity. Prints available in my etsy shop.

On any Wednesday evening you can usually find me at the movies. Brian's alt-country band Ghost Town Council practices at our place and even with his new soundproof room (which means I can be painting in my studio while they play), I can't give up my movie night. It's the one night a week I leave open for myself. I pack a bag of toasted almonds and some peppermint tea or white wine and walk to the Sundance movie theater (we are so lucky to have an indie-theater so close)!

Last night I saw Mid-August Lunch, and I just had to mention it to you all because I found it so inspiring, so full of life and so charming, I just can't recommend it enough! It takes place in Rome where a man is taking care of his mother and three other ladies for the holiday. As the credits roll, all of the lovely actresses are dancing together in their living room and it just made me so happy!

The four women spend the weekend eventually getting to know one another while eating, eating, eating and enjoying wine and tea (how wonderful is that!). One women, who can't have dairy, snatches the pan of macaroni casserole at midnight and stows away to bed to gobble it up!

 I couldn't resist coming home and cooking up my own version of cheesy noodles. The perfect comfort food.

Noodles with Butter and Cheese
SERVES 1

Boil and cook 1 cup of noodles al dente, strain.
Leave the noodles dripping and put back into the pot on low heat. Add 3-4 slices of your favorite cheese (I used a sharp cheddar), a pad of butter, and a splash of milk. Leave on the heat for 5 minutes, stirring to mix all the ingredients until you've got a lovely cheesy consistency. And ENJOY!

NEW Prints! I've finally finished adding all of these new prints to my shop too!
Thank you so much for your patience!  
Six NEW Prints now available in my Etsy Shop!

 Hope, World Traveler, Serendipity, Believe, Give Me Wings and Forever Young.

Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie

This is one of my favorite smoothie recipes. It's perfect for breakfast, especially in the summer sun, and tastes so delicious! I even brought along my handheld blender, fresh strawberries, yogurt and protein powder to make a version of this smoothie right in my hotel room! I feel so much better drinking a smoothie for breakfast than I do loading up on all of the sweet bakery and heavy dishes places usually offer.

Serves 1
1/2 frozen banana (I freeze them whole, without the peel)
5-6 frozen strawberries
1 cup almond milk (or regular or soy milk)
1/4 cup rolled oats
drizzle of honey or maple syrup for a bit of extra sweetness
optional 1/4 cup yogurt (I love to use Greek yogurt for added creaminess)
2-3 ice cubes, if needed

Add all to a blender, serve and enjoy!

PS. The tulip is from my garden. One of the first to bloom!

FISH TACO FRIDAY!

Brian made the most delicious fish tacos! Hard shell tacos filled with grilled tuna, avocado, and homemade pico de gallo. With beans and rice (with butter, yum!) on the side. You could easily substitute the tuna for any veggie beef or beans. But if we do use fish, we like to grill up tuna or tilapia on the outdoor grill or on a baking sheet in the over (450 until golden) with a bit of salt and pepper. Perfect for a sunny afternoon.

Here's his pico de gallo recipe: So delicious!

2 diced tomatoes
juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup diced onion
handful of chopped cilantro
pinch of salt and pepper to taste

A quick stir of all the ingredients in a bowl, serve and enjoy! Wonderful on top of tacos or dipped into with chips!

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA SMOOTHIE RECIPE

This is my absolute favorite smoothie recipe. It's super healthy and tastes so delicious! I pretty much have one every morning for breakfast. Sometimes I even add raw cacao powder to cure a chocolate fix.

Serves 1
1 frozen banana (I freeze them whole, without the peel)
1 cup almond milk (or regular or soy milk)
1 tablespoon peanut butter
3 dates (honey is good too)
2-3 ice cubes, if needed

Add all to a blender, serve and enjoy!

PS. The daffodil is from my garden. The first one to bloom this spring!