Face Twenty-six

I prepped today's journal entry with a face. Now all I need to do is add feeling in the form of words. Or whatever strikes me when the moment arrives. I've prepped similar blocks for the days ahead since I'm already aware that filling pages will be a challenge with all that's coming up in the next several days, and having "boxes" ready within the journal pages makes it easier to ensure a daily entry in image and in word.

As for 29 Faces, I have three more to go and I plan to capture some more gesture drawings while on the road tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get them posted too.

Peace.

Faces 21 to 25

Face 21

Face 22

Faces 23, 24, 25

When pressed for time and space, quick gesture-style drawings work. Plus the challenge of drawing from life, barely glancing at the page to capture the gestures of folks who are moving and talking is great fun and a skill builder. So today I started catching up on 29 Faces in September.

That's what I made today.

Gotta run!

Peace.

Green Tomato Cake

Today, among other things, I made a green tomato cake. That's right, a green tomato cake. It's an adaptation to a recipe from an old Connecticut Herb Association friend who I haven't seen in years. I wonder where she is? In any event, another member had the recipe and shared it with me. Score! It's as good as I remember it. And it's good!

Besides, in this season who isn't looking for something to do with green tomatoes besides pickles, relishes and salsa, right?

My adaptation …

Green Tomato Cake
3 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
½ cup olive oil
½ cup extra virgin coconut oil
1¼ cups cane sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup raisins
2½ cups green tomato dices

Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, add the nuts, raisins and tomatoes. Pour into a greased and parchment lined 10" springform pan and bake for 350°F for 1 hour.

I sprinkled a little extra sugar on the top before baking. The original recipe called for 2½ cups of sugar, so you might want yours sweeter. To me, this is plenty sweet enough. It had something like half the spices too, but I like big flavor, especially in a treat like this.

And by the way, in my first go at this the other day I forgot to add the oils and … that came out pretty good too! So, for a "fat free" option, don't be shy to experiment with my mistake!

Tomorrow I'll be catching up on my 29 Faces.

But for today, that's what I made. Peace.

A Face, Fermented Tomato Juice and Green Tomato Preserves

29 Faces, #20

Fermented Tomato Juice, batch #1 (started 9/18)

Green Tomato Preserves, not my favorite, but better than last year's batch.

It's been a crazy busy week, and I see the pace continuing, dare I say quickening, over the next two. In this moment I can say with confidence that I have neither time nor keystrokes to spare. So … that's what I made today. So far. Still more to get to. 

Peace.

A September Day Cornucopia

Today I started my first gallon batch of fermented tomato juice. I made a small batch of last year and promised to make more, much more this year. This fermentation was inspired by this fermented bloody mary cocktail. Need I say more? Except, perhaps, that this is so simple and so delicious, with or without the spirits!

I've been up to other things these past couple of days. After all, this is the season of urgency - in my corner of the world anyway.

Tomato puree was canned and kale dried, both from Dineberg's Farm. Another round of calendula infused coconut oil was strained and bottled, though this jar will get topped off with the next ready batch. I use this oil mostly for soaps, scrubs and assorted balms.

Peppers from Dineberg's were combined with carrots from my gardens and assorted herbs and spices to start a ferment. And fermented green tomato salsa and hot peppers are also percolating, so to speak, on the kitchen counter.

Peppers, also from Dineberg's, were chopped and dried to help see us through the winter months. 

More tomatoes were harvested along with assorted garden finds to add to this evening's salad and frittata, which The Boy is making with our backyard hen eggs, of course. And, I swear, one of our chooks laid an ostrich egg today. Biggest egg laid on my little acre so far. Could be a double yoker! 

I did manage a wee bit of time to art journal and prepare a new journal for the coming days. More on that another day.

As for today … and yesterday … that's what I made. Peace.

Quick Sketches and More Preserves

An extra early rise has given way to a very productive morning. Kale, eggplant and peppers are dehydrating. The giant pot of tomatoes that were cooked down yesterday are warming on the stove top in preparation for the food mill and the puree will be canned shortly. I have more to harvest, including more calendula to start another batch or two of infused oil.

I banged out three quick sketches, pen on newsprint, numbers 17, 18 and 19 for 29 Faces.

There will be more as the day rolls on, but that's it for now. Figured I'd better post now before the day gets away from me and I crash-n-burn as I've done the past couple of evenings.

So, yeah, that's what I made today. So far.

Peace.

Momentum

Yesterday was all about setting 'em up. Today has been about knockin' 'em down.

Yesterday was all about putting plans of action in place, about filling the cauldron and starting the fire. Today has been all about taking the action that stirs the cauldron to manifest momentum.

One of the patterns that creep into my life and into my artwork, like in today's face for 29 Faces, is that of horizontal lines. I've come to recognize them as (among other things) symbolizing upward or forward motion … like evolution unfolding … like the patterns I see in meditation or in dreams when passing through a gate or stepping over a threshold.

The horizontal lines in this simple drawing were not intentionally placed with this awareness in mind. Rather I noticed them after returning home from … stirring the cauldron … and I recognized them. I acknowledged them. I honored them.

And, hey ~ merry Friday the 13th!

Peace.

An Unequivocal Plan of Action

The return to the doodle has been suiting me well these days. Days busy with all manner of thinking and planning, considering and doing, dreaming and manifesting. I have a task at hand that I could have started last week, but I've put it off. Today I asked, as I placed the task unequivocally in my planner, and this 29Faces image in my journal, if I was hiding from it, or it from me. Today will know.

Peace.