Coconut Carrot Soup

     I started making soup a few years ago when I got married, as my husband loves soup. He craves soup as much as I crave pizza (which, if you know me, is a lot...), and our Sunday walks home from church usually include the following conversation: "What should we have for lunch when we get home?" "How about pizza/ soup???" (Depending on who is speaker one or speaker two).  I don't like to cook very much on the weekend, so the choices are usually limited to things that are fast, frozen, or canned. I've never been a huge soup fan, but I really don't like canned soup. It tastes tinny and fake, not to mention that it is nothing like pizza! So, to satisfy my husband's soup cravings (and perhaps to score some pizza points) I've started experimenting with lots of homemade soups during the week. And I have discovered that soup can, in fact, be wonderful! Like this one: 

Coconut Carrot Soup. Yum!

   This is my favourite homemade soup, and I have had a couple requests for this recipe. I thought I'd share today, since it seems the perfect treat for the wet winter blahs. The following recipe is my own, although I originally started with this one from allrecipes.com (my favourite recipe site), so that source gets credit for inspiration!

Coconut Carrot Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

-Butter (enough to fry onions)

-2-4 cups of carrots (it really depends how carroty you want your soup, versus how creamy or brothy! I usually go with as many carrots as I have on hand, and I like to use baby carrots)

-1/2 onion (or 1 small)

-1 tsp ground ginger

-1 packet of chicken bouillon

- Enough water to cover carrots in a pot

-1-2 can coconut milk (again, it depends on taste preferences, I usually just use 1 can, but 2 will make it extra smooth and creamy)

-1 Tbsp brown sugar

-1 Tbsp parsley

- Salt & pepper to taste

- 1 Tsp flaked coconut per bowl (optional)

Directions:

1.) Chop onions and fry them in butter until yellow and tender. 

2.) At the same time, boil carrots in just enough water to cover them. Once the water boils add the chicken bouillon. Let carrots boil for awhile to soften. Strain carrots, but keep the water... set aside for later. 

3.) Add carrots to the onions and butter. Stir in the ginger. Once carrots and onions are coated, turn off the heat and put the carrot mixture in the food processor. Process for a minute or two, then add the water from earlier. Mix until smooth. 

4.) Pour the pureed carrots into the saucepan. Turn on medium heat, and add the can (cans) of coconut milk and brown sugar. Cook and stir until mixture is one consistent colour and begins  to bubble. 

5.) Once mixture begins to bubble add the salt, pepper and parsley. Cook and stir.  

6.) Optional: sprinkle a teaspoon of flaked (unsweetened) coconut on the top of each bowl of soup.

Serve as a first course, or as a main dish paired with homemade biscuits or fresh bread and salad. 

Enjoy!

-J.L.

Lately...

   Lately I've been having an urge to do Christmas Crafts. Seriously, all these ideas have been keeping me (and sometimes my husband, since I feel the need to tell him all about them when I think of them) up at night. Here are a few completed projects:

 Birds' Nest Wreath  
 Twigs from the forest behind my home, 
bird ornaments & white berry-twine from the dollar store, glitter hot-glue stick

Set of 10 Nativity Cards that my Mum requested

(For Sale here)

 Cinnamon Bird Ornaments in my Christmas fruit bowl

 (They are a Martha Stewart idea and make the house smell wonderful! 

Find the tutorial here)

 Cinnamon Dove in the Tree

Trivets!

 Cork with green and white glass stones

(The exclamation mark is because we've been needing 

trivets for a long time and have been making do by grouping our coasters together)

 Snowy Forest Cards
 (These are just the beginning.. need to do about 30 for relatives)

 "Snowflake Fairies" Card

(Every snowflake is unique!)

 "Snowflake Fairies-- Decorating the World" Card

 

Wishing everyone a Happy Advent!

 -J.L

The Beautiful and Damned

    

 

Loved It. 

     I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. Very good, though the characters were not very likable... I don't think I truly liked a single character in the book! But the novel was written well, the language was poetic and even though I could not like the characters, I was drawn into their lives, hoping the best for them... and wanting to like them.

   The Beautiful and Damned is similar to Great Gatsby in terms of some of the themes: obsessive love, the life of the party, and the rise and fall in the eyes of society. Both have tragic endings, though Great Gatsby's is more conventional (ending in death), while The Beautiful and Damned ends with madness, wealth, and a loss of integrity ("cleanness"... a recurrent idea throughout the novel). 

   My book club's discussion of the book also included a very Gloria-ish meal (Gloria being the female protagonist): tomato & cream-cheese sandwiches (crust-less) and pink lemonade.

   Our next book is Michael Ondaatje's new The Cat's Table. Hopefully it is as enjoyable! I picked it up from Chapter's last week, but have loaned it out to some of the other members while I read a Charles de Lint novel (an author I discovered from an earlier book club read). One of my favourite things about book-club has been getting to try so many new and different works. For those of you interested in keeping up with us, I'll post a list of the books we've read as a seperate page. November seems a very book-ish month: between the darkness and the chilliness, snuggling up with a book and blanket sounds like the perfect idea :)

Happy reading!

-J.L.

Two Years of Book Clubbing!

   Happy November! This month marks the second anniversary of the book club I started... I'm glad that we are still going strong, despite a couple members moving away (one of whom was our token guy). We meet approximately once a month and rotate homes (or occasionally at Symposium, a local cafe with lovely atmosphere and yummy cake!)

Symposium

   The person who hosts the meeting also picks the book (with the group's approval), provides a snack, and facilitates that book's discussion. I love that we take turns choosing literature as it means we get to read a wide variety of things (some works I'd never have chosen to read otherwise). We always read fiction, but aside from that, there are no real limits! 

   I'm hosting this coming weekend for our The Beautiful and Damned (by F. Scott Fitzgerald) discussion. Stay tuned for a review/ comments from our discussion of the book and a tasty recipe to pair with the novel.  

Fall Is in the Air... Time for Lattes!

"Tea Time" cards by J.L.- set of three

    My husband is obsessed with cappuccinos and lattes. This obsession started this summer while visiting my relatives. My uncle has a fancy espresso-maker (and everything-else maker), and David ended up having 2-4 lattes and espressos a day! For someone who did not drink very much coffee beforehand... that is a lot! Though, I must admit his coffee dependency greatly increased with our son's birth (around the time my caffeine intake decreased... due to pregnancy and breastfeeding), Recently,after talking about espresso-makers for almost 4 months, he bought a small stove-top espresso maker (European style), and now makes several cups regularly on weekends... we've been late for church because of them! He is enjoying experimenting with his drinks, which has inspired me to do the same with my teas. And with art.... Below are photos of my  "Tea Time" card set and a recipe for a London Fog (Earl Grey Latte).

"Cake Fairies"- fairies decorate a delicious piece of cake, tending to the roses

"The Tea Fairy"- a fairy is sailing away in the the tea saucer

"The Coffee Fairy"- a fairy is drinking her own cup of coffee

  Here is my version of a London Fog :

Ingredients for 1 cup:

-Early Gray Tea (I like Distinctly Tea's Early Grey de la Creme) --two teaspoons loose leaf in tea-ball

-1% milk (1 cup or 1/2 cup, depending)

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2 scant teaspoons sugar

- 1/2 cup hot water (optional)

- hand-frother

  You can make this in one of two ways... either with milk and water or just milk. For the half-and half version, boil water. In the meantime, heat 1/2 cup of milk, either on the stove, in a steamer, or microwave on high for 1 minute.Sprinkle 2 scant teaspoons of sugar in your teacup. Pour 1/4 cup of the milk into your tea-cup. Froth the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, set aside. Add the vanilla and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the tea-ball (with the 2 tsp of Earl Grey leaves), and pour the 1/2 cup boiled water over top.  Finish your cup with the 1/4 cup frothed milk. Steep to your liking.

  The all milk version is similar. Instead of boiling any water, heat the full cup of milk.. but make sure it is steaming hot! Put your teaball in your tea cup at he beginning, along with the sugar. Pour all of the milk on top. Add the vanilla. Stir. Once the milk-tea has steeped to your taste, remove the tea ball and froth the whole cup of tea (or as much as you can without making a huge mess!)  Enjoy :)

-J.L.

Not in Kansas anymore...

    I'm experimenting with colour! Forgive the bad camera...it is starting to die on me.

"Dreaming of You" copyright  J.L. 2011

"The Forest Door" copyright J.L. 2011

"Forest Door" Close-up

"The Rose House"copyright  J.L. 2011

Close-up of "The Rose House"

    Usually I draw with pen and ink, but I'm adding some colour to a few of my pieces and I'm playing with the effect... Above are a couple of my new cards and one of my "larger" (compared to my cards!--really just 8.5x 11") works. All three were drawn the way I normally would do a black-and-white piece, and the colour was added later. I used coloured pencils, and I like the softer feel that they add. Pen-and-ink can be rather harsh. I've tried before adding some coloured ink to my work, but found it looked too streaky (and scratchy-- since I used a metal-tipped calligraphy pen) in the end. I like the way the pencils shade and melt into each other: gentle, but still with a bold enough contrast from the ink.

      I'm toying with the idea of doing a large version (and this time I mean large: approx. 2 x 4 feet) of the secret door... though the leaves would take a very very long time! What do you think?

-J.L.

An Open Door

   I finally finished painting this old cupboard door I've been thinking about using for a couple of years! I had originally started to paint an image of old vines covering up a key-hole, but I did not like the way it was turning out... so, now several years later, I painted over the old image and started afresh. After reading the "Wood Stained Art" posting on MeOhMyMama, I was inspired to work with words instead of images. Unfortunately, since I had already painted my door (a few times over, actually), I couldn't easily do the staining... I'll save that for another project,,, perhaps something larger, like a headboard?

   Anyway, here is my finished piece. I have it propped up near our entrance way.

Art by me, Monkey by ZooExpress

     The words are a quotation from The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring), which was actually my husband's suggestion. I like it, because it works well with the fact that the wood is a door :) Also, it works well for our home, since David and I met at a Lord of the Rings movie marathon party! We are oh so romantic, I know ;)

-J.L.

   

     p.s.~ The Monkey in the photo was made by my sister as a gift for my son. His name is King George the 6th (since we had recently watched "The King's Speech," and since I hold to the belief that all monkeys should be named "George" or derivatives therefrom). If you would like to order a felt animal, her Etsy shop is ZooExpress. She does not currently have any sale listings, but you can message her for custom orders.

Zucchini!

    A few weeks ago, while visiting my in-laws we were given two giant zucchini. Actually, what happened was my in-laws had a group of friends over for brunch the weekend we were visiting.. One man brought two large zucchini with him and was offering them to anyone who wanted them, first telling us that he wasn't sure what they were. Nobody else seemed to know what they were either, though people thought that one of them might be a zucchini. To be fair, one was yellow... but no one seemed to believe zucchini could be yellow or so very very large! As well, nobody else knew what to do with  them even if they were zucchini. Sometimes I want to shake my head and sigh, "Grown-ups!" Then I remember that I am a grown-up, too...

    Anyway, my husband and I gladly took them and have been enjoying a month's worth of zucchini bread (of the chocolate-chip variety- yum!) and, most recently, stuffed zucchini: which turned out amazingly well! I've been trying to experiment with meals on a weekly basis and am having fun. I bought a new cook-book called The Silver Spoon which has been inspiring me, and I recently bought and decorated a menu-board for our kitchen... to help me plan ahead a little bit more. The Silver Spoon included a stuffed Zucchini recipe, but my own version ended up being a totally different meal. Here is a photo:

Mmm... stuffed zucchini!

And here is my recipe:

•  Zucchini (I used half of one large zucchini, then halved that for two "zucchini boats" or "zucchini bowls"... each section was about 1 foot long)
• Ground beef (lean or extra lean)
• Bacon (4-6 strips chopped up)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 Tomato (chopped)
• Parmesan cheese (grated-- approx 2/3 cup)
• Mozzarella cheese (grated--approx 2/3 cup)
• 1 can of plain tomato sauce (approx 4 cups)
•  Dried basil (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Dried oregano (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Dried parsley (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Salt & Pepper

1- Cook bacon, onion, garlic and grounds beef in a frying pan, drain grease

2- Grease casserole dish

3- Take your zucchini and cut it in half length-wise so you have two long "boats." Scoop out the middles and chop those up.

4- Mix zucchini 1/2-all of the zucchini innards (for lack of a better term :)) in a bowl with the tomato, spices, Parmesan, meat, and onion.

5- Fill the zucchini with this mixture. If there is extra, pour it around the zucchini in the dish.

6- Top the zucchini with the mozzarella cheese

7- Bake covered at 300 for roughly 1 hour (depending on you oven). Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the cheese.

   The taste was rather like lasagna... except with zucchini instead of pasta, and without the layers. Serve with garlic bread and salad. 

-J.L.

End of Summer SALE!

   Just wanted to let you all know that my Etsy shop is having a sale on all merchandise... I'm getting ready to add all of my new items. All cards are now $3.50 (usually $5). Including one of my favourites:

"Leaves of a Book"

     Hope you will stop by my shop and take a look :)

         -J.L.

"Summer Child"

"Summer Child"

    Here is the card I mentioned before that I custom made for my friend to give her midwife. Sorry the image is not very good... Our scanner still needs to be hooked up to the new computer. Once the scanner is up and running, I have several new cards and designs I'll be posting, so stay tuned! A couple of them were inspired by this design, and are also on the theme of motherhood.

-J.L.

Tea Time

Dishes all set, waiting on the food. I LOVE Sophie Conran's tea things!

     As I mentioned in my previous post, this past Sunday I had a Jane Eyre Tea Party. Everybody brought tea-time treats, and I got to see the film I missed in theaters since my babe was newborn. My husband watched our little guy while I made scones and chocolate(and white chocolate!)-dipped strawberries. He also watched him for the whole film. Yay! A girly movie time without any boys, baby or otherwise :)It was wonderful.

   The food was great, too... my friends brought muffins, fruit, tea cookies, etc... and we drank cucumber water and two kinds of tea: "Tuscany Pear Rooibas"and "Early Grey de la Creme" (both from Distinctly Tea, my favourite tea shop). My husband even came down to sneak a few snacks... and he took the extra scones to work for lunch the next day. 

Pretty in pink, Cherry-Almond Scones

     These scones are usually a hit. I love this recipe because it is so simple, tasty, and easy to adjust to your own tastes. I got the basic recipe at All Recipes.Com here.

   I use the cherry-almond variety, but I use maraschino cherries instead of dried ones, and I add some of the extra cherry-juice, which gives the scones the pretty pink colour. I also use a food processor for the mixing, which makes it so much easier!

Here is my version of the recipe:

• 2 and a half cups all-purpose flour (the extra half cup is needed if you add the cherry juice)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter (= 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup maraschino cherries 
• ~2 tablespoons cherry juice (optional)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 large egg

Directions:

1- Grease pan & pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

2- Combine all dry ingredients in food processor. Blend well.

3- Add wet ingredients, blend well... mixture should ball up together and start to leave the sides.

4- Need dough into a ball and press down (not as flat as a pizza, though)--- on a floured surface if dough is still sticky, otherwise you can do it right on the greased tray.

5- Cut into 12, tip: use a pizza-cutter

6- Bake 15-20 minutes, until bottoms are golden brown.

Serve with tea! :)

Healthier version: substitute whole wheat for wheat and vanilla/ plain/ or cherry yogurt for sour cream. You can use dried cherries or even pitted fresh cherries (with real cherry juice) instead of the maraschino...but make sure to decrease the flour back to 2 cups if you omit the juice.

    Happy Baking!

-J.L

ps~ On the topic of tea-time, I recently finished drawing a set of 3 tea-time cards. Images to come soon!

Jane Eyre Thoughts

Beautiful!

      This past Sunday I had a Jane Eyre Screening (of the 2011 version) and Tea Party at my home. So much fun! I'll be posting about the tea-party and giving a delicous scone recipe next-time, I'm going to talk about the movie. 

      I had not seen the film before, since Theo was only a few weeks old when it played in the theaters (though I've seen other versions and read the book). But it it is definitely worth watching! Beautiful cinematography! I enjoyed the way the story is shown through Jane's memories, which helped it move a bit more quickly than some of the other versions. I also thought that the torment of Jane's childhood was displayed very effectively. I think that this version did a good job of keeping the story about Jane, and not Rochester& Jane... Even the above movie poster shows that it is all about her... It is not just a love story.

      After the other guests left, my sister stayed longer and we discussed at length thoughts about Rochester and Jane... We mostly talked about whether Jane was a weak woman, too submissive in her relationships. Is she the classic abused lover who keeps going back to her abusive spouse? Or was she strong? 

       I think that Jane was strong throughout her life: strong enough to stand up to her cousin, to her aunt, to Rochester; strong enough to  plan to leave Rochester if he got married and to finally leave Rochester when he asked her to stay as his mistress because, as she said, she had to respect herself. She was also strong enough to demand to go to India on her own terms with St. John.  My sister thought that Jane's biggest instance of weakness was returning to Rochester at the end, but I think that she returned just to find out what was wrong and help if she could, but that she did not plan to stay. She only stayed when she found he was widowed. I think Jane is one of the most realistically strong literary heroines I've read or watched.

      My one disappointment with the film is that at the end Rochester is only bearded, not burned... and he has not lost his hand. Hollywood chose to keep him handsome instead of real.

      Other than that, I can only say, love love love!

-J.L.

Thoughts about Mother and Baby Art

   A friend of mine recently asked me to create a card for her to give her midwife for her final postpartum appointment. She wanted an image similar to this one (below) that she had purchased from me before. In my new design the woman is larger and more central, with a baby in her arms.

"The Rose Tree" c. 2010 by J.L.

    I really liked the image... I felt like it had a lot of emotional appeal but at the same time was similiar to my drawings of other women without babies. The baby herself did not change the image too much The point was not just the baby, it it was the woman and her life...

   It seems that often in art mothers with infants, and pregnant women are usually symbolic of some sort of idea. They seem to fall into 4 categories: 

1-Holy and religious (Like the virgin Mary); symbols of innocence.


2- New Age (like mother earth or somehow more in tune with the universe); symbols of life or the earth or power.


3- Tragic, as if there is something wrong with being pregnant (symbols of injustice)

4- Sentimental 

   Very rarely do we see art that includes pregnant women as just normal women going about their daily lives.., or even as background images. But my research has not been extensive, so if you have images that vary from these traditions, please send them my way!
   That said, I do really like these two more sentimental mother-child images:

"Protected" by Jody Coughlin

 & 

"PJÄTTERYD- the three ages" (Ikea reproduction of Klimt's piece "The Three Ages of Women")

    I doubt, however, my husband would want either of those images on our walls... he'd probably think they are too sentimental, at least for the living areas... perhaps for the nursery?

     What are your thoughts on mother-child/ baby art? Especially as decoration? Is it sweet or is it sappy? Is it too personal to display?

    -J.L.

First Thoughts

Hello world,

     I am starting this blog to help with my creative process... so please give me feedback as I share my thoughts on new designs with you! I will be posting images of my artwork (works in progress and finished pieces), writing about the thoughts behind my art,  and explaining how my work fits into my daily life. 

    Stay tuned,

           -J.L.

p.s.~Want to know a bit about my art style? Visit my Etsy site :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/InkThoughts