A Belated Valentine

                                                                     

                                                   "Love-a-Bull"
                                                   copyright Sustain-A-Bull productions 2013
I love valentine's day. I realize that it has turned in to a corporate holiday, but I choose to view it as a day to pause and really appreciate people. I like the idea of just being kind to everyone and seeing the interconnections and humanity among people as well as a chance to tell everyone I care about how much I love them. Since I wholeheartedly (pun intended) believe in love I choose to send Valentine's day cards instead of Christmas, or other religious affiliated holiday cards in December. This year my sweetie and I collaborated on the first of a series of images by sustain-a-bull productions.

You may remember from my 2011 post Plaster the city in hearts! (A story in Photos) that someone in Montpelier covers the city in printed hearts. It is one of my favorite things ever. This year I happened to be in town when Eva Sollberger of the video blog Stuck in Vermont (put out by Seven Days) was in town filming the episode "The Valentine Phantom"
The video is awesome, and I am in it! woot!


Enjoy, and spread the love!

Snowy Cozy Winter. cooking on the woodstove and dinner musings

Good Morning. In my neck of the woods we have a steady flurry of snow coming down, a perfect morning to be on a farm cozy inside with a fire. In my normal life this is not an option- lucky for me though- I am farm sitting for some fantastic animals in a cozy house that overlooks the mountains. Bliss. Streaming the folk station out of Boston, WUMB, seals the deal.

On wood stoves. Beautiful, warm, satisfying to build the perfect fire. I have also been looking for ways to use the heat from a wood stove to cook food, cutting back on using a second fuel source for cooking. So far I have experimented with beans. I soaked white beans then put them in  bowl of water on top of the stove to cook. So far they had about 3 hours of active fire and the residual heat overnight. I think they have another 2 hours of fire to go, but I'm excited at the prospect.

Also on food, last night I threw together a fairly easy meal while writing a paper. I didn't necessarily need to have a fast meal, simply one with a fair amount of inactive cooking. My solution was roasted baby eggplants and zucchini with sauteed mushrooms over polenta, pesto chickpeas, and a tomato sauce. In an ideal world I would have added a side of steamed kale, but I was fresh out of leafy greens. I left the stems on the eggplant and zucchini but cut them in to fans up to the stem. Next I drizzled olive oil over them and placed sliced garlic between the fans of the vegetables, and put them in the oven. At some point I sauteed onions and garlic, added vegetable stock and white wine, brought to a boil, stirred in coarse polenta. After about 10 min. of occasional siring the polenta was finished. I sauteed the mushroom quarters in butter, opened canned chickpeas (would have loved fresh cooked, but didn't plan in time) and heated with pesto. Finally I heated some tomato sauce, and dinner was complete.

Finally, I leave you with photos of snowy winter. I am still struck by the beauty of snow and mountains here. Do you see the heart in the first photo? A collaborative piece, I walked the shape- then the puppy dashed across making an "arrow."
Stay warm and cozy!

art shows, sauerkraut, and sitting your ground.

                                  New earring display, earrings and pins for the v-day trunk show

                                         New leather leaf earrings for the AuctioNerinx auction

A cold and windy Monday here in Vermont. This weekend was my first art show in quite some time. My sweetie made me new earring displays that look lovely, and it was great to see some old friends and meet new folk. The show was slow, but a good push to get out of the house, quite the feat on cold, dark days in Vermont. Oh yeah- another highlight- making valentines full of glitter and hearts on heart shaped paper at the art table. Ah the power of glitter (especially not in my house!)
I started a batch of sauerkraut today, excited for it to start its' transformation in to deliciousness.
Finally, happy 100th birthday Rosa Parks! Thanks for being a lifelong activist, humbly following your conscience. Thanks for reminding me how I want to live, and who I want to be.
Check out a really great Democracy Now on Rosa Park's life- a lot of which the mainstream media conveniently never mentions.