New portrait, "Anya" 5x7"...
and I know you are probably sick of me posting pictures of Milkshake -- no wait, I take it back -- NO ONE is ever sick of Milkshake, and if you are, someone must have urinated in your eye drops or contact solution because that's the ONLY way you could ever find pain in viewing all that is white and fuzzy. Anyways I'm only posting this photo because I thought it was funny to see him clearly trying to imitate an old painting of mine...
Seriously, he was trying to reach his back leg, he had a slew of poses he was trying out. What a weirdo.
Hat tip: Vegan.com
I'm becoming convinced that most Americans simply do not know any other label for centuries past other than "Victorian" for anything. Or once and a while they refer to Georgian era dress and decor as "Marie Antoinette looking". Now I've only become nutty about costume/decor history in the past decade, but you would still think between the Queen Elizabeth movies, the Jane Austen movies, and The Tudors series people would stop referring to every painting I do as Victorian!
I don't do Victorian, I can't dig it. I can dig Edwardian at times -- it brings to mind Boldini, Edward Gorey imagery and Luisa Casati -- but I don't do Victorian in any painting, ever. I may have done one or two Regency period costumes, and only one Georgian (though I used to draw Georgian period scenes a lot in high school).
What I do for the most part is Renaissance or Elizabethan. Mostly basing off English or the more subdued Spanish style of dressing at the time. Like this, or this. And what I do enjoy at times too is the Stuart era, as in King James Stuart. Or maybe more familiar would be Louis XIV "the Sun King".
So just FYI...
Edwardian, Victorian, Regency, Georgian (a vast period but very "Marie Antoinette looking") Stuart, Elizabethan, late medieval/pre-Tudor which would be the start of the Medici family, and Richard the III sort of deal.
... but for the KILLERS song they had chosen to support the last olympic message (pretty cool...)
(>> then you got the choice : add or video clip?)
A friend and I went for a 45 minute walk. And boy, could I tell I have been a couch potato for weeks on end! Pretty sad when a fairly non-rigorous walk around the neighborhood feels taxing. (Of course it was probably over 90 degrees, so that was a contributing factor.)
Then we came back to my house, and I cooked us a big meal, adapting one recipe I've tried before (Sauteed Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach from Veganomicon) and trying one new recipe that's been on my list to try for a while:
Portabello Mushrooms Stuffed with Chipotle Mashed Potatoes and Fried Leeks from Vegan Planet.
It's not a short meal, mostly because you have to soak the dried chipotles for 30 minutes,and you have to boil the potatoes for 30 minutes, and there's mashing involved...then you also are supposed to sear the mushrooms in a pan before stuffing and baking them. And use yet another pan to fry up your leeks. All in all, between the two dishes, I was in the kitchen for over an hour. And I used almost every pot and skillet I own. Which means significant clean-up too.
What worked:
-Well, mushrooms, potatoes, leeks: These are some of my favorite foods, so the end result was tasty, spicy, filling. I probably would have been fine with just the one dish, but knowing the appetite of my S.O. I knew I had to provide something else to go with.
-I used rice milk instead of soy milk, and it was fine, in case you're wondering.
What are some challenges with the recipe:
-The Chipotles
I bought dried chipotles, which weren't cheap. You only need two for the recipe, but of course I had to buy a bigger portion. I soaked them dutifully, which was fine, but then the recipe tells you to put them in the blender with 1 TB of the soaking water and blend them. Now, let me admit I haven't used my blender in five years. I have a food processor I've never touched. I avoid recipes that seem to absolutely require such machines...because they scare me. And sure enough, blending 2 little chiles and a TB of water in a regular sized blender seemed totally ridiculous. Moreover, those things have a real kick, and my friend suggested that next time I should remove the seeds before blending. The recipe certainly doesn't tell you to, but it's not a bad idea.
-The Mushrooms
Make sure you buy portabellas that are curved enough to stuff nicely. The ones I had bought were flatter, and not only that: Scraping out the gills was a delicate business, and I ended up breaking off some pieces around the ends of the mushroom. Bottom line, this was more of a "layered" dish than a "stuffed" dish!
-The Fried Leeks
Mine did not seem to crisp up at all. Not that Fried Leeks of any kind aren't delightful and tasty to sprinkle across the top of the mushroom, but I certainly wouldn't have minded if they came out crispy as the recipe indicated they should. Perhaps I used too much oil. I didn't measure, I just poured it in the pan.
So, a bit work intensive, but definitely tasty. And if you take a bit more care with the mushroom selection and leek frying, I bet you could also achieve a nicer presentation than I did!
Enjoy!
I've been cranky since Tuesday about food, exercise, my body etc. I am tired of being living proof that being a vegan is NOT a synonym for anorexia. Seriously, I should be made an ambassador to every person who utters that "vegans look so sickly" meme. Because I, on the other hand, am, shall we say, over-"healthy."
I know I haven't exercised in the last couple of months. I know I could eat more veggies. I know that when I make good home-cooked meals I tend to eat too large a portion, going fork-to-fork with my much larger S.O. But in general I don't consider myself to eat in a lavish, gluttonous way...mostly I'm pretty simple.
So, I'm trying to figure out how to turn this aggravation into action when I'm still in start-up, work at least 12 hours per day mode.
-On Tuesday I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a salad bar (with three protein sources) for lunch...more salads, fewer burritos should be my mantra. Even when those burritos are vegan burritos and packed with protein themselves.
-On Tuesday I also stopped at Whole Foods again on my way home and did a major shopping, focusing on fresh fruits and veggies I can eat without a lot of prep work. Stone fruit are in season, which is wonderful...if occasionally messy :)
-Yesterday I tried a new recipe...this time one I saw in my local newspaper and clipped out. Can't remember the last time I did that! It was Piquant Tomatillo and Jicama Salad
The only change I made to the recipe is that I'm not a big cilantro fan, so I actually took out some of those frozen parsley cubes you can get at Trader Joes and chopped them up instead. Could have used basil too. It worked just fine and was quite Piquant, just as the recipe name promises.
I also bought the ingredients to try a couple more recipes over the next week. Perhaps my problem has been exactly that I've stuck to a simple food routine...which can begin to equal boring...which can begin to encourage mindless eating.
Big thing still to figure out: What is a form of exercise that a) I will enjoy and b) I will find time for? Going walking once a week with one of my friends is nice, but not exactly sufficient.
I'm a little tired of being a burrito-eating, workaholic couch potato, but not quite sure what I want to be instead yet!
Saturday, August 30th: 1-5 Gallery Fundraiser show from 8pm-11pm @ The Brewery Arts Compound, Los Angeles CA. Show runs thru October 18th. You can nab this puppy for only $100!
September
12th: Group show @ Vision
Art Gallery, Cleveland OH. I'll have several new pieces in this one.
October 4th: "The Green Event" @ The Grand Ballroom, Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas NV. This will be to benefit the Lied Discovery Children's Museum in Las Vegas.
November
14th - Dec. 6th: "All Things Cleveland" group show
@ Asterisk Gallery, Cleveland OH. I'll be doing a little homage of sorts
to Mr. Thomas Kinkade for this theme, there will also be a live Polka
band.I'm hoping Harvey Pekar and Big Chuck show up too!
Interesting little vegan-y tidbit: Apparently in an effort to give Beatle Paul McCartney a special room, a hotel booked him in a special leather-on-leather-on more-leather hotel suite. He apparently didn't want to kick up a fuss and didn't ask to be moved. Even though, according to Ecorazzi, Paul is "one those vegetarians that avoids leather at all costs. In fact, he refuses to buy leather shoes and even asked for the leather interior in his Lexus car to be swapped for cloth." [Emphasis mine.] By "those vegetarians" do they really mean vegan? Because it would be pretty normal for a vegan not to buy leather shoes and even to avoid leather interiors in their cars. I certainly do, and I did even before I made the full vegan shift in my diet. (PS-a little easier to get non-leather interiors now that I'm in a Saturn, Honda phase of life than back when I was in an Audi phase of life...but I still managed.) Would I ask to move rooms? Hm. I have asked for feather pillows and other feathery bedding to be removed...but I know a lot of places do that for folks with allergies too, so I didn't consider that a huge request. But what if a room had a leather couch or headboard? No, truth is I probably wouldn't ask to be moved. Me and Paul: We're close like that.
I live in a city of about a half a million people. It's not the largest city in the world nor is it the smallest. But despite these few facts we allow ponies and a few chickens too! This is the pony that lives down the street from us, in urban Portland.
