November 25, 2009
It's another do-it-yourself Fine Art Daily. Break out the Crayolas, the Craypas, your markers or watercolors. This will remind you of those crumpled papers that came tumbling out of back packs back in the day. I might set Tall Boy and the Pouting Princess the task of coloring a few of these in so our Thanksgiving does not look too Martha-y.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2009

Here is a holiday craft for you, or if you need to occupy little hands with safety scissors and Elmer's glue in a couple of days...
Remember to visit www.chestertownspy.com to keep up with all the news there!

November 23, 2009
This is going to be a rather busy week for everyone I expect. Please accept this illo of Chestertown for today's Fine Art Daily offering. I hope to get back on some sort of schedule tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a delightful Monday, leading into a short work week!
If you have a chance, please visit www.chestertownspy.com.

November 20, 2009

It's Food Friday!

This house is a pumpkin pie free zone. This is what I bake instead, and it is a very good thing to have in your repertoire in case you are assigned a dessert in next week's Thanksgiving ritual. And remember to tune in to NPR today, because for the one hundredth year in a row Susan Stamberg will be giving her mother-in-law's cranberry relish recipe!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

5 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 stick butter, softened
5 large eggs, room temp, separated
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon (or a really good dollop) of brandy or bourbon

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper.

For the cake: melt the chocolates and butter together over a low heat, stirring. Set aside to cool.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and lemony-looking - about 5 minutes. Add vanilla.
Whisk the egg whites with the salt until stiff - set aside. (This recipe will take over the entire kitchen.)
Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the yolks, then fold in about a third of the egg whites. Fold in the rest of the egg whites, blending carefully there are no more white streaks.
Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake in the center of the oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test. The cake rises a great deal in the oven. Let it cool for about 10 minutes and then remove the side of the springform pan. By this time the cake has collapsed and you will look down on it sadly. When it is cool remove the parchment paper.

Glaze: melt the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Add the brandy. Pour the glaze over the cake. Raspberries are nice on the side.

Charles has contributed some clotted cream, which is a fabulous idea. Clotted cream improves everything in the known universe. Especially with the sweet organic raspberries flown in fresh from the Duchy. Camilla cannot resist seconds.

"A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece."
-Paul Gauguin

November 19, 2009
Still on the farm equipment kick. The colors and the shapes are irresistible - does form follow function? I got all garden-y yesterday, and bought some heat resistant geraniums. That should be an interesting experiment. Almost all of last year's geraniums burnt up, but I guess having a 9-month long summer will do that. Miss Morning Glory left a variegated pink petunia for me on the front porch - along with care and feeding instructions, which was very kind. It is nice to have neighbors.

November 18, 2009
I remember when Tall Boy loved farm equipment. We used to be able to take a short drive to see the cows, but that was back in the day. Now we watch Top Gear and marvel at Bugattis.

November 17, 2009
We have been inundated with goldfinches! The collective noun is a charm of finches - which may be a pretty suburban notion when they are flitting around the back yard, perching in (obligingly) picturesque ways on the backs of the lawn chairs, or swooping dizzyingly from the branches of the oak tree out front. On Saturday they were nothing less than a scrum of football hooligans, shouting and fighting and squawking in a tree outside of Duffy's Tavern.
Visit www.chestertownspy.com to see what Kelly Castro has to say about the pursuit of happiness!

November 16, 2009
What a busy weekend! The VNA Air Show buzzing overhead almost every minute! The Goodyear blimp flew past yesterday - I am always thrilled to see the blimp. And I spent a few hours downtown, hanging out with Lady Abundance (I was a little more modest than she is) and doing a little painting at the gala Gumbo Limbo Second Anniversary open house. It was an excellent weekend - I hope you all enjoyed yours, too. Have a good Monday.

November 13, 2009
It's Food Friday!

Oatmeal Cookies à la Tall Boy

2 sticks butter - softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips (the healthy-minded might opt for the traditional raisins, but not in our house)

Preheat oven to 350°
Beat butter and the sugars together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, and mix gradually into the butter and sugar combo. Stir in the oats (this takes forever) and the chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let them cool for a minute before sliding them onto a wire rack to cool entirely.
I have been saving wide-mouthed jars all year so I can bring some along as hostess gifts when we get invited out. Recycling and sugar - a heady combo.

Tomorrow is Charles's birthday. After all the fuss last year he is happy just to sit in the back yard, watching the birds fly home from work, waiting for the sun to set and for his organic grass-fed filet to sizzle. Camilla is putting the final touches on the birthday cake. She was so happy to bake the flourless chocolate cake, because it always turns out lopsided and looks so devotedly handmade. We will toast with Veuve Clicquot, of course!

“The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”
-Lucille Ball

And you must be a devoted Gentle Reader if you made it down this far! I am going to be at the Open House at Gumbo Limbo in Downtown Stuart tomorrow for a couple of hours. It is Patty's second anniversary in that space, and we will be making merry. I'm going to try to paint and talk at the same time. The Spice and Tea Exchange is having a chef and nibbles, too. Stop by - it will be going on all day! I'll be there from 4-6. 211 Colorado Avenue, www.gumbolimbogifts.com, 283-1077.

November 12, 2009
Doesn't this remind you of the North Wind? And coolth? Best Beloved traveled to Jacksonville yesterday and packed a warm coat because it is going to be 52 degrees there this morning. We are a little cooler than yesterday - 65° right now with a high of 75°. Not exactly sweater weather, but a vast improvement over our year long summer temps. (Just when I found out that the A/C in my car wasn't broken after all - operator error was at work again...)

November 11, 2009
Veterans Day.

November 10, 2009
Thinking about all the baked goods recipes you Gentle Readers are going to be emailing me sent me scurrying back through the archives. This is a bread stall that the Pouting Princess and I saw in London last year. Don't all those loaves look delish? It would be nice to have a hefty loaf of good, warm and yeasty bread right this minute. With a nice bowl of potato bacon soup (see www.chestertownspy.com for the story about Herb's). But I am afraid that all that's in the larder is some Pepperidge Farm Original White. Sigh. Not at all the same.

November 9, 2009
It's early, especially on a Monday morning, I know, to be discussing such things, but I want you to think about Christmas cookies. December is going to be festive for all my gentle Fine Art Daily readers. We are going to have recipes, decorations and all manner of holiday cheer. We might even find the approximation for Clarence's hot, mulled wine.
I would like you to comb through your dog-eared index cards, your grease-speckled Joy of Cooking or call your mothers to find some Christmas cookie recipes for me. I mean, Holiday cookies. Things that you baked and assembled in the month of December when you were a child. Please email me and be a part of our December Winter Wonderland Cavalcade of Cookies.

It's Food Friday!
November 6, 2009

Spiced Nuts

1 large egg white
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 3/4 teaspoons cayenne pepper (you might want to think about that)
2 1/2 cups mixed nuts, such as cashews, peanuts, pecans or almonds (we don’t like walnuts)

Preheat oven to 300º. Beat egg white until soft and foamy. Combine all remaining ingredients; whisk into the egg white. Stir until well coated. Spread mixture in single layer onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake nuts for 15 minutes, remove from oven. Using a metal spatula, toss, stir, and separate nuts. If you have pecans – take them out of the mixture now. Reduce oven to 250º and return nuts to bake until medium brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven; toss, and stir again. Place cookie sheet on wire rack to cool (they will crisp as they cool). Break up any lumps that stick together; store in an airtight container, at room temperature, up to 2 weeks. (These are great to bring as a hostess gift – the holiday season is upon us and if you bring something from your kitchen, you might be invited back.)

Make a lot of these. Charles and Camilla are flying in from Canada tonight and will have lots of amusing stories to tell over cocktails. Charles gobbles these nuts up, forgetting his manners, and licking his fingers! HM would be horrified! Camilla shakes her head and goes out back for a smoke.

“A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.”
J.B. Priestly