Lemon Basil Cookies

We interrupt this program to bring you a very important recipe.

Today is Last Fridays at work.  We didn't have very much time to plan this month, since I was away and Derek was prepping for cooking classes he taught this week.  Our last minute food decisions involve tapenade, homemade gazpacho and lemon basil cookies.  I found this recipe on Food.com back in May, and they are really good.  Trust me.  Go now to the store and buy basil and lemons.  Make the cookies.  Eat them, preferably with a bottle of bubbly.  That's what I will be doing later today.

LEMON BASIL COOKIES WITH PISTACHIOS

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon lemon rind, grated

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup fresh basil, minced (can use lemon basil)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup pistachios, finely chopped

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS

1.  Beat butter on medium using an electric mixer until fluffy; add 3/4 cup sugar; beat well.

2.  Add egg, lemon rind, lemon juice and minced basil; beat until blended. 

3.  Mix together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the butter mixture, beating until blended.

4.  Cover and chill 1 hour.

5.  Mix together nuts and the 3 tablespoons sugar.

6.  Roll dough into small balls (about 1" diameter); roll each ball in nut/sugar mixture.

7.  Place onto ungreased baking sheets (I used parchment paper on the baking sheets).

8.  Flatten each cookie using the bottom of a glass (dipped in sugar first if the dough sticks to glass).

9.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.

10.  Allow to cool on wire racks.

Awesome.

Thank You For Being A Friend

Hey, remember me?  I live here.  But I've been conspicuously absent for the past 20 days.  Life went crazy and poof!  There you go.  Thank you to everyone who has continued to read my blog, even though I have not been able to post anything new - I don't know who you are, but I know you are out there. 

Now.  I have lots to report and no time to do it in, so let's just have this little recap:

This is what has happened in the past week or so.  The first four paintings are going home with my sister (with a few extras, but don't tell her) as soon as I pack and ship them.  Daisy Dog actually sold twice - TWICE! - on the same day, no less.  Kathy (my sister) bought it and about an hour later I got an email from Etsy saying someone else bought it through my Etsy store.  Yikes!  I told Kathy I would paint her another one that looks more like her dog Ruby.  (Now I've gotta come through with that....)  Blue Skies also sold through Etsy.  PB&J sold here at the gallery while I was in Vermont, and Pinhead sold yesterday.  Craziness.  Absolute craziness.

At a later date I will catch you up on my sister's visit to Montana with her family, and my subsequent trip to Vermont to see my dad.  I also need to clean my house, get caught up at work, mow the lawn and help Derek stain the deck over at the house, fix my left taillight, pack up some of my crapola, and fix my terrible eating habits.  I will not be doing all of this today.

Stay tuned....

Two Quick Things

Here are two quick things I learned the other night:

1)  Bubbly goes remarkably well with scrambled eggs and peas.

2)  Bubbly goes just as well with popcorn.

Yes, I learned both of those things on the same night.  It was madness.

Rock and roll.

Dog Days of Summer

With a title like that, I must start this post with a poodle:

That's my girl.

This post is going to be a short mish-mash of nonsense, and for that I apologize right now.  A lot has been happening in my little world, and this past week I wasn't sure if I was coming or going.  On the good side, we had a spectacular event at work last Thursday evening.  Rough estimates are that between 300 and 400 people came through the door.  Yessirree.  And my painting sold.  One more time?  My painting sold.  HA!  Thank you Donna!  I never got a picture of the wall with all the Bigfork paintings, and since mine is such an oddball size it is hard to photograph by itself.  This is the best I could do:

Derek named it "Locally Grown."  It is interesting how many people have commented (positively) on that painting.  I shall start another one ASAP.

Also on the good front, remember "Sheepsies?"  My very first sheep paintings.  They sold over the weekend.  YAY!  I REALLY need to start painting again.  The giant rooster is still in the sauna - not sure I am ready to pull that one out again yet.

On the crafty front, here is the project I mentioned:

I rounded up five clear glass vases, one from home (who knew I had a vase on top of my refrigerator?), one from the garage down at the house, one from work and two from Derek's girlfriend Mandie.  I cleverly applied rubber bands, then sprayed them with several coats of glass frosting.  Yes, I saw this idea on facebook and pilfered it.  Here is a finished product:

I'm not sure how durable the glass frosting is, although one of the suggested uses on the can is for the inside of bathroom windows or shower doors.  I like how they came out.

On the irritating front, here is a picture of one of my window boxes at home as it looks now:

Were the deer using my window boxes as their own personal buffet?  Yes.  Did this piss me off?  Yes.  Did I replace my flowers with silk flowers?  Yes.  Did I show THEM?  Yes.  Hmmmfph.

Lastly, on the bad front, my dad is back in the hospital and it is looking a bit grim.  I don't want to talk about it now, because it is weighing too heavy on my mind.  I think this is part of the reason why I haven't been painting.  There's a lot of turmoil up in my head; I wish I could go to my happy place with a glass of bubbly and a palette knife and let it all go for a while.

P.S.  I don't want to end on a sad note, so I will end with a teaser.  There is other news on the good front but, again, I don't want to talk about it yet.  I don't want to jinx anything....!

So Far, So Good

Guess what I got....

And guess what else....

Awe.  Some.  I get knocked off in the third book in this series.  I CAN'T WAIT!  WOO HOO!  It's funny how some parts of this book are very loosely based on Bigfork, and other parts are totally recognizable.  Like this blurb, from page 17:

I slipped on shiny-bright silver earrings and a pair of silver bangles that
danced across the three colored stars tattooed on my left wrist.

Y'all have seen my tattoos, right?  The three colored stars on my left wrist?  Mmm-hmm.  When I read that sentence it made me really think about how writers must pilfer all kinds of little details from their own surroundings.  And although Leslie may know many, many people with three colored stars tattooed on their left wrists, I'm guessing these might be mine.  Awe.  Some.  Again.  Anyway, I'm on page 96 and so far it's a good read.

So here is poodle:

My sweet girl.  In the top picture she looks like she is all ribs, and in the bottom picture she looks like she has no neck.  She's perfect.

I painted something new.  (SHOCK!  SURPRISE!)  Here it is:

It's 40" wide and 5.25" high.

Unless I suddenly come up with something better, this will be my contribution to the show we are having at work in five days.  It's a book signing for Leslie and an artists' reception.  Here, it's this:

I know my painting isn't specifically Bigfork-themed, but Leslie's book is about ... well, here is the first paragraph on the back of the book:

The town of Jewel Bay, Montana - known as A Food Lovers' Village - is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare.  So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies.  But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead....

"Homegrown" makes me think farmers' market which makes me think community gardens which makes me think of a riot of colorful flowers.  Hence the painting.  It still needs a name.

I have a crafty project to work on today, and hopefully more painting.  And at least three miles with poodle when it cools down a bit.  Nobody has been answering the phone at my parents' house so I can't check on my dad.  I'm assuming no news is good news on that front.  And while I'm thinking positively, I'm going to buy lottery tickets today and win big bucks.  Yes I am.  (I'll let you know tomorrow how that works out for me.)

Slowly but Surely

I'm still trying to get my painting mojo back, so I'm starting slow and easy.  With this project:

HA!  Those suckers used to be green.  They have been living under the deck down at the house for about six years.  At least.  I will be having more house guests next month and, in an effort to provide a place for them to actually sit down, I resurrected these chairs with two cans of red spray paint made specifically for plastic.  I took the picture from far away because a) it looked cool, and b) you really don't want to see the chairs up close.  As I said in my facebook status about a week ago, getting even coverage with a can of spray paint isn't in my skill set.  I might be painting a table and four chairs, so I will take my sister Ann's advice:  lots of light coats.  I do love the look of bright red with all the greenery, though.  Purty.

Here's a painting I did that isn't very good:

I've been debating whether to show it to you, but finally decided you are going to get the bad with the good.  This is my interpretation of Dockstader Island here in Bigfork, but I need to loosen it up a bit.  Some of the painting I really like.  These two bits, for instance:

As a whole, the painting is too tight.  I'm trying again.  In fact, I've got four paintings in the works right now.  I've been an emotional wreck the past few days, so I'm countering that by concentrating my efforts on mastering my trifecta.  Poodle and I have gone running two days in a row, I've cut out all the crap food, and I'm working on my art.  All at the same time.  I have never been able to make this work, but I'm giving it my best shot right now.  Stay tuned - I hope to have some happy art to share soon.

Spontaneous Art Purchases

I'm all for spontaneous art purchases, especially if it is someone else purchasing one of my pieces (heh heh).  I did it myself just the other day.  If you have been following along here for a while, you will know that I have never posted pictures of artwork by any other artists.  I know, seems rude doesn't it.  Well that's about to change, because you HAVE to see my spontaneous art purchase.  It.  Is.  So.  Awesome.

It is a stunning glass bowl that looks like a nest, made by a local glass and metal artist here in Bigfork named Lee Proctor.  Lee makes some absolutely incredible pieces.  Check out his website here to see some of the commissioned pieces he has created, especially the larger-than-life sandhill cranes.  Really cool.

In other news, I had a pair of what I think were screech owls at my house last night.  They were definitely owls, but they were bigger than what Wikipedia says to expect from screech owls, and they made the strangest noises.  I didn't get any pictures because it was practically dark out.  Maybe they will be back again today.

In still other news, I finally painted something.  Here it is:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Yes, I painted those.  They are little wooden pegs we are going to use in our latest shadowbox project at work.  They will be used to hold a very decorative, intricately beaded necklace in place.  The client wears the necklace frequently, but it is too delicate to throw into a jewelry box, so we are building a shadowbox she can hang on the wall that opens.  The necklace will be strategically placed on the wooden pegs.  It will be a work of art.  We so smaht.

I truly intend to paint something at home soon.  Maybe today.  I'm in a slump with everything right now and need to jolt myself out of it.  I suspect my next painting project may involve spray paint and plastic Adirondack chairs, but it's a start.