Judy's Spanish rice

I only had red peppers, so this photo is brilliantly monochromatic.
See the saffron in the little mortar: I pounded it with 1 tsp. salt and then added a little white wine to intensify  flavor.
Tonight I'm using 13 ounces of grouper and shrimp, combined, and 1 cup rice and 2 cups liquid.

Judy's Spanish Rice

Dear Mary,
Here's the rice recipe we were talking about last week. I updated it slightly since I first blogged about it.

(Our cousin Judy married Lou, who was Spanish. She got this recipe from his family. It is a quick paella.) This is the way Judy told it to me -- with a few digressions:

1. Sauté five  (yes!) cloves of garlic, chopped, in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. When it's light brown, toss in 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper, chopped. Salt lightly. Cook a couple of minutes. The peppers will soften during the rest of the cooking. (I prefer the flavor of 2 red peppers.)
2. Add 1 pound shrimp or cut-up snapper or uncooked chicken and 1 1/2 C. rice. Stir so that everything is covered with garlic oil. 
3. Add about 3 cups water or water/white wine/chicken broth mixed, a pinch of crushed saffron, prepared as indicated under the photo, and salt to taste. (I use 1 1/2 t. for three cups liquid, and wine:broth about 1:4. ) If you want it to be soupy, use more liquid. Put the lid on and simmer about 15 minutes, until rice is cooked. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through. It will be if your pieces are bite-sized. 
4. I recently read that you should let rice sit with the lid on for 10-15 minutes after it is cooked ... gets fully fluffed that way, or something ... 

This is so good. And I lucked into a delicious accompaniment: Cook and drain some frozen or fresh spinach. (In the refrigerator I had some leftover chopped spinach already cooked.) Lightly brown one clove garlic in a little butter, add the spinach and cook over medium heat just so it warms.  Stir in a little heavy cream and fresh-grated Parmesan. 

Ohio in late fall

Dublin, Ohio

last week

Maple tree behind someone's house

We woke up to wet snow one morning. I think this is a flowering crab apple, seen through screen of sunroom
Sunroom?

Deep lessons in digital photography

Sunshine Alterations
 in our neighborhood
taken for digital photography class

I took Charles Badland's digital photography class at LeMoyne Gallery so I can photograph my art and enter shows. I learned a few more basic lessons as well:

• A good camera takes better pictures.
• Take my camera everywhere.
• Take extra batteries too.
• Read the manual.
• Take lots of photos.
• All those aperture and speed options make sense if I spend time using them.
• Photos make me see. 

I still need practice photographing my art. Here are two sites that will help:
Shoot that quilt
Artcall for entries. Tells how to resize photos using Photoshop and has basic photo guidelines from Maria Elkins

I want to help Mary, who makes window treatments. Her photos tend to emphasize the bright window more than the lovely drapes. When I see her we'll explore:

HDR
High Dynamic Range -- a setting that takes three photos of the same subject, then combines the results into a single photo with the best light balance. Badland said he thinks the newest iPhones have this option.

Lupine love

I never saw a lupine, yet I fell in love with them when I read the picture book Miss Rumphius,  the story of an adventurous woman who added beauty to the world by planting lupines. Miss Rumphius helped me make this  12" x 12" fabric collage, still in progress. It began when a friend in the Pacific Northwest got married carrying a bouquet of lupines. I wanted to  help her remember, but couldn't move on it because I wanted to see a real lupine first. I was sure I could find one, so I pulled in to Tallahassee Nurseries one day. I asked the right person -- she told me they don't sell lupines, but I could find an array of miniature lupines in a sandy field behind a truck stop on West Tennessee Street -- just not now. I think she said they bloom in spring. She said they need sandy soil and do not like to be transplanted. Our delicate  Florida lupines are miniature -- not like those in the wedding bouquet. They may be the same lupines that Florida artist Elizabeth Smith sketches here.  And here's a more scientific site from Oregon that gave me lots of lupine information. Finally I went to Barnes and Noble and bought Miss Rumphius. 

'  

Photo show at Capitol Building

Looking down Apalachee Parkway from the 22nd floor of the Florida Capitol Building

I've been meaning to see the view from the top of the Florida Capitol building, and when our digital photography teacher, Charles Badland (what a great name!) mentioned he's participating in a photo exhibit there, it was the perfect time. Go to the 22nd floor -- and you get a beautiful view. The exhibit of work by FSU MFA in photography graduates closes Oct. 31.

Barber, Deland, FL
M. Laine Wyatt
Archival digital inkjet print
(The blue sky is a reflection, not part of the photo -- but I love what it does! It is hard to avoid reflections because the gallery has generous windows to view the city. So the beautiful day is from over my shoulder and out the window, reflected on the protective glass of the photo.)

Collaging water

Kayak on Pine Island Sound

Really, the sky and water are this serene.

First, cut muslin 20" x 20".

Then paint it with white gesso.

Cover the gesso-ed muslin with fabrics and papers.

Paint it where it seems right.

I have learned to use separate palettes (I use paper plates.) for warm and cool colors 

to avoid making a muddy mix.

Here, a bit of paint

Add some sheer fabrics, like the lilac and turquoise torn strips of polyester organza. 

They curved naturally.

Make the prow of a kayak from fabric glued to buckram.

Here, silk that my Aunt Mary bought ages ago in Thailand and contemporary cotton.

I really like this pinky-red.

Place the kayak onto bottom of the piece, where it is in the guiding photo.

Ugh!

Maybe a sailboat?

Yes!

Last days for Rembrandt

Rembrandt leaves the FSU Museum Sunday.  The exhibit of his etchings, I mean. I kept planning to go -- and finally did on Thursday. It's the kind of thing I sometimes put off with good intentions -- and then miss entirely. If you're like that too, get over there quick!

Maybe the best thing about my visit was running into my friend Rosie, who told me she's from Rembrandt, Iowa, the only place in the U.S. named after the brilliant Dutch artist. Somehow, she deepened the whole experience for me. Rembrandt, born in 1606,  had impact.

But the etchings! Being a quilter, I appreciate a well-plaed line. Rembrandt is breathtaking in his use of strokes and curves, tight and far apart, for character and mood. One of the descriptions noted that he even seemed to indicate color through line.

Most of the pieces are small -- and all the more impressive for that. My favorite is two or three inches square. I think it is titled "Old man and woman."

Photo class: Making background blurred or detailed

Who dares call this butterfly common?

Upside down on the cardinal guard plant in our backyard

Shallow depth of field achieved through wide aperture and luck

Fast shutter speed stopped rivulet  running down  the blacktop where Miller Landing Road meets Lake Jackson
 

Same rainy morning at Lake Jackson
Fast shutter speed stopped the waves made from raindrops
(above and below)

I'm not sure how I got this, but I like the shadows, reflections, and underwater grass
It's a closeup, obviously, and probably fast shutter speed
It's hard to make notes while shooting

More water stopped with fast shutter speed on the way downhill

Pine trees at Phipps Park, via wide-angle lens and fast shutter speed.
This looking-through-the-wrong-end-of-a-bottle distortion may be a cliché , but I like it

Homely wildflower: shallow depth-of-field through wide aperture

Detail all the way back through fast shutter speed
(above and Lake Victoria, below)