Quick and good: Mary's Brownies

I'm counting moments; I want to make art and I want to eat deliciousness. I used to make great things and lose them in a maelstrom of recipe clippings, never to be seen again. And many times I would add this or that -- make changes and improvements without noting it. I am learning -- late indeed! -- to get organized.  I'm really paying attention to recipes we love. I'm going to add the label Quick for good food that is quick. Now, I'm going to draw!

Mary's brownies

Melt together:
1 C. butter
2/3 C. cocoa

Mix in:
4 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
*May also add 1 tsp. instant espresso.

Then mix in:
2 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix just until combined. Pour into 9" x 13" pan or two 8" x 8" pans. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

Variations:
1. Mix the brownie dough with 1 C. salted, roasted peanuts, or more -- to taste. When brownies are cool, top with 1 C. peanut butter mixed with 1/2 C. powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Let that cool and harden and then top with 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted with 2 T. butter and then mixed with 2 T. cream.
2. When cool, ice with 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted with 2 T. butter and then mixed with about 1/2 C. powdered sugar and a little cream -- enough to make it spread easily.
3.When brownies are cool, top with cream cheese filling:

Mix together:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 C. confectioners' sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon

Chill, then top with the glaze in # 1. 

Ask the Word Bird

Maybe the Word Bird knows.
I copied  a magnified bird (chickadee?)
then added detail using words I heard around me

At a workshop on drawing birds last week at Thomasville Center for the Arts,  I sat next to a fellow artist. She told me she does watercolors. I told her I make art quilts. Her face grew quizzical. She asked me something like, "You mean you make a big quilt and hang it on the wall?"

"No," I said, 'not exactly."

She doesn't speak my language. I'm beginning to realize hardly anyone does. When a professional artist doesn't have an inkling of what an art quilt is, it's time to pay attention.

"Be sure to come to the opening of the next show at Grassroots," I told her. "I'll show you." (I hope to have a piece accepted in the next Thomasville show ... but if I don't, I'll take some art quilts and show her anyhow.)

Some artists call it "the Q-word." Quilt. They prefer to describe their work as fabric collage, or mixed media. Indeed, that's what quilting is. But I had stubbornly convinced myself to continue saying I make art quilts; thanks to my new artist friend, I see that most people wonder what an art quilt could possibly be. And I'm afraid they will turn away before I have a chance to explain.

Susan Shie of Wooster, Ohio, calls her quilts  "soft art." She emphasizes she's artist first, quilter second. Yet she, and many others, proudly sew their art.

I'm a language person. I pride myself on clarity. Yet I have been insisting on using a confusing term -- not making any sense in the important issue of self-definition. How could I be so slow? And what am I, Word Bird?

Happy

It's strange I named this piece Happy, because it started a dismal black and brown. It was making me morose, so I changed the background to my favorite color -- turquoise. From that moment, I loved making this. I got inspiration from 

the French Impressionist painter Bernard Lorjou (1908-1986).

Here's a peek into my process of making Happy. Sorry, I don't have any photos of that bleak black and brown starting point!

Happy
32" x 24"
cotton, organza, silk, paint and thread

Above is my work table with the turquoise cotton being stenciled with white paint. I love doilies and use them whenever I can.
Below, the fabric after stenciling

 Above, trying out sheers for the vase. The background is a piece of silk painted pale pink.

 Maybe it's the messy in me, but I love the stitching on the back, above and below.

Choosing thread

Above and below, Happy detail

Thank you for being here!

Cherry pie

Ana asked me to make her a cherry pie. It was a written request -- a tiny note, complete with her drawing of a lattice-topped pie. She even taped a tiny flower to the side. I could not resist, and now two pies, complete with woven tops, are in the oven. 

Cherries do not abound here as they did near the Great Lakes in summertime long ago. I remember Grandma Krumm's line of cherry trees, and how we kids would hang upside down from the branches, picking the tart red fruit, spitting the seeds on the ground. In my memory our faces are all squinched up with the sourness. I remember cherry pies that were too juicy, with a soggy bottom crust.

Thanks to Google and Pinterest I might get it right this time. I bought two big bags of frozen cherries, mixed sweet and dark, at Whole Foods. A friend said she found canned tart cherries at Publix, but I couldn't find them at the Lake Ella store (Yes, I asked). Amazon will send them, but I was too impatient even for Amazon.

Yesterday I made the crust and a cooked -- thickened -- filling.  This is a combination of my own and my mother's recipes and the online sources listed below. 

Cherry Pie (for one pie)

4 C. frozen cherries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 C. sugar (I used one cup, since there were sweet cherries too.)
1/8 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract

Place 4 cups frozen cherries over medium heat. After a few minutes, when cherries have given up considerable juice, remove from heat. Mix the sugar with the cornstarch. Add to the hot cherries and mix well. Add almond extract and  lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water. If too thin, add a little cornstarch. I didn't do either.

Spoon into an 8" or 9" pie crust. Make a lattice top, as described in the crust recipe below. Brush the crust with beaten egg white (oops! I forgot to beat it.) Sprinkle sugar on top. Bake on foil-covered baking sheet to catch drips. Bake 20 minutes at 425°. Lower temperature to 375°. Cover the edges with crimped foil to prevent burning and bake another 30-40 minutes. (My pies still have about 10 minutes to cook.)

Remove from the oven when the crust is browned and the middle of the pies are bubbly.

Useful  sites

http://artfulparent.com/2012/03/best-cherry-pie-recipe-ever.html
This has photos that show steps in crust-making
http://blog.kitchenaid.com/ten-tips-perfect-homemade-pies/

Never Fail Pie Crust (from site above ... Mom's recipe is similar. She used shortening.)

(makes 4 single crusts)

4 cups flour
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup butter
1 T.  vinegar
1 egg
1/2 cup water

Mix flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter with a fork or your fingers or a food processor.
In a separate bowl mix vinegar, egg, and water. Add it to the flour mixture, stirring with a fork until moistened. Use your hands to mold into 4 equal balls. The dough may be frozen and thawed for future use.
When ready to bake a pie, flour your surface and roll the crust starting from the middle and moving out, till it’s about 2 inches larger than the size of your pie dish. 
Gently roll your dough into a loose log or around your rolling pin. Lay it in the pan, unroll the crust, and gently fit it in-place–don’t pull or tug on the crust. Trim the uneven edges, leaving about a 1-inch overhang. Tuck the overhang under on the edge of the pan. Then use your fingers to flute the edges. If you want a lattice crust, roll out another piece of dough to a circle a little bigger than the pie pan. Make strips with a pizza cutter or knife. My strips are about 3/4" wide. Put them on the top, weaving over and under until finished, then crimp the top edges into the rest of the pie. 

Eyes wide open: Wings

Birds, etc. 

My sketchbook, files -- and favorite poems too -- have a recurring theme of wings: words, books, hope, bridges -- all in some way are wings. Lately I am looking at birds, and find them not so simple. Crowded at the feeder outside our kitchen window, they seem to sense when I'm on the other side of the glass with my sketchbook: Away they fly, before I can catch the curve of a tiny shoulder. (Birds do have shoulders, don't they?)

"I'm having trouble with bird legs," I said to Ana, who is in first grade. "I'm not sure where to put them." 

"In the middle," she said, looking at me like how could I be so stupid. 

Maybe after tonight I'll begin to get it. I'm going to a Jay Snodgrass (a poet artist) workshop on drawing birds at the Thomasville Center for the Arts. 

Wings that inspire me:

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike)

Book with wings, Anselm Kiefer, Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth. Lead, tin and steel.

"Hope is the thing with feathers" -- Emily Dickinson

My Pinterest page on Wings

Red makes me happy

Last night I was grumpy. I hadn't touched paint or fabric all day. Guess I'm hooked on making stuff.

Today was different. I bought Gina Lee Kim's first Art Lesson from Interweave Press, and learned some tips for working the warm spectrum with watercolors. If I were serious, watercolor would scare me, but I'm not, so it's fun. All my forays down art's many avenues are for making me a better, sharper and more sensitive art quilter. But I'm loving this splashing around in colored water.

One thing painters know is to be careful mixing colors. Mixing hues on opposite sides of the color wheel makes mud.

Tip One: Because Kim is a multimedia artist, she can stick to related colors, painting yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple -- adding complements with other media. This avoids making paint mud.

2. Draw with an oil stick. It resists paint.

3. A glaze is adding color on top of dried color. It intensifies things.

4. Watercolor dries about 25% lighter.

5. Dropping color means adding a new pigment to a wet spot.

The text is from Rumi --

Welcome and entertain them all

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture.