Black Beans and Flan

Retrieving what I loved but abandoned: Poetry for its own sake. Ballet. Luckily, there's a beginners' class nearby, with Juliana -- such an ennobling teacher. (I wanted to take ballet when I was 10, but my parents said they couldn't afford lessons for all 5 of us, so none could have them. Made sense then.) I also loved to read, & loved color. And meditating -- call it resting!! I've been sitting peacefully for 10-20 minutes a day in the New Year. Oddly, it makes me more jumpy than before. I'm guessing it's a phase.

Also: casual hospitality. Last night, with 4 friends. They brought salad & fruit. Clark smoked meat & I made black beans. Here's the recipe, but first you must promise to sort the beans. I love the sound of them plinking into a white plate, then sliding into a pot to be rinsed. Yesterday I caught two bean-sized stones.

Black Beans

2 C. dry black beans

2 tsp. salt

olive oil

4 medium onions, finely chopped (or 2 bags of frozen, chopped onions.)

1 green pepper, chopped (or 1 bag of frozen, chopped green pepper. You can also mix red & green pepper.)

3 cloves garlic, mashed

1 tsp. cumin seed, crushed (Ground cumin, is OK, but for sharper flavor grind whole seeds with mortar & pestle. Last night I used ground.)

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

juice of 1/2 lemon

Pick over, rinse, soak & cook the black beans in water with 2 tsp. salt.

Sauté the onion & pepper in olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic & cook a minute more. Add cumin, oregano, & mustard, & cook another minute or 2, stirring so the spices don't burn. Salt it a little. Add the tomatoes & simmer for a while, stirring occasionally & adding water if it's getting dry. Yesterday I cooked it about an hour, but you can cook it much less. Just simmer until you like it or until the time runs out. Then add the stewed black beans with a little of their cooking liquid & salt. If you add more liquid you have black bean soup. Cook until you like the way it tastes -- sometimes just 5 minutes; yesterday was about an hour. You can go slow or fast. After you add the beans, mash some of them so you have a thick soup. You can use a potato masher, but I recommend an immersion blender. Before serving, add lemon juice to taste. Serve with rice & chopped onions. Some people also like sour cream &/or chopped cilantro.

I was going to make a chocolate dessert, but something stopped me. Made flan instead. This recipe is from Margarita Zayas, who was our neighbor in Miami.

Margarita's Flan

Make a caramel by melting 1/2 C. sugar with 2 1/2 T. water in a small pan over medium heat. Be patient! Wait until it's brown, but not burnt. Pour that into a bread pan,* tilting it to cover the entire bottom. Then mix 1 can evaporated milk, 3 C. whole milk, 3/4 C. sugar, dash salt, 4 beaten eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour that over the carmel. Put the pan into a larger pan with water in it that goes halfway up the bread pan. Bake at 350° an hour or more, until the custard is set. Chill thoroughly, then turn the pan upside down on a platter so the custard is surrounded by carmel.

*I used glass custard cups instead, & did not turn them upside down for serving. It's comforting to have your own cup of custard, I think.

Kitchen -- where the family meets

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I needed a book to enjoy. A friend gave me this, with a hopeful, half-hearted rating. I did read it to the end, so it kept me tagging along on the winding ways of a Minnesota family. Sometimes I got the people confused, and it's definitely not about the warm-hearted deliciousness of family. But at the end of the novel I read the author's acknowledgements; the last paragraph thanking his mom made me a dedicated fan, and now I look forward to J. Ryan Stradal's next book!


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Saturday new normal

Dear Family and Friends,
It's hot but no flames in Sacramento. We are fine. Everything smells like smoke -- even my dreams. I don't like the color of the air -- yellowish gray from ash. It is worse all around us. My friend Susan in San Jose said lightening storms there were terrifying -- explosive light bouncing through blackness, flinging from mountain to mountain with no sound of thunder or relief of rain, and seemingly no letup.

The Thursday farmers market had dwindled and then it was coming back to life, but last week there were fewer stalls -- Zing! and I saw it as people were setting up. The strawberry stall was still there, but the baker and mideastern food truck that I like were not. We didn't go back at lunchtime.  It's too hot anyway in the middle of the day. California heat is like an oven, while Florida is like a steam bath.

Zing! and I walk only a block or so morning and evening, with even less at 3 p.m. It's too hot. But at 10 this morning we went to Capital Books at 9th and K Streets. We walked inside, they handed me the bag of books I'd ordered and then we walked out. I glanced at a few books on display but didn't touch them.

We passed the Capitol on the way back. I have been almost angry at them for locking the fence up some time ago. It was the exact opposite of the warm welcome I felt the first time I went into the Capitol building. The guard at the top of the steps welcomed me with a genuine smile and said it's the people's building. Today there was a demonstration for child victims of sex trafficking. They were playing "Love is all you Need" as Zing and I left the grounds. I didn't take a photo, but I saw the Capitol uses handcuffs to lock up the gate. It was open and the cuffs were dangling as we walked back home.

I've been confused by all the communication opportunities. But people wonder what it's like here, and this is the way I see it.

Love,
k

Figured it out ... for now

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li


Yiyun Li’s fertile mind does not yield a simple crop. She gave me here a tangle of flowering reality all messed up in bitter weeds. She is honest, but not clear. She can’t be — these eight essays are about trying to make sense of things. A Chinese scientist- turned esteemed American writer, Li looks at her life through the lens of literature. She wonders and wanders like a writer, then she analyzes like a scientist. It’s about identity and Mother — family, country, language, profession. And it’s about her choice in each. Throughout, Li grapples with the ultimate choice — whether to live or die. She has come close.


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Looking toward the light

Dear Family and Friends,

I ruined a postcard by spilling some black paint on it. Oddly, the mistake spoke to me. I saw a tree silhouette, and here it is. I painted the sky and cut out the bird in tiny pieces from a scrap of cotton I painted long ago.  (In reality the black looks blacker.) I like it -- best mistake I made today!

Love,

k

Bird

4" x 6"

multi-media

I prefer blooms

Dear Family and Friends,
This morning I came across the term doomscrolling, and I think I do it -- obsessively reading the bad news. I'm not sure I can stop. Maybe I don't even want to. I've been addicted to news since I was a kid, but I don't think it ever affected my mental state so long and deep as now. Maybe I shouldn't read online news sites for two hours each morning. (Yes! I do that!)

... on the other side of my brain, I paint.

Have you been doomscrolling?

Love,
k

Bright thoughts

8" x 8"

acrylic 

More class notes

1. Drawing with high-flow acrylic (or not)

High flow acrylic paint is almost like ink, except its pigment is ground fine rather than dissolved. It has the characteristics of watercolor, but it is water-resistant when it dries. I didn't have high flow acrylic, so I used Higgins Black India Ink. It is better to draw with the high flow because the images are stable. I didn't add watercolor to my drawings -- if I had the drawing lines would get smeared.

Esté calls this theme haberdashery, which in England means sewing-related. Dilute your paint with up to 50% water. Write the ABC's. Turn the letters into something sewing-related.

2. How to make pink with  red paint

Paint

Magenta

Pyrrole Red

Alizarin Crimson

Burnt Sienna

Quin Gold Deep

Pointed Mop Brush

Paint blossoms petal by petal. You can use the brush, your fingers, or even a mushroom. (I didn't have mushrooms, but this appeals to me.) First paint with water, then add a little paint, maybe two rosy colors, and dab it up with a paper towel. You can also dilute the paint with water and apply directly. Add details with the gold, yellow and brown BEST  after the flowers have dried.

If you want to add stems, try to mix Paynes Graywith Hansa Yellow to make a sage green.

3. Using matte medium  and learning to make good purple

Paints

Pyrrole Red

Alizaron Crimson

Magenta

Ultramarine

Pthalo Blue

Matte medium
mop brush
fan brush
dagger brush

Primary red + primary blue = flat maroon

Crimson + Ultramarine + rich purple

Magenta is essential for vibrant purple

Make teardrop paisley shapes with the mop brush.

Use the fan and dagger brushes to add texture.

Cut these shapes out and make them into stencils.

There was more to this lesson, but I didn't enjoy it and I don't like what I ended up with. Maybe I'll show you -- don't have a photo now.

The next two projects didn't inspire me, so I didn't do them. * I must have been in a low place for three days. That's easy to do with an online class offering no credit and where you don't have to look the teacher in the face. Here are my notes, and I hope I straighten up and complete the projects soon! They sound enchanting now.
*Now, a month later, I'm working on them.

4. Drawing lace, controlling that pen

1. Make lacy designs using  repeated letters of the alphabet. Practice with a fine liner -- a pen with water-resistant ink that will not smear when used with watercolor layering -- or dip pen with black acrylic ink or diluted high flow paint. See how different letters and different angles change the outcome. Move the paper around. (I think I'd like doing this! Maybe I was grumpy because I've read about lacemakers in France going blind with their work.)
2. Now get serious and cover a sheet of watercolor paper with black high flow mixed with matte medium. You shouldn't need more than a teaspoon of high flow. Esté says you can cover up a piece you don't like -- my purple paisley will see a second life!)

3. Draw lace like you practiced, using white high flow. Esté says don't dilute the white. She says you can expect it to dry on the pen, so wash the point it off regularly.

5. Making rounded shapes on flat paper or
 Tone gradations = dimension 

Paints
reds and yellows
Brushes: flat and mop

*Artist's Tip: Use separate brushes for acrylic  and watercolor.

Paint bulbous forms -- as for Christmas ornaments -- with flat brush. Start on edge, paint toward middle. Use a few colors. Add the white high flow in the center., while watercolor is still wet. But don't mix them!

6. Making paper lanterns that really glow:

Did you ever think of painting with an onion?

This spring I took two of Esté MacLeod's online watercolor classes. Not only is she a delightful artist, she is an effective online teacher, and I recommend her classes.  These notes are for me, and they might inspire you as well. I want to remember what I learned -- many techniques apply to acrylic and other media as well as watercolor.

1. Wet on wet

Paint
Nickel Azo Yellow -- vibrant and transparent
Hansa Yellow -- opaque, so good for final details
Paynes Grey for shading under the fruit.

1. Draw a berry lightly if you like. Eventually skip this step.
2. Use a pointed mop brush to create a watery form. Sop up some water with paper towel. Avoid the areas where leaves will go.
3. Apply paint, red and yellows t, to see how they react with one another.
4. You can also print a strawberry shape, even using a berry cut in half.
5. Add leaves.

2. Handwriting and dip pen to create texture and shape 

Pineapple

Qunacridone gold deep and yellow ochre

1. Write the word pineapple or some other words to create the texture of a pineapple. Connect all the letters in rows that are close together. You can write sideways too. 
2. Use a dip pen with watercolor diluted with water. 

3. Pattern, masking, & printing with an onion!

Wet Paper

Stamping with Q-tip, TP roll, green onions!

Masking Fluid

Ultramarine, Pthalo blue, Paynes gray

fan and dagger brushes

Stamp with paint shapes in rows, Use vegetables, q-tips, 

Stamp with masking fluid

Dry completely.

Paint on top. 

Remove masking fluid when the paint on top of it is dry. 

Also, paint lines of water on the paper, leave for a few minutes so it gets absorbed. Dab paint on. Watch the paint flow.

When masking fluid is removed you can add more paint to the white parts.

Numbers inspire leaves and plants

4. Positive and negative shapes

Carbon copy paper for texture

1. Write the numbers 1 to 9
2. Turn the numbers into simple leaves, bigger than an inch. 
3. Pick out favorites.
4. Draw these again on a piece of paper. 
5. Put the carbon paper face down on sketchbook and go ver the outlines of the leaves so there is a template of shapes in the sketchbook.
6. Duplicate these shapes and cut them out.
7. Arrange on blank page into a symmetrical plant shape. No overlapping!
8. Place carbon paper on top of the plant shape laid out in separate paper forms. 
9. Create a texture to cover the entire area. Can use your nails, pencil, stone, wood, fork...
10. Lift carbon paper and stencil to reveal plant shape. 
11. Paint the textured background.
12. Create a stencil on one piece of paper to be used as a negative and positive shape.

5. Printed Wreath

Printing with potatoes, latex sponge

Yellows, viridian green, pthalo blue, paynes gray, red for accent

Mop brush

1. Draw a light circle, using dinner plate.
2. Print  a wreath of leaves clockwise. Use the leaf shapes cut into potatoes. 
3. Apply paint to potatoes with a mop brush.
4. Build up color: start with light colors and gradually add more layers.
5. Mask sections that will be printed over. 
6. Add details with designs painted onto a sponge, or paint directly onto the paper. May use dip pen.

6. Roundup: Tree of Life 

I didn't do this one yet...

Use some of the above techniques to create a tree. 

Keep it simple and then develop further. 

Draw in sketchbook for starters. 

Also may mix white acrylic High Flow with Paynes Gray, brown and a bit of red (for soft gray color) to create an opaque gouache.

#explorecolour

. 

Patrice's Spaghetti Bolognese

Wonderful how some things taste even better now!

Patrice and Mary and I were talking about food on our Sunday Zoom and I told Patrice that her long-ago Spaghetti Bolognese recipe is still fabulous. I made it last week, substituting Italian chicken sausage for the beef-pork-veal. Mary asked for the recipe.

Patrice's Spaghetti Bolognese
Serves 4

3 T. butter
4 slices bacon, chopped (I used a little less)
1 stalk celery
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 T. (olive) oil
1/3 pound ground beef
1/3 pound ground pork
1/3 pound ground veal
1/2 C. white wine
2 C. good beef stock
3 T. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried oregano
grated nutmeg (fresh is best)
salt and pepper to taste
1 C. heavy cream (I used less -- Really!)
1 pound spaghetti
fresh-grated Parmesan cheese

1. Melt butter. Sauté bacon, onion, celery. Cook uncovered, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Set aside.( I crisped the bacon then put the pieces on a plate, added a little butter and sautéed the onion and celery in it until softened.) Put all on a plate.

2 Brown the meat, then add wine. Cook on high until most of wine evaporates. Add salt and pepper, reserved vegetables and bacon, beef stock, tomato paste, oregano and nutmeg.

3.  Simmer partially covered until reduced to a thick sauce (40-60 minutes).

4. Just before serving add all or some of the cream. Heat until it's warm, but do not boil.

5. Serve on spaghetti on hot plates with some grated Parmesan.

6. Good with antipasto and good bread,

Signs of life

What's growing around us? 

Here, this week:

May 13, 2020
Never heard of Nigellas
They made my Full Belly Farm bouquet
I buy flowers every other week
Different from Trader Joe's generic lovelies

May 22, 2020
Zing! and I strolled in Oak Park
carrying chocolate croissants from Faria Bakery
You stand on the sidewalk,  say your number
and wait to be served

May 23, 2020
If I draw them will they grow?
Mint is on my north-facing balcony
oregano wants more sun

x 

Farm in a box

Dear Family and Friends,

I've been learning about watercolor in an online class with Este MacLeod. I used to just splash paint onto my drawings, but now I can be more purposeful if I want. Here is one of the beets in today's CSA box, which I get every Wednesday afternoon. The pickup point is someone's front porch in East Sacramento. Whenever I go there's rarely anyone else around -- just a stack of boxes and some flowers in a bucket. I transfer everything from my box to a bag, sign my name. and leave. I love getting to know what's fresh and growing nearby. Today it was beets, onions, little potatoes, chard,  bitter greens and strawberries. They come from Full Belly Farm. 

Also, don't you love that today is May 20, 2020?
Love,

k

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Don’t Read Poetry

Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems by Stephanie Burt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this once and then I read it again. It’s a library book; the library has stopped taking books back for now, due to Covid-19, so after it had been sitting on my table for awhile I decided to read it a second time. The first time I thought it was disjointed, but now the pieces begin to come together. I’m glad to know Stephanie Burt. She’s an influential poet-critic-professor but she’s not writing from a high place. She often writes in first person, and she addresses the reader directly. She doesn’t offer complete poems with commentary. Rather, she shows ways poems can please (6 categories— feeling, character, technique, difficulty, wisdom, community) and offers pieces of poems from many eras as examples. The book is a guide and invitation to finding poems you like, with assurance that the more you know of poetry the more you will like and sometimes love.


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Mystery of the Capitol Cake

Dear Family and Friends,
Yesterday morning Zing! and I were the only ones on Capitol Mall so we decided to walk down the middle, on the lawn, not the sidewalk. After a few steps we came upon a cake sitting silently amid  the dandelions -- double layer, frosted and studded with strawberries. It looked like one slice was missing, although that part had melted into itself. We circled it as if it was a wild thing -- it was real and strange. Zing! didn't try to eat any and neither did I. Maybe it was an offering to the gods. We didn't want to mess with it. This morning there was no trace of cake.

Are you stumbling on such wondrous surprises?
Love,
k

Zing! and the Capitol Cake

Talking and painting and hardly alone

Dear Family and Friends,

I just left a Zoom conversation with my friend Lesley in Philadelphia. The app intimidated me at first,
And here are the last two pieces I painted in Este MacCloud's online watercolor class.

Love,
k

#exploreshapes
#quarantine

12" x 16"
I have to give Este MacCloud credit for this countryside scene. I was practicing techniques -- the scene is hers

10" x 14"
Este MacCloud also directed this picture; it feels more like me than the one above

Doing great, Right?

People ask me how I'm doing and I say Great, but there's a rumbling underneath that reply, like earth before a quake. I feel the uncertainty. Is it the same for you?

Here are some photos, including more paintings from the watercolor class.  I'm still working on the final project, a simple landscape.

Mixed media
10" x 14"

Watercolor
10" x 14"

The golden poppy is California's state flower
It's blooming now
This is near the American River

Zing! this morning on Capitol Mall

A neighbor left this thyme plant at my door today

Painting keeps me off the streets

Hi!
I've been taking a three-week online class about watercolor. The artist-teacher is Este MacLeod, and I am learning plenty. As a retired teacher, I can see that MacLeod has got this online class stuff down perfectly. I signed up for it before the little world-wide breather we're all taking, and timing couldn't be more perfect. Keeps me busy and off the streets.

Here are some pieces I've painted in the last two weeks. The class is about materials and technique, so I'm really just following Este's directions. She encourages free gesture, putting aside the inner critic, and having fun -- all the while layering colors, working with wetness, and getting to know different  brushes.

Love,
k
#exploreshapes  #explorecolour

26 hats

26 mushrooms

weaving letters

my favorite so far

Love this kind of graceful azalea 

supposed to resemble Polish embroidery

The sun

my second-favorite so far

Taking it easy with Zing!

Dear Friends,

Zing! is still slightly groggy, sleeping on the turquoise daybed where I am typing. Friday he had a little white growth removed from his right eye. He’s been grumpy ever since because he’s trapped in one of those cone collars to protect the stitches. He grumbled all the way home from the vet and one minute after we got home he had pawed it off his head. Then he sat in my lap and let me put it back on. By now I think he’s resigned to it. We’ve got two weeks of this!

I’m taking a course called Mindful Self-Compassion, led by a married couple who are therapists. We’re learning ways to be gentle with ourselves — the first step is to realize we often talk to ourselves critically. So, give yourself a break and everything gets better!

I was surprised there are more than 30 people of all ages in the class, and maybe a fourth are men. 

Here are some drawings from the past few days. I love them even though they’re messy — The idea is to look at your subject, not at your paper. It’s actually fun.

Love,

k

I've been drinking more tea lately
with honey

Green velvet chair

Paint on studio table

A longer break than planned

Dear Friends,
It’s not that nothing has happened, it’s just that I’ve stopped writing about it. I’ve been on a longer break than planned. 
From these 3+ years of sending blogs to you I’ve learned so much:
1. You are with me. 
2. Most days are interesting, in a good way. 
3. Some are not. 


I’m going to continue, though not daily, maybe weekly.  Things are evolving.  There are so many ways to communicate. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Love,
k

Here are some recent pictures:

Flowers at Patrice and Jay's
Patrice loves color and it shows
Key Biscayne
Christmas Eve

Blue vases on a shelf in my bedroom at Key Biscayne

Papyrus by the pool
Key Biscayne

San Diego
I think this view is from near the zoo
I went to San Diego last month with my neighbor Sandy
Our old neighbors Kate and Jack led us on a great tour of the city

Kate painted this watercolor of Zing!

Deep Creek

Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got this book because Pam Houston is speaking at the Stories on Stage event soon here in Sacramento. Then I found out she is a writing professor at nearby UC Davis. And then I found out she is a highlight of a writers' conference in Grass Valley in the hills soon. I signed up for both events and finished the book yesterday. I've got to admit I skipped a few pages, but when I finished I certainly love Houston. She simply states some troubling family issues and swiftly skims her love life. It's all as if she means it anyway. What her writing means most is that she loves her Colorado acreage and animals, and by the end you kind of do too.


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The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian  Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got more spirit here than at church. Brian Doyle doesn’t preach about wine or anything else, but reading this connected me to deep mystery and kindness. And to learning about how pinot noir is made. (less)


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Delicious days: week 2

Delicious and simple

Saturday

Chicken

I've made this before and should make it often. It's easy, delicious.

Buy chicken breasts with bread crumbs and Parmesan already on them. Brown in olive oil. Pour some good Italian sauce from the store over them. Cook over low-medium heat until the pink center is gone. 10-15 minutes. Serve with noodles and spinach sauteéd with garlic and olive oil.

Sunday

I forget!

Monday

Salmon

I made salmon from week #1. It's great -- want to be able to make it by heart. It's fine. I had it with stir-fried rice: olive oil, one red pepper (from Costco today), two green onions, chopped. First sauté pepper until soft. Then add green onions. Then rice and a cube of NYTimes special green sauce. My favorite stir-fry so far. Could eat it once a week.

Tuesday

Chicken and polenta

Leftovers 

I cut the leftover chicken breast from Saturday into bite-sized pieces and mixed this with leftover polenta. Topped it with Parmesan and, since I had some cream in the refrigerator, poured some cream over. Cover with foil and warm in 350 oven.  With frozen spinach.