The Genus Diospyros

AKA: Persimmons or Kaki(or Cachi)

There are a few trees in my downstairs neighbors yard and lucky for me...the hard to reach upper branches are accessible from just behind my wood pile!

I decided to have a little harvest time today and this is what I got.

A few are ripe enough to eat but the rest have some sitting around to do...let's hope the fruit flies don't come while I wait for ripeness. 

Persimmons have to be one of my favorite fruits. They tastes like pie filling. I really didn't know much about them until I moved to Italy and every fall/early winter time these huge orangey-red, ripe and extremely delicate and delicious fruits start popping up in markets and grocery stores. They are always in plastic containers so that they don't break before getting them home...mine never make it!

Well, now I do not have to worry because I can just pick them out of the tree.

Persimmons originate in the east and now grow all over the world. Italy, in 2005, was the 5th largest producer in of them in the world. China, Korea, and Japan as the top three and number 4 a hop over the ocean in Brazil. Oddly Japan's production has been going down through the years while most others continue to grow.

When I lived in Arkansas I remember a friend of mine finding a ripe persimmon on one of our walks around a lake. That was really my first taste and I loved it! I remember her telling me about cutting them open to see certain cutlery shapes inside. I just found on wikipedia that this is old Ozark folklore that if you find a spoon shape there will be snow, a fork is a mild winter, and a knife is a cold biting winter. 

I'm going to go cut my persimmon now!!

Dog's Life

What?! I've been art making? YES! 

Here is a painting that I have just started of a dog. Oddly, I went straight for the background and will be working more on the subject today. I usually try to work the whole thing all at the same time but yesterday it just didn't happen. I think I was subconsciously hesitating the long whispy fur.

I really like the photograph that was given to me for painting this dog so I am a lot more interested in painting it. The colors are fantastic and I think you will see that more in the finished piece.

My second bit to show is this thing that I made. I'm calling it a thing because to call it a mosaic would be a bit of an injustice...My friend is a mosaic maker. A really good one. I went to her studio to 'take some lessons'. I came up with this idea to make my dogs. I drew a simple drawing and then did the outline in mosaic.

I bought this plastic frame from Ikea and took out the glass. I used the glass to outline it's shape on a piece of wood and cut it out. I drew directly on the wood and one piece at a time I cut these little rock squares into the shapes needed and using a cement mixture glued them down. It is not as easy as it looks or sounds! And it took forever! 

This is what the hammer I used to break the stone pieces looks like together with this edge that sticks out of a log! 

Close up of the mosaic part, and icing like cement!

Now, once I finished the outline, I made up some cement mixtures, mixed in some colored powders and filled in the spaces. It was almost like icing a cake because I did use the tube thing at times! It didn't really turn out as great as I imagined. That's ok..it's only my first try. 

Close up of the claws! My friend made the claws for me...I couldn't have done it. 

If you want to see some real mosaics, go to her website: http://www.gessicafaelli.com/

She has travelled around making Mosaics in the USA and throughout Europe. 

If you would like a mosaic she can make it and send it to you! 

She even made the entryway floor to my house. 

Finally Done!

Just in time to *hopefully* dry and give to my father in law for Christmas. This painting that He asked for only maybe....5 to 6 months ago? 

This isn't my favorite painting I've ever done but it looks enough like the subject that it should make my father in law happy. He is quite the art critic, only I don't like his taste in art at all. (Good thing he doesn't speak English and/or read blogs!!)

He knows all the old famous artists of Florence- old as in from the 60's,70's, 80's. He was an avid collector and now says that there are no more good artists in Florence. 

For a wedding present he gave us one of what he says is the best painting from a man called Tirinnanzi.

He's famous for these Tuscan pastoral scene...stuff I'm not really into...

So...Let's hope he likes this painting! 

Holiday Drink

Mulled Apple Cider!!!

If you like the German Glühwein,(<--had to copy and paste to get the u with the dots!)

or mulled wine, than you will probably love mulled cider. 

I've made it twice this season and it is always a hit. 

Yesterday I just sort of loosely threw it together on what I could remember. 

I put my hard apple cider in a pot with cinnamon sticks, star anise, nutmeg, whole cloves, a vanilla bean sliced in two, juice from an orange, honey...and lots more honey because the cider I bought is not sweet!

My original recipe I took from Jamie Oliver's website(http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/incredible-mulled-cider) and it looks like this: 

• 2 litres good cider, such as Scrumpy
• 6 cloves
• 3 or 4 star anise
• ¼ nutmeg, finely grated into the pan
• 1 cinnamon stick 
• 1 vanilla pod, halved 
• juice of 1 orange 
• juice of 2 clementines
• juice and seeds from 1 pomegranate
• 4 or 5 tablespoons of caster sugar, to taste

There are my ingredients, but It wasn't quite flavorful enough like the one I had in the Santa Croce Christmas Market in Florence...So, I started to add more of these things:

Vanilla extract, powdered cinnamon, nutmeg, and powdered cloves. 

And probably more honey!

I forgot to take a picture when I was drinking it with friends but here is what was left. The vanilla beans still hanging out inside there. And for a little kick and a lot of extra good flavor, add some Brandy or Rum...maybe even Port. 

For my Huge Christmas party I made Mulled Cider as well but I used fresh organic apple juice that I juiced that morning. I didn't need to add as much honey at all, just a little spoon to bring out the flavors. I imagine a sweeter hard cider would work better than the one I used. 

Happy Holidays to All!!!

(All my 1 reader! hehehe)

Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy free Vegan Gingerbread House!

Yes, this gingerbread house is all of those things mentioned in the title and it taste good too!

I took my recipe from this website: http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2009/11/gf-gingerbread-house/

She also took her recipe from another website and changed a few of the ingredients.

Well, I also changed a few things and here is my revised version in blue:

Cake and Commerce’s Gingerbread Cookies

Yield: approximately 29 oz (822g)(I made a double batch)

• 1/2 C (4 oz) Jungle (Palm) Shortening or other trans-fat free vegetable shortening (used Crisco)(I used extra virgin coconut oil)
• 1/2 C Rapadura (used 1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar)( I used a brown sugar called Mascobado, I used 1/4 less sugar than it called for because last year I thought it was too sweet but the extra sugar does make the final cookie come out better, more soft and delicious)
• 1 T Maple Syrup (omitted since I used brown sugar) (I omitted because it's darn expensive in Italy!)

• 1/2 C Unsulphured Molasses
• 1/2 t Vanilla Extract

• 2-1/2 t Ground Ginger
• 1 t Cinnamon
• 1/2 t Fresh Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 t Ground Cloves
• 1-1/4 t Baking Soda
• 1/2 t Sea Salt
• 1 t Agar Powder (Iused 1 tsp. Xanthan Gum…but I have been wanting to try the agar since I first noticed it a year or so ago, maybe I will now!)(I went with the agar agar because I heard that xanthan is too hard on the stomach...however that didn't stop me from using it for the royal icing!)

• 1/2 C Teff Flour (Impossible to get in Italy so I just added more of the other flours)
• 3/4 C Light Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 C Brown Rice Flour
• 1/2 C Tapioca Flour
• 1/4 C Millet Flour

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 (or 325 in Convection oven).

Combine shortening, rapadura and maple (or in my case, brown sugar) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with a paddle until light and fluffy. Add in molasses and vanilla and continue to mix. (I messed up and just threw all the wet together and mixed. I don't think it changed anything)

Separately, combine all dry ingredients together. Add to the wet mixture. The dough will be crumbly at first but will soon come together. It may take a few minutes. Finish kneading by hand.

The dough can be rolled out right away and cut into cookies or it may sit, wrapped in plastic, in the refrigerator overnight. It may be frozen and stored up to a month.

The dough should be very easy to roll out – it does not need to be rolled out between two sheets of parchment.

Bake on a parchment-lined sheet pan for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly risen with a touch of color at the edges. Cool. Store in a airtight container for up to a month. (I found that 8 mintues for the large house bits was good and about 6 to 7 for the smaller bits.)

 After making my dough(and I have to mention that my whole Christmas tree fell over during the process and I had to stop and wipe up all the water and broken glass and pine needles that were EVERYWHERE!!) I worked on my house design. I found this little playhouse online that had an interesting shape so I tried to imitate it. I was going for a Dr. Suess-ish type gingerbread house.

I made a life size templet and taped it together to make sure that the shapes were correct.

Of course the roof was not right so I made the corrections and it came out like this:

And from the side:

I cut the tape to get my templets ready and rolled out my dough. 

When I baked the cookies they expanded a great deal so I had to cut the windows and doors while the cookies were still hot. When they cool the are too crispy to cut. You can risk breakage cutting a crispy cookie! 

I made quite a few extra bits including little squares to make into presents that I filled with little candy, a 3-D tree that I made with two cookies, a dog house, my two dogs, me and my husband, Santa and a reindeer. 

Now, for the Royal Icing...YES!! It is possible to make vegan royal icing! I've done it for the past 3 years now and it works every time. 

I take about a 1/4 tsp. Xanthan gum and start beating it with a couple tablespoons of water. After it is well blended and goopy I start adding powdered sugar. A little at a time. It takes at least 4 cups of powdered sugar but I would try to add more. I add until it's thick enough to stick to a cookie and thin enough to squeeze from an icing bag-tube thing. You can just use a plastic bag and cut a teeny bit off the corner.

When I start putting the house together I use whatever is around(Empty jars and full millet milk cartons) to hold up the sides while they dry. I leave it like this over night to make sure it is good and dry. I usually bake the cookies two days ahead and start putting the base together, then finish the construction the day before and the decorations with candy the day of.

This year I themed my house. All Ginger!(except for the rocks...those are GF vegan licorice candies!) I found all these vegan and GF ginger candies at the local health food store. Needless to say, some of the kids in attendance did not like the candy!...

...But they did like destroying the house with their little paws.

It's the perfect end to every party. You get to feel like a kid again as everyone gathers around to grab a piece, take pictures, and laugh together. This is one tradition that I am glad I started. 

Baby Face

Here is the my newest little water color. It's a gift for my friend for her birthday. Her baby boy. 

I'm glad it got me out of my no painting spell, I just have to get back to work on my larger painting that I must finish in time for it to dry for Christmas. 

I've realized that I am better at painting things to look exact on a small scale. I try to draw things out and use a grid when I do larger paintings that need to be exact but somehow it never works out and I have to move facial features around and all the drying time in between with oil! GRa! It gets annoying. These small water colors are easier for me and I can pop out a pretty nice gift in a short amount of time.

Does anyone think this baby looks like Mcully Caulkin?

Green with Smoothies

Why do I call myself American Casalinga(Italian for home-maker)???

...Cause I can take this:

And turn it into this:

Yea, I know, big deal! But it is a big deal. In Italy we don't use Dryers. They exist and I am sure some people use them, it's just that electricity and gas are so expensive that no one wants to use them! We line dry our clothes and then iron them. Something I've been getting used to over the years and maybe even better at doing. Most people Hate to iron, but I'm different cause I like it. It's a relaxing time for me where I can just let my mind wander and I let my mind wander a lot. In fact I think I would be a wreck if my mind wasn't allowed to wander or I wasn't allowed the time alone for mind-wandering. That Is why I love to be a Casalinga! 

It is also why I love being an Artist. When we work we usually go somewhere in our heads and don't even really realize what we are doing. Sometimes we make a bush stroke that doesn't really seem important or to matter or we don't know why we do it and it ends up being the most important part of a piece. A good example of that for me is this painting that I did: 

The bright red-orangeish blob to the right of the head is something that I did completely unconsciously yet it seems to make the piece. It can be interpreted as many things. Of course I like to let the viewer decide what it means to her/him, especially because sometimes I don't even know what it means to me. I usually figure out what it means to me later. I feel like this goes against a lot artists. Artist who know what something will mean before they begin it. We are all different, though, and that is what is so great about art. 

Now I'm going to talk about something kinda gross so get ready! 

Cleansing the Colon! I'm an advocate. In my very first post I talked about all my food and health issues.  I pretty much have them sorted but from time to time I get gassy. Really gassy!! My husband doesn't even want to sit next to me on the couch. These are the times that I know there is too much build up in my colon. I may have eaten a mixture of too many types of foods at a party or eaten something that I am intolerant to. Whatever the reason, it doesn't feel cute.

My favorite and easiest thing to do for these times is The Salt Water Flush. You make a mixture of two teaspoons of good sea salt and 4 cups of water. I make it warm by first melting the salt in a small amount of hot water and then adding the rest of the water that is cold. You take this salt water and chug it all down as fast as you can. You don't have to do it in one minute but try at least to do it within 10 minutes. Within 2 hours this salt water will have made it's way through your whole system and flush out your guts! You clean your intestines and whatever is in there being rotten and making you have bad gas. When you do it the gas you have inside comes out as well. Peee-u. Don't forget to use the the nag champa, your roommates/family members will thank you.

Now, some good tips for doing this are: 

1. Pretend you are drinking soup broth. This helps it seem less gross and more drinkable.

2. Do the flush in the morning when you don't have to do anything else for at least 3 hours.

3. It is also good to do in the morning because you haven't eaten all night. It won't work if you have eaten recently.

4. Do not attempt to make wind for the rest of the day...it could get messy.

Since I was feeling kinda rotten(no pun intended) when I woke up this morning, I decided to enhance my salt water flush by doing a coffee enema after it. So once all the liquid came out I put more in and flushed some more! The coffee enema is really good and here is why - I'll let my favorite nutritionist explain that one: http://meghantelpnerblog.com/2011/02/21/ill-take-my-coffee-to-go-um-where-exactly/

Strangely, after all this cleaning, I opened my email to find this video that talks about Enemas and how they can help you avoid paying a ton of money in medicine and doctor visits for you and your children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2w_dDpFNPt8

After cleansing, I made fresh veg juice, obviously, and then later a green smoothie.

And thar she blows: Banana, Pear, Spinach, Maca, Lucuma, English Toffee Flavored Stevia, A Pinch Of Salt, Rice Milk and Goji Berries Smoothie. It's green but it tastes like liquid cookie dough.


I'm feeling much better now that my pungent and airy symptoms are gone and things will be coming out better when I start digesting solids again. Weehooo!

Great day to procrastinate against painting!

Good Morning!

So this is what I woke up to this morning. The view from my kitchen. Have I mentioned that I absolutely love living outside of the city? We just moved into this really old house about two months ago. We were living right smack in the center of Florence Italy. Now, instead of no view or light or yard, I have this to wake up to everyday. 

I also decided to make this a part of my morning...

 Fresh juice. That is Spinach, Apple, Parsley, Beet, Carrot juice and it was really really good. I decided to start really well today because I knew I would go for a jog. My dogs go jogging with me so I gave them some juice too.

Stella drinking her juice from a syringe 

As I cut my beets for my juice I couldn't help but stick it all over my face. (Yea, when I was 3 I did the same thing with my moms bright red lipstick. The old pictures look like a smiling happy baby that's had it's head massacred by wolves) So, I thought I would share my favorite natural make up. Beet Juice! For lips, cheeks, and eyelids it's great.

In the first picture you can see how white and scary my morning face is...then you can see how puffy and scary it is...but then you can see it slightly better with some color on it. 

Here's the beet

Beet to lip

Lips looking bloody

Beet to cheek

You just put the cut side of the beet where you like as you would with regular make up or skin tints. It's not a very portable look but perhaps you could keep some in a baggie and throw it in your purse...just don't let it rot in there!

Don't forget to blend or it looks like this

I've been Beet up

Ta-da! So now that I'd been juiced and beet I could go for a run. 

And what did I find on my doorstep upon my return?? Fresh organic Vegetables, fruits, goat cheese, and pasta! This is the first time I've done this and I have always wanted to do this since finding out it existed at the dartmouth organic farm when I went to visit my friend who was working there. 

It's in season organic veg grown locally and sent to your door. The cheese and the pasta were another option that this particular company offers. They have quite a few local growers that they work with to provide a larger variety of products. 

In my box I found three different types of lettuces, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, some sort of pumpkin and leeks.

The fresh goat cheese..

When I saw the fruit bag I thought...oh no, more mandarins! I have a ton already.

Fortunately, when I tipped it out onto the fruit bowl it was full of apples, oranges, and kiwi as well!

I really like that what they give is a surprise and that it forces me to think of or find new recipes for something I might not otherwise buy. We need variety in our diets but sometimes I get stuck on the same foods. I really like surprises and to try new things so if it has to do with food, even better.

Painting

Here is a painting that I am working on. I was commissioned by my father in law to paint a picture of this little boy. My father in law had a professional photograph made of the kid and asked me to paint it. I couldn't do it. I tried but I can't stand making such static paintings. So I took two photographs from my wedding and fused them with photoshop. The background is from one photo and the boy is from another.

The lighting is a little strange since it is evening and the room is quite dark. There is a spot light on it as well which puts a bit of a glare in the middle and upper right and causes darkness in the lower left. Next picture I will take in the day time. 

I decided to post because I've sort of come to a stand still and can't motivate myself to keep working on it. Perhaps I will want to hurry up and finish so that I can re-post.
I have another commission that I am really excited to do because the photograph is great. The colors and shapes really attract me so hopefully I will quickly finish this little Federico and start up my next painting.

Holiday Dress

So I found this dress for 8 Euro at the weekly market near my house. In Italy vintage is super expensive in stores so if you are lucky enough to find something cool at the open air type markets you can usually find things for 5 to 10 Euro. I really like the fabric of this dress. It screamed holiday party at me so I said ,"okay!"

I was quite lucky with the size. It fits perfectly. I am not a small person so finding things that fit can be a challenge. I am roughly a size 10 with fluctuation!!!

I was really drawn to this fabric. It's totally weird and amoeba like and I love it.

I started by cutting the length of the skirt to around finger tip length. I cut the outside first so that I could cut the lining shorter. I'll use the left-overs to make something soon. I really like the color of the lining and the material. When I ironed it the color came out even better.

I decided to do the same thing as yesterday. I kinda got stuck on the arch idea but I'm bummed I didn't decide to do the opposite arch and have the front longer and the sides shorter...oh-well, next time.

I forgot to take pictures of the cutting and pinning and sewing but I just cut straight up the middle and then rounded up one side and used that cutting as a stencil for the other side. I folded under the edges, pinned, and sewed. After I recut the lining to make sure it wouldn't stick out and folded and ironed under it's edge and sewed. It is somewhat Jetsons-esque but I think it fits with the pattern.

On the Manni and then on me...

I think I need to start using a digital camera with timed photos. These armpit shots are killing me!!