Life Long Passion for Food Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about getting started cooking. In this one, I’ll continue on with my lessons from mom. My mom was one of the cooks in the family. Her sister, Aunt Louise, was not.  Aunt Louise cooked but she did it out of necessity. Mom enjoyed cooking and loved to feed people who came over. We always had chops, cubed steaks, and ground meat. My aunt had a drapery shop. Between the decorators, workmen and sometimes clients, they would often get some venison too. I grew up eating lamb, pork, and beef. We ate liver and onions which I still love but rarely eat anymore (more on this later). read...

A Life Long Passion for Great Food

I always tell people I came out of the shute as a foodie. I have always loved food, good food. At the age of 10, I began begging my mom to teach me to cook. She finally gave in and by 12 I was making dinners for my mom, sister and I. Maybe it was a survival tactic, I don’t know. I suspect it may have been.  I firmly believe that food has a big impact on your health, too. My mother, who was Italian, did not measure things. When she taught me how to make her fantastic salad dressing, I remember her response when I asked how much oil (always olive oil) and vinegar (always red wine vinegar) do you put on the salad. She said “Your eyes and your hands will know”. Yes, that’s verbatim. read...

Day 4: Feeding Your Joy

What was I thinking getting into a month long blog challenge? Yes, that means 31 days. I know I could stop or I could keep going and do what I can. I can make the effort to write every day. Maybe I’ll do 31 blogs and maybe I won’t. One decision I made was to not beat myself up over this. I will do what I can. I have never joined a month long blog challenge. I have joined a month long writing challenge but it wasn’t anything you had to share. Thank heavens because some of it was raw, too raw to share. Now I see them as just stories, past stories that can be looked it and let go. When you focus on the past and past hurts, you just keep feeding the same circuits in your brain and relive the hurt, the pain and soon you create new situations to keep that same pain alive. read...

Nature or the Cacophony of Man?

    One weekday morning a few weeks ago, I went out on the deck to have coffee. I sat and closed my eyes. And the following came to mind about the experience.         “As the wind brushed across my face, hair began to tickle my cheek. My body was enveloped in the warmth of the morning sun. Birds twittered and chirped. Soon the world awoke. Man made noises soon overwhelm the sounds of nature leaving only the soft touch of the wind and the warmth of the sun to sing the song of nature.” j.case read...

Final Collaboration of Paintings and Poetry with Gwendolyn Lawrence Alley

The last collaboration Gwendolyn Lawrence Alley and I did for the VCAC art show called Collaboration was with my painting called Water Ballet which is pictured on the left. It wasn’t one of the paintings I had chosen to go into the show. However, when Gwendolyn came over to see the paintings, it was one she was immediately drawn to. I had had it in a prior show so I emailed to ask if it could be resubmitted. They said since it was coming in with a written body of work, that it would be a new body of work so we could submit it. read...

Plum Surrounded Painting and A Poem about Calla Lilies by Gwendolyn Alley

In my last blog I explained how my friend and poet Gwendolyn Lawrence Alley and I collaborated for an art show put on by the Ventura County Arts Council. This is another of the three which we submitted for the show. Gwendolyn had a larger poem she had done for Calla Lilies. She sent me the link to it and we collaborated on it and reduced it down to two stanzas. It was an interesting experience to collaborate on an art project. You need to listen to what the other wants to do or their take on something you’ve chosen. There is a give and take going on that results in a different end result from the pieces that came together individually. read...

“Serenity” Painting & A 3:15 Haiku Equals Honorable Mention

I have mixed feelings about entering  art shows. If validation comes from within, then the results of an art show can create counter productive emotions. The ego gets excited if you win and gets deflated when you lose. That is, until one is good with whatever happens and the ego is no longer triggered. So why do I enter art shows? That’s a good question. And I don’t have an answer yet.  Is it the idea of winning? Is it the prestige? Is it the belief that more people will take you more seriously as an artist when you win? Is it the belief that it would add to the value of the art? Or is it to be seen? Is it to get exposure? read...

Are Judgments Just Recycled Thoughts?

I work on watching my thoughts most of the time, especially judgments. I find it interesting that Wikepedia defines Judgment as the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. My husband, Ron, and I had gone to a party a couple of months ago. I didn’t realize how much I had been watching my thoughts. I felt really good about it because I was catching myself on things. Yet what startled me was the automatic judgments. Say what? Yes, I found myself doing these automatic judgments and I thought “whoa, where’d that come from?”.  In light of the above definition, I was evaluating what evidence to make what kind of decision?  I started paying more attention and sure enough, I caught a few more. read...

Wine Blending by Rodney Strong Vineyards – Part 2

When I entered the room, my eyes saw a sea of wine glasses. I saw 8 glasses at each place. Five of them had small amounts of blending wine along with bottles to replenish the glasses. The sixth had the Rodney Strong Symmetry wine to give us inspiration! Two were empty: a water glass and a glass for the blend. Robert Larson, the Director of Communications at Rodney Strong Vineyards, gave us the information. He spoke about the history of Rodney Strong from his dance career to founding Windsor Winery to starting his own winery, Rodney Strong Vineyards. Rodney also saw great potential in certain acreage in Sonoma County, one being Chalk Hill which eventually became the Chalk Hill Appellation. read...