Starting November 16th in our immediate family, it's one long succession of special days until January 4th. There's our wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, C's birthday, mother-in-law's birthday, Christmas, New Year's, my birthday.
We're still feeling the after-effects of Thanksgiving in the kitchen. I made my annual curry turkey soup today with homemade turkey stock, peas, leftover meat, some butternut squash purée and a few lashings of cream. Yum, though
I say it who shouldn't.
Tomorrow is C's birthday and my husband and I are flying to DC to spend it with her. Today I tidied up her room after the Thanksgiving visit and sketched a little corner of that blue and yellow haven of hers.
At the Corcoran Gallery of Art, there's an exhibit of paintings, sculpture, illustrated books and manuscripts, textiles and popular art related to Joan of Arc, so you know I'll be there tomorrow, sketching away!
I'm constantly thinking about my big art plan for 2007. I'll post the final version on December 31st, as I did last year. I'll be using mediums I haven't used much this year, like oil pastels, conté crayons, and, of course, I'll be painting in acrylics or oils, too. Conté forces you to work quickly and loosely, which I like. Here's a very quick recent sketch I made at a café, using a fat conté pencil. Next time you come here, C will be officially a year older and I'll have some Joan of Arc sketches to show you! A bientôt!
That blue is wonderful! The soup sound delicious too. Such a vibrant painting of it. You turn the mundane into works of art with apparent ease. :o)
Posted by: Terri | December 04, 2006 at 02:09 AM
Hi, and thank you, soup lovers! I don't really use a recipe for this, because I've never found a good one. I saute diced onions in butter, then add curry powder and cook for a few more minutes, before adding a couple of tablespoons of flower. This makes a curried roux. I stir and cook and let brown a bit. I add warmed up homemade turkey stock and whisk to eliminate lumps and to let thicken. I add leftover turkey meat, peas, and if there's some leftover pureed sweet potatoes or squash, I'll drop a couple of dollops in. I let this simmer for a while. I add some heavy cream, not much, just enough to enrich and bind. I add more stock if I need to. I season with sea salt and white pepper. C'est tout! Let me know if you try it! And thank you for the very nice comments, too.
Katherine, the year before I did the themed sketchbooks, I had a color study year. More about that later. It was very helpful and would certainly bear doing again.
Posted by: Laura | November 30, 2006 at 07:04 PM
I am not a curry lover since getting sick on it when pregnant many years ago but I'd love to try your soup without curry. It really sounds good-looks good too.
Posted by: Linda | November 30, 2006 at 01:18 PM
I'm going to have to go an have my soup for lunch now. looking at that has made me feel hungry!
Have you tried oil pencils at all? You can get a very black line and it has quite a different feel on the page.
How about a month where you can only work with (say) two colours and either of black or white. You could change the colours but just not change the basic recipe. I find that working with limited palettes really makes you think more about values and maixing colours - and it's an approach which you can use with a number of different media
Posted by: Katherine | November 30, 2006 at 08:09 AM
Yummm! I love butternut squash soup! It's going to be so exciting seeing what you come up with for 2007 ... sounds like you're going to keep on being busy.
Posted by: Linda M | November 29, 2006 at 07:45 PM
yummmy drawing ...when is dinner???:> GREAT spoon but we expect no less from the great artiste!
Posted by: margaret Hunt | November 29, 2006 at 06:47 PM