lunch story

I love a casual lunch with friends, no stress, all pleasure, specially if it is sort of a potluck affair with a friend bringing salad and the other one a box of gourmet cookies....One of the friends is a photographer that I work with and upon entering my house, she started looking around and with her photographer's eye, wanted to capture the moment in pictures. I handed her my point and shoot, and here are the results.






I think pizza is my favorite food ( not too original there..) and since significant decided that he was gluten sensitive, gone are the days of home made pizzas dripping with seasonal toppings... until friends are coming over and I can serve a mushroom one on a whole wheat crust.To give it a more woodsy aroma, I mixed grated fontina with smoked mozarella, and sauteed my medley of wild mushrooms with shallots, garlic and rosemary and thyme in a bath of butter and olive oil.I like to have an aromatic garlic oil with herbs on the side that I slather on the steaming pizza as it comes out of the oven.It adds another layer of juiciness and kick.C had brought a box of baby spinach into which she added sunny cubes of persimmons, and she finished it off with a scattering of fresh goat cheese, topped by a balsamic vinaigrette.An inch of red wine, then coffee and a sampling of decadent cookies ( from Katrina Rozelle): chewy double chocolate,shortbread with delicate lemony icing were among the favorites. The old cat , always hoping for a savory morsel, was hanging out, looking up at he action in the kitchen, that November day in the middle of this delicious, heartwarming occasion.

up and down

When watching a movie where the actors are lying down, I have to stretch my neck sideways to look at them straight on, always have, otherwise the connection to the face is lost.So, after drawing my "sartrian heads" ( something about the eyes and a sense of existentialism,divided between the choice of ups or downs ),I kept hitting the rotate button to check on the face up, but I had drawn it lying down, so it had to be that way after all.or not.

dinner with Dot

As we reached her gate, I looked up and saw the moon, a silverish disk, in a california sky on the last day of October. The day had been very warm, the sun had just fallen off the watery edge, casting a faint glow over the line of trees. We were headed to bowls of udon noodle soups in the cosy nook of the Japanese restaurant next door to her place.

chartreuse

The other day, I had to work on a cocktail shot with chartreuse liqueur.Its color gave the name to the pale green hue, it is green because it is made from mountain plants, according to a secret recipe kept conveniently by silent monks somewhere in the French alps.With hints of rosemary and thyme, I thought it would be fitting to garnish it with sugared branches of the aforementioned rosemary.a deliciously winterish after dinner drink, soothing, digestive, promoting introspection and peace of mind

boire !

If I miss my afternoon tea, I am not myself. My habits are born of a gene pool of taste and temperament and need. I was told that my grand mother rarely had to drink( but her afternoon tea), and I am kind of like that. I drink a lot at breakfast and then nothing until tea time .So it is tea and tea with a little water sprinkled in between if it is really hot. two breakfast in a day, two special pleasures that I never tire of.

sketches from daily life

I am a bit obsessed by women's plight.It is better than it has ever been, but still cruelty, profit, religious fanaticism seems to prevail in some part of the world

le blurr

it is the invading line moving elastic like between my life in art and in food. It is my inspiration in the kitchen or at my easel. It feed me me literraly and figuratively.One of my favorite artists has always been Giorggio Morandi, obsessively recreating the same pale tabletop studies in haunting shades of gentle greys and creams. the bottles, the vases and glasses, fragile, feminine,reserved,comforting,strong and soft.
The other day, I was able to "play" with L in her studio and create some images that blended my art work with food. Here is a snapshot of a sweet potato galette with sage butter on a black and white canvas.