JoyefulArtBlog

Vegan Staple: Seitan

Joye18 — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:50 +0000

A necessary staple in a vegan kitchen is seitan. This is pure wheat gluten, so it is definitely NOT for the gluten free diet. A flavorful winning way to use this high protein food is to saute it with tamari sauce, and then add it to whatever food dish you are preparing.It is so delicious and has a chewy texture much like meat.

sauteed seitan

A yummy possibility of dishes to add to is chili.

Vegetarian chili

Bon Appetit!

Lilac Love

Joye18 — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:04:37 +0000

Lilacs

It has been such a lovely spring for flowers here in the mid atlantic states. Lilacs have been especially beautiful, but their window of beauty is slowly closing! I miss their tender fragrance and sweet lavender color.

Breakfast Lilacs

Appreciate them while I can, but for consolation my delicate pansies are still in bloom.

Kindred Spirits

Fascinating Special on Federal Power and the Constitution

Joye18 — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:11:01 +0000

PBS is running a special lately on the government series on the constitution, fascinating stuff. I have seen the 1st segment and it seems to be a prompt for debate and analyzing the constitution and how it applies to modern times. Peter Sagal dons his motorcycle and rides across the USA interviewing people who are relevant to dilemmas today involving the constitution.

I love watching good television that makes you think about important issues relevant to us today.
You can check out more information here.

I will see you again on Friday, taking a couple of days off this week !

Vegan Recipe, Gluten Free Pasta with Spinach, Tomato, Hemp, and Cheeze

Joye18 — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:37 +0000

Would you like to create an easy gluten free pasta dish that even kids love? Watch this video with Jamie Goldfuss of Kosher Vegan Cooking demonstrate how to make this delicious dish.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 Bag Trader Joes Organic Brown Rice Noodles
1 Bag Trader Joes Vegan Cheese
1 Bag Trader Joes Organic Chopped Spinach
1-2 Organic Sweet Potatoes
1 Jar Trader Joes Organic No Salt Pasta Sauce
Organic Garlic Fresh cloves or Powdered to taste
Hemp Hearts to taste
Utensils:
2 Medium Sized Pots
1 Large glass mixing bowl or pot
Peeler
Food Processor
Glass Baking Dish
Colander
Directions
Peel 1-2 small sweet potatoes and cut into 3rds
Then place in food processor and chop into tiny pieces
Place pieces into a small bowl
If you have a garlic clove you can add it to the food processor with the sweet potatoes.
Fill medium sized pot with water and boil
After boil add brown rice noodles for 7-8 minutes
Add a drop of himalayan pink salt and extra virgin olive oil
Let cook uncovered and stir as needed
Drain noodles into colander and rinse with cold water
If cooking at the same time to cook more efficiently use a 2nd pot for the next step or if you only have one pot use your original pot after the noodles and water have been drained to start sauce.
Add sauce to pot on a medium flame.
Next add the bag of vegan cheese.
Then add the chopped spinach and sweet potatoes.
Let this mixture cook on a medium flame for 10 minutes.
After the mixture is done combine noodles and sauce mixture in a large bowl or pot.
Next pour the noodle and sauce combo into your glass baking dish.
Cover the top of the noodles with a nice amount of hemp hearts.
Place the dish in your over to bake for 20 min at 350 degrees.
Enjoy and serve hot.

Jamie has a band, Goldfuss, who plays cool indy music, check out his new album, here.

Have a Seat, A New Watercolor

Joye18 — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:38:29 +0000

New Watercolor

Working as much as I could in my studio this week, I finally finished my new watercolor. This work is about color and different moods and scenes. I table with tulips and azaleas are set up on a polka dot table cloth. Chairs and flowers(of course, always have to have at least one flower!) are a motif, showing up in various spots of the painting. I have the colorful reality of the painting divided into 3 scenes, sketched flowers and leaves flowing up and around a chair facing out on the right. A sunny day with fabric flowing down off a bench in the middle. And on the left, a park bench in a place filled with blue with fabric laying on it.
I love the colors and flow, what do you think?

Read more at: What is Joye Creating Now?

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Joye18 — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:44:29 +0000

Black Sheep

Keeping with my creative interest in textiles this month, I visited the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend. Seeing the wool from its source, is way cool. There is something I love about milling around people who live in the country and love nature. Many think of nature as flowers and trees, but animals is where this fair is at. Shepherds brought their young lambs to sell, vendors sold spinning wheels, fresh wool, all the tools needed to card and spin, as well as homespun yarn.

Sheep make almost pleading sounds when crowds gather around them. They stay in groups and allow themselves to be herded by sheep dogs. Their hair is very warm and is shorn yearly.

Sheep Shearing Event

A different world, that is for sure. Surrounded by a sunny sky and the sounds of fiddle and celtic harp music, this was truly an enjoyable day!

A Sad Memoir for Reading This Week

Joye18 — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:00:39 +0000

Her: A Memoir

When growing up, I was envious of twins that I knew. It seemed so cool to have a constant friend, playmate, someone who knows your every thought and truly, truly understands you like no other. But after reading Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani, it seems that having your own identical twin can be obsessive, haunting, and extremely loving. Christa’s twin sister, Cara, is raped in 2001 in New York and begins a downward spiral into drugs, despair, and eventually death. This is a story from the surviving twin and is both heart breaking and full of love and understanding.
If you can handle hearing the pain, I recommend this book, but be prepared for a sick feeling full of yearning.

Thinking Fast, Working Slow

Joye18 — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:36:33 +0000

For a few days now I have been working on my tulip watercolor. I want to take it slow, though colorful and surreal ideas keep popping into my head. Patterns, reality, unreality, fantasy, flowers, they are all going to make it into this painting, but I have to take it slow.

When teaching painting students, one thing they quickly realize is that in watercolor, you must be patient. Mistakes are difficult to correct.
My painting takes me on a journey. My work speaks to me as to what is next, but I must take my time and really listen.

Evolving Patterns

The final painting will come, with time and an ear to the painting.

Food is Good: Vegan Chicken Soup

Joye18 — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:41 +0000

Who says vegetarians can’t eat chicken soup, the food for the soul ?? Here is my tasty recipe for a mock vegan chicken soup, a vegetarian staple for sure!

Olive oil

Start with a large pot and about 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Add sliced veggies. The vegetables you pick can be any with the exception of broccoli, brussel sprouts, parsnips, or any strongly flavored vegetable. This will ensure it tastes like a mixture, not broccoli soup.

Veggies

When slicing the veggies, you only need to cut them into large pieces, don’t worry about chopping them. The vegetables in the soup will be discarded and used for vegetable patties or filler later.

leeks

Place the veggies in the soup pot and saute with the olive oil.

saute

Add soup to the highest point of the pot you can get away with without it boiling over. You are going to want lots of this delicious soup!

soup on to boil

Add some shakes of tamari sauce and pepper to taste.

tamari and pepper

Now for the secret ingredient that makes this soup smell and taste like chicken soup, DILL!

Dill

Add about 1/2 of a bunch of dill to the soup.

add dill

Bring to boil and simmer to lightly boil for 2-3 hours. Discard the vegetables and save for another use. You can serve plain or with rice, noodles or matzoh balls. You can serve immediately or let cool and freeze in plastic container.

soup!

Enjoy!

Read more joyeful recipes at: Peach Cobbler.

I Love Flowers, How Can You Not?

Joye18 — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:00:17 +0000

Ever since my first days of painting, I have always reached for a bunch of flowers to paint. Visceral response, I think. Flowers are around us most of the year, and I love them. They are unique, fragrant, colorful, small and mysterious. You have to really, really look at them to grasp the depth of their beauty. Georgia O’Keefe did this in her paintings of large flowers. They are their own special world and are ubiquitous. I never want to take them for granted. They are gems of beauty all around us.

I bring in the hardy geraniums for the winter so they won’t die out in the cold.

Even when I am playing with paint in my studio, the image ends up looking like flowers.

Flowers center me and bring me calm. How about you?

Read more at: Strolling Among the Gardens.