I figured out an incredibly simple way to make soup. I bet a lot of people already know this formula, but I am sharing it today because I have had huge success a couple times in the last week with it.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 C stock

4 C vegetables

Optional-salt, pepper, herbs, cream/milk, grated cheese, sour cream, yogurt, etc

Method:

Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent.  Pour in stock and vegetables, bring to a boil,reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender. Eat.

Amazing, huh? And it ALWAYS turns out really good. As for stock, I use a Campbell’s tetra pack of chicken with reduced sodium. It’s the perfect amount and tastes great, but if you have the temerity to make stock from scratch, go for it. I like to keep things easy and fast. Obviously it needs seasoning - for broccoli soup I used thyme and for (frozen) green pea soup I used tarragon and mint. It also needs salt and pepper. I have an immersion blender, so I stick it in and give it a whirl.

Next time I am planning to use cauliflower. Or maybe beets and cabbage? Carrots with ginger? Sweet potato? Leek and potato? Ohhh…..so many possibilities…

I finished “Ocean Storm”, drawn by Nefarious and painted by me. It’s a very wavy ocean, and in the sky is a band of stars and the sun and moon. A rocket is blasting off, en route to the space station. In the sky is also a “princess angel” as well as a singing bird, and a butterfly carrying two flowers. In the ocean is a sailboat with a star on the sail being captained by the world’s tallest snowman, with evil Ursula and the Little Mermaid swimming nearby as a shark jumps over them. Anyway, you can click it to zoom in.

I drew this t-shirt design quite a long time ago but just realized I never posted it…

Here’s how the painting is doing now — as you can see, I’ve added a large number of elements to it. Generally when I do a painting based on a classic, I like to do it pretty “straight”, and then add bits after I’ve started. Unfortunately my little camera doesn’t pick up many subtle colours, so in reality there are a lot of pale shades that just look white in this shot. Anyway, click it to zoom in.

I’m working on a little painting for my daughter’s room, based on a drawing from an 1865 illustration in “Le Magasin pitoresque” of Sinbad’s fifth voyage (a Roc egg being broken open). Here are the first two pictures from it. It’s a lot smaller than I usually work.

This is an effigy of my dead cat Seamus. She died of terribly rotten teeth 2 years ago, and me and her sister still miss her. She always liked to watch me cook, so I made her with an apron.

This rabbit is in mourning.

When life gets me down, I like to make toys. Normally I am a hardcore crocheter, but I got a super cute book on Valentine’s day and got to work fairly quickly. The first toy is from the “Unmotivated Kid” pattern. The fabric is ancient bits and pieces I have been saving from my days at Malabar.

I also bought acrylic beanie things to stuff it with, so it will have a little weight. Once I finish moving my junk around this week, I will be able to set up my sewing machine and crank it out.  I have lots of scrap fabric to mess around with, including old BME shirts, so expect more posts in the future.

Among many other activities, we painted this today, in acrylic on a 16″x16″ wood panel. Nefarious drew it (right on the wood) and I painted over her drawing, titled “Princess Khan and The Golem”. The girl is based on one of her dolls and an East Indian friend, and the other figure is the Golem — we recently read the really wonderful (and intense) David Wisniewski telling of Judah Loew ben Bezalel’s Golem… I love painting with Nefarious so I’m sure I’m biased, but I think it turned out really nicely.

The hilarious expression is typical! I think my next project is actually going to be a self/group portrait based on this picture, taken after Nefarious made tiaras for all of us a few weeks ago.

I think I’m happy with this painting and consider it “complete” now. A reminder for anyone seeing only this entry that the painting was very difficult to photograph accurately because it is painted with iridescent pearl pigment. With this completion I don’t have any major painting projects on the go, so now I have to decide what to tackle next.

Click to zoom in, and this painting is currently unsold if anyone want to make me a reasonable offer.