Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Pomegranate One, Two, Three

As is the case with Blogger uploads, this is Three. Black gesso over a smoother than I like, watercolor paper. Then I use Prismacolor pencils. It's much darker in person. The camera tends to make everything brighter.

This is One. It is blurry. I took the picture several times and will try again at some point. It's a simple image and quite nice when in focus. I used my brush pen.

Two. Taken directly after taking One. Why does one blur and the other come sharp? I like the Japanese quality of this image. I was going to go back in and paint color over One and Two but now that I see them here, I will leave them be. There will color enough in the coming days.

The days are flying by. Yesterday was about 20 minutes long. I stopped at the library twice. Had long conversations with former co-workers on a range of subjects. The second time I returned a book that was overdue, driving home and back, for it. I also stopped, for a second time, at the grocery to get a pie pumpkin. Now that it is official, and we have a canned pumpkin shortage, the shelves at my supermarket have been sacked and pillaged of every can of pumpkin, and there was plenty on Thursday of last week. It's strange that the bakery and frozen pie section is filled with pumpkin pies and increased prices.

I was baking potatoes for dinner anyway, so I cored and quartered my $4 pumpkin (4 pounds) and baked it along side the potatoes. Then I let it steam under foil until after dinner and then smooshed it all up and let it drain in a sieve to get even denser. Now I have two containers of 2 cups each, of pumpkin for pies. I had to do it this way when we lived in Germany, but with regular, not pie, pumpkins. Very watery. Had to really let it cook down and evaporate the water. But the pies were very good after we got used to the differences. I hope the people who needed 12 cans of pumpkin in their pantry are happy.

Since the weather is too warm for me to use the sunporch as an auxillary refrigerator, I will not be brining the turkey. I usually put the turkey and brine in a large bag, inside a bucket, and out on the porch overnight. But it's not 20 degrees out there this week. And I don't want to cook and serve bad turkey. I do have to roast the extra drumsticks I bought for stock, anyway. I wanted wings or thighs but all they had were drumsticks.

Donny won on Dancing with the Stars and his whole family came out to hug him. G says there are 8 children, some pretty grown up. Kelly came in third and Ozzie was the proud papa along with Sharon and Jack. The show was too long and Whitney Houston was terrible. I stayed up to watch the TiVoed Good Wife which is turning out to be very good, indeed.

Well, most of today's 20 minutes has already passed me by, so I must get on with the cooking prep for tomorrow. Make the pie and roast the turkey legs. I can also get the sweet potatoes baked, peeled and loaded into the baking dish with butter and brown sugar.

Our menu: Roasted Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Brussels Sprouts, Acorn Squash halves, Sweet Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes and Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream. Sam is bringing the rolls. Yes, this is quite a lot of food for three people. But two of us will be eating (and not cooking) until at least Monday. And that's something to be thankful for since we will be working Friday and Saturday.

My bowl today is filled with thoughts of friends and family, past and present. May peace and good health be with you, dear readers, tomorrow and every day.

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