book giveaway and random beans

Just a quick note to announce

the winner of the crockpot cookbook giveaway, as promised:

Congratulations to Magpie's Mumblings!

Drop me an email with your mailing address,

and your book will soon be on its way.

I hope you will enjoy it,

and find some new favorite crockpot recipes.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and a cooking tip!

One of my favorite things about blogging is

the way ideas are shared.

~~~

And now I'm falling asleep,

but it just doesn't feel right to put up a post without

at least one image, so...

here are some #drawingAugust beans:

Good night :)

~~~~~

a fair day

Yesterday I visited the annual Hardwick Community Fair:

"The Oldest Fair in the United States"

est. 1762

For readers in some other parts of the world -

for readers in most other parts of the world! -

253 years is hardly ancient history.

But for the US, it's fairly old.

(See what I did there? Heh.)

And even in that long/short 253-year history,

the fair has not been held continuously.

Since 1762 - when, by the way, the residents of Massachusetts

still answered to the King of England - 

the Hardwick Fair has vanished several times.

Some interludes began with a major event.

The Revolutionary war...the Civil War...

but afterward, the gap sometimes stretched on for decades.

The fact that townspeople have stepped up

and reactivated the Fair,

over and over again,

is special, I think.

Physically, it's a small fair, held on the Town Common.

There are organized activities for children,

booths for local vendors, and traditional skills demonstrations.

Across the road, there's a long tent for dairy cattle.

I'm so happy there are still dairy cattle to be shown here.

In the past 30 years or so, this region has lost dairies

the same way it has lost small lumbermills:

in big, sad numbers.

People from many nearby towns enter the competitions.

Crosscut sawing. Sack races. Cakes and pies. Fun things.

Lots of beautiful produce: fruits, vegetables, eggs, herbs.

Food and flower displays in the Town Hall.

Sewing, knitting and other handcrafts in the church hall.

 And by some miracle, after a series of rainy days

that left the ground feeling like a squelchy sponge,

the sun shone yesterday

but the air was not terribly humid!

It was hot, but still refreshing.

Back to normal today, though - air like wet gauze.

And poor little Fern had a bellyache today.

I sat on a chaise in the barn and kept an eye on her

while picking out photographs for this post.

Very happy to report that I just came in from evening chores,

and though she is still a bit quiet,

Fern is definitely feeling better.

Thank goodness.

Now the new week can get off to a good start.

I hope it will be a great week for all of us :)

~~~

Just a reminder: 

I'll draw the winner of the crockpot cookbook giveaway

tomorrow at noon ET.

Still time to enter!

Good luck  :)

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~

notes from my studio

Still #drawingaugust!

Past the midpoint of the month now, and I have 15 drawings posted. I'm enjoying it very much, as there is no pressure or criticism, but enough of a community feeling from the many folks participating on twitter that it always feels good to "join in" and post a daily sketch. Without that incentive, I probably would have fallen by the wayside long before now. It's been a challenge physically as much as "artily."

Some days, I stay home and draw in my recliner, temporarily dubbed "My Studio." This ink sketch of Joe Pye Weed was drawn from a photograph taken while sketching in the woods the day before:

On days when Piper and I can go out, I wear a little backpack with sketching kit, water bottle, dog treats (of course), and bug spray, and carry a folded-up foam cushion under my arm. I don't walk far, but seek out a rock - or, more often, a large tree - at an angle that will support my spine in a leaning-back position while I plant my pelvis on the cushion. Sometimes I even find a place where I can wedge myself between a large tree for my back and a smaller tree in front that I can prop a foot against so I am being held in position with the least amount of physical effort. It's not exactly the "zero-gravity" position I absolutely rely on throughout the day at home, but for allowing me to concentrate on a ten- or fifteen-minute sketch, it is a gift and I am grateful.

A couple of times I've managed to stretch it out to 20 minutes, which is a heck of a long time for me to be in any one position without increased pain. This ink drawing made by the side of a tiny stream was one of those efforts. I reached a point where I was struggling with the drawing, and finally realized I was having trouble with the drawing because I was trying to ignore the pain.
Eejit.

So I closed the sketchbook and pulled myself up - another thing the trees help with - but was too achy and unbalanced to walk right away. So I played "look at me, not at the treat" with Piper (who had already enjoyed being a Wild Dog and was covered from belly to feet in muck), and then, because I couldn't yet lean down to pack up my "sketching kit," I tried an experiment: a very quick sketch while standing. I intended it as visual note-taking, to be looked at back home and perhaps turned into something with color.

And here is the result. On the left, the 3-minute standing sketch with color notes. On the right, the result of an evening session in the recliner, with a handful of watercolor pencils, q-tips (in lieu of a brush), and a pill bottle full of water.

Crazy.

Fun.

Crazy fun!
Something Ms. Piper knows a lot about.

I hope your week brings you some crazy fun :)
~~~~~

summer cooking and a giveaway

In this hot, muggy weather, I have to make an effort to have good food on hand, ready to eat in almost no time. Otherwise, I fear my healthy diet could deteriorate into nothing but gatorade and potato stix.

I try to cook two or more things at once - minimizing the amount of heat added to the kitchen, and making enough "ready to eat" food to last for several meals and snacks. This week, for example, I put a layer of bacon in a pyrex baking dish, covered it completely with chicken thighs, and added a layer of bacon on top. Then I took a picture:

Probably my first photograph of bacon.
I rarely buy it. Seemed like kind of an event.

I covered the dish for baking in a slow oven. And since the oven was going to be on, it was a good time to fetch in a great big gorgeous straightneck squash - the Very First Harvest from the Very Raised Bed! - slice it the long way and clean out the seeds and core, then put it in a second covered pyrex baking dish with a little water to gently cook the squash without drying it out.

I know why I photographed the squash.
It's beautiful.

All week I've been eating moist, flavorful chicken with little shreds of bacon, along with a variety of "sides"...yellow squash, farro, sauted mushrooms, etc. When I see really fresh mushrooms at the grocery store I buy a package, eat some raw and cook the rest all at once, to add to meals for several days.

I love mushrooms.
I really ought to grow them.
Do any readers grow their own mushrooms?
Please advise!

And, oh, did I mention my first yellow crescent beans of the season? Grown from seeds I saved from last years plants! I wish I had taken a "before" picture but these beans were lightly steamed and in this dish with a little bacony chicken less than 15 minutes after being carried in from the garden.

 Yum.

Of course, another way to cook without generating a lot of heat or using a lot of energy - and to cook in multiple-meal quantities if desired - is to use a crockpot or slow cooker. I find them pretty darned useful. And I think slow cookers are popular both within and outside the US - correct me if I'm wrong about that! - so that's why I'm going to do a little cookbook giveaway:

This is Stephanie O'Dea's first cookbook - I think she has written four now! - and you can Left-Click to embiggen her description below, or here's a link to the Amazon page. But since I know it is important to many people, I just want to point out right now that all the recipes in the book are Gluten Free.

Would you like to put your name in the hat for a shiny new copy of this book? Easy peasy! Leave a comment on this blog post telling me one thing you like to make in a slow cooker. (If you haven't used a slow cooker before, please share a tip for cooking multiple things in the oven, or any other food-related way to save energy - we can use more ideas!)

I will do a random drawing at noon on Monday, the 24th, and will post the winner's name on the blog that night. Please check back. The winner will have three days to contact me with mailing information; if I don't hear back by Thursday night, I will draw another name on Friday.

Anyone, anywhere is very welcome to enter.

Feel free to share the giveaway.

Good luck!

~~~~~