Fall is in the air again

Apple Crumble

Fall and all the earthly treasures it brings, including an abundance of delicious tree fresh apples. This recipe is even better if you can have a few varieties of apples mixed together. You definitely want to pick tart and a sweet varieties, also try to choose firm crisp apples. If you don’t have access to local tree apples visit your local farmers market and I am sure you will find apples ready to be baked for your pleasure. A store bought version would be a Granny Smith, Golden delicious and more. Not all apples are great for baking and will change the outcome of the recipe. Well, this is one recipe that will not disappoint in flavor, texture and comfort. There are so many versions of the Apple Crisp, it’s one of those recipes you don’t really need a recipe once you know the basics, but today I followed one and tweaked it a tiny bit. This one is definitely more of a crumble while you pulverize the oats, flour, sugar, spice and butter together, which forms huge buttery balls to be devoured.

Preheat oven to 375

Bake in a 13 by 9 inch glass baking dish

Apples Middle filling:

4 pounds of apple or 7-8 cups (I used a variety of tree picked apples. Granny Smith work well paired with Golden delicious. It really helps to have tart apples.)

Core apples, then cut them into both chunks and thin slices. I peeled the tarter apples and left the skins on the others.

Juice of two Meyers lemons

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

2 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 tablespoons of cinnamon

Toss all ingredients together and set aside

(Make sure to sample a few of these babies before filling! What a great snack for kids!)

Crust

1 cup of all purpose four

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons butterJ enjoy occasionally right!

2/3 cup old fashion oats

Put all the above “dry” ingredients into a large bowl. Take half the mixture and 6-7 Tablespoons of the butter.. put into the food processor and process until it has a course meal look and no large chunks of butter are left. Then press this into your baking pan. Next cut some small chunks of butter and put on top of crust evenly over the top. Maybe 5 Tablespoons cut into chunks

Put apple topping on top of this

Mix the rest of the topping together and it should form large ball like crumbles. Coat all apples.
Then bake until golden brown or bubbly. Bake about 35-45 minutes. Make sure its golden brown. Let it cool and serve it 20-30min latter.

Ok, so I wanted a double crust. The above crust is for the double. It will give you miles of thick buttery sweet cinnamony crust. You could just top it with this and cup the recipe back to half but I think it made for a special occasion crumbleJ Top it with fresh whip cream or fat scoop of vanilla gelato. This would be a beautiful change to the apple pie on Thanksgiving day.

Enjoy! Life is short and so we must enjoy the treats we receive!

The Creative Process-Don't Let your Artist wait too long!

Creative Process (written for CP class June 2009) 

What kind of Artist am I?   

I think that most people have the potential to be creative and its like muscle that needs to be exercised.   For me I believe that being creative is a language that we all have inside and if we did not speak we would create in some form and use this as an expression of the self and  as a communication means. 

Creativity is a universal language.   

Being creative for me is a way of working through problems and reworking them until the need is no longer there or the problem solved.  Creativity can help build many life skills that can be applied in real life such as critical thinking skills, problem solving, cooperation, brainstorming for solutions, engaging and persisting, collaboration, self-esteem.  Creativity helps one with thinking outside of the box and is very important for today’s world.  

Being a single discipline today is  no longer enough for most graduating college students. 

For my creative process I am most inspired by my environment.  I guess you would say that makes me a person who reconstructs.  I like to have a start point as a reference even if it’s as simple as a feeling or a color.  I am a beginning artist who has not played nearly enough to be able to invent things purely on my own.  I am still gathering my bad of skills as an artist.   I use my environment to be my point of departure and that could be just about anything.  I see inspiration everywhere.    

I do a lot of problem solving while driving in my car and often have to pull over to jot things down.  I gather bits and pieces of articles and magazine cut outs to be used in my art at some point and time.  The biggest lesson I have learned about being creative and believe is an important life skill is to engage and persist.   

In art as in much in life, it’s very easy to give up before the lesson is learned.   Staying with your art through persistence always shows growth on the other side.   It’s easy to give up before the lesson is learned.  

I value all the skills that I have learned in my art classes and think that each one has taught me lessons that can translate to real world application.  We each have an inner creative artist who  lives awaiting for the play to begin.

Don't let your Artist wait to long!  Ask yourself, "What Kind of Artist am I"?  We are all artists...we just need to find out what kind to make the process flow.  

"All Hearts" 

These hearts were painted one late night wildly passionately blindly and are part of my "All Hearts" series

Trying to capture the warmth and passion that runs deep when the heart is full.

The Daffodils are Early this year

The Daffodils are Early this year

Daffodils and I, have always had this special relationship, they always seem to bloom just in the nick of time. I have written much in my journals about these little cups of golden sunshine. When I was a very small child my mother planted hundreds of them on the side of our house and perhaps this is where our love began.

Daffodils are such happy flowers. The golden light that they bring has always echoed spring is almost here in my heart and soul. These little flower friends seem to come just in the nick of time and when I need them the most to brighten my world. I am overjoyed to see their strength and grace as they burst through the earths frozen grip to make their presence. Daffodils stand-alone in the garden and make their show far earlier than most. Their simplicity and stature speaks those brave enough to go forth and blossom.

This year the Daffodils seem confused at the change of weather. They have arrived at least a month or more early, while I am please to see them, I know its too early. I wonder what will greet me in the darkest days of winter now that my friends have come so soon?

FALL

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~ Albert Camus

I just love this beautiful quote. It touched me. I see it as a second chance to be the flower you were meant to be, if you never took the time to see the beauty within ...fall gives you yet a second chance. Leaves are beautiful not for their striking beauty so much but there shape, and their unique colors. Perhaps true color? We all have something to share and some hidden gifts that often lie hidden or recognized by most. How wonderful that there is fall a second chance. Its all the leaves in the pile in which make the picture whole. All the different shapes and textures of all the beautiful leaves.

Time to put on your hiking boots and go outdoors and view all the delightful colors that fall brings. Fall is a great time to gather up branches and leaves and bring them back into the house to brighten your day. You don't need much to liven up a table, just a mason jar full of your finds from your walk. I like to do this with my children, its a nice way to get out and enjoy each other without having to be a consumer. There are many teachable moments along the hidden paths of a walk.

Get out and enjoy the end of Fall. When's the last time you kicked over a pile of perfectly racked leaves or jumped with full force into a huge pile of leaves?

Its been years for me growing up we had over 47 trees in our back yard so jumping in the leaves was a regular way to entertain myself when it was my time to rake. Oh, how I hated the work....I never thought I would miss it. I do! Something therapetic about getting out and raking leaves maybe just me?

If you have never tried it I suggest you do and hurry winters almost here!

Lori

A PLACE FOR ALL

Nature sets a Place for All--
Lori Singer

Often during the holidays so many feel left out but, in nature there is a place for all... each leaf adds beauty to the whole.

If only we could all be connected with nature and see how we all have a place. I think nature speaks so beautifully in this photo. Every leaf has a place and each seem to complement the other.

FALL TIME

Wow! It's been some time since I have sat down to blog. My mind has been racing and my creative veins aching to express themselves. Autumn is always a creative time for me. It’s a time to go inside, literally and figuratively. I seem to journal more, paint more draw and cook more. I find that all that has been absorbed through life wants an outlet and so I eventually sit down and create something new.

I guess I am, in a way, doing my form of hibernation. Going inside to create. Perhaps we all need time to go inside and reflect or just shut down. I think we often don't listen to the clues our bodies and minds are telling us. I have learned to listen closer to my internal needs for more rest, and when I do, I amazingly emerge from the other side full of life and new inspiration. It is good to listen...sometimes hard to hear but so worth it.

The one thing I have noticed about fall, is that it has seasons within seasons, tucked into each season itself. As the light shifts, so does the weather and with each shift I feel a shift in my own personal energy and needs. I don't know if this is just me, but it seems so noticeable. Each has its own unique energy and sensory feeling.

Early fall or beginning is just after the kids go back to school. I noticed the shift years ago after my husband returned from Europe and we went to the beach to play. It is a time of year when the weather here in California is often at its best. We have a number of perfect coastal days and some very hot inland days.
The air is still and calm. It's hard to explain if you have not experienced it but the calmness and stillness feels like magic. I hope that you can get the chance to visit a beach in Northern California if you haven't in the fall to experience this magic. All seems right with the world. It's not unlike right the feeling just before a baby is born to this world.

I get the urge to go outside and dig in the earth. I garden until late into the evening, splitting perennials, and planting new ones. I visit all my favorite flower shops and buy new plant friends and then rush home to get them into the ground. I just can't get enough of the earth during early fall. I love to dig in the ground it is so therapeutic for me. Gardening is my meditation. It makes me happy to be connected with the earth, even if it's simply weeding.

Then comes the second part of fall right before we have our day light savings. For me, I really feel like hibernating. I need more sleep, so naps become my friend. I also get the need to see close friends and share meals. I love to cook new recipes and share them with my friends during this time. Soups on at our house just bring a good loaf of the best bread you can find. Sharing a comforting and simple meal brings great joy to me.
Sip a small glass of wine and share with special friends indoors is a must in the fall. I feel the need to be very communal. Does anyone else feel this way?

Fall is a time of great transition. The leaves fall, light shifts, days become shorter and as the weather changes from hot to cold and back again, I feel this in my own soul. It’s a fickle time of year in California. One day its hot and the next cold. I feel fickle too, I range from being very energized and wanting to seize the day to the need to hibernate and take those needed naps. It seems to require more energy to do things in the fall and because this I like to protect my self in the fall and spare my energy. I try not to spend much time with things and people who are energy drains. I don't have the same tolerance than Iwould in say spring or Summer. Is it the interal hibernation clock? Who knows? I do think the season says, slow down and it is more organically closed than other times of the years. So I also find myself doing the same as nature.

Another aspect of fall is harvest time. Time to harvest ideas and create. Fall is time to do nothing. Fall is time to share. Share and perhaps let go. A good time to clean house, it's an organic time of renewal and introversion. Shed the unwanted and move on. Who needs the extra baggage as the weather chills.

This all happens just in time for Halloween. Halloween often marks the first colder nights here in California and the days begin to gradually darken and become cooler.

(Continued) Part 1