DoveSoup Art

Last night we were sound asleep, snuggled next to each other with the fan gently stirring the air around us - and then... in a flash, (I swear at the stroke of midnight) the tornado warning sirens went crazy! The thunder was ear shattering and the rain was biblical. Matt went down stairs and turned on the news, sure enough it was heading straight towards Upper Arlington where we live. I woke mom up and helped her down stairs and down one more flight into the basement. About 1/2 down the very steep basement stairs the electricity went out. You have never seen dark like "basement dark". Mom and I managed to feel our way to the bottom of the stairs while Matt went in search of the flash light. We all settled down, mom, Matt, me and the 2 dogs. I really wasn't scared, neither was mom... we just sat and waited. Matt was up and down, closing window...

I recently read this recipe on my daughter's blog. I thought it deserved a mention in the recycled bread section because it calls for 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs. Stale bread is so easy to make into seasoned bread crumbs. Chop your bread into small squares, spray with Pam or sprinkle a little olive oil over them, add some garlic powder, Mrs Dash, or what ever herbs you have on hand... toss them into a 350 over until toasty. Here is the recipe from Urban Farm Girl (aka my darling daughter)

Matt makes a lot of bread. Some it great - some is greater than great. But with the three of us we often can't eat it fast enough and it often goes stale. I loathe wasting such yummy bread so I've begin collecting ways to recycle it (other than feeding it to the birds) I've come up with a few recipes so far and I must confess they are winners. Here is recipe #1 Cream of Garlic Bread Soup Recipe · 2 tablespoons olive oil · 1 tablespoon of butter · 2 chopped onions · ¼ cup finely chopped garlic · 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes · 2 quarts chicken stock · 1 bay leaf · 2 cups diced day old French bread · 1 cup half & half · ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese (reserve ¼ cup for garnish) · Salt & Pepper In a large saucepan, over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, crushed bay leaf and crushed red pepper. Season it with a little salt. Sauté until slightly caramelized, about 6-8 minutes. Add the stock and bread cubes. Bring the liquid up...

Malt vinegar is made from malted barley. Rather than malt my own barley, which I do not know how to do, I decided to use a bottle of Guinness and 1 cup of Braggs Apple cider vinegar. Braggs is a living vinegar and as the starter should do the trick fairly quick and easy. I began my vinegar on February 18th by pouring the Guinness and Braggs into a small crock and placing it in the pantry. I covered the crock with a cotton fabric to keep dust and such out and let air, wild yeast and such in. By February 24 a short 5 days later I checked my concoction and found a mother was forming! The vinegar mother was not a solid layer, but a bunch of small globules floating on the top... so I guess I didn't have a mother, I had a litter *L* It was only a couple more days before I had a healthy mother completely covering the top of my Malt Vinegar. Now some people say when the mother sinks the vinegar is finished. When brewing other vinegars I never went by the "sink theory", I go by t...

I keep thinking I should write something... after all, when asked, I tell people I'm a writer, I tell them I'm an unknown poet, I do not mention that underneath it all I'm confident that after my death I will acquire the fame I so richly deserved but did not achieve during my life. (As a writer I must confess that is one hell of a "run-on sentence" the kind your elementary school teacher warned you about, and I don't even care.) My sister wants to change her name to Cher Nobel, because she is in constant mental meltdown, I say at least she still has her wit. My daughter who is " undiagnosed " lives in constant pain , we really don't fully know why, she also lives 2500 miles away and needs me.... I can do nothing physically to help her. That causes my heart pain. I hear though the family grapevine that when my oldest son drinks too much, he tells my youngest son what a horrible woman he (the younger one) is married to. That hurts my heart too. My...

FedEx dropped off a couple of packages today...Our dog "alerted" me with his explosive barking, actually he startled the begeebers outta me. I assumed it was shoes we ordered for a Tai-Chi class and was happy to think we would have them before our first lesson. I was totally surprised when the FedEx guy hauled out a one big box and one smaller box. My husband had secretly ordered a squirrel-proof birdfeeder pole, I thought ohhh my gosh, how sweet. Still thinking the small box was our shoes, I brought it in the house and opened it, only to find another box inside labeled; "Cool Cat Feeder". I thought Ohhh my gosh nooo, I hope it's not one of those "cat with an open mouth bird feeder", how am I going to act like I love one of those goofy things. I felt like an ungrateful shit even thinking like that way, but as crappy as it is, that's what I thought. I despise hokey garden art... sorry folks but that's just me. With dread I opened the...

Like millions all over the globe, I spent the morning watching the inauguration of Barack H. Obama: Loved President Obama's speech: Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. Loved Elisabeth Alexander's poem: Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Othe...