Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Cooking: Split Pea Soup with Field Green Salad


One of the great things about Thanksgiving are all the leftovers. I took what was left of a Spiral Ham and added to water along with dried spit peas, Carrots, and peeled potatoes as well as some garlic, flavoring chilies and several bay leaves to create a great split pea soup. I served with a field green salad with cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, and Greek vinaigrette dressing.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

More Thanksgiving Trip Photos

I found some of the rocks my parents collected on a trip to Alaska this summer. The barnacles which had bound themselves to the surfaces of these finger shaped rounded rocks were very intriguing.

A tree on the grounds of the Fredericksburg Tree had died and a local artist carved them into 3 eagles.

One of my favorite subjects to photograph are ornate gates. This one with steps leading into some mysterious and private area of the building really caught my eye.

As I was walking downtown I found this crack in a wall bordering of one of the Lutheran Churches.

This is a view of the back of one of the oldest Sunday Houses in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Thanksgiving Weekend


I am back from my Thanksgiving and am displaying a few highlight photos. Above is a photo of family and friends attending my parents Thanksgiving party in Fredericksburg, TX.


This is a salad that on the second day we added some black olives and goat cheese.



We had visits to the bird feeder by a cardinal and a smart alec squirrel showing his skill at seedjacking.





One evening I visited downtown Fredericksburg to photograph the Christmas lights of town and park.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Cooking: Penne/Red Sauce and Asparagus



Supper tonight was Penne covered with a sauce of crushed Italian tomatoes with sweet Italian sausage and black olives and topped with fresh Parmesan cheese. It was served with a side of steamed and buttered asparagus.

More Vizsla Puppies

Sunday we set the puppies out in an outdoor pen during kennel cleaning and to let them get some fresh air and sunshine. They are about 5 weeks old now.




The Whole Gang (10)




Pup walking in the yard



The cat snuck in to observe all the fun but was soon discovered. He played tiger a while, but having grown up with a litter of pups during his is kittenhood, is very gentle.



Wednesday, November 15, 2006

In the Kitchen: Chicken Tortilla Soup



I was in the grocery tonight looking for some Creole Red Beans and Rice when I remembered I had a chicken breast in the refridgerator that was defrosted and needed to be cooked tonight. I remembered that I had most of what I needed at home so bought some ice cream and left. When I got home I cut up the chicken breast and put it in a pot of water along with red potatoes, carrots, a diced kohlrabi, grated garlic, one teaspoon of salt and set it to boil. I also added two dried New Mexican Chili Pods. I made a mistake with that and got the soup a bit too hot. I solved that problem by taking a cup of the juice and added some chicken stock and water to replace what I took. After I brought the soup back to a boil I added yellow squash and green chili (mild) and cooked until squash was done. I then added a few corn tortillas to soften in the soup before serving. I served with corn tortillas and avocado.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Ginger kohlrabi Stir Fry



This is an all vegetable dish. Peel and coarsely grate one or more kohlrabi into a bowl. Coarsely grate a carrot into the same bowl. Finely grate some fresh ginger over vegetables. (optional: add some dry Chinese chilis to taste) Stir fry this vegetable mixture in whatever oil you prefer. I used olive oil and a little butter.

Vizsla Puppies


This past Weekend one of my ranch duties was feeding 10 Vizla puppies. This is half of the litter chowing down. They are about 4 weeks old in these photos.


After supper it was time for some roughhousing. Looks like one puppy is about to start something.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Cooking: Bison Chili



Tonights recipe was Bison Chili. I started by cooking a slice of bacon in my iron skillet. I then added and browned ground bison. After the Bison was about half cooked I added diced white onion. When the onion and ground meat were all cooked I added a can of crushed tomato, water, grated garlic, and a little bit of leftover yellow corn. I also added a little salt to taste. I cooked the chili until it had thickened. I then served over Texmati Rice with avocado slices.

Sketching in The Galleries

This month our instructor is an Art Professor from UNT who teaches figure drawing. This drawing is a gestural line drawing where I was working on maintaining scale, proportion and spatial relationships of this Giocametti Sculpture.

Monday, November 06, 2006

The Texas Cutting Futurity


I just spent the last week in Waco, Texas photographing the Texas Cutting Futurity. I am now back in Dallas looking toward 2-3 weeks of print sales and image management after the show. The Open Futurity Champion was Arc Cat Her Please. Boyd Rice scored a 224. Additonal photos may be found at www.texasfuturityinc.com

During a break I took a photo of myself with my camera at my station for photographing the event.