A Pair of Pears

I purchased these two pairs a few days ago with this shoot in mind. I photographed a series of these two pairs from different angles. The series may be seen in the PairofPears Gallery.

In the Kitchen: Split Pea Soup with Ham

I was in a bind. I was quite hungry and had not put any meat in the refridgerator the night before. I went by Kroger and bought some of my favorite canned ham, dried split peas, and went home to start my soup. I combined the split peas, cut potatoes and carrots, Cut up ham, 4 cloves grated garlic, and some thyme in 5 cups water and set the pot to boil. It took over an hour to get the peas to soften even thought the package said 30min. I served with buttered sourdough toast sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

At the Cutting Horse Show

Hey, I am not the complaint department. Go back to the herd and hash it out.

Ranch Views: Longhorn and Filly

This late afternoon I was driving down a county road and found this Longhorn cow next to an old rusted open stock trailer. I returned later, parked, and took photos from different views. Although the sun was on the wrong side of my subjects, I still preferred this one. Later I returned to the ranch to visit with the pasture horses in the late afternoon sun. Soon after I went into the pasture this filly came over to see what I was doing.

Sketchbook: Elephant Garlic

Today I took a garlic still life from my photo collection and experimented with a watercolor sketch on 18x24 paper. I did not spend a lot of time, and used only sketch paper suitable for light washes. I was preparing to head to the DMA for Sketching in the Galleries, but this was much better than what I came up with there.

Still Life: Basalmic Vinegar, Red Pepper. Tomato and Garlic

Here is another Still Life from my collection.
Additional images may be seen in my
Still Life Web Gallery

In the Kitchen: Chicken Tomatillo over Rice

This morning I prepared some of my famous Tomatillo sauce. I boiled the tomatillos til they were soft in salted water with crushed garlic.
This evening I reheated this sauce and poured over a braised chicken breast and rice. I served this with black beans.

Ft Worth Stock Show

The last few days I have been going to the Ft Worth Stock Show. I was sent there on assignment to photograph a Stallion that is standing at my Brother's ranch. When my assignment was complete I photographed one Calf Roper from a point of view not often photographed.

I was about to leave the Justin Arena area and I walked by the Sale Arena where I spent many hours in December. I peeked in to discover that the 10th Annual Cowboy Tales event was underway. I stayed for about 4 performers, my favorite of which was Stan Mahler. He sung several cowboy songs, one of which was about New Mexico.

Sketchbook: Springbox

Tonight our DMA sketching group went to a gallery where
there were some Cornell Shadow boxes. Our instructor told us about Cornell building these boxes as sort of a homage to movie stars and other heroes. She suggested that we create our boxes and dedicate them to someone, either publicly or privately. I drew this from found objects which in this case were real but at this time extracted from my memory. I dedicated it to Cornell.

In the Kitchen: Chicken Stew with Field Green Salad

Having been at the ranch enduring quite cold weather and ice I was in the mood for something comforting. For this I created a chicken stew with carrots, rutabaga, red potatoes, and flavored with garlic, a little salt, and a few bay leaves and a little dried chili. For my stews I typically choose thighs, which I boil to the meat is almost coming off the bone. I add the root vegetables after the chicken is cooked but before it is falling off the bone. I also added a few bay leaves and a little bit of dried New Mexican Chili pod to spice it up. I have to be careful with the chili as it can get too hot very easily. After the vegetables and spices are added I add more water and then continue cooking until the meat falls off the bones.

Sketchbook: The Reapers

This is the last weekend of the Van Gogh Exhibit at the Dallas Museum of art. I decided to take advantage of extended hours and sketch from the collection. I worked on two drawings of Wheat Reapers. This is the one I liked the best. The original Van Gogh drawing was in black chalk on paper.

These are some berries I found on a walk through the woods. They were along the fenceline after I left the wooded area.
This is a buckskin broodmare. She is always interested in publicity.
At the end of the day I look for the interplay of light in the clouds as day meets night.

Vizsla Playing with her pups

During the Christmas/New Years Holidays I spent a lot of time at the ranch. One of the highlights was watching my brothers Viszla dog playing with her pups during the afternoon outside recreation time.

Futurity Sales Topping Weanling Filly

During the past week I was in Ft Worth, Texas at the NCHA Futurity photographing the Western Bloodstock Select Sales. The Highlight of the sale was during Alice Waltons' Rocking W Production Sale.


This red roan filly by the name of All Boon was sold by Alice Walton (Center) to Kenneth Jackson of Owensville, MO (Left) for the Western Bloodstock highest all time price of $750,000. All Boon is by Peptoboonsmall out of Boon San Kitty. The dams sire was High Brow Cat, the top producer of Futurity Finalists ever.

Chili Peppers and Wine

I was looking through my collections and found this image. This past summer I was experimenting with photographing vegetable and fruit as still life. This is the product of that work. The wine is one of my favorite, It is of high quality yet a very inexpensive and is made in Australia.

Cooking: Bison Steak

This past Sunday I treated myself to a Bison Steak.
It marinated the steak in an oil and basalmic vinegar solution with grated garlic and oil cured black olives. I cooked the steak to medium rare along with some mushrooms. I cooked a mixture of kohlrabi and Yellow Squash separately, starting with the kohlrabi and then adding the squash later.

Sketching in the Galleries: Hands

I will only have one sketching in the galleries post this month due to the NCHA Futurity Sales Photography next week and the Christmas schedule the following 2 weeks. This week our instructor led us on an exploration of hands. We were to do contour/gestural drawings exploring hands.




First we found a painting with and interesting use of hands in the composition. We were to draw this hand using line.



We were then to duplicate the pose in our own hand and draw this pose. This was a particularly valuable exercise since the hands are a particularly difficult part of the anatomy to draw to proper proportions and scale, second only to the face.

Cooking: Tomatillo/Green Chili Cream Sauce

Tonight I made a Tomatillo/Green Chili Goat Cream Sauce to put over some tamales. I cooked about 10 or so quartered tomatillos and diced green chili with 3 grated garlic pods until the water was reduced almost to about a 2 cups or so. I then added a few teaspoons of corn starch to thicken an cooked a little bit more. I then added 1/4 cup of condensed goat milk and stirred and a few more teaspoons of corn starch to thicken the sauce. When sauce was about ready I added two pats of butter and then served over pork tamales, rice and a split cooked yellow squash.

Ranch Rodeo

The Ranch Rodeo started with a concert by CCMA Award Winning Artist Clifton Jansky. Clifton presented a very dynamic concert from a pickup bed including his own famous Amarillo By Morning








Our countries colors were then presented along with invocation in a grand entry.














There were Roping Events



















Cattle
Doctoring














And even some branding.









You may find more of these photos at href=http://www.americascutter.com/rjranchrodeo_dec06/rjranchrodeo_dec06.html

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.