Easy and Good Marinara Sauce

Since my painting slowed down slightly, I thought I would share a recipe that I tried out tonight. My Mother's wonderful Mother-in-Law left us some wonderful recipes, her cooking was always tasty and created a wonderful aroma in the house. I think like Julie and Julia, I'm going to blog about my Step-Grandmother Grace's recipes. That is more doable than experimenting with Julia Child's recipes that are complex.

The recipe is as simple as follows:

"Saute chopped Garlic in Olive Oil, add plum tomatoes and squash them til the plum is broken, cook 15 minutes-then add Basil, Oregano , Salt (optional), and pepper and one can of tomato paste. Cook 15 minutes more. All done!!"-Cooking with Grace by Nancy Accetta, December 2010, p.5

This is old school with no measurements so you have to rely on your sense of smell. I used Roma Tomatoes  which works fine and fresh Basil.

I chopped them prior to placing in pan

I used a similar concept from Martha Stewart Living 13 years ago but she complicated it by peeling the tomatoes. I don't find that step necessary.

The finished product on the pasta of my choice!

Nothing like simple fresh Marinara sauce that doesn't take a lot of preparation and I even have leftovers!
It made for a delicious dinner!

Happy Belated New Year!

Hi Followers,
I have not posted in a while but 2010 has been an interesting year! As I want to continue painting, I've come to terms that I can't actually make a living as an artist. I'm still making up my mind on what classes to take since I have more choices being in the intermediate level. I'm growing weary of retail and when rent has gone up and I'm paying for membership for Yoga my hours are being cut. It may be god's way of telling me to move on or make a career change and I have to do it quick. My ideal career would be in the arts. I considered administrative although it would pay the bills it could be boring or unfullfilling.

What I Accomplished in 2010:
Produced more paintings and took up Yoga. Spent more time with my family and be more a part of it.

What I wished I did more of in 2010:
Have more of a social life and travel more. Explore more career options.

The Highlights of 2010:


A new family member a little second cousin born to my cousin Christine and her husband Steve.

The Shrimp and Crawfish boil at my Cousin Christine and Steve's home in Ft Collins.

Reuniting with Jim Eaton and seeing his Family in Sacramento.

Seeing the Big Trees near Sacramento.

Learned Photoshop techniques for my paintings.

What's to Come in 2011:


Take a sculpturing class at the Art Student's League

Visit the Denver Design Center and look into Interior decorating

Take a portfolio class at the League

Be more involved in AA

Look for a new job

Take my dog Cookie to obedient school

Take a trip to Montana-look at Conrad Mansion and Marcus Daly Mansion for decorating inspiration

Go to predecorated open houses for inspiration too in affluent neighborhoods

If Interior decorating is something I want to do (after talking to decorators), get Certified via online or at-home study

Day in the Life of an Artist: Painting Completed

Happy Monday!After about a month or 2 I finally completed a challenging painting with a bottle and sauce server with a checkered and red cloth! I am pretty happy how it turned out. It being a dreary day in Denver it was a perfect day to paint.

Photo Still Life reference taken and set-up myself 2010

Checkered Still Life Oil on Canvas 18x24 Fall 2010

Doing the reflection alone was challenging by using a closeup of the silver design to work on the reflections. Working on drapery or cloth requires a lot of detail based on how the light hits it in the various spots. Onward to my next project as I keep plugging away.

Book Review: Eat Pray Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved Eat Pray Love and I decided to read it first before seeing the movie, which I have not seen yet. It's a great read that could be a life changing experience if I wanted it to be. She starts off in Italy to enjoy a carefree time and food. It was helping me to slowly but surely relearn to appreciate food again. She experiences different people in Italy and decides not to get involved with men while there. She describes it as being a diverse penninsula with every city with different characteristics. Then she goes to India for another 4 months at a meditation place where you have to be qualified to come to for intense and devotional meditation. Then to Indonesia for balance and she meet and falls in love with a Brazilian there. While she's in Indonesia she practices meditation with an old medicine man.



The writing and the descriptions of the scenery is just spectacular. It was perfect timing for me to read this going through a divorce myself and trying to find myself again. Even on her travels Liz goes through the emotions and growing pains of her spiritual growth as she naturally brings herself on her travels around the world. I wish I could afford to get away for a year for soul searching but many of us like me can do a lot of this at home too. I recommend it to anyone who would like to learn to live in the moment and quiet the mind which can be a challenge. It's an entertaining read with some humor and the human condition interwoven. Great stuff to think about although not a bible to refer back to by doing what she does since we're all different, but an inspiration.



View all my reviews

Day in the Life of an Artist: Different color tones

Another day of painting and I'm more energetic today, because it's slightly warmer and not rainy like yesterday. I plugged away some more on the checkered cloth and it still needs a little polishing. There are many different tones going on there. Very light, Light, mid, dark, and darker. I mixed various colors like; pink, blues (different shades), purples and yellows. It's because the light hits in various spots throughout the subject and everything you look at. In painting there is hardly anything with a solid color except the background.

I spent another good five hours working more on the checkered cloth and getting started on the red cloth.

The colors I got for the red cloth are the following:

Light: Cadmium red light + Cadmium Orange+ White (adding more white while painting)
Midtone: Cadmium red light+ Sienna+ white
Dark:    Cadmium red deep+ Sienna + Utramarine Blue
The next challenge is the silver gravy pitcher- so coming attractions is what I will mix to make the silver , which is like water making reflections as well as adding more white.

Day in the Life of an Artist: Working on checkered still life

It was a rainy morning and I thought it would be a rainy day but the sun was coming out this afternoon although it was cold. It was a day to start on a new and challenging project. I thought it would be fun to work on a checkered cloth since it's dramatic and could be fun to paint. All I worked on today was the cloth since there was a lot of detail and different colors on the white although it's not plain white. My instructor insisted that we don't use just white on our paintings.

With the detail involved I have to make sure my hand was not shaky as I'm doing detail work. I started at 1:30 and finished about 4:30ish and it was only that portion of the painting. I used the smaller pallette paper since I was only doing that cloth.

I promised myself that I would finish filling in the cloth for now and sharpen it up tomorrow no matter how long it takes.

It still has a very long way to go. I should do hiatus' more often, it's nice painting on my own without an instructor looking over my shoulder while I paint. I will keep posting the progress of this painting as I go along discussing color.

Confessions of a Fast Eater

After being married to a ex-marine who eats fast, I have almost lost my appreciation for food, as much as I enjoy and savor it. Once again I was wolfing down my dinner tonight like there was a big urgency for it to be eaten and be done and over with. I'm now reading Eat Pray Love (a full review will follow), and I just finished the first third when she's in Italy. She describes how she enjoys the food thoroughly taking in the flavors. Before my ex's influence, I ate somewhat slowly because I wanted to enjoy the food and now I have to relearn to eat slower again. The only time I eat slower is if I'm in a conversation with others, and ceasing to fully appreciate the food in front of me. I seem to have taken eating as more out of necessity than pleasure. We all tend to forget about enjoying the simple things with our on the go and rushed lifestyles.

The habit of speed eating was also influenced by my half hour lunches at work and that is a time when you have to eat fast to not spend the whole half hour eating. It may be understandable in the military when they have to run on many things on little time. I remember my best friend growing up saying that "I eat because I have to, not because I like to". She is entitled to her opinion but I was appalled by it because I assumed that just because I enjoy food, I thought everybody else had to too. I was sixteen when she made that statement and I already traveled a few states and been out of the country once and got to sample various foods from other cultures and developed an appreciation for food. I enjoyed helping friends out at dinner parties, not just for the extra dough but to watch and be inspired by other's style of cooking. That's what inspired me to read Gourmet magazine when I was 19-20; I even bought  it too and read through the complicated recipes,in college. I bought copies of it during my year stint at Keystone Resort in Colorado, not only to thumb through recipes , but for appearances, to appear classier than those ski bums I was living among. My cooking magazine of choice these days is Cooking Light, they have easy 20 minute recipes in the back that I've tried but I wolfed them down with urgency even on a relaxing evening at home. It's going to take some time to experiment with various foods again and get myself out of this food and eating rut and enjoy food again. Most of all make that pleasurable and every moment pleasurable, after all we live once.