by Paula D.
on April 17, 2020 11:33 am in Instagram
Social media has a whole new meaning to us now. It’s our only source of socializing during this long moment of “PAUSE”. The silver lining for many of us during this crisis is more free time. As the weeks pass, I’m noticing more and more creativity on our social platforms. We’re adapting and communicating in new ways.
For me, with this freedom, I’ve started drawing again. I’ve been inspired by artwork on my friends’ Instagram feeds. My Saturday nights are now spent at the dining room table, drawing and painting, drinking a glass of wine. (As opposed to being somewhere else drinking wine and not drawing.) I’ll tune in to some live music played by my friends on Facebook. It’s been surprisingly fun!
I wanted to share some of the cool art I’ve come across lately. My friend Mary Ann has been posting art way before this whole virus thing hit. She’s an art teacher. Lately on her Instagram she’s been sharing collages with typography. When I told her I was writing an art column, I asked if she could take a high resolution photo of one of my recent favorites (pictured above). Instead, she left the original on my porch (thank you!) For inspiration, follow Mary Ann on Instagram – @maryannparedesart.
Beth Perkins is a professional photographer living in Rockaway Beach. We’ve been friends for several years now and we’re also “CROM buddies”. I’ve always admired her photography but never realized she can draw too! She posted on instagram, “Started drawing again after about 20 years, decided to start with my money cat.” Her second in the
series was shared a few days ago and her caption resonated with me, “Peaches” is my second drawing/watercolor. I struggled with the perspective and almost started completely over. However, I learned a lot from this one, and there are elements I really like about it. So, I figured I’d post it. Like life, sometimes things fall into place and feel easy and other times it’s a struggle. Usually those struggles are what make us better, stronger, and wiser. Plus the prizes obtained from the struggle seem more meaningful. This one was done on the back of a cereal box.”
For more from Beth’s cat series follow her on IG – @bethperkins70
I’ve been a long time fan of my friend Clare Hilger’s artwork. A Pratt grad like me and middle school teacher, Clare is always coming up with inventive projects for her students, which seems to spill over into her own work. Recently she posted a piece that caught my attention, it’s called “Spring in the City”. See what Clare creates next on IG – @swimmonstersandwich
There’s more online creatively I want to share with you. Next week I’ll focus on other art forms, like video and writing. In the meantime, I hope this has spurred the creativity within you.
by Paula D.
on April 16, 2020 11:47 am in Holiday
I normally host Easter Sunday for my family and friends, and right now, I’d be gearing up for the party – ordering the paper goods, getting all the soda, liquor and wine, buying the canned antipasto, olives, artichokes and roasted red peppers. Today and Saturday I would’ve been on my feet, cooking nonstop in preparation for Sunday. It feels strange to not be doing it this year.
To mitigate this feeling of “Easter is canceled”, I pulled out the bins of decorations from the basement and made the house look festive. I’ve attempted to watch church on my laptop too, since we Catholics know it’s not about the chocolate bunnies and colored eggs.
Speaking of eggs, I’ve always wanted to try DIY egg coloring. This was the perfect opportunity. I wasn’t about to risk my health going into scary CVS for an Easter egg coloring kit. And that would be very socially irresponsible! Instead I opened up my fridge and got creative. I had red cabbage and I knew turmeric stains, so I went for blue and yellow.
The process is simple. Here’s all the info for this project!
The bright color created from cabbage and turmeric
What you need:
White hard boiled eggs
Water
Vinegar
Tongs
Strainer
Foods that produce natural dye such as: beets, cranberries, raspberries, avocado pit (reds/pinks), white onions, tumeric, carrots (yellows), Blueberries, cabbage (blue), spinach, green tea (greens)
How to: For each color you want to create, boil 1 1/2 cups of water. In that pot add 1 of the above food items. The amount of food you add will be a factor in the brightness of the colored dye. I recommend using more than less. Boil, then let on low for 20 min. Let it cool. Next, add two tablespoons of vinegar. The acid also plays a role in the intensity of the color. You can experiment with the amounts of food and vinegar, after all this is an art project, so get creative!
Once you have your natural dyes ready to go, pour each one in a clear glass or jar. You can strain the liquid or leave some food pieces in. If you leave some food in the liquid, it can create cool markings and patterns.
Now you’re ready to dunk your hard boiled eggs. Like regular dye kits, the longer you keep the eggs in, the brighter the color will be. If you’re looking for pastels take them out of the dye sooner.
If your dyeing eggs with your kids, definitely go for more intensity in color. It will take less time to see the result and the kids could get restless otherwise. Take it a step further and bring out other craft items like sticker0 , sparkles and markers.
Follow Paula on instagram for the day today – @theglorifeidtomato
DIY colored Easter eggs!
by Paula D.
on April 15, 2020 11:48 am in Food / Holiday
I was a little overzealous after my successful baking venture with homemade pretzels a few weeks back. This past weekend, I decided to bake something for the Easter season, to get into the spirit. It would cheer me up, since obviously, I had to cancel my annual Easter Sunday Party.
I thought it would be fun to bake Italian Easter bread (Pane Di Pasqua). This bread is symbolic of the season.The eggs represent rebirth and renewal. The bread, the Body of Christ, and the sweetness is for celebrating after the Lenten season, where Christians reflect, repent and fast for 40 days.
And I’ll be honest, I also wanted to post my perfectly curated photo on Instagram. It would no doubt outshine all those sourdough bread pictures I keep seeing. I’ll show them!
Baking makes a huge mess.
God had another plan. He decided to teach me a lesson about one of the seven deadly sins… pride. My mother always says, “God works in mysterious ways”. Well, this time God spoke to me through baking. My Italian Easter bread went horribly wrong. The measuring, timing, temperatures, alive yeast (eek), cat hair in the dough, zesting and impromptu muddling made the experience difficult and overwhelming. The exact opposite effect I wanted, resulting in no Instagram glory.
Placing the eggs within the braid was a challenge.
Frustrated, I texted my friend Dave (great sourdough bread maker by the way) for some guidance and support. “I should just stick to eggplant parmesan,” Dave responds, “ Naw you got this!!”
I proceeded with more challenges. Braiding and stretching the dough was hard. Placing the eggs within the braid was difficult too. I won’t even get into the DIY egg dyeing part. Starting this project in the late afternoon was another amateur mistake. I was in the kitchen for 5 hours. Finally ready for the oven, I forget to make the temperature lower than the recipe calls for. I have a WOLF and it gets hotter than regular household ovens. After all that work, I almost burned the darn thing. All said and done, I didn’t finish up until 10:30p.m. I was too tired to wait for it to cool so I went to bed without tasting it.
The next morning I examined the bread. The eggs had brown spots on them. I’m not sure if they burned or if that was from the egg/water wash.
I sawed a piece off. I took a bite. The texture was hard then chewy, unlike the desired fluffy finish. The recipe called for orange juice, zest and anise. I put too much anise in. It tasted like an old bottle of anisette liqueur from your grandfather’s basement. And it was very salty, barely edible (sigh). All that work for nothing. This was definitely my first and last time trying to make Italian Easter bread.
The disappointing final picture. The brown spots on the eggs are a mystery.
I have a new appreciation for the art of baking and a new motto – stick to what you’re good at.
If you’re ambitious or an experienced baker, find the Italian Easter bread recipe here: www.curiouscuisiniere.com/italian-easter-bread/ I’m sure it’s delicious, if you’re good at baking.
Follow Paula for the day to day on Instagram – @theglorifiedtomato
by Paula D.
on March 28, 2020 8:47 am in Food
Wow, what a difference a week can make. One day I’m writing about a beautiful pigeon in the Key Food parking lot, the next I’m frantically refreshing Katie Honan’s* twitter feed, stockpiling garlic and Sclafani tomatoes and using Lysol with bleach as Amazon packages arriving at my door.
New York state is on “PAUSE”. A very necessary measure by our government, trying to play catch-up to flatten the curve of the Covid-19 pandemic. The hope is to alleviate some of the burden on our medical system, first responders and all necessary service workers, so we can stay afloat at the most basic level and prevent our most vulnerable from infection.
Heavy stuff.
It feels surreal, like we’re living in a Black Mirror episode. I’ve been generally coping well, despite a few mini panic moments over my mother. She has advanced COPD. I’m also concerned about my sister. She’s a doctor on Long Island, testing people for Covid-19 in a pop-up camping tent, I kid you not (insert cringe emoji here).
We all have loved ones we are worried about, understandably. And on top of that, there is fear, uncertainty and financial problems. We are stuck in the house alone or with our families. The latter can be a good or bad thing! We can’t relieve stress at the gym or at the yoga studio, or get a massage. We can’t go to churches, synagogues or other places of worship to find peace and healing. We can’t get a haircut, go on a date or meet friends at the bar. We can’t go anywhere. This is our new normal folks.
Over the weekend to get my mind off impending doom, I limited my social media. I organized my house and cooked. It helped tremendously.
Choose an organizational project to keep your mind focused
I’ve been meaning to clean out my hall closet for the longest time. It was a big task. How does music equipment, cat food, and art supplies all end up in the same place? Taking everything out was easy but organizing and putting it back took some thought. For those several hours, I didn’t think about “the virus” once.
Cooking has always relaxed me. This is the perfect opportunity with extra time on our hands to experiment and try a recipe that is out of our comfort zones. Research the ingredients and their origins. Put some music on in the background and enjoy the moment and aromas. There’s so much joy to be had in the kitchen!
Cook comfort foods to cope
Do you have a creative coping activity? I would love to hear about it. Email me here.
We got this!
*Katie Honan is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a Rockaway native. Her reporting on the coronavirus is excellent. She also delivered St. Joseph’s pastries to my porch last week despite her exhaustion from working around the clock to inform us New Yorkers. Shout out! Follow Katie on Twitter: @katie_honan
