Day 51 and Day 52.

TREE LOVE

SEA DREAMS

It's hard to keep my focus on anything these days.  I feel like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between cooking and painting all day.  But dreaming and fantasizing about food carries me through the day.  When I can eat, I will never take one thing for granted again.  I will need nothing else but to nourish myself.  Even now, I appreciate how fortunate I am to have all these wonderful baking and art supplies to constantly stimulate me.

Today I made blueberry muffins:

Peanut Butter and Carrot Cupcakes for the dogs and buttery soft pretzels for the boys.

And since I have two huge leeks leftover from last weekend's minestrone soup, I decided to make roasted potato and leek soup!

Roast the potatoes and leeks - this recipe requires lots of prep - peeling and dicing the potatoes, washing the leeks, etc.

Roast a large handful of arugula.

Combine and saute with garlic.

Puree along with white wine, chicken stock, cream, spices, and creme fraiche.

Caramelize some shallots to top off the soup.

I gotta tell you, this roasted potato leek soup smelled up the entire house with sheer yumminess!

I also made some coconut-jam ebelskivers for dad, and eggs and toast for mom.

Back in the art room, I got this long and narrow huge canvas that I was so excited about painting, but once I finished up the background, I didn't know what to do with it!

I stuck this on the very bottom, but I think I'll let the canvas rest for a few days before I do anything else to it.  I've got plenty of other projects to work on!!!

Leona and Dick also came over to take more photographs of my work for my book of art.

They've got quite a job ahead of them!!!

50 Days of no eating and starving as ever,

During my darkest times of misery, I end up emerging with my best times of creativity.  If you can't eat, what else do you do?  Paint, of course!  And I did quite a lot of it today...

This is the painting I based on the great quote by Patrick Overton.

WHEN YOU COME TO THE EDGE OF THE UNKNOWN...

YOU WILL EITHER BE GIVEN SOMETHING SOLID TO STAND ON...

OR WINGS TO FLY.

 I really like the idea of basing a painting around a quote.  It's a new source of inspiration when the well has run a bit dry.  And especially when it's a nice, juicy quote which stirs up a lot of visual images.

World In Her Hands

 Leona and I got at my fourth still life painting.  Since I've been baking so much, we decided to base it around baking supplies.

 This is an hour's worth of work at it...

 Then I got back to the fun stuff.  I used the wonderful quote by Joseph Campbell in this painting.

FOLLOW YOUR BLISS, AND THE UNIVERSE WILL OPEN WINDOWS WHERE THERE WERE ONLY WALLS.

After painting, I always feel such a burst of energy, a thrilling adrenaline rush, and it doesn't make my time not eating seem all that bad.  I'm so lucky I have my art.  It puts that little spark in my dim day.

Day 49 - are things looking up again?

Good news!  Hopefully.  In the fast few days, my fistula seems to have dried up again.  I am keeping my fingers crossed and just proceeding very cautiously.  I realize how fragile this fistula is right now and I don't want to increase my oral intake right now, for fear I might disturb the healing process.  But, there is now a smile on my face.  I can actually visualize myself eating again, and soon, possibly.

I have faith that this fistula will heal.

So little output!

 I finished the background from yesterday.  I really like how I kept the black and white theme going on.  It looks very clean, and very neat against the newsprint backdrop.

The girl is lying on a sort of swan/cloud.

"I can feel the raindrops, but I am okay."

It was so much fun having everyone over for company after my art show.  I loved that everyone so much enjoyed the food I made. 

Everyone said my food was amazing!

I gave my brother Jeff one of my paintings - for free!

The only difficult part was that I couldn't eat anything!  When the smells got to be too much for me, I went to the bookstore to have my little cup of Jello.

I finally met Jeff's fiance - she's so sweet.  And even better, she works for the Food Network!

It was great fun getting prepared for company, but it wasn't really fun having everyone over eating my food, when I could not join them.  I think having everyone enjoying what I had made, made me realize how good my food really was, and I just got really depressed and hungry.

The next time we have company over, I will be enjoying the feast along with them!

Food is so much a part of an enjoyable life.  Company and good nourishment go hand in hand.

I made a breakfast wrap for dad for work.
Blueberry Corn Ebelskivers and Salmon-Dill Ebelskivers for my brothers...

Kasha and eggs for my mom.

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits for the two noisy ones.

I am not cooking dinner for the next two days because we have SO many leftovers from the art show!  I really want to make peirogies though!  And potato-leek soup with my extra leeks from the minestrone.  Come on family, eat up so I can cook for you!!!!!

These are some backgrounds for future works.  Soon I'll be eating, I can FEEL it!!!!!