Sunday, December 30, 2012

Art School in One Sitting ?:>) + Once-in-a-Lifetime - EGGS

ART
JUST FOR FUN!
Art School - In One Sitting!

Need a good headshot for Facebook or Linkedin
Photographer Peter Hurley shows "tricks of the trade."
How to Take a Good Photograph (Headshot)



How to Draw
- A Cartoon
Children show us how!




How to Draw
- A Realistic (Manga) Head


How to Sculpt


How to Paint (Watercolor)


How to THINK like an Artist - 
All Art is Conceptual !*


Now, go practice what you have learned for 10,000 hours!
Then: ENJOY YOUR CAREER IN ART!

*Even realistic art and photography are conceptual. A famous painting by René Magritte shows a pipe with the French words under, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" or translated into English, "This is not a pipe." 
The meaning of this artwork is - a 2-D (two dimensional) image, which your mind recognizes as a pipe, is not an actual pipeProving that images are conceptual, just like all art is pure concept and a product of the mind.




FOOD
Eggs in Butter & Cream!

- Lightly butter some small ramekins. 
- Warm your cream in the microwave. 
Spoon two tablespoons of cream into the ramekin and break one egg into the cream. 
- All but the yolk should be covered with cream. 
- Place a small piece of butter near each yolk. 
- DO NOT season yet!
- Prepare a water bath and bring to a boil. 
- Place the ramekins into the high sided pan with the water coming up to no more than 3/4 of the side of the ramekins.
- Cover the pan (and the ramekins if they have lids). 
- Let cook and check on the eggs after 5 minutes. Yolks should start to look barely cooked.
- Remove ramekins and season with salt and pepper. 

Serve each ramekin on a plate with potatoes and sausage on the side. Eat the eggs with a spoon. Enjoy your breakfast with a nice cup of dark coffee.

This is the fanciest egg dish you may ever ever eat = "Once-in-a-lifetime Eggs!" 


Have a Happy & Prosperous New Year, 2013!

Until later,
Jack
ARTSnFOOD, is an online publication dedicated to "The Pursuit of Happiness, the Arts and Food." ™ All rights reserved. Concept, Original Art, Text & Photographs are © Copyright 2012 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. All gallery, museum, fair or festival photographs were taken with permission. Images © individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Art in Memoriam, 2012 + Cooking with a Mirepoix

ROBERT HUGHES - Photo from "Shock of the New" WNET 13

ART
2012 
In Memoriam

Robert Hughes, (July 28, 1938 - Aug. 6, 2012) Art Critic died after a long illness at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, age 74. He had lived for many years in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
From a review: "Truly bad art is always sincere, and there is a kind of forcible vulgarity, as American as a meatball hero, that takes itself for genius (Jacqueline Susann died believing she was the peer of Charles Dickens). “My peers,” Schnabel told The New York Times last winter, “are the artists who speak to me: Giotto, Duccio, Van Gogh.” Doubtless this list will change if he tries a ceiling, but Schnabel has never learned to draw; in graphic terms, his art has barely got beyond the lumpy pastiches of Max Beckmann and Richard Lindner he did as a student in Houston. The dull, uninflected megalomania of his kitsch-expressionist imagery (Sex, Death, God and Me) is rant, a bogus “appropriation” of profundity."
The Shock of the New,” his eight-part documentary about the development of modernism from the Impressionists through Warhol, was seen by more than 25 million viewers when it ran first on BBC and then on PBS, and the book that Mr. Hughes spun off from it, described as a “stunning critical performance” by Louis Men and of The New Yorker, was hugely popular. In 1997, the writer Robert S. Boynton described him as “the most famous art critic in the world.”
The New York Times said of him: 
"He was as damning about artists who fell short of his expectations as he was ecstatic about those who met them, and his prose seemed to reach only loftier heights when he was angry. As early as 1993, he described the work of Jeff Koons as “so overexposed that it loses nothing in reproduction and gains nothing in the original.” “Koons is the baby to Andy Warhol’s Rosemary,” he summarized, adding: “He has done for narcissism what Michael Milken did for the junk bond.”
----------------

Maurice Sendak (artist/writer) -- Stroke. Died May 8, 2012. Born June 10, 1928. His greatest kids' book: Where the Wild Things Are.


Sendak wrote or illustrated over 100 children's books, but gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are. The book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first published, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance, but the children of the world embraced the art and the story.
----------------
Self Portrait - Photo © Copyright Eve Arnold 

 Eve Arnold (photographer) -- Died January 4, 2012. Born April 21, 1912. Photographer known for shooting the famous (Marilyn Monroe, Marlena Dietrich) and the unknown (starving children). 
She was born Eve Cohen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the middle of nine children born to immigrant Russian-Jewish parents, William Cohen (born Velvel Sklarski), a rabbi, and his wife, Bessie (born Bosya Laschiner). Eve's interest in photography began in 1946 while working in a New York City photo-finishing business. She learned photographic skills from Harper's Bazaar famous art director Alexey Brodovitch at the New School in Manhattan.
Marilyn Monroe Photo © Copyright Eve Arnold
Arnold's images of Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits (1961) were perhaps her most memorable, but she had taken many photos of Monroe from 1951 onwards. Her previously unseen photos of Monroe were shown at an Halcyon Gallery exhibition in London, May 2005. 
She also photographed Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm X, and Joan Crawford, plus traveled the world, photographing in China, Russia, South Africa and Afghanistan. Arnold left the United States and moved permanently to England in the early 1960s with her son, Frank Arnold. While working for the London Sunday Times, she began to make serious use of color photography. In 1980, she had her first solo museum exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, NY, featuring her photographic work done in China.
----------------
Artist LeRoy Neiman on right.

LeRoy Neiman (artist) -- Died June 20, 2012. Born June 8, 1921. Painted for Playboy, many Olympics Games and illustrated many pop culture events of the '60s and '70s.
He focused on sports and America at play. His subjects included: sailing, cuisine, golf, boxing, horses, celebrities, famous locations, and events. Much of his work was done for Playboy Magazine, for which he illustrated monthly until his death.
----------------
Artist Leo Dillon © Photo Copyright Lee Dillon
Leo Dillon (artist) -- Died May 26, 2012. Born March 2, 1933. He illustrated many children's books with his partner & wife, Diane.
From Narnia - by Leo and Diane Dillon

----------------
Jan and Stan Berenstain standing in front of their books.
Jan Berenstain (cartoonist/writer) -- Stroke. Died February 24, 2012. Born July 26, 1923. With her husband Stan, she wrote and illustrated over 200 Berenstain Bears books. 
Jan and Stan Berenstain who were simply called The Berenstains, were American writers and illustrators best known for creating the children's book series the Berenstain Bears
Janice "Jan" Berenstain (July 26, 1923 – February 24, 2012) was born Jan Grant in Philadelphia. The Berenstains noticed there were some issues which seemed to appear in every generation, such as kids throwing tantrums in public places, which made important subject matter for their story books. However, they deliberately wanted to steer clear of overly heavy issues, such as violence. 
(Stanley "Stan" Berenstain was born on September 29, 1923 and died on November 26, 2005.)


----------------
Collector Mary Griggs Burke

Mary Griggs Burke, 96, American art collector, with the largest private collection of Japanese art outside Japan. 

Mary Livingston Griggs was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 20, 1916. She grew up in a Victorian mansion filled with 18th-century French art, but was also exposed to a few Japanese pieces that her mother had acquired. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 1938 from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied literature with Joseph Campbell and painting with Bradley Walker Tomlin, a member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists.

Afterward, she earned a master’s in clinical psychology from Columbia. In 1954, she made her first trip to Japan. 
Entranced by Japan and its art, Mrs. Burke returned dozens of times over the decades, and with her husband, Jackson Burke, a printer and type designer whom she married in 1955, she began collecting Japanese art in earnest in 1963. Her collection is widely acknowledged as one of the finest outside of Japan, and spans five millenniums, from the art of early Japanese cultures around 3000 B.C. through that of the Edo period of the 17th to 19th centuries A.D. Assembled over half a century and exhibited throughout the world, Mrs. Burke’s collection comprised approximately a thousand artifacts, including paintings, prints, sculpture, textiles, lacquerware, ceramics and calligraphy.
(Source for all biographies: Wikipedia)


FOOD 

First make a mirepoix!


Strictly speaking the French term, mirepoix, most accurately designates 
the technique of cutting food into a small dice with a knife.



mirepoix (pron.: /mɪərˈpwɑː/ meer-pwah) is a combination of chopped vegetables (most often celery, onions, and carrots) which are sauted as a start to many, many wonderful dishes. There are many regional mirepoix variations, which can sometimes be just one of these ingredients, or include additional items. Mirepoix, raw, roasted or sautéed with butter or olive oil, is the flavor base for a wide variety of stocks, soups, stews and sauces. The three ingredients mentioned, are commonly referred to as aromatics.
Other combinations of vegetables are known as: The Holy Trinity in Cajun and S. Louisiana Creole cooking (diced & sauted onion, celery and green sweet peppers); Refogado (braised onions, garlic and tomato) in Portuguese; Soffritto (onions, garlic and celery) in Italian; Sofrito in Spanish; Suppengrün in German (soup green usually in bundles, consisting of a leek, a carrot and a piece of celeriac); and Włoszczyzna in Polish (typically consists of carrots, parsnips, parsley root, celery root, leeks, cabbage leaves, celery and flat-leaf parsley).
History: in 1814, a book gives a short recipe for a Sauce à la Mirepoix which is a buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic mixture of carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni ( which is parsley, thyme and bay leaf but may also include basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon).  

A mirepoix, ready for saute. 
CREAM-TOPPED MUSHROOM SOUP

INGREDIENTS
(mirepoix)
2 medium onions, diced
1 carrot diced
4 celery sticks diced
1 bay leaf
2 springs thyme + 1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves

16 ounces mixed mushrooms (such as cremini and shitake)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ounce dried shitake mushrooms
1/4 pound unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cream
salt

DIRECTIONS
-With a damp paper towel brush the caps of each mushroom. Separate the stems from the caps. Roughly chop the stems and set aside. Slice the smaller mushroom caps into 1/4 inch slices and dice the larger mushroom caps into 1/4 inch pieces.

-Make the stock:
Add olive oil to a large pot over medium-high heat, add chopped stems and dried shitake mushrooms + half of the onions, half of the celery and all of the diced carrots. Sauté about three minutes until they start to soften. 
- Add 1 teaspoon of salt, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 10 minutes. 
- Add 8 cups of water, bay leaf and thyme springs, then bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain and set liquid aside for later (about 4-5 cups). 

-Add olive oil to a large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté half of the onions and half of the celery until soft.
-Add mushroom caps and sauté for 10 minutes until browned. 
-Add flour and cook, while stirring for one minute.

-Add 1 cup of mushroom stock, using a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot.
-Add the remaining stock, minced thyme and 1 teaspoon of salt; bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning, add salt if needed.
- Add 2 Tablspoons of mushroom broth to the cream.

-To serve: Pour a cup of broth, then float some flavored cream on top. To garnish, sprinkle a few 1/8" chopped bits of mushroom tops. 

Serves 4-6
1 hour/30 minutes - prep/cooking time
(Source for editorial: Wikipedia; Recipe adapted from several sources.)

Until later,
Jack

ARTSnFOOD, is an online publication dedicated to "The Pursuit of Happiness, the Arts and Food." ™ All rights reserved. Concept, Original Art, Text & Photographs are © Copyright 2012 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. All gallery, museum, fair, auction or festival photographs were taken with permission. Images © individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.

Friday, December 21, 2012

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Angel Tree & Baroque Crèche at The Met Museum + Best Holiday Dinner Ever!

"Angel" Date: 18th–19th century, Italian (Naples) Medium: Polychromed terracotta head; wooden limbs and wings; straw and various fabrics; silver-gilt censer


A Nativity scene under the Christmas tree
with angels swirling upward to the crowning star.
In front of a Spanish choir screen.


ART: 
Met Tree & Crèche
(Editor's Note: This is a re-run of a very popular article we published a few years back.)
Nativity: attributed to Salvatore di Franco, late 18th–early 19th century, Italian (Naples)
Medium: Polychromed wood and terra cotta, cloth, straw, leather, metal, paper, cork, Polychromed terracotta heads with wooden limbs; body of wire wrapped in tow; various fabrics; silver-gilt halo and staff

The Angels & Crèche around The Met Tree are some of the most "awe-inspiring" Christmas decorations you will ever see displayed!



The Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a long-standing yuletide tradition in New York City and will be on view at the museum through January 6, 2013. The brightly lit, 20-foot blue spruce has a collection of 18th-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs hovering among its boughs and the a majestic crèche, at its base, is a crowd pleaser. Again this year, the tree is in the Museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall located in front of a large, 18th-century Spanish choir screen. As you view the tree and crèche, Christmas music plays in the background and the whole experience reflects the best of the Christmas season.

Painted Portrait of crèche collector & donor,
Loretta Hines Howard
The museum's Christmas display was created through a gift from the late Loretta Hines Howard, who collected the more than 200 crèche figures, angels and animals starting in the mid 1920's. Mrs. Howard conceived the idea of this elaborate Nativity scene under the Met's Christmas tree with angels swirling upward to the crowning star.



The display was first presented to the public in 1957, and since 1964, more than two hundred 18th-century Neapolitan crèche figures have been given to the Museum by the Hines Howard family. Linn Howard, Mrs. Howard’s daughter, worked with her mother for many years on the annual installation. Following her mother’s death in 1982, Linn continued to create new settings by adding more figures to the collection. Andrea Selby, Linn's daughter, follows the tradition and now joins in the creation of this display each year.

The Tree's Angels and the Cherubs

The towering tree is adorned with some 50 gracefully suspended angels and cherubs hovering over the Nativity. Below are a few examples.


















The Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
The landscape at the base displays the figures and scenery of the Neapolitan Christmas crib. This display mingles three basic elements that are traditional to 18th-century Naples: the Nativity, with adoring shepherds and their flocks; the procession of the three Magi and their exotically dressed retinue of Asians and Africans; and, most distinctively, a crowd of colorful townspeople and peasants representing lifelike characters with intriguing facial expressions. The theatrical scene is enhanced by a charming assortment of animals—sheep, goats, horses, a camel, and an elephant—and by background pieces that create a dramatic setting for the Nativity, including the ruins of a Roman temple, several quaint houses, and a typical Italian fountain with a lion’s-mask waterspout. 

Below are just a few examples of the 200+ figures and animals in the Crèche. 

















The Christmas custom of restaging the Nativity is traditionally credited to Saint Francis of Assisi. The employment of man-crafted figures to reenact the events reached its height of complexity and artistic excellence in 18th-century Naples, where local families, often assisted by professional stage directors, vied to out-do each other in presenting elaborate crèche displays. The high artistic estimation of the genre is evidenced in works of the finest sculptors of the period—including Giuseppe Sammartino and his pupils Salvatore di Franco, Giuseppe Gori, and Angelo Viva—who were called on to model the terracotta heads and shoulders of the extraordinary crèche figures. The Howard collection includes numerous works attributed to these as well as to other prominent artists of that time. 



A view of the Angel Tree's other side.
(Source: Photos coutesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, text information from The Met Museum press department.)
Postscript: 
Another crèche collected by Loretta Hines Howard can be found in the Met's neighboring state of Connecticut. Every year thousands of people find their way to the 300-year-old hand-crafted nativity scene named “Pax Crèche”. It is on display in a white clapboard barn (in a climate-controlled exhibition case) on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis monastery, a home for cloistered Benedictine nuns. This monastery and treasured crèche is fittingly located in Bethlehem, CT, a tiny town in western Connecticut. The crèche was donated to the abbey in 1949 by Mrs. Howard as a memorial to her deceased husband.

(Source: Smithsonian Magazine.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-Creche-Reborn.html#ixzz2Fncm01K2 )

FOOD
The Best Holiday Meal
I have ever eaten!
This menu comes to ARTSnFOOD via The Latture Family cookbook. Every recipe was designed by Hazel Latture and prepared/perfected over the years by her daughters Ann, Jamie, Carol and Cindy. This meal is both company impressing fancy and down home comfort food. By any definition it is a pleasure to see on the buffet table, on your plate and to eat. Luckily, I have had the pleasure of sharing this meal with them at least once a year, for many years.



MENU:

- The Best Ever Turkey
- Turkey Gravy, with or without giblets
- Latture Deviled Eggs
- Asparagus Almondine
- Momma’s Dressing
- 24 Hour Salad
- Ann's Cranberry Salad
- Mashed Potatoes
- Praline Yam Casserole with Orange Sauce
or alternate: Baked Fruit and Vegetable Casserole
- Nan’s Cornbread
- Dinner Roles
- Pickled Relish Tray
- Mandarin Orange Cake
& Classic Pecan Pie
Iced Tea (Sweet & Unsweet)
Coffee

RECIPES:

The Best Ever Turkey

1 Turkey, thawed (no fancy turkey, just the basic turkey)
1 Stick Butter, softened
Salt/Pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Remove turkey from refrigerator.  Remove plastic covering, giblets and the pop-up thermometer from the turkey.

Wash turkey inside and out with warm water.  Dry thoroughly with paper towels, being careful to dispose properly of the towels.  Massage turkey with butter on all sides.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and massage into turkey.

Put turkey into a low, open baking dish.  Truss the legs with the tail.  Put a small amount of water into the bottom of the pan.  Bake turkey for 30 minutes, then turn thermometer to 350 degrees until thermometer into the meaty part of the thigh and the breast reads 165 degrees.

Remove turkey as soon as it reaches 165 degrees, let rest for at least 30 minutes.  You will have a beautifully browned bird, crisp skin and moist, tender meat.



Turkey & Cornbread Dressing
Turkey Gravy, with or without giblets


After cooking the turkey, remove it to a platter and tent with foil to keep it warm.

Separate the fat from the rest of the drippings in the turkey pan, reserving both the drippings and the fat.  

In a boiler, whisk ½ cup turkey fat with ½ cup flour until bubbly.  Measure the strained pan drippings, adding chicken stock if necessary to make 6 cups.  Stir constantly until desired consistency.  Season with turkey base (found in supermarkets), salt and white pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.

If you want giblet gravy, cook the neck and all giblets except liver in a small amount of salted water until done.  Add liver about 15 minutes before giblets are done.  While giblets are cooking, boil 2 eggs.  Slice giblets, pick meat from neck, peel and slice hard boiled eggs and add to gravy just prior to serving.


Deviled Eggs, Pickled Relishes/Olives
& Yeasty Dinner Roles 
Latture Deviled Eggs

1 dozen eggs
Hellman’s mayonnaise
Bread and Butter pickles, minced
Onion, minced
Yellow Mustard
Salt
White pepper
Paprika

Boil eggs, cool and peel.  Cut in half lengthwise.  Carefully remove yolks, reserving whites.  Mash yolks adding a little mayonnaise, a dab of mustard, a little bit of minced pickles, onion, salt and pepper to make a thick paste.  Using a teaspoon, over-fill egg whites with egg yolk mixture or pipe into whites with a pastry bag.  Sprinkle with paprika.  

Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus Almondine,
Ann's Cranberry Salad & 24 Hour Salad.

Asparagus Almondine



2-3 cans green asparagus spears, drained and juice reserved
1 can cream of mushroom soup
½ cup juice drained from asparagus
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup bread crumbs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Spray oblong casserole dish with Pam

Lay asparagus in casserole.  Mix mushroom soup with water and pepper, pour over the asparagus.  Sprinkle with grated cheese.  Mix bread crumbs with melted butter, sprinkle over grated cheese.  Dot with almonds.  Bake 45 minutes.  Serves 8.

"Momma’s Dressing"

1 bunch celery
3 yellow onions
1 stick butter
4 recipes of Momma’s Cornbread
1 loaf white bread
Pecans, chopped
Boiled eggs, chopped
3 eggs, beaten
Chicken broth
Poultry Seasoning & Sage (easy on the P.S. &  Sage, not "too much")

Finely chop celery and onion.  Melt butter in a large skillet, add the celery and onion.  Cook until soft.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, crumble cornbread and tear white bread into small pieces.  Add cooled celery/onion mixture.  Add boiled eggs and pecans to your taste.  Moisten with chicken broth.  Season with poultry season, sage, salt & pepper (warning: be cautious with the poultry seasoning and sage, it is easy to over season).  Mix in beaten eggs.  Place in baking pan sprayed with Pam.  Bake until knife inserted into the center come out clean.

24 Hour Salad

2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups halved light sweet cherries (Mother leaves these out)
2 cups pineapple tidbits
2 cups mandarin orange sections
2 cups halved seedless grapes (I prefer black or purple grapes)
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Combine eggs, vinegar and sugar in the top of a double boiler, cook over low heat, beating constantly, until smooth and thickened.  Remove from heat, add butter and cool.

Fold in fruit, marshmallows and whipped cream.  Cover and refrigerate 24 hours.


"Ann's Cranberry Salad"

2 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/3 cups sugar
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon

Cook all together until berries pop.  

Dissolve 1 envelope (2 if juicy) of plain gelatin in ¾ cup hot water (moisten first in cold water).  Add to berries.  

Refrigerate.

After this begins to set, add:
1 finely chopped apple
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup chopped pecans

Spray mold with Pam, fill with cranberry mixture and refrigerate until set.


Mashed Potatoes

Peel russet potatoes, dice, put in a boiler with salted water to cover.

Boil until fork tender.

Drain potatoes, put in mixer bowl.  Add butter and milk to desired consistency, season with salt and pepper.  Do not over beat.



Praline Yam Casserole with Orange Sauce, Mashed Potatoes


Praline Yam Casserole with Orange Sauce



Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Praline Yam Casserole:  Bake 4 medium Louisiana yams on a foil lined baking sheet until tender.  Peel and quarter yams; beat with paddle beater of a stand mixer.  Beat in 2 eggs, ¼ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1 teaspoon salt.  Spray a 1 quart casserole with Pam, turn potato mixture into casserole.  Arrange pecan halves in pattern over top.  Sprinkle with ¼ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar, drizzle with ¼ cup melted butter.  Bake, uncovered, in 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  

Orange Sauce:  Combine 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/8 teaspoons salt in a saucepan, add 1 teaspoon grated orange peel, 1 cup orange juice and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook until sauce is thickened, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; stir in 2 tablespoons butter and 3 dashes angostura bitters.  Serve warm orange sauce over praline yam casserole.  

If you need multiple recipes, make the potato yam casserole in single recipe batches, it keeps the potato mixture fluffy.  

Orange Sauce

¼ cup chopped green onions
1 orange, seeded and coarsely ground
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup orange marmalade
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup rum

Saute onions and orange in butter until tender; stir in reserved stock, marmalade, and brown sugar.  Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly.  Stir in rum.

ALT: (Yam Casserole) Baked Fruit and Vegetable Casserole

3 pounds freshly cooked Candied Yams* (see attached recipe)
4 slices canned pineapple in syrup  (I substituted pineapple tidbits)
3 bananas sliced lengthwise (I cut each half in half across) 
1 large apple, cored and thinly sliced
1 cup raisins
1 cup light brown sugar
1 stick butter or margarine
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup Triple Sec (left it out and people still loved it)

Drain yams and pineapple, reserving liquid.  Layer yams, pineapple, bananas, apple and raisins in a baking dish, sprinkling each layer with brown sugar.  In a saucepan, mix the liquid from the yams and the liquid from the pineapple.  Add butter, cinnamon and Triple sec.  Boil until reduced by half and pour over casserole.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. 

*Candied Yams (for Baked Fruit and Vegetable Casserole)

3 pounds yams, peeled
1 stick butter or margarine
1 ½ cups water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch allspice
Pinch mace

Slice yams in half lengthwise if large; leave whole if small.  Put all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil over fairly high heat.  Lift and rotate yams with a spatula as they cook to make sure they cook evenly on all sides.  Cook for about 25 minutes with lid ajar.  Drain and reserve liquid.




Nan’s Cornbread

1 cup white cornmeal (available at http://fallsmill.com/)
½ cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 egg
¼ cup oil
1 tsp salt
Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Put the oil in the iron skillet and put in the oven to heat up.
Stir other ingredients together. Add enough buttermilk to make a batter of the "right" consistency (thick but pourable).
Get the hot skillet out of the oven and pour the (hot) oil into the batter.
Stir quickly and pour mixture back into the hot skillet.
Place skillet back in the over & bake 18 to 20 minutes.
Flip out crispy cornbread (called a wheel, loaf or pone of cornbread) onto a serving platter.
(Cornbread is cooked in an iron skillet reserved for cornbread, which is rinsed and gently dried, but NEVER washed with soap.)

Yields: 1 wheel = 6 to 8 pieces

Mandarin Orange Cake 

1 Box Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix
¾ c. Vegetable Oil
4 Eggs
2 11oz. cans Mandarin Oranges (drain 1)
Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, and juice from 1 can of oranges.  Fold in oranges (Momma leaves them out).  Pour into 3 greased & floured cake pans.  Bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes.  Cool and fill with frosting.

Frosting for Mandarin Orange Cake

Mix:
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
1 small package instant vanilla pudding
1 (9 oz) Cool Whip
1 can Angel Flake Coconut (1 1/3 cups)

Mix together and fill between layers and to top and sides.  Keep refrigerated.  It is better if made a day ahead.

Above recipes are protected 
under the international copyright of 
"Atkinson Family Cookbook" 
please do not re-publish 
without written permission.

Until later, 
Jack

ARTS&FOOD
 is an online magazine dedicated to providing artists and collectors around the world with highlights of current art exhibitions, and to encourage all readers to invest in and participate in “The Joy of Art” and Culture. All Rights Reserved. All concepts, original art, text & photography, which are not otherwise credited, are copyright 2017 © Jack A. Atkinson, under all international, intellectual property and copyright laws. All gallery events', museum exhibitions', art fairs' or art festivals' photographs were taken with permission or provided by the event or gallery. All physical artworks are the intellectual property of the individual artists and © (copyright) individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees. 

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