art to like.

Zach Bent, Preaching to the Choir – 24″x30″ – 2007

Pan-Seared Tilapia with Chile Lime Butter

The snow storm left us rummaging through the cabinets and freezer to find ingredients for a meal that would warm us through and remind us of sunnier days. Lurking in the back of the freezer were some tilapia fillets. I buy tilapia because it is affordable, sustainable, and easy to find, but the white fish hardly ever inspires me, being rather bland and having little personality. However, this recipe from Gourmet Today gave it some citrusy, spicy zing! Paired with coconut-lime rice (cook rice of your choice, add a can of coconut milk, squeeze of lime, salt, and pepper) and some sauteed snow peas (with ginger and shallots) made a fantastically flavorful meal that we will certainly make again.

Pan-Seared Tilapia with Chile Lime Butter

adapted from Gourmet Today

For Chile Lime Butter: (makes enough for 6 tilapia fillets)

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon chopped shallot

1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon minced fresh hot chile, including the seeds (I used a serrano)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in bowl.

FOR FISH:

skinless tilapia filet

salt

vegetable or olive oil

To prepare fish: Pat fish dry and sprinkle with salt. Heat oil in 12 inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until just smoking. Add fish, skin side up, and cook, turning once with a spatuala, until golden and just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and cover loosely to keep warm.

Top each piece of fish with a dollop of chile lime butter. Yummmmmmm!

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1. Monsters of Folk 2. The Road by Cormick McCarthy 3. Oklahoma Winter weather 4.  Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut 5. Hot tea 6. Oil Paint 7.  http://smittenkitchen.com/ 8. Julia and Julia 9. Canary Paper 10. My new Empire Red Kitchen Aid mixer 11. Gourmet Today

Directly upon finishing all my work for the Points of Departure show, I have been rewarded with a snow day! Grey skies have enveloped our little home and any sort of travel is unfit. This leaves me with a cup of ginger tea and new stack of cookbooks from the library. I hope to make a warm soup of sorts and knead out some bread dough. The quiet of the day is a gift, to read, draw, and cook.

 

Hummingbird Nest – Lisa Meyer-Kairos (acrylic, Mixed Media, 2008)

Starlings in Winter

by Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,

even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard, I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

“Starlings in Winter” by Mary Oliver, from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays. © Beacon Press, 2003.

This poem was read this morning on The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. If you would like to hear him read it yourself, go here: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Also, you van see more of Lisa Meyer-Kairos work here: http://www.lisakairos.com/

process of.

triple ginger cookies

I love ginger! When I ran across this Triple Ginger Cookie Recipe in my December Bon Appétit, I could not hardly wait to try it. It has crystallized ginger, ground ginger, and fresh ginger, giving it a intense full, complex ginger flavor. Also, they are very soft and chewy – excellent warm, right out of the oven. I adapted the recipe a bit, using full flavor molasses instead of mild. Also, it suggested using a 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar. I just used 1 cup of the brown sugar I had on hand.

Triple Ginger Cookies

(adapted from Bon Appétit)

Makes about 40 cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (packed)  brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/4 cup molasses (I used full flavored)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh peeled ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup (about) sugar

Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, crystallized ginger, baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy and light, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in both brown sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, molasses, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Beat to blend. Add flour mixture in 2 additions, beating on low speed just to blend between additions.

Place 1/3 cup sugar in small bowl. Measure 1 tablespoon dough. Roll into ball between palms of hands, then roll in sugar in bowl to coat; place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, spacing cookies 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until surfaces crack and cookies are firm around edges but still slightly soft in center, about 15 minutes. Cool completely on sheets on rack. DO AHEAD: Cookies can be made up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight containers at room temperature.

thanksgiving

Last Wednesday, Jonathan and I spent the entire day in the kitchen, attempting three new recipes to contribute to the Thanksgiving day feast. We listened to Sufjan Steven’s Holiday tunes and danced and tasted and smelled and succeeded! We made Real Creamed Corn Pudding, Pear Struesel Pie with homemade caramel sauce, and Golden Onion Pie.  It was a joy to travel the next day to visit with Tyler’s family. We are so thankful! A few photos and a recipe:

Golden Onion Pie

(Gourmet November 2009)

Ingredients:

For dough:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup warm whole milk (105-115°F)
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For filling:

• 3 1/2 pounds onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 pounds bacon, finely chopped
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 large egg yolks

Equipment: a 9-inch springform pan

Preparation:

Make dough:
Stir together yeast, milk, and sugar in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or in a bowl to mix by hand) and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.)

Add flour, salt, egg, and butter and mix at low speed (or stir) until a dough forms. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes (or knead by hand 5 minutes).

Sprinkle dough lightly with flour and cover bowl with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth). Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Make filling while dough rises:
Cook onions and bacon in butter with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a 12-inch heavy skillet, covered, over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 20 minutes.

Remove lid and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool onions.

Whisk together sour cream and yolks, then stir into onions.

Bake pie:
Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round. Fit dough into springform pan (stretching slightly if necessary to hang over edge) and spread filling evenly in it. Fold edges of dough over filling, leaving some filling exposed in center. Let pie stand 20 minutes at room temperature.

Bake until crust is golden-brown and filling is bubbling, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Note: Pie can be made 1 day ahead and chilled. Reheat, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

I just finished this painting. I am afraid the image is a bit of a poor representation because each one of the three canvases is three by three feet. At any rate, it will give you an idea. The detail of the flower, below, shows that I have started working with my paint much thicker. (Inspiration coming from Frank Auerbach and Anselm Kiefer.)

I am beginning to explore personal history, and the relationship between childhood/adulthood, innocence/realization, light/dark and the place of love in this often unforgiving world. The inspiration for this painting comes from a photograph of my brother and I in our childhood. It is something of leaving home, the treachery and confusion, and hope.

I am constantly learning and growing, and am always happy to dialogue about my work.