S.O.C. It To Me!

  It's week five (only one more week to go) of Kristin's Summer Of Color Challenge and these are the colors:

Red & Royal Blue

with a Smudge, Splash or Pop of Light Blue

 

   This time I knew exactly what I wanted to do so I grabbed my watercolor journal, opened to a blank page and painted an undercoat:

 

 

 

Then I glued on a piece of a gelli print paper I had done on mulberry tissue paper:

 

  Here is the finished page:

  I love how the blue paint shows thru the transparent mulberry paper! The theme over at Mixed Media Mojo is "Patriotic" this month, the theme this week at the Simon Monday Challenge Blog is "Start From Scratch", and the theme this month at Art Journal Journey is "Flower Power" so I am also linking to these challenges. I am also linking to Paint Party Friday as this is a very busy week and weekend for me and I know I won't get much art done.

  Products : Americana Turquoise acrylic paint; gelli plate printed mulberry paper; variety of scrapbook papers with stars; lt. blue card stock; embroidery floss; circle, star punches;  blue dye ink; Stickles glitter glue; white uni-ball Signo pen.

  It will be my Mom's birthday this Wednesday so I'm taking her to Chicos and  Talbot's Outlet Shops (love these stores!) and then we'll have lunch. This is the card I made for her:

 

   

  This past weekend I made yet another delicious and healthy summer meal:

                                                                       Glazed Salmon

                                                      Stewed Green Beans With Tomatoes

                                                        (RECIPES AT END OF POST)

 

   Since I've been getting enough requests for the recipes I have added a "recipes" tab just below my banner at the top. If you click on it you will find links to all the pictures of the foods along with recipes. It took quite a bit of time to type everything in and proof read to be sure I got all the ingredients and measures correct before setting up the links. From here on in it will be much easier to just have one link to create at a time as I put something in a new post now that I've gotten all the previous ones completed. . You are welcome to copy and print the recipes-they are not my original dishes (although on occasion I do tweak things). They come from a variety of books including Cooking Light, Mediterranean Harvest, Wegman's (a local grocery store), and from my MANY French cookbooks.This is especially for my "T" friends over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Stands For Tuesday :) I'm sure dear Elizabeth will forgive me for linking up without a photo of a beverage this week. However I found a delicious crisp and fresh Rosé Bordeaux which is perfect for any of these dishes! Sat. night hubby and I sat under the stars with a bottle-a perfect summer night.

 

 

  " I love summertime more than anything else in the world . That is the only thing that gets one through the winter, knowing that summer is going to be there."         Jack McBrayer

                                                              Glazed Salmon

  2 tsp. olive oil      1 tsp. butter         3 Tbsp. chopped shallots           1/4 c. dry white wine

  2 Tbsp. whole grain mustard        1 Tbsp. brown sugar         3-4 6 oz. salmon fillets    

  1/4 tsp. salt         1/4 tsp. pepper      

 Preheat broiler. Heat a small saucepan over med. - high heat. Add olive oil and butter; swirl til butter melts. Add shallots; cook 2 min. Add wine to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 2 min; stir in mustard and brown sugar. Remove pan from heat. Arrange fillets in a jelly roll pan lined with foil coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle fillets with the salt and pepper. Spread half the mustard mixture evenly over fillets. Broil 6 min or until desired doneness. Spread remaining half of mustard mixture over fillets. Serve.
Note: I now use barely 2 tsp. brown sugar after finding the original amt. a bit sweet. Also, I placed my oven rack at the second level from the top so as not to burn the tops of the fillets before they were done.


                                                 Stewed Green Beans With Tomatoes

  3 Tbsp. EVOO      1 lg. onion, chopped        2 lg. garlic cloves, minced      salt and pepper

  1 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed      1 c. fresh tomatoes, chopped    1-2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

  about 1/4 c. chopped fresh mint, parsley, or dill (optional)       1/2 c. water

 Heat 2 Tbsp. of the oil in a wide skillet over med. heat and add the onion. Cook, stirring until tender and translucent, about 8 min. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for another min. Stir in the green beans and remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and toss to coat. Add the tomatoes and water. Bring to a simmer, add salt and pepper, cover and simmer 30 min, until the beans are tender and the mixture is stew-like. Serve hot or room temp. Stir in the herb of choice and vinegar right before serving. This dish keeps well ( 5 days) and the flavors get brighter.
 Note: I have only made this with the parsley so far only cause hubby doesn't like the mint and I don't care for a lot of dill flavor.