Homey, Heritage Comfort Food--Applesauce Spice Cake

It has been awhile since I have posted a recipe, so today will share my great-grandmother's applesauce spice cake recipe. In its original form, it called for "butter the size of an egg" and, interestingly, 1, 2, or 3 eggs. Apparently, our frugal ancestors used three eggs for a "company" meal, but fewer when baking for the family. Since their eggs were smaller than today's standard large eggs, we have settled on two eggs as the perfect number.

This homey cake, a favorite comfort food in my family, is a hit whenever I bake it. Individual pieces freeze well in a well-sealed container (handy for our household since it is a large cake and we try not to eat too many sweets). I will include the recipe for the cream cheese frosting, as pictured, although we also like it simply dusted with a bit of powdered sugar rather than frosted. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup chopped nuts; we like it better without them. And, yes, for readers with long memories, I have posted this recipe before, but it has been several years, so thought new readers might like hearing about it.

Heritage Applesauce Spice Cake

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups applesauce (a 15 ounce jar works)

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup raisins

Cream butter & sugar together. Add eggs and mix well, stirring vigorously until fluffy. Sift dry ingredients into a small bowl (I don't bother sifting). Add raisins to flour mixture and sir in to coat with flour (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom).

Add dry ingredients alternately with applesauce to the butter mixture in two or three batches, mixing thoroughly each time.

Turn into a greased 9” x 13” x 2” pan and bake 35 - 40 minutes at 325 degrees F until a toothpick comes out clean (or nearly clean--do not overbake). This recipe also makes nice cupcakes; bake them only about 25-30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 ounces cream cheese, softened (I use low fat neufchatel).

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

dash salt

2 1/2 cups (or as much of this amount as needed for good frosting consistency) sifted confectioner's sugar (I whisk it in a bowl instead of sifting).

Cream butter and cream cheese together well. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add confectioner's sugar, blending well. If mixture becomes too thick, you can add a few drops of milk.

Question of the day: What recipes or foods connect you to your ancestors and to good family memories?

Beach Scenes Are Enhanced by Shadows

Now that we have returned from a refreshing week away, I return to the shadow theme with a few examples of beach scenes.

Reflecting about the importance of shadows in painting (and in any visual experience or art form), I realized how crucial shadows have been in some of my recent beach scenes. Views of the ocean or other large bodies of water and expanses of shoreline can be fairly bare and lacking in obvious shadows. Although such scenes can serve as excellent subjects for serene, minimalist art works, including an object or objects, either natural or built on a beach or dune, creates opportunities for drama in contrast of the lights hitting the objects and the darks of shadow areas.

Particularly at the ocean here in Northeast coastal Florida, the sunlight can be very intense, casting strong, deep shadows. Here are three examples. Each of them has appeared in a previous post or two; clicking on the links will provide more information about them.

In the smallest, 6" x 12" painting, "Away from the Crowd", a bright red beach chair contrasts with the softer natural hues and draws the eye. But try to imagine the exact same scene on an overcast, misty day--or with the sun directly overhead so that the shadow would not extend out. The scene would still be nice, but some movement and interest would be lost. Further, notice the subtle dimensionality in the clouds due to the warmer, brighter light on the sunny side.

In the 12" x 16" vertical, "Dune Shadows", I was most interested in the patterns of the fence and its shadows on the rolling surface of the dune. Again, it seems that the scene would be more static and less interesting without the clear shadow design.

Finally, the 18" x 24" "Spring Breeze" demonstrates the extent to which a bright day at the ocean creates contrasting darks and lights. If the sun were straight overhead, the sand would be more monotonal; the foot bridge would be plainer, and the clouds would again be flatter-looking. Even the sky would have less color variation and less apparent depth.

Question of the day: Do you find yourself drawn to scenes with strong light and shadow contrasts or to quieter views with subtler contrast?

The Importance of Shadows in Landscapes

Recently, I have been reflecting on how important shadows have been in some of my landscapes and seascapes. Although a few scenes, either for reasons of the weather or for the perspective involved have few or no obvious shadows, most landscape painting and photography relies on shadows for drama, contrast, indication of light source, and pattern.

This will be the first of several posts about shadows, and I invite artists and non-artist viewers of nature to contemplate the subject with me. Today, the photos show a painting that originated from my interest in shadow patterns one afternoon, as well as one reference photo from the actual location. The rest of the scene evolved gradually, but the foreground shadows were both the starting point and my primary interest in the project. This is an 18" x 24" acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas adapted from a location on a private school campus in Jacksonville, Florida.

In early work, I sketched, then rough-painted indications of some of the darker value areas, as shown in a post about a year ago about the painting process. As the painting progressed, I wanted to create liveliness and interest in the shadowed grass, so tried to vary both the patterns and the colors in the shadows. One of the tricks my essentially mathematical mind played on me involved the patterns. Knowing that a nice balance of variety and related rhythms is most attractive to viewers, I painted in much of the grass and shadow area very quickly, trying not to think overmuch about what I painted where. Oddly, what I produced was a very regular, boring, repetitive pattern. Whoops--good thing that acrylics dry quickly and can be painted over relatively easily. In addition to the shadow patterns and variations in lighter and darker regions, notice the variety of colors--not corresponding to nature, really, but added for vividness and glow. This painting has a fairly strong palette to begin with, including the intense (and sometimes difficult to use) phthalo blue and a strong purple. All the darker tones in my palette appear in the shadows--purples, blues, greens, browns, and greys.

I am thrilled to say that our local son and daughter-in-law particularly liked this piece and accepted it as a second anniversary gift recently. Since it is among my personal favorites as well, it will be wonderful to be able to see it often.

Question of the day: Do shadows fascinate anyone else out there? There is so much one could say, both about actual visible shadows and about shadow as metaphor in life.

Meaningful Giving--Thinking of the Homeless

Our weather has suddenly turned quite cold for Northeast Florida, with a few nights of hard freezes and days only into the low 40s, though bright and sunny. Last night, high winds just howled, adding to the chill. So, I am especially glad that I had completed a small gift to let just one homeless veteran know that people are thinking about him. Not wanting to seem to brag, I hesitated to write this post, then thought you might like to hear about this project. It's not much, but I know I am hardly alone and that many caring people are also doing for others this winter.

Since I had some soft, thick yarn left from another project and wanted to do some knitting, it seemed like a good idea to knit up a long, warm scarf for someone who needed it. The pastor knows a gentleman who comes to the weekly Second Harvest food distribution at the church who lives in a tent and cannot bring himself to use a city shelter (possibly a PTSD symptom). He said that he could pass an anonymous gift on to "Joe" (not his real name), so my knitting project was set. Of course, I wish I could do something larger and more lasting for "Joe" as well as for many other fine people who come to the food pantry. But, knitting a scarf provided some satisfaction, as I also volunteer in the pantry and give to the Second Harvest organization. The scarf is a simple four-row pattern that knit up thick and soft in this variegated, washable yarn. I was able to make it more than 60" long from my left-over yarn, so that it will wrap around the neck and again around to cover the face, if needed. I included a brief note with Christmas greetings and a reminder that people at the church care about you, Joe.

Question of the day: Our country has seen plenty and excess--as well as recent hard times. For those of us with more than enough, isn't even a small gift worth giving to raise some one's spirits as well as to help meet a need?

Ideas for Hosting an Art Reception

As promised a few weeks ago, I will describe some of the planning and set-up details from the Open Studio Reception we held in early November (see photos in two earlier posts below). My studio is a small nook in (of all places) our master bathroom (this post shows the arrangement). People enjoy seeing such a novel and yet functional use of space. Also, it is surprising to me how many people are curious about how artists work and what our work space looks like. So, as we had two years ago, we invited a number of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances to join us on a Sunday afternoon from 2 - 5 to enjoy a party and see some paintings.

Our two receptions have been more elaborate than such events need to be. The main goal is to display artwork and, in a very casual and low-key way, to offer the pieces for sale. We wanted to make the occasion a fun party, too, so hired a piano player and offered beverages, appetizers, and small desserts each time. It's fun, but fairly expensive--and was a ton of work the first time before we acquired a catering daughter-in-law. In the future, I would like to try a reception with very simple food--maybe just cookies and punch, or cider with cheese and crackers.

I sent out postcard invitations to a wide list of people. The guest book information from the first reception was an invaluable source for the second. In order to encourage everyone to sign the guest book, I offer a prize drawing using the guest book signatures. Each entry is numbered, so late in the party, I simply put little numbered squares of cardboard (made in advance)--one for each actual guest book entry--into a bowl and draw the winners. A large poster board sign outside the front door read: "Please sign our guest book for a chance to win a prize." It listed prizes (this year, first prize was a $100 gift certificate toward any painting, second was a custom tote bag printed with an image of the same painting as on the postcard invitations). It gave the time of the drawing (4:15) and that you do not have to be present to win, which is an incentive to provide contact information in the guest book. This works very well; I am quite certain that every guest to both receptions not only signed the guest book, but provided an address and email and/or phone information.

Some of you might be interested in other details of the planning and set-up, but this post is long enough already. If you would like a description of my price and painting care information sheet and/or list of planning tasks essential to preparation for this kind of event, I will include that in a future post. Let me know. For now, I include photos of some recycled art bookmarks, an idea from Linda Blondheim, that guests enjoyed and purchased by the bunch. The process: After finishing the last couple paintings, I cleaned the palettes (always hate to waste paint) by stroking various leftover colors mixed with some white gesso in a sort of marbled pattern on the back of unneeded studies and a painting reject. Then, I cut them neatly into bookmark-sized strips, which creates interesting abstracts from the original paintings. These sold for $2 each, or 3 for $5. One photo shows the "fronts" and one the "backs" of the bookmarks.

Question of the day: In your area, do you see fewer people going to formal art galleries to purchase art? What are some other ways you see artists and craftspeople marketing their work?

A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

I seldom show my family or post purely personal experiences, but felt like thanking God one more time with a few images from our holiday gathering. For both my husband and me, celebrating with a large extended family has not been possible for--well--for decades. Our siblings, nieces and nephews all live a distance away and are scattered in various eastern and Great Lakes states. Even our immediate family has not been able to gather very often, due to distance and other factors, until this past year. Our California son and his wife moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area a little over a year ago, and our other son and his wife live right here in Jacksonville, Florida.

We feel deeply grateful to have our four wonderful "kids" (have to count the amazing women the boys married as our own, too) fairly nearby. Last Thanksgiving the six of us celebrated in Jacksonville with a meal on Thanksgiving Friday so that one couple could gather with her side of the family on Thursday and to make travel simpler for the others. However, our Georgia daughter-in-law gave up considerable income to be with us on Friday and Saturday. So this year, we all met at their home south of Atlanta. None of us can stop talking about how terrific it was to be together again this year.

The photos show Sumry's beautiful table setting, the fantastic cooks (Ashley and Sumry--Husband, Mark did a lot of baking, too, and I made a dish, but had the easiest holiday ever), the expert clean-up crew (Dirk and Pete), and the guys watching the turkey deep fryer (until we moved south, I never would have believed that a fried turkey could be so juicy, non-greasy, and delicious--not to mention the under-an-hour cooking time). Extra points to readers who can untangle that ridiculous sentence! The pictures also show what gorgeous weather we enjoyed for the day.

This comes with prayers and hopes that all of you have enough of what really matters in life and that you live in thankfulness and peace.

Open Studio Reception -- a Great Party

Our daughter-in-law outdid herself catering our Open Studio Reception last week. All the food was absolutely delicious, and the table looked festive and appealing. The irresistible desserts looked lovely on a buffet on the side, and our guests certainly did them justice. A fine calligrapher, Ashley made little signs for each dish so that there was no mystery about the food.

I would have liked more photos of the whole scene and the guests interacting, but hosting and mingling (and attaching those wonderful "sold" stickers to some paintings) were much more important. We were fortunate with the weather; although it was cloudy, the afternoon steadily brightened and became milder, but not hot. You see a few of the guests enjoying the gentle breeze in the backyard.

For the artists among my readers--and anyone else interested--I will soon post more information about the reception details. Important features of the day like the guest book, door prizes, sales tax, receipts, and studio policies all needed to be considered, planned, and set up in advance. You may find ideas for your own parties and for art marketing.

Question of the day: Isn't it fantastic that we can share events and information through blogs?

Set-up for the Open Studio Reception

Our Open Studio Reception this past Sunday afternoon was a wonderful event in every way. It will take me a few posts to tell you all about it. The support of my rock (husband Mark), the incredible catering of our daughter-in-law, Ashley (with her able assistant, husband Pete), the classy piano music of our friend Greg, and the warmth and encouragement of many friends and neighbors made this possible. Given my shy, introverted nature, planning--even considering--this kind of event is extremely daunting. But my life has been enriched over and over by the times that I push myself way out of my comfort zone to achieve a new goal--like staging this event.

These photos were taken the afternoon before on a heavily clouded day. I had hoped for brighter weather on the day of the reception, but it stayed quite cloudy all day Sunday. Thus, some photos are too dark too show you, and none of them quite do justice to the display of paintings shown all around our home. In these, you see a pair of 5" x 7" marsh paintings atop a chest of drawers in our bedroom, scenes from two very different local beaches hanging in the guest bedroom (one 18" x 24" and the other 12" x 16"), and a 9" x 12" sanderling in the surf on a nightstand.

Altogether, I showcased 17 paintings of coastal North Florida scenes in various sizes and prices. I sold two immediately and have several people considering investing in some of the larger pieces. Last time we held an Open Studio Reception, two major paintings sold about two weeks later, once patrons had time to think it over. I always offer a full refund for any reason because it is important to give buyers a chance to try a piece out in their home or business to make sure it works well for them. All my artist friends tell me that selling even one piece at this kind of event is good, that giving people an opportunity to see the work is the main purpose. The first time we tried a reception like this, I was truly amazed to sell a total of 8 paintings (counting those sold later as a result of the showcase) and of course, did not expect a repeat of that.

Then, to my surprise, I sold a painting that was not for sale! A gentleman was asking about my earlier work and admiring a scene of dunes and sea that I had done on heavy art paper about 8 years ago--early in my painting career. I told him that it had never mounted properly and pointed out some air bubbles under the work. To encourage myself, I had framed it anyway because I liked the way it had turned out. However, I had never offered it for sale because of the mounting flaws. Undeterred, he made a fair offer for the piece--and I made a totally unexpected sale.

Question of the day: Don't you just love it when an unexpected bonus comes your way? I give thanks for even the very minor serendipities in life.

New Small Painting of a Tropical Beach--Fantasy Get-away

Our week and weekend have been crazy--in a good way. I don't have much time right now to write a post, but don't see a better time in the next couple of days.

So, here's a quick post to show you a small new piece, painted on 5" x 7" gallery wrapped canvas, where the image wraps around the sides. I gave this tropical scene as a gift to friends for whom it has special meaning. In planning the composition, I used a blend of my imagination and reference photos from a very special vacation to Belize from some years ago and from a beach in the Dominican Republic. When we lived in the Atlanta area, our church sent groups to the DR for a number of years, bringing simple medical services and helping seed some small enterprises in mountain villages. I was fortunate to be able to go on several of those trips. Given the difficult drive down the mountain to the airport on the northern coast, we convinced ourselves that we really needed to go down the day before our morning flight back to the U.S. Thus, the group spent the final afternoon and evening of each trip at a small beach resort--not too hard to take :>).

So this is a departure from my usual focus on painting the beauty right here in coastal North Florida. Hope you enjoy it as a fantasy get-away; I added a hammock just for you.

Question of the day: What would make a perfect dream vacation for you?

Open Studio Reception Coming Soon

I am excited that we are again opening our home (and my little art studio) for a reception in a couple of weeks. Our local daughter-in-law, Ashley, will cater, which will make this event much, much simpler for me than the previous reception two years ago. She makes amazing party food and is a super hostess, too. Again, we are fortunate that our friend, Greg Spiess, a super party pianist, will provide music for the gathering.

A number of items on my planning list are checked off, leaving a task list that seems manageable. It was a wonderful feeling to put a big batch of postcard invitations in the mail this morning; a few more await completion once I locate addresses.

If you are reading this, you are definitely invited! What a treat it would be if blogging friends from far and near could be magically transported to our home in Jacksonville, Florida to join us. But perhaps some of you are nearby and as yet not personally known to me; if you are interested, come on down!

The postcard invitation, pictured here front and back, really looks great. On the advice of some artist friends, I order business cards, postcards, etc. from Vistaprint online and have been pleased with the results and the reasonable price. I even was able to order a nice tote bag imprinted with the same image, which will be one of the door prizes for the day. Now, to finish the last couple of smaller paintings which will be displayed (and for sale) all around the house.