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Let A Chef Do Your Cooking: Online Gourmet

I don't mind cooking; in fact I love to cook. Like everyone else in this hard economy, we've had to tighten our proverbial belts and curtail a lot of unnecessary spending. So we we don't go out for food as often and that means I cook more.

But since I've been contributing to the the Personal Chef to Go blog, I've not had to cook much AND we didn't have to go out. As someone who lives with chronic pain in my lumbar spine not having to cook on a bad day is like a 400 pound gorilla lifted off my shoulders. A girl could get used to this.

Personal Chef To Go,  is a web site where you can order super fresh gourmet cooking and have it delivered to you anywhere in the US for a very reasonable price. Chef Blair Grossman and Chef Gene Castelluccio sent me a mixed bag of singles, couples, family meals along with some green lunch salads. Everything but the salads are freezeable. We haven't tried that yet but we will.

Here's how it works from the Personal Chef website:

1. Determine which meal service is best for you: Busy Singles; Couples on the Go; or our Family Favorites menu and the frequency of delivery desired; one-time delivery or recurring weekly, bi-weekly auto-ship service.
2. Select either the current menu or the next week's offering and the quantity of meal plans that you desire.
3. Place your order online. We'll prepare your meals and rush ship them to your home Saturday (in some cases deliveries might arrive one day earlier) via Fed-ex Home Delivery.

Everything we've had so far is fresh and flavorful. Nothing about any of it has been like eating pre-packaged or frozen food. The meat has never been tough and vegetables are always steamed, never limp.

Last night, Manthing had Grilled Pork Loin Chops with fresh Rosemary Demi-Glaze and organic brown rice with summer squash and I had Chicken Cacciatore with cauliflower parmesan.

Your meals come packed fresh, not frozen. If you live local to their kitchen like me, your food is hand-delivered. If you live outside of the delivery area, your meals are packed with Thermal Shield ® lined shipping containers that are guaranteed to keep your meals properly chilled and flavor fresh:

The directions are easy enough and easily read on the label and your meal comes out of the microwave looking and smelling yummy:

 Chicken Cacciatore

Grilled Pork Loin Chops with fresh Rosemary Demi-Glaze

In addition to  what we had last night,  we've had Healthy Chicken Cordon Bleu with fresh green beans, a lovely Barbequed chicken with corn and mixed beans. We've liked everything we've had and there's no complaints coming from this household.

We're looking forward to the Penne Lasagna and green salad next!

Can You Spend Your Life

Can you spend your life with a man for the way he holds your hand?

For his mysteries?

For his silence?

Can you base that decision on faith?

We have so little.

Words and colors,

Sky and earth,

Light and dark.

Little in common to the outward eye.

But who would I be without his constant

patient strength and abiding love

without the net he crafted

of so many fibers

a net large enough to catch

my shards and broken places

where I came to understand

that he would always be there

in the rain and storms

to meet the sun with me.

The Virtual Great American Bake Sale

Okay. Kate over at Cooking At Stolen Moments has partnered with Share Our Strength and their Great American Bake Sale for an Virtual Bake Sale to raise money for hungry kids in AMERICA. Now for those of you who have been reading here awhile know that a major pet peeve of mine is all the focus on the plight of kids EVERYWHERE ELSE but right here in the good ol' USA.

 

Well,  here's a chance for me to put my money where my mouth is as it were and participate in this. And I am.

From Kate's Virtual GABS page:

You can participate in one or all of the following ways:

• Submit a baking recipe to be included in the ebook(s). Submit a recipe before April 5th. The recipes will be compiled, and the ebook(s) will be available for purchase on April 13th. You can submit a recipe here or via email - virtualbakesale@gmail.com
• Spread the word! If you have a blog, ask your readers to submit a recipe for the ebook. The deadline for ebook recipe submissions is April 5th. Feel free to copy and paste any information in this post when you spread the word. Make sure you offer your readers either a link to this post or the email address, virtualbakesale@gmail.com, so they can submit their recipes.
• Tweet! Spread the word about ebook(s) and the Virtual Great American Bake Sale through twitter. Please use hashtag #vgabs.
• Participate in the Virtual Great American Bake Sale. If you have a recipe you’d like to share, write up a post, include a link to the ebook purchase page (the link will be available the 12th), and then send me the URL to your post by April 12th. I’ll post a master list of all the VGABS participants on April 13th.
• Add a button in your sidebar that links to the ebook purchase page.
• Spread the word about the ebook.

Timeline Synopsis

• April 5th - Deadline to submit recipes
• April 13th - Kick off of the Virtual Great American Bake Sale and launch of the ebook(s) sales.

So, how many of you are going to join us?

Thanks to Sue for the heads up!

Richmond Young Writers’ Summer Workshop

Spend a week exploring the craft and fun of writing with a sampler of group and individual writing exercises, artful brainstorming, creative journaling and three special workshops a week by local authors, culminating in a reading of original works at Chop Suey Books.

Featuring local writers: Slash Coleman, Denise Bennett, Darren Morris, Brandon Reynolds, Anne Thomas Soffee and Hannah Huber

Session 1- June 8-12: ages 11-13
Session 2- June 15-19: ages 11-13
Session 3- June 29- July 3: ages 14-17
Session 4- July 6-10: ages 14-17

$120 per session or $230 for 2 sessions

Monday- Friday from 2pm- 5pm
At Chop Suey Books in the art gallery upstairs
2913 West Cary Street in Carytown

Valley Haggard, Director
Style Weekly journalist and producer of the monthly James River Writers’ Writing Show, Valley Haggard has taught creative writing through Art 180, the VMFA, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and at the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop. Valley holds a BA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

For more information and to register, visit www.richmondyoungwriters.com, email valleyhaggard@gmail.com or call 804-282-1789.

Valley Haggard
Director of Richmond Young Writers
www.richmondyoungwriters.com

Freelance Writer
www.styleweekly.com
Producer of the JRW Writing Show
www.jamesriverwriters.com
valleyhaggard.blogspot.com

Spring Cleaning!

I did a little Spring Cleaning over the course of last week. I seem to gravitate to wanting to clean  out stuff that's been sitting around to long and throw open the windows and doors for fresh air naturally.

So when Alison Stanfield’s newsletter came in this morning, it was synchronicity! These smart, easy-to-do suggestions for cleaning up the studio this spring could apply to your sewing room, home, office or anywhere you follow your dreams and create the life you want.

Alison suggests:

"1. Clean out your studio. Throw out dried-up paints and other unusable materials that take up space; catalogue and organize your artwork; dust the shelves; and mop the floors. Give yourself a deadline to organize any material you have been collecting that has piled up without a specific home.

2. Clean out your "ideas." Most artists collect ideas, which are actually tangible things like magazine articles or newspaper clippings. You think you may get to them one day, but somehow they keep winding up at the bottom of piles. Getting rid of them will provide mental and physical space for fresher ideas. For the paperless ideas that keep haunting you, journal about them so that they're not lost or forgotten.

3. Clean out your schedule. Get rid of items you don't have to do in order to make room for what you really want in your life.

4. Clean off your desk. Make your office a place where you want to do business, where you want to spend the 50% of your time that you should be devoting to marketing yourself and your work. Create systems so that your workspace never gets out of control again.

5. Clean out your paper files. We all have files that have become unruly and ones we know deep down that we no longer have to keep. Get rid of the stuff. 

6. Clean out your files in your computer as well. Consolidate and make computer folders with headings similar to your hard-copy folders so that they are easy to find.

7. Clean out your opportunities. There are so many things waiting to take up your time and energy. You can't do it all. You can't say Yes to everything. Let go of the commitments that aren't serving you and trust that someone more suitable is waiting to take responsibility for them. "

While I haven't accomplished all of these tasks yet, I feel lighter and less bogged down, more in touch with the natural rhythm of things. I like the energy shift in my house, in my studio/office and in getting neglected projects and chores done and off the tattered and dog-eared To-Do list.

To sign up for Alison Stanfield's weekly Art Marketing Action newletter or read her blog, ArtBiz Blog, visit Artbiz Coach.

Oooh. New Attitude.

Yeah, so I redecorated around here as promised on Twitter Last week.

I redecorated because it was time.  I apologize in advance to those who loved the "girly look".  There is method to my particular brand of madness. Speaking of which...

I have been hesitant to mention this mostly because I was waiting for the meds to kick in.  No really. It would appear I went sort of wongo beginning in late November ending about a month ago.

The clue? I began yanging at Manthing about stupid shit before the man even got out of bed. And I couldn't stop myself. By the end of the day, I was in tears, afraid the whole world hated me. Plus, I was treating Manthing badly. That is not at all like me. WTF?

And it had been happening with irritating monotony, Manthing informed me.

"Well, damn. Why didn't you say something? No one wants to live with a mad cow." I said.

"It wasn't all the time and it wasn't that bad.I wasn't sure what was going on. It could have been PMS or that peri-menopause thing thing or that your meds needed adjusting".

Either way I'm sure he was hestitant to mention it and risk getting his face fried off. I know *I* would have been. I know just what kind of a bitch I can be. I don;t even like to be around me when I'm like that.

So, that Monday I called my shrink and I was in his office by Thursday getting the happy pill adjusted and since then, I've been amazed how truly miserable I was. How can one live in that and not know? I guess it's just good I realized I was circling the drain.

The other night at dinner I looked at Manthing and asked him what he was smirking about to which he responded, "It's nice to see you without your little black cloud. The highs aren't so high and lows aren't so low".

He's right. It's nice to be without it.

Toilet Talk

This conversation too place in the not so far away past (a few days ago) between Manthing and myself.

Location: Manthing's Father's house.

Upon exiting the bathroom, Manthing looked at me quite seriously and said:

"If we ever live here, you're going to have to change your bathroom habits".

Uhmmmmm...okay.. WTF?

"What do you mean",  I asked, " Am I going to have to be litter trained or crap in a hole outside or what?"

"No. You're just going to have to watch what you flush."

"Huh?"

"Well you won't be able to flush anything but toilet paper. It's a septic system."

"Well, I DO flush everything in the Free World down the crapper!" <rolleyes>

"Well, I'm just saying.."

Again I sayest unto thou... WTF?!!

Art Giveaway, Snarfed From Shoshanah

Snarfed Shoshanah (found on Facebook).

The first FIVE people to respond to this post, the first FIVE who respond to the note on Facebook  AND first FIVE who respond to the Tweet will get something made by me, for free!.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

• I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
• What I create will be just for you.
• You have no clue what it's going to be.
• I am looking to get it all done in the next 90 days.
• I retain the right to use photos of the work for promotion or on the web.

It will be something made in the real world and not something over the internet. It could be a mix CD of music or images. It could be a small collage, a fabric collage, a Pocket Assemblage or Shrine, a few Artist Trading Cards,  a piece of  my found object/image jewelry, altered dominoes, altered matchbox or another small object. I won't know until I begin!

I reserve the right to do something experimental but I won't send out any inferior results.

Here's the fine print:

In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make 5 things for 5 others. What could be more fun!!!!(change the above to stuff you do) Some ideas you could do for others: (CD's, Burn a DVD, make a mini book, make jewelry, Artist Trading Cards, Alter a small object, etc...)

And I'll need to provide me with your snail mail address..... You can send that in a message or e-mail.

Do It In Your Living Room

Bushwick Journal
Art Galleries With Less of a Profit Motive Thrive in Brooklyn

By CARA BUCKLEY

Published: March 6, 2009| NY Times

There are drawbacks to putting an art gallery in one’s living room, among them having to keep the floors spotless and hide dirty socks. But there are definite benefits, too: no overhead, for one, which comes in handy if the art market, in keeping with most other markets these days, happens to sputter to a halt.

In Bushwick, Brooklyn, galleries owned and run by artists have sprouted over the past few years in living rooms as well as in storefronts and factory spaces. Unlike gallery owners in Chelsea or SoHo, many of these artists-slash-gallerists have an extra layer of insulation against the spiraling recession. Most have full-time jobs and said their motive for showing art was just that: to show art.

“I never set out to do this for commercial gain, so I’m not dealing with the same kind of commercial pressures as Manhattan,” said Jason Irwin, who runs a gallery called Privateer in his small studio apartment, off Flushing Avenue.

Mr. Irwin, an artist himself who has a paid job working for the conceptual artist Fred Wilson, most recently showed work by Ellie Murphy, whose eight-foot-tall macramé-like yarn hanging one could imagine in a museum but probably would not expect to buy, or sell. He opened the gallery in October, showing his own sculptural pieces as well as work by other artists from as far away as Los Angeles.

read the rest...

Goddess of the Month - Themis

By Tinnekke Bebout
Guest Author

Mystic Crystal Gazer by Lynne French from ArtCardsWanted.com

Who Is Themis?

Themis is a most ancient Goddess. One of the eldest children of Gaia and Ouranos, Themis is cited as one of the first prophetesses and givers of law.Her name literally means "Law of Nature", and She is considered one whose decrees could sway even the most powerful of the Olympian Gods. She is also the Goddess of Assemblies, and She was invoked at every assembly in ancient Greece and called the Gods themselves to assemble on Olympus when needed. Themis also presided over the functions of the family as part of the greater populace as well as the fair and proper function of the courts. Because of this, judges were called themistop'loi, servants of Themis. Some of Her other titles include:

Euboulos - Well-Counselled
Orthoboulos - Straight Counselled
S'teira - Saviour
Hiera - Holy
Aidoios - August
Eugen's - High-Born

Worship of Themis

Themis did not have one town that honored Her more than any other with a special temple that was a place of pilgrimage. Rather all cities had temples to Themis, either by Herself or in conjunction with other Goddesses such as Nemesis. Themis also had a special shrine to Her on Mount Parnassos because of Her connection to the story of Deukalion and Pyrrha where She tells the survivors or the Hellenic flood to "throw the bones of their mother (Gaia) over their shoulders as they leave Her temple" to recreate the human race.

According to several poets and playwrites or classical times, Themis was one of the earliest brides of Zeus, with whom She is parent to the Horae or Seasons, and the Moirae, or Fates, as well as the Goddesses Dike (Justice), Eunomia (Good Order), and Eirene (Peace). Thus it was said that through Themis did come all things that made harmonious living possible. In some accounts the Hesperides, who guarded the grove of golden apple trees which conveyed immortality to those who ate of them, were also Her daughters with Zeus.

Contrary to some belief in modern times, statues of the Blind Justice are not statues of Themis. Themis was never depicted that way in classical times. Rather She was shown as a young woman seated on a tripod looking down at a dish holding either lots for drawing or the sacred smoke of the Oracle, and Her face is contemplative and serene. Themis was also depicted as a woman seated besides Zeus, advising him on the precepts of divine law. The blindfolded Justice that we are familiar with was the Roman Goddess Justicia, who was not to be confused with Themis in role or function in society as She presided over the courts only.