Lentil Salad and Couscous Salad

Lentil Salad

1 cup dry lentils

1/2 cup sliced green onions, green and white parts

1 large tomato, diced

1 can olives, rinse, drain and slice

1 small bell pepper, chopped or diced

1 can black beans, rinse and drained

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper to taste

avocado oil to drizzle

1/2 cup feta cheese (if desired)

Note:  I didn't measure things out when I made this salad, these are approx. measurements I used.  Please vary according to your taste.  

Cook the lentils following directions on package until done.  Rinse and drain and put into a large bowl.  Mix all ingredients and drizzle enough oil to moisten.  I used approx. 2 Tbsp or so, I personally don't like dry salads, I like them more on the moist side without being too wet.  Add feta cheese or serve on the side.

Variations:  I used a package of mixed lentils.  You can use whatever lentils you like.  If you don't like cilantro, use flat leaf Italian parsley instead.  You can substitute Greek olives in place of the regular kind.  You can also change the black beans to another type such as kidney beans or Cannellini. 

Couscous Salad

1 cup dry couscous, cook this following the package instructions.

1/4 cup sliced green onions, green and white parts

1 large tomato diced

1 can sweet corn, rinsed and drained 

1 small bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cucumber, diced 

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup slivered almonds (sliced, or another nut will work, such as chopped walnuts)

salt and pepper to taste

juice of 1 large lemon

basil infused olive oil to drizzle (or reg. olive oil or avocado oil)

Note:  Same applies to this one, I didn't measure things out when I made this salad, these are approx. measurements I used.  Please vary according to your taste. 

Cook the couscous and allow to cool while you chop everything up.  Mix together all ingredients and moisten with the lemon juice and oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Same as variations above apply to this as well.

Options;  I thought chopped apple or chopped artichoke hearts would work well with the couscous salad, too.

More Paintings of Mine.

Vase of Violets

Foggy Mist on the River.

Petaluma Barns

And to Think I Could Have Spent the Weekend on My Paintings...

We had a horrible weekend on a camping trip that we weren't even supposed to go on by the orders of Michael's doctor.  Michael had begged me to go and I gave in against my better judgement.  Everything went wrong that could go wrong.  Michael had to go to the emergency department twice late Saturday night which was an hour away in Fort Bragg each direction.  That's four plus hours total in the truck, in the middle of the night, in the fog, dodging racoons, deer, skunk, and opossums.  Thank goodness our friend, Don, drove us up there the first time because I don't think I could have done it twice.  Finally we got back to the campground around 8:00 in the morning and slept till ten o'clock. 

To make matters worse, coming home on Monday our truck was seriously acting up.  Several times we thought we'd be stuck and then it would start and off we'd go, whispering a little prayer.  We only barely made it to a diesel repair shop in Petaluma.  Long story short, the truck is still there and the owner was nice enough to help us out by towing our 5th wheel and taking us home.  He could tell we'd had a rough weekend, all he had to do was look at my poor husband's nose.  Oh, and a few minutes ago we just got a call about the truck repair.  Looks like we might need to replace all eight fuel injectors which comes to a whopping $4,000. 

I'm going to share the beautiful part of our weekend with the pictures we were able to get before Saturday night's mess happened.

Painting Daily.

Some paintings I'm currently working on.  Please keep in mind, these are not quite finished and some are at only the first stage but I felt like sharing.

Purple Thistles.  This one is near completion, you can see it's signed in the lower right corner already.

Vase of Violets.  Just started.

Blue Heron.  First stage.

Van Gogh, After Van Gogh, Self Portrait. 

I started this painting about ten years ago then set it aside thinking I'd get back to it.  He was lonely and forgotten and stuck on a shelf.  Until now.  I came across him while organizing things, blew off the dust and got to work.  Since I'm back to painting, I decided to finish him.  He's not nearly completed, still a bit to go.  One nice thing, I had the basic sketch down and now I can have fun with it.  I'm thinking that I'm going to really like this one, namely I love everything Van Gogh and enjoy painting his paintings, especially his people portraits. 

Feeling blessed that we can work from home doing the things we love.  Making furniture and things for our customers is rewarding.  My jewelry cabinets have become pretty popular and I'm pleased because it was something that I felt was lacking in this area of the market.  I felt that I could improve on things and I think I did.  

After work each day, I try to make it a short day if possible so I can work in the afternoon on my paintings.  I just started another Taos landscape.  It's a bigger canvas, I think it's around a 16 x 24 or something like that.  Only the rough sketch is outlined with burnt sienna thinned down.  It's from a picture I got back in 2012 when we visited the Taos Pueblo on our vacation that year.

Two More...

Carmel by the Sea - Monterey Bay Cypress Trees

On the Way to Benicia

As you can see, I'm busy painting.  I love to paint!  ;-)

My Newest Paintings

Cottonwood Tree

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

Good to Know...

Since we work with wood, we get splinters, sometimes big ones and sometimes little ones.  The little ones usually come out with a bit of gentle prodding.  Once in awhile a splinter is so deep that you cannot get to it.  Well, when that happens, here's what to do...

Take a very small piece of Ivory Soap (has to be Ivory) and put it on your skin.  Place a band aid nice and snug on top.  Leave it like that overnight and in the morning, the splinter will have moved closer to the surface where you can now get at it. 

It worked for me.  I had a very deep and large redwood splinter in my finger.  All night long it woke me up from the small pulsating pain going on in my finger right at the source.  In the morning, I got out my magnifying glass and needle and with not too much prodding, there it was.  Another nasty splinter removed thank you very much.

New Paintings of Mine

We've been busy working on orders and I've been trying to squeeze in some time to work on my paintings.  Here's my most recent.

Taos, NM - Hot Air Balloon Festival

Adobe Home - Santa Fe, NM

Lion Portrait

Learning New Tricks

Something as simple as this.

This.

And this one from Dan the Produce Man.  I grew up on the island of Alameda and went to school with Dan.