Quinoa and potato curry

I don't often provide recipes, because I rarely make anything that hasn't been done before. But yesterday I wanted quinoa (keen-wah) and I wanted curry and I figured somebody out there had to have a recipe. The Vegetarian Times did, but I was missing 6 ingredients. So I adapted it for what I had, and made half as much because I'm the only quinoa* eater in the house--sad but true.

Quinoa and Potato Curry (Adapted from The Vegetarian Times)
Makes about 4 cups

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 cup frozen peas
4 cups water
2 T olive oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp curry powder
3/4 cup veg broth (or water)
6 new potatoes (I used purple potatoes)
2 Tbsp Greek yogurt

1.Put quinoa & 1/2 tsp salt in medium saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil and set timer for 11 minutes. While quinoa cooks, clean potatoes & microwave for 3 minutes. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them into quarters.
Place peas in colander & drain cooked quinoa over peas.

2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When oil begins to ripple, add cumin and mustard seeds. When seeds begin to pop, add curry powder and stir for 30 seconds. Stir in broth and bring to a boil.
Add quartered potatoes and stir occasionally until potatoes are cooked through, about 4-6 minutes.

3.Stir 1 Tbsp of broth into yogurt in a small bowl. Stir all the yogurt back into the broth & potatoes. Fold in peas & quinoa.

Serve warm with more yogurt or mango chutney. Add naan and a green salad and you have a meal!

SO GOOD.

* Quinoa: Incan super food! The Mother Grain! 20% DV of Iron! 2% DV of Calcium!

Watercolor workshop: Wet in wet techniques part two AND how to draw a cardinal.

Happy Wednesday! 

This is our last techniques session--we've got one more to tutorial to do with our wet-in-wet techniques but it has A LOT of photos, so I'll upload it as it's own post.

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorials and that they've helped you become more comfortable with watercolors.

Supplies! Go get some. 

Towels: paper and terrycloth

Water: 2 containers

Sponges: unnecessary! (I keep all my supplies together in a box--the sponges just worked their way into the photo)

Brushes:  A medium flat and a medium round

Paint

Permanent pen (I like the Faber-Castel Pitt Pen in Fine)

White Crayon (All I could find was a glitter crayon...)

Paper: sketch and watercolor (although, the watercolor paper is really for the next tutorial...)

Wax Resist

Use your white crayon to draw on your paper. 

I wrote out a saying that I adore and a heart-shaped doodle.

On your text, use your flat brush and paint over the words with three different colors.

On your doodle, use your round brush and paint over the image with two different colors.

You'll find that the two brushes hold different amounts of paint (the round holds more) and gives your edges different qualities. 

Next, draw a quote with your permanent pen, and fill one of the words with white crayon.

I painted inside the lines for "life is strange" and filled "wonderous" with white crayon and painted blue over top with a flat brush. Then I took a small round brush and added the flourishes.

Stamping
More supplies!

In addition to your paper, paint, brushes, paper towel and water.

Ink Pads (dye ink or solvent ink NOT pigment ink--it will turn into a blurry blur)

Assorted clear stamps and a block to adhere them (I like the clear stamps because you can see through them to ensure proper placement. Also, they ALWAYS have clear stamps in the dollar bins at Michael's, so you can stock up.) And yes, I do have some Martha Stewart stamps--but I bought them on sale (I worked retail and now I NEVER buy anything at full price--I know how mark-up works!)

Use your flat brush to lay down a square-ish of a lighter color: yellow, light green, sky blue.

Make sure your square is slightly larger than your stamp.

Next, remove the stamp from the packaging and affix the flat side to the clear block. 

Use your flat brush to paint onto your stamp with a color that's darker than your square (orange, red, blue)

Cover it good! Then flip your stamp over and place it on the yellow square (which should still be a little damp). Smoosh it a little.

Pull it off and voila! You have a loosey-goosey, runny, interesting image.

Next, use your flat brush to lay down another square-ish larger than your stamp.

Then get out your ink pad. I'm using dye ink in rich cocoa (mmmm, chocolate).

To get good coverage, flip the ink pad over and tap it onto the stamp. Tap, tap, tap until the whole stamp is covered.

Then place the stamp onto the damp square and smoosh it a little. Pull it off and hey! You have a cleaner image--one that shows a little more detail.

But is still a little runny around the edges. Oooh....

Now, obviously you can stamp over dry paint if that's your heart's desire. I just like the effects of wet-in-wet: fluid and unpredictable.

 How to draw a cardinal

Why? 

Because you'll need it for our next project. And yes, you could cheat and trace one, but they're actually quite easy AND they look great on holiday cards (I know it's August. I start early)

Supplies:

Pencil with an eraser

Paper

Practice

Step one: Draw a rectangle with a fat triangle cut out of the bottom

Step two: Draw a line up, and then a switchback 

Step three: an open parentheses for a fat belly

Step four: a closed parentheses for shoulder/back

Step five: a long letter "J" for the back of the tail

Step six: a backwards long letter "J" for the front of the tail. NOTICE that the tail is NOT yet connected to the belly.

Step seven: connect the belly to the tail--tuck the belly line behind the tail. There's an overlap there!

Step eight: A wing! A line that mimics the shape of the mask, and then turns down and heads for the tail.

Step nine: The face. A circle where the point of the mask is. An arrow completes the beak.

Nine steps to a cardinal! Easy, peasy!

Next time we'll do a wet-in-wet tutorial and then we'll be all done.

For later...

Yesterday, the kids and I met up with some friends at Lake Katherine--a nature center and botanic gardens. It's one of my favorite places to go for inspiration, and a good place to let the kids get out and see what they can see. The hiking trail is a giant circle, so there's no worry about them running ahead and getting lost. 

I'll take my camera and have different ideas of what I'm looking for: contrast, shapes, color, birds, bugs, trees, water...

Yesterday, I just photographed what I found interesting. Later I'll sketch some of these in my sketchbook, and turn them into works on their own. 

A heart-shaped leaf caught in a spiderweb

Goldfinch dining on coneflower seeds

Monarch butterfly on a butterfly bush

Fat, fluffy sunflower

Ornamental cabbage

Hummingbird

Hibiscus

Birch trees

Rocks at the edge of the lake

Super friendly duck

Frog! (Look closely, he's camouflaged!)

Waterfall, stream, trees

Having your camera* allows you to quickly grab visual references--this is especially important when you are travelling with people who won't wait for you to sit down and sketch things out.

Take your camera and take a walk!

* For the record, I shot all of these with a Canon Powershot A540. It has 6 mega pixels. I got it second hand. You don't need a giant monster digital SLR with 12 megapixels to get decent images. However, if you HAVE  a giant monster digital SLR, I envy you.