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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Lamb Stew and A Couple of Quick Sketches

I made the lamb stew for dinner last night. It was the first time I've cooked with lamb and I was pleasantly surprised. I used Alton Brown's Lamb Stew recipe as my model, but made some changes. Here is the recipe:


And here are the changes:

-     I used 1/2 pound of lamb stew meat (it was plenty)
-     I used table salt
-     I used barley (couldn't find barley grits)
-     I purchased a lamb leg bone and made 4 cups of broth from that

It was delicious and made about 4 servings. I served it with warmed Garlic Naan that I purchased at Meijer's. I will definitely make this again.

Today I am going to try a recipe for lamb stuffed pita and I'll let you know how that turns out.

After dinner, I spent two hours with a new tutee. It was fun and she was a fast learner (my favorite kind). She is coming over again this afternoon.

Late last evening before going to bed I did a couple of quick sketches. I didn't refine them at all, but think they are alright for now. The first one is from a Degas.

 

I see lots of areas that need refining, particularly her right leg and right shoulder, but for my first figure sketch, it'll do. I tried holding the pencil a bit further back than writing position and that seemed to help with the curves and the lightness of the pencil.
I also tried a quick sketch of a stamp of a man's face and like how it turned out.


 

I am having such fun and thanks to you and your wonderful, helpful comments and suggestions, I am learning to put the inner critic in the corner where she belongs.
I have a less busy day planned today, but the hubster is going to take my work table (it is really his) for a show he is doing tomorrow and Saturday, so I won't be doing any painting today. I am hoping to get a bit of mail out today. I made a pretty envelope to send a note to my Mom. I'll show it to you when it is ready to go. 

For now, I'd better have a banana and then get on the treadmill. I'll decide what I am going to do today while I walk. It is a beautiful morning, but only 11ยบ F.

I hope to see you tomorrow!

xoxo

8 comments:

  1. The recipe sounds delicious! And your sketches are great!

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  2. Love the 'stamp man' - an unusual and novel sketch!

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  3. Great sketches. You've already spotted the areas that need refined in the first one, so I'll just leave you with the compliment! Love the stamp man!

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  4. Yep ... look what You did!! Congrats, my friend. Really nice job with both of them. And the stew recipe looks like it was really tasty! hugs, nancy

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  5. Great sketches. Good idea on the pencil. I'll have to try it. You know you are succeeding when those two pictures came out looking so different which they should. If they hadn't you'd have known you were in trouble, lol.

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  6. I absolutely agree with you, the quick sketch of the man's face is really nice. :) The other sketch is good too...but the man's face... gotta love it!

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  7. Good job on the sketches. The man's face with just the shadows is really cool.

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  8. Excellent sketches. Just drown that critic!

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