Mark is happy because everyone is loving the food. I’m happy because everyone is happy!

Pat and all her students are having a blast. There is paper, paint, ink, plastic wrap, bubble wrap, and all manner of STUFF all over the studio. It’s hard to tell where one person’s work space starts and the other’s begins.

The group is getting along very well, and they have to because there are 22 in the workshop and with all the STUFF it is quite crowded in the studio. We will definitely be planning some improvements. I can’t wait until we can build our big new studio, then the STUFF can really fly.

Fiber artists would love this workshop. I’m itching to try some of Pat’s techniques on fabric.

I made for the maple soy salmon, which they adore, and I made for them the artichoke and turnip, spinach and peppers with soy and pumpkin seeds. I also made a green bean, garlic and pimento dish that they loved. They got this with saffron rice. And of course, they’ll get the French apple pie.

Food Discussion

OK. Now, what desserts from this year would you like to keep. Pick one:

1. Chocolate Mousse
2. Waffles with Ice Cream and Chocolate sauce.
3. Fruit Cup with honey and yogurt
4. Cheese Cake and Strawberry Sauce
5. Lemon Meringue Pie
6. Brownie Pie
7. Banana Bread Pudding with hard sauce

I am keeping the French Apple Pie and the Sabayon. A plain fruit cup will be kept, for those that don’t want sweets. Everything else is probably going. I must have left something off that menu. If you can think of it, vote for it.

InnSane: Blackened Catfish: What to leave in, what to leave out

Here’s a question: if you were going to pick a culinary theme, what would you pick?

Oh, and an anonymous vote always gets the attention it deserves. Thanks.

InnSane

I think it helps if a post has these things in it. I think that’s better than comments. We’ll see. This is a test.

For next year, I was thinking of doing Blackened Catfish rather than the Maple/Soy Salmon or the Sole Almondine. I was wondering what you thought? I’m looking for dishes to keep for next year. Some people were upset that I am changing the menu completely. OK. Well, then, I’ll keep a dish or two but I need votes.

Please send your comments via the comments function here on the blog.

Thanks.

Thank you Gerri for the disk. I will put it on the blog in the next few days. We have Elements so I should be able to read the files.

Gerri has been painting the same pine tree by the creek using the instruction and techniques and influences of eight different instructors. I thought that that was an incredible project. What a beautiful concept.

I had a similar concept. I was going to have a Dejeuner Sur l’Herb (by Manet, nach) as a commission, every year with different friends and/or models in the painting every year.

Thanks also, Gerri, for the beautiful card. We all appreciate it. See you next year at Mary’s workshop. Thanks.

As well as painting, oil paints, watercolor and other painting supplies and other things related to art and art workshops. Let’s see if this obvious post about art and art supplies does what I hope.

This workshop is an oil painting workshop and they have mineral spirits and other supplies with them. But if Google would only give use ads on art supplies, we’d be happier.

Spanish during the summer etc. workshops and Russian and German for the Winter. So, it’s time to write in and tell me what dish you’d like to see next year from this menu. Else, it’ll all change.

Well, people come here and drink beer and wine and soft drinks. Mostly they drink wine. However, I must say, Kenn Backhaus’ workshop is a beer drinking workshop. Thanks just terrific. I thought I was the only one drinking beer. 😉

Well, so far, they liked the chicken the best with the salmon a close second. The chocolate mousse is a fav with the waffles and ice cream a good second but to tell you the truth, I think every loves the fruit cup. It’s the feel good about dessert factor! 😉

I tried two new veggies. One was a julienne carrot with apple juice and brown sugar glaze and the other is a zucchini and sun dried tomatoes. They went ape. This workshop has been my tester workshop and I appreciate it. I’ve done more new dishes this workshop then any other, except maybe, and I say maybe, that time I was serving the Chinese chicken salad with the bao.

Well, here are the Mel Stabin photos. This was a fun class. And you can even see the reinactment of Jill, who is still flush after several minutes of resting, trying a dot of the HOT sauce. Very HOT sauce.

Jill trying the hot sauce. Boy was she surprised.

Kenn was kidding, telling John that he loved liver. I was going to make him it for his dinner. Luckily, I asked. He was just kidding. However, I found out that quite a few people would love to have liver and onions as well as kidney’s and scrabbled eggs or calf’s brains and scrabbled eggs.

Kenn’s a nice guy and I have a feeling this workshop will be wonderful. If you’ve missed this great teacher, you’re next opportunity will be Winter of 2007. That’s right, the man you wanted to do a winter workshop will be doing one in 2007. Don’t miss this great opportunity to work with Kenn.

InnSane

It was fun while it lasted. Come back soon.

Thomas sent us a very nice letter saying how much he enjoyed teaching here. We loved having him. We’ve decided to have a testimonials page on the website and put all these great cards and letters on it.

Here are the photos. This is the beginning of the party that his students threw for him. It all goes down hill from here. 😉

I like this next photo for it’s artistic qualities. Of course, on the web, you can’t see them.

They gave him a collage with all their mini remembered landscapes.

Who is that dashing fellow?

Too bad. These people are having a great time painting and collaging and doing both abstract and concrete, that is the opposite of abstract, work. They’ve been painting beautiful work and they love John and Kathy.

I just made an awesome lasagna. Everyone loved it. It had, besides the normal, zucchini, red peppers and large chunks of onions. I also put in a tiny bit of brown sugar to offset the tomato paste and the tomato chunks that are in it. I also put in way too much meat. 😉 :-0 It was heavy on the meat. Sort of the way my mom used to make until we all went vegetarian on her.

This has been my large chunks of vegetables week. I’ve been cutting them much bigger. The picadillo I made came out great with large chunks of veggies. Large and apples. I made it for the next workshop. Picadillo really must sit a couple of days to reach its full taste.

I also finally got the dough sour enough using yogurt. So, I made a sponge with my normal starter but added yogurt to make a yogurt sponge/starter. Nice.

With homemade spaetzle! Yum! Plus, the mushrooms I am using are shitaki, crimini, oyster and white button.

Well, the Salminen watercolor workshop is going very well. People love the food and service and they love John Salminen. His wife Kathy is also here. She’s a photographer and a lovely person.

And they are loving the food and the service and especially that I am giving them choices with respect to portions, dishes to put in or leave out. I served my famous artichoke hearts with vegetables side dish.

Recipe to come. Nag me if I forget.

Yes, that’s right. It’s getting too cold for my famous and much loved Shish Kabop. I am going to do beef stroganoff or something like that.

Well, as we had thought, one of the students who bought a sketch book mistook ours for theirs and packed it. She has sent it back. (Thank you for the quick response.) We now have our sketch book back and are quickly sending her one to replace it.

We are now going to decorate the sketch book with our names and such on it so it cannot be mistaken. Whew! That’s a much better outcome. We’d feared that it had gotten knocked into the trash or left in a guest room or left out by the pool and somehow thrown away as trash.

InnSane

Well, the pepper that Bob and Nancy brought in were jalapenos. I served them in the cheese omelets this morning. They weren’t super hot and I used the cool ends of the peppers. The seeds are what are hot. So, I used mostly the end away from the seeds.

Now, I know that the people who come and read the blog are more interested in painting supplies, art supplies, oil painting and drawing as well as pastel and watercolor. But the Google people just look at the content and see mixers and cooking and other inn and restaurant stuff.

The problem is that we all know the context. So, sketching and painting, color and values, oil, watercolor, pastel and charcoal drawing doesn’t get mentioned as much as cooking and rooms, pillows and sheets. Because, we provide not only art instruction but these other things. And when Kim or I blog, it’s about what is happening around here. So we talk about the people and not the substances. However, it’d be more useful if Google, and here, it they are using people to review, then good, if bots, let’s hope I have but enough keywords in this post, would have painting supply ads.

So, what do we need? Well, we need our art students who buy art supplies and who paint and draw to put nice painting and drawing comments into those blog entries that talk about our art classes. And use words such as oil painting. Watercolor is good too. Pastel and drawing is, as well.

Well, for those of you that think that Eliot and Tish have fallen off the edge of the map, here is evidence that they have not.

Eliot is not only working on his real estate stuff but he’s still having those art trips. To learn more, click here.

Wow! Nice website Tish. Good job.

Oh, and Kaua’i is a wonnerful island. I think one of the best Hawai’ian Islands. IMHO.

I think my blog titles have gotten more prosaic. Comments?

Check it out.

Yeah. However, ignore the part about Eliot Dalton. That typo is only on the website.

It’s really cool. National exposure, or at least semi-national depending on how they ran it. But for free, can’t complain. Kimberly, our new PR agent, it seems, ;-), talked to a friend of hers and told her about our wonderful Inn and Art Workshops. We made USA Today.

I think that the woman who called from ShawGuides knew Kimberly and she must have talked us up. So, thanks to ShawGuides, USAToday and Kimberly.

Well, this workshop has started off well. We have 23 people for dinner and they are loving my Italian Breaded Chicken with my famous artichoke and zuccini rosotto. Plus, I have given them my famous cut beans with mustard sauce. OK. The sauce is Kim’s.

Next will be the cheese cake. Yum.

They love it. They’ve asked for recipes.

And the great thing is, people have started lobbying for both stuffed peppers, we have some real stuffed pepper people here, Nancy, Bob’s wife, has said she will be sending me peppers her daughter grew. The other camp is in the shish kabop side.

Too bad they’re only here for a weekend. Sigh. I took pictures so, look here for updates.

Well, it works well, and does, for a 20 quart mixer, 2 loaves as easily as 8 or 20 loaves.

It’s strong and it works great. I’m going to have to buy an extra bowl for next year.

Winter: I’m thinking German and Russian, caviar blinis, potato pancakes, stuff like that, borch, hot of course, with maybe some nice streusel? I’ll mix in some Hungarian on the desserts.

Summer: Spanish and Spanish speaking countries. This’ll be Picadillo, you had this this year, Ceviche, with and without shellfish, burritos, fajitas, caldos, caldo de pollo, Santiago, this one’s for you, so come next year it will be grand, Paella, arepas, empanadas, tostados, tortilla, not what you think, it’s an egg dish, and others. Roasted Chicken, maybe. It needs to be roasted on a rotisserie. Chalupas. There’s a ton of good dishes.

The menu next year wont have Stracoto, Shish kabop, that nice breaded chicken or the stuffed peppers. But it will have two fish dishes, one chicken, one or two beef and maybe, if you are nice, some lamb.

Next year will be complete different. I’ll also do more ethnic desserts such as churros or arequipe con ableas, my favorite. Don’t worry, I’ll do chocolate. And maybe a sabayon. You just can’t stay away from France for those desserts. Maybe I’ll do some Swedish ones.

I’ll probably make it all mild, not hot, and let you kill yourself, ahem, Jill ;-), with the hot sauce.

Well, I’ve installed the 20 qt mixer in the kitchen. Ouch. I’m not sure that I can do two loaves in that mixer. I’m going to have to do at least 4 or maybe 8 loaves.

Well, I guess I’ll be making more pies or something. It’s huge. I have to get the DeLonghi fixed so I can do smaller batches. This mixer takes up a lot of counter space. Yes, 20 quarts and it isn’t a floor mixer. It has multiple attachments and stuff. I can whisk up 100 eggs if I want. 😉

Thank you Stevens Girls for the house warming gift.

InnSane: ToNY one more time (Dverin Photo Op Redux)

Hey, you should get an account or use “other” to identify yourself since you always leave a sig. That way you can tie it to your email account and you’ll get notification.

Remember that folks.

What more can I say about Anatoly’s workshop that these photos do not say. Too bad some people are missing from this shot.

Why are there so many Italians in NY named Tony? Because when they left Italy for the new world, they had pinned to their jackets, so they wouldn’t get lost, To NY.

Thank Anatoly for that joke. I think. 😉

Take a look at the crowd here. They’re having tons of fun. This was a great workshop.

One more time. This is quinsentential Leveille. The Gang’s all here. We have a ton of Leveille photos. I have a great sequence that shows him creating a portrait. I’ll put that up sometime in the future.

Now these guys knew how to have a great time. Some of our favorite people. And they tipped John well. John loves ya people.

Lew’s workshop was a blast. Too bad we don’t have more pictures. I’ll have to see if Kim has some more I can put up. Lew, please send me some. Thanks.

Well, these people had a great time painting in the great outdoors. Everyone loved the table clothes. What a great class.

Now that it is September, I feel good about it being 65 degrees. Yup, you heard me. No more rain and cool as a cucumber.

It’s beautiful. I’m glad that Dale’s workshop finally had the famous Greenville weather.

Soon, I’d like to get a recipe book together. Maybe in a couple of years. Since each year is a different cuisine, maybe I could organize the books via the years.

Here’s a link from Mike LaPolla, my cousin. It’s for Pizza Rusitica. Enjoy.