Curried Peanut Shrimp

Curried Peanut Shrimp

This is one of my favorite all time recipes.  I don't bother with the skewers...just cook it all up in a frying pan over medium high.   Serve with rice.  

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 8 shrimp)

Ingredients

• 1/3  cup  orange marmalade (just some chopped up orange works if you don't have marmalade)
• 1/4  cup  orange juice
• 2  tablespoons  natural peanut butter
• 1  tablespoon  Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  curry powder
• 1  teaspoon  vegetable oil
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 1/4  teaspoon  chile sauce with garlic (in the Asian section, with a rooster on the label.)
• 32  large shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 1 pound)
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Combine the first 9 ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth. Reserve 1/4 cup marinade. Place remaining marinade mixture in a large zip-top plastic bag, and add shrimp. Seal and shake to coat. Marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes.

Prepare grill or broiler.

Remove shrimp from bag, reserving marinade. Thread shrimp onto each of 4 (12-inch) skewers. Place kebabs on a grill rack or broiler pan coated with cooking spray; cook 3 minutes on each side or until shrimp are done, basting frequently with remaining marinade. Spoon reserved 1/4 cup marinade over shrimp.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

228 (24% from fat)

Fat:

6.2g (sat 1g,mono 2.1g,poly 2g)

Protein:

19.6g

Carbohydrate:

24.6g

Fiber:

0.3g

Cholesterol:

129mg

Iron:

2.5mg

Sodium:

626mg

Calcium:

60mg

from Cooking Light, JULY 1999

Sewing Project - Fall Wardrobe

I am going to participate in the PatternReview.com fall contest...never done this much sewing at once! Not a chance of winning, but I will get some new clothes out of it. Here's the plan:

Charlotte Kidney Foundation Benefit

The Charlotte Kidney Foundation is having a art and wine night to raise money for this great cause. The even called "Art After Dark" will be held Oct 27th. If you are an artist please donate a work of art. If you are an art lover (or a wine lover!) please come out and go home with a great work of art. You can learn more about the event here: http://www.kidney.org/site/208/dark.cfm?ch=208

I donated my Fall Leaves painting to the auction:

another tree id...

I have tried to use some online tree identification sites. It comes up as an Ash, but then the photos don't look like this tree. It formed there stranges big buds, and then the leave stems sort of popped out of the buds. Never seen anything like it, not that I am a big tree expert, but I know most of the common trees around here. I noticed it growing on the edge of our woods behind a honeysuckly vine and some weeds.

The red is where the leaf "bud" was.

Japanese Maple

How embarrassing! I was trying to take a picture of the trunk of the tree and saw a little bit of yellow sticking up out of the dirt. Turned out to be an id tag! sheesh. This little guy is a Acer 'Tamukeyama' Red dissectum.

Still trying to get an id on my Japanese maple. We bought it at the farmer's market. We got a deal on it because it lost it's top branches in a wind storm. They said it was about 12 years old. Right now it's in a south eastern spot to get morning to early afternoon sun, then shade in the late afternoon. I'm in Charlotte, and our late afternoon sun is very strong.

In the Garden...

This is my little square foot garden I am trying this year. It has two tomatoes, two peppers, onions, peas, squash, and few other veggies. I can't wait to see how my experiment works out!
In the back ground are my two new blueberries (another farmer's market find..much nicer than the ones at home depot.
Dev and I were fortunate enough to find this Japanese maple on sale at our local farmers market. We aren't sure exactly what type it is...or where we are going to put it, but it's beautiful!

About half of our back yard is trees. I would love to plant some wild flowers and plants that attract butterflies along the edge of it. But I am not sure what to plant yet. It definitely needs a little oomph! That's my dog, Schnapps hanging out in front.

This is the stone patio we put in. I re-grouted the stones this spring and laid out a few more stones on the edge that I am going to sink into the grass. The table is our old kitchen table that I cut down the legs on and tiled the top. The trellises will have morning glories and moonflowers later in the season, and the one to the side will have gourds and squash, with a little lettuce / spinach garden in front. I made the little fence for it out of the branches I trimmed of our crab apple trees. Dev says it looks like something from survivor :P

Okay.. I promise I have a painting drawn out and on my drafting table. No really! In the meantime, I have been enjoying our spring weather here in Charlotte, NC.

Paintings that Dance with Light

My sweet husband surprised me a few weeks ago with a wonderful new painting book called Paintings that Dance with Light by Elizabeth Kincaid. Now, I have a whole library of watercolor books, and this one still manage to have tips that I had never heard before! For example, you can use ammonia to thin masking fluid! Who would have thunk :) She has some of the best use of masking that I have ever seen and her paintings do dance with light. I don't know Ms. Kincaid, but I did email her to thank her for that ammonia tip. She was very gracious and sent me a reply telling me her husband was a chemist and he was the one who knew that ammonia would thin frisket. She does have work shops and classes, so if you are in the Seattle area you might want to investigate!

Wow, I haven't posted in ages. PrettyRock.com (the gemology business I run with my husband) had a wonderful Christmas season. I am thrilled it is doing so well, but it doesn't leave much time to paint. I am hoping to get back into the studio soon though! My painting fingers are getting itchy!

I did want to share a place that would love to have hand made cards. Any type of art work will do! It's the starlight foundation and you can read about it here:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/org_detail.jsp?orgid=59365
Even if you just make one card, you will be brightening a child's day. And what a great project to do with your friends or children.

Hopefully I will be back soon with a new painting started. I have had one of morning glories dancing around in my head for weeks now. I need to let it out soon!

The Chess Player

Here's one I thought would do well on eBay, and then didn't sell. Oh well...



This one is up now, keep your fingers crossed for me :)

and another...

Here is another of this little ACEO's I have been doing for ebay. They are very addictive. Several people have asked where they can trade cards. The group I am a part of is : artist trading cards on yahoogroups.com Everyone is welcome to join in the fun! This group is for trading, not for selling. So they make ATC, and not ACEO... whole new vocabulary here!

ACEO / ATC - a new hobby!

I've discovered a new hobby. Trading ATC (art trading cards) and have joined a great yahoogroup that has group and individual trades. I've also put up a few ACEO (art cards editions and originals) on ebay to see how they do. The pink orchids above is one of the eBay ones. They are so much fun to make. The only real rules are that ATC are traded, not bought and sold. ACEO can be bought and sold or traded. They must be 3.5" x 2.5" Other then that, the sky is the limit in terms of creation and materials. I usually do watercolor, but I have received some beautiful college and needle word ATC in trade. I bought two colored pencil ACEO that I have had framed and hang in our hallway. Anyone else out there into ACEO / ACT?

Morning Glories!

They have been so beautiful this year! These are the blue.. there are fuschia in the backyard, and deep purple by the front door. I am sure these will end up in a painting at some point! That's Schnapps and Bailey peeking out from behind the vines.

Duochrome Stargazers

I've been in the mood to paint some fun paintings, instead of such serious work. Experiment a little with color and paint. This is a stargazer lily. It's from my neighbors yard..they are used to me crawling around and taking photos in their yard. I painted it fairly traditionally at first, and then played with some duochrome paint from daniel smith that I got for Christmas this year. They are so beautiful, and think I went a little over board with them! My favorite is the Autumn Mystery..its a gorgeous copper color. I've got this one up on ebay, keep your fingers crossed for me! (My id is ejmstudio if you want to check it out.)


It's hard to get the shimmer to show up on camera, but this shows it a little bit.

Pears and Crystal

This is the latest crystal painting. It's a redo of one I did a few years ago. Not too thrilled with the pears, but I am calling it done before I work it to death. Moving on to a sunflower painting. I will try to do a step by step of this one.

We went to the farmers market this afternoon and got peaches, tomatos and corn. Wonderful! Trying not to eat it all before I can get some photos taken.. the peaches are just gorgeous and smell even better. I just know that heaven either smells like summer peaches or my mom's chocolate chip cookies baking...

Little Pink Rose

I'm starting to add a few smaller works and studies to the website. These are paintings I do to practice with a new tube of paint, experiment with a technique or just have fun! This little rose is 5 x 7 and available here: http://www.ejmstudios.com/site/watercolor-paintings-gallery-smallerworks.htm

PaintAmerica Competition (aka always read the fine print!)

I have received several post cards and emails about this competition. I just got a prospectus in the mail. If you read the information on the back, it looks to me like you are signing over ALL rights to reproduction of the work. Not just for advertising like most show, but any reproduction and the use of your name... and this is just for entering the show, not for the winners. So with the entries, the have a built in library of images to make prints and any other item they choose. They say they will give the artist 10% royalty on limited edition items, but flat rates on things like posters and note cards. For posters and note cards they could sell millions of, you get $50-$100 flat rate.

Scary world out there for artists! Always read the fine print, and never, ever give away your copyright!

Comparison Pricing!

watercolorpainting.com has added a new page: price guide

It's a printable price comparison for watercolor paint at all the major online art supply stores. Love this website! Check out the rest of it while you are there.. lessons, featured artists and lots more. (No, I'm not associated with them, just a fan :) )

New Art Book!

I love art books...and add to my collection whenever possible! Nita LeLand who is one of my favorite art authors has a new (well revised, but new to me) book that is just coming out: New Creative Artist I can't wait to get my copy. You can read more about it on Nita's site here. I think I might have to save mine for my mid-winter slump.. when I need all the creative help I can get.

If you have a favorite art book, please share!

Fun site!

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Great stress relief! It will look like a blank page, move your mouse across the page, click to change colors.

(Found on a recent artcafe.net thread)

Daisy Jar 5

Almost done here.. still a few little details I see now that it's on the screen. Not sure if I should take the darks darker, or leave them be. I'll put it in the studio and stare at it a while...make that decision in a few days.

Back to working on pears and crystal.