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I love colors, like (almost) everyone. And I very much enjoy repetition in artwork, especially in fiber art. And I love to combine those two things, with a lot of texture added, in simple craft projects. So last week it was pillow time. I still have so many small fabric scraps and remnants, I was really not short of material! The joy of working with those little colorful pieces was worth the hard labor of appliqueing with a small satin stitch hundreds of leaves, squares, circles and hearts.
They have zippers on the back and a 20" x 20" white pillow case from the blue/yellow Swede inside.
The last two display a graphic expression of autumn, actually it looks more like spring in autumn! I love those most! :-)
All fabrics are good quality cotton. The beige background of the leave pillows is linen. I will open again a little holiday shop at the end of the week and I am going to put them in there.
Zoom in to see how pretty they are...
Last week my cousin sent me those wonderful photos from their wine yards in Baden-Wuerttemberg in southern Germany. She wanted me to remember scenes from my childhood - and I certainly did. She grew up in a family of grape growers, and at that time they lived at the edge of town. Her mother and my father were siblings. Years later I happened to live at the exact spot, one house behind theirs, but they had already moved out to a farm outside of town, near the forest. The street was called Bergstrasse and when you went up, further and further, and left the last houses, the wine yards appeared. It was, and probably is a very fertile and lovely region. I did not lay eyes on it for at least forty years, and maybe I should have a look at my next visit in Germany. I loved walking up there as a young girl. I always admired the view down the valley and the beauty of the wine yards in all seasons. Few times I helped picking grapes. And what grapes - look at them! Best quality wine is made from them and the wine yards are at the height of their glory in autumn, when the leaves explode in a spectrum of colors, and the grapes are full of ripe sweetness. Thank you Eri for taking me down the memory lane! :-)
Please zoom in at the pictures, it is very worth it!
They are still growing grapes, but those photographs are probably not taken from the same wine yard, I really have to ask her about it...
The grapes shown here are Trollinger, Lemberger and Riesling.
Photo taken by Oss Vaisband
No, it still did not rain, but here they are, faithfully stretching out of the dry stony earth to the light, promising and assuring there will be more and it is just the beginning. How delicate, tender and fragile they are, how softly and sweetly colored! Welcome my little beloved friends!
Photographed yesterday in the Shomrom by my husband Uri Eshkar.
Borscht is a hearty kind of soup, or more often what my mother would have called a "Eintopf" a one pot dish. There are many variations of this meal from a lot of different countries. It is said that it originates from the Ukraine, but borscht is eaten in many Eastern and Central European countries. In Poland borscht is dearly loved, so it is in Latvia, Czech, Russia, Romania, Estonia, Armenia, and even in Germany, but it was never prepared in my family. It was adopted by the Jews too, who lived in those countries. There is hot borscht and cold borscht. With meat and without meat. But borscht has to be red! The main ingredient is beetroot. I read that sometimes tomatoes are used instead, but in my opinion there have to be beetroots!
Our son' s woman came from Russia when she was a child. She did not learn to cook there, but she remembered some of the food and learned cooking it here. Although I had heard this word "borscht" in the past, it was something mysterious to me and I had never eaten it, nor did I know exactly what it was. Now, through her, I became quite familiar with it and have prepared it already several times, and it started to get almost as good as hers. I do not think it fits very much the climate here, where it is hot or very hot the bigger part of the year. But there are some months when a nice cold drifts in and the days are rainy, then it is most lovely to have something to warm us up inside. And speaking of soul food, I think borscht fits this category perfectly! (And we have nevertheless eaten it in mid summer too!)
Here is the recipe I use. There are many many more on the Internet! Suit yourself! :-)
You need a big pot, left overs are great - borscht is even tastier the next and next day!
1 kg beef (like for goulash) cut in cubes
2 cubed onions
6 whole cloves of garlic
3 medium sized beetroots, cut into pieces
4 medium sized potatoes, cubed
4 medium sized carrots, cut into rounds
1/2 medium sized white cabbage, sliced
1/3 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar (not heaped)
3 tablespoons soup powder (I use gluten free)
1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste (or two)
2 liters water (or more)
salt and coarse ground black pepper
olive oil
some sprigs of dill
Brown the meat, add the onion and garlic and get the flavor out for some minutes. Add the water, stir, cook for half an hour.
Throw the beetroots in, cook for 15 minutes.
Add the cabbage and the carrots, cook for 10 minutes.
Add all the spices and some olive oil (one ore two tablespoons)
Put in the potatoes and cook until they are soft.
Garnish with dill while serving.
This is not very soupy, but rich with things to bite! We like to eat it with fresh white bread and sour cream! A cool beer is good company! This meal is VERY tasty and I am so glad I came to know and learned to cook borscht! :-)
Bon appetite!
My friend Aiva is from Latvia and she cooks a different kind of borscht. I have to try her recipe too! :-)
This post was triggered by my Norwegian friend Hilde's beetroots from her garden. Have a look at her wonderful nature blog!
http://granheim2.blogspot.co.il/
Wailing Wall Jerusalem
Orchid Park Utopia
My niece is here from Germany for a visit - my beloved late sisters daughter.
