Cookin'

Anyone who knows me in recent years knows that I like to cook. I'm not really a baker, but if it involves lots of fire, knives, chopping and many pots and pans, I'm there. As my wife has observed, I can make a huge mess just preparing the simplest meal.

I am posting some pics of a coupe of my favorite meals to prepare. This is Pan Seared Shrimp with Lemon Garlic Sauce:

The shrimp were frozen and had to be shelled and deveined before cooking. It's pretty smelly work, but delicious. My daughter likes BBQ shrimp better, but this dish not only tastes good, but looks good too.

This is Smothered Pork Chops. This is a family favorite. It's mostly just braised pork chops and a lot of onions, but the addition of fresh lemon-thyme and bacon puts this dish over the top! The chops and sauce are wonderful served over spaghetti or linguini, and leftovers are even better the second day.

Looking at these makes me hungry. I think I'll go and make some dinner.

Eet Smakelijk!!

Doodle Time!

Here are some recent sketches from my sketch book.

I often visit the blog of my friend (see "So, Cat Tacos" link to the right) and his work has inspired me to get out my sketchbook after years of neglect. I found it interesting that at first all I could think of to draw were things that I remembered from his blog (the cat, the pirate, the butler) then, as I took the sketchbook to more meetings I have slowly started to doodle like the good old days. I haven't really sketched in many years; which is kinda funny because during those years I started and helped manage 2 design firms and have had some luck with a freelance design business. The work is all computer-based graphic design and I rarely have a need to draw freehand.

I really like just doing random drawings. When you have small kids they always have something in particular for you to draw for them, and they have little patience for any drawing that takes more than 3 or four minutes. Now that my kids have started drawing their own pics I can just sit and do my own doodling during church and other meetings. What fun! I don't have much talent, but I really wish that I could draw well, and doodling lets me think that I am a serious artist for few minutes. I am currently finishing off a sketch book that I started almost 15 years ago! (i told you haven't sketched for a while). So much has happened and the old sketches (like Garden Man) make me very sentimental. The blank spots are where the notes from the meetings were. I figure that no one wants to see those. I actually find it somewhat interesting to go back after a particular meeting and see the randomness of the images that turned out on the page. Maybe they mean something?

I'm hoping that as time goes on I'll get better, and maybe even do some actual pictures for the wall. Maybe one day I'll actually take a stab at painting again...maybe...