A dear friend, a kind heart that is missed by many. -March 5, 1981- January 5, 2011 -Sugely Chaidez changed my life for the better. She brought to our small City a seed that was planted in my heart and for the better. I thank you and know you are a great asset up with the Angels in Heaven.
-Miss you beautiful Soul, you are miss greatly-
Honoring this Lovely lady on this day. Beatrice Wood -March 3, 1893 -March 12, 1998- Studio Potter, Ceramicist- Passionate, creative and a bit eccentric, attributes of a beautiful artist. Love her.
-Remembering you my dear lady-
The Copals' essence floating throughout the loft. It's a musky, nutty sent. Is it calling my loves one to come and join me on this day? It's my faith, the type of faith that will move mountains. It cant be explained, its a knowing...
He came home yelling with excitement. "Look what I caught! It's a sheep head" he said. We loved to fish, it was part of our life. Digging for worms in the falling rain, it didn't matter if we were soaked to the bone, as long as we were going fishing we were happy.
Love you Brother. I will always have you in my heart.
Grandma, this onion is rotten! "No" she said "It's not rotten, peel away the skin and you will have a perfectly good onion." -I was so amazed that underneath all that ugly rotten looking onion was a new one. Amazing! I thought. -Still to the day, that memory of the onion is with me. Never again did I throw away a bad looking onion. Peel that Onion Magui : )
Her brother, my granduncle John Watson lived with us for a long time. He is stamped in my mind - Sandy blond hair, blue eyes. Always wore a cowboy hat, corduroy wool jacket with work boots and a camel cigarette in his hand.- "What are you doing peeling those Potatoes! Don't you know that you could make a perfectly good meal with that?!" He exclaimed. "But their full of dirt Tio!" I would say. I didn't understand until, the stories of the Great Depression. "When I was a boy, we never, ever threw anything away. The peeling of all vegetables contains the majority of the nutrients." He said. wow. I loved my uncle and I learned consciously and unconsciously allot from him. He was a very smart man. I still till the day, never peel my potatoes, I just scrub them and it is because of him. He knew, he new...
Love you Tio miss you very much. Love you Grandma Rose
Mmmm Que Rico Pan! In opinion the best Bread ever. It just came out of the oven, still warm. I baked a small test one and Yup its gone! So soft and Yummmmmeeee!
I never baked this homemade bread before until a couple of years ago. I jumped in and tried... All my life in my home we made Homemade tortillas de Harina. Never did we have the custom of baking Bread. We baked cakes but not bread.
I could see why one may hesitate to try. It's an all day process with letting the dough rise and all but the outcome is more than worth it. You know the ingredients your putting in. There are no preservatives or artificial flavors. It's all natural. In my opinion, that in itself pays for the time you put in. Again, YuM! : )
OK Recipe: Basic ingredients is to start 1/2 water 1 t natural sugar. I use Zulka Morena Pure Cane Sugar (not promoting, it's very resalable in price) any creamy natural sugar will due, 1 t dry yeast- its about 1/2 envelope and 1/2 c organic flour. Mix these ingredients together. It will look like a pancake batter. Set it aside. It will start activating, looking foamy in a couple of hours more or less depending on room temp.
Meanwhile get your other ingredients together. -You will need: 4 eggs at room temp.,3/4 c of Unsalted Real Butter at room temp.-Trader Joe's has some at a good price. Cream those two ingredients together. You may add flavor as lemon zest or orange zest, a teaspoon will do. Or traditional Anise flavor, careful it's pungent. I leave mine plain.
Sieve 1 1/2 t salt, 3/4 good sugar 4c organic Flour, and 1T more Yeast or one more Packet dissolved in a bit of water until foamed. Also, if needed one extra cup of flour.
Ready -OK, Now- add this dry mixture to the egg, butter mix, One cup at a time. Also add the Foamy mixture that you set aside earlier to it as well. Start bringing the dough together it will look a bit gooey but better gooey than dry, This is the secret of making a good bread - Keep it in the wet side- not pancake batter wet but more like good sticky Mash potato wet.
With a spatula place it into a buttered glass bowel with room to Grow -IT WILL DOUBLE!! SO give it space. Cover the bowel with saran wrap and let it do its thing. Don't get frustrated, it will take time. Again, depending on the room temp. The warmer the faster But not Hot, you will Kill the Yeast and it will not Rise. OK now once it has risen, butter your hands or with the spatula, pull it out on a bit of flour just so it doesn't stick to your hands. It will be soft dough, You want that.
Cut it into 8 pieces with a knife. It will make 8 breads with out the bones like the ones below or 16 1/2 size ones. ( The picture above shows the size of 16) Let them rise 1-2 hrs more. squirt them once in a while with water so that they wont dry.
Bake on baking sheet with parchment paper at 400 degrees for 20 min.on the large and 12-15 on the small. Do Not Open The Oven... Look at the color, you don't want them to burn or be under cooked. When they are a bit warm you may sprinkle sugar or leave them plain. It will take time and patience. But look YUM! Hope you try : )
Dad, are we almost there? Not yet baby, He would say admiring the road.-Memories are brought back-Long road trips with all us kids every year without fail. He took us somewhere.- Look at all those beautiful Laureles (Laurels) he would say on our trip to Arizona. Back then, it was only a two lanes with Laurel bushes separating the two sides of the road. During the time we would go, they were covered in flowers.
Planning where the next trip wasn't an issue for dad. He just would say lets GO! It could be to Grandma Rose in Arizona or a Gypsy tour of Mexico in search for his family out in Boonies, Crossing the river rapids -in the truck! or out in the desert. Who knows where with all us kids in the back of that green truck. It's a miracle we're still alive. Ventures with Raul and Ventures with Dad- were many!-
Candles are another important element for the Altar. They are believed to lighten up the path for the spirits. I usually light one now, I keep it on until the night before. Then, I put out a whole bunch with the Copal.
I'm working on the bread right now while listening to Lila Downs. Her song "Los Laureles" brought back the memory of Dad and the Arizona trips.
I will post pics of the Bread later... : )
Love you Dad Love you Grandma Love you Raul
Now I know who the little culprit is that is eating away at my Yerba Buena. It's a little bird! I just saw him out my window!. So that explains why my handsome garden spiders are gone as well. Hmm what am I to do, I love birds but I also love my spiders, they keep away the bad bugs. It's no wonder I haven't been able to grow a decent amount of Yera Buena, She is eating it, wow! I thought it was some other thing doing that...Hmm what am I to do?...Think, Think.
Well anyways, here is a pic of my Altar so far. I have my Father in middle, Raul on the second level, my abuela Rosa, my Tio Emilio on the left. My Tia Antolina, Tio Geronimo on the right center. Not done yet-
I still need to bake some Pan de Muertos. Also, put some things that they liked on there as well.
My Fathers Loved fishing. He brought us up loving it as well. Many weekends he would take us all to the Seal Beach Rocks for theday... He would fish but not us, my brothers and I were on a mission to catch our self some crabs. Raul was the wild daring one, I was his tail. We could spend the whole day there...
-Love you Dad- miss you Raul-
This mornings treat.I think I got enough... :) Straight from the Flower District in Down Town Los Angeles. I brought home one dozen of Chimpasuchitls. The Flower Market is always the best place to go But you must head there early morning. They start selling at 2 am. There is an issue with parking but if you don't want to hassle go before 7am, you wont be disappointed, the prices are the best.
Marigolds are tradition this time of year. They are tremendously hearty and will even last without water. Because they have the tenancy to snap off or bend its best to not get frustrated, use those luscious blooms for stringing and hang them around your Altar. Their scent is quite pungent. The smell is mostly in its leaves so try not to remove them. Some say its too strong but I like its herbal sent dancing around my loft. It is said that the aroma with help guide the spirits of your loved ones to you : ) I like that.
It's that time to starts pulling out the Altar Elements. I went out to the thrift store on a mission to find some picture frames and found a few that I liked. I redid all my frames and now the pictures are ready to go on the Altar.
Every year when I pull my box of Dia De los Muertos trinkets, it feels like Christmas. All the little things that I pull out, bring a little bitter sweetness to the air, it happens every time. I have to say though, It's more sweet than bitter.
The altar I have, I built out of reclaimed wood from here and there. The base is about 2x3' The Back panel is about 2x4' high. From the floor to the top it's 7' 5", Sound tall but at the moment I live in a Loft with very high ceilings. I designed it that way to bring it out as a statement piece.
I will continue adding pics as I go. Have a good day : )
Come on lets go, he said. I don't want to walk all the way out there, I will burn my feet, I said. OK then, climb on the wagon and I'll pull you...off we went on our journey to collect cans.
This is how my brother and I spent our weekend. Bare feet, tangled hair wondering the ally ways collecting cans...cashed them in, left with a bit to splurge in this little store called TicTock. Venture after venture with my brother Raul...
He passed on almost a year after my Father did. The Monarch Butterfly was on the doorstep of my daughters studio (on the back of my then home) there, barley flapping his wings the monarch stood. He is a male Monarch, I took it as a spiritual sign from my brother. It was there the exact moment he was set to rest.
Love you Raul <3 nbsp="" p="">
I don't think of them very often, its only on these day that my memory treats me to the moments I spent with my Tia Antolina and Tio Geronimo. They were my closest uncles of them all.
Almost, no, every weekend our families spent it together. Mom and Tia worked at the StarKist Tuna Packing Co. down by the docks of San Pedro...Tia would come home with a huge slab of tuna for the whole clan. Believe me, it was a large clan. If it wasn't tuna it was a Cow Head, really a real huge cow head. It was cooked outside in the back yard...Yup! real tacos de cabesa...Tia Antolina had 12 children and my mom, well I'm from a family of 7. So imagine. To the day I don't know how these lovely ladies kept their sanity. I now understand why they drank so much, and parties were endless on the weekends. -Paper flowers, a lantern, a Mexican doll with huarache sandals (that were common among my father and uncle) will be places on the altar...
Miss you Tia miss you Tio, your in my heart forever <3 p="">
Going deep into thought, I sculpted this mask for the placement on the backdrop of Dia De los Muertos Altar. I know that this day is a day of Honoring those loved ones that have passed in a happy, not sad way...Nonetheless, I cant help feeling the pain for all those who have fought for justice and unity, so that we may walk this earth with a stronger structure of Knowing that life could be much more than just war...
"Vida Y Muerte"
"Seeds of Life"
"Reva"
