Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Polly Castor 
I saw this movie on opening night here, as we had been anticipating it for a while. I had read the book by Julia Powell, Julie & Julia, describing her year long blogging adventure of cooking all of the recipe’s in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My friend had read Julia Child’s … Read more
We’ve recently gotten a lot of fresh garlic from our shared harvest program. In the past, one of the things I’ve done with garlic is make a great roasted garlic vinaigrette where you roast the garlic in the skins and they just pop out afterwards. But I was not inclined to do that with these … Read more
This page represents July 26, 2009 through August 6, 2009. See below for some close up photos from this page. Enjoy!
Can you tell I love bright colors? That’s why these are one of my favorite flowers… the saturated colors are so satisfying! Enjoy!
This is a great movie which I would strongly encourage everyone to see. I give it five stars. Not only is there important information shared but a real need for individual action afterwards on the part of the audience to remedy the situation. Consumers, like all of us, are the ones that will have to … Read more
I am a major fan of farmer’s markets. Not only does local food taste better because it is more fresh and in season, but what I buy is responsibly grown and often organic. Food in this country is 50% of our national carbon foot print. Whenever we can buy local organic produce we are doing … Read more
When I bought this book in 2001, I read the preface describing his “spiritual healing” during medical intervention, and I put the book down. Now, years later, I picked it up and persevered past language about “energy” that was not phrased as I would say it, to embrace the true universal meaning the author was … Read more
This is a delicious, easy salad that is great right out of the refrigerator. I made it with beans from our shared harvest program that you can see in the picture below. Half of them were green and half a purplish black so I was very surprised to find them all green after steaming! … Read more
I am pleased with the speckled homogeneous glazing of the above bowl and the carefully carved shape of the one below. Oh, to get it all to come together in one bowl! I’m improving but the path is slow. The above bowl I like better and it will be useful in the kitchen; the bowl … Read more
I have started working on de-cluttering and streamlining my office which is one of my major goals for this year. Those that know me are skeptical. They are convinced of my inability to accomplish this, due to my lack of success in doing it in the past. My office is truly a disaster. It started … Read more
I got this book at that recent library sale and have really been enjoying it. His pictures have wit and commentary while still being endearing. I took the liberty of sharing a few pages below, but check out his work for yourself on his website here. Apparently there is a $150 collector’s edition of this … Read more
Summer and the living is easy… and the food is good! I’ve taken some photos of our recent lunches. Yum! Enjoy…
This page represents July 14, 2009 through July 25, 2009. See below for some close up photos from this page. Enjoy!
I am a writer for the Danbury New Times Forum on Faith column. Here is the article that came out today: Cultivating Our Spiritual Gardens to Bear Great Fruit My husband is really good at gardening; our yard right now looks like a paradise! There are vibrant splashes of flowers at every turn, with fruits … Read more
We are on a corner lot downtown in a small town. We’ve got more sun and fewer deer than most folks around here and our lot is more public as well. Put that together with my husband’s green arm (image of thumb is too small) and we’ve got a great yard for showcasing his talents. … Read more
My husband and I like these. They pack a punch of meatless protein and are delicious and satisfying. I got the recipe from the South Beach Taste of Summer Cookbook. See the photo below if you are unfamiliar with buying tempeh; you can see what the package looks like. (It is pretty generally available; … Read more
