Homestyle Cooking: Pickled Yellow Squash

I realized that all I've been about is the pickled yellow squash without dishing out the recipe for anyone to share...if you're jonesing for a unique pickle side dish!

The photograph above was snapped while Gregory and I shared a small dish as an afternoon snack together on our day off.  Light, crisp, and pickily (I know that isn't a proper word-but it fits perfectly). :)

I came across this recipe from one of my personal favorite food sites, TheKitchn.  This website is a mecca for food recipes, inspiration, advice on the simplest to the complex kitchen methods, and just all around gorgeous food photography!  The articles are well written and short, but certainly have gotten me motivated to trying new dishes. The specific recipe for these pickled yellow squash can be found here. 

I chose to pickle these squash in old salsa jars from the supermarket.  I cleaned them beforehand as well as boiled the jars and lids while the brine was boiling for an extra step.  I like the size and re-usability these jar have about them.  They're also quite the nice snacking size for this condiment dish.  

Happy Picklin'!

-Caroline 

A lovely September Morning

It's Thursday, and I magically (and I really mean magically) have two off in a row this week-only from requesting them off myself to see a concert (Metric) in Rochester, New York.  For those who do not know, I work a full-time retail job that is more demanding than most really believe. 

I excitedly picked the third cucumber from our small container vegetable garden yesterday!  We also have several herbs doing amazingly well...some of these are: basil, thyme, cilantro, dill, chives, and peppermint (I can't seem to make mojitos fast enough for the new growth that I trim back).  The young organic cherry tomato plants and red peppers are doing well, though no fruit yet.  I also have re-planted green onions that spring back every time you trim them down.  I literally planted the white rooty end of these guys in the soil after using some green onion in a dish and they'll keep springing back with new fresh onion growth!

I have to say, I relish the morning that I can take my time.  I thoroughly enjoy checking my computer at the kitchen table with my morning coffee while being able to look out through the sliding doors at the small balcony with all the lush green potted plants sprinkled wherever they can fit.  Those little morning delights really help to start your day off nicely.  I only wish I could take this time every morning, as well as wishing for a consistent and routinely work schedule.  

Some things will change over time, but for now I just need to keep trudging through.  Stay strong out there! 

-Caroline

Syracuse, New York

I began my journey in Syracuse, New York after sub-leasing a room in an apartment building from a recent environmental graduate going back home to Jamaica.  It was within my budget, and walking distance from two fantastic independently-owned coffee/tea cafes, a library, a couple pizzerias, as well as a couple ethnic food restaurants.  I lived surprisingly well with a Colombian woman working on her PhD in architecture, as well as an small family that was comprised of an Indian woman and a Greek man who had just moved from Alaska with their two sons (her parents lived in Syracuse).  I truly enjoyed living with these people and we all managed to share the tiny bathroom and apartment exceedingly well for the amount of people living there.

I moved to this apartment because I had enrolled in one summer course at Cazenovia College to get a class out of the way senior year.  It was one of the hardest/most interesting summer's of my life filled with being as broke as I've ever come in my life, dumpster diving, and being as creative as I could with stretching a budget, staying creative, and eating as healthy as I could.  At the end of my three-month stay sub-leasing this apartment my boyfriend at the time (now ex-boyfriend) had moved in with me as well as his good friend who had just recently moved back from Hawaii looking for work again in central New York.   

I've bounced around five times since that first sub-leased room on Westcott St. (one of the small hip cliques for coffee lovers, vegans, and Syracuse University attendees) living in a tent in a friend's backyard, living in a low-income area only to have both my car and apartment broken into, as well another apartment, sharing 1/2 of a two-family home, to a small two-bedroom condominium that I currently share with my current beau, Gregory. 

My point of this anecdote is that Syracuse was not a "planned" move in my life growing up.  I had no set goals of where I was going to go after receiving my undergraduate degree in the arts and basically made the best decisions with what I had.  I feel that Syracuse was that place where I would save up for my next big move, work on my art, and be mainly as a in-between point for me on my journey.  I felt this way up until yesterday morning before work when I had an epiphany concerning local venues where I could potentially show my work as well as create small solo shows.  I had reached an epiphany on my fate in Syracuse and realized that maybe I was "intended" to stay longer than I had originally anticipated here.  This in-between state was meant to be more rooted than that...and that maybe I was meant to make stronger connections here with my art before I depart.  

This may not seem like much of an epiphany to anyone else, but I feel differently about my stay and my artistic outlook of Syracuse.  I am currently researching graduate schools in the United States as well as requesting catalogs to determine my next move as an artist and the step in my education (I am very passionate about continuing my education and learning in the arts).  By the end of my stay here, I hope to have some solo exhibitions under my belt and be a better adversary to any upcoming exhibitions I apply to.

-Caroline

Taste Test: Yellow Pickled Squash

I officially taste-tested my pickled yellow squash (with sweet onion and red bell pepper) right out of the jar.....and....

they're so scrumptious!!!!

-Caroline

End of August Goal Update!

I had made a goal for myself to finish two illustrations I had started before and to try out a pickling recipe.  Well, it's officially August 31st and I am here to update.  

I did not finish the two illustrations I was so motivated to take on at the beginning of the month, but I am proud of the progress I have completed on them this month.  

The last illustration I started in 2010 and it is still very much in progress.  Sometimes I get feel really ashamed or embarrassed that I start so many drawings, illustrations, or projects and just leave them unfinished.  I do return to complete most of them, though a good handful remain as-is. 

I started to lose my mojo again, so these pieces are on standby once more (life's imperative things and work tend to get mixed about).  I've left them within eye-sight so I am constantly reminded of their unfinished state until I pick them up again. 

I did, however, pickle up some yellow squash with diced sweet onions and bell peppers yesterday!! I have them currently stored in the refrigerator to let them soak in the brine for twenty-four hours before a taste test.  This is my first attempt EVER at any sort of pickling and I am hoping the squash will turn out well. 

They look really delicious in their little containers (I cleaned and boiled old salsa jars).  I'm thinking that tonight after work I'll have a forkful just to see how I really did. :)

-Caroline


***ALL ORIGINAL ARTWORK IS OWNED AND CREATED BY CAROLINE A. LOCATELLI. 

Urban gardening: Basking in the Morning Sun

From left to right: cucumber seeds (still have yet to sprout),  three organic cherry tomato plants, lavender, chives (still have yet to sprout), organic red pepper sprouts (I dried these myself from a red pepper), and more organic cherry tomatoes! 

It is rather late for me to be attempting a garden so late in the season (especially in central New York State), but I wanted to attempt it anyways.  Some of my seeds didn't sprout at all, while others took off faster than I anticipated!  I'm really holding unto the last warm weather and looking forward to an Indian summer for my container garden.  

My container garden has also become a little a zen spot for me with all the lush green.  I have two charming wooden folding chairs as well as a small table for reading in the sunshine among the little garden.  

It's a little slice of peace on the 3rd floor. 

Happy gardening!
-Caroline

Who am I?

My name is Caroline and am I whole-hardheartedly a contemporary artist.  

I reside in Syracuse, New York with my lovely musically-talented boyfriend, Gregory, in a small flat just big enough for us...a bit too small for my ambition and my art.  I gravitate towards iconic found animate objects to re-create into artistic installations; my first love with always be finding abandoned old television sets.  I also cultivate a passionate love for detailed hand illustrations as well. 

I enjoy to garden and have squeezed that into my life by creating my first tiny container garden (seeing all those green plants makes me so happy)!  I'm also very fascinated in home-preserving and canning as the autumn rolls in!

This blog, like my many other blogs, will be intended as a creative outlet for myself and also as a viewing scope into my life for all my artistic and lovely friends (who are scattered all about) to keep up with. I want this blog to be no frills and completely Caroline-without the pressure to make this blog successful or fit into a popular mold.

I hope you enjoy this journey with me and all the learning along the way! :)

-Caroline