October 1, 2018 | Annie Salness | No Comments | art classes, Blog, calendar, collage, Recipes
For my 2018 calendar, I invited art friends and colleagues to contribute their favorite FLAVOR combination, along with a recipe and a story. I received 12 great combos and I used the ingredients for my inspiration.
This month I’m featuring artist and dear friend, Jo Reimer, who gave me her friend Novella’s recipe for Pecan Pie.
I had a wonderful time arranging this still life. I knew I wanted an egg, a whisk, and whole pecans. It wasn’t easy to find whole pecans when I was painting it at the end of the summer. I had no idea they would be in such short supply! Luckily, I had some old ones stashed away from last year. (You just never know when you might need something!)
Pecan Pie. 12″x 12″x 1″ acrylic on cradled panel. $285 © Annie Salness
from the 2018 Flavors calendar…
Novella was the mother of my best friend from grade school, Martha White. She taught first grade in Magazine, Arkansas, for years. Novella was a frail, wizened little woman, with black hair and sparkling eyes. She appeared shy to others but was fun to be with. Her dear husband Hobart was Mom and Dad’s friend till their death. I miss them all.
—Jo Reimer
Novella White’s Pecan Pie
1 c. dark Karo
3 T. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. pecans, broken
Line a 9” pie plate with pastry. Boil syrup and sugar together about 2 minutes. Add butter, vanilla. Pour very slowly into eggs while beating with a wire whisk*. Add nuts. Turn into pie shell and bake at 375 degrees, 50 minutes or until done. Pie is done when completely puffed across top.
*Slowly whisk hot syrup into beaten eggs, one tablespoon at a time at first, then faster as eggs warm up. If syrup hardens on the whisk dip it back into the hot syrup. After half of the syrup is incorporated dump the rest in, stirring continuously.
Calendar Contributor Spotlight
I met Jo at an artist luncheon and we found out that we lived just a mile apart. We became instant friends. She is a wealth of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. I know that anything I have a question about, I can always ask Jo! I love how Jo describes her work:
I grew up in a small Arkansas town where piecing quilts and putting pattern pieces together to make clothing was an assumed role of most women, including my female relatives. So that’s the identity I absorbed for myself. Now, 7 decades later I’m still putting pieces together, but now I’m making art instead of household items. I realized that collage was the same thing as applique and that patterning and color in painting and collage was different from embroidery only in the materials. I use painted paper and glue and the occasional stitch to piece together collages that tell stories about my interests and history.
Some tools and supplies for travel
Standing at Attention
“One doesn’t usually find much use for childhood photos, but I’m having such fun with mine. This ‘Little Jo’ photo is of me at 2-4 years of age, taken by my dad who loved me with his camera, for which I’m grateful.”
“Black lines on white papers chosen from my stash, stitched onto a page in my sketchbook.”
Jo with me and others art friends at a workshop. Carol Marine, Me, Gretha Linwood, Ruth Armitage, Jo
Here is the lovely Jo. Check out her wonderful work here.
