Who knew? I just made cupcakes!
This morning!!
Lemon-scented Blueberry cuppies with lemony icing.
Yay
I now bow down in sheer idolatry to all cupcake makers including Parisien bakers.
The TOPS!
Superb!
I don't think I've baked since Home Ec class...
Oh why didn't I get this cookbook in Paris...
I used Jiffy :(
But I got 'creative' :) I added loads of lemon zest and lemon juice and tiny Maine blueberries up the whazoo AND some Greek Fage yogurt to cut the sweetness of the mix.
We're having our workshop luncheon today and I wanted to make a little surprise - mini cupcakes. No one else in my house was interested in pitching in.
"Don't forget to cleanup!", they reminded me.
HMPH...
They didn't refuse to taste-test the results.
Especially with the scent of lemony-blueberry wafting through the house...
c'est toujour comme ca
Back to painting - we went to nearby Port Clyde yesterday. The scene to be painted doesn't look like much?
David starts with a pile of clear water flowing on his 300 pound watercolor paper....
First color to flow down is yellowy...
Then a pile of cobalt + verrditerre + lavender blues are mixed on the palette... 
Then flowed onto the still-wet paper. Much tilting to and frow of the board spreads the wet paint around to get lovely atmospheric glowy skies. That's all there is to it!
Don't forget to leave some white dry paper for the clouds PB readers - I hope you're following along at home...
See, those accidental cloud shapes come in handy...
Voila! Fini!
Time for lunch! At Doug's Shack on route 131...
I almost forget to shoot my food - my half-eaten, VERY delicious, not too mayonaisey, crab roll.
Tessa (another canine workshop member - we are loaded with adorable hounds :) she says,
I almost forget to shoot my food - my half-eaten, VERY delicious, not too mayonaisey, crab roll.
Tessa (another canine workshop member - we are loaded with adorable hounds :) she says, "BONJOUR!"
.. I must make some yummy lemon blueberry muffins this weekend .. tres belle ... very creative
ReplyDeleteMe, too. This weekend. Gotta have them.
ReplyDeleteThe combo of lemon and blueberry is heavenly. My very favorite cocktail is a Blueberry Lemon Drop Martini at Fleming's Steakhouse. It has real blueberries an the bottom of the martini glass with sugar crystals around the rim. Yummy! Wouldn't that go great with your muffins??
ReplyDeleteThe cupcakes look sooo delicious, please send some my way! Oh and I like the water colour painting too.
ReplyDeleteI don't paint, Carol, but reading your posts this week almost has me ready to pick up a brush! Love the cupcakes...a little touch of lavender is yummy with blueberry and lemon, too!
ReplyDeleteThere is an awful lot of painting going on between meals there in Maine!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when I read this post today...last week blueberries and Jiffy corn muffin mix inspired me to make blueberry corn bread ~ delish! Wish I had thought of lemon...oh well..next time. Thanx for the glimpse into a lovely painting workshop; I will definitely "try this at home".
ReplyDeleteBeautiful place to be, Carol!
ReplyDeleteWhat I noticed from the watercolors, they are not a copy of what the landscape is. They are reinterpretation of the scene. Agree?
Like this one today, the final work is not what was there to begin with.
I guess I have to learn this rule! Because sometimes I try to paint EXACTLY what I see and it gets very laborious! Or frustrating...
The food looks very good! Enjoy! And pack me some of your cupcakes and put them in the mail for me, please!
Take care!
Mmm delicious! My family is the same, they're only too happy to test the food but don't want to clean it up! :(
ReplyDeleteThose cupcakes look a bit wonky but I bet they tasted fab. Wonky food stuffs always taste better than they look.
ReplyDeleteI DID shoot my food this past weekend thanks to your advice. But I've fallen back on old ways of eating first since then. Will try try again this weekend.
Cheers!
J.
What did you do, lock them up, I can't grab any of these delicious cupcakes!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are really brave, shame on those who didn't help you with the clean-up.
What did you do, lock them up, I can't grab any of these delicious cupcakes!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are really brave, shame on those who didn't help you with the clean-up.
Carol, they look like muffins, not cupcakes, but I'll bet they're good. You can add that to your resume, now.
ReplyDeleteI love all the yellows DD is using--lovely!
Lemon-blueberry cupcakes!?
ReplyDeletethe painting looks fun, the being outdoors with dogs and eating cupcakes one has so virtuously and ingeniously baked....looks even more fun! regales-toi carol! y d'la joie!
ReplyDeleteThose cupcakes look heavenly! I love the taste of lemon in a cupcake! x
ReplyDeleteTHEY ARE NOT MUFFINS!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I had to get that out of my system.
Definitely CUPCAKES and everybody loved them! ! !
That's why I added the Greek yogurt to keep them moist, not dry like muffins..and to cut the sugar.
The cream cheese icing was EXTREMENT citonesque aussi!
Anyone who wants a cupcake give a shoutout and I'll ya one or two :)
Most kind of you to request em.
Someone even asked for my RECIPE!!
WOO WOO :)
I now understand why ppl. bake.
YOu get a lot of love back.
Nice
xxcarolg
This is what I don't get. How did he get MORE white in the sky, when he first started with covering most of the page with a blue wash? I get adding color, but I don't understand how you can color a page with a complete (mostly) wash of one color, and then end up, in the final photo/water color with MORE white? The final painting has a lot of white on it, way more than when he started . . .. hmmm....
ReplyDeletemagic,
rk
For those of us who have forgotten where you live, where is Hwy 131?
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming NE corner of the US but have an affinity for the Tiny Houses that are popping up around
the tiny spots of beauty.
Your images are always so graceful.......
Joie
Geez, you truly know about everything little Paris detail, it’s amazing.
ReplyDelete(P.S. I swear, David’s landscape watercolour looks better than the actual landscape!).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMe too --- I mean I use Jiffy, and improvise, sigh!. Lemon blueberries and Greek yogurt, sounds delicious even by itself.
ReplyDeleteSave one or two, for us PB followers.
Been enjoying your painting adventure, wish you would make a little short 2-3 minute video on you tube. Post it on you blog. It would be fun to watch you illustrate and hear your New York, ah French accent, fille de peintre.
Enjoy the week end,
Joanny
A little of everything!
ReplyDeleteThe cupcakes look great!
Watercolors look too dificult, and I love the dog :)
Have a great weekend!
Oh, my, you are in my favorite place in the USA - beautiful coast of Maine. Moody's Diner - wonder if they still have that wonderful walnut cake. We always stopped there on the way to our house in Christmas Cove each summer. Boothbay, Rockland, Rockport - so many memories.
ReplyDeleteAnd - I didn't paint then. Too bad. Valley of a missed opportunity.
I think you done well with the cupcakes. I simply love blueberries even the name sends me in a spin !!
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend
Dianne xx
I have been enjoying your blog for a few weeks, and wish to thank you for your writing and your artistic esthetic. This week, your posts from Maine have been a great mini watercolor workshop, and just this afternoon I did a small water lily piece after an Adirondack canoe venture.
ReplyDeleteI am a lover of all things parisien, and originally saw your blog when I was looking for Something, now forgotten, in regard to Paris or French products. It’s very interesting to follow the blog connections that exist right now in the art, food, photography and interior design fields that have overlapping circles and few boundaries.
Your beautiful (and very inexpensive!) watercolors are inspirational to me, a sometime painter; I live in a pretty, quirky, and rather old city, Albany, New York, and I see daily beautiful details that are calling out to be remembered and appreciated in the same fashion that you evoke in your Paris pieces. But we don’t have the endless avenues of patisseries, nor the high street style, that belong only to the French.
I hope your Maine experience has been wonderful, relaxing, and delicious. So much beauty in the world.
Votre nouvelle amie,
Sally
Quoi?? YOU made cupcakes?? I am very impressed. And the crab roll and shoreline watercolor make me pine for summer in New England.
ReplyDeleteAh Carol! You are in my neck of woods on St. George Peninsula...Just up road from Tenant's Harbor.
ReplyDeleteWish I was there now to meet you!
Isn't Maine exquisite?
Have a fun workshop
Victoria
I know SWEET FREAK...it is rather shocking - me baking ANYTHING at all. Someone even asked for my made-up-Jiffy recipe!
ReplyDeleteHow do you like them apples?
Are you baking where U R rt now?