Artists Highlights

ARTBYSTACI.COM

Check out these artists from Utah.  Or to see my work, check out my whole site here at artbystaci.com

Today's Feature Artist:
Carolyn Guild

Luke Frazier

Aaron Peterson

Nathan Florence

Joni Flint

Paul Ferney

Bret Edge

John McNaughton

Damon Denys

Jeff Clay

Greg Wilson

Clay F Wagstaff        Kathryn Stats             Rachel Pettit              Al Rounds       
 Melani Nogawski     Susan S. Morris         A.R. Kennigton     

Barbara Pence

You can find them on my webstie at artbystaci.com.


Check back often to see what new artist has been featured.  If you know an artist you would like to see featured, let me know here or on artbystaci.com.

Kels Melting Pot

For a school project, my daughter decided to support Locks of Love. You can see her story here.

Well actually this started out as a family project a couple of years ago.  We had several people that were close to us, in a very short amount of time end up with a diagnosis of cancer. 

When you get that kind of news from someone you know, you immediately imagine all of the ways you could help.  But all of those ways quickly become overwhelming not only to you the giver, but also the recipient. 

As a family we decided that our best opportunity for help would be to donate our hair.  We donated in the name of those we felt we could honor. 

This last year, as a school project my daughter Kel, needed to find a kind of "pay it forward" project.  For her, at least I think, it was a fairly easy decision.  Locks of Love!

The school that she attends, does not just do a few weeks on anything.  This project is called "Year of Service" for a reason.  Because of the extended time on the project, and all of our hair being long enough to donate again, she chose to cut it all off. 

Well, I'll let her tell you.  :)  This is the beginning of her story.  In "My Project" she talks about some of the reasons, and consequences of the decision to give away all of her hair. 

Take a look and tell her what you think.

Thank you
Sincerely,
Staci

Lemon Balm Jelly

Three views of lemon balm.  Each of these plants root balls is at least three years old. 

Thanks to my husbands grandmother, we have a lovely, aromatic supply of Lemon Balm.  It is one of my most favorite fragrances in the garden.  Because of it's prolific growing nature, we often times have to mow sections of it that have established roots through the grass.  As much of a pain as that is, I still put up with it due to the lemony flavor it leaves in the air, once it has been disturbed. 

Lemon Balm has some great uses, including potpourri, acne treatment, or even in combination with Valerian is as effective as some tranquilizers with out the side effects.  For more information check out Discovery Health on Lemon Balm.

So with all of these benefits what could be better than jelly?  Okay well, Discovery health did have a recipe for sorbet, (gonna have to try soon), but really, lets get to the jelly.

On a whim, I googled Lemon Balm Jelly.  This recipe is an easy to follow, straight forward recipe.  The only additive I would make is that we treated this recipe very much like the rose petal jelly recipe.  Rather than boiling the "Lemon Balm Tea" for only a minute, we boiled it for 7 minutes.  That ensured a good strong pectin reaction.

The only other change was green food coloring rather than yellow.  (My daughters choice). 

As a plain jelly the flavor, may be an acquired taste for some.  It is much more like a flavored honey than a jelly.  As a peanut butter sidekick, the flavor is much milder. 

As a kid that grew up almost exclusively on grape jelly and peanut butter sandwiches, I am very much, more excited about this new world of jelly flavors.  The ability I have, I am thankful and grateful to have, to grow so many varieties of plants in my garden, has really given me the opportunity to try new delicious recipes, I might not have tried otherwise.

The original recipe calls for yellow food coloring, however my daughter thought green would be prettier.

Dandelion Jelly

I know, crazy right?  Well Maybe not sooo crazy.  I had heard several times growing up that dandelions were edible.  But Dandelions, really?  Have you ever picked a bunch of them and then accidentally put your fingers in your mouth?  Gross right. 

Well, apparently there is a proper time to pick dandelions which makes them less bitter.  The best time, just like with radish, is in the spring before the heat comes on.  So, finding only a couple dandelion volunteers this year in the yard, we set about popping off the heads everyday.  We began to fill a 1 gallon zip lock bag.  Once we had that bag entirely full we cut the yellow petals away from the green leaves of the flower head.  (Because it took us awhile to get enough flower heads we kept them in the freezer in the meantime.) 

Now that we had enough flower petals, (with as little green as possible), to equal 4 cups we were able to move to the next step.  4 cups boiled water poured over the flower petals.  Then we let that steep over night, at room temperature.  Once the "tea" had the chance to sit over night we poured it through a clean non-terry cloth towel.  We squeezed out the last of the "tea" into a measuring cup and then started the jelly process. 

This site has the recipe we used.   Dandelion Jelly.

Our jelly had a dark honey color, and tastes just the same.  No bitterness to the flavor.  It really does taste just like honey.  We were able to fill 2 1/2, half pint jars with this recipe.  It does not make a lot of jelly, but well worth it if you have the time, and patience.

I will definitely do this recipe again.