Best Sand Tarts Ever!

Well, it's new year's eve and on this last day of 2010 I have decided to share an old, secret, family recipe for the best sand tarts ever!

Things are quieting down after the Christmas rush. Tree up early, for a change, fifty holiday cards sent, packages to the east coast sent, cookies baked and gifts wrapped ornately and given to friends and family. After scouring Christmas sales and then buying things I really don't need I felt the rush and it was fun, exciting and intense.

Since I had such a great time I'm feeling generous and will now share my recipe for sand tarts. They are buttery, crisp, and easy to make. What could be better? After they are rolled out thin they can provide fun and entertainment for the whole family when the dough is cut with cookie cutters into various shapes. It was a tradition in our Pennsylvania Dutch family to have these cookies every Christmas and to share them with our family and friends. They are also very delicious.

BEST PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH SAND TARTS EVER!

INGREDIENTS:

2 and 1/4 cup sugar
Three 4-oz butter sticks(three fourth pound)
5 cups flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups Walnuts
Cinnamon sugar.....one cup sugar to two teaspoons of cinnnamon

PROCEDURE:

Mix butter with sugar and eggs
Then add flour and baking soda

Let cool in refrigerator for about an hour
Divide dough into six separate balls
Put all the dough but one back into the refrigerator
Flatten dough ball with hand
Dust rolling pin
Sprinkle flour on working surface
Add flour as needed
Roll dough thin
Cut with cookie cutters
Spray or butter cookie sheets
After carefully placing cookie on baking sheet wash with brush with whole egg that has been whisked.
Next sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
Add a chopped walnut to each cookie....I always break some into small pieces to represent eyes etc.
Bake 8 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees....watch carefully they cook very fast!
Take off cookie sheet to cool

Enjoy and let me know how you like them!

Cowboy Lassos Horse

Yippee Ki Yay I am a lasso throwing cowboy! This design was created in my digital illustration class for my two year old grandson Noah. I thought this would be a fun design that could be made into material for a shirt or pajamas. It could also be used for wrapping paper or even to use as a Western theme for a birthday party.

I'm new to computers and have always been resistant to technology but now I am finding that, in many ways, the computer seems to free me up. No more tension about mistakes, mess, expense and the limitations that you have with paint. I think that I have always been terrified of the blank page. With a paint program you can choose an attractive color for the background fill then you're on your way!

Tahiti Flower Vase

What is it about Terra Cotta Clay that I love so much? I'm addicted to the cool and smooth texture. Also, the flexibility and ease with which I can manipulate any shape from clay is enticing. Creating from the earth's muddy bounty is very therapeutic and grounding....in more ways than one!

Anyway, here is a recent vase that I created from the depths of my being. I never know what I am going to create, basically it creates itself. The flowers were given to Sonia, my daughter, for a recent opera performance.

Flower Child!

Natasha my Flower Child! Nothing can stop my daughter from gardening...having a broken foot or nine months pregnant is no deterrent!
And, it's not unusual for her to garden with a child in her back-pack or front pack.

Natasha is my middle child. She would always follow me into the garden as a very small girl. She loved the feel of the dirt on her hands and the satisfaction of planting seeds, watching them grow and then harvesting their bounty. I'm wondering if the love of gardening is inherent or learned. All I know is that despite exposing my other two children to gardening they do not share this same passion. Where does this fascination with the earth and growing plants come from?

I think, in my case, this love of the land came from my dad. He loved to grow things in our fields in Pennsylvania. My earliest memories are of weeding the asparagus patch. I was about five and I distinctly remember going down row by row clearing the weeds from the asparagus and feeling so proud to have freed the asparagus from its forest of weeds. The asparagus could now clearly be viewed like tiny, green, upright soldiers all in a row.

My other strong memory is of our strawberry patch which was directly in back of our barn. We would hire local kids to pick the strawberries. Some of these kids were neighbors that I knew. It was thrilling to see all the baskets filled to the brim with bright red strawberries. We also grew potatoes, corn, and celery.

One year after my dad had turned the earth to reveal the hidden potatoes he had also uncovered a nest of baby mice. Don't worry they were left undisturbed and after we observed them we gently returned the cover to their home. What a learning experience! I also learned how to dust off the potatoes stored in the barn and eat them raw. This provided us with a nice little snack when we were too busy playing to take time to go into the house. To this day I still love to eat raw potatoes with a little salt.

After all this reflecting on the growing days of summer I am reminded that winter winds are blowing and rain is pouring in blinding sheets. I long for warm days and the feel of the earth between my fingers. I also long for fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables on my table. I miss canning fruit and vegetables....Heck, I even miss pulling the weeds that are sprouting up everywhere. Hurry up SPRING!

Noah Typography

This is a test.......Currently experimenting!

Twiggy Fern Plate

Hello again! I'm so excited that I'm finally seeming to "get" this technical stuff!

This is another product of my inspiration at "Lotus Land" botanical gardens. I used a cutting of my backyard fern to imprint the clay. I did this by placing the fern on top of the clay and then covering the clay with a sheet so that the clay would not stick to the slab roller. The pressure of the slab roller on the clay and fern make a very nice impression.

Polly's Porcelain Pebble Pond Plate!

I think I found a short cut to posting my Photographs. It's at the top left under create. I might never find it again though. Anyway, I will try to get past all this technical stuff and get on with displaying some of my art.

This plate was created after an inspirational visit to a beautiful botanical garden in Santa Barbara California called "Lotus Land". There were so many ponds, unusual trees, flowers, cactus and tropical ferns that inspired me. I could hardly wait to get home so that I could whip out my lump of porcelain clay and try to re-create some of the sites that impressed me so much. I placed a lace doilie under the clay then rolled the clay out on the slab roller. I really liked the imprint that the doilie made. After it was fired I used stains and various glazes. I think it achieved the wet, watery look of the pebble pond that I was so inspired by at "Lotus Land". I now want to create more of them.

Rustic Outdoor Hanging Planter

I really miss long, sunny Summer days! Exercise comes easily with swimming gardening and pruning an everyday event! Now, it is winter and walking on the levee seems to be the most natural thing to do. Hey, you can still benefit from the sun's healing rays and the clean brisk air. But boy do I ever miss those warm sunny summer days!

SCULPTURE DISASTER! Any Ideas for recovery?

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I'm doing! I did not grow up with computers and have remained very resistant to learning. However I have a 21 year old son who encouraged me to conquer my irrational fears and forge ahead. So I'm forging ahead, bear with me. I still have to figure out how to download my pictures and figure out a focus for my Blog. I am encouraged by our new computer and the ease with which things can be accomplished. Our old computer was 9 years old and didn't have much memory so downloading pictures took forever and it got to the point there was no more capacity for any more pictures

What is most interesting to Blog about? I'm into most art including clay sculptures and photography. I'm also into cooking, canning and gardening. Could also Blog about " Polly's Perils" living with ADD. Ho Hum what should it be??

Could do a picture of my art work...."One a Day Creations". But, that would mean I'd better figure out how to post those pictures. Nothings easy is it? Any ideas?

Slowly figuring out how to download pictures. Still not confident. However, now that I have downloaded this particular picture I can finally ask questions of fellow sculptors. See this silly fern vase? Want to know how it cracked? They say haste makes waste and that is exactly what happened. Before Christmas break I took off the protective plastic cover in order to hasten drying time so that I could fire it before the break. Too bad it did not register at the time that I should have taken out the cardboard tube first! Oh well! Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened to me. Any ideas how one can pull out the cardboard tube without breaking vase? As you can see, I cracked the vase trying to pull it out!

Favorite Christmas gift of a two year old? A spatula and a snowman shaped bar of soap!

I hate exercising but after many months of being athletically dormant I am surprised at how invigorated I feel after a brisk walk in the cool 54 degree sun-lite world of the out doors. Gee maybe I am sun light deprived...maybe that's why I feel so good getting a dose of vitamin D. Thirty five minutes of a walk doesn't even intrude on my time....the hardest part is just getting out of the door! This should be a habit but I'm making no promises or New Year Resolutions.

I am finally coming out of my yearly January slump! This always happens to me after the intense pressure of the holidays. As with most people I put a lot of effort into making Christmas really special for my family. My daughter Natasha and I put our heads together months before Christmas to figure out the perfect gift for my two year old grandson Noah. He is really into anything to do with firefighters and their firetrucks. So when my daughter spied a wooden firehouse complete with all equipment we both pitched in to buy it. Christmas morning came and we could hardly wait to see how he would react when he opened his fire station. He didn't seem too impressed! When his parents opened their Christmas Stocking Noah seemed to be drawn to the green rubber spatula in his mother's stocking and a bar of castile soap shaped like a snowman in his father's stocking. You guessed it ...these were his favorite gifts. All day long he clutched these items in his tiny fists, spatula in one fist and the soap in the other! Who would have guessed!