Don't Beet Me Up/ Painting with Beets

Doesn't this look like some crazy piece of abstract art?!  It's just my food processor.

Cold Beet and Celery (Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes)

1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cups thinly sliced celery
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 pounds beets, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tbsp red wine vinegar plus additional to taste
3 cups chicken broth (I used chicken bouillon)
ice water for thinning soup
fat-free yogurt to garnish (They suggest using horseradish and minced chives, too.)

1.  In a heavy saucepan cook onion and celery in oil with sugar and salt and pepper to taste over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened.
2.  Add beets, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and broth.
3.  Simmer mixture, covered, 35 to 40 minutes, or until beets are very tender.

4.  In a blender, purée mixture in batches until very smooth, transferring to a bowl. 

5.  Chill soup, covered, at least 6 hours or overnight.

6.  Thin soup with ice water and season with additional vinegar and salt and pepper.

7.  Garnish soup with sour cream and chives.

To be completely, honest, I don't think this is the exact recipe that I used, but it looks very similar.  This was such a good summer meal though--filling, cheap, and fat-free.  Woot!

Morris Lewis, 1959

I bought Sterling a big, blank canvas for Christmas.  It is still blank at the moment, but we hung it on our wall anyway, as a place saver.  Some people think we are trying to be all avant-garde and conceptual by hanging a blank canvas.  We aren't really.  Sterling has plans to create a Morris Lewis-ish painting using ink/dyes made out of beets and tumeric.  The colors of both are just so deep and beautiful!  Morris Lewis used thinned-out paints and let them run uncontrolled on a stretched, unprimed canvas.  I'm excited about this.  It's funny, I know Sterling is an artist, but I haven't seen him really do any big projects because his work schedule doesn't really allow for 5 hour drawing sessions.  We also don't really have access to a pottery wheel or kiln.  The government should provide those things as part of our "benefits."  Maybe I will write the government people and tell them that my husband is very talented and should be allowed to make art for their boring boxes of buildings.  Everyone would be better off.