Popo goes to Italy

28 09 2012

Pretty soon I’ll be posting from Italy! I’ve been getting ready for the long vacation from Rebekah’s Studio, but I’ve arranged for you to follow me on my new blog Popo Goes to Italy. I apologize so very much for being missing in action here.

DH and I are preparing to make our house guests and house- and pet-sitter welcome and to enjoy the next week and a half with friends and students.

Tomorrow we’re bicycling from Jim and Sharon’s house to see the Blue Angels fly over Kaneohe Bay. Taking the tandem.

My friends Linda, Lisa, and Sofia arrive from San Francisco on Sunday. Linda is the author of The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World (University of California Press, 2012), and she’s scheduled to do a book signing at the Tsung Tsin Association‘s Autumn Banquet in Honolulu that we’re all attending.

DH and I had the pleasure of traveling with Linda to China as she went from place to place, restaurant to restaurant, talking to chefs, researching and eating Hakka dishes, and finding out more about our Hakka heritage in our grandparents’  homeland. We each included each other in our respective publications—mine is The Chong Family in a New Millennium.

We’ll have a lot of fun with Linda’s daughter Lisa, who was on the China trip with us, and almost-three-year-old granddaughter Sofia. We need a toddler fix. Lisa lived in Italy and married an Italian.

DH and I will have time to attend the First Birthday Luau for Eva and Kingston, girl-and-boy twins, who live down the highway. Special family friends too, so a very special gift is in order—my Kalo Diptych. Shh, it’s a surprise!

Kalo diptych / 10″ x 7″ / oil on canvas / each panel framed separately

My painting students have two more classes with me before a break. They’ll be painting on their own while I’m away.

Then we’ll greet Joe who’s ready at the drop of a hat to come from Florida to take care of Ula, Alice Brown, Pua, and the house. Because he just loves Hawai‘i! It’s all arranged.

Thank you so much for checking in. Be well. I’ll be in touch as Popo Goes to Italy.

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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In the mood for fresh guacamole

8 09 2012

The avocado, calamansi, and Hawaiian chilies are from my garden. So abundant!


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Grapes and drapes painting lesson

5 09 2012

Grapes and drapes still life setup, Painting II, Rebekah Luke, instructor.

Today my Painting II class is painting “Grapes and Drapes.” This lesson, originally from Gloria Foss, is practice in the studio for painting the Ko‘olau Mountains and trees in the landscape later on.

We pay attention to where the light is coming from in the scene and turn the form with values from light to dark.

We review the “Tomato Theory” we learned in Painting I, that is lightening and darkening the form with colors that are analogous on the color wheel instead of adding white or black, or instead of adding the complement to darken. In addition, we remember the mantra, “Warm it in the light; cool it in the shade.”

“Tomato Theory” can be a hard to get used to at first, but practicing it makes objects pop with vibrance and gives the overall painting more pizazz.

I find it satisfying to be able to pass on the techniques I learned from my own teachers Vicky Kula and Gloria Foss. What they taught me and what I am passing on to my students is the logic of light.

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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Categories : Fine Art, Food

Pick me! Eat me!

1 07 2012

Pick me!

It’s as if the orange kou blossom fell from the tree and joined the mini pineapple growing below to say, “Pick me!”

I planted the cut top of a supermarket pineapple in a pot of soil quite a few months ago, ignoring it for the most part, but watering it with other bromeliads in my routine of giving the whole garden a drink.

This morning the fruit begged to be harvested. It was just as much work to prepare for eating as a larger pineapple, but I treated it like gold. Very tasty and refreshing, nutritious, ripened by the sun, and free!

Mahalo e ke Akua no kēia mea ʻai.

Mini homegrown pineapple. It doesn’t get any fresher than this!

Homegrown mini pineapple compared to a commercially grown pineapple behind.

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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Lucky we live Hawaii!

20 05 2012

The buyer of the truck came to get it today and left us with these beauties. Score! I spent some time reading recipes on the internet. Tonight’s dinner is Mango Chicken (home grown and organic free range) and Palusami (a taro leaf and coconut milk bundle)!

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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A peace of Easter – Colomba di Pasqua

8 04 2012
Image

I made this bread from a recipe in the Sunset Italian Cook Book published in 1972 when I worked in the test kitchens. It was edited by Jerry Anne DiVecchio. A larger 12 x 15-inch baking sheet would have allowed the birds wings to spread more. The wings are studded with almonds over chunks of almond paste and sprinkled with sugar.

My version of Colomba di Pasqua – the Dove of Easter, a bread of Italy. Delightfully delicious with lemon and almond flavors. Enjoy your holiday! Especially our family in Naples. Happy Easter!

Copyright 2012 and 2014 Rebekah Luke

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I will plant ʻulu for food and shade

18 03 2012

My intention of buying this breadfruit plant from ʻUlu Rockys Nursery is to put it into the ground and have it flourish into a beautiful tree that will provide food and shade for us. This is the clonally propagated Maʻafala variety that requires 10 ft. x 10 ft. of space and will stay compact and productive with proper pruning. Please click on the links in the text for more information about this wonderful plant breadfruit.

Micropropagation technology has been developed to produce breadfruit plants (Artocarpus altilis), or ʻulu, that are healthy and free of disease, I learned yesterday at an engaging workshop at the Bishop Museum.

Dr. Diane Ragone, director of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai, spoke to describe how new methods of propagation, and cooperation with NGOs and the distribution company Cultivaris, now make it possible to distribute plants worldwide and become part of the solution to feeding the hungry.

The Breadfruit Institute promotes the conservation and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation.

Other highlights: author Craig R. Elevitch, who spoke on agroforestry and food security; and speaker Ian Cole, who spoke on how to grow and maintain ʻulu. Ian Cole cares for the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s breadfruit tree collection in Hana, Maui.

Other useful links:

the Hoʻoulu ka ʻUlu project, and the Breadfruit Cookbook.

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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