Category Archives: Fine arts

George Schils Photography. Also see the main photo page.

Cooking, Fine arts, Photography

A chili with chopped vegetables, Bush beans, and sauce

1 Comment

Here is another chili that I made fairly recently. Yes, the gourmet hamburger guy strikes again. I have blogged chili’s before and I plan on trying to record the better chilies I make. They are all a little different in some way. So get used to being bored to death with chilies.

I chopped some onions and kale for this dish. I am big on kale because it is healthy for the eyes. I try to fry in olive oil.

_DSC5939

Here is a tomato sauce from the local grocer, shown with other ingredients. This time, for the beans, I am using Bush’s “Grillin’ Beans”. This adds an interesting and zesty taste that is different from chili beans. I’m the “bean guy”, and I use all sorts of beans in chilies. This bean choice gives a nice taste. Hamburger shown below was on sale.

_DSC5940

Fry the hamburger. Pour off the fat.

_DSC5941

The veggies are coming along nicely.

_DSC5942

Well, after pouring off the fat from the fried hamburger, mix in the vegetables and beans.

_DSC5943

Then comes the tomato pasta sauce.

_DSC5944

And the final meal tastes incredible!

_DSC5945

 

Art sketches

Black bird challenge

Leave a comment

The featured image today has a patriotic bent. The black bird may be either a crow, a raven, or an eagle.

Black bird
Black bird

What is the bird anyway? “Yes, what is with that bird?” Is he (pick one)

  • Is it the symbol of American freedom?
  • Is his name Baldwin J. Fly?
  • Or is it a bird pandemic possibility that must be avoided at all cost?

This is an excerpt from SMV, Jr. magazine, an art and satire magazine.

Cooking, Fine arts, Photography

My first chuck roast

Leave a comment

This is the first chuck roast I have ever made and I am even writing a cooking column on it. It also has been around 20 years since I have made mashed potatoes. I ventured ahead and tried to make a masterpiece of a meal for relatively little money, and generally things were successful. I had olive oil on hand but had to go out and get some corn starch for the gravy.

Here meat is on sale marked down substantially. The chuck roast here is $2.38 / pound.

f371_2_copy

Chop some vegetables and stir fry them in olive oil.

f371_4_copy

Here they are coming along nicely.

f371_6_copy

Shown below the meat is coming along nicely. Put in a little water as it cooks. Here I put in a little too much water. The runoff from the meat is for the gravy. Pour this runoff into a cup, skim off the fatty oil if you can, and then mix in some corn starch for a tasty gravy and for thicker substance.

f371_3_copy

The potatoes are cut and boiled until soft. Then pour in some milk and use a masher to mash. I did not have any butter, but it is better to mix in some butter also.

f371_5_copy

The final meal is shown below. Of course one cuts away the fat from the meat. The mashed potatoes  were a little lumpy, but for me this was still a great accomplishment.

f371_1_copy

f371_7_copy

Fine arts

Some of George’s favorite videos

Leave a comment

Some new entries in Webster’s

Alanis how did you make this list? [2] with lyrics.

The Jingler Jangler Rangler Dangler (JJ for short) has a little too much juke box money but still figures out how to leave a letter by the sea.

Not as lucky as you think.

Vera looks so much like my mother. My dad, who flew on B-17’s, liked her. These were songs giving a force of hope against an indomitable enemy. Any record from 1936 moves me.

Me vida es su tombola. Is this related to boozing it up on the street?

I’m blue over you.

Did you make it in Webster’s? [2, 3].

Cooking, Photography

A healthy vegetable sandwich on high fiber bread

1 Comment
The picture below shows a sandwich that I made about a half a year ago. (I am a bit slow in getting some of my photography published.) The sandwich is on high fiber bread and I poured vegetable oil on the bread instead of butter. This is about the healthiest oil that you can get. Then there are a few leaves of raw but washed Kale. This is high in lutein and is good for the eyes. Then I sliced an onion and put on some sliced cucumbers and put on some alfalfa sprouts. This is about the best sandwich I have ever made. I normally do not eat this well. The pickles are making my mouth water now as I write this and I bought them on sale.

The olive oil adds a nice taste. The sandwich is quite tasty and very healthy.

Ironically after eating a super healthy meal like this, the next day one finds oneself eating a cheesy pizza and it almost nulls out the health effects.

Vegetable sandwith
Vegetable sandwith
Cooking, Photography

A September omelet with greens and peppers

Leave a comment

I don’t eat eggs really a lot but some eggs are probably considered healthy, and eggs can supply a form of lutein which is good for the eyes. Other ingredients here, such as the green “leafy” Swiss chard, is also good for the eyes. When I eat eggs I try to work out hard on my bike. I think cholesterol is a lot like putting “nitro” in a car engine: If you put it in your system, you should not just drive to church at 5 mph, but should try to push it a bit. I don’t know if I am right about this.

The ingredients were all obtained at the Madison farmer’s market.

The dish, pictorially depicted below, is an omelet that I made sometime in September 2009. I chopped some onions, jalapeno peppers, and some Swiss chard, and then pan fried in olive oil. It is really colorful and it a nice photo! Then mix in three eggs. The omelet was really good.

f371_9_copy

f371_11_copy