A Steller’s sea eagle keeping his plumage in stellar shape.

An art show brought us to Pittsburgh, and though we didn’t have much time to explore the city we did get the chance to visit the National Aviary – a place I’ve always wanted to visit!  With multiple free-flight aviaries, interactive exhibits, and many beautiful birds it was a wonderful side trip.

Two rainbow lorikeets allopreening.	Penguins!	The noble pelican.

This cormorant was quite the social butterfly, hanging out on a rail in one of the walkthroughs.	Our friend Mel (Miss Monster) decided she really liked this guy.	He was dreamy!	He made amazing noises at Mel.

Noble bald eagles being noble.	Steller’s sea eagle. Huge, beautiful birds!	Penguins? Eww!	Really cool interactive penguin exhibit!

Bernice in the free flight aviary.	Amber feeding a golden-breasted starling.	The starlings were really quite brazen!	Scarlet Ibis.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, I highly recommend checking the aviary out!  http://www.aviary.org/index.php

Roman, Karen and I on the road to Machu Picchu.

My first trip to South America was a dream vacation for me. I studied Mesoamerican culture and art for many years and was thrilled to be able to visit so many places of inspiration for me. I chose Peru for its rich culture, varied landscapes (rainforest to desert, mountains, ocean, urban metropolis to uncontacted tribes), and and amazing history.  Peru did not disappoint – it was truly a trip of a lifetime!

A high mountain lake on the hike to M.P.	Llamas grazing on the terraces of M.P.	Ruins along the trail.

We decided to do the grueling 4 day hike along the Inka trail – here was our group of hikers.	Hiking up into the mountains – beautiful views in all directions.	Llaqtapata – one of the first viewpoints along the trail.	The chaskis were amazing, they carried heavy packs along the trail as if it was nothing.

Amazing terrace walls.	Here you can see the steps that connect the terraces.	Mist and clouds appeared and disappeared constantly.	More misty terraces.

Our small group at the top of dead woman’s pass.	A wild deer we spotted along the trail.	Exhausted, we reached the Sun Gate and had our first view of Machu Picchu mountain.	Roman and I – tired but amazed.

Llamas.	Llama!	Little lizards scampered all over the ruins.	A beautiful high altitude lake where we had lunch.

Lake along the trail.	Rainforest flowers.	Desert flowers.	Aquas Calientes – an amazing town at the base of M.P. mountain.

Duck Vessel at Pre-columbian museum in Cuzco.	Bondage deer vessel.	I love pre-columbian art.	This art has always been a great inspiration to me!

Typical small city streets.	Being taught about natural dyes used on llama wool.	Do I really need to caption this one?	Faces in the stone – Sacred Valley

Detail of face carved into the mountain. Can you see it?	Peruvian locals.	Even the cows are cooler in Peru!	School parades in Cuzco town square.

There were lots of dogs wandering the streets.	Paucartambo square.	Incredible rooftop tiles.	March!

Peruvian school uniforms.	Coricancha tower.	Sacsayhuaman fortress.

The Andes are absolutely beautiful and inspiring.  The size and scope of everything is something that truly has to been seen in person to be experienced. For its amazing flavor, I highly recommend Peru!

The Inka trail was very demanding – I didn’t expect to be as affected by the altitude as I was.   We hiked the four day trek through the mountains along the original trails to Machu Picchu, carrying our own packs and camping overnight. It was a definite test in endurance. We arrived at the Sun Temple early in the morning to be some of the first visitors to Machu Picchu that day and took a wonderful tour (though we were quite exhausted at the time!) of the ‘lost city’.  We also took some time to explore the cities Cuzco and Aquas Calientes.  We tried guinea pig and alpaca – two local cuisine specialties and had the time to take in some local music.

Elusive cock-of-the-rock in the reserve.

Going to Peru was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It's a place I've been drawn to for years, something that has become a recurring theme in my life which has just become stronger as time goes by. When things fell into place and allowed us to go, I was thrilled. I really didn't know what to expect so I left without real expectations and just surrendered myself to the experience that presented itself. I'm beyond glad that I did.

Me posing with a tagua palm!	A beautiful sunset in Manu.	Incredible root systems.

From Lima we took a short flight to Cuzco, the scenery changing from metropolis to mountains as we coasted over the Andes.	Bone sculpture.	Beautiful textiles abound at the street vendors.	Qoricancha, the Sun Temple.

Floating angel heads!	Saqsayhuaman Inca Complex	Roman and I at Saqsayhuaman.	Our guide for the day.

Strolling across the fields where Spanish cavalry assaulted the Incas fortressed at the temple, attempting to keep them at bay.	From a tour of Tambo Machay, Qenqo and Puca-Pucara	Masked 'demon' dancers at a local restaurant.	The jaguar dancer and black fox both came over to purr-trill at me and give me a kiss.

A native pan flute band, chakana. We ended up picking up one of their CDs, their native fusion music was really fun.	The next morning we were up really early for the start of our Rainforest adventure - beginning with a harrowing ride through the Andes on a tiny, one lane dirt road carved across the mountains.	Up there on the 'world's most dangerous roads' list and I can safely say I've never been on a ride anything like it. At one point our bus got stuck in the mud and we spent a bit over an hour repairing the road enough to get it out and back on our way.	On this tiny road, you would often run into semis coming the opposite direction. We would have to back up until we found a place suitable to pass (which could often be quite far!) and then continue on.

Cactus on a roof in Paucartambo, a famous folkloric town on the way to the park.	Panorama of Ninamarca	Ninamarca, pre-inca ruins (Lupaca).	We made it to the park - an amazing place half the size of Switzerland.

Our guide Rive (who was absolutely awesome) gave us a tour of a local coca plantation.	Banana trucks along one of the last roads into the park area.	Madre de Dios river (mother of god) - we spent many hours traveling by boat, avoiding shallow areas and sunken trees.	When we moved from the Mother of God river onto the Manu river, headed into the reserve zone, our first greeting was by a huge red-tailed boa.

Boa probably about 12 feet long, floating along in the river.	Horned screamers, common along the river's edge.	Skimmers!	Yellow-headed vultures.

Coca tea on the boat - helps to keep you going after a very long day of travel!	Woodpeckers, one of the most important birds in the rainforest. They start the holes that countless parrots use to make their nests.	I think that the most powerful and incredible experience for me, personally, was these jaguars. We stumbled upon a mating pair at the edge of the river, hanging out under a downed log in the early evening.	Apparently only about 5-10% of visitors into the deep reserve zone see wild jaguars, so it was an incredible privilege to see them. It really took my breath away.

Large caiman in the river!	Wild blue and gold macaws!	We went to a nearby lake (Salvador / Oxbow) to see the giant otters	hey were quite huge, and they were circling the lake making unearthly, mournful cries.

There were four adult otters in the lake.	Fish!	Giant otters live in sociable family groups, with a lead female and often her kin (other mated pairs).	The otters weren't afraid of us at all (we were on a small catamaran paddled by hand) - they are used to researchers who have watched/studied them for many years.

Graaah!	Bug-eaten tree leaves.	Amazing ‘clay’ cliffs along the river.	Amazing, unique trees.

Dr. Suess tree!	This picture does not do justice to the sheer size of this tree - and the incredible root system spanning out from it.	Water spray from the boat.	Mmm… coca tea!

This was a tree which was being eaten from the inside out (hollow so you could walk through it) which smelled strongly of garlic.	Wild macaw trio flying above the treetops.	The blue dye is a native plant which helps to repel mosquitos.	Roman and I and a giant tree.

A raw tagua nut – still in liquid state. And my blue dyed avatar hands.	Wild poison dart frog!!	Beautiful moth.	Giant bug!

Sleeping bird we stumbled upon.	Forest scorpion!	Beautiful tarantula.	The tarantulas were actually quite shy.

Rose-colored tarantula.	Night spider.	They build webs only for the night and take them up again in the morning.	Amazing vine.

Capybara!	The world’s largest rodents.	Leaf detail.	Tree scale.

Tiny snake!	Tagua pod!	Me brandishing a tagua pod.	Rainforest explorer with tagua palm!

We spent a week traveling in Manu; a part of the reserve area of the world's most pristine tract of rainforest where less than a thousand visitors a year pass through. I had the intense privilege of seeing a mating pair of wild jaguars. We walked through the jungle at night and saw scorpions, tarantulas, birds, bugs, monkeys, and all sorts of amazing creatures. We watched giant otters circle their lake and make unearthly, mournful cries. I found wild tagua and was able to drink from the ripening plant.

I was so excited to find wild tagua palms - called 'yarina' locally. I was so excited to get to see them in person, I have been working with the material (tagua nuts) for over twelve years now.

Me with my favorite species of owl in the world – the barred owl, an unreleasable girl named Teddy.

When business took us to Rochester, New York, Roman and I decided to make a weekend trip out of it and visit Niagara Falls and then some friends in Toronto before heading back. Sometimes impromptu travels can be the best kind – this was definitely a trip to remember!

Rainbow over Niagara Falls, New York.	Tigers find my hair delicious.	Gorgeous Great Horned Owl at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre.

Me with a tiny Saw-whet owl named Hutton.	More gratuitous cute owl shots.	And another! Hutton is just precious. They are so little and cute they look unreal.	One of the bald eagle residents of the Centre.
Fish Beak! Pagwa, a juvenile female bald eagle.	Amy and Pagwa, who were amazingly in sync with each other.	Profile, Portrait. Amy and Pagwa again.	Amy showing us her incredible owl-mimicing talent.
Behind the scenes where birds are cared for.	Bernice isn’t too sure about Otis.	In the end they make friends.	I just love barred owls!
One of the resident barn owls.	A beautiful bird of another sort welcomes us to Jungle Cat World (peacock).	I was amazed that the harsh Canadian winter doesn’t phase these exotic creatures!	The stars of JCW – the tigers.
Incredible, inspiring cats.	Delicious arms.	Delicious legs.	Delicious jacket of mine.
Delicious scarf.	I have to conclude, after spending time with baby tigers – the whole world is delicious.	Mauled by tiger cubs and never happier about it!	What a face!!

Playful cubs.	One of the other cats – a lynx on the move.	Myself, Roman, Eric (with his tiger beer), and Bernice (with Wolfy).

We first visited Niagara Falls, which was beautiful in the winter with ice-covered cliffs, broken ice rivers, and a wonderful lack of crowds. We then went up to Toronto and a bit east to Jungle Cat World – a fantastic little sanctuary with a bed and breakfast on site. We had the chance to stay at the zoo overnight and see the animals when they were most active – when the rest of the crowd has gone home.  You can find their site here: http://www.junglecatworld.com/

We also had the chance to see the Mountsberg Raptor Centre which was a wonderfully run place full of gorgeous birds. Major thanks to Amy Fennell, a friend (and Mountsberg employee) for the memorable, thoroughly enjoyable trip!  You can learn more about Mountberg and the birds at their Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/mountsbergraptorcentre

Sisters of St. Benedict Monastery

Hoosier National forest, in the central part of southern Indiana, was a beautiful surprise. I didn’t know much about the park before stopping there, but was captivated by its beautiful waterfalls, gorgeous rock formations, and mossy forests. I wish I’d had time to stay and do more hiking.

Right near the park was the amazing architecture of the Sisters of St. Benedict Monastery – I am not a religious person but I really love and appreciate the beauty of structures like this. We had a very nice tour – if you’re ever in the area and enjoy old churches and beautiful buildings, check this one out!

After passing through Hoosier, we visited friends in Lexington, Kentucky and had a tour of the world famous Kentucky Horse Park.

Kimahri and I resting in a beautiful natural cave in Hoosier.	A standardbred being put through its paces at the Kentucky horse park.	A silly glamour shot of our car, “Smith” the Pontiac Vibe in Hoosier.

An amusing sign we saw on the back of a semi. Good stuff.	Kimahri posing regally in the fall leaves at Hoosier.	An artistic shot of some of the stained glass at the monastery.	The hike of Hemlock Cliffs at Hoosier is full of beautiful surprises.
Our friend contemplates one of the standardbreds, nose to nose.	A meet and greet with the horse show horses and their owners.	We were lucky to get a tour of the University of Kentucky animal cognition lab from a good friend, Holly.	Holly introducing us to one of the research pigeons. It was amazing the sheer range of personalities in the birds!
I love draft horses. It was really neat to get to meet both horses and their keepers at the park.	One of Holly’s dogs showing us one method for dog cognition research. She touches the screen with her nose to ‘select’ an item!	Another beautiful horse at the parade of breeds.

Sincerely,

-Foxfeather Zenkova

Newsletter features:

• Holiday shipping deadlines! December 19^th for standard shipping, Dec. 21^st for express orders (within the U.S.)
• NEW designs
• COMING SOON! Many website updates and new artwork
• Guest Artists – Ursula Vernon and Melita Curphy (Miss Monster)

Holiday Shipping

There is still time to find a great, unique gift for any animal lover in your life – we are offering shipping for deliver before Dec. 25^th for U.S. orders placed before December 19^th for standard shipping, Dec. 21^st for express orders – visit our holiday shipping page http://foxloft.com/holidayshipping for details!

New Designs!

There are many new designs available at the Foxloft, including our newest ‘Yin-Yang’ designs – available from our brand new T-shirt shop http://foxloft.com/store/shirts and as prints http://foxloft.com/store/prints

The glass pendant gallery has been updated as well, including both original painted designs and jewelry prints to fit any budget! http://foxloft.com/store/originals

http://endangeredark.com Endangered Ark Limited Edition card decks make a wonderful gift – over 20 different artists participated in this project and part of the proceeds are going to two wonderful endangered species charities.

Coming Soon!

This new year will be heralding many updates to our website to make the shopping experience much better. Please keep an eye on our website for a new look to the website as well as a section for art services, new features, and informational pages.

Guest Artists

We are excited to announce an expansion of our galleries to include a few new, wonderful guest artists!

There are tagua pendants now available by both Ursula Vernon and Melita Curphy (Miss Monster). We are soon adding a few other wildlife and totemic artists from around the world to our growing pool of talent.

Thank you for looking at our website and our newsletter!

We hope to see you again in the future!

-Foxfeather and the Foxloft Crew ]]> http://foxloft.com/2009/12/holiday-2009-newsletter-from-foxloft-studios/feed 0 http://foxloft.com/2009/01/hearty-chicken-wild-rice-soup http://foxloft.com/2009/01/hearty-chicken-wild-rice-soup#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:13:08 +0000 admin /hearty-chicken-wild-rice-soup

Hearty Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

To make chicken stock:

Quarter whole chicken and put in large stock pot, cover with water. Stir gently, discard dirty water. Fill pot 3/4 with water and put on medium-high heat.

Motto of best-ever-chicken-stock : Skim the skum or your stock will suck! A little attention will go a long way to making better soup. Use a spoon to skim off debris/foam from the top. Bring to a gentle boil. 

Dice onion, carrots, and celery, add to stock. Boil for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until chicken is thoroughly cooked and just starting to fall off the bone. Continually skim the stock (it's easier after the onions and other veggies have sunk into the stock mix) - your goal is to get rid of all the fat and foam off the top of the soup. Try not to take too much water, just the top layer of uck.

Gently remove chicken with tongs, allowing extra stock to drip back into soup. Place on cutting board or platter and let cool.

Skim out celery ends and any veggies you don't want to leave in - they will be mostly tasteless mush at this point. You don't have to take them out but I always remove just the celery.

An alternative would be to used canned soup stock - about 8-10 cups of it and start the soup from there. This works fine, but obviously home-made stock is best. If using the canned stock it's best to boil it with celery/onions/carrots for better flavor.

To make soup:

Add wild rice to stock mix, stir. Rice will take 1-2 hours to cook. Your goal is that the rice cracks and looks a bit like a split hot-dog bun, if the majority of the rice is curled up it has cooked too long. Some people prefer harder or softer rice, try out different cooking times and see what you think.

Add diced celery and any optional veggies (diced parsnips or mushrooms), butter, and white pepper.

Stir every 10 minutes or so until rice is cooked, make sure to scrape the pot to make sure rice is not stuck/burning at the bottom.

Cut up chicken (careful to remove all fat and bones, especially those tiny ribs!) and add meat back into the stock. Alternative if you want to be really fancy -grill/broil chicken breasts/thighs and add those to the soup (instead of stock chicken) for more flavor.

In a separate bowl, blend corn starch with a bit of the half/half until smooth. Turn heat down to low, add this mix, rest of half/half, and wine to the soup. Heat thoroughly but do not boil. Salt to taste. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve - goes great with fresh bread!

Notes: This soup actually tastes fantastic (if not better) the next day - save uneaten portions in the refrigerator or freeze for later use.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients

Directions

Put in the oven, magic happens!

Enjoy!

Berry-Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Blend softened cream cheese, berries, and bananas in a bowl, set aside. Slice bread into thick (1 1/2″-2″ slices) slices – I make my own light wheat bread for this but almost any country-style loaf will do.  I usually make a loaf the night before and let it sit (covered) overnight – if you’re an early bird you can make it in the morning and use fresh bread.

With a sharp knife, carefully cut a deep pocket into each slice of bread, keeping the opening on only one side.

Fill each bread slice with cream cheese mixture (pack it in there!) and stack onto a plate – chill until firm.

Beat the eggs in large bowl, add softened ice cream mixture, stir well (but gently, you don’t want it to be super foamy).

Heat butter in a skillet on medium heat.

Place stuffed bread into egg mixture, turn to coat.  Put coated bread into skillet, fry on top and bottom and then gently on all remaining sides (especially if bread is very thick)  until golden brown. It cooks quickly, be careful not to burn it! Add more butter if necessary between slices.

Serve with syrup (and a scoop of ice cream if you wish).

Notes:  If you want to get really fancy, you can slice the crust off the bread before filling – this will allow the egg mixture to soak into it better on all sides and make a thicker coating.  Be careful not to soak the bread too long, though, or you can get runny eggs that don’t cook up in the middle of the toast.

Enjoy!

Pig Pirozhki

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough:

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, add yeast and warm milk, stir. Add softened butter and eggs. Mix until smooth, let rest for 1 hour in a warm (but not hot) place. On top of an oven set to warm (under 200 degrees) works well.

Make the filling:

Heat olive oil in a skillet, add garlic and herbs. Stir well, do not let garlic brown/burn. Cook for a minute or two, add diced artichokes (well drained) and ham. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until ham is slightly browned. Add cheese last, heat and stir until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.

Finishing:

Cover board and hands with dusting of flour. Seperate dough into 6 different balls, then break off 1/4 of each ball (for ears/nose/etc) and set aside (so you end up with 6 large and 6 small balls of dough). Keep dough balls covered in a bowl with moistened cloth over it until using them so they don't dry out (they dry out quickly).

Scramble egg white in small bowl, keep near work station (easiest to use with a basting brush for application).

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Form large dough ball into flat circle (like you would for a pizza) about 1/4" thick. Place 1/6 of filling mixture onto the middle, wrap sides of dough around to form a ball completely around the filling, making a seam only on the bottom side. Use a light brushing of the egg white to seal. Flip seam-down and place on well greased baking pan. Form small ball of dough into snout, tusks, ears, and hooves, attach with egg white. Use whole black peppers pressed into dough for eyes.  Glaze finished pig lightly with egg white mixture.

Repeat for each of the pigs, bake for 10-20 minutes (check at 10 minutes then every 5) or until golden brown. Check often so the ears don't crisp too much!

Enjoy!