Image's fourth annual Advent Art Salon
Thursday, December 12
5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT
Zoom online gathering
You are invited to join us for one of our favorite events of the year: an art-filled hour celebrating Advent, a time of fellowship and reflection, featuring festive seasonal recipes, poetry readings, a musical performance, Advent reflections, and more. We're looking forward to gathering and celebrating the season with you!
Katie Hartsock, Poetry
Jon Guerra, Music
Alexander Ramirez, Fiction
Meghan Murphy-Gill, Recipe + Reading
Mark Sprinkle, Cocktail Recipes
Jan Richardson, Reading + Blessing
Gift the Gift of Creative Inspiration
Image is published four times a year, in late March, June, September, and December. We put all our content online a few weeks after each print issue mails—print subscribers get the first look. Our paywall lets you read a few pieces a month free. A print subscription includes full access behind the paywall (activate yours), or you can purchase online access without print issues for a monthly fee.
Our latest collection, O Bright Wound: Meditations for Ordinary Time, was curated as a companion to the humdrum of daily life. From essays about baseball to poetry about cherry yogurt to visual art centered on quilting, O Bright Wound looks at the world not with boredom but with wonder—and invites you to do the same.
Just in time for the holidays, we’re offering a few options for O Bright Wound:
- O Bright Wound: $17
- O Bright Wound + annual journal subscription: $40
- All three liturgical collections, O Bright Wound (Ordinary Time); In prayer, self-forgotten (Lent and Easter); and Every Breath a Birth (Advent and Christmastide), as a bundle: $48
We are offering an extremely limited re-print of our liturgical collections for the holiday season. You can purchase Every Breath a Birth: Meditations for Advent and Christmastide and In prayer, self-forgotten: Meditations for Lent and Easter for yourself or to gift your loved ones.
Support Image's Work
In this holiday season, we are grateful for your support which catalyzes events such as the Advent Art Salon, supports artist and writer payments, and covers payroll and benefits for our small staff. Please consider supporting Image with a gift today.
Festive Food & Beverage Recipes
What’s an art salon without something to sip and nibble?
We’ve assembled a list of festive recipes that you might like to savor while we gather online. Image board member Mike Capps will introduce a couple tasty drinks for you to enjoy from the comforts of your own home.
Festive Cocktail Recipes
Nussknacker
Inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s eponymous “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” this variation of a White Russian might be one of Herr Drosselmeyer’s most delightful inventions.
Ingredients
1 oz of Irish Cream (Baily’s works great, but for me and my house, we like Five Farms)
1 oz of Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
½ oz of chocolate liqueur (we like Mozart Dark Chocolate)
1 small dollop of vanilla ice cream (or substitute 1 oz of half-and-half if you like it less sweet)
Ground nutmeg or pumpkin spice (optional)
Directions:
- Mix ingredients in a shaker with about 1 cup of crushed or soft ice
- Shake vigorously while shouting “Gaudete!” until both you and the drink become frothy
- Pour the entire contents into a festive glass, then add a dusting of nutmeg or pumpkin spice
Epiphany Punch
Inspired by the Spanish tradition of El Día de los Reyes (Day of the Three Kings), this sangria-based cocktail makes a festive fun-sized pitcher when you need to serve those surprise guests arriving from the east. It tastes light and refreshing but it really packs a “punch,” so take care, or you may experience your own epiphany. This is a good option for those who like wine but not spirits.
Ingredients:
One 750 ml bottle of dry Cava or Prosecco (pre-chilled works best)
3 oz of brandy (or Calvados if you really like apples)
3 oz of Liquor 43 (a vanilla forward Spanish liqueur)
~2 cups pf mixed berries: I use blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries
Directions:
- Add mixed berries in a large pitcher with your brandy and Liquor 43. Stir so that the fruit is oh so slightly muddled. You can make this part in advance and store it in the refrigerator.
- When ready to serve, add ~ 4-5 cups of ice to the pitcher and mix in with liquor and berries.
- Gently pour and stir in a full bottle of Cava or Prosecco. You want to preserve the bubbles
- Scoop in some of those boozy berries with a spoon when you pour the glasses. You don’t want Belshazzar feeling like he got cheated.
Currier and Hives
Want to have yourself a classic old-fashioned holiday? Keep things buzzing with this honeyed variation of the classic Old Fashioned. It’s the bee’s knees. Pairs well with a little Bing Crosby.
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz of bourbon or rye whisky
1 teaspoon of honey
1 teaspoon of water
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
Lemon peel for garnish
Directions:
- Combine the honey and water in a cocktail shaker, stir until the honey is dissolved
- Add bourbon, lemon and crushed ice to the shaker until ~ ½ full
- Put the lid on the shaker and…you know…shake the Dickens out of it.
- Strain into a coupe, and give the lemon peel a zesty twist over the drink, then add for garnish
- You can add a cranberry or a small cinnamon stick to the glass if you have a troublemaking Scrooge that needs to feel somewhat emasculated.
The Purple Stole
Advent? Already? Do you need those Alter Guild people to quit larking about and come on in to change the paraments? Keep those good people happy and liturgically appropriate all evening with this potent and violet variation of a French 75.
Ingredients:
1 oz of Crème de Violet
1 oz of St. Germain (Elderflower)
Small bottle of dry champagne or prosecco (187 ml); or a standard 750 ml bottle serves ~5
Fresh lime
Directions:
- Add St. Germain, then the Crème de Violet to a tall serving glass ½ full of ice. Do not stir yet
- Carefully add your prosecco to the glass pouring along the side to preserve the bubbles
- Add about one teaspoon of fresh squeezed lime juice.
- Stir slowly a few times until the ingredients mix, the purple may form a layer, which is good
- Check to see if anyone is looking. If not, take your spoon and give it a taste. If it tastes a little soapy (think of your grandmother’s flower soaps on that porcelain dish in the bathroom that no one was ever allowed to use) then add a bit more lime juice.
Baking Recipes Forthcoming
No-Knead Rye Bread
Adapted from My Bread by Jim Lahey
The first rise of any no-knead, artisan-style bread requires a rather long waiting period of 12 to 18 hours to develop flavor. In this version, rye flour, just a quarter of the total amount of flour, increases the flavor. Caraway seeds are optional but give the bread recognizable deli rye flavor. Slices of this loaf are perfect for slathering with butter on a cold winter afternoon or making sandwiches with Christmas Dinner leftovers.
2¼ cups (300 g) bread flour
¾ cup (100 g) rye flour, plus additional for dusting
1¼ teaspoons (8 g) table salt
½ teaspoon (2 g) instant dry yeast
1⅓ cups (300 g) cool water
1½ teaspoons (9 g) caraway seeds (optional)
In a medium bowl, combine the flours, salt, yeast and caraway seeds (if using). Add the water and mix into a sticky dough, using your hand, wooden spoon, or dough whisk. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours. The surface will be dotted with bubbles and the dough will have more than doubled in size when it’s ready. Alternatively, cover the dough and allow it to rise in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Bring it to room temperature before moving ahead.
When the dough is ready, dust a work surface with flour and tip out the dough, using a spatula or bowl scraper to ease it all out in one piece. Gently, with floured hands, shape the dough, which will be quite blob-like at this point, into a round by lifting the edges and pulling them toward the center. Carefully turn it over, seam-side down, and tuck in and under the edges. Drape a large tea towel into a medium-sized bowl or a proofing basket and dust it generously with flour. Transfer the dough seam-side down to the bowl or basket. Sprinkle the top with flour and fold the tea towel to loosely cover it. Allow to rise for 1 to 2 hours. It is ready when it no longer springs back when poked.
Meanwhile, at least a half hour before baking, preheat the oven to 475°F with a rack in the lower third and place a Dutch oven or another heavy pot with a cover in the center of the rack.
Carefully remove the Dutch oven once preheated and uncover it. Gently tip the dough, seam-side up this time, into the pot and quickly cover with the lid. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake 15 to 30 more, or until the bread is deeply browned but not burned.
Remove the loaf carefully to a rack to cook. It is essential to wait until the bread is completely cool before slicing.