I MADE YOU BLOG POST

Quilting

2011-01-25T08:21:00.001-08:00

For Christmas this year the fella got himself a quilt. Or a partially completed quilt top, to be more accurate. Actual quilting will commence shortly after I purchase a new iron, since all pressing required for this project finally did in my iron. It made some weird clicking noises Sunday night, and hasn't gotten warm again since.

Here is the completed top for his quilt. I was working on it secretly while I worked on my own quilt top, but he pointed out to me that he would have had no idea, even if I'd been wandering around pointing out the different colors and layout.

This is going to be my quilt. I finished piecing all the blocks last night, but I need to go back in and straighten out several points where things are not quite aligned. Then I'm going to have to figure out what sort of border I want on this one. Probably similar to the above quilt, but I think perhaps a double contrast stripe will be in it.

I couldn't take looking at cathedral window quilts online anymore , so I went out and bought the supplies to make one. I think it's going to take forever and be very large. The color scheme is navy/indigo, grey, black and one deep red on regular old muslin. I'm cutting out one foot sized squares, which reduce down to 5.5 inches and will have about 4 inch windows in them. Still trying to figure out the exact placement of squares.

New Old Things

2011-01-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

I've been thrifting recently, and of course there was also Xmas, where I obtained several delightful new kitchen gadgets. Here are a few new additions:

This is my new rolltop desk. I spotted it across three rows at the flea market, heard a hallelulah chorus. and then levitated to it by magic. They sold it to me for CHEAP and delivered it too. I also bought the basket to stow on ongoing sewing projects in. Note also my amazing new poster from my brother. I love it so. Still trying to find just the right home for it.

Thrifting also included a bunch of glass vases and bowls for succulents, so I could replant this window, which has been filled with some pretty sad houseplants for some time now. My favorite among this collection are two white bud vases (on is visible to the left)- it has an odd irregular top that looks something like a dinosaur egg being forced open.

Finally, not an old thing, but more of a new thing in an old style. I have this gorgeous new enameled cast iron oven courtesy of my parents. This is a preliminary stage of some really awesome short ribs I made a few weeks ago.

The "lanai"- one year later

2010-07-07T22:33:00.001-07:00

This is my patio, now about a year after the great tile installation project. It's changed slightly.

These are my woolly pockets. I loves them and the company that makes them. Buy American recycled products that help build low cost vertical gardens for public schools? Don't mind if I do! My Boston fern (labeled as a "Chino Fern" at the grocery, because that was where the nursery was from, so perhaps it's actually now a K-Town fern) seems really happy with the move. The other guys are newbies from Home Despot, and I'm hoping they'll like it here- as long as they like being ignored, they'll love me!

This is the cat's observation corner. If you sit on her stool you will get cat hair on your butt. Some more of my ferns- in the corner is my maidenhair- its a year old now and it's just gone nuts- it wasn't more than 7 or 8 inches tall with 5 or so fronds when I bought it. The nearer fern is a "autumn" fern from the botanical garden plant sale.

My nasturtium has been pretty happy this year- I moved it to a more draining pot and into the "sunny" part of the patio, and it rewarded me with flowers. It's a little droopy here because I watered after photos, but it's still real neat to see it. I am interested in seeing if it will keep thinking it's a perennial and overwinter again this year. I've seen some really large nasturtiums in my neighborhood and even up in SF that make me think it could.

This is my worm composter. It's not full yet, but it's only been about 9 months or so since I started keeping the worms. I do harvest digestion juice from the tap at the base and that stuff makes the houseplants very happy, so I can't wait to mix all the castings into everything. Until then I'm just going to enjoy the pleasures of watching all my shredded mail being eaten by worms. Take that credit card offers! I refuse to participate in your capitalist mill of debt, go feed my worms!

This is the corner opposite the worm composter. More ferns of course- in the green thing is a birdsnest fern from Ikea and a mother in law tongue, and some dying moss. Above it is a...something fern...silver leaf? Japanese?...something and some english ivy (also once a teeny houseplant from my grocery store- which subdivided and thrived enough to be two separate trellises- the other is under the nasturtium).

Full length shot, showing off all my ferns AND the ikea furniture. Those sticks came from Josh and Heather who sometimes give me shout outs on their blog. Thanks for the sticks guys, they have come in handy! That's the trellis my clematis who I'm really hoping will decide to live ,is on, and I used jute, as a certain person suggested on a certain site, (you know who you are if you make it over here- so thanks for the idea!). Clem had a rough transition to that pot, namely because it lunged out of the pot during transfer and crunched a few major stems, but after cutting back a lot of dead portions I am encouraged by several of the new shoots and the overall healthy appearance of most of the leaves. Knock on wood.

Also visible on the table is my jug "terrarium" with polka dot plants busting out of it. This has proved to be a very successful garden strategy for the neglectful waterer I am. In fact almost none of my plant pots have drainage holes, for this very reason. The funnels are for subirrigation chambers in all the pots.

I still have another woolly pocket and a window box to install and some plans for tea light wall scones and perhaps an expensive but awesome chair swing, but overall, the patio is pretty sweet to sit on now. Can't wait till things sunny up in a few weeks.

Dressform

2010-07-07T22:16:00.001-07:00

I scored an awesome vintage adjustable dressform at the Long Beach Flea Market.

It was rusty and the fabric was gross.

So I put the cat to work recovering it in green jersey.

Despite these questionable labor practices, it turned out pretty well in the end.

Apt updates, bread and latest art project

2010-03-06T13:16:00.001-08:00

Lots of things going on lately:

Recently reconfigured the living room- put the shelves from the bedroom against the wall, and added window shelves for my plants.

Got a bed. My bedroom is now VERY cozy. Having trouble getting up in the morning.

made some art about my visit to nepal. Papercuts forever!

Made challah. Challah back now!

the living room/bike rack/art mess area

2009-12-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this is something of the full 360 around the room:

My drafting table is GINORMOUS.

View from the kitchen

My fireplace. I couldn't get it working in time for my party so there are melted candles in there. Knock on fake wood I think I have my head wrapped around how to set this thingy up now, so we can have christmas around the fireplace.

Patio: The Big Reveal

2009-08-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, sort of. I don't think things out here are finished by a long shot, anymore than I think that I don't have things to do in the living room or kitchen or bathroom or bedroom. I mean I've only been living in LA for less than 2 years (Fun fact: my two year losangeleversary is exactly a month away! WOW!) and I find the amount of home stuff I own to be kind of minimal. I don't have much art. I don't have more than 2 chairs, or 4 plates, etc. I don't have a bed. I do have a couch and coffee table, some curtains, a DRAFTING table, art storage, a wicked cool chandelier and some hangy racks in the kitchen, lest you think I'm complaining. It's just that it's a slow process to get settled into a place and accquire the right things.

So the patio. I moved into an apartment with outdoor space. Patio and dishwasher were the big things I looked for in a new home. And this patio had a pretty perfect railing from the design aesthetic I really desired: cat proof. Which is to say my cat can't get up on it, get in trouble. But it did have a major flooring flaw. It looked like they took concrete, coated it with glue, put down some fake grass, and then after they go over it, and ripped up the grass (leaving a waffle textured glue floor with fragments of astro turf embedded) they painted it a battleship grey which really made the public school beige stucco, the studio apartment white accent wall and the state park brown railing pop, as they say on Project Runway. (Fun fact: I've been watching season 4 of project runway pretty much exclusively while I worked on this project and last night I had a dream that I was both the designer and modeling my look and I'd not finished in time and Nina Garcia was really snarky at me, and Tim Gunn was disappointed. Boy. I wish my model had showed up! Of course my dream dress was a pretty flimsy cotton print, so it was also my dream self's fault.)

This is the before:Mmm sexy- I want to squat on that dirty floor and read a book so bad.

So I put in just the weensiest bit of work on this patio...say..5, 10 minutes top to get this result:

The view from my bedroom of the same corner

Floor closeup of happily imprisoned kitty cat

The other corner

My string of pearls pots.

Closeup of the beach pails I just bought to make into hanging planters.

I still have lots more vision for additions to this space. I'm in love with Woolly Pockets and perhaps later on, when I've saved up 40 trillion dollars I can festoon the railing with pockets and pockets of gorgeous plants. I'd like to up the awesome factor of the furniture with cooler chairs, and maybe some side tables for beverage swilling, and an ashtray for my friend Bridget (we're working on a concept called guilt-trays, which will be ashtrays that make you feel bad about smoking, in a humorous way.) I definitely will be putting in some kind of mat for footwipage as I keep going in the house with muddy-ish feet- althought the worst is over.

Also you might note that the underside of the seats contain a lot of bags of dirt and the like, or that some of the pots are empty. That's because some pots are renovations in and of themselves- I'm working on creating an entire garden of subirrigation planters (the two white containers are sub irrigation planters from Ikea- which are so/so), but the installation of said planters is taking a bit of time as all the instructions I've found out there are for making planters which I think look ugly. Also I want a good way of monitoring the water levels- very few of the planters designs have perfected this yet. Expect a sub-irrigation primer in the future.

BUT! The tile is in! The grout and mastic have been scrubbed off with a wire brush and pads of steel wool. There are plants (many of whom are thriving more than I expected given the only moderate light of the patio). Oh how I love the plants! And most are edibles. I'm concentrating on herbs for now, except that I do get distracted and grab other things which are pretty at plant sales. Like the maidenhair fern or the string of pearls or the polkdot plant in the planter. You know how it is though, they sit there at the store looking all sad in their too tight pots, saying, "If you don't take me home they're going to KILL ME!" And then I feel guilty and try to get them all fake norwegian visas and smuggle them out of the store.

So. Patio. Done-ish.

Happy Sunday

2009-07-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

So...in home news I'm grouting tiles. But that's not ready to be shown off. Instead, its been a while since I made myself food. I've been eating take-out, and chips and all kinds of shameful things. I think that might have something to do with the fact that although I have a dishwasher now so clean up isn't arduous like it used to be, I don't really have a trashbin. There's no floor area for it in the kitchen and I haven't figured out how to cope. So I make up these little baggies of gross food scraps and then get grossed out. I know, I know, listening to my trials and tribulations really puts things in perspective doesn't it?

Anyway. This week I roasted a pork shoulder in the oven overnight. It worked out pretty well, although I am pondering whether or not I should slow roast things uncovered or covered. (Pretend there is a long digression about meat juice and basting here.). The only drawback to pork roasting overnight is you might step into a crowded elevator at work the next morning and suddenly have a horrifying thought that you might just smell noticeably porky. Of course, if this were you you would have done smart things like sniffed yourself (my nose is stuffy!) or hung your clothes out on the patio overnight or something. But being myself I turned to Josh (poor Josh, he's a good sport) and using the least whispery whisper ever said, "DO I SMELL LIKE ROAST PORK?!".

Apparently I did not, but I did make some people laugh.

Anyway, the pork appears here in a taco with a jicama pineapple salsa. Starring with mr. pork shoulder is beans and rice, and roasted plaintains. Mmmm....

Also I mixed a drink using the pineapple goo in the can, grapefruit juice, a lime squeeze, seltzer (from the soda machine!), gin and lightly muddled mint. It is quite good. Gin, why are you so delicious, do you want me to become a lush? Because I'll do it!

The 'Do! Who? Whoo!

2009-07-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago or slightly more this was me:

Not terrible or anything, but starting to grow out of what would be recognizable as a "style" that was deliberate. So I went to "my guy" who has been the person I saw for the last 2 cuts and who I have had good results with going in and saying, "yo I don't like this and this, can you help me?" and then he asks a few more questions and I put myself in his hands.

Well..I went back for that deal this time and I swear it was like opposite day. We chatted about what wasn't working, I said I wanted him to add layers and keep the length, he asked a couple clarifying questions that gave me the sense he knew what I meant, and then..... he took the length and kept the general flatness. This was the cut. Mind you, not terrible in principle or anything but SO NOT ME.

Every time I looked in a mirror this sober responsible adult in her 40s looked back at me, this woman who wanted nothing more than for the wind to stop mussing up her hair, so she would look good for the other moms at the kid's soccer performance or professional at the board meeting. AND at the same time the cut gave me mental flashback to my 1st grade bob- a style so reprehensible the very first fashion decision I made aside from first demanding, then rejecting pink clothes was that I be allowed to grow out my hair. It would be many more years before I learned to brush my hair, and stopped wearing oversized t-shirts with stonewashed cut-offs and a lovely sandal sock combination, but I'm comforted by the knowledge that between the long obscuring hair and huge glasses, no one can really see the facial features in those old pictures anyway. Since then I've had definite opinions when it comes to my hair- and I tend to get a new style every 6-8 months.

So after a week and a half of trying to suck it up, when I came home last night and saw my hair was a perfect triangular mass framing the deadened expression of a death row inmate, I decided it was time to go for it.

I went to another salon and the tiniest woman with the BIGGEST hair I've ever seen- sort of like this glorious zeppelin had landed on her head, a kind of curled in mohawk, took me in wing. She was rocking the most unique hair, in that way that only truly awesome people do, where the style is just this part of their soul and it looks completely comfortable on her, even though NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD WEARS THEIR HAIR LIKE THAT you wouldn't look twice at it because it was weird, you'd look twice because it was so beautiful.

I brought in a carefully selected photo gallery of every star's hair I could find that looked cool the way I wanted, with my handwritten thoughts at the bottom, reading, "messy, nerdy, cool, fun, don't like triangle hair! Don't like NEAT!" I said it I felt the cut made me look old and she asked how old I was and gasped when I said 25 (She also found my white hairs..the ones I call my "[oldboss name] hairs" because the half a year I worked for her was when they all showed up- right in the exact spot at the top of my head that used to throb in pain when she was evil). My stylist agreed the cut wasn't giving me any youth, and because she had this glorious hair I knew she'd get it when I said that having a grown up job was bad enough for my irresponsible personality, so everytime I saw this cut over my button down shirts on a monday morning I just died a little more.

She left my pseudo-bangs for last and then she checked with me, and said, "so what about these side bangs? Can I give you more across the face bangs? " I tell you right now guys, my number one mantra has been "NO BANGS" like for years. Its like my version of the "Pretty Woman" no kissing deal. I'll do ANYTHING, but bangs. Bangs are not cool with me. I'm a bang vegan. Heh, now that word is making me laugh. But in her hands, in the hands of this woman with the hair that would have made the aristocrats in the french court swoon, how could I be so timid as to say no?

And so this is me now!!!! (Drumroll)

I am super happy. I stopped trying to talk about my secret dream hair (you know that style you think would be good but is so out there that you fear someone would laugh?) several years ago. That is because that I nourished this secret desire to have "floofy" short hair, like a baby chicken would have but I realized that no one else got the same impression of what I meant when I said that. BUT SHE KNEW. She looked at my face, heard my words and instinctively understood the secret floofy chick look my soul wanted. I couldn't articulate it, but her scissors just knew. I am happy. My hair is nuts, unstructured and totally cool.

Rock on my friends, rock on!

This part doesn't fit anywhere but it's tangentally related. My bad haircut guy who was first a good haircut guy was an upgrade from my bossy K-town lady, with whom I had sliiiiight communication difficulties resulting primarily from my lack of knowing Korean. This allowed her to pretend she didn't really understand my tentative English attempts to have any control over the process. So I would go in and say, "blah blah this is what I like, is that a good thing to do? " and she would say, "okay, yes, I make shorter. Sit now? Good." It never turned out super badly, but it was clear, I was never going to call the shots, and the style was going to be the house special. Korean ladies "of a certain age" seriously intimidate the crap out of me. Its hard to explain but they project some kind of special demigod aura; like a cross between a hard core Catholic School Nun who will take you down with a ruler if necessary, and this hardworking provider, this essence of absolute authority you don't want to let down. Its this feeling that your opinions are irrelevant and take time away from the serious business of making sure you are properly taken care of, because that's what they do. Its hard to explain, but my friends who have dealings with middle-age and older Korean ladies have nodded knowingly when I try to articulate it. Actually I'm pretty sure it's why this neighborhood is so safe because packs of these ladies briskly roam the streets in the morning and evening, wearing sun visors and sensible sneakers, and carrying water bottles, which I imagine they bring just in case they need to discourage teens making-out or nourish a lost and thirsty child. But I digress.

Ponder Ponder

2009-06-30T22:03:00.001-07:00

Q. What nutty things do you instead of going to bed on time?

A. Well....here's a sneak peak into my life of nonstop impulse time mismanagement:

I used photoshop to make a set of images of what my newly framed art (by this awesome photographer! She is so neato.) would look like on my wall in different arrangements. These are very very hastily done...but you get the idea.

So now I'm already 30 minutes behind my going to bed schedule, AND I have deep important thoughts to think, like left oriented column style looks better than I expected it would, and gallery style is obviously an easy choice, but would it make me sad over time by being not very subtle?

Crit time!

2009-06-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

While I was home it came to pass that I learned my brothers didn't know I had a dual major in college. This came as quite a shock to me as I thought that I managed to wearily throw out a mention of my art school background in a pretentious way in EVERY conversation, as a way of establishing my boho street cred and my obvious superiority in every way to those of you who fail to live only to serve m'lady AHHHHT. Whoops. Won't let yalls down ever again- promise. So...I'm talking about this because while I was vacationing I was filled with an aggressive longing for paints. Also my brothers and I had a rather deep conversation about how following your passion is something you have to learn to take for yourself- because there's a thousand reasons out there to NOT to get up and write or practice guitar or paint for 5 hours.

Anyway, in school you learn to take crit. Although my school was just a dinky liberal arts school so we weren't encouraged to rend people's work like hyenas on a wildebeast the way that kids who go to something like SCAD or RISD would, so generally everyone had to start with something nice. But don't worry! I'm starting out the art portions of my blog with a piece I feel only slightly proud of for this reason, because I know it might be super bad and I might need someone to really rip me. Go annoymous if you need to to tell it like it is.

Blah blah. This is getting long. Okay so, coming home I saw some seriously incredible mountains from the plane window. I love the views when you are flying, its like immersing yourself in the biggest most gorgeous orthos you've ever seen, like leaning over the most elaborate diorama. I find it reassuring when I get that high up and suddenly pollution and wars and all that stuff vanishes and people get put in their place by how big the world is.

So i took some inadequate photos of some clouds chilling with a mountain. Here's the one I liked the most, but it still didn't satisfy my longing to capture it.

So...tonight I painted. And I don't really paint. It was never my medium of choice back when I was a practicioner of the arts. I tend to like flat colors (paper cuts) or black and white (ink and charcoal) or sculpture. I always recalled this deep feeling of rage against paints- they can be so ornery, and unpredictable. If you make a mistake there's no erasing, its a matter of coping or waiting and painting over. But this was oddly satisfying. I felt the whole time like I was really effin up and not getting things right, but it felt so theraputic at the same time.

So as usual, I can't see it anymore. You get deep enough into your work and you stop seeing what it looks like. I realized when I was done that the window frame of the plane may totally suck. The painting itself probably looks like something you'll find in a garage sale next to 13 ashtrays, 27 mismatched golf clubs and a broken stroller, but I'd appreciate any crit anyone has to say on it. Should I eliminate the window curve and make the whole thing landscape alone or spend on the details to make it more recognizable? Should I make the sky a brighter blue or does the subdued thing work?

Bedroom!

2009-05-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

So...painting the bedroom. This is what I've been doing for the last month. The reason it took that long is that as usual I wanted something elaborate and detail oriented. BUT. I finished, and I am SO proud of how it looks that I could gag. Tonight I'm touching up the last little details where the stencils pulled up paint edges, and moving my bookshelves in. Or alternately sitting in the completely empty room and grinning.

Obligatory before shot

The smallest wall by the window I did in all flowers.

Bunny and birch trees along my longest wall

This will be where the bookshelves go so I didn't do a lot of detail.

Little details I spent lots of time obsessing over.

Notes:

The room is five sided- like a square with a corner chopped off next to where the windows are. The diagonal wall is the short wall with the flower details.

Interestingly enough the blue (which is a little more turquoisey than these shots) makes the room seem both bigger and brighter, which I always thought was what white was supposed to do, but the white room maybe just makes things blander and therefore fades to a middle ground. I was worried it might be dark after I painted, but I think it reflects more light. If that's possible?

Moral: Anything I didn't do last month that I should have...this is why.

Since I moved.

2009-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here are all my worldly possessions about 2 weeks ago now, getting ready to leave their home and set out a great distance of 4 blocks to the northeast.

I moved into the new place. And we're working out the kinks slowly (for instance shower head is shorter than I am. Or the fireplace worked mysteriously for 72 hours and then quit. Etc.). But! The fridgeless, sterile white kitchen that you see the fuzzbucket testing boundaries by trying to scope out whether or not she should jump on the counter and risk my wrath (answer: yes, but wrath does ensue.) has been transformed and now is officially pretty awesome and can be cooked in. I will be slowly painting and furnishing all the rooms of the house and the kitchen isn't actually done yet- I just wanted to show off.

Before + Cat

After Painting: Food items, fridge and flowers.

Eventually that back wall is going to be full of spice racking, dishtowel, pan hanging goodness. I'm not there yet, but I did make a delicious stirfry last night to commemorate my first night with a fridge to store leftovers in, a dishwasher to throw prep dishes in and COUNTER SPACE which is easy to wipe down. Hallelulah. I also bought produce at the farmer's market for to cook more awesomeness with tomorrow.

Movin on up.

2009-03-13T17:05:00.001-07:00

For Jez

2009-02-17T20:26:00.001-08:00

Jez here's some pictures of fabric projects. If you want, let me know and I'll add pictures of this skirt and dress I made from old sheets.

This is a puffy quilt I made for an art project. The embroidery panels were pre-done fabric, and it's puffy because each panel has stuffing instead of batting- just wanted to show you I can make square quilts.

This guy is a an queen sized afghan. if you are getting a sense of my style I tend to like geometric and solid colors

Quick Idea sketch here. I like the thought of going crazy quilt on the top with images incorporated, and putting in the border of words on a simple background- either sprinkled liberally all over or put in just as a border. The text line is me playing around with how the border might go.

Tons of Huntington!

2008-11-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

I went to the Huntington, with the Huntingtons. These pictures are for those of you not yet convinced to get out to Cali this winter. Its November people! Those are T-shirts we are wearing, and we were too warm. How's that 30 degree day with the minus 10 windchill feeling about now? Here are just a few of the attractions at the Huntington:

Monarch catapillars

Small Worlds of Great Beauty to Destroy

Nerdy Men in Pith Helmets to Stalk

Knowledge! Carnivorous Plants!

And then there was a cool picture of HRH- the Mrs. Huntington looking shocked, but i stupidly deleted it. Imagine it here.

Finally, for those of you I haven't seen in ages- new hair. Side part! Quasi Bangs! Now you can recognise me at the airport. Or as Frances put it, "Ooh look at me all fancy with a scarf and books! I'm soooo coooool".

OMG! WHAT IS IT?!?!

2008-10-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

A coworker found this in his yard. Already dead, but we think it might be faking. Its a bug, but it looks kind of like a fetus and kind of like evil. Its huge too, look how it dwarfs the quarter. The pictures are small so you don't have to look at it too closely.

Honey I Ate the Kid....

2008-10-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

While I was on vacation the plants kept a-growing (Thanks Thuy!). The basil and thyme and sage and salad greens are all approaching regular plant size, or at least micro green-ness. The tomato shot up a bit, and I transplanted the second tomato into its own cubby with the poppies and spinach, on the theory that tomato one was winning.
Thuy's plants are also coming along as well. (Sorry for the blur- this is not my usual camera) She has mini planters with tomato, sage, spinach and nasturtium, and some peas went home with her. I think they get a little more natural light where she is.
Finally, in a horrifying ritual of paternal cannibalism, we ate the first fruit of our labor! A tiny pea pod with one tiny pea inside of it. It was damn good, albeit slightly unsatisfying split between two. I'm keeping on with a quest to increase yield- I think we're going to try sub irrigation methods next.

What we did in Thailand.

2008-10-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

We ate street foods.

We rode in pink taxi cabs and lime green tuk-tuks

We hung on Ao Nang beach.

We made a wish.

We took a cooking class.

We drank fruity beverages and beers.

We got dinner at the so-called "night market" in Krabi town which was more of a "late afternoon/early evening market."

We discovered that the vegetarian festival is not just a sissy veggie eating thing, but also a time to practice possession by the gods, dance barefoot on firecrackers and ritually puncture your cheeks with swords.

We snorkeled.

We visited a very shiny temple, on a very hot day and saw the emerald buddha wearing his rain gear.

We eated seafoods.

We shopped, and Jacob picked up some protective amulets at the amulet market.

Did I mention we ate lots of food?

The Further Adventures of Ms. E: Nepal week 2

2008-09-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

A shrine. There are lots of religions and lots of shrines in Nepal.

So this week was significantly less eventful, at least s regards big adventures. There was some rain, some protests, and some Jacob having to do work things to get ready for our trip to Thailand. Also I've had stomach cramps on and off since about Tuesday- so I've spent a lot of time chilling at the apartment, having a "staycation" over a "docation". It's still been nice- aside from stomch pains, I've been enjoying the bootlegged dvds and books and lolling around.

However, we did go to Thamel- the touristy part of town for a fun jaunt. Highlights include:

picking out fantasy novels for Jacob's education in the genre,In return for me picking out some fantasy novels for Jacob, he introduced me to Tungba. Tungba is a big container (on the left) of fermented millet, which you pour hot water (in the pink thermos on the right) over in order to make a hot mildy alcholic drink. Jacob thinks it's delicious. I think it tastes like if you mixed hot apple cider and milk together. I also think a good English name for Tungba would be "Tea Beer".

disparaging the overall dorkiness of all tourists who tend to dress for all contingencies of weather while in the middle of the downtown (hats with neck flaps? Hiking sticks? Rugged sandals and those pants which zip into shorts? Come on! Its so embarassing.)

Here is a interestingly worded sign, a typical storefront in Thamel and some dirty dirty hippy backpacker type. It ecapsulates the neighborhood quite nicely.

Getting an overload of rainbow colored hippy goods on sale to tourists. Its a little like being in Santee Alley- the stores just repeat in a confusing blur along circular streets- you quickly loose any sense of direction you were pretending to have. Mask store, felt store, jewlery store, rug store, patchwork skirt store, singing bowl store and then, yes! Back to mask store again- but is it the same one, or new one?

Buying a Kashmiri silk rug from Jacob's buddy's brother. It's gorgeous.

My rug, sneak preview.

Also fun this week we went to the North Korean state-owned restaurant- one of five rumored outposts maintained by the goverment where all the waitresses are supposedly groomed at elite North Korean hospitality colleges. After our kimchi, dumplings and BBQ pork we were treated to the surreal "show" which included deafening performances by singers, accordian players, drummers, keyboards, dance routines, costume changes and all accompanied by a huge karaoke machine. We assume the songs were paens of praise to the dear leader. All the performers were also the waitresses. And there were sequins galore. Totally bizarre and Jacob is correct in pointing out that it is not to be missed if you are KTM. I hear rumors that there is another branch in Cambodia.

And that's about it for now.

Traffic in KTM is crazy. I took a picture of this intersection because they had stoplights and sidewalks here neither of which are usually part of the equation.

Recap: First Week in Nepal

2008-09-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

I've been in Nepal a week now and I guess you could say I've started to get my "mountain legs". Travel to Foreign Lands is always discombobulating, and in Nepal there are such things as the traffic (Kathmandu begs for urban infrastructure, streetlights and sidewalks would be amazing), the food, and the sheer overwhelming strangeness of the day to day - nothing in my head prepares me for the sights and sounds of Asia.

That said however, since about Thursday or so I've stopped visibly flinching when Jacob suggests leaving the confines of the apartment. But let me take this in order:

On Sunday the 14th I arrived in Nepal after about 20 plane hours, and 12.75 hours time difference. I slept most of Sunday and a good chunk of Monday. Jacob took me for a short walk through his hood Monday, and it completely freaked me out- car horns and motorcycles and everyone moving according to their own internal traffic rules.

After that Jacob whisked me off to a resort outside of Kathmandu. On our way there we stopped in Bhaktapur which is outside Kathmandu, the former capital of one of the old kingdoms. It was very scenic and interesting- they got some money to fix up the center of the town and the traffic was much less.

Pottery Square in Bhaktapur

A view of Bhaktapur from a rooftop restaurant.

Then we went to our resort which had damp rooms (Dulikhel Lodge Resort Official Motto: "Cold, but Damp"), ginormous spiders, mostly cold showers and indifferent food (Nepali menus offer everything from Indian and Chinese food to Beef Stroganoff- very little of it done particularly impressively.). That was the hard part. The great parts were impressive views (I have seen the Himalayas and they are really big mountains, just like the books say.) , hawks, pretty birds, a short hike that totally wiped me out, time with Jacob and a beautiful setting. Also lots of pooris for breakfast. (Mmm fried foods).The Himalayas! (It was cloudy in Dhulikel)

We came back to town on Thursday, and ate spicy chinese for dinner. Then yesterday Jacob took me to Boudhanath- which is a temple to Buddha in the Tibetan neighborhood of town. It was beautiful and we spent a lot of time talking to people who worked at a shop painting Thankas- a type of Buhhdist religious paintings- it was fascinating- Jacob was into the religious symbolism, and I was obsessed with getting a sense of how the paintings were put together.

And today we're going to the touristy center of KTM:Thamel for fun and games, so this is it for my post of the week. There is so much more detail I can't possibly convey.

Things I regret.

2008-09-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

I truly regret that my most successful sushi making attempt was a solitary endeavor. I think a sushi party will have to happen if I ever clean the apartment enough to have guests.

I regret being absent from this blog for so long, as apparently Mom and Dad would prefer to follow my life remotely in picture format, and I have been chastised.

So for my folks, here are a few things I have been doing. I have been running many errands to get ready for the trip. One of those errands took me to Pasadena, where there is Yoko Ono installation of trees with wishes tied to them (reminds me of the New Year wish jar). It was pretty cool. My favorite wishes were the two tied next to each other which read, "I wish for everything/ I wish for nothing". Tres Zen. I also made a wish.

I have also been working on a baby quilt for April. While the below sketch was not in the end incorporated into the actual quilt, I can't post photos of the quilt itself until after she gets it. There is something dinosaur in the actual quilt, so I thought I'd show off some fun I had drawing dinosaurs. Hey Mom and Dad! Remember all that money you chipped in for that BA degree I got?! Look at those baby dinosaurs, look how cute they are, see how much I appreciate and utilize that expensive training! And for the record, I drew heavily on both Michelangelo's Pieta and Picasso's Blue Period for inspiration.

I regret not learning about sub-irrigation gardening in time to set up sub-irrigation in my planters before the trip.

Here is a photo I took a few weeks back. We have one windowbox and 2 pots, and one coffee cup.

These are photos from this week. Thuy and I transplanted the peas to a new pot with a bamboo and rubber band trellis, and I added a new window box to hold the new addition of spinach and to transplant the poppies which were living in the plastic coffee cup. The role call is as follows:

Window Box One:
Sage
Salad Mix
Thyme
Basil
Chives (the most weakly of all the plants)

Window Box Two:
Spinach (most recently planted, not yet sprouted on my desk, but sprouted at Thuy's)
California Poppies (our only non edible)

Individual Pots:
Tomato (white lightning hybrid)
Sugar Snap Peas (with trellis)
Nasturtiums

Finally: I either regret posting these photos during work hours, or I regret giving my boss the URL address to my blog so he can "snark" at me, as he promised to do.

heyyyy....what?

2008-08-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

So today my coworker got an email with something strange at the bottom:

Finding the resemblance eerie I checked out the site: http://www.myemma.com/

After so doing I whipped up a small sample of my new logo:

And finally sent this email with my logo attached:

I expect the sports car and check momentarily, at which point I'm driving away from this job laughing hysterically.

Sushi Tuesday

2008-08-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

I am learning to make sushi. Its actually pretty easy. The only things which are problematic are supplies- my grocery store sure don't sell sushi grade nothin from the ocean. So I winged it. The best versions I made were vegetarian, but the smoked salmon worked pretty decently.

So do you want to make some sushi? My downfall is usually rice. But there is this blog about fish somewhere on internet (sorry I owe someone a citation here) with a baked sushi rice recipe! Whoo! Okay. Let's do it.

Oven sushi rice:
1 cup sushi rice (equals about 2 cups cooked sushi rice- the ratios will stay constant as you increase the servings.)
1 cup water
Maybe some nori to throw in while you cook it?

Okay so you take rice, put it in a strainer or a bowl and rinse it until the water runs clear. then let it drain in the fridge for a bit (30 minutes maybe?).

Preheat oven to 375.

Boil the water.

put rice into oven safe dish with lid. Add water and bake 20 minutes.

Let it rest for 10 minutes covered.

The end. Perfect sushi rice. Add seasoned vinegar, pull out your Nori, and start throwing some ingredients around. Its actually pretty quick. My next plan is some fushion sushi. Has anyone ever made sushi Caprese, butternut sage squash sushi? No? Oh...it is on!

Eats. I posted them.

2008-08-12T19:58:00.001-07:00

Danish breakfast sort of- its Egg and Tomate without tomate, plus bacon. The tomate was unfortunately busy turning itself into a white fuzzy goo, and could not find room in the busy schedule it had lined up for breakfast. Bacon is a good friend though and offered to chip in.

Braised lamb and potatoes in my flea market cast iron pot. I think these are the most iron rich eats in the world. Cures anemia instantly. Even though I suspect the pan had some iron it shed into the sauce, it all tasted good:

End result- spinach with dressing from previous post, braised lamb, potatoes and the braising sauce (thyme, sage, garlic, butter, red wine and veggie broth, reduced and thickened with cornstarch)

Mini quiche. Saved for a rainy day.

Invention is the redheaded stepchild of Mother Necessity

2008-08-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Gentle Reader (s?),

Some bad things happened in the kitchen over the last several weeks. Our plucky, and some might say, obsessively tidy (might) Ms. E, actually had a brief and specialized case of amnesia about what sorts of actions are required to lead to clean dishes. Then some ants, which are always hovering opportunistically in the building, discovered a hole not yet sprayed with organic ant killing spray under the fridge and suddenly, washing dishes meant dealing with ants, and dealing with ants meant washing dishes, and there were all these community meetings and things, and...well...lets just say I didn't cook too much for a bit.

However. On Saturday August 2nd and Sunday August 3rd, I did great battle against foul minions of chaos; Ants and Dishes, and prevailed. See? Clean Kitchen.

I even scrubbed my stove. I took a picture of the stove, it was that shiny clean (it could only have been cleaner when I moved in and took the plastic off of it) when I finished.

Of course in the...cough cough...unspecified length of time that my kitchen was in a state of distress, I ran out of food. So tonight I recycled withered lemongrass, wilted lettuces, the one egg, an old chicken carcass and some leftover wonton skins from a dumpling project, and got to work on dinner.

This is the end result:

Its salad greens with parm, and fried chicken lemongrass things. I also wanted to say that one thing I take pretty seriously is salad dressing.

Lecture break now: I don't hold with store bought dressing. Thats madness. Do you have any idea how much high fructose corn syrup and poly unsaturated fat is in there? What about maldextrose, guar gum, xanthan and stabilizers? And you are supposed to pay 3 bucks because the preservatives are on the house? Whyyyy??? Don't go down that road folks. Real food= you know what the ingredients look like. Much of my motivation for cooking comes from looking at the ingredients list on pre-made food and thinking what percent of it I know the health benefits of. Even that fried stuff thai dipping sauce, which comes from my grocery is simple- its just sugar, chili, vinegar, garlic and water- I checked.

So for posterity I give you this motto: salad dressing is just vinegar (maybe oil) plus fun anything else you have in your house. Tonight's dressing- featured in the unmarked glass bottle involved the following three ingredients and some oil:

Other things I might put in salad dressing include mustard, herbs, pepper, salt, sugar, bbq sauce (the kind where I know the ingredients), and so on. I also have a small library of vinegars- but mostly I use quality balsamic or white vinegar.

And that is the saga of how I returned to my kitchen and my blogging duties.

Action Shot

2008-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here I am facilitating for my life. Its in the blood after all- momma's the meeting lady and dad is the concerned citizen demanding accountability from the government, so I was bound to end up with 15 people staring at me and demanding I change decades of government policies they don't like, which were created before I was born I suppose.

Madness- Post for Dad 2

2008-07-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a crazy day. I had my camera with me because I intended to photograph a Joshua Tree at our community meeting in the AV tonight. In the AM I took a picture of my new haircut:

Then at 11:42 we had an earthquake:

And I ended up outside, milling around with other confused coworkers. I'm okay and so is SoCal but I'm not really ready to talk about it.

Then we went to the Antelope Valley and had our community meeting. I didn't get a picture of the elusive Joshua Tree, but here are some oil rigs and rock formations (the rock formations partly caused by fault lines.)

For Dad- part 1

2008-07-28T17:32:00.001-07:00

For my dad who has requested that I have some kind of web-based photo updates of my life I will be posting a few favorite pictures of LA that I've taken and posted someplace else. Here is my cat taking a sunday snooze, and some recently or still in assembly furniture from my apartment.

Falling behind

2008-07-13T21:48:00.001-07:00

Living life apparently makes blogging challenging. I don't know how most people do this. Thankfully I tend to be the only person reading myself, so only I know how shamefully bad I've been at keeping my commitment to myself to make art and food. Oh well.

This week I took fish tacos in a delightful, but unorthodox direction. I started with Salmon which I pan fried and coated in a teriyaki glaze (thusly learning how Teriyaki is made...thank you Joy of Cooking!). Usually at this point my fish tacos either get lettuce or napa cabbage (usually lettuce- raw cabbage is a little too sulphur-y for me), but this time, fortune intervened in the form of brussel sprouts and shallots rapidly headed towards inedible in the bottom of my fridge. They got sauteed and became the delicious cabbage base. Then cumin black beans, mango pinapple habanero salsa (that mango was also in need of rescue) and the avocado (tritto) and some sour cream. It was devine. I've been making these with mostly mild fishes like snapper and catfish, but frankly I like the more aggressive flavor of the salmon. Although this would make a perfect vegetarian meal without fish, since everything else is really stellar already. And it gets major health points, unless you are a pig like me.

Of course I inevitably forgot the jicama which is now going to languish in the fridge like all the above ingredients until I have some kind of brain wave.

Also. I have a backdated shout out to my "stella fella" that never got in here, so I'll throw this one out there too- it's yogurt chive potato salad with my beloved purple potatoes. After a week or so, the last uneaten bowlful turned a spectacular bright blue- not sure if that was a reaction from the chives or the yogurt, but sadly it was so blue that even my hungry, completely out of food self decided to steer clear. It was such a waste! Next time I'll just bring potato salad to work for breakfast, potential mockery of peers be damned!

Limeade and yummy.

2008-07-03T23:26:00.001-07:00

Pre-limeade- I squeezed a zillion limes. Or you know...10, but my wrist was sore.

Being a thrifty Scot (just one of the many ethnic groups I flexibly identify with depending on which characteristic I currently chose to justify with a poor understanding of stereotypes and genetics) I decided not to waste all that lovely zest which is now hanging out in my freezer waiting for new opportunities.

After making simple syrup, and adding seltzer, I ended up with the most delicious lime fizzy drink. Sooo good- its the first citrus juice I've drunk in two months.

This is my work garden, and the remainders of the BBQ salad mentioned in my last post. I am so excited to keep growing the garden- this weekend I am going to acquire bigger containers and hopefully some back-up flourescents so i can start transplanting the bigger plants (just look at the nasturtiums) to pots. We also planted some peas, tomatoes and a salad mix today.

Living In L.A.*

2008-06-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

I had a biiiig cooking weekend which I plan to show off slowly over the course of this week, and I even made some delicious things I didn't photograph.

Unmemorialized in photography are:

Black and white bean salad- a staple of my mom's
Jacob's cucumber salad
Pineapple BBQ Wings (deliciousness)
Chive pork and shrimp dumplings (the extras are frozen though, so I can shoot/eat them later)
Tonight's salad of breaded pork, avocado, corn, shallots, green peppers and gruyere cheese with red leaf lettuce served with BBQ dressing.

RIP and my stomach, meals. You served us honorably.

One of the many things I love about my neighborhood would be the sights. I took a night shot of the Wiltern Theater, which I stumble home past every Thursday night after drinks, and miraculously, since it was taken after drinks it turned out just fine. I've only been meaning to take a picture since I moved in, so that was helpful.

From my window I have a lovely west facing view of palm trees, sunsets and more historic neon signs at night. But during the afternoons, the other thing I have in my wall of western facing windows, is a perfect sun tea factory. Featured here is Sunday Afternoon Sun Chai, before it has steeped. Also featured, in a supporting role, is a palm tree.

And that's about it for now. Join us next time for the Limeade series or our feature on Back to Back Farmer's market action!

*is pretty cool

Hello Hello.

2008-06-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

I am starting a food blog space. It may also start to contain art projects and such as time goes by. But mostly I realized I make lots of food and I would like to show it off sometimes. So, to kick it off right, here is a pile of things I made recently:

Green Iced Tea, pair of coddled eggs, bacon and toast with jam.

Balsamic Hamburger with caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, garlic red pepper goat cheese, served with a side of spiced purple potato wedges and spicy ketchup.

Heart shaped sweet potato ravioli with sweet potato, nutmeg, goat cheese filling, served with fried sage, browned butter and parmesan cheese.

Spring rolls with mint, basil, shrimp, sauteed oyster mushrooms, peanut & scallion garnish, lettuce, avocado and rice vermicelli.