First Week's Art Experiments

This is the first week of Amelia Critchlow's Experimental Art Course and we've been very productive. I took the class in the Spring, but was too busy to do many of the assignments. With school being out, this is the perfect time to try again and to involve the kids. We've sat down to work on the assignments each afternoon before dinner and just played around with the materials. It's been very calming for all of us. Everyone gets very focused and excited by what they or someone else at the table is doing. Here are some of our creations.

doodle #2, Carter

doodle #2, Elizabeth
food coloring with straws and paint brush

Carter was very quick to tell me where I went wrong with my doodle. I started brushing on the purple and Carter "Mom, you shouldn't have done that." I think he was right and it somehow doesn't sting as much when your kid tells you matter0of-factly that yes, indeed, you've gone too far.

doodle #2, Olivia

One of the great things about the course is that Amelia introduces interesting materials to use for our experiments. We didn't have to go out and buy any fancy art supplies. We've been using left over ceramic paints from a birthday party, poster paints, old pastels and chalk, colored markers, ink pens, pencil, eye make-up (which the kids loved because it's usually off limits and also the texture made it a fun material to play with), tea, dirt (we have a lot of that), old magazines, paper towels, and I even pulled out my old water color set from costume design class (a few were dried out, but were easily revived by breaking open the tube and adding water).

staining #1, Olivia
passionfruit tea, decaf chai - using drinking straws

painting #2, Marshall

staining #1, EHS
tazo decaf chai tea, tazo passionfruit tea, water color, collage, ink, paper towel, tea leaves - using paint brush, fingers, cotton, & drinking straws.

The kids approach these things with an admirable fearlessness. They don't over-think things. They just do. I'm learning from them and having great fun.

Animal Day at Ohlone Camp

Saw a coyote and got to pet Roger the bunny and Rocky the tortoise.

Held a Banana Slug (and kissed it).

Held a Tarantula (Hey!)

I'm Not Going to Give You Ideas Now, But...

Agnes Martin: Guided by Inspiration

Celebrate World Theatre Day

via World Theatre Day.

What's the Big Idea?

Thanks, T.

Who Put the Pie in Piefurcation? Who? Who?

Yeah. That's right. Pie. Three pies to be exact. Let's get to it, shall we?

Pumpkin pie
Not quite a disaster, but not quite Thee pie if you know what I mean. I decided to go easy and just mix up a pie from a Whole Foods brand pumpkin pie mix. Learn from my mistake. This is the first time I've made a pie from a mix - seriously I can't even remember the last time I made a pie from a mix. So my perspective might be a tad biased but: go the extra mile and make a homemade pie. Sacrifice a pumpkin, bake it and scoop out the pulp. Really it's not that much extra time and the effort is worth it. Here's one of my favorites: Pie Ranch Pumpkin Pie (note: you do not have to use goat milk if you don't want to. I don't.)

My theory behind using the mix was that a) I'd save time and b) I was more interested in the pie crust. I tried a new recipe that involves 1/4 cup of cold 80 proof Vodka. Needless to say, I was intrigued. The idea is that the vodka keeps gluten from forming and thus you end up with a nice and tender crust. That's the idea at any rate. The results weren't that impressive. But maybe it's my bias against the entire pie that prevents me from being objective about it. It's definitely a recipe I'll try again. *

Persimmon-Apple Tart
Oh. This pie was good. Except by the time I finally made it, the lovely persimmons I had bought from the cheery kid selling them on the street outside his house and the free one given me by the guy promoting his CSA outside the library had gone bad and I feel guilty that I let them go so long (it's the little things I tell you).

The crust came from the 80 proof/fool-proof pie crust recipe. And it was in the freezer for a week and then thawed in the refrigerator, rolled out and put into the tart pan and I was all "come on over and have some Apple-Persimmon Tart and I've even put some Proseco in the fridge for when those unexpected holiday guests pop in" and then we all came down with Swine Flu. And so it sat. When I finally got back to it, there were sad persimmons that were just a tad too soft, but still an abundance of little yellow apples from our CSA basket and so I peeled as many as there were and cut them up and then a friend called and while we talked on the phone I arranged them in pretty little circles like I never do. And then it sat in the fridge for two days until I made the ginger snap streusel (from ground Newman's ginger creme cookies left over from a failed cookie attempt) and baked it late on a Saturday night and OMFG, no hyperbole, it was one of the best pies (tarts) I've ever made. The recipe is here.

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie
This was a request pie and the recipe came from this nifty book called Killer Pies by Stephanie Anderson who compiled pie recipes from some of the top restaurants in North America (like where is that?) If the rest of the pies in the book turn out as good as this one, this little gem will more than have lived up to it's name. Mexican Chocolate Pie is a specialty of Border Grill in Santa Monica, CA whose chef, Susan Feniger, competes in the upcoming season of Top Chef Masters.

Meringue Shell
3 large egg whites
1/2 t. cream of tartar
3/4 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides (not the rim) of a 9" glass pie plate. I used my trusty Fire-King plate. Put egg whites in a large bowl and set it over a pan of hot water. Stir until the whites slightly warm. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. If you want to know what soft peaks mean, take a look at this video (which also features a little tour of Maker's Mark distillery). Beat in cream of tartar, then add sugar in a slow, steady stream. Beat continually for 15 - 20 more minutes or until the mixture is stiff and glossy. My mixer made short work of this task and it didn't take quite as long. To form the pie shell, spread meringue over the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Bake until slightly crisp and dry, about 15 minutes. Again. You have to watch it because oven temps vary. Cool shell on a wire rack.


Filling
7 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 1/4 c. cold heavy cream
1/3 c. confectioner's sugar
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1/2 slivered almonds, toasted and cooled

Melt the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates in a bowl over simmering water, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature.

Combine heavy cream, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl. Beat on medium speed until very soft peaks form, 2 - 3 minutes. Stir one third of the whipped cream mixture into the melted chocolate. Fold remaining whipped cream until incorporated.

Scatter with toasted almonds over the shell then top with the chocolate filling, smoothing the top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Grate or shave bittersweet chocolate over top for decoration. I need to work on my chocolate curl technique as you can see I eventually opted for grated chocolate which was just fine.


I suggest sharing this pie with other people. So that it isn't sitting in your fridge for days. The meringue gets soggy after awhile and I'd like to say that this diminishes the goodness of the pie, but that would be a lie.

Up next. Shaker Lemon Pie. I'm going to get the lemons tonight! I know, it's Friday night and I'm excited about lemons. I never thought it would come to this.

*In the future I promise to photograph my pie failures. Things were just too busy on Thanksgiving day to whip out the camera for a photo shoot.

Pie of the Week: Shaker Lemon Pie

Obsessing about this pie. Part of me wants to rush out and buy lemons right now then come home and get it started. Thinking I'll make it sometime this week instead - perhaps for Valentine's Day? I've also discovered Betty's Kitchen on youtube. Check out her tour of the Maker's Mark distillery. Plus she has a recipe for Derby Pie - excuse me - a version of chocolate nut pie.

For You Girl

Okay. Totally made me cry in the cafe.

Defining A Movement by Katherine Center.

A Brief Interruption in Programming

Piefurcation will be down for the next few days while we (the whole family) wrestle the dreaded swine flu bug. Hoping to be back soon.

A Starting Place #2

John Baldessari: "I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art," 1971

Happy Thanksgiving

Goodbye Old, Semi-Reliable Friend

Its' gone. A stylish car with character. That was always fun to drive. Things started going way wrong with it in the past 5 years. There was the time the air conditioner went crazy and released a terrible smelling something into the car. We got the heater/air conditioner fixed but then it only worked on like levels 2 & 4 (maybe). Plus the knob wouldn't stay on. There was last year, the night I met Dorothy in person for the first time ever and we went out to the theater and the back window fell down into the door and wouldn't come up again, and so, I had to rely on the dicey security of the parking lot and put all the carseats, etc. in the trunk. Not sure what Dorothy thought, but she was polite and encouraging. Then the door handle fell of the same door. Then we got it fixed and it fell off again. We took it back, got it fixed again. And it fell off. Then we gave up. The window was also fixed only it never went down again. And you couldn't open the door.


And then, this year, yes, came the disparaging remarks from friends which I'm really sorry the poor Passat had to hear. She did her best. This was a very fine car in it's day. And she was, as I said, very fun to drive. There was the night we went up to 120 on 280 to get away from some weird guy who was cruising me at 2am in an area where someone had been shot a few weeks earlier. She never left me stranded on the Bay Bridge during the evening commute like another car I could mention.

Well, she won't have to hear those unkind remarks again. She is gone. Gone. And I? I'm no longer a Driver. Now it's all Zoom! Zoom! Automatic. I miss driving a stick. Kristin Linklater once made the observation that I was very fond of the shift. And it is true. I am. Truly. I am a stick shift girl.

Shopping the Pantry Challenge #2

A bit less involved than the last. Just a box of cereal that's been in the pantry for a year.

Unfortunately, as you can see, it has expired. Wah.

But I thought, what the hey or is it what the hay, I'd give it a try.
The 2 year old whose toes those are was game too.

Sadly, this challenge does not have a successful outcome.

But yeah. The cereal really has expired. Not stale. But it has this weird, slightly bitter after taste that comes when you're eating food that hasn't shocked with preservatives.

See here it is soaking up the milk. Rather fast, I might add.

The 2 year old took one bite, shook his head and handed his bowl back. I tried to force down a few more spoonfuls. But really, we're not starving here so the motivation to finish the box and endure the taste is fairly low. I did find a bag of granola that was really terrible when we tried to eat it as a breakfast cereal. I think I'm going to experiment with that next.

Oh. Right. Yeah. Totally blew NaBloPoMo. I'm going to keep up posting as much as I can but it's a busy time. I'm buckling down on the thesis and trying to push out 3 chapters, collaborating on a new performance project, helping out with NaPlWriMo, trying to write a play, and oh, you know maintain the life. Head spinning.

Shopping in the Pantry Challenge #1

Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

I wanted to make chicken and rice for the kids. Typically, besides the obvious, recipes call for some combination of the condensed Campbell's "Soup is good food" variety - cream of chicken, mushroom, or celery. I've tried the organic remakes of these kitchen staples with fairly unimpressive results. Seems there's nothing like the Campbell's for consistency and flavor. But I've stopped using Campbell's because at least two of those soups contain MSG. Such a betrayal. And probably, as it turns out, one of the ingredients, along with marinating in tin, that's responsible for the soup's unique flavor.

For fun, I decided to look online to see if I could find an alternate recipe. And I did. Here. This recipe calls for using onion and garlic powder, along with dried parsley and poultry seasoning. I used actual vegetables. As you can see:

I sautéed some garlic and onion. I also added a bit of salt and
some thyme because I didn't have poultry seasoning. Then I added a little chicken broth.

Then half a cup of milk.

Now here is where it gets tricky. The recipe calls for mixing 3/4 cup of flour with the remaining cup of milk. When you do that you get something resembling wall paper paste or paper-mâché and you might want to back out at this step. Remember you're making condensed soup, right? So go ahead and add that mixture to the onion, garlic milk/broth in the pan and whisk it like mad. It will soon have the same consistency as its canned counterpart. I tasted it at this point and it was really close. I think it could have used a bit more salt, garlic, onion, and thyme as well as some celery. I didn't use parsley either because I didn't have any dried or fresh, but that would have been good too.

Next. This is where the Shopping in the Pantry Challenge comes in. I added a can of organic cream of mushroom soup that's been sitting on the shelf for at least a year. I've used this in a casserole before and it's a bit watery and under-flavored which is what prompted me to want to make a decent homemade alternative. I mixed in this soup and then I pureed it for about five minutes because I wanted to eliminate any trace of vegetable or herb matter that might make the kids freak out and reject the real object of the experiment: the chicken and rice casserole.

Once this was made, it took like fifteen minutes, I made the chicken and rice from this recipe which originally came from cook's recipes, but I can't find the exact link anymore. Seems it's disappeared into some wormhole. Good luck trying to find it. Luckily I emailed it to myself.

Cook 1/4 cup chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter until
tender. In 1 1/2 quart casserole dish, mix onion, 1 3/4 cup
chicken broth, 1/2 cup chicken, 1 cup shredded cheese and
1/2 cup uncooked rice. Cover. Bake at 375 degrees for 1
hour. Serves 4.

I didn't put the onion in it. Just the chicken, rice, cheese and some chicken broth (not enough as it turned out) and baked it for an hour. The kids initially balked at eating it, but relented and even admitted to liking it. The great thing is that it leaves them open to trying other mixtures of rice and chicken like curry and arroz con pollo. Here's to expanding their palates one meal at a time.

Better Late than Out of the Game

I'm doing it. Or at least I'm going to get further along in NaBloPoMo than last year, which was, I think, all of one day or maybe even zero.

I've made of list of things to write about:
Weekly writing exercise - continuing to post a free writing exercise.
Clutter Busting - chronicling my ongoing battle and success with clutter and organization.
Shopping in the Pantry Challenge - Lot's of stuff in the pantry and the fridge that sounded like a good idea at the time. The challenge is to find a way to use it either as it is or to incorporate it into a recipe (kind of my own Quickfire Challenge).
Mondo Beyondo Part 1.
Fun with Pie Dough - Is there a perfect pie recipe? I'm going to find out.
Random Acts of Pieness - Some lucky person is going to get a pie. A pie! Will it be you?

found: going through old emails. yeah. that's how it rolls.

Starfish

This is what life does. It lets you walk up to

the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a

stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have

your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman

down beside you at the counter who says, Last night,

the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,

is this a message, finally, or just another day?

Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the

pond, where whole generations of biological

processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds

speak to you of the natural world: they whisper,

they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old

enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?

There is movement beneath the water, but it

may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.

And then life suggests that you remember the

years you ran around, the years you developed

a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,

owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are

genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have

become. And then life lets you go home to think

about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.

Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one

who never had any conditions, the one who waited

you out. This is life's way of letting you know that

you are lucky. (It won't give you smart or brave,

so you'll have to settle for lucky.) Because you

were born at a good time. Because you were able

to listen when people spoke to you. Because you

stopped when you should have and started again.

So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your

late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And

then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland,

while outside, the starfish drift through the channel,

with smiles on their starry faces as they head

out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea. - Eleanor Lerman

Writing Exercise: Five Sentences Continued 2

And we're back.

I hope you haven't lost those five sentences because I have. Gotta get a real notebook.

So anyway you have your new sentences:
1. She threw her milk on the floor.
2. 'I'm not going to the park,' she pouted.
3. The house breathes memories of days long past.
4. The stair runner is threadbare in the middle.
5. The deer nipped at the short grass.
6. A soft breeze ruffled through the oaks.

Cross out two words in each line. Go with your first impulse.
Rework the lines so they sound pleasing to you.

Mine look like this:
1. She threw milk on the floor.
2. 'not going to the park.'
3. The house breathes memories.
4. The stair runner is threadbare.
5. Deer nip at the short grass.
6. A soft breeze ruffles the oaks.

Now cross out four entire lines. I chose the last four, but you can choose any four lines you wish. So here's what I have:
1. She threw milk on the floor.
2. 'not going to the park.'

Rewrite these to lines so they sound pleasing to you. Leave a blank line between them.
1. She threw her milk.
2.
3. 'not going to the park. Hmmph.'

Write a new second line that goes with the two existing ones.
1. She threw her milk.
2. Crossed arms over chest and stamped her right foot hard.
3. 'not going to the park. Hmmph.'

Cross out all but five words total.
1. Threw
2. Milk
3. Arms
4. Park
5. Hmmph

Choose one of the five words. Go with your first impulse. I chose:
1. Arms

Write your word at the top of a blank page. This is the title/topic for your next free-writing practice. Write for ten minutes. Go.

I'll post my results in the Comments section. If you'd like to share yours, please post them in Comments.

Away

I'll be going out of town for the next week and won't be updating. When I get back I'll post more writing exercises and finish where I left off with the Five Lines, and have pictures and stories from our latest adventure.

Cheers,
E-

Writing Exercise: Five Sentences Continued

So by now you should have your five sentences. The next thing you're going to do is construct 3 new lines using words from the first five sentences. The words can be in any order and you can add new words if you need to. Leave a blank line after each of your new lines.

This is what it might look like. Here are my first five sentences.
1. Throw everything out.
2. This would be easier if I weren't being interrupted by kids asking for milk or to watch episode six of Star Wars.
3. Sort, sift, stop holding onto the past; it serves no purpose but to weigh you down.
4. The house casts a long shadow over the deer grass.
5. She has a memory of red velvet cake and being felt up in the church basement.

I circled the following words.
throw, this, easier, being, interrupted, kids, milk, sift, stop, holding, past, go, house, casts, long, shadow, deer, grass, she, memory, velvet, cake, felt, basement

Here are my new sentences:
1. She threw her milk on the floor.
2.
3. The house breathes memories of days long past.
4.
5. The deer nipped at the short grass.
6.

Now. On the lines you've left blank, write a new second, fourth and sixth line that goes with the line above it.

Here's what it will look like.
1. She threw her milk on the floor.
2. 'I'm not going to the park,' she pouted.
3. The house breathes memories of days long past.
4. The stair runner is threadbare in the middle.
5. The deer nipped at the short grass.
6. A soft breeze ruffled through the oaks.