food!

my show is opening on friday! for those of you in the area, blue jay cafe,

919 divisadero from 7-9 pm. please come!

and now some recipes.

i apologize for being photoless.

san francisco haroset for passover:

10 asian pears

4 dried figs

1/4 cup pistachios, shelled, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup dried goji berries

16 oz pomegranate juice

cinnamon, agave, and salt to taste

fresh mint

chop everything coarsely (or use a food processor), add juice, figure out

how much salt, sugar and cinnamon tastes okay, let sit refrigerated

overnight, taste again before serving and adjust salt/sugar. serve alone,

with matzoh or crackers, with plain yogurt, or wrapped in dumpling

wrappers and fried!

fried dumplings:

store-bought dumpling/wonton wrappers

haroset filling

oil for frying (use a higher heat oil, like peanut, coconut, or canola)

i wrap my wontons like so: put water all around the edge of the wrapper,

place a little filling in the middle, fold in half and seal. fold in half again

the other way and stick only one edge, not both. when all are wrapped, you

can fry them in a little oil until golden brown.

banana filling:

a mushy banana

thinly sliced ginger

a little vanilla extract

these were delicious with a little bit of plain yogurt, and maple syrup if you're

feeling the sweet tooth.

What a day! Took this route with Jesse and Andrew, and while I slowed

them down a good deal, I am pretty psyched that I didn't just break down

and take the ferry home. The ride totaled just under 50 miles, so we made

up for the difference by riding another 6 miles to a bar and back. 55 miles

and my legs hurt like nobody's business.

city hall take two

City Hall is one of the only buildings here that I've wanted to draw a second time.

Take two, (take one here) a few hours in, a few hours left to go. One pen already

died in the making of this drawing, and after getting this far I needed both a

coffee and a nap. Both were extremely rewarding.

soda pop

Dinner last night was themed onomatopoeia. So in the category "fizz"

I made some simple syrups to mix with seltzer. (the whole dinner was

great, but I am drinking this soda right now and it is amazing!)

Syrups:

Dissolve sugar in water (1:1)

When the solution is hot, add your flavours, stir, let chill. Keep whatever

you boil in the container as it cools, it will keep adding taste.

I tried the following four flavours: Rose, Lavender, Rosemary, Sage. I've

tasted them all but the sage, and each one has been my favorite. The

rosemary is what I'm drinking now (part syrup part seltzer), so damn good

I hang my show tomorrow morning, pictures to come!

Well I went to the open mic again this evening to play some songs,

but a few hours in I was still 8 people away, so I played walking on

the street instead, which was just as fun. Here's a new song.

More leg straps! New colors! So summery!

I decided to dedicate today to drawing, so I hopped on my bike in search

of a warm-up cup of coffee. My feet took me to the Revolution Cafe where

my friend Drake happened to be working. We chatted about cafe art and

the places she curates, and bim-bam-boom I've got a show! Very excited,

we're hanging things Monday or Tuesday at Blue Jay Cafe.

Excited about hanging things up, I set off to stock up on drawings before

Monday. Here are the last few hours:

tres updates

The following now at Mission Bicycle Company:

Since it felt SO good to be sewing again, I stopped in to the fabric store

to restock. Unfortunately, I got paid AND there was a 40% off sale on

the ribbon I bind the leg straps and bike corsets with.

Oops.

Well, I couldn't stop spending money there, so $100 in wholesale

picture frames later I've finally gotten my favorite drawings in frames.

It took so little time, and they look so professional. 6 of the larger

drawings and these 3 smaller ones are now in matching frames, ready

to be on anybody's wall (any suggestions?).

And of course, since I can eat again, here's a recipe.

Salsa verde, the easiest thing I've ever made:

6 tomatillos

less than 1 jalapeno

1 clove garlic

lime juice

lots of cilantro

salt

put everything in a blender, blend, serve with tortilla chips. or use

in chile verde, or serve with chili verde after using it in chili verde

(all 3 done above).

chili verde:

salsa verde

some kind of broth (chicken preferred, but as I had none I used

miso. weird but undetectable)
bell pepper

hot pepper (anaheim? poblano?)

onion

chicken

saute the chicken in oil till it browns on the outside (just for extra

crisp, but not a necessary step. saute onions and peppers. Add all

to a large pot with salsa verde and broth, cook for 1-4 hours. serve,

or refrigerate for other things, for example, empanadas.

empanadas: not satisfied with the dough. will keep working on this.

but they happened, chicken chili verde empanadas with salsa verde

and avocado. tasty as anything.

flat shmat

Got to work on time today by accident, as my cell phone alarm automatically

adjusted itself to daylight savings time. Really, what would we do without

modern technology?

Needing a ride after work, I decided to try the climb through the Marin

Headlands that I couldn't do last time I tried with Jesse and Sam. My goal?

Downhill. More climbing means more downhill, right? It was beautiful, it was

quiet, it was fresh, so worth it. I climbed and climbed, and I took a short detour

down the Coastal Trail toward Rodeo Beach (the quietest place I think I have

ever been), where I was passed by a guy who I once saw throw his bicycle as

hard as he could to the ground on Masonic and Fell.

Decided I didn't have the right tires for the rocky road, went back to the main

street, climbed some more. 2 miles uphill from the bridge and 9.5 miles from

home, I was up at the top. I spent a loooong while wistfully gazing back at San

Francisco (the road I took has the unfortunate quality of putting only vertical

distance between you and San Francisco. An escape it is not) After absorbing

the landscape (and the really nice orange glitter Soma seat on the other bike

at the top) I was ready for the downhill (and a meal!). Hopped on my bike and,

whaddya know, the front tire had gone flat.

Well I turned right around to that orange seat-sporter and asked for his pump,

and after flexing my pump muscles and letting him flex his, we found out the

valve was jacked. Bummer. Downhill? I think not! Walked the 4 miles back

downhill and across the bridge before jumping on a bus home, cranky, but

feeling oh-so-strong.

free at last, and hootenany night

I am finally free from the clutches of the stomachache, and I can now fully enjoy

thinking about (and eating!) food, which is great, because I had to work this

morning at Cafe Hurghada. Same old same old at the coffee shop, except that I

didn't drink any coffee, and haven't had any since Monday! What's happening?!

Some drawings from the old trusty book I forgot to finish. Hand is feeling a

little stiff, but I think I'm going to blame the lighting in Cafe International, as

I've had a helluva hard time getting a drawing to feel right in there.

Anyway, here's hootenany night:

A quickie from last week's open mic:

I'm feeling almost back to normal after another 10.5 hours of sleep in the bank.

I passed out by 8:30 last night, which felt incredible. The silkscreener I was

going to work for today cancelled this morning, but as I was awake anyway, I

tagged along with my roommate's friend Julie to her Cultural Anthropology

class at City College. It was a fun class, especially after having read Ishmael

by Daniel Quinn. It made the kinship charts we were going over seem a little

more relevant. Also we learned the actual definition for cousins and cousins

removed, a useful tidbit (First, second, twentieth cousins are of the same

generation as each other. Removed is the number of generations difference

there are. For instance, my first cousin's kid would be my first cousin once

removed, but that kid and my kid would be second cousins).

Mo' Lata

a mini bike excursion

Borrowed this bike route from Jesse: (and just a heads up, Google maps

now includes bicycling directions!)

The route is awesome, with a leisurely uphill for the first couple miles

before a long, windy and decently paved downhill into the Glen Park

area. From there it's a roll through some bedraggled looking streets

before hitting Bayshore, a long flat stretch with a good view of the hills

and the Bay. At this point it felt like I was getting somewhere: it stopped

looking like city, and I knew that if I got a flat, I'd be walking for a long

time. This goes until it hits the airport, and from then on it's a bunch of

industrial strip mall shops and storage (There was even a taxidermy shop!).

I was almost ready to go, decked out in the finest of True That jerseys and bike

pants. But what to bring on a bike ride? I figured these were the essentials:

water bottle, keys, arm warmers, apple, ipod, cash, ID, bike coalition card,

sunglasses. Of course there was also a helmet, u-lock, gloves and a sweater.

And last but not least, readily accessible directions:

It's about an 18 mile trip form my house (I took the train home), and I'm

pretty beat. Food poisoning knocked me out all of Tuesday (slept for 24 hours!)

and my muscles are none to happy about being woken up. Still working on

touching my toes again, it's been a while.

getting my fingers back in shape

It felt great to draw today, except that it was quite a cold afternoon for

sitting on cement. While I drew a kid named James came and sat with

me and told me all about his fiance, whom he met 2 months ago on

Hippie Hill. He said they both believe that they are God's gift to each

other. It was funny.

audibles and edibles

I did some mediocre coffee-shop-open-mic sketches last night,

found out the drawing I gave to the open-mic host a few weeks

ago is hanging out right by the cash register, which is cool.

But the sketches are not the point of this post, the point is that

I played a song! In a microphone! It was cool, kind of a rush

(although I'll blame the beer). Conor (my newest roommate)

and I have been playing some songs on the nights that we are

both awake after 9, which is apparently rare.

Anyway, song is here.

Also, I forgot to photograph, but tonight's bring-your-own-

theme-potluck (BYOTP) was a hit, and coincidentally, everything

that was brought was some shade of whiteish yellow, including

oven roasted potato squash and parsnip fries, a gluten-free

casserole from Andrew and Lianna, cheesey cornbread from Jesse

and a tomatoey puff pastry from Paul. It was all washed down with

some oatmeal orange zest cookies from Helen and a chocolate

mousse tart with bergamot.

A recipe for the tart:

crust

1 c flour (i used buckwheat, anything will work, but for gluten free

flours, buckwheat is my favorite)

1 c ground sunflower seeds (nuts are also great)

1/4 c agave/honey/maple syrup or whatever you have

1/4 c oil (I like coconut oil because it holds together a little better,

olive oil works well too)

pinch of salt (it actually makes a difference)

mix together, press into an oiled spring form pan, bake at 400 for

10 minutes or so, or until the edges of the crust start to brown.

melt some chocolate and spread it on top of the crust. refrigerate until

the chocolate is solid again

mousse (don't know the proportions, I just did it to taste)

melted chocolate

coconut milk

english breakfast tea

water

steep tea in coconut milk until the coconut milk smells more like tea

than like coconut. it will also start to turn brown. strain and combine

with melted chocolate in a blender (this will emulsify the mix). blend,

taste, tweak. The best textured mousse so far was tonight's, and I think

the secret was making it more liquidy than I thought I should. After

mixing it all together, I diluted it with more coconut milk and a little bit

of water. It made it a little less rich, which was needed, and a little less

chocolatey, which will only be a problem if you are using high end dark

chocolate bars instead of cheap and effective chocolate chips. On the

bright side, I am almost out of chocolate bars (only have 4 left) so soon

I won't have to make everything taste like chocolate (who knew this could

be such a problem?!)

Pour the mousse liquid into the crust, cover with a plate and refrigerate

until solid (2-3 hours). A good way to test is to pour your overflow into

a cup. Test that to see if the mousse is solid instead of defacing your tart.

rain?

In this time of legular fatigue, I have rediscovered the underutilized

resource that is my Haight Street rooftop. That, plus the shiny new

set of cool grey prismacolor markers sent by the beautiful brooke

jarrett, (and a scarf and winter jacket) have worked diligently for the

past hour to bring you the following:

It felt less than 100% to draw this, but it was a start. I think the

weirdest transition was from drawing one building on large paper to

drawing three hills on small paper (I'll fine tune it next time I am

incapacitated). Another drawing from yesterday's coffee:

and a recipe! Black bean and quinoa mole burgers!

These were a most excellent bike-fixing dinner, as they kept their

shape and didn't fall into crumbs all over the greasy piles of bike parts.

to make?

1 can black beans, rinsed to get rid of all the extra salt

1 onion sauteed with chile powder

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (1/2 c uncooked)

lots of cornmeal

1-2 eggs (more eggs, more cornmeal)

mole sauce

mole sauce:

toast chile and cinnamon in olive oil, add a few tablespoons of

coconut milk, melt in a little bit of chocolate

mix everything (including the sauce) in a large bowl, make into burger

patties, coat in more cornmeal, and fry in a tiny bit of oil until the

burgers look cooked and hold their shape.

serve with plain yogurt and avocado, and extra mole sauce on tortillas

Energy Legs!

I've gotten in a bunch of riding this first week of freedom, and after the

first few days (and the second flat) I noticed all sorts of problems,

including a weird click in the left pedal and a crunchy rear hub. When

I pulled off the back wheel, the axle was not able to spin at all without

tools, and at that point I packed up and headed over to the

Exploratorium for some awesome bike mechanic lessons from Jesse.

In two nights we covered and fixed lots of things about cranks (the cup

was loosened from the frame quite a bit, hence the rocking pedals), rear

hubs (the bearings were pretty shot and the bearing preload was tight.

Repacked the hub and adjusted the cone nuts), and brakes (lubricated

the cable housings, swapped out the brake pads). It feels pretty good

to know more of my away around this bike.

I oiled the chain and now the thing rides like a champ. My few days of

riding with a way-too-loaded axle have yielded massive new leg muscles

that feel very strange. Even riding a few blocks is painful right now,

and walking feels relatively alien. Tomorrow is a rain day, no(t much)

biking for me.

Thanks Jesse.

and before she was gone, she was back!

Parade day is over! I'm free! and alive! and my bruises are getting

lighter every day! Even the splits in my fingers are healing, and I

think the last of the primer and paint washed off my arms today.

I must admit the parade was a little anti-climactic, but I felt proud

nonetheless, and I am glad it's behind me.

Some photos stolen from flickr:

I spent the morning relaxing after the 70 hour work week (!)

Watched some inspirational latte art youtube videos, and decided

to try my hand, and my dinky espresso machine, since it will be a

week before i can use the nice equipment again (the cafe job, by

the way, is hilarious, and i am enjoying it). The art was a little sad,

but the latte was damn good!

Bought two new sketch pads, hoping to start on them tomorrow. I

can't wait