And in other news...

My new job...
...as a barista at the SFMOMA Blue Bottle Cafe!

Vegan and Gluten Free Black Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wet:

cook in a saucepan until uniform and dissolved:
1 c turbinado sugar
1/2 c applesauce
1 t vanilla
1 T apple juice

add:
1/2 t agar dissolved in 2 T hot water
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c walnut oil

Dry:

1 c tapioca starch
1 c brown rice flour
3/4 c sweet rice flour
1/2 c black bean flour
1/2 t xanthan gum
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
cinnamon

1 c or more vegan chocolate chips
toasted buckwheat groats

bake at 400 for 12 minutes
good warm

more 101

101

My drawing cheat sheets, thus far. Use 'em!

1.
2.

3.

True That hits the East Bay

True That jerseys, straps and bike corsets now on sale at
the Rock Paper Scissors Collective!

Check them out, 23rd x Telegraph.

Thumbnails

Or, "Starting from zero is hard!"

A page of warm-ups from drawing class with the Exploratorium folks.


There is an immediate feedback loop between hand and mind when
trying to draw from the imagination: as the drawing develops, our mental
images cater to what we are able to scratch out on paper. In other words,
how well we can imagine is directly related to how well we can draw. In this
class we focused on spitting out ideas quickly, before our mental images had
a chance to morph into our drawn images.

I have a pretty good link between my hand motions and my brain, so my
drawings are "locally" correct (thanks, Tom Rockwell). Once I have a quick
drawing, I can use it as a reference for my final drawing. It's as unadulterated
an image as I can muster when drawing from my brain.

These sketches are blind contour drawings of my original scene (a person on
a bench or a bike locked to a parking meter.). Once I knocked out a couple
of images WITHOUT looking at my paper, I was able to redraw my nonsense
sketches more clearly.

Gluten-free Egg-free chocolate chip cookies (without bananas)

1 stick of butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c maple syrup or agave
1/2 c applesauce
2 t vanilla extract

1/2 c sweet white rice flour
1/2 c potato starch
1/2 c amaranth flour
1/4 c sorghum flour

1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t xanthan gum
1/4 t salt
less than 1/4 t cayenne pepper

1 c chocolate chips

bake at 350 (my oven runs hot, and they baked in 16 minutes)

the result is a cakier cookie, crispy on top, soft and bready inside.
next time, less baking soda, less liquid sweetener, more oil to balance the applesauce.

gluten free and vegan, for a change!

lavender cookies

wet:
3/4 c canola oil
1 c maple syrup
1/2 c apple sauce
2 t vanilla extract
1 juiced lemon

dry:
1 c potato starch
1 c brown rice flour
3/4 c sorghum flour
1/2 c sweet rice flour
1/2 t xanthan gum
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 T lavender

mix together the wet and dry ingredients, bake at 350 for 12
minutes. these will puff up well, so either flatten them before
baking, or flatten them mid-bake with a spatula.

enjoy!

sweet sweet cornbread

Gluten-free, egg-free cornbread...


...with bacon!

and check out that lift!

Dry:

¾ c potato starch
¼ c sweet white rice flour
¾ c white corn meal
¾ t xanthan gum
2 ½ t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t (scant) salt
1 T chopped jalapeno
4 strips of bacon, cooked, crumbled

Wet:

1/2 c bacon grease plus canola oil
¼ c maple syrup
½ t kudzu in 2 T cold water
1 c yogurt

bake in muffin tins at 350 for 14 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

makes 12 muffins

next time I'll add more bacon for flavor. the bacon grease makes the texture so good!