Lazy Bastard

Finally got around to making a barbecue sauce. It's laughable that three years have passed when I first wanted to make it. This was back when I was working at the Meadows golf course at the Grand Valley campus up in Allendale. I worked there with a good friend of mine, Nathan. We were equally pumped about pumpkin but never got around to incorporating it into a BBQ sauce.

Well today I had my hand at it. No pumpkin though. Sorry. I figured I'd start with the basics and throw in some Founders Dirty Bastard. For the most Part, this is the recipe I roughly followed:

1 large onion, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 (40 oz) bottle tomato ketchup
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/8 tsp. mesquite smoke (just a few drops - optional)
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

More of the recipe HERE

My usual way of cooking involves no measurements whatsoever as well as other unlisted ingredients. I didn't have any apple cider, but I did have homemade applesauce...so I threw that in. No liquid smoke? well how about smoked paprika and some Chicago steak seasoning. Oh! And that bottle of Dirty Bastard!

This ended up being a pretty standard Louisiana style BBQ sauce. Thick, sweet, tangy, and just a little spice. The Dirty Dastard was barely detectable. I'm always worried about the bitterness that cooking with some beers can have. My motto is low and slow...especially with highly hopped or dark roasty beers. This beer is pretty malty so I wasn't too frightened by the possibility of off flavors.

When it comes to canning...I'm lazy. I just give the jars and lids a quick rinse under hot water and start filling them up. I also don't bother filling the whole pot with water. Just enough to bring the water halfway up the jars. The steam is the same temperature as the water. With the BBQ sauce, I just let it boil for 10 minutes and called it good. Again, not too worried. There is a pretty high acidity with all the ketchup and vinegar so there is a lot less risk for spoilage.

As always, there is always room for improvements. Next time I may use more beer and actually try to track down some liquid smoke. Or perhaps in the summer I'll have a go at smoking a bunch of tomatoes. That way I won't have to use ketchup...or liquid smoke.

Tofu. Forever lazy and a complete bastard.

Artcrap: Knowing When to Trash, Revise, or Re-do

What to do when you pack a few hours (or even days) into something and then realize...it's crap. Artcrap:



This happens often enough, especially with many emerging artists. We're trying to mold our style while simultaneously trying to gain experience with new techniques. And the hardest thing to realize is how to separate oneself from those long hours lost on a piece that just isn't satisfactory. We stand there at the scrap bin with work in hand, reminiscing of everything that was put into it. All that hard labor. Thoughts flow through your head:

"I can fix this"
"Just...maybe some minor adjustments"
"I can't just toss this aside...I put 12 hours into this!"

These thoughts will perpetually circulate, and it's good to have them. But it's also important to know when to trash it, revise it, or re-do it. Learning new techniques comes with plenty of mistakes along the way and it's more about what was learned and less about what was made.

One of my greatest works have come from the piles of artcrap. I was working on a box for the Alice Elaine series. We had learned how to chase and repousse earlier that semester and was feeling pretty confident with a pricey sheet of 18 gauge silver. And so, I started pounding away. Three solid workdays of chasing a lid for this box and finally when it was "done" I was mortified with the outcome. It just wasn't working with the rest of the piece. Without a moments hesitation my mind was made up. I had to trash this and did so in a pretty crude way: by sending it through the rolling mill. All the large divots that were so meticulously hammered out had flattened and sunk into themselves. It was gorgeous! Like the craters on the moon! Still didn't work well as a lid. But it was a fantastic texture that I used for many other great projects. Such as this:

There were many hours lost on coming to this realization that what I had...wasn't working. Sure it's heartbreaking having to toss it. But it's even worse to continue with a crummy piece out of  obligation. Trashing a work is the most difficult thing to do because it says "I failed." But failure can come at the wonderful price of having learned something great. We understand a little bit more about what a piece needs. It teaches humility in the respect that we can't blindly throw new techniques into something just because we can.


Revising a work is considerably less tragic. We can learn our mistakes along the way and think of ways to improve the outcome. Nothing is tossed aside, but our ideas mold and change based upon how we slowly construct something. Maybe we realize that a certain type of hinge isn't the best option. Oops! went a little to far with chasing and now there is a hole. How do we creatively work out these problems? Nothing a little revision can't solve. This is a creative engineering process where we figure out how things work and what steps to take.

Working with earrings in my studio, I quickly learned when and where to embroider first so as to have a tidy earring back without exposed threads. Sure, the first pair took an agonizing 5 hours, but 12 earrings later and I've cut that time well in half. Up until recently, I've never worn much jewelry and I had no idea how earrings should function. I've had to adjust angles and lengths so as not to be constantly poked by the earring wire. There was a necessity to add an extra ring so that the earring can be seen from the side and not just the front. Often times the end result is never what we originally intended but are pleased with the results just the same.


Re-doing something implies that the idea was there but perhaps next time we make it, we'll have a more deft hand. In my case, I recently had to re-do a torso for the Clurichaun. The original piece was made out of three separate chunks of wood glued together. I searched high and low at Woodcraft for a solid piece of wood in these dimensions, but to no avail. Over a week of work was spent on this. Carving, chiseling, and making the joints at the hip. It looked good, but it wasn't great. This probably would have slid by had Matt not given me a chunk of basswood he found at his mom's. Perfect dimensions. I started re-doing it right away. Now, this went considerably quicker. I knew where the arms had to be, how the belly was going to be shaped. Even those tricky hip joints were resolved. When something is re-done, the knowledge has already been established. This coincides with making multiples of jewelry. We sit at our benches taking hours to figure out a piece. The next time it's made, perhaps only a couple hours. With every piece, the minutes slowly whittle away from the original time as our mind and hands are trained. We reach a point where we can stand back and say "yes, the time it took to make this is now in accordance with what I charge."

Within any one given piece, it's possible to go through a range of trashing, revising and re-doing. It's all a part of the learning process as both a student and an artist. Because even once we get comfortable with the techniques we've learned, there will still be more adventures out there with new tools, materials, ideas, and yes...even more techniques.

Valentine's Day Hot Pot

Can't say I'm one for the sappy candle-lit dinners or heart-shaped boxes of assorted chocolates that, inevitably, contain that nasty nougat. I would give up on Valentines Day completely if it wasn't for the small fact that it is probably one of the least "corrupt in its origins" holidays out there. Now, don't get it confused with corporate and commercialized corruption, no holiday is safe from that. I'm talking raping, pillaging, and murder in the name of land and religion. Yes...I'm looking at you Thanksgiving and St.Patrick's day. Granted these too, hold a place in my heart since I feel these holidays have evolved into new meanings since then. Valentine's day growing up for me was a wonderful day filled with hearts, cards, and candy. At our school, we had to give cards to everyone, so nobody was ever left out. Not that it mattered. As long as we got the M&M Valentines, it was all good! It was also a day where my mom would make us feel extra special by baking us cupcakes, or as the years passed, some girly scented lotion and a box of turtles. This was a holiday where I didn't need a boyfriend to feel loved. When out at college I would do something extra special for myself this day. So single ladies, Tah-reet Yo-seeelf! I've got a wonderful man, so I'm going to treat him today ^_^

I decided to do a nice Japanese style "hot pot" knowing that Matt has a donabe pot...somewhere. Eventually found it far back in one of the cupboards.

Now, from my days in ceramic classes, I was told that most ceramic ware does not hold well against a bare flame.  So, I did my share of research just to make sure that putting the pot on an open flame wouldn't crack it. Thinking that Matt had bought this while in Japan, I was very thorough with gathering information so as not to destroy his precious pot. He assured me later that this was just a 10 dollar pot he purchased at Lee's Market down on Division St. Good to know in case I completely screw this up. I also looked up how to temper or "season" the clay pot (because I figured Matt hadn't ever cooked in it for all the years he's had it). A lot of websites said to put 1 part cooked rice with about 5 parts water and to set the pot on low. Really low. And simmer for an hour...

At one notch above the lowest setting, this slowly started to simmer in about 15 minutes. The porridge started to bubble out a little bit once the boiling picked up but that's alright. The rice acts as a glue and fills in the porous surface of the pot which makes the pot stronger. After the hour was up I turned it off and let it cool down for another hour. A slow cool prevents cracking. From there on, it was just a gentle rinse. Phew. Everything was still looking good with no cracks! Now to prepare the nabemono!

Since we had a bout of spring time, I was really in the mood for bok choy as well as other springtime veggies. I rummaged through some stuff we already had like shitake, tofu, and some frozen raw shrimp as well as some makings for an interesting stock.

The broth got placed in the pot first which was just a simple blend of leftover turkey stock, bonito flakes, and miso paste.

Made some quick "fishballs" from minced shrimp, sate seasoning and some breadcrumbs. These were placed in the hot pot first since they needed to cook longer. Then the tofu, mushrooms and the rest of the greens were arranged in the pot once it got to a nice simmer. I cooked the noodles al dente separately ahead of time and were placed in last.

Clockwise from top: Baby bok choy, sugar peas, green onion, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, tofu, and udon noodles.

For garnish, I toasted some seaweed sheets and crumpled them on top. So pretty and green! Like little green snowdrops popping through the snow on the first day of spring!

Of course, No hot pot is complete without...cock sauce! There we go. Perfect spice to warm ourselves up on this cold and windy February. We curled up on the couch with this warm little bowl propped up between us as we watched Ranma 1/2. I love you Matt and I love being able to enjoy everything Japanese with you!


Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Want Fresh Coffee?

Roast it yourself...

Last week at Siciliano's, Steve sweet talked Matt and I into purchasing green coffee beans with the allure of roasting being a "simple" process. Simple. Absolutely. But only at the cost of completely smoking out every floor of our house. Here was our adventure:

 Ethiopian Guji Natural Sidamo in a nice handy zip-loc foil pouch. Purchased from Siciliano's at 6.49 a pound.

Pale green tint and a wonderful smell of chocolate and nuts. I was expecting something "greener" like a nice floral or grassy aroma. But nope. Chocolate.

Matt got the pan nice and hot and tossed in the beans. 

Constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, the crackles and pops slowly started to come.

Getting darker with louder and more frequent popping. 

The beans really started to smoke at this point. I can't say the smell was anywhere close to coffee. Just smelled burned...

The beans smoked for a good minute before they started to turn really really dark.

At this point, the beans were consistently dark. Matt was reading that green coffee beans have the highest amount of caffeine and the more you roast it, the more the caffeine roasts out. 

We have to quickly cool the beans so that they would stop roasting.

Good thing its winter.

I was worried these were too dark. My anxieties were kindled, however, when we brewed a quick batch with the french press. Dark, fruity, and smooth. Quite unexpected.

Middle of winter and had to open all the doors. Smoke was everywhere.

In the end, with the simplicity of dropping some beans into a hot pan for 8 minutes combined with the aggravation of smoking ourselves out of our house, I'd say this tasty cup of brew was well worth it. But then again I'm the type of person who has no qualms about putting some extra effort into something I know will be a greater reward. I'd have to recommend doing this outside next time though, or at the very least during a season where you can comfortably open all the doors and windows.

Come to think of it...this would be absolutely perfect to take on a camping trip!

Brewing the Girl Scout Stout

Love S'mores? I know I do!

The idea came to me a while back when Ashley had moved in with her man Andy. Of course my usual "congrats on the move" pack includes an array of beer. Amongst one of those beers was a smoked porter. Black Cabin from Crown Valley to be specific.

A couple days later I received a text from her...

"Holy balls the black cabin smoked is awesome!..."

Eventually we got to talking about brewing in the near future. Well, for all the love of S'mores, the idea was to build a beer inspired by this delicious fireside treat. Now, I know Short's Brewing Co. made a S'more stout by tossing in actual graham crackers in secondary. Cool. But not where I want to go with this. My goal is to make a stout taste like S'mores without adding in any of the ingredients...just shy of chocolate anyways. No toasted marshmallows, no graham crackers. I figure anything that's in a graham cracker we can get in grains; and the only flavoring that makes up a marshmallow is sugar and vanilla. Pretty do-able.

The original idea was to make a lightly smoked porter with some chocolate and then vanilla in secondary. Eventually I decided to up the malt bill and make it a sweet stout. This way I can add a few more malts to complete that "graham cracker-ness". To  really complete that flavor, I figured honey would work much better than lactose as a sweetener.

In short (no pun intended), here is the recipe:

8lbs. Pale malt
1.5lbs. Smoked malt
1lb. Crystal 90
.75lb Chocolate malt
.5lb Flaked barley
.5lb Flaked oats
.5lb honey
6oz. 100% cocoa (used a Ghirardelli bar)

Half ounce of magnums at 60min. then an ounce of Goldings at 30. American Ale yeast. Vanilla beans will be in secondary.

I fully intended to snap some photos of Ashley, Andy, and myself brewing since this was their first time seeing the homebrew process. However, it was a bit of a rush since I hadn't done this in a while. Not to mention super chilly out.

Anyways, here it is bubbling away in the basement. Here's to hoping it turns out alright.

UPDATE:

Wednesday the 15th

Transferred the stout into secondary today. Accidentally racked it into a 5 gallon instead of a 6er, but that's fine. I also snagged a sample and was fairly pleased with the results. Everything was pretty low key from the smoked malts to the chocolate but still balanced. I hope the chocolate comes through a bit more. Perhaps the split vanilla bean that I dropped in will round it out.

UPDATE:
Tuesday Feb 28 

Transferred the beer to a keg and put CO2 on it last Wednesday the 22nd. The samples that I have taken up until now left me pretty disappointed. The astringency of the 100% cocoa was pretty potent and the vanilla really didn't shine through. Not to mention that the stout turned out to be more of a porter. When I took a sample today, however, I felt a little better about it. The chocolate pulled through a little more as well as the vanilla, and the astringency subsided considerably. 

I'm still going to remake this stout with some changes of course; starting with lowering the 100% cocoa down to about 2oz. and throw in about 6 oz. of semisweet. The effiiciency on the mash tun isn't too great and so the grain bill might have to be bumped up a bit, especially the smoked malts. Definitely adding lactose at the end of the boil with some honey in secondary. Might also throw in an extra vanilla bean but I want to wait and see what another week does to this...porter.

Revisiting an old love...

This weekend, I had the house all to myself with Matt being in Boston for the Extreme Beer Fest. It was nice being able to lock myself away in my studio, undisturbed, and tirelessly working on earrings, earrings, more earrings and eventually a ring. My creative juices were definitely flowing. This was mostly attributed to finally getting a space heater down there...so tricky working with tiny beads when you have cold and stiff fingers. It's been a while since I've been in this "zone." Reminded me of those days in high school when I was obsessed with anime and manga...

I remember loving to draw those characters. It seems like whenever I draw nowadays,  it's to jot down some quick ideas for jewelry, concept art, or to get the mechanics worked out for yet another project. So many years have passed since I sat down, got cozy, and drew for the pure enjoyment and content of working on a drawing for hours.

All alone in bed Saturday night, I suddenly craved the feel of holding a pen in my right hand while coddling a giant sketchpad in the other. Turned the light back on, propped up the pillows and got cozy. With pen in hand, I knew which character to draw. She was and still is my favorite creation. The grey skinned, golden-eyed, psychotic wonder with teal, purple, and black haired ponytail mo-hawk. I never knew who Deadpool was until college but I guess her personality is very similar to his with a cross of Pinkie Pie. Very humorous, dark, witty, and disturbing. With strong athleticism and parkour, she makes her way around town while wearing an odd Oni mask. Weapon of choice? Fry pan. I so lovingly called her: Aneth...which is the Latin word for Dill.

Humorously enough, she has a half brother. Kind of a retarded were-rabbit named Dill. Or Pickles as Aneth calls him. Should find a picture of him...She never knew there was any relation to him and actually considered him an arch nemesis. But her goal isn't to battle evil, just more or less figure out her past...which is pretty twisted. Maybe i'll get more into that later...

But here is what I drew.

Aneth, looking uncharacteristicly melancholy.

She likes to smash things...especially those naughty sandwich monsters.

A young Aneth in a straight jacket and a dubious smirk on her face.

Making Double

There's something about making earrings that drive me nuts and after making a bracelet in my studio the other day, I figured out why. With earrings, you make one and then you have to make another one exactly like it. Usually I give my jewelry names. I have a set of  three different styles of bracelet  named Victoria, Darcy, and Edith.

The original ladies

 When it came to making earrings for the first time in my studio I was so excited! Though, when I was done I couldn't come up with a name for any of them. It's like giving twins the same name and I just can't do that. I'm sure i'll figure something out. In the meantime I'm going to incorporate the burned fabric into some earrings. Fire has a personality all of it's own and this way each earring will be similar but not exactly the same.

Above is the new Darcy (with a little change). I decided not to have embroidery around each circle as that was too distracting and I really wanted the gradient from burning the fabric to really stand out.