ohio dreams

i'm writing this half awake, but i felt the need to post something new. maybe its appropriate in my current state to mention the crazy dutch fantasy adventure i awoke from this morning. i wont go into the details, because to be honest at this point there vague to me, but a quick run through includes a theme park, giant looming windmills above a medieval city, and a moat of golden delicious apples surrounding an arena. the grounds of the arena had dressed theme park characters ready to do battle with me and my companions.

why i'm dreaming about giant windmills inside a loony amusement park is any ones guess. i was told not to long ago that some dreams act as trial runs to potential real life obstacles. not sure this fall into that category, but its an interesting concept.

i'll leave you with this illustration i did of an ohio state fan, which my mother requested i make. she will be participating in a few holiday fairs this year and hopes to sell a few matted prints. she lives in columbus, land of all things buckeye, so hopefully it is well received.

little chocolate bombs

i've been trying to produce a nice chocolate french macaron and its been tricky. i initially attempted a recipe from my school text book, but although the taste was good the cookies were in poor form. so i did some online research and found david lebovitz had a promising recipe. he admits to having equal difficulty making chocolate macarons, which while questioning some french chefs was told are the most temperamental. in the final variation of his recipe he recommends baking the cookies as soon as there piped. this practice is contradicting to what i was taught and of most formulas i've read. typically you let the macarons rest till the outside has formed a shell that is dry to the touch. the forming of this shell appears to help the little guys create their distinctive foot.

i let mine rest a few hours to develop the shell, which appeared to work out just fine, but as they came from the oven the desirable smooth caps deformed. i'm not sure what caused this, but i decided to remedy the look by dressing them up in cookie makeup (tempered chocolate). the extra chocolate in addition to the ganache filling turned the macarons into some potent bites. later that evening my friends cleared the lot of them from the kitchen with exclamations and moans of appreciation, so a success after all.

in an attempt to make my images of food a bit more dynamic i've decided to commit to taking shots in more interesting locations. what macarons and bonsai trees have in common i can't say, but its better then looking at another yearbook photo of food in front of a kitchen table backdrop.

born warm breaded

i don't know what that means, but i was trying to think of a title that would connect my latest loaf and a drawing i did from a photo of my grandmother with newborn me.

my friend kacie and her man alan brewed beer this past weekend, which left a bunch of spent grain at my disposal. spent grain is malted barely that has been soaked in hot water, in this case for a partial mash. i could further explain the brewing process, but i'm not that educated on it and i don't know if readers are ready for me to break a record for longest post to date. all you really need to know is that this was a porter style beer, so the barely had a nice toasted flavor that i thought would impart a good taste in some bread.

all in all the bread came out fine, but the barley flavor wasn't as strong as i'd like. i think the soaking probably zapped a lot of the flavor or maybe i just should have added more barley. well, will see what happens next time, because trust me there will be a next time with how much spent grain is left. i've already tried a few other experiments with it like substituting it for oat in oatmeal cookies. that recipe has potential, but i definitely need to work out some kinks.

unrelated to the bread i was feeling a little realistic today and sketched a drawing of me and my grandmother while lounging at 4 barrel, a coffee shop here in sf. good stuff. ok, more to come.

dead days

i know, what was i thinking not posting some halloween related image or link yesterday. well, i'm making up for it today by showering myself in the disturbing groves of blank dogs while throwing down a few recent sketches. one of course is a zombie-esque drawing while the other two hark back to a important childhood influence, john kricfalusi and the ren and stimpy show. i recently have begun to re-watch episodes on netflix.

i was on john k's blog the other day. well, one of his blogs, he seems to have a handful. there was a post of these great illustrations by basil wolverton, which also contributed to my inspiration. at some point if i ever get the motivation i'd really like to sit and construct a few detailed grotesque portraits. i could use it as an opportunity to play with some different mediums, maybe even paint!