The All-American Condiment

Ketchup. Heinz 51. The all-American condiment. Found in every American home.

A couple of weekends ago I was busy reviewing the ingredients and preparing my shopping list for the Tyler Florence pulled pork sandwich recipe I was planning to make from his eat this book cookbook. (Look at that cover — I think I WILL eat this book!) I had my list, but there were a couple of pantry staples I needed to check on:
• dry mustard — check
• cider vinegar — check
• yellow mustard — a staple for some, but we didn't have any. Better pick that up.*
• cayenne — running low, better pick up some more
• brown sugar — again, running low. buy more.
Note the asterisk. This is important.

I made my trip to the store, hurried home and prepared my dry rub. Slathered it all over that pork shoulder. Put that pork shoulder in a roasting pan and got it roasting. Sat back and relaxed, it was the weekend after all and the pork would be porkolating for six hours. Plenty of time. The afternoon was whiled away, enjoying some sun and a couple of beers in preparation for barbecue supper. With one hour of cooking to go, I moseyed into the kitchen to whip up the sauce. It's easy. Here's the recipe:

Cider Vinegar Barbecue Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 cup yellow or brown mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To make the barbecue sauce: combine the vinegar, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until the sugar dissolves.

I began to combine away: in went the vinegar, then some mustard… but wait… no… it can't be… heavens to Murgatroyd! We had no ketchup. WE HAD NO KETCHUP. I shoved around all those condiment bottles that live on the refrigerator door, making quite a racket: pickles, chili-garlic paste, olives, sweet relish, dijon, grainy mustard, green curry paste, horseradish, capers, black bean-chili sauce, maple syrup, assorted jams, Hellman's AND Miracle Whip (that's a-whole-nother condiment story altogether).

We have lived in this apartment for six months and had no ketchup. We cook a lot. We eat at home a lot. I mean, A LOT. And yet, somehow, some way, we've gone six months without ketchup. No yellow mustard? Okay, understandable. I don't really like it anyway. But no ketchup seemed impossible. I hurried to the computer to see what it would take to whip up my own ketchup. Time—that's what it would take. And we didn't have it. I had been in relaxing mode and now the pork was almost done. Running right alongside my panic and the boy's speedy dash to the store for said missing ingredient, I have to say I felt a little, well … yes, pride. There, I've said it. Is that just plain un-American?

Reduce, reuse, recycle Ann Arbor

The Ann Arbor ReUse Center is a huge warehouse of thrift, trash and treasure. In honor of Earth Day they are sponsoring an art show and for inspiration they have offered up a free "artist pile" of trinkets and gems to sort through (seen above). My first thought was groan. Double groan. As you can see in the photo, it was a beautiful, sunny, warm, springy day perfect for sifting through refuse. I was lead to this pile after weeding my way through a trash bin filled with discarded electronics — not my thing, artisically-speaking. What crap-ola. But then I began to zero in on the shiny stuff:
Gleaming, glittering circles… hmm… perhaps there is more here than meets the eye. I was warming to this idea. The artist pile did, in fact, offer inspiration. I have all kinds of ideas swarming through my pea brain now. Let's hope they (or at least one) comes to fruition.

This is a portion of my haul. Check back later this month for photos of my creation(s) and the show!!

Illustration Friday: INTRICATE

Dreaming…

Here she is… dreaming. I decided this would be fitting for the IF since it is much more detailed and elaborate than my usual style (see frog below…?!?!) Prints now available here.

Sneak peek: Dreaming

As promised, here is a small detail from a new piece I am finishing up and will be listing in my Etsy shop later this week. It's quite different from much of my other work and I am very excited about it. I may have an Illustration Friday post, too. We'll see. The theme is intricate… hmm…

Keep Calm and Carry On

KEEP CALM and CARRY ON

I put together what I think is a really lovely treasury on Etsy last night. You can find it here. I am becoming obsessed with making treasuries — it is so much fun to play curator! Anyway… I'm working on a couple of new pieces that I hope to add to the shop this week. I'll be doing a sneak peek later today. I am also working on revamping the shop: cleaning up photos, checking price points, rewriting descriptions, that kind of thing. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, I'd love to hear it!

Thinking of you

Sweet Quagmire, Sam's dog of fourteen years, passed this morning. We are missing him greatly.

For the kids out there

Flying Frog

After my post with the giraffe on roller skates last week, I received several words of encouragement that I should work on some childrens' art. With that in mind, I post this. I'm thinking about working on an alphabet series. What do you think?

Compare and contrast

I've been working on this drawing and can't decide if I like the palette. I tend to go with much softer colors, but that is not what happened in this case. Looking back at the original sketch, I am trying to decide if I went in the right direction. I may save this version and then try again using a milder palette. Although looking at it so close to my banner, I am rather liking it… feel free to chime in!

IF: Breezy

I haven't posted to Illustration Friday in quite some time, but I really like this week's topic, "Breezy" — particularly since I am weathering a 14-degree day here in Ann Arbor. Thinking tropical thoughts…

Welcome signs of spring

This is a very happy post quite suitable for a Friday. The apartment complex we moved into in the fall is not a fancy place and has very little in the way of landscaping. So as the fall turned colder, I did some last-minute guerrilla bulb planting knowing that the Michigan winter would be long and I would need a healthy dose of spring when the time came. I put in about twenty daffodils and tulips in the shared courtyard space. I began looking for signs of them a week or two ago because we had had a bit of a warm spell and I was afraid I hadn't really planted them deep enough. I wasn't really expecting to see anything since it is only February, but today, what did I spy…


Yes, that's right. Some very early signs that there will in fact be a spring here. I do hope it isn't too early and they don't shrivel up and freeze away. But I was reassured and delighted to find that there were already some bulbs around and they, too, are peaking out, so all should be okay. We should have some spring color before too much longer. Yippee!

Nothing's for free

What to do with all of those plastic bags piling up in the kitchen, under the sink, in the coat closet? A while back I decided I would knit them together into a tote bag. Clever me would be able to tote my groceries in a bag of grocery bags. I had just read through Mason-Dixon Knitting and was inspired by a rug made by looping together cotton potholder handles into one big ball of yarn. That would be fun, but at $5/bag of loops, the rug would cost $100. Not such a good deal. Hence the bag on the cheap: free in fact.

I became extreme — rinsing out the thin little produce bags, saving the bag from the carrots. We had damp, limp plastic bags draped over every available surface in the kitchen. Slipped over the utensil jar, hanging off the pot rack, propped up by the soap dispenser. I didn't pay close enough attention to the fact that in the book, the author had her children loop together the yarn. Hmm, I realize now that this was for a reason. IT'S DAMN TEDIOUS!

You flatten out each bag and then cut it into horizontal slices. these slices are then connected by slipknots forming a chain. The chain is then wound into a ball. Four months later, and I am stuck on this step. I spent several hours one evening hunched on the floor connecting the loops. By the end of this session, I could barely straighten my back and was cursing the plastic. (OK, so maybe next time I should sit with better posture. Whatever.)

We are still saving bags. the difference now is that I wad them up and shove them into a bigger bag — complete with water, mud, etc. still clinging to them. This makes my next session of chain-making even less appealing. But dammit, I want that bag. The boy had generously offered to help cut them up and loop them together while we watch movies at night, but who really wants to do that? Me reclining on the couch with a pair of scissors and a beer doesn't seem like a good idea, non?

But I did just check online and found a great-looking knitted plastic bag bag at DIY Network and they say to cut the bags in one long spiral from top to bottom and then just knot together with next. I may have to try this technique since it entails just one cut and knot per bag… hmmm, I'll keep you posted.

Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons

That is the name of a fantastic cookbook by Diana Henry that I received as a gift recently. It has many tasty-sounding Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African recipes, but I had yet to try any of them because they seemed to have so many exotic ingredients. However, I realized that this was mostly because each chapter starts with wonderful descriptions of various unusual ingredients and I had actually sat down and read all of these in depth, leaving me with the impression of all kinds of wonderful exotic places and tastes and smells. But I was determined this week to tackle something in there, and I went through the book and discovered that while there are some recipes with hard-to-find things like rose petals and orange flower water, there are plenty of approachable ones. I picked out a handful and started with Greek Herb Pilaf with Shrimp and Feta. It has a huge amount of herbs in it, so I was curious to see if they overwhelmed the dish — I am happy to say that they do not, but instead lend a unique and surprisingly mild flavor to the whole thing —not to mention the whole apartment smelled unbelievable.

This is only half the herbs, another equal portion is stirred into the cooked rice.

After some sauteeing, the rice is cooked with a towel-wrapped cover over it — I would assume to absorb the moisture.
This photo truly doesn't do it justice, but right as I finished we were interrupted by an unfortunate old dog having an accident incident. Poor dog. Yummy dinner. It's loaded with flavor, with lemon and olives and herbs and tomatoes and shrimp.

Thinking about Ed Emberley

This is my Ed Emberley inspired drawing for the day. I don't know how many of you grew up with his books, but I recently found one of them from my childhood: Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals. This was one of my favorites as a kid and I drew every single thing in it. It is based on using simple shapes—rectangles, circles, half-circles—to build up pictures. Looking through them makes me want to go out and buy all the other ones I never had. They are so clever and simple. Draw a black dot: Wow! You've drawn an ant. Draw a green dot. Wow! You've drawn a black ant wearing a green sweater. I really think this shaped my world—and what a charming world it is!

Rye humor

When I was in elementary school, I thought the lyrics to the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up were: "And you can call me rye!" (Actual lyrics: Don't make a grown man cry… close, non?) I guess I was destined for the kitchen… Anyway, in honor of my youthful ear, I will tell you about the rye bread I baked this past weekend. The recipe is from Baking with Julia. It had all kinds of weird steps including hanging the dough in slings (why didn't I take pictures of that?!?) and odd shaping techniques involving hospital corners: I should have known to venture no further at that one. (The book is great — I have had great success with recipes, but…) The loaves look pretty lovely and have a great texture, but just don't have a really nice strong rye taste. There's no doubting that it's rye, but it's a bit mild. I just did a search to find another recipe to try and found these lovely beauties over at pete bakes. That recipe will definitely be my next rye attempt.

I love this gnocchi!

I wrote about this gnocchi before, but I didn't have pictures at the time. The boy and I made them again on Saturday — it's much better with two people forming the little puffs. Otherwise it takes a LONG time! The recipe is from Food & Wine and you can find it here.

First you roll the dough out into 1/2" wide logs.

Then you cut off little pieces and roll them against the tines of a fork. It all gets very gooey, but it works somehow. Next you boil them but I will spare you the photo of that stage: the photos made them look like maggots: eeewwwh!

Then you saute them and coat them with the sauce and some chives to garnish —tasty!! (I only use about half the sauce as made in the recipe. It's mucho better.)

I want to fold my dishwater hands around a dry Martini, not a wet flounder

As part of our Valentine celebration, the boy and I made homemade gnocchi. Quite an involved process, but so worth it. This meant that an elaborate dessert idea shared with me by a good friend was scrapped in favor of the humble cupcake. I used the same recipe my mom used when we were kids. It is from the very funny I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken. I'm pretty sure it may be the only recipe she ever used from there—many have things like frozen potato soup or frozen fish sticks as main ingredients. But the writing is hysterical and when I saw a copy in a used book store recently, I had to shell out the $1. It features terrifically charming drawings by Hilary Knight (of Eloise fame) and is a book "for those of us who want to fold our dishwater hands around a dry Martini instead of a wet flounder…" How could you not love it?!?!?
COCKEYED CAKE
• 1 1/2 c. sifted flour
• 3 Tb cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 Tb cooking oil
• 1 Tb vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. cold water
Put sifted flour back in sifter (or sieve), add cocoa, soda, sugar and salt and sift this right into a greased 9" square cake pan. Make three holes in the the dry mixture. Into one, pur the oil; onto the next, the vinegar; into the next, the vanilla. Now pour cold water over it all. You'll feel like you're making mud pies now, but beat it with a spoon until it's nearly smooth and you can't see the flour. Bake at 350º for half an hour. (For cupcakes: bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes.)

Maybe next time I will branch out and try Peg's Hootenholler Whiskey Cake!! (The first instruction: "First, take the whisky out of the cupboard, and have a small snort for medicinal purposes." I'm thinking Amy Sedaris is the reincarnation of Peg Bracken circa 1960.

Inspiration, motivation, procrastination

painting by Joe Sorren

Part One
I was looking through the blog Artfulife this week and happily clicked through her link to Joe Sorren's web site. I really enjoyed seeing his latest paintings. They are so refined and quiet. I love the progression from his older work. I haven't looked at his paintings in a long time, but I was happily reminded of a conversation I haven't thought about in a long time.

Some time in the mid-90s I was given one of the best art school assignments ever. You had to give a presentation on one of your favorite illustrators. This may sound bland enough—a glorified book report—except that you had to contact the illustrator directly. This was way before the widespread use of email, so this meant calling the person up on the phone. I was painfully shy then, so I was horrified. But I loved Joe Sorren's paintings and knew that he was the one I had to call. I did. I called him up in Flagstaff, Arizona and he was the nicest, most encouraging fellow ever. I'm sure I asked all kinds of mundane things, but he heard me out and asked me thoughtful questions in return. He sent me samples by FedEx to include in my report and asked me to send him a few samples of my work. I have to smile when I think about it—I can't imagine what I sent.

The one question I remember asking him was: Do you think you have to live in NYC to make it as an illustrator? Now here I was calling a successful guy working out of a little hippy town in AZ—why would I ask that? Of course, he said no and gave me some very good reasons. I moved to NYC anyway and went to art school. I am now 3 1/2 years gone from there and am just now finding a place where I am able to make some art here and there — certainly not making a living from it, but still finding the time and inspiration to do it. I think there are a lot of factors involved that I may write about in this space (hence the part one subtitle above), but for now, I just wanted to reflect on a fond memory of a conversation with Joe Sorren and ponder what I might ask him nowadays.

The painting above was from one of the samples he sent — I found it in my "inspiration book" from that period. It is so much fun to look through it again after so long.

As seen on …

It's so easy to become just completely overwhelmed by all of the blogs, pictures and terrific content out there in the world. So it's particularly reassuring and gives my ego a little boost when I find out that my pictures are in fact making their way out into the world and being seen despite the sheer quantity of rabbit holes one can stumble down. I was reminded of this by two different occasions this week.

1. Kuma Sakuzo was nice enough to include the print above from my Etsy shop in her treasury selection. She's chosen a lovely cheerful collection of balloons. Here is a screenshot of it:
2. Last week Off the Hooks featured my squirrel postcard on her craftyash blog.

This makes me very happy and I thank them both!

From the sketchbook

Here are some of the strange scenes and flower-type things have been showing up in my sketchbooks lately. Not sure what will come of them.

Pad Thai at home

I've never made pad thai at home, but I love it. So after the trip to the Asian market last week, I had all the ingredients and knew it was time. We've had rice noodles sitting in the back of the cabinet for months and I decided to use the recipe on the back of the bag:

Pad Thai
7 oz rice stick noodles
1 Tb Tamarind paste (this was hard to find, but it was in the refrigerated section at Huaxing)
1 tsp brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. peanut oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 c. small shrimp (I used much more: 1 lb med)
3 scallions, sliced
4 oz. firm tofu, rinsed, drained and choppped
2 eggs, beaten lightly
2 Tb fish sauce
1 c bean sprouts
1 tsp crushed chili pepper
2 Tb roasted peanuts, chopped
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
lime wedges to garnish

1. Soak noodles in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain. (I was worried they weren't soft enough at this point, but they soften more over the heat)
2. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 c hot water with tamarind. Let stand, then push through sieve and discard solids. Stir in brown sugar.
3. Heat half oil in large skillet. Stir fry garlic for a few seconds, then add shrimp, scallions and tofu and cook 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs and cook 30 seconds or until well incorporated. Add noodles, tamarind, remaining oil and fish sauce. Cook about 5 minutes, then add bean sprouts and chili pepper.
5. Garnish with peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges and serve.

Delicious! The flavor was terrific with just the right amount of heat. I think next time I will increase liquids a little bit (not oil), to have a little more of a sauce. Try it!