Eating my way through Wilmington, NC

Hello, everyone! I'm finally back at my desk. After more than a week away, I am happy and refreshed to be back to blogging and work. I got back from North Carolina on Thursday night and was anxious to jump right in, but with the holiday weekend and all, it just didn't happen. I hope everyone had a festive holiday. I know here the weather is magnificent — I hope it is where you are, too.

Wilmington and visiting my parents was wonderful. The trip revolved around good food, lots of beach time and visiting. I thought for today I would share some of the fantastic meals I had…

Within an hour of landing, I was lounging at Dockside staring at the Intracoastal Waterway about to dig into this fried flounder sandwich and cole slaw. Vacation is good!

We had what I think of as the quintessential summer meal from when I was growing up: barbecue chicken, rice and beans and salad. The best!


Of course I had to have my fill of shrimp while in town. Above is my mom's beer-marinated shrimp on the grill with local corn picked that day.

More shrimp in this fantastic salad at The Basics in Wilmington: Spinach salad with horseradish ranch dressing, pesto marinated, grilled and chilled shrimp, fried green tomatoes and bacon. Decadent!!

A corn and tomato pie. It took longer to cook than expected, so with an extended cocktail hour, my shot of the finished result is blurry to say the least — but it was delicious!!

Incredible fresh grouper salad, enjoyed dockside in Southport.


Final night's meal in Wilmington at Indochine. This Thai/Vietnamese restaurant is so fantastic — we were seated outside in our own little hut. If you are ever in Wilmington, this would be the go-to spot!!

And that's all for now from my North Carolina eating adventure. Have a great day!!

Bon voyage! (to me)

I leave you all this week with this lovely glimpse of the Art Institute of Chicago. I know I have much to update you on and many things to share, but I am skipping town today to visit my parents in North Carolina. I am very much looking forward to it, and after making lists of all the things I want to do and organize and accomplish while I am away, I realize that relaxing may just take priority. So, with that, I leave you, knowing that I may drop in for a short visit here and there… but then again, I may not! Happy summer everyone!

And the winner is…

Hi all! This past Sunday marked the last day to enter my 100th post SUPER-FANTASTIC giveaway. So now it's time to announce the winner… selected by using random.org, the prize of her choice from Sloe Gin Fizz goes to:

Barbaraellen Koch!!! Yippee!

Thanks so much to everyone who commented. Stay tuned for future fun times!

CAPTAIN RIBBIT is here…

Available NOW at RIPT Apparel

Now's the time!!! The Sloe Gin Fizz Super Frog t-shirt design is NOW available at RIPT Apparel for the next 24 hours ONLY. Not only that, but it's only $10. Get 'em while they're hot!

Don't forget!

Just a quick hello! and have a good weekend. I'm down in Chicago for a couple of days with internet access more limited than expected. Don't forget to check in with RIPT Apparel tomorrow to see the Sloe Gin Fizz t-shirt design!

The announcement… Limited time only!

I am really happy to announce that my t-shirt design for RIPT Apparel will be released this Saturday, June 20 at 12:01 a.m. CST (that's 1:01 a.m. EST). RIPT is a new online t-shirt retailer based in Chicago, specializing in one of a kind tee designs that are available for purchase during 24-hour periods after which, they “Rest In Peace” forever.

The image above is just a little teaser of what you'll see when the design is released Saturday… click here to check out the site, or make a purchase if it's Saturday!

Still making that awkward face…

This is the latest rendition of the Awkward Face project for the comedy group that is part of Oakland/San Francisco's Pan Theater. Still a little rough, but getting closer, I think… stay tuned for an announcement at high noon today…

The new UMMA

As promised, here are some photos from my visit to the University of Michigan Museum of Art. They did a great job with the building in that it looks beautiful, though it is a bit hard to navigate the newer section. I was really surprised at the things I was drawn to. I have to say that I haven't been to a museum in quite some time and artists that I have seen before and not thought much about, really intrigued me here. Interesting.

I was greeted by this lovely Helen Frankenthaler piece when I entered the new wing.


Giacommeti is always one of my favorites.

I loved all of the little seating nooks the museum has created with this fantastically comfortable yellow-y leather chairs — not just your standard bench in the middle of the gallery.

I loved the collection of Yoruba pieces like this staff that had octopus-like strands of cowrie shells hanging down in huge clumps that would rattle and shake when shaking the staff. You can see a glimpse of a tapestry in the background, too, that I really loved. These photographs were interesting in that the negatives are hand-drawn and then photographically printed. Great to see in the context of today's digital photographs. Unfortunately, I didn't take note of the artist's name.

And lastly, I fell in love with this painting by Jenny Holzer (this photo is just a detail from it). I have seen her work many times before, but for some reason yesterday it really spoke to me. I love the line work, the layering and depth of it and the splashes of color.

If you read my post yesterday, you know that I set off to the museum to try to jog my creativity in working on a poster project. I am happy to report that, yes, in fact, it did.I only have a rough sketch on paper at this point, but I think it's a solid concept. I'll share with you when i get it fleshed out.

AND, last but not least. I have an exciting announcement that I will reveal in the coming days. Stay tuned…

Where inspiration lurks…

I've been a bit stuck on a project I've been working on (the Awkward Face poster for those of you following along), and have decided that as inspiring as the interwebs are, I need to tear myself away from the computer and get out for some other form of inspiration. So, before I go, I am sharing with you this amazing allium-type flower I saw yesterday: it was bigger than my head (insert joke here, ha ha!) I have three hours until I have to be at work, so am FINALLY going to check out the newly renovated and reopened University of Michigan Museum of Art. Pathetically enough, it is only about ONE block from where I work and yet I haven't even seen the outside of the building yet. So, I'm off… have a lovely afternoon and I hope to have some pix to post tomorrow — and maybe even a completed poster design!

Meet the pie

Well, I was finally cooking something new again last night — meat pies with spicy buttermilk dip from Food & Wine. We had some ground beef in the freezer to use up, and this was one of the few non-burger/meatball recipes I could find that also didn't involve deep-frying. I felt a bit like Cher in Mermaids making hors d'oeuvres for dinner, but hey, that's not so bad…

Natchitoches Meat Pies with Spicy Buttermilk Dip
adapted from Food & Wine

DOUGH
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup ice water

FILLING
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound ground beef chuck
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 onion, finely diced
1/4 green bell pepper, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon chopped thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice (I didn't have allspice, so added a dash each of nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper)
Salt
Hot sauce, preferably Tabasco

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk

BUTTERMILK DIP
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons celery salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt
Hot sauce, preferably Tabasco
1 scallion, thinly sliced

1. Make the dough: In a food processor, combine the flour and salt. With the machine on, add the oil and process until the flour is moistened. Sprinkle on the ice water and pulse 5 or 6 times, just until the dough is moistened. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead just until smooth. Form the dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the ground beef and cook over moderately high heat until no pink remains, breaking up the meat with a spoon, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, onion, bell pepper and bay leaf and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, 7 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cayenne, cloves, thyme, coriander and allspice and cook over moderately low heat for 3 minutes. Season with salt and hot sauce and let cool.
3. Discard the bay leaf. Transfer the filling to a food processor and pulse until chopped.
4. Preheat the oven to 350° and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. On a floured work surface, roll out each disk of dough to a 12-inch round. Using a 4-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out 6 rounds from each piece of dough. Brush the edges of the rounds with some of the egg wash and place a rounded tablespoon of filling to one side of each circle. Fold the other half of the dough over the filling and press to seal. Crimp the edges with a fork. Transfer the pies to the baking sheet and brush with the egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Make the buttermilk dip: In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, buttermilk, sour cream, celery salt and lemon juice. Season with salt and hot sauce. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with the scallion. Serve the pies with the buttermilk dip.
   

I cut the recipe in half for the dip part because we didn't have a whole lot of sour cream and I figured we wouldn't eat all of them anyway. BUT, I'm pretty sure the sour cream was too sour (i.e. bad!). The whole thing tasted skunky, so I kept adding things to try to fix it: more lemon, a little lime, some dill, more salt… it never was quite right. But the pies themselves had great flavor. The boy thought they were a bit on the dry side, but I happen to disagree. I think the proper dip would have made them perfect.

Best breakfast ever…

This hit the spot this morning like nothing else could… one of our neighbors is constantly giving us gifts of fruit — earlier this week she gave us a couple of mangoes. I let them sit a little too long, so this morning I whipped up a quick and easy smoothie/lassi. Chopped up the mango into the blender (all done hovering over the blender so all the juice would drip down my arms into the blender), added a dollop of honey, a couple of ice cubes and a bit of water to make it mix nicely. The result was DELICIOUS! I know I haven't posted about cooking in quite some time — with my new schedule of working two weeknights in a row at the beginning of the week, I just can't seem to get on a regular grocery shopping, cooking routine. But I am determined to figure it out — there are too many delicious recipes waiting to be tried out there! Stay tuned…

Balcony harvest

This was one of the first things to be harvested out of the balcony garden. Bibb lettuce enjoyed immensely in a lunch time salad. So tender and tasty! The herbs have been going like gangbusters, so we've enjoyed lots of fresh oregano, parsley, chives, thyme and cilantro.

This little guy is a sunflower seed making it's way out into the world. Unfortunately, three others like it got nipped off by something yesterday. I thought it was a bird, or squirrel possibly, but then this morning I watched our neighbors' dog scarf down the one strawberry, so that makes me wonder… hmm, sunflower-eating dog, yes? On that note, have a great weekend and feel free to tell others about the giveaway: 7 more days…

100th post: SUPER-FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY EVENT!!

Yippee! That's right — this is my one hundredth post of 2009. And to mark the occasion, I am hosting my first ever super-fantastic giveaway event. Here's how it works: Leave a charming, lovely comment below telling me all the things you love about Sloe Gin Fizz… wait no, that's not it. Really, just leave a comment below by Sunday, June 21st at high noon EST letting me know what your favorite item is in my Etsy shop (Sloe Gin Fizz found right here). Don't forget to include your email so that I know how to reach you. As a great big thank you, one lucky commentator will receive the print or card of their choice shipped directly to their doorstep, lickety-split. A big, huge thank you in advance to all you dedicated and new readers alike — I look forward to the feedback, and to sharing many more posts before the year's end!

Works in progress…

I've been working on a couple of projects for Pan Theater out in San Francisco. They are a terrific improv theater that always has something new in the works. Above is the poster I worked up for their free improv jam nights. If you're in the area, check it out and let me know how it is — I'll be uber-jealous!

This poster was the first concept I presented for the new comedy troupe they've organized called Awkward Face. I was pretty happy with it, but it doesn't really convey the sense of awkwardness they wanted, which I totally get. The idea is awkward, but it doesn't really look that awkward. I think the peachy keen colors don't help. Back to the drawing board…

P.S. This is my 99th post of the year!!! I've got something special planned for number 100, so stay tuned!!!

Rock star illustrator

Karen Cheung via Design for Mankind

I am loving the illustration of Karen Cheung and just had to share it. I found her through Design for Mankind and just can't get enough of her line work, crazy characters and even her site design (she, of course, does it all herself!! impressive.) Above is a screen shot from her web site. AND, she can be found at Alternative Eagle Print & Design shop. Over there, it says that her web site is out-of-date, but I'd say it's still fantastic. GO SEE IT NOW!! and have a good day.

To market, to market…

Yesterday was GREAT fun! As I mentioned on Friday, I participated in the Ann Arbor Artisan Market with MICE (Michigan Indie Crafters on Etsy). When I woke up at six in the morning, it was absolutely pouring and I rolled over and went back to sleep. By the time I actually got up, it had stopped raining, though it was still cold and grey. Thankfully, the rains held off all day. Set up went smoothly and I actually felt pretty organized. There was not a ton of traffic, but rather a slow, but steady day and a great intro to the world of craft shows. I met such lovely people among the other Etsy folks and had great neighbors on either sides. Yippee! I can't wait to do more shows.

Craft show prep

Well, I'm busily working away on my setup for Sunday's Ann Arbor Artisan Market. It is officially "MICE @ the Market" day with a number of local Etsy sellers (see the lovely logo below for more details). I've had the table set up in our living room all week and am getting down to the final details. I lucked out with a visit to the Ritz Camera in town that unfortunately went out of business. I picked up some stands that work perfectly for cards and prints. I have put off on making a banner and price signs, but am determined to have it all finished tonight so I can spend the day tomorrow with friends who just got a new sailboat. That seems like a much healthier way to spend the day than frantically running around trying to add more to my setup. I figure, there will always be more I CAN do, but not that I HAVE to. I'm sticking with the — don't let perfect get in the way of good— line of reasoning. Yippee! Wish me luck on Sunday and drop by for a visit if you are in the area.

Balcony garden update

Our little apartment garden experiment is coming along nicely. The radishes are within days of being ready. Little carrot tops are peaking up all over — the seeds are so small that I ended up sowing them quite thickly. I don't know about you, but there is something about thinning little seedlings that makes me feel so mean. These little guys did their best and everybody came bursting out of the soil — as directed — and then, in one fell swoop, plucked out to be discarded. With the radishes, I tried to replant them, but the carrots are so thin and wispy… am I crazy? anyone else?

Our Ikea basil (I bought one of those little seed kits that includes the soil at Ikea last fall)is blue ribbon worthy — I can't wait for Ikea pesto!

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good…

You know when you've been meaning to do something for a VERY long time and it just kind of lingers in the back of your mind ALL the time. Well, it's been that way for me with business cards. I think I always wanted them to be an absolute perfect representation of me and just couldn't figure out how to do that (imagine that?!?). Anyway, with the upcoming Artisan Market (this Sunday, June 7), I knew that I simply HAD to have a business card. So, at the eleventh hour, as always, I uploaded my design to Overnight Prints. This was last Thursday at 3 p.m. By 9 a.m. the next morning, I had received a confirmation email that my cards had shipped — they don't call themselves Overnight Prints for nothing. It was that easy. The box was waiting for me when I arrived home last night and… drumroll, please… here they are:

I've got 1,000 of these babies and I'm pretty darn pleased. I am now also in love with Overnight Prints. The title of this post is a quote from a post by Martha Retallick over at the Freelance Switch blog that hit home for me and I think you might enjoy it, too, called Just Get Going: The Single Most Effective Marketing Trick.

From the sketchbook…

Hope you all had a great weekend. It's a rainy morning here in Ann Abor after a gorgeously sunny weekend. I mentioned last week that I had been feeling like my computer was playing too central a role in my art. So I've been playing around with some things — including breaking out the pen and ink. I haven't used it in a long time and am having some fun…

Brought to you by the letter P

I just can't get enough of peonies and poppies. Both are in bloom right now, along with the rhododendrons, allium, columbine, clematis, wisteria, irises… the neighborhood is just bursting with color and sweet scents.

The Nichols Arboretum in town has a peony garden with 27 beds of glorious peonies that I'm dying to see — I'm just trying to time it perfectly so I don't miss them!

I just can't seem to capture the red of the poppies. They look so orange-y in my photos, but really they are a much softer, more appealing red.

I will be busy this weekend getting ready for MICE at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market next Sunday… and getting out to see the flowers! Have a wonderful weekend!

New print in the shop!

I just listed this fellow in the shop yesterday. He has a friend, too, that I haven't posted yet, but hope to tomorrow… wait and see!

Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser

This Saturday is the 3rd Annual Art for the Cure of Cystic Fibrosis (ACCF) here in Ann Arbor at Conor O'Neill's starting at 7 p.m. The event includes a silent auction with work from local artists. ACCF was created in honor of a young woman in town who sadly lost her battle with CF in November 2008. You can find out more about the event here. Below is the print I have donated for the auction. If you're in the area, we would love to see you there.

Treasury time!

Posted just this afternoon — you can see it here!

T-shirt in progress…continued

A little while back I wrote about a t-shirt design I was working on for RIPT Apparel. They are a new online tee retailer launching in early June. I thought I would update you on the progress… above is the finished threads design I submitted. However, they were thinking something more along the lines of my flying frog print as seen in my Etsy shop.

So, I've reworked that to have fewer colors for printing:

And then, as it would appear on the tee:
I'll keep you posted as the design continues… and when it will be available!

The start of summer

It was so nice to get away into the woods this weekend. Everything slowed way down and we had plenty of long walks, time around the fire, barbecue and perfect weather! I was on a mission to find morels, but to no avail. It was quite dry, and some people said that they couldn't be found in the area. But that didn't keep me from looking!

I did find these beauties. Luckily there is a mushroom identifying book at the cabin and I learned that these are "false morels" or brain mushroom. Poisonous! I should have known since they were right in the middle of the path. It would have been nice if Sam's grandma could have been there since she is something of a mushroom expert. She even discovered a new species of mushroom (or possibly cucumber, no one was quite sure) in Mexico and so it is named for her. I'm sure she could show me a thing or two in the woods around the cabin. Ah well, I've heard that Bird Hills here in Ann Arbor is a good place to look. Perhaps sometime this week I'll find a morel…