kannehilmer

Moving

2012-01-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hi y'all,

I've not updated in a while, not because I haven't been baking and photographing but because I am working on putting up a new website! Among other things. I'm trying to make it nice and pretty and professional before I make it public. In the meantime, you can still check out my articles on GoodfoodWorld.com, there's a recent one about the MOA Conference and one coming out tomorrow about the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15.

Happy Tuesday!

Things to Dip in Chocolate

2011-12-19T22:06:00.001-08:00

Things to dip in Chocolate!

SEA-SALTED CARAMELS:

*grease an 8x8 pan or pan of similar volume with butter

*have the second set of ingredients ready to add (all in one bowl), otherwise caramel will harden on the bottom of the pan while you're fumbling for ingredients

In a saucepan combine : 2/3 cup fine sugar and 2 Tablespoons cold water. Dissolve on medium heat, stirring, then boil until the mixture turns a deep amber color.

Remove from the heat. Add:

3/4 c light brown sugar

7 Tablespoons butter

3/4 c + 2 T heavy cream

3 T corn syrup

a teaspoon of sea salt

return to the heat, and boil until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F. Remove from the heat again, stir and let settle for 30 seconds before pouring into the prepared pan. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Makes about 40 caramels

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

3/4 c heavy cream

1/2 c fine sugar

a pinch of sea salt

9 oz of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped and in a medium sized bowl

Bring the first three ingredients to a boil, stirring on medium heat. When everything is dissolved, let it simmer for a minute before pouring the mixture over the chocolate. Stir until everything is melted and incorporated, and then add flavoring if desired (mint extract, chopped dried cherries, flaked coconut, flavored liquors...) You can divide the mixture into two or more separate bowls for separate flavorings.

Chill the ganache for a few hours, then roll into balls and place on wax paper. Chill the balls for several hours before they're ready to be coated in chocolate.

See my post below for directions on tempering!

Cover it in Chocolate!

2011-12-19T21:41:00.001-08:00

Yess...it's a good idea. But temper your chocolate first. Here's how:

Chop your chocolate into small pieces. They don't have to be pea-sized, but marble-sized is good to aim for. Not the big marbles (what do you call 'em? shooters?) but the little ones. You know, that size.

It's good to have an amount that you can divide into thirds, because you need to have it separated into 2/3 and 1/3. It's also helpful to have a scale to weigh your chocolate. If you have a pound (and you should, because less will make it hard to have any depth for dipping) then you can divide it into 11 oz and 5 oz.

Set up a double-boiler on medium heat to melt the larger quantity of chocolate. The top pan should be heated by the steam from the water below so should not be touching the water.

Get another similar sized pot with some water to simmering on another burner.

Melt the chocolate in the double boiler, stirring, and bring it up to 115˙F.

Remove from the heat and add the rest of the chocolate. Stir until it's all melted and combined, then place the pot on top of the simmering water pot (not touching the water). This other pot just serves to keep the chocolate warm, hovering around 86 - 90 degrees. The burner should be on very low or just warm. Then your chocolate is ready to use.

messy but good! That's what my Mom always says.

Balance the squares/rounds of marzipan, caramel, or ganache on a fork to submerse in the chocolate. It's ok if you lose it! Retrieve it and remove extra chocolate by scraping the bottom of the fork on the side of the pan, letting it drip back down, then gently lay your chocolate-covered treasures on wax paper to dry.

An Image Sampling

2011-12-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

A sampling of my favorite food photos...I've been doing my best to photograph the best-looking food I make or eat since I got back in August. It's something that I would of course love to do for others for a profit, but hadn't put much thought into. It's only been a few months since I've sort of made this my focus, so I'm very excited for any opportunity to help others out through my photography, especially members of the organic food community (Ten Spoon Vineyards, for example). Here are some samples:

Thanksgiving Images

2011-12-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

Thought I would take some time to upload these Thanksgiving images. I really ought to more often...I think that will be my New Years resolution.

Made mini pumpkin pies/tarts. They were yummy...my first time trying this though, and I guess I didn't like the look of the end product as much as this because I didn't take any pictures of them. Then again, maybe I was just being lazy. You try taking pictures of every dish on Thanksgiving before family and friends digs in! It's not easy...especially when the Montana sky is emanating gloom.

Luckily though, we had some sunshine that morning. By the time we sat down to eat it had gone, but I grabbed a few shots of the food on the table in natural light.

It really is the very best. I envy Joy the Baker from sunny California. All of her food always looks amazing.

I really love this...Karen, in a nutshell.

And this last one to be fair is not from Thanksgiving, but late October, oh and whoops Ian took that one, it was my first experience with making and using royal icing. I got this great flying pig cookie cutter from an antique store downtown. I spent ages on these cookies and the end product was not really beautiful, but next time I will use a different recipe and watch the cookies more closely (kitchen timer on my wishlist for Christmas!)

One thing I'd like to know...how do Joy the Baker and Smitten Kitchen deal with taking photos when they're the only one in the kitchen, juggling a labor-intensive recipe? That's my main deterrent, that and the gloom.

Ginger Chicken Salad Sandwich

2011-11-29T13:58:00.001-08:00

Here are my two favorite chicken-salad recipes (in which I would gladly substitute turkey) that can be eaten as a wrap or on toasted bread with some lettuce for a tasty lunch!

Ginger Chicken Salad

a small piece of ginger root, peeled and sliced

one chicken breast, halved lengthwise

2 scallions, chopped

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

a handful of snow peas, stringed and chopped

Bring the ginger to boil on the stove in a few cups of water. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for five minutes. Then add the chicken. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let it sit for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Reserve the ginger pieces.

Meanwhile, combine the mayo with the scallions and salt and pepper to taste. Chop the cooked chicken, the ginger pieces, and the snow peas. Toss everything together with a few teaspoons of the ginger water. Serve with lettuce on toasted bread.

Curry Chicken Salad

Well...I don't have an exact recipe on this one. The consequence of repeatedly winging it. Ingredients:

plain yogurt

curry powder

minced garlic

goat cheese (herbed goat cheese if you have it)

lemon juice

salt and pepper

Use leftover cooked chicken or turkey, or simmer a chicken breast in water on the stove. Chop it up and add a little of all of the above, to your taste.

Garnish with cilantro and lettuce, serve in a wrap or between slices of bread.

Enjoy!

2011-11-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

Take two pie pumpkins...

Cut them into pieces and scoop out the seeds.

Brush the pieces with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

Then, make pumpkin soup and a pie (not pictured).

The next night, make pork and soba noodles for dinner.

Your boyfriend will be happy you did.

Eat your dinner slowly with chopsticks while he dons a tux and grabs a fork because he's running late for a concert.

The next night, use some of the leftover asian pork in your sushi. Even try your hand at an inside-out roll.

Dip your sushi in soy sauce, minced ginger and wasabi.

Freak out!

October

2011-11-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

This is our kitchen. It is wee. It has next to no counter space, but the few square feet of counter space is lovely black and white tile from the 30's. The fridge is not a normal sized fridge...3/4 size, maybe. We have learned to be minimalist...we make do. We actually have a surprising amount of stuff in there. And next to our bedroom there's a little (very little) back-up pantry.

We have what you could classify as a "dining nook". There is a table in there that doubles as a counter when you need to knead dough and such. It's the one that I painted the birds on and lacquered about 10 times. There it has the pumpkins that my mom gave us, and the apples from Blossom's apple tree.

An apple pie I made for Blossom (but I got to eat some of it , yay!) It was so freakin' delicious. Usually I am so full from snackin on stuff at work, I just bring home something sweet for Ian like pie or a muffin. And I had every intention of giving him this piece of pie..but then I had a bite. A dozen bites later it was accidentally gone.

I think some of these onions and potatoes are from Stacy's garden. She gave them to Blossom who gave some to me. I just like how shiny they are.

And again...apples. Jess and I made some into caramel apples, at first filling some of them with chocolate because I saw this recipe on Chow...but I cored them all the way through instead of scooping out the bottom with a melon baller. Well my sticks wouldn't stay in the middle because the chocolate was still soft, and then we were supposed to coat the outside in caramel, but the caramel was hardening way too fast so we added more cream and then it was way too drippy, so to hell with chocolate-filled caramel apples!

It was a good idea, however, to use lil' apples from the apple tree. I don't know about you, but I can never finish those big honkin caramel apples you get at the fair. They're ginormous. Plus, with these little ones, the caramel to apple ratio is higher.

Seriously though, the caramel. We made our own caramel and it was delicious, but we only had about a 30 second interval where it was the right consistency for dipping. After that it hardened so quickly, you couldn't possibly submerge an apple in it. Wtf Chow, wtf. Am I missing something here? Next time, I'm going to try this: have an extra pot of boiling water ready. Then, when you remove the caramel mixture from the heat and dip the pan in cool water and it starts to get hard again, switch it over to the boiling water to soften it up again.

Thursday

2011-11-17T06:23:00.000-08:00

Just checking in, will be uploading a bunch of pictures later today but for now I'll just say that my latest (third) article is up on GoodFoodWorld, yay! Check it out !

Making Bread

2011-11-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

My goodness, it has been a while since my last post!

I s'pose I've been busy with Halloween preparations and training at my new other part-time job. It's a cooking home-decorating shop downtown. I really like it so far but let's talk about that later.

So...bread!

Gail gifted me her old copy of photoshop, bridge, etc (Creative Suite) and I am oh so grateful!! But oh so mad at my computer, which struggles to keep up with the programs. I swear I spent half the day today waiting around for it to perform simple actions, like re-sizing these, adding copyright. Grrr

Here are two awesome recipes for wheat bread. Smitten Kitchen's and this one adapted from one taken from a Martha Stewart magazine:

note* I think Smitten Kitchen's will give you a slightly more wheaty bread. She uses 1 T of gluten flour in each cup of wheat flour to make bread flour. Her recipe makes one loaf; this one makes two.

two 1/4 oz envelopes active dry yeast

2 1/4 c warm water (about 110˚) (microwave some tap water for 40 sec and check the temp)

3 T + 2 t honey

4 T unsalted butter, melted

3 c all-purpose flour

3 c wheat flour

1 c gluten flour

2 T salt

Combine 2 t honey with 1/2 c warm water, then stir in the yeast and cover with a dish towel; set aside for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, in another bowl combine the flour and salt.

Check the yeast...if it's foamy, you did it right! If not, you accidentally killed it :(

To the yeasty bowl add: 3 T honey, 1 3/4 c water and melted butter.

When most of the flour is incorporated into the dough, turn it out onto a flat surface with room for kneading. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the rest of the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and elastic; it may get sticky and here's where it's handy to have a spatula or bench scraper for your surface. Resist the urge to add too much more flour.

Then, wash out the bowl you were using and grease it up with butter or oil. Put the ball of dough in there and cover it with plastic wrap, setting it aside in a warm place for about an hour.

Meanwhile, butter two 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch loaf pans. When the dough is ready (poke it with floured-fingers, if the hole remains and the dough doesn't spring back, it's ready) turn it out, divide it in two.

Now you have to form the dough into loaves, and there are several ways of doing that. Rolling, tucking, seam-pinching...you decide what works best for you. The key is to make the top of the loaf nicely rounded and taut. Smitten kitchen shows you how, and so does Farm Girl Fare.

Gently place the loaves in the pans. Let them rise about 45 minutes more, but 30 minutes into this rise preheat the oven to 400˚.

Bake for 45 minutes, rotating 20 minutes in...or until nice n' golden on top. An instant-read thermometer is great to have here, you'll know it's done when it reads 210 to 220 degrees. Flip the loaf upside down and stick it in the bottom (careful not to burn yourself, use mitts!) Another give-away is the hollow sound the loaf makes when you knock on the bottom.

I highly recommend reading these tips for making bread. Keep in mind we're still perfecting our technique...would love to hear your tips too!

First Good Food World Article

2011-10-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

Today my first article went up on Good Food World! You can check it out here.

Looks like I'll be contributing twice a month. Maybe more if I get really ambitious!

And don't forget to browse the rest of Good Food World too. They have some really great informative articles.

Over and out.

Fall Camping Etc

2011-10-16T19:43:00.001-07:00

We took this photo a while back because I wanted to brag about the cruiser bike he fixed up for me but I have neglected to empty my little Optio for a while...the one I just throw in my purse for whenever occasions. Such as camping!

Going up the rattlesnake...this must've been early September or late August. When it was still all hot.
And we decided to make empanadas on the camp stove.

So cute! But to be honest, they did not taste great. They tasted un-great. I think because of the dough we made with powdered milk and wheat flour and the weird filling of leftover bechamel sauce with canned chicken in it and then I added...what was it...curry? Every once and a while you have to have a complete cooking fail, it's like a reality check...not all experiments are delightful.

Harvesting at Ten Spoons Vineyard

2011-10-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

On my day off, Ian and I joined other volunteers at Ten Spoons Vineyard in the Rattlesnake for their annual grape harvest. We spent a few hours clipping organic grapes off the vines and then enjoyed a wonderful lunch...even were interviewed by the local news team! Check it out here.

We loaded up the back of this tractor.

Ian got too excited and snipped his finger at one point!

Nice couple we met.
Grapes the same color as the mountains.

Claire's Apron

2011-10-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that I have an older sister and she's fabulous? She made that dress she's wearing, and she made me this apron:

I received it in the mail yesterday and tore open the package excitedly because I had a sneaky suspicion that she had sewn me an apron from one of those vintage sewing patterns. And I am so impressed! It's beautiful...and it has pockets! I so love pockets.

She got really creative with the fabric, putting different patterns on different sides. Super funky, I love it. And I'm thinking we really need to start our own Etsy store! (what do you think, Claire? Mom can be on it too!)

Claire has a sewing blog - Errant Pear
which I look at about as often as mine but sewing patterns are another language to me and I don't speak it, although I can work a sewing machine enough put two pieces of fabric together. My mom's got us both beat, she can cook, sew, and knit like a mo' fo!

The inside is embroidered with my name, my real name...you know, what my mom yells when she's mad, or pretending to be mad, or even when she's happy with me but then it's usually "Kathryn Annie"

Ok Claire put these on your blog and take some pics of those slippas I knit you!

This Week's Food Images

2011-10-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

zucchini muffins. Made one batch of regular and one with chocolate chips. Perhaps I should have made them all with chocolate chips because I kept digging through the bag for those and soon there were none left!

Ginger Chicken Salad Sandwiches. Recipes to come! I'm going to start having recipes as a part of my contribution to Good Food World. Expect to see my first article on there the third week in October. Any ideas for a title for my food column? The topic is eating healthy on a budget for two.

Sweet potato tacos! Or rather, yum yam tacos. Inspired by a recipe on Joy the Baker for sweet potato tacos, that are actually yam tacos...I s'pose yams are prettier (orange) but I got all confused and bought sweet potatoes anyway. And my cabbage is white, not red. Oh well!

Good Food World

2011-10-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

It looks like this is going to happen so it's time to write about it!

A few weeks ago I met some interesting people at Blossom's. Their names are Gail and Ken and they were passing through Missoula on their way to visit some grain farms around Montana. They told me they have recently started up a website all about good food! Good Food World is a website that promotes consciousness about food...the content of what we eat, where and how and who produces it, the impact that food has on society and the environment. They have different writers contributing articles on topics like health and wellness, food culture, food policy and land use.

I had just about started writing for examiner.com, but had just changed my mind after reading their terms and conditions. I probably had nothing to worry about (I doubt they would deem my stuff worthy of exploiting) but figured I would play it safe when it comes to retaining all rights to my material. But here is this great new sight that's right in line with my interests...perfect timing. I told Gail what I was interested in--giving advice on cooking healthy for two people on budget--and she said they might have room for something like that on the site.

Oh by the way, while Gail and Ken were here they fell in love with this little kitten at one of the farms they visited:

Yoda was her name. We fostered her for a night while she traveled the kitty-underground-railroad network of friends all the way to Seattle to be reunited with Ken and Gail. So cute, quite a rascal!

After that kitty business I sent her my ideas about natural and organic foods being accessible and affordable to people of lower income if they know where to look and how to shop and have basic cooking skills. Good Food World really stresses natural and organic or at least minimally processed food, and while I feel confident enough to give cooking advice and advice for saving money at the grocery store, the organic/natural front is relatively new territory. Sure I cook with all natural ingredients at work and Ian and I buy organic when we can, when it's not too expensive...but we haven't made a big change in the content of what we eat. Not that we don't want to! The issue is one of money and convenience. Perhaps a little laziness and lack of motivation. But that's about to change :)

Now I have some motivation, and I think it's good that I'm starting from a place people can relate to. At this age a lot of people have just come out of college (where they got used to buffet-style mass-produced cafeteria food) and may not know how to cook for themselves, or may not have the money or time. They probably don't have a garden or a large kitchen at their disposal. They see "organic" as this elitist, expensive lifestyle that they can't afford. And I can't blame them...sometimes when I walk into our Good Food Store I feel like Julia Roberts in that scene from Pretty Woman shopping on Rodeo Drive. But eating well is not just about the organic label and if you know what to look for I think it can be easy to be nutritious and health-conscious on a budget. I've gone from home-cooked meals at home to the cafeteria meal plan in college to living with my girlfriends and cooking in our basement apartment to working two part-time jobs and getting food stamps to now living with my long-term boyfriend in our first place together with a little tiny kitchen. We dream of one day having a large garden, but for now living downtown right by the farmer's market is almost just as good.

But this is the perfect opportunity for me to share what I know, and document my efforts to learn more. I want to show them it can be done...but I sort of have to prove it to myself at the same time. Supplementing my writing with photography and recipes of course!

Going to have a chat with Gail today about the specifics.

Chocolate Pie

2011-10-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

The other day when I stopped by the senior center to browse their basement thrift store, I saw a sign that said "volunteers needed to make pies!" So I went up to the desk and said "I can make a pie." The woman there looked sort of baffled but pointed me towards a sign-up sheet, and I put my name there next to a few other first names (Dorothy, Edna) penned in a cursive reminiscent of my Grandma's hand-written recipes (I get a feeling the senior center doesn't get many volunteers who aren't regulars there anyway.) So then I realized that the benefit was in two days and I had to make the pie asap. Well I have been hankering to make a french silk pie after seeing The Help in theaters (can't decide if the hankering is appropriate or not considering the movie) so that's what I did. The downside is that I didn't get to eat it.

Poured into a no-roll crust which I think might be my new best friend seeing as it's easy, fast, and doesn't require rolling (I have zero counter space to roll on anyway.)

ooh and also there are some mushrooms in our front yard.

I don't think they're edible and let's not find out!

Llares Trek

2011-09-23T20:04:00.001-07:00

Finally getting around to organizing and editing some of my photos from the Chile/Peru trip. I started with the ones from the Llares trek through the sacred valley in Peru because those are my favorites. It was really unforgettable, the scenery was breathtaking. For me more memorable than Machu Picchu itself, which is overrun with tourists. But we did get there on the third day and were lucky enough to get there early. It was really neat as Machu Picchu was gradually revealed to us though the mist.

I think it's near impossible not to get good photos in such a beautiful place. These required almost no editing...I think I did so merely out of habit, saturating some of them a teeny bit and even desaturating some of the ones I took with my little Optio, because the landscape setting on that camera made the greens and yellows practically neon. So I tweaked a little and they looked wonderful on Jessica's computer last night, but now on my laptop monitor they look a bit bland. I hope they look good on your screen!

That little blue tent on the edge of the lake is our dining tent. The porters ran up ahead of us and set it up for lunch.

The toilet tent

The mist rolling in to our campsite on the first night. So eerie and cold but beautiful. And I kept warm in my hand-knit merino wool sweater, the one I made for Ian.

Remnants of stone corrals

Although I usually started out near the front of the group, I'd eventually fall to the back from stopping to take all these photos.

I think I was the only one not napping here.

I didn't take many pictures of the Quechua people...only a very few and very discreetly with my little black camera. I didn't want them to feel I was exploiting them (or taking their soul, as some believe). But I like this juxtaposition of the girl and the trekking pole...it's a reminder of the constant presence of foreigners like myself trekking through the mountains.

And we went to Machu Picchu...but I'll get to that later.

Comforts of Home

2011-09-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

I'm loving these fall days now, it's cold and dark in the mornings when I ride my bike to work (this morning, I saw a white rabbit by the light of a crescent moon) but when I come home after breakfast, sunlight streams in our many front windows. And in the late afternoon it catches this empty wine bottle that I filled with dried grasses. Such pretty grasses...from when Jess and I did some filming in a wheat field for the Settlers video the other day (coming soon!)

When I was in Chile I discovered that meatballs become extra yummy when you put curry in them. Also I've taken to shaping them in a big spoon, so they take on an oval shape. I think that way they are easier to make and also brown nicer and are less likely to fall apart.

with rice

The Food Farm had a big bin of peppers on sale, they were so colorful and pretty I had to get one of each color but I bought extra of the red ones because I hardly ever find them so cheap. Decided to roast them and jar them, because I happen to love roasted and marinated red bell peppers and they are expensive to buy by the jar.

Since we don't have a gas stove with an open flame, I broiled them on the top rack until they were charred on all sides. Perhaps not quite charred enough though; after steaming them in a plastic bag for about 10 minutes, I still found the skins didn't just slide off as easily as people say they should.

Skinned, sliced, and marinated in olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and garlic.

These peppers aren't properly canned to be preserved in the pantry. I only made one large jar, so it should keep in the fridge for several weeks and we'll put them in pastas, on pizzas and whatever else strikes our fancy. But I do hope to get into canning (especially when I have a garden someday), it doesn't seem too difficult and having your own canned fruits and veggies stocked up in the pantry for winter would be so worth it.

Blossom's bucket-o'-crab apples. Had a black bear in the yard munching on those the other day...she climbed up in the apple tree and wouldn't come down until the forest service came to relocate her.

Breakfast sandwich...my second time making poached eggs, I could still use some practice, but put on an english muffin with cheese, bacon, and sauteed onions and spinach, you can hardly complain.

Warm blueberry almond muffins...from that vegetarian cookbook that my mom gave Claire when she went through a vegetarian phase. I ended up with it and I'm not a vegetarian either but it's got some great recipes. I could stand to eat less meat anyway...

Cleaning up the kitchen I noticed this egg shell caught the light and glowed orange. Ok so maybe you had to be there but it was cool!

Making calzones last week with friends. My friend James is an expert at making pizza dough (he even does the flippy-in-the-air thing!) and so we made tomato sauce and asked each friend to bring a filling...italian sausage, garlic and onions, sauteed peppers, mozzarella, etc. Sooo good. I tried to get a picture of the finished product but the light was shitty in the kitchen.

And randomly, a picture of golden beets. I had never eaten many beets before I went to Chile, and there I ate them all the time because Anita would always fix them. But I'm still pretty ambivalent about beets by themselves. The taste is something I like but don't love and after eating them two or three days in a row I start to question the liking. I would like to experiment with them as a component in a larger recipe.

We found these golden beets at our farmers market and paired them with a creamy mustard sauce which was pretty good. I didn't notice a huge difference in taste but I think the golden beets are prettier and they don't stain your mouth/teeth or hands when you're peeling them which is nice.

Annnnd in another awkward food photography moment I asked Ian to hold his forkful of salad up to the candlelight because I have some fascination with illuminated things...not totally appetizing but stylish I think.

Road Trip

2011-09-18T09:39:00.001-07:00

Ian and I road-tripped through Wyoming and Colorado a few weeks ago to go see his family in Craig and Fort Collins. We stopped in Boulder to check out the college and on the way home did some camping in the Sinks national park where I took a few photos of the stars.

Breakfast at Blossom's

2011-09-04T12:03:00.001-07:00

This morning I made crepes filled with peaches and raspberries. Always a winning combo :) I think my two favorite fruits must be raspberries and nectarines, so peaches are a close second.

Spinach-feta-egg pudding with sunflower seeds and mint is always a crowd pleaser. Stacie made it yesterday morning with buffalo sausage.

Stacie's blueberry scones...mmm

Every morning we serve fresh fruit with honey yogurt and homemade granola.

Also this morning I made a frittata with goat cheese.

hungry yet? I am !

My Foodie Revival

2011-09-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

I did a bit of cooking while I was in Chile, but I was limited...by our tiny kitchen (actually, no smaller than the one we have now, but much less functional), by my food budget, lack of friends to cook and eat with (I think Graham just likes to eat), and by grocery stores filled with processed stuff and junky foods. Don't get me wrong, the farmers market was wonderful. I tried to be creative....I don't know, maybe these are lame excuses. But apart from fruits and vegetables, you just can't get the same things there. It's quite expensive too at the grocery stores, if I ever wanted to buy meat. I ate a lot of zucchini fried up with onions and chorizo (but chorizo there is not the spicy delight that I hoped for. It's rather like a hot dog), a lot of squash, and rice, and leftovers from Anita's cooking at the school, and one time I made these delicious curry meatballs with the spices that Ian's parents sent me.

Coming home, I was excited to get cooking again but worried about the cost of getting started. You need a kitchen stocked with all the essentials: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, spices, oil and vinegar, not to mention stuff in the fridge. But Ian salvaged all the non-perishables from our old house. So we had all that and more...pasta, tea, rice, soy sauce, bread crumbs. While I was in Chile, he single-handedly packed everything up out of that four-bedroom house (the last one to leave has to deal with all the others' stuff) and put everything we could use into storage.

I came back with no money in my pocket, but I had a ride, a place to stay, a bike, a deposit on a new apartment and things to put in it...best boyfriend ever.

Mushroom and goat cheese burgers at 6th street house. Ian and I stayed at what my mom calls the "co-op" for a few days before we found our apartment. A wonderful place with wonderful people...who were sadly out of town at the time

Oh this was taken in Colorado when Ian and I went there. Pictures of that to come next but I included this one since it's food. We made a strawberry rhubarb pie at his grandma's house and took it to a potluck at his aunt's house. I hope they were impressed, that was my first time meeting them :)

This photo is a tribute to one I saw a while ago on Grass Doe and fell in love with. Jonathan Levitt's stuff has been a big inspiration for some time now. That's Ian and those are eggs from the 6th street hens.

Blueberry Cream Scones in our new apartment. I sold them at our garage sale for a buck a'piece, with lemon icing on top.

Making them in our tiny kitchen, this is all the counter space I get! But it's beautiful, black and white tile work from the 30's and same in our bathroom.

When I was finally reunited with my waffle maker we made these at 6th street house. The raspberries were not stellar (but Ian's parents' were, holy cow!) but I liked the blue plate and the wood counter.

BnB, Clancy

2011-09-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Blossom's Bed and Breakfast celebrated it's 100th birthday (I mean, the house did) while Blossom celebrated her 60th. I whipped up some cucumber salad and grabbed my camera as I thought Blossom might like someone to document the event. The Big Sky Mud Flaps played (with Beth Lo, my former ceramics teacher) so we danced, had amazing food and beer and sangria and a great time. I took a lot of candid shots of guests perhaps not worth uploading here but this one was really lovely because the light was just right.

Nevaeh (Blossom's granddaughter) glowing in her party dress.

And I gave Ian the camera so I could be in one of the photos.

I also decided to start taking my camera to work. There is far too much delicious food being made there to not be photographed. And I remember a time in the fall when the neighbor's laundry was glowing in the sun and I didn't have my camera with me. I should really take it everywhere just in case.

After making breakfast in the morning, I caught some of the flowers in the light.

Blossom's mudroom is always filled with flowers. It's got lovely huge windows to let the light in, and the kitchen has a large window looking into and through the mudroom, so this is what I get to see when I'm making pie crusts.

But as it turns out, it's really difficult to fix a multi-course breakfast for a bunch of people and find time to photograph the food too, and still get it on the table in time nice and hot. The light is a bit low in the kitchen too so I think I'll need a tripod. But Blossom agreed that we need to take more photos, and so I offered to come in when she and Stacie are cooking to photograph their work. I'll actually be doing that tomorrow morning so they have some photos for the BnB website and blog.

Going back home now...Ian and I went to Clancy a few days after I got back in the US to catch up with family. My laundry drying in the backyard, and below, a rhubarb pie I made.

I started working on the table here in Clancy but finished it in Missoula.

100th post and our table

2011-09-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here is it, my long-awaited 100th post! ha.

Way overdue actually, I've got tons of photos and stuff to talk about. But I will try to sum it up over the next few days. I thought about starting where I left off, with photos of the tea party and our trip to Peru and all, but I think I would rather start with today.

Today I finished painting our table.

Mum and dad had this sitting on their porch. It was the perfect size for our little dining nook and they graciously said 'take it!' It was dirty with some scratches and nicks, so Dad helped me strip the top and prep it as a painting surface. I should have taken some 'before' photos. It had a geometric stencil design on it from the 50's, in each of the four corners, nothing too exciting.

But it appears as though it was painted on the raw wood because remnants of the design remained even after we stripped a few layers off the top. So I designed some birds that would look pretty and strategically cover up the other stuff.

I decided to make them all different, sort of to represent different cultures or continents. An eagle for North America, a crow for Africa, a condor for South America, and for Asia...an Asian-looking bird I know not the name of. And to tie it all together (because why not?) a celtic knot design that Ian suggested. Then I put the flowers he bought at the farmers market right in the center and it looks oh so pretty with the light coming in that window...I love this apartment!

Asian - influence

Home at Last

2011-08-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Been home for about two weeks now, but also have been sort of busy...finding a new apartment, going to see the family in Clancy (my nieces have gotten so big!), looking for a job, trying to upload photos from my trip but my computer has not been cooperating, I think I will manage it tomorrow perhaps using Jessica's awesome huge computer. Ian and I found a great apartment downtown, it's close to a lot of things so I can easily walk or bike to Blossom's where I've been filling in making a few breakfasts and cleaning. We have a very wee kitchen but are going to make the most of it. Also are broke but happy :) Pictures to come tomorrow I promise.

Stopover in Santiago

2011-07-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

Checked in to Hostal de Plaza de Armas a few hours ago. A lovely hidden place on the sixth floor of a building with great views of the plaza. Will only be staying here for the night before catching a bus to the airport in the morning, and we will be in Calama by late afternoon. If all goes well, tomorrow night we will be gazing at the desert stars through a telescope and talking about the planets over mugs of hot cocoa. Muy emocionada exclamation. I can not figure out how to make apostrophes or other symbols on this keyboard.

Was quite sad to leave the school though, I know I will get to go say bye one more time but it doesnt really register with the kids. I cant blame them, theyve seen so many interns come and go and they have short attention spans as it is. So when you first say you wont be seeing them anymore its Awwwww why do you have to go but then they soon forget. Especially with all the tea party excitement that was going on. It was so crazy getting it ready but it turned out great. I didnt have time to upload pictures, just that video for now. And the other thing I didnt mention is the painting I did last minute for their playroom. Its a little kitchen scene to go above their little play sink... a window and some cupboards. So the last few days I did nothing but paint and help out at school but managed to finish it in time and Roni and Milton loved it. Something for them to remember me by :?

chao for now

Goodbye Tour

2011-07-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

pictures from this week

2011-07-03T12:57:00.001-07:00

Here is the dollhouse I made with Josefa in our private art / English class. It was a lot of fun and turned out so cute. We actually didn't get to finish it or have a proper goodbye as her mom canceled our last class yesterday :( and next Saturday we're heading to Santiago where we'll catch a flight to Calama.

Last week I went to Valparaiso three times to experience once at a few different cafes. There was a week-long competition going on in the city for the best once, so a lot of restaurants had special meal deals. In Chile most people don't really eat dinner, they just have a late afternoon /early evening snack called 'once,' which usual

ly consists of coffee or tea, bread or toast with toppings, and eggs or maybe a sandwich and some cookies. So it's kind of like our version of brunch.

On Friday night I went with Graham and Rocío to Cafe Sabor Color on Cerro Concepción. We arrived there too late to have once but stayed for dinner. I had some baked quinoa dish with crusty cheese on top. A bit more pricey and fancier than the other places we saw, but delicious. The next day I stopped by my friend's house (which is a little yarn boutique in front) to show her Ian's sweater, and then climbed up the hill again. Café con Letras was closed but somebody redirected me to Café de iris which is on a paseo (how to say that in English? It's a wide pedestrian passage overlook) overlooking the lower city streets and the ocean. A cozy hippie-ish place reminding me of a few coffee shops back home. Apparently the restaurant itself is the owner's living room, which explains the homey atmosphere.

So the first picture is my once at Café de iris. I nibbled on the cookie's leg but stashed them in my purse and opted to try the cake, which was surprisingly light and wafer-y. The sandwich was some sort of egg-salad and for my latte flavor I chose plátano-coco which was sooo good. I hadn't had coffee for five months!

On Sunday I went again with Rocío, this time to Café del Jardín, which holds the official title of best once in Valparaiso. It too was delicious and the setting is so charming and cozy. We had tea and grilled cheese sandwiches and tiny slices of Brazilian chocolate cake.

Last weekend was my first time in Valpo at night up in the cerros. I had only been there before when we went clubbing the first few weekends I was here, down in the dirty stinky flat streets. But in the hills, there's a whole different atmosphere late at night. The streets were actually crowded with people visiting the various cafés and artisans shops, which had put on special light displays as part of Noches Luminosas (kind of like First Friday). Noches Luminosas was only created a few years ago, just an extra way to bring people in who might not have known about the bohemian cerro scene in Valpo. It doesn't mean that the rest of the year nothing goes on up there....it just means that for three nights, the storefronts are extra sparkly :) And, there are some extra perks and free samples. On Friday night we wandered into Café del Jardín and were directed to the back, where a door led out into a tiny room where dozens of tiny candles were lit, with a ceiling open to the stars and a table where we could try all different kinds of tea. I didn't even need to drink it, I could have stayed there all night just smelling the coconut tea and warming my hands on the cup.

So that was my nighttime adventure on Cerros Alegre and Concepción.

It's true that this so-called bohemian neighborhood is also expensive and touristy, but I'm glad to see so many locals making a living on their art. And they're happy to show you their workspace too, if you speak a little Spanish.

A few more random photos of Valpo.

Beagle - on - roof.

Lookie what I found! This is actually in Viña.

Thief in the Desert

2011-06-27T10:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Klaus Teuber!!!!! I didn't know that until just now, the Settler's of Catan facebook page told me. What a super cool coincidence as I filmed my clip this morning.

Menacing thief...

or demure desert lady?

It was so nice to get away from the city for a while. Miles of ocean to the left, miles of sky above, and nobody around to bother me as I prance around the dunes in a thief costume taking pictures and videos of myself. Yeah...I only have a few friends here, and none of them understand Settlers. Or want to be seen with me. Graham is too afraid of looking silly to let go and have a good time. He is, without a doubt, the ultimate party pooper. If you're looking for someone to rain on your parade / poop at your party, I can give you his contact info.

Prepare to be examined!

2011-06-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've been browsing online for Missoula jobs and apartments, the two things I will need most when I come back in August. Nothing is for sure yet but I hope I'll be able to work part time at Blossoms again. And I applied for this free-lance online writing job sort of on a whim, although it sounded quite scammy, I was attracted by the idea of getting paid to write about things I like to write about anyway for free, right here, to no one in particular. The site is examiner.com, there are thousands of "examiners" writing for them on all different topics, the vast majority of them getting paid mere pennies for their articles. Slave labor, or free publicity?

How Much are Examiner.com Writers Making?

They asked me to be the Missoula "couples cooking" examiner. I applied for that one because I love to cook with Ian and I had resolved to document all our adventures in the kitchen anyway, remember that was one of my new years resolutions. I don't exactly have a journalism background (neither do many of the examiners though, and there's very little editorial oversight) but I do know a lot about food/cooking in Missoula. I've worked everywhere from the college food court to little coffee shops to a fancy bed and breakfast, also frequented most of the restaurants, grocery stores and the farmers market, never resorting to tv dinners or top ramen even when I was on food stamps. So there!

I'm going to look into it a little more. It's not a job really...more like getting perks for writing blog posts. So if I don't go into it expecting to make a living, why not?

Then I guess you could also argue why. Would it look good on a resume or just stupid? Is there any chance it could open doors to more jobs in the food media? That would be pretty awesome as I'm very obsessed with food lately and would love nothing more than to spend my days cooking and eating and getting paid to write about it.

Some random things

2011-06-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Pictionary.... what the...?

art space

estamos haciendo un circus! Con Naomi y Natania

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Cementerio N˚2

2011-06-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

Frutas Exóticas

2011-06-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

I went a little fruit crazy! At the market yesterday I bought whatever fruit I could find that I'd never tried before. Actually will have to do this again next weekend because when I was leaving I saw some more cool looking fruit but I couldn't carry any more since I also had veggies, cheese, olives...love the feria!

Cactus fruit, or prickly pear, or tuna. These are most common in Mexico and apparently quite tricky to harvest but of course the prickles have been removed from these. I hear the red kind are yummy but I've only seen the green ones at our market here...well, apart from a few that are dappled red in spots. They have a thick skin, cut off the top and bottom and make a lengthwise slit. I didn't find it super flavorful but it was refreshing. The seeds can be crunched or swallowed. Interesting to eat plain but I think I'd rather have it in an agua fresca or jam without all those pesky seeds.

This one's called a pepino, and it's native to Chile. It's sweet and tasty and melon-like. Actually I think it's also called a tree melon, although it grows on a bush. Beautiful on the outside, yellow with purple stripes. I read somewhere that they're ready when the skin is deep yellow and you should store them in the fridge. Although not the most flavorful, this one is my favorite so far.

Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, then peel it and eat !

This baby banana is lonely without it's brethren! But soon after this photo I consumed him so I spose he saw some of his friends in my tummy.

Oritos...baby bananas! They're sweeter than regular bananas, and the peel is very thin. They fall off the bunch so easily. Super cute and super tasty, I believe these are from Ecuador. I think I've seen them in the states before, maybe?

Papaya can be peeled like the cactus fruit but the insides are considerably more goopy. The seeds are dark and have a spicy aftertaste, almost like black pepper. But the white flesh is incredibly flavorful. It's like bursting with squishy fruity flavor but then you get the crunchy pepper taste...it's the weirdest juxtaposition.

So upon further research, you are supposed to scoop out and discard to goop/seed mess (unless you want to save the seeds and grind them into pepper), then peel the fruit and eat the stuff between the goop and the peel. It just seemed like there wasn't much material there. I wonder if this papaya I got was ready? perhaps it was overripe.

Apparently a lot of these fruits are used as folk remedies...especially papaya, the vendor at the market told me all sorts of stuff it was good for. The only one I can remember is digestion. But I also read that it has contraceptive properties.

****turns out that was a different variety of papaya, not the big ones you´ll see if you google papaya. But they don´t have those kind here. Roni said these little ones are just for cooking. How or into what I´m not sure.

Ok I just threw this in there because how pretty. Reminds me of Claire the errant pear :)

Thursday

2011-06-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Cotton Candy

2011-06-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is my newest knittin project. The pattern is called "mystic" © kim dolce although I call it cotton candy because I'm using this pretty baby blue cotton yarn from Argentina. yummm. It's cold here but I'm resisting the temptation to knit a sweater, which I know I will not finish before I leave. This will be perfect for summer in Montana.

Kate or Katie

2011-06-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Should I allow more people to call me Kate, or start insisting that they do? I've had several people tell me they like it more, it's more sophisticated etc. Is that like switching from Johnny to John or Bobby to Bob? How and when do you make such a switch? Kate has always been something that my family calls me and it feels weird for anybody else to say. Except for one of the families I tutor here, and for some reason I'm ok with that...maybe because they never knew me before. Anyway, just a thought.

Sunday

2011-05-29T14:08:00.001-07:00

oops..this one is badly gimped

An ancient eucalyptus tree

Today es Día del Patrimonio en Chile. A celebration of Chile's cultural heritage. Throughout the country towns are hosting events and opening museums and other sites for free. I don't think it's a huge deal, because I asked some of the Chileans I tutor if there was something special going on this weekend and they didn't mention it. But nevertheless there were some neat things to do/see today in Viña and the surrounding area. I opted to take the metro to Quilpué this morning (and I'm glad I did because by the afternoon the sun had gone away). They were giving free tours of this vineyard in the Marga Marga valley. Actually the tour was really short and it was more of a guided walk, starting at a museum near a school and ending at the old hacienda/winery. I picked up on some of it but it was all in Spanish and I think I was the only gringa. Still, the countryside was beautiful.

May

2011-05-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is not my bed but it is my room and the light caught my attention.

below...quail eggs! So cute, so yummy. I found them in the supermarket here. Apparently they're big in Spain too. They have a higher yolk to white ratio.

Whats new...

2011-05-27T19:36:00.001-07:00

Gosh time is passing quickly here. May is almost over already, and the semester ends July 8. Graham and I bought our tickets for Calama (from Santiago) July 10. We got a good deal for round-trip coming back the 27th. I head back home from Santiago on the 28th.

I'm planning out trip now, we have three weeks. The idea is to hit up Calama and San Pedro de Atacama first, then cross the border into Peru and make our way to Lake Titicaca, and then finally to Cusco and the Sacred Valley/Machu Picchu before turning around back to Calama.

Instead of doing the classic Inca trail, we're doing the Lares trek which is slightly lesser known but very similar (there is so much hype about the Inca trail but there are several other alternative hikes that take you to the same place, also the classic Inca trail gets booked very quickly way in advance) I met a girl here who did the trek recently and said it was beautiful. I'm so excited because we will get to see waterfalls, hot springs, llamas, and traditional weaving in the small villages in the Lares Valley.

Speaking of which, I finished Ian's sweater! Well, I just have to block it. It fits me great and I wore it to work this morning. A perfect guard against the frigid damp fog that hangs over Viña.

Also finished Claire's birthday present and shipped it off. So Claire, take a picture of it when you get it and I'll post it here...hope you like it :)

Tuesday

2011-05-17T11:12:00.001-07:00

I received a package today from Ken and Karen and wanted to say thank you sooo much! The spices smell delicious, I can´t wait to cook something up. And chocolates from the Parrot...I´m so spoiled! I hope it didn´t cost too much to send it here. I was especially excited to see some jelly beans and those little triangle chocolates which are my favorite. I have stashed them away and will try to make them last.

By the way have you received a postcard from me yet?

I´m on lunch break now but have to head back to school for the afternoon. Chao!

Postcards!

2011-05-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sending off my second batch of postcards. Already sent one to Mom and Dad, Ian, Jess, Grandma and Grandpa, and Tara.

Now to Claire and Josh, Jeremy, Tyson and Susanne, Jonathan and Kim, Marika, Mary, Blossom, and the UM Art Department. Ashley and Matt are next but I need your address!

You guys should be getting these in 20 days. Sorry for the wait!

Breakfast for Dinner

2011-05-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

It's 9:21 in Chile and I just finished my dinner, a fried egg and toast with cheese. As I ate I was reminded of all the Sunday breakfasts my dad would make us growing up. I felt that if I were a poet I would compose a poem on the spot, titled something like "Ode to My Father" or "Ode to Sunday Breakfast" and it would have lines about the sound of butter sizzling in a pan and the feeling of satisfaction I get from rupturing the yolk, so the yellow lava oozes out to soak the toast and mingle with the sharp cheddar cheese. Thinking about it now I'm transported back home. From my room at the top of the stairs I could hear all the signals that the day was starting, but still would lie there in denial for 20 minutes or so until I could smell that breakfast was ready. Then shuffling down the stairs, "oooh, waffles!" or "breakfast burritos? Mmmm." I might as well have been a princess. The table all set with plates, napkins, all the necessary toast toppings, sliced fruit, juice. Even sugar to sprinkle on our grapefruit. My parents didn't feed us processed foods or cheap sugary stuff, but we didn't waste time counting carbs or calories either.

Maybe that's why I find myself obsessed with good food...it's wrapped up in family, conversation, comfort. Love, tradition.

Being primarily the breakfast chef, my dad would make sure we drank our juice and ate our quota of fruit slices (the grill was also his specialty, although both of them were entirely competent in all aspects of food production.) My mom would make sure I knew where the recipes came from, when I hung out in the kitchen helping her make meatloaf or spaghetti. She kept a little wooden box full of recipe cards scrawled in my Grandma's cursive and stained over the years with age and various food spills. A lot of them were passed on from some distant aunt or neighbor or friend from the country club in Wisconsin....titles like Lou's lemon bars orBarbara's seven-layer salad. Then there were also some ethnic things like stir-fry (a Goodman recipe) and curry from my Dad's side of the family, which his parents picked up during their years living abroad (teaching English!)

She taught me how to decode their 50's recipe slang, and when I write recipes today I use the same shorthand, substituting some of my own symbols.

The other night I had a dream that I owned my own BnB. It could just be telling me that I miss working at Blossom's, or maybe that I should make food a bigger part of my future and share the love with everybody. At the very least I'll always share it with friends and family.

la carnicería de los choritos

2011-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Although I have been picky about seafood in the past (nothing too chewy or fishy) I figured now is the perfect time to get over it...when I can get fresh mussels for $1 a pound!

And they're so easy to make! This was my first time eating them. Steamed them for a few minutes in butter, garlic, onions, white wine, salt, and pepper. Also, french bread to soak up the juices. So simple, so delicious.

Day trip to Horcón

2011-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

On Easter, I attempted to dye some eggs using beets. The plan was to boil raw beets with the eggs to turn them red. But Anita always makes beets for lunch at school, and she always gives us leftovers...problem is they go bad in two days, and I'm getting tired of eating beets. So I boiled these eggs with already cooked beets. Not as effective but I did turn the white eggs yellow somehow.

If it seems I always photograph things on this windowsill it's because our apartment really doesn't get much light except for there, and I'm sans tripod.

Mmmm reineta. Por fin! Best decision of the weekend...spend some money eating out at a nice restaurant instead of going to a smoky club.

Nudist sector: that way. In fact this beach hasn't had a nudist sector for quite some time. We were the only people on either part of the beach.

Playa Cau Cau in Horcón is set between some rocky outcrops. It's a beautiful little cove, but unfortunately in recent years a condominium development has sprung up on one of the nearby cliffs. I made sure to crop it out of my photos.

My Song Book etc.

2011-04-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

Amelia's awesome artwork

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

Me gusta cocinar

2011-04-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today I made sopaipillas! They are traditionally made when it's rainy and cold, especially the first rain of fall or winter. Today is such a day so I used up the zapallo squash I had to make some dough and fried them on the stove. Sopaipillas in South America are different from the ones made in Mexico, although equally delicious. Here they eat them either savory or sweet with cinnamon and sugar, manjar, or ketchup, mustard, or pebre which is a yummy Chilean salsa. Yesterday I got one from a street vendor for 100 pesos (like 30 cents) just to try it but these are much better.

And this is a random picture of my breakfast last weekend, yummy hangover omelette.

It's a Rainy Day...

2011-04-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

...it's a rainy day.

It's raining outside and I can't go out to play

so what am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do anyway....

I'm going to go for a walk to see if that bakery I like is open. I'm going wear my raincoat and splash around in the rain and sing "What is the weather like?" because that is what we sing at school. Coincidentally, the bakery is not open, nor is anything else, because of semana santa. However, the supermarket is open so I buy some chocolate eggs.

They don't dye easter eggs here, or do the whole basket thing, but they do hide chocolate eggs. I'm going to boil and dye some eggs though, and try dying them with beet juice and other natural things. Tomorrow's project...if it continues to rain like this.

When in Chile...

2011-04-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

...do as the Chileans do?

...and feel awful the next day. Last night I went home early by their standards (2:30). They have this drink called a terremoto, so-called because supposedly it hits you like an earthquake. It's made of wine, pineapple ice cream, and some sort of hard alcohol.

On this kind of Sunday morning I feel like I'm a freshman in college again, having had coconut rum for the first time last night, sleeping in late (but perhaps not so late that you miss the waffle bar at the food zoo) and feeling bitter about the beautiful day because you've already wasted half of it and will spend the rest of it doing homework.

So I'm checking that regional specialty off my list and changing my slogan to "when in Chile, know your limits" or something to that effect.

La lámpara y la frutilla

2011-04-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

El Jardin Botanico

2011-04-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Knitting Update

2011-04-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

A view of Viña from Recreo last week when I was waiting for a colectivo to take me back. It was so foggy that day you couldn't see the ocean.

Er not the best photos but they will do in a pinch. Above: my finished tank top.

Ian's sweater is coming along nicely :) I tried it on this morning. That cone of yarn is huge but it means I can knit the whole thing from start to finish without tying in a new ball of yarn. So I won't have a bunch of ends to hide! I'm calling this sweater "Hoods are for Hippies" because that is what he said when I told him I was making a sweater with a hood.

Peru etc

2011-04-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I need to start planning my excursion for mid July. I have two weeks and I hope to make it up to Peru and if not see Machu Picchu, see the next best thing. It might only be a matter of money, but if I can get more people to come with me it will be cheaper and more fun! If anyone is reading this and wants to come please please email me kannehilmer@gmail.com

That means you Uncle Max and Aunt Heidi! It will be worth it. Once in a lifetime!

Knitting Excursion: Valpo

2011-04-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Went to Valparaiso with Cindy on Thursday on a yarn-obtaining excursion. We first went to a yarn shop on Bellavista and I bought some pretty purple stuff with which I plan to make slippers. It's a little more difficult to find what you want because they keep all of the yarn on shelves behind the counter, so you have to know how to ask for it. Also, it's only measured by grams, not by meters or yards.

Then Cindy showed me another little souvenir shop/yarn place. In the back it doubles as a hostel and the woman's workshop. She showed us her work, beautiful weaving.

A little kitten plays with some spare wool on the floor.

She gives weaving classes twice a week, and apparently they're free, so I 'm going to try to go next Thursday or Sunday.

And here's where she sells yarn by the cone. I was looking for something worsted-weight with which to make a sweater para mi novio. I picked out a skein of navy blue wool and she told me it was merino, lo mejor de todos that she had there on the floor. It's warm, it doesn't itch, you can wash it, etc. Perfect! I bought the whole cone for 9,000 CLP and she said I might have enough to make a sweater plus gloves. So Ima start knittin tonight.

Dog Watch

2011-04-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few more on the streets of Valparaiso.

Variosas cosas

2011-03-28T17:32:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Just starting to get the hang of teaching now at the school. Today I would call a good day. Last week, not so much! And who knows about tomorrow.

The kids have been making some really great artwork. I'm going to sneak some pictures of it to post. Also, I finished my knitted shirt! So pictures of that to come too...after Wednesday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I am always busy...from 8 am to 8pm with school and a Spanish lesson. On Thursday, Cindy and I are going yarn shopping in Valpo.

Also, I finally started tutoring on the side. My first private student is a graduate of the preschool, she's seven. I think it's going to be a lot of fun as we are building and decorating dollhouse together (out of a sturdy cardboard box) as a way to practice English grammar and vocab. As for the other students, we'll soon see. Some are kids, others are adults. I'm taking tips about teaching from Roni and from our Spanish tutor and from online, and of course remembering what I learned from Claudia through Ontesol. But every day I'm finding that experience is the best teacher. It's cheesy pero es la verdad!

Also have made some new friends, Chilean and American and German. We played some drinking games with piscolas (pisco and cola, like a rum and coke) on Saturday night and then went to a club in Valparaiso. Of which I do not remember the name. A good time was had by all y antes de acostarme tomé mucha agua para que no estar enferma el próximo día. Still it's hard the way they do it here, not going out until 2am and not coming home until 5 or 6am. If you go out one night, you sacrifice the next day to recovery.

Also discovered a really delicious empanada shop and a place where you can get really yummy bread - pan integral they call it, wheat bread with different seeds in it. Yum yum yum.

Gum Bichromate in Valpo

2011-03-24T07:13:00.001-07:00

On my first visit to Valparaiso, I stumbled upon this artist's workshop/gallery space. At first I thought it was a printmaking shop...but they're gum bichromates! And all from digital photographs, printed on linens.

Hooray for alternative photographic processes!

The artist was not there, but the assistant happened to speak English, which was helpful since my Spanish is still a bit shotty. I told her that I had done some gum bichromates in college, but we had used several layers to create full color images. It looks like he just uses one or two.

I'm definitely going back here to ask more about his work (at the time Tyler was waiting outside, and also I was being shy). I wanted to buy one too (they're not too pricy) but couldn't be rushed.

How funny to stumble upon this in Chile.

I wish I could be an artists assistant while I'm here. But in a way I'm assisting little Chilean artists. Someday one of them might have a gallery in Valpo.

To check out the artist: his name is Alberto Lagos and he has a website at albertolagos.blogspot.com

Dog Watch: Valpo

2011-03-17T16:13:00.001-07:00

Chile has a big stray dog problem (at least the Valparaiso region). They're literally everywhere...at the beach, outside the grocery store, even sleeping in the median on a busy street. Dogs and cats are featured in a lot of work by local artists. If I took a picture of every dog I saw, I could easily make a 365 page calendar: the dogs of Valpo and Viña. At the moment I'm semi-seriously considering it.

Valparaiso Street Art

2011-03-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

A few of my favorite works spotted on the streets of Valpo. It seems to me like there is a lot more respect for people's work...you don't see layers upon layers of tags and graffiti, unless on a designated graffiti wall. I think most of these works have been here a long time. Like whoever tags a spot first has insurance that their work won't be messed with.

But I could be wrong about that.

Ok.

2011-03-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned, you can't always trust a pattern. My lovely shirt was way too small. I ripped it all out-three weeks of work. I should have tried it on sooner, but it's a hassle to put it on a long thread and then back onto the circular needles. And I did check my gauge, which I almost never do. Neither apparently does the girl who wrote this pattern, and it was only afterwards that I looked in the ravely forums and my suspicions were confirmed...a number of things wrong with the pattern which is just sad and frustrating. Still, I'm determined to make this and do it right, and I'll warn Tara before she starts hers.

Anyway, this weekend has been so nice and sunny, and we spent both Friday and Saturday at the beach. Sand everywhere afterwards...in my hair, in my ears, in my pockets, in my mouth (it was very windy) and now in my bed because it wouldn't come out of my hair.

Makes me miss the Clark Fork.

We were going to go out on Friday night with an Australian couple we met but a tsunami warning was issued and all of the businesses closed around 9pm. They (not sure who "they" is) recommended everyone evacuate to higher ground (300m above sea level) by 9:30, so a lot of people went up to the stadium on the hill. And a lot of people didn't. They're just taking extra precautions here because of what happened last year. So Roni closed the school, but she didn't evacuate her family either. The plan was to go up to a higher floor if the streets really started flooding. But we watched the news and it seemed nothing was happening so we stayed. At 8:30 I ran out to get some wine and munchies before all the stores closed but it was too late. So we stayed in and watched movies and went to bed and nothing happened. The waves were only slightly higher than normal, I heard the next day.

Today I'm thinking about tomorrow's lesson plans and starting my knitting anew. I cast it on again two sizes bigger and it's wayyy too big. wtf?

I don't want to talk about it.

2011-03-12T20:06:00.000-08:00

Tsunami Warning

2011-03-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

This morning we heard news of Japan's devastating 8.9 earthquake and the tsunami that followed. Tsunami warnings have been issued for southern California beaches and along the coast of Chile. School was cancelled today as a result, although I read that Chile's president asked for things to continue as normal. If a tsunami hits, it won't reach us until around midnight.

Coincidentally, today is a beautiful day, and how perfect that we all have work off. I would so love to go to the beach but I'm not sure if we're supposed to steer clear of it. Might walk down there anyway just to see if anyone else is there.

First Images of Valparaiso

2011-03-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Cemeteries on nearby hill Looking north towards Viña A big barge thing?

*Good news! I figured out the keyboard shortcut for ˜. ñ. Viña! Viña del Mar! Concón.

Apparently Valpo can be divided into two areas: the sprawling flat city zone and the hills to the west. There are many different hills and each is like its own neighborhood, with valleys in between and to get from one to another one must either go down to the streets by the ocean, or up high to the only connecting road, Avenida Alemania, or take an acensor, if there is one.

Big cities can be overwhelming! I've never lived in one or visited for an extended amount of time. Let alone a foreign city. Now that I've sort of got a feel for how the city works with the hills and the ascensors, I'll definitely be going back. There is so much to see! So many stairways, alleys, shops, art galleries, and everywhere you go, amazing street art.

This is one of the ascensors. Not like the chair-lift type gondolas I originally imagined...

The ascensors are lifts that take you up a hill or down a hill or connect you to another hill (cerro). The cerros and ascensors have different names. They actually don't take you that far, although if you have stuff to carry or don't want to exert yourself on the steps, they're well worth it--the one we took only cost 100 pesos, about 25 cents.

In the distance you could see parts of Viña and even the sand dunes of Concón...way across the water, maybe you can see it in one of these pictures.

I took a bus to Valpo with Jessica's friend Tyler who's visiting from Wisconsin, since I had the afternoon off while Jessica had to be at school. We just spent a few hours walking along Avenida Alemania and stopped at a cute little restaurant around cerro Concepción for some sandwiches. By the way Tyler and Jessica are both fans of Settlers (this the object of our discussion while we walked around) and I'm really wishing I had a copy of the game here. How crazy that two out of the four gringos I've met here are fans. If you count Roni and Cindy that's six gringos I've met here. But I've seen/heard a few others, and yesterday we ran into some Australians and exchanged phone numbers. Don't get me wrong though I would love to meet and hang out with some Chileans. I think Rosio and/or Coni will be up for it sometime soon.

Oh yeah and Cindy is the new intern on Mondays, she's living here with her husband who has a job here although they are from New Mexico. She's super nice and helped me get through my Monday. And she knits! Just when I was thinking I would be needing some yarn and knitting needles really soon, but how to get them because I don't want to buy a new set and it costs a lot to ship them and it takes time and couldn't I just find some local knitting group but then there's the language barrier because I can speak a little Spanish but knitting lingo in Spanish?...then came Cindy, who said I can borrow her needles anytime. So awesome.

Canela, Nuez Moscada y Manzanas

2011-03-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

Spices come in little packets, and I found some whole nutmeg in a package with a little grater included. It was too cute to pass up.

Plus, I wanted to make a stovetop apple crumble because the apples I bought Graham at the farmers market were a little too soft. I just crumbled oatmeal cookies on top. Granola type cookies are big here.

Concón

2011-03-06T08:05:00.001-08:00

After lunch yesterday, we took a bus to Concon, just 15 minutes up the coast to the north. We hopped off when we spotted the giant sand dunes and hiked around them for a bit. You can even rent boards to surf on the sand...like snowboarding (maybe next time I'll give it a go). On the other side we found the ocean, and whipped out my binoculars (thanks, Brook!) to take a look at the sea lions who were chilling on the rocks. They were much too far away to see in a photo.

Here we went to the viewing point down below, where the waves crash against the rocks and long ropes of seaweed whirl around in the foam. I believe this is a viewpoint for the colony of sea lions, but it just so happened that they were camping out on some rocks farther south and we actually had a better view of them from the sand dunes.

I don't know who these people are, but I thought it made a nice picture.

I've got an idea to go back to the dunes and film a little clip for the Settler's video. Thief in the desert?

Market and Fish Tacos

2011-03-06T07:39:00.001-08:00

I take back what I said about Vina not having graffiti. I have since seen a ton of cool street art, but have been too nervous to take pictures of it...justifying my nervousness by saying I'd come back later on a sunny day. I know, that graffiti may not be there another day. But I was in a sketchy area. I will though, I promise.

I did take some pictures at the market yesterday. It's packed full of people on a Saturday morning. The vegetables are so pretty and yummy smelling.

We bought some fish at the market and made fish tacos with Jessica's friend Tyler who's visiting from the states. The fish we used was called "merluza" and it's a cod-like fish which I guess is also known as hake.

With avocado, cilantro, lime, onion, red pepper, so tasty.

hello distant family!

2011-03-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

I heard from my parents that my uncles and aunt and grandparents are following my blog (and maybe some of them interested in visiting?) I'm so glad to hear it because I don't have your email addresses...the way I sent out my goodbye email was by typing in the person's first name in the send field and then usually their email shows up...but if your name isn't in your email, or if I don't have your email, of course you wouldn't get one. I need to get those from mom and dad, and make a habit out of communicating regularly with my more distant family members. Family is really important to Chileans especially. I could take some hints from them!

If you want to shoot me an email yourself. It's kannehilmer@gmail.com. I'd love to hear back from you because this blog is just one-sided. Although I did discover I had a few comments and was able to read those just now. I really do have more than three followers! They're just not registered as "followers".

Current Knitting Project: Green Leaves Tank

2011-03-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

My first knittin project while in Chile. I had just a few rows started when I got here, and I've made a lot of progress since then. Pattern courtesy of Breeanna Sveum

Tara is going to knit the same pattern when she has the time, but I think she has her hands full planning a wedding! And even knitting a wedding dress perhaps...wow. She's a crazy kick-ass knitter. She gifted me some waffle socks right before I left, so I wouldn't miss American food (such as waffles) so much. They're cozy and comforting.

About Chilean Food

2011-03-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

As you may know, I'm a big fan of Chow. I have made it my home page so every time I log on I'm inspired by delicious recipes, cooking tips and food news. I love the pictures...it's like instant gratification. Mmmm that looks delicious. I'm making it for dinner tonight. At home there's nothing stopping me. Lately though, I can only drool. The refrigerator seems to be working again here (thank god!) but our sad little oven does not...at least not well enough to bother, Milton said. I am going to try it one of these days though. Or maybe I can even be creative with the stove top (fry bread?) before I submit to a 5 month sentence of no baking whatsoever.

It's not completely true though, that I can only drool at the recipes. I have access to a stove top, and I have basic cooking utensils. I have a local farmers market. There are possibilities here...just different options. Yesterday I noticed Chow's new chicken breast challenge, and I would love to tackle that. I think Ian and I could come up with something pretty good, maybe not prize-winning but it would be fun. A few weeks ago he made me dinner, some sort of vegetable tomato sauce over noodles that was really yummy...and then later I discovered he had made the winning recipe of the vegitarean recipe challenge. So nerdy and awesome that we're looking at the same thing.

For the record, I love that I can look at a picture and go get the ingredients and make it, but we don't always do it that way (at home in Missoula). We also work with what we have and look for recipes with those ingredients, or use a recipe as a rough guideline, improvising...easier, cheaper, less waste. So food waste doesn't often happen as a consequence of leftover ingredients from recipes calling for small amounts of a lot of different things. It happens-in a house with four roommates-when we all cook separately and stuff gets pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten about. Anyway, that's a sort of defensive side note, since I recently read an article about the causes of food waste in America.

Still, sometimes when I see a yummy food picture, I have to go for instant recipe gratification. And in the rare case that we can't eat all of what I make, I call it to Jeremy's attention.

Anyway, I have to let go of that mentality and get into Chilean cooking mode, working with what I have. I spent some time today reflecting on my food experiences so far and researching traditional Chilean foods...as well as other people's experiences with Chilean food.

Some characteristics of Chilean food (I've read about and confirmed by some experience):

-Salt. A lot of it! Chileans take in an estimated 10-12g of salt per day, almost twice as much as is recommended. The Chilean Ministry of Health has actually launched efforts to reduce the national salt intake. Apparently they are in the habit of putting salt on already salty foods. And (Milton just told me) the bread here is made with much more salt than in the US.

-Sugar. A lot of it! You'll be hard pressed to find some juice in the supermarket that doesn't have "azucar" as the second ingredient. Chileans have a sweet tooth. They have a lot of crappy, cheap sweets and junk food. But they also have a lot of good sweet things, if you go to the right places- the pastelerias.

-Mayonnaise...is it like their Ranch? At some supermarkets you will see huge sections devoted to mayonnaise in large pouches. Their version of a hot dog with the works, called a "completo", comes with diced tomatoes, onions, avocado, and is often smothered in mayo.

-Lemons/Limes. Here it seems they are one and the same. I bought some lemons and the market and half of them turned out to be limes. They put the juice in their salads, and soak fish in it for a dish called ceviche which I'm dying to try.

-Oil. I have heard they use a lot of vegetable oil, and it's true they seem to use a lot in salads.

-Bread. Chile is the second largest consumer of bread in the world (after Germany). Apparently a Chilean meal without bread is a crisis. It's always available at the school at lunch time, although we usually get so full on beans, rice, or pasta that we don't eat it (and from what I hear that's not normal).

-Fast Food. If you only look at Chile's food on a surface level, you might only see fast food. Everywhere you'll see signs for completos. Another popular dish is chorrillana: french fries topped with meat, onions and fried eggs.

-Lack of Spice. I've heard several complaints about the lack of flavor in Chilean food...people even call it boring. I like to think they're not eating at the right places, but it's true about the lack of spiciness. While salt is a necessity, pepper is hard to find, and there isn't much tolerance for spicy flavors.

Now although I said I hadn't seen any overweight people, obesity is a problem in Chile. Supposedly 62 % of the population! Maybe I'm just not seeing it because those people aren't hitting the beach.

Is it the fault of the US, for sending over McDonalds and Burger King? But Chileans have their own fast food chains too. The problem more likely stems from large supermarket chains, which sell a lot of cheap, processed foods. They're convenient for low-income families (and thats where obesity is a problem, just like in the US). And although Chile produces a lot of fruits and vegetables, the best of those are being exported, leaving the supermarkets with crappy but expensive produce. Fresh, cheap veggies and fruits can be found at a local farmers market twice a week, but again, it's not the most convenient for busy families.

I'm not deterred by my findings. Most of my shopping will be done at the farmers market. I love to consume bread and I do have a sweet tooth, but I'm attempting to counteract those factors by exercising regularly. I still plan to enjoy myself and take advantage of the regional foods...each specialty must be tried at least once. Though I may ask for the completo "sin mayonesa".

Freezer Madness

2011-02-26T13:38:00.001-08:00

Today we are attempting to defrost the freezer. The fridge has not been working this whole time, so a lot of those delicious fruits and veggies, not to mention milk and cheese, have gone bad. This distresses me greatly, but we were told that defrosting the freezer might do the trick. The freezer works fine and they think there might be a chunk of ice preventing something or other from making the fridge part work.

In other news, the local supermarket in Vina carries those little silver balls we used to put on Christmas cookies when I was little. I was so psyched because I haven't seen them in the US for years, and I'm pretty sure you have to buy them online if you want them. They were pretty cheap so I bought a small packet of them. I guess they are called "dragees" and have been outlawed because they are just a little toxic. They actually contain silver so if you eat a heaping spoonful of them every day you might turn shiny like the tin man. But a few here and there never hurt anybody so ima stock up on these and take them back home.

P.S.

We have internet at our apartment now so if y'all want to skype shoot me an email and we'll make a date! Just remember I'm 4 hours ahead of you.

Trip to the Zoo

2011-02-23T15:33:00.001-08:00

I didn't take many pictures at the zoo for two reasons...I felt sorry for the animals, and I couldn't take pictures while I was constantly trying to catch up with three 6-year old boys who wouldn't listen and stay with the group!

This tiger was pretty cute though.

This reminded me of Gustav.
The zoo in Quilpue...looking out over the city. The zoo is built on a hillside.
It's a lot different from most US zoos.
It seems the cages are smaller but I don't know...I only went to a zoo when we were in Florida junior year of high school, in Disneyland. I like the more natural feel of this zoo, almost like a wilderness trail instead of concrete pathways. It's not shiny and colorful and in-your-face exploitation....but neither is it as sterile and safe...they had one small, dirty penguin (or relative of) and I saw several adult visitors reaching over the short wooden barrier to pet him. There are also a few stray dogs and a lot of little stray kittens running about, in between bars and even one little kitten napping in the bear's cage.

But then, zoos are just depressing in general.

The kids gather for a snack.

One World

2011-02-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

They have a rabbit hutch in the outdoor play area

and a little turtle pond with three turtles.

This is the path leading to the garden/play area

and this is the art room, where I will be doing most of my teaching.

beach ventures

2011-02-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

Soo as you can see I'm not so good at the movies. I get dizzy when watching them. Should probably learn to hold the camera steady!

This is the beach two nights ago...every night actually. So many people! The water is warm, like a pool.

So yesterday morning I went back there at 7 am...no one there. I had it all to myself and thought maybe I could run from one end of the beach to the end of the other beach. Haha. It's quite a long stretch. And...as I discovered, running in sand is hard! So I ran/walked/speed walked. Today my legs are really sore. Also because we went to the zoo with the kids today and that required a lot of trekking uphill. And we always walk everywhere around town every day to the store to the beach etc. Sore feet, sore legs! But if I can muster it, I'm going to try again tomorrow morning with the running thing. Perhaps on the sidewalk this time.

Ocean, meet Camera.

2011-02-23T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ooh!

2011-02-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hey look what I did, I figured out how to upload videos directly to my page :)

This is a short messed up video, it's the Part 1 ...

Recap

2011-02-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

I made it to the airport in Santiago Thursday morning tired, sweaty and buttsore from sitting so long on three planes. Had a little confusion as to where I could take a bus to Viña, but I eventually took one to the bus station and from there another to Viña (a two hour ride). I saw a lot of neat graffiti on the short bus ride through Santiago. Ian I wanted to take pictures of it for you but I will have to go back there later. Not as much graffiti here in Viña, just random little tags. (later...I take that back! It's just not in my neighborhood)

I managed to call Roni at the station in Viña and she came to pick me up. We went straight to the school. What a neat place! I think I can safely take pictures later this week when the kids are gone and we're preparing for the new semester. Right now is their summer, so a lot of the kids that are here today are technically graduates from last semester and in a week they will be going to kindergarden. Their last day will be Wednesday, and we are going to the zoo!

Since then I've been getting settled in, trying to get comfortable going out and buying groceries and stuff. We are provided with a nice little two bedroom apartment (as seen in the videos below). The other interns this semester are Graham and Jessica, and I'm rooming with Jessica. She's actually spent a year in Chileworking at a public school in the South so it's nice to have someone who sort of knows the ropes. She's from Wisconsin, Graham is from Colorado...and I found out Roni is originally from California. For all practical purposes though, she's Chilean. Her husband Milton was originally from Ecuador and he's a great guy, always willing to come over if we have any trouble with our gas or hot water or getting locked out...

And he took me to the farmers market. Holy cow. I have never seen so many fresh fruits and vegetables in one place, and for such good prices. He filled three huge heavy duty plastic sacks but I had to restrain myself and only fill one sack. I bought raspberries, nectarines, tomatoes, lettuce, fresh basil, corn, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, bananas, and zucchini for under $12 usd. And I thought Missoula had a good farmers market (we do...but can't beat these veggies)! And when you walk into the market, under those big canopies, this wonderful smell of fresh produce envelops you. It´s aromatherapy.

I don´t think I will be eating much meat while I´m here. There is a fish market sort of separate from the farmers market, but I don´t know my fish lingo very well even in English. Plus, that market is sort of the opposite of aromatherapy, to my spoiled american nose. I would like to go there eventually, but I´ll have to know how to navigate it well because I´m picky about seafood.
The same goes for the meatcounter at the supermarket, although I think I will hit that up before the fish market. I´m not sure yet how to order what I want...and the other things is how difficult it is to start the hot water in our apartment. Maybe not so difficult, but expensive at least. Roni said Chile has been in a sort of energy crisis, so we try to conserve. I´ve only taken one warm shower so far...if it´s cold, it´s quick too, so that saves water and heat. Anyway, cooking with raw meat means cleaning with hot water and that´s another hassle. Not to mention my roommate Jessica doesn't much like meat. So there are a number of factors against me eating it while I´m here.

More later, but I´m going to wander around the school until lunch time because I´ve been on their computer long enough.

Tour of Viña Apartment

2011-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hey! I'm here! in Chile...

I've been emailing my family and Jess and Ian but I have limited internet time until we get internet set up in our apartment, which should happen in March :) And then it will be much easier to communicate and set up skype dates with everybody. I did just manage to upload some little video clips of the apartment by spending a few hours at Starbucks! here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7oSiyMzb_M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIn6p2vfqM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPCRIvrWi68

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUC2wmcP4FQ

2011-02-13T10:06:00.001-08:00

This weekend was great! I had so much fun on Friday shooting the settler's video. I was surprised how many people showed up and really got into it. Thank you Jess and James (very professional shooting and sound-recording), Tara, Jeremy, Emma, Ed, Ian, Gabe. Jess made an excellent scary spice while Tara picked up Ginger's lines and Emma was sweet as baby spice, settlers style. We've been dreaming of it for a long time so I wanted to shoot it before I left because we won't all be together again like this, in this house. Editing will take a while but we'll be famous, just wait.

Maybe I'll get a still or too from the shoot to upload here.

And Saturday too was great. Lots of fun food and delicious people. I mean delicious food and fun people! I know I won't really be gone that long, but I got really sad for the first time when everyone was all together. I've seen Jess almost every day for almost nine years. She'll probably end up at grad school on the east coast. Matt and Ashley are moving to West Virginia, Jeremy and Tara to the Czech Republic (possibly). Are we becoming...grown-ups? I think it might be happening. But you might say otherwise if you witnessed our drunken behavior last night.

tomatillos

2011-02-12T14:17:00.001-08:00

Mythbustin in the Kitchen

2011-02-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

I love chocolate!

A while ago I was browsing Chow and came across recipes to make your own girl scout cookies. They come up with different names for them like "slim mints" vs thin mints, "fijis" instead of samoas and "left-behinds" instead of tag-alongs. Haha. They look oh so yummy and I am a sucker for girl scout cookies but the recipes require you to temper the chocolate, a complicated process of heating, cooling, and reheating the chocolate. ...It's how you get that shiny, silky chocolate covering on candy bars, chocolates and cookies.

It goes something like this:

Dark chocolate: Heat to 118 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit; cool to 80 degrees Fahrenheit; reheat to 88 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit.

Or according to another source,

heat 2/3 of the chocolate to 115 in a double boiler, t

hen remove from heat and add the other 1/3, cool to below 84, reheat briefly for 5 - 10 seconds, remove/sitr/repeat until it reaches 89 degrees.

I've always wanted to make my own chocolate sweets but was discouraged by "tempering". Still I would have tried it if the recipes hadn't called for expensive specialty chocolate - "discos" I could only get online. I don't mind putting a little extra time and money into my cooking experiments and I enjoy doing it when it makes the outcome that much better, but at times I'm skeptical whether it's really worth it.

Fact or Fiction?

"If you're planning on making dipped chocolates or molded chocolates, the chocolate will need to be tempered so that it behaves properly and produces candies that are both tasty and beautiful."

My chocolate-covered strawberries turned out tasty and beautiful, and I only used a double boiler to melt high-quality chocolate (bittersweet and white) from our local natural foods store. I don't know why I didn't try the same thing with the girl scout cookies sooner. So do I really need to temper my chocolate?

I guess it is all about getting the cocoa butter crystals to align nicely. Supposedly, if you do not temper your chocolate, you will get dull, streaky results, and your chocolate will not have a nice snap to it because the fat crystals melt and lose their shape. All chocolate is tempered when you buy it (my bulk chocolate didn't look tempered, but it was sure snappy, so I dunno), and it loses temper when you melt it. Tempering re-forms the crystals and puts them neatly in place. Hence shine, smooth texture and snap!

I have a feeling that I would not have gotten great results with Hersheys. Who knows whats in that stuff that might mess with the process.

I took Chow's recipe for slim mints and did not temper my chocolate. Also added extra peppermint oil and made the dough by hand rather than food processor (extraneous experiment factors). The results: lovely, shiny, only a few little streaks and bubbles...

...BUT not snappy!

If snappiness is important to you, temper your chocolate. Otherwise, I believe you can get the look and the taste you want

by melting good chocolate in a double boiler on low heat. Bittersweet and semisweet is probably the way to go because it has less sugar and milk-solids. If you're making banana pops or chocolate covered strawberries, the chocolate will be snappy anyway because it's frozen or refrigerated. (why the orange underline here? I can't get rid of it...)

Oh, and those cheap "dipping chocolate" discs you can get at JoAnnes? My mom and I made suckers out of those when I was little. They do not need to be tempered because the cocoa fat has been removed and replaced with a sort of oil. Hence the flavor is a little different, sort of weird taste. It's chocolate that's been stripped of it's natural components, like decaf coffee beans. I love learning about this stuff! Thank you, internet.

I think I will try tempering next time. More research seems to show that you don't really need specialty "discos" to do it, just high quality chocolate. Some sites say the process takes a lot of patience and practice, but I've since found some that say you can even do it easily in the microwave or the oven. I'm optimistic.

New Camera

2011-02-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

My new point-and-shoot came in the mail yesterday. It's a Pentax Optio W90. I sold my Canon A630 on Ebay because I wanted something that could fit in my pocket and didn't take AA batteries. When I was researching recommended compact cameras I came across this rugged, waterproof one. Recalling how many times I dropped my canon point-and-shoot, and how many times it would've been cool if I could takeit in the water or not worry about rain and snow, I decided to go for this little rugged camera. I think it will be really nice when I head to the beach or go for a hike and don't want to lug around my DSLR.

So we played around last night with the "smile detector" mode. It detects a smiling faces and takes the picture when you smile. The only problem is it's a little delayed, no faster than if I were to press the shutter button when I see my friend smile. There's a lot of weird unnecessary functions on the camera, but a lot of really handy ones too, and I love the whole waterproof to 6

meters, shockproof to 5 feet, freezeproof to -10 degrees C.

pictures here in a minute...

Wow I just discovered how to arrange images in a post!

See, it detected Ian's smile too late and made it awkward. ---->

Jess and I put the camera in a bowl of water, set the timer to 2 seconds and smiled, and it detected our smiles through the water and took a picture.

Sooo lesson learned? Smile function is sort of useless, but tossing camera in a bowl of water is fun.

Autumn Slides

2011-02-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

Some scanned and cropped images I took with color slide film in my Nikon this fall. Ian and I went camping up Bass Creek and I planned on making a viewmaster of our excursion. I finished off the film at Ian's parents house taking pictures of their plants.
Each of these has a twin - one for each eye to make them 3d in a viewmaster reel - but I just chose the better one and cropped them to a square because that's how they'd look in the reel and it's how I composed them, as little squares within a much larger 35 mm frame. The quality is not great since I scanned them 4" wide and then cut them down further. But it's alright for blog purposes.

What's left of the pie we ate at a roadside diner. I wish I could say the pie was great, but we could've made a much better one. The place was kinda cute anyway.

We stopped by this house with a sign : fresh eggs for sale. No one answered when we knocked on the door.

2011-02-08T10:16:00.001-08:00

Just a note for everyone I just sent emails to who might check this out. You can leave comments on my blog but only if you sign in under your Google, Yahoo, or Twitter. Then you become a "follower". Kind of annoying but if you want it's easy to sign up. I'd love to hear your comments. But we can also just do that through email.

ONTESOL and MRP

2011-02-08T08:34:00.001-08:00

I've just graduated from my TEYL Course :) I received full points on my final lesson plan which was quite exciting since lesson plans have been hard for me. But I've improved a lot and it's actually fun to plan lessons for kids. Now I just have to put them into practice and see how I do! 8 days until I leave. Only five more shifts at work.

Here's another artsy thing to catch up on. My friend Marika asked me to design a logo for her boyfriend's rugby company, Mellow Rugby Pirate. They had a description of a peg-legged rasta pirate playing rugby with a parrot on his shoulder, in an orange jersey with black shorts. This is what I came up with, and I made a few different versions. It will go on business cards and I'm not sure what else...hopefully T-shirts and other paraphernalia.

The Giraffe House

2011-02-06T21:57:00.001-08:00

When cleaning out my room and packing my things away I came across this film and had it developed. Black and white images I took last summer at an abandoned house in Missoula, with Jeremy and Ian.

Kitchen Adventures

2011-02-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking. After graduation my enthusiasm for art projects dwindled somewhat...hey, it's easy when you're being driven by professors and inspired by like-minded artists all around you and when you're in that learning, creating environment where all artistic resources are at your disposal...Don't worry though I suspect this is only a lull and that's probably normal, healthy, etc. I still have ideas and plans. Anyway, since then I've been more inspired to make art in the kitchen. What with my job cooking at the BnB, a lot of time on my hands and boyfriend/roommates to cook for (and food stamps at my disposal), plus our local library's wonderful selection of cookbooks - and the internet! - I think I've become a foodie. I actually first realized this when I had my interview at the Loose Caboose. They wanted to know what I was into, and I told them I liked to cook and had been making a lot of pies lately. I think it was key lime pie Ian and I had made the day before. Malcolm said, "You're a foodie, aren't you?" His wife Karen is a wonderful cook and owns a restaurant in Hamilton, I believe. Ooh and they made the most wonderful carrot soup at our Halloween party. I should get that recipe before I go.

By the way, one of my only regrets about working at the Caboose is not winning the costume contest. I think I had a good shot at it, but we never voted on best costume! I was a lion...

And I'm getting way off track! So this last fall/summer we made a lot of good food here in our crappy little house, and I should have photographed it all and well, but I only got a few mediocre photos, and I want to share them. My new years resolution is to take pictures of all my food adventures. Henceforth I want this to be a blog about not just art but my life in general, and food is a big part of that. And food is art. And I will probably photograph food when I eat out too, like when I visited Claire in Italy and kept a gelato log about all the wonderful gelato we eat and where we ate it and what flavor it was.

At this point I only have three followers, and I doubt any of them read this blog. It's more of a journal for myself. But I think and sort of hope that more people will read it to keep up with me while I'm away. It will be easier, like talking to everybody at once. I'm a little embarrassed for everyone to read this journal blog thing - it's self-centered and unpolished! But if I were really that embarrassed I'd polish it up.

Not the most perfect sushi rolls, but delicious nonetheless. Ian's birthday last summer.

Not my creation, but Jeremy and Ian made crepes for our birthday (Jess and me). Actually this was over a year ago. So yummy! They surprised us in the morning.

Chocolate covered strawberries I made for our anniversary

Baclava for our greek potluck! This was my first time making baclava and I brushed every sheet of phyllo with melted butter with one of my Princeton brushes (for lack of an actual basting brush) So good but so rich and sweet you can hardly eat more than one piece! This photo does not do it justice.

Lovely meringue...I think this is banana cream, or maybe key lime :)

Making a bechamel for squash lasagna, I think...

This is just cute...Gustav gets a little bit of haagen daz

P.S.
You'll have to excuse my grammar and punctuation, but my thoughts are often rambling and so it just turns out that the writing is too.

Packing my Suitcase...

2011-02-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

Always knew I wanted to travel, many a suitcase I packed on pretend adventures when I was younger. Now I am going to Chile for 6 months! I won't be wearing something quite this fabulous though...I no longer expect or wish to become a princess. Some things never change, other things do.

Catching up - Images from last summer

2011-02-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

To be uploaded here....the few images I took this summer continuing my old themes. I no longer have access to photoshop :( I've got Gimp, but it is just not the same. Fine-tuning my photos now is a bit frustrating.

January 2011

2011-02-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

A glorious stack of birthday pancakes made by myself and Ian ! 1/8/11

The sunset when we went sledding a few weeks ago.

10 x 11 mm

2010-05-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

I took some pictures through the Viewmasters so what you're seeing here are the 10 x 11mm mounted slides.

I feel I'm starting to exhaust this project...at least these particular photographs. Time to move on, summer is here!

BFA Gallery shots

2010-05-03T15:40:00.001-07:00

I will try to dig up those photos that were taken during the opening of all the people looking into the viewmasters.

BFA install images

2010-04-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done an update, but I find myself now with a little more time on my hands since the BFA work is finished and the show is up. Here are some images of slides before I cut and mounted them on reels, and some installation shots. I'll post images of the final product later

Some of my BFA images.

2010-03-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

AHH!

2010-02-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

Last night I spent some time in the library tweaking 9 of the stereo pairs. They turned out beautifully! I especially love the black and white ones in 3D. Just nervous because Ian said it hurt his eyes a little bit. Are they only perfect to me? But when I took of my glasses it definetly strained my eyes. So maybe you have to look through it with good vision. Jess said it looked good. off to catch a bus weeeeee!

Family Tree

2010-02-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

Some images of my panels in the UC Gallery

Bernices

2010-02-03T20:53:00.001-08:00

Just got back from Bernices where I was hanging my black and white photography. I took some of the same from the Java U first friday (couldn't manage to produce a completely new series with all these exhibitions happening at once, and they hardly got any exposure at Java U so I think that's ok) and then some more recent ones of the so-called giraffe house and even some from way back in high school that I thought were pretty cool but had never shown before. I think they all go well together, and I'll be taking pictures to post on Friday.

First Friday at Bernices, 5pm - ? oh and I bought three dozen cookies for the opening, and I'll probably bring pretzels or wine too. Speaking of pretzels I can't stop munching on them this week. They're what gets me through Art of the 20th century from 4 to 7 on Tuesday nights. And right now, I haven't had dinner yet...

Anyway! I'm glad to have that finished. And excited for the opening. I love Bernices. It always smells so nice in there, and everything they make is delicious. I think it's a little different too because you get a different crowd, and more of a crowd I'm sure, than say the Dark Room where on a regular day you wouldn't see the gallery unless you knew it existed and asked to be let into the downstairs gallery. But a lot of Missoula goes through Bernices in any given month. During the summer I ride my bike there at least once a week to get iced tea or pasta or a cookie. In the part of my mind where I secretly want to run a bakery someday and be an artist on the side (if just art can't pay the bills), my bakery looks a lot like Bernices.

So please come check it out on Friday :)

Collective (show in the UC Gallery)

2010-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the opening of our Artist Collective show in the UC Gallery, courtesy of Nancy.

NCUR, National Conference on Undergraduate Research

2010-01-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I found out that NCUR was being held at U of M this year, of all places. I applied last minute thinking hey what do I have to lose, and this morning Cathryn called my name among the list of accepted, although I haven't received anything in the mail (or email) that I know of...but apparently I'll be one of the presenters, and I'll be showing my BFA work! I'm still very surprised and confused but here's some information I found:

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research is the largest such symposium in the country bringing together 2000 undergraduate students from all fields and disciplines.

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity in all fields of study. This annual gathering welcomes up to 2,600 scholars and their faculty mentors from all institutions of higher learning in the United States. NCUR creates a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement.