Sunday, August 24, 2008

Geek Band - BBQ 2008

"And the band played, songs that we had never heard, but we danced anyway..." - Deana Carter

The ITD band performed on Thursday for our annual barbecue. We enjoyed ourselves and made a few goofs, but all in all, everyone enjoyed the performance. In case you didn't know, I'm the lead singer. We just added 2 new members between our U. Way performances and the BBQ. We now have the most ROCKIN drummer and an amazing keyboard/pianist. We tackled some very challenging songs - heavy guitar parts, leading bass, blues, country, folk - we tried to reach a little slice of everyone's musical tastes.

Sadly though, our recording is less than stellar. We had fantastic equipment, but the recording was last minute. So, please forgive us for the low quality. But, we hope you enjoy.

Set List:

Set 1---
1. Keep Your Hands To Yourself (not recorded)
2. Little Green Bag (not recorded)
3. How Sweet It Is (not recorded)
4. Stuck In The Middle (not recorded)
5. Safety In Numbers
6. House Is Rockin
And here's the video for Set 1:


Set 2 --
1. Brown Eyed Girl


2. Closer To Fine


3. Crusin


4. Poison Ivy


5. Hound Dog


6. East Bound and Down

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Millions of Peaches... and Nectarines

Cooking - yes, more. But the YUMMY kind.

So, over the past several years, I've stated many times that I do not enjoy cooking for myself. Well, I'm now eating my words - and my delightful kitchen experiments. Something in me has changed. I've finally relaxed enough to enjoy my own company. I still don't enjoy cleaning or doing the dishes. I had been avoiding the kitchen, keeping it messy on purpose. I'd have no reason to cook for myself if it was a mess cause I wouldn't want to go in there. Well, it's still a little bit of a mess.

On to the Peaches (and Nectarines). A couple weeks ago I discovered all the Nectarines I brought back from east of the mountains were NOT ripening. And, on top of that, I had LOTS of them. So, I cut them up, pan fried them with some juice or jam or something. I wrote down the recipe, but don't have it handy. Well- that was the beginning of my love affair with grilled Nectarines.

Tonight, after grilling my chicken and fresh green beans, I decided to grill a peach and a nectarine. Below is the experiment and ingredients. While I used it as a dessert, you could also use this as a Sunday morning brunch idea. It would definitely add to the Stonewall Kitchens Gingerbread Pancake mix - not sweet but super yum!

Double Vanilla Maple Pear grilled Peaches

1 Nectarine*
1 Peach*
2 Tbsp Ikea Vanilla Sauce (ja!, Ikea)
2 Tbsp Stonewall Kitchen Maple Vanilla Pear Butter (use this on your pancakes and you won't go back to maple syrup!)
1 Pinch Cinnamon
1 Smidge Cardamom (use sparingly)
1 Dash Freshly Grated Nutmeg (get the grater that looks like a UFO - it's the BEST!)
1 Pinch ground cloves

Cut fruit in half. Place on grill (if done after cooking meat it will often take on the flavor of the meat - I like this!)
Grill for say 5 min or so. Keep an eye on it - the more ripe the fruit, the lower the cooking time. (I put mine on tinfoil on the grill and they still stuck to the foil - a wee bit of butter would have done wonders)
Put the grilled fruit on a plate. Drizzle w/ Ikea Vanilla Sauce. Place a small dollop of the Maple Vanilla Pear Butter on each fruit half. Evenly disperse the spices over each fruit.
Serves 1 hungry person or 2 mostly full and sated, but dessert needing people. Enjoy!

Note: all measurements are approximations
* Fruit may be used at any ripeness point - grill longer if it's less ripe & be sure to test along the way
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"And She Had Stars In Her Eyes...

... As She Bid Him Adieu!"

I had an "art date" with a fellow artist friend of mine. When I arrived, her husband, an amazing baker, made us dinner - burgers with mozz, tomatoes, and home-grown basil. Delish! Then, as I discovered, my friend is quite hooked on the Olympics and has been catching them at her neighbors place. So, we caught a few olympic swim races - Mens 1500 and Mens 400 IM Relay. Wow! Way to go boyz! Honestly, I'm super glad Tunisia won the 1500 and super psyched about the US winning the 400 IM relay. Phelps was AMAZING!

But, I digress from the art at hand. When we got down to the business of arting, I was introduced to her studio/her husband's gaming space. They have decided not to "paint" the room (new house to them and they're working wonders as the make improvements). As such, they've offered each of their honored guests an opportunity to draw or write on their wall. So, I snagged a pencil and was searching the walls for inspiration and the "right" location.



Turns out, I was inspired by her Shakspearian quote. I sketched this lady peaking out from the words bidding each person farewell as they depart the door of the room. And, as I was divinely inspired, I wrote about the stars I drew in her eyes. My friend gave the final word approval as Adieu doesn't translate from French to English with the same finality as Farewell. As such, the woman I drew is "giving a parting gift to the man she's so much in love with, yet knows she will merry meet him once again!"
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Thursday, August 14, 2008

PDA - Public Display of Art

I've taken to sketching in public. It's really fun to get "lost" in the crowd. Yesterday I was at "the Mall" getting some style back into my recently lifeless hair. And, I decided to go for food at N-Cafe. Always a good choice.

So, I've been working on the seductress look in my sketches lately. And my recent inspiration is slightly bored, letting her cig slowly burn down while she waits for you to make your move. *Sigh* I'm working on some really silky looking hair. And covering one eye is a MUST.

The waitress was a doll! She admired my sketches and promptly asked me to sketch her. I learned that she's talented in crochet while her sister makes amazing jewelry. While I don't feel ready to sketch someone in front of me, I'm happy to sketch for someone. As a parting gift, I drew on the "thanks" card given at the close of every sale. If you look at the smaller sketch in the image to the right, you'll see the hair style/face view mimicks the "Cigarette Seductress". I'm totally having fun with it!
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Squash Blossoms from a *VERY* Happy Garden


Tonight I feasted on veg from my garden. I've 4 different types of tomatoes, volunteer pumpkins, lettuce, kale, and beets. The pumpkin plants began when I left a rotting pumpkin in the flowerbed and didn't get all the seeds. Cowabunga! My whole garden has gone BONKERS. Tomatoes are 7' tall AFTER pruning. The squash patch has completely covered my walkway and has grown to a 6' radius. I'm still getting lettuce - in August!


My striped tomatoes are the first to produce (seen in the photo). They are amazingly full of flavor and ever so slightly salty! Very satisfying. I bought all my tomato plants at Whole Foods as 6" starts. Heirloom variety. I'm saving these seeds!


So tonight I made up a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms:
1 pkg chopped Prosciutto
1/4 # blue cheese
A dash of maple yogurt (brown cow of course)
A bit of left over jam (mint, kumquat, and raisin)
1/4 cup of cream cheese
1 box of onion ring batter
Several Squash blossoms (preference)

Except the Squash Blossoms, Mix it all together in a bowl.
Put it in the fridge for an hour to "marinate".
Stuff the blossoms and place on a cookie sheet.
Follow the instructions on the onion ring batter and dip the stuffed blossoms into the batter.
Ever so lightly fry in a deep pan of olive oil. I prefer to keep the oil shallow.

*Note* I used 8 squash blossoms because that's all that was available on my vine. I had enough stuff left over to make 32 blossoms. I think next time I'd add shredded zucchini and carrots to the recipe. It was a wee bit salty - could also use a little more sweetness.

I'm the QUEEN of dash and bit - especially when it comes to filling in the gap in a recipe or tossing in the "last bit" of something from the fridge. Experiment. You may discover something amazing!
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Hot Rod a Rama 2008




Clockwise, starting w/ top L: Larry's rig pre paints/ink, pin-up inspired by my hair-do & amazing car @ the show, T&A all at once pre-water/ink, Dave's gasser inspired by Dave's posing!

Hot-Rod-a-Rama was even better this year than last! I spent the entire week+ before the show making 5 shirts (2 for B(an)3 and 3 for me). It was rather cold on Friday and I just ended up wearing my cute.a.full psycho 60's skirt w/ Grandma's tatted lace. B(an)3 went nuts over her shirt and wore it Fri & Sat. It fit amazingly! Way to go Amy Butler - I'm now a convert to her patterns. Saturday I wore my cirque sweater, flowers & aminal print (yes, I know I wrote aminal), with my skulls and flames princess seamed tank beneath. Unfortunately I got so jazzed about photographing the cars for future inspiration that my camera battery puked before I got any photos of my outfits.

But, Saturday I picked up my pencil and A2's and went to town sketching. I ended up meeting some interesting guys - got to ride/drive some cool cars and had PLENTY of amazing inspiration. My hat's off to everyone who worked so hard to build/mod/create their cars for this show. I'm inspired. There is SO much creativity invested and these folks have such artistic eyes. WoW!

This weekend there are a couple fun things happening - Lifter's is putting on South Tacoma Alley Rally and also the Seattle Tattoo Expo. I may be attending both. I've never been to a tattoo convention and have recently been very inspired by tattoos. Yes, for the first time in my LIFE, I have considered getting many different tattoos. This, my friends, is a first. We'll see if I still want one a year from now. It'd be very cool to do some for dance - you know, undulations and all.

Then, in a couple more weeks the IT geek band will be performing for the annual BBQ. We've got a set of 12 covers - my fav being the Big Momma Thornton version of Hound Dog. So, now I must come up with a costume of a sort, being the lead singer and all. Plus, for our U.Way performance I dressed as a Bond Girl (yeah, I'd just transferred to the division and within a week was performing in the band - shy, me?). I'll be recording the performance w/ my camera and plan to see if anyone else has a good video recording equip.

Oh yes kids - it is a BUSY summer! Did I mention I'm also growing a veggie garden with 6-8' tall tomatoes and mass amounts of pumpkins for fall? Never dull, never dull.

Good Guys 2008


Inspired by the tail end of an Impala Wagon, I sketched this lovely backside while crusin' shotgun in a Chopped & Tubbed '71 Datsun w/ a 350. She's no one in particular - just a figment of my crazy imagination. One of the best experiences I've ever had at a car show ... Us 2 chicks, her driving & me ridin' (my friends hubby let us roll in his truck). Awesome!

Now I just need to figure out what kind of hot rod I want to buy. :) They're so ... there aren't even words. I found many that would be perfect for me... The only deal is that I see a car as an extension of my personality. And, since I'm so eclectic, how the heck to I pick a hot-rod?!

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