Just a quick post to say I’m VERY curious about this week in daytime TV. And only because:

November 12, Thursday, Rachael Ray hosts Martha Stewart

November 13, Friday, Martha Stewart hosts Rachael Ray

I don’t like Rachael Ray. There, I said it. I was trying to be diplomatic, but we all have our preferences! But I do love Martha. I’ve been a fan for years. So, I’m kind of really excited to see how these episodes go. I hear that there’s no cooking on Rachael’s show, just talk—Martha dishes about her love for rap music and taking pottery classes in prison (I’m laughing, because I probably would, too!). On Friday, Martha’s showing Rachael how to make a decorative pie top with leaves made of dough (watch out!) . I can’t wait to see these—crossing my fingers that E. will be able to TiVo the eps for me!

I am often asked, “Why is handcraft so popular?” I think that handcraft is popular right now as a reaction against a whole slew of things, including our hyper-fast culture, increasing reliance on digital technology, the proliferation of consumer culture, and even war. …

For some people, sustainability is a part of their handcraft practice. Other people want to see a project through from beginning to end, something they don’t get to do in their daily lives. In their jobs, they do one part of producing something and they don’t do the other parts. In producing a handcraft project, people can see something from start to finish and then have a material product that they can use themselves or give away. Even though we all have frequent access to the internet and are able to communicate with people through digital media, we are still sensual beings. We need to maintain a tactile relationship to the world.

Sabrina Gschwandtner in Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design, Levine/Heimerl

Remember my niece Thérèse? Aside from the tutu I made her for her birthday, I also made these chocolate and vanilla teddy bears to add to her goodie bags. They may look cute, but these were…er…a bear to make! But that’s only because I insisted on taking my time with their features, and I always bake myself into a corner when I decide to make some things! They took me two nights to make (after work, for about two hours each). I made 24 bears in total. Crazy, I know, but kids turn one only once!

I took the idea from the Land O’ Lakes website to make a basic butter cookie dough, and tint half of the batch with melted chocolate.

Here’s one fresh out of the oven! Nomnomnom.

After cooling, I packaged one of each kind of bear (some had vanilla bodies and chocolate arms/legs, or the other way around) in clear cellophane. To tie close, I used some contrasting pink yarn that I already had in my stash. Also stuck a label in the back about the celebration that I had preprinted earlier. In pink letters, of course!

All ready for the eating!

When was the last time you bit into a bear?

Hope your week is sweet so far!

Went To My Brother’s Art Show

I was so proud of him! His piece is a triptych called “Routes To School.” It’s a rendition of Google maps of the Victorias Milling Company compound in Negros Occidental in the Philippines, where we grew up. I can make out where our schools were and the house right next to a small airfield that was our home for many years. Woot for my brother!

Other scenes from the show:

“Filophile” runs through December 20 at JAUS. Details HERE.

Took An Eye-Opening Quilt Class

This is my first improv-pieced quilt block. Notice the wonky lines and triangles? It’s the first time I’ve ever pieced this way, and it was scary—but very liberating. The Urban Craft Center on Main St., Santa Monica, is always such a great place to learn, but even more so because my teacher, Alissa, is an awesome resource for all things improv. (She makes jaw-droppingly creative quilts! Admire all her gorgeous handiwork on www.handmadebyalissa.com.) I’m so inspired to branch out and explore this unchartered territory. I hope to turn this piece into a finished project by next Sunday’s class, so stay tuned for what it will turn out to be!

Made A Yummy 15-Minute Stir Fry

With the resolve to eat healthier, I’ve had to think of ways to work with chicken breast, and quickly, too. A trip to Trader Joe’s yielded this package of ready-cut stir-fry veggies (a hodegpodge of napa cabbage, carrot strings, brocolli florets, snow peas and celery), with E. finding this teriyaki marinade. Was a bit wary of it the bottled stuff, but read good reviews online (not too bad on calories and sodium, either). The result was a surprisingly delicious, healthy meal in no time. And leftovers for lunch!

And that was my weekend. How was yours?

Congratulations to W., Jedi, Wild Thing and the awesomest brother in the whole wide world, on being part of the indie-art show Filophile, which opens tonight in West Los Angeles! (Yes, that is me in Princess-Leia buns. Taken before the Star Wars Convention in ‘07. Geeks will rule the world some day.)

Filophile
Featuring: Aaron Dadacay, Charmaine Felix-Meyer, W. Don Flores, Christine Morla, Gina Osterloh, Chris Sicat

JAUS—Artist-Run Gallery Space (1943 S. Westgate Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90025)

Opens Friday, November 6, 2009 7pm to 10pm, runs till December 20

JAUS is very pleased to present Filophile, an exhibition featuring the work of 6 Filipino artists from Southern California.

…W. Don Flores is a current student at the Santa Monica College Art Mentor Program. W. Don Flores (Ateneo de Manila University, B.S. in Psychology) manipulates images found on Google Earth, and paints abstracted mental maps which collide personal history, memory and geography in the global era. Flores equally draws from animé, digital weather maps, and packaging material as a source of formal and thematic inspiration.

Note: A portion of any sales of artwork from Filophile will be donated to Typhoon Ondoy relief efforts in the Philippines. If you’d like to help please contact: http://www.cdrc-phil.org/ or www.rockedphilippines.org.

More information on the show at the JAUS gallery website, HERE. (Click on “Exhibitions.”)

I am very, very proud of my Manong. To him I say, “All their base are belong to us!”

Our meals are rarely transitioned into as easily as soup on a winter day. I’ve begun wondering if this is because when a person eats alone, two eggs go a long way toward a respectable dinner. They’re filling, they don’t cost much, they come individually portioned, they’re actually protein (versus the cheap carbohydrates that fill most cupboards), and they aren’t much trouble to make or clean up afterward. Before we moved in together, I would happily scramble a few eggs, or make an omelet with a bit of cheese in the fold, and eat it alongside a handful of dressed salad greens, a toasted slice of good bread,  and a glass of wine if there was an open bottle in the house. Or, of the greens involved frisée, I might toss them only with vinegar, salt, and pepper, poach the eggs or fry them gently, and put them over the greens, letting their pierced yolks dribble down, acting as the dressing’s silky fat. The cheese could then go over the bread, be shown the inside of the broiler, and could be eaten as a bubbly, open-faced cheese sandwich. Bliss! That all this changes once there’s a second person at the table somehow caught me by surprise.

- The Gastronomy Of Marriage: A Memoir Of Food And Love, Michelle Maisto

The attempts at chocolate-molded skulls that you see above never made it to the public eye. And yet, here I am blogging about them! I do this because not everything that comes out of my kitchen is fit for public consumption, but in the past, I never even thought about showing them because I’m a crazy perfectionist. To a fault! And maybe it’s my age, you know, or the countless hours in the kitchen making stuff, but I’ve learned to be gentler with myself and be OK with my fumblings in flour. I’ve come to realize that the attempt at a project is sometimes more rewarding than the final outcome itself.

These awesome Day Of The Dead molds jumped out at me over at Bake It Pretty about a month ago. That site has claimed HOURS of my time online because of all their whimsical, cute baking supplies, from cool cupcake liners to retro-inspired packaging. When I saw this, I HAD to have it. Otherwise it would give me nightmares. Yes, I’m kind of obsessive about baking stuff like that.

When I saw that the site had these Clasen colored wafers as well, I put those in my cart, too. See, you can get a lot of melting chocolate elsewhere that’s brown, but never black. And their red ones were really vibrant, blood/Halloween red. I couldn’t wait for them to come in the mail!

I had the best-laid plans you know, I really did. I wanted to painstakingly paint the features on the molds, coloring different parts with different colors. Which I started to do, very early in the day. The plan was that I would make 24 of these things, and set them on top of some Pumpkin Cupcakes with Chocolote Cream Cheese Frosting. The cupcakes were going to be…LEGENDARY! (I’m channeling Barney Stinson for all you How I Met Your Mother fans.)

But then I realized, if I wanted these to turn out EXACTLY the way I wanted them, I would have to spend an average of 40 minutes (with cooling time in the fridge for the chocolate color to set up) on each piece. I mean, isn’t this gorgeous? It IS, but I think would have been 57 years old by the time I was done with all of them.

And this is where I think my kitchen attitudes have changed. In the past, I WOULD spend 57 years getting everything JUST EXACTLY RIGHT. No kidding. You see these cupcakes? They’re Dark Chocolate with Ganache and were for a friend’s birthday last year; I started making them at 8 pm and they took till 3 am, and I didn’t flinch. I was a zombie the next day, sure, but I didn’t back down.

But these days, I will make the best of what’s in front of me. I’m learning to DEAL. If it doesn’t work, I try not to cry into my dough and just move on. SUCH a big step for me.

So, I decided to chuck the whole chocolate-skull thing and make the just the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. And sprinkles.

And you know what? They were good. REALLY good. Light and fluffy, yet moist and full of that spice flavor so associated with fall. I got the recipe from HERE, and it’s different from all the other pumpkin cupcakes I’ve made in the past (maybe because it calls for cake flour instead of all-purpose?). Not dense, but airy and yummy and perfect with the creamy-sweet frosting.

So, that was my big Halloween boo-boo (oh, I think that was a pun, wasn’t it?).

I made those little things, stored them in the fridge for the next day’s trip to work and called it a day. I may not have had the chance to make exactly what I wanted, but at least I still came away with something. And from what the officemates told me, chocolate skulls or not, they were STILL legendary.

And you know, there’s always NEXT Halloween!