Happy Halloween!!

Go get yourself these cool Halloween comps from Oddio Overplay and have a great night!

tie one on - October!

The theme for this month was mixed media and my apron is done! Update: Gallery is up!

I worked my way through a ton of plans on this one, unlike the other two. Originally, I wanted to do potato prints of kitcheny icons. But, I couldn't find fabric paint in the colors I wanted, and I couldn't find fabric I thought was suitable for making the actual apron. So I had just about resigned myself to not doing it at all.

But then, on the way back from the symposium at Duke, we stopped to get gas and found this huge thrift store (where I bought a bunch of cookbooks and some baby clothes for Emily) -- and in the linen section was the perfect dishtowel for making an apron! And amazingly. still clean and white (it was from a linen service, and the others were all stained) So I brought it home and did a quick-and-easy dishtowel apron. But then, what to put on it?

The potato prints were out, I had never found the colors I wanted. At first I thought of doing a comic (maybe of someone making a recipe or something) but I realized I'd never have the time to write it, much less draw it. Then I got the idea to do a mini-version of our House of Fun classic series "Life's Great Rewards" (these strips are pages of small panels, each containing iconic things we love. Evan and I have both done them.) but I couldn't settle on which things to draw. As I was trying to make a list in my head, I realized I was mostly thinking of food. And mostly, food that started with a "C"!

So, thus was born this month's apron, "C Is For...". Drawn freehand on a dishtowel apron in marker (panels ruled with a piece of junk mail) and colored in design markers.

(photos link to larger images)

a few follow-ups

My September tie one on apron was made from a vintage towel with "Swedish Weaving" or huck embroidery on it. As it turned out, another tie one on contributor had a collection of similar towels and almost had made an apron like mine! She ended up doing some research on the technique and has some lovely photos of it here.

Evan's comic shop radar is still in effect; on our way home from Duke last week we pulled off the highway to find a Subway and a few doors down from the sandwich shop? A comic store. It's ridiculous, really it is.

You know those Target Halloween sodas we forgot to buy? Well, a kind fairy left some for us at our hotel!! So now we know what they taste like. And can I just say, "Ewwww!!" "Caramel Apple" ought to be called "Poisoned Apple", and "Candy Corn"...well, it didn't taste like anything but chemicals. At least Caramel Apple tasted of apple in a really nasty way. But thanks, kind soda fairy!! It would have irked me forever to not have known.

I heart kabocha

I love pumpkins, and I love winter squash. Recently, we've been trying out all the squash I'd never cooked before (spaghetti squash, mmm!) and finally I bought a kabocha at Mitsuwa a while back. I already knew how much I loved the seasonal kabocha wagashi and croquettes I got at Mitsuwa. And now that I've cooked the actual squash, I think that it just may be my favorite winter squash of all! So far, we have had the basic roasted/steamed side dish, a fantastic soup (no peeling necessary! fyi, I went with the mozarella on top), and I've roasted the seeds using this recipe (with great results, although I think I will try cumin instead of cayenne next time). I've also made kabocha yogurt for Emily about a zillion times and she loves it (as well as the plain cooked kabocha). Next kabocha gets turned into this recipe for simmered kabocha. Plus it's fun to say. Kabocha kabocha kabocha!

Last night I completely forgot to mention: I also made these cookies from a recipe I found online. They were pretty, but they tasted like cardboard. Rancid cardboard. I am on the lookout for another cookie recipe to try.

Oh, bento!

As someone who prefers to eat small amounts of several foods at any meal possible, I love bentos -- looking at them, eating them, thinking about them...and I have often thought about how much I would love to make them when Emily goes to school someday. (Of course, I doubt I'll have the time and patience to make fancy anime bentos like these!) But the idea of sending her off every day with a lunch that's attractive, fun and well-balanced really appeals to me.

My only hesitation was that it might be too strange for an American kid to take to school. As I read here, the experiences of kids taking bentos to US schools has been mixed. But then, I discovered the waste-free lunch movement, and the accompanying Laptop Lunch Box, and I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a weird idea after all. With bento-like lunch containers coming out here, by the time it's an issue I think it just might seem normal!

And then yesterday I came across the Vegan Lunch Box, which documents the (vegan, obviously) lunches packed every day by a mom in WA using the Laptop system. Great ideas, feedback on how the system works (and doesn't -- more lids are needed, I agree), examples of bento-style lunches of (mostly) Western recipes, and some idea of how well it goes over in her son's 1st grade class (very well, apparently). I'll be keeping an eye on this one and taking notes!

So, looks like Emily will get bentos and I get to have fun in, well, another 5 years or so!

More resources: fantastic bento photo blog from Mizuko Ito (this a great companion to the Vegan Lunch Box blog); flickr bento box group (drool!); Cafe Japan, which I have; Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go, which is on my wishlist; and if the Laptop system doesn't work for you, there's also the Zojirushi "Mr. Bento" lunch set and Zojirushi "Ms. Bento" lunch set.

wild animals -- loose on the internet!

I've been watching WildCam Africa on the National Geographic website whenever I get the chance lately. It's a live webcam (with sound!) that's bringing you video from a pond in Botswana 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, since it's live the best viewing hours are not East-Coast-living-with-a-baby hours, but even so we've seen elephants, zebras, steenbocks, hyenas, a jackal, an ostrich, and loads of other birds. It's very science-fiction, the idea that you really DO have a window that can show you sunset in Africa live as it happens, and it's really fun to watch animals in the wild without actually having to go there. It'll only be running until December 8th -- but I hope it's only the first of many such experiments!

"sisterhood, riot grrl and the next wave"

That's the name of the upcoming symposium at Duke University on "the power and relevance of primary materials to the history and future of feminism". And because one of the topics being covered is girl zine history, there will be a large exhibit of zines and other works, many from my collection, on display, and I will be a guest speaker! I'll be participating in the "Modes and Methods of Feminist Publishing" session on Thursday. We've been so busy I'm a litle out of the loop on what else is going to be going on there, but it looks pretty interesting and it's free, so if you are for some reason in the area, check it out!

Action Girl!

Live and in person! Well, sort of. See our pal and cat-sitter's Halloween costume of Action Girl! (Circa...1999? Or thereabouts.)