blogTO, painting and homemade peanut butter cups

4"x4" acrylics & ink: "Dreamwalk"
For sale as fridge art on Etsy.

On Friday night, I met up with some blogTO types at C'est What? on Front Street, including Jerrold Litwinenko, Adam Schwabe, Gary Peter, Kari Gignac, Rebecca Black, Tim Shore, and two others who arrived just before I left but whose names I unfortunately didn't get. I had never met any of them in person before and figured it was about time. I had a great evening and was very glad to have made the trek downtown.



I've been writing for blogTO since early summer. It doesn't pay a lot but I decided to start writing for them because:

- I was impressed by the amount of publicity/traffic Will Write For Chocolate received after Ryan Couldrey (who sadly couldn't make it on Friday so I still haven't met him in person!) interviewed me for blogTO.

- I get access to places and people (for interviews, profiles and reviews) that I may not easily get otherwise.

- I'm meeting a lot of interesting authors, editors and publishers.

- The laid-back atmosphere. As long as they follow certain guidelines, contributors are given a great deal of leeway.

- In many ways, blogTO reminds me of Inkspot in the old days, when it was fun. Except this time I get to do what I enjoy the most (the writing) instead of being pulled more and more into the management and administrative side of things.



I've been doing some more painting. Thanks to artists like my sister and Beckett Gladney, books, and YouTube videos, I've been learning a lot more about acrylics painting. I bought my first acrylics paints when I decided to paint a tree in my basement office when we first moved in. After doing some pottery with Luisa last month, I decided to try painting with real paints rather than just digitally.

Anyway, all the paintings you see on this page were created on 4" x 4" canvas boards and are for sale in my Etsy shop as of this morning.

I've sold 11 pieces since I posted my first listing nearly two weeks ago, mostly mini-paintings that I've turned into fridge magnets by sticking some magnetic tape onto the back. Taking some of the money I've earned through my sales so far, I've bought some better brushes and paints, as well as more canvas boards.

I've never taken an art course (past Grade 10, that is) and it shows, but I'm having a lot of fun with it and practising a ton to gradually improve my craft. I've been occasionally experimenting with slightly larger formats, and my goal is to eventually paint much bigger pieces that Jeff and I can hang up in the house; we still have a lot of empty wall space.



We hosted a gaming party at our place yesterday. Lots of board games but also computer games. Scott Murray brought over Guitar Hero 2; I've never played Guitar Hero before and found it HUGELY ADDICTIVE. I'm glad we don't have a PlayStation; I wouldn't get nearly as much work done.

For those not familiar with Guitar Hero, you basically play scrolling notes to complete a song using a guitar-shaped controller. Your left hand plays one of five colour-coded keys (which represent frets) while your right hand "strums" a button. The more incorrect notes you hit, the unhappier your audience will be; if you hit too many, then you'll be kicked off the stage.

Advanced techniques include hammer-ons, pull-offs, and using the whammy bar. It's WAY fun. Musicians, especially those with guitar-playing experience, definitely have an advantage when starting out.

But now I want to talk about chocolate...

Before everyone showed up, my friend Ray came over and we made Peanut Butta Cups, a recipe that Ray found on Chow.com.



I did the peanut butter filling. I made Ray do the chocolate tempering because I was paranoid about screwing up. To properly temper the chocolate, you need to get the chocolate to a target temperature of about 110 degrees F; if you go too high, then the chocolate's scorched and you have to start again with a new batch. We used a chocolate tempering thermometer.



The peanut butter cups turned out great! I limited myself to half a pb cup, but only with enormous self-restraint on my part.

Next time I'm going to crumble the graham crackers myself instead of using the pre-smooshed type (Ray says that makes the filling a bit more crunchy) and might use higher quality chocolate; this time I opted for standard chocolate chips. And having seen Ray go through the process, I think I'm ready to tackle the chocolate tempering on my own now.



Oh my. Playing with chocolate is FUN.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. Today I'm doing two writing critiques and working on card designs for the UK letterpress company I mentioned last week.






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Autumn, Strangolapreti and Nigel The Humming Cat

I love autumn. It's my favourite season. Spring's too wet, summer's too hot, winter's too cold. But the fall? Fall is exciting and blustery and bracing. Yes, white winter death is just around the corner but that just makes everything more vibrant. You appreciate the colours and smells and sounds that much more because you know it's all going to change drastically in a month or two.

Having burst forth in its fiery seasonal display, our Japanese maple is now shedding its leaves at an impressive rate. Jeff sweeps up the leaves almost daily but our front walk is crimson again by the next morning.

My herb garden is languishing. The basil is shrivelled from the cold. I'd take in the rosemary for the winter except that the neighbourhood squirrel killed it first, digging it up (maybe its pea-sized brain vaguely remembered burying a nut there in the spring) and heartlessly tossing it aside.

The sage seems hardier. I picked some for dinner the other night:



I felt like cooking something Italian, so chose an interesting-sounding recipe from my Basic Italian book. Strangolapreti literally means "Strangle The Priests" in Italian. The dish is actually ricotta dumplings with spinach, but it was the name that compelled me to try this recipe.

Jeff is very good about trying anything I cook; we're both fairly adventurous eaters. I've only had to throw dinner out once. Well, more than once if you count the number of times I burned dinner because I got too absorbed with work, but that was years ago. Now I use a kitchen timer with a loud and obnoxious ring to drag me out of my officecave.

Anyway, the dumplings were pretty messy and weird-looking before I cooked them:



In some parts of Italy, these are called malfatti, which means "badly made," and the cookbook warned that I shouldn't worry if they weren't shaped perfectly. I had never made dumplings before, so had to do several test dumplings (adding a bit more flour each time) before I found the right consistency; my dumplings kept falling apart as soon as I put them into the boiling water.



They were just as ugly when they came out of the pot, but they tasted great! I served them with a drizzle of sage butter (with the sage from our garden) and shaved pecorino (a hard Italian cheese made from sheep's milk). Jeff loved them.

Sold another painting yesterday. Here's one of the new mini-paintings that I've added to my Etsy store:



It's another tiny painting: acrylics on a 4" x 4" canvas board with a protective matte varnish. The cat's name is Nigel, by the way. You can re-name him if you'd like, but that's the name that jumped into my head as I was painting him. Wouldn't YOU love to have Nigel The Humming Cat on your fridge? Or washing machine? Or anything else where you can stick a fridge magnet?

In the past couple years I've realized that I like drawing cats. Ironic, really, because I'm allergic to them. But they still fascinate me with their complex personalities and neuroses...and especially their owners. :-)





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Dainty Finger Sandwiches (Alberta trip report, Part 3)

My interview with Jeff Cottrill about his new book, Guilt Pasta, is up on blogTO, for those interested. Also, looks like the NaNoWriMo site has started posting my NaNoWriMo comics. Other news: Urban Tapestry has a concert at FilKONtario! (see bottom of this Blathering for more info)

But back to my trip...

Alberta trip report thus far: Part 1 - Part 2

Photo at top of page: Dainty Finger Sandwiches that Cathy and I had during our Afternoon Tea at Lake Louise in the Fairmont Hotel. No actual fingers were harmed, I assure you. I've always wondered about that term, but I assume sandwiches were named because you eat them with your fingers (as opposed to with a knife and fork?!).

I've been fascinated by the concept of an "English tea" ever since reading about them in all the British children's books where the four heroines (almost always two sisters and two brothers) inevitably interrupt their adventures each day to have tea. I craved buttered scones years before I knew what a scone actually was.



Cathy (who has a British family background) warned me that the tea we had at Lake Louise wasn't a proper British "high tea," but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. It consisted of:

- A glass of Nino Franco Prosecco Rustico.

- Fresh fruit cocktail in cointreau syrup.

- Dainty Finger Sandwiches (English cucumber & Bourain cheese, egg salad pinwheel, smoked salmon & asparagus with mascarpone spread, curried chicken salad tortilla wrap).

- Buttermilk Scones with Devonshire cream and strawberry preserves.

- An assortment of homemade pastries and sweets: passion meringue tart, opera slice, white chocolate pastry cream eclair, strawberry pistachio shortcake, chocolate mousse pompons.

And tea, of course. :-) We both opted for maple tea.

We had our tea while looking out at the gorgeous mountains and turquoise waters of Lake Louise. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.



I did some research online but still found the whole tea thing confusing. According to this source, "high tea" is actually dinner, and there are three types of Afternoon or Low Tea: Cream Tea, Light Tea and Full Tea.

A Survey For You Brits Out There (or non-Brits who are familiar with the custom): How accurate is the description in the page above? Have you ever been to a "high tea" (that wasn't a regular dinner)? Do you have Afternoon Tea? If so, which type?



While in Calgary, Cathy took me to a tea shop where I picked up some Chocolate Truffle Tea and Soothing Throat Blend tea from Oolong Tea House. I'm not really sure what's in either; when I asked the woman behind the counter, she said, "I have no idea!" :-) But both are good, especially the Chocolate Truffle Tea....yum.

Speaking of tea, right now I'm having some lovely Lady Grey Tea from my UK friend Talis Kimberley. Talis was the one who got me hooked on the concept of a Tea Library when I visited her and Simon years ago. Congrats to Talis, by the way, on winning the Pegasus Award for Best Writer/Composer! And congrats to the other Pegasus Award Winners:

Best Filk Song: Rich Fantasy Lives by Rob Balder / Tom Smith
Best Classic Filk Song: Falling Down on New Jersey by Mitchell Burnside-Clapp
Best Performer: Dr. Mary Crowell and Seanan McGuire (tie)
Best Writer/Composer: Talis Kimberley
Best Dorsai Song: Shai! by Steve Simmons /Steve Macdonald
Best Song of Home: Emerald Green by Michelle Dockrey / Tony Fabris

It's worthy of note, by the way, that Michelle Dockrey and Tony Fabris are Guests of Honour at FilKONtario this year (April 4-6, 2008, in Toronto). Bill Roper is the Official Filk Waif, Marilyn Miller is the Interfilk Guest, and Heather Bruton is the Special Guest. Be sure to register soon! Plus Urban Tapestry has been invited to do a concert during the weekend! You can find more info about the convention at the FilKONtario Web page.





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Brining, figs and books

So I experimented with chicken brining for the first time! My foodie friend Ray introduced me to this process; I was surprised at how easy it was, and how much it improved chicken breasts, especially for grilling. Anyone else out there try brining before? I especially love the word "brining."

What's happened to me in the past few years? I used to hate cooking. Now I'm all excited about trying pork brining next. Something happened to my brain when we moved from a downtown condo into a house in residential North York. :-)



Thanks for the comments about my figs and pluots post, everyone. Some useful things I've learned as a result:

Some pluots are also known as dinosaur eggs. (Thanks, Sherman and Tibicina)

One way to prepare pluots is to cook them in the microwave then serve them slighty warm with yogurt and maybe a drizzle of maple syrup and lemon.(Thanks, mvt)

There are two types of figs: green and purple. Tibicina, who is lucky enough to have figs growing in her yard, advises serving figs (halved or quartered) with any soft, sweet cheese or fresh cream, and says that they're good with brie. "You can also cut an X in the top, put cheese in the middle and bake them just until the cheese is slightly runny. Again, I'd suggest softish, mild cheeses like brie or white stilton (not regular stilton, the white kind which doesn't have the blue veining) or ricotta or marscapone. They might do well with some of the relatively mild goats milk cheeses, depending on taste. They can be good with a drizzle of reduced balsalmic syrup or wrapped in prosciutto or both."

Amanda Page likes her figs either raw or prepared as follows: "Slice a cross in the top and then under the grill (broiler). In the mean time, toast almond slivers in a pan. Put them to one side and heat honey in the same pan until it foams and thickens a little. When the figs are a little brown, put onto a plate, drizzle the hot honey over the top, and then sprinkle the almonds." She also has a yummy-sounding Fig Quesadillas recipe online.

But I'd liked to stop drooling on the keyboard now and turn the subject from food to books...



A few years ago, I mentioned that Rand's brother David was featured in Time magazine. David Bellavia recently published a book called House To House: An Epic Memoir Of War, and it was released last week.

You can see the video in Simon & Schuster's book video channel, also on YouTube:





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Drugs, curry and Sharpie joy

Though I feel considerably better than last week, my cough is really tiring me out as well as keeping me up at night, so I went to see my doctor. She's prescribed two inhalers (Albuterol and Flovent) as well as a super-powerful cough syrup for nighttime use.

I've only used inhalers once before, years ago, and am still fascinated by the technology.



Above: new Sharpie pens! Jeff recently introduced me to Costco. I've only been there twice, and always feel overwhelmed when I walk in. Holy toledo. I had no idea how many products you could get in bulk. I gravitated immediately toward the office supplies section, of course, and bought a big package of colour Sharpies for much less than what I'd pay at a regular office supplies store.

Any other office supply fanatics out there? Just LOOKING at my new colour Sharpie pens fills me with a sense of contentment and well-being.

Hm...or could that be the cold drugs?



I spent much of my sick time not having the energy to go shopping or to cook while Jeff was at the cottage, so overdosed on tv dinners and processed food. Ugh. Now I'm overwhelmed by a need to COOK using fresh ingredients.

Above photo: Chopped ginger and lime zest, about to go into my slow cooker. Dinner tonight will be Slow Cooker Thai-style Coconut Fish Curry, with red snapper and shrimp. The seafood is added at the end of the slow cooking period.

I got the recipe from Judith Finlayson's The Healthy Slow Cooker, still one of my favourite slow cooker cookbooks. The book's recipes require somewhat more elaborate preparation than other slow cooker recipes, but so far I've found the results well worth it.

I took today's photos with my new Canon Rebel XTi with my Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens. I am SO lovin' my new camera set-up!



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