Tuesday, May 10, 2011

peculiar pets







these fancy little creatures are hand-made by michelle lyons from vintage bedspreads and the stuffing is made from recycled water bottles.  each one has its own endearing personality!  don't you wish you had one?

a few peculiar pets are for sale at uncommon goods.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

i like you

cynthia and lauren // photo by juli
on saturday i attended the wedding of my friends lauren and daniel.  it was a sweet affair with lots of music, food, and dancin'.  my friend cynthia was the matron of honor and toasted lauren with parts of a poem called "i like you" by sandol stoddard warburg.

it made me think of my best friend.

a few of my favorite verses...


I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, "Remember when you told me something special?"
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do


See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again

That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

read the whole poem at ategato.

happy mama's day!

hooray it's mama's day, by juli

Saturday, May 7, 2011

scenes from a life...

spring toes, by juli



"open your heart:
i'll give you a treasure
of tiniest world
a piece of forever..."

(excerpted from xlvi by e.e. cummings)

Friday, May 6, 2011

a celebration of southern mothers

alice lynne abernethy; albemarle, nc; 1962, courtesy of amelia matthews via g&g

garden & gun put together this lovely tribute photo gallery of southern mothers.  i am always a sucker for old photos and this gallery hits the spot.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

the love language


the love language, by juli
north carolina band, the love language, is playing all week at local club, slim's downtown, in raleigh.  i actually went to a show on a wednesday night, a true rarity for my mama self.  in the olden days i went to shows with a camera and a pal or two in tow without a thought.  it was nice to kind of step into those shoes again last night. music and photography always make me so happy.
if you've never heard the love language, they are worth a listen and are certainly making a name for themselves outside of the local scene.  check out this awesome video of the band done about a year ago by a former colleague of mine, jason arthurs.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

concert posters from third alert designs

i am a sucker for concert posters.  my husband and i have a bunch floating around our house.  only a few are framed; the rest we keep for sentimental reasons.  now that we have a real house, we decided we should diversify our artwork, but i'm still a sucker...

one of my new fave poster shops is third alert designs, based in tulsa, oklahoma. third alert was started by hank hanewinkel III, a graphic designer and musician. hank has created posters for two of my favorite bands, wilco and spoon.

spoon // new orleans // 3.18.10

wilco // missoula, montana // 2.7.10
tonight's show in mobile!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

little sister

my little sister allison is in town this weekend to celebrate her 28th birthday. she got married 3 months after me last year.  yes, it was crazy.  we have always lived in the same town, but now she lives 3 hours away!

allison and i have different tastes and interests, but we have the same personality type (ISTJ).  she teaches middle school math, which is a tough and admirable job!

happy birthday allison...




photo by juli

Saturday, April 30, 2011

recipe from vegan/vegetarian chef julia simon, pt. 2

all photos by julia simon

seitan mole tamales      *vegan-ification of a chow recipe


for the seitan, you'll need:

2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup soy flour
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp smoked habanero powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar

wet mix:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
6-8 dashes or 2 tablespoons smoke flavoring
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup water mixed with mock beef or mushroom bouillon

to simmer:
4 cups water
2 tablespoons Mock beef or mushroom bouillon concentrate
3 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, peeled

mix your dry ingredients thoroughly, and make a well in the center. mix your wet ingredients in a measuring cup. Using a fork first, then your hands, slowly pour the wet into the dry, working the dough as you pour. When you've emptied all of the liquid, use both hands to knead the seitan for a few minutes, until it comes together, then roll it into a short, squat cylinder.

in a wide pot, place your seitan (cut it into two pieces if need be) and pour your stock mixture over. bring it all to a boil. cover and simmer 1 hour.

no cheesecloth here, dears! you want a lighter, less dense seitan. also, putting the seitan in while the stock is cold gives it a better "crust" (thanks for the tip, ppk!).

we'll come back to the final seitan prep once we have our mole done, giving the flavors time to blend.

unlike many mole recipes, this one's free from straining - blend the sauce long enough and it'll be plenty smooth.

5-7 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded (how many you use depends on their size - if your pack is mostly small chiles, use more)
4-5 dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded (see above)
8 garlic cloves
1/2 onion
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups reserved seitan cooking liquid, to be used as needed
3 super-ripe Roma tomatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or earthbalance
1/3 cup raw pecans, walnuts, or cashews
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 ripe yellow plantain, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, for frying the plantains
2 tablespoons molasses or maple syrup
1-2 corn tortillas (these act as a thickening agent, use as many as you need)
1.5 ounces bittersweet vegan chocolate
1.5 tablespoons salt, or to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or earthbalance, for frying the finished sauce

in a dry skillet, toast your chiles until they have a bit of char on both sides. set aside.

toast your sesame seeds, tossing, until they're a bit brown. set aside.

in a baking pan, put your tomatoes, onion, and garlic cloves. broil 5 minutes, until they're all got a bit of char. set aside.

in your skillet, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil. sauté your plantains until they soften a bit, two minutes per side. set aside.

toast your thyme and oregano very gently in the same skillet, about 30 seconds. set aside.

put your tomatoes, onion, garlic, seeds and nuts into a blender. puree until smooth, about 2 minutes. with the motor running, add your chiles one at a time. how much stock you add here is up to you - you want to maintain as thick a consistency as possible while keeping the blender running, so add a little bit at a time until your sauce is moving again. add your herbs, the plantain, and the tortilla, and blend until the texture is very smooth, about 5 minutes - there will still be tiny bumps, but they'll be very small.

heat the remaining oil in your skillet and pour in the contents of the blender. sauté until fragrant, about 5 minutes. add your chocolate and stir until it blends in completely. taste for salt and sweet, adding either sugar or salt until you're satisfied.

for the masa:

3 cups masa for tamales
1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
3 cups vegetable or mock chicken stock, warmed
2 tsp baking powder
Salt to taste

with a whisk or hand blender, beat the shortening until it's fluffy. you could also use a stand mixer here, if you have one, with the paddle attachments.

using a fork, mix the masa, salt and baking powder. make a well in the center. slowly add your stock while mixing with your fork, continuing to work the batter until it's uniform. it'll be pretty wet, no worries!

while continuing to beat the shortening with your mixer or whisk, add the wet masa by handfuls until you've emptied your bowl. beat on low until everything's well blended. the dough will be a little wet and very spongy. set aside.


one last step for the seitan:

slice your seitan into 1/4 inch wide strips and drain on a paper towel. in a large bowl, toss the seitan with about 1/3 - 1/2 cup flour, evenly coating the strips. the flour coating will give your faux-pork an awesome crust.

heat enough oil in a skillet to cover the bottom of the pan. add your seitan in batches (took me 3) and fry until browned on each side, about 3 minutes. drain, again, on paper towels.

chop your strips roughly, into pieces less than an inch long. mix your chopped seitan with the entire batch of mole in a bowl and set aside.

bring it all together, finally:

you'll need:
30 cornhusks
a steamer, or the set up described here
dexterity and a hungry belly!

tear 3-4 husks into strips to tie your tamales with. you'll need 20-25.

flatten a husk on a cutting board and using your hands, grab 1/2 cup masa. smooth it into a rectangle in the upper-center of the husk. press about 1/4-1/3 cup mole into the center of the masa, and using the sides of the husk, roll the filling into a package. then roll the husk around the package, fold up the bottom and tie it with a strip of husk. here's that pictorial how-to from last time. set upright in your steamer or pot.

repeat until you've made 20-24 small tamales. cover with remaining husks and lid.

this is a 2-3 hour active recipe - but it makes tons of tamales and they're superb. we usually make a big batch, take it off the burner, leave it covered, and show up at a potluck with the 'males still inside, all warm and ready to eat.

serve with soy sour cream or just nosh plain. enjoy!


thank you julia of no face plate for sharing this lovely recipe!

Friday, April 29, 2011

q&a with vegan/vegetarian chef julia simon, pt.1

one of my favorite food bloggers lately is vegan/vegetarian chef julia simon who is the author of no face plate.  julia was kind enough to do a q&a with me as well as share one of her favorite recipes (coming tomorrow with photos!)  she is a thoughtful lady and her recipes are absolute love.

courtesy of poprock photography

q:  tell me about your blog.

a:  no face plate began as a way to record what i was doing for my clients so that i could keep track of recipes and repeat them as needed. then someone gave me their old rebel xti and a 52 mm lens, and all hell broke loose.  now, it's a million things - a business card for my personal cheffing stuffs, a way to find other rad veg/vegan cooks and share ideas, products, recipes, a gallery of delicious vegan and vegetarian grub, and hopefully, in the future, the first step to writing a gluttonous, decadent, intensely illustrated cookbook.

q:  how long have you been a vegetarian/vegan?  explain your diet.  the new hip thing is "flexitarianism" as touted by mark bittman of the nytimes, do you consider yourself a flexitarian?

a:  i've been a pretty strict vegetarian since i was 15 - not including a brief stint of canned-tuna-eating when I moved to nyc for art school and was super broke (this was back in the day when tofu was more expensive than tuna).  i still eat artisanal/local cheese and free range, local eggs, as well as select non-vegan products (duke's mayo, for example - i know, gross). never any meat - the way i explain this to people is by describing my diet as free from eyeballs.  i transition to an almost completely vegan diet in the warmer months - and have plans to be totally rid of dairy and egg at some point in the near future.  i, like many aspiring vegans, have a cheese obsession that keeps me coming back.  butter's a problem as well.

i have no problem with flexitarianism as a way to eat - i mean, less meat is better, ya? - but you have to make your choice.  just as i know that my morals call for a vegan lifestyle, i feel like mark knows that eating bacon is pretty messed up.  it's hard to balance foodieism and food politics.  and by hard, i mean easier to put the politics aside and get lost in a pile of truffled pecorino than to adhere to rationality and abstain.  sigh.

q: what is your day job?

a: personal chef, dahling, to some gluten-free/vegetarian families near charlotte, nc.

q: are you interested in food politics?

a: of course!  while lately I've met many people who are transitioning to a meat free diet as a way to improve health (which is super cool) i eat this way for ethical reasons.  i was paging through my sue coe book just the other day, and my food not bombs patch (old and really dirty) fell out - totally got me reminiscing.  the combination of fnb and the punk scene in s. florida got me thinking at an early age about what i was putting into my body, and what i caused to occur by choosing to eat meat (i was also reading a lot of existential philosophy at the time - which is a lot about living with awareness of your footprint).  it's fascinating to see vegan/vegetarian culture become somewhat legitimate in the eyes of the mass media - i've always had trouble convincing family, friends, coworkers that abstaining from meat is not only better for your body but the planet as well.  when i decided to stop consuming animals, i was angry and teenaged and living with my pop - who was decidedly against my new diet, considering it disrespectful to him and an excuse to argue.  over the years, i've gotten my fam more on the boat - my ma's gradually transitioning away from meat altogether and my step dad ate heartily of the vegan brunch i prepared for easter.  of course, that process is 15 years in the making, so we're moving turtle-slow, but still, it's something.

i'm not the biggest oprah proponent but o could kiss her for the show she did on vegetarianism - hopefully, we'll see more media moguls advocate for less meat eating and consequently, see meat consumption plummet. i wonder and worry about the way the meat industry will combat that – with big-money scare tactics, propaganda and misinformation, to be sure.  those of us with media outlets of our own will have work to do to counteract the bs!

q: what inspires you?

a: lately, generosity's at the top of that list.  it's so ridiculously easy to get wrapped up in your work and digital life - keeping a macro perspective gets more difficult by the day, and taking the time to treat the people you love in a giving manner can be difficult to do consistently. 

q: are you a cookbook reader?  what is your favorite cookbook?

a:  i'm not a super avid cookbook collector, nor a precision recipe follower, no, but i have a couple of books that i go back to a lot - the millennium restaurant's cookbook has taught me tons of neat tricks, and I still use their seitan recipe and tamale recipe regularly.  i actually got to eat there thanks to a pal's generosity on a faux-honeymoon in san fran last summer and it was a mind-blowing (if costly) meal. the moosewood book got me started way back in the day - those recipes are simple and flexible, it's a perfect just-getting-started book.  the modern vegetarian kitchen, by a former chef at angelica kitchen in nyc, is process heavy and gorgeous.  and like a weirdo, i also collect old rotary club and church fundraising cookbooks from thrift stores, because some of the weirdest flavor combinations are in there!  they're super inspiring, in a really by-the-seat-of-your-pants-cleaning-out-the-larder kind of way.  it takes a fair amount of editing to make anything remotely resembling healthy fare from those recipes, but that's a blast, you know?

q: what are your favorite blogs?

a: food wise, a ton, but some of my favs lately:

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

the phraseology project

submit a word to the phraseology project!  drew melton accepts submissions of words, letters and phrases and turns them into typographic art.  check it out...  

analysis paralysis
nice
do best
analog blog
which is your favorite?

Monday, April 25, 2011

music maker relief foundation

cora fluker - photo courtesy of music maker foundation
the music maker relief foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support aging southern roots musicians.  all of the musicians are at least 55 years old and earn less than $18,000 a year.  the music maker foundation provides career support while tending to the daily needs of the artists.

i became familiar with this organization when my husband was recruited to play bass with cool john ferguson, a self-taught blues guitarist with a peculiar style. i tagged along to one of the gigs and was blown away and mesmerized by captain luke, a smooth 84-year-old blues singer!

cool john and captain luke - rainy night in georgia



and, singing lessons with captain luke...



get involved or donate here.

cassette tape love!

i have recently had nostalgic feelings for the ol' cassette tape because it is how i got my start listening to music.  i have enjoyed asking friends about their first purchase (my first was "working class dog" by rick springfield) and sharing that bit of music culture and history.  and what about the sweet mix tape with it's hand-drawn art and time devotion? to actually make a mix tape for a friend was such an incredible gift in comparison to the current ease of putting together an mp3 playlist.

so, my dears what was your first cassette tape? please share!


  
 i made you a mix tape hand cut 8x10 silhouette by jessica alpern's shop in austin, texas.
 


in my search for cassette tapes i ran across raleigh, nc, label diggup tapes who make cassette tapes for a handful of bands which are certainly worth a listen (oulipo and naps caught my attention.)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

egg mania

hundreds of children, hundreds of eggs.  


happy day to you all!  we have a picnic in our near future.
love.  juli + tula mirth.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

a poem

photo by hugh morton

my friend anna blaedel shared this poem via facebook and i thought it quite appropriate for easter and the spring season...


so, friends, every day do something 
that won't compute.  love the world.
take all that you have and be poor.
love someone who does not deserve it.
ask the questions that have no answers.
invest in the millennium.  plant sequoias.
hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
laugh.  laughter is immeasurable.
go with your love to the fields.
be like the fox who makes more tracks
than necessary, some in the wrong directions.
practice resurrection.

Friday, April 22, 2011

time for strawberries


tula mirth and i await strawberry season each year and we have now arrived in north carolina.  we made our first annual strawberry picking trip this week (tula wore her strawberry shorts in honor of the event) and we easily filled a flat with our excitement.  of course i need some new strawberry recipes now and i ran across this raw almond cookie and strawberry mousse recipe which is at the top of my list at the moment.


we've been able to gift many of the berries since there is no way the two of us can polish them off in the small window of time necessary to consume them.  there is something so very nice about arriving on the doorsteps of surprised friends with the first strawberries of the season.  

all photos by juli

Thursday, April 21, 2011

outsider artist renaldo kuhler


renaldo in his apartment, by juli courtesy of newsobserver.com
part of what is so great about my job is meeting people.  one of my favorite raleigh people is outsider artist, renaldo kuhler, who has created a beautiful body of work over his years as a scientific illustrator.  renaldo started creating a make believe world called rocaterrania as a boy and has continued to create illustrations based in that world.  the pieces are brilliantly colored and are unique to renaldo's style.  a few years back, brett ingram made a great documentary about renaldo and his work.



rocaterrania, courtesy of renaldo kuhler

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

studio on fire

i just came across studio on fire via cmybacon.  lovely, lovely letterpress printing...

you cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair
golden rule.  hand-drawn by koen, age 6
mixtape wedding.  love it!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

new belgium brewing company


new belgium's own airstream trailer
yesterday, my co-worker and i visited the new belgium brewery in ft. collins, colorado.  (yes, I am still in denver on business.)  we took a tour of the brewery and sipped free (!) beer all along the way.  at the end, we drank the ranger ipa, which was time-stamped literally 10 minutes before!  fresh beer!

look at all those ranger ipa bottles

what an impressive company!  new belgium was started in 1991, after co-founder jeff lebesch trekked all over europe on his fat tire bicycle visiting breweries and gaining inspiration.  his wife, kim jordan, is now the ceo of this employee-owned business.  paid holidays include valentine's day and earth day!

sustainability is a major part of new belgium's business philosophy.  evaporative coolers air condition the 55,000 sq. ft. packaging hall.  the methane resulting from the brewing process is used to create electricity and heat for the brewery.  new belgium also created team wonder bike, a group dedicated to biking more than 14 million miles in the coming year.


from newbelgium.com
our tour guide said the company is looking to start a second brewery in the southeastern united states.  pick us!  pick us!

use the libation location to find new belgium beer near you! 


p.s.  this is our 100th post.  unbelievable!  i love sharing this art project with you, juli! 

thank you, readers, for being so sweet and supportive...
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