Wednesday, August 31, 2011

james and the giant feast

last week on "roald dahl stunt blogging", i started working my way through the revolting recipes* cookbook by making stink bug's eggs from james and the giant peach*.

this week, i decided to make all of the remaining james recipes. aw yeah, it's time for james and the giant feast!

all of the following delicacies (except for peach juice) appear in the centipede's song from chapter 18. and of all the things that that bug sang about, the food that i most wanted to try was crispy wasp stings on a piece of buttered toast. mainly 'cause i live on toast and am always looking for other toppings besides my standard nutella.

this is fancy toast. lookit being all round and shit.


the wasp stings are made of two kinds of coconut, honey and lemon zest which, i suppose, is the stinging part.


for real, it is fancy toast. i mean, you don't even use the whole slice of bread!



not quite as posh but equally delicious is peach juice. i futzed around with this recipe because i didn't want to deal with a mango. (what? like anyone likes peeling a damn mango.) instead of fresh fruit, i substituted a frozen mango juice.



a word to those over 21 years of age:  this is really good with vodka.

i'd say it's a safe bet that if you like hot dogs that you'll love hot frogs.


even when they're just eggwashed.


even when they're waiting to go into the oven.


but especially when they're all wrinkly from heat


and then served on a bed of slime. yum yum!


but what is a giant feast without a meat and fish course, amirite? for the meat, leff and i consumed some mudburgers.


they don't look so great but their personality is OUTSTANDING!


the fish course, of course, was represented by mosquitoes' toes and wampfish roes shown here before being delicately fried.


these are definitely worth making. i am not a fan of sea beasties but even i found them tasty (and attractive).


not so with the scrambled dregs.


i mean, blargh. i can't even stand runny eggs so i almost barfed to see them in liquid. leff swears that it was a tasty dish, however, despite looks to the contrary.

all in all, this was a very satisfactory feast! i think that the centipede was on to something with all of that bragging!


next week on roald dahl stunt blogging: the witches! i promise that nothing will smell like dog's droppings.

*links will take you to amazon. i am an amazon affiliate. should you purchase roald dahl's revolting recipes or james and the giant peach through these links, i will receive monetary compensation.

Monday, August 29, 2011

almost vacation time!

things are looking up at the casa! this is probably due to my getting the hell out of dodge for a while (londoners! deets on our small meetup are here!) but also the birding that i've been able to do.

look, i'm not a bird watching pro. i don't write down names of birds and times/places seen in a notebook. in fact, i'm not even sure what type of predatory fowl is hanging out in our cherry tree in this picture that leff took. i think we called it "hawk thing"?


(enlarge the photo and look in the top right hand side for bird action.)

i *do* know the taxonomy of this beast, however, and it is "plastic owl".


also improving my mood this week is the long overdue sunshine. look, i even took a hackneyed, typical blog photo of it dappling my shower window.


you were probably aware of the hurricane this past weekend. it really made me crave diet dr. pepper with a red vines straw.


i also had a greyhound that i consumed while sitting next to six guide dogs in training.

sorry, guide dogs not pictured.

casey

and joe

came by to pick up keys. i'm so glad that broseph's house/catsitting! thanks again, j!

and now we enter work territory. here's an outtake from the stink bug's eggs. so serial killery, non?


voila! a piece in progress for pax.


and last week's finished piece.


also, two slides from slideshow freak



and a collage from excheckered.


last work item before i close with a cat, reprints of my business cards arrived! hooray! i never seem to have enough of these.


right, here's the cat you wanted.


see you on wed with another roald dahl stunt blog!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

get your thundercat shirt!

thundercat shirts are now available at red bubble!


this one is based on a similar concept as one of my watercolors for the pax & ak project.

teaser trailer

here's a "trailer" of an item that i'll shortly have available on red bubble.


while you're waiting, why not check out my portfolio over there?

see you in a few!

edit: thundercat shirt now available!

bonus sunday post: laverbread

ever since visiting cardiff last year, i have been all about wales. any welsh rare bits (*ba doom ching!*) that have been sent my way have been greatly appreciated. so when sheddly-ed kindly posted me some laverbread a few months back, i danced around my kitchen for about five mintues.

and then i thought, hold up....


and so it languished on my shelf, getting cozy with the condensed milk and chatting up the instant coffee (that is used in only the direst of dire situations (or for baking. whichever comes first)).

until yesterday! when in a show of bravery (read: so hungry, craving something harvested from a rock?) i decided to crack open the tin.


then i tried to seal it back up again because i've been really sick lately and, man, hello nausea.

still! fi cariad wales!! so i took a deep breath, found a recipe for laverbread to dress and got to toasting.  leff squeezed some lemon


and buttered the toast. like, *really* butttered the toast. the strategy being the same as that used to make marmite tolerable.


how was it? not bad, actually! it tasted like slightly seaweedy butter. depending upon my stomach issues, i may be able to finish the can within the (recommended) next two days.

so the takeaway from this is, i suppose, always trust your rock harvesting cravings.

edit: here's a bit more about laverbread, should you be interested.

Friday, August 26, 2011

old photo friday-- marc as elliot

since i'm in the middle of digitizing my old photos, i thought i'd try out a new feature for fridays. well, not exactly new as it will consist of said old photos (plus some commentary) as you were perhaps able to ascertain from the title. (props for creative naming, amirite? /sarcasm)

anyway, let's get started with one of my most favorite photos of my brother. ever.


it was taken at universal studios on our very first trip to california. (there is a corresponding polaroid of me wearing pink cords and a turquoise member's only jacket + sporting braces but that picture is staying buried in a box, so let's end this parenthetical aside, shall we?)

i don't remember much about the specific context of this image other than the fact that marc and i drove our parents crazy by repeatedly saying "elliot" in that creepy e.t. way. oh, and by asking everyone at universal who was dressed in a costume for their autograph and then laughing our asses off about it once they'd signed our specially purchased for the trip autograph books.

frankenstein had really nice penmanship.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

a brief interruption

i know you're all up on the roald dahl eggs (at least you were before my stats program crashed *mumbling, grumbling*) but i had to post dear rhyley's reaction to getting some cards of mine. i have a feeling that this will always make me smile.


seriously, send me happy reaction shots if you like something of mine that you've bought from etsy or red bubble or what have you. maybe we can have gif fridays? (ha, ok, no. i won't get ahead of myself.)

back to work!

stink bugs' eggs from "james and the giant peach"

some of you more astute readers may have noticed that i've grown way past weary of washington state. i'm not exactly sure what normal people would do if they found themselves stuck in the damn evergreen state (seek the advice of a counselor? go on vacation? kill all humans?) but i know what i do in times of duress. that's right! stunt blogging!

for the first of many feats (ha!), i will be working my way through roald dahl's revolting recipes*, a cookbook that interprets"...some of the scrumptious and wonderfully disgusting dishes that appear in roald [dahl]'s books".

in other words, really gross food found in really kick ass books.

for later entries, i'm planning on grouping the recipes by book (bfg, the twits, charlie and the chocolate factory, etc.) but i thought i'd kick things off with a single dish from james and the giant peach. namely, "stink bugs' eggs". (i'll make the scrambled dregs a little later on.)

anyway, one way to eat like a centipede is to get crackin' on some hard boiled eggs.


use the back of a spoon. it's fun! imagine that you are bashing in the skull of someone/thing that you can't stand. i did!

you will also require food dye of some sort.


the cookbook recommends either boiling up onion skins or using food dyes. those of you who follow my "cooking" exploits know that i am not against better living through chemistry, so that's the way i went.

this step requires eight hours. you should maybe consider doing something during this time period besides, you know, standing around and watching eggs change colors. sleeping works!


once the recommended amount of time has passed and you have caaarefuuullly peeled the eggs, you will witness something that will make a tumblr hipster alternately cry and/or piss their pants. (seriously.)


i actually think that these eggs are quite beautiful. i'm just really, really bored with the 80's schtick.


let's have a cross section, shall we?


and a picture of the halves for good measure.


the original recipe suggests deviling the eggs and then covering them with asafetida for an extra sensory fun time but 1) like hell and 2) see number 1. besides, i like leff, otherwise known as "he who shall be eating this stuff" so i just went with mayo, worcestershire sauce and paprika.


he thought they were tasty, btw.

next time on roald dahl stunt blogging:  i'll tackle some more of james and the giant peach.  there may be mudburgers!

*link will take you to amazon. i am an amazon affiliate. should you purchase roald dahl's revolting recipes through this link, i will receive monetary compensation.

Monday, August 22, 2011

more things of the stuff variety

real life seems to have taken it upon itself to become incredibly bizarre and fast paced at the same time. maybe i'll tell you about a few of these things in future (although, maybe not) but do know that i'm feeling slightly loopy and giddy. (and i don't think it's due to a fever this time!)

in lieu of baring my soul, i'll show you my new little sansa clip.



it's small and mighty and will be perfect for the upcoming trip to the uk.

in spite of the bizarre and fast paced stuff, i'm still tumbling. (every day i'm tumblin'? ugh, why did i type that?)

anyway, links ahoy. slideshow freak:


excheckered:

pax and ak:


i am gearing up to do some stunt blogging here soon, so stay tuned!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

i finally have a qr code!

who can wait until monday? i finally have a qr code thanks to rhyley! (thanks, rhyley!)


go on, do that thing that you do with your phone! no, not that. no. yes! that! now you're at my main site. hooray!