Settlement Sunday #4

This weeks Settlement Sunday is taken from the Sandwich Section, of which is filled with many strange things. There are not many recipes for what I guess would be called more modern sandwiches. They are mostly pretty simple and boring. One of the recipes is actually for a lettuce sandwich which is just lettuce with some mayo between bread. This book must predate peanut butter and jellies rise to dominance because there is not even a mention of that combination. There is a recipe for a peanut butter and cream cheese sandwich and then of course there is the Hot Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwich.

This recipe proves this whole bacon fad is nothing new. It's actually a pretty good sandwich, I don't think I would make one for lunch but they would be good appetizers at a bacon themed party.

Thrifty #16

Gadgets

This weeks thrifty post is a little gem I found buried on shelf in the tool section at Goodwill. It's a drawer handle with 'gadgets' written on a ceramic inset.

Its about 3"x1"x1/2". It's a great vintage looking handle. All I need to do now is find a drawer to put it on and then some gadgets to stick in there.

Price: $1.99.

What I'm Up To

Rings, Lots of Rings

I've had a little bit of a break from dismantling the Wawona and starting up on John Grade's new projects so I've been busy making things for my etsy shop. So far this week I've made a bunch of wood rings I'll be posting over the next few days. I've also been making some more chainmail bracelets, but as you can see the last two days I've been making wood rings like there going out of style, which I hope they aren't. The sizes in a range from 5 to 16.

 

The materials I'm making them out of are rosewood, purpleheart, and bocote. The rosewood has a really nice dark subtle beautiful wood grain. Where as the bocote has a very pronounced wood grain with the contrast of the dark and light swirling stripes. The purpleheart has a deep rich color to it. 

The purpleheart starts out much more purple then what the finished piece looks like. The sawdust from this wood is actually quite beautiful and rather then making my studio look messy it adds a nice touch. It also has a very familiar fragrance to it that I can't quite put my finger on, the best way I can actually describe it is that it smells like purple.

I'm not sure how many more rings I'm going to make, I'm sort of on a role. It takes about an hour for each ring. When I post them to my etsy shop they will probably be around $15 each and I may also be having a Valentines sale here soon. Stay tuned.

Watch This

ACID

Here is an interesting documentary on the history of LSD. It was done by the BBC in the 80's but never aired until the late 90's because of the taboo subject. They were also probably worried that it would spark peoples interest in the drug as it sort of idealizes the drug throughout the film. Watching this kind of makes me want to try it, I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Here is another great documented test. 

I wonder what that lady is seeing. I remember back when I was in school when finals came around I would sometimes not sleep for 3 or 4 days strait. This was mostly because I was taking 20+ credits of art classes and I had projects and papers due in each one and sleep really was not an option. If I was to get everything done I needed to stay up night and day. Anyway, after about 3 days of not sleeping filled with writing papers and making art I would start to see things. Most of the time it was subtle things, and I always knew what I was seeing was not actually there, at least I think. I remember one time watching it rain but the rain drops were in a perfect grid and moving super slow, even through it wasn't raining, and it was sunny out. It was like the dream part of my mind and the functioning part started to merge together. I haven't stayed up that long for a while now and I actually kind of miss the feeling of utter exhaustion after completing so much, and also the hallucinations, yea defiantly the hallucinations.

Settlement Sunday #3

After the first two Settlement Sundays filled with deserts I decided to lay off the sweet and go with something more savory. There is a recipe for mulligatawny soup which is a English-Indian fusion dish. It's fairly strait forward and simple to make, although it does take some time cutting up all the ingredients by hand. Speaking of ingredients check out all this fresh produce. Look mom, vegetables. Tomatoes are out of season.

Here is the recipe if you want to copy and past it:

Mulligatawny Soup

3 lbs. raw chicken

4 quarts cold water

2 sour apples, slided

1/4 cup onion, sliced

1/4 cup celery, cut in cubes

1/4 cut carrot, cut in cubes

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 tablespoon flour

2 cloves

1 cup tomato, strained

1/2 green pepper, chopped fine

1/8 teaspoon mace

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup butter

Cook vegetables and chicken in the fat until browned; add flour, curry powder, cloves and rest of the ingredients and cook slowly until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and cut the meat in small pieces. Strain soup and rub vegetables through a sieve. Add chicken to strained soup. Season and serve hot, with Boiled Rice, page 226.

Here's how it went together. I skipped all the cutting up of the ingredients because it just took too long, and I figured you would get the idea.

I have to say that although this is a really tasty and hearty dish, if I was to make it again there are a few things I would do differently. First I think I would double the amount of vegetables in the dish. Right now it seems fairly empty, which is why I think I would also not run the soup through a sieve. I like my soups more on the thick side, more like a stew. Secondly I would get a better curry powder, I just went with the generic and I think something a little better and maybe even a little spicy would really set this dish off.

I sure have a lot of it left over, I guess you all know what I'll be eating for dinner for the next week.

What I'm Up To

Wawona Chainsaw Massacre

This past week I've been moving pieces of the Wawona down to John's studio so we can start to dry it out. We moved all of the planking over the weekend which took about three truck loads. I've also started cutting off chunks of the large frames. With all the planking removed we are just trying to get as much as the usable wood that we can now. The wood used for the frames on the ship are two beams that are sandwiched together. A chainsaw makes pretty quick work of this wood, as long as you don't hit any of the iron.

In the video you can see me brush away sawdust from the beam, that's me looking for the pattern of trunnels and spikes in the wood. Before, as I was removing the planking, the spikes were just loped off at the surface of the beam so there is still a good 4 inches of iron spike ever so often in the wood. There are also drift pins ever so often running through the beams. For the most part I've been able to avoid these but sometimes I would graze a piece of iron or there would be a mystery spike where there shouldn't be one. Needless to say I've gone through about 5 chains so far cutting up 20 frame sections, so not too bad. At least I still have all my arms and legs.

Look At This

Seattle Of Old

I just discovered the Seattle Municipal Archives' Flickr photostream.There are some pretty amazing photos of old Seattle as well as some great maps and other things cataloging Seattle's history. It's great to see all that has changed over the years but also all the things that still exist and that have stayed the same. Here are some of my favorite photos from the bunch.

Here is a photo from 1916 of the Fremont Bridge under construction. In the background you can see Queen Anne hill on the right side, and you can see Dexter going up the side as well. Off in the distance on the left side you can see Capital Hill with Lake Union below it, and you can also see what use to be Stone Way Bridge.

Here is a photo of the Aurora Bridge under construction in 1931.

The Smith Tower under construction in 1913. Look at all the street car lines along 3rd and Yesler. Almost all the buildings in this photo are still there today.

The Denny Regrade, 1914. I'd hate to be the milk man or the paper boy for this house.

 

 Traffic sucked around the Fremont bridge back in 1957 too.
 

Check out the Publix hotel \in the skyline photo taken in 1954.(E shaped white building just left of center)

Here is a great areal photo of downtown Seattle before all the tall sky scrapers went in. You can see the Publix again the the lower right. Also look how wide 5th ave is back then, it's at least twice as wide as it is now. There are also the train lines going to Union Station that Paul Allen now has his buildings over.

 

Here is a photo looking north up 5th at Union and King st. station. On the right the empty lot is now where the new Uwajimyaya store is, and in the center is where Paul Allen's buildings are now.

 

Look at this crazy design proposal for the West Seattle Bridge, maybe one day in the future we will all be living under a freeway.

Well, that's it for now. There are many more amazing photos of Seattle in their photostream. It would be great to do then and now photos for some of these shots just to get a good sense of what has changed over the years.

Settlement Sunday #2

Who is Dimpe and what are her Dampes? I don't really know, but damn they are tasty. This is the second Settlement Sunday and I decided to go with another easy one. It's amazing what you can make by throwing together a few simple ingredients.

Here is the recipe if you want to copy and paste it.

Dimpes Dampes

1/2 cup suger

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

2 cups milk

1 cup butter

2 cups apples, sliced

Mix sugar, salt and flour and gradually add the milk to make a smooth batter. Grease a large, shallow baking pan will wiht some of the butter; then add the remaining butter and apples to the batter. Mix and pour into pan or pans not more than 3/4 inch deep and bake at 350° 30 to 45 minutes until a golden brown.

Here's how it came together for me.

Holy crap these are good, they have a nice crisp crunchy edge and a gooey center. This is another recipe going in my save folder, might have to do something about the name though.

om nom nom

Thrifty #15

Thanks for a great night.

I haven't been doing a lot of thrifty posts lately mostly because I haven't been interested in finding any new cameras or projectors or other random things. I have been looking for more useful things though, such as clothes, utensils, or other things I can use around the house. This weeks thrifty find is something I think I will be able to use on a regular basis and will also be very convenient.

Now when I'm drinking my morning coffee and pushing the ladies out the door they'll know they were appreciated. I should have gotten one of these a long time ago.

WTF Is This?

How The Hell Did I Miss This?

When I was baking the cup cakes yesterday I noticed something strange, something I should have seen a long time ago. Look at this.

Do you see that? When I first noticed it my mind was blown. How the hell could I miss that, I've had these things for years. You see it right? No? Look at the size stamped on the handle.

I checked them both with my larger measuring cup and sure enough the larger one is 1/2 cup and the smaller one is 1/3 cup. No wonder my food sometimes tastes like crap. Step it up China, you can do better then this.

Settlement Sunday #1

I'm starting a new post based off of the cook book I found a while back, The Settlement Cook Book. I've been looking through this book a lot the past week and I already have about 10 recipes that I want to try out. There are some that are pretty odd, but I decided to start out with a simple sure bet, peanut butter cup cakes.

Here is the recipe if you want to copy and past it.

Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

 1/2 cup butter 

2 eggs, beaten 

1 1/2 cups brown sugar 

1/2 cups cake flower 

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

 1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

2/3 cup milk

Cream butter, add sugar, continue creaming. Add peanut butter and cream well. Add vanilla and eggs, beating well. Add flour, sifted with salt and baking powder, alternately with the milk. Bake in muffin tins or paper muffin cups, in moderate oven(350 degree) oven about 30 minutes. Frost with any Chocolate Frosting, page 409.

Simple strait forward recipe, I decided  to just do the plain cup cakes and skip the chocolate frosting on this try. Here is the making of video.

And here is the end result.

Nice, fluffy, peanut buttery cup cakes. It makes about 15 cup cakes of this size. This is a great recipe on its own but you could expand it with many creative fillings and toppings. This is a definite keeper. Excuse me while I go have another.

Dancing Machine

She Stole All My Moves

She's a maniac, maniac, that's for sure, and she's dancing like she's never seen anyone dance before.

Top 10 Documentaries

 Best Documentaries Of 2010

Along with a lot of movies, I also watch a lot of documentaries. These, in no particular order, are what I thought were the best 10 that I watched last year.

1. It Might Get Loud - It does get loud, and it's awesome.

2. Herb and Dorothy - A great story of a couple who over the years have amassed an amazingly large art collection as well as an amazing personal connection with many artist.

3. The Art of The Steal - The story surrounding the Barnes art collection and the political manipulation and eventual exploitation of that collection after he passes and his will is disregarded.

4. The Age of Stupid - A view of our world today as seen through a man in the future after the world has been devastated by the affects of climate change. He is looking back trying to figure out where we went wrong, and why we were too stupid to do anything to change it.

5. The Cove - A look into the world of dolphin trade, where they come from, and what happens to the ones captured that are not chosen. Watching them plan the filming of this event is like someone plan a bank heist, its a very interesting film, but also shocking.

6. The Human Family Tree - Tracing the routes of mankind, where we came from and how we got there.

7. I like Killing Flies - A great look in to the life of a long running small New York family restaurant owner and his philosophy on life. You watch as they transition from their long time old shop in to a new space and how it affects them and their regulars.

8. Exit Through The Gift Shop - An interesting look into the world of street art and people such as Banksy, this film takes a strange turn and to what I think might be a spoof or mocumentary on the commercialization of street art in general.

9. Death of a President - A mocumentary detailing the possible outcome and ramifications of the assassination of the president in this day and age.

10. Restrepo - A year long look into a platoon fighting in Afghanistan, you see the work the put into constructing their base, defending it, going out on patrols, interacting with the locals, fire fights, loss, and like most of them never once see the enemy that they are fighting.

Top 10(11)

Top 10(11) Movies Of 2010

Just to let you know this top 10 list goes up to 11. These are the top 11 movies that I watched in 2010. They were not all necessarily made in 2010 but these are the ones I enjoyed watching the most over the past year. I actually have a large list when I sat down and wrote out all the movies I could remember watching in 2010 and I'm sure I probably missed a few, and maybe even one or two that would make this list, but these are the ones that stuck with me.

In order starting from 11 going down to what I thought was the best movie I watched in 2010.

11. Antichrist - This movie is as shocking and disturbing as it is beautiful, and it is a very beautiful and well done film. Watch with caution, when you see the lead actress grab a piece of firewood, close your eyes. Mom, skip this one.

10. The Hurt Locker - Eye opening, suspenseful, very well filmed.

9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Great mystery, always keeping you guessing, characters are great, sometimes shocking but altogether great story.

8. Moon - This movie is a great throwback to they heyday of space sci-fi films. Great twist to the story as well.

7. Hunger - This movie is also as shocking as it is beautiful, some of the most well set up and shot scenes I have ever seen are in this movie. You should defiantly watch this film, but be prepared to cringe.

6.Mulholland Drive - Twisting, deep, dark. This movie is almost impossible to figure out so what's best to do is just sit back and enjoy the ride, this movie contains the greatest collection of somewhat random scenes ever.

5. Departures - This is just a great story of a man dealing with an unexpected change in his life. Funny, sad, moving.

4. Paris, Texas - Even though this movie is almost as old as I am, I watched it for the first time this past year. This movie is filed with amazing scenes with even more amazing dialog.

3. Where The Wild Things Are - Amazing, that's pretty much sums this movie up.

2. La Moustache - Mind blowing WTF. You watch as a mans world slowly unravels.

1. Inception - One of the more original big blockbuster movies I've seen in a long time. I've sat thinking about this movie and just what the possibilities would be if such a thing that happens in this movie ever becomes reality. Being able to enter and control our own dream worlds would truly open up a whole new world to us, the ability to create endlessly with no constraints is something that I think most people would love to be able to do. The way this film shows the dreamworld is really well done, this was the best film I watched this year.

Well there you have it, I watched a lot of movies in 2010 so here are also some honerable mentions:
12
Flame and Citron
The Vanishing
District 9
Inglorious Bastards
Bass Ackwards
Zombieland
The Village Barbershop
The Kite Runner
The Horseman
Precious
Shutter Island
Valhalla Rising