Henna!

Rose's feet (1+ hours work)

My leg (about 20 minutes, it's hard to reach so I work slowly)

My hand (about 45 minutes). I really like this design. The brown stain it left was really strong on the fingers and upper hand, but really weak below the wrist. I wish my skin took the henna better.

Roman's Antics

Here's a video I put together about Roman, Andy's kitten. I recently got some editing software, which I'm very pleased with.

Disaster Muffins

I love carrot cake and cream cheese. I've been holding onto this recipe for months. For some unknown reason, instead of this:
















mine turned out like this:




ugh. Looks aside, they're heavy, sticky, and a little too sweet. I don't know what I did wrong! The only deviations from the recipe were omitting the walnuts and adding a tablespoon of flour (for high altitude). Additionally, the recipe claims to make 24 mini muffins, filling each cup 3/4 full with batter. I nearly filled the mini cups (hoping for a high crown, Ha!) and still had enough batter left for 6 regular large muffins. The cream cheese just oozed on top, instead of descending into the muffin. I blame the recipe. What a disappointment. Maybe I can mold them into some sort of giant bread pudding thing.

Why I love having work off on Fridays.

1. Fresh, hot lunches (blue cheese spinach salad and bowtie pasta with pesto, sundried tomatoes, and parmesan)

2. Clean counters.

3. Freshly vacuumed floors.

4. Music, pictures, videos and internet browsing.

5. Sewing (or other crafts).

6. Fresh clean clothes (although I hate doing laundry, I like having a full wardrobe).

7. Putting my shoes back in order after leaving them out all week for quick access, which I stumble on as I get out of bed.

Confession time

I watch So You Think You Can Dance. Every week. And if I miss a show, I try to catch up on YouTube. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's great dancing and choreography on a prime time network TV show. Awesome. On the other hand, it's teeming with reality show obnoxiousness. If I could watch all the dances on YouTube, then I certainly would do that instead of enduring the applause, the drawn out eliminations, wonky camera work, and the judges blathering and self-congratulating.

I started watching the show on season one. There were only 4 really good dancers in it, and I predicted that by season two more dancers would realize they could have done well and audition. I was right, the dancers on this season are in-cre-di-ble.

It's nice that they show a wide variety of dance styles. Various ballroom (samba, paso doble, swing, waltz) are countered with contemporary (their term for lyrical dance), hip hop, and pop. I only wish they were a bit more distinct: actual ballet, actual fosse (none of this fake stuff), and lyrical by someone other than Mia Michaels or Brian Friedman (who at least changes his palatte more than Mia). But even so, this show goes beyond my expectations for an american idol rip-off.

Here are some of my favorite pieces so far:

(Bummer, there were a few more I wanted to link, but Dick Clark Productions has shut them down. Gotta get them while they're fresh. I think it's inane that the official site doesn't even show clips each week. )

Hip Hop with Ivan and Martha

Contemporary with Travis and Allison (with bonus Mia + Celine ;-)

"Jazz" (More modern in my opinion) with Nathalie and Benji (the "it" boy R.M. with the mormon fanbase - gets more votes than he's worth)

Group Jazz dance to Technologic

Samba with Blake and Ashley from Season One (My favorite dance so far: mix of great performance and perfect, crisp choreography.)

Group modern dance (updated link with higher quality video)

*new* Group swing dance

Tarts! The finished display.

A Month and Change

We're a week into shooting our summer movie. Here are some preview pics from the set. I don't want to say too much or show too much yet.


Matt and his steady-cam. $12 in parts and 50 hours labor.

Our starring lady. I'm fitting her dress we bought 2 sizes too big (but it was cheap!). (Look! I have bangs!).

A reference shot for make-up. In this lighting I can see that the bruises need a little more blue stippling. But when lit for shooting I think it looked ok.

Shooting a scene. Check out our awesome lighting.

Hopefully this film will be a culmination of everything we learned from Movie Saturday productions. I'm doing a variety of minor parts in this movie: Production designer (including set dressing, costumes, make-up, and props), minor actor, and Assistant Director.

Ow

I burned myself on my oven. But it's cool because it looks like a triforce piece from the Legend of Zelda. "Well, we know it's not the Triforce of Wisdom." --Trevor

June and July cooking

It's so hard for me to get in the kitchen during summer. The days are too long and hot. Luckily we had an unusual two week spell of clouds, so I made a few attempts in the kitchen. Enjoy!



Time to put my crepe griddle to work! It came with an assortment of crepe-making accessories.

The spinner, used to fan the batter over the entire griddle, is fun to use, but difficult. It spreads the batter so thin it cooks almost before you can complete the circle.

I prefer my crepes a little thicker anyway. The flipper is a nice wooden paddle.

Crepes au citron.



On another night we tried a new ingrediant: pasillo peppers. They're deep waxy green peppers with a bit of heat and a smokey flavor.

I used the peppers to make these vegetarian burritos.

Beef stroganoff. I was not pleased with this. Maybe the years of having stroganoff made with campbell's "cream of" has jaded my opinion of what the texture should be. This was made with sour cream. I should have made a roux to help smooth the cream and milk in the heat. It was kind of gritty and loose.

I had some leftover fresh fruit. Instead of smoothies (my typical way to use of fruit) I dried it in my food dehydrator. Then I put them in bran muffins. From left to right: mango, strawberry, and nectarine.

Avanza groceries! The best place to find Mexican ingrediants at cheap prices (and a whole isle of Virgin Mary candles!). These key limes were gorgeous: bright green, large, smooth healthy skin, and 30 for $1.00!

Large plump tomatillos were on sale too. I bought some not knowing what to do with them. After a quick consultation with Bittman I decided to make salsa verde.

Success!

Beef fajitas with grilled peppers (only $1 a pound, incredible!) and onions, avocados (50 cents each!) on freshly made flour tortillas. Seriously, they were warm when I bought them ($1 for a pack of 12).

I've been lusting for a mini-muffin tin for months now. I finally caved. These are mini key lime tarts. Just before serving at our film rehearsal I topped them and took more pictures, but those are on Brian's camera. I'll post them later. Anyway, these little beauties are all the same flavor, I just didn't remember to dye them green until I had already filled a few tins.

More mini muffins! These are blueberry with sugar crystals on top. They are the perfect popping size.