Filed under: photography by ramune

Yesterday afternoon the sky became ominously cloudy and occasionally the sun would shine on the tops of these trees. I particularly like how yellow the tree to the left looks in the sunlight.

Clouds and Trees

Filed under: food, photography by ramune

In an attempt to catch up on these posts, I am posting two photos today. The first one is from last week’s farmers market. I imagine this won’t be the last since now is the time when all kinds of tasty veggies and fruits will be making an appearance.

Peppers at the Farmers Market

Filed under: favorites, food, friends, ice cream by ramune

Six years ago my mother was given a little fig sprig that her friend’s grandmother brought back from a fig tree in Italy. Today this fig tree is 12 feet tall and produces hundreds of figs each year.

The image many people have of a fig is a dried-up shriveled nugget of fiber that is consumed by the geriatric community to get things “moving”. My view of figs has completely changed since I have spent some quality time with the fig tree. When you cut open a fresh fig it is one of the most beautiful fruits out there (in my opinion). It is not brown and shriveled at all. To the contrary it has a vibrant red center full of little blobules (spellchecker says this is not a word, but I think it should be) surrounded by a pale green and aubergine skin.

It’s amazing how many people have never had a fresh fig before (I am sure the exorbitant price doesn’t help). If you are one of these people I suggest you remedy it immediately. I don’t want to get your hopes up but it is a very different experience than eating a dried fig (which I still like).

With dozens of ripe figs waiting to be picked each day it’s hard to keep up with eating them all (if you did it might get things “moving” a little faster than you’d like), so I decided to make ice cream. I also needed to make a dessert for my friend Scott’s housewarming party so this was the perfect solution. After my last disaster with a horrible ice cream recipe I thought it would be a good idea to get it from a reputable source. In my search I kept reading wonderful reviews about the fresh fig ice cream found in the book A Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Unfortunately it was sold out at every bookstore within 10 miles of me, so I drove out to the one store that had it (before some other ice cream lover could get it . . . sorry if that was you.

The recipe was easy and and the process was delicious. In fact, when I tasted the figgy jam part of the recipe I was in heaven. If you know me, you know I am a serious foodie and I get pretty excited about it (there is always something to look forward to!). This was a different level of excitement altogether. The best way I can describe it is like someone meeting their soul mate and never being able to live without them . . . but maybe not on such a dramatic scale. I now feel the need to have a fig tree wherever I live for the rest of my life (because buying fresh figs all the time is quite an investment). As if the figgy jam part wasn’t good enough the ice cream came out even better. I was nervous that it would be too hard (homemade ice cream has a way of doing that) but I think it came out a perfect consistency. Now I am not trying to toot my own horn here (I hope it isn’t coming off that way), I am tooting the figs’ horn and A Perfect Scoop‘s horn. Toot! Toot!

This was initially going to be two posts (since I am still behind by two) because after the ice cream I made a flourless chocolate-hazelnut cake (my friend Maya has a gluten allergy). Unfortunately I was in a bit of a rush to get it done and did not take enough time to get good photos of the process. The cake came out well though and I have included a photo below. I don’t think anyone else had the “soul mate” experience I had, but I think it was well received and I didn’t see any leftovers in anyone’s plate, so that’s always a good sign.

Filed under: doodle by ramune

There isn’t a whole lot to say about this week’s project. It’s just a little something I doodled while traveling the past couple weeks.

Doodle

Filed under: baking, collaboration, food by ramune

This past weekend I was in Chicago (for oral surgery and to see my family) and made cupcakes at my aunt’s house. I wish I had set up the camera to take photos of the process as it was quite unique. I am used to baking by mixing the wet ingredients and then adding in the dry. This recipe started out with the dry and then I had to add butter (a bit messy) and then the liquids. Either way, the cupcakes came out fantastic! When it came time to decorating them my aunt made the frosting and then we decided to add some color. Three of my cousins, one of their friends and I all contributed to the decorating as you can see below.

Collection of Buttercream Frosted Cupcakes

One of my decorated cupcakes

Detail of the buttery buttercream frosting

My cousin/goddaughter cleaning up the leftover cupcake dough (one of my favorite pastimes!)

Filed under: collaboration, photography, silliness, travel by ramune

Eeek, I am late late late. In fact as of today I owe three projects! Here is one that I meant to post last weekend but then the week came upon me and before I knew it it was Sunday again and I missed my deadline. So here we go (and with 9 minutes until September) . . .

My sister (being the amazingly talented book binder/conservator/master of all things book and paper related person that she is) has agreed to make me a portfolio case. So the other week I went up to NYC for a few days to pick out leather from Talas and approve the mock up she put together. I am looking forward to having it all done and ready for interviews since all I have now is my online portfolio. Once it’s all put together I will be sure to post it, however that is not what this post is about. This post is about what happened after I bought the leather from Talas.

After Talas and a tasty sandwich, we drove up to Storm King (an hour or so north of NYC) and walked around the park. It was a beautiful day (is anyone else amazed at how mild this August has been?) and although we did not have enough time to bring a picnic, relax and draw, we did have time to walk around half of the park and take some silly photos. A lot of the sculptures are not necessarily my favorite stylistically but it’s great to be surrounded by massive pieces of art out in nature. My favorite was probably the Andy Goldsworthy wall, but I am not as thrilled about the photos I took of it. I guess I will have to go back and take more some other time when the lighting is not quite as harsh.

Below are a few highlights from the day. As usual you can see more here. If you are in or around NYC I recommend packing a picnic and spending some time there. It’s also not far from Dia:Beacon, which I have not visited yet but hope to soon(ish).

With my bare hands I was able to hold the massive steel sculpture “Pyramidian,” by Mark di Suvero.

Balancing “Pyramidian” in the palm of her hands

This is what happens when the tram drivers get out of control. Casualties occur.

My head hurts