Houston Japan Fest 2012

This past weekend, Ben and I went to the Houston Japan Fest with our friend from college, Akira. Although it was suuuuuper hot, it was a beautiful day and I even got to eat some seaweed salad (one of my most favorite things on the planet... I know, weird.)

Beautiful Hermann Park

A delicious yogurt drink that was sneakily good!

Who doesn't love a good sausage on a stick?

Seaweed salad!

Mmm, beef bowl.

Koi!

This is the kind of day it's been...

SOMEONE is Making it Hard to Get Work Done

Never MIND The RIZZRAZZ: Featuring Fuzzy Grapefruit

Recently, I was approached by a photographer/blogger here in Houston named Riaz, who contacted me after seeing some of my work at Space. He was hoping to feature various Lone Star State artists on his blog and wanted to know if I'd be interested in meeting with him to show him my workspace and pose for some casual artist portraits. After the wave of 'oh crap, I really need to clean my apartment' subsided, I of course said yes. I'm so glad I did! Riaz is a super nice guy and a super talented photographer. Check out the feature and his awesome blog.

"Untitled with Foxes #1"

For Christmas, Ben gave me a Wacom drawing tablet. I'd been oohing and ahhing over them for a while, but I seriously did not expect to find one under the tree. It was a nice surprise, to say the least. There may have even been a few happy tears on Christmas morning (well, and guilty tears about the crappy presents I gave to him... I mean, he DID need new pajama pants, but still.)

On account of our dying (now deceased) computer, I didn't get a chance to try the tablet until today. I know it'll take me a while to get used to the thing, but even after one day of drawing I can tell I'm hooked.

Adventures in Baking

I awoke this morning and entered my kitchen with three realizations:
- I am hungry (and not for my usual cereal)
- Those bananas are looking a little sad
- Those blueberries are looking a little sad!

Now, I am not the cook in this relationship. But with Ben's somewhat unaccommodating work schedule, I've been faced with two choices: flee from the kitchen in terror and retreat to takeout menus, or embrace this as an opportunity to experiment (and yes, make some errors) in cooking. This morning's realizations seemed like an awesome opportunity to concoct some muffins, so here is the recipe for my own little experiment, combining elements of various muffin recipes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (an awesome cookbook to own)...

Blueberry Banana Muffin Recipe
Ingredients:
2 Cups flour (I used 1 Cup all-purpose and 1 Cup whole-wheat)
1/2 Cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling on top)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 Tablespoon melted butter (plus extra for greasing the tin)
2 overripe mashed bananas
1/4 Cup plain yogurt
1/4 Cup milk (I added this after everything was mixed since the batter looked too dry)
1 Cup fresh blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Grease a 12 compartment muffin tin with butter.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Beat together the egg, butter, bananas, and yogurt.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spoon or spatula (you don't want to mix too much, the dry ingredients should be moistened but not totally smooth.) This is where I added a splash of milk (you can see from the second picture that my batter was too dry.) Stir in the blueberries.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tin compartments. Sprinkle the tops with sugar (and cinnamon, if you like.)
Bake 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins are nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before removing them from the tin (in my case, I let all but one sit for 5 minutes.)

The verdict: Good tasting and a moderately healthier option than some other muffin recipes (with the use of whole wheat flour and yogurt). But, I think they could have stood to have a bit more sugar in them. Next time, I might also try adding some lemon zest to the batter and nixing the cinnamon on top. But all in all, a delicious and filling muffin.

Hello, Monday

Ugh. Mondays. Also, Benny has been sick the last few days so I've been trying extra hard not to catch what he has (we've even been sleeping in separate rooms like a 1940s married couple.) Last night he was like, "you know, I think I'm almost over this thing." So I figured what the heck, and moved back into our bedroom. Wouldn't you know it, this morning I awoke with a swollen throat and sniffles. Blergh!

Anyway, here's a little guest who stopped by this morning to say 'Happy Monday'...