Schooner Alabama

This is a painting of the Black Dog Tall Ship Alabama. Every year I've been lucky enough to go sailing on Alabama's sister ship, Shenandoah. The old adages are true; there's something about the sea that sparks the imagination. Sailing on those boats has given rise to songs, poetry, a bunch of fun costumes and a number of paintings. This one may be my favorite.

Fig, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Challah

This may be the most beautiful bread I've ever baked.

I'd written off challah for a long time because it looked a bit too complicated, but today I finally made the leap, and boy am I proud. My desire to overcome my challah fear was spurred on by two factors. One the fact that Peter got me The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for Christmas and this recipe particularly stood out in all its sweet, salty glory (plus, there were really cool-looking weaving instructions!) The other is that as of late my sister and her architecture cohort has become obsessed with challah. The third fact, which I'm going to sort of nest as a subheading under facts one and two, is the amount of immensely rewarding "Holla!" jokes you can invent before/during/after making it.*

Palak Daal

For no particular reason at all (all right, maybe because of my slightly insane cooking marathon) I had a sudden urge to try out a few more healthy and wholesome recipes this week. And while beige-tinted bowls of flaxseed quinoa bran--hey, it is probably a thing somewhere on the internet--leave me cold, I've found consistently that the way to go when you want wholesome, vegetarian and preferably not pasta...you gotta go Indian.

The Classics: Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

I know, I know. How many oatmeal raisin cookies does the internet need? Well, dear reader, think of this not as another oatmeal raisin cookie, but as the oatmeal raisin cookie. While I'm as willing to dive into cocoa nibs and almond extract as the next adventurous baker, sometimes you really don't need to reinvent the wheel. These little beauties have served me well my entire life and I'd be hard-pressed to find a new recipe I like enough to replace them. And who knows? Maybe you don't have your own oatmeal raisin cookie recipe yet. If that's the case, start right here.

Just Kids

I read Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids the summer I traveled through Europe right before moving to Portland. You know how sometimes you read something that is just perfect for who you are and where you are at a certain time? That was this book. I can't begin to describe how much of a profound impact it had. I read this book in a day, sitting on a park bench in Prague and later over a beer at Cross Club. Patti's words somehow got me out of the blue funk that New York had sunk me into and I came to Portland with my mind clearer and my heart more optimistic than it had been in a very long time. This painting is my tribute to Patti and Robert.

Pirate Night!

One of the highlights of my year is undoubtedly Pirate Night, the annual day in which a bunch of (mostly) adults get dressed up as pirates aboard a gigantic schooner, consume rum, play music and occasionally shout obscenities at the passing ferries. And, of course, if you're a slightly obsessive-compulsive costumer like certain people we know, Pirate Night is something to be designed. And planned. And sewn. Here are some photos from past years.

Masquerades Past

Here are a few shots of costumes made for past Portland Masquerades!

Pencil Sketches

Here are some old pencil sketches from a life drawing class and just from noodling around.

Texas Flood

I love Stevie Ray Vaughan. He has been the subject of many, many paintings. I still remember the first time my dad called me in to the living room to watch him play on Austin City Limits. The man can rock a cowboy hat, a kimono and a Fender. He was the best.

Rustic Rhubarb Tarts

Part of me has been impatiently tapping its feet waiting for spring to arrive and the rhubarb to start rolling back in to the grocery store so that I could try the beautifully rustic tarts featured on the cover of Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain. While I haven't yet been able to get the cookbook for myself, I've often found myself pulling it down off the shelf at Powell's and gazing longingly at the stunning cover. Finally, BA announced that rhubarb was back in season so I eagerly began the hunt--it took three grocery stores (and some bug-eyed looks from a few HEB employees) to find some fresh rhubarb, but boy was it worth it.

First embroidery!

This was my very first attempt at embroidery way back when. It's supposed to be a johnny jump-up, which is my favorite type of flower, but the colors are a bit off; I'm still having a bit of trouble with that part of embroidery! Eventually I turned this into a Christmas present; a pillow for Peter's mom!

Cooking Marathon, Day Three

Day three of the cooking marathon ended things with a bang--and a burn. Compared to Days 2 and 1 this was fairly easy to execute (Mom made our traditional Sunday breakfast, so I was off the hook for that one). We ate dinner at around three and overall I was happy with everything...until the crumble.

Cooking Marathon: Day Two

 

Well, I did it. The key word here today, folks, was rustic. Rugelach sticking to the counter because the dough had warmed up too much so the little pastries were kinda torn in places and not remotely even? Rustic. Gnocchi ruining your life and sticking to the finger to the point where you're trying to fling them off your hands and into the pot and they finally blop in after losing all semblance of traditional round gnocchi shape and kinda now resemble little pellets with angry poky areas? Rustic. More importantly, did everything taste good? Why, yes. Yes it did.

Bailey's Feelings-Fueled, Ill-Advised Cooking Marathon: Day One

 I will be the first to admit that I may have gone a wee bit overboard this time. These recipes were taken during Spring Break which, if you'll remember, was the week in which my sister was off larking about major geological formations and I was alternating between bouts of compulsive Poirot watching, tea chugging, people-eschewing and double cake baking. So when my parents invited me home for the weekend I immediately decided that it would be a SUPER good idea to plan out basically the culinary equivalent of a marathon--creating menus of never-before-tried dishes to trot out for the parents. The fun part was that each day I'd make breakfast, lunch, dinner and a dessert. ("Fun?" I hear you ask. "I bake my feelings and then give them to people," I reply. You probably don't make any further comment because you're picturing someone eating my feelings.)

Fig, Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza

Oh, Bon Appetit. Where would we be without each other? If someone measured the intense endorphin hit that results in finding you inside my mailbox once a month they might begin to worry for my mental health. But seriously, I do find myself going on a bit of a Bon Appetit spree as of late. Part of this is due to my recent Russell-Crowe-In-A-Beautiful-Mind-Esque revamp of my recipe cataloging system, but part of it also results from chancing across recipes like this in each issue. Fig, Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza. How could you possibly resist?

Blueberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

It's Spring Break. My sister is off gallivanting around the Grand Canyon and hopefully not getting eaten by bears or donkeys. The sole piece of advice my mother doled out to my sister before she left was "Don't sleep in huts." When pressed to explain herself further she said, "Mouse turds are dangerous." Piper and I decided to leave it at that.

That, however, leaves me alone and my monastic, hermit-like tendencies have come out in full force. "But it's South by Southwest!" I hear you cry. "And you live in Austin!" Well, reader, I am actually just a well-disguised 80-year-old curmudgeon at heart. I hate crowds, and loud, drunken young people give me indigestion. Besides, campus is really, really nice now that all the college students are gone. Just me and the squirrels.

There is, however, only so much Poirot one can watch before stir-craziness sets in. And by stir-craziness I mean the intense urge to stir batter around in circles in various bowls. So in one day I made the Grapefruit Teacake and this Blueberry Crumb Cake. And it's not six o'clock yet.

Glazed Grapefruit Teacake

One afternoon Piper and her friend Kent came over to play one of their usual afternoon games of Risk. Kent was rather upset because he had just accidentally bought a bag of grapefruit instead a bag of oranges. "I hate grapefruit," he said grumpily. I made him a Tarte Tatin and he felt better.

But the point of this story was that Piper and I wound up with a bag of grapefruit that has been sitting in our fridge for a good long while without much use. I enjoy a half of grapefruit with breakfast on special occasions, but usually breakfast consists of the same cereal combination I've been eating since age five.* Don't mess with a good thing, that's my motto!

Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine

If I had the chance to meet any living chef, Dorie Greenspan would definitely be in my top five. For one thing, the woman makes a mean cookie. And two, she's adorable. Her lovely book, Around My French Table, time and time again has provided me with warm, flavorful, oftentimes very inexpensive sustenance. Her writing is charming; to read her musings on life as an American in Paris is to feel oneself go wandering out the door and out onto the Champs-Élysées.

Romeo Jacket: Finished Product!

Here it is! Aside from a few hiccups with the quilting and with the (expletive) cuff hem coming undone, like, five times, this jacket came together really smoothly and I must say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's fully lined, with accents on the wrists and elbows, with contrast fabric on the ribs and the upper arms. I added a little shoulder panel (based on a flash of inspiration from Maximus's Gladiator armor). It zips up and has an eyelet section hidden on the chest so that Peter can choose to lace it up for shows. When not being used the ties are threaded through loops along the zipper and knotted at the bottom to keep them in place.

The only thing left is seeing whether or not it fits! And, of course whether or not he likes it. Fingers crossed.

Carrot-Orange Muffins with Candied Ginger

There's a bakery in SE Portland called Tabor Bread that is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the neighborhood. They mill their own flour and have wood-fired ovens and do lots of lovely nice things like leave extra bread outside on Sundays with a little box for donations. But my favorite thing about Tabor Bread are their muffins. Let me clarify: a muffin is not a cupcake. It does not need frosting. It isn't supposed to be a sugar bomb. The muffins at Tabor Bread are hearty, wholesome and not-too-sweet; precisely the kind of thing you need for a 5 a.m. airport run. I kept the Tabor Bread ethos in mind as I developed the recipe for these lovely little muffins; keeping them chock full of orange, carrot and little explosions of candied ginger rather than sugar.

Lemon-Lavender Tea Cookies

I come from a long line of tea drinkers. More specifically, I come from a line of Red Rose tea drinkers. As early as I can remember, as soon as it hit about 7pm my parents would begin their daily ritual of making tea, forgetting it on the counter, then chipperly setting about making more. We Cains rarely vary in our tea tastes. My sister Piper has shirked tradition somewhat by embracing the more radical realm of PG Tips, but I remain steadfast in my loyalty to Red Rose. In fact, it's gotten to the point where one of my boyfriend's favorite jokes is:

Peter: What are you up to?
Me: Drinking tea.
Peter: Oh yeah? What kind?
(proceeds to chuckle heartily to himself for a minute and a half)

Get it? Because I only drink one kind of tea.

But the glorious thing about even the most devoted one-tea people is that we nevertheless embrace all sorts of accoutrements to go along with our daily cup--the odd scone, piece of toast, crumpet, you name it. And when it comes to tea cookies...well, guys, I don't think tea cookies get much more perfect than this.

Romeo Jacket: Construction

So here's the next installment of the Romeo jacket construction. This, more specifically, is the bottom layer of the coat. The actual leather part of the jacket is more of a vest that rests over the bottom layer (I liked the effect of the sleeves coming out of the arm openings as if it were a vest).

Chocolate Macarons with Orange Chocolate Ganache

I give you the macaron: though it be but small, it is fierce. This is my second-ever attempt at making macarons, largely because the first time I attempted it I was still young and impressionable and I figure now I'm nice and mature and will follow the directions like a good baker and everything will come out perfectly. And though these little guys are far from perfect, they're just so darn cute you can't help but love them.