in progress
June 29, 2011
Derby names, cut out of knit jersey fabric and double-sided adhesive, waiting to be applied to practice jerseys for the Border City Brawlers.
Of course the living room couch and coffee table act as a staging area for all big projects (I’m dreaming of a larger studio space. Or even a smaller space, provided there’s a door between it and the rest of our home. A door that CLOSES, what a beautiful dream that is right now. . .).
FYI: WRATH OF KHANNIE is the best derby name, in my opinion. Because all of these letters were machine sewn on, and this name is almost all straightaways where I can sew really fast! Which was pretty important on a day when I have to sew twelve of these by six o’clock.
Sewing on the letters. Please note the Sublime Stitching Roller Derby embroidery transfers pinned to the bulletin board, purchased for me by Peter almost five years ago now, back when I was still in grad school and Windsor’s first roller derby league wasn’t even yet a glimmer in anyone’s eye. How did he know?
Posted by jodi on June 29, 2011 at 2.25pm
vegan sesame snaps
June 28, 2011
I can’t remember now where I found the original, non-vegan sesame snaps recipe, but I’ll edit this to give credit if I do run across it. My version replaces the egg with a flax egg, which could be, at the same time, the grossest and the most magical thing I’ve ever produced in my kitchen. I don’t make these often, because we don’t really eat cookies or refined sugar in general, but I was on my way to a work party and these are a good way to get some protein and a little burst of sugar rush when you’re active.
ingredients
-2/3 cup flour (I’ve used unbleached all purpose flour exclusively in the past, but am planning to try it with whole wheat next time, since there’s so little flour-to-other-stuff anyway)
-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 cup margarine (I use Earth Balance because I am A Hippie)
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1 flax egg (see below)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
method
Prepare your flax egg in advance, as you’ll need to let it sit for 30 minutes or so in order for it to magically obtain the consistency of an egg. Mix one tablespoon of ground flax seed with three tablespoons of water and microwave on “high” for one minute, then let sit. You can also cook it on the stovetop instead for a minute or two, or just mix the flax with warm water and let it sit without cooking. This will produce an amount of flax egg that is equivalent to one egg.
Toast your sesame seeds in a large flat skillet on high heat, watching and stirring constantly to prevent burning. I’ve tried leaving the heat on lower and walking away from it, but that seems to take forever so it’s better to just crank the stove. But be vigilant! Because when these seeds burn, they burn all of a sudden, and they burn smoky. When about ten percent of the seeds have taken on a golden brown hue you can take the pan off the heat, but keep stirring or shaking it for a few minutes as the seeds on the bottom will continue to cook.
Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
In a larger bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar, then blend in the vanilla and the flax egg. Add the flour mixture and seeds and stir to combine. I like to add the seeds while they’re still hot from toasting, as the melting effect on the margarine and sugar seems to make the finished cookies more snappy and less doughy. If you like a thicker, more flour-y cookie then be sure to let the seeds cool first.
Drop in teaspoon amounts onto a cookie sheet that’s been oiled or lined with baking parchment (I use parchment). Leave some space for the cookies to spread. I haven’t tried this yet but you could probably also spread the whole mixture out on the pan, pull it out of the oven halfway through baking and score it with a knife to make rectangular, snap-apart cookies.
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes (this is what the original recipe said; my oven runs a little on the cool side and I like a dark bottom on my cookies, so I baked mine for closer to 12 minutes) at 350° Fahrenheit. Move them carefully onto a wire rack for cooling, as they’ll still be quite soft and floppy after baking and may stick to your spatula a bit. They’ll firm up nicely as they cool.
Posted by jodi on June 28, 2011 at 11.42am
weekend workout update
June 27, 2011
Monday June 20 30 minutes on the treadmill, 17 of it running.
Tuesday June 21
No cardio machines for warm up and cool down today because I did my workout at home. There was a reason for that but I forget it now.
5 sets of squats with more than 60s of rest in between because it’s so much more distracting to work out at home: 49, 52, 46, 46, 60 (minimum 53 for the last set), for a total of 253 squats.
Tuesday evening I broke in my new outdoor wheels, finally, and spent an hour in the playground of a nearby school, skating hard in circles all alone and focusing on trying to get the hang of crossovers, t-stop and steering my body while locked in a squat (which I can only do in one direction, but at least it’s the most useful direction). Still trying to find the magic moment when crossovers suddenly make sense to me, but I am getting the hang of sort of lifting my feet to walk around a turn even though it’s not yet the full crossing over. I wish these baby steps would turn into big-kid steps soon.
Wednesday June 22
Warm up: 1000m on the rowing machine.
Weightless “A” routine, 2x through the following (I wanted to do it five times, but wasn’t feeling so hot and, as it turns out, ended up being sick enough later to have to miss skating practice):
-15 squats
-30 bicycle crunches
-15 push ups
-20 scissor kicks
-20 lunges, front and back
-20 side lunges (10 each side)
-20 seated abdominal twist
Cool-down: 5 minutes on the treadmill.
Thursday June 23 Still sick; no workout.
Friday June 24 A 15 minute run. I was hoping for 20 or 25 but had a nagging foot pain I didn’t want to push. One of those many, many tiny fallings-apart of middle age.
Posted by jodi on June 27, 2011 at 7.46am
green (sneak peeks)
June 26, 2011
1. Stripe study shawl in green and black. Finished back in early May but still not properly photographed on account of indecision over whether it wants blocking first or whether that’s a waste of time with superwash sock wool. Clearly the indecision has gone on long enough by this time that the answer is: block it. Okay then.
2. Pair the second of loose gauge sock yarn legwarmers, with sporty stripes because we watch a lot of football in our household (American friends, that’s soccer to you lot). “Finished”, but not modeled yet because one needs seaming. So. . . not really finished. But! Close!
Currently on the needles is this, sort of; or rather, a since-ripped and restarted slightly smaller version of this:
Which was going to be, as part of the ongoing effort to rid this house of unused sock yarn without making any of it into socks, legwarmers pair the third. But the cuff made it clear it didn’t want to be just another legwarmer, it wanted to be a cuff on a thigh high green sock (pretty much going against the “no socks” thing, but whatever). One mustn’t go buying more yarn of the exact sort one is trying to use up and be done with (also, the whole thing with knitting legwarmers instead of socks is because I’m tired of all the small-gauge sock knitting yielding lovely socks I put my foot through on the fourth wearing), so this sock has a sporty yet lacy-looking ribbed cuff knit at a loose gauge in sock yarn, and a main body of worsted weight yarn, which knits up much faster! and, more importantly, was available in my studio in a good amount of non-earmarked skeins of the exact colour I wanted. Please don’t say this is going to be disastrous and end in tears, because here at jodi’s weblog we’re already well aware of that and are determined to soldier on regardless. ALSO. Since we like to keep things exciting around here: the green yarn is Knit Picks merino. And these socks will have their FEET knit out of that (I know, okay? I KNOW). Yes, I have a darning egg. And I know how to use it, too.
Posted by jodi on June 26, 2011 at 5.03pm
girls on roller skates
June 25, 2011
Brimberg, Sisse. Untitled photograph (Kirsten Hawkins and Solfrid Hätta). 1983. “Hunters of the Lost Spirit.” By Priit J. Vesilind. National Geographic 163:2 February 1983. Print.
Posted by jodi on June 25, 2011 at 7.59am
me at seventeen
June 24, 2011
1. Silver foil abstract paint swoosh wallpaper
2. OZZY
3. Home cut mullet
4. White tank top (4.1 no bra)
5. Peter Frampton drawing, laminated
6. Red eye
There is not one thing not to love about this picture. Me at seventeen = amazing, y’all.
Scanned from old 110 film negatives. Taken with a ten dollar camera of unknown origin, but I remember that it had a quarter, a penny and a four-leaf clover scotch taped to the outside of it, and that I took it everywhere. Hard to believe there was a time when I only had one camera in my purse.
Posted by jodi on June 24, 2011 at 7.28pm
weekend workout update
June 20, 2011
Temporary tattoo from my favourite supplier of woodblock printmaking tools. They stick around longer than I thought they would. Also: trying to take photos of oneself in the gym locker room is awkward and can potentially make one look like a pretty creepy person, and yet still I bring the camera to the gym. Vain much?
Monday June 13
Warm up: 1000m on the rowing machine.
5 sets of squats with 60s of rest in between: 49, 49, 43, 43, 65 (minimum of 50 for the last set), for a total of 249 squats.
Tuesday June 14: day off
Wednesday June 15
I had already decided not to do my scheduled squats workout on account of having skating practice later on that night, and then wound up cutting my run short after 15.5 minutes due to knee pain. And missing out on skating practice later because of it. Which, when considered in light of my recent push ups induced shoulder injury, has me thinking that perhaps doing absurdly huge amounts of the same exercise is a bad idea (one for the DUH files?). So I’m going to continue with the squats but only do them one day a week from now on. Because skating and running are more important than being able to say I can do one million squats.
Thursday June 16: day off in order to be extra cautious with the knee. See how this won’t do? Sheesh.
Friday June 17
Warm up: 15 minutes on the treadmill, only 5 of them spent running. So far so good with the knee; no pain.
Kettlebells routine, twice through the following with a set of 15 jumping jacks after every two exercises:
-25 swings, 12kg*
-12 each side one-armed squat press, 8kg
-15 deadlift, 20kg
-15 sumo squat, 16kg
-15 each side Gaspari’s crunch, 12kg*
-15 upright row with squat, 16kg
-12 overhead extension, 12kg
-20 seated abdominal twist, 8kg
-12 each side bent over row, 12kg*
*I’d gone up in weight on these, to 30lb which is in between the 12kg and 16kg kettlebells. The kettlebells measured in pounds and the ones in kilograms are kept in different areas of the gym, and I couldn’t find the 30lb one. So I went back down to 12kg for the day, not feeling strong enough for 16kg after a week of slack days.
Cool-down: 5 minutes brisk walk on the treadmill.
Sunday, June 19
Derby practice.
Posted by jodi on June 20, 2011 at 10.44pm
tutu of doom
June 19, 2011
The Brawlers are adorable but also they WILL hit you.
Posted by jodi on June 19, 2011 at 12.15pm
about moles
June 15, 2011
Moles eat: insects and worms.
During the day time they hide in: cracks in rocks, under logs, or leaves.
Found tucked inside an old Golden Book Encyclopedia that I was cutting up for bookbinding. Nostalgia dictates hanging onto any note I find that’s written on ditto paper, partly because it’s such a dreamy purple hued piece of printmaking history, and partly because the spirit duplicator was my generation’s first high.
Posted by jodi on June 15, 2011 at 7.22am
some pink things i made today
June 13, 2011
On the left: chive blossom vinegar, following instructions from Food in Jars. Decanted today after 2.5 weeks steeping in the cool corner of the basement where I keep my preserves, it filled a 750ml bottle plus a pint jar. I used half white wine vinegar and half regular old window-washing vinegar. The tangy smell filled the kitchen the moment the lid was off, and the colour is sheer delight. I tried it out in tonight’s supper in a simple vinaigrette with olive oil, cracked black pepper, sea salt and a bit of demerara sugar, tossed over shredded carrots and lettuce, chick peas, green onions and a bit of fresh mint from the garden. It was good, but perhaps not really the right thing to allow the vinegar to shine. I’ll have to think about that; (vegan) suggestions are welcome.
On the right: four pints of rose petal jam, following Norma’s famous recipe. Never mind about the colour of this jam, which is clearly a colour that only really exists in the magical world of unicorns and glitter. What I want to tell you about this jam is this: I scooped it all into the jars superquick, like I was told to do. Then I licked the spoon. Then I scraped the bowl, first with the spoon and then with my fingers and I’m not going to say but I may have just licked the bowl out directly and possibly I also tried to do the same with the blender, all before putting the lids on the jars. It’s that good, y’all. If there are still enough blossoms left, I’ll make another batch before I cut down that wild rosebush (in pursuit of a thorn-free yard). And then I’m going to put on my frilly nightie, lie back on the chesterfield and eat it all up with a spoon.
Posted by jodi on June 13, 2011 at 6.29pm
