tutorial: frito pie

It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm going to start up again with a fun one.

Is it really necessary to have a tutorial for Frito pies? Most would say no, unless you're not from Texas, at which point, yes, you do need a tutorial. In New York, people look at you with eyebrows raised and an expression somewhere between disgust, horror, and confusion if you mention a Frito pie. They usually have the same expression after I explain what a Frito pie is. But they're really yummy! It's a staple dish!

So here we go. There are three main ingredients: Frito chips, chili (preferably with no beans ... but whatever floats your boat), and shredded cheese (I usually go with plain ol' cheddar).


1. Get yourself a bowl. Really any bowl will do as long as it's big enough for all the yummy goodness that is to come.


2. Open the bag of Fritos. Pour some of those corn chips into bowl. Oh, and as a side note: If you're in Texas, enjoy the low price and ease of obtaining Fritos, because there's only one grocery store in my area that carries them and a bag cost me $3.50!


3. Open the can of chili, heat it up on the stove, and pour some of it over the Fritos. Well, I suppose you should have had the chili on the stove before you even got out the bowl ... but stop criticizing me! I usually go with Hormel's no beans chili because (being from Texas) beans do not belong in chili and I've never been good at making my own chili.


4. Open the bag of shredded cheese. Grab a handful of it and sprinkle it oh so gingerly over the chili-covered Fritos.


5. Get yourself a fork. Plunge that fork into the concoction, stir it up a bit, and use that fork to stuff your face with Frito pie.

It's not really healthy, and I make no recommendations in regards to feeding it regularly to children. Everything in moderation. I merely say that it's yummy, it's easy, and it's cheap (except in certain states like New York where cans of chili and bags of Fritos and bowls, shredded cheese, forks, and life cost more than they should). It's one of those foods that just makes you happy. Maybe it's because I grew up eating Frito pies so it's kind of a nostalgic thing, but anyway, I really like 'em.

The end! I hope you've been enlightened.

cutting up glossies

At work, I'm organizing files to be archived. In the file cabinets there were some magazines, but only certain articles were relevant for the archives, meaning ... I had to cut up an Artforum. ACK!


I am one of those people who does not write in books. I don't highlight. I don't even fold pages. I just do not mess with publications. It seems so blasphemous. And then to CUT UP a magazine, especially one like Artforum? Sadness. Pure sadness in my mind. Especially because according to the archiving procedures, I had to cut out the relevant articles AND the cover ... and the rest of the mutilated glossy could go into recycling.

Sigh. I have a stack of Better Homes and Gardens and I don't even tear those apart. I might place a post-it note on an article to get back to, but I don't think I could bring myself to destroy it. Oy. Yes, I'm a bit neurotic about these things, but it truly pained me to cut up those magazines!

internship sm-internship

I have never been one for real work. Working around 30 hours a week at an architecture firm (as a part-time position that was only supposed to be 20 hours a week, I might add) just about killed me. I worked there about four months before throwing in the towel. I used to think that I hated it because the pay was so crappy, but it's more a question of value. Right now I have an internship that's unpaid. But I like it. Getting paid would be nice, but I'm okay with this slave labor.

>
Sure, it could be that I like it because it's only about 20 hours a week (and I don't have school or other work commitments like I did while at the architecture firm) or it could be that it's because everyone speaks English at my internship and I'm not such an outsider. It also could be that my current work actually seems useful and helpful whereas my work at the architecture firm seemed largely about getting the clients to pay us. But mostly I think it's because at my internship, no one's an architect. Yep, I gotta say that's it.

There's a reason why a lot of people (id est, architecture students) refer to 'architecture' as 'architorture'. And scarily enough, it's said with almost a sad fondness, because really ... all architects are masochists to some degree. I guess that's why it's refreshing to go to work at the internship, rifle through boxes of old exhibition installation photos, take a trip to the archives, compile a list of publications, watch a YouTube clip of an interesting piece of performance art, and actually eat lunch in the break room instead of my desk. Almost doesn't feel like work.

I like architects. Most of my friends are architects, studied architecture, or are in some way connected with architecture. And I can't really fault architects for their neurotic quirks, obsession with details, egosim, or constant dissatisfaction ... because I'm often guilty of the same. I'm still an architect at heart and still relate best to other architects, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to work with them. The art world, however, IS A LOT MORE CHILL. Sure they have their own brand of crazy, but (from what I can tell) it's a lot less ulcer-prone.

circles + circles + circles = overkill

Even though it's technically still spring, it feels like summer. I'm down in Texas for the time being, and whew it's humid! In the spirit of spring cleaning I went through some of my old architecture stuff ... and I can't believe I actually kept some of this stuff. After living in a fairly small Manhattan apartment, I'm beginning to see how useless this extra stuff is.

About three years ago I was in an experimental organic architecture studio, where what we ended up creating were less like buildings and more like art pieces. It was fairly complicated, but basically I extrapolated dimensions from Georgia O'Keefe's "Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. V" painting and for part of the project, I laser cut A LOT OF CIRCLES based on the relationships between those measurements, with the largest circles about 3 inches in diameter. Yeah, it was weird. I used some of the circles, but ended up with a ton of extras. Most were laser cut from cheap 2-ply chipboard.


There were also a ton of circles laser cut out of 1/16-inch basswood sheets. And even more cut out of 2-ply white matboard. Um ... I think I got a little crazy with the laser cutter, but it's an awesome piece of machinery! At my graduate school, students aren't allowed to operate the laser cutter themselves, but back at my undergraduate school, it was free reign (after paying and scheduling the time, of course)! Sigh ... I miss the smell of burnt chipboard/basswood/matboard.


I didn't use any of the matboard because the charring was too severe so the circles didn't turn out as nice and white as I was hoping, but oh well. Good times. Good memories. One of these days I'll have to post the completed projects, which I was pretty proud of. But after three years, I think I can let go of the 200+ circles. Off to the trash they go!

the hunt for snackages

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't made anything in a while. Yeah ... school has basically sucked me in. I can spend the entire day in studio and feel like no time at all has passed. That space truly is a black hole of time. Sigh. I made oatmeal cookies the other day but those got decimated pretty quickly . Today I made potato bread and granola bars, which I thought would be great for studio snacks.


The bread was yummy. I sliced it up and stuck a bunch of it in the freezer. I'll probably have that for toast in the mornings. As for the 'granola bars,' ... um, I guess they turned out decently enough. I put chocolate on them because all great granola bars have chocolate. They don't look very appetizing, but they're still edible. They're kind of sticky though (from the honey in the recipe), so I won't be making them again. Cookies are so much simpler to make ... and to eat.


And speaking of cookies, they sold Girl Scout cookies near campus today! It was very exciting. And goodness gracious those suckers sold FAST. I thought Girl Scout cookie season started a while ago, but this is the first time I've seen them being sold up in my neighborhood. That little table basically got swarmed. It was kind of entertaining watching a bunch of college students go crazy for Girl Scout cookies. I got two boxes of Caramel deLites (aka Samoas), which are the BEST COOKIES EVER, and two minutes later when I walked by again, they were out.

I won't be bringing the Girl Scout cookies to studio (because I'm too afraid others are going to eat them!) and I probably won't bring the granola bars to studio either (because the stickiness is too annoying), so I still need some studio snack food! I might just go out and buy some Craisins. Although the last bag of Craisins I had went really, really fast. I need something healthy, filling, energy-sustaining, and easy to eat. It's always amazing just how much food I can consume just sitting at a computer in studio.

receiving gifts in the mail

There is something about opening up your mailbox and seeing a package in there that just makes your heart go all a-flutter, you know? Well, truth be told I get excited if I see any piece of mail with my name on it, but maybe that's just the egoist in me!

Then again, it's always really annoying too because our mailbox is super small where the opening is 5" by 6" and we don't have a locker for parcels either ... so you can imagine how absolutely stuffed it can get with the letters/packages/catalogs/magazines of four people. Sometimes we end up having to go down to the post office because not everything fits.


A bit back I won a giveaway hosted at Paints and Pans for a wonderful pair of earrings from Nell Belle Designs. And they arrived in a box that fit just perfectly in my mailbox. It was so exciting. Thanks, Natalie and Nell!

happy st. paddy's

Well ... that was a bit of an unintended hiatus. Whups. I got bored this evening, so I baked cookies. Yummy yummy chocolate chip cookies. And since today (yes, since it is past midnight, it is 'today') is St. Patrick's Day, I tried to make a clover-shaped chocolate chip cookie. It was marginally successful.


It's spring break for me right now, so I'm trying to catch up on reading and papers. And eventually I will finish the bag that I've been working FOREVER on. But yeah, schoolwork comes first!

ionic blooms

I haven't posted in a good long while. Ugh, who knew graduate school could entail so much work? Well, here's a drawing a did a good long while ago.


According to my sketchbook, I drew this June 10, 2010. I remember drawing it on the plane ride from the US to China and some of the Chinese people nearby were watching me do all these drawings and kept asking me about what I was drawing. My Chinese was pretty lacking at the time so the only way I could explain it was to say "flowers" but I don't think they quite understood. Ha. The plane ride itself was pretty horrible (middle seat for a REALLY long flight) so I was really glad to be able to talk to someone to break up the boredom.

Eventually I'll get around to turning it into an Illustrator file, but right now I just don't have that kind of time. Sigh. Off to do more homework now.

chicken nuggets for dinner

I generally don't eat the healthiest. Actually, I eat quite horribly if you're talking nutrition. I generally like things that are yummy, greasy, sugary, artery-clogging. The good thing is that I don't eat out much and I rarely eat fast food. It's just that it's such a hassle to cook. But ... since I was procrastinating, I decided to make dinner. So I made myself chicken nuggets! Yum.


I chopped up some chicken breast into pieces that were about 1/2 inch thick. Dipped them in egg and covered them with a mixture of breadcrumbs (from rosemary-potato bread), parmesan cheese, and potato flakes. Fried in oil and voila. Not the prettiest, but whatever, it's just me eating them. Yay!

making pork meatballs

I've never pretended to be a good cook, and I'm not much for experimenting. But I had some ground pork in my freezer that I wanted to use, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. To be honest, I'm not sure why I even bought it. I was in Chinatown and the meat is just so much cheaper down there than up here, I felt compelled to buy some. Yeah ... I impulse-bought pork.


Anyway, I made pork meatballs out of it. It was actually kind of fun to make them. I wasn't really sure what went into meatballs, but how hard could they be? They're basically just balls of meat, right? Well, a quick search of AllRecipes led me to a myriad of different recipes, so I decided to just wing it. When I made bread the last time (it was a rosemary-potato bread), I turned part of the loaf into breadcrumbs. I mixed some of those breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then I was going to add an egg ... but I forgot. I squished all of that with the ground pork and formed meatballs. Yay!


Then I wasn't sure whether to fry or bake them. Online it seemed like either way would work, so I decided to just fry them in some olive oil because I didn't want to turn on the oven just for a few meatballs. They fried up pretty nice, but it probably would've been better if I'd made them smaller. I cooked up some penne, simmered up some marinara (with the meatballs), and voila. The meatballs were a bit dry, probably since I didn't add any egg and I cooked them too long because I was worried about them still being pink inside. Anyhow, it was a learning experience.

tutorial: pan chang chinese knot

In a previous post from a few years back, I made some Chinese knots for Chinese New Year 2010. Well, January 23, 2012, is the date for this year, and it's fast approaching! I still had some of the same red cord from that previous project, so I decided to try and learn a new knot. And I picked a doozy of one called the Pan Chang knot.


It took me a few times, but I finally got it. I had to get some cardboard and stick some pins in it to keep the cord where I wanted it, but in the end it turned out kind of cool. I had take more photos, but when you work at night and your room has incandescent lights and therefore a dim yellowish hue ... it's just too much work trying to make them presentable. Anyhow, I missed using Adobe Illustrator so much I decided to use the program to make a little guide. Yay.


1. Get some cardboard stack it up (two or three layers so the pins stay in). Then following the guide, put pins where there are pink dots.

   
2. Get some cord/string that's got some thickness (red is a lucky color). You'll need about a yard ... maybe more. In the middle, create a loop tied off with a knot. With one end, string the cord around the pins following the guide - stringing it vertically and then horizontally. Make sure to note when it goes over/under the already-laid cord.

   
3. With the other end of the cord, you'll weave it through vertically and then horizontally. Again, make sure you take note when the cord is supposed to go over/under another one.


4. And that should be that. Carefully pull the cord up from around the pins and carefully pull on the outer loops. After you get the center roughly squared away, then you can begin adjusting the length of the loops by slowly working the cord through the piece, tightening along the way. The original knotted loop should be tight to the center square, and the two side loops should be bigger than the four other ones.


5. Voila! After all the tightening you'll have to trim the ends of your cord. And then you can either leave the ends hanging or finish them off with some button knots.


Whew. Wasn't that fun? I don't have enough cord to make another knot, so that's it. It's kind of a small thing to show for all the time and effort I put into making it. It was fun though. Once you make one successfully you can sort of understand how the knot is constructed. The one I made here has four rows, but you can easily expand the knot to have six or eight rows just by increasing the number of vertical and horizontal moves you make. Good luck! Wishing everyone a happy new year!

x-stitch ... years in the making

Did I ever mention that I am quite the procrastinator? Well, here's proof. I finally finished a cross-stitch that I've been working on for the past few years. It's not that big (about 12"x12") and I really have no good excuse for why it took so long. This cross-stitch saw me graduate high school, graduate college, go off exploring, and start graduate school. Yeah ... when I say that this took me a "few years," what I really mean is 7 and a half years. Oh yes.


I received the pattern from a friend for my 16th birthday. We had taken biology together, and for a bug-collecting project, we managed to catch some butterflies. In the process of pinning them to the board, some of the wings fell off and we became the wingless butterfly friends. She gave me the cross-stitch as a reminder of that. We actually haven't talked in about five years or so and we've both just changed so much, but I'm glad that I've finally been able to complete her gift.

Kind of bittersweet in a way. The cross-stitch is completed, we've lost contact, time has moved on ... seems kinda final.

2012 - happy new year!

Woot! This is my first post of 2012 ... yay! Yet another year has passed, oh wow.


I graduated college two years ago and it's amazing how much stuff I still have from my college days. I really should get rid of a lot of it, because when am I ever going to pick up charcoal again? Well, considering how I hated using that incredibly messy stuff, I'd say NEVER. That leaves me the problem of what to do with lightly-used art supplies. Most have been barely touched but they've been opened, so who knows. If I don't get rid of them during what's left of my break, I'll probably just leave them at my parents' house for yet another year.

I wish everyone a happy new year. Time to get started on those resolutions!