I just love stop motion videos

And this one is no exception.



A music video. Lovely music.
And I feel like this is what dreaming+sleeping really feels like.

Saw this on Design*Sponge.

covetous

I mean come on! Where the hell was this water dispenser back when I was shopping for my Brita??

[image from the Aquaovo site]

I love the form of this smaller dispenser, but if it's going to hold water in my household, I'd do well to order the bigger Eve-esque (from Wall.E) version.

[image from the Aquaovo site]

So totally unfair that it's beautiful and affordable (whoops! I just realized I translated the price incorrectly. It's a pretty penny to own one of these so I don't feel so bad about my Brita) and not mine. More info here.

Okay, I calmed down a bit to go back to the website and read further. The smaller egg is just a beverage dispenser. The Eve-esque form is a water filter. They have a comprehensive brochure that you can download to read more about it. I'm sold. Except for the fact that we already purchased a Brita Brick about a month ago. Anyone want to buy a gently used Brita with three free filters? I could get you a good price ;) the cost for one of these is more like a hefty car payment. Not as appealing when it costs so much, though I do think it's beautiful and looks well designed.

I must train our cats to tolerate and eventually love this

Holy crap!!

Now if I could figure out a way to attach the furminator to the end of the hose. Also, I'm thinking these folks must have a clean place indeed.

note to self: my song

I've decided after watching Blindsight that if ever an opportunity arises where I am asked to stand up and sing a song, that the song I will sing will be the Turtles' Happy Together. Now, I just need to learn the lyrics:

Happy Together
Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the one(girl) you love and hold him(her) tight
So happy together

If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby the skies'll be blue
For all my life

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

[repeat chorus]

[repeat verse 3; harmonize on first three lines]

Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

[repeat verse 3]

So happy together
How is the weather

So happy together
We're happy together

So happy together
Happy together

So happy together
So happy together (ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba)

battle in the kitchen

You have to check out this photo set on flickr by SuperJared. I clicked on his icon because the photo looks like it's of my sweet chubby Och. Clicking around to look for a larger pic, I found this set called Kitchen Kung-Fu. AWESOME! Note kitty on the bottom right in the last photo. Thank goodness the worst fighting I ever encounter in my kitchen is chicken skin stuck to a pan. I'm not ninja enough to take on this kind of battle.

winner, winner chicken dinner - oven fried chicken

[Note to self: Oven at 400 and use those glass baking dishes.]



My father-in-law mentioned something about a fried chicken his mother used to make in a dutch oven with just a little bit of oil or maybe a bit of butter when he was a kid. For picnics at the beach to feed her 5 kids. He says it's the best fried chicken he's ever had in his life. It sparked a memory about a recipe I had at home that I never tried out.

I've had this recipe for oven "fried" chicken for over 5 years. I heard about it on npr's All Things Considered and amazingly the recipe and story link are still on their site (you have to scroll down a bit towards the middle of the page).

I only just tried it out a few weeks ago and unfortunately it was a disaster. I guess I was thinking of what my father-in-law said and thought I needed a dutch oven. I don't have a dutch oven, but I do have a huge ovenproof skillet with an extra-heavy bottom that I sometimes use as a dutch oven. That's what I used last time when the chicken tasted good, but the mouth feel was all wrong and boy was it one ugly meal. Not surprisingly, this meal was not photographically documented.

I tried this recipe again tonight but somehow I ran out of real estate in the pan (something that hadn't occurred the previous go). So I pulled out my trusty glass baking dish and laid out half the chicken in it. The chicken is dredged in flour and cooked in the oven on two tablespoons of melted butter. After 45 minutes or so, the meat is golden brown and you flip it to brown the other side. The result is a crisp chicken, a little different from fried chicken but 100 times more heavenly if you ask me. I can't remember the last time I grunted my lip-smacking approval as many times as I did during dinner tonight. I couldn't help myself. I'd take a bite of chicken and just Oh my dear lord, this chicken is so good! I'd find myself murmuring.

I'll ditch my faux dutch oven and go straight for the baking dishes next time around. And the brining. Don't forget the brining. It's what makes the meat so freaking delicious, I believe.

I served this heavenly dish with roasted mashed sweet potatoes (I haven't gotten over it yet) and collared greens. When I was sketching out the menu yesterday I was far more ambitious thinking I would include cauliflower au gratin and fresh baked cornbread with this meal. Alas, I planned poorly and didn't have time. Next time, I suppose. Cause there will most certainly be a next (and next, and next and next) time.

moss

[photo from Apartment Therapy re-nest]

I love the idea of this real moss bathmat I saw on Apartment Therapy re-nest. (More photos at that link.) I bet it would feel nice underfoot. But it got me thinking... is that hygienic? I guess they are just tiny plants that you step on. But some of us here at c+potion aren't so light on our feet as we exit the shower. I could see a lot of smooshed teeny plants in our future. Smooshed teeny plants that end up becoming slimey moldy plant matter... that would be un-hygienic.

it's what's for dinner

My friend Leslie lamented that she hasn't seen any food photos from me lately. I have no idea what you guys have been eating for dinner! she said. How true, how true.

Last night we had Mongolian beef with steamed broccoli on white rice. I made it once before but forgot to take photos that night.

NB: This was an improvisation on the original recipe. I never cared for the part where they tell you to dust the beef in cornstarch and then fry it up in oil. And I didn't have any ginger on hand and M doesn't like onions and I forgot the sesame seeds for garnish. I did have shitake mushrooms, however. Which is all you can see in that photo up there. Believe me, there was beef and plenty of it.

Eating it for supper last night made me realize that without the deep-frying this dish smacks of Korean Bulgogi. Thin slices of beef, sweet soy sauce based sauce. Just add some sauteed onions and you're good to go.

But the reason for my lack of food photos and general absence from posting is because I've been sick for most of January. It's entirely unreasonable if you ask me, but that's the cold that's been going around and I have no control over the matter. The worst of it seems to have passed but the lingering part is this grand fatigue that I just can't shake. Just going out to lunch yesterday (with Leslie and M) took a lot out of me. On days when I'm sick and can't cook, we tend to order in. M calls it cooking when "dad's" in charge while he leafs through various take out menus in our collection.

furniture design

I wish I had known about Miami-based furniture designer Facundo Poj back when I was in my furniture making class. He makes beautiful furniture out of recycled materials (bathtubs cut in two to make a Saarinen-esque chair?). His bamboo line is awesome.

I love how he creates 3-dimensional like curves out of slabs of wood that are otherwise 2D. Like in the legs of the table up there.

And his dual purpose designs are great. Case in point magazine rack+stool.


And this wonderful bench+wine rack.


While I'm not sure I would have been able to imitate exactly what Poj has done with my novice skills and artist budget, I was often at a loss of what to make in a class that leaned more towards traditional and/or conventional design ideas. It wasn't until almost at the end of class that I thought of gluing together cheap (compared to hardwoods) plywood using that as the blank stock for my designs. Which Poj is doing beautifully and resourcefully.