two new pieces

new series

"Totem no. i," $40.

Here's the start of a new open-ended series of totem animals. I'm playing around with gouache embellishments.

P.S. I'm so happy with my new scanner. It's a Canoscan 5600F flatbed scanner, about $175 with California tax. It's so fast, and the image quality is leaps and bounds beyond the scanner I had before.

finally!

Tomorrow I get a new scanner! God, I'll be surprised if it takes any less than six hours to redo all the photos I've taken for the store, but still, it'll be worth it.

Stay tuned!

analytics!

The Storque just announced that the administration has launched a beta of tracking and site meter software, to which I say: w00t! I've often been curious to see how people find Pen and Paper, and I think this could be a great tool in attracting more customers and getting a better perspective on how far I can take this little project.

I haven't been posting too many new pieces. I'm working on seriously cleaning and clearing out my nest, which will probably take at least a week. But here's what I've listed in the last week or so:















They range from $30 to $35, with the exception of the little wolf cub, which is $15. I'm especially fond of him, actually. The silhouette itself only stands about an inch high, so with the matting and everything he looks especially diminutive. I think he'd look great in one of those IKEA pinewood frames.

recipe: french lentil and roast butternut squash salad

I've never really liked anything sweet first thing in the morning. Even fresh fruit has to be preceded by a piece of plain dry toast or something, and my favorite breakfast is just homey Korean fare: a bowl of fresh white rice, some kind of clear savory soup, an assortment of banchan, maybe a piece of fish or a fried egg with sesame oil and soy sauce.

As such, when I work at the yogurt shop on Sunday mornings I never really eat anything until I get home in the afternoon. I'll nibble some toasted nuts and maybe sneak a sample cup of the greek yogurt or something, but for the last year or so Sunday breakfast has always been at three in the afternoon, once I get home from work.

I made this lentil salad last night and put it in the fridge to snack on throughout the coming week, but Camden and I polished off two thirds of it already.

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash
1 medium yellow onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 - 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely minced and set aside; reserve the parsely stems
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 1/4 cups de Puy lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Peel and cut the butternut into 1" cubes, then halve the onion and cut into large-ish wedges. Coat everything with the olive oil, salt to taste, and roast with two cloves of oiled garlic until everything is tender, about thirty minutes.

While that's roasting, put the rest of the onion, garlic, and reserved parsley stems in a pot of water and bring it to a lively simmer. After it's simmer for ten minutes fish out all the vegetable matter and salt the broth, then add the lentils and cook until done.

Toss the roasted vegetables and the lentils together in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest, as well as more salt and pepper if needed.

Eat warm or cold.

my favorite winter salad

Today was a puttering sort of day. I tried to focus and finish a few drawings I started in December but it just wasn't happening. The only thing I managed to do well tonight was dinner.

We have to periodically defrost our sorely outdated freezer. Luckily, at least as far as cleaning goes, the freezer is smaller than two or three of my textbooks and all I found in there were two packs of sausages we bought a while ago at the farmer's market. The boudin blanc I wanted to save for later, so tonight I roasted up the wild boar and apple sausage and served it with a simple lentil salad and roasted potato mash. For a second course, I served this salad.



I think I found the recipe in the New York Times a couple years ago, and since then I've been making it every couple weeks or so. It almost seems ridiculous to call it a recipe. All you have to do is mince a small clove of garlic and mix it up with the juice and zest of a small lemon, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and some olive oil. Then get a good handful of what I like to think of as "softer" winter greens. So: Swiss chard and dinosaur kale are good contenders; their more recalcitrant siblings, like red or green kale and collard greens, are too tough. Wash and pat the leaves dry, remove the ribs, and chiffonade them as thin as you can. Toss the greens with the lemon dressing and let it sit for a bit, five to ten minutes depending on how much tooth you want, then grate a bunch of pecorino or parmesan over the whole mess and mix it up and serve.



It's more substantial than a lettuce salad, because of the heft of the kale, but dressing is bright and lively and keeps it from feeling too hearty. On the rare occasion that Camden can't make it home for dinner I have this on its own, with some candied fruit or some such sweet morsel for dessert.

I listed one more silhouette in the shop, too:

new pieces and prints

The three silhouettes are all 4" by 6" and are listed at $35; the prints are $5.