edible-wearable

Valentines postbox treats!

2012-02-14T04:04:00.003-08:00

Back at long last!

2012-02-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

In september I worked with food stylist Fergal Connolly on this advert filmed up in the very beautiful Glenelg. Lots of fun and driving around.

Made some pies for a film called 'Love Bite' should be released this year.

For Tramways' Halloween Family Day I ran drop in sugar skull decorating workshop in Glasgow.

All the children, parents, volunteers and staff who were fantastic, it was a brilliant day.

December was spent making mostly gingerbread houses for craft fairs and mince pies on sticks for the Creative Dundee christmas party, lots of fun and baking.

Phew.....back at last

2011-06-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's been ages, and a very busy couple of months for Hilary and I, but it's been a productive silence- Hilary exhibited her beautiful new collection and old favourites at Pulse in London last week (read more here..) and I've been preparing my pitch for Starter for 6, making wedding cakes and getting ready to move house. Lots of fun but chaotic here's some pictures......

Paper work!

Sample wedding cake and sugar skulls below..

ideas for a cake

2011-04-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

2011-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

http://guys.rawsignal.com/blog/BlogPost.aspx?blogPostId=76120

Pie Results!

2011-03-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Having way too much fun on pie chart generators- like this one. Is this worrying, I think that my favourite type of maths is that one that involves pies....

More (edible) results to follow......

Hello Newcastle!

2011-03-23T15:39:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's taken so long to update from the Maker Faire. We had a brilliant time, yet again and met some brilliant makers. Thanks to everyone who took part in the workshops, we had everyone from kids, students, mums and dads and fellow makers all taking part to make their mini pies oven mitts and embossed pie lids (inspired by Victorian pie molds).

Here are some picture from the weekend.

Thank you to the fantastic pie makers

2011-03-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Three cheers for everyone at Maker Faire, O'Reilly, Centre for Life and all you pie makers who took part for turning D.I.Y Pie 2 into a real success. Hilary and I both had a fantastic time and it was great too see so much enthusiasm for painted pie crusts and pies-on-sticks. A really big thank you to our fantastic science fair helpers, we couldn't of done it with out you.

More pictures and pie chart results to follow!

Pies on the go....

2011-03-11T01:26:00.000-08:00

...To Newcastle Science Festival. Just about to Load up the car and make our way from Edinburgh to Newcastle, this year we've got 2 ovens, a sewing machine, loads of signs, a ton of pastry and we can't wait to get making. Hope to see you there.

We don't just eat pies, for yesterdays breakfast we had pancake-cake- delicious.

Pie Book 2

2011-03-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

Just had these babies printed and getting very excited about next weekend now.

Readable treats

2011-02-24T04:02:00.000-08:00

The man is a genius, can't wait to get stuck into this.

Food market in Lyon

2011-02-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

Just got back from an excellent mini holiday in France, lots of eating, drinking, walking, talking and merrymaking- this food market on Sunday in Lyon on the banks of the river Soane was a real high light.

Not quite sure where, but I think these are going there......

2011-02-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Pie club - the first sitting

2011-02-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Last night was an epic night of cooking, eating, drinking and laughing. I hosted the first DIY pie club of 2011 (and first ever DIY pie club) and I'm feeling super pie enthusiastic and keen to keep the pie making up.

Pie course 1- Homity Pie from the cranks cook book, with a peanut butter base.

Pie course 2 - Caramelised garlic tart, recipe from Ottolengi. Absolutely delicious!

D.I.Y. Pie II at Maker Faire Newcastle 2011

2011-02-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy we have been invited back to the Maker Faire this year. We have more pie-themed activities in the pipe line and we're just about to start putting the second D.I.Y. Pie zine together and compiling our favourite pie receipes, how-to projects and pie related quotes and poetry. The Maker Faire has been going since 2009 and is part of the Newcastle Science Festival which is held every year. There is always an amazing program of science-based ar exhibitions, events and talk for adults and children and is well worth a visit. After taking part last year we had a brief chance to meet with the other makers, including a robot inventor and there are a few makers we're really looking forward to see again.

I'l leave you witha very fitting a pie-related quote from everyone's favourite science hero:

"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
Carl Sagan

Newcastle Science Festival 2011

2011-01-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

The new website is up and running for Newcastle science festival, where Hilary and I are delighted to have been asked back to Maker Faire to present DIY PIE 2 -the return of the pie..... (or something like that).

Hope that some of you will be able to make it along on the 12th & 13th of March. It's sure to be a real cracker.

Mugs and Macaron

2011-01-27T03:43:00.001-08:00

Peanut sea salt and caramel macaron made for Eona's birthday, delicious. Recipe courtesy of ottolenghi's first cook book.

Happy New Year

2011-01-13T13:07:00.001-08:00

christmas catering

2010-12-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

I'd been asked to do a spot of catering for a christmas party last, here's some of what I came up with.

Orange caramelised carrots and roasted beetroot

Courgette and halloumi involtini with ginger&garlic

Cherry tomatoes stuffed with Moroccan cous cous

Ginger biscuits dipped in cardamon & orange chocolate

Snow!

2010-11-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

thanks for the pictures dasiy

Mini catering for Urban Igloo

2010-11-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the opening of Urban Igloo- Portobello's newest (and perhaps daintiest) retail addition, I was asked to make some tasty snacks for occasion.

The shop looked immaculate and well done to Roseanne, Ali, Ellie and Ollie for hosting such a lovely opening night we'll look forward to many more!

Setting up

Aubergine and courgette involtini

Parmesan and Poppy seed biscuits

Vegetable Pots

2010-11-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

when it's cold out side...

2010-11-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

..get cooking. I had a lovely saturday cosy and warm in my kitchen making mincemeat. Looking forward to December when I can legitimately crack open the mulled wine and start on mince pies making and eating.

ageing apple faces

2010-11-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hilary and I have been having a lovely time in Dundee screen printing, eating delicious, french toast and carving portraits of our selves into apples- by the end of the week we should be able to tell how we'll look when we're old and wrinkly!

Greetings!

2010-10-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

2010-10-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

Making home brew

2010-10-12T14:29:00.001-07:00

It's a messy process.

Cat Tongues from Berlin.

2010-10-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

Mahala brought these back for me from her travels.

SUPERcook

2010-09-16T11:10:00.001-07:00

Look at these treats that I found outside a charity shop bin! What a treasure trove.

I can't wait to get stuck into some of these recipes.

The Science of Cake

2010-09-05T07:40:00.001-07:00

An interesting article in the Guardian.

home-grown treats

2010-08-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Look what little gems I got home to find in the garden today- 3 blueberries and a tiny radish. Small but perfectly formed and I can take no credit for growing them- all my mum's hard work, but she said the blueberries are for me- yum yum.

tasty france

2010-08-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fantastic week long family holiday in the south of France, lots and lots of fun, and i realise I seem to of take mostly pictures of food - and mostly on other peoples cameras- I'll add more when I've gathered them up. Here's a wee selection......

Violette Mustard- comes with the popes' blessing.
There were loads of fruit trees and brambles and berries growing in the country side where we stayed, great for foraging- loads of plums and apples and nuts and berries and wild herbs and sunflowers everywhere it was brilliant. I'm such a muncher. Here's a wee pudding we made out of found treats.

Mmmm 70's food chic

Good luck to Hilary who has been working flat out for the past two weeks on a recipe book for Harvest Fest in Glasgow this weekend, Hope you can get some sleep and can't wait to see the results :)

What a monster!

2010-08-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Look at this beast which arrived in a punnet of strawberries at work the other day - so huge I just had to share it.

Awesome fruit discovery in Dundee!

2010-08-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

I found out tonight in Dundee, at Magdalen Green my local park, there are cherry trees! So many and all bearing delicious delicious fruit. Rob, Jane and I went out picking them and made a cherry and apple pie afterwards. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get any photos but I'll leave you with the recipe:

For the pastry
8 oz plain white flour
4 oz butter
some water and a pinch of salt

700g fresh cherries
1 apple, finely chopped into slices.
cinamon
3 tablespoons of demerara sugar

a little egg of milk to glaze the pastry.

Start by rubbing the butter into the flour until mixed through. Then add a drop of water and knead into a dough.
Line your pie dish with the pastry and blind bake for about 7-10 minutes. You should also have a little pastry left over for the top.

De-seed the cherries (this took quite a while, thanks Rob) and boil them down with some sugar in an cast-iron or heavy based pan for quite a while until it's all nice and runny and mushy.

Slide the apple and lay out on the base of the pastry, sprinkle with a bit of sugar and top with the cherry mush. Cut the remaining pastry into strips and weave over the top of the pie.

Bake for 30 mins, serve with ice cream.

twEATS competition and NVA's Harvest Festival coming soon!

2010-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Central Station announced last week that they'd be holding a number of events as part of NVA's Harvest festival, this August.

One of the events, twEATs is going to be a live event where a chef is going to be revealing a recipe, step by step on Twitter with people in their homes following the instructions.

There's also going to be a Jam Wall where jam-makers will be invited to bring along jars of their jams and enter them into a 3d installation, inspired by pantone charts. Reminds me of Mahala's work in final year...

Central Station is also putting together a recipe book/ newspaper/ publication with recipes to encourage people to cook with locally grown produce. They launched a competition calling artists, foodies and creatives and submit illustrated recipes to be features in the publication. I've been working on two recipes, one wasn't quite enough as I really enjoy making instructions!

H x

Eat-Ins

2010-07-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

"An Eat-In is a group of people gathering in public in order to share a home-cooked meal. They originated in the USA see www.eat-ins.org

They have been adopted by the YFM as a great tool for positive statements about food in our lives. You can hold one to bring your community together or to highlight a specific issue by holding your Eat-in somewhere significant, like a supermarket car park!

Eat-Ins are organised by everyday people. The first Eat-In took place in San Francisco on September 1 as part of Slow Food Nation 2008. Since then, people who participated in or were inspired by the event have begun bringing their communities together to Eat-In.

The first YFM UK Eat-In was held in Hyde Park on June 7th 2009."

Text taken from Youth Food Movement

Project from Brite Collective and Eating is Art- EAT MY STORY

2010-07-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

A project about sharing stories and memories through food and cooking...

The rules were as follows:

"Share a short story with the group (150 words or less).
Pick and bring pizza ingredients to the event that will tell you story.
Come to Via Tribunali the day of the event. Pick someone else's story at random.
Interpret that person's story on the pizza using their ingredients (adding or subtracting as necessary)...lotsa room for creativity here.
Cook your creation to perfection at 1000 degrees F in Via Tribunali's wood fired oven.
Share your the story and pizza with group...drink vino...converse...revel...enjoy."

Nice concept.

Brite Collective is based in Seattle and they get together to organise community projects and social events.

good packaging

2010-07-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to take pictures of these for a while, the something about them that made me smile.

Yuck n Yum- zine launch

2010-06-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

As you'll know from previous posts, Gayle from Yuck n Yum zine asked us to make a few pies for their summer issue launch. It was a fun night, fab music from Ben (Jack Your Body) Robinson, really great weather (perfect to be sitting out on the roof terrace at the HMC!) and a crowd who all liked pie!

Steven Crichton has made this awesome video of the night- nice dancing Gayle!

How does your garden grow?

2010-06-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

.....hopefully full of yuck and yum pies.

Pie roulette- eating for the indecisive

Here's some pictures from Friday's very sunny Dundonian Y'n'Y launch- before it all got munched. Thanks to everyone who could make it along, and to Gayle et al and the Hannah Maclure centre for having us.

Mention from the Skinny

2010-06-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, there's a review of the Big Top Jamboree online on the Skinny magazine, with a special mention of our mini pies!

Boycott the bottle

2010-06-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Just announced- Yucky and yummy pie night.

2010-06-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

DIY Pie is having a come back. Gayle from Yuck'n'Yum has invited Hilary and I to make some edibles for their summer Zine launch party on Friday the 18th of June. Things will be kicking off about 6pm at the Hannah Maclure Centre on the top floor of Abertay Student Union, Dundee. Hope to see you there.

Who's afraid of colour?

2010-06-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Today was so gray, dull and damp in Edinburgh but I need some colour to cheer me up. I'm trying to find a food safe vanish to make this usable, but for the moment I'm just enjoying the the glow.

Pie in the post test

2010-06-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

I've just been trying out some new packaging for post-a-pie, I'm hoping it survives the journey.

Piggy-back-ride

2010-05-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Calling all north-easties!

2010-05-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a workshop with Iain Gildea and Peacock Visual Arts in Banff on sunday. There's still places so pop along!

More Pictures....

2010-05-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of fuzzy photographs from down Drouthy's basement on Monday night, a big high five to Nikki, Lauren and Jen for all their hard work and organisational skills, and to all the other makers, it looked pure dead brilliant, and I was delighted to be involved.

It's fired up mine and Hilary's pie enthusiasm again, so we'll be sorting out an online shop in the very near future where you can purchase all types of edible/wearable treats including ceramic transfers, and a custom-made pies in the post!

And we've got a few more tricks in the pipe line too, so we'll be keeping you all posted about those too.

The Big Top Jamboree hits Dundee

2010-05-18T02:49:00.001-07:00

Last night Mahala and I had a stand at the Big Top Jamboree at Drouthy's in Dundee. Incase you don't know much about it, the Jamboree nights started off as a one-off event held at a bar in Dundee that was closing down. Jen, Nikki and Lauren did a really amazing job of promoting and organising music and getting together the makers with just 5 days notice.

This time the girls had been organising and putting the even together for a good few month so there was even more to see and do this time including music, visuals, workshops, and lots of really talented makers and illustrator showcasing and selling their wares and also lots of cakes and treats for sale, very tasty, thanks Nikki!

Preparation underway

Making labels for mini pies on a stick.

Richard came too!

Mahala and I baked some mini pies-on-a-stick earlier that day and we sold out at the event. It was a really good night and we both managed to sell so much. I bought some zines and a pair of Nikki and Danni's awesome Tights for Sore Eyes. More to post about that later.

Thanks all so much to Nikki, Jen and Lauren and to all the people and makers who made the night a big success!

p.s. Mahala's post will follow shortly, with better photos!
H x

strange pie related picture

2010-05-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

Post-a-Pie

2010-04-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Arriving through a letter box very soon..... mini pies in the post I can't think of a better thing to make on a Sunday afternoon.

pie of the week - Herb Pie

2010-04-12T05:16:00.001-07:00

A weekend end of double pie munching, had a delicious vegetable pie made by my good friend Heather on Friday night, and then finally a day off yesterday so I tried my hand at this beast, sort of a giant spanakopita, super tasty, cheesy, greeny, herby goodness.yum yum.

Recipe taken from the new vegetarian feature, The Guardian Weekend - 20th March 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/20/herb-pie-recipe-vegetarian-ottolenghi

Pie Fame

2010-04-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

A picture of our pie featured on the BBC website, sweet.

here's the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8586675.stm

The New English Ceramics Exhibition: featuring artwork by Mahala and myself

2010-03-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Mahala and I both submitted some artworks to be included in The New English's exhibition called Tectonic Plates and both of our works were selected! Paul from TNE has been working away with craftsmen and ceramicists to produce over 200 plates with everyone's artwork transfered and they will be unveiled on the 27th of March at their studio gallery in Stoke on Trent. Check it out if you can!

DIY Magpie

2010-03-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hey folks! One of the workshops we were providing at the Maker Faire was called MagPIE where you could cut-out and assemble your very own little hanging bird and I'm going to attach it here so you can print this off for yourself.

p.s. Image copyright of edible/wearable 2010, you are allowed to use this image but not claim the design/intellectual rights or use for commercial reasons.

Maker Faire more pictures

2010-03-15T15:48:00.001-07:00

Dinosaur Pie
Pie pops in a bag

Pie spotting in Centre for Life
Double teacake breakfast and tea! The way forward.

Master Pie Makers

2010-03-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

We had dinosaur pie, atlas pie, 'cat sat on the mat pie', butterfly pie, I (heart) pie pie, tiny pie, mothers day pie, grumpy pie , mathematical pi pie, name pie. Well done all you pie makers keep up the good work, and spread the pie love.

Maker Faire- Pie pictures

2010-03-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

What a brilliant weekend thanks everyone for all their hard work, enthusiasm and pie making skills.

Maker Faire 2010, weekend of pie and fun!

2010-03-15T04:27:00.000-07:00

So we took a mini oven, over 150 pieces of pastry, and 3 big bags packed to the brim down to Newcastle for the Maker Faire this weekend. After a sleepless night on thursday everything finally came together and we put on a really cool stand and LOTS of workshops! DIY Pie was a huge success! We had so many kids, parents and young people coming over to see what we were up to and try their hand at making Pie Pops, Poetry Pies and Portrait Pies and we had such a great time.

Mahala's going to upload the photos sometime this week so you'll be able to see all our pie participants with their lovely creations.

A proper write up and big list of thank you's are to follow soon along with recipes and instructions for all the activities that took place during the weekend.

Thanks to everyone for coming along and a big thank you to Maker Faire for a fantastic weekend!

Hx

The writing on the pie

2010-03-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

phew, busy, busy, a few pictures of word pies.

1 day to go!

2010-03-11T05:19:00.000-08:00

Hello folks, it's not long until we head off to Newcastle to set up for the Maker Faire. Got the final prep work to do today including making the rest of the vegetable food dyes and lots of printing! Here's a little something for thursday:

2 days to go!

2010-03-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Not long now, eek!

dapper chap

2010-03-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

hot off the press!

2010-03-07T11:38:00.001-08:00

We got an oven!!

2010-03-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

Look isn't he shiny.

pie poems

tie-dye pie

kitchen madness

And it bakes.

Very very very pleased. Things are hotting up for Maker Faire next weekend.

PIE MAGS are us!!

2010-03-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

No wonder little Johnnie pie face is looking so pleased with him self. He's cover star of our limited edition DIY pie manual that we'll be giving away at Maker Faire.

Yip yip yippee, I glad this is ticked off the list, now it's time to get cracking on the pastry making preparations.

not long to go!

2010-03-03T13:56:00.001-08:00

jam tarts (another type of pie)

2010-02-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

18th century Pie

2010-02-24T09:58:00.000-08:00

Among the other delicacies served at the eight year old Henry's feast in Westminster Hall were "Partryche and Pecock enhackyll". The latter was a cooked peacock mounted in its skin. Other birds like partridges, swans, bitterns and herons were frequently placed on top of pies for ornament and as a means of identifying the contents. This medieval practice of creating a 'subteltie' or eye-catching centrepiece, remained current until the eighteenth century and even later. For instance, a game pie with a stuffed pheasant placed on top, is illustrated in an 1890s edition of Mrs Beeton as a breakfast dish. Pies were also made in the shape of the animal they contained.

Text and image from www.historicfood.com

pie testing

2010-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

It sort of looks like writing with blobby felt tip pens, I kind of like it. Before and after baking pictures. And no I can't spell consideration.

old school pie

2010-02-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

From Mrs Beeton's 'All about cookery', very nice.

Head sketches

2010-02-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

Strangely I keep drawing bald men with long necks, not sure what that's about.

Short Crust Portraits/tests

2010-02-21T02:57:00.000-08:00

Same dyes, different pastry.

Edible food colours

2010-02-19T01:47:00.000-08:00

I burnt this first lot of colour samples that I made, oops. Every thing just looked a bit charred. Fingers crossed I'll have time to make a rainbow pie later.

(left-right: turmeric, beetroot, parsley, carrot, red cabbage, cranberry tea)

Value Meal where are you?

2010-02-16T15:58:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to find more information about the "Value Meal" exhibition that was held as part of the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale in 2004.

I managed to find this article on metropolismag.
"To give the theme weight, the curators selected designers who were comfortable with conceptual thinking—from emerging talents such as Tobias Wong, Dan Harper of Elseware, and the “idea foundry” Superhappybunny to established names including David Rockwell, John Maeda of MIT, and the IDEO team. With their brief—develop an intervention to make people aware of what, how, or how much they eat—Wolff and Chen encouraged speculative thinking and boundary pushing."

It sounds like it was a good un.

Crave Aid

2010-02-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

"Much like nicotine patches that allow wearers to wean themselves of cravings without enduring withdrawal symptoms, Crave Aid food patches are intended to be worn on the skin to allow us to experience the fantasy ingestion of unhealthy foods.

Our palettes are trained to desire foods that are high in sugar and fat content. We endure cravings for these foods that are so powerful they alter our moods and interfere with our body chemistry. Studies show that women can overcome sugar cravings if a drop of vanilla is worn on the wrist and sniffed when the craving starts.

Created as part of the "Value Meal" exhibition at the Design Bienale in St. Etienne, France, the Crave Aid food patches were an ironic take on a way to overcome cravings for unhealthy foods. The curators asked us to create a conceptual, engaging, and light-hearted piece that commented on the dangerous habit of consuming unhealthy food.

Our idea was to ironically present food cravings as a medical emergency and to engage visitors and foster dialogue by offering a take-away, which led to the emergency kit reference and the food patches dispensed from the modified emergency box. Reportedly, food patches were spotted on visitors to the Bienale all over town for a few days."

Excerpt and image from Ideo's website.

Pancake day!

2010-02-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

Don't forget :)

Hot water pastry

2010-02-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

This stuff is great, really pliable and you can model it a bit like clay, it would be great to make some moulds to try it in. I've been trying it with tin mugs, tiny jam jars, and free-forming, but haven't even scratched the surface. This is the pastry that is used for scotch pies and those epicvictorian raised pies.....

Portrait Pie

2010-02-16T08:08:00.001-08:00

Here's a hot water crust pastry cameo, it's modelled on a postage stamp, but doesn't look much like it, I think i need a shaper knife, time to get the scalpel set out, this is great fun.

Nursery Rhymes

2010-02-16T04:02:00.000-08:00

Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry,

When the boys came out to play

Georgie Porgie ran away.

Rowley Powley, pudding and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry;

When the girls began to cry,

Rowley Powley runs away

idea for pie

2010-02-15T13:22:00.001-08:00

the queen of hearts

2010-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day;
The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.
The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and
vowed he'd steal no more.

here are some magpies I saw today

2010-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

It makes sense.....

2010-02-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

From Michael Pollan's new book Food Rules.

Edible knits2- Puff

2010-02-11T14:56:00.001-08:00

Not as easily as I was hoping, it never is with knitting, the pastry kept drying out and is really stretchy, I had to put in the freezer for a while to moisten it up again. Not sure what flavour pie should have a knitted pie crust....any ideas?

tested puff

2010-02-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

As promised here's the bake off between home-made and shop-bought, can you spot the difference? I could taste it. Hearts are mine, stars are courtsey of Jus-Rol, definitely more salt. From one of my team of professional tasters the hearts were "lighter, with out being brittle", ha ha I think I'm on to a winner.

Liquorice Pipe

2010-02-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

Edible treats from an old school sweetie shop in Dumfries&Galloway.

Shop bought vs Home-made

2010-02-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

So the challenge is on, today I made my own puff pastry (the one on the left is mine). Tomorrow I'm going to be having some sort of bake off. I'll be updating as I go.

pie pie pie

2010-02-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

Mahala's back and we had a quick chat about pies tonight! I started a quick google of pies and this amazing recipe came up, it's amazing!

This would be a really fun thing to make at the workshops, could have a mystery tasting of different types veg/fruit pies and try out different combinations. Mahala was also talking about buying a mini oven to cook them in, sounds totally cool. This sounds like a winner.

Not feeling so great as I'm bunged up with a cold so going to go to bed now. X

Project H Design: Empowerment through food.

2010-02-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Project H Design is a group of designers and builders whose aim is to enrich and enhance the lives of those in overlooked communities and social groups. One of their projects, Empowerment Through Food is a project run through schools that show children how to grow their own food, where it comes from and how they can have a healthy life from community-grown foods. They also teach children how to sell their food, imparting business skills and a chance to earn money within their local community.

They also have a Flikr group.

ideas for sharing

2010-02-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

..maybe people make one pattern across 2 plates and they have to put them near to each other (whilst share their food) to complete the pattern....rings that are like little pots to contain dipping oil so you dip your bread into the oil of the person next to you...

I tried a few ceramic transfers tonight. It's really fun, and you're supposed to be able to bake them in a domestic oven, so hope it works out.

experiments with natural dyes

2010-02-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

So yesterday Mahala came to Dundee for a bit of food chat. We're still a bit stuck on where this is actually going but with a week of solid research and thinking we should be on track. We did some experiments printing with beetroot, spices and boiled-down purple cabbage. It was pretty difficult to get a good result though, so we decided to scratch this one off the list as even if we had managed to get some good results, the effect would have been able to be replicated very easily. Also check out the squash-vase Mahala made.

edible knits

2010-02-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

Etymology of PIE

2010-02-03T03:27:00.000-08:00

I was reading last night about pastry- the word developed from the greek word for embroidered veil. And Pie comes from Magpie, the bird, due to the it being a collection of odds,ends and left overs put together in a crust, in reference to the bird gathering a mish-mash of objects to form it's nest.

mmm... PieLab

2010-01-30T12:23:00.000-08:00

Pie Lab consists of a group of designers who wanted to get together and talk about design and interact with the public in their pop up shop in Greensboro, Atlanta. Their goal is to bring for social change to their local area by working on community projects.

"Pie Lab, they said, isn't really about pie: It's about using design for social good. Pie is just what gets the ideas in the door."

chocolate festival in China

2010-01-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a video from the BBC news site.

sketchbook scans

2010-01-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

More evidence towards me needing to buy a new scanner.

trying to think

2010-01-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

I've been working at the Parlour over the last few days so haven't had much time to think. I did however start reading this book during my lunch break, Living an Eating by Mark Pawson and Annie Bell. I think this one is well worth a read in future as it has not only very tasty recipes but advice on how to cook, what foods to buy, how to organise a kitchen, generally a nice pragmatic approach to food and cooking with beautiful photography.

mnice graphics

2010-01-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

Mouse Graphics packaging.

thinking and burning toast

2010-01-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

Mahala has been experimenting with beetroot printing, now I'm trying painting onto toast. It's done by painting water onto the bread before toasting so I'll find out how it turns out in a few minutes.

We're playing around with ideas just now, so it's hard to come up with something concrete. But we last spoke about packaging...though the branding side isn't what we're going to look at we're thinking more about they way it's presented, they way it looks and what you can do with food as a thing to eat and to explore. I'm kind of thinking back about how the kids in the study (mentioned previously) have grown up, conditioned to think that fast-food packaging and branding makes something tastier but why not just make the food itself more visually appealing and enjoy the natural colours and textures of food.

Oh damn. While I was writing this the toast burned and that was my last slice of bread. I'm going to try this again tomorrow morning. In that case, here's some scans from my sketchbook.