whatnot

baking with tea

2012-01-27T12:09:00.004-08:00

such a lovely idea, combining baking with tea! and i finally got a chance to, this rare friday morning that i had free. *the tea i used was a seasonal one from DAVIDsTEA that isn't in stock anymore, but any other chocolate orange (or just chocolate, or just orange!) tea would work just as nicely.

tea infused chocolate orange muffins

adapted from Little Blue Hen
makes 12 muffins

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk
a bit more than 1/2 tablespoon Oh Christmas Treat tea from DAVIDsTEA*
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

splash of vanilla
half of the juice from one large orange
zest of one large orange
coarse sugar for sprinkling on top

directions:
preheat oven to 400F. lightly grease or line one 12 cup muffin tin
1) in a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
2) in a small sauce pan, combine milk, tea, and half of orange zest. steep on low heat for 10 minutes then strain

3) in a large mixing bowl, combine tea infused milk, vegetable oil, egg, vanilla, orange juice and the rest of the orange zest, and whisk together well. add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. add in the chocolate chips for the last few stirs. don’t over mix!

4) fill each muffin cup 2/3 full of batter. sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar

5) bake at 400F for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. remove from oven and let cool in pan. enjoy warm out of the oven or up to 3 days in an air tight container. would also freeze well!

oil paint

2012-01-04T23:13:00.002-08:00

Dennis Wojtkiewicz

i love citrus fruits and the way he shows the light through them really brings out the unique beauty in their patterns

earth art

2011-12-03T12:06:00.001-08:00

andy goldsworthy

more images

photo editing

2011-11-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

photo editing in my photography class; funnest project yet.

before

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recent art-ings

2011-11-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

school has been mighty busy, but at least i feel like i'm coming up with some fun pieces in a few of my classes.

photography class - scanning project

and halloween meant pumpkin carving

(i can't take credit for all these beauties, mine is the one with the evil grin)

annnnnd... listen to this! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQW9060_wU

sculpture

2011-07-18T01:17:00.002-07:00

it's rare for me to find a sculpture piece that i enjoy. one, because i hated my sculpture class and realized it's something i'm really not great at. two, because they are very rarely this amazing

Paige Bradley - Expansion

a huge thanks to my friend elliott for showing me this. makes me want to mediate for an hour or six.

stick & ink figure drawing

2011-07-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

probably the most interesting exercise we tried in my drawing class was drawing a model using sticks and ink. standing straight, we'd have a larger sheet of paper on the floor at our feet, and a long stick (sharpened bamboo was the easiest to use) dipped in ink to draw with. the longer you go, the more developed it becomes of course. i think we took at least 20 minutes per pose to get a decent figure. really fun exercise!

sketchbooks

2011-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

taylor white's sketchbooks are amazing. these encourage me to carry mine around... and not forget that i have them with me.

summer baking

2011-07-10T00:34:00.002-07:00

cooking is art. so inspirational when it comes to dinner. or snacks. or food photography...

i love smittenkitchen.com

gesture drawings

2011-07-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

gesture drawing is by far my favourite part of art classes.
my prof dislikes the way i use short strokes to develop my forms, but the way she would prefer i do it just feels wrong. and besides, i like the look of it much better. it's more honest.
the colour accents are something new that i tried this year that i think i'm going to continue on with. again, it just looks more appealing to me.