Harriet topped off her birthday with a nap. On top of her favorite bone. Maybe she was worried that the cats would steal it?
The Birthday Girl Salutes You
With a giant raspberry.
Harriet is 13 years old today. Not long after I got her, I met an elderly couple with a 14 year old Boxer. I was in awe, because they aren’t supposed to live that long. Harriet is giving it a good try, though. She’s lumpy and leaky, but she’s relatively healthy and pretty happy with life.
Little Red Boat
gel ink and watercolor pencil on 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
4 x 5 1/2 inches
A Curious Pig
One of my coworkers was cataloging a book for the fine arts library when I stopped by her desk to talk. I flipped through the book quickly, to look at the pictures (I work with boring government documents, so I rarely get to play with fun books). There were several photos of tattooed, taxidermied pigs. WTF?! The text was all in French, which I don’t speak, so I don’t know what the artist had to say about his work. The images were both creepy and amazing, though. Seriously, who the hell tattoos a dead pig?! WITH THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS?!!!
The funny part (to me, anyway) is that I’ve really been wanting to get a tattoo of a flying pig. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something
Healed
I can’t believe it’s been two months. It seems much longer ago than that.
Staff Meeting Doodle
Sharpie pen in composition book
6 x 6 inches
I guess they weren’t, strictly speaking, staff meetings, but I had to attend two candidate interviews today, which gave me a couple of hours of doodling time. I’ll be going to more of them next week, too. Joy.
Little Bird
Grandma with Bird
More Crackers
These are plain. I’m out of bread, too lazy to make more, and wanted egg salad for supper. Egg salad on crackers sounded like a good plan. Yum!
This batch took more water (almost exactly 1/2 cup), probably because it had no cheese. I changed the recipe on the earlier post to reflect that the water amount will vary. Just add water until it looks knead-able and roll-able. If you over-do the water, add more flour. It’s very forgiving.
Iz Ded
Harriet frequently sprawls on the couch with her head hanging off the edge and lips a-floppin’. It doesn’t look comfortable, but it must be.
Crackers
I wanted a something, but didn’t know what. Cookies? Brownies? Bread? Crackers! So I hunted down a recipe and went to work.
The recipe is easy peasy:
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (I lowered the amount from 1/2 teaspoon because I added cheese, which is salty)
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/4-1/2 cup water (more or less as needed)
4 ounces or so of shredded cheese
1 tablespoon coarsely ground garlic powder
cornmeal
flour for rolling out
Preheat oven to 400F and lightly cover a cookie sheet with cornmeal.
Dump the flour and salt into a bowl, then use a grater to shred the butter. Add it slowly and toss with the flour so that each strand gets coated separately. Add about half the cheese. Add enough water to bring everything together, then turn out on a floured board and roll it out to about 1/8 inch thickness (thinner = crispier). Place onto cookie sheet, sprinkle with the rest of the shredded cheese, then score with a knife or cut into pieces with a pizza cutter.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Then NOM.
red paper boat 