Mole Party 2010

Last Sunday i had a mole making party. Mole Negro de Oaxaca to be precise. This is one of the mfamous sauces of Oaxaca Mexico that contains 2 kinds of chilies with their burnt seeds, 3 kinds of dried fruit, 4 kinds of seeds and nuts, 3 kinds of vegtables and chocolate. Making it is a complex process which, if shared with attention and love, yields a deep mahogony sauce that's complex, rich, sweet and pungent, robust and lusty, spicy and unctuous. It really doen't matter what you put it on...it all just taste fabulous. All of us were experimenting with it on parts of out bodies too. The inside of the nose is not recommended while lips and inner thigh proved ahhhh....stimulating.
We aslo had some roast pig, boiled chicken, home made tortillas, rice and sweet corn cooked with cream, roasted and buttered butternut squash, green beans braised in ogange and lime jiuce, and black beans with some jalepenos peppers I pickled in the Fall.
My fantastic beautiful co-cooks were; Drew Laurence, Chuck Bauman, Heather Augusta, Joey Lubitz, Robyn Shanti, Lila and Breadon. Thank you all for contributing so much to this memorable feast!!!
( My picture captions are kinda miss placed...oh well...still new to this.)

Drew preping for the green beans

























Joey: stirring the final product and recovering from a spicy nostril purge.

Griddling up the masa tortillas

The final passing of the paste through a fine mesh making it a concentrated velvet balm.

A quick review of a recipe and a beer bottle.

Heather packin' the hardware and she knows how to use it.

Chuck: Our official taste tester...HEEYYYYY! Wait a minute

Balancing Beach

I haven't posted anything in a long time. Don't really know why I'm now..maybe just saw that old picture and wanted to fill in the rest of that beautiful day for you. It wasn't really all that long ago. 2 years maybe?

A sunny winter's day with my friend Drew on the other side of the tunnel at Oceanside Beach. Oregon. I was just having some fun. This is my favorite kind of art. Spontaneous dance with the materials at hand.

The pieces took on a life of their own as the breeze gently moved them around. As more people were attracted by these balancing conversations between strangers happened.

These images were taken by Drew.

...some of you may know that I've been musing over designing a sustainable pottery village where knowledge of old life styles can take advantage of the newest in sustainable technologies. I'm researching the many ways to take advantage of firing of an anagama kiln. Not only the amazing ceramics that come from this wood firing but ways of using the residual heat, the ash,and most resently CHARCOAL!!!!
After seeing the amazing charcoal created for the Japanese tea ceremony I've always been intrigue as to how they make it. So today I did a bit of research and found that charcoal has a miriade of uses and comes in a wide variety of styles each designed for certain applications. Some of they are madicinal some are just great to have around the house because they regulate humidity, deoderize and produce negative ions. The smoke that is created when making the charcoal is also being condenced and used as an anti bacterial and in health care products. They are calling it wood vinegar. There many many more uses for charcoal and all have to do with health and ecology.
This is very exciting to me because it opens up a whole new branch of possibilities for reducing waste and creating another cottage industry. Both are big pluses as I move closer to the realization of this dream.
Another thing I will be doing over the next few weeks is finishing up the application process to a new masters of fine arts program here in Portland offered through the cooperative efforts OCAC and PNCA. It's a brand new program that centers around art, design, and sustainability and how this will influence and change cultural constructs.
Wish me luck!!
Thanks!
There is much more on the following charcoal websites.
Any body else know of more charcoal information???
http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/topic/index.html
http://homepage2.nifty.com/sumiyaki/eindex.htm
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/japancharcoal2000
http://www.tanagokoro.com/english/index.html

...and so it continues here...

Greetings to the world again. This is an experiment in communication. ...to take one of the oldest human arts and present it in digitized form expands beyond knowing what is possible in time. My mind, too, expands taking my body with it to the brink of balance/imbalance like the clay swirling 'round the center of the wheel pushed away into a new shape then returning again. The feeling of pecking at these plastic keys is so unlike the sensation of wet clay yet my mind welds the two with intention.

The intention??? communication, commerce, shared knowledge, love of Earth.

Richard Brandt

larvee@hotmail.com

Now for some fun!!!!!! Watch: http://vimeo.com/1778399