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.