Friday, October 16, 2015

Diva Challenge #239 - "Munchin Play"



This week the Diva's Challenge is to use Munchin.  an official Zentangle® tangle.  The stepout can be found here, and on the Diva's blog there is a Sakura video showing Molly Hollibaugh drawing the basic version on a black tile.

 I started by going to my journal, and tried drawing it various ways. I tried following the instructions for transforming tangles out lined in Helen Williams' new book, Tangle Transformation. By the way, I am delighted with this book, and recommend it without reservation!



The last variation I tried stayed with the basic construction, but instead of having evenly spaced lines originating at the apex of the triangles, I varied the width between the lines, trying to make each resulting section smaller than the one before it.




I found this more interesting than regular divisions

I settled on the last option. I tried to follow a basic rule: That each line would divide the remaining available space in half. 


Munchin divided with 4 lines into 5 sections, with Flux in the largest section

The rule worked, but I found the large sections too roomy.  I tried adding a tangle inside the largest section of the triangle. That section was created with the first line (line 1 above) that bisected the baseline of the triangle.

I was ready to do a tile.


Munchin with graduated divisions in each triangle. Triangles filled with (spiraling clockwise from upper right) Celtic Triskele, Amaze, Flux, Shattuck, ????, Extracto, Tipple, Bunzo, Drip Drop, ????, Diva Dance Foxtrot, Tripoli, Zenplosion Folds, Mooka

That was OK, but I felt like I could do more. I thought I could divide the tile diagonally into a section filled with a smaller Munchins (still graduated sections) and a single large Munchin triangle  (lower left) with each section filled with another tangle. I even sneaked in a few awkward Paradoxes. Can you spot them? 




Munchin with Mooka, Flux, Snail Tangleation, Shattuck, and Tipple.

Still not happy, not sure why....So I returned to the sketchbook and looked at the versions of Munchin that I drew with curved lines.




Munchin with simple C-curve lines (H.W. refers to Helen Williams, "A Little Lime")
Better.


Munchin with S-Curve lines (mostly)
Still Better! Time to try another tile...



Munchin Monotangle with S-Curves

I don't know if I will ever really like Munchin. I wish I had more time to play with it. I reminds me a little of Aquafleur - beautiful as an object, but challenging to work into a design with other tangles.

Still, it was a good challenge and motivated me to study and to practice a single tangle and try some possibilities. As usual, critiques are welcome!



Thursday, October 1, 2015

Cooking Class #2, and a WIP

Wednesday was the second of the two cooking classes I signed up for at Michael Anthony's this trip..

Greeted with a glass of Prosecco, as usual.



Minestrone was the soup this time, and like the Italian Wedding Soup we did last time, was totally different from versions I've had before. Vegetarian (or Vegan, I can't keep them straight), with onions, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, and Savoy cabbage

All the versions I've had before have included some type of pasta, which is not traditional in Italy, according to Chef Chris. Instead we used farro and Borlottis. Borlottis are dried beans, very similar to what we call Cranberry beans here, that are soaked over night and cooked til tender. They are perfect for this dish because even after cooking they retain bite and don't get mushy like other beans. Chris says the appeal of this dish is that it's not watery like a lot of Minestrones, but has what he calls "Guts." It was truly delicious, so much so that I forgot to take a picture in its pristine state, but plunged right in. Sorry!


Minestrone with"Guts"


The entree for this class was a traditional Chicken Cacciatore served on a bed of the best polenta I've ever tasted. The chicken was cooked perfectly, not dried out, not stringy, but tender and moist. If you've ever braised chicken, you know how difficult it is to get it perfect. 

This is one of the reasons I take these classes - I learn the "best" way to prepare things like polenta, risotto, chicken, etc. - straight from the Chef's mouth, so to speak. And Chef Chris is extraordinary. Many of the recipes he teaches are not on Michael Anthony's menu, but are recipes he learned from the Italian side of the family while growing up in New Jersey . 


Chicken Cacciatore with polenta


Finally we closed with a whole pear, poached in Cabernet wine and cinnamon. After the pear is cooked, it is removed from the pot and the wine reduced to a yummy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, sauce that you can smell a mile away. In this case it was served with a scoop of vanilla Gelato. Very light dessert, which was good after the two dishes that preceded it.


Cabernet-poached Pear
There was no tangling on my menus during the breaks like last week. I was seated at a table with three delightful ladies who were attending for the first time and commanded my full attention! They apparently were not aware that they needed to pace themselves, both with the wine and the food, so all three were a little buzzed and stuffed by the end of the meal. They agreed that it was a lot of fun, and that they would do it again..

I have been doing a little Zentangle-Inspired-Art (ZIA), which I will share in another post after it's finished. Here's a WIP teaser, though:


Until next time (probably from home - sigh), Aloha.