Asian Noodle Soup

I'm frequently at the Chinese restaurant to get my soup " fix " so when my wife Diane came across this recipe she knew I'd like it! I forget where she got a hold of it so I can't give credit to the author.

I changed the recipe somewhat. Instead of turkey meat I browned up some Italian sausage and crumbled it up. I also did away with adding the extra 3/4 of water. We like things spicy so I added some cayenne pepper to our soup. I'm not a fan of cucumber so I omitted that garnish.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons hot sesame oil, divided

1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey

1 bunch scallions, sliced, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

3/4 cup water

3 cups thinly sliced bok choy

8 ounces dried Chinese noodles

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 small cucumber, sliced into matchsticks, for garnish

Preparation:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add ground turkey, all but 2 tablespoons of the scallions, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring and breaking up the turkey, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add broth, water, bok choy, noodles, soy sauce, vinegar and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Return the turkey mixture to the pan and stir to combine. Serve garnished with the reserved 2 tablespoons scallions and cucumber (if using).

One Bad Egg Finished!

I had fun creating this piece of dark artwork. It was a departure from the more complicated sculptures I usually work on.

Run afoul of this bad egg and your head could be decorating his Easter basket!Here are a couple different views of this rotten character.

Bad Egg Work In Progress Photos

I got some more work done on my bad egg character this weekend. After drawing a machete on thin basswood I cut it out and covered it with Apoxie clay. When it cured I sanded it smooth with wet/dry sandpaper.

Next I painted it with acrylic paint and set it aside to dry.

Here a piece of Apoxie clay to form a hand has been added to one of the characters aluminum wire arms. Gently pressing the soft clay against the handle of the machete will create a hand that perfectly fits.

When the clay hand had cured I glued the machete in place with Zap a Gap.

After adding fresh Apoxie clay to the hand I sculpted fingers gripping the machete.

After setting the hand aside to cure I textured the base of the sculpture and worked on the characters shoes.

After the arms are attached I can begin painting!

A Really Bad Egg

With Easter around the corner I decided to do a dark art themed egg. At Michael's I found the perfect sized styrofoam egg for my project.

I began by making a cardboard template of the shape I wanted for the sculptures base. After tracing it on to a piece of plywood I cut the base out and drilled holes for my characters legs.

Next I cut 4 steel rods for the arms and legs. After embedding the legs in my egg character I bent the arm rods and ground one side of the rod flat.

Then I inserted the arm rods in brass square tubing which I had filled with Apoxie clay. Flattening one side helps prevent the rod from coming loose and turning once the clay cures.

The photo shows the styrofoam egg covered in mache with the steel leg rods mounted in place. It is temporarily mounted on the wood base as it dries.

After the egg dried I marked the location for the arms.

I cut an opening for the arms, packed the hole with Apoxie clay and pressed the square brass tubing into place.

Now it was time to cover the mache with Apoxie sculpt clay. This provides a much more durable finish than mache alone.

I have more sculpting to complete on this after it cures later this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll have some new work in progress photos of the bad egg.

Crab Cakes

I decided on making crab cakes for dinner. Generally I use backfin or lump crab but since claw meat was on sale that was what I went with.

I keep my recipe fairly simple because I don't want to over power the flavor of the crab.

Ingredients 1 pound Blue crab meat

4 unsalted Saltine crackers crushed

1 egg beaten

1/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise

2 small scallions chopped

1 Tbsp red pepper chopped

1 Tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 Tsp Hot sauce

1 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning Extra virgin olive oil (for frying)

flavored bread crumbs (for coating the crab cakes) Preparation

After checking over the crab for cartilage or bits of shell I add the meat to a large mixing bowl. I sprinkle the Old Bay seasoning, scallion, red pepper and crushed cracker crumb over the crab. In a separate bowl I mix together the rest of the ingredients which I then spoon over the crab. Using a spatula I gently turn the crab to mix it trying not to break up the chunks of meat.

After letting it sit in the fridge for an hour or so I form the cakes. I usually end up with about 7 cakes. The cakes are then pressed into flavored breadcrumbs and fried in extra virgin olive oil 4 or 5 minutes per side till they are nicely browned.

With the crab cakes we are having scallops and shrimp which were marinated a few hours in garlic and oil with a few dashes of habanero pepper sauce.

Sea Serpent Sculpt Finished!

I finished the sea serpent sculpture I've been working on this Thursday and got it listed in my Etsy shop :http://www.etsy.com/listing/68901992/sea-serpent-and-doryman I thought I'd share some wip photos with you. First I finished sculpting the clay waves over the wood base.

Then I mixed together Liquitex Blue acrylic paint with transparent green polytranspar paint to make a thin wash.

I applied the wash over the clay waves in thin coats.

After several coats of the blue/green wash I dry brushed in some white caps.

When my painted sea dried I gave it several coats of water based clear varnish to seal the finish.

While the varnish was setting I mixed up a small batch of EnviroTex Clear resin.

I wanted to do a test mixture of the Envirotex, sand and broken bits of shell to be sure it cured properly. The next morning I saw it had set fine - clear and hard!

So I mixed up a second batch and poured it into the bottom of the listing boat letting it settle to the side. I've never seen the floor of a work boat yet that didn't have some sea water slogging back and forth. The EnviroTex captured this look perfectly!

Here are some photos of the finished piece. Click on them if you'd like a larger view:

If I've piqued your curiosity about sea serpents you may enjoy these links:

The UnMuseum - Sea Serpent of Gloucester

The Shadowlands Sea Serpent page

This book by J.P. O'Neill sounds right up my alley! Amazon.com: The Great New England Sea Serpent: An Account of Unknown Creatures Sighted by Many Respectable Persons Between 16...

I'm Craving Clam Chowder!

I love making chowders especially New England Clam Chowder! I got the craving this weekend and went to the supermarket to pick up some of the ingredients I'd need.

The price for the little package of salt pork was ridiculous! But what they were asking for a quart of fat free Half n Half made the salt pork look reasonably priced!

So I switched gears and decided to pick up the fixings for making Manhattan Clam Chowder. After the supermarket my wife and I headed to Point Lookout to the The Doxsee Sea Clam Co . Doxsee has been at its present location since 1933!

Here is a photo of my wife Diane standing in front of the Doxsee "building".

It is a one room operation consisting of a freezer and some canned goods.

Their products and prices are posted on the wall.

You help yourself to the freezer full of clam products. This trip we got a bag of surf clams and large can of clam juice for the chowder. I couldn't pass up grabbing a bag of the breaded clam strips. And since I wouldn't be making my chowder till midweek Diane suggested I get a container of the Doxsee N.E. Clam Chowder to hold me over. Good thinking!

After you bag your food you stuff your money into the cash box mounted on the wall.

Afterwards we decided to take a walk around Point Lookout. When we got to the inlet there were quite a few ducks near the sandbar.

It was windy which was causing the inlet to kick up. I climbed out on the rocks to try and get a few shots of the waves as they were breaking.