PIE!

No surprises, no half truths, no false advertisement! Here there be PIE!

Even though this is not strictly in line with my usual subjects I just had to share this with you all. I made my first pie in December. It was a classic apple pie with caramel sauce and it was utterly delicious. Unfortunately my husband detests all manners of cake or pie that contains apple. He's not really a fan of pie in general really...

(I don't understand how such a thing is possible, how can one hate anything with caramel and apples in it?)

Anyway since then I've been determined to convert him into a pie lover! A task I imagine is slightly easier that converting people to the cult of the flying Spagetti monster, but he is a stubborn man so you never know.

These two certainly seem to think pie is the cat's pajamas!

This is my second attempt at making pie and after tons of research into different types of pie I decided to try baking Mini Peach Pies! They just seemed tart and sweet and perfect! Below are some pictures of my process. 

I had pre-made the crust and put it in my fridge for two hours. Yeah that's right! I don't fuck around when I bake, I make it all from scratch. (cred, right?!)  I rolled it out with my rolling pin...

And stuffed the dough into my mini tart molds, I brushed the bottoms with whisked egg and poked holes into them with a fork to keep them from buckling and being soggy:

In a bowl I put some chopped peach, sugar, cinnamon, flour, nutmeg and salt and tossed it around a bit. I filled my little pies with the filling and added a small lump of butter on top before putting on the lids.

At this point my kitchen looked like a small hurricane had blown through it, looked at the havoc I had wreaked and decided it's work was already done and went on it's own merry way.  below is a picture from new years eve when I was cooking...this doesn't even come close to how it looked today! I'm the messiest chef you'll ever meet.

 Here my lovely pies are cooking in the oven, becoming all delicious and golden!

Aaaand here is the finished result, six yummy mini peach pies. They smelled heavenly and tasted just as lovely.

I made two types of pie, one with a full lid and one with a snowflake shaped lid. Both ended up looking good.

Ooh just look at that little piece of tart! golden, crispy and juicy.

So the question that remains to be answered is, did my dear hubby like the pie? Yes in fact he did. He loved it, so all my hard work payed of. I can finally bake pies that we both will enjoy and I've converted the bastard to the great world of pie.

I wonder if he ever gets tired of me bugging him into trying out new things, because if you think this is the only hobby I have that he gets dragged into you are sorely mistaken, yes sir...or ma'am. You have no idea what that poor man goes through because of me :p

Until next time,
Anita Olsen Stoebakk

Contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

website:
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Updating the neglected

Unwise words from the skull...

It feels a bit like falling of the map, moving away I mean.
you are forced out of your daily routines, you have to improvise certain things and you don't have the time to do all the things you want to do. You just have to focus on cleaning, packing, logistics, paperwork and money.

When you move you rip your roots out of the ground, you throw away all the unwanted things you have in your life and the things you want to keep you take with you. Things both physical, mental and emotional.

When you move you leave something known and venture into the unknown, usually that is. In my case I left something I had just gotten to know and came back to familiar ground. I have to admit that moving to England was a bit scary. I didn't really know what I was going to and the things I thought I new weren't necessarily right. Moving back to Norway again wasn't as hard, but it's still a bit scary.

I've come back to what I consider to be home, I've come back with a degree and new perspectives on life. Which is great, but I've also come back not really knowing how my future is going to turn out. I don't have a job so I need to find one. We don't have any place to live so we're staying with family until we find a decent apartment and on the side I still have illustration projects and the founding of my own business to work on. It's a lot, my plate is quite full.

It's a bit stressful to be honest, but it also feels kind of nice. I have a lot of work ahead of me true, but because I have a goal, because I know what I want it feels more like an exciting challenge than a heavy load weighing me down.

Hopefully I'll be able to know within the week whether I have a job or if I need to keep looking. As soon as the job is secured pieces will start to fall into place a lot more easily. I'm looking forward to having all my pressing affairs settled, but I think it's important to enjoy and take in the process of getting there. A prize is always sweeter when you've had to work for it after all.

Until next time
Anita Night

Troubling Tremble- An update form the young illustrators life

First I would like to congratulate myself, this is my 100th post. This means that I have been able to keep up with this blogg for quite some time now, and I still find it fun and interesting. I deserve cupcakes...So hopefully there will be a hundred more posts at least.

P.S. I actually made these myself, but for a different occasion, as of this moment I am sorrowfully cupcake free.

Now on to todays post. I woke up around 11.00, I think. I did my stomach exercises. Toasted two slices of bread, spread some butter on them and sat down in front of my computer and started working on my next illustration ( I don't enjoy breakfast no matter what nutritional experts say. I stopped eating breakfast regularly in the fifth grade. It just makes me feel queasy for some reason). The time is now 16.21 and I have not moved from the spot unless you count my trips to the bathroom and a trip to the washing machine to put on a new load of dirty clothes.

I got up to pre-heat the oven before dinner, and do some dishes. As soon as I reached the kitchen I started feeling faint. I actually started to tremble and my motor skills were quite off. It turns out that sitting in the same position in front of a computer with a drawing pad for what? Five and a half hours without eating is not such a good idea. You would think that one would have enough sense to feed oneself every now and then, but no. Apparently not. This my friends is why I don't have kids. They would starve.

At least my fiancée knows how to feed himself, if he didn't I think we would both be in serious trouble...:P It seems when you like what you do, and in addition have a tendency to become slightly obsessive it culminates in situations like the one I experienced today. Now usually I would say that I will learn from my mistakes and try to avoid this in the future, but who the hell am I kidding. With my Obsessive Compulsive personality (at least that's what one of my tutors at the university thinks) and insane work ethic it's bound to happen again.

I wonder if any of my readers have had similar experiences? If you feel like sharing please do. I think it would be quite entertaining to hear what other illustrators young and old have to say about the matter.

Until next time
Anita Night