[TBT] A Photo Story for James: Hippo Adventures

For Throwback Thursday, I thought it'd be fun to share a post from a predecessor blog I used to have called Monkey Whimsy. It's where I first started drawing, taking pictures, and telling photo-stories. I stopped blogging on it for a variety of reasons, one of which was time, but wanted to share one of my favorite posts from the past. The following is from January 22, 2011 and was meant as a thank you to my friend for her gift. Enjoy!

---

Saturday, January 22, 2011
A Photo Story for James: Hippo Adventures

My friend, James, visited me a few years ago with her boyfriend, Brianne, and threatened to send me a hippo in gratitude for chauffeuring them around NYC. I didn't believe her until a few weeks later when I checked my mailbox and lo and behold, a hippo was in my post.

He is a very cute hippo.
He is also a very pink hippo.
Thank you, James and Brianne, for my hippo.

I love him so much that sometimes, I bring him to work with me.
He doesn't like work.

Sometimes I find Hippo doing this.

What do you think he's doing? Surely not to get a view of the outside.
I mean I know we're stuck indoors for 8.5 hours straight but it's not like it's PRISON, right?

Hippo, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? IT'S NOT THAT BAD.

Hey, how did you get up there?

They really need to start hippo-locking the windows at work.

I mean it, you get down here right now!

Uh oh.

HIP-POOOOOOOOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-Oooooooooo.................

I'll CATCH YOU!!

Oops. Don't worry, he's okay. He's just being dramatic.

Sometimes we play after work.
And by play I mean eat.

Hippo likes to eat, too. Look at him staring at my noodle bowl.

As usual he gets himself into pretty precarious situations.

And also like me, Hippo likes hot sauce.

Awww, look at him trying to get his tiny paws on the hot sauce.

I think he's exhausted from his exertions.

Ready for bed, Hippo?

Isn't he cute when he's all tucked into bed like that?

Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite.

Get back into bed, Hippo.

Where are you going? Hip-po!!

Okay, fine. We'll read The Little Prince once more and then it's bed for you, mister.

Are we almost done now?

Finally, in bed. The day's done.

Only to be repeated again the next day.

Complete with more window staring.

And plans of escape.

Or maybe, Hippo is just staring at his reflection in the window. He can be quite narcissistic sometimes.

And the day wouldn't be complete without Hippo trying to get in on the food action.
Good luck, Hippo, good luck trying.

The end.

Chinese New Year, Part Deux

Remember when I talked about my lovely bout with photography-fail before?

Well, it happened again.

At Chinese New Year's.

I tried to get pictures of all the food and fun we were having, of family and friends, of games we were playing that night.

But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't capture any of the goings-on the way I wanted to.

It might be because I was doing too much of this:

But, I did manage to get these three little gems:

My cousin, Jessica.

And, that's pretty indicative of how the night went.

Green Tea Cookies

I have a little story to tell you guys.

About a month ago, I was really excited to share a new recipe with you all.

So excited that I posted a photo on Instagram:


The recipe was done. Its yumminess was ready to be shared. I just needed some pretty photos to go along with the post.

But, for the life of me, I could not get these cookies to look green in my photos. They all ended up looking brown and lame. Not enticing at all.

I knew my photography skills weren't great, and I had a lot to learn, but still, it was getting absurd. I took hundreds of photos and deleted them all. Made batches and batches of these cookies because I kept eating them in my stressed out state.

In a determined attempt to get at least one useable photo, I spent hours on the internet, reading up on whatever I could about food photography, looking at other food blogs, and trying a bunch of different things.

Using a background color that will make the green pop:

Changing the white balance on my camera to get the yellowish-brown hues out of my photos:

Getting up close and personal with the greeness:

And then, before I knew it, four weeks had passed and I was still getting nowhere. I panicked, wondering how I let that happen.

Then I groaned at myself with frustration. Because: I was letting the pursuit of perfection defeat me again.

Anyone else familiar with this self-sabatoging enemy?

Sanity came back and I realized: Janice, people don't eat pictures. It doesn't matter how perfect the photos are. Just put the recipe up already!

So, here I am, in all my imperfect glory, sharing with you, a recipe for green tea cookies that I love.

I've made it for my family and I've made it for my friends, all of them love it too.

A note about this Green Tea Cookie recipe: it works best with a specific type of butter, European-style butter.

European-style butters have a butterfat content of at least 82% and it makes a marked difference in the taste. I've tested this recipe with regular American sweet cream butter and my testers (ahem, family) weren't fond of it at all.

You'll need butter, sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, matcha, vanilla extract, and an egg.

Also, lemon juice.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.

It's always at this point in the cookie-making process that I wonder if I really need to make cookies. 'Cause I sure would love to eat that sugar-butter by the spoonful.

But, so far, I've been able to convince myself that scarfing down a whole bowl of butter and sugar would be bad for my health.

If you've also convinced yourself of that, continue and add an egg.

Beat until smooth and pretty. As opposed to smooth and ugly.

Add vanilla, salt, and baking soda, and mix well. Then stir in lemon juice (which is not pictured because I forgot to add it until the end).

Add flour + matcha.

Combine until just crumbly, you don't want to overmix.

Scoop batter onto a lined cookie sheet using a small scoop.

Or, on a whim, use a mini-muffin pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

If your cookies are puffy when you take them out of the oven (picture left) and you want to deflate them, slam your cookie sheet down on your counter (picture right) before letting them cool.

Green Tea Cookies

Makes 36

Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter = ½ cup = 8 tablespoons
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons matcha

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Or alternately, line a mini-muffin pan with mini cupcake liners.
3. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Try not to eat this mixture with a spoon.
5. Add in egg and beat until well-combined.
6. Admire the pretty yellow color.
7. Add vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Incorporate well. Stir in lemon juice.
8. Mix in the flour + matcha until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, dough should be a little crumbly.
9. Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheet or mini-muffin pan with a small cookie scoop.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Notes
Butter should be at least 82% butterfat. European-style butters work best.