The Pursuit of Creative Happiness

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Exercises in Donutry.

My favorite donut is a vanilla cake donut with pink cherry frosting from Winchell's.

Donuts were the only gluten-filled food that I had to say my "good-bye's" to. Of course, I cheat a lot. Like, pretty much every week at church. But if I could develop a PERFECT allergen-free donut, I would never have this problem again.

I got some donut pans in the mail today that I purchased with my tax refund (wooooo!). I took a basic donut recipe and substituted the flour for a blend of rice, coconut, and garbanzo flour... and a pinch of almond meal.

They turned out pretty great, although they still had eggs, another food I'm supposed to avoid. The glaze was probably the biggest flop. It's hard to make something sweet without sugar or dairy, DANGIT. Basically, I made a concoction out of rice flour, rice milk, coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and dried cherries. Not the worst thing ever, but as you can see from the last photo, it never really emulsified.

Here's to donuts.

"Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?" -Matt Groening

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Life.

I think that this is the life. I think that I am finally reconciled to the could-have-beens and the maybes and the oh whys. I think that regardless of the pangs of wonder or sorrow I feel sporadically that cause me to question my existence or my current place I am okay. And it is so lovely to be here.

I want this blog to become more of a merging of my old writing/thinking blog and this (my creative) blog. Indian blog will stay on its own (chennaichai.blogspot.com).

You'll be happy to know that I'm collecting copious amounts of bottles and cans for that. To get my sorry butt back to Chennai, that is. To see and teach children that make me feel alive.

Monday, March 28, 2011

I made a dollar with Taylor not-even-trying-to-busk in Capitola while we were practicing music. If made it all feel worthwhile in a strange way, even though the music I create is ultimately just my own, personal, creative process.

But sure, if you want me to record an album and open for Sufjan Stevens on his next tour I'd be glad to.

Aside from that, today was simply a series of thought-provoking events on creativity, including but not limited to:
-The conversation that I had with someone in which I was asked about my recent work and challenged to invite people to any open mikes I play at (which I don't do).
-The interview I listened to of Jonathan Saffran Foer on "Everything is Illuminated" on tape. He wowed me with what inspires him (he basically said, "Art- no, just life really, I'm a normal human being") and that he was raised on television but still managed to discover that the medium in which he best expresses his inner thoughts is writing.
-The "busking" in Capitola. A lady came up to us and asked us to play her some nice songs and then went on to explain that she was on her way to rehab. Whew. To interact with a stranger and comfort them with a song or word is such a lovely thing!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

"Jesus is Still Alright with Me." -DC Talk.

But seriously. The man loves you.

A VERY NICE, VERY CREATIVE GIFT.

From a VERY creative person. I figured I'd share it here. For Christmas, by boyfriend and I made each other hand-made gifts. He recovered a cookbook for me (and adhered a spoon to it!) and designed three great little notebooks with some of my favorite song lyrics on them. Just saying. Definitely worthy of being featured on this blog.