Sketch Crawling in Asheville

Sunday a group of us braved icy wind and met in downtown Asheville for a downtown sketch crawl.  After a few minutes warming up inside Malaprop's Bookstore we decided to stay warm and defer the outdoor crawl in favor of our old favorite, the Tobacco Barn.  The Tobacco Barn isn't exactly heated in winter, but at least it isn't windy inside.  My pick of the day was this Civil War era fainting couch that the tag said had been fainted on by members of the same southern family for four generations.  It looked handmade and had a hand-carved design inscribed on the odd headboard-like side board.  The upholstery was faded brocade.  I liked the padded bottom of the side board.  The couch was  small and delicate except for its fat ankles.   It was temptingly marked down from $376 to $295, but I didn't dare bring it home.  We're in the market for a bed for our new screened sleeping porch, but I couldn't see my husband getting excited about this find.

 

Before arriving at the sketch crawl, I had had lunch with a friend at a little cafe downtown.  We had had the most delicious and perfect-for-a-cold-day dish called ginger miso rice bowl.  I whipped out my sketchbook while we were eating and sketched the rice bowl and then listed everything that I thought was in it (left side of page).  Then when I got home I Googled ginger miso sauce and found a couple of recipes (right side of page).

 

Last night I decided to try to recreate the rice bowl.  This was an adventure for me since I'm not what you would call a natural cook and always have to follow recipes to the letter.  I lack creative imagination and motivation when it comes to cooking, having grown up with a mother who really didn't enjoy cooking and a grandmother who always had a cook.  But my husband and I had come to a crisis in our cooking schedule (he cooks two days, I cook two days, we fend for ourselves the other three) in that neither of us wanted to cook anymore.  We were both completely bored by our usual repertoires.  We had decided that new recipes were in order, and finding this rice bowl actually fired my imagination. 

The page shown above I did after cooking last night.  I drew the finished dish, which was amazingly delicious, and then recreated the recipe.  If you decide to try this out, it reads from top left (step 1) down to bottom left;  then follow the arrow to bottom right (under the word COMBINE) to complete the sauce part.  Then go to top right for step 3 and end with COMBINE.  I am happy to clarify steps and answer questions.