Updates & Sketches

First and foremost, my deepest apologies for having been absent for so long!  

The last 4 months involved visitors, a trip home, a little sickness (just some sniffles, really) and work, lots and lots of work. If you're ever rolling your eyes at retail stores displaying Christmas in October, know that somewhere in the depths of that store, there is a designer ever so slowly turning into the Grinch and turning gray far too early. We'll suffice it to say that planning a holiday floor set is no small task.

Today's project is not a sweet baking one or a photography one, but one that goes back to my roots in school.  I've been missing sketching and brainstorming lately, so here's a little peeler set I drew up after needing too many types of peelers for one recipe. 

Thanks for reading,

A

Frootshoot in the Caribbean

A refresher course:

Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: Amanda's term for a photo-shoot during which she dissects/murders various fruits for photographic analysis.  This process often advances to hours of editing before creating a graphically-pleasing collage.

As any new culture does, moving to the Caribbean has exposed me to new foods.  Here are some tropical goodies:

Breadfruit 

A food staple throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the breadfruit emerges on flowering trees that can grow up to 85 feet tall.  The fruit's name is derived from the texture of the cooked, moderately ripe fruit, which has a potato-like flavor, similar to freshly baked bread. It is high in starch and is traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice.  There are tons of ways to prepare breadfruit, whether roasted and sliced as a nice side dish, or made into breadfruit chips (better than potato chips!), or boiled and served as a main dish with scraped coconut and chilies. 

Fun fact: When you remove a breadfruit from the tree, you have to set it top-down because there will be a fair amount of sap that needs to drain out first...or else your cutting board and knife will be forever sticky. *eyeroll*
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit

Passion Fruit 

The passion fruit is widely grown around the world.  It is round to oval in shape and can be either yellow or dark purple - a fact that I did not know.  I took photos of a purple-skinned fruit, and the next week, our selection was yellow! There aren't many things that you can bite into for the first time and have your eyes spring wide open causing you to immediately dive in for bite #2.  The passion fruit is one of those rare things. I had never tasted one before, and the taste and texture blew my mind.  It's like a ball full of candy, really. 

Fun fact: Passion fruit is so called because it is one of the many species of Passion Flower, the national flower of Paraguay. 
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_edulis

Otaheite, Jamaican Apple
First, a little back story.  When I studied in Taiwan for 3 months, I discovered that one of my favorite fruits is a Wax Apple or a Bell Fruit - it has two names.  Then! I found out that it actually has 3 names, or so I thought.  I've not been able to find once since; I pick through every farmer's market I go to - I thought for sure I'd find it at one of the two international markets in Atlanta - nope! Then one day after moving here, I was talking about this fruit with my coworkers, and showed them a picture, and they all exclaimed "Otaheite!" "...Oh, whatawhat?" They all got so excited that they had helped me track down this fruit at long last, and that all along it was actually a Jamaican Apple, or in Jamaica, an apple. 
Sadly, I have to report that, though it is yummy, this is not the same as the Wax Apple and Bell Fruit that I had in Taiwan.  They look exactly the same, so they have to be relatives! The Otaheite has a very light and fluffy texture inside with crisp, mild apple-like taste. The Wax Apple packs a punch with apple taste, and has a crunchy, airy texture like a pear. *mouth waters and the search continues*

Thanks for reading!
A

Shootin' some more froots.

Here are three more froot-shoots; strange fruits, I might add. 

Kiwano Melon

Often times referred to as blowfish fruit, this fruit is super funky and difficult to enjoy, but yummy nonetheless.  Similar to the way you eat a pomegranate - seed by messy seed, spitting out each pit - it takes a while to eat a Kiwano Melon.  You cut the fruit in half (hamburger), and then suck out some seed pods. The seeds are surrounded by a gel-capsule-of-sorts that slimes its way around your mouth until you separate it from the flimsy little seed inside.  You can either spit the seed out or swallow it.   
Native to Africa, but grown now in California, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, this fruit (to me) tasted like a combination of cucumber and banana. 
Fun fact ::  Along with the Gemsbok Cucumber, the Kiwano Melon is the only source of water during the dry season in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. 
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumis_metuliferus and my brain.

Dragonfruit

Probably Khaleesi's favorite, Dragonfruit is one of the prettiest fruits both inside and out. However, this does NOT mean it tastes good.  These fruits grow from flowers on Pitaya Cacti, and come in three common varieties :: white-fleshed, red-fleshed or yellow. These cacti grow in hot and dry areas, and cannot withstand cold temperatures. 
The flesh is often likened to kiwi because of the small, crunchy black seeds, however the taste is like a very very bland melon.  I've had this one before; didn't like the first time, thought I'd give it another shot, still didn't like it. Sorry, Khaleesi, your fruit is no good.
Fun fact :: Dragonfruit can weigh from 0.3 to 1.5 pounds; some may reach 2.25 pounds.
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya and my brain.

Rambutan



These guys look creepy, I know, but they are delicious. The word "Rambutan" in the Malay/Indonesian language means "hairy."  You can find these fruits growing on trees in Indonesia and Malaysia and Southeast Asia.  Having only longer spines, or "hairs," rambutan are very similar in appearance and taste to lychee. 
To enjoy a rambutan, break the outer skin with your fingernail (or with a knife if your fingernails seem to frequently disappear like mine c: ) and peel away that crazy outer shell.  Imagine that you peeled all the skin off of a grape, and that the grape is white. This is what awaits you inside that weird hairy shell.  Also, there is a giant seed in the middle of that not-grape, so don't just pop it into your mouth.  
Fun fact :: A yellow variety of Rambutan grows in Costa Rica, and is often referred to as "Wild Rambutan."
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan and my brain.

That's all folks! I've got a busy busy couple of weeks coming up, so I don't know when you'll next hear from me. c:

Thanks for reading,
A

Where have you BEEN, Amanda??

I have been so stinkin' busy since my last post!  As the job search continues, as does my semi-unemployment.  I took an off-and-on summer nanny position that calls for 11 hours of my day.  That took up 3 weeks in May and this past week.

So what about June, hmmm?  In June, I worked for a Chicago-based gift and decor company called Enesco.  I have been working as a freelance designer for them since May, sending in sketch concepts of merchandising displays to one supervisor, and new-product packaging and displayers to another.  In June, however, I worked alongside four other designers at the Enesco showroom in America's Mart in downtown Atlanta.  We worked to create displays in a showroom FULL of brands like GUND, Foundations, Jim Shore, Vera, and new brands Cuipo and Happy Place.  Below is a picture I found on Enesco's Facebook page of the Happy Place display that I put together.

The idea behind these displays is to help a buyer envision the way that a certain brand could look in their store - to have that vision look so awesome and cutting-edge that they just HAVE to have it. America's Mart is the market to shop new merchandise and apparel in the southeast, and I feel very lucky to have had the month-long opportunity. 

I'll keep this post short and sweet, but I am going to leave you with two Froot-Shoots that I shot back in May.  There has been quite the delay in posting them! Behold, Mango and Pineapple.  (Pineapple may be my favorite layout thus far.)

Thanks for keeping up!
A   :)

Fruit Dissections :: Some more.

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Portfolio, Photography and Resume/Bio tabs.]

Here are my latest installments to the Fruit Dissection Collection.  This week's Fruit-Shoot consisted of some funky fruits!  My roommate discovered a really awesome farmer's market (Buford Hwy Farmer's Market in Doraville, GA), so we went to check it out last weekend.  

It is a GIANT market with shelves upon shelves of foreign, exotic foods.  There was a Hispanic section, an Eastern European section, an Asian section, and SUPER fresh seafood (stinky!) and produce; not to mention, spices galore and an organic-health-nut section. 

Since we had never heard of this first fruit, here are some Wiki tidbits in case you haven't either.  

 The Cherimoya (also spelled Chirimoya) is native to the Andes, and can be found in Southern regions of Central and South America, South Asia and Southern California.  The fruit grows on small trees and reaches sizes between 7-15 cm long.  It is ripe when the skin is green and gives slightly to pressure, similar to an avocado. (I know this because I eat avocado now.)

The name originates from the Quechua word "chirimuya," meaning "cold seeds" because the seeds will germinate at higher altitudes.  These are REALLY big, dark seeds that are easy to remove, but there are a ton of them.  The flesh of the fruit is a creamy-white color with a mango-like texture.  There are a lot of opinions on the taste; I thought it was like a pineapple-banana mix.  Others say it tastes like a blend of papaya and peach as well or, strangely, commercial bubblegum. 

Note :: the seeds are poisonous if crushed open. Don't chew on them.  Also, extracts from the cherimoya's tree-bark can induce paralysis if injected into the blood-stream.  Who knew? 

Mark Twain called the Cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men."

Red Plum.

Blood Orange.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful Spring day!

A

Ounces and Cups and Spoons

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio, Photography or Resume/Bio tabs.]

April is here! Hopefully you all didn't fall for any ridiculously obvious April Fool's jokes. (I know I did :: Google Nose posting before US midnight - C'MON!)

Today's post is short an' sweet.  

I have seen a few graphically pleasing kitchen conversion charts, and decided to tweak one of my favorites to make it my own.  I call it "Ounces and Cups and Spoons."  Take a gander below, and let me know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading!

A

Fruit Dissections :: An On-Going Project

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio, Photography and Resume/Bio tabs.]  

March has come and gone quickly, and I've been busy busy.  Since my last post, I have been doing approximately one fruit-shoot a week.  

Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: Amanda's term for a photo-shoot during which one dissects various fruits through photographic analysis.  This process often advances to hours of editing in Photoshop followed by photo-selection before creating a graphically-pleasing collage in InDesign.

This post isn't quite as complete as I had imagined it being, but I didn't want to not have any posts for the month.  Consider this an on-going project, and I will be uploading more as I have time. Enjoy! [Click thumbnails to view full-screen.]

Banana.

 

 Apple.

 

 

 Strawberry.

 

 Kiwi.

 

Keep posted either here or on my Flickr page for more! I've got pomegranate and blood orange up to bat. c:

Thanks for reading!

A