Thursday, 30 April 2009

Travelling Man Comic Evening

Travelling Man holds regular "Comic Evenings" in Leeds so we decided to check it out after Dan Barritt from Ragadabah told us about it. Ste joined us as he's also a big graphic novel / comic fan and (although he's modest about it) he's an awesome comic artist himself.

Comics from the store were on hand to flick through as well as some produced by the other guests at the evening. Dan handed us copies of hiw own free mini-comic :)

© Dan Barritt Ragadabah

Reading comics formed only half of the night's purpose. Everybody discussed comics (and the fantasy genre in general) and large sketchbooks were on hand for much doodling. The results were.. odd!



Suffice to say we'll be back again for more, especially considering the drinks in Fab Cafe that follow these fortnightly events!

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Out of Sorts

During a field trip to Bradford Industrial Museum, gathering texture photos of the machines there, we stumbled upon a blast from the past in terms of graphic design.


A collection of printing equipment, typesetters and more were on display reminding us of just how much computers have simplified things and allowed us so much more freedom in how we work with type and layout than must have been available before.

Oh and we also found what may have coined the phrase "out of sorts". "When printers speak of metal type they use the word 'sort.' If a printer runs out of some letters and cannot continue his work he is said to be 'out of sorts.'"

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Pierogi Samosa

During our last visit to Fundacja Między Nami we were given a great recipe for a tasty pierogi dish. The only problem was that we couldn't read the recipe because it's written in Polish. Well, it's a few months later and we've been polishing up our Polish (with a little help from Google Translate) and we've translated it.


Click here to download a Pdf containing both the original Polish recipe and translated English version.

Serves 6 people
Preparation 40 minutes
Frying 10 minutes

Dough:
500g flour
25g clarified butter, 4 tablespoons of yoghurt,
½ teaspoon baking powder,
1 teaspoon salt, flour to sprinkle.

Alternative Dough Mix:
300g flour
2 eggs,
4-5 tbsp water,
pinch of salt.

Filling:
500g minced meat
250g green peas, 25g clarified butter,
2 medium-sized onions, 2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoon coriander,
1 teaspoon of powdered ginger,
½ teaspoon of chilli, 1 teaspoon
Garam masala,
vegetable oil for frying.



1. Prepare the dough: sieve flour and then mix with baking powder and salt, then add the clarified butter and yoghurt.


With the dough make small balls with a diameter of 2cm.


Sprinkle flour and then roll out each ball flat with a diameter of 15cm. These form the two halves of the pierogi.


2. Prepare filling: take onions and garlic and chop finely, then heat in frying pan (gas mark 5) in butter or vegetable oil until gold.


Add minced meat and green peas, then pour in coriander, ginger, chilli and Garam Masala. Mix and fry for 5 minutes. Once the filling is cooked through allow to cool.


3. For each piece of dough add a teaspoon of the filling. Moisten edges with water, then add the other half of the dough to form the pierogi. Use a fork to join the edges (it looks decorative too!)


Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan then fry the pierogi on both sides until they go a nice golden colour. (For the Alternative Dough Mix boil pierogi in a pan of water until they rise to the surface. This is the sign that they're ready).


Remove the pierogi, piping hot and serve. We added a nice cucumber sauce and salad with ours. Smacznego! (Bon appetit!)

Related links:
Pierogi Recipes UKTV Food
Fried Spinach Mushroom and Cheddar Pierogi Recipe | Recipes | FriendsEAT.com
Pierogi with Onions and Spinach

Friday, 3 April 2009

Paper Scissor Stone

A blog post about an entertaining game I hear you cry!? Nope, we're talking about the new retail store in Leeds called 'Paper Scissor Stone.' Filled to the brim with cool artworks on the walls, fashionable clothing, magazines and books - it definitely feels like a bit of London glam in our own fair city, Yippee! If you're in the area, we recommend heading over and taking a look:

Image © Paper Scissor Stone Store

11am till 7pm Mon to Fri
10.30am till 6.30pm Saturday
Midday till 4pm Sunday
38 New York Street // Leeds // LS2 7DF
+44 (0) 113 244 1398
www.paper-scissor-stone.co.uk
info@paper-scissor-stone.co.uk


Images taken from the Paper Scissor Stone Blog

Watch the Paper Scissor Stone Launch Party Video here, View the website here and read through the Paper Scissor Stone Blog here. They even have their own FaceBook group so go and add yourself as a groupee!

Thursday, 2 April 2009

Emerging Artists Awards 2009

We were invited by our friend Jonathan Smith from artsmix* to come along to the year's Emerging Artists Awards at The Loft in Leeds. artsmix* hosted the event along with support from Leeds College of Art and Design. We even recognised a few familiar faces from Creative Networks West Yorkshire as well.

A couple of ladies were dancing around the room pinning clothes pegs to people when we walked in. They had their website address stuck on, a novel way of handing out business cards I thought. Check out their website: Urban Angels Circus


It was a great night out with lots of inspirational artworks on display. I even managed to sample some gazpacho soup too!