Once January rolled around this year, the jamming reignited with the presence of all those winter citrus (citri?) in the local markets. The issue became (1) finding marmalade recipes then (2) whittling all these tasty sounding yum yums down to one. The second was impossible so I did three: grapefruit, orange and lemon ginger. These are to DIE for. My favorite is the lemon ginger but since I am sort of hoarding them – though I had every intention of giving them as random gifts – I guess they are all my favorites.

And what kind of graphic designer would I be if I didn’t make these into my own brand of goods? Then design the logo. And make labels. I don’t know if I can actually sell my stuff (do I need an industrial, some sort of state-approved kitchen to work in?) but someday!

Our friend lives on the edge of the woods, and knew of a patch of wild ramps that grew within walking distance. So, we grabbed a bag, a few large spoons for digging, and headed out. If you’re not familiar, ramps are a type of wild leek or spring onion, though without the harsh bite that onions can sometimes have. To me they taste like a combination of onion and a mellow garlic.

The ramp patch was HUGE, it was merely just a matter of finding a place to get the digging spoon in the right place to pry some up. The roots are pretty strong, so it took a little muscle to get them out, but it wasn’t hard work by any means. In about 10 minutes we had filled our bag!

Then it was time to decide what to do with our haul. Our friend also keeps chickens, so we decided to go über-local and make breakfast with what we had! It was one of the freshest and most delicious things I’ve eaten in recent memory.

Even if you can’t pick your own ramps, I’d highly recommend substituting them in your next recipe that calls for leeks or spring onions, for a yummy change of pace!

We walked in to the tight little kitchen. 12 of us standing around the typical stainless steel prep table – it was sold out like most (if not all) of DFP’s classes do. To our surprise, there was fresh bread, a selection of cheeses and dips, and wine for us to enjoy as we waited for everyone to show.

Our instructor, Chef Jason, began by giving us a little of his impressive background, including that he was once the head chef for DFP, then cracked open a bottle to begin the class. Personally I had made fresh pasta from scratch once or twice, but many in the class had never. Chef introduced the ingredients for the pasta which caught us a bit by surprise: even amounts of Durum and Semolina flours (about 1.5c total), 2 eggs, and salt. That’s it! I liked his idea that when starting to mix, do it in a bowl instead of on the table surface like most other recipes say.

Once the dough starts to come together, we dumped it out on the table and began the ever-cathartic task of kneading.

Chef Jason was very helpful in explaining how to judge the different stages of the dough, when to add more flour, when it’s almost done, and when it’s done (PS. when you think it’s done, knead for 2 more minutes, you can’t over knead!). Then, just wrap in plastic and toss in the cold box for at least a half hour.

After the half hour, we pulled it back out and began the rolling process. Chef had put out about 6 or 7 table-clamping pasta rollers/cutters. We first rolled out big long pieces to be used for stringy pasta.

Some we cut into fettucini and some into spaghetti.

Then just set aside to dry a bit. Chef made it clear though that at this point it could go right into the cooking water.

We also rolled out some dough and made ravioli using filling that had been already prepared by the DFP chef. All the fillings were amazing by the way! We used the little ravioli trays but also did them by hand, which we preferred as it gives them a much more authentic look.

Always remember, egg sticks to dough, egg doesn’t stick to egg! So when you’re closing up your raviolis, only paint beaten egg on one half of the edges so it will stick better!

Chef says Italians often like to make their pasta water like the ocean. He disagrees and says you should add enough salt to be able to taste it in the clean water; it can usually end up being quite a bit but not enough to equal what the sea is.

Because it’s fresh, it only takes 2–3 minutes to cook! This means you should make sure and wait until whatever sauce you’re making is complete before dropping your pasta. This night, Chef chose to do an olive oil-toasted garlic sauce with fresh herbs and lemon zest: very simple but very effective. It made the taste of the fresh pasta shine through wonderfully!

For the ravioli, he made a very simple brown butter sauce, again allowing the taste of the pasta and fillings to shine through.

The food was amazing, the wine was great, and the company was even better! Can’t speak for everyone, but all-in-all, one of the better (if not the BEST), most informative cooking classes I’ve been to. Dave’s Fresh Pasta is constantly running this and other classes; just be sure to sign up early as they sell out quick!

Classes: www.davesfreshpasta.com/class_schedule.html
Website: www.davesfreshpasta.com

Keith started off with an intro on the room itself: about 350 cases of type and one of the largest academic letterpress workshops in the country. I remember visiting one of the smaller studios when I was a student but apparently the disparate rooms were merged in 2004 and voila! An oddly organized disorganization that I want to pretty much visit every day.

Project one: learn the very basics of letterpress (parts of each letter, measurements, etc.) by creating one or two words on a job stick, centering the words by using spacers called quads to fill a 25 pica space. Check it – if you can’t read upside down, my words are Super Fisticuffs. Double bonus points for getting a ligature in there, right?

The class stacked all their words into the press while Keith showed us how to squeeze all the furniture (wood or metal blocks of various sizes) around them, applying pressure to keep everything stable while the press runs.

Type has been inked by letting the rollers run over them a few times. With paper properly fed into the grippers, it’s time to crank the cylinder so the paper is pressed onto the inked words…

…til they print! I used to think this was magic but really, it’s more about math. A lot of math. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never minded math. I just have to dust off that part of the brain first.

Post-lunch part deux: rooting through all these drawers and figuring out what I wanted to design, set and print. Of course, I texted my girls to get some ideas for words and phrases. The contenders included: old-fashioned, mellow yellow, chillax, tough it out, honey badger don’t care. Man, they’re good, but I went for the stand by. The phrase I say pretty much every day, to everyone, about anything: Suck it.

Keith has some much patience helping me and pretty much everyone else set their type correctly and with all the furniture to make it pretty damn tight. If it wasn’t for him, my favorite phrase would be printed upside down, backwards and certainly not consistently placed over multiple pages. Literally.

Purple ink! Of course – even got to brand my Suck It poster. Sigh. But tell me that isn’t a gorgeous color?

Wow, I did it! Didn’t want to hog the machine – or ask Keith to help re-ink since my letters were so huge and probably needed it after a few passes – so I made 5 prints. One is already at home in the studio. The others may be gifts for friends or frienemies; the message crosses all divides really.

Now for some beauty shots of my new favorite place. Keith has many letterpress classes and workshops coming up, especially in the Fall. Do it.

Although only 4 years old when I visited Disney World, I remember being particularly unimpressed by the “It’s A Small World” ride. The lifeless, jerky motions of the dead-eyed robots, repeating the same annoying song over and over (and over and over…) left me looking forward to the riding comparatively spine-tinglng excitement of the flying Dumbo for what would probably be the 12th time that day – hey, I was 4. What do you want?

About a decade later, when visiting Munich as a part of a high school group, I waited with my friends for the top of the hour, to see the world-famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel. It was just one on a long list of “must see” sites for us tourists. I was expecting to be similarly unenthralled, so imagine my surprise at the complexity of the story the 32 automaton figures told over the course of 15 minutes (!!), and how precisely they moved. All of this heightened by the fact that they were crafted over 100 years ago.

I was recently reminded of these experiences when watching the movie Hugo. Besides the story – which was fascinating, beautiful, and sad – I fell in love with the aesthetics, and wondered how I could bring some of that inside my own house. Although unrealistic to move to 19th century Paris, and building a life-size automaton is pretty far outside my realm of expertise, my thoughts turned to cuckoo clocks. As appealing as traditional carved cuckoo clocks can be (even despite their depictions of dead, hanging game - not exactly what I was picturing in my decor), I found a number of them that satisfy my need for automated moving parts, and yet still manage to be sophisticated.

Love the traditional silhouette of this one.
(hmmm…do I spot some dead animal silhouettes? I don’t even care!)

Bright, fabulous colors. A real statement.
The texture and pattern of this one is particularly striking.
The all-white clock really draws my eye to the red cuckoo. Love.
It’s an art piece, clock, and little bird friend – all in one!

Year two of volunteering to critique work at the AIGA student portfolio review. Last year was interesting. I fell in love with the typography and personality of Erika Decker; I would totally have hired her if I could but think a big agency snapped her up instead. A fellow BU grad to boot! Sigh. I also had high expectations for the RISD seniors. What I found instead monotony – in color, typography, scale. It was pretty surprising.

Now that I knew what to expect with the caliber of student work and speed dating format, this year I was looking forward to seeing the trends in curriculum projects and meeting some great people.

I got to meet with 6 students this year and here are my top three:

Gabrielle Benzie from Lyndon State College. This girl really had It. First, I loved the way she presented. With a perfectly comped small portfolio book as a guide, she turned to a project page to start the discussion, then pulled out the real piece, leaning it on an easel or handing it over to peruse on my own. Gabrielle’s variety was great (branding, packaging, products, posters…) as were her comping skills; her hand bound books were incredibly professional. Unfortunately, her website doesn’t reflect her presentation but hopefully it’s a work in progress.

Jennifer Ricci from MassArt. Surprisingly, one of only a few students showing some of her work on an iPad; she used it at just the right times – for interactive work only – and didn’t overdo it. Again, a great breadth of projects: identity, magazine (including her own photography), book jackets (including illustration work) and websites. Jennifer has great concepts which she talked through effortlessly. I also liked how she asked her reviewers their opinions on her business card; you can tell she has a lot of respect for design and designers.

Anthony Cormier from Curry College. I really wasn’t expecting to like anyone from Curry based on my experience last year. But Anthony is completely charming, had some very professional work (including a real piece he designed, art directed and even photographed for the New England Book Show) and seemed to genuinely absorb my feedback. While Anthony had his posters as small scale comps, I was blown away by the photos he showed of them on an iPad! He styled them so well with appropriate accessories and clean lines. He knows he needs to work on his business card to more accurately reflect his personality. But in my experience, and for most designers, designing for yourself is the hardest project.

My friend Lara and I are members of Design Salon in Boston, a group of creative women entrepreneurs that get together to discuss business, design and doing it all. This month’s talk (at Twelve Chairs in South Boston – go to there!) was given by THE Jodi Adams, chef and owner of Rialto and Trade – two amazing restaurants in Cambridge and Boston, respectively – and a contestant on Top Chef Masters. The woman is G. O. O. D.

Jodi started the night with a bio and segued into stories about Top Chef, what it’s like to open a new restaurant with new partners today and her big 5 pieces of advice:

1. Be yourself and do what you know.

2. Hire the right people then let them do their job

3. Only do what only YOU can do

4. Trust your partners or get out

5. Take some risks

Coming from a woman who can ‘finally’ say I Am Successful at 50-something, I’d say this is a great start and true words of wisdom.

Jane Maas

Jane Maas is said to be the inspiration for Peggy Olson, the copywriter ingenue on Mad Men. Yes, the woman was at work with the big boys of advertising back in the heyday and she says it’s ALL TRUE.

She came to Boston as the third city of a 47 city tour to promote her new book, Mad Women, a chronicle of what it was really like to work as a woman in NYC advertising.

Jane is about 80ish, petite and with enough energy to knock you to the ground. I mean, the woman is 80! Going on a 47 city book tour!

She started her talk with some words of advice about the creation of advertising – did I mention she is STILL working? She asked and answered questions about what makes communications effective then got into the good stuff: telling stories about advertising in the 60s. You’ll have to get the book to learn more but I will say: All the stuff about sex in the office you see portrayed in Mad Men? The real thing was actually WAY crazier.

A very interesting thing BOTH of these women said in their talks: If you don’t move forward, you die. Jodi heard that from her mentor, Julia Child, when asked why she still went to work in her 80s. Jane said it on Thursday when someone asked how she can still be doing new things like writing books and consulting for the History Channel.

Taken to heart, ladies. Taken to heart.

Thanks to a recent email blast from Craigie on Main, they’ve pointed me to a gourmet salt guide at SaltWorks – check it out! I can’t wait to introduce some Himalayan pink into my life.