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hello there.

Well, whaddya wanna know?  Here's the plain and simple truth:  My name is Rebekah Tennis and I love design.  I love paper, the way it feels, its weight and texture.  I love extra special touches on little things: homemade tags on gift-wrap, old stamps on an envelope, and twine on nearly everything.

My husband, business partner and all-around solid rock Matt would probably tell you that he likes tools - lots of 'em, finding the perfect way to do something, taking things apart, and precision in everything. 

So you might as well have guessed by now... we are the perfect match for an old letterpress studio. Together we farm rice and have a small but adorable two-year old son, Cameron.  This keeps us fairly busy, but whenever we have a spare moment, we crank up our 102 year old Chandler and Price platen press and pull some prints. 

There's more, oh yes, there IS more - but that's what this blog is for.  Take a look around, get to know us, our great town of Chico, California and our beautiful presses.


the food of the irish.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 filed: Food, Locally Grown

Let me start out with full disclosure:  I am not Irish.  I am American mutt, of course, but probably couldn’t come up with even a  teeny-tiny bit of Irish in my heritage to save my own life.  Matt doesn’t think he has any Irish background either (although if anyone would know it would be Aunt Kathy), and Cameron, well, he was sort of out of the running from the beginning. :-)

That doesn’t keep us from enjoying fun holidays and delicious food heritage.  On Cinco de Mayo we like to get as Mexican as we can (no latino heritage either) and on Bastille Day (or around there) we love to pull together a little Duck confit and feel properly frenchified.  And here we are, St. Patrick’s Day, throwing our decidedly un-Irish selves wholeheartedly in the direction of yummy American Irish food.  AKA Corned Beef and Cabbage.

I ran across this column in our local newspaper (Sweet Basil and the Bee).  Nancy Lindahl and Marriane Brenner cowrite this column and it is always loads of fun – local food, gardening, recipes and trips to the farmer’s market.  I always look forward to it on Wednesdays!  Anyhow, last week I read this Brisket recipe and decided to give it a try as a little change-up to our traditional corned beef dish.  Brisket is of course, Corned Beef that has not been Corned (salted/brined).  I also created my own little version of Colcannon (potatoes and cabbage) with carmelized leeks, onions, cabbage and blue cheese thrown in.  Yum.

Two more preface items before I begin: 1) The Brisket, while delicious, we didn’t find to taste exceptionally Irish traditional (or our opinion of Irish traditional) – it tasted more like a meltingly tender, high-end pot roast.  2)  This dish takes a looooong time (you’ll need to make sure you start it at least 4 hours in advance, maybe more). Ideal for a work-at-home day.

Enough jabbering, Rebekah!!!

Here it is… for actual details, refer to the recipe here:

Start with beef brisket.  Mine was 2.6 lbs – so smaller than the recipe size.  Salt, pepper, and sear in oil:

…until it’s crusted with a lovely deep mahogany color.

…ah, so beautiful.

Soak your dried Porcinis in warm water to soften them…

And slice onions to saute in the leftover searing oil:

Cook them till golden – then separate out half:

…and yes, they are as crazy-tasty as they look.  Put the seared brisket back in the pot over the remaining onions and cover with the half you just pulled out.

Then add your key ingredient…

Guinness.  You can’t get much more Irish than that. Pour it in!

Watch it froth:

Add Thyme, Bay, Porcinis:

Looks so good already, right?

Put the entire thing in the oven (with lid on) for about 3 hours at 350 F.  Yup – walk away and enjoy yourself.  You could hang out with your kitchen helper:

Until he realizes you are NOT making pie and goes off to play with tractors.  Or, you could sample one of these:

And sit out on the porch (or by the fire, depending on your weather).

A couple hours in (oh, you thought we were done?), make your Colcannon!  Potatoes first of course:

Boil those.  And we’ll be using these in-season beauties too…

Here’s our St. Patty’s green…

Now saute these in butter through these four yummy stages…

I deglazed with a bit of vermouth – couldn’t resist getting all the carmelized goodness off the bottom of the pan and into my dish.

Drain and smash your potatoes (skins and all) with a bit of half and half (no butter needed)…

Stir in the carmelized leek, onion, cabbage:

…and sprinkle blue cheese (Stilton if you have it!) on the top.  Stick it in the oven just as you pull out your braised beef…

Looking good!  Take out the brisket, skim off the fat, reduce the sauce by rapidly boiling.  Here’s our beef brisket resting happily:

Set out the potatoes…

And to be even more Irish-ey – Soda bread…

Serve yourself a plate.

And don’t forget to wash it all down with one of these…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The Colcannon was SO good.  It may be my best “made-up” recipe to date.

PS – This recipe is as good as gluten free (both of them are) – just use your favorite gluten free beer instead of Guinness.

PPS – St Patrick didn’t write it, but it’s very Irish and the old tune is associated with St Paddy himself – one of the best hymns ever, Be Thou My Vision.

PPPS – Guinness and Graphic Design: one of the oldest logos (and trademarks!) ever. Yup.

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a soft palette.

Monday, March 15, 2010 filed: Custom Stationery, Paper, Stationery

I love a good white.  They’re surprisingly hard to find (especially in paint!), but crisp white, soft white, antique white, etcetera all have a perfect place and can produce that “ah…” calm and relaxing sensation when used appropriately.  A bit like sinking into a deep and comfy chair.

However, in stationery, we see a lot of white.  Our house cotton paper comes in pure white, pearl white and ecru (ivory).  Our house 100% recycled stock is a nice white also (French Construction).  But day in, day out white can get a bit tedious, and a break in the monotony to use a colored paper on a print job is a nice little change.

And if we’re going to talk about color, can I tell you how much I love Crane’s Palette?

It’s yummy, it’s soft and luxurious, it’s 100% cotton in elegant, muted, to-die-for colors.  Oh, and it’s a bit expensive. ;-)   But this makes it perfect for jobs that use very little paper – like, say, a business card job:

This is Crane’s Palette in Wasabi.  A soft, happy pale green with a mere hint of yellow in it.  (Address on the cards has been removed, excuse the messy photoshop work)

…how cute and fun is the vintage style pumpkin drawing with brown and squash inks? And if you want a shot of CRAZY texture and impression in the early morning light:

It doesn’t get more tactile than that, does it?  Sigh.  I love letterpress.

…packaged and out the door on a Monday morning.  Always a good way to start the week. :)

We’ve been mostly doing personal stationery and weddings this month here at Wild Ink Press, so a sweet little business card job is a nice way to have a change of pace.

Happy workweek – do enjoy the beginning of spring.

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the end of winter.

Friday, March 5, 2010 filed: Cameron, Personal, The Good Life

I know spring has not yet been officially declared, but here in sunny California, it’s headed our way with force. This last weekend we got to spend a treasured time at our family cabin in the mountains, and I knew it was the last of the great snow I would see this year. With letterpress and rice farming, it seems pretty unlikely anymore snowmen are in our near future.

So, given it’s Friday, I thought I’d share with you a few sweet pictures of the last of winter as we know it. Plus, when’s the last time you got to see Cameron on the blog, I mean really? Shameful.

Here are some peaceful cross-country ski tracks…
And the mist on the lake in the cold, crisp morning…

The ground as it starts to thaw among the trees…

The last snowman of the year (although Matt would call it “modern art” – you decide):

And Cameron doing his favorite thing… eating something frozen. In the summer it’s ice, in the winter it’s snow…

Yum, yum.

Happy weekend to you all!

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shepherds pie, two ways { part two }

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 filed: Food

You all may remember, once upon a time, long ago, when your children all were young and cute (which now they’ve grown to be corporate executives and such)… well, anyway, WAY back then… I posted the first part of this Shepherd’s Pie series.  Which aforementioned series is not REALLY “Shepherd’s Pie” to begin with, because Shepherds Pie involves lamb and these are both beef versions, but I digress again.

The simple sentence is: here is part two. Finally.

This version is your basic, comfort food, stick-to-your-ribs, dinner-on-a-dime Shepherd’s Pie.  We’ll be keeping it simple, throwing it together fairly fast, and using basic ingredients we definitely have on hand already.  The main inspiration of the recipe is from Joy of Cooking, that admirable tome of a cookbook, but I made a couple of time saving adjustments (shortcuts).

We start with potatoes:

Rinsed and sliced in half to cook a bit quicker – and notice I didn’t bother to peel them.

Then we chop our veggies.  It was what we have, so there’s baby carrots and mommy carrots all being chopped into the same pan.  Butter, celery and onion too:

Once the onions are a bit translucent, we add in some ground beef and brown it:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the potatoes are boiling madly in their little pot:

… and there’s nothing more fun than a rousing rolling boil (pasta, anyone?) to get you in the mood for dinner.

Add some flour to the meat mixture…

And then some broth and some dried herbs and spices (rosemary, thyme, nutmeg):

Now our potatoes are soft, so drain all but a little of the water from the pot:

And you’ll find most of the peel will come off with an easy rubbing motion.  Much faster than peeling with a peeler, plus no extra dirty dish. Oh, and call me a slob, but I don’t bother to get ALL of the peel off.

Smash it up with a spoon directly in its pot (takes two seconds):

Then layer the meat mixture:

And the mashed potatoes:

..forked and dotted with butter.

Put it in the oven at 400 degrees:

And if it’s OUR oven, pray that the temperature holds correctly (lately we’ve been suffering from wild fluctuations of 30 plus degrees either way).  Oh, and you can disregard the scandalous time at which we make dinner every night. ;-)

20 to 30 minutes later, this succulent comfort food will await you:

Ah. Mighty tasty.  Have a bite?

Or two.  Oh so warm and comforting (like food that gives you a hug).

But let’s do a little review, what did our dinner cost us?

Potatoes 1.5 lbs – $.82 ($2.49 for a 5 lb bag)
Carrots 1-2 large – $.50 ($1.09 per lb)
Celery 2 stalks – $.75 ($1.89 per lb)
Onion 1 large – $.30 ($.87 per lb)
Ground Beef 1 lb – $1.99
Beef Broth, 1/2 cup – $.37 ($2.99 for 32 oz)
Flour, dried herbs and spices (you have on hand already, I’m sure)
Butter, 2 Tbsp.  $.12 ($1.99 per lb)

Grand total: $4.85

Not bad, huh?  Dinner for 3-4 people (or two hungry ones) for under $5!  It’s not haute cuisine, it’s not even something particularly healthy, but it is filling and comforting and tasty.  Perfect for a stormy winter day such as this.

Happy Eating!!

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a hex upon you.

Monday, February 22, 2010 filed: Before and After, Home

The bathroom remodel(s) continue.  And continue.  On and on and on. I’d love to say we’re in the home stretch – but I don’t think we are yet!  I keep remembering the old formula:  great quality, great price, speedy delivery – pick any two.  So true!  We have definitely chosen the former two in that list, let’s hope it pays off!

But slow and steady wins the race, right? Have a look at our progress so far:

Our Carrara marble hexagon tile is down in the master bathroom.  And I love it even more than I thought I would (if that’s even possible).  I can’t believe that I could be so blessed as to have such beautiful natural stone in MY bathroom, without it costing an arm and a leg. I know, it’s weird, but I ooh and ahh every time I see it.  It will be so fun when it is actually done!!

And two:

…we currently have a shower – and didn’t have to go very long without one.  It’s very makeshift because nothing is finished – but when you remodel both of your full baths – having a shower that is not the kitchen sink is excellent.

Lastly, we have tile choices for the guest/kid bath:

They are: Daltile Rittenhouse Square (3″ x 6″ Subway) in Matte Arctic White and Matte Black, with American Unverse (AU) 1.5″ hexagon tile in matte white and matte black.  Finding these was not as easy as we thought!  The Daltile Keystone series (their hexagon) has a version of white called “biscuit” – and it looked just like it sounds (blech). Why they don’t carry a matte white that matches their wall tile is beyond me. So, we found a nearly perfect match with the AU tile – now all I needed was a pattern, right?  (If you don’t remember the inspiration – here it is.)

Enter trusty ol’ Adobe Illustrator for some rough but to-scale mock-ups.  I started with this:

Very classic and historic looking, right? Enter problem 1: Matt doesn’t like the flowers.

That scenario progressed to this:

Still too floral.

Okay, how about this?

Well, now I didn’t like this one.

So, I tried this…

You can see I’m getting fond of making patterns… it’s kind of mesmerizing, a bit like Tetris (the only computer game I ever loved).  This one was too busy, although I like it a lot.

Matt and I both LOVED the Greek Key inspired square mosaic border above (which I threw together very roughly), but this complicated of a pattern with all of the cuts and extra tile shapes would have cost buko-bucks.

And then there was this one…

…possibly my most favorite pattern. Isn’t it terrific?  I found the inspiration for it here.  But, like the previous design, it was not to be.  Too pricey to put together a pattern like that.

So, we finally came to our last design (and the winner!).  Here’s our bathroom floor pattern:

Love the border… and it’s not flowery OR too difficult of a pattern. Whew!

But what do you think?  Did we make the right choice?  Am I crazy for mocking up so many designs? (yes.)

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a happy, happy weekend to you.

Friday, February 12, 2010 filed: Personal, The Good Life

It’s Friday!  And a special weekend we have ahead of us… Lincoln’s Birthday, Saint Valentine’s Day and President’s Day all crammed in and jockeying for their own spot. In fact, some of you may be off celebrating already, in honor of old honest Abe.

We are headed to the family cabin in the mountains.  I have to tell you, nothing sounds more perfect at this moment.  There’s no internet, no cell phone connection to speak of either, and there should be plenty of snow. Now I know you east-coast folks are probably fed up with the white stuff, but it is the weekend, right?

So, I suggest you take a moment to…

…build the perfect snowman.

…jaunt about in cross-country skis (or snowshoes).

…watch the ice break apart at the edge of a lake, or listen to it crash down from the eaves.

And then when you get thoroughly cold…

…head back up to the cabin (or house).

Settle in, and have a warm drink…

…if tea is not your, well, cup of tea, then coffee or cocoa. Be sure to mix this with good conversation and stimulating discussion with your Valentine (or a good friend).

Maybe pick out a game or two…

…and get really involved in it…

…remembering, of course, that it IS just a game.

Sit by the fire…

And bundle up very warm…

…well, maybe not quite that warm.

I’d like to propose a toast: to avoiding the Valentine’s Day madness by NOT going out to a fancy restaurant on Sunday, or feeling the need to spend hundreds of dollars for a day of the year.  Just remember to use valentine-esque gestures often throughout the year. Cheers!

Happy weekend!

P.S.

This post is dedicated to a beautiful gray milk glass lamp which didn’t make it through the week.  A certain child of ours (who shall remain nameless – oh wait, we only have one) knocked it over and it shattered into at least 563,482 tiny little pieces.  Oh, and it’s been discontinued, so I’m not sure how its brother/twin will make it on alone in our living room. RIP lamp.

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