Many many thank you’s to Daisy Blakelock for this amazing summary of the crazy that we work very hard to specialize in. We love it!

After seeing this band several times in person and totally loving their work, we have taken every opportunity to participate in events with The Bloody Jug Band. Last fall it was their Jug-Ly Art event at the Peacock Room, and from that came a request to make a killer tip case to artistically suggest that if you want art, you  have to make sure the artists aren’t actually starving. (something we certainly can relate to). After a new record in over doing it, this is what we came up with for the guys (and one pretty lady!)

Achieving the look we wanted required a double thick piece of wood for the lid to really make it 3D while also allowing us to inset the “Tips Appreciated” in the inner lid. The blood dripping down the sides is all carved and it looks so real when you see it that your first instinct is to touch it. We could not have been happier with how it turned out especially knowing that they believe in our work enough to have it on stage every night.

Well it just so happens that today is the official debut of their new CD “Coffin up Blood” at Will’s Pub in Orlando. Every paid entry gets their own copy of the CD, which is a fantastic deal (because I wouldn’t question that the admission is a bargain just for the show!) We hate that work is keeping us away tonight but wish them only the best of luck and a fantastic crowd.

To accompany the album release they also did a fantastic video!

Take the time to peruse their website, with tons of links to their music and merchandise, including specialty merchandise made by us for the people that need some Jug-ly art in their lives- and if you are local come out and see them tonight, it will be a great show!

After having our last one of these sell at the Revenge of the Tiki show last year, we are  pleased to have another Headhunter Bar Case in stock to come with us to Sin City, and we made this one as over the top as we thought prudent. It is a two sided case that we designed to look like a cohesive scene when opened…(and when you are doing your mixology behind it! )

                                             After this next week of hustle, we are  hoping to come home from Viva with a fistful of orders, and we want to extend the offer to our blog readers too. From now until April 9th, you can reserve a purse and a place in our production que for just a $10 deposit! We are planning an exciting summers worth of shows and we want to stay busy every minute we aren’t on the road. If you need it a couple months down the line that is fine, we are just excited to be busy enough to have to block out time for our clients, and we plan on keeping it that way!

I look forward to sharing many more items this week as they get finished up, no sleep till Viva!

Frankenstein’s Monster Mask. 24 Inches, burned and grain and made of white pine. Hanger will allow it to be mounted flush to the wall.

For as much as I cook on a daily basis, it took many hours of daydreaming to come up with a cohesive luau menu that would make sense and flow together, and also be mostly vegetarian, and  able to be timed so the cook could hit the cocktails during the party, and not afterwards in a limping mess next to a pile of dishes.  We invited our favorite people that also aren’t afraid to get their grub on, spent the day before busy assembling everything that would not be ruined by a night in the fridge, and managed to pull nearly everything together a clean half hour before the guests arrived.

Our meal comprised of three separate “courses”, an appetizer round, a full spread for dinner, and then a gut busting dessert. You can find all the recipes to everything here. I am not one to actually follow measurements, so writing the actual recipes is tough! Our appetizer course was a mix of veggie dumplings, deconstructed Spam and Sweet Potato sushi, and lots of pickled veggies. For dinner we had Sweet and Sour Lentils on Red Rice, a Singapore style Yam noodle, sweet chili coleslaw and a long smoked Pork sirloin that got a special marinade treatment overnight in the fridge. Desert was a overkill cauldron of White Chocolate Macadamia fondue with a coconut cake and chopped fruit. I can’t recall anyone ever saying they left our house hungry.

The time went by too fast on a beautiful windy February day. Thank goodness for the warm walls and tiki lights we had strung up  for an indoor luau.

Many thanks to the Fraternal Order of the Moai for a great excuse for a party, all of our guest for their contributions and company, and my children for being exceptionally good that day. They must have seen that we were in full court press when it came to party planning. There is nothing finer than cooking the food you love and seeing those you love enjoy it!

And in cased you missed it- link to the recipes!

Appetizers

Veggie Dumplings

Dumpling Skins

Ground Tofu crumble

Carrots/Onions/Cabbage/Mushrooms

Fresh Ginger & Garlic, salt and pepper, soy sauce

Chop all the veggies and spices in a food processor, transfer to a bowl and fold in the tofu and the soy sauce. Season to taste but we err on the side of lots of ginger and garlic in this house! Put on some good music because you are going to be folding dumpling skins for a good hour. Let em rest on a cookie sheet before you deep fry them to golden.

Sweet Coconut Tempura Batter

1 cup flour

1 cup ice cold coconut soda

1tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

Panko to coat

Whisk everything together and get your spam and sweet potatoes ready. The coconut soda does make it just slightly sweeter than normal. Coat in the batter and then in the panko bread crumbs and fry!

Sushi Balls

Sushi rice, with seasoned vinegar. Rice molds help a lot. I garnished with soy wrappers but seaweed works just as good and is more traditional. Nothing like a pretty bed of rice to lay your spam on

Sweet Chili Mayo

1 cup Mayo

1/2 cup or more sweet chili

1/4 cup or more Apple cider vinegar

Soy Sauce, Onion flakes, pepper

Whisk all these together, testing for vinegar tolerance. We like a lot! There wasn’t any appetizers this sauce didn’t elevate.

Dinner

Singapore style Yam Noodles

1 package Yam Noodles

1/2 Can coconut milk

Napa cabbage, carrot, onions, celery

Fresh ginger & garlic

Curry powder, salt and pepper, coconut oil

Soak the Yam noodles in hot water till soft, drain rinse and toss in sesame oil. Heat the coconut oil in a pan, and add veggies in order of firmness. Add coconut milk, salt and pepper and tons of curry powder. Toss in the noodles and let the liquid cook off a little.

Sweet Chili Coleslaw

1/2 cup  Mayo

1/4 cup Sweet Chili

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

Fresh Garlic and Ginger

Shredded Cabbage, onion and carrots

Sunflower seeds

Whisk together the dressing and add the veggies. Give it a an hour or so to soften. Toss in the sunflower seeds last thing.

Sweet and Sour Lentils

1 cup French Lentils

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

salt and pepper

onions, peppers

pineapple

fresh garlic and ginger

Add all ingredients and an extra 2 cups of water to the crock pot. Cook on high for about 3 hours. Serve over any rice, we chose red rice cooked with a little coconut oil and plenty of salt!

Sweet Cherry Marinated Pork

3 oz Sour Cherry Syrup

2 limes juiced

3 oz BG Reynolds Ginger Syrup

Marinade the pork overnight coated in marinade. Wrap in bacon and then smoke, and smoke, and then smoke it some more. Worry anxiously over it. Open it up to oohs and ahhs as people enter the party. Then about 12 hours after it hit the heat, watch it disappear in 5 minutes or less

Dessert

White Chocolate Macadamia Fondue

Two packages good quality white chocolate chips

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup toasted chopped macadamia nuts

You have to whisk this like a mad woman on a double boiler, and make sure your fondue pot is ready and the sterno is on. Have plenty of fondue forks for the chocolate hungry masses.

Coconut Coffee Cake

1 1/2 cups Flour

1 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Cream the oil and sugar together, then add in the egg and milk, and lastly the dry ingredients. Bake at 400 for about a half hour. I let it cool off in the oven so it turned stiff enough to cube int fondue, but if you take it out right away it is a lovely coffee cake. Very subtle coconut. Good with chocolate or coffee!

The  night went long with tons of awesome people making their way in and out over the course of the evening, along with snacks, beers, feats of balance and skill, and tons of great conversations and laughs. Justin was a motorcycle guy way before we had any old cars, so hanging out in a shop full of cool bikes is sure to reignite that passion. Check out the Deadbeats blog with tons of photos of their events and projects, lots of cool stuff going down! Deadbeat Motorcult