Chocolate Bacon

Chocolate bacon is as gross as chocolate covered pretzels. It's salty and sweet and somehow really go together.
My friends Shane and Joey hosted a Christmas Eve party and I promised him that I would make this for his party. It turned out to be a huge hit! Did we think otherwise...?
Up next, chocolate bacon ICE CREAM. Actually, I can't make that, I don't have an ice cream maker. But if I did....

For the LOVE of EGGS!

Here's another installment in my egg paintings. The CENTURY egg, or thousand year old egg. These eggs are made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. The only way I can really describe the flavor of this egg is it is musky and pungent. If you are a fan of blue cheese, then you may be more inclined to like this. The texture is not quite egg like anymore, the exterior (or the white part-now the black part) is more like jello and the inside (the yolk) is more creamy and smooth. I admit it's an acquired taste and I grew up eating this so I like it a lot and if I was on that episode of Fear Factor where I had to eat those eggs, I would have ACED that challenge! :P

Japanese Night/AKA Christmas

This is what one eats when all the stores are closed on Christmas day. Charlie and I went to Jas Mart and bought some groceries and made panko fried cat fish, Japanese rice with dried seaweed and sardine mix, and crimini and inoki mushrooms baked in foil with butter, garlic, and ponzu sauce. The fish looks like a giant hash brown in the picture...well, it kinda was but instead of potatoes inside, it was fish with that crunchy exterior. Good and artery clogging and so worth it.

HUGE Turkey Day Pot Luck 2008

I almost forgot about this! Annie and Kenneth hosted a Turkey Day party/pot luck dinner. Annie even made a cute menu she posted on the wall. Everyone made such yummy and fun dishes! Cecelia made jalapeno corn bread and a suped up Korean kim chee stuffing, very original. Phil made a fabulous sweet and tart apple pie from SCRATCH (sorry it's not in the pictures), Kenneth made a juicy brisket and gravy, and the most incredibly savory nut loaf I have ever had in my life. Annie made lobster mac 'n cheese that was to die for. Chunks of lobster and pasta in a creamy/cheesy sauce, it was decadent. (Also, not in the pictures--What happened to that?!) Also on the menu was green beans, mash potatoes, and cranberry sauce. I made turkey monterey jack stuffed meatballs with cilantro and a white gravy.
Good times was had by all!

I Like Children Better as Animals

I found some nice yarn my friend Sherri game me once that I never got a chance to use. I wanted to knit something small and cute, quickly. Like a kid's hat. Plus, I like kids better when they dress up as animals. Now I have to figure out who to give this to.

I LOVE Barefoot Contessa...

...and her blueberry crumb cake recipe.

For the streusel:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
For the cake:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (3/4 stick)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.
For the streusel:
Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.
For the cake:
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, lemon zest, and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers,
crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely and serve sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.

Fattening up for the Winter with Pumpkin Muffins

I really love pumpkin and I really love cream cheese so I slapped those two things together and got this!
It was tasty, soft, moist, and creamy. Wish I could send you some.

Food In Art

My friend Elana reminded me about this piece that I did a year ago. I noticed it was on her phone as her main picture. I was so honored she had it on there.
It reminds me of how it seems like most of the time when the Griffins (Family Guy) are eating in the kitchen, it's usually eggs (or is that just me), or on Rosanne someone or another would be walking around in that t-shirt with the chicken and eggs on it.
I like eggs. I like eggs in ramen. I like 'em scrabbled, poached and soft boiled. Eeeeeeeegs.

Chicken Fried Steak

I made this tonight. Yum. That's all I gotta say.

Slow Food Is Coming To Town

I just saw the latest episode of Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods. He went to Paris where they are popularizing SNAIL CAVIAR. Looks just like regular caviar but white. And now, they're bringing it to NYC. I guess if you're ready to try some expensive snail roe then you can get them at The Modern on 9 W. 53rd St (between 5th and 6th). I'm like Andrew, I'd try it once or twice!

Storm King Leads to The Commons

The ladies and I went up to Mountainville, NY last weekend to check out some outdoor artwork at Storm King while the weather was still decent. We took the tram around the 500 acres. It was pretty serene. But that was just a short quiet part of our day because we didn't start having the real fun until we hit Woodbury Common Premium Outlets! A shop-a-holic's dream come true. With 220 OUTLET STORES, how can you go wrong? Like Burberry, Diane Von Furstenberg, Jimmy Choo, Lucky Brand Jeans, Betsey Johnson and lots, lots, more! Those be the best times of them all.

Not the White Rabbit Candies!

I used to eat White Rabbit Candies as a kid because they were so creamy and fun to eat. I kinda liked that funny thin tissue paper like substance on the outside. It surprisingly melted in your mouth. O, rabbit candies, how you made my sundays going to chinese school all the more bearable.
So now the recent news is, they're tainted with Melamine, a chemical which causes kidney stones and can lead to kidney failure. What horrible news! Anything but the white rabbit candies! Must everything good and innocent be ruined? Should I still just go out there and eat those tasty rabbit-y treats anyway? Eh! What's a couple kidney stones, right? I mean, I hear they can probably remove them through your mouth nowadays instead of real surgery! I can have my rabbit candies and eat them too.

Charlie's Dinners

Charlie has been cooking a lot lately! He's make some really yummy meals without any help from me and they were very delicious.
Salmon with couscous and a watercress salad and an herby dill roasted chicken with couscous and a mango corn salsa.
:) I'm so proud of him!

Bibs for a Shower

Charlie's friend's baby shower is coming up so I thought it was be fun to make some bibs for them. The fabric might look familiar to some people and that's because I used these fabrics on 2 previous projects. :P
Since I had leftover fabric, I decided to use it to make a couple of fancy bibs with pockets. I think they turned out pretty good for a first try. You might have noticed that they're going the opposite ways. I didn't do it on purpose, it was an accident but I found out that it doesn't really seem to matter which way the strap goes. The two bibs on the right has the velcro and button in place.
I found an easy pattern online for this bib.

I'd Rather Be...

Shopping. This summer's electricity bills have been outrageously high! Has anyone else been getting incredibly high bills this summer?
I've called ConEdison and they say that billing depends on market rates and consumption. I just love how their answer is pretty much like, Eh, prices just depeeeends! There's no breakdown of what these market rates are, how they use it to determine charges (rip people off), or how it relates to the actual electrical use of your household (because evidently using less electricity this month causes an increase in price from the previous month) ANYWHERE online. They also said, IF they can FIND this information they will send it to me. WTF!? Aren't they using this information to determine charges? Why can't they FIND it?
If I was gonna get ripped off, I'd rather it be by Anthropologie and their outlandish prices. At least, I'd get some cute clothes I can flounce around in instead of throwing it away to some imaginary market rate that I think ConEdison is just making up since they can't seem to FIND it to send to me!

Farmer's Market In New Hampshire

I found some purple peppers in New Hampshire and I was so happy!
Photo by Sherri Liberman

A Shirt Made Out of Jersey Fabric and Boredom

I was antsy and bored on sunday so I decided to make a one shoulder shirt so I could feel less bored and also subdue the guilt that I'm not constantly in motion. I also wanted to make something with my bit of white fabric and wear it before labor day. (But who the hell follows these rules anyway?) I now love cotton jersey fabric and had never known before how easy this material is to work with. I'd definitely use it again! But obviously the next item won't be in white. :P

New Hampshire, the Funspot

Vacationing in New Hampshire is fun as usual. It's even more fun going with Annie, Sherri and Kenneth there. Just relaxing, enjoying nature and partaking in the activities at FUNSPOT. Check out The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters for the rivalry for the highest score for Donkey Kong duked out at Funspot.
Charlie's dad made excellent breakfasts, lunches and dinners for us and was a great host. We went out on his boat. We watched the olympics, saw a movie at the drive-in and we let the dogs run around like crazy in the woods and we all had such a great time. Food Hightlights: Panini breakfast sandwich, dilly beans, and spaghetti and meatballs.

American Staple

I make this all the time. Its a staple for me. You might be thinking, 'Hey, what about ramen noodles with egg?' and I'd say, ' You're freakin' racist. Just because I'm Chinese you think my food staple should be ramen noodles with egg?!'. I would then say, 'Ok. You're right, I DO have ramen noodles with egg too. I like to have both. I'm greedy.' So, anyway, I normally put basil and mint in my meatballs but this time I had an excess of herbs so I put a slew of it in my meatballs and it came out so good. I forgot the parmesean but next time it'll be beyond awesome with the parmesean in the meatballs!

Half Marathon 2008

My sister Annie and my cousin Martin ran the Half Marathon today. They did really well. I know I wouldn't be able to do it. Cheers to them and all the people who ran!

Blackberry Cheesecake from Gourmet Magazine

I saw this on the cover of the august issue of Gourmet Magazine and had to make it.

Sold at the Art Show

I like how the sold sign is right above my head! I'm sold!
But really, Charlie sold 2 of his art pieces last night at SIP. Granted, one was to my parents but the other one was to the prince and princess of Saudi Arabia. I'm totally serious.

Birthday Beach Lobster Salad

Lobster tail
Celery
Parsley
Lime juice
Mayo
Avocado
Salt/Pepper

Crackers to scoop it up

Beach/Sun/Food/Fun

Birthday Shenanigans!

My birthday was about 2 days worth of shenanigans. Charlie bought me a 3 1/2 pound lobster, clams and cake the day of my birthday. He cooked the clams in a white wine sauce and the lobster was boiled and was eaten with a lemon garlic butter. It was really yummy and a grand birthday! I ate some of the tomalley in the lobster but it tasted funny. I usually like the taste of the tomalley. Charlie and I got into a discussion on what the green goo really was. He thought it was eggs. So we checked online to see if it was really lobster intestines or if it was eggs–– they're really intestine bits. I kinda like the way it tastes so it sucks that they're intestine, so I'll just call it guts!
The next day's birthday shenanigans consisted of going to Kampuchea, an (overpriced) Cambodian place, with some close friends for some drinks and food. The wait staff was not so great and the food was meager but tasty BUT of course the company is always great!

On Food and Culture: A Moving Travelogue by Leonard Shek

Have Food Will Travel: Pearl River Delta from Leonard on Vimeo.

I love this! I want to see the whole travelogue when it comes out.

Wow! Free Range Chicken Poop Lip Balm!

Look at what I found at RiteAid! It doesn't really have poop in it. Dang! But it probably should. Chicken poop on my lips. Ew, gross.

Olive Biscuit

I saw this cookie recipe here once and always wanted to try it out. It has the perfect combo of salty and sweet. Its a seemingly odd combo at first but it is really such a perfect combination of flavors. In the realm of chocolate covered pretzels. If you like that, then I think you'll like this.
And of course, I can't ever help changing the recipe because I have a disorder.
So I crushed up some rosemary in some sea salt and sprinkled the infused rosemary salt on top. I also added a sprinkle of rosemary in the batter as well.

Never Gonna Buy Pizza Again!

Ok. So it looks like there is a huge salad on TOP of my pizza but I'm telling you, that's what makes it! Jaime Oliver style mixed green salad (with basil) dressed in lemon juice and olive oil atop a pizza is truly 'GENIUS'!

Mermaid Parade/Geisha Parade

The Geisha Parade was yesterday at Coney Island....oops! I meant, the Mermaid Parade. This is the first time I've been to one of these at Coney Island. It was fun but why does someone always have to come up with the bright idea to use part of someone's culture to 'dress up' for a celebration. Like, 'Hey, honey, let's be indian for our wedding' when they're not. Or let's be geisha mermaids. Greeeeaaaat Idea! In any case, there were some fun ones, like Cracked Out Super Heros was cool. And so were all the umbrella jelly fish. I probably should have taken more pictures of those things. Dang!
So Sherri was cooling off by the palm tree kiddy area listening to a message my phone accidently left for her. I think she heard bag noises and didn't know who called so she called back and left a message, it was to my phone. Stop calling Sherri's phone, Ginny's phone. It's really not cool!

Martha Inspired

A dish inspired by one of Martha Stewart's recipes from her Everyday Food book. The chicken I made up is roasted with balsamic, garlic, and onions.

Mabo Tofu From Scratch

When a Jack Russell and Mini Schnauzer Mate

You get Snack. Henry and Gigi's blond haired son. Charlie and I went to Baltimore to visit his brother last month and we finally got to see Henry and Gigi's boy for the first time in over a year! He was so slobbery and cute.

Head On Shrimp-Apply Directly to Your Mouth

Shrimp with anchovy butter on herbed toast.
Recipe:
Dozen shrimp with head on
1 stick of butter
1 tsp olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 fillets of anchovy
Bread, sliced, and toasted with whatever herbs you like
1/2 scallion for garnish

Deshell and devein shrimp. Keep the heads on or if they fall off while cleaning, it's ok. Toast your slices of bread.
Melt butter with olive oil in saucepan, add minced up anchovies. Once incorporated, add shrimp and sautee for about 5 mins or until cooked. At this point, you can remove and discard the heads and arrange your shrimp on your bread, drizzle the remainder of the sauce over the bread. OR you can keep the heads on and consume their delicious little shrimp souls through their heads.Yum!

Hardcore Beggin'

Henry was begging so hard for some ginger to fall off the cutting board while I was chopping that he didn't realize when a piece of ginger actually did. Hm, I guess he'll just have to keep on beggin'.

A Refreshing Salad For These Dog Days

A cool meal of quinoa for this humid weather. Quinoa is also cool because it might be one of the first crops NASA will use for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System someday. Why? Because it's considered a complete food. It's a seed that's related to leafy greens, like swiss chard containing a balanced set of essential amino acids, is a good source of dietary fiber, and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. But I like it mostly because it's dang tasty.

Recipe:
1 1/3 cups quinoa*

Vinegrette:
Zest from 1 lemon, plus the juice
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 cup green grapes, halved
1/3 cup of dried cranberries
2 cups cucumbers
2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 cup chopped mint
2 scallions

* Rinse quinoa under cold running water and drain. Bring 2 cups water to a boil. Stir quinoa and a pinch of salt into water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until quinoa is tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Uncover and let cool.

For the vinaigrette, whisk vinegar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking well. Add the quinoa and toss with two forks to combine.

Add chicken (skip the chicken if you're vegetarian), grapes, cranberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint and scallions. Toss well, taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lemon juice if desired. Serve cold.

Shopping at Brighton Beach

I went to brighton beach on saturday to take in some sun and afterwards stopped off to do some shopping along brighton beach avenue. There are tons of Russian fruit shops, dried fruit stores, and pastry places. Their famous and huge M & I International market is always a place I like to hit before heading home. They have so many different kinds of sausage, meats, seafood, desserts, pickles, cheeses, breads, a large buffet area in the back and a dessert cafe upstairs.
I ended up getting some sausage there but I got this bunch of fresh garlic at a fruit market where I was convinced they massaged each individual fruit and sang it lullabies before closing time. Everything was pristine, fresh, and perfectly placed...which is why everything was about 75¢ more at this place than the other fruit markets I passed on the way back to the train. Doh! Live and learn.

I Discovered Pastry Flour!

I made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler yesterday with pastry flour and it was the best cobbler I ever made. And I realized that rhubarb isn't as sour as I anticipated. AND it's expensive to buy yourself some tart celery. I made it even tastier by adding some cinnamon dulce de leche ice cream.
Pastry flour is a low protein/low gluten flour which is good for making pie crusts, muffins, cookies and biscuits.
I'll post my recipe soon.

Rockin' Out at Arlene's Grocery

I played You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse on drums at Arlene's Grocery. The video looks choppy on my end, not sure why or how to fix. Anyway, you can still sorta see me doing my thing. O yeah, I'm over on the right side of the screen.

New Toy!

This is what my new toy created. This sweet machine is called the Atlas Pasta Machine 180. I got the hang of it after a couple tries but I'm still trying to perfect the pasta recipe part. Why don't they have semolina flour at regular supermarkets?! I used a recipe that called for unbleached flour and eggs (see previous post below) and the pasta tastes more like egg noodles than pasta... which is fine for me. I'll just make some lo mein or something. In any case, I think it still makes a good pasta once you add the sauce, and herbs, etc. When I perfect this recipe, I'll post it. In the meantime, go get yourself a pasta machine!

A Yoga Bag for Sherri

It was Sherri's birthday last month and I had to make a yoga bag for her because I thought she did yoga regularly too, like Elana does. After I handed it to her, she told me she didn't really go to yoga that often. Yikes! My bad. But she said, the cute bag would help motivate her to go more often. Otherwise, I guess she could always use it for laundry or something.

Welcome to Pink Town!

This piece seems like it's buzzing with radioactive energy. An awesome urban watercolor by Charlie.

The Real McCoy with Olives and Rosemary

Charlie bought me a pasta maker this week so we decided to break this baby in! We made olive and rosemary pasta. We made a fresh marinara sauce with pork sausage, and tomatoes. It was dang good!

Recipe for the pasta
1 1/2 cups of unbleached flour
2 large eggs
2 tbs olive and rosemary, chopped fine

Recipe for sauce
2 links of pork sausage
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 large piece of garlic
2 tsp capers
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley for garnish
Top with parmesan cheese

Pop My Cherry Tomatoes

I pickled some red cherry tomatoes this week. I can eat them today! Yay!

Comfort Food--Chinese Style

Jook is such comfort food for me. It's versitile and tasty. You can put anything into it. Like roasted chicken like I have in the picture topped with thin juliennes of ginger, sliced scallions and cilantro. You can put any toppings like soy sauce chicken, roast pork, fish, dried scallops, any veggies. But my favorite thing to mix into my jook is thousand year old egg, which I unfortunately didn't have in my cupboard. Dang!
I like watching people on youtube gag on thousand year old eggs and freak out because it's too 'exotic' for them. I think it tastes so good. It's the same to me as eating gorgonzola cheese.
In any case, jook is hearty, warming, soupy and reminds me of childhood.

Here's my recipe:
Ingredients
4 cups water
6 cups of chicken or veggie stock
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 fresh or smoked turkey wing
1 (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
Chopped green onions (optional)
Fresh cilantro leaves (optional)
Julienne-cut peeled fresh ginger (optional)
Low-sodium soy sauce (optional)

Preparation
Combine rice, salt, oil, ginger, and turkey wing in a large Dutch oven, and toast slightly. Then add the liquids and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 2-2 1/2 hours or until soup has a creamy consistency, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; keep warm.
Discard ginger piece. Remove turkey from soup; place on a cutting board or work surface. Cool 10 minutes. Remove skin from turkey; discard. Remove meat from bones; discard bones. Chop meat into bite-sized pieces, and stir meat into soup. Garnish with green onions, cilantro, julienne-cut ginger, and soy sauce, if desired.
Add any other additional toppings that you like, like chopped thousand year old eggs. Enjoy!

Eli's Collection

Charlie's brother is a huge fan and collector of Charlie's work. This is one of the pieces Charlie did about 5 years ago that has been part of Eli's collection. I had no idea what this piece looked like until I went to visit Eli in Baltimore and saw it, it's now my favorite of his 'Urban Red' series.

My 15 mins at Arlene's Grocery

I was a part of a student showcase at Arlene's Grocery last night. It was the most fun I've had in a very long time being on stage. I was energized but mostly freaked out and nervous. But I did it! Surprisingly, chewing gum helped quell the nerves. I got up there and played Amy Winehouse's, I'm No Good, on the drums and it was so fun. Especially with all my friends and family rooting me on and screaming my name at the top of their lungs! I felt like a rock star for a few minutes. I want to say thanks to Stephen for being one of the most motivating teachers I've ever had and the band for always giving their all for all the students. And of course my fans--family and friends--for coming out. You rock!

Charlie's 30th birthday Mexican Adventure 2007

This is an excerpt from my stick figure journal from about a little over a year ago when Charlie and I and friends visited Mexico for his 30th birthday.
You can see our amazement as we finally reached our destination at Hotel Posada Eden Costa at the bottom of the page. And from the winding road on the left side that it was quite a journey to get there!

If Squid Were Flowers

I used watercolor pencils to draw my squid flowers. I gave this piece to my brother in law.

So Much Chicken, So Little Time

I threw this concoction together with some leftover roasted chicken from the other night, crescent rolls, frozen peas, cream cheese, yogurt, curry powder and cumin. I filled some crescent squares and folded over the edges and baked for 15 mins. The salad is a tomato, bean sprout, and red onion salad with a sesame, ginger soy dressing. I didn't feel like slaving over the stove tonight and I wanted to make something quick, easy, tasty, and filling!

Eastover Lamb Stew

My friend Sherri and I hosted a Passover and Greek Easter Party on sunday. We called it Eastover and we had a lot of yummy Eastover foods to eat. Tabouli salad, hummus, falafel, olives, and lamb stew. (I kinda feel bad about eating lamb. I probably wouldn't eat it if I had to kill it myself. Perhaps I'll only eat lamb at Eastover from now on)
But for now, here is my recipe for lamb stew:

3lbs lamb for stew (for 4-5 people)
1 can veggie broth
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1/2 cup of red wine
1 cup of water (or enough to cover the meat)
1 tb of red wine vinegar
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
1/2 red onion
1 leek
2 cloves of garlic
2 big sprigs of rosemary
4 sprigs of thyme
Zest from 1 lemon and juice
1/2 cup of flour
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350° F. Flour and season the lamb with salt and pepper. Place 1 tbs olive oil in cast iron pot. Brown the lamb on both sides on medium heat. Take the lamb out and place the other tbs of olive oil in pot. Add veggies and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the wine, veggie broth and 1 can of tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then add the red wine vinegar, rosemary, thyme, and lemon. Add a little more salt and pepper and place the lamb back in the pot. Put 1 cup of water in the pot or enough to cover the meat. Put the lid on and place in the oven for 2 1/2 hrs. until tender.

Koi Chair

It's almost there. Charlie and I have to paint it first, then it's done! But at least the reupholstering part is done. It was surprisingly easy. It was way harder to remove all the old layers of fabric and plastic from the wood. We're not sure what color to go for yet. Any suggestions are welcome! :D The colors on the fabric are teal, red, yellow and black.

Peeling Back Some History

And ass dust! How many dusty layer's ARE there? Sheeh! I can't breath right now. Once I got to the yellow plastic layer, what looks like circa 1970s, I HAD to take a picture. Plastic, hilarious and gross! At least I'm done and I'm left with the bare piece of wood. Now I'll cut out the foam and staple my new fabric on. Stay tuned!