Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Hope everyone had a good one! 
I’m still recovering from a Hidden Pictures Retreat at Highlights this past weekend–lots of work to catch up on! It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones. The folks at Highlights are the best. I stayed in the cutest little wooden cabin, and we artists spent all day Saturday learning all about Hidden Pictures! I have done a few of Hidden Pictures for the magazines for the younger set, Hello! and High Five. But I grew up with Highlights for Children (the most popular of their magazines), as did almost everyone else in this country. It is such an honor being able to contribute to the magazine from my childhood. :) I will have to do a post about it in the future. But this one is the one I started before I left for Honesdale, PA last week!
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Quite frankly, I would probably never have made this Tofu Scramble had it not been for the They Draw and Cook Glad Party. I submitted an illustration there, and the requirement was to come up with three different recipes using the same ONE ingredient. I usually only eat tofu with Asian flavors or in Chocolate Mousse, which I included in the recipe below. After illustrating it though, I decided I had to try it. And you know what — I love it! I’ve been eating it several times in the past week — it is so yummy with refried beans, cheese, and salsa! I also garnish with lime juice, plain yogurt (I can’t eat sour cream), and chopped cilantro.
For the concept, I knew I wanted to include animals, becauseI love drawing them, and I wanted characters and a story in the piece. Since there had to be three recipes, I thought it would be fun to do three different courses: A soup, a main entree, and a dessert. Then I came up with the Fox’s Cafe and went from there! I realized each recipe kind of has a different cultural background as well, so I incorporated that into the design with each animal saying how delicious tofu is in three different languages. At the end I have instructions for storing tofu. It’s important to keep it in fresh water. I actually have some leftover tofu in my fridge in water in a Glad container just like the little guy in my sketch:
And this is the final piece which I submitted:
Click to see larger
It pretty much was the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted, though it doesn’t look so complicated… It’s made up of several files, one of which — just the ingredients in the recipes—was over 550 layers! Crazy, huh? That’s what happens when you import something from Illustrator. Lol. Every sliver of scallion had its own layer. The animals (yes, I am obsessed with the bunny and the bear — they keep showing up) are a separate file, and I assembled everything together in one big Photoshop file.
I realized that working this way (using several flattened files to make one big file) is a LOT like baking a complicate dish– something like the German Chocolate Cake we made for Denis’ birthday last weekend! There are also three stages to making the cake: First there is the cake component, then the filling component (which needs to be cooked and coddled and babied at the stove for 20 minutes), and then assembled all together later when everything has cooled!
This year, I had a baking assistant, which I was very grateful for!
Cracking the eggs…
OMG, this cake has 3 eggs, and 4 egg yolks!!! It’s kind of scary like that. But if you are brave, here is the recipe. I only make it exactly once a year, and only for the man I love!
Tex Mex Tofu Scramble
1 block of tofu
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/4 teaspoon or to taste of ground cumin, chili powder, and dried oregano
dash of kosher salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro and more for garnish if desired
1. Wrap block of drained tofu in a paper towel and weight under a heavy pot for 30 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and pepper until softened, about 3-5 minutes. Crumble pressed tofu and add to skillet. Season with spices, and saute for about five more minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
4. Serve with grated cheese, lime wedges, refried beans, sour cream, salsa, and warm tortillas if you’d like.
Makes about 2 servings.
