Petshop of Horrors

WARNING: Some fairly minimal spoilers ahead.

 Created by Matsuri Akino and released originally in 1995, ancient as far as manga goes these days. It's long been one of my favorite series, despite the fact that I've never been fond of the art style. But I like supernatural mystery's. Along with the greater mystery of Count D, there are individual puzzles that you get to see through the eyes of Detective Leon Orcot.

 Usually Leon does not look so suave.

Leon is a bit of a problem character for me, as much as he is necessary for the story to unfold, sometimes his choices baffle me. He leaves his kid brother in the care of someone he believes to be a felon, allows said felon access to his home. It's crazy, and folks in the story mention that he's a good detective, but there's not really anything you get to see that proves it. Don't get me wrong, I like him, he's a good person, and the only person who ever seems to ruffle D's feathers (and D deals with mob bosses and puppy kickers).

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the series, it revolves around Count D's Petshop in Chinatown, a business he's taken over from his grandfather the original Count D. Inside is every kind of pet you can imagine from birds and fish to kirin and dragons. And to a select few the pet's seem almost human. D's motives are all over the place, sometimes he aims to punish an owner, sometimes to help, he's not a character you can box in despite what the ending of the series tells you.

It's really a beautiful, and horrible series, if you liked CLAMPS XXXHolic I suspect you'll fall head over heels for this one as well.

Black Butler: Currant and Berry Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding is one of those deceptive dishes that make you look like a kitchen genius. It's also one of those recipes you don't have to be too exact about, which it nice when you're working with seasonal fruits.

Ingredients:

• Challah or Brioche
• 5 cups assorted berries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• 1/2 cup berry liquor
• Whipped cream (optional)

This is currant summer pudding, so I used about 1 1/2 cups currant, 1 1/2 cup blue berries, 1 cup raspberries, and 1 cup blackberries. But really you can use any combination you want, you could also used sliced cherries, huckleberries, or really any other berry you can think of (non-poisonous of course).  Toss them all in a largeish bowl with lemon zest, sugar, and berry liquor.  Mix until very "juicy".

 

I used Bols Blackberry Liqueur, but any berry liqueur is fine. Do not use flavored Vodka, if you do the alcohol taste will be way too intense. You could also use berry juice in place of liquor, if you want to be boring.

Cut bread into thin crust-less slices and generously line your bowl with them. I used challah because I couldn't find brioche, but any dense eggy bread will do. You'll want to remove the crusts which is why I recommend against challah, it's such a weird shape it's difficult to remove the crust evenly. Once you've lined your bowl, leaving no openings scoop you're berries into it and then cover with more bread.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and compress the hell out of that sucker. This will ensure that the whole thing won't just fall apart on you when you take it out later.

I used a large bag of rice, it worked quite well.

You'll want to refrigerate and let it sit overnight, but at least 7 hours, the longer the better really, this will allow the bread to become more saturated. Once it's sat for a significant amount of time run a knife around the edges, place a plate on top, turn over, and maybe hit it a bit until separated.

You know what this mostly berries dish needs? More berries on top!

Oh yeah!

Once cut it actually still holds it's shape fairly well, the bread didn't cut as nicely as I'd hoped, but that may have been because I didn't let it sit as long as I should have.

It's fantastic with cream.

Black Butler: Apple Raisin Deep Pie

 
I have big plans to make a bunch of the recipes from Black Butler, so you'll all have to bear with me as I muddle my way through them. I don't know why I started with this one other then it seemed simple enough and all the ingredients were easy to find. I'm not actually a big fan of pie and this is my first time making one on my own, though I've sometimes helped others and I've seen it done often enough that I managed just fine.

For now we'll start with the pie crust, they're a dime a dozen and everyone has a favorite, so feel free to use whatever you like so long as it's actual PIE crust (no gram-cracker crusts, no puff pastry, no philo). Pillsbury sells a ready-make crust, and in the bulk section of my local they sold a pie crust mix, but I felt like making my own. Whatever you use remember this is a deep dish pie so you'll need to double the recipe, for convenience sake I have already doubled the crust recipe below for you.


What You'll Need

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks cold butter
• 1/2 cup ice water

1. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, cut in cold butter and blend until mixture resemble corse crumbs. If you don't have a food processor it's best to do this with your hands.

It should look something like this, still powdery, and oddly lumpy, but that's fine.

2. Stir in water one tablespoon at a time and stir until mixture forms a ball. Note: It's not necessary to use all the water. If dough forms into a ball and you've still got water left just toss the excess water.

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

4. Prepare you're pan/dish

I'm using a deep spring form pan so I can take the pie completely out of it's plate when it's done, you can also use a deep pie or casserole dish (in which case don't worry about parchment paper) but you won't be able to take the whole pie out of it once it's done.


I've cut a piece of parchment paper (not wax, not foil) in the shape of the bottom to help me remove it later. You may also cut a 4 inch wide strip to tuck in around the edges but I did not. Whatever you use spray with non-stick cooking spray, or rub down with butter or shortening.

5. Once your pie dough is chilled cut the ball in half and then cut one of those halves in half. The two smaller pieces will be your top and bottom, the larger will circle the edge. Refrigerate whatever pieces you're not working on.

When you're done with the bottom and sides it should look something like this, I've curled the top around the lip to keep it standing up but don't worry it won't stay there. If your pie filling is not ready at this point place crust in refrigerator until it is.

Preparing Your Pie Filling
 

What You Will Need

• 7 Golden Delicious Apples (peeled and thinly sliced)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbs flour
• 2 Tbs orange juice
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 pinch of Cloves
• 2 Tbs cold butter cut into very small pieces.

Optional

• 2 golden delicious apples, peeled and neatly sliced
• 1/2 a stick of butter
• 4 Tbs brown sugar
• Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves to taste

1. In a large bowl combine apples, raisins, brown sugar, flour, orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. Mix well.

2. Place mixture into unbaked pastry shell and dot with cold Butter. 

 
3. Cover with the last piece of the pie dough, and flatten the apples down as much as possible. Trim edges if you want but roll them down so they create a lip, cut slits at the top. Place on the bottom rack of the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

 

Optional
 
Neatly peel and slice 2 more apples, caramelize them in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves until golden and soft. Let cool and arrange them on top of your pie as desired, bake pie for another 10 minutes.



It's a completely optional step, but it does make your pie look delicious, and I'm pretty sure that's what's on top of Sebastians version, though it's a little hard to tell, it could be a jelly but I choose to believe he's arranged apples on top, much as I've done here.


After 30 minutes cooling you're delicious pie is ready to serve, place on a dish and run a knife around the edge of the spring form pan before you remove it.


All apple pies are good with vanilla ice cream! This pie wasn't bad, for a pie. I should have made the top and bottom edges a bit thinner, but you live and you learn. The crust was buttery and flakey, and the filling might have used more spices, but still tasty.

Review: Black Butler

 

I'm a little late in the game to be getting into this anime, Black Butler (or Kuroshitsuji) is one of the more popular titles to have come out in recent years. It's got a lot going for it, beautiful art, fantastic and well developed characters, plus it's really well written so kudos to the talented writer illustrator Yana Toboso. It's also helped along by catering fervently to the plethora of yaoi fangirls out there, and they'll pretty much buy anything with a hint of boy on boy action so I'm guessing that Black Butler, for a lot of them is too much of a good thing. Like going to Disneyland, and then getting to cut in front of everyone in line.

 

I recently watched season 1 of the anime and read up to the circus arc of the manga. Season 1 follows the manga up until the last 6 or 7 episodes, but even though the stories veer off from one another the anime still keeps the characters thankfully true to form. My favorite character being Ciel Phantomhive himself, though I'm sure few people would agree with me, I've come to think of him as a bit of a role model. I believe anger can be a source of great strength in people, some people, are frankly stupid and don't know how to use it, but Ciel is smart, manipulative, and passionate. Where another child might have lashed out after receiving the treatment he did, Ciel quietly positions his game pieces. Anger can be a good motivator, and even though so many people caution him about his path the kid sticks to it defiantly. He's maybe not what you think of as a traditional role model, but who gives a shit about traditional anyway.

I've really liked what I've seen of the anime so far, there are a few issues that most anime have like lack of explanations, and I wish the fight scenes had been more interesting to watch, but in general this just something you have to learn to deal with if you're going to watch anime in length. I assume the manga will answer the questions I was left unsatisfied with, but it hasn't progressed far enough along yet. I look forward to catching up to it soon.

So, have you seen Black Butler yet? What did you like? What did you hate?

Wonder NW

Portlands newest convention is Wonder NW a teeny little con located at the Crown Plaza near the convention center. It encompasses all levels of geek-ocity, from anime to comics, from video games to roleplaying, no nerd-tastic stone was left unturned!

It was also the first convention I went to alone. You heard me, no friends joined me on this little excursion I was left to my own devices at a convention! It's almost unthinkable. But the choice was mine, I haven't been to a convention in awhile and I decided since it was so close and so cheap (6$ for 1 day) I just had to make it out for one day! That day just happened to be the day of the lolita fashion show, and I just happened to be finishing up (but not quite done) with my latest lolita creation.

So I woke up early, got dressed and went down to register for the convention, and then, since I was so close I bullied Gloria and Shannon into having breakfast with me at Vivace.

I guess they don't look too beaten up about it.

Gloria had a mocha, Shannon a chai latte, and I got myself a tropical iced tea, and we shared a french style banana and nutella crepe with whipped cream and slivered almonds.

I also remember to take a picture of my nails which were quite cute even though pictures of them kinda suck. The stickers stayed on well for the most part, but multiple layers of OPIs top coat will to that. In fact only one came off on it's own, and it was some cherries the other hand. The color is Sally Hansens Hard as Nails in Cardinal. Only took one coat too, so impressive.

After breakfast I did a quick walk through the dealers room, my favorite part about this room was all the older toys and comics that you could buy, my problem being I really don't care about buying that stuff.

I managed to snap a few pictures of people in costume. This is Captain Red Coat the leader of PDXYAR! a local pirate group that seemed to be helping run the con.

The Baroness from G. I Joes, looking way to friendly to be a villain.

I don't know what this is from. Still kinda cool though.

After that I found a quite place and called Rose. We talked for about an hour, about how James was doing, and then about how I missed her being here and costuming with me. It's sad, but this small convention could have been a lot more fun with someone else to costume with. Eventually I was discovered by a guy in a Diablo 2 bloodthirsty cow costume named Chris, and feeling. I expect, sorry for me. Dragged me off to meet the group he was with. It was nice of him, but it just wasn't the same.

After a bit, it was time for the lolita fashion show

Again I didn't know anyone at the con so I totally stole all these pictures of me. After looking at these pictures I've decided I need a fluffier petticoat an something for my wrists.

Everyone was doing sweet and elegant poses and stuffs and I was like, I'm gonna be super grumpy!

I think my dress was well liked, I got a big reaction when I told the girls about Spoonflower.com and that you could make and buy your own fabric online. After the lolita show was over the coordinator had prizes to give out, but instead of giving them out she put a bag of prizes on the floor and the lolita fell on it like a hungry pack of hyenas. Which is maybe not a flattering comparison, but that's really what it looked like.

It had items in it ranging from a Baby the Stars Shine Bright head bow, to a cheap plastic lunchbox (I think it was a lunch box at least). Which is kinda lame, if your gonna give out prizes to everyone, everyone should get the same thing. Also lame is that there were a few girls in outfits that were completely brand. The whole dress, wig, blouse, shoes, socks, ect.. put together probably cost like 500$, and of course they got the brand items. Like jeaze, don't you have enough? Let one of the girls in the altered dresses have it, they probably can't afford it and would be more then delighted to acquire their first brand item. Where as you will stuff it in your closet and probably only wear it every now and then.

After the lolita show I didn't stick around for pictures I just took off and got myself the hell out of lolita, even put on a wig. If you didn't look closely there was no way you were gonna recognize me, (which was what I wanted) and then I went to the Costume Contest. Kinda boring actually, no skits and they spent so long getting ready that we kinda saw all the costumes already, they were just along that wall the whole time. They did give out some fabulous prizes, makes me wish I'd have competed, but Bronte wore her Big Sister costume (again) to the contest and was hands down gonna win.

After the contest I left to hang out over at Shannons place for awhile before meeting Jim and Jojo at the Bosavona Ballroom for Geeklesque. Just think your favorite sci-fi and fantasy characters dancing and getting naked, and there you go. The highlight of which was when a girl dressed as Harley Quinn belly danced to the Dresden Dolls song "Missed Me". There were also some triva contests, and I kick myself for not going on stage because I knew most of the answers *sigh*, but what are you gonna do.

In conclusion Wonder NW is not a bad little convention, it could do with some better organization and a larger space but it's just fine for what it is. Not really worth two days though, because there was only one panel going at a time there just wasn't enough interest for me. One was just enough.

Sakura-con Skit

Horray, this years cosplay skit, Which to be fair we only knew we were doing a skit about 4 days before the convention. I wrote the "script" 3 days before and did the audio 2 days before. It was definitely a fly by the seat of your pants kind of thing. We weren't even sure we'd have enough people to do everything but I bullied my friends into being in the show with us.

Please don't judge us too harshly.



Also as an added bonus our tribute to robots that we did last year.



They labeled our group as Rip-Off Illusion. Which I thought was kind of cool but we were calling ourselves Robotolution.

Shining Force Feather: Photoshoot

My favorite photo from the shoot. It happened on accident, I was holding the flash umbrella like a real one and Cliff snapped a few shots.

Saturday evening we made a quick trip back to out hotel room for some makeup, and then it was back to the convention center to meet up with Cliff.

He turned out to be a really cool guy, anybody looking for some great photos in the Seattle area should look him up.

I told Rose to jump so maybe it would look like she was flying. It looks more like she's hovering, but still.

This is my being all evil with our sweet Rose. Technically Lavinia IS one of the bad guys in the game, but I get the impression that's she's not really all THAT bad, and that Roses character Cocotte isn't all that good.

You don't know how hard it is to spin and looks cool until they put you in a weird outfit and take your glasses off. That sir is a true test of character.

My wig fell off while taking the above photo. Oh and have I mentioned that every 5 minutes or so we were being interrupted for a photo from some con-goer. We were very lucky Cliff was experienced at this because Rose and I had no idea what to do, we're not used to turning people down for pictures. But he would wave them off. Or if he was doing some set up he would say it was fine, it really was pretty helpful.

Rose as Cocotte with her Angelic Fork. I'm proud to say I helped a lot with this costume. I did all the vaccum-forming, the quilting for the dress and the sleeves. I helped with the wings all 4 times and did most of the painting on the weapon. My favorite part was painting the weapon, which we took to calling the Angelic Fork, even up close it looked so cool.

See that black line? That's what holds me up right.

Cliffs website can be found here. He's quite personable and easy to work with, I hope I get the opportunity to do it again soon.

Sakura-con Report: Day 3

There was plenty of running around this day. My phone died since I never went back to Heathers hotel room for the charger and she had packed up her stuff and dropped it off downstairs already. I was forced to call her from her brothers girlfriends cell phone so I could get my petticoat in time for the lolita fashion show.

I really need to do something about that stupid hat.

The show was fun, Rose stayed with me the whole time. I walked and then I left, I was kinda disappointed with how quickly it went, and I found it quite unorganized. I felt it would have gone much better if each girl walked out and something was specifically said about the girl and her dress, not the group together. Or maybe I'm just projecting because I made my dress where as most people walked in their brand dresses.

Rose and I walked painfully down several floors to get crepes from a stand attached to the outside of the convention center. We stood out there waiting for a very long time, it was cold and our feet were in so much pain! I had a Mexican Coke to keep me awake, and we are our crepes on the stairs directly inside the doors because we just couldn't move.

They were good, probably worth the wait.

Eventually Heather found us and it was time to leave.

Sakura-con was fun, exhausting as it always is but fun. We did a ton of stuff, made new friends, I think we're getting the hang of this convention stuff.

Sakura-con Report: Day 2

Rose and I woke very early to get ready for the show and to make it to the Cosplay Rehersal. I was doing makeup for both of us, plus Anissa and Jojo. I didn't finish and actually had to bring my kit with me and finish in the green room.

They had us walk across stage, and even practice a little, which NEVER happens. Then Rose and I were abandoned by our group mates while we stood in line for judging. And there were three costume judges this year as opposed to last years 1 judge, who I was not happy with. I complained about her last year, and I got the feeling a few people just though I was jealous cause I didn't win. Well I didn't win anything this year either and I had a fantastic time. The show it self went smoothly, I loved the skits this year. I was really happy with the way things went down.

During our down time we went to pick up our pictures from the artist. We were mega excited, Rose got hers first and it was so cute I adored it. And then she pulls out mine... and I stare... And I say....

"That's not Lavinia." For indeed it was not, it was some purple haired elf chick.

The girl who drew it was very apologetic and promised to draw me a new one as quickly as she could, meanwhile we had to return to the green room and sit nervously until our turn on stage.

Our skit went very smoothly considering two people in our group didn't even know they were competing until the night before. We accidentally left the big cake on stage and Anissa almost bowled Rose over getting to it, but that was it. I promise to post our skit later when it becomes available.

After the competition ended we returned to Artists Alley to check on my pictures progress, but to no avail. There was no way my picture would be finished by the time I needed it to be. And let me tell you it threw a pall on my day. I regret to inform you dear reader that I got pretty bitchy for awhile after that, and felt like crying. As Rose and I stood in line to get our autographs (in a horrible ammount of pain anyway because of our shoes), she had her picture out and the woman behind us was just gushing about it, and I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms, and tried to ignore them.


In the end I had Ito sign my costume. She was quite young and cute and when I walked up she went, "Lavinia! Lavinia!" And told her translator what we were from. I was quite surprised there was no one else dressed up to meet her. I figured they're be a ton of Haruhis, but I saw none.

We weren't sure what to do after that. I wanted to go back to the hotel room to relax and fix our makeup, white Rose wanted to stay at the convention cause her feet hurt. I did too actually, but in the end back to the hotel it was for a few hours before our photo shoot with Cliff Nordman.

If you live in the Seattle Tri-Cities area and are in need of a photo shoot, I highly recommend him. I've worked with a few photographers before, and while the pictures came out nice, I want someone I can relate to, and who I can bounce ideas off of. Someone who dosn't make me feel like an idiot for wanting to try something a little different.

It was so much fun, the only really annoying part was that other con goers would see us posing and try to take our pictures. I'm glad Cliff was there to wave most of them off, I felt bad but we were paying for his time.

After the shoot we all chatted for a bit. My goal this year was to get convention stories out of people and he had some good ones.

Afterwards it was back to the hotel to finally get out of our costumes. We soaked our poor, sad, bloody stumps of feet in warm soapy water until feeling returned. And prepared very slowly for dinner and the dance. This was also the point where I discovered the damage my costume had done. I had big bright red markings around my neck, under my arms and around my hips.
Also it's now 2 days later and they've faded, but haven't gone away yet.


We stopped off at a bar down the street from the convention center for drinks and appetizers, I downed most of a Skinny Bitch Cosmo before I ate anything and was feeling the effects quite soon afterward. On our way back we decided to try for the Cheesecake Factory because it was close, we know it has good drinks, and a pretty decent menu. It was a good choice, I was really digging on my Passion Fruit Mojito. Then it was up to the dance where it looked like about 500 glow sticks exploded on the floor. It was hot and really crowded and smelly, not my thing, but I do like to dance. So I went to a bathroom to take off my sweater. Underneath I had on a blue tank top. Let me tell you I haven't had this much attention since I cosplayed Lumiere.