Hey guys, it was my birthday! Niles and I spent the evening at Billy Sunday, drinking lovely whiskey cocktails and demolishing a relish tray, which had delicious small bites of all sorts of wonderful things. The tête de moine cheese was amazing, but the guanciale was probably my favorite. Niles wouldn’t let me order any dessert, because he had a giant nutella cheesecake from Bang Bang pie waiting for me at home. If you haven’t had their pies, get on that, because they are absolutely decadent. All in all it was one of the best birthday meals I’ve ever had. There’s still some cheesecake in the fridge, too, and it’s taking all of my willpower to keep from just cold eating it for breakfast.
Ok seriously, I don’t want to eat a flamingo tamale. Or an axolotl tamale, because axolotls are freaking adorable, and I’m super happy that I found an excuse to draw one for the comic. They’re critically endangered, (and wicked cute) so no one eat any axolotl tamales, ok?
But I am pretty fascinated with the idea that humans invented tamales so many thousands of years ago. And the Aztecs made tamales out of so many things – fish, rabbit, turkey and turkey eggs, fruits and honey, gopher and even worms. These are the guys who brought us chocolate and guacamole too, so they’re all right in my book.
In unrelated news, did I ever say that the Pancakes print is back in stock? Also there are new Pokémon prints too!
…and this concludes the series about the mac and cheese contest that Niles *almost* placed in. His mac was well and truly delicious, though, and the whole experience was super fun. And I’m not kidding either, the three macs that won were fantastic, they were high scorers on my ballot sheet too.
Although I’m glad these contests don’t happen often. You don’t think a few bites of mac and cheese are that much, but two bites each of TWENTY TWO macsandcheeses adds up pretty fast!
But we don’t eat mac & cheese for our health, right? This was Niles’s delicious, decadent entry into the Chi-Town Mac & Cheese cookoff, and it was amazing. It was a perfect blend of salty, smooth, balanced flavors. I helped make it, which is to say I spent a lot of time stirring the sauce, and adding things, and stirring more, and stirring a bit more, and thinking I would be stirring it for the rest of my life. It was high maintenance, but it was absolutely worth it! I only ended up eating three or four bites of it, but they were phenomenal.
Next comic will be about the competition itself.
In the meantime, Saturday, February 1st was Hourly Comics Day! I made a bunch of them, but they’re mostly about how boring I am and how much work I did, punctuated by cute cat moments. You can read them here.
Also! Are you in Texas? In about a month I’ll be exhibiting at STAPLE in Austin. I’ve never done this con before, so I’m pretty excited! I’ll have lots of books and prints and original art, so swing by if you’re nearby! And feel free to recommend awesome Austin-area restaurants, because we’re staying a few extra days to wander the city.