Grilling with Planks!

We believe exploring, experimenting and life long learning are not only vital to operating a successful micro-business, they're also what keeps life fun and interesting! As a result, when it comes to summer BBQing, we're always trying to change it up with new recipes and techniques. 

For those serious culinary explorers out there, a grilling plank is indispensable! The process of preparing salmon on a cedar plank dates back to Native American's in the Pacific Northwest but alder, hickory, and maple are also great plank options. Plank grilling is a great way to really accentuate that great smokey flavor and aroma that defines the grilling experience. Here's a few tips:

1. Soak the plank for about an hour before hand! This prevents the plank from lighting on fire...
2. Keep the grill closed! This helps keep the temperature high and even.
3. Don't flip it! There's just no need...
4. Try something different! It's a great way to grill veggies without having them fall through...

New Designs Make for the Best Cedarburg Ever!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out and stopped by Strawberry Fest in Cedarburg this weekend! This was our 10th, and best year yet! We had two booths, side-by-side, for the weekend and were able to make room for the new "fishing rocks" series as well as some of the new women's designs we're developing. 

It was a gorgeous weekend and everyone seemed to be having a good time, especially this guy! Thanks again for making this our best weekend in Cedarburg to date! 

Fish Face or Duck Face?

Last summer, everywhere you turned (at least online) someone was making one of those d%mn duck faces. You know what I'm talking about, lips pushed together and protruding like a flattened kissy face or a mallard's bill. 

Fueled by a slew of lady celebrities, the silly facial accessory became a staple in photo shoots across the country. From Mylie Cyrus to your cousin, the duck face was more popular for the ladies than baseball caps are for dudes. In fact, several documentary musicals were even produced to capture the trend.

As a micro-business, we're always trying to stay on top of the latest trends, which has us thinking; what's gonna be this summer's big facial accessory? 

We're putting our money on the fish face to supersede the duck face as this summer's hot new trend. Fashion is cyclical, and it's about time the fish face came back around. Plus, it's way more versatile than the duck face. For those of you looking for a jump on the summer's newest trend, we'd like to showcase a few styles you may like to try out. 

For those of you looking to make a bold statement, the sturgeon face is a serious counter to the silliness of the duck face. 

And then there's always the classic, slimming, cheek-sucking variety.

But the ultimate fish face has to be the two-handed lip grab. Sure, it's not easiest to do on the fly, but when you pull it off… i just can't imagine anyone making fun of this trend.

We Have Rain Barrels! (For Us, Not For You)

Here at Fish Face we love projects. We're always tinkering with things, exploring, and experimenting. We also run our shop on a well system in a semi-rural section of Northern Illinois. As anyone who has lived on a well can tell you, it definitely instills an ethics of conservation, cause when you're out of water, it's like being up a creek without a … without water. 

Not only do we need to be conscious of our water usage because of the well, we also believe it's important to save some water for the fishes! 

To do so, we've added these nifty new rain barrels the shop. It works exactly the same way your traditional gutter system works, except instead of pouring into a pile of mud at the corner of your building, the gutters drain into these barrels. You're probably not going to want to drink from these barrels, but since only 1% of the water we use goes to drinking, there are plenty of other great uses for this so called "gray water". We use the water to clean off our screens after printing a design, to wash down the tent after a muddy festival, to keep our bushes growing in the summer heat, and to fill our water guns (another component of our top-notch security system). 

What do you do to save water? Surely there are more ways out there, and we're always looking for new techniques, please share! 

Diversity at the Custer's Last Stand Street Festival

The summer festival scene is well underway, and for those of you unable to make it out to this weekend, we wanted to share a few of the sights, sounds, and smells of a prototypical Chicagoland street festival. Custer's street fair is, for all practical purposes, on the far North Side of Chicago. The surrounding Neighborhoods make this the most diverse part of the Chicagoland area, and this diversity was certainly reflected in the festival. 

For better or worse, food is one of the principal ways we experience diversity, and this fest had it all, from Greek to Mexican, sausages to raw vegan creations. 

Music lovers were not disappointed either. From rock to country to Native American Spirituals, they not only had diverse options, they had quality options. One of our favorite performers, Kraig Kenning, was there with his signature steel guitar stylings. 

Even these folks were putting on a show (though we never did figure out exactly what kind of show).

Clothing venders were also out in full force, displaying wears for everyone; infants, hippies, grill masters and those with more distinguished sartorial dispositions. 

Fun was the glue holding these diverse strands together, and it was everywhere! So if you're looking for fun, new experiences this summer, be sure to check out as many of the summer festivals as possible. For those of you already frequenting the festival circuit, which one's make your "must see" list? 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL THE GREAT DADS OUT THERE!

We'd like to wish an absolutely amazing day to all the fantastic fathers, all those darling dads, your outstanding old man, the (near) perfect papas, and any other males out there taking care of a young person.

These guys literally put you on their shoulders and carried you around. They did not sleep because you wouldn't stop crying. They left work to take you to the hospital because you decided your tree house was “sturdy enough”, then they started working a second job so you could still have hot dogs in your mac-and-cheese every night. 

These guys deserve to take the day off. They deserve to sit in a lazy-boy and control the remote for the entire day. They can do whatever they want to today, because they've been working for you every other day of the year. 

Thanks dads, each and every one of you.