01
Nov, 2009

i {heart} the first day of “fall back” daylight savings time

i especially heart it when i don’t remember that we’re an hour different until about 10:30 a.m. when my husband gleefully yells from the basement that it’s really only 9:30!

and so i spent the day in the kitchen.  i didn’t really set out to do that.  i meant to bake some bread because i was trying to have a “vegan day” after the rest of the excess that happened this weekend (see previous post on stripey cake) and i didn’t have any vegan bread in the house and i wanted to eat some with the vegetable soup i was planning to make for dinner.  so i put together the bread dough and set it aside to rise.  then, i decided to go ahead and make the roasted red pepper recipe from the “well-preserved” book.*

we didn’t have any white wine vinegar, so i hopped on my bike and rode to the nearest grocery store (maybe a mile away?) and picked up the vinegar and a few other things i needed, then headed home.  so nice to have not frigid weather!!  when i got home, i broiled the peppers, peeled them, cooked up the marinade in the book, shoved the peppers and the marinade into prepped jars and processed them as instructed.  i’m a little distressed by the large amount of marinade that’s leftover (shouldn’t it all have fit into the jars?) but i’m hoping it will all turn out okay….

i also had some tomatillos that i didn’t need to use in the next few days and didn’t want to waste them, so i washed, blanched, then pureed them, put them in a ziploc and froze them.  then i made a batch of hummus to go with my lunch (a lovely salad).  after lunch, i finished baking the bread for dinner,and took the pound of ground beef i’d gotten at the farmer’s market yesterday and i made a batch of mini-meatballs.

then i started roasting vegetables.  i had two squash (butternut and a new one called “buttercup”), a bunch of yellow beets and some sweet potatoes and since i had the oven on for the bread and the meatballs, i figured i might as well roast these veggies.  i also made some of the buttercup squash into a pureed soup which i froze in small quantities since mr. happy stuff and i both appreciate that soup in “amuse bouche” type quantities.  i gave up taking pictures long ago, so you’ll just have to imagine the beautiful yellow roasted goodness coming out of my oven.

then i snuck in a tiny bit of sewing (work project) while i waited for some cream to come to room temperature for this recipe.

and in about 20 minutes before i hopped on my bike to go to church, i cooked up my first batch of caramel.  and that’s when i sort of cheated on vegan day.  but can you blame me?

after church i cooked up the batch of vegetable soup i’d been thinking about all day (turned into more like minestrone, but still tasty and still vegan!).  and now….   all i wish i had was a little magic wand to make these dirty dishes disappear!  (i did do two dishwasher loads during this whole process today!)  whew! and also ahhhhhhhhh…….. feels good to have some yummy things to look forward to this week.  and for the rest of the winter.

*this is such a great book.  i think i’ll add it to my wish list.  it’s got all of these small-batch recipes and ingredients for how to can or freeze them.  so instead of feeling like i have to can 32 pints of roasted red peppers, i can just make this recipe for 3 pints.  and not use up an entire day.  genius.  i’m also trying her sauerkraut recipe.  we’ll see how that one goes!  it should be ready sometime next weekend.

Posted in autumn, yum | 2 Comments
31
Oct, 2009

stripey, halloween-ish cake

there was a party at my house last night.

my friends who were planning the party had stopped at a local bakery and purchased the yummy fruit tarts and jam cookies you see in the foreground, then a quick trip to trader joe’s landed the apricot almond tart and the “chocolate pringles.”  the layer cake?  well…… i volunteered to make that.  ever since i read the book eat cake by jeanne ray i’d been wanting to make a really yummy, decadent cake.  but there’s not often enough people around to justify baking a giant cake, so…. i’d put it on the bottom of my ever-growing “could do” list.  but yesterday was the day.  i’d been brainstorming myself through my baking mood and had a flash of inspiration–chocolate cake + pumpkin cake + cream cheese frosting = amaaaaaaazing.  And so i baked two round pumpkin cakes the night before, two chocolate cakes that morning, then right before the party, i whipped up a big (but apparently not big enough!  look at those crumbs peeking through!  never mind, rustic is good, right?) batch of cream cheese frosting.

apparently, my naughty kitty thought that the frosting was amazing too.  oh well, we’re all good friends (and many are cat owners) so we all had a good laugh and just cut that part off of the cake before slicing into it.

oh. my. goodness.  moist, delicious, and stripes too?  yum.

for the pumpkin layers, i used this recipe, and for the chocolate layers i used this recipe,  and the frosting was a variation of several recipes i found online, but it’s so decadent, i just can’t bring myself to admit the ingredients here.  if you really want to know, e-mail me and i’ll send you the recipe.

it also makes a good breakfast.

Posted in autumn, yum | 3 Comments
17
Oct, 2009

more stamp carving fun

today i indulged in a much-needed mental health vacation day and stayed home to carve stamps with a crafty friend visiting from out of town.  in addition to my first big monster stamp, i also carved the star flower you see above, and a speech bubble stamp and the words “happy birthday” that fit into the speech bubble.  we also had my friend’s daughter make a few drawings and carved two of them.  the first one was just a little face with pointy ears, but the second one was a “blank” cat.  this young girl is realllllly into cheetahs, but also likes other big wildcats, so the idea was that if she drew a cat with no markings, then she could color the stamped image to be whatever kind of cat she wanted it to be.

apparently she wanted it to be very colorful (even rainbow striped) cats today.  i love that she drew the back legs behind the other legs!  we also enjoyed toasted cheese sandwiches and cream of tomato soup.  perfect for a chilly day!  this was exactly what i needed.  thanks for visiting and crafting with me, friends!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
11
Oct, 2009

a walk in the woods

although we live in the middle of the city, our home is near a nature preserve, so we have easy access to “the woods.”  we’ve been in this house for about 6 years and earlier this spring discovered (for the first time) a lovely path back into those woods that is partially paved and wide and very nice to walk or run on.  our first visit was cut short, however, by a vicious and ravenous cloud of mosquitoes so we haven’t been back to visit the trail very often.

this morning at breakfast, mr. happy stuff mentioned that he’d like to go for a walk back in the woods today.  the weather was chilly, but sunny and since we’d had our first frost, the mosquitoes shouldn’t be a problem.  so, after finishing our waffles, we bundled up, grabbed the camera, and headed out. something about our walk today reminded me of my childhood when i’d play in the woods with my cousins.  we liked to build fairy houses.  don’t those acorn caps, still on the branch above, remind you of a hat store for fairies?

and that moss?  fabulous shag carpeting for a fairy house!  the mushrooms would make nice bookshelves, too. mr. happy stuff found a map of the trail (on our way home–we’d missed it on the way in and were just sort of “trailblazing” on our own walk) and there are tons more paths we haven’t explored yet.  i love discovering new treasures in my own backyard.  i love it even more when mr. happy stuff joins me.

Posted in autumn, trip down memory lane | 2 Comments
07
Oct, 2009

comfort food on a rainy day

today was a dreary rainy day and i wanted nothing more than to sit at home with my kitties and sew all day long.  but instead, i went to work, like a responsible person, and have spent the evening working on a paper that’s due in my class tomorrow night.  about halfway through this morning, i saw a recipe for chicken and biscuits and was immediately reminded of that wonderful comfort food that my mom used to cook for us.  hers always had chicken, peas, onions, and green peppers in a sort of white gravy base and we would eat it on top of fresh baked biscuits, split in half.  I’m not super crazy about the flavor of cooked green peppers and mr. happy stuff isn’t super crazy about the flavor of peas, so i decided to adjust the recipe to suit our tastes.  i used onions, chopped zucchini and chicken in the same creamy base sauce (it’s in the more-with-less cookbook on page 186.  my mom still had the page number memorized.  love her.) and served it on top of homemade biscuits.  i used a recipe from my own recipe card book that was written in my own handwriting, but that i haven’t baked in years.  i had a vague memory of being very disappointed in that biscuit recipe, but i wanted to try them one more time before discarding the recipe card just in case i was wrong.  i think i was wrong.  the biscuits were delicious.  perhaps my baking skills have improved since my last biscuit attempt?  we managed to devour half of the biscuits i made.  let’s not think about how many tablespoons of butter that’s equal to, okay?  it was so yummy and so hit the spot for me.  hooray for the return of comfort food season!

here’s the recipes in case you want to try this at your house:

biscuits

3 c. flour

2.5 tbsp. sugar

4.5  tsp. baking powder

3/4  tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cream of tartar

3/4 c. butter

3/4 c. milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

preheat oven to 425.  combine dry ingredients.  cut in the butter until it looks like coarse meal.  stir in the egg and milk.  turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly (4-5 strokes).  pat to 3/4″ thick, cut into rounds.  bake 10-15 minutes.  makes 12.  excellent when served with honey.

creamed chicken

1/4 c. butter

1 onion, chopped

2 small or one medium zucchini, chopped

1/4 c. flour

2 c. chicken broth

1 c. milk

salt and pepper to taste

2-3 c. cooked diced chicken

melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  when it’s melted, add the onion and zucchini and saute until they’re soft.  add the flour and “cook until bubbly” (not sure what this means, but that’s how the recipe’s written and maybe it will mean something to you), then add the broth, milk, salt and pepper.  stir constantly until the mixture thickens.  add chicken and serve over warm biscuits.

Posted in autumn, trip down memory lane, yum | 2 Comments
28
Sep, 2009

good swaps

for a long time, i’d been really wishing that i had some of that cute goldfish-in-a-bag print by heather ross and it is soooooo out of print and soooooo highly desirable that i’d pretty much given up hope.  until my common threads friend amber blogged that she had found some.  i took a long shot and e-mailed to ask if she would at all consider swapping something with me for a piece of her fabric and…. she agreed!  i made her the needlepoint piece pictured above (the pattern is now available for free in my “patterns” section, see top menu bar) and just for fun, i also threw in a felted monster finger puppet since she’s a soccer player:

i also recently scored big in another swap with a local friend. i’d made her some screen printed linen tea towels (hmmmm…. i seem to not have a photo of the completed towels, unfortunately) for a gift for her mother-in-law and in return, she knitted me these cute socks!

thanks, friends, for wonderful swaps!

on a total side note, i’ve been toying with the idea of posting a needlepoint pattern on my etsy shop for sale.  if i were to do this, do you think i’d also need to include “how to needlepoint” instructions (the way that some quilt patterns on etsy explain quilting)?  do you think that i should also include instructions on how to make the thing that incorporates the needlepointed piece (i.e. a wallet or the pocket of a tote bag….)?  do you think that i should put together kits (that include the canvas, the thread/yarn, a needle, the pattern and maybe stretcher bars if it’s a larger piece)?  or is this a silly idea?  if anyone out there has actually ever tried one of my free patterns and has suggestions to improve the pattern format, i’d appreciate hearing them!

Posted in crafty stuff, stuff that makes me smile | 4 Comments
27
Sep, 2009

a visit from the family

whew!  what a week!  my parents, my sister, her husband and their two boys (my super-cute nephews) arrived last sunday evening and stayed through friday morning.  it was a whirlwind of noise, chaos, love, laughter, hugs, tears and it scared my kitties (and possibly my husband) into their hidey-holes.  my talented father spent time working on wood-working-type fixing projects around the house (just little things that were stumping mr. happy stuff and me into a state of perpetual procrastination) and my wonderful, gardening-guru of a sister helped whip my yard into shape.  i just wish that i had taken a “before” picture so that you could really appreciate what she accomplished.  but at least here’s the “after” photo:

before this weekend, the whole side yard pretty much looked like the sorry bit of dirt we call a “yard” that’s currently outside the flower bed.  there were some saplings and some weeds and some rocks (95% buried in the ground) that used to be a border, and that was pretty much it.  oh, there was also a sad-looking wooden deck chair with no seat cushions that used to hang out under the tree.  someone had stuck a broom into the hole where an umbrella should go.  it did not “class up” my yard.  my clever sister took charge and removed the saplings, the sad chair and the weeds.  then, she built a lovely border for free using the stones from the wall behind the flower bed (there’s no mortar) and then took me to the store where we bought some plants.  she also moved some plants in from other parts of the yard.  it may not look like a whole lot right now, but i have faith that, come spring, it will be fantastic.  in the meantime, as mr. happy stuff pointed out, “it looks intentional now” and that’s more than you could have said about this part of our yard for the past 5 years.

i taught my mom how to make “wonky” quilt blocks.  she was my sewing teacher when i was growing up, so it seems strange to teach her how to do something, but she’s more likely to sew using patterns and getting seams just right and somewhere along the way, i got lazy and began enjoying (or at least tolerating) my sewing projects slightly askew.  and so i taught her how to fly by the seat of her pants and create a denyse-schmidt style potholder (the square kind) out of my scrap bag.  maybe she’ll send me a photo i can post.  i forgot to get a picture before she left.

we also ate lots of great food.  i love when people come to visit–it’s a great excuse to eat at my favorite restaurants.

i got a few cute shots of my nephews too (of course):

check out those blue eyes!

and that mischievous grin….

and i kinda like the funky lighting in that last one.

his momma asked especially for a photo of him sleeping, so here he is, all snuggled up with bear, on top of a crazy quilt made long ago by our great aunt bes.

this little guy’s big brother loves any sport or activity, especially if there is a ball involved.  we own a pool table and he would have been happy to play “pool” the entire week if someone would have played with him.  (we needed breaks occasionally)  since he’s a shorty, we made up some new rules for him.  he wasn’t allowed to use a pool cue and he wasn’t allowed to stand on the table (or get his feet on the table).  we did give him a step stool that he could push around the table if he wanted to.  here’s an early morning photo of him the morning before he left to go home:

i love that he also learned the meaning of the term “scratch” and could use it correctly (as in, he found the white ball in one of the pockets at one point in our game and he declared, around his pacifier, “uh oh!  scratch!”

we got a new little video camera, so i tried out a few videos this weekend.  recording the videos is easy as pie, but i’m a little frustrated with the downloading/editing/sharing capabilities that i have right now.  sighhhh….. so for now, click on the link below to see a (rather long, sorry i couldn’t edit it down) video of my nephew playing pool on his first morning here.  i especially love the way he kicks his foot/feet up in the air to get a really good roll on the ball.

pool+pajamas

Posted in stuff that makes me smile | 1 Comment
09
Sep, 2009

oh dear.

i seem to have found a fun new crafty skill.  as i was putting together a storytime kit for this fall all about monsters (which i put together almost every year–it’s my favorite!) i realized that we really didn’t have any good “hand stamps” for monsters.  i figured there would be tons of monster stamps available, especially so “near” halloween (note to local merchants:  august is not really all that close to halloween).  but alas, after visiting several stores, i had discovered no monster stamps.  zero.  the closest i could come was some ghosts and maybe a frankenstein, but no silly, goofy, kid-friendly monsters.

suddenly, i remembered this fabulous video i’d seen online recently.  i’d been so inspired by her artwork and by her stamp carving.  she makes it look so easy!  so, i bought a “stamp-carving kit” and set out to make my own darn monster stamp.  and you know what?  it really was pretty easy!  (shhhhh…. don’t tell…)  the hardest part was creating the wood blocks to glue to the back for stability.  i may need to make a few more… i’ve been doodling monsters during meetings…

Posted in crafty stuff, library stuff | 7 Comments
08
Sep, 2009

kolaches!

remember those luscious apricots from the last post?  i couldn’t stop thinking about how good they’d taste with cream cheese on top of some sort of pastry, but i also couldn’t figure out what kind of pastry this combo reminded me of.  then i finally remembered kolaches.  i’m not sure they ever traditionally combine apricot and cream cheese, but those were my two favorite flavors and i always hated having to choose which one i wanted.  so, why not make one with both?  i hunted around the internet until i found this recipe which looked pretty easy and like it would probably taste like i remembered from the “czech stop” between dallas and san antonio.  seriously.  that place looks like a regular old gas station, but if you’re ever making that trip, you must stop there and eat some kolaches.  and get some for the road.  do it for me.  i miss them.

it was a fairly easy recipe to follow.  the most exciting bit was that the yeast treatment was different than most breads i’ve baked before (1.5 tablespoons of yeast + sugar + only 1/4 cup water?  weird. )  it specified to mix the yeast “in a tall glass” so i did.  good thing too– the yeast was bubbling over the top of my (apparently not quite tall enough) glass before i was ready to add it to the dough!  the dough was a very soft and sticky dough, but i was able to roll little egg-sized balls of it without too much problem.  the recipe also called for the apricots to be chopped and stewed, but i wanted the beautiful curve of the apricot half, so i just cut them in half and nestled them on top of the kolache “nest.”  sadly, i’ve learned that the apricot skin is just tenacious enough to make them a bit difficult to eat when baked like this.  but no less delicious.

i also learned that if you eat them too soon after you take them out of the oven that hot apricot and cream cheese will burn the heck out of the roof of your mouth.  but it will taste so good that you won’t be able to stop yourself from finishing off the kolache anyway.  and you will pay the price of an ouchy mouth for more than 48 hours afterwards.  but you will still think it was worth it.

i don’t remember if i had kolaches before we moved to texas, but after making these, i remembered that they used to serve “kolaches” in my school cafeterias there.  although i’m pretty sure that there they just modified some brown and serve rolls with a spoonful of filling,  they were still mighty tasty.  they might have put a glaze on top too.  it’s all coming back to me now.  delicious, soft, sweet and sticky white-bread goodness.

my mom told me that her aunt used to make these for a sunday morning breakfast treat for the family every once in awhile.  hmmm….. these may need to get added to the semi-regular repertoire.  mr. happy stuff especially liked the all-cream-cheese ones.  yummmmmmm…..

Posted in summer, trip down memory lane, yum | 3 Comments
01
Sep, 2009

apricots

i bought these beauties at the farmer’s market.

the hardest part is deciding which way to cook them.  yesterday, i made a tart.

i also made a tiny tart with the extra bits.  lucky for me, mr. happy stuff thinks the apricots are…. too tart.

off to find more recipes.

or maybe just make an easy and delicious compote…

Posted in yum | 1 Comment