angry chicken

another upside-down plum cake

This time it's an upside down plum cake with fine cornmeal. Outstanding. The recipe comes from one of my favorite baking books of all time, Rustic Fruit Desserts. I am trying to branch out more with this book, I tend to make the same 3 things repeatedly because they are just so good. This was a new recipe for me. I made it to the letter—only decreasing the 4 TBL of butter to 2 TBL for the bottom of the pan (for the fruit topping).

I am sad to report I did not have a great success with a recipe in the newest Martha (August) for a zucchini bundt cake. Not enough spice for my taste and too much zucchini, which affected the smell. It tasted fine, if bland even with double the amount of orange rind it called for. I did leave out the anise seed, which might have helped the flavor. It did smell funny. And I make zucchini cake/bread all the time without this problem —but with about half of the grated zucchini this called for. No one wants to smell a huge whiff of zucchini when they are eating cake. At least I don't. And the girls definitely don't. They already accuse me of making cakes weird by adding anything healthy to them. Pete says it's fine. I'm going to try another piece for breakfast and see if it's better the next day.*

I am ignoring the weather and pretending it's summer here. We did go berry picking at Smith Berry Farm yesterday and didn't get rained on, which was great. We were all wearing sweaters, however.

*update—Okay, it's totally fine. The zucchini smell is gone. Maybe I was smelling it while it was too fresh, or maybe it was the after-smell in the kitchen from it baking. I still would add more spices though.

upsidedown plum cake (improved!)

I recently made the upsidedown plum cake for a little tea party (where the best strawberry lemonade was served) and although it's been a favorite recipe of mine for many years now, I made some changes and it was even better and much lighter, which is fabulous. It's 6-tablespoons-of-butter-lighter to be exact. I made the recipe the exact same way I always do (it's in the PDF recipe cheet sheet I link to in the post) but instead of using 4 TBL melted butter in the pan, I used 2 TBL. In the cake I reduced the 8 TBL of butter to 4TBL and then added a 1/4 cup applesauce. It was delicious.

Notes and such:

• The Tie One On aprons are due today, but I will take late ones all weekend. I will get the gallery up after the 4th of July and have a new theme announced by then. They are looking great!

• I am so curious about many of the books on this Summer Reading list compiled by Nancy Pearl. I have only heard of one of the titles before, Castle Waiting.

• I am having a lot of fun with working on my Retro Camping board on Pinterest. We are going camping in August, hopefully it will be summer here by then.

• I have only the last episode left of Downton Abbey and am so sad it will be over soon. I almost don't want to watch it so I can know I always have one left. It is so good and the costumes are so amazing that it's almost hard for me to pay attention to the dialog. I loved Gosford Park so much (same writer) and this has been such a treat to watch. Thanks to so many of you who suggested I check it out.

I warned you.

This is an evil thing. It's so good. So incredibly good. It's a recipe from the side of an off-brand box of corn chex (the recipe from the official brand, which is what I could find online, is here). It's basically melted chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter mixed with corn chex and then coated with powdered sugar. I did not use a ziplock bag as instructed, just a bowl and that worked fine. Then we all got really sick eating this stuff.

Unrelated—

I saw the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris, with Grammie a bit back and enjoyed it. I especially liked all the scenes with Hemingway. I found this handy cheat sheet for all the famous characters in the movie and how they all knew each other. It's pretty fun to read. But even more fun to read is this piece I found quoting notable authors talkin' smack about each other. Wow.

mini-burger cookies for the 4 year old

Liddy turned 4!

We really did her burger-themed party up right. Grammie got the 6 pack mini-burgers (from New Seasons) and then we ordered a burger cake (from Fred Meyer, I know it's trashy and not homemade, but come on. She loved it and the cake fries you can dip in ketchup frosting!) and we had a blast making these mini-burger cookies, which were mentioned in the comments of my last post. They were so fun to make and so cute!

We are all tired, sugared-out, and have huge smiles. 4 is awesome. Thank you Lydia for being amazing.

sort of a different salad and a sewing project

This salad (asparagus, red onion, and pecorino cheese) was made for me last year by Sarah when I came to visit and I had forgotten about it until I had a bunch of asparagus in my hands last week. I usually have asparagus cooked but this was raw and so good. The recipe is right here. In the comments I noticed many people found the flavors too strong so I made it a little different—with less vinegar (but added lemon juice) and less red onion. Also, if I were to make it again, I'd pre-soak the red onion in ice water for a bit to take the edge off. The vinegar does the same thing, but only after a few hours. It mellows with time. We had it alongside some salmon. Delicious.

Unrelated:

I am very excited to show a new project I have just sewn and posted over at Modern Domestic. It's for Grammie's birthday. Grammie, don't look I mean it!

salad with fennel and other items

I made this salad the other night and was reminded again of how good it is. I make it a little different each time. It's based off of a salad recipe that is in Molly's excellent book, A Homemade Life. It always makes me happy when I eat fennel. It's one of those food items I had eaten ill prepared many times—so I assumed I didn't like it. But I do, I realize, a whole lot actually, with the right balance of flavors.

For this salad I layer onto of a pile of lettuce: radishes, apple, fennel, and shaved Parmesan. I then top it with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious. There is a tool needed however, one which I find absolutely mandatory—a mandoline to slice the radishes, fennel, and apple. I use mine all the time and am waiting for the day I cut myself. I need those special gloves!

Unrelated-

• I am up to no good over on Modern Domestic posting about the Bernina ruffler foot. They are offering these for 20% off during the month of June, so if you have ever been tempted to get one, here's your chance to get one on sale! I will be showing a few projects I have made with this glorious foot throughout June over there. Thanks Ladies!

• Over dinner last night with my crew I got a slew of good tips on the Netflix front including Doc Martin. The first episode I watched when I got home and enjoyed it so much. It feels like a cross between Northern Exposure (the show) with Local Hero (the movie). I love having a new series to watch.

strawberry lemonade icebox pie

In the hopes that eating this will bring warmer weather, we made the Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Pie this week. It was so good. It's even better for breakfast. The recipe is from the newest Martha, June 2011, and it doesn't appear to be online yet—but it's really just a lemon bar filling baked in a graham cracker crust with mashed strawberries and meringue on top of that. We used whipped cream on the side instead. It's so easy. The filling is just a lot of lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. When the recipe is available I will link it, otherwise you can see it in the newest issue at the store.  The photos from the magazine and all the pie recipes in this issue look delicious.

related to baking:

I was thrilled to read this morning that one of my favorite baking authors has a new book coming out (boo— not until summer 2012) all about vintage cakes! It's Julie Richardson, of Rustic Fruit Dessert fame. She owns one of my favorite bakeries here in Portland, Baker & Spice which has amazing goodies, including cakes, and our local paper has a nice piece about the research behind Julie's newest book plus some recipes—one from the forthcoming book and two others that are vintage cake related. They are linked in the article.

not related to baking:

And another reason I love the internet—a blog dedicated to clogs. There you have it.

slaw! (with magic sauce)

I have been on a big slaw kick. I was so burnt out on my regular salads which are usually spinach, and needed something different and crunchier. I came late to slaws because I had such a strong aversion to mayonnaise as a child, and even now unless it's flavored, it still creeps me out. I had never been exposed to slaws without mayo, so slaws were off my radar until just a few years ago. In the last few years I have made so many slaws (sans mayo) that are so different than what I thought slaw was growing up and now I can't get enough. Plus, I love how long a head of cabbage lasts in the fridge. Here's the one I made last week of ingredients I had handy that we devoured. Full disclosure—not the kids, they won't get near it.

Slaw:

• 1/2 head cabbage, chopped
• bunch of cilantro, finely minced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, grated

Add-ins:

• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• large handful cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• a handful of diced extra firm tofu (probably not needed)

Dressing:

• magic sauce! (to this I added lime juice, a pressed clove of garlic, and hot sauce)
• roasted peanuts

I tossed all the veggies and add-ins and then added a teaspoon of sesame oil and rice vinegar just to give it a sheen. I keep it in the fridge like this until I am ready to eat it. I like this salad crunchy, so I don't add the dressing until I am about to eat it. Same with the nuts. Then I thinned the dressing with a little water, plated up the salad, drizzled the dressing on top, and then added some roasted peanuts. Delicious. I have been known to use this as a filling inside a big soft tortilla if I am feeling crazy, but I also like it just as a salad.

Food related:

• I made both homemade ketchup and baked onion rings sunday and ate them up. They were not quite a success—so I need to experiment more. There are so many recipes out there. While these were very tasty, the coating would not stick to the onion rings, so in the end I found myself eating roasted onion rings with toasted breadcrumbs on top and delicious ketchup. Not so bad, but not really photo worthy. Also, it really stunk up the house. But I have not given up on baked onion rings. I got in a huge fight with fried ones last year from a favorite hamburger joint and I swear my gut has never been the same since. I am getting old.

• Speaking of alternatives to frying, a smart commenter a bit back suggested that I bake the chevre cheese rounds, not fry them in butter, and I did (at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes) and have never looked back. They freeze so well unbaked—I just keep them already breaded in the freezer and bake them while I get the soup/salad or bread ready I'm going to eat them with. Brilliant!

 

white chocolate cardamom biscotti

Biscotti and I are good friends. I make it often and it's the one thing I bake thinking only about what I want to eat. I don't worry if anyone else will eat it or like it. It's my cookie. So, if people in the house do like it, awesome, but if not, I don't worry about grumblings or complaints if the flavors are considered, not awesome—which is what they are sometimes referred to as.

These are whole wheat cardamom with white chocolate chips. I love them so much. With coffee, of course. I have tried many biscotti recipes and I have found that I like them to have whole eggs, but not a lot of fat. Like almost none, actually. They don't stay crisp as long with fats or oils in them and are so good without them, I don't see the need to add any. So, I don't. Saying that, these are very crunchy and dry and need to be dipped in coffee, tea, or hot cocoa to avoid a chipped tooth. They are not at all like the cookie-style of biscotti that have 6 tablespoons of butter in them.

my basic recipe (altered from various cookbooks so long ago I have no idea where to credit it now because I have it on a post-it)

• 2 cups flour (I often use half white and half whole wheat)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• a dash of milk if for some reason the dough is so dry it won't form a good log—which occasionaly happens to me. But then other times it's really wet, so who knows.

I then add extracts, spices, and add-ins as needed. For these I used 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips.

I mix this all up and make 2 logs and flatten them. They should be about 3 inches wide by about 10 inches long. Bake about 25 minutes at 350 degrees and then let them cool about 15 minutes. Lower the oven temp to 325 degrees, and cut the biscotti in 1 inch slices (I like them thick. A good serrated knife and a light hand are crucial.) and then bake again about 15 more minutes (I vary this depending on how crunchy I want them) flipping the cookies over halfway through.

some of my favorite variations

• lime zest with vanilla
• candied ginger
• espresso (instant powder) and chocolate chip
• cinnamon and chopped almond
• dried cranberry and orange rind
• orange rind and chocolate chip
• chocolate with mint chocolate chips
• gingerbread spice

For chocolate dough, I usually add 1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder and decrease the flour by 1/4 cup. The girls, desperate for cookies, are actually starting to like most of these, which I find amusing. It's amazing what one will to for a cookie. They dip theirs in milk.

 

 

homemade bean burgers

I saw this recipe for Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers in the March Yoga Journal magazine and had to try them. So, I did. And then I made them again. And then Grammie made them. And them she made them, again. I think it's safe to say we loved them. They are really easy to make, are vegan, and store great in the freezer. I made a few changes to the original recipe after Grammie and I made so many batches and experimented.

what you need:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (I soak my own, but if you don't, it's a 15 oz. can very well drained)
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (very well drained, and there is a typo in the magazine, it calls for a 4.5 oz can, but that is incorrect)
• 1 cup fresh cilantro or parsley (we used cilantro)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 green onions
• 2/3 cup shredded carrots
• 1 3/4 cup rolled oats

I just put all these ingredients in the food processor and turned it on. It helps if you pre-chop the veggies, smash the garlic, and really drain the tomatoes. I used a big dough scoop to make 8 patties, and I pressed them flat on the tray. Bake on parchment paper or a silpat at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, carefully turn them over and bake another 15 minutes. Eat right away or let cool and freeze.

These are outstanding on a whole wheat bun with lettuce and a little chipotle sauce, which is chipotle puree (I freak out about this here) mixed with either ketchup, sour cream, or mayonnaise. Amazing!

Grammie has made a white bean and pesto variation with success. I think there is much customization potential here. I love bean burgers but have never found a recipe that I was in love with and this one is just perfect, I think. The kids are still dubious, but they will come around.

no nonsense spiced carrot cake

We had many carrots on hand and I am trying to get some more veggies in one of my daughters specifically, who seems to shun all fresh food, so carrot cake was made. I had fun researching this because there are about a zillion recipes out there and I have never found the perfect one, so I have always moved on. But this one is golden. It's very plain, no raisins, coconut, pineapple, or walnuts, all of which appear in some recipes. Also, it uses yogurt which I always have. There's just a glaze, not a frosting. It's pretty light as cakes go, especially as crazy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting goes, which is too rich for me usually.

The only changes I made:

• I used 1/4 cup melted butter instead of the oil

• 1/2 teaspoon of my spice mix for the spices

• Oh! And I used a mixture of a little powdered sugar, and apple juice for the glaze, and the apple juice instead of water was so very yummy. I must remember to do this again.

• I also used a mix of 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour.

The recipe is from Everday Food. Martha has quite a few, but this one was it for me. I might try to reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup (total) next time, it was a bit sweeter than it needed to be. It's really moist. Like very moist. You know how carrot cakes are. It's even better the next day.

more with the saved bread

Back to my bread saving. Not just for croutons and breadcrumbs.

I'm a fiend for bread pudding but always felt it was too rich, until my friend Erin gave me a recipe years ago that was much lighter, very forgiving, and incredibly tasty. I have modified it a little over the years. I have seen recipes for bread pudding and they always call for way more eggs, butter and cream (or all three) than I think is reasonable. This one is much lighter and so very good. I make it sightly different each time but here's the basic recipe:

• 6 cups bread, cubed. I use about 8 slices that are old, saved in the freezer. I use them frozen, tear them up and they are normally a mix of white and whole wheat and they are almost always the heels only.
• 1/4 cup melted butter (I usually use even less)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• a little vanilla and some spices, like cinnamon (I use a teaspoon of my spice mix)
• 1 handful of berries (frozen or fresh, or chocolate chips, stone fruit, whatever you like) I used frozen raspberries in this one, which is a favorite.

I put the bread in an 8" x 8" casserole dish or pan, mix the other ingredients and pour them over the bread and then let it sit overnight in the fridge. This is key. I have tried it many times without letting it sit overnight, and it's never the right texture. So just make this the night before. Bake at 375 degrees for about 35-45 minutes. Let sit a little and then have it warm with a little maple syrup, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. Erin likes to drizzle a whiskey/powdered sugar glaze.

You can make this savory by omitting the sugar, adding about 1/2-1 cup grated cheese, and some mushrooms and onion that have been sauteed, or chilies, or just cheese, or some meat type item (like chopped ham or sausage) and some herbs. Delicious!

I love using my bread up for this dish because it's so good and so satisfying using up the weird stash of bread heels I insist on keeping that seems to grow at an alarming rate. I know it's not the prettiest dish to photograph, to to me, it's a beautiful photo of happiness.

happy chocolate experience

Chocolates and candies from Maison Bouche

I got a lovely offer to try some complementary samples of chocolates from Mason Bouche after I mentioned my love for them a bit back. And you know, seeing as it was for research and all, it took me about a second to hit reply to that e-mail, typing as fast as I ever have before.

These small floral flavored chocolates are divine. A little nibble goes a long way. They are called "The Botanicals" They are old fashioned tasting but bright, not too overpowering, and the mouth feel is perfect. I am a little picky about chocolates (very, actually) and as flavored chocolates go, these are some of my favorites.

Fleur de Sel caramels. These are sweet for a salted caramel. I could use a little more salt, but I might be a bit warped. I like my salted caramels to almost hurt. Saying that, these were gone in one afternoon.

These salted dark chocolates are addictive. Really. They come in milk chocolate, too, I think. And that cat! I love him! So often dark chocolate has a chalky texture, but these are smooth as silk.

This is a dark chocolate bar with cookie bits and it makes me want to cry in a good way when I eat it. I'm not exaggerating.

This is is my favorite and is what got me obsessed with this brand. It's not flavored but has bits of cookie in it. It's like a very high-falutin' Wonka Bar. Is that the best I can come up with? The description on the site is much better than what I just wrote.

And this one, a milk chocolate bar infused with bergamot, is my new favorite. It is so good—really well done. I have had earl grey chocolate before and this is the best I've had by far. It's not too strongly flavored and is lovely as a milk chocolate.

This brand of chocolate and candies is pretty much my ideal—the packaging and graphics are to die for, they are delicious and have the right texture, which I am picky about, and the flavors are special, but not too strange. You know what I mean, I don't need my chocolate to expand my taste boundaries. I just want to eat it and be happy.

Holding these bars feels so gifty and lovely and decadent. I would be lying if I were not to mention that receiving a whole lot of these makes it seem even more special and more decadent. It does. And I am raising some little chocolate connoisseurs, as well. Two of which even like dark chocolate! I do think this habit is online only for me, if any of you Portland peeps see this brand here in town, please let me know. I am really curious to see what Easter candies they will have.

Magic Sauce

Spinach, brown rice, and shredded carrot salad with warm Magic Sauce.

Magic peanut sauce in a jar.

I really love peanut sauce and have been making it from scratch for a long time. I used to always use Ina's recipe that she uses on her wonderful Szechuan Noodle salad, and would just keep it in the fridge, but it was kind of a drag to make. But that's cool, I just sucked it up and made it anyway. It's scrumptious and has a long list of ingredients. Then I started making a simpler one, from another cookbook, the fabulous Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook and it was a nice change, but a bit salty for me and again required just a few more jars of oils/vinegars and prep than I seemed up for.

Then true laziness crept in and I stopped making it regularly. I need a fast sauce for the spur of the moment craving. Like lightning fast. So, one evening, desperate, I mixed salsa, peanut butter, and maple syrup and a little water. Heated it up. Done. Delicious. My husband, watching me do this, declared it Magic Sauce. I have been making this for a few months now and use it as a dip, a drizzle on burritos, as a dressing on salads, a dipping sauce for thai food, like fresh salad rolls, on rice with shredded cabbage— you name it.

Here's the basic recipe although I make it a little different each time-

• about 1 cup salsa, whatever I have on hand
• about 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• about 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup (I prefer maple syrup)
• a little water, maybe

Heat just a little and stir. And stir and stir. Now stir some more. It's grainy at first and then when it emulsifies and becomes silky smooth and the color lightens a lot. It keeps well, but I use up so fast, I wouldn't really know. It's magic. I have added chopped cilantro, grated fresh ginger, a clove of garlic, lime juice, and hot sauce at various times, depending on what I'm feeling like, but most often have it with just these 3 ingredients. You would think the salsa would make this only work with Mexican food, but it's incredibly versatile. I use it both warm and cold, if I use it straight from the fridge cold, I usually add a little water and give it a good stir.

I am probably not the first person to do this, I haven't done any research online, but all I know is I always have peanut butter, maple syrup and salsa in the house, so I always have Magic Sauce.

happy valentine's day

I had a bee in my bonnet to make small sandwich cookies ala Two Tarts, an amazing cookie shop here in Portland specializing in tiny cookies to die for. I used the basic sugar cookie recipe from The Craft of Baking in both plain and chocolate and then made a batch of cream cheese frosting and a batch of chocolate frosting (super easy, chocolate ganache melted and added to the cream cheese frosting) and they are excellent and gave me a terrible sugar headache.

I started these by myself, the cookie dough and the cutting that is, but then a little creature wanted to help with the frosting and sandwich-making part. I have been doing some fussy baking without them and have stopped feeling guilty about it because sometimes I just want to bake and have it turn out perfect and not be interrupted by the craziness—running with kittens, bathroom emergencies, lost socks, falls and bumps, imperative ballet outfit changes, lost toys, all the things that come up the second I try to focus on anything. Especially if it involves heat and a timer. It's all good if I know they are going to help me, my expectations are wildly different and I just let them have at it, but sometimes I need to just have a project be my thing.

The middle child, the one most interested in cooking, snuck into the kitchen early and was excited to find me finishing these. She frosted, and made a bit of a mess, pressed too hard on the cookies, put the tops on wrong side up, and was so happy, proud, and she thought it was so clever that we could make two frostings out of one batch. She was having so much fun with everyone else asleep while she was doing her secret cookie fairy work. I let my lofty goals go—I had visions of dainty picture-perfect delicate cookie sandwiches and these, while still quite sweet, have a more down to earth look.

She finished up, and I was so happy I bit my tongue about 10 times to not mention various messy/crazy bits and then she smiled and asked if we were done. Yup. Are you going to photograph them, she asked hopefully? Yup, they are beautiful.

super easy confections

I made a few batches of fudge when I ran out of cookies (and vanilla and spice mix) for the holidays and was once again amazed by just how delicious it is. And it's no fail fudge. For real. This kind was made with a mix of milk and dark chocolate chips, chopped walnuts and a little instant espresso powder. The basic recipe is here and the adorable stickers are from the Small Object. She is out of stock, but it looks like amazon has them. I cut an 8"x 8" pan full into eight bars and wrapped them in parchment paper, and then used the fancy masking tape and stickers. Warning, nothing seems to stick well to the parchment paper, so there was a little swearing here, but they seemed to behave fine in the end. For storage, I just kept them in the fridge, ready to hand out as needed.

I think some new batches of this would be wonderful for Valentine's Day, maybe with a little cayenne pepper. I was going to try caramels, but I just ruined another pot trying to make some. I am really cursed with caramels. I can make caramel sauce just fine, but not the candies. Not yet anyway. I just can't face ruining another pot again. But homemade caramels just make me swoon, especially the fancy ones with the salt. The ones that are like $10 a bag. Grumble, grumble.

what to do with bread crumbs

I have been keeping all our bread heels and bits for a long time now, usually making them into croutons, but lately have been making bread crumbs from them. Huge epiphany for me—you need to make them bread crumbs before you bake or toast them (the food processor makes this super easy) not after, because they just never get small enough otherwise. So, I got smart and have been making them a lot since this discovery, but haven't found a ton of uses for them. Weird, I know. I don't eat chicken and my girls prefer chicken fingers not made from my bread crumbs (ahem) so besides brown bettys, I haven't used them much, until now.

Fried cheese.

Okay, not the gross happy hour kind (although I never met a fried mozerella stick I didn't like) but this more genteel version—rounds of chevre that have first been dipped in egg and then coated with bread crumbs (straight from the freezer) and then browned in a little butter in a pan while I get the salad ready. It's pure heaven. The girls don't appreciate the fried cheese smell, but this is just too good for me to worry about it. I make a bunch at once and then just keep them in the fridge to fry up when I want them (everyday.)

This salad is with beets and a bit of chopped walnuts and this crazy good salad dressing I have been making which is a 3:1 olive oil, sherry vinegar, and a touch of maple syrup and Dijon mustard. I heat the beets first. I also have been making this fried chevre with a salad of greens, the same dressing, and oranges. Outstanding

How do you use bread crumbs? (I feel I have asked this before, forgive me.) I have also used them for a cauliflower bake, zucchini fingers, and of course on mac & cheese.

Unrelated: the new apron theme over on Tie One On is posted! I think it's a real fun one.

quinoa muffins & sewing links

I finally got around to making these quinoa muffins that I remembered seeing in an old Everyday Food a bit ago. Here's the recipe. They were good! They were my type of good, mind you, not everyone in the house thought they were good. I made a few changes, used butter, not oil, and whole wheat flour, not white and didn't add the raisins, but I did add 1 teaspoon of spice mix, which I definitely recommend. Or at least some cinnamon. I eat them for breakfast with a lot of jam. They freeze quite well and 2 out of 3 of my kids will eat them, also with a lot of jam.

Totally unrelated sewing news-

• Casey has organized a Swing Dress Sew-Along that looks very fun. It's using this pattern and seeing as she has made this stunning dress several times now, it's bound to be a great resource for anyone wanting to sew one. Very cool. (She has a FAQ up and other posts with tons of info for this sew-along, so look around a bit while you are there.)

• Peter is hosting a Men's Shirt Sew-Along over on Male Pattern Boldness using the lovely Negroni by Colette Patterns which I blogged about last week AND he has a discount code for the pattern over there as well.

• Gertie has a very interesting post on home sewing and the ethics of copying dresses available for sale—especially ones that are out of our price range. The comments are terrific and thought provoking. Some commenters linked to this talk about fashion and copyright over on TED Blog (it's a video of a lecture, about 15 minutes long) and I found it fascinating.

the holiday season

We made it through a lovely holiday whirlwind. I baked more (the pink pinwheel cookies were a huge hit and must be made again for valentine's day.)

The pigs in blankets made by miss emily were scrumptious. That photo kills me, not just because of her stellar outfit but also how funny these look on the plate.

There was not much snow, but some ice to play with.

The girls did a little cookie decorating.

We adults saw some movies (in the theater!) and I read. I tried to sit down and was mildly successful. I got a migraine, but oddly, the timing was okay and it made me take a rest. Oh, and I accidentally erased last year's worth of photos from iphoto. That would be 16,000. Yep. That's what happens when you empty the trash in iphoto, even after you get the warning. So, that I think was the migraine instigator. I have tried some recovery software with no luck, so now I am just looking on my computer for whatever I had pulled out of iphoto and am trying not to think about it too much. We are still cleaning up the house. And I'm only eating fruit now when I want sugar, 'cause dang, I can really tell I've had too much these two weeks. I have a gazillion things to mention soonish—new sewing books, movies, upcoming sewing projects, cooking adventures.

I sure hope everyone had a relaxing and fun holiday and happy 2011! The 3 girls did make it to midnight on New Year's Eve, we were both alarmed and impressed.

cupcake tree and links

My middle child turned 6 about a week ago and requested a towering tree of cupcakes. I have been doing birthdays a little different this year and having the girls help me get ready for them rather than try to make it all a huge surprise. It's been so much more fun having them included and really helps me out. The other 2 girls went with Pete to get balloons and decorate the house and the birthday girl went to Michael's with me and got this cupcake stand (she was clutching the 40% coupon with such earnestness) and decorated the cupcakes the morning of her birthday herself. Then she and I had a special ice skating date and lunch at an old-timey diner, which was so wonderful. I frosted these first and she put on the sprinkles and 1 M&M on top (with the M side down, ha!) and was quite proud. It was a great day. I sewed her a nightgown and robe set for her birthday—more details on that soon.

Links and stuff:

• Casey has a lovely faux-fur detachable collar sewing tutorial on her blog.

• Colette Patterns also has a removable custom faux fur collar for a coat (thanks Casey for linking to that, too!)

• I am also loving Casey's 1950s headband tutorial.

• There is an amazing 2011 calendar round-up over at Design Crush (via Camella) wow!!!

• It's getting cold here! Just in time, the wool jersey legging tutorial will be up Monday. I am just finishing it now.

Thanks for all your extreme awesomeness with the many shoe suggestions. Sadly the Keen boots didn't fit, but now I have so many others to chose from with all your tips!

 

early holiday giving

Blair was in town for Little Winter (it was so fun meeting all the amazing artists at this show!) and so I had extra motivation to get these together early as a little gifty for her and Melissa. I don't have them all done yet, but at least I got two sets made.

I have been consciously doing a little less around here lately. Taking it a bit slower and just asking myself if I really want to cook/bake as much as I do. Sometimes I feel like it's all I do. It tends to get a little crazy in the kitchen from now until the end of the year, mostly because I make an insane amount of cookies to give away and have been doing this for years. I make them and freeze them and it's fun, but with each additional child, it's become harder to have fun with it, so this year I am trying to do it differently. Usually I have been making and freezing dough for a few weeks now, and this year I haven't even started. Not to sound all Stuart Smalley but I am totally okay with this, it feels good.

I am still going to bake, because it is fun in small amounts, just not when I feel like a crazy cookie robot.  I think this time bar cookies are going to be making a strong appearance, as are brittle and fudge, and for some friends, this little gift set of vanilla extract and spice mix will be perfect for them to use before the holiday craziness and to make them happy while baking. It seems a shame to wait to give these out when it seems most useful to have them now. I am still collecting bottles and jars for these.

some info:

• The spice jars are from at New Seasons here in Portland.
• The jars for the vanillla I purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs 
• The vanilla extract recipe I used is from Vanilla Review (I finally made some this last spring!)
• The pumpkin spice recipe is here.
• I designed teh lables in Illustrator and they are printed on plain paper, cut-out, and stuck on with a glue stick. This makes for easy label removal with warm water when re-useing the bottles.
• And searching apothecary on etsy is pretty fun. I love these jars for vanilla from Eyespidar.

spicy

I made up a batch of pumpkin spice mix to have handy when making gingerbread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake, spiced scones, and anything else  Ican think of. I love spiced baked goods and thought this would make it easier—and I can't believe how awesome it is. I also like to these spices mix to pancakes, waffles and all sorts of baked food stuffs and was always making a mess getting out 5 spices each time. It's so simple and so easy, one of thoes why didn't I do this years ago things. And yes, it will go in pumpkin pie, too. The recipe changes each time but it's roughly this (there are ton online as well):

• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated, use more if you buy it ground)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

I use about a 1-3 teaspoons of mix spice depending. Like for pancakes calling for 1 cup of flour I use 1 teaspoon of mix, but for a for a heavily spiced gingerbread, I use 3-4 teaspoons of mix.

Muffins have been pretty popular around here. This is a variation on this recipe from King Arthur Flour without the chocolate chips. I also use only half the amount of butter and add 1/4 cup applesauce. I love baking with white whole wheat flour. I used 2 teaspoons of the spice mix above and add berries to half of them, because only half of our house like berries in muffins. I just stuff frozen berries into 6 of them when they are already scooped into the cups. And muffin batter is an unruly thing, and cookie dough scooper make this awesome fun, as suggested by a clever commenter years ago. I feel like a muffin-making-robot machine.

Bone Digger Part I—The Hungry

We have been up to a lot of Halloween badness around here.

I had been eyeing these meringue bones in an older October Martha issue. I pull all my back Martha's each month. I have a ton to look through when I get a chance. It's amazing how much I find that I had forgotten about, or how much more is suitable to my life now. (Unlike when I was in my early 20s reading the magazine with no house, kids, a garden, or a dining table. You know what I mean.) Anyhoo, I had a feeling these would be fun to make and tasty to eat (I added vanila extract) and they are. But I don't recommend eating 3 in a row unless you want a fierce sugar headache. I was thinking it woud be fun to make these into an Eton Mess dessert with crushed red berrires to look like blood and bones coming out.

These are not to be confused with her very similar marshmallow bones, a recipe I also found, and then wondered if I was having a senior moment or was experiencing a split duality in time a space. I was thinking, I could have sworn they were meringue, but now they seem to be marshmallow, my brain hurts—wait there are two recipes! The meringue won out. And now I have 6 egg yolks to deal with. Did someone say lemon curd? Or maybe pudding.

comfort granola

I just like making it. I know I have said this before. I make it a bit different every time—here's a link to the recipe. With a weird cosmic force, even though I don't measure, I always make just enough it fit in the great glass jar that grammie got me. I have a few sizes of these and love them to death. They are from crate and barrel and the biggest one I use for flour and find it thrilling to be able to dump 2 bags of flour in there. I just like looking at them all lined up—just like I like looking at everything in the Etsy shop, hindsvik. Okay, really—it's all so lovely and pleasing! Minimal photostyling is a good thing.

**update and mildy random—I am looking for a cast iron waffle maker. I have a waffle maker, but it's way old and has teflon on it and I want to replace it with one that has no teflon. I see one here, is anyone using one like this? Are you swearing at it? What say you? Thanks!

corn fritters

Here are some corn fritters. They are pretty popular in our house and I forget how easy they are to make. I used the recipe here (from everyday food) but then added green onions, some spices, and other things, but I don't remember what, this was a while ago and I make them different everytime. I have also made them with frozen corn just fine.Why are these so fun to make? They just are. It seems like the batter will be too thin and that there is no way to flip them, but it works out just fine. I make them on our big flat griddle, with no extra oil—I'm not sure if this makes them a fritter. Whatever. There is salsa and chipotle sour cream on the side there. I want to try something like this with quinoa. Look out!

Related to food, but with no photo, I made a brown betty (minus the currants which I couldn't find) from the Rustic Fruit Desserts books recently when I found myself up to my eyes in apples. I had a huge bag of homemade breadcrumbs in the freezer I made from our heels of bread and just don't use them. Ever. I usually make croutons, but thought I'd get all crazy and make a batch of breadcrumbs last time. So I did and it was thrilling. The big tip that made this a non-swearing activity was to make the crumbs in the food processor before I bake them because you just can't pulverize baked croutons into crumbs. At least I can't. I was happy when I read this and it confirmed my own frustrating experiences. But then I had a lot of crumbs and realized I just don't use bread crumbs that much. Not the way I use croutons. Enter the brown betty, which was a perfect solution.

Anyhoo, brown bettys are baked apple with  a lot breadcrumbs (instead of a pie crust or topping) and usually a lot of butter and sugar. That's it. Awesome and lovely.

peach craziness

As of last week, there were still peaches available here and this caramel peach grunt was made, again. I recommend serving it piping hot. You cook the peaches in a caramel sauce and then add the biscuit topping and bake the whole thing. I had it all going in the cast iron skillet, perfect from stovetop to oven, but I knew that adding the biscuit topping was going to cause a disastrous overflow of caramel and peaches in the oven, so to avoid the bad situation, I made the quick change out before adding the topping.

The recipe is in Rustic Fruit Desserts, which is still one of my go-to baking books. I once again need to say the teacake is amazing and can be used for almost any fruit. Flipping through the book, it's easy to miss, but they sell seasonal ones in their bakery (Baker and Spice) and they are amazing and so easy to make at home, it's dangerous.

• Unrelated to all this I am knitting this sweater (Ingenue from the Custom Knits book. it's a Ravelry link) after a 2 year break. You know how these things go. I got some help and am on a roll again. Well see how far I get now. I need to finish it because next up I really want to start this vest by Jared Flood for the only man that lives in the house, but um, what the heck? (steeks!) It seems a bit advanced for me. I want to use Noro Silk Garden yarn color 252, which is keeping me up at night. I might use another vest pattern instead if I get too nervous trying Jared's, maybe one in Men's Knits called Simple Vest.

• It's a big weekend here—my brother and eldest child share a birthday. There will be much celebrating. Sadie has requested Frosted Flakes for her special breakfast. And she sure is hoping she gets that pogo stick. I'm not sure my brother would want Frosted Flakes, but he'd be all over a pogostick. For gift ideas for him, I was recently shown this crazy thing by the charming Mr. Paulson, iRig, which turns your iphone into an amp. You know, for rockin' out on your guitar all Eddie Van Halen style, which my brother does. But I didn't get him that in time. Maybe for Christmas? I hope he isn't reading this.

• I am excited to be blogging over at habit this month. This is a whole new way for me to blog and I am so curious to see how it will feel. Please come and visit!

getting ready for cooler weather

We have been having fun making supplies for the cooler months ahead. I love having these natural/herbal remedies ready before we need them. And the girls have fun making them, too. And they make great gifts, so I try to make double batches.

These are all made from the eMailorder #11 issue ($8 USD), which has a recipe book you make yourself, labels, and a cheat sheet for handy reference. And it's a PDF, so you can print it right now!

I get all my herbs and supplies (including containers, bottles, and lip balm tubes) that I can't find locally at Mountain Rose Herbs. They also have a ton of helpful information about properties of herbs and essential oils.

I love reading about herbs almost as much as making medicine. After checking out almost every herbal book in the library over the last two years these are the ones I ended up buying and use extensively:

• Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health: 175 Teas, Tonics, Oils, Salves, Tinctures, and Other Natural Remedies for the Entire Family
• The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual
• The Herbal Home Remedy Book: Simple Recipes for Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Tonics, and Syrups
• A Kid's Herb Book
• Make Your Place

Okay, Autumnal Equinox 2010 (today!)—bring it. We are ready. To celebrate, we will also be making these Caramel Apple Mini-Cakes and will eat some just for you.

easy caramel (or butterscotch) sauce

I branched out and made a different caramel sauce than the one I have made all year. This one was so easy, crazy easy, and called for brown sugar, which in my book makes this not a carmel sauce but a butterscotch sauce. Am I right here? In any case, it was delicious. I ended up using a mix of white sugar and brown sugar instead of all brown sugar, making it a buttercaramel sauce. Or a carbutterscotch. A caramelscotch sauce? I have poured it warm on many food type items since making it. Here it is on a plum buckle, made from my cheatsheet (I used plums instead of raspberries and added 1/2 teaspoon of allspice.)

Unrelated:

• The newest Mixtapezine is available. I sure love this zine and look forward to every issue.

• I am loving two new items over at Yellow Owl Workshop. They would be perfect as gifts for friends (the pendants) and small people who have birthdays coming up (the stamps).

• I adore this outfit over at Olive Juice for the middle child of the house. She has a birthday coming up in early November and the only item she has consistently asked for is her own box of ziplock baggies. The irony is not lost on me, here.

 

what I cook over and over again

This is just some lemon curd. Homemade and delicious. In a new Weck jar which was a special birthday gift from a sweetie.

I was thinking the other day, as I was spooning this homemade lemon curd on a waffle (left over from the kid's plate, eaten while standing and doing the dishes‚ for shame!) that in the last couple years the recipes I get the most pleasure from are really simple, everyday foods. Usually condiments. Or plain food. I enjoy making them but I think it's the frequency with which I consume them that makes me so happy. Several times a day I think how nice it is to have homemade yummy food-type items, not just a "hey, this crazy fancy dessert is so good" but more like, "oh, I love plain yogurt." I cook a lot. Like almost everything we eat is homemade, but certain foods I have always bought over the years and am now really enjoying making them from scratch.

Here's what I have being making frequently, we have been eating a lot of, and enjoying immensely. Some of these things I have been making for a few years now, others are newer additions to my simple cooking repertoire. This isn't a list of everything I make, but more a list of simple things that I am cooking now because I like and appreciate the homemade version so much more than store bought. I also hope that some of these recipes are ones the girls will be asking for when they get older, or better yet, will know how to make by heart.

I link to various posts where these are made, usually with recipes given, or links to them. It might not be super clear or obvious, but oh well. Let me know which simple foods you are making, too. I'd love to know.

bread wheat and white

bagels

yogurt

granola

mustard

lemon curd

caramel sauce

ganache/chocolate sauce

hot cocoa

all salad dressings

pancakes/waffle mix

croutons/breadcrumbs

 

 

old-timey food fun

A thoughtful blog reader sent me this book, The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories a few years ago and I refer to it often now that we are heavy into reading the Little House books. I never read them growing up. They just weren't on my radar. Grease and Zanadu were my scene. I never watched the television show either. Weird, I know, especially because I sell bonnet patterns now, for crying in the night.

Anyhoo, this book is fascinating to me on many levels. It was written in the 1970s which I find so comforting. It's got all the foods mentioned in the books with recipes—but it's the intro about food safety and the history of pioneer cooking and methods that are so interesting to me. I may not make a blackbird pie (yes, with real birds) but I just can't put it down. The girls are not super interested when I read a bit of it to them, but I do find it off the shelf and open a lot, so they must dig it.

They often play "Little House" and because we have 3 girls, Mary, Laura and Carrie are easy for them to act out. Pa usually is off killing bears (not downtown writing code) and I am making corn mush. Or churning. (Not working on the computer.)

Related:

• I found these moccasin boots for Sadie at a much better price than the ones we were loving at mini boden and a few other fancy kids clothing catalogs. I just finished up her fall coat (in deep purple velvet) inspired by this one. I will show it next month.

• I am now sewing a Little House dress, apron, bonnet and bloomers (from this pattern) at Delia's request and she wants old fashioned boots. Like lace up ones—ones like Addy's, she says. I have had a heck of a time finding boots like these, any suggestions? These from Olive Juice seem perfect, but yikes, the price. However, baby can wear them after Delia grows out of them. If I can't find any, we are going to be fine with just black old fashioned shoes with buckles (she says velcro is not old fashioned and I concur. ha!) All the shoes and clothes at Olive Juice are killing me right now.

 

the girls are making bread

Friday Girl, Snow White, and The Tomten bake bread.

I'm not sure why it took me 3 years (!?) maybe longer, to realize that the bread making method in this book is perfect for the girls learning how to make bread. It really could have been written for kids. I am slapping my forehead, here.

So, last week they made bread all by themselves, mixing the dough, letting it rise and shaping the loafs. Using a no-knead method means just that. They couldn't believe how simple it was. They were so proud and they loved it. This batch was all white flour and with salted butter and jam—it's heaven. They are begging to make it every week, and I say yes!

FYI: I used the full amount for the 3 loaves from the master recipe (it uses 6 1/2 cups flour). I plan to sneak in some white whole wheat flour next time.

moon!

We have been learning about the moon and space and summer star gazing in the last month or so, after reading Midnight on the Moon and the companion research guide. It's been super fun. We realized that the anniversary of the first walk on the moon was happening, so that day we made a moon cake—which is the amazing ice cream bombe you see here. The vanilla is the crust, the chocolate is the mantel, and the raspberry sorbet is the core. Sweet tarts make the craters.

Lots of fun projects and a few pretend planets were created— Lucia, with11 moons, and Gloria, which had 100 moons, but then changed to 49 after drawing 100 moons proved tedious. They are both jovian planets, in case you are wondering. The third pretend planet is called Baby Diaper. It is small, rocky, near the sun, and has no moons.

I have added a catagory for this homeschooling fun stuff over on the sidebar there, called Learning. You can see more there, too.

cupcakes make it better

So, loooooong week here at the house. We had a trip to the ER and then an overnight stay in the hospital for Papa. All is okay now, but the hospital experience and the ER craziness was pretty lame—lamer than normal, I'd say. It made for a very long day. This is the understatement of the year.

I have that horrible mind game I play when this kind of stuff happens—the thinking that yes, it could be so much worse. And yet, it still really does suck. I've come to believe, for me, denying (or minimizing) that something is really hard actually makes dealing with it even harder. So, I will say this, it was really hard to see him in so much pain and so frustrating being denied help right away. Oh, the ER insanity!

Okay then. Now we eating Get Better Papa Cupcakes. They are helping a ton. I used my chocolate cake recipe from the previously mentioned cheat sheet and a chocolate ganache for the glaze. The glaze recipe is in this post.

 

personal cherry almond buckles

I made these little personal buckles a few weeks back and thought they were delicious. I got the fancy paper liners here in town at Sweeet Wares. I love them. They are the same size I used for the cakes I baked for my booksigning/cakewalk last year.

I used the buckle recipe from my cheat sheet (the free PDF is here) and added 1/4 teaspoon almond extract and 5 cherries per cake. Many of the cherries still had pits because the kids helped using their favorite gadget, and didn't realize that the pits don't have anywhere to go if you don't empty it. So, these were a bit rustic. They were delicious, nonetheless. Several went in the freezer and kept beautifully. They are all unfrozen and eaten now. We have declared them the perfect breakfast cake.

belated birthday cake show and tell

Thanks so much for the snack bag love. I love making the videos. It's so much easier than trying to write it out, you know? I love just being able to show you how.

I have been meaning to show the cake I baked Liddy when she turned 3. It's a vanilla cake, from the yellow cake recipe I link to here, with stabilized whipped cream. Genius! The cream really holds up nicely when it's stabilized. I want to try this piped on cupcakes. I really love whipped cream—much more so than most frosting. I served strawberries mashed up on the side, so you could make your own shortcake.

Her requested birthday party theme was butterflies, so I added these paper ones (taped to skewers) that I printed out from Agence Eureka and the candle holder is from Sarah's shop, of course. Each girl has one. I need my own.

Liddy also got this vintage dress and it's so cute it hurts. It came from littleveggievintage over on Etsy. She hasn't worn it yet. I'm not promising I won't take it and hang it up in my art room. I might give it back to her one day.

Unrelated:

I have a Lazy After-Sun Spray recipe posted over at Make Gather Grow. Please check it out along with all the other great Lazy Summer projects Kelly has posted.

we picked some berries

We picked a ton of blueberries and raspberries last weekend and are headed out for more this week. I wrote about this stellar Blueberry Muffin recipe last year and revisited it again this year, and yeah, it's still crazy-delicious. I have also made these muffins with raspberries—outstanding! It's the cornmeal that makes them so good.

More tarts were made as well. Lemon curd with blueberries in the back there and close up, chocolate (melted chocolate chips) with raspberries on top.

no one got hurt and it was fun.

a variety of tarts

Lemon curd with strawberries and coconut.

Sliced red grapes and raspberry jam.

Lavender caramel with sliced banana and chopped almonds.

A larger lemon curd tart with strawberries. (This time without the coconut, but with powdered sugar.)

All getting along splendidly.

It seemed I had an abundance of curds, sauces, and sliced fruit on hand and wanted to use it up—but couldn't make a decision as to how, what combinations, and all that. So, I made several small tarts and had a stupid amount of fun filling them all differently. For the tarts, I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa and used tartlet pans. I filled these four and then froze the remaining shells, (already baked) to use later when I make chocolate sauce. I am really happy with these and love the idea of having already cooked tart shells in the freezer, ready to fill with summer goodness.

Recipes (of sorts) of what I used:

• tart shells (I used this recipe for one tart and just made several small sizes)
• lavender caramel sauce
• homemade lemon curd

asparagus leek soup (with some fennel)

I was looking for some new ways to eat asparagus besides roasted or grilled, which are my favorite, and found a great recipe in Love Soup. I need to say again how much I love this book. I was looking at the Asparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill recipe when I made this version.

I changed it a bit. Here's what I ended up using:

• 2 bunches leeks
• a bunch of asparagus
• one big fennel bulb
• 3 small new potatoes
• a bunch of herbs from our garden (dill and chives)
• juice from a lemon
• salt and pepper
• cream just to change the color (optional)

I cut up the leeks and sauteed them in a little olive oil and salt and pepper for about 10 minutes. Then I added the chopped asparagus, fennel, and potatoes and poured in water until just covered. When it came to a boil I covered it, turned it to low, and let cook for about an hour. Then I used my stick blender on it and added the lemon juice and herbs and the tiny amount of cream. I served it with rye bread toast with chevre. Delicious. If you really blend this until super smooth it makes a wonderful chilled soup. And the fennel taste is very subtle, so if fennel isn't your best friend, don't worry. This soup tastes even better the next day.

I would like to tell you I use homemade broth, but guess what? I don't. Almost never, and my soups are awesome. I just have to say this. If you ever feel like you need a veggie broth to make a good soup, you don't. I mean I know you are supposed to make a huge batch and freeze it and all that, but then you have to know to thaw it and I just don't know that kind of stuff. I decide to make soup and I make it—and thawing frozen both is just not something I can be down with. I don't use purchased broth because of the sodium, plus why buy it when a little water tastes just fine? I think for me the key is to barely cover it with enough water. Also, I make pureed soups about 99% of the time. If I made broth based soups with big old hunks of veggies, I would use a homemade broth for sure.

My other rule is that I never use more than one pot for making soups. So if there is sauteing, or caramelizing onions, or cooking greens, or any of that— it all happens in the soup pot. I know this is not how Love Soup does it, but I still have made delicious soups from that book using my super lazy method of one pot and no broth.

oh, bagels!

I made homemade pretzels a bit back (this will be discussed soon) and had so much fun boiling dough. Bagels were clearly the next project.

I'm not sure why I hadn't tried making homemade bagels before. They are not difficult, don't take long to make (at least with the recipe I used) and are so delicious, they should be illegal. Really, just incredibly good. We love bagels in this house and the really good local ones we buy are .99 cents each. It adds up, man. So, we are making them at home from now on. I made them smaller, 12 from the recipe not 10. The girls love the small size, too. They freeze beautifully.

The recipe I used was from Martha's Baking Handbook and I can't find the recipe online, but found this great post which also used the same Martha recipe with some changes—it's a really really good recipe. The only thing I did differently from this altered version is I used all white flour (I want to try a mix of whole wheat/white next time) and I added about 5-7 minutes to the total baking time.

And I also checked Smitten Kitchen's archives for bagel recipes knowing she would have one, and she does, but dang, that's a lot of text! I just couldn't hang, nor could I wait a day to bake them, so I went for the easier version.

I wanted to make homemade cream cheese for these, but I didn't and really, they got eaten so fast—I didn't get a chance to wait for whey to drip from anything. You know how it goes. Can't speed up that whey drippage. There are many recipes out there for homemade cream cheese, some are simple, some take longer, some use rennet some don't, so I will report back. There is a recipe in this book for cream cheese, but this one looks much simpler. Too simple? Anyone making homemade cream cheese?

homemade whoopie pies

So, these homemade whoopie pies were a huge success. These are chocolate, with a fancy sweetened mascarpone cheese frosting in the middle. For any of you who have never had whoopie pies (Is that possible? Maybe?) they are like two cupcake tops with a filling. They are messy to eat, comforting, and wonderful. You don't need a fancy tin to bake them—I used an ice cream scoop for the dough and it worked great.

The recipes for both the cookies and filling are in this stupidly cute new book, Whoopie Pies. I bought it about 2 weeks ago and have made too many batches since then.

The book is really clever. There is a section for the cake recipes and a section for all the filling recipes—you can mix and match. Of course they provide suggestions. I love the classic marshmallow filling with chocolate, but I was intrigued by the mascarpone filling (which they flavor with lemon but I kept it plain because I was pairing it with the chocolate cookies.)

Two very important things I must note:

1. All the cookie recipes (which are really just like a cupcake top) call for shortening and butter. They say this is a must. I disagree fully, and used all butter in all my batches so far with great success.

2. They provide the classic filling for a chocolate whoopie pie as shortening mixed with purchased Marshmallow Fluff. I love marshmallow filling so much, but I'm not down with this. I am totally fine eating it if I buy it somewhere, or whatever, but I'm not going to make it this way at home. So, what bums me out is they don't provide a homemade marshmallow filling—which can just be a 7-minute frosting. So, when I want a more classic whoopie pie, that's the filing I use—a homemade 7-minute frosting. You have to work fast when using this, by the way. I haven't tried freezing them with the marshmallow filling yet, but with a buttercream or mascarpone filling, they freeze beautifully after they are assembled.

Okay, I did make homemade mascarpone cheese for the filling. This might seem a little crazy, but really, it's so easy to make, and I was looking for an excuse to make some from scratch. It was heavenly and the extra I stirred into mac and cheese. Wow. It's also wonderful on strawberries. All you need is heavy cream, lemon juice, and some time.

Here's a vanilla whoopie pie with mascarpone cheese filling and I added a few raspberries when I mixed it up. These were good, too, but so far, the chocolate is my favorite.

In some research I found this—good lordy!

eating lunch while standing and some links

Here's my favorite fast food lunch. (One that isn't leftovers from dinner the night before.) It's instant miso soup (I'd like to say this is homemade miso soup, but this is my fast lunch, so I'm not going to pretend I make it all from scratch. But I have before. With mixed results. I think I like the saltiness of the instant miso soup too much.)

Anyhoo, I use my favorite instant miso soup, frozen dumplings (I found wonderful frozen kimchi dumplings and instant miso soup at Uwajimaya), and then whatever veggies and mix-ins are in the fridge, like spinach, baby bok choy, grated carrot, and sometimes egg, or tofu—then I add hot chili sauce. I eat this very often. Sometimes I add noodles. I can make it in about 4 minutes, I just boil water and pour it over everything. I defrost the dumpling in the microwave for 2 minutes while the water is boiling. The only thing is it's very low in calories, which is awesome, but adding protein is pretty important, otherwise I get tired and grumpy in a few hours. Baby likes this, too. Minus the hot sauce. The older girls are not interested in the least.

Lunch has always been a challenge for me. It's my least favorite meal by far. I usually just wish I could skip it. Most days I just eat the crusts of the kids' grilled cheese sandwiches. Can't stand to see wasted food, which means I am a human garbage disposal.

If you have a favorite super fast healthy(ish) lunch, please feel free to leave it in the comments.

Unrelated to all of this-

• There is still time to enter the handmade squirrel contest over at The Brooklyn General store. There are really good prizes, so I'd check this out for sure.
• The newest issue of Mix Tape is available, and it's a special kids issue. Very cool.

sourdough pancakes

I have had sourdough pancakes only two times, both at a local pancake house, Pig N' Pancake in Newport, and they are incredibly good. I had to try a homemade version. They seemed like way more trouble than they are worth and are very cheap to buy, which often equals (to me) a really fun cooking project, like the lollipops.

I feel like I went about this a little backwards, making sourdough pancakes from homemade sourdough starter, not sourdough bread, but oh well. Now I have starter for bread, too. After a little research (there is so much out there about sourdough starter—I had to just stop) I decided to make a sourdough starter using only wheat flour and water. When it was ready, I then used this for the pancakes. There are many recipes out there for sourdough pancakes, and most of them use a starter made with commercial yeast, which you use to make a sponge, and then use for your pancakes. Like this recipe here. I want to try it as well, but I was so excited to make a sourdough starter, only using the flour and water, that I went down that road first

So, they were very good, but not quite sour enough for me. I made my sourdough starter only about 3 weeks ago, so I think I just need to wait more. I want to make sourdough bread next and then sourdough biscuits. Now that I have my starter, it will last in the fridge indefinitely, if I keep feeding it. I ended up using the sourdough starter recipe described in the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book I have. Then I used this recipe to make the sourdough pancakes.

I also learned a ton from Amy's Bread regarding homemade starters—this book (the version I link to) was loaned to me about 3 years ago by my grandfather who was an avid bread baker, among many other things. He said it was THE book I needed (and he liked the title) and I glanced at it and thought it was amazing, if a bit over my head. Then it went on the bookshelf. When I needed sourdough starter info I looked in this book, and to my delight, found his handwriting and a turned down page marking which starter he had been making. I got a bit choked up—he passed away about a year ago. I love writing in my cookbooks—making notes and marking changes. I need to keep doing this. Having Grandpa's handwriting in there is priceless.

4 days in Savannah, Georgia

 

I had a long weekend in Savannah, Georgia visiting a dear friend and just got back earlier this week. Typepad has that handy way to schedule posts on a timer, which makes me feel like I have a clone—ha!

I say this like it was no big deal, like I travel all the time, but I don't, although I miss it so much. There's only been shorter road trips since having kids and I haven't flown anywhere since before 9/11. So, this was a BIG deal. Also, it was the longest I had ever been away from my family by about 3 days. Really big deal. We all did fine and it was wonderful for me to get away—eating crazy food, relaxing, walking, and sightseeing. Deep fried pickles were consumed, and while horribly executed, I have faith in this unholy dish and plan to research it with the help of  many of my Fry Daddy owning friends. I also plan to make a variety of homemade whoopie pies, without shortening. We ate some good ones. This is unrelated to Moon Pies, which were also eaten, regrettably. But, come on! I had to. I also am happy to report the mounted antlers I crammed into my suitcase came back intact. The glass plate negatives didn't fare so well, sadly.

It was so great getting away. I am with the kids all the time. I have such little time to quiet my brain. Even the flight there and back, just reading and looking out the plane window, was so amazing to me. Everything around me seemed so funny and light, because I wasn't worried about anyone having to pee, what they would eat, or you name it. I sort of remembered who I was before kids, and it was pretty cool. And in classic Amy fashion, I did almost miss my connecting flight, ran to 3 different concourses and was sweating horribly while sprinting in very non-athletic shoes. My workouts have paid off! It was awesome.

And here's a whole mess of new blogs to look at!

I am in really good company here among Top 50 Best Mom Food Bloggers. I just found out I was in this group and also in the Best Recipes and Healthiest Eating Mom blogs. Thanks to any of you who nominated me! This is awesome.

I had never heard of Babble. It's geared toward moms/parents and has links to more blogs than you can shake a stick at. The bios on the bloggers are really helpful and well done—it's not just a list of blogs. I have already found some great ones I never knew about. I especially like looking at the Mom Food Blog category, Most Fun to Read. And then there's the Most Controversial Mom blogs for when I am short on conversation topics when the ladies and I go out for dinner. Yowza!

I feel strongly about leeks.

Leeks are very popular in this house. Not among the short people, unless it's potato leek soup, but the adults eat leeks all ways. Here they are sauteed and spread onto bread about to go under the broiler with some smoked Gouda cheese on top.

Cooked leeks are not the best photo subject, but oh well. I topped with the hard cooked egg after the broil (but without the cheese, cause that's just too rich for me) and all of it is drizzled with a grainy mustard vinaigrette from Pete's homemade mustard* which is amazing and has been a staple in our house for about 7 years now.

*Update. The mustard recipe is here, he's made all three and does a lot of customizing. You have to try making it, you won't go back to store bough, ever.

We call this the mouth cam. At this point during dinner baby was yelling "Take a picture of my mac and cheese!" Why not? And notice she was eating mac and cheese, not fancy leek toast. That's how we roll around here.

This was all concocted after having a similar dish (minus the bread) at a nice restaurant (Lovely's Fifty-Fifty) and then seeing similar recipes in an old Everyday Food. Here's the grainy mustard vinaigrette recipe and the leeks on toast is based on this recipe, but it's highly customizable, and to me—incredibly delicious, if you are a vinegar, mustard, leek type person, which I am.

the grahams

I made the graham crackers from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. I thought the book/website used the same recipe I linked to last week, but it's totally different. (My bad. I mentioned this in the comments.)

I just saw a great looking recipe at bread & honey, and of course there's the smitten kitchen one here, but I have to say, these were so good I'm not sure if I want to try another recipe. These call for barley flour which is really tasty and gives them a nice snap. I had to increase the milk to make the dough wet enough to work with and I also increased the cooking time by almost 10 minutes and used only brown sugar. I do want to try the chocolate version. You can't see it very well, but there is heavy dusting of cinnamon-sugar on these.

Here's the recipe with my changes included:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup whole barley flour
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 cup chilled butter
• 1/3-1/2 cup milk (you might not use all of this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter (I use a Cuisinart) and then add the milk until a sticky dough forms. Then knead it smooth by hand. This is just like making a pie crust, so only add enough milk to make a dough, but make sure you can handle it and that it's not too dry to roll out. Chill for about an hour. Roll out about 1/16" thick and cut with a pizza cutter into squares (mine here are about 3" x 3") and prick with dots if you want to. Sprinkle with a bunch of cinnamon sugar. Transfer to a sheet and bake 15 minutes-25 minutes, depending on how thick you rolled them and how much milk you used. I actually decided mine weren't crisp enough about 6 hours later and popped then in an extra 5 minutes later in the day and they were perfect. They keep great in a air tight container.

Everyone in the house gives these a thumbs up—which was surprising because they are definitely more natural and less sweet tasting than the store bought kind. So, I am thrilled. They even suggested using them for s'mores. Little geniuses, I say. Another reason to bust out the homemade marshmallows. Twist my arm!

it's that time again—

It's Easter Bonnet time again. I'm not sure if the girls will get new ones this year, the pink linen ones from last year are holding up great. This sewing pattern (it's a PDF now, so you can download it and start sewing today!) is available for a special PDF price of $8 USD. I was able to lower the price because not mailing a paper pattern saves quite a bit in the long run. This pattern comes in 3 sizes —adult, child, and baby.

I love this pattern. It's like an old friend to me now, I have made so many bonnets from it with so many variations. You can make them simple and modest or dress them up with trims, laces, ribbons, silk flowers—you name it.  I also make it without the brim, so it fits more like a cap. I made one here in red wool felt long ago as a winter bonnet.

I was digging though my archives to get some ideas for this week and found more Easter items:

Chocolate Lambs

Easter Cakes

Easter Cookies

 

 

 

spring cake and extras

This was made a bit back to celebrate the first day of spring. Colored sugar is very popular wit the girls and they decorated this chocolate cake (recipe here) with cream cheese frosting (which I never use a recipe for—I just beat a little butter with cream cheese and add powdered sugar and then a little milk until it seems the right texture.)

The remaining frosting went in between graham crackers and into the freezer. I used to make these all the time when I was little and totally forgot about them. They are so good cold with a strong cup of coffee. Outstanding. These are not homemade graham crackers, but I really want to try making some using this recipe.

Some springtime/Easter type items that look so very lovely to me:

• Heidi Egg Cup
• Porcelain bunny and egg candles
• Teeny tiny nests with eggs
• Spring chicken bowl
• Robin egg birdhouse
• Bottles of spring

eggs & rice with matcha salt

This is breakfast —but it could have been dinner. Eggs & rice with matcha salt on top. Eggs are my comfort food. And so is oatmeal. (Not together. That would be weird.) I ate a lot of oatmeal in college for dinner. I still do when I am feeling sad and it always cheers me up—although it sounds so pitiful, I realize.

The eggs here have matcha salt sprinkled on top, which I was introduced to by Mariko last year, or the year before, I can't remember. It's the best. I have been drinking more matcha tea lately and I swear it has kept the flu away. At least that's what I think. Drinking something that green has got to give you super powers. 

I also need to mention that the perfect eggs (for me) are over soft and the foolproof way I make them is to crack 2 eggs in a small pan and then drizzle water around the eggs when the pan is hot and cover with a plate or lid. I keep checking them until they are set—about 2-3 minutes. It works like a charm every time. kind of poaching them with the water/steam, but even easier than poaching. I can't remember where I read this tip long ago. (Martha?)

Here's a recipe for matcha salt and with links. 

Happy Vernal Equinox this weekend! Hello Spring!