Reentry

In which Robin welcomes herself back with a grand announcement...

I'm pregnant.

And the long and short of it is that that is the reason I haven't been blogging.

I quit my job back in May, and my last day was July 6th. And very shortly thereafter, I got pregnant, spent three weeks traveling up and down the eastern seaboard and the following weeks feeling very ill indeed. So here I am, in the middle of my 14th week of pregnancy and starting to feel slightly more human in the moments that Jason and I manage to keep me hydrated and fed (which--let me tell you--is a never-ending battle for a person who normally enjoys a constant state of dehydration and does not enjoy eating).

In addition to the whole building a baby thing, I have actually gotten a lot done in my absence. There's so much making and living and processing that I haven't told you about, and it started to feel overwhelming. So I put it off. And then it was really hard to re-enter the electronic universe when I had been away for so long and not only had to catch up on writing my blog but also on reading everyone else's, not to mention email and facebook and etsy trends and mod cloth new arrivals and playing family feud. *phew* Back when I worked in an office and didn't have enough to do to fill the lonely hours, I built a very complex and time-consuming electronic universe. It was my lifeline. But now that I am not confined to my office, it's a little harder to motivate myself to stay connected online, especially with such a backlog. And that--in addition to being pregnant, and maybe moreso than the excuse of feeling sick--is why I have not been blogging.

But that just about catches us up on a personal level, and I trust you will forgive me for being m.i.a. these past months. I'm officially back now. I promise.

With the exception of August and September, I actually have been pretty consistently diligent on the making front. Here is all I have done in my absence:

• Compiled a recipe book of all my favorites
  

• Finished the massive (5 ft x 5 ft) granny square blanket I started back in February
• Finished Megan's birthday (last November) felted gnome
  
• Finished Amy's birthday (last December) crochet purse
• Made a crazy quilt pillow for my friend Thais's high school graduation present
• Made dolls with a few ladies in my church for a charity
• Learned a new recipe (Avacado Salad) and mastered a few that have previously given me grief (Pizza Dough and Guacamole)
• Wrote an extensive manual for work
• Designed a new crafting space
  
• Made a tote bag/road trip kit for my neighbors who moved to Mississippi

I've decided that that is sufficient for a catch up. I'm not going to write separate posts for the above projects because that's just too overwhelming a task. But if you have any questions or want to hear more about any of them, let me know.

I also:

• Hosted my in-laws and brother-in-law for a weekend
• Moved into a 1-bedroom apartment
  
• Saw Mary Poppins on Broadway
  
• Spent a week at Delanco Camp, during which I was a teacher, craft lady, dean of women, and on the music team
• Spent a week in South Carolina playing with my 4-year-old nephew Jesse and meeting my newborn nephew Micah
• Took a side trip to Williamsburg with my mom on the way back up the coast
• Spent a few random days in Jersey with my family
• Found out I was pregnant

I spent the next two months feeling sick and overwhelmed, but now with the help of bullet points and the start of October, I am turning over a new leaf:

• I'm very close to being finished with a crocheted blanket I started for my dad's birthday (back in April). I finished all the squares last week, and now I just need to hook them together.
• Last Friday, Jason and I played at another Kalos Coffeehouse. This time, we got to be in the front scheduled half of the night instead of the open mic section, which was a nice little love-pat for my ego and also a lot of fun. We played Run That Darkness Down, Orion, and Ebony. Jason played piano on the last two, and I LOVED what he was able to put together. We also figured out that in order to have fun practicing music together, I need to eliminate the phrase "can you do something that sounds kinda like [insert ambiguous semi-musical nonsense]." All in all, despite the fact that our actual performance was a little shaky, I think that it was a great success, if only because we actually enjoyed playing music together during practice, which just might be a first.
• Last night, I did some drawing/coloring to help reconnect with my imaginative self. I drew a morning glory, a little sailboat on the ocean, a scene with assorted fairy tale abodes, and a ballerina playing a 3-stringed mandolin. While I was drawing, I listened to a Seabear album, which was totally relaxing and good for my soul.
• I finally joined Ravelry, which is a huge network of knitters and crocheters. And I found some lovely and exciting free patterns that I really want to make along with some good crochet book suggestions and overall inspiration to start spreading my hooks beyond the realm of the beloved granny square.
• In 4 weeks, I get my first ultrasound, which--if little lemon is cooperating--should reveal the gender of my baby, at which point, I will begin a flurry of baby-themed-making that is gender appropriate and the results of which I have absolutely no room for in our new apartment.

So there you have it. Robin is back.
[hooray! confetti! streamers! hallelujah chorus! cake for everyone!]

Breakfast Pizza

Remember the Great Goat Vote from back in September? Of course you do. Well, as you know, my mom did not win the goats. But that little contest did get me reading the blog that sponsored the contest, and I still read it to this very day. No hard feelings. Okay...a few hard feelings, but I read it nevertheless. Every once in a while, the blog author posts posts called "Probably Something You Would Like." They are little collections of goodies and curiosities and whatnot found online that she thinks her readers will be interested in. Here is an example of a PSYWL. And that just happens to be the very post that inspired one of my weekly makes: Breakfast pizza. Here is the link to the actual website where the recipe is found (sorry...lots of links today) and the picture from that website:
I saw that pizza with the eggs and the cheese and the yummy crust, and I knew that this would be a craving I would not forget. Sure enough, one lovely Saturday morning--the first that Jason and I had together in a very long time due to prolonged weeks of youth group trips and extensive paper writing and whatnot--Jason and I made breakfast pizza. Ours didn't look nearly as good as the original, but seriously...it was amazing.

I changed the recipe somewhat. (Surprise, surprise.) Here, for your duplicating pleasure, is the recipe:

1 pizza dough*
3-4 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
Olive oil
2 Tbs butter, melted
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
4 eggs
Whatever other seasonings and toppings you desire

*Yes, I realize I could/should have made my own. But I actually wanted this to happen, so I just bought some pizza dough from the store. You can generally find it in the bakery section.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Spread a bit of olive oil on your baking sheet/pizza pan/baking stone. Then sprinkle it with flour. Dip your hands and the ball of dough into the flour. On a lightly floured counter top, pat the dough into a disc with your fingertips, then drape the dough over your fists and carefully stretch it from beneath to form a 12-inch circle. (That's probably the right way to do it. But if you're feeling more adventurous, you can try tossing the dough like they do in pizza shops.) Place the dough on your oiled/floured pan. Form a crust by folding the edge over all the way around.
Combine the melted butter with garlic salt and Italian spices. Brush this over the entire pizza, crust included.
Then sprinkle the surface with the Parmesan, then the mozzarella, then the bacon.
Gently break the eggs right onto the pizza. (It helps to do this close to the surface, otherwise the egg will plop into your pizza, sending your cheese flying.) Gently puncture the yolks and spread the eggs out just a bit.
(I know if looks gross. Just run with it.)

Top with whatever else you want. I added some fresh parsley just for color. But I think fresh basil would have been fabulous. You can also try mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, onions, ham...basically whatever you like in an omelet would be excellent.

Bake for 5 minutes, then rotate the pizza. Bake 2-3 more minutes. If your crust is looking dry, brush it with olive oil. Bake 1-2 more minutes. (Total baking time 8-10 minutes)

Cut the pizza into approximately 3 inch squares with a pizza wheel, and enjoy!
I highly recommend this recipe. It's really easy and fun and very cheap to make and will easily feed 4-5 hungry people.
Another fun variation to try would be to split the dough and have everyone make personal breakfast pizzas with whatever toppings they like. How cute would 4 little pizzas with an egg in the middle be! Also, just because it's called breakfast pizza does not exclude it from being a very satisfying go-to dinner selection. There is no bad time for breakfast!

Vanilla, vanilla and...vanilla

I have quite a bit of catch up to do since we're approaching May's midpoint, and I left my blog dormant through most of April. I think for now, I'll just plod along and leave the posts up on the day I post them for a bit, and I'll backlog them later. Here's a post I actually wrote back around Easter weekend but never posted because I couldn't get a camera and a cord and a computer all in the same place at the same time. But I have finally triumphed on that count, so without further ado, here is a very old post for your reading enjoyment:


I have so many baked goods in my apartment right now it's ridiculous. I have The Best Fudge Brownies Ever that Jason made for me. Those are enough to satisfy my every culinary desire. But several special occasions this weekend required my baking skills. And here I am to tell you all about them.

The first occasion was Jason's brother Josh and Josh's friend Justin were coming for a visit. There were driving out from Chicago to visit a couple of schools on the east coast, and they were wondering if they could crash with us. All they needed or asked for was a place to sleep. Yeah, like I could have guests coming into my house and not make sure that they were well-fed. And on top of a family visit, it was Josh's birthday. So of course I was going to make him a birthday cake, right? Right. So Jason called his mom and asked what kind of cake Josh likes: vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. Of course. Talk about my nightmare dessert. Not the slightest hint of chocolate to be found. Oh well. It was Josh's birthday, not mine, so I made him what he would like.

I used a recipe from Megan's mother-in-law that is known as "Mrs. Benson's Cake." It is an excellent doctored cake mix recipe with the perfect texture. (Before you yell at me for not posting the recipe here, rest assured that I am working on a full recipes page, and it will be included therein.) It called for two 10" cake pans, but I only have 8" cake pans, so I used those thinking it wouldn't make too much of a difference. But when the cakes were done they were quite high, and layering them on top of each other would have made for a very tall cake indeed. So I decided to make 2 mini-cakes instead, cutting each cake in half horizontally to add a layer of frosting. Vanilla frosting. I only made one of the two and saved the 2nd cake for later frosting.

Josh and Justin and Jason all really liked the vanilla-vanilla cake. I thought the pillsbury vanilla frosting on a vanilla cake was kind of gross. But they were happy, so one chocolate-less dessert success.

Before my victory could settle, I had to think ahead to my Easter lunch. Jason and I were invited to have lunch with our neighbors, Megan and John (who we LOVE), and a few of their friends we didn't know very well. I volunteered to bring my mom's from-scratch mac'n'cheese (again, recipe forthcoming) and a dessert. Megan was making some sort of chocolate pie, so once again, I felt that I had to make a non-chocolate dessert. "Well, fine," I thought. "At least I already have a good cake to start with. But I am NOT frosting this one with store-bought vanilla icing because it will be gross and I've never met some of the other people we're having lunch with, so this is my chance to make a good impression." So I searched madly through my cookbooks for a good vanilla frosting recipe, which I found in trusty old Better Homes and Gardens. I headed to the grocery store to pick up a box of confectioners sugar.

We were also invited over to my pastor's family's house for Easter dinner. It took me a very long time to get back to them because I wasn't sure what time lunch would be. When I finally worked out the timing, all of the primary dinner elements were covered, so I volunteered to bring...you guessed it...a dessert. But there was no way I would be compelled to make yet another chocolate-less dessert. So while I was at the grocery store, I picked up the ingredients to make Robin's Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake of Deliciousness. (That's what it's called in my family traditions cookbook.) I got everything I needed, and when I got back to my parking spot, I decided it would be a good idea to call and see if it was alright for me to bring a chocolate cake. I expected an answer along the lines of, "Heck yeah! Your chocolate raspberry bundt cake is delicious! No way we're turning that down." But instead I was met with, "Someone else is already bringing chocolate cake." I was crushed, thoroughly discouraged and slightly perturbed and indignant that someone else would dare to make a chocolate cake when I was coming to dinner. Then the small rational voice interjected with, "They probably don't know you're coming and that you're on dessert duty." Okay, okay. Fine. I won't make my chocolate cake. But I am NOT going back to the grocery store. So I trudged inside with my now useless groceries.

I spent the next several hours in a mad search through my cookbooks, trying to find something that was not chocolate (so my dessert wouldn't completely put the chocolate cake to shame, so grand was my indignance) and not vanilla (because I most certainly was NOT going to make 3 chocolate-less desserts in 3 days). After hours spread out on the living room floor with the boys trying to watch March Madness over my indignant huffs and puffs over vanilla desserts, I finally settled on my mom's Cape May squares from my family traditions cookbook. Surprise surprise. I don't know why I have so many books of recipes when I almost always end up making something from my mom's arsenal. I had everything I needed to make them. Except that I'd have to use the confectioner's sugar intended for my homemade frosting. Good thing I bought some chocolate frosting at the grocery store just in case. I hoped Megan wouldn't mind and was somewhat relieved that there would be some chocolate in my weekend.

So I frosted cake #2 with chocolate fudge chip frosting, made my best batch of mac'n'cheese ever, and set to work on the Cape May squares. How can I describe Cape May squares? They are a layered bar with yellow cake on the bottom and...a sort of sweet, cream cheese custard on top. They are way better than they sound. But I wanted to add a little interest so I mixed in some of my homemade strawberry jam with the cream cheese layer. I cut up the squares and put them on a plate so I could test one and make sure they were edible. The result was subtle and delicious. And my presentation of the bars, all arranged in a diamond configuration and covered in powdered sugar and adorned with strawberries and freshly picked flowers, was quite impressive. But I forgot to take a picture. Of course.

So here are the remnants of the vanilla x's 3 Easter weekend.
And here is what I learned: if you're going to make dessert, claim chocolate early.

The Best Fudge Brownies Ever

When I get in a food slump, I like to read the recipes that come on the back of food packaging. I hardly ever actually try them, but they often inspire me to use that food item for something other than the specific purpose for which I bought it.

Cooking is something I want to be really good at. And to be really good at anything, first you have to learn to follow the rules, and then once you've mastered the art, you can break the rules all you want, and then it's called ingenuity. But if you never follow the rules and just do your own thing from the start, you'll never reach mastery of anything. This goes for poetry, music, painting, science, exegesis, driving, language, you name it. Every medium has its limits, and you must first learn to respect those limits before you break them.

But I get bored following all the rules. Which is probably why I'm the jill-of-all-trades type. I learn just enough about something so I can improvise because my goal is always to create something new. (Okay, maybe not with driving, but you get my point.) I run into this issue a lot with sewing. I have a really hard time completely following a pattern. I also have issues following recipes. I like to add my own ideas, change things up, bring something into existence that has never existed before!!! It's just more exciting for me that way. And maybe the end product is not always "better" than the result the recipe or the pattern or the rules stipulated. But it's an exercise in imagination, and I think that's more important.

But then I bought a bag of King Arthur Flour. And on the back was the recipe for "The Best Fudge Brownies Ever." Now I am sure that plenty of people have made that claim, but when King Arthur makes a claim about a baked good, you best listen. So I did. I made the recipe without one single alteration. And let me tell you...these are the best fudge brownies ever. So here, for your culinary pleasure--without alteration or interference from your truly (except to say that I used ghirardelli cocoa and mini chocolate chips)--is the recipe:


"There's no dessert more satisfying than a warm, fudgy brownie; and we daresay these are the best brownies you'll ever bake. Cut through the shiny, delicate top crust to reveal a deep-dark, rich, super-moist brownie underneath, perfect with a cold glass of milk (or a scoop of vanilla ice cream!)."

The Best Fudge Brownies Ever
1 cup (8 ounces) butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Duth-process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups chocolate chips

*Increase the salt to 1 teaspoon if you use unsalted butter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch pan.

In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it's hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. (Heating the butter and sugar a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.) Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl.

Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Add the eggs, beating until smooth; then add the flour and chocolate chips, beating until well combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the brownies for 28-30 minutes, until a cake tested inserted into the center comes out dry (though it may have a few crumbs clinging to it). The brownies should feel set both on the edges, and in the center. Remove them from the oven, and after 5 minutes loosen the edges with a table knife. (This helps prevent the brownies from sinking in the center as they cool.) Cool completely before cutting and serving. Yield: 2 dozen brownies.

(Disclaimer: I forgot to take a picture of my brownies. This is a picture from the King Arthur website from a similar recipe.)

Is your tummy growling yet? Mine sure is. I am thoroughly taken by these brownies. Those of you well versed in the art of brownie-making will know that these are just a touch on the cakey side due to the 4 eggs. So that means they're not quite as chewy as box brownies. For a long time, I thought box brownies were the pinnacle of browniedom. But there's just something about brownies made from scratch. They're just so satisfying. Jason thinks they're a little on the rich side. He's probably right. It's a good idea to make these when you have a few friends to help with the consumption. And seriously, friends and homemade brownies? It doesn't get much better than that.

edit: Blogging about these brownies today was just slightly tortuous. So I resolved to make them as soon as I got home from work. I trudged home through the rain salivating over these deliciocities. And lo and behold, I walked in the door and was greeted by the most fantastic husband ever and a pan of freshly baked "best fudge brownies ever." Yeah, I know. You are all jealous. And you should be. These brownies (and Jason too) rock my face off!

Hot Chocolate

February was a long and dreary month. One day, I decided that the cure would be a nice mug of hot chocolate. So I mixed up my little powder and milk and hot water...and it just did not do the trick. It was simply not chocolatey enough. So I spent my final weekly make of the month trying to figure out the ultimate recipe for hot chocolate. I determined that I could only use ingredients I already had in my kitchen, and I set out for something a little richer.

For my first attempt, I melted a little bit of butter in a saucepan and added a quarter cup of chocolate chips. I melted those down and stirred in a half a cup of milk. I boiled some water separately and added it to my chocolatey goodness and finished it off with a little dash of cinnamon. The result was definitely richer than my package of powder variety. And the cinnamon was a nice touch on the back end of the flavor. But it tasted a good deal like liquid pudding. Which is fine if you like pudding. But it wasn't quite the flavor I had in mind.

So I sought out a little online help and found this recipe. Luckily, I had sweetened condensed milk on hand from sometime when I planned on making key lime tarts and did not follow through. At first, I was slightly grossed out by the idea of drinking condensed milk, but as it turns out, condensed milk is quite tasty.
(Disclaimer: I forgot to take a picture of my hot chocolate for you, so this is the picture taken from the recipe's website. You get the idea.)

This recipe was definitely better than my original attempt. But it still had a slightly puddingy flavor. I think it would probably be better if I used a higher quality cocoa. But my original vision was to melt actual chocolate for my hot chocolate. So I guess I am still on the quest.

If you have a stellar hot chocolate recipe, something smooth and yummy and not pudding-like, please do share! Especially if it includes melted chocolate. The weather is warming up this week, but I don't think there's ever a bad time for hot chocolate!

Puff Oven Pancake

It is no secret that I love me some pancakes. But this one really takes the [pan]cake. A few years ago, I was introduced by my sister Amy to the Dutch Apple Pancake at the Pancake House in Savannah, Georgia. It's basically a pancake that you bake in the oven, and it puffs up all gloriously and has apples baked into it and drizzly sweet goodness all over it. Heaven.

One lovely Saturday on a brisk January morning, I was hungry for some real breakfast food. Something substantial and glorious to get my day off to a yummy start. I flipped through cookbook after cookbook trying to find something that would not require me to get dressed and go to the grocery store. And there is was. Like a long-lost friend: the Puff Oven Pancake. I looked through a couple of cookbooks trying to find a recipe that would incorporate the lone apple I found hiding in the refrigerator drawer. Generally I lean towards the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but this time Betty Crocker came to the rescue with a recipe for an apple puff oven pancake. For your culinary delight [understatement], here is the recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. But 2 tablespoons of butter in a pie plate, and stick it in the oven.
3. Peel and slice an apple. (I use one of these lovelies.)
4. Once the butter is melted, make sure it coats the bottom and sides of the pan. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (a.k.a. edible glory) and about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon in the butter. Then place the apply slices in a single layer in the goodness.
5. Mix 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 eggs, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. (Do not over-mix, or the pancake will not puff.) Pour it over the apple slices.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until it is golden brown.
7. Loosen the sides, and flip the pancake onto a plate.
8. Optional (kinda): top with banana slices, warmed preserves or syrup, and powered sugar, or whatever other combination of sweet/fruity yummyness you have on hand.
9. Do not try to conceal one ounce of your satisfaction.
(Note: it's easiest to eat if you cut it into slices with a pizza wheel.)

And that's it! The best breakfast ever (if you add a side of bacon, of course, which I did, of course), and oh so easy!! I used my strawberry lemon marmalade to top the pancake, which added a nice little zip to the otherwise completely sweet concoction. Here is a picture for you:
(Disclaimer: I promise it is better than it looks.)
Don't you want to just jump up from your desk, run home, and make one right now?!? I know I sure do. Can you tell I'm a little excited about this pancake?

December Special Orders

Man oh man, do I have a lot to tell you! I'm a little miffed that my archives will only show 2 posts for December 2009 when that was my busiest making month yet. I'm tempted to fix the posting dates of these next few posts to put them where they belong, but that feels a little like cheating since it's taken me so long to post them. Maybe I'll do it retroactively when I'm not concerned about this post coming up on RSS feeds. Sneaky, huh? :o) [edit: done and done]

Anyway, on to the old news. In December, I had several special orders to complete. The first was a commission from the professor who asked me to participate in the North Shore Bazaar. She gave each of her kids a little stuffed animal mouse for Christmas. (They're big fans of Stuart Little.) She was making all sorts of accessories for the little mice, and she wanted me to make little felted teddy bears. So I felted two teddy bears, each 2 1/2 inches tall by 1 1/2 inches wide. I gave them each a little heart because I couldn't resist adding a little color. I realized when I finally finished them and brought them into work that I had forgotten to take a picture for you. So I took one with my phone. But I don't know how to get pictures from my phone to my

computer, so I took a picture of the picture on my phone.

It's probably good that this picture is a terrible quality because the bears came out a little on the scary-looking side. I'm not very good at felting eyes (and it probably doesn't help that the one on the right's eyes are yellow). There are just too many little detailed steps that annoy me. (Aside: it's difficult to get two things looking exactly the same when you're sculpting them out of fiber with a needle. I found this to be true for the eyes, the ears, the arms, and the legs, and I decided that I really don't enjoy felting as much as I feel like I should. I like making big shapes, but when it comes to things like faces and getting two legs to match, I'm just not a fan. End aside.) But after much hard work and questions to Jason like, "What kind of animal does this look like?" and "Will those eyes freak out the children?" I finally got the bears into respectable shape. And my client said they were perfect and paid me for them, so all is well.

My second special order came from the Christmas bazaar at the seminary. A friend of mine (Rachel) was trying to pick out an acorn ornament and didn't know what colors to choose. So I told her I could make her a red and green one. I made her a perfect little ornament from my grouped acorns, and I brought it to church, and somehow between the truck and the church, I stepped on it. Poor little acorn caps did not survive. So I went home and tried again. And in the process of felting or gluing or tying on ribbons, I somehow managed to break apart every single little acorn cap pairing that I had. Humph. So I specially designed this little number for Rachel:

This one is more durable than the grouped acorn ornaments, and there are more options for ways to display them, so I'm happy with how it turned out. I still haven't delivered it to her (which is ridiculous considering that we live in the same building), and she's probably already packed away all of her Christmas decorations. Sigh.

My third special order also came at the Christmas bazaar. One of the other vendors at the show (Amanda) saw my apron straps on my table from afar and asked it I could make headbands that looked like that. I told her that I never had but that I was sure I could figure it out. She sent me fabric that matched a dress she would be wearing on a Caribbean Christmas cruise, and I turned the fabric into headbands. I used the headscarf pattern from Weekend Sewing--which is a fabulous book, by the way--altering it slightly (of course) to be more headbandish. Here's how they turned out:

Pretty cute, huh? I think so. It's so hard to find a nicely fitting headband that doesn't give one a headache, but these work quite well. And I got to sew with elastic for the first time ever, so that was pretty exciting.

So...once I finished all of those little lovelies, I could finally get started on the handmade Christmas presents I've been so excited about. Luckily, Jason had 2 major papers to finish out his semester, so I had someone to stay up late with me while I worked into the wee hours of the morning making messes...and a few Christmas presents, too. More about those in my next post.

In the mean time, I thought I'd give you all a little update on the great jam giveaway. I have delivered 2 of my 5 strawberry jams! Woohoo! Only 3 to go, 2 of which also live in my building, so again, this shouldn't be too difficult. But for some reason it is. ::Facepalm:: My goal was to have these all delivered by Christmas. My new goal is before Valentine's Day. Wouldn't a little Valentine's Day Strawberry Jam make the world a better place? I think it would. Thankfully, the shelf-life of these little babies is pretty much forever. So never fear, giveaway winners. Your jam is still good, and I have not forgotten you.

So coming up we have:

1) Handmade Christmas Presents Galore

2) An announcement that all of the jam has been delivered

3) Some very exciting business announcements. Get pumped.

Grand things await us in the very near future.

Show #4

Those of you who know me well will know that I am not happy that show #4 is my final show of the year. I hate the number 4. I don't eat things in 4s. I don't arrange things in 4s. And if 4 is forced upon me, I usually find some way to rationalize it another way, as in: 2 + 2 or 3 + 1 or 25 cents (the last one is instead of 1/4). There you have it. All that to say, I had my 4th show (3 craft shows + 1 exhibit...ahh, that feels better) last weekend. It was a Christmas Bazaar held at the seminary for anyone and everyone who is part of the seminary community to sell whatever they had to sell in the hopes of spreading some Christmas cheer.

In preparation for the show, I decided that I needed to have more Christmas wares. At my last bazaar, I had a lot of fall stuff, and that just would not do for a Christmas bazaar on December 5th. I had all sorts of ideas of felted ornaments I could make, cute little bags, crazy-quilt stockings...all relatively simple and manageable ideas. But not quite manageable enough. I ended up making 13 sheep ornaments with pipe-cleaners and wool and ribbons and little bells and had to abandon the rest of my equally adorable but not quite equally simple ideas. (If you click on the pictures below, you can see the sheep better.)

I replaced my tree branch display from my last show with a little Christmas tree that Jason picked up at CVS on Saturday morning while I was setting up my table. Thanks, Jason. I also used my bread box to display the jam and apple butter to raise the jars closer to eye-level, and I had samples out, both of which combined to greatly improve my preserves sales. Here's my display:
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my sales at the show. I didn't sell as many big items as last time, but I sold more little items, which all together made it a more profitable venture than the North Shore Bazaar, which surprised me, being that this show was for the seminary community, and nobody at the seminary has cash to burn.

I picked up a few little treasures myself. I got several adorable prints from my friend, Heather. (Check out her blog and etsy page. So talented!) She traded me prints for an apron, which worked out quite nicely since I've been wanting a few of her pieces for months now. Hooray for craft shows bringing people together! And I got the most delicious peanut butter fudge I have ever tasted. Ever. Unfortunately, it's one of those "secret family recipes from grandma," and the girl who made it is leaving at the end of this semester, so I don't have time to become her friend in order to weasel the recipe out of her. The thought of going the rest of my life without this fudge is thoroughly depressing. Quite a bleak picture of this fudge-less future. :o( (Seriously, this fudge is life-changing.)

In addition to the lovely little surprise of bringing in some money, and the excitement of finally getting some of Heather's prints, and the yummy-ness of the life altering/wrecking fudge, it was quite an enjoyable show. There was live music, which was lovely, and I even got to sing a few of my songs. My guitar playing was absurdly sloppy, but it was mostly just background noise, so I'm hoping people didn't notice too much that I was playing the wrong chords and changing the tempo all over the place. Gross.

Now I'm looking forward to starting on all those lovely Christmas present ideas I have. And yes, I do realize that I have only 12 days to make oodles (literally oodles) of presents. But if I start tonight, and I make 2 presents a day--or maybe 3 or 5 (obviously not 4)-- I just might manage. But let's be honest. What's more likely to happen is that I will plan and re-plan and over-plan until about the 20th and then kick it into high gear, pulling a few late-nighters or all-nighters and getting everything together just in the St. Nick of time. So I will be sleep-deprived, but by golly, I will craft those handmade Christmas goodies!

Preparations

Wow. Today is November 10th, and I have barely just begun telling you about all of the makings of October! Prepare for an onslaught of creativity here because I have been making like crazy to get ready for the North Shore Bazaar (which was kinda my first show, even though it was my 3rd. Does that make sense?). So here is the past month in pictures, documenting all of my preparations:

Jason and I made another 2 batches of apple butter. We actually picked the apples ourselves this time around and had an excellent time doing it. We even made some new chicken friends.We used Macintosh apples, which didn't change the taste or texture too much from our Gravenstein batch, but their pulp was a beautiful pinkish color that I forgot to take a picture of, but here are the finished 24 jars!

I spun some of the softest (and consequently most difficult to spin) wool I've ever encountered. This wasn't ready for my show cause I still need to ply it. Unfortunately, the tension on my spinning wheel has been off, and I haven't been able to fix it. So that little project is on hold until I can get my wheel to my mom to bale me out of trouble. (Sorry no picture. It looks like yarn.)

The rest of October and the first week of November were spent felting like a crazy person!! I was originally invited to do the North Shore Bazaar because one of the professors who was organizing it saw Charlie and Amadeus in my office. So I felt like I should have some felted products to sell at the show.

So I made three more owls:Henry, Horacio, and Bernie (respectively)

I felted 9 nine pumpkins, and Jason made another 12!!

And I felted 73 acorns. Yup. 73.

My mom and I collected acorn tops on a little excursion to Old Sturbridge Village back on October 23rd. I met her down there and we spent a few hours gathering inspiration and acorn tops before driving up to Maine together for my church's women's retreat. We looked around the grounds of the retreat center and didn't find a single acorn until we took a little walk along the beach and found 2 acorns that had washed up on the shore just for us. How cool is that? We also gathered a fair amount of rose-hips that my mom made into rose-hip jelly. Again, how cool is that?

After all of the rummaging and scouring we did to find the acorn tops buried under the leaves at Sturbridge and providentially sent to us across the ocean, I found a huge crop of gigantic acorn tops right next to my church. Go figure. So I set out needle felting acorn bottoms in all sorts of fall colors to fit into the tops.

I made single acorns that can be displayed in little groupings,

pair acorns that can be ornaments, napkin rings, or a lovely addition to gift wrap,

and acorns on stem wire that can be added to wreathes and floral arrangements.All so lovely and fall-ish.

And after all that, I was satisfied that I had enough inventory for my own table at the North Shore Bazaar, which you will finally get to hear about in my next post. Get excited. :o)

Apple Butter and Mango Salsa

Two weeks ago, I tried my hand at another preserving venture. This time on the menu: apple butter. I love love love apple butter. It makes me very happy. So Jason and I went to Russell Orchards, picked up some Gravenstein apples (a very good variety for sauces), found a tasty-looking recipe online, went out and bought a foley mill, and got down to work. Here are the lovely apples at the beginning:and at the end:(Pictures of apple butter in progress are not very beautiful. But here is a picture of Jason swirling the foley mill, which he enjoyed a lot more than squishing strawberries between his fingers.)I found the recipe here and altered it slightly. Next time, I probably won't use quite as much lemon.

I'm planning on selling my apple butter at show #3 in Peabody alongside the strawberry jam and strawberry lemon marmalade that isn't claimed from my giveaway back in July. For those of you who won, it has not left my mind. I'm making it too complicated, wanting to be all cute and crafty about packaging. But it has a shelf life of one year, so it's still good, and it's still coming your way. I just need to simplify. Surprise surprise. :o)

As a little unrelated bonus, I also made some delicious mango salsa:
I think I got the recipe here, but I'm not exactly sure. It looks awful familiar, but I used red onion instead of green onion. And I made a double batch. And I don't think I followed these amounts exactly. But that's the basic gist. You should definitely make this salsa. It is so very tasty. You won't be disappointed. (Also, a great big thanks to Jason, who spent a very long time cutting up the mangoes into tiny little corn/bean-sized bits.)

With my pole, baby, and my line...

Yesterday at about 4:00, I got a call from Jason. He asked me if I could research recipes for striped bass, or striper. Scott, a friend of ours from church, had taken Jason fishing, and Jason caught a 29 inch striper! He sounded pretty excited on the phone, but truthfully, all I could think about was, "I have no idea how to clean and gut and de-bone and fillet a fish. Please don't make me do that." Images of Julia Child hacking through fish heads with a machete were racing through my head. I think all I managed to say out loud was, "Umm..." Jason said reassuringly, "Scott said he'd cut it into fillets." Thank God. "That's great, Jason. Bring it home. I'll see what I can do."

I was envisioning some very cute little fillets, about the size we buy at the grocery store (because we still haven't found a good fish market, which is unbelievable being that we live in the seafood capital of the world). Well, Jason walks in with no less than 4 pounds of fish. That is a lot of fish. Especially when you have a family of two. I began to envision just how large the fish was that Jason caught for our supper, and I have to say that I was impressed. Still massively overwhelmed, but impressed nonetheless. We decided that since it was alive a few short hours ago, it would probably keep one more day, so maybe we could invite the whole building over for dinner tonight and somehow finish this sucker off. But I'd never made any sort of fish before other than salmon, which is the easiest thing in the world because it already has so much flavor. White fish? I was pretty clueless. So I decided that Jason and I had to be guinea pigs last night before I staked my entire reputation in front of the whole building on fish.

So I got down to business. I did some research and found a recipe for "heavenly broiled striper." It looked...questionable at best, but if it's so heavenly, how bad could it be? I had all the ingredients I needed, but why would I just follow the recipe? Where's the fun in that? So I thought to myself, "You know what this needs? Bacon!" Of course. "And fresh lemon." Yup. So Jason headed to the grocery store while I sat and stared at the leviathan on our kitchen table.

When he got back, I was all ready with the oven set to broil and the pan all ready and the topping made. I had him cut a large hunk out of one of the fillets and set it in the pan. And 15 minutes later, we were eating some of the most delicious fish I've ever eaten in my life.
It was wonderfully satisfying to eat a meal that was actually caught and captured by my husband. It made me want to quit my job (surprise surprise) and move to a cabin in the woods with a little stream and live off the land with my big strong man of a husband hunting and fishing up our main courses while my children and I scampered around the garden and picked berries in the woods. How pioneer-tastic! (I was totally born in the wrong century.) Thank you, Jason, for that lovely little vision and for catching a very large and very tasty fish for our dinner. I am very proud of you.

For those of you who are curious, here's the recipe:

2 lbs. striped bass fillets
1 T. butter, melted
3 T. mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Dash salt
Dash Garlic Salt
Olive Oil
Bacon
Lemon

Set your oven to broil. Coat the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with olive oil. Place a few strips of bacon in the pan. Place fillets on top of the bacon. (If the fillets are thick, put the fish in the oven to broil for a few minutes, to get that side started. Then take it out and flip it.) Combine butter, mayo, parmesan, salt, and garlic salt, and spread mixture on top of the fish. Squeeze a little lemon juice on top. Broil fish 6 inches from source of heat for approximately 10 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and fish flakes easily when tested with fork. (Be careful not to broil fish too close to heat or topping will burn before fish is done.) Serve with a lemon wedge.

And that's it! Easy as...fish. I know it sounds pretty gross and terrible for you with all the oil and bacon and mayo and butter and cheese, but fish is so good for you that I'm sure it balances all that other stuff out. And it really was very tasty. Nice and crisp and parmesany on top and nice and bacony on the bottom. Mmm-mm good. >~O*> (<---That's a fish.)

Culinary Concocting

My mom is an excellent cook. I can only remember one thing in my entire life that she cooked that was not good. It was a crab casserole. I've also heard that her experiment with flan went badly. But other than that, her track record is unscathed. She cooks, she bakes, she preserves, she does it all, and she does it all well. Despite this, I didn't really learn to cook until my junior year of college, when I had an apartment with some wonderful girls. That was the first time in my life when I really had to fend for myself when it came to meal time. (Emily and I were usually co-collaborators, so maybe "fending for myself" isn't exactly what was going on, but you get the idea.) That year was a strange and exciting year of culinary discovery and bizarre cravings... stuffed peppers, scrambled eggs, crab rangoons, and of course, midnight pancakes.

But one of my favorite things to do come meal time was to call my excellent cook of a mother and say, "I don't know what to make for dinner," and she would say, "Well, what do you have?" I would list off the random ingredients in our scantily-stocked refrigerator and cabinets, and she would come up with the most lovely concoctions that were tasty and easy to make. Win-win. During that year, I learned that a kitchen stocked with lime juice, olive oil, garlic salt, salsa, chicken, rice, pasta, crackers, eggs, cream of something soup, and frozen vegetables could take you a long way.

The other night, I got a new cookbook because Jason and I went shopping to get him a new pair of shorts. So naturally, we came home with a cookbook. It's a Taste of Home cookbook. I just love Taste of Home because it's basically like a church potluck cookbook. It has real recipes made by real people with real ingredients that you find at real grocery stores. And it has pretty pictures.

As I was flipping through the pages one night, trying to decide what to make for dinner, not wanting to defrost chicken, I noticed that a few ingredients turned up in a lot of recipes, and I was inspired to rummage through my kitchen, see what I had, and throw it all together. I fried up some bacon. I steamed some broccoli, I made my delicious alfredo sauce, adding a little bacon grease for continuity of flavor, and I cooked up some linguine and tossed it all together into this strange little combination and announced that dinner was ready.Jason is a very kind person. He raved about how delicious it was and how quickly it came together. I thought it was a little weird...strange textures, too much broccoli--maybe asparagus next time. But it was filling and satisfying and not gross, and I didn't have to defrost any chicken after all. Win-win.

Celebrations, Cotton, Cooking, and Catching Up

Last week held an even more important event in my life. If you're finding it hard to imagine what could be more important than Harry Potter, I understand your difficulty. But it's true. Because last week, Jason and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary! [hooray! streamers! confetti!] Goodness, I love that man. He is the very best husband in the whole wide world, and I am one very lucky girl.

But enough mushyness, and onto the making! Looking back, it turned out to be a very creative week for me, which surprises me a bit because I didn't really set out to make anything. Here's a list of the random creative ventures from last week:

1) Jason and I redesigned our apartment. First, we switched our bedroom with our guest room/study/craft space because our multi-purpose room was smaller and quite crowded. Then we went to Ikea--oh how I love Ikea--and got a new rug for our living room and a new duvet cover and new sheets for our bed to make it a little more summery. (After all, the 2nd anniversary is the cotton anniversary... although I'm pretty sure our sheets are mostly bamboo.) Then we got a dresser (see below) for $15.00 at a yard sale and scoured it of all its dirt and dust and spiders, and it is now a very organized storage space for all my fabric. (Don't worry...I made triple sure that all of the spiders were gone before putting away my precious fabric.) Our guest room is now our favorite room in our apartment, and we actually spend time in there happily not tripping over each other.

This would be a great i-spy picture, don't you think? Can you find 2 turtles, a tiger, my teddy bear Night-Night, and at least 25 fish? How bored are you really?

2) As part of our anniversary celebrationing, Jason and I went back to Russell Orchards (where we harvested the strawberries for the jam) and picked blueberries and the most beautiful raspberries I've ever seen.

Although I didn't make anything out of the berries, I greatly enjoyed eating 2 quarts of raspberries in 2 days. Well, I let Jason have a few.

3) I made another loaf and a half of banana bread. (It was identical to the last batch, so I didn't take a picture.)

4) I made a batch of the famous Niki Giberson spaghetti sauce, which is always a creative venture because I have no idea how much of each spice I'm supposed to throw in there. I'm getting better at guessing though, and this batch was quite good with very little altering along the way. (I've found that it helps to add a little salt, which brings out the flavor of the spices.) It seems that whenever I ask my mom for a recipe for a favorite meal, she's very good at telling me what ingredients to use, but when I ask for quantities, she usually says something like, "enough" or "until it's the right color" or "when it tastes good." Even though this can be a little frustrating when I'm trying to curb my homesickness with the exact taste of her home-cooked goodness, it's made me a better, more confident, and more creative cook than I otherwise would have been. Thanks, mom!

5) I'm not sure if this was a July-make or not, but I picked it up from the pottery place in July. This is a plate that I painted to go with my pear fondue plates.

It seems I always have two much fruit to fit in the little serving sections of my fondue pot, and using a bunch of separate bowls is quite inconvenient when you live in a malicious dishwasherless apartment. So I'll use this lovely little dish to supplement the fruit choices without over-supplementing Jason's dirty dishes quota. (Yes, Jason does almost all of our dishes. Have I mentioned that he is the best husband in the world?)

6) I also collected fabric for a few projects to be given as gifts next week when I'm in Jersey. I plan on finishing them up this week and then posting about them after they have been received. Be excited. They're pretty sweet!

And now...finally...I am all caught up with July. [hooray! streamers! confetti!]

And the winner is...

For the holiday weekend, I am heading up to New Hampshire to hang out with some friends. Jason is staying behind and joining us on Sunday. I feel bad abandoning him, but he has a large exegesis paper to work on, and I'm leaving him with this week's make:a fresh loaf of banana bread (made from the recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook) and some chicken tortilla soup I made earlier. (I'll post the recipe for that at some point. It's a good one.) So I'm off to New Hampshire, knowing my husband will not starve in my absence.

And now to the moment you've all been waiting for. Drum roll please....and the winner is...
Everyone!! If you commented on my Strawberry Fields Forever post, you will soon be receiving a jar of strawberry jam and/or strawberry lemon marmalade. Let me know what your preference is, and I'll send it out right away. (I believe I have all of your addresses, or I live in your building.) Congrats to all the winners, and happy 3rd of July!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Still catching up...two weekends ago (on one of the very few non-rainy days we've had this June), Jason and our neighbors and I went to Russell Orchards. They were having a strawberry festival with strawberry picking and strawberry shortcake and strawberry wine tasting and music and face painting and balloon animals, oh my! It was the perfect day to slave away in the strawberry fields...not too hot, not too cold, gentle breeze, beautiful, bright red strawberries...So we picked and picked and picked until we had 4 quarts of berries. But what on earth were we to do with 4 quarts of berries? Make strawberry jam, of course!

So I washed and de-stemmed all the berries. Then Jason and I squished and squashed and squashed and squished enough strawberries for one batch of strawberry jam and one batch of strawberry lemon marmalade. Jason wasn't really a fan of getting his hands all sticky, but oh how I love the feeling of strawberries squishing between my fingers.The recipe calls for 5 cups of strawberries, one packet of Sure Jell, and 7 cups of sugar. It was so pretty swirling in the pot that I couldn't resist taking a picture.Once all the jam was cooked and jarred, Jason and I played a game of Ticket to Ride and listened for the pops. Every time a jar popped, I would get all excited and say, "Did you hear that?!?" Finally, Jason asked if I was going to ask him that every time a jar popped, and I said, "Yes. That's how it's done, Jason." You see, I am a 4th generation jelly maker. When my great grandmother Manya came to the US and opened up her tea house, she made her own jam. And the tradition has been passed down to her daughter and my mom and to me and my sisters. That sound of the jars popping as the lids seal ensures the preservation of the jam. But it also preserves a sweet and tasty tradition that I am proud to be a part of.Mmm...doesn't that look so scrumptious on my little jelly table? Don't you wish you had some homemade jam or marmalade to spread on your toast or your pb&j sandwich or some club crackers? Well, I figure if soulemama can do giveaways, then I can, too. So...if you would like a chance to win some, leave a comment specifying whether you want a jar of strawberry jam or strawberry lemon marmalade or a sample of both, and I will randomly select a winner by the end of the week. (Mom, Amy, Megan, I know you all make your own jam, but you're still welcome to enter to try some of mine.) Best of luck! I hope you are having a sweet, sticky, strawberry summer!

A Tasty Dinner and a New Friend

This evening when I set dinner on the table, I was struck by how pretty it was, so I ran for the camera and decided to share this little beauty of a dinner with you:(Sidenote: I don't think my mom has ever brought a pot or a skillet to the dinner table. But my mom also has a dishwasher, and I just don't feel like washing an extra, unnecessary bowl for some chicken. However, I do look forward to someday when I do have a dishwasher that isn't me or Jason, and on that glorious day, I will use the appropriate serve-wear. Phew...it feels good to get that out.)

Moving on...this is one of my favorite meals for three reasons: 1) it is super easy and fast; 2) I always have the necessary ingredients already in my kitchen; 3) it's one of those delectable meals that is tasty and satisfying without being too heavy. So here's what you'll need:

Olive Oil
Lime Juice
Italian Seasoning, Oregano, Garlic Salt, Poultry Seasoning, Salt
Chicken (I use tenderloins)
Pasta (best with angel hair, but spaghetti works, too)
Parmesan Cheese
Butter
Corn

Put some water on to boil for the pasta. While that's heating up, drizzle enough olive oil in a sauce pan to cover the bottom. Then squeeze in some lime juice. (I don't know...maybe a teaspoon?) Sprinkle in some garlic salt, oregano, and Italian seasoning, and heat all that up on medium, letting the lime and spices season the olive oil. When the skillet is hot, cut up the chicken into bite-sized bits. Saute that, and cook your pasta. Add Italian seasoning, poultry seasoning, salt, and olive oil to the pasta while it's cooking. When there's a minute or two left on your pasta, and your chicken is cooked through and browning, cook your corn. (I use the steamable one-portion bag of frozen corn 'cause it's easy.) When the pasta is done, drain it, and coat it in butter, Parmesan cheese, and salt. Then top it off with the chicken and corn, and walla! A lovely, fast, filling meal that's done all at the same time! (One of those bagged salads with all the fixin's included is a nice touch.)

But...that's not this week's make.

For dessert/small group, I made another one of those delicious chocolate raspberry bundt cakes, and I finally remembered to take a picture of it. I didn't allow it to cool enough before I flipped it out of the bundt pan, so it has some holes in it, but you get the idea.


But that's not this week's make either.

Because I have a new friend. And I'm making something with her. I don't know her name yet. (I'm guessing it ends in y...like Sally or Daisy.) But I'm hoping we get to know each other really well. We got off to a bit of a rough start. She took a bite out of my finger (note the band-aid). But we made up. See? It looks like we're the best of friends already! :o)