Charmer

Yesterday, out of the blue, Evelyn told me "You're my best friend mommy." Which, as you may have already guessed, melted my heart right then and there.

We've been walking a lot more now that the weather is nicer (although it's nasty and raining out there at the moment, but that's ok, I got my onions in) Walking to the school to pick Briton up. Walking downtown, walking around the neighborhood, the yard.

I'm home with Evie almost all day everyday but while we are home we are often doing. She is coloring, I'm cleaning, or we're reading books, or she's playdohing and I'm writing..any number of things. We're always doing. But when we are walking we're just...together. We play I spy and talk about clouds and she tells me I'm her best friend.

Next year she will go to preschool three mornings a week, and things will be different. In many ways. So I'm trying to enjoying all the at home moments that I can. I'm still writing and cleaning and making and reading. But I'm also trying to do more coloring and day dreaming and I spying.

Today while she napped I made her a headband. Because I'm her best friend. And best friends do that kind of thing.

This was one easy head band.

I cut two long strips from standard pieces of felt. One was two inches wide, the other was one and a half inches wide. From some scraps I cut out two little bluebirds that would fit easily on the skinnier strap.





After gluing the birds with fabric glue I stitched the straps together with some bright green thread.









And then I used one of the cool stitches on my machine to secure pieces of ribbon (about 10 inches long for each) into the hole between the two layers. Oh, and I added legs and beaks. Because let's face it, they would look weird without legs and beaks.


That was about it. She thinks she looks like a princess in it and, as her best friend, I'd have to agree.

Brioche Cinnamon Rolls

While I'm still spending as much time as I can on the garden before the rain comes (please no, give me one more day...more compost needs to be spread, onions need to go in the ground. Please, please, pretty please!) I did have a chance (excuse) to do some baking this morning.

Actually, I started last night. Because it was a school morning, and I am not waking up at the crack of dawn to give a yeast dough enough time to rise for breakfast. But starting last night and letting it rise in the fridge, well that I can do. Once in a while.

I've actually made this before. The dough is based on the Brioche dough in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day with a few alterations (starting with making a lot less) and the technique is based on one I learned in one the the Avoca cookbooks. And by technique I mean that, unlike regular cinnamon rolls, I pressed 1/4 of the dough into the bottom of a spring form pan. This does two things. One - it keeps all the gooey stuff from getting stuck on the bottom of the pan and Two - all that gooey stuff caramelizes in the buttery dough on the bottom, which is a good thing.

Usually when I make these I go nuts on the filling, double what this calls for. And in that case you get a really gooey, sticky, wonderful cinnamon roll. Today I used a more conservative amount of filling because, well, really I was more in the mood for Brioche with some cinnamon roll filling than cinnamon rolls that taste a little of Brioche. So it's your call. Double the filling or leave it as is. I like it both ways. Evelyn seems to too as I caught her sneaking her second (and they were big) cinnamon roll when we came in from digging.


Brioche Cinnamon Rolls

3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 T yeast
1 T salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks melted butter(reserve wrappers for greasing pans)
3 cups unbleached flour

Mix the water with the yeast, salt, eggs sugar and butter then work the flour in with a wooden spoon. It will be lumpy and sticky and ugly. Let it rest for either 3 hours or one hour and then in the fridge (covered with a tea towel) overnight.

In the morning preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cut roughly 1/4 of the dough off and press into the bottom of an oiled pan (how much dough exactly really depends on the size of your pan, I like my 9 inch spring form or a 9 inch pie pan)

Roll the remaining dough out into a large rectangle and spread with a mixture of

1/2 stick melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 T Pumpkin Pie Spice

Roll it up and slice into eight rolls. Space these out evenly on the bottom layer of dough in the pan, they will puff up in the oven so don't worry if there seems to be a lot of space between them.

Bake 25 minutes.

Sometimes I make a glaze for this but it doesn't really need it. Like I said, if you want them to be really sweet, make more filling. It occurred to be while I was rolling out the dough that this dough would make a good monkey bread. Not that I've made monkey bread before, but it seems like it would be a good fit. I mean brioche, cinnamon, butter, sugar, basically cinnamon rolls but in little stuck together ball form. Humm....

And the Sun Returns After All

What was it..two..three weeks ago that I was whining about the thick layer of snow that still covered our yard? Well it's amazing what a couple of 60 degree days can do. There are still patches of snow, in the shadows and under bushes, but the soil thawed enough that we were able to borrow a roto-tiller this weekend and dig in our garden. It took us a while to agree on the bed placement (north-south or east-west, leave room for the possibly-some day we will want a drive way here or use all the land we've got and change things later if we need to, and there there was the "do straight lines really matter? question) but eventually we had two 3 foot by 24 foot beds and two 3 foot by 8 foot beds. It's a lot of garden space but we did say we wanted a huge garden.We also planted more seeds in some interesting looking, recycled toilet roll planters that I made.

And then yesterday we had a huge pile of mulch and a slightly smaller pile of compost delivered for spreading on the flower and vegetable beds, so today I've had a hard time coming inside to do much of anything while the sun beckons and the soil waits to be moved.

When Evelyn was a baby I spent pretty much the whole of her first summer and fall outside trying to create a garden in the backyard of our house in Portland. When we bought the house there was a glorious apple tree in the yard and not much else. While Briton dug in what was supposed to be a gravel filled fire pit but quickly became a gravel filled digging pit and Evelyn lay peacefully on a blanket in the shade with her toys and the leaves above to distract her, I double dug beds, put down mulch, fought back the encroaching blackberry vines and generally had a wonderful time. In fact, it's one of my favorite summers of all time. So getting out with the dirt today was just what I needed after this long long winter.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and all week, and into the weekend, so I'll probably get grumbly again. But for now.... ahhh blessed sunshine.

What's Better than Cake Balls? Oh yes I did!

That's right, Brownie Balls. And can I just say. Yuuuummm. And also the next day. Even Yummmier.

Last week I was writing an article about Cake Balls and had this thought that involved chocolate and chocolate ganache, and more chocolate and maybe some chocolate liquor and some more...uh, you get the picture. All of that wrapped up in cake ball form. So when some friends invited us over for dinner and a Ponyo viewing, I jumped at the chance (excuse) to try my idea out.

This is basically that brownie recipe from last week with the butter and chocolate reduced a bit to make it cakier, the chocolate chips removed from the batter and used instead in the drizzle and a little fun in the form of some Vanilla Rum (not chocolate liquor on hand, so sad, I'll just have to make it all again...)

The one thing I will say is that, while they were good-rich, moist and seriously chocolaty, the next day the rum had soaked into the cake and created an almost truffle like denseness. So if you can keep away from them, hide them if you must, let them mellow for a day before diving in. Trust me...it's worth it (But I wont tell if you eat one or two before hand)

For the Brownies

4 T butter, diced
2.5 ounces chocolate 70% or better
1/2 c + 2 T flour (I used bread flour and liked the results, but AP flour would be fine I think)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar

For the Ganache

4 ounces chocolate 70% or better
3 ounces half and half or cream (since these were going to be pretty rich, I went with half and half instead of cream, just to lighten it a bit)

For the Coating

12 ounces chocolate (I used a mix of chocolate chips, good chocolate and bittersweet bakers chocolate)


Preheat the oven to 325

Melt the chocolate (for the brownies) with the butter in a double boiler. remove from heat and allow to cool a little before adding the sugar and then the eggs, one at a time.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and then pour in the chocolate mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour into a well greased cake pan and bake 30 minutes.

While the cake is cooling (all the way, don't crumble it too early!) melt the ganache chocolate in that double boiler and mix in the cream (warm it up a little first or it will seize the chocolate) Stir briskly until the chocolate is smooth and glossy.

Fold the ganache into the cake and add a shot of vanilla rum (that would be a bottle of rum with a vanilla bean soaking in it) Roll the sticky cake chocolate concoction into 2 inch diameter balls.

As with the cake balls, chill the brownie balls in the fridge for a bit while you melt (again, I know) the last batch of chocolate and roll the balls around one at a time until they are evenly coated, removing them to a wire rack or freezer paper to harden. Drizzle any excess chocolate (add a little milk if you need to thin it out) over the top to pretty them up if you like. I'm sure they would be tasty without but hey, you can never have too much chocolate

Almost Spicy Brownies

Ever since I read (and saw) Chocolate, I've been fascinated by the idea of chocolate with chilies in it. And come to think of it, my favorite chocolate bar, the one that I'd rather have than a whole box of Hershey's, is a slightly spicy coconut curry variety from 3400 Phinney. But I've never used anything spicy with chocolate when I've baked with it. And since I was in the mood for brownies last night, and I had some decent chocolate bars, one of which had chilies mixed in, I figured, hey, why not. The proportions for this recipe come from the Cooks Illustrated Brownie Recipe. I've halved the recipe and made a few changes to incorporate the type of chocolate I had. It make a cake pan or a 8 by 8 brownie pan full of lovely, dense and just barely spicy (more warming) brownies. Just the thing for a cool, crisp weekend.

6 T butter, diced
3 ounces of 85% cocoa chocolate.
5 ounces of chili chocolate (I used Lindt)
1/2 c + 2 T flour (I used bread flour and liked the results, but AP flour would be fine I think)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 T flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325

In a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl mix the flour (minus the 1 T at the bottom) the baking powder and salt. Add the sugar to the melted chocolate and then whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. In a small bowl toss the remaining 1 T flour with the chocolate chips until they are well coated. Discard any excess flour and add the chips to the brownie mixture. Pour into a well greased pan and bake until a toothpick comes out almost, but not quite, clean. For my oven this was 27 minutes. Check every 2 or 3 minutes after the 20 minute mark so they don't over cook. Cool for about 30 minutes before removing from pan and slicing.

Clementine Box Storage

I am generally (if you hadn't guessed by now) a clean up after each activity and put things away kind of girl. What can I say, I like things to be tidy. But every since the advent of the magical playdoh recipe, rolling, cutting and squishing dough has become a regular part of our day. Rather than fetching and putting it away three or four times a day, the playdoh and various cutters have lived in an old clementine box on our dining room table pretty much constany for the past month and a half. Size-wise, the box is perfect. If you've never salvaged a clementine box for corralling doo-dads, your missing out. They are sturdy, stackable and perfect for keeping everything from tools to art supplies in. I have a stash of them in the basement and the guest room closet holding all kinds of bits and bobs. There's just one problem.

They are kind of ugly.

Well, not always, last week I bought a box of clems before we really needed them because the box had "Darling Clementine" painted on it's sides. It's vintagey looking and fun and looks pretty cute with my mason jars full of thread nestled inside. But most of the boxes we've gotten aren't so spiffy, the playdoh holder included.


So since I can't see an end in site to our current playdoh love (we've moved on to green from our original blue batch because someone fed most of the blue to the dog. I'd be shocked except Nigella will eat anything, she's a child's dream dog. Broccoli? Sure, Eggplant? Yes Please. Playdoh? yummy! Playmobil dolphin? Absolutely - well that one didn't go down that well with the kids. But hey, it's a good reason to keep their toys picked up!) I decided to do something to make the box more live-with-able. Enter Modge Podge.

I'll be honest, this is not the easiest thing to decoupage, mostly because it's not smooth. Clementine boxes are put together with big nasty staples which results in a slightly lumpy finish. But even lumpy was better than how it started.

I took apart a couple of old High Five Magazines which, by the way, are the best thing I've found for recycling into kids crafts. Tons of fun art, poems and pictures and fairly sturdy paper. While Evelyn practiced scissor skills (left handed or right? She's not totally sold on either....) I pasted and podged.



Instead of trying to cut the edges to fit the slightly uneven sides of the box, I used larger pieces of paper and then went back and trimmed with a razor blade which worked pretty well as long as I was patient enough to let things dry all the way before trimming, which I sometimes wasn't. But all in all I like the result and am thinking of making another for the markers and paper that spend most of their time on the coffee table. Would it be terrible though to make that one match the living room decor????

Oh, and here's a tip that I'm sure I learned when I was studying to be a kindergarten teacher but forgot when I had children and part of my brain disappeared. Dont set out all the cookie cutters all the time. We have a HUGE bowl of them on a high shelf in the playroom and every few days I pick ten or so to put in the box, rotating them through. Having less choice actually makes her more interested, and getting to see what cutters are in the box is always a fun surprise. Geesh, you would think that one would have stuck. Blame it on Mommy Brain...

Spring Hopes Eternal

That was not snow I saw fluttering down this morning. It is not in the forecast for tomorrow. It will all be melted away by this weekend so I can get to work on my garden. I'm sure of it. I'll keep saying it over and over until it's true...

Ok, so none of that is true. I wish it was because I'm ready for spring. I've never been so ready for spring in my life. Evelyn and I went out the yard yesterday, her to swing, I to knit in my chair. It LOOKED like spring. Muddy, yes, but the sun was out. Surely it would be warm enough for some desperately needed outside time. After about ten minutes we gave up and came in, fingers blue, shoes muddy beyond recognition.

But despite the coming snow (sigh) and the cold and the wind (I sound like a broken record don't I?) I've decided to move ahead with planting. Today I planted out three flats of flower seeds, now sitting in a row on my little mudroom window greenhouse. Tomorrow I'll get the lettuce going, and maybe the bok choy. The seeds I started last month are sprouting nicely, making me smile whenever I come in the mudroom door from a cold walk, or even a cold dash from the car. Spring will come. It will. At least, I hope it will.