Sewing 101 - The Three Year Old Version

Well since I got my St. Patrick Days willies out yesterday, Evie and I spent most of the morning running around in the sun. But once she had run herself out we decided to come inside for a rest and a project.

A couple of weeks ago I was sewing one afternoon and Evelyn sat in my lap, fascinated by the machine and the result.

While she is still a few years away from using a machine and probably not quite ready for a real needle and thread, I thought she might like to try sewing cards.

You can buy sewing cards in every shape and color, but instead I decided to have her draw her own images for the cards which turned out to be just the thing for a little afternoon quiet time . Ok, so the truth is I probably would have bought some if the thought had struck me while I was out and about, but I was feeling lazy, and a little cheap (hey, I have a whole garden to plant in the next couple of months! I can't be wastin money on sewing cards :)) So, what is the phrase, necessity is the mother of invention? We'll so is penny pinching cheapness, right? Right.

Evelyn draws "Walking Monsters" no matter what you ask her to draw these days, so she did one monster on his own and also a family. I drew a house for the family, at her request :) All were on a good heavy cardstock.




I cut around the edges and punched holes ever inch or two then gave her some yarn that had one end wrapped tightly in tape. Easy and perfect.


And when she get's bored of them? Well, we'll make some more. Best kind of game in my book.

A St. Patricks Day Treat

Back when Will, Briton and I lived in Dublin, we were lucky enough to have an incredible bakery in the little village within the city where our flat was located. Well, lucky and unlucky. Because it was so good. And so handy, it was hard not to go every day for a fresh baguette, a gingerbread man, a hand sized Pavlova stuffed with dense cream and blueberries. It didn’t take us long to become regulars. The woman who ran the shop knew that Briton liked to choose his gingerbread man based on the color of his candy buttons and she always wrapped it in it’s own little waxed paper bag, bringing it around the counter to him, even on the busiest days. She good-naturedly explained what the different desserts were to me whenever I asked, and she introduced us to Banoffee Pie.

Will actually discovered them. He came home from work one day describing a pie they had had for a birthday. Sweet, carmely, with cream and a weird crust, good weird. It sounded wonderful, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what he had eaten. A few weeks later he spotted it at our bakery, miniature versions the size of a saucer. We brought one home and devoured it. In fact, I don’t think we even shared any with Briton.

When I quizzed my friends about this miraculous dessert one piped up and claimed it was a delicacy from the North, which didn’t really surprise me since she, a Belfast girl, generally claimed any treat as being a native of “The Narth”. But whether it’s a true Irish dessert, a product of Belfast or, as a recently read, a tradition of the American South, it’s good, and even better, it’s simple.

I will give you one word of warning (well two, you are going to get addicted, I’m just telling ya) DO NOT use the sweetened condensed milk that has a pop tab. I tried an old camping stick it in the coals trick and it exploded, fortunately not harming anyone (there were some singed sweater) but I still have nightmares about it. Use the old kind of can and make sure the water stays topped OVER the edge of the can. But don’t let this scare you, it’s worth the weird cooing method.

Banoffee Pie

2 cans of Sweetened condensed milk

1 large package of Digestive Biscuits (you could use graham crackers in a pinch, but I wouldn’t:

3/4 stick of butter, melted

Heavy cream

3-4 ripe bananas

You want to start this in the morning to give yourself plenty of time for the caramel to cook and cool. Put the cans of milk into a large pot and cover them with water. I don’t like the cans to touch, but that’s just me. Pop them into the oven and bake them at 300 degrees for four hours, keeping an eye on the water level to make sure it doesn’t boil off. Remove the cans from the water and allow them to cool for a bit. Open one can to check the doneness. If it’s too light ( you want it the color of a Kraft caramel candy) put the other can back in for another hour. Cool and set aside.

About two hours before serving, whiz 3/4 of the package of biscuits in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Spread some of the remaining biscuits with a teeny bit of butter and a slice of cheddar (trust me!) for a snack while you are whizzing away. Pour in the melted butter and mix until you have a somewhat moldable texture. Press this into a pie or tart pan using the bottom of a glass. You want it firmly packed with a nice thick wall on the sides.

Pour the caramel into the crust (mixing first if you had to cook it longer to get a consistent color and flavor) and shake slightly to achieve a smooth surface. Pop this in the fridge until just before you want to serve. If you want you can prepare up to this point several days in advance and freeze the crust until you are ready. Some bakeries in Dublin sell just the shell and caramel so you can add the amount of bananas and cream that you like.

When you are ready, slice the bananas in 1/4-inch slices and heap onto the top of the pie. Whip the cream, unsweetened, and mound on top of the bananas.

This is deadly sweet, although the unsweetened cream helps but I bet you will find yourself groaning that you can’t possibly eat one more bit while at the same time piling more onto your plate. I only make it once a year just for that reason. Plus calories from Banoffee Pie don’t count on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m sure of it.

Oh and PS - No photos of the pie with the banana and cream on top because, well, it was just too tempting to wait, even for a photo break :) Happy St. Pat's everyone!

Garden Tracking

Although my tendencies run, as we know, toward list making, I've never been much of a list or plan person in the garden. I might start out with a plan, but as soon as the plants start showing up in the nurseries and farmers markets, or the seedlings in the window are ready, the plans go out the door. I always admired the beautiful garden journals but knew I'd never use one.

So I'm not sure if it's age or practicality or just the desire to do something different, but this years garden has been the subject of a myriad of plans and lists. And not just the vegetable garden. I've gone through plan after plan for every outdoor space we own. Bed layout, plant selection, seating, dining, they've all figured in there here and there. Part of it is just winter dreaming. There's nothing better than flipping through garden books on a cold winter's night and imagining the yard, fully mature, at the height of summer. But part of it is a real desire to make this yard ours. When we moved in there wasn't much beyond a glorious cherry tree and three slightly worse for wear dogwoods. Last summer we spread mulch for the flowers beds but other than a few daffodils and some pansies and pinks, didn't really plant anything. But then again, last summer we were in full blown kitchen renovation, whole house painting and counter top pouring. We barely had time to breath much less plant flowers. This year will be the summer of the garden.




Over the weekend we finished adding soil to the vegetable beds, set out seeds for carrots, parsnips, beets and lettuce and put a fig tree, a few bags of spring bulbs and a flat of spurge out in the flower beds.





The chickens came over and rolled around in the mulch while Will planted more pansies along the fence and I plotted out what we had planted. I've always envied those gardeners that can tell you the name of every plant in their garden. Not just the plant but the variety. I've never been one. And there's no guarantee that I'll remember the names of what I've planted, but at least it's written down so I can go look.



The sun is supposed to be out most of the week with only a few chances of a drizzle so it seems like it is well and truly spring, no matter what the groundhog said. We've got morning glory seeds to plant at the gates and asters, cosmos, violas and flax seeds sprouting in the mudroom and the neighbor down the road has a box full of lily bulbs for me as soon as he can get them out from under his porch. Spring.

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