Short Attention Span Girl

Yogurt Success!

2010-09-02T20:57:46Z

When I was doing the natural foods challenge not long ago I tried yogurt making again. This time I tried the crock pot method. Blog after blog declared what a great method it was. Maybe for them. Me? Yogurt soup again. Also, the whole timing of heating, then resting, then stirring, then letting sit for 8 hours just didn't really fit my schedule.

Lately we've been using our dehydrator more. My husband made some really delicious beef jerky. My parents apple trees needed picking so two huge batches of apples were dried. The dehydrator book said that it could be used to make yogurt. I decided to give it a try.

Success!

Much faster and easier than the crock pot method. It only took 3 hours. Even with non-fat milk I ended up with thick yogurt without adding any powdered milk, gelatin or anything at all extra.

I decided to drain the last batch for greek style yogurt and made these yogurt parfaits. I love these because you make them, press a little plastic wrap on the top and stick them in the fridge. When you are ready your delicious yogurt treat is ready for you. This one is topped with some of Ashley's Banana Coconut Granola (just scroll down to recipe #3).

Perfect!

I was particularly happy to have this waiting in the fridge for me after another day of hot and sweaty yoga! I just pulled out a spoon and sprinkled on the granola and was ready to dig in. Perfect fast food breakfast.

Yes, I did survive to take another yoga class today. I got up and felt great; just a teeny bit sore in a couple of places. Then I went to class and when we started doing those poses I realized that actually everything hurt. It still felt great to take class though, and while I do still have some sore spots I'm glad I went.

The original recipe for the parfait calls for pureeing a mango and two bananas for the fruit layer. It is delicious that way. However, my fridge is overflowing at the moment with peaches and nectarines so that is what I used - two of each. I peeled the peaches but not the nectarines.

Yes, the fruit did get a little brown - those fruits do that - perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice would help fend off oxidation. It tasted great though.

Peach and Yogurt Parfait

Adapted from a recipe found in an old issue of Hallmark magazine. Try other fruits or even applesauce instead of the peaches. The original recipe called for one mango and two bananas and is very good.

3 C plain greek style yogurt

2 T honey

1/2 t vanilla

4 peaches, peeled

honey to taste

1/2 t vanilla

Stir together the yogurt, honey and vanilla and set aside.

Puree the fruit, vanilla and honey (if needed) until smooth in a blender or food processor.

Place 1/4 cup of the yogurt mixture in the bottom of each of six serving dishes. Divide the fruit between the dishes. Top with remaining yogurt and smooth to cover the fruit.

Cover and chill.

printable version - yogurt_parfait.pdf

- - marcella

Beans and Things

2010-09-01T23:03:00Z

The more you eat, the more you toot

The more you toot, the better you feel

So eat your beans at every meal!

I can't help it, sometimes I revert to a 10 year old.

Busy days call for easy and quick dinners. This is one of the few vegetarian meals that I made that doesn't elicit the comment "this is really good, but you know what would make it better? Sausage!" What can I say? The men around here love meat. They also love these tacos, so why not make some for your favorite carnivore?

The tacos that we had for dinner last night were made with garbanzo, black and pinto beans. All from cans; just open, drain and rinse. I've been known to use three cans of beans, a regular size can of tomato sauce and nudge up the spices a bit for a big batch. I just freeze the extra and have an even quicker dinner another night.

Oh, and while the recipe says simmer for 20 minutes, I doubt I've ever let things simmer that long.

I fry up taco shells from store bought corn tortillas but you could certainly make soft tacos with either flour or corn tortillas or buy the crunchy taco shells in a box.

Set out your favorite taco toppings and dinner is ready.

Easy Bean Tacos

Adapted from Bon Appetite magazine. Use your favorite homemade or canned beans to make these. I've even frozen leftovers and they re-heat just fine.

1 t oil

1 C diced onion

1 C diced bell pepper

1 T chili powder

2 t dried oregano

1 t ground cumin

1 minced garlic clove

1 - 8oz can tomato sauce

2 cans beans, drained and rinsed (pinto, black, garbanzo, kidney, etc)

12 taco shells

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add next 6 ingredients (onion through garlic) and sauté 2 minutes. Add beans and tomato sauce and simmer for 20 minutes or until thick.

Fill taco shells with bean mixture and top with your favorite things.

printable version - bean_tacos.pdf

Did you know that September is National Yoga month? Me neither. But even in my ignorance I signed up to take a yoga class today. I've been working out to a variety of DVD's lately and have really been enjoying a very basic beginner yoga workout. I've checked a few others out from the library and finally decided that I enjoyed yoga enough that I should try and find a class.

I don't know about you, but for me to show up regularly, an exercise class needs to be convenient. Close to home and classes at just the right time are a must. I found a place that fit the bill with one scary thing. It's Bikram yoga.

Nothing I write can describe how it felt to walk into a 105 degree room this morning. Yikes. It was HOT and I actually like to be hot. People were whining in Phoenix last weekend, but I thought it felt great. Maybe there's something to that dry heat thing. Maybe it was because standing outside in the desert is a whole different thing than facing down and hour and a half of yoga in a hot room with strangers.

I found a back row spot (yes, I am a coward) and lay out my spiffy new yoga mat and took a seat. All the experienced people were doing various warm up poses. Seriously, the room is warm enough that all my muscles were jelly so what was there to warm up? I just sat and sweated. And can I just say that I've never been a big sweaty exerciser? Really. Even when I taught crazy aerobics in the 1980's I never left class drippy wet.

By the time the breathing exercises were done I was wet.

Soon after I was drippy wet.

Then, the compressor kicked in. My brain expected a cool breeze. My body got the heater blasting. Seriously, it wasn't hot enough? The lady next to me tried to fan herself with her hand. It didn't appear to be very effective.

By the end of class I fully understood the expression "feeling like a wet noodle".

It was a good workout though. I am terrible at Bikram and not bendy at all, but it felt good to do. Or maybe it just felt good to be done. At any rate, my drippy towels have been washed and I'll let you know if I drag my lazy self out of bed tomorrow for another morning of stretching, balancing and sweating.

-- marcella

Popovers

2010-08-30T16:50:53Z

We, being we, talked about how long it had been since we'd had popovers. They are so good yet is seems that they aren't too common. I used to make them occasionally with dinner. Because I didn't own an actual popover pan, I simply used a muffin tin and they were fine. In a muffin tin they do end up a bit wider and not quite as tall, but they are still delicious.

Because we love nothing more than a good souvenir to commemorate just about any event and actual popover pan went on our shopping list. A few days later I found a mini sized pan. The regular pans make 6 huge popovers, this one is the same size pan but makes 12 still large popovers.

Maybe because they are so closely identified with ladies who lunch and bridge clubs they aren't more popular. However, they are much easier to make than most breads served along side a meal. All the ingredients go into a bowl together and are given a quick whisk and baked. That's it! No creaming or cutting in, no kneading or rising. Just mix, pour, bake and eat.

Seems like we should all be baking these more often.

Plain popovers are wonderful with butter and jam. If you prefer more savory options stir in some cracked pepper and parmesan cheese, or toss in some chopped herbs. The different combinations could keep us in popovers for a long time.

Popovers

Adapted from the packaging of a mini popover pan. Makes 12 smaller popovers.

For years I didn't own a special pan to make these. A muffin pan will work instead, the popovers will just be a bit wider and shorter.

2 T butter cut into 12 pieces

1 1/4C flour

1/4 t salt

3 eggs

1 1/4 C milk

1 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place a piece of butter into each cup of the pan and place in the oven to pre-heat.

Whisk together flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until smooth.

Remove popover pan from the oven when the butter is melted and bubbly. Pour batter into the pan so that each cup is half full.

Return pan to oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Serve hot with butter, jam or other favorite spreads.

printable version: popovers.pdf

-- marcella

Ouch!

2010-08-25T20:07:39Z

Last week we had Christine Barnes as the guest speaker at quilt guild. She gave a wonderful lecture on using color in quilts and followed it the next day with a workshop on luminosity.

The idea is to use warm and cool colors together so that the cool colors make the warm colors glow in the quilt.

Class was great fun. I had brought my collection of batiks. I know, I'm not much of a stash person, but over the years my sister has given me quite a few fat quarters for gifts and I've acquired a few more as door prizes and other gifts. While the teacher seemed to think I didn't have quite enough for the quilt, others in the room had lots and lots of fabric and were kind enough to share to fill in some holes I had.

The initial blocks went together quickly and Christine would grab finished blocks and take them around the room to show them off. Even though we were all working with mostly batik and hand dyed fabrics it was amazing how different each persons blocks looked.

After lunch we had enough blocks to cut up and start playing. There was a large flannel board so as four blocks were arranged it was held up and we could see each project.

Me, being me, I had to have all 16 blocks sewn before I started cutting things up. I wasn't able to finish them all in class, but I did sneak in a little sewing time over the weekend and got them all completed.

Monday it was HOT. Hot, hot, hot outside. As the afternoon heated things up, sewing seemed like a good option for being a little productive without getting too warm. I cut up the blocks and started playing. Here's how they look up on the board.

Pretty fun!

I was anxious to put them together so I could really see them. Tuesday was even HOTTER - seriously we have been complaining all summer about how cool it has been. The weather guy has been proclaiming some months the coldest on record. How quickly things change!

Another hot day meant another good time to do a little sewing. I was sewing and pressing merrily along when I noticed an awful lot of lint on the presser foot. And then time slowed down.

Have you ever done something and known as you were doing it that it was a really bad idea but your brain just couldn't stop your body from doing it? Yeah. Well...

I saw that lint. But instead of waiting until the seam was done to blow it away. Instead of just blowing it away. I reached forward to brush it off. Yep, while sewing.

My brain said "bad idea", my finger kept moving and I sewed right through the side of it.

And there I was, at one with my sewing machine.

Seriously, it didn't hurt but I was trapped. Oh, and just so you know, at times like this you might just regret that clever little needle down position on your sewing machine. I was good and stuck. As I pondered how to get out I couldn't help but think how stupid I'd feel if I couldn't get out. After all, it's not like I could reach the phone and call for help.

With gritted teeth I chose the fly wheel option over the needle down button option because sometimes I push the button too long and the needle goes up and back down. At this point I was taking no chances at a double piercing.

Bandaged up I decided that perhaps I'd done enough sewing for one day. Were I a cool twenty something I'd probably stick a steel bar though my finger and start a whole new trend of digit piercings. I'm just not that cool, though.

-- marcella

Summer Corn

2010-08-23T21:54:34Z

In the summer the corn man comes. He is a really popular vendor. We know he has arrived when a long line snakes around the end of the farmer's market and into the parking lot.

If you were a fan of the TV show Seinfeld, you likely remember the Soup Nazi. Step up, state your order clearly and move aside. No debating, no stalling or you get booted.

That's how the corn man works. Ok, I've never seen him actually boot anyone out, but he does get a bit impatient if you aren't ready when it's your turn. He and his workers aren't really in the mood to be chatty. Frankly, the people in line behind you don't want you to be chatty either. They don't want to talk about how their corn is grown or how many weeks more they will be around or how sales are going. They just want you to tell them how many ears of corn and which variety. Then hand over your money and step aside. Because it's California and a certain amount of pleasantries are required he will hand you your bag with a "see you next week". He doesn't wait for your response though. Step aside, because he's waiting on the next customer.

One of my favorite ways to use corn is in these soufflés. They are dead easy to make and yet seem so fancy. Add a salad and some of that farmer's market bread on the side and dinner is ready.

Soufflés have a reputation for falling. It's well deserved because that's what they're designed to do. For happy soufflés, just whip the egg whites until they are in stiff peaks. This ensures a good rise in the oven and the soufflé will make it to the dinner table just fine to be ohh'd and ahh'd over before eating begins.

The only other trick is to be sure your soufflés have plenty of room to rise. They can go as high as two inches above the rim of the dish. Let's just say that experience teaches us that cleaning baked on soufflé out of the top oven element is no fun.

Corn Soufflé

Adapted from a recipe from Café Jacqueline in San Francisco printed in Saveur magazine. Serves 2

4 T butter

1/2 C grated cheese*

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 C fresh corn kernels

1/2 t grated fresh ginger

salt and pepper

2 1/2 T flour

3/4 C milk

3 eggs, separated

additional butter and grated parmesan cheese for prepping soufflé dishes

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Butter two individual sized soufflé dishes.** Sprinkle in some grated parmesan cheese and rotate the dish so that the sides and bottom are coated. Shake out any remaining cheese.

Melt 2 T butter in a skillet. Sauté the corn and garlic until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Melt 2 T butter in a saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring until thickened. Whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites until still peaks are formed. Add the egg whites to the milk mixture in batches. Fold gently to incorporate the egg whites without deflating them. Gently fold in the corn and grated cheese.

Spoon into soufflé dishes. Bake until browned, about 18 - 22 minutes. Soufflé should be firm in the edges but still slightly jiggly in the center. Serve immediately.

*Swiss or gruyere cheese is traditional, but other favorite cheeses work well too. We like parmesan or if we're in the mood for something spicy pepper jack is great. Regular monterey jack or mozzarella are both mild and really let the corn flavor shine.

** My soufflé dishes hold 1 C to the lower rim. They measure about 3 3/4" across and 2 1/2" high.

printable version - corn_souffle.pdf

-- marcella

On the Hunt, Day 2

2010-08-04T16:17:36Z

We decided to stick close to home for our second day of hunting. We started right at the entrance to Bear Valley. Under a rock we found this little tube.

Rolled inside was some paper to sign. Too small for trinkets.

Just up the road at the next turn out and tucked between two large rocks was this:

From the top of a boulder my son spotted a stream so we wandered over to take a peek. It was so pretty.

Back in the car and up the hill to a small campground.

We parked where it was clearly labeled "Parking" only to be told that it wasn't for us. When we told the campground person why we were there and that we wouldn't be long she relented and let us stay in the parking spot. She also said she knew where we were headed but had never in her 6 years living there actually walked up the hill to look for it. I have to wonder at someone with so little curiosity.

The hike was short but rather steep. The view over the valley was beautiful. Six years and never took the walk? Amazing.

Worth a 5 minute walk, wouldn't you say?

After a short hunt we found this under some rocks.

The trinkets always amuse me. I'm amazed at all the little toys and things that either remind me of my childhood or are something I have never even seen before. Apparently the idea is that you take a trinket to remember the site by and leave a trinket in exchange. We have yet to come up with the perfect trinket to leave so we never take anything. It looks like people leave things more often then they take them, because some boxes get quite full.

Down the road and at the edge of the lake we found a really nice bike trail. If you looked up you could see the very tall sign that labeled it as a cross country ski trail in the winter. For us, it was a nice, flat easy hiking trail.

In the hollowed out stump of a tree we found this one.

It was getting hot and we were getting hungry so we headed back home for some lunch.

After lunch we decided to venture out to one more place.

This spot was actually in the lodge area. We drove through the cabins as high as we could to the end of the road. Seriously, I cannot imagine staying way up there. The roads were steep and in the winter aren't plowed so snowmobiles are used. We walked across a lot for sale. If a home gets built there that may be the end of this spot or the owners will have to be happy about random people walking through their yard to get to the trail.

Maybe trail is too nice a word. Footpath? Narrow, rocky and really slippery whatever it was it hugged the edge of a steep hill. Oddly there was a cable that crossed our path and headed up to the top of the hill. Seriously, what could that be?

Up, up and up we went. There was a warning on the clue to stay away from the edge of the cliff. They should really skip those warnings. Why? Because people like me would never dream of getting near the edge of a cliff even without a warning and the daredevils seem to take it as a challenge. Like this one.

A few feet to his right is a drop off designed to terrify mothers who watch their child slip and slide near the edge. See how happy it makes him look? He had to scramble back on hands and feet across all those slippery stones that kept rolling off the cliff edge. First mosquitoes, then thinking you are going to watch your child plunge to his death. This is why I love camping.

Once everyone was back on reasonable ground we found this tucked in some tree branches.

The men also went up the rest of the way to the top to try and solve the cable mystery. It was attached to nothing. It looked like it could have been hooked up to a nice antenna for someone who likes ham radio. It sure was a long cable just hanging out up there. Glad I didn't have to haul it up there.

One last look out and we headed back home.

-- marcella

Vacation!

2010-07-28T22:34:56Z

We also went high tech with our geocaching and instead of juggling papers and note cards we sported an ipad with gps. Except for the part where polarized sunglasses don't work too well for screen viewing, it worked perfectly.

The first day we drove down to Lake Alpine and started hunting. The first site we wanted to hunt turned out to be an island and since we were boatless and not looking for a swim we went for the next one on the list. We found this right next to a pretty little stream across the road from the lake.

Inside, we found something we hadn't found before.

Hello? July? Clearly not the best hiking shoes for the weather. Did not expect snow.

Under a bridge we found this little cache.

So glad I could be useful.

We think we found the right spot but in spite of our best hunting efforts could not find the cache in the pine trees.

At this point it was getting past lunch time and we were hungry. We drove to a nice picnic area beside Lake Alpine and gathered up our lunch things. On our way to the table the rain began to fall. We decided maybe lunch indoors would be better.

A very good decision.

By the time we were in the car, the rain started falling in buckets. It was a wild ride back to the condo. So nice to be dry indoors - with heat!

More soon!

-- marcella

Itty Bitty Blocks

2010-07-22T21:12:21Z

Well, not all that itty, bitty. They are on the smaller size though at three inches.

See? I haven't been here, but I've been a little productive in between all the lazing about on the couch and trying to work up the gumption to lie about and read at the same time without falling asleep.

I had been teaching a beginning quilting class at church. Normally, when I was teaching at quilt shops I would have a gift for everyone the last day of class. Because I was a bona fide professional I always had a stash of free stuff from manufacturers - rulers, rotary cutters, notions and what have you. I would wrap them up and pass them out. All quilters, new or not, seem to like free stuff even if they already have three of the same thing at home.

However, the last of the free stuff was used for door prizes a few months ago and the last quilt making class was fast approaching. What to do, what to do. It's not that I actually had to do anything, but I did want to do something for the stalwart nine who stuck it out to the end. This being a casual bunch of ladies coupled with the class being free well, a number of people dropped out along the way.

First I thought to make adorable biscornu like my friend did. I made about four before I determined that mine were not as cute as hers. Bad fabric choices? I don't know. Whatever my problem they were rejected.

Then I procrastinated. I know, hard for those of you who know me to believe.

Then I got my act together and bought a cute charm pack of fabric and decided to make little pieced pincushions because I knew I could do that. Deciding and shopping was as far as I got.

Then I went on vacation.

And came home feeling really crummy.

That's where all that couch lying (laying, I never could get that one straight) came in.

Then I decided to get in gear and just get sewing.

Sally Collins' book The Art of Machine Piecing came to the rescue as it so often does. It's filled with block patterns in 3", 4" and 6" size. I made up a bunch of blocks and matched them up with plain squares for the backing and had the outsides done up in no time.

When I've made these before I stuffed them with wool batting. I started to do this but let me just say that it takes FOREVER to stuff in little pieces and pack them down so that you end up with a tight, firm pincushion. After three I decided to try something else.

Back to my friend with the good looking biscornu. She, like so many smart quilters, uses crushed walnut shells for filling. I decided to join the smart people, and smart they are because with the help of a funnel all of those little pincushions - even the first three which I unstuffed because, yes, I am that kind of person - were filled and sewn shut in less than an hour.

So happy to have actually finished something more than a nap!

Vacation pictures are coming along with some other fun stuff that I've been up to. Promise.

-- marcella

Out in the Garden

2010-06-28T00:03:37Z

Well, not in my garden. That would be a short entry with many weeds and a few deer.

This was a real garden tour put on by the local Master Gardner's group. They apparently do this once a year, but this was the first time we had heard about it. We were able to tour 5 different gardens near our home.

While they were incredible to see, mostly they made me tired. All I could think of looking around was how I would need to spend all day every day all year working in the yard to have yards like theirs. Sure, all of these people had staff to tend their gardens. Some of the gardeners were even on hand to talk about what they did. I have no staff. My yard will never be like that, but that's ok. It's more fun to peek into others' yards and enjoy what they have and not have any weeding to do nor pests to contend with.

I admit it. I'm not really a flower person. Sure, I see them and think they're pretty and then my brain flits off onto other things. This dahlia caught my eye though. The colors look like a pineapple tomato. See? There I go with the food thing again.

There were lots of animals on the tour as well. I particularly liked the chickens. I have no idea why, but I've always had a thing for chickens. When I was in elementary school my friend had chickens (and turkeys which may be the dumbest of all animals) and I loved to visit the chicken coop. Maybe it was that book about chickens my mother gave me. Whatever it was, I love chickens. We also saw quite a few horses and I was surprised to see an elephant.

I was so busy looking down at the amazing vegetable garden that it took me by surprise to look up and see this huge ivy elephant. Talk about a garden ornament. The sign told us that he will be underplanted with sweet potatoes soon.

Several of the houses also had orchards. I love walking through fruit trees.

This reminds me that I should get outside and see if we have any pears growing.

These gardens were probably only 5 miles south of us, but their vegetables were so much farther along. It's really quite a bit warmer there than at our house. The tomatoes all had fruit on them while mine are still just blossoms. There were lettuces, green beans and even the start of squashes. Don't you just want to reach out and pick these raspberries?

The homes all had different ways to manage pests of the four legged variety. There were fences both tall and electrical. Some trees had been netted. I think to be successful at our house I might need something like this house has:

Isn't it amazing? A screened in house. The screening is small enough that even birds are kept out. It had two rows of planter beds and lovely gravel walkways. In the back was a sink! I cannot even imagine a house like this with plumbing too.

At several of the homes they had short lectures. We learned about keeping chickens as well as beekeeping and container gardening. The bee man will also set up a hive in your yard, tend it and give you a share of the honey. I think that's the way to go if we ever get a fence. I used to think I'd take the beekeepers class they teach near me, but realistic me says it would be better to let a pro do it and just have fun watching the bees and enjoy a little honey from our neighborhood. The container teacher said she is really successful with her container veggies because she really crowds the plants. She said if the plants have to compete for space and resources they grow bigger and produce more fruit so that their offspring will have a better chance. I'm going to try adding some herbs and flowers to one of my tomato pots. I'll let you know if we can see a difference.

-- marcella

Quilt Shop Hop

2010-06-25T04:53:38Z

The goodie at each shop is a charm. My quilting charm bracelet is getting quite full after three years of charms. We all decided that the whale charm wins the cutest award so far.

Here we are: My sister, my niece and myself. Yes, I am aware that my hair was cut off. Yes, I've been getting this question a lot in the last three weeks. We're hanging out with the whale in Pacific Grove at about the mid-point of todays shopping adventures.

We still look pretty energetic, but then, we'd also just eaten lunch so we were recharged and ready to get more shopping done.

On this first leg of our hop we tend to do equal parts food shopping and fabric shopping. These shops take us past a chocolate factory, and well, not many quilters can pass up chocolate. We certainly cannot resist this one. We also go past our favorite bakery so that cannot be missed either.

Here's the food haul - bread, pastries in the bag and box, a GIANT caramel apple and some toffee and chocolate covered apricots. Oh, and that candy bar of deliciousness - apricots, almonds and caramel all dipped in milk chocolate.

Actually, it's a rather small haul this year. We did skip the cherry stand which was closed and the mexican bakery. Still, a lot of food.

Next up; the fabric haul.

It does not escape me that some of this fabric looks suspiciously like food too. I promise that it is really fabric and there is no actual chocolate or produce in the mix.

More danger tomorrow.

-- marcella

Summer Berries

2010-06-22T19:49:33Z

June for our family means olallieberry picking. When we moved to California many years ago we were introduced to these berries which are related to a blackberry and are actually a cross between a loganberry and youngberry. Nearly every summer we have gone and picked lots of berries and frozen them to use in baking or just poured over ice cream all year long until berry season arrives again.

This year we just finished our berry trip.

We were put into a fairly new area for picking with lots of space between the bushes. However, the bushes really had a lot of ripe berries on them and our boxes quickly went from empty to filled.

Because school had just gotten out there were lots of children with their moms picking berries. One group of children would yell "jackpot" whenever they found a big cluster of ripe berries. Hilarious! Then it rubbed off on us adults too.

The next day at home most of those berries were turned into almost seedless jam. The recipe is simply the one for blackberry jam off the package of low sugar pectin. No fancy add ins or spices or anything, just plain olallieberry jam.

The jam making did mean more purple stains though. Even worse then the picking. My wooden stirring spoon might never recover. I think this winter, when I am eating toast with jam or thumbprint cookies filled with ollalieberry jam, I'll be so happy to have this jam that I won't even remember the sacrificial spoon.

-- marcella

Fair Report 2010

2010-06-15T22:25:54Z

This week is our county fair. A few years ago I started entering the fair. It's not something we ever did in our family growing up. We rarely even attended the fair when I was growing up.

The local quilt guild is very involved with the fair. It's hard to be a member and not get involved with setting things up or helping out in some way. It's a slippery slope from there to entering as well.

This year instead of my usual one food entry, I went for four. When you look around the entries you see that four is pretty pitiful. These people enter a lot! But life is busy and I'm not exactly a ribbon hound so four seemed like quite a bit to me.

Saturday we went down because I had entered the cheesecake contest, and for that you had to present your cheesecake at the appointed time during the fair. This was a new one for me. I've only previously entered things that are dropped off before the fair even begins and you find out how everything went once the fair opens. I arrived with cheesecake in hand along with cutting utensils and paper plates (thanks to my husband because I totally forgot about them) as directed. I was sent to the ominous cutting room where I had to serve up half the cheesecake on one plate and a slice on another. Took me 35 seconds. Ok, maybe not quite that fast, but fast. The other lady in there with me was carefully arranging her garnish and had two slices cut and arranged differently on their plates and was trying to decide which arrangement looked best.

I was totally out of my league.

I turned in my entry and my husband and I took a look around the room.

First we saw this:

That would be my whole wheat seeded bread with a first place ribbon!

And next we found this:

This would be a first place next to that lemon marmalade.

And after a bit of hunting we also found these:

Yippee! Another first for the cheddar bacon scones.

The best part was during the cheesecake judging. One of the preserves judges approached me and returned my marmalade taster jar. She complimented me on my jam and said that so much was gone because my jam was in contention for best of show and it took a few rounds of tasting. I'm such the clueless one that winning anything other than my category had never even occurred to me. Too exciting to think of my jam up against all those other winning entries.

Back to the cheesecake. Can I just say that I clearly do not understand open judging? We all dutifully sat in our seats in front of the stage. The judges went to work and we watched. That was it. They said nothing out loud. In fact, for some conversations they covered their faces with their clipboards like they were NFL coaches and we'd lip read their plays. They did not tell us what they were looking for or anything. There was zero education here. What exactly is the point of this? If you know, clue me in, OK?

There is immediate gratification though. They do announce the winners then and there, and I got 5th which made me pretty darn happy especially since my lemon swirl cheesecake was completely garnish free.

-- marcella

Fruit Crisp

2010-06-11T17:56:32Z

Every Wednesday a luscious box of fruit is delivered to my house. We split this delivery with friends and she picks up the fruit box and brings it to my house. On Thursday I pick up the veggies.

Because I have not unraveled the mysteries of this CSA, I almost never know what will be delivered in advance. Although there are Tuesday deliveries, their newsletter arrives late on our delivery day and isn't posted up on their website until even later. Only twice since we've joined have they divulged on twitter what is getting packed in their boxes.

I never realized until now how much I'm not a surprise girl. I have no idea why it matters, it's not like there is any reason I need to know in advance. Just another quirk of me.

Until now, the fruit has been sliced up and eaten, eaten whole and twice we've juiced the oranges. I decided it was time to do a little baking. After poking around the cookbook collection, I found a recipe for Apricot-Cherry Crisp in the Fields of Greens cookbook. I love this cookbook. Everything we've made out of it has worked and tasted delicious. Since both fruits called for were delivered this week it was time to get cooking.

Being me, I did make a few changes. Nothing huge. The recipe called for Bing cherries but Ranier had been delivered. I figured since both are sweet cherries they should swap out just fine. I also increased the sugar just a bit. Having been the victim of too tart baked goods too many times, I always now taste the fruit mixture and adjust as needed. Also, the recipe calls for a 9" square or round pan. I have to say that 8 cups of fruit and almost 2 cups of topping is an awful lot for that size pan. To be safe, and in the interest of avoiding an oven bubble over, I used a 7" x 11" pan.

This is sure to be appearing again over the summer. The topping would be great with any fruit that likes to be baked - peaches, berries, pears or apples.

Topped with a little vanilla ice cream or whipped cream it's a great summer dessert.

Apricot Cherry Crisp

from Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville

The crisp topping can be doubled with the extra frozen for a quick dessert another day. Change out the nuts to fit the fruit used or leave them out entirely for a nut free dessert.

Crisp Topping

1 C unbleached flour

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/4 C brown sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 C butter cut into small cubes

1/4 C chopped walnuts

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add in the butter and work it in until the mixture is crumbly and begins to hold together. Stir in the nuts.

Filling

1 1/2 lbs apricots, sliced, about 6 cups

1/2 lb sweet cherries, pitted, about 2 cups

2 t lemon zest

1 t grated fresh ginger

1/2 C granulated sugar, adjust to the sweetness of your fruit

2 T unbleached flour

In a large bowl stir all of the ingredients together. Pour fruit mixture into a 9" baking dish.

Cover the fruit with the crumb topping and bake about 50 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit juices bubble around the edges of the pan.

printable recipe - apricot_cherry_crisp.pdf

-- marcella

Baby Quilt

2010-06-08T15:53:08Z

I've been busy here quilting away, so there hasn't been much time for posting.

A friend was having a baby shower and I decided that rather than the usual receiving blanket, an actual quilt was in order. It's true, I'm a quilter who almost never gives out baby quilts. I can only think of seven.

Why? Well, when I give a quilt I like it to be used. Not hung on a wall or shoved in a drawer for "when they are grown up". What adult wants an old baby quilt that they never used and have no attachment to? Nope. Also, the amount of work that goes into one is pretty huge so the person has to really rate to get a quilt.

Sadly, my poorly functioning brain did not think about giving a quilt to this friend weeks ago when I received the invitation. Nope, I had to wait until a week before the shower to think, "Hey, I should make a quilt."

Into the closet of unfinished projects I went. Fortunately, the perfect top was there. It was a tumbling block variation made with an old Moda fabric collection called Faded Memories. Lots of perfect for baby pastels. It was also a good size as I am not a fan of the 30" square baby quilt. I like them big. Big enough to wrap up in, play on top of, or build a fort with. Conveniently enough there were lots of scraps left in the bag; more than enough to piece a scrappy back, and 1/2 yard of a stripe that I had set aside for a binding. So glad my brain was working at one point!

Here's the happy finished quilt. I only had one bad spot when in the midst of quilting happily away on the white diamonds my machine suddenly started spitting up loops of thread onto the back of the quilt. Even sadder, I didn't discover it for quite a while. When I had to change the bobbin the machine rebelled and so I stopped and looked at the back only to discover half a row of thread guts.

At that point I nearly decided to throw in the towel. After all, the shower was the next day. However, thread guts pull out really fast and after some fiddling with the machine I finally got it to cooperate and finished up the quilting.

Because the fabrics I used don't have enough contrast to really highlight the tumbling block pattern, I decided to quilt it differently on the sides and the top of the block to try and help the pattern show better. The "sides" of the tumbling blocks are quilted in pink thread with a walking foot following the seam lines. Rows are stitched presser foot width apart so no marking was necessary. The white print diamonds are simply meander quilted with white thread and I stitched from one to the next in rows so it was quick with only a start and stop once each row.

The pattern is a fairly easy one from "From Me to You" by Diane McClun and Laura Nownes called "The Big Tumble". Their patterns are really the best. They are beautifully printed with color diagrams and clear instructions. So much nicer than most of the patterns on the market.

One more quilt from the unfinished pile finished and gifted to its new home!

-- marcella

In the quilting room

2010-05-21T18:27:29Z

The local quilt guild invited Anelie Belden to come and lecture and teach a workshop on her Dresden Plate block method. We had a nearly full room of students who turned out very different but all really gorgeous blocks. I did mine out of scraps of batik fabrics I had hanging around. The background is a Nancy Crow print called "Classic Crush" in navy and it is the only fabric that I buy over and over and over again. It makes such a great background.

As you can see the center circle still needs to be added. Before I do that I need to decide what exactly I am going to make out of this block. I'm thinking table runner but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it will likely be a small project so I can finish it and get back to other quilting projects that have been neglected.

One project that is finally done is my new sewing room. Above is my design wall. 7 feet by 8 feet of flannel happiness. The quilt on the left and the piece of a quilt on the right are from the Double Dip pattern. It is so great to have such an excessive amount of space to arrange and rearrange quilt blocks on.

So what do you think about that green and orange for the borders? I like just the green, and I like just the orange, but I'm not sure which I like better or if I want both. Sometimes I wish I were a little faster at these decisions. I might get something finished if I were.

-- marcella