Thursday, October 29, 2009

Luke's Birthday Dinner

IMGP3458.JPG
I told Luke he could have anything he wanted for dinner and dessert tonight, and his choice was chili and cornbread with brownies for dessert.

IMGP3463.JPG
I used my good old Betty Crocker cookbook for the chili and cornbread recipes.

IMGP3465.JPG
And the recipe for the brownies came from that new "Once Upon A Tart" cookbook from the chapter Once Upon A Cookie. They are called Fudgy Brownies, and these are definitely fudgy.

Studio Makeover Part One

IMGP3448.JPG
I made these storage boxes for the office and finally sorted through and organized the stuff that was piling up under the old desk.

Notice I said "old" desk...

100_2327.JPG
This, my friends, is the "new" desk, a wonderful garage sale find, and the spark that started me on my mission to revamp the studio/office.

IMGP3449.JPG
These boxes are part one in my studio beautification project. More to come!

Rise and Shine...

IMGP3440.JPG
...for a bright and early birthday breakfast. I sent him off to work this morning with a tummy full of pumpkin cranberry pancakes (using up those leftover scone ingredients) and bacon.

IMGP3432.JPG
Had to throw these in here too, because they're just too cute to keep to myself.

IMGP3436.JPG

IMGP3433.JPG
Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Picture Time

IMGP3428.JPGI just had to share some of these recent photos. I took this one this morning, and the others below are shots that Luke took this weekend.

100_2333.JPGApparently Luke and Patrick were playing dress up on Sunday morning while mommy was at church for band practice.

100_2332.JPG

100_2331.JPGThis seems to be his new favorite position. He loves being on his belly all of a sudden, and he'll lay like this and just stare out the back door.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

A Little O' This, a Little O' That

IMGP3420.JPGThe scones that I made this morning called for buttermilk, which for some odd reason seems to only come in a pretty large container, despite the fact that most recipes only take a small amount and then you're stuck with a big ol' bottle of buttermilk that you can't use for anything else. Well, it just so happens that in the parenting magazine I subscribe to which arrived just yesterday, there was an entire page dedicated to ways to use leftover buttermilk! One of those recipes was for a buttermilk crab pie. Now, I also just happened to have a can of crab meat in the pantry as well, so I made another pie crust (de ja vu), and put this little pie together for dinner. It's made with a layer of cheese on the bottom of the crust, then topped with the crab meat (sautéed first with onions), and then filled with a mixture of eggs, flour, and... BUTTERMILK. Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes, and voilà!

More Fall Loveliness

IMGP3414.JPGI sent Luke out to get an onion for tonight's dinner recipe and he came home with these... and the onion. Hooray for beautiful flowers and thoughtful husbands.

A Fitting Fall Breakfast

IMGP3406.JPGFor breakfast this morning I whipped up a very delicious batch of pumpkin scones with fresh chopped cranberries and yellow raisins. The house just smells like Fall. I'm not sure that Fall really has a smell. But it should. And it should smell like pumpkin.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

New Cook Book, New Recipes

IMGP3394.JPGMy dear friend, Michele, from church gave me this wonderful new cookbook, "Once Upon A Tart." It is full of so many delicious recipes, and I had a hard time deciding where to begin. I finally chose two for tonight's dinner and dessert.

IMGP3387.JPGFor dinner, I made this Roasted-Eggplant-and-Tomato Tart with Basil. The crust is simply flour, butter, and margarine. I cut the flour and butter together the old fashioned way with two butter knives, as I am unequipped with all those newfangled fancy schmancy gadgets that do it for you, but it really isn't that difficult. In fact, if you have never made a pie crust from scratch, I challenge you to try. It's not nearly as daunting a task as it may seem. This was not my first, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. The bottom of the crust is covered with a layer of puréed basil and parmesan cheese, then topped with the slices of tomato and garlic-roasted eggplant. The filling is made of cream and eggs, though I don't think I made quite enough because it didn't seem to fill the dish as much as it should have. The tart then bakes for a little over an hour. So delicious!

IMGP3384.JPGFor dessert, I used another recipe from this book: Crunchy Dried Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Cookies. This cookie is made with oats and wheat germ, though I substituted bran flakes, in addition to the flour. The bran flakes, as I am sure the wheat germ would have done, gives these cookies a very light, crispy texture that just crumbles in your mouth. The combination of the sweet chocolate chips with the tart cranberries completes the yumminess that is this cookie. Oh so good!

Thanks Michele for the wonderful gift! I can't wait to try more recipes.

Sneak Peek

IMGP3367.JPGHere is a very tiny sneak peek at what I've been working on for the last few months. This is one set of the 5 designs in the series shown in one of the several color schemes.

IMGP3364.JPGI wanted the cover letter to match the hand-lettered labeling on all of the designs, so I pulled out my ruler and wrote this by hand.

IMGP3357.JPGAnd here it is, cover letter, title page, and all 40 pages of printed designs, all wrapped up and ready to be mailed to Westminster/FreeSpirit Fibers. So exciting! I will be sure to give a full reveal of the finished designs once I hear yes or no from the company, which I hear can take several months, so it may be a while.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

New Measuring Cups

IMGP3339.JPGThis is another one of my Sur La Table finds. My old set of measuring cups were plastic and a couple of them had broken. I love the fun colors. I'll be honest. I think this was the true inspiration for the baking of the cookies.

My other find was a citrus press. I bought the lemon size, thinking it would work pretty well for most lemons, oranges, and limes, rather than buying one of each. I'll let you know how it goes as soon as I get to test it out.

Tea and Cookies

IMGP3341.JPGI recently got around to putting a Sur La Table birthday gift card to good use. One of the things I found was this yummy tea: Mighty Leaf Chocolate Mint Truffle. Good stuff!

The cookies here are a delicious new recipe found on the back of the Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour bag. I have been needing to use up the rest of this oat flour as well as a bag of Almond Meal from the same company, and this recipe just happened to call for both. It calls for one cup of each, with 1/2 cup butter, 6 Tbsp light brown sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Blend ingredients together, roll into balls and bake at 300° for about 30 minutes. Roll warm cookies in cinnamon and sugar. I actually still have a good amount of the flour and meal left, so I may be making another batch.

A Handcrafted Gift

IMGP3328.JPGWell, as promised, here are some of those freshly pressed fabrics being put to good use. My brother-in-law is getting married in November, and his fiancé's shower was this past weekend. Among the few things that Luke and I gave them were these handmade items for the bride to be.

IMGP3317.JPG
A darling retro style apron made with a citrus themed print, green leafy trim, and retro blue accents for the pockets, ties, and buttons.

IMGP3327.JPG
A pair of hand appliqued and embroidered decorative dishtowels, which the bride cleverly mentioned would make nice place mats as well. I may be making a few of these for myself for just that purpose.

IMGP3321.JPG
The patterns for all of these lovely linens came from Anna Maria Horner's book "Seams To Me, 24 New Reasons To Love Sewing."

Cereal

IMGP3306.JPGWe gave Patrick his first serving of rice cereal last week. He seemed a little ambivalent about it. He was opening wide and lunging towards the spoon for every bite, and yet, every single time, he would scrunch up his face once it was in his mouth. At the very least, he was very curious.

IMGP3301.JPGAs well as he seems to be adjusting to the spoon, he has suddenly decided that he does not want to take a bottle. We hardly ever give him one anyways, and when my parents were watching him for me this past Saturday, he refused to eat for them. He has become a nursing snob. We're trying to give him a bottle more often, so he's used to it when we leave him with someone.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Zoo Time

IMGP3272.JPG
It's finally starting to "cool" down here, which means highs in the double digits instead of triple, and we just had to take advantage of this beautiful Saturday. So we packed up and headed to the zoo for the morning. Among our stops were the elephants...

IMGP3278.JPG
...and the orangutans.

IMGP3282.JPG
And here's my little monkey.