Poppy for my little pea

Erin needed a new winter hat and I am loving Turquoise lately so made her a little Poppy hat from a free Ravelry pattern.  Cascade Fixation again, I love that stretchy soft yarn made into little things for little ones.

She seemed excited!

Baby C Peek

A new baby is arriving soon for a good friend and I made a few things to help welcome him into this world.  The little hat is my favorite newborn hat.  It's stretchy and will stay on a new little head and keep that tiny body warm.  It's made from Cascade Fixation and the pattern is a simple beanie with a top knot from my local yarn store. 

A blanket with ties for the stroller

A nursing pillow cover that isn't pink from his big sister

The star pattern on the nursing pillow cover was quite serendipitous since my friend asked me to make a crib skirt and some sheets in a "space" theme for her son's new room.  We found some adorable fabrics and I have been working away on his nursery decor.  I am just in love with how it is turning out and can't wait to share the finished goods!

A peek at the fabrics... those adorable rocket ships are from In The Beginning's Rocket Scientist line.  

Goodbye Brother, Hello Brother

Just under a year ago I bought my first electronic sewing machine.  I found a nice deal on a entry level Brother model from Costco.  All the basic utility stitches I could need, nifty buttonholes and a slew of feet were included.   My previous machine was a White Zigzig model, a beautiful turquoise green and white in a cabinet that had seen better days.  It was dependable for mediocre results, probably would have been great after a servicing but since that cost 3x what I paid for the machine I could never bring myself to haul it in.  The new machine was a nice upgrade for me, and was at the right price point at the time, just under a couple hundred.  I was just getting back into sewing and wasn't sure how much time I'd end up spending on it, especially considering that I had a 1 year old and my sewing is pretty much relegated to naptime.

After finishing up my first ever full fledged knit project last weekend my sewing machine broke.  I was putting it away, unplugging and lowering the needle to guard against curious toddler fingers and noticed that it was difficult to turn the wheel.  Huh. So I turned it all back on and tried to lower the needle with the electronic button.  Loud and disturbing sounds and stuttering of the needle ensued followed by a flashing error code on the LCD.  A little fruitless troubleshooting and a trip to the repair shop later, I found out it was going to cost nearly as much to get it fixed as it cost. I was duly informed that those entry level models are full of plastic gears that loose teeth like a 6 year old.  Apparently you get what you pay for.  I really loved that machine until it broke.  Thank goodness Costco has a wonderful return policy and I could bring back my machine for a full refund.  I love you Costco, your products are generally great and when they aren't your customer service is.

Goodbye Brother

Hello Brother!

Please excuse that Project Runway logo, not really my thing but boy am I excited to sew on my new baby!  Too bad Erin is awake after a 25 minute car nap, I guess it will wait til tomorrow.  

Pedicure and Blackberries

A couple of weeks back I had my first pedicure in almost 2 years.  It used to be an indulgence every couple of months, but after having my sweet pea it fell to the bottom of the list when choosing what to do with my "free time".  Things like doctor appointments, groceries and haircuts were higher up on the list.  I finally got around to treating myself to the bliss that is a pedicure and flipping through magazines without a toddler demanding that I color or play trucks with her.  I came across an article about Dorie Greenspan bloggers in O magazine and a beautiful picture of a cupcake topped with a yogurt icing and blueberry pie filling.  The picture was so simple and alluring, a golden cupcake topped with pure white icing with a deep blue-black dollop of blueberry pie filling on top.  It's cited as an adaptation of a Dorie Greenspan recipe.  With a little guilt I tore recipe the page out and slipped it into my purse; sorry future readers of that magazine, you will miss out on the last column!

That recipe has been laying on my counter since then, begging to be made, but with all that canning just didn't happen.  Until today when I got a pint of big beautiful blackberries from our CSA, they were just begging to replace that pie filling and sit atop those cupcakes.  The recipe is simple too, no mixer required.  The only step that was a bit strange was folding in a half cup of canola oil at the end, which didn't really work and I had to just flat out mix it with a whisk to get it to incorporate.  I am suspicious that the original recipe called for butter and for some reason (does Oprah ban butter in her magazine?) it was switched to canola oil.  The results were good, not great, but very pretty!

I'd like to try the original version of  her french yogurt cake to compare.  The flavors in the cake were great: fresh from the lemon zest and the ground almonds added a nice nutty flavor.  The texture was a bit dense (no mixer?).  The icing made from greek yogurt, lemon zest, vanilla and gelatin was pretty but also had a less than perfect texture.  I expected a smooth but firm icing, and it was a bit grainy from the gelatin, but that my be my fault.  I bloomed the gelatin in cold water, my package didn't have directions and I think I should have used warm water.  It was grainy going into the cold yogurt and didn't get any smoother with mixing.

Overall I like this recipe and will try it again, but I think I will beat the sugar/yogurt/eggs to get some lightness in them and then fold in the flour and oil next time, or try melted butter instead of oil.  

Canning weekend

I love canning and I think it's so under valued these days.  I grew up with my mom canning in the summers.  She was mostly a jam maker, and never missed making at least enough strawberry and raspberry jam for our family for the rest of the year.  I clearly remember going off to college and having store bought jam for the first time, realizing how lucky I was to have enjoyed my mother's jam all those years (actually I thought, "This stuff is garbage").  Now I know that was cafeteria grade jam, but there is just no comparison in my mind between store bought and homemade.  As long as you use good fresh fruits, homemade jam is far and away superior to my tastes and you can control how much sugar you are adding.  My mom also made the occasional pickles and sweet pepper relish, as well as a sweet chili sauce that I have never been able to find a store bought replacement for.

I made a big batch of strawberry jam back in June when the local berries were at their peak, and I was lucky enough to have my Mom make it with me while she visiting.  This past weekend our family went blueberry picking and came home with 12 pounds of berries.  So blueberry jam was on deck, as well as some new recipes for blueberry syrup and blueberry butter.  The jam came out perfect and now I have 9 jars to enjoy for the rest of the year.

The "Blueberry Bonanza" recipe that yielded the syrup and butter was less of a success but still pretty good.  The recipe cooked down the berries for a few minutes, then separated the juice from the solids.  The juice was used to make a syrup, for pancakes or ice cream.  The syrup actually jelled up a little, instead of remaining syrupy, so that was less than perfect, but the taste is good.  I cut down on the sugar in the recipe by about 15%, and I think next time I'd cut out more because it turned out a little too sweet for my taste.  It will definitely get eaten at home, but won't be gifted to anyone.  On the other hand, I love the Blueberry Butter results!  The solids (and some juice that doesn't completely drain by gravity)are cooked down with some lemon zest, cinnamon and nutmeg until it's a spreadable consistency.  I can't wait spread some on my morning toast... just waiting to finish up the open jars of jam first!

Also on this past weekend's canning list were some Dilled Beans.

I had an over abundance of green beans from our CSA this past week so I decided to add in some yellow wax beans and try out another new recipe for dilled beans.  Pretty much a dill pickle on the green beans.   Fingers crossed for a good result, I'm letting them pickle awhile before I open a jar.

Hoping to get raspberry and blackberry jam put away before the end of the summer, and for those I can pick from our own raspberry bushes and the "wild" blackberries that grow all over around here!  I also would like to make some straight up dill pickles.  I saw some pickling cukes last week when I was picking our CSA... so I may have to get those this week and do some more canning this weekend!

Making my own

As much as I love a nice slice of toast hot and buttered, I don't like to keep butter on the counter, especially in the summer.  So we use that spreadable butter made with Canola oil, nice buttery taste and spreadable right out of the fridge.  My favorite brand, with the least number of "other" ingredients on the label:

It still has a fair number of ingredients beyond butter and canola oil.  I've been thinking more and more about trying to eliminate those additives from my family's diet, and this seemed like something that I could totally make. So after a little research I decided to go with a 50/50 (by volume) mix of butter to canola oil. That's 2 sticks butter to 1/2 cup oil.  

I started with 2 sticks of regular salted butter at room temperature (I cook and bake with unsalted, but for spreading I like salted butter).

I put it in the food processor and let it rip until it was all smooth

I then drizzled in 1/2 cup of canola oil while it was running and ended up with a really loose and soupy "butter"

I spooned it back into my original container and popped it into the fridge to set up. 

The result was great!  It's solid after chilling and spreads right out of the refrigerator.  I'd say the only downside is washing the food processor, took a bit extra soap to get that greasy butter off.  The taste is good too, just like butter except a bit lighter.  It also cuts the saturated fat down, which can never be a bad thing for your health.  I figure it's about half the price of buying my favorite brand, which makes everyone happy!  Also, I can reuse that container that fits perfectly in my refrigerator's butter tray.  Yay!

Irresistible Indeed

My list on things to make from the "Growing Up Sew Liberated" is long but I had to make these adorable numbers for my sweat pea to play with.  The book is beautiful and I can't wait to tackle some of the other projects but these were a perfect little something to keep my hands busy in the evenings.  Erin loves them already, practicing gathering them all up and seeing if she can carry them all around at once.

Baking Therapy

Baking is my therapy and lately I've needed a little comforting.  My cousin recently posted a recipe for English Muffin Bread, it being one of her go to recipes for a little comfort food.  I can see why, it's simple and easy and the result is a couple of hot loaves of delicious white bread with a tender bite and a nice yeasty aroma.

As yeast bread goes this is pretty darn simple.  Mix the dough, knead it in the bowl only enough to get it to come together and then shape into your loaf pans, a single rise in the pan and into the oven it goes.  A half hour later your kitchen smells like a bakery and you forget you worries because you are trying to will that bread to cool enough to cut that first hot slice.  Mr Sid came home from work, took one look and said "I can't wait to make an egg sandwich on that", then promptly buttered and devoured a slice.

A couple of slices are headed into the toaster in a moment...

What to do with some pretty ripe apricots?

We are in the throes of summer fruits here in Oregon and I find myself with some extra apricots.  We've already eaten a bunch and I decided that the last ones are a bit too ripe to eat out of hand.  With some inspiration I decided to make an Upside Down Apricot Cherry Cake.  I didn't have quite enough apricots to cover the bottom of the pan (only 3 big ones) so I decided to add in some pitted and halved Bing cherries from one of our local farms.  The result was beautiful and tasted just as good topped with a little whipped cream.