A Little Bit of Sunshine

It's been freezing ass cold again this weekend. During the storm on Friday I decided to bake something for tea-time. This is a Friday afternoon tradition the Monster and I have. Usually we walk to a nearby coffee shop and she has a smoothie while I savour some carrot cake. Too damn cold this week. Instead, we baked.

Hmm, but what to bake? I have a decade worth of cooking magazines (Gourmet, Martha Stewart, Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light...) I also have about 40 cookbooks. Lately I've been turning to the Community cookbooks. You know the ones. The church, the hospital, or community association put together recipes from members and the same publisher puts them together in a coil-bound book with white paper and standard pictures to divide the Meats and Main Courses from the Desserts and Pastry. But these are always filled with people's go-to recipes. The daily eats, the ones that make them happy. Sure, we can make fancy stuff, but this is the stuff that gets made and eaten every day.

The one limitation to these cookbooks is that the recipes aren't usually written very well. The contributer assumes the cook just know what they are talking about. You really have to read and understand what you have to do before you start, especially as additional ingredients are often put in the directions, not the ingredients list. And once you decide whether you are for or against the amount of pre-packaged food that these recipes can often contain, you can mine the books for new favourites. This is definitely one of ours.

I strongly recommend the coconut and raisins. The Monster loves these, and will happily spend her tea-time destroying the muffin to selectively eat the raisins. Next time I'm putting in more.

Sunshine Muffins

1 orange

1/2 cup orange juice or milk

1/2 cup oil (I use canola - no trans fats)

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour (white or 50/50 white and whole wheat)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar (I always have vanilla or vanilla/orange sugar on hand - extra tasty)

1/2 coconut or nuts (optional)

1/2 cup raisins or cran-raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin papers.

2. Chop up orange, discarding stem thing (if attached). Puree entire orange, peel and all.

3. Mix together all wet ingredients.

4. Sift together dry ingredients, except coconut/raisins.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry, with coconut/raisins (if using). Stir until JUST blended. Overmixing will result in a tough muffin.

6. Pour into prepared pan and bake 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Dessert Options?

I grew up in a house that had Sunday dinner with dessert. Now, dessert usually meant tapioca pudding or cookies, but it was still dessert. I can fondly recall our small glass dessert bowls on their short pedestal sitting on the counter with hot pudding in them, a dollop of raspberry jam providing colour and a sheet of wax paper covering it all.

Hmm, maybe I should have made tapioca pudding today... Instead, inspired by Orangette I tried these butterscotch pots de creme. Maybe it was because I couldn't find muscovado sugar at the grocery store today, or it might have been the curse of the world's crappiest oven, but they were merely okay. Not nearly as creamy as I would have expected.

But I needed a change. I couldn't face my defaults of brownies or gingerbread cake. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderfully tasty, but I craved something different. Any easy Sunday dessert ideas out there?

I will, however, share this recipe. Remind me to tell you the best story about a fateful piece of this cake and a car fire...

Peterson Gingerbread Cake
(recipe from my sister-in-law)

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp dry ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup hot, hot water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 pan
2. Cream together butter and sugar.
3. Add egg. Beat until light and fluffy. Then add in the molasses.
4. Sift together the dry ingredients.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with 1/4 water. Beat until smooth after each addition.
6. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

My sister in law likes to serve it hot with Birds custard, but I prefer ice cream and caramel sauce. It is also good with carmelized apples or pears.

Winter blechs

We had a blizzard on the weekend. A blowing, freezing-arse cold blizzard. It is still bloody cold out (-50 Celcius). And I developed a gastro bug overnight so I spent the day on the couch. It gave me good practice for my latest effort:

With my last pregnancy I ended up on bed rest for nearly three months. I couldn't go up and down the stairs so quilting was out. Well, that and I had trouble sitting for any amount of time. In the end, hand work was out too as my hands were so puffy from carpal tunnel and high blood pressure that I could barely hold a pen for long.

So far so good (other than complete exhaustion and almost daily nausea). But I wanted to be prepared, so I decided a hand hobby was necessary. With this as inspiration I finally signed up for a 101 class. Hubby isn't happy - one more crack cocaine habit.

Circle Tutorial

In case you hadn't noticed, I have a bit of a fixation with circles. In the last two years I’ve made 4 circle quilts. In that time I’ve figured out an easy, reliable way to make even circles – circles that are actually round, that are easy to appliqué, and that don’t have points or tucks.

To get to this point I’ve tried a number of methods: dryer sheets, cardboard templates, plastic templates, aluminum foil, and fusible appliqué. I was never satisfied with any of these. It was either difficult to keep the fabric in place when drawing up the circle (with cardboard and plastic templates), the circles had points or tucks (with all methods but fusible appliqué, determining the center of the circle wasn’t always easy, or you had to use a satin or decorative stitch to finish things off neatly (with fusible appliqué).

There is nothing wrong with any of these methods and I’ve heard that people have success with them, but I sure wasn’t one of them.

Here is my nearly full proof method for creating and attaching perfect circles. This method works for machine or hand appliqué.

Supplies:
Freezer paper
Compass (remember these from elementary school?)
Pen
Iron and ironing board
Fabric
Pins
Sewing machine or hand appliqué supplies (needles and thread)

Circle basics:
The diameter of the circle is the distance from one side to the other. This is how big your circle is.
The radius is half the diameter, or the distance from the center to any one point on the edge.
The circumference is measurement of the outside edge of the circle.

Creating the Circle

Determine the size of circle you want.

1. Using the compass, draw a circle the desired size on the rough side of the freezer paper. Make sure the point of the circle is noticeable or re-mark it with a pen.

2. Cut out the circle right on the drawn line. Take care to use long, even cuts in order to minimize any sharp edges or points on the drawn circle. This is your freezer paper template.
3. Place your circle fabric wrong side up on an ironing board. Ensuring that you have roughly a ½ inch seam allowance, iron the freezer paper smooth side down to the fabric.
4. Cut out the circle of fabric, with the freezer paper template as a guide, with roughly a ½ inch seam allowance.

I use my machine for the next step because it is faster, but this can also be easily done by hand. If you do this step by hand, try to take small basting stitches. The larger your stitch length, by hand, the greater the chance for points on the finished edge.

5. Sew a basting stitch about a ¼ inch from the edge of the freezer paper template all the way around the circle. Leave the ends of your thread a few inches long. Do not backstitch or sew over the ends, you want these free.
6. Gently tug on the loose ends of thread. Short tugs seem to work better. This will draw your fabric edges over the freezer paper template, creating a turned over edge. You may have to work the gather a little, but provided you don’t pull sharply or too hard the threads will hold and you will get a pretty smooth edge.

7. Steam iron the gathered edge. Some people may choose to use starch at this time, but I’ll admit I never have. A hot iron does a good job of holding the edge well.

If you are attaching the circle right away, the freezer paper template can be removed after the following step. If you are waiting to attach the circle, keep the freezer paper attached until ready to use.

Attaching the Circle

The following steps apply if you are attaching the circle in the center of a square block or precise design. If you are doing this as part of a relatively random design, then simply remove the freezer paper prior to appliqué, pin, and sew.

1. Place a pin through the center of the freezer paper template (fabric and template should still be attached). This provides an extra mark for the center of the circle.

2. Remove pin and freezer paper, taking care not to rip the paper. If pin mark is still visible in fabric, replace pin. If it is not visible, then place template over circle to mark center again. Pull template off, leaving the pin in place (it’s okay if the template rips at this time, it’s easy to make more).

3. Mark the center of your block or design (where the center of the circle will go.

4. Place the circle, with the pin still marking the center, directly over the marked spot. Line up the mark and center point, then complete pinning.
5. Appliqué as desired.

I use my machine to appliqué most of the time – a small blanket stitch in a coordinating thread. You could hand appliqué, use invisible thread, or do a decorative stitch. I would not recommend a satin stitch at this point – you have a seam allowance so there would be a lot of fabric under the stitching.

My Attempt at Crafty

My brother's kids have so much stuff. When it came time to planning for Christmas Hubby and I decided we didn't want to get them more brand-name toys. Seriously, they have more toys that the Monster's daycare - all the rooms combined! After some brainstorming we came up with the grand idea of a puppet theatre. It morphed a couple of times, from painted panels to chalkboard paint to our final decision of baltic birch plywood. Hubby made the theatre part and I made the puppets. I must admit, I don't think he enjoyed making his part - at least when it came to the finishing. I, however, loved making the puppets. More puppets are definitely in my future.

The theatre is in three panels and folds to a thickness of a few inches, perfect for sliding under a bed or couch for storage.

I also got a box from Ikea, lined it with the same fabric as the curtains, and included it as safe storage for all the puppets.

These puppets are fun, but I am looking forward to all the plays we get to see, with every creature and doll the kids had. If only I had a picture of the look on our 5 year old nephews face when he realized he could use his new dinosaur in the theatre!

Resolutions

I don't normally do resolutions, but I thought of a good one this year and I need the extra push to make sure I follow through.

I am horrible at remembering people's birthdays on time. Actually, the truth is that I remember them, but I am very bad for getting gifts, cards, calls, and emails to people on time. I am going to sit down this week and create a master list and master calendar. Now, unless you join my life this year I promise you that your birthday wil be celebrated on time and in style!

That means I have a couple of cards to get out today before the week passes me by!

Welcome 2008!

Now, if only I could resolve to pay more attention to work when I'm here... Cut me some slack, the Monster started day care today and I'm a nervous ball of energy. I can't wait to pick her up! Did she eat? Did she nap? Did the staff keep her blanket from her so she didn't drag it everywhere? Do they know what she means when she walks around signing "please" and "duck" all day? Will the other kids be nice to her? Will she still love me when I pick her up?

Mayhem and Peace

At our last staff meeting of the year one of the senior staff made a wonderful speech about how much she appreciated the team. It wasn't Bill Clinton, but it was genuine and heartfelt. It beat any other Christmas greeting this year.

In the holiday madness and stress so much gets lost. Not necessarily the spiritual or religious aspect (although, if that is important to you I can see the reason for the lamentation), but the important bits that make the holidays special. We get caught up in shopping, wrapping, baking, visiting, partying, making, and decorating. We give ourselves so much stress to get things done.

I'll be honest, and you can hate me now, I gave up on that years ago. What gets done gets done. This goes for shopping, baking, decorating, everything. And I can honestly say that I am happier for it. It is almost zen like. If I feel like baking, I do. If I feel like making a gift, I do. If I don't feel like shopping, I won't go.

Hubby and I decided years ago what are the important things to us. We make sure to do those things and if nothing else happens then so be it. So, for us, it means going out to chop our tree. It means Christmas morning piled into bed - all together - for presents and Christmas Tree Bun. It means visiting with friends over ice skating or tobagganing. I can do without Christmas cards, turkey dinner, and even gifts.

Today we chopped down our tree and we will decorate it tonight. I can't wait to see the Monster's eyes when she sees it all lit up. Santa dropped off his gifts for her early so all that is left is to stuff her quilted stocking. I have to make the Christmas Tree Bun and honey butter still, but if we order chinese for dinner that works just fine.

I know, it seems hard to break the expectations of family, friends, society, and ourselves. But think about how much more welcome a card for Valentine's Day would be over one of many at Christmas. Think about the relaxed gathering of friends you could have at the end of January when the rush is over and people are ready to socialize again. All people really need to know is that you think about them and care. A well placed hug and some kind words are the best present at any time of year. Thinking of you all.