You Can Call Me Gwen

Valentiny Party!

 

Every once in awhile, I look at these shelves in my studio...

 

 

...or more specifically, all of the things inside of them...

 

 

... and begin accusing myself of being a useless hoarder (and worse) and start mumbling about giving it all away.

Usually, my family hears these mumblings, begs me to reconsider, reminds me of the many times "having everything" in my studio has blessed others, and just generally backs me away from the cliff (and the thought of hiring a dumpster, building a chute to it from my second-story window and sliding everything into it) (yes, it gets that bad).

I'm so grateful for their interventions.

This week, as I was getting ready to host an American Girl Valentiny Party for a group of my young friends and their dolls, I pulled the matchboxes off the shelf... ...

 

 

...to make tiny invitations.

 

 

 

 

...with a surprise hidden inside.

 

 

I got down the red paint and the small wooden hearts ...

 

 

...to begin making place card holders.

 

 

When I needed something to hold the two hearts apart so the cards could be slipped in, I pulled down the toothpicks, and had an "Aha!" moment.

 

 

The wooden game pieces...

 

 

...were added to wooden spools, some empty tins and lids I stole (!) from the storage jars...

 

 

...to create mini cake stands (shown here with a naked cake during the test fitting).

 

 

The red binder clips...

 

 

...came down and were taken apart to serve as menu holders.

I made seven matching doll dresses as gifts for the girls...

 

  

...and I was very much over it by the time I finished!

I dumped out the contents of my "random heart charms" container and got out some beads to make dolly-sized necklaces as take-home favors.

 

 

(I also took some really bad photos.)

My friend, Able Baker Dana, came over on Friday to help with the little cakes and all the heart-shaped food preparation.

We had some fun...

 

 

...and did some work...

 

 

...which included cutting little tiny tortilla hearts... 

 

 

...to make into tortilla chips.

 

 

We cut the world's tiniest carrot sticks...

 

 

...and we made menus...

 

 

...and small paper placemats, bingo cards, and hearts for "Musical Hearts".

When the big day came, I set the table using the tiny plastic 'silverware' I found at the dollar tree...

 

 

...6" dessert plates, votive cups for drinking glasses, and tiny cloth napkins made from the excess length I cut from the (free!) tablecloth.

 

 

 

 

 

And, finally, seven precious girls arrived, bringing their dolls with them.

They had lunch...

 

 

 

...waiting patiently for their special orders to be served.

 

 

They played Pin the Heart on the American Girl.

 

 

 

They played a (very intense!) game of "Musical Hearts"...

 

 

...but were great sports when they lost their place.

 

 

They played a game of reverse "Conversation Heart Bingo", eating the candies as the sayings were called.

 

 

 

Then we let them eat cake...

 

 

...and make the world's tiniest ice-cream sudaes.

 

 

 

They exchanged Valentines.

 

 

...had their photographs taken...

 

 

 

...and then they just played and played and played with their dolls and with each other.

It was a wonderful Valentiny day.

 

Wedding Sweets

 

Prince Charming and I are celebrating thirty-five years of wedded bliss today.

In honor of the occasion, I made a batch of our 'wedding cookies' this afternoon.

Light, buttery wafers...

 

 

...with peach-colored (our wedding!) icing...

 

 

...turning them into the most melt-in-your-mouth bits of deliciousness you can imagine.

 

 

My little Seester wasn't here to help like she was thirty-five years ago, so Miss Helping Hands did the taste testing.

 

 

It seems appropriate that this evening included another kind of wedding sweet; the first fitting of a sweet little flower girl dress on an even sweeter little four-year-old.

 

 

Something's in the air.

And I think it's love.

Cookies for the Help

 

 

Today I baked cookies for Me Darlin' Mither and the many people who are currently coming and going from her home and helping during her recovery.

I ate one.

It was awfully good.

I made the oatmeal-raisin cookies Me Darlin' Mither had requested, but I added another ingredient which I know she is crazy about and it kinda took the cookies to a dangerously yummy place.

Toffee chips.

Specifically, Heath Chips.

Here is the recipe I used:

 

Oatmeal Raisin Toffee Cookies

Soak in warm water:

1/2-3/4 cup raisins

Beat until creamy:

1 1/4  cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

Then add and beat:

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together the following and add to mixture:

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Then add and mix:

raisins, drained of water

3 cups oats

1 bag of Heath or other toffee chips

Form into 1"-2" balls and flatten slightly with your hand. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies (you want them this way, trust me) or 10-12 minutes for crunchy cookies (just say no). Let them cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to cooling rack.

Now, I trust you remember (from my previous post about the awesome peanut butter cookies) the trick to making all cookies become low or zero calorie cookies?

Put them in packages, tie them tightly shut...

 

 

...and get 'em out of the house.

The Best Low Calorie Peanut Butter Cookies

 

I am sitting here enjoying a truly sweet and delicious orange (thank you, God), and remembering that I wanted to tell you about the best peanut butter cookie recipe.

 

 

No, seriously.

I did a Google search for "the best peanut butter cookie recipe" and I found this one over at Alaska from Scratch, which I have to agree lives up to the name.

When I made mine, I flattened them a bit with the classic fork crisscross and then sprinkled some coarse salt on them before baking.

Able Baker Dana says it took them "over the top".

However, what took them over the top for me, was finding a way to make them non-fattening without altering the recipe one bit!

You simply enjoy one and then...

 

 

... make some taped shut take-home packs for the grandshoots, to keep them from howling when it's time to leave Pretty and Poppa's (I'm sorry, but I secretly love that they want to cry when they have to leave).

Then use the rest to make tied-shut give-away packages for whatever people happen to be part of your life for the next few days.

 

Today has been a beeeeautiful spring-like day, and I took advantage of the weather by spending hours scalping the front lawn, cleaning up flower beds, and cutting back some herbs and decorative grasses.

Also, Prince Charming sent some lawn-care guys by to take a look at our 'weed situation' and give us a quote for spraying.

Three guys in a big truck pulled up, measured up our lawns, spoke kindly to me, and said they'd be back to spray on Wednesday.

They were eating peanut butter cookies when they drove off.

I really liked that.

 

Hearts and Roses and Poetry and Paint

I'm cleaning out my camera files and thinking.

Thinking about the lovely Valentine progressive dinner we had, with poetry and other romantic readings, and with fun appetizers served here...

 

.

.. followed by a delicious entree and dessert served elsewhere.

 

I'm thinking about the little impromptu Valentine's lunch with some of the grandshoots...

 

 

...and the just plain love-them-to-pieces days with other grandshoots.

 

 

I'm thinking about the many jigsaw puzzles which have been put together over the (LONG) winter months...

 

 

...and some of the really good recipes I've discovered lately (more later).

 

 

But, mostly, I'm thinking about paint.

Lots and lots of paint and painting has been in my life over the last two months.

I finally started working on the room Prince Charming plans to use as a recording studio.

I was pretty happy that the big drop cloth covered the floor from wall-to-wall in one direction and was only a foot shy of doing so in the other direction.

 

 

However, because of the truly amazing amount of painting I have done over the course of the last 35 years, I am extremely skilled at it now and I was able to knock the loaded paint tray off the top of the ladder in such a way that it dumped a significant amount of paint onto that one foot of unprotected carpet. (Don't try this at home, kids; I am a skilled professional with years of experience in this line of work.)

Now, we're not talking about some blend-in color here, either, Dear Readers.

No.

No.

I painted this studio a nice, masculine, deep gray-brown (Warm Stone by Sherwin Williams).

 

 

My dear friend, Able Baker Dana, was here at the time and narrowly escaped a Warm Stone shower, herself.

Would you like to see the big mess on the carpet?

This is it:

 

 

 

Though it's perceptable up close like this, when the room is taken as a whole it's hardly noticeable (which is good, since new flooring for this room is pretty much not on the priority list).

Since Able Baker Dana was so astounded that I was able to salvage that carpet, I'm going to share a trade secret.

Three words.

WATER and ACT FAST.

I got a bucket of water and, after first scooping and wiping up the globs and puddles of paint, I simply started pouring large amounts of water on the carpet and then soaking it up with old towels.

Over and over again.

For quite a long time.

But, you see, it works well most of the time.

I have a similar story, with a sadder ending, which I will tell you when my currently on-going painting project is finished.

THAT project is why I am thinking mostly about paint as I look through my camera files.

One day, when I went upstairs to fetch my camera before leaving for another day on that job, I caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror and snapped a photo so I could remember...

 

 

...what February really looked like on me.

Keeping it real, folks, keeping it real.

Today

 

Today I am I thawing out some of the pesto I put up last summer...

 

 

 

...chopping fresh rosemary and cloves of garlic...

 

 

...and proofing yeast...

 

 

...to make fresh herb and garlic bread for tonight's dinner party.

I'm also crunching peppermint sticks and chocotate wafers...

 

 

...for the bottom layer of the white chocolate mousse dessert.

 

 

I've taken some time to watch old episodes of West Wing with Miss Helping Hands, and to make some more Christmas Gnomes (just because)...

 

 

...and I've put the markers on the wine glasses.

 

 

I've been snacking on these...

 

 

...in an heroic effort to stay out of this:

 

 

It smells pretty darn good in here, but it's two hours until dinner.

I'm going to take a nap.

Snow is Fattening

If the snow out there keeps Miss Helping Hands in here for very long, bad stuff happens.

She goes into the kitchen and starts taking stock of what's on hand.

She gets out the recipe files and measuring cups and she turns on the oven.

She makes things like "Orange Muffins with Brown Sugar Glaze".

 

 

 

And then she forces them down our throats.

It's terrible.

Favors - Pennie Pockets for Quilt Camp

 

 

I mentioned in my trip journal that  while I was in Prescott I made favors for JulieJulieJulie to take to quilt camp.

You can find the instructions and pattern for the Pennie Pockets over at the Happy Zombie (whose site is full of other wonderful eye-candy, too).

Here are some not-very-good photos of the ones I made this month:

 

 

It was the first time I'd ever made a fabric yo-yo, and I think I could become addicted to making them; I love hand sewing.

Of course, JulieJulieJulie needed just the right thing to put in the little pockets, so we got a few things out of the kitchen cabinets and pantry and made these little button sugar cookies.

 

You can gauge the size of our cookies by noting that a communion cup was used for the inner ring, and a straw on the more slender side was used to make the button holes.

It was easy-peasy and lots of fun, but I do wish we'd remembered to add color to the dough.

We added icing 'thread' to some of them...

 

 

...and then wrapped them in parchment paper and tied it shut with a ribbon.

Off into the freezer for a week or two and then off to quilt camp with JulieJulieJulie.

I wish I was going,too.

Help, I'm Cracking Up!

 

It's been a little (very) tough for me to squeeze in much 'art time' since I started my new job and work schedule.

In fact, this week I wasn't able to squeeze in any at all.

Last night, exhausted and with an aching back, I sat on the sofa and realized I hadn't even managed to do any lessons from the book we're now using in my Friday morning group.

I felt frustrated, cranky, and miserable, and I was just too tired to climb the stairs to my studio and do anything about it.

And then I remembered an easy little drawing project I'd been wanting to do.

I took the ten steps to the kitchen, got a Sharpie marker from the drawer, and took the eggs out of the refrigerator.

I sat at the counter and did this:

 

 

I was laughing, when I put the lid on the carton and put it back in the refrigerator.

I figured I might be waiting a few days for Miss Helping Hands (our main egg-eater) to discover them, and was just hoping I'd be nearby when she did.

But...

Tonight Prince Charming decided we should have what he refers to as 'big breakfast' for dinner.

All four of us went into the kitchen to prepare food, but I just sat at the counter and played with my phone;  I couldn't get away with hauling the big camera in there, but I figured I could start snapping pictures with my phone without much to-do (this explains the upcoming poor photos).

I was so surprised by Miss Helping Hands reaction when she opened the eggs.

She literally pulled her hands away from the carton like she'd been burned.

 

 

"Why do they have faces?!"

 

 

"These are hilarious, but I can't crack them now."

 

 

"When I first opened them, I thought you were doing an art project and had just left it in there."

"Really.  I can't crack them.  They have faces."

Good thing Miss Mary Mack was home.

She didn't mind cracking them one little bit.

 

 

She liked playing with them, too.

 

I actually felt sad after dinner when I saw this:

 

 

When I pointed it out, Miss Helping Hands tried to bring comfort.

 

 

Yep.

I'm cracking up.

The yolks on me.

It was an eggcellent dinner, but it's ova.

Shell I stop with the puns now?

I will.

But only because I'm so tired...

...my brain is just fried.

I can say no...

 

...to the cupcakes I bake, and the brownies Miss Helping Hands bakes.

I can say no to the donuts and bagels which often appear on the break-room table at work.

I can say no to homemade cookies, and I can even say no to the chocolate birthday cakes I (often!) have to bake.

But, I'm having a real hard time with biscotti.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try the recipe posted by Angry Chicken (I enjoy her blog very much)..

Aye yi yi.

I've now tried seven different flavor combinations using this basic biscotti recipe.

Today I decided to make a couple of varieties as a gift to a friend who has a pile of out-of-town company this week.

I made chocolate chip with orange rind.

 

 

This is delicious.

 

I made almond with cranberries (Craisins).

 

 

This is delicious, too.

Then Miss Helping Hands made a batch with crushed peppermints and coated one side with chocolate.

I didn't get a good photograph, but Prince Charming (who is our died-in-the-wool chocolate lover) says it was really good.

Yikes.

Maybe it's because it's not overly sweet that I find it difficult to stop once I start eating this stuff.

I don't know.

But I served it to a Dear Reader recently, and now she is having biscotti-baking binges, too.

I think you're just going to have to go visit Angry Chicken and try this recipe for yourself.

I use half wheat and half white flour, as she suggests.

And if you want to know my very most favoritest flavor combination so far, it's lime zest and vanilla.

Yum.

Go forth and bake.

It's only 93 degrees today? Let's bake!

 

 

Since I returned from that wonderful vacation (about which I have not yet posted), I have been making a real effort to leave one or two 'unscheduled' days a month on my calendar.

By that, I mean I'm trying not to make plans ahead of time for every single day I have off work.

It's been a real exercise for me, but I'm convinced that I'll die early (or just seize up some day) if I don't learn how to relax.

Today was an unscheduled day.

And it happened to be Miss Helping Hands' day off, too.

I asked, "Whatcha doin' today?"

She answered, "No plans until tonight."

I said, "We should make something."

She said, "You mean, like, bake something?"

"Yeah."

"Muffins! I want muffins!"

We looked at our supplies and realized we didn't have the ingredients for any of her favorite muffins.

So we made three other kinds, instead.

We started with a recipe for blueberry yogurt muffins, which we adapted, because we had no blueberries and we wanted to use the vanilla yogurt we had on hand.

 We added some peach jam (the last little jar from last summer's canning) to the yogurt to make the full cup the recipe called for.

And we added some orange juice concentrate to substitiute for orange zest.

While Miss Helping Hands got the muffins into the oven, I whipped some of the peach jam into some softened butter and let it re-form in the freezer.

 

 

 

When the muffins came out, hot from the oven, the skinny girl's plate looked like this:

 

 

 

You really need a close-up so your mouth can water.

 

 

 

The not-skinny girl's portion looked like this:

 

 

 

But, man was it yummmmmmy.

While the peach muffins were baking, Miss Helping Hands whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

 

 

 

I confess to eating a mini...they are scrumptious.

I will not tell you what the skinny girl ate.

I don't really know.

While the pumpkin muffins were baking, I made a batch of granola from Alton Brown's recipe.

I've probably told you about his recipe before, but it bears repeating that it is delicious.

I didn't have any cashews on hand, so I subbed pecans, and I used molasses instead of maple syrup.

This stuff has to bake at 200 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes.

My step aerobic workout routine takes an hour and ten minutes.

I was plenty hot by the time the granola and I were done...

 

 

 

...and I was plenty hungry, too.

But, first things first.

I made a batch of apple pie muffins with the apples we'd taken from the deep freeze when we first decided to bake today.

 

 

So.

Much.

Sugar.

I won't be eating these, but they look and smell wonderful, and I can imagine Me Darlin' Mither and the girls enjoying them like dessert.

I did have a cup of cantaloupe, with 4 ounces of Greek yogurt and a third of a cup of the freshly baked granola poured over it for lunch.

Oh.

My.

Yummy.

Goodness.

You need to try that for summer breakfast or lunch some day very soon.

Really, you do.

While we were finishing the clean-up from our 4 1/2 hour baking stint, I began to search for the most important item in the kitchen.

I couldn't find it anywhere.

Not on the counters.

Not in the dishwasher.

Not in the cupboard where I keep it.

I began to be "audibly concerned" about its whereabouts.

"Mom, take it easy, I'm trying to remember where I put it."

More frantic searching.

Aha!

"Hannah! It's way back here in the cabinet. I must have this kept right here with the drinking glasses."

Do you know what she said (under her breath)?

"Okaaaaaayy...I guess it's the summer of the big jar."

Well, yeah.

When the weather dishes up blistering 100+ degree days for weeks on end...

 

 

 

...I must have my afternoon coffee on ice.

Lots of ice.

Sun and Surf Cupcakes

 

 

I know these look like white cupcakes...

 

 

 

...but they are actually small pieces of planet Earth.

And these may look like peppermint candies...

 

 

 

...but they are actually beach balls.

This appears to be my container of brown sugar...

 

 

 

...but it's really sand.

This looks like blue-tinted icing, doesn't it?

 

 

 

You just have to use a little bit of imagination to see that it's ocean water.

When you add these little beauties that look like cocktail picks,...

 

 

 

... but which are actually beach umbrellas...

...and you put them all together in just the right way...

 

 

 

...you get a little dessert that looks an awful lot like a day at the beach.

And, golly, don't I love a day at the beach?

Produce Sticker Collection

 

 

It's been awhile since I updated you on my growing produce sticker collection.

And since I've been thoroughly enjoying the sweet, sweet oranges we've had lately...

 

 

 

... and I've been eating so many salads that I actually got to add a new bell pepper sticker to the collection...

 

 

 

...I thought it might be time to post this.

There are little bits of art where you least expect them.

Making and Re-making

 

Besides being full of giving and receiving (heavy on the receiving), April has also had a big dose of making and re-making.

I found a white wicker shelf at the thrift store one day and it was such a throw back to my childhood years that I felt compelled to buy it.

We never owned one; my mother (rightfully) thought they were terrible dust collectors.

This one had collected a lot of dust over it's many years, but was otherwise in good condition.

 

 

 

Since I'm always needing shelving/storage in my little studio (and I prefer to rescue, rather than buy new things)...

...and since the price was right...

 

 

 

I brought this little baby home and got out my trusty black spray paint.

There wasn't quite enough in the can to finish the job, so I had to run the hardware store for more.

Now, some people get light headed and dizzy when they use spray paint.

I get light headed and dizzy when I stand in front of the spray paint display.

 

 

 

Oh, my!

I can't tell you how long it took to tear myself, and my overworked imagination, away from this!

The little shelf was painted on April 12.

 

 

 

 

It's still sitting in the studio waiting for the Prince and I to have time to hang it.

 

 

 

 

There is another spray-painted item sitting in the studio waiting to be hung.

 

 

 

It's my new guest book holder.

It was rescued from the thrift store by Miss Mary Mack, who intended to repurpose it, but never got around to it.

 

 

 

When I inherited it, I realized it would be the perfect holder for the studio guest book.

I've had lots of guests in the studio over the years, and I like to have them write a little note while they're here.

The old 'guest book' was  a bunch of shipping tags, which each guest duly decorated with beads, rubber stamps, drawings, etc.

Last May I had a roll of adding machine tape appear in my studio (I know not whence it came) and after I'd moved it around for awhile, I decided it would make a great new guest book.

This is how it was kept:

 

 

 

(Does anyone else remember those pink sponge rollers? I hung on to a few I used for the goilies when they were little; the clip came in handy here.)

The thing about this guest book is, I didn't read any of the entries as they were written; I told my guests to just 'write and roll'.

I had it for nearly a year before I unrolled it and spent a glorious half-hour enjoying all the comments and reliving all the moments recorded there.

 

 

 

 

It was awesome.

Get yourself a guest book.

Or, better yet, let someone else get you a guest book.

When I turned my new holder over to paint the back side, this is what I found:

 

 

 

I didn't paint over it; these are real people and I have them all 'imagined up' now.

Another item in the April re-make category is the big credenza I bought last year at the thrift store (half price, mind you).

 

 

 

This ginormous hunk of furniture is going to be sitting in my foyer (hopefully before May is over).

I was sorry to discover that the drawer knobs are not removable, but I've started sanding and painting this piece black and it's looking good.

 

 
 

 

I sure do hope it looks finished before too long.

Sigh.

In the April things-that-were-made category are the little duckie cupcakes Able Baker Dana and I made on the 20th.

 

 

 

I still say they looked a bit deranged.

 

 

 

Also made, on the 21st,  were the little almost-chocolate bunnies.

 

 

The family has since split up; Baby Girl likes to chew on the ears of Tall Bunny, so she took her home on Easter Sunday.

And, of course, PeeWee was claimed by Miss Mary Mack.

Pudgie lives on at the Big House.

 

 

 

Of course, they breed like rabbits, so there will probably be more next spring.

The last thing-that-was-made which shows up on the April inchie line-up, was the first of 50 invitations to an upcoming (very special) wedding shower.

 

 

 

I am working this weekend on finishing these.

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon slicing paper.

 

 

 

 

I made an interesting discovery, too: If you buy a new blade for your rotary cutter, it does not matter how long you keep it in your studio, it won't do you a bit of good until you actually unwrap it and install it in the paper cutter.

Amazing, but true.

The scoring blade always works...

 

 

 

After all the paper was cut and scored, I lined the inside of the card, folded some of that wonderful Japanese paper tape over one edge, and glued down the sides to make the pocket.

 

 

 

I cut some blooms and leaves off a stem of silk flowers...

 

 

 

... and used glue dots to secure them to some small twigs I cut from a tree in our back yard.

 

 

 

 

The project is at this point right now...

 

 

 

...and, though I'd love to finish them today, I'm expecting my visiting-from-out-of-town brudders, seester-in-love, and Me Darlin' Mither for a pizza dinner and game night shortly.

And guess who's making the pizza?

Duckie Little Cupcakes or Little Duckie Cupcakes

 

I went running with Beeg Seester this morning.

That has absolutely no relevance to this post, but it felt so good to be running again that I wanted to say that.

Before I went running this morning (just after rolling out of bed, actually), I made some cupcakes.

And after I went running this morning (and cleaned myself up, did chores, and ate lunch), Able Baker Dana came over to turn the cupcakes into little yellow duckies.

I know (I think?) I've told you about the Hello, Cupcake! book before.

Able Baker and I are having fun doing some of the projects in the book.

We started building duckies by gluing a donut hole, and half a (diagonally cut) marshmallow to each cupcake with icing.

 

 

 

Then we filled in just a bit with some additional icing.

 

 

 

The cupcakes sat in the freezer in this condition for a bit while we made some beaks and feet with orange fruit chew candies (and some from-scratch lemon curd for another project...which was a lot of work but, zowie, is it goooood).

After the cupcakes were partially frozen, we dipped them in some tinted, canned ( it works best!) icing that had been warmed in the microwave until it was creamy.

 

 

 

The little duckies started to take shape at this point...

 

 

 

...but we felt rather badly for the poor, blind things.

A dot of icing and some mini M&M's and, voila!

 

 

 

 

 

Now, Able Baker Dana always seems to have more fun than I do when we do this sort of thing.

She laughed about the fatso duck she created...I call him 'Pond Daddy'.

 

 

 

But I gotta tell ya...the one she made with the eyes really close together and a bit of a 'beak issue'...

 

 

 

...well, I understand this guy.

I feel just like this sometimes.

Know what I mean?

Special Dinner Today

 

I've been busy in the kitchen with my friend, Able Baker Dana.

We cooked some special foods for the people we love.

We made spaghetti and meatballs...

 

 

 

...pork lo mein...

 

 

 

...fried rice...

 

 

 

...and fortune cookies.

 

 

 

We used the same basic ingredients for all of this yummy food.

We started with cupcakes...

 

 

 

...and added frosting...

 

 

 

...and some candy vegetables and meatballs.

Oh, we had strawberry tomato sauce, too.

And we served it all up...

 

 

 

 
 

...to some April fools.

Life can be fun.

Friendship is For The Birds - Part One

 

Remember when I told you about my experience painting with food coloring on fondant ?

I am glad I got to practice before I had to paint the eagles for my friend's project.

The trial run was a big help; we got to experiment with mixing color, and we realized we could get the desired effect without fondant.

Able Baker Dana baked a batch of eagle-shaped sugar cookies and we started our project by covering them with (bottled) icing.

 

 

 

(On an only-slightly-related note, here is what was going on in my kitchen while Able Baker Dana and I were icing cookies in the dining room.)

 

 

 

(Yikes!)

After the icing set (smooth and firm) we started painting the eagle details.

 

 

 

I thought I needed to paint only four of them, but Able Baker Dana said she needed some extras for "insurance against accidents".

Here are the six of them before yellow accents were added.

 

 

 

The yellow made a big difference!

 

 

 

Painting these eagle cookies was just my little contribution to the big project my friend had undertaken.

She made two half-sheet, double-layer cakes for her son's Eagle Scout ceremony.

Here is the Eagle Scout medal her son (and his three troop mates) earned:

 

 

 

Now look what Able Baker Dana did with the two cakes:

 

 

 

The white cake had white icing.

She tinted the icing for the chocolate cake.

 

 

 

Didn't she do an awesome job?

Look at the edible gold stars she found to sprinkle on the cakes!

 

 

 

 

Neither of us had a thing to do with this ice sculpture, but I thought you should see it.

 

 

 

I wasn't there, but I'd venture a guess that this Eagle Scout reception was first-class all the way.

 

 

 
 

Just like my friends.

I just never know...

 

...what's coming up next.

When Able Baker Dana asked me for some help with a baking project she was doing for her son's Eagle Scout ceremony, of course I said yes.

When she told me she was going to cut some pound cake with an eagle-shaped cookie cutter and cover it with fondant, and that she needed some help 'painting' the fondant with food-color, of course I said I'd try.

Last week she decided to do a 'trial run' so we could practice before the big day, so I stopped by after work Thursday afternoon and we did just that.

This was the result of our experiment:

 

 

 

I've never painted with food-color.

In fact, I've never painted much at all (unless you count walls).

But it did at least look like an eagle, and it did help us make some 'design' decisions before she starts baking the sheet cakes and I have to paint four of these 'for real' next week.

It is funny to me how many of these kinds of things I get myself into.

Life is full of little adventures; I'll let you know how this one turns out.

I thought I would surely be drawing an eagle on the day's inchie, but (especially because I knew I'd be painting them again) it got ousted by a little something the Prince pulled on me that evening.

He pulled a knife on me.

A few weeks ago, when I was maniacally spring cleaning, I came across the little Swiss army knife one of my sweet male Shoots had given me years ago.

It had been ruined (I forget how), but I just hadn't been able to throw it out.

When I found it, I told the Prince how I loved that little knife and how sorry I was that I couldn't carry it anymore.

I guess you can figure out the rest of the story, but I still forget how much the Prince loves to give gifts to me.

The evening of the eagle-painting day, he handed me a little box.

And in the little box, was a little knife just like the one my Shoot had given me.

It is now attached to my key chain.

 

 

 

I'm sure you can guess which of the tools on this knife is my favorite.

 

 

 

And now when I open my little knife, or cut with my little scissors...

 

 

 

I'll be thinking of two men who love me.

...six, five, four, three...

 

I am still counting down the last ten inchies of my inchie year.

And I've been looking over the 355 inchies which are already in my files, remembering all the good things in my life which they represent, and feeling blessed all over again.

I hate to think these are the last...

SIX...

We've been undergoing some training on the new computer system at work (in preparation for going 'paperless').

And, because we're in this together, we had 'sign-up-and-bring-something' lunches every day last week.

I'm on a sugar fast (again!), but I had a quart of whipping cream in the refrigerator which I did not want to see go to waste, so on Wednesday I made a pie to go with it.

Not just any old pie.

Pioneer Woman's French Silk Pie.

 

 

 

They tell me it was fabulous.

I didn't have any.

So, can I have, like, 1500 life points for not so much as licking the spoon?

I earned them.

-------

FIVE...

I am not sure why I started baking things almost the same minute I started fasting from sugar, but that's what I did.

Maybe I'm testing all my willpower right up front.

Wednesday night I made 2 1/2 dozen white cupcakes (using up the leftover sour cream in the refrigerator).

Thursday afternoon I went to play in Able Baker Dana's kitchen.

She likes to mess around with all the fancy cake-decorating stuff.

We clipped some mini marshmallows and pressed their cut edges in colored sugar to make some flower-topped cupcakes.

 

 

 

After we'd both made a half dozen of these, we got bored with them.

 

 

 

 

Dana really wanted to experiment with 'tangling' cupcakes (remember Zentangles?).

I had a Goldilocks experience with it.

At first, the tip on my icing bag was too small.

Although it meant the details could be finer, it really cramped my hand trying to pipe out the icing.

 

 

 

I hadn't packed my big camera and I'm sorry these cupcakes look blue and orangey.

They were actually a beautiful violet color (and red).

I loved the violet.

 

 
 

 

When my hand really started to hurt, we changed to another size tip.

But it was too big for making intricate designs.

 

 

 

Unlike Goldilocks, I never did find the tip that was 'just right', because Dana's little alarm went off before I had time.

When I realized it was almost time for Dana to pick up her kiddos from school and we'd made a  mess of her kitchen, I just squeezed out my remaing icing on my remaining cupcake so I could help with clean-up.

 

 

 

And that's how we got spaghetti cupcakes.

It's okay though.

Miss Mary Mack was here when I got home, and I sent a dozen cupcakes back to college with her.

College kids are usually willing to eat anything that's homemade.

Friday morning on my way to D'Art group, I dropped off the remaining cupcakes at work.

That's the way I got rid of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Dana wasn't so lucky.

She still had her evil bunny cupcake sitting on the counter when I left.

 

 

 

I wonder if her kids had nightmares that night.

 

 

 

I just dreamed about licking the icing knife.

-------

FOUR...

Friday was a very full day.

There were many weighty conversations, with many different people.

There were many places I had to be, which meant a lot of driving.

There was a bit of time pressure.

And I felt a lot of stress.

But...

 

 

 

...I was wearing my red lipstick.

So that was good.

-------

THREE...

Saturday morning, although I knew we were leaving at 12:30 for an overnight trip, I felt it was absolutely critical to my sanity to go into my studio and cut paper.

I had a little project in mind which I thought I might be able to finish before we had to leave.

Miss Helping Hands and I fell in love with the Charlie and Lola children's television series several years ago and, subsequently, the Prince bought me several of the storybooks as gifts.

Miss Helping Hands and I often refer to Lola when we are struggling with big grown-up responsibilities, and since Miss Helping Hands is in a transitional (read: challenging) stage of her life, I thought it would be fun to 'copy' one of our favorite pages from one of our favorite Charlie and Lola books for her.

The story is about Lola going to school for the first time.

She's scared...and aren't we all sometimes?

She's feels she's too small (young, inexperienced, weak)...and don't we all feel that way sometimes?

Here is the page of the book I wanted to copy for Miss Helping Hands.

 

 

 

I traced off their figures to make patterns.

I cut their faces from white paper and used chalk and colored pencil to color them.

 

 

 

Pretty soon I had some funny looking little pieces of Charlie and Lola in front of me.

 

 

 

I got their figures all finished before it was time to pack up and leave, but I didn't have the graph paper I wanted to use as a background (though I did have a snap-in type frame in the studio closet).

Since the purpose of our road trip was to see Miss Helping Hands performing with the orchestra in her last Masterworks Concert, and since we planned to stay overnight, I figured I'd just finish the project in the hotel room at some point.

Which I did, but just minutes before we left for the concert, so I forgot to take a photo.

This is (a not very good) one with the mat sitting on it, before I glued the kids in place.

 

 

 

 

It's sitting on Miss Helping Hands' dresser now.

While we were on the road home, I received a text message from her which read "I love my Lola pic : )".

As for me...

 

 
 

 

...I love my shoots.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dear Readers

 

I will be busy icing the last of the sugar cookies and delivering Valentines this morning, so I won't have time to write or to post inchies.

Until I can get back to business, here are photos of some of the 21 (I couldn't seem to stop) Valentine cones that have been produced around here in the last week or two.

 This one has a little love letter.

 

 

 

This was the last one I made.

 

 

 

I liked it a lot.

So I kept it.

I loved this one, too, but I don't  even remember where she went.

 

 

 

This one is going to be mailed late, so her little banner says "you are loved" instead of "happy valentine's day".

 

 

 

I worked with browns and golds (out of my comfort zone) on this one because I wanted to use some of Seester's other chicken feathers.

 

 

 

 The lighting is off on this one, so the colors don't show up well.

 

 

 

But, yep, that's a black ribbon.

It worked.

Really.

Here is another bad photograph (of a cone that went to Wisconsin).

 

 

 

This one "spoke to" my good neighbor, and is now living with her.

 

 
 

I did stop messing around with paper long enough to go into the kitchen when Miss Helping Hands was home on Saturday.

We made heart shaped sugar cookies, flavored with vanilla and a bit of orange zest, and iced them to look like conversation hearts.

 

 

 

A little treat bag and some red ribbon...

 

 

 

...and Miss Helping Hands, the Resident Advisor, has sweet little gifts to give her girls today.

And today, because one doesn't forget the love of one's life, the Prince recieved this little card from moi.

 

 

 

I'm sure he's proud of me for making it all by myself.

I even curled the little love letter I slipped into the typewriter.

 

 

 

I can't show you the poem I wrote for the inside because, well, it's quite personal.

But...

I can tell you that it starts with "Roses are red" and ends with "Will you be mine?"

I hope he says yes.

And I hope that you have a lovely day today.

Here are the words of God on which I meditate every Valentine's day:

"...I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Jeremiah 31:3

Holey cupcakes, Batman!

Yesterday (after working out, going to the bank, making Candyland game pieces with Miss Helping Hands, and before styling Me Darlin' Mither's hair, visiting with my out-of-state Brudder, and cleaning the kitchen and spare refrigerator) I took a little field trip with Able Baker Dana.

We went here:

 

 

 

It's a wonderland of possibilities, and I want to go back.

Omigersh...so many sprinkles, cookie cutters, candy molds and gadgets!

Not to mention the exciting variety of patterns/colors/styles/sizes of cupcake liners!

If I hadn't been singularly focused on getting ready for today, I might have gone nuts.

I was getting ready for today, though, and I'm glad I did.

Because it was one gloriously productive day in the kitchen.

Able Baker Dana was here, and we made many, many, many, many cupcakes for the upcoming wedding.

In the beginning, it looked like any typical batch of cupcakes.

 

 

 

Soon it was a veritable sea of cupcakes.

 

 

 

And the cupcakes were put into neat little boxes and poked with the curling iron.

 

 

 

Just kiddin'.

It was the apple corer.

 

 

 

A few twists of the wrists and moments later...

 

 

 

..."Holey cupcakes, Batman!

Not to worry.

There was a lot of filling made with cream cheese, orange zest, and orange marmalade.

 

 

 

Able Baker Dana manned the pastry bag (she always has fancy fingernails, so I enjoy taking pictures of her hands).

 

 

 

 

One by one, she filled in all the holes.

 

 

 

We worked so fast that I completely forgot to take pictures of the white cupcakes.

They are divinely moist and delicious, and they have a very yummy hole-filling made with whipped cream and chopped, roasted almonds.

At the end of our combined 13 hours in the kitchen today, we had 180 cupcakes ready for the freezer.

 

 

 

On Saturday, just before the big event, they will be frosted with sweetened whipped cream and sprinkled with a bit of glittery sugar.

They will take their places on the cupcake stand; on all the tiers below the little top cake that is being made just for the bride and groom.

Their cake top will look like this one (from Bride's magazine), but it will have whipped topping which will look like snow:

 

 

 

That's why I was painting and glittering the tips of the little pinecones last week.

 

  

And making chocolate pine needles today.

We'll sandwich a few of them in between some of the cupcakes on the cake stand.

I think it's going to be pretty.

Meanwhile, two stellar new (to me) recipes have been added to my recipe binder.

Actually... make that four: two cake recipes and two filling recipes.

I searched the web (what did we do before Google?) for a moist white wedding cake recipe and, after rejecting the first one I tried, I found a super moist, as-good-as-the-bakery recipe.

The recipe calls for 8 egg whites, and I was a little concerned about what to do with all the yolks.

I decided to add some of them to the batter (I'm going to make lemon curd with the others) when I made the new chocolate cake recipe, which, oddly enough, did not call for any eggs at all (I did not use the filling this recipe calls for).

Both kinds of cupcakes taste scrumptious and are very moist.

To fill the white cupcakes, I made a filling with 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon almond extract (whipped together until it will form stiff peaks) and some (1 cup?) chopped almond slivers (which I roasted first, to bring out all that luscious nutty flavor).

Filling for the chocolate cupcakes consisted of  16 oz. cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, the zest of one large orange, and two tablespoons of orange marmalade (optional, but it made the filling a little easier to pipe in).

I'm very tired tonight, but I'm happy that I had the pleasure of working with  someone I love, for some ones I love.

 

 

 

One other thing: I'd like it if someone would send me some kind of blue ribbon for eating only one bite of white cake and a half teaspoon of both types of filling (strictly for taste-test purposes) while producing this massive amount of yummy goodness.

It nearly killed me.

Struck Speechless

 

It's nearly done me in to keep my posts in chronological order this month.

And there are some very good reasons.

On December 22, Dear Reader and friend, Annski, had planned to spend a quiet hour or two visiting over a cup of coffee.

Having a million or so things going at once, as I always do during December, I wasn't quite at the 'set a spell' stage when she arrived.

I had the last three or four sheets of sugar cookies going in and out of the oven.

When Annski arrived that day and was ushered into the kitchen, she found herself (quite unexpectedly) smack in the middle of another family tradition.

Decorating sugar cookies around here is usually more like a party than a kitchen task.

We've had as many as three sessions a season; involving more shoots, adopted shoots, friends of shoots, etc, than I can count.

This year I was all by myself.

Until Annski arrived for coffee and made the mistake of telling me she'd never decorated sugar cookies.

Well, we had to fix that, for sure.

 

 

 

She seemed to enjoy the whole process and, because we don't stick to traditional Christmas-themed cookie cutters, she showed me just a bit of what it's like when an artist approaches a project like this.

She turned the little moon-shaped cookies into citrus slices:

 

 

I just loved that.

I got Mrs. Gingerbreadman all puckered up for a kiss from the mister:

 

 

 

(If Me Darlin' Mither saw that ripped hemline on her dress, she wouldn't let her out of the house until she'd stitched that up.)

In the end we had several platters of colorful cookies ready to serve.

 

 

 

But now I need to tell you the rest of the story.

After I got the cookies out of the oven, and before I made the icing and got all the sprinkles out, I really did sit down with Annski to have that promised cup of coffee.

And I'll bet I wasn't two sips in before she started handing me gifts.

The tag on the first package was addressed to 'Naomi', and inside was this perfect little coin purse.

 

 

 

It's in my favorite color scheme, the fabric looks like a Zentangle, and (my goodness) it even has a zipper.

 

 

 

Now, I was just getting over being handed a gift that had been so beautifully handcrafted when Annski handed me another package.

It was addressed to 'Gwen'.

Inside was this:

 

 

 

I lost my breath, my bearings, and my wits for awhile after I opened it.

Isn't it something?

As I began to turn the pages, Annski informed me that all of the contents had come directly from this blog.

She had copied the post wherein I described how I go about drawing my inchies, and she'd put it on the first two pages of the book.

She'd copied the inchies for every month and given them each their own two-page spread.

Here is April - I circled the inchie for the day I first had lunch with my new Dear Reader/friend, Annski.

 

 

 

Remember all the 'Gwinchies' I posted while I was on vacation in August?

She included them in the book, too.

 

 

 

While I was looking - with mouth agape, I'm afraid - at this page, Annski told me something.

She said, "I was working on this book, and wondering what I was going to do about cover design. Then I got to the Gwinchies and realized you'd already taken care of that for me."

 

 

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

What attention to detail!

What an incredible gift!

I felt like I was holding a dream in my hands.

But...

Annski lied.

She probably didn't mean to.

But, it isn't true that every word in the book came directly from this blog.

In fact, my favorite words in this book are the ones that didn't.

 

 

 

I could never come up with a more perfect subtitle/description of what my whole inchie journal is about if I were to spend the remainder of my days trying.

And I don't think I can ever express my gratitude for that, or for this book, in a catalog of any size. 

 

 

There are times when words just won't do. 

Hot Dip

 

I made this dip for Prince Charming's office Christmas party last Monday.

 

 

 

And the Prince made this dip for my office Christmas party last Tuesday.

 

 

 

Yep.

It's that good and that easy.

Black olives, green chiles, chopped tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil and garlic salt.

The person who shared the recipe with me years and years and years ago (I'm feeling old tonight) called it "Hot Dip", but I have no idea why.

All I know is, it's delicious, it still tastes good when you have to use hot-house tomatoes in the middle of winter, and, omigoodness-if-you-could-just-use-some-of-the-green-chiles-we-had-roasted-in-New-Mexico-last-summer you might not be able to stop eating it.

You may not be able to stop eating it even if you use store-bought canned green chiles, which is what the recipe calls for, and which were perfectly-fine-until-we-used-some-of-the-green-chiles-we-had-roasted-in-New-Mexico-last-summer.

Still.

I think you should make some and eat some and share some with your friends or other people you love.

Here's the recipe:

Gwendolyn's Hot Dip

1 can pitted black olives, finely chopped

1 small can green chiles, finely chopped

3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all ingredients and chill. Serve with whatever sounds good. Like, maybe, a spoon.

Yum.

Yum.

Yummers.

The Gift of Abiding Friendships

 

I spent some time Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for one of our favorite evenings of the year.

Dennis and I made Mama Police's lasagna (I should give you that great recipe some day).

I baked six loaves of Italian herb bread (some for eating, some for giving), and pulled some of the summer's pesto from the deep freeze.

We made a big green salad and homemade Italian dressing.

I piped some delicate little chocolate snowflakes...

 

 

 

...using for a template some images I'd printed out and placed under waxed paper .

 

 

 

I made a batch of white chocolate mousse, spooned it into dessert cups over a layer of caramel sauce, and added some snowflakes and red sprinkles.

 

 

 

I got out the wine glass charms I'd made using earring hoops, alphabet beads and ribbon.

 

 

 

I set up a few candles, and around them I piled up some fresh greens and the little pinecones my friend brought me from Colorado.

 

 

 

I set the table for guests...

 

 

 

...and put the little woodland elves to use as place cards/favors.

 

 

 

But our friends supplied the love and laughter and fellowship.

And our God supplied the friends.

"It's beginning...

 

December 1 brought me an unexpected little block of time with my friend, Able Baker Dana.

We only squeezed a short visit into the day, but we always manage to get into something when we're together.

We got to talking about our Christmas traditions (baking traditions in particular) and I told her about the massive amounts of molasses sugar cookies I bake (I use 50/50 butter/shortening) and give away each year (because certain friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family are oh-so-disappointed if they don't get their annual allotment).

She said she'd been on the receiving end last year and the cookies had disappeared waaay too fast.

So we made plans to get together and make a whole bunch this year.

We didn't have time to bake that day, so we spent the rest of our time making the little holly decorations for the cookie gift bags.

I usually buy an inexpensive garland or bunch of 'silk' holly, cut the leaves off, and use florist tape to wrap them together with some artificial berries.

And I always use black and white check ribbon, since it's very homey (and it's been my signature 'design' since back in the eighties when I wore my checkered Vans).

 

 

 

On Wednesday, our baking day arrived and, boy, did we make it count.

Between the two of us, we made and packaged about 500 molasses sugar cookies (I thought I heard my oven sigh when we finally turned it off).

At the end of the day...

 

 

 

 

...a veritable sea of cookie packages graced the table.

 

 

 

And though it was nice to do the baking together, and it is so very nice to have these all ready to give, it's actually the side-note to the day together which I'll remember.

Smack in the middle of all that baking, Beeg Seester came over with her grandshoot, and Able Baker Dana and I stopped and made a batch of stuffed jalapenos.

And the three of us girls sat at the table and had jalapeno poppers for lunch.

In the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, for no special occasion.

And that little lunch together became a lovely private surprise party.

And a very special occasion after all.

Let's talk turkey.

 

I'm rather late about it, but I wanted to tell you that this year for Thanksgiving we 'brined' our turkey for the very first time.

It was...

 

 

...absolutely wonderful!

It made all the difference in the world.

It was the first time I've ever eaten a piece of roasted turkey breast that was juicy; really truly juicy.

We used the brine recipe from Pioneer Woman , but we cut down on the salt just a bit because we weren't using a fresh turkey.

It's an extra step, but I never want to roast an unbrined (?) turkey again.

And because there were two turkeys and a ham on the dinner table, and only 11 people around it, we had lots of leftovers.

Which meant that Miss Helping Hands and I could make my favorite pot pie for lunch on Sunday before she returned to school.

Me Darlin' Mither clipped this recipe from a magazine years and years ago.

It's actually a recipe for individual "Savory Southern Chicken Pies", but we just make one regular size pie.

 

Savory Southern Chicken Pie

8 ounces bulk pork sausage

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

2 cups cubed cooked chicken (or turkey)

1 10 oz package frozen peas

1 recipe savory pastry

In saucepan, brown sausage; drain on paper toweling. Pour out fat. In same saucepan, melt butter. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly; cook 1 minute more. Add chicken, sausage and peas; heat through. Place in pie shell, cover with top crust and slit crust near center. Bake in 425 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes.

Savory Pastry

* I make my usual pastry crust, but add 2 teaspoons of celery seed and 1 teaspoon of paprika to the dry ingredients before mixing.

If you're roasting turkey (or have leftover chicken) anytime soon, try this.

 

 

 

I think you'll like it.

Virtual Laryngitis

 

I seem to have lost my voice for awhile.

But I have pictures.

Well, some, anyway.

It's that time of year when a lot of the fun things I'm doing are related to gifts for my peeps for Christmas.

Unfortunately, that means I have to leave some of my inchies off this here blog until I actually give the gifts to the peeps.

Here are some 'safe' inchies from the past couple of weeks:

November 15:

Able Baker Dana called me before I was out of bed (ahhh...I slept until 8) to ask if I might have some time to play in the kitchen during the week.

She wanted to try her hand at my dinner roll recipe and, since NOW is the best time to do anything, we were proofing yeast an hour later.

I had to leave my rolls in the refrigerator for their second rising and scoot off to work.

They were at the perfect height when I got home, so I took them out of the fridge while the oven heated up and...

 

 

 

...guess what we had for dinner.

There is a saying in my family of origin which comes into play when I serve rolls fresh from the oven.

 

 

 

"The only reason Husseys eat bread is to keep their fingers from getting greasy when they eat their butter."

-------

November 20:

You can see on the inchie above that we bought the beadboard for the dining room.

Remember when I tore down the wallpaper in October?

 

 

 

I finally got the wall textured, painted, and ready for the wainscot, and Prince Charming and I (with some help from Cable Guy's awesome power tools) installed the beadboard.

 

 
 

For a couple of old people with no experience in this sort of thing, we were pretty happy with our work.

Of course, I had to paint it, and all the trim...

 

 

...a couple of times.

But in the end...

 

 

...it made the room look like it actually belonged to the rest of the house.

 

 

Now for furnishings.

-------

We'll just skip November 21 because it's gift-related.

November 22:

I got a text message from my Neester (my eldest neice, who is more like a seester) from way over yonder in California.

It included a picture and it read "I found a key charm while I was walking today, and I thought of you".

That made me very happy.

And when she told me she'd picked it up and was making a bookmark with it, well...

 

 

That just made my day.

-------

November 23:

I've probably mentioned my heart for the 'twenty-somethings' before; especially the 'single-looking-for-that-special-someone' twenty-somethings.

I've also probably mentioned our 'adopted' kids before.

On November 23, we had the pleasure of having dinner with one of our adopted twenty-somethings...

 

 

...and meeting the special someone he's found. 

What a blessing.

-------

November 24:

I spent the day (as is our tradition) baking pies with Miss Helping Hands.

Chocolate cream for the Shoots, blueberry for Prince Charming, custard for Me Darlin' Mither, and Nantucket cranberry just because I was bored with the same old recipes (Auntie Gail usually brings the pecan, cherry and pumpkin).

Miss Helping Hands is a master pie-maker now and doesn't really need me in the kitchen, but I don't think either of us would trade our time together for anything (okay, she's twenty-something, so she might trade it for that special someone if he happened along...).

Of course, in spite of careful planning and shopping, I had to make a run to the grocery store for a few things.

There is a new joy to shopping now, though, since it means I can prayerfully look for the person God wishes to bless, put a gift card in their hand and (sometimes) pray with them.

I've never liked shopping before, but being prepared in this way...

 

 

...has changed everything.

Bread and Muffins and Girls and Boys.

 

It's a nice thing when I get a strong desire to bake at the same time that my co-workers get a strong desire to buy what I bake.

When my D'Art group meeting was cancelled last Friday, I spent the morning making lots of bread.

English muffin bread, tomato bread, and dill bread.

 

 

 

The dill bread is from the recipe found here.

It's really loaded with dill (seed and weed), and it makes an ordinary sandwich taste like something special.

 
 

 

 

But it's really fabulous toasted and topped with cream cheese and some of Seester Julie's homemade jalapeno jelly.

Seriously fabulous.

I'm, like, drooling.

And I'm all out of Julie's homemade jalapeno jelly.

Which is okay, I guess, because I bagged up most of this bread...

 

 

 

...and sold it down the river.

Not to worry though, because when Friday arrived it brought Miss Helping Hands Hannah home for our "Baking, Boggling, Blabbing Weekend".

And we started Saturday by making some scrumptious pumpkin cream cheese muffins from this recipe.

I tweaked the recipe just the tiniest bit and made a steusel-type topping with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts.

Many of them also got packaged in 'to go' bags.

 

 

But they weren't sold down the river; they went home with Miss Helping Hands.

I did manage to save this one for you:

 

 

 

Miss Helping Hands and I also made a batch of granola (something we do regularly), but we tried a new recipe this time around.

Of course, we didn't have any pistachios or maple syrup on hand, so we substituted pecans/walnuts and molasses.

It was quite scrumptious anyway.

And it's all gone.

The dishpan (or cowboy) cookies we made are not all gone (though I wish they were, because they make a lot of noise calling out to me every time I walk through the kitchen).

There are lots of variations of this recipe out there in web land, and we do it a little differently each time we make them.

This was the best batch yet, but I don't think it was the ingredients that made the difference.

I think it was the special technique we used to soften the butter.

You probably won't be able to try this at home, kids.

 

 

Unless you, too, have a Little Man sitting nearby with his Uncle Sam while you are baking.

And, of course, your Little Man will have to be diligent about building upper body strength.

Ours uses our big empty room for regular workouts.

 

 

 

We had someone else nearby while we were baking, too, but she hasn't been working out, which means her muscles are still too weak to do much helping.

So Miss Helping Hands just held her and told her about all the good times to come in the kitchen.

 

 

 

I'm afraid it didn't inspire her at all.

She spent the next four hours asleep on Miss Mary Mack's chest.

You know, this was one of those days so rich in family...

 

 

 

 ...mere teaspoons could never serve to takes it measure.

Slurp

 

One of the things I like best about fall is that it brings back soup weather.

There is something especially homey about making a big pot of soup...

 

 

 

...for your homies.

Here is one of my homies' favorite soup recipes (which I got from Southern Living magazine many years ago):

 

 

 

 

I hope you'll try it some time.

Because when you sauté those tortillas with that fresh cilantro and garlic, I'll be able to smell that wonderful aroma from here.

And I can be there in time for dinner.

The Chile-Mobile

 

Prince Charming and I took a little trip to the Land of Enchantment last weekend to surprise his brudder on his 60th birthday.

 

 

 

His brudder was so surprised to run into him (quite literally) in the hotel hallway (seester set him up) that it took him two apologies and at least thirty seconds before he realized he was looking at his own brother.

So.

I guess that all worked out just right!

We had some good times and some good Mexican food while we were in Albuquerque (Sadie's - try it).

And, since Able Baker Dana had asked me to bring home some roasted green chiles for her, we also spent quite a bit of time in the BIG Mexican market near our hotel.

Ohhhhhh!

It was like a party.

Lively music, yummy food, lots of people.

It put me in such a festive mood.

So festive, in fact, that I bought 144 white-corn tortillas and...wait for it...

Sixty pounds of green chiles.

Just because they were there.

And they were fresh.

And it seemed liked a holiday sort of thing to do.

The chiles come in big burlap sacks - thirty pounds to a sack.

A sack for Able Baker Dana, and a sack for moi.

And after we bought them, we took them out to the parking lot to The Roaster.

And The Roaster dumped them, one sack at a time, into the roaster...

 
 

 

...making sure he got every last one of them.

 

 

 

Then he went 'round to the back of the roaster, turned on the gas, and fired that baby up.

 

 

 

We all watched...

 

 

...as the chili skins quickly became charred.

 

 

 

It made some of us very happy to be outside in the absolutely perfect weather, surrounded by family, and smelling the wonderful aroma of roasted chiles.

 

 

Well, our beautiful little great-nephew didn't actually say that's why he was so happy, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

In just a few minutes, the chiles are ready to come off the roaster and into the plastic bag to "sweat" so they can be easily peeled.

 

 

 

I wish you could inhale in front of your computer screen right now and actually smell these beauties. (I also wish you could have been here when we returned home exhausted Sunday evening and had to peel and prep our thirty pounds for the freezer.)

 

 

But let me tell you the 'rest of the story'.

We forgot to pack our coolers before leaving Oklahoma, so we bought some inexpensive styrofoam chests (and doubled them up) to tote our chiles home in.

The Prince's seester and brudder-in-law, who were driving their own car,  said they could actually smell the chiles when they were behind us on the road.

I thought it might just be her imagination.

But when we took the chests out of the Prince's car trunk when we arrived home, we discovered that one of them had sprung a leak.

And, until today, when we actually removed some pieces of his trunk for a more severe scrubbing (which we hope has solved the problem -they're still drying), the royal Prince has been driving the one, the only, the incredible...

Chile-Mobile.

Don't be jealous.

Baby Girl's Shower

 

One of the (very good) reasons I haven't been posting much recently is that I was kind of (really, super) busy preparing for Baby Girl's shower.

I spent last Wednesday afternoon with my pal, Able Baker Dana, baking muffins and making little candy pacifiers.

 

 

They're easy peasy if you get your sugar/water 'glue' consistency just right (which we so didn't at first).

 

 

 

Luckily, we had enough time to live and learn, and they set strong enough to be tied with ribbon to use...

 

...as napkin rings.

 

For 36 sets of silverware rolled up in cloth.

-------

I worked on Thursday morning, but I spent the afternoon gathering folding chairs and serving dishes from the four corners of the earth.

I also blew up some balloons to tie to a rod we were putting in the front yard to identify our house on the day of the shower.

 

 

Usually, we'd rely on your house numbers to do that, but I took ours down when I 'renewed' the front porch, and never got them put back up again.

Whatever works.

-------

On Friday, I washed the sheers that belong on the windows in the front room.

While they were in the laundry, I was setting up all the tables and chairs and putting the paper placemats on the tables when I heard a little 'thud'.

I looked over to see that a (juvenile?) yellow-breasted chat had flown into one of the naked windows and knocked himself for a loop.

 

 

I'd never seen one of these birds before, so (though I was sorry for the little fellow) I felt I'd been given a little gift in the middle of a long day of work.

He had the most beautiful yellow breast, and I was just sure he'd fly away before I could get my camera.

But he didn't.

He stayed long enough for me to get pictures from inside and outside the house.

And when he flew away, he sang a beautiful little song.

 

 

I was absolutely delighted with him.

Thank you, God.

-------
  
Saturday - the day of the big celebration - finally arrived.

 

The folding chair covers were tied with the appropriate colors.

 

 

The decorations were in place.

  
 

The tables were set with...

 

 

...sugar and spice...

 

 

...and everything nice.

 

 

 

Artists began to arrive and get to work on Baby's first alphabet book.

 

 

 
 And they each wrote a page for Baby's first Book of Advice for good living.

 

 

Sometimes they coordinated their pictures...

 

 

 

...with their advice.

 

 

And sometimes no picture was needed.

 

Along with their love and good counsel, they brought gifts.

 

 

 

...and future playmates of Baby Girl, who knew exactly where to sit.

 

 

 

They brought a LOT of sweet duds for Baby Girl to wear...

 

 

 

...and they all autographed one of them.

 

 

 

A LOT of people already love Baby Girl...

 

...without being instructed to do so.

  

Baby Girl's piggy came to the shower and...

 

 

...was well fed.

 

 

Guess who else came to the party?

 

 

 

Baby Girl!

But she didn't have much to say.

I guess we'll hear from her later.

"Put them in the oven for baby and me."

 

I know I gave you the recipe on my last post, but I baked the cookies for Baby Girl's shower this weekend, and I just have to tell you again how delish they are.

They're only 1/8" thick when you pop them, sugar-sprinkled, into the oven.

 

 

But they puff up all flaky and nice while they're baking.

 

 

I don't know why I went so many years without a simple tool like a pastry bag (with a few tips).

Putting icing on cookies this small and delicate with a knife was such a challenge. 

Using the pastry bag cut the work down exponentially.

I just piped a pile off icing on half of the cookies and then plopped the the others on top.

 

 

I'm telling you...

 

 

...you should have some of these.
 

I Got an 'A' in Cooking Class Today

I got home from my D'Art group and shopping this afternoon and had a two whole hours until the next round of outside activity.

I decided to go into the kitchen and mix up some cookies (favors for Baby Girl's shower).

I'm using the recipe we used for the cookies for our weddings; the first one 31 years ago and the celebration/vow renewal a year ago.

Those are the only occasions for which I've made these cookies.

They are unbelievably yummy.

I lost my original recipe long ago, but found the recipe printed in a magazine years later.

Wish I knew exactly which mag to credit...I think it's from Better Homes and Gardens.

 

 

 

(I don't use the peppermint extract.)

It only took a few minutes to mix a batch of dough and then I had to put it in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours.

But, of course, just starting the mixer made me want to do kitchen-y things, so I got to poking around in the pantry and refrigerator hoping to see something inspiring.

I found some blocks of white chocolate.

I got to thinking about the mini-cupcakes we'll be serving at Baby Girl's shower.

I thought maybe we'd top the little mound of chocolate icing with something special.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave and put it in an icing bag with a piping tip on it.

I printed off a sheet of Baby Girl's first initial (on the back of my unused Michael's coupons) in a pretty font.

I placed it on a tray...

 

 

...and taped a piece of parchment paper over it.

 

 

Then I piped on the melted white chocolate, following the pattern underneath, and popped the tray into the freezer to set the chocolate.

 

 

They were nice and sturdy within just a few minutes...

 

 

 

...so I lifted them off the parchment paper and popped them into a little plastic (baby food!) container to put right back into the freezer until the day of the shower.

 

 

 

And that is how I got my "A" in cooking class today.

Amen. 

Je Suis Trés Fatigué - 3 More Inchies

 

 

I'm.

So.

Tired.

So.

So.

Tired.

I think it's all catching up with me.

The picking, the paring, the preserving.

The family, the friends, the fun.

The heat, the humidity, the summer.

I just want to float down a lazy river.

Meanwhile, here are a few of the non-lazy-river things that have been happening in my life this week.

On Wednesday I rewarded myself for actually going to my dental appointment, staying in the chair, and not biting the dentist.

On the way home I stopped at a new (to me) thrift store to browse.

I was unimpressed with their prices, and was on my way out of the store when I spied this sweet little dress.

 

 

 

 

I rarely see clothing at a thrift store as anything but raw material waiting to be transformed into something else.

But...

We are expecting that Baby Girl.

And I do love sailor dresses.

This one was linen, in perfect condition, 9 months size, and 50% off. 

 

 

 

Sweet.

For $1.25.

Works for me.

 

-------

 

Thursday, I spent the day with Miss Helping Hands shopping for dresses, browsing at the book store, talking over the coming school year.

Thursday evening our young friend from D.C. came over to make good on his promise to make creme brulee for us.

He'd never made it before, and we'd never eaten it before, but I'd jokingly mentioned it earlier in the week and he'd decided he was going to make it happen.

He started by printing the recipe.

Then he wrote the grocery list on his arm and went off to the store.

When he returned, he grabbed my paper chain and crowned himself King of the Kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

When he and Miss Mary Mack separated those ten eggs, it looked like too many hands and not enough bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

They got the job done, though, and Mr. Dan got the custard into the oven.

While it was baking (much, much longer than the recipe called for...but that's another story), we got to talking about my 'found grocery list' collection.

I pulled a few of them out to show him, but he quickly turned away, grabbed a knife, laid his arm on the counter, bowed his head and said, "Okay. Go ahead. Just make it quick."

 

 

 

 

He's crazy...

 

 

 

 

 

He's going to need that list of ingredients for next time.

Now, I admit to feeling a bit of trepidation when he got out the little blow torch he'd just purchased, but he kindly kept the flame aimed at the sugar and didn't start any (other) fires.

 

 

 

 

And at the end of it all, we did get to use the back of our spoons to crack! the sugar and test his first ever creme brulee.

 

 

 

It was a lot better than my photographs.

 

 

 

Yum.

 

-------

 

Friday, Miss Helping Hands and I picked up Me Darlin' Mither at 7:30 a.m. and headed out to pick peaches with my Chicken-Raisin' Seester.

I got this shot of her casting a long shadow...which looked like it was toting our box of peaches.

 

 

Last week when we picked peaches, we brought home Lorings and Cresthavens, which are both yellow-flesh peaches.

This time the Summer Pearls, which are white-flesh peaches, were ripe.

Omigersh.

They are my absolute favorite so far.

So doggone sweet.

Oh, I want you to have one!

 

 

 

Some of these were turned into peach freezer jam, which I made using this recipe, minus some of the sugar.

This was my first attempt at making freezer jam, and the first batch set up nicely and is tucked away in the deep freezer.

 

 

 

 

The second batch is also in the freezer, but it's labeled "Peach Syrup".

 

 

 

I'm sure it will be wonderful over waffles, baked pancakes, or vanilla ice cream.

 

 

 

 

Fresh Watermelon Slices

Sunday was the first day of Miss Helping Hand's week of summer vacation.

She went directly from school to her part-time paying job as a receptionist and her part-time non-paying internship at the City Rescue Mission.

She did not pass GO, she did not collect $200.

And though she has a laundry list of things she must do before moving back to campus next week, we are dtermined to have some good mama/girlie time before she goes.

We started on Sunday evening by baking our traditional summertime sugar cookies.

We made a batch of pinky-red sugar cookie dough.

After it chilled, we rolled it out, cut it into circles with the biscuit cutter, and cut the circles in halves with a nice sharp knife.

 

 

 

Then we baked them just as the recipe directed.

Just as soon as we pulled them from the oven, while they were still on the baking sheets, we pressed the mini chocolate chip 'seeds' into the watermelon slices.

Here are Miss Helping Hands' helping hands, helping.

 

 

 

Miss Mary Mack was uncustomarily, er, um, rigid about seed placement right at first.

 

 

 

It still surprises me with laughter to see how differently these two approach the simplest things.

Still, they got the job done before the poor widdle rindless watermelon slices cooled down too much to hold the seeds.

 

 

 

 

Once they were cool, we made a thin green icing,...

 

 

 

 

...did the 'dip and roll',

 

 

 

...and set the cookies on a cooling rack until the excess 'rinds' dripped off and the icing set.

 

 

 

Then we paused for reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

And we decided this: Two of these little sweeties nestled alongside some vanilla ice cream in a little glass sherbet dish is just about the prettiest summer dessert you can imagine.

But if you don't have any vanilla ice cream...

 

 

 

 

...a glass of ice cold milk will do.

"Seems I've seen that devil fruit since the world begun..."

 

Do any of you remember Elton John's song, "Rotten Peaches"?

I don't know why, but I've always liked that song.

And I've always liked peaches.

Not rotten ones.

And not those tasteless, hard ones you buy in the grocery store with hopes they will somehow ripen on your windowsill and be worth eating.

No, not those.

But those peaches you pick right off the tree - the ones that practically fall into your hand when you touch them, and whose juice drips down your chin and arm when you bite into them - those peaches - oh, those peaches I seriously enjoy.

Friday, a big caravan of clan, with a few extra friends thrown in for thrills, descended on a peach orchard near my Chicken Raisin' Seester's place, and we picked luscious, juicy, perfectly ripe peaches to our hearts' content.

Some of the pickers used this handy tool to get the beauties which were out of reach to us mere mortals.

.

 

 

Some were taste-testers.

 

 

 

 

Oh, okay.

I admit it.

All of us were taste-testers.

And all of the peaches passed the test.

We've been having peaches for snacks, baking peach cobbler for guests, and whipping up peach-blackberry smoothies for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

I'm telling ya.

A couple of juicy peaches, plus a cup or so of frozen blackberries (lovingly hand-picked by your seester), plus a tablespoon of orange juice concentrate and some vanilla yogurt = yummy goodness in a (stemmed!) glass to start the day.

 

 

 

And if you end the day sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned room with your Darlin' Mither, your seesters, and several of your all-grown-up nieces...

And if you're all sharing your lists titled "25 Things I Know For Sure"...

Well...

It just doesn't get much better than that.

If you feed them, they will come.

When we add our visiting-from-out-of-state relatives to the few dozen relatives who live nearby, we get a heap-big pile of talking, laughing, and hungry people.

Sunday we served eighteen of them my favorite grilled cheese sandwich ever.

 

 

It's made with this wonderful tomato bread, homemade pesto (I'm so glad we planted basil), and mozzarella cheese.

Mymouthiswateringprofuselyrightnow.

I wish I could see to it that each of you has one of these soon.

And if you could add a side of cucumber salad, made with cucumbers from your Seester's garden, thin slices of red onion, some red wine vinegar, and a few sprinkles of Jane's Krazy Mixed-up Original Seasoning Salt...gosh, that would be perfection.

And then.

Then I would wish for you a slice of homemade apple pie.

If you had been here Sunday, you could have helped us rate the four new pie recipes we made Saturday with the apples from my Seester's trees.

 

 

 

We tried this one for Dutch apple pie.

 

 

 

And this one for lattice-topped apple pie with a lightly boiled sugar and spice mixture poured over the top.

 

 

 

We tried this one for a traditional double crust apple pie (which called for whiskey!).

 

 

And this one for sour cream apple pie.

 

 

 

Miss Helping Hands is an expert with the pie crust, and prefers to mix hers by hand.

I was a little tired by the time we got ready to make the fourth pie (the double crust), so I looked up a recipe for crust made in the food processor.

I'm a little bit sorry I did that.

So much fat.

Such good crust.

On Sunday, I served everyone a little sliver of each kind of pie and had them rate them on a scale of 1-5.

The traditional two-crust pie and the sour cream apple got the most five-star ratings, but none of them had any ratings lower than three.

I'm so glad we packed the leftovers up and sent them home to be eaten by other people.

Because I'm going out to pick more apples today.

Whataweekend!

I need a much bigger head if it's going to have so much input all the time.

Life is full, I tell ya.

Full.

Friday night, at our regular spot, with our regular waiter attending, the Prince and I had our regular time with Beeg Seester and Bro.

Our discussion was anything but the norm, though, because we were excitedly planning a camping trip to the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Oh, lah, I can hardly wait!

 

 

I must be excited.

I left a letter out of San Marcos.

-------

Saturday was 'geneaology day', followed by the hanging of shades, drapes, and pictures in Me Darlin' Mither's guest room.

But Saturday night...

That was something special.

After a week of self-imposed (and much needed) scanty rations, having a perfectly grilled steak, a baked potato, fresh green salad and a glass of wine set in front of me by two really great people was...was...well, you'll just have to imagine it.

 

 

 

 

And, as if it wasn't enough to enjoy this scrumptious meal, hours of delightful conversation, a visit with one of our beloved 'adoptees', and a tour of their lovely new 'home in the woods', they gave me a carry-out box for my leftovers.

But what I really wish they could have packed in that to-go box is...

...more of their company.

-------

Sunday began with Miss Helping Hands playing beautiful piano music while we readied ourselves for worship, followed by a good word, the embraces of the saints, and the encouragement of His presence.

At lunch with the girlies we revisited our former practice of sharing, in turns around the table, the highlights of our week.

I love to hear what their high spots are, and having to zero in on just one or two high spots of my own gives me a truer grasp of just how many there have been.

Sunday afternoon, Miss Helping Hands made these Lemon Blackberry Muffins with the last of the blackberries I brought home from my Chicken Raisin' Seester's place.

 

 

 

 

I've got to say that the texture of these muffins is perfection, and the light lemony goodness of the batter, combined with the blackberries, is truly scrumptious.

It was hard to hold back.

While Miss Helping Hands was making muffins, I was working on this little dresser that my Seester had snagged (for free?) and we'd decided to re-finish for Me Mither's guest room.

 

 

 

The top had warped from moisture, and some of the wood had split and come up along the edge.

The Prince countersank a screw to hold the board down...

 

 

...and I did some serious gluing and wood-filler work on the top and along the abused side bottoms:

 

 

 

Then I did enough sanding and sweating in the near-100 degree heat that I came in from the garage looking just pretty darn attractive.

I believe this little dresser is ready for paint today, though, so I guess it was worth it.

Also, somewhere in the middle of all of this activity, Miss Helping Hands drove out to the 'chicken ranch' to fetch home a few bizillion apples which had all but fallen from the trees on my Seester's land (but which, in actuality, she'd gone through the trouble of picking and sharing with me).

 

 

 

 

There were two crates of these apples staring me in the eye the whole while I was working on that dresser.

I thank God that Miss Helping Hands was wanting to stay busy, because I had her get out the apple peeler/corer/slicer and the food dehydrator, and she dried nine trays of cinnamon apples.

Then the Prince, Miss Mary Mack and I peeled, cored, sliced and chopped 5 1/2 more pounds of these apples, and I made a batch of apple butter from this recipe.

 

 

 

 

I'd love to say I put a large dent in the apple supply but...

I think I'll be making apple-y things for a long time.

The Long Haul-a-Day Weekend

Our long holiday weekend was muted by a death in the family which took my beloved Prince out of state for three days.

While he was away (singing and playing the guitar for his uncle's home-going), Helping Hands Hannah was at the lake with her cousins, and Miss Mary Mack and I were slogging through our low spirits and a lot of rain.

Friday I visited Oklahoma Quiltworks with Beeg Seester.

She bought a book of very kewl crib-size quilt patterns and I got to help her pick fabrics so she could get started on one of them.

It's all red and black and turquoisey, and I can't wait to see it finished.

 

 

Afterward, we came home for coffee and I showed her my many, many unfinished quilts.

It must have inspired me when I handled them again, because I spent a little time on Monday working on the grandshoots' quilt.

Some day one of my grandshoots will be cuddled up under it and I will be saying, "See this patch? I made your daddy a shirt out of this fabric when he was just a little boy like you".

-------

On Saturday Miss Mary Mack and I did a little shopping.

Or "retail therapy", as she calls it.

We bought some very cute sundresses for she and Miss Helping Hands.

And I bought a new pair of sandals.

 

 

When I wear them I will remember how we were shoring each other up all weekend - with our shopping trips, Chinese take-out, and West Wing DVD.

And how they were all very poor substitutes for the prince. 

------

We celebrated Independence Day with friends and family at a barbecue hosted by one of the married shoots.

They treated us to steak, corn on the cob, cheesy potatoes, strawberry short cake, and a scrumptious blueberry pie, among other things.

I baked a blackberry custard pie to take along.

 

 

 

And I baked some blackberry custard hand-pies just so we could try the new recipe without having to wait until we got there.

 

 

Yum to the tenth power, my friends. 

After all those good eats, we watched a lot of fireworks.

 

 

Out where the shoots live, it's still legal to set off fireworks within the city limits.

And since there were several families involved in our celebration, the show in the front yard and street went on for quite awhile.

I haven't been that up-close and personal with fireworks for a long, long time.

It took me straight back to my California childhood...standing in the cul-de-sac with my seesters and brudders, writing in the air with sparklers and breathing in the smoke from the neighbors' big fireworks.

And they say you can't go back.

Don't believe 'em.

Be Right Back

Breakfast this morning...

 

 

Two thumbs up on the Blackberry Yogurt Smoothie recipe from recipezaar.com.

Here's how I made it.

 

Berry Yogurt Smoothie

2 cups unsweetened blackberries

8 oz. vanilla yogurt

1 cup skim milk

3 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch cinnamon

3 or 4 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until thick and smooth.

Pour into 2 (3!) large glasses.

 

Prince Charming says, "Very rich and very satisfying."

Miss Helping Hands says, "This is delicious, but there is no way I can drink it all."

I made the smoothies first thing this morning, but couldn't stay to have any once I discovered we were out of coffee.

I left a note for Miss Helping Hands.

 

 

 

But I didn't make it right back.

I stopped at the garage sale of a friend who is clearing out her 'city house' because she just built a lovely new place 'out there' where the trees grow thicker.

I picked up several books.

- "Profiles in Courage" by John F. Kennedy

- "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling

- "The Works of Tolstoi" by Leo Tolstoi

But I also snagged something better than any treasure I've ever found at a garage sale.

I snagged a dinner invitation.

It's gonna be a great day.

Blackberry Apps

Ohhhhh baby.

I've been spending a little time downloading blackberry apps this evening.

I'm pretty jazzed.

Because today I downloaded some fresh blackberries with my Chicken-Raisin' Seester.

 

These little beauties are growing wild all over the back area of her property.

They are a chore to pick, because the birds eat the ones that grow at the top of the vine, and the vines are so thorny that it's difficult to come away unscathed when you move them to look underneath.

A good pair of gloves is a must.

 

 

And when you find a vine full of perfectly plump, ripe berries you have to handle it very lightly or they will drop right off and roll away from you.

And that's just no good.

I had Little Man with me today when we went wandering over the property in search of the goodness.

He was about ready for a nap, so when I stopped to pick berries he was happy just to sit in the shade and relax.

I turned my back on him for a moment to get at a particularly tangled vine, and when I turned back around this is what I saw:

 

 

He and Seester's doggy had made fast friends, and Little Man was just sitting there with his arm draped over doggy's back like they'd been roaming the woods together all their lives.

I melted.

Of course, the hot sun may have had a little something to do with that, too.

We had to stop berry picking before we had a bucketful, but my Seester gave me so many of the blackberries she had picked earlier that I am ashamed to even talk about it.

I think she's been in the sun too long.

I don't think I could be so generous with berries I had bled to get.

Gosh, she's nice.

The berries are delicious and beautiful.

 

 

 

And the cobbler I made when I got home is almost gone already.

 

 

 

This easy-peasy recipe was given to me by friend Peggy years ago.

You really should try it.

You don't even have to pick your own berries.

 

Quick Fruit Cobbler

Melt one stick of butter in a baking dish (do not stir).

Sift 1 cup flour.

Add 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and mix.

Add 1 cup milk to make thin batter.

Pour over melted butter (DO NOT STIR).

Sweeten 2 cups fruit and pour over batter (DO NOT STIR).

Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool before serving.

If they'll let you.

I downloaded this blackberry app, as well as this one, tonight.

I'll be messing around in the kitchen a little bit this week.

And it's gonna be good.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Something bad happens when the creative energy is gone before the naked cupcakes.

And my daughter asked me to show you.

 

 
 

When she saw these she said,

"You did those?"

"Yes."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"They look like something I would do."

"I told you I was tired."

"Actually, Mom, they look even worse than mine would."

Thank you, honey.

 

Springy Thingies 5

By her special request, I revisited Miss Mary Mack's favorite Springy Paper Thingie from years gone by.

But, this time, I used the feathers I rescued from under Me Darlin' Mither's canary's cage.

Maybe this little bookmark will cheer up a college textbook or a dreary study hour.

 

 

That's asking a lot of a little chick, though.

-----

I also wanted you to know about these.

 

 
 
 

They look like little petits fours, and are my favorites of all the spring baking I did with Able Baker Dana this week.

And they are easy-peasy to make.

  1. Bake your cupcakes in a mini-muffin pan and let cool.

  2. Using one color at at time, heat your icing in a small bowl in the microwave for about 8 seconds...until it's the consistency of heavy cream.

  3. Dip the top of the cupcakes in the icing until covered and gently shake off excess.

  4. Turn right side up, let the icing set, and decorate using a pastry bag with a fine tip...or just put your white icing in a small ziploc bag and just snip off a little of one corner.

You can make them with homemade cake and icing, which is what Naomi does.

Or you can make them with a cake mix and canned icing, which is what Gwen does.

That's how Gwen gets lots more "fun time" than Naomi.

But, hey, you get to decide for yourself.

Springy Thingie 4

I got up early this morning to start making my favorite dinner for this time of year.

Prince Charming is having a luncheon at the office, and I told him I'd prepare this for him to take.

I started with these ingredients.

 

 

First I made the vegetables.

 

Then the mashed potatoes and gravy.

 

Then I made the fried chicken. Drumsticks!

 

 

Remember these?

 

 

They're chicken bones.

 

 

Now off to work with the Prince!

 

It's April Fools Day.

I've got to go act foolish. 

Springy Thingies 2

My friend Dana likes cake decorating like I like cutting.

We were in her kitchen today.

We cut some chicks from yellow sugar cookie dough.

  

We painted on their beaks.

 

We added eyes.

We experimented with wings.

Some of them got feet.

We also cut some bunnies, because, well... what's a day without bunny cutting?

Sad, that's what.

(Dana has fancy nails.)

We baked our bunnies, chicks, crosses, flowers, and birds (their wings are on another baking sheet, poor things).

I wondered if this little chick with the toes 'on pointe' was a ballerina in it's former life.

We tried to make an Asian chick for Dana's Korean husband.

And then we experimented with cupcake decorating.

Know what this bunny is doing?

Digging a burrow in the ground, of course.

 

Know what these are for?

I do.

But I can't tell you yet.  

Third Day

 
Third day into cutting way back on my caloric intake.

Third regular day following third sleepless night.

Fourth day of the week, following three days of manic activity in my brain and in my life.

Hungry + Tired = Possible Disaster

I just rocked the Grandshoot to sleep.

Then I decided to make one of my favorite healthy snack and just browse through a stack of old magazines.

How nice is it that when I went to get out what I needed to do this, there was a brown bag with my name already on it?

In my mother's handwriting.

Apparently, she sent something home with me and I dutifully recycled the gently-used bag.

Aw.

It took me all the way back to grade school lunches...sandwiches of homemade white bread, peanut butter and honey.

Where did I put my nickel "milk money"?

Care to join me for some homemade microwave popcorn?

Quarter cup of popping corn and 1/2 tsp (or less) of olive oil.

A good sprinkle of seasoning salt (or creative mix of herbs, if you're not too sleep-deprived to trust yourself).

Stir it all up and dump it into the brown bag.

Fold the top of the bag down a few times and place it in the mircrowave on high for about two and a half minutes.
 
 

Pour the popped corn into your vintage mixing bowl.

Place several ice cubes in a glass and add your choice of healthy drink.

 I chose a green tea blend.

It's the little things that get you.

Yesterday, I finally took the time to blow out all those little, tiny quail eggs.

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be.

I just made a very small hole at the top.

 

 

 

A little bigger hole on the bottom.

 

 

 

And blew two large holes in my ear drums.

If you're laughing, I can't hear you.

------

Know what else I did yesterday?

I made Emeril's Wedgie Salad for dinner.

 

 

 

Oh, yeah, baby.

That's all I have to say about that.

------

And that brings us to today's exciting news.

Breaking news.

Look at this:

 

 

And these:

 

 

How can something so small...

 

 

...be so exciting?

It's called potential.

Some day, with God's blessing, they will look like these:

 

And that's just pretty thrilling.

------

So, there you have it.

 

 

Two more inches of my life.

The Staff and Stuff of Life

The Staff

Yesterday morning when I woke up I had no plan whatsoever to be in the kitchen all day.

But then...

 

 

...I got the urge to make bread.

I tried a new wheat bread recipe.

 

 

Molasses and honey.

 

 

And yummy whole wheat goodness.

Perhaps my impatience for spring is what brought on the bread-baking spree.

I just needed to see something grow.

From this blob...

 

 

 

...to these beauties...

 

 

...which today I call "Breadkfast"

I also made what I might later call lunch.

 

 

Makes me want to sing with Billy Joel.

"Uptown girl, you've been livin' in your white-bread world, as long as anyone with hot blood can..."

 

The Stuff

When I was up in the abandoned studio with Little Man the other day I found a walloping-big pad of quality watercolor paper.

I bought it several years ago to do some work commissioned by my neighbor (three copies of a family crest).

It must have intimidated me with it's great size, because after I finished the pieces I never used it again.

I don't have enough confidence in my talents to think I can fill a 15x20 sheet of blank paper with something wonderful.

But when I brought it down into the new workspace, I had the sudden realization that I am the boss of that pad of paper.

And I own scissors, craft knives, and paper cutters of sundry and wonderful kinds.

Yes!

Surely I could cut those sheets of paper down to a size suited to my skills.

So I did.

I cut them into one inch squares.

And I started my "Inch-a-day" project.

Just one little watercolored line-drawing to represent something from each day.

 

We're three days into March.

And I'm already thinking I might've overestimated my skills by about three fourths of an inch.
 

"It's a dangerous business..."

This morning I did something I rarely do.

I watched the weather report.

"Freezing rain, sleet, snow, and slick and hazardous road conditions."

Aha!

The quote I painted on the inside of my studio door is true!

At least for today.

The schools have closed, the littlest Shoot is home from college, and Techie is working from home today.

It puts a holiday sort of feel in the air.

It's like having permission to go without makeup, wear a sweatshirt, and drink tea.

I don't know why I need permission, but I do.

So, no Special K today.

I started the day by making this:

 

 

 

It's a baked pancake.

And if you've never had one, well, I'm sorry.

Fix that soon.

Here's the recipe (complete with a bit of batter):

 

 

 

If you bake it, they will come.

They will pour syrup on it, eat it, and love you forever.

 

 

 

Well, they'll love you until you start marinating the chicken for dinner with a new recipe.

Then you may feel like you are walking on that thin layer of ice out there.

"Hey, remember that pecan-crusted chicken we had once?"

Um, yeah.

"Is that hard to make?"

Um, well, um.

"Oh, nevermind. It's okay."

So you get out the recipe.

 

 

And you notice it got a "4 to 5" rating (on a 5 point scale) from the family when it was new.

And you wonder why you never made it again.

Then you find you have all the ingredients.

Even the 2 cups of pecans.

Because your pecan-growing Seester blessed you with a big bagful to do the Christmas baking that you never did.

You cut up the chicken and blend all the spices together:

 

 

 

And you take a picture.

Because the second-littlest Shoot can't get home from college and you want her to know that you are using one of the bowls from the cutest little stacking bowl set she bought you for Christmas.

Then you sprinkle that seasoning all over the chicken.

 

 

 

And you mix up the dijon mustard, the lovely golden honey, and the minced garlic with the little, tiny whisk that you think is so groovy.

You pour it all over that chicken (making sure that the little Shoot sees it), cover the dish, and pop it into the fridge until dinnertime gets close.

 

 

 

And suddenly the ground under your feet feels solid again.

And you are loved.

 

  

Leftovers. Edible or not.

Back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and there were six minors in this house majoring in eating, we used to have one meal a week we just called C.O.R.N.

I can't say anyone loved Clean Out Regrigerator Night, but the first ones in line at the bar usually didn't hate it.

I think.

And if anyone complained, I'd just just say:

"Look. I've been feeding you for 16 (or 15, 13, 10, 9, 7) years.  Aren't you full yet? "

There aren't any strappers around here these days, and Prince Charming is...let's say...resistant to leftovers.

And I hate waste.

So, I quit cooking.

And I started blogging.

Now I have leftover photos.

Images from along the way that defy categorizing or I've simply forgotten to include elsewhere.

They've been stored safely, so they should be okay to take in.

Guess who I'm going to serve them to?

Bwahahaha!

 

Do you ever think about how many stories-without-words you read in a day?

Some of the stories are scary and kind of sad, like these.

I never take this (rather sharply-curved) off-ramp without feeling badly for the drivers who wrote these stories.

 

 

And does anyone else feel heightened anxiety when they get stopped in traffic directly under an overpass? 

I sure do.

And it doesn't help anything to be sitting there looking at crumbling concrete and exposed rebar. 

Sometimes, the world scares me.

 

 

And sometimes there are unexpected bits of cheer.

This one was on the wall of the OU Children's Hospital.

 

 

And so was this.

All the framed art on the walls there is done by children.

This one had no signature, I'm sorry to say

It is done in pointillism, minus the color.

And it is sooooo very cool.

I wanted it.

Bad.

 

 

I don't remember why I took this picture, but I LOVE THIS TOOL!

This is a glue-tape gun.

I've actually never come across one in a store, but you can find them online here.

I don't know what I did before I had this given to me by one of my wonderful friends.

Gee.

Good tools and great friends.

Life is good.

 

 

Sometimes.

This is the final tally (Prince Charming took over when he returned from the salt mines) from the tracking I told you about here.

I keep repeating to myself, "A righteous man careth for the needs of his animal." (Prov. 12:10)

But it does say man.

And who's defining needs?

 

 

I made this again this month.

You should try this recipe if you like to bake bread.

It's simple.

It's delicious.

You can easily modify it for conventional mixing and baking.

And you can add an egg wash and some coarse salt for extra beauty and flavor.

You won't be sorry.

Gosh.

I'm licking the screen.

Leftovers aren't so bad after all.