Creme on College

Domestic, Reviews, Toronto

This is the first in another weekly series for this blog, Thursday will be a review day for local spots! With all the places we check out around the city, especially foodie and crafty spots, this weekly was bound to happen eventually. First up is Creme, a new gelato spot on College in Little Italy.

Creme – 703 College St – www.cremebuzz.com

I hadn’t read anything about Creme before I went in for the first time, so I had no real expectation. I immediately loved the design of the cafe. There is a row of bench seating with tables and accompanying chairs by the front window. There is a lot of nice light in the afternoon and it would be a good spot to get some work done (WiFi coming soon, I’ve been told) while still enjoying the day.

Our trip to Creme started with my wee ones asking politely for gelato. Our out of town guests thought the concept of polite children was so crazy they decided we must all go for gelato. Choosing flavours was as hard for the adults as it was for the kids and when it came to truffles, it was even harder for the adults! We ended up with three different kinds; chocolate, green mint and ‘vanilla’ (it wasn’t technically called vanilla and had wee chocolate flecks in it). All three kinds were devoured immediately, except for one wee one, who managed to hold on to her unfinished cone all the way to Lillian Smith library! This gelato was much creamier than others I’ve tried recently, and the flavours were also much stronger (in the best possible way).

  

The presentation of their cakes and truffles reminded me of the Sweet Gallery in Bloor West Village, but the prices at Creme are so much better! The selection of the chocolates was nice for a cafe, and the small portion size goes along very well with a small coffee or espresso.

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Window Shopping Wednesday, Part 4

Crafty, Window Shopping

Part 4 of this new weekly venture features a seemingly random collection of wish list worthy gear I found while digging through a ‘must have’ folder in my bookmarks. Some items have sold out, but there are so many other treasures to be found with these sellers!

I was looking for ribbons to use as handles on a knitted bag and I found Griffith Gardens, full of beautiful ribbons and crocheted flowers. I especially love the double sided black satin ribbon! The crocheted flowers are well crafted – most of the stock at this shop is crocheted; scarves, letters even (love this!), coasters, throws and on and on.

 

 

I adore this bag more than any other in this week’s collection. Love, love, love it! It’s so sweet and girly and then you look a little closer and BAM, skulls. <3

Once on a bag rampage, I came across HautTotes, and immediately I was in love and I think these four examples can help explain why. Especially the Christmas pin up girls and the zebra print. I’d wear them all. the. time. The wee bows on the collection are sweet, enough to make them part of a set but not so much that it takes away from the bag. Pretty!

 

 

This apron is officially on my personal wish list. Last time I posted something here hoping I’d get it for Christmas the hint was not taken (joke’s on me) so this time around, I will buy this for myself! There are even matching pot holders!

Of course this little gingerbread number stole my heart, but seems to have been moved or taken down or lost in the dark recesses of the internet, but it was lovely and so very festive! The Zelda pillow is really close to home for me. Mr. SoVeryDomestic has an original Nintendo comforter that we still use from his childhood. On it are Mario and Luigi of course, the Princess, Bowser and hilariously, Link! I can’t think of a good reason to wear a vendor apron, aside from being a vendor, but they’re so cute I’d love to wear one.

 

 

Naturally, the next event in this chain is shopping for fabric to make amazing aprons! Duh! I was going for robots and man, did I ever find them over at Voodoo Rabbit. Not only robots but, ‘fabric, buttons & sewing supplies for the dark arts & craftist’. Fantastic! We’ll start with robots and move on to Spidery Web, Pink Skull Pinstripe, How to Get a Husband fabric is beyond amazing. <3

 

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Handmade Nation

Crafty, Reviews
When I first heard about Handmade Nation, I was over the moon. It was so exciting to me that such a thing existed, a book covering crafters all across America? Amazing that craftiness, in any form, has gotten to be not just socially acceptable, but cool. Obviously, if you’re here you have a taste for the slightly off-beat side of crafty, so you already know that knitting is rad and mod podge is something serious. The rest of the world doesn’t seem to know this though. Faythe Levine traveled 19,000 miles around America to talk to over 80 indie crafters about what they do and their take over a 2 year period
to make a documentary about it. In that time it spawned into a book, while the film came together.

This book opens with a timeline and gives a wonderful look into how ‘the new wave of craft’ came to be what it is today (like from Debbie Stoller’s first Stitch n Bitch in NYC in 1998 to when MyMy went live in 2005 and when Knitta Please bombed Houston, TX the following year. It is filled with photos and write ups of so many extremely talented independent crafters – hello My Paper Crane! There are also essays throughout it by even more crafters on everything from the internet to activism, craft fairs, and of course, the Church of Craft

Some of my personal faves include Lekkner, Sublime Stitching, and Naughty Secretary Club (love them). Then there are all the crafters I hadn’t heard of yet that I fell in love with once I read this book like; KnitKnit, The Small Object, Made With Sweet Love and Blissen.

Pairing perfectly with the movie, I am sure. I can’t wait to see it!

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Play Doh, Blueberry Friands and Yam Chips

Crafty, Domestic, Healthy

As you know, I have three wee ones underfoot, and besides pancakes, I’ve made more batches of play doh than anything else in the last 10 years. I just came across this recipe that sounded good, so I gave it a shot.

 

I really like the way it came together in the pot! It didn’t take as long as some other recipes I’ve used and it wasn’t super sticky either. When I rolled it onto the counter, I was sold. It was very soft and easy to handle so the food colouring blended extremely well. I don’t know if it’s because wee one #2 left her zipbags of this play doh in the sun, but these two batches got moldy after a few days. I will make more to see if it’s a shelf-life issue or if it was just us.

As I’ve been trying to pay attention to portion control, I’ve been looking for bite size recipes. I know pretty much any recipe can be adapted to be made into individual portions, but I was charmed when I came across these Friands on Use Real Butter. So cute! I had several jars of almonds *in the shell* that had to be cracked. So, as my friends arrived, they were put to work cracking them all open for the almond meal we needed for these wee loaves. They were so so so good. The whole point of trying them was the small portions, and they were so good it was sort of a bummer we didn’t have more.

 

Jen used raspberries, but the selection at my corner market looked a little sad so I went with blueberries instead. Amazing. I wonder about different nut meal and berry combos? Like walnuts and blackberries or pecans and cranberries! Oh! I’m going to try pecans and cranberries next.

  

I’m not sure why exactly, but we made blue rice krispie squares this week and the tray was empty before supper! Not that they tasted any different than usual….

There was a recipe on the box for ‘savory sweet potato sticks’. I love, love, love sweet potatoes. I know it’s one of those foods that most people don’t have much of an opinion on, but I’m all over them so I tried this recipe the next day.

 

Essentially, you crush about a cup or more of rice krispies and add in whatever dry seasoning you like, the recipe suggested garlic powder and cayenne pepper, but I used Montreal steak seasoning and paprika. Dip the sweet potato circles in a beaten egg and then in your cereal/seasoning mix before putting them on a cookie sheet. I had them at about 400 for 10 minutes or so.

I was hoping to find the recipe online to link to it, and instead found eleventy million other recipes involving puffed rice cereals! Brace yourselves! 😛

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Window Shopping Wednesday, Part 3

Crafty, Domestic, Window Shopping

It’s Window Shopping Wednesday again! I love writing these posts because essentially, it’s just a really detailed version of my wish list! Because I link directly to the items I’m talking about, you’ll often find them sold out when you click on them. All of these shops are full of fun, so you’ll find other amazing gear, also sometimes shops will re-list what’s already sold so poke around.

Today’s collection of found gear is all stuff I’d *love* to have for Easter, though it’s pretty obvious even to me that I can’t possibly use it all. 😛

I came across Cupcake Social a few months ago when looking for snazzy cupcake liners. I found these really sweet mini tulip ones and thought of Easter right away. Doesn’t even matter how you decorate the cupcake with liners like these! Of course the cupcake toppers, both of the plastic and royal icing varieties are must haves and these ones are all so cute. I love the vintage feel of the plastic ones, and the other ones really help pull together a finished cupcake treat! And seriously, how pretty is the blue sanding sugar against the pink frosting in that last pic from this shop? Very, would be the correct answer.

Mini Pastel Cupcake Liners Animal Cupcake Toppers

The Easter selection over at Hey Yo Yo is a wonderfully retro, blindingly neon assortment of all the weird Easter stuff my Grandmother had when I was little. I vividly remember that bunny head cake topper (or one amazingly close to it) and the sugar buttons. She had tiny little sugar treasures like that in all sort of shapes and sizes. These ones are the brightest I’ve ever seen and for sure I’ll be ordering some for my kids this year. My Grandmother is going to love seeing them. The toppers are sweet and ideal for the kids Easter party at home (so I can keep them and use them again!), and those carnival ducks may end up on the windowsill in my kitchen permanently. They are darling. I just said darling. Apparently, I’m even more stuck in the 50s than I thought. 😉

I also need to note now that because this is an Easter Window Shopping post, I’m not going to go on and on about all the other amazing gear in this shop. Hello vending machine capsules, kissing dolls, and paper straws!

I have been a little ok totally obsessed with Bake it Pretty since I found it sometime last year. The four items here are a great example of why I love them so (not to mention all their wonderful packaging supplies)! These cookie cutters are perfect for sugar cookies for wee one #2’s kindergarten class! Either decorated with seriously detailed icing or just sanding sugar. I’m thinking white and pink for the bunny (gotta have the pink ears of course) and bright yellow for the chick. Gah! So cute!

The kits are such a great idea. The ‘Happy Easter Treats Kit’ has wee gift tags and themed twine. The ‘Easter Fun Kit’ has two different kinds of cupcake liners (24 total) and two different toppers (24 total). This is fantastic if life hits you with too many things at once but you still want to make something sweet!

Muffin Top Bake Shop, the name is enough to fall in love with it, right? These little hopping bunnies are almost retro, and if you use them at home they’re totally reusable! I love how small they are and their wee ears. The edible glitter is always a good idea and this shop has nine colours – including black!

We’ll see in the next month or so how much of this I end up ordering and using. I am excited to try out some of this gear with some recipes I’ve wanted to try for a while as well.

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2010

Crafty, Domestic

The past few months have been a flurry of activity, and while I wouldn’t have it any other way, a few more hours in the day would be helpful.

I made a really interesting cake this past weekend for a friend’s 30th and I have had a good start to Cake Year! First though, and mostly just to show off some photos, here are a few of the things I didn’t blog about this holiday season.

I made heaps and heaps of brownies during the holidays, as I’m sure you can imagine. These made in the donut pan seemed especially fun for the kids for some reason, and this apple pie with a handful of chocolate chips was just silly – and delicious!

This year, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day landed on the same day, so we had a fete to celebrate both! There were a whole lot of glittery New Year decorations and a whole lot of shiny heart decorations. The kids had a party that afternoon, and one of their activities was cookie decorating. I made standard Sugar Cookies and Cocoa Brownies and set out frosting, sprinkles, candies and broken up treats in recycled pudding cups for easy access!

For their school parties, the kids hit Google to find ideas for their class treats. Wee one #1 went with Chocolate Covered Jumbo Marshmallows. We put some red sprinkles on while the chocolate was still wet. Wee one #2 picked Cinnamon Heart Kisses and Hugs Cupcakes, which I think explains itself really. Both treats were really fun to make and the kids classes loved them. Before anyone thinks I’ve left someone out, wee one #3 isn’t in school yet and is too small for treats. 😉

There are some really fun gems left out, like attempting a Jamie Oliver appetizer, and my cinnamon hippo cookies, but these were the most fun of the last few months. I can’t recap too much because I want to jump back in and show you the 10 cakes I’ve made so far this year!

The husband machine, our three wee ones and myself did some Christmas road tripping. It took us to three different cities in two weeks and we had a blast. On the way home, with our little car packed to the roof with kids, gifts and gear, I got a text from my amazing friend Gill, asking if we could do the first Stitch n Bitch of the year that night, and that she really, really wanted to make Red Velvet cake with me. I pretty much never turn down an evening with my ladies, so as soon as we got home, I prepped the kitchen for fun, fed the kids and within minutes Gill was here with her beau Andrew, and my sister, Nikki. Usually there are two more good friends that spend Saturday nights with us, but one was out of town and one was hanging with someone who is usually out of town.

So, the Red Velvet cake, as you can see, looked like a winter birthday cake! The cream cheese frosting wasn’t too cream cheesy, as they often are, and the chopped pecans were a really nice touch! None of us had ever made this cake before, and we were all a little alarmed at how much food colouring it takes to give it that red hue! It was amazing, definitely one of my faves so far, The look of the two red layers with the contrast of the white frosting was so pretty.

Inspiration for the second cake of the year came while browsing Chow. The photo of the cake was amazing, but they put a crunchy almond crust on the top of the cake (prepared in the pan before the batter was poured in), and I opted for a few ground up chocolate chips on top after I had already iced it. I used the recipe as is otherwise, and it turned out so good.

This Double Lemon Cake was made because the husband machine asked me to make him a Lemon Meringue pie, and I had a little lemon filling leftover. The cake itself is a standard lemon cake, really you can just sub some lemon juice for a liquid in your favourite vanilla cake and add in some lemon zest as well. It’s two layers, with the lemon filling from the pie I made earlier and buttercream tinted yellow. 😉 If you love lemon, you’d love this.

The fourth cake was made for Miss Talea’s financee, who she never refers to by name on her blog, so I’ll hold back. I made him a Brown Sugar cake, though he is away at med school and couldn’t enjoy it himself. This recipe was found on Bell’alimento, and yes, I covered mine in whipped cream too. I made two square layers, one smaller than the other and sprinkled cinnamon on top!

Cakes #5 and #6 were made on the same day – because we had a few more people than usual that week – to celebrate Miss America. We all just love how campy and silly it is, and we really rolled with it. We all wore tiaras and drank champagne (ok, sparkling wine) and had a lovely evening. Cake #5 was a Chocolate Coconut (which just means I added a little sweetened shredded coconut to the batter and sprinkled some on top once it was cooled). Cake #6 was exciting for me, as I had never made one before – a Black Forest cake! My mother used to make these a lot when I was a kid, my father loves them. This was a cake doctor-style recipe, to be honest. All I did was mix up a devil’s food cake mix with a few eggs, some water and an entire can of cherry pie filling. Once it was baked and cooled, I put a little dollop of whipped cream on each of the wee flutes in the cake and put a maraschino cherry on top.

It’s hard to believe how genuinely excited I am over each of these cakes! Cake #7 was especially important because one of my closest friends, someone who has been coming out to my knitting nights for years, moved. Yup, Talea joined her fiancee somewhere that isn’t Toronto so they can live together as he finishes up med school. To celebrate all the joy and friendship and wine fueled nights we’ve all spent together, I made her a 10 Layer Smell You Later cake (inspired by the always amazing Bakerella) and invited only her very favourite people. It was a lovely night, but so so sad too. Moving on, the cake would have been more layers, but my husband machine was snacky and I had baked all the layers the night before. 😛 I assembled it with runny fudge as the glue that held it all together between all the layers. I coated the outside in it as well, but had to do as Bakerella suggested and make up some cocoa frosting and give it another layer.


Two weeks ago, as you know, was both Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. Last year, I made a Mandarin cake because I thought that the traditional citrus fruit had to be made into something, but it doesn’t. Just leaving out a bowl of any kind of citrus fruit is enough! So I didn’t make a cake for Chinese New Year, but I made up a serious Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake for Valentine’s Day. It was plain chocolate, in a heart shape, topped with a pint of strawberries and loads of both whipped cream and cocoa frosting. Amazing.

Even more amazing than that cake, Gill’s brother was on his way back from Thailand that day and even though he woke up on the other side of the planet and had a serious 12 hour jet lag to deal with, he came over to celebrate with us! Since he had been away for his birthday, I also whipped up a belated birthday cake – the one he picked weeks before – Chocolate and Peanut Butter!

And finally, to be totally up to date, this past weekend, I made my weirdest cake yet – by request. I made Tres Leches (or 3 milk cake, if you prefer). It’s Spanish and while most of their cakes are really moist, this one is over the top. It was for Andrew’s 30th birthday, the first of us 1980 babies to turn 30 this year. He requested it partly because he has a thing for moist cakes and this one promised to be the moistest, and partly because any time I ever serve this man cake, he always puts it in a bowl or mug and pours milk over it. Always.

This cake starts out as a plain vanilla cake, though I’m sure you could sub in whatever kind of plain cake you’d like. Once your cake has baked and cooled (mostly), move it to a larger pan then poke holes all over the top of it and pour this mixture over it; 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup whipping cream, 1/2 cup whole milk. You have to keep scooping up the mixture and pouring it over the cake for it to absorb it all. It’s nuts to see a cake soak up 3 cups of liquid in a few minutes.

You’ll notice there are actually four kinds of milk in this ‘three milk cake’. I actually looked into it more and traditionally the recipe has no whole milk in it, just whipping cream. The best part about this is two of us are lactose intolerant. Ha! I had a very small piece and then later in the night, I had another small piece. Andrew had several, so glad the birthday boy liked it. 😛

To go with the random theme of three, I also made three squash soup. Gill made her amazing pizza pinwheel bites and we all forgot about the soup. I will ask her about the recipe to post it one day.

Way more playing in the kitchen than knitting and sewing lately, as I’m sure you can tell, but I did manage to finish a very nice pair of socks, Marriage Lines, they were a late Christmas present to one of my dearest friends, Talea.


There’s your recap, stay tuned for Window Shopping Wednesday tomorrow!

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Cakes of 2010

Domestic

45. December 16 – Candy Cane Cake

44. November 27 – Blueberry-Filled Chocolate Cake

42. November 27 – Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cake

41. November 25 – Stargate Cake

40. November 13 – Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

39. October 28 – Halloween Cake Pops – Witch

39. October 28 – Halloween Cake Pops – Spider

39. October 28 – Halloween Cake Pops – Mummie

39. October 28 – Halloween Cake Pops – Monster

38. October 28 – Candy Corn Cupcakes

37. October 22 – Vanilla Cupcake Buns with Brownie Burgers and Sugar Cookie Fries

36. October 15 – Double Chocolate Candy Coated Cupcake Pops

35. October 15 – Chocolate Elegance Cake

34. October 9 – Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Mini Loaves

33. October 9 – Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

32. September 19 – Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

31. August 13 – Marble Soccer Cake

30. July 30 – Swiss Swirl Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

29. July 19 – Love Cakes

28. July 9 – Apple Crisp

27. July 2 – Ontario Apple Cranberry Crumble

26. June 19 – Key Lime Cake

25. June 5 – Chocolate Snowball Cake

24. May 30 – Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

23. May 8 – Almond Meringue Cakes

22. April 24 – Chocolate Banana Cake

21. April 10 – Chocolate Minis with Peanut Butter Frosting

20. April 7 – Cocoa Cupcakes with Coconut Icing

19. April 1 – Cadbury Cream Egg Cupcakes

18. March 27 – Chocolate Butterscoch Cake

17. March 21 – Butterscotch Ganache Cake

16. March 17 – Guiness Chocolate Cake with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

15. March 12 – Mini Super Apple Cakes

14. March 7 – ‘Very Special’ Vanilla Cake

13. March 5 – Classic Tiramisu

12. February 26 – Blueberry Friands

11. February 19 – Tres Letches Cake

10. February 14 – Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

09. February 14 – Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

08. February 11 – Cinnamon Hearts Hugs & Kisses Cupcakes

07. February 5 – 10 Layer Smell You Later Cake

06. January 30 – Black Forest Cake

05. January 30 – Chocolate Coconut Cake

04. January 23 – Brown Sugar Cake

03. January 16 – Double Lemon Cake

02. January 9 – Chocolate Topped Almond Cake

01. January 2 – Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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Fall Baking Round Up (Halloween and Birthdays)

Domestic

Making a different pie every week all year has lead to some pretty funny pies. I strive to rival Martha, and some days I do (hello Valentine’s Day, 2009!), but other days I end up making a chocolate crumb crust, lining the bottom with sliced apples and pouring chocolate pudding on top. Yup. Meet pie #47, Apple Chocolate Pudding Pie. It was delicious, for the record, but the description above is 100% true. My 9 year old could have made this, actually I bet my 4 year old could have made it too (she likes to make instant pudding in the Kitchen Aid)!

Moving along to treats I am more proud of, brain cupcakes made for wee one #1’s school Halloween party! One of my dearest friends, Talea, gave me an icing pen for my birthday this year, because 2010 is the Year of Cakes and Cupcakes! I used it for the first time to make these brains. I was so happy while making them because the pen, though a little fiddly to fill, works like a dream and made the cupcakes look all brainy! Of course, once they were all packaged up and ready to roll the night before the party I started to get self-conscious about them. Did they look brainy enough? Maybe I should have tinted the icing to be pinkish? Maybe I should have added blood? No.

I made these Chocolate Witch Hats from a Martha Stewart recipe. In her recipe is says to paint the cones with chocolate, but the image it conjured of the messy hands killed it for me. All you need; a box of sugar waffle ice cream cones, a tray of chocolate wafer cookies (I made mine from scratch thankyouverymuch), a bowl of broken Kit Kats, and a bowl of melted chocolate.

 

Dunk the ice cream cone into the melted chocolate, put a few broken Kit Kat pieces inside, and top it with the cookie (using the flat bottom of the cookie as the underside of the lid so it holds to the cone better), you may have to brush the seal with melted chocolate too. Just as many children ate these as adults once we got them into the school. Most of the office staff had one!

Shortly after all this Halloweening it up in the kitchen, I came across this post on Cake Spy from May on a Cookie Cake Pie, which naturally, got me very excited! I still had some of the cocoa cookie dough in the fridge from the Chocolate Witch Hats I had made, so I went with a chocolate version. I’m not sure what I did wrong. I think I will try this again when I visit with my friend Heather when we go on our Christmas trip. I didn’t do the idea justice, it was ok, but a little dry and not half as exciting as the original idea.

I immediately redeemed myself with these Pumpkin Carrot Muffins, though, so it’s ok. 😉

 

Standard Lemon Meringue was pie #51, with the standard coffee ring (chopped up to fit on the platter, naturally), and (drum roll please) pretzels.

 

I made pretzels from scratch! The recipe was alright, but the instructions were sub par so I will try this again and share a how to once I’m better at it!

 

This was exciting for me. Meet pie #52, Mint Chocolate Chip! It was delicious, but it was also so pretty and the sound the meringue made when I cut it was that perfectly crunchy but not hard shell cracking sound. Mmmm. I was impressed with myself, for sure.

I made a standard white flour pie crust (we’ve established that whole wheat flour and chocolate only work nicely in brownies), baked it, then made chocolate pudding with some mint extract, filled the pie crust and popped it back in the oven for another 30 minutes or so. Then I whipped the meringue and added green food coloring, I topped the pie off with that and then put it back in the oven again for another 10 minutes. I added the chopped chocolate once I took it out.

I maybe should have called this the Elvis Pie, since it’s pretty much equal parts banana and peanut butter, I learned when making this pie that while a smashed banana is delicious and invisible in baked goods, the same is not true for actual pieces of banana. They are still delicious, but they’re not pretty.

 

Finally, this cake is my most favorite recent accomplishment. One of my wee ones has a thing for Dora, as many wee ones do and asked me to make her a cake. So far, on the baking front, I’ve been getting pretty good at making very pretty cakes, but they are decorated differently. My mother was always baking and frosting cakes. By the time I was half way through elementary school, she was making cakes and chocolates from home as a small business. Her style of decorating was piping the entire cake from the Wilton decorating tips and it was so so so nice. I have yet to get that good at piping, so I smooth out the cake and pipe what I think I will do the least damage with. I used the same decorating pen from Talea for the sun and cloud. She loved it, and so did her wee friends!

    Next up is some serious holiday baking!

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Ginger Pear Pie, Wee Monsters, Cookies and Months More!

Crafty, Domestic

I have a lot of catching up to do here, but instead of breaking it all up, I’m just going to post a serious roundup of yummy and crafty stuff cranked out of my kitchen!

First up are these brownies, made the same as the cocoa brownies I usually make, except I’ve been using whole wheat flour. I posted the recipe in this post, and didn’t change anything else. I didn’t find that the dough behaved any differently, and no one noticed a change in taste at all. I don’t know how much healthier they actually are, given that there’s a cup of sugar in them, but we can safely say healthier.

 

Whole wheat blueberry pie!! It has slightly less sugar than it’s white flour counterpart…slightly. Friends of mine who don’t ‘get’ Food Gawker, ask me why I post so many photos of food. Ha! Just look at how beautiful that blueberry mix is, that’s why! 😛



This pie next was amazing. More than one of my Stitch n Bitch ladies has voted this their favorite pie of the year!

Pie #41 – Ginger-Pear Pie with Almond Crust
Crust:
2 cup flour
1 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp ice water
Filling:
5 pears, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp fresh ground ginger
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
Topping:
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup chopped almonds
2 tbsp packed brown sugar

  

Another really self-explanatory recipe! To make the crust, sift the flour, ground almonds, sugar and salt. Add the butter by small chunks, and cut in either with two butter knives or a pastry cutter. Once it’s all oatmealy, use a fork to mush in the ice water. The put it on a floured surface, and roll it out!

The order of the filling likely doesn’t matter, but for what it’s worth this is what I did. I put the sliced pears in a bowl, and added the lemon juice, ginger and and brown sugar. Then I mixed in the (very soft) butter, and last the cornstarch.

Bake it at 375 for about 20 minutes, longer if your crust isn’t holding up yet. Take it out, add the topping, and pop it back in for another 10, just so the brown sugar can work it’s magic.

Below are whole wheat sugar cookies and the beginnings of my Monster Chunks family for Miss Hayley, daughter of a very dear friend!

 

My wee one #1 has a serious appreciation for the handmade, especially the handknit, which is nice because that’s not a quality many 9 year olds can say they possess. These Basketcase Socks were chosen by him, as was the yarn from my stash. This is his second pair (since he grows a little slower now and can wear them for more than two months)! Also pictured here are a batch of what turned out to be pretty disappointing Butter Tarts. The recipe was not good at all so I wont post it, I will get my Granmother’s recipe and try it again with that. So far, none of her recipes tanked – she’s 87 though so I should hope she’s got the hang of it by now. 😉

 

This blackberry cake was inspired by my dear friend Gill, who had picked up two bags of very sour frozen blackberries and brought them over for me to salvage them. 2010 has been declared the year of the cake and cupcake, so I thought I’d try out a berry cake since I never have before. It was so good! Bananas, even!
This is even a neat German recipe, called Blackberry Kuchen, which I know just means Blackberry Cake, but it’s not made in the sense I’m used to, read on.

Blackberry Kuchen
Filling:
1 qt blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
Dough:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup very soft butter
3 eggs
Streusel:
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup butter

First off, this cake requires you to make three separate mixes. One is the dough for the bottom and sides of your pan, like a case for the cake. The second is the berry filling that goes on top and there’s also a streusel part to this that goes on top of the berries!

Mix the sugar and flour with the berries and set aside. Make the dough by mixing the flour, sugar and baking powder, add butter and eggs. Mix gently with a fork till you can press it down into the pan (bottom and sides). Any cake pan will do, but I did mine in a springform – it was easy and didn’t fall apart.

Then sift the sugar, flour and cinnamon for the streusel. Cut in the butter again with two butter knives until its really crumbly. Now you pour the berry mixture into the dough-lined pan and plop the streusel mix on top randomly. When it bakes (about 30 minutes at 350), the struesel spreads out a bit and bakes where ever it lands. So good!

 

A few days later I took the kids to visit my mother and she was making batches of peach jam! So naturally, I had to help and get some photos.

 

My weekly Stitch n Bitch ladies and I are doing a knit a long on Corona, it’s described as ‘a hoodie with a youthful edge’. It’s super cute and form fitting but not too. I am so excited about this sweater.

Brownie Pie with a Chocolate Crust, pie #44. Mmmm. Perfect with vanilla ice cream.

This is about the time this little sweater died. First it was pointed out to me that even though I clearly know how to cable, I had totally forgotten what I was doing and messed it up that far! I am so far into the cable at this point! Arg. So I ripped it back, I ripped it back to the armholes and started again, this time cabling the right way. Again, maybe half this far into it a second time, I gimped out on the cable again. I decided right there that even though I had already sunk invested so many hours in the arms alone, I was only going to give it one more shot. It’s not happening. To be honest, I was pretty quick about putting it out of it’s misery too and it’s all rolled up in three balls now, ready to be made into useful pretty things for Christmas!

 

That concludes this way-too-long parade of baked goods and finished objects! I’ll wrap up the rest of the leftovers in my next update post on Saturday. Tomorrow I’ve got a new interview to post! 🙂

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Window Shopping Wednesday, Part 2

Crafty, Domestic, Pretty, Window Shopping

I have a serious love for all things 50s – the wacky kitchen appliances, the slang and of course – the clothes! Don’t worry, this isn’t a fashion post – I’m doing a 50s themed Window Shopping Wednesday today! There are so many fun 50s themed shops online to get lost in! Today, I’m going to gush about; Kooties Closet, Sugar Pie Chic, Lady Jane Designs, Bumbershoot Supplies, and Our Retro Toybox.

Kooties Corner, some seriously sweet stuff. Store sections include; gift tags, address labels, retro graphic jewelry, pocket mirrors and other vintage goodies! Four things that immediately had me drooling; vintage car gift tags, 50s graphic pin, address labels, and my personal favorite – the mini atomic notebook! So rad!

 
 

Sugar Pie Chic is home to some very, very cool vintage inspired aprons and also some pretty embroidered pen and ink birds. I’m a sucker for cute dish cloths, and these aprons are delicious!

 

It’s not just cute retro kitchen gear that gets me excited! This tote bag and the best hair bow of all time, from Lady Jane Designs make me pretty happy too! Just look at the bow – look at it!! I am in love.

 

Then there’s the gear needed to make fun retro creations! This is often my favorite kinds of shopping! First up, four goodies from Bumbershoot Supplies!

 

 

Here is another Etsy shop that totally blew me over recently, Our Retro Toybox has way too much fun finds to list them all here. I could write an entire post about this place. This flour canister is at the top of my Christmas list and I *really* hope my husband machine buys it for me. Endlessly happy with this on my counter. 😀

This shop has a lot of nice vintage kitchen gear, but it also has sweet toys you may remember playing with as a child (hello original Sesame Street!), old book and more! Here, the best orange juice pitcher I’ve ever seen and a hilariously girly dictionary!

 

Aside from the amazing aprons and fun craft supplies, there are some other crafters out there who have made some pretty cute gear! Here are some of my favorite finds from last night while looking through aprons and patterns.

 
 

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