thingy thing

Beer, beer, beer, beer!

2010-10-29T09:41:00.004-04:00

As some of you may know, my husband and a couple of his long time friends are in the process of starting a micro-brewery. The past year has been working towards building a business plan, getting an SBA loan and investors, finding a space. Interesting at times - but, ya know, mostly kind of, well, unexciting details.

Things just got a little more interesting, though. Thanks to one of the investors, there is now a 2 barrel brewing system living in our garage!

While things are still wrapping up on the financial end, the group wanted to get started working on the actual product. A used system showed up for sale and they took the plunge. For some reason, the best place for this thing to be right now is in our garage...Don't ask, it just is.

So T got it all put together last weekend. It just needs hooked up to some propane, we need some grain, yeast and water and we're ready to go!

It's a whole lotta shiny stainless steel, right?

The product line will be called Born Beer, after a former Columbus brewery that operated from 1864 up until 1919, when prohibition pretty much shut them down.

So, hopefully you'll be seeing this in a store sometime in the next year or so! And hey - if you know someone who might want to invest in a brewery, let me know! ;)

Out at the Farmhouse

2010-09-25T12:38:00.005-04:00

Last weekend T and I went out to our brother in law's land, so that T could switch out his trail camera SD cards. Sounds totally snoozeroo, but it's so pretty out there I took my camera to catch some pictures of the early fall. This is the same farm where we were married last year - here's the 1830-40's house all dressed up for the ceremony.

We made out way around the corn fields to get to the two cameras. One of the fields is right up against some woods and Rose Run creek - which is dammed up by the beavers right now, and kind of still and groddy looking. Anyway, the rest of the scenery is pretty nice. Here's some of what I saw.

On the way back in, we stopped in the cow barn to look around. Sadly, it's falling into pretty bad condition. There's a pretty big hole in the roof, there's about 30 years of manure hanging around, and let's not mention the bats. Still, believe me, it's full of that sad but beautiful rusticity. I hate to think that the barn is just going to disintegrate one day, but without a ton of money it's probably going to.

Oh my

2010-09-15T21:52:00.003-04:00

So during the craziness that was making applebutter and all that hooha I managed to make these rolls. It's really gilding the lily to put butter on them, but for real, when did butter every hurt?

Now, I actually started them the night before - but don't be misled. They're not hard to make, you just need time for cooling down scalded milk, and then letting everything rise sufficiently. Seriously, they're no knead, too. Slightly sweet, buttery even before you butter them, soft, great crust. Really I could go on.

So, some day when you have lots of laundry or other lame housework stuff keeping you home, sweeten the deal by trying these out. Or please, do your families a favor and at least make them for Thanksgiving. They will love you even more than they already do.

Created by the wonderful Pioneer Woman, of course!

Apples! Get Your Apples!

2010-09-11T10:15:00.003-04:00

Over the Labor Day weekend, we did a little apple picking. Now, we had every intention of going to Lynd's farm, paying someone else for our hard work, then heading home to make apple butter and sauce. Well, T's dad pretty much told us we were idiots, and that there is an old man down the road from their house that will let you have apples from his defunct orchard for free. Just ask. So we did.

The orchard is huge, and it's pretty sad that it's in such a poor state. No kidding, this place is a little wild and overgrown and there's a lot of stickers and possibly poison ivy, and a lot of the apples are wormy - BUT, we still managed to pick a ton that were perfectly fine.

See, they're fine! Maybe not the Miss America of apples, but still completely fine for our purposes. And totally FREE!

See how pretty they look all washed up?

While we were making apple butter, I had plans to make apple cinnamon syrup, so I washed up practically every jar in the house. There's something so satisfying about clean jars in the sunlight, waiting to be filled up and stored away.

So the apple butter was the crock pot method (since buying a copper kettle would probably mean opening up an equity line). And this was what it looked like starting out. Apples, cinnamon, clove and about a half ton of sugar. Delicious!

This is about 5-6 hours of cooking. Starting to break down and actually look like something. Let me tell you our house smelled like autumn heaven!

And this is the next day. Three crocks pot of apples cooked down for a looooong time. We mixed all the batches together for consistency, then canned, canned, canned.

And here's the end result! We got 18 jars of apple butter, and I did manage to squeeze in the syrup making too. Gosh I love those cut glass jars. Now, we still have possibly 15 pounds of apples left, so it looks like apple sauce needs to happen this weekend. Or we may have to invest in a cider press, it's hard to say.

Oh Yeah!

2010-08-29T14:23:00.006-04:00

I have a blog! Yes, apparently I've forgotten (again) about that. This reminds me of my high school Latin teacher, when we were wasting too much time in class talking about Days of Our Lives. "Tempus fugits class!" Once we heard that we knew we had to get back to conjugating and translating. That's the only excuse I have for dropping the ball here. Tempus fugits, and it just won't stop.

Not that I haven't been up to stuff.

This spring we went to Costa Rica - Playa Carillo, on the Pacific side. Teeny tiny town, incredibly quiet, since it was off season. We practically had the beach to ourselves.

We hit the Goodguys car show again. I love me a classic car.

Apparently I love a classic car very close up.

There's been some cooking.

Some crafting.

And I'm learning how to fish with T. I don't have any pictures of that - cause, well, that would be a camera disaster of the highest order.

That's a very tiny nut shell of the past six months. Hopefully I'll be better about keeping up this time!

Some Spring Stuff

2010-04-15T19:43:00.004-04:00

Every year the rhubarb action in my garden freaks me out a little.

It's just so weird, ya know? Makes me think of an alien baby - I know, it's gross, but I can't help it!

But then it starts to look more like a plant, and you turn around and it's big enough to hide small children and livestock in.

This was the garden a few weeks ago, and things certainly don't look quite as bleak now. But for reals, there's a crushing amount of work left to do. That is, after it's safe to plant stuff after our scorched earth weed attack. I hate it, but we had to use the Round Up, or there would be no peas, lettuce, carrots or tomatoes. Just thistles. And more thistles, and a few locust trees that I don't need. Oh well, we can always try better next year, and know that, even if it's not organic, at least it's homegrown!

And in the spirit of spring, here's a shot of some tulips I treated myself to....in February. I just didn't get around to sharing them until now....Well, I can try better next time, right? They're still pretty even if they're not exactly hot off the presses!

Itty Bitty

2010-02-21T18:10:00.003-05:00

Here's the hat I made during the first big snow, for a new baby, C. I might have been inspired to pick a bright, springy green by the snow coming down when I was at the yarn store - who knows? Either way, it's super soft, and making that teeny tiny pom-pom was a kick.

Super close up of the knitty goodness. That's a mock cable stitch, which looks super fancy and cabled, but is just a 4 row repeat of knit, purl and a ssk or two. I found the pattern for this itty bitty hat here. It's easy, and very importantly, quick. I made a similar hat for my niece J, when she came 2 months early. I could still get it completed in time to deliver to her tiny little head, just a little over a year ago! Man, time flies!

A Little Something to Give You Hope

2010-02-18T18:09:00.005-05:00

That someday, spring will come! Look! There's grass out there, and Love in a Mist in the middle ground. And peonies and sunshine. Someday, people, we will see more green than white, the ground will not try to so hard to make us fall on our butts, and sunshine will once again have an impact on temperature.

Bees will bumble.

Flowers will nod their pretty heads in the breeze.

And we can all - finally - give a big sigh of relief!

I don't know about you, but this winter is truly getting to me. I'm really hanging on for dear life here, and seriously thinking about moving to somewhere more equatorial. Looking at these old garden pictures actually helped some. I hope they brightened your day a little, too.

Roll 'Em Up!

2010-02-07T14:22:00.003-05:00

I've finally finished this thing! I sewed the dang thing together right after Christmas, then just kept putting off figuring out the closure. Nestled inside is my complete set of double pointed knitting needles, from 1-13. An excellent gift. Look at them, all snuggled up in there, waiting to be called into action!

I tell ya, it's a pretty nice feeling knowing I'll always have the right size dpn's around when I need them. I think this will eliminate a lot of under the breath cursing involved in my knitting projects. Well, maybe some of the not-quite under the breath stuff as well.

The other great thing about this little roll up, was I figured it out on my very own! I'd sewn a big needle case several years ago - the one in the first Stitch 'n Bitch book. Well, over the years the cat has used it for a bed, and a place to leave hair balls, so it needs retiring. Because I'm, at times, pretty shiftless, it's still hanging around in the basement, so I was able to use it as a reference for my snazzy new roll up.

One of the changes I made was instead of one long ribbon for a tie-up, I made a band, with snap closure. The reason I always left the original laying around open for the cat to hork on, was I hate tying that stupid ribbon. With this closure, it only wraps around once, then snaps closed. Way less work involved (yes, I'm that lazy). Hooray for mechanical closures! ( I won't mention how many tries it took for me to sew the male and female ends of the snap the right sides up. Sigh.)

And I trotted out those needles for a project, this very weekend. A little gift for a new baby. I'll share pics just as soon as it's been bestowed!

10 Things...

2010-02-05T12:42:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Cheryl, earlier this week, for a "10 things that make you happy" list, and I'm finally following through!

1. My husband. When I'm with him, I'm content in a way like no other. When he's not around, I'm waiting for the moment he's back.

2. My family. Mom, Dad, sisters, nieces, cousins, aunt, in-laws. A family feels like a solar system - everyone's orbiting around each other, tying eachother together, influencing and being influenced. I'm so grateful they're there.

3. Old things. I just love old stuff. I love that it's survived through a culture that is every more disposable. I love that it ties us to people who are long gone, and makes them feel real.

4. Oh, bread! I don't know if it's a primitive survival thing, or just a carbohydrate thing, but warm, homemade bread with butter is the absolute answer to practically any hunger I have.

5. Books. Reading is like breathing to me. It sustains me, and when I don't do it I feel a little blue and light headed. :)

6. Being occupied. Sometimes it's challenging to me to just sit still and not do anything. It makes me happy to be knitting, sewing, spinning, embroidering - whatever. My fingers don't like to just hang around, doing nothing.

7. Flowers and other growing things. I love my yard and garden. I don't mind the work, but really it's the result that satisfies me. It's not a perfect garden, but it's mine, and I love the wonderful things that grow from it.

8. Being warm! On a snow storm day like this, I'm fantasizing about saunas, or baking in the sun on a beach. Hell, even cooking away during the summer, in the back yard, reading on the swing sounds fantastic! My body was made to live somewhere warm, and it's going to pain me until I take it someplace that it approves of!

9. Making things. This sort of falls under being occupied, but really you could be playing solitaire and be occupied. I like to bring something new into existence. Hopefully something beautiful or useful or delicious.

10. Clean sheets, warm out of the drier. That is just such happiness. Smooth, clean sheets - heaven!

Now I feel like singing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music! I'm about to go punch down some bread dough, so some new lyrics might have to be added.

So - what's your happiness?

Mama Deer

2010-01-10T19:54:00.000-05:00

Ever since I stumbled across Scherenschnitte on One Pretty Thing, I've wanted to try my hand at paper cutting. My stumbling block was getting my mind to understand all the spacial stuff. I'm usually pretty good at that, but for some reason it did not computer. I finally realized that if I just traced the pattern and cut around the line, I should end up with some sort of silhouette. I'm a genius, right? Well, I think it was a forest for the trees thing. Anyway, I finally managed to complete a project. Et voila!

When I saw this pattern on Scherenschnitte I let out the softest "oooohhhh." It's so darn lovely. I was looking for something sweet and mama-ish to create for my expecting friend Cheryl, for a Christmas present. I think this fit the bill pretty well.

On a white background, with white mat and frame, I'm so in love with it I want to make one for myself. And look, here's a video tutorial that would totally have helped me figure it out!

Toasty Toes

2010-01-05T21:28:00.000-05:00

Considering how cold and snowy it's been, it's lucky that I just completed a project that has been keeping my feet warm. As my husband will tell you, my feet are always cold - and when I say cold, I mean make-you-scream-out-in-the-night-cold, if they should happen to touch your defenseless leg in bed. So, when I say that my feet are actually warm right now, you should imagine a choir of angels singing in the background.

The miracle fabric to make my cold toes happy? Wool, of course! I mean, duh, right? I'm not talking Smart Wool socks here, I'm talking felted. wool. slippers. Oh yes.

The gorgeous pattern is from French Press Knits, and you too can purchase, download and start creating your own. The pattern works up very quickly on size 15 needles. You work the souls, sides, then straps, sew your slipper together, then felt. Here is the giant clown-slipper that results, pre-felting.

And, brought to you by the miracle of hot water - here is what they look like now!

And here is what my feet look like:

They look happy, right? It's cause they're so, so warm.

This was a highly gratifying project. It was quick, painless and now I have custom slippers! I was thinking about sewing some black leather onto the bottoms, but then I realized I might not be able to slide around on the floor if I did, and what's the fun in that? They were also relatively cheap to make. I used Pattons Classic Wool, purchased on sale at Joann's. The resulting fabric is shockingly soft, and really traps the warmth in the way a wool sock never can. Add in a regular old sock, and you're cooking with Crisco people.

I never thought I'd get into felting, but now that I've started, I'm not sure I can stop. Hopefully there's a support group out there somewhere...

Holy Monkeys It's Cold!

2010-01-02T15:21:00.001-05:00

I love having time off from work, don't you? I got lucky, and hit a 4 day weekend this New Year's, so when I woke up today I actually had a little creative energy, instead of just the soul crushing have-to-clean-this-dirty-dirty-house depression. You know that feeling, right?

Well today, there was a new dusting of snow on the ground, so I grabbed my camera and wandered outside to snap a few shots of pretty winter things. I wish it were easier to take pictures in blinding sunlight - all that light makes is really hard to actually see, well, anything. Not to mention how it's pretty chilly out lately. Anyway, here are a few I think are nice.

A sunflower, hanging on. I love how stark and sharp this one turned out. Very Wyeth-y

Our pea trellis. I like the texture.

Cabbages, also holding on, as they do. They actually look like tiny palm trees, which makes me sigh.

At least it looks warm! I always chuck pumpkins out into the garden. This one wasn't carved, so it's in pretty good shape. The way the color is changing is pretty cool.

Brrr! So, to combat all this chilliness, I'm off to go make bread! Hope you all are staying nice and toasty.

What? I have a blog?!

2010-01-01T12:38:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I guess things have either been busy...or I've been lazy. Clearly, posting has dropped to the wayside over the holiday season, but with the New Year I'm back, reenergized and ready to start working on this thing again!

I've actually been working away on a few things the past couple of months, Christmas presents and what not. I've gotten into felting - it was only a matter of time, what with the knitting and spinning and all. Also, I've finally gotten my mind around the paper cutting pattern thing, so hopefully I'll be sharing some projects soon. My Christmas presents were pretty exciting this year: photoEZ screen printing set up (yeeee, I'm so excited!), and the most complete canning supply situation a person could ask for. Seriously. I know own 3 - count em, 3 - canners, one of which is pressure!

So, stay tuned. I'm sure there will be some trials, tribulations and hopefully some successes to share!

And a Happy New Year to everyone!

Two Excellent Bread Recipes

2009-11-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of great bread making success recently - easy recipes with delicious results. Aren't those the best? I found both recipes in a quest for a rustic, crunchy, chewy bread. One is apparently a now-famous New York Times recipe that is so incredibly easy that I highly recommend it as a confidence boost if you're having a crap day (only plan ahead a little - it's easy, but it has to laze about a while before baking). The other recipe made these lovely loaves.

Aaaaaand, I can't find the recipe. Ugh. (internal dialog: It's call "favorites," bone-head. Use it! ) Anyway, I've searched like a crazy person to find the stupid recipe again, but all in vain. And I'm a professional searcher! Apparently the history setting on our I.E. is on one day. Well, I am geekily proud of these loaves so I'll just post another pretty picture of them, then get onto the recipe I am smart enough to remember.

And for the easy peasy, re-dunculous delicious one! Get this: it's no knead! You truly dump the ingredients together, stir, then as Alton Brown is always saying you, "walk away." Let the yeast do its thang, and then throw it in the oven. It starts out very sticky, shaggy goopy.

Then after about four hours it looks even weirder.

After the big nap it gets to take, you preheat your oven, and a dutch oven or large covered casserole dish for 30 minutes. During that 30 minutes, you knock down the dough a little and let it rest again (this is the most lazy-ass dough I've ever met, but I can't argue with the results). Finally! You take out your raging hot dutch oven, slide the dough in, then bake covered for 30 minutes, then un-covered for 15 more. While you're going crazy for buttery, yummy bread smells, it's browning like it's on vacation. When it's all said and done you get this!

Crunchy, chewy on the outside, spongy soft on the inside. So amazingly right with butter. You have to try this. Four simple ingredients and one perfect bread!

Malabar

2009-11-08T19:45:00.000-05:00

Several weeks back, in early October, T and I took a drive up north to visit Malabar Farm. I've wanted to visit for years, but PBS played their special on Louis Bromfield's life, and T got the urge, too. Louis Bromfield was on Ohio -born Pulitzer prize winning author. After living in France for ten years, he decided to move back to Ohio and bought a farm sight unseen in the Mansfield area, in 1938. As it turns out, the land was in ruins, and so Bromfield began his career as a soil conservationist in order to turn around his farm. He became known as an expert on the subject - hot on many people's minds, since poor farming practices helped contribute to the devastating dust bowl situation. He published several books on agriculture and the farm was turned into a state park after his death.

It was an outrageously gorgeous, crisp day when we visited. Not a lot was happening around the place that day, but there were hay rides. So, we walked around, checked out the animals and the buildings and caught a hay ride before grabbing lunch at the Malabar Farm Restaurant.

In the "petting farm" barn there were Clydesdale and pony, calves, rabbits and these hilarious turkeys. This one had zero fear of us, and very much wanted to know what we were up to. Outside were more cattle, a few sheep and these very serene looking goats.

Right next to the goats and sheep was the poultry house - that sign is the coolest, right?! If I ever have chickens, I will for sures be replicating this. The chicken were the highlight of the trip for me. They started checking us out, then gradually all wandered over. And when I say "all" I'm talking 30-40 chickens and couple of big turkeys. All making that back of the throat growly thing chickens do. We finally realized you could buy feed from a machine and then the party began! Those hens have laser like precision when it comes to grub, let me tell you. At first it was a little freaky having them peck away at my hand, but I finally realized it doesn't hurt, and they aren't about to miss the last little bit of grain.

The family house was right next to the barns and other out buildings. It truly looked out upon the chickens - which I can understand, they're so darn entertaining! We missed the house tours that day, but we did peek in through windows and saw the dining room/conservatory where Lauren Becall and Humphrey Bogart were married. They even have a replica of the wedding cake set up.

After walking around some more, we took our hayride. Not too exciting, but still beautiful. There was an obligatory tool-y guy trying to set up his new fancy phone the whole time, but also regular people out to enjoy a lovely day. The land really is gorgeous.

After the hayride, we made our way through lunch at the nearby restaurant. While the food was good - especially the bread - the service was incredibly slow, and our server's shift ended during our meal, so getting the check was a pretty long process. Once we got ourselves the heck outta that restaurant, we poked around the neighboring spring and veggie stand. The spring water really was amazingly good. I'm really actually sad we don't get it out of our tap!

It was a nice ride and a fun trip. I left with a drop spindle and roving, and of course, I'm now hooked on spinning. Looks like I'll finally have to start processing that alpaca fleece sitting upstairs! I think the next time we go up that way I want to hit Lehmans and see the Mansfield Reformatory.

Pumpkin time!

2009-11-01T09:32:00.003-05:00

Well, Halloween is officially over, but I'm just now getting around to putting up a couple of pictures of my Jack-o-lantern this year. I'm such a lover of pumpkins in all their permutations - un-carved, carved, pie, bread, seeds. All of it is pretty great to me. They can be so lovely....

and so demented rabid vampire-y! Every time I look at this guy I can hear the blaaaeerruurrrgh sound he would make if he really wanted to take a bite out of your ankles.

(Somehow, you can see the hurt indignation of knowing a squirrel has gnawed off some of your eye socket.)

My First Preserves!

2009-10-21T10:42:00.005-04:00

Earlier this month, T and I finally dug up the carrots from the garden, and I'm telling you, root vegetables are officially the most rewarding thing to plant. Every time a new clump got forked up, we got the biggest kick out of the fact that "Hey! There were actually carrots growing in there!" This was the same delight we got from digging up potatoes. Something about the wait-and-see quality of planting these waaaaay back in the spring, and not seeing anything but greens for so long, made the reveal very magical. Aren't they just thrilling?!

The problem was then - we have about 85 million (overgrown) carrots. They smelled spectacular, and were all kinds of crazy shapes (thinning out is hard to do!), but no one wants that many fresh carrots. I decided to make the leap and preserve by freezing.

I'm sure it was nothing compared to canning something, but lord, what a lot of work. They had to be topped, washed (clogging up the sink with dirt), peeled, chopped, blanched, frantically spooned out of the boiling water, cooled, then vacu-sucked (by my personal lungs) into freezer bags. And since it took so much work, I only got about half of them done, and the other half went rubbery and gross on me by the next day. Oh well, live and learn. Even if we didn't get to eat them, they're compost now.

Ta da! All frozen and ready to go into soup and stew and what not. They are, admittedly, a little tough, since they were in the ground too long, but they still taste very good. I'm hoping to be more on top of things with the garden next year, seeing as there will be no wedding hoo-ha going on. I'll probably plant fewer carrots, that's for sure!

Sweater for Baby J

2009-10-02T13:16:00.003-04:00

This sweater is hot off the presses! I just finished sewing the buttons on, and since it's been such a long time since I actually completed a knitting project, I wanted to post it right away. It's yet another very gray and rainy day here, so sorry for the very dark picture.

The pattern is from Kristen Rengren's Vintage Baby Knits. I had to return the book to the library, so I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the pattern - but, needless to say, if you have the book, it's in there! Almost every single pattern is achingly adorable, so I imagine I'll be trying a few more in the future.

This little cardigan will be for my niece J, who will hopefully be visiting soon. The sweater is knit all in one piece, so there's no headache of attaching sleeves. I did find some of the instructions with the pattern chart a little confusing, but I just powered through by making any errors consistent. It may not be exactly like the pattern instructs, but no one can tell!

T actually helped me to pick out the buttons - he got pretty excited over my Grandma's button tin. Of course, I didn't have 5 of the same buttons, but I liked the look of 5 different white buttons T chose. I think it adds a quirky texture detail.

Pop-overs, a Bag and a Mushroom

2009-09-27T15:36:00.005-04:00

Mmmm, pop-overs ...Ever since I saw the Good Eats about these bready delights, I've wanted to make some, but was intimidated. Their failure is so drastic - very souffle like and droopy. But I was perusing PBS yesterday morning, and loving all the great Saturday cooking shows, when Cooks Country presented roast beef and pop-over. I love this show, as well as America's Test Kitchen. You know you can count on their recipes to be delicious, and not be overwhelmed by the instructions.

That was true for the pop-overs. Really, the hardest part was greasing and flouring my muffin pan (because I don't want to buy a pop-over pan). While they were probably not completely perfect, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did turn out. Airy, crispy in parts, and chewy, spongy in others. I keep thinking they'd be great with a slightly salty cheese.

I finished this bag last weekend, out of the Charlotte's Web reminiscent fabric T got me at Sew to Speak a while ago. Some of the pigs have a spider web on them - so cute. I found the pattern here, wanting to reproduce the massive carrying capability of an Envirosax fold up bag. The pattern is pretty darn easy, and I'm pleased with the result. I did leave out the snap closure, since the fabric is a bit too thick to fold up like the original. Still, I have a great big cute bag for carrying all my library returns in!

There's finally some sunshine today, but the past week has been nothing but rain. I noticed a couple of tiny white mushroom sprouting up in the front yard, only to find them knocked over and tasted by a squirrel. I grabbed this one to get a few pictures of it before something else decided to sample it.

Our Wedding

2009-09-10T20:05:00.022-04:00

It rained in the morning, for luck, but was clear in the afternoon when we needed it to be, so we didn't mind that it was a humid day. After 2 days of incredibly hard work with friends and family, it all came together, and T and I made our promises surrounded by the ones we love.

At the time, it all felt like a few seconds passing by, but looking back I can remember exactly how wonderful the night was. At the close of the evening, T lit fire works for the perfect, sparkly ending. I'm so glad it happened just the way it did.

The Last of the Honeymoon Hooha!

2009-09-07T19:39:00.007-04:00

Okay, I admit it. I'm a little bored with writing about all the honeymoon stuff. And if I'm bored of it, you probably, are too! I'm ready to totally return to normal life. So I'll close it up with just a bunch of pictures and captions, quick and dirty style.

This is riding out to the Mayan ruins. The roads in Belize are pretty bad....

...and this was after improvements!

Mayan ruin, Labanntun, where the famous Crystal Skull was found. Apparently the first excavation was done in the 20's...with dynamite. Now they're trying to reassemble.

After the ruins, we drove further inland to Blue Creek for our cave swimming adventure. This is a lodge for academic types to study the rain forest.

And here it is, mere seconds later in that famous rainy season rain.

This is how chocolate is born! Cocoa pods growing wild.

Here is the cave we swam into...after a downpour, in they rain season, with shoes on, no life jacket and into pitch darkness with only a weak caving light for illumination. Needless to say, this is the cave of doom, where I practically drowned.

And looking at how strong the river is, you can see why I should have listened to those warning bells going off in my tummy!

Maya people often still live in these thatched houses. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess.

The Mayan Mountains.

One last sit out on our cabana porch.

Our teeny plane back out to Belize City. This flight was packed. After our first stop, after five minutes of flying, we dropped what appeared to be the pilot's buddy off in Savannah, and took on more passengers. In order to do so, another passenger had to go sit next in the co-pilot's seat!

What I miss the most is the sound of the water, and rustle of the coconut palm fronds, tapping together in the wind. There was always the gentle sound of tapping rain drops, even when the skies were clear.

You'd Better Belize it, Part Deux!

2009-09-04T15:51:00.006-04:00

On to Monkey River! Our 3rd day in Placencia took us to a tour of Monkey River, and Monkey River Town. To get there, we boarded a teeny tiny boat with four other people, and sped across the (thankfully) very still ocean waters. Seriously, that morning, the water was so still it felt like a Stephen Kind book. After some time we came to the mangroves, which were maze like and so unlike any other vegetation I've ever seen. How many trees actually live in salt water? We wound our way through, the boat driver telling us how this was actually a quick, safe way for people to keep between Placencia and Monkey River, since its waters are more calm and protected, and the roads are so incredibly bad in Belize.

We finally made it to the mouth of the Monkey River, and there it was - Monkey River Town! I think the current population is maybe 80 (don't quote me on that), but it used to be even more populous than Placencia. A banana blight destroyed the plantations, and forced everyone to move away to Placencia.

It was here we picked up our guide, Percy, aka. Rambo, made out lunch order at Alice's restaurant, and headed back up the river. Rambo was a great guide, friendly and incredibly knowledgeable, and told us about a million plants in the jungle that could either kill you, save your life or help you out with that nasty bed wetting problem.

After seeing iguanas, alligators, bats, and numerous birds we found Howler Monkeys. Percy got them riled up by walking around under their tree and making a ruckus. The dominate male put on quite a poo and pee show to let us know who was boss around here.

We traveled a little further up the river, then landed the boat, and took a walk through the jungle. Covered in bug spray saw more amazing plants, ate a delicious fruit, drank from the water vine and ate real live termites! They tasted grassy and minty, and were so small you didn't really notice you were eating live bugs. We also came across the giant blue crab who makes holes all over the place, and would probably be happy to eat your toes.

After the trip through the jungle, we headed back down the river, stopping to eat some sugar cane, getting rained on in the rain forest. Back at Monkey River Town, we had lunch. Let me tell you people, Belizean stew chicken with rice and beans is ridiculously good. I'm planning on ordering the spice they use, Recado or Recardo, to try it out myself. After lunch, Rambo took us on a tour of the village - which is going to get electricity soon, showing us where everyone sheltered in a 2002 hurricane, the school and the structures they built to curtail the shore erosion.

On the way back to Placencia, we stopped to spot manatees, which we did. Mostly it was their snouts popping up for air, and their tails flipping back under the water, but cool nonetheless.

Next up, we hike to a waterfall, tube down a river, visit a ruin and I almost drown! Just regular honeymoon, really. Now, for your viewing pleasure, a real, live jungle chicken...or iguana.

You'd Better Belize It!

2009-09-01T20:49:00.008-04:00

It's starting to feel like a long time ago, but T and I got back from out honeymoon in Belize a few short weeks ago. And we actually saw that delightfully cheesy phrase on quite a few pamphlets and t-shirts!

We were crazy and flew the morning after the wedding (I was weeping occasionally from fatigue and emotions), and after one heck of a long day of travel we arrived in Belize City. Attentive travelers might have noticed the sign that said "Human trafficking is illegal," but blissful honeymooners that we were, we chose not to.

We cleared the customs people (and there was of course the officious guy who took his job waaaay to seriously. This, apparently, is universal.) We paid the tax for entering the country, and got checked in for our flight out to Placencia, our final destination. When they handed us laminated boarding passes that were to be returned upon boarding, I finally felt like I was in a different country. Did I mention how small the plane was?

Yes, the entire plane could easily have heard our pilot from anywhere on board, but he still used the PA to welcome us to the flight, and cursorily give us saftey info. It was only a 30 minute flight, but it was a little nerve wracking. We'd never been in a single engine plane before, and let me tell you, it doesn't even feel like a bus in the sky...it's like a Chevie Astro in the sky.

Needless to say, everything went fine, we got there, took the 5 minute cab ride into town (down the one road on the whole peninsula) and finally got checked in to our cabana, right on the beach. The word "aaaaahhhhhh" doesn't really cut it for the sense of relief we felt to actually be done doing and moving and scrambling and worrying about wedding stuff.

We could finally sit still. The next day we actually able to take in our surroundings, and man were they gorgeous.

Our little piece of beach.

The land in the distance is actually a quay.

The walk out to the beach and to our cabana

There were flowers everywhere.

The point at the very end of the peninsula.

The Placencia sidewalk. It goes nearly the entire length of the village.

A Traveler Palm

Coming soon, a trip to Monkey River, Cockscomb Nature Preserve, ruins and ...the cave of doom!

A Quick Dinner

2009-08-30T10:20:00.003-04:00

Hi there! Well, the dust has settled, the decorations and luggage have finally been put away, and the pictures are being ever so slowly decided on. T and I are man and wife, and I finally feel like life is back to normal. I'll have more pictures up soon for the wedding and honeymoon, but right now I thought I'd share my favorite quick meal of the summer, staring grape tomatoes and basil!

While we weren't too ambitious with our garden care this summer, it's definitely given us some meals, and a whole lotta potatoes. Several times we've had nothing that I wanted to eat, then I realize I can walk out there and throw something together, usually pasta related.

This past Friday, I found myself in just that situation. Happily, there were still a whole big bunch of grape tomatoes left on the vine, due to my own inattention. This plant was an accidental purchase, but I've been so pleased with it. It was a huge producer, and perfect for my tomato needs. Anyway, I started by halving the 'maters, and getting some water on the boil.

I almost grabbed the store bought garlic when I remembered we had home grown, languishing away among the kitchen table clutter! This was another pleasant garden surprise, since I totally planted it at the wrong time (knowingly, I was just curious to see what would happen). Lo and behold, we actually grew a few heads of garlic. I'm planning on doing it the right way this fall, since it worked so well the wrong way.

It looks a little gnarly, I know, but it's good stuff! I chopped up a clove or two, and sauteed a few seconds in olive oil, along with a pat of for-real butter. I discovered recently this makes sauces yummy and rich, and you don't have to feel too bad about it, cause it's such a small amount! Once the garlic was toasty, I threw in the tomatoes, a little bit on onion, salt, pepper and some fresh thyme I had (also languishing) in the fridge.

I let this cook away and soften the tomatoes for a few minutes, adding some dried thyme in the end, cause I just wanted a little more umph. All the while I cooked up some ditalini, cause I had it around, too. When everything was ready to go, I adding the pasta to the tomatoes, remembered I had some cubed ham in the fridge too, and hooray! Some mozzarella cheese!

So, I threw it in a bowl, let the cheese get melty, used some home grown basil for garnish and there ya go! D-licious, and no-lie, made from random stuff I had sitting around. (I hate recipes that claim to be from things everyone has sitting around their kitchen, but they're never things I happen to have.)

The great thing about this one is how you can kind of rotate different ingredients in and out...well, except the tomatoes and garlic, I guess. But any kind of herb, protein or cheese would be just as good. And since I could eat pasta practically every day, this recipe couldn't make me happier!

Uphthph

2009-07-27T10:21:00.004-04:00

May I present (a crummy picture of), the house of a woman about to throw a wedding in just under 2 weeks...

Mind, this is after I spent all of Friday cleaning. That explains the mix of brooms and tiki torch in the corner there (well, maybe not the tiki torch). Five cases of coke bottles, a flower girl basket and a giant box from Macy's - really this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm too ashamed to post pictures of my basement, but there you will find galvanized tubs, a million boxes of lights, food serving hooha, tangled masses of sewn party banner and countless unfurled tissue paper pom poms.

Here's to hoping all this will magically turn into a wedding!

Seriously, I've absolutely reached the "I'm done with this, let's get it over with" phase of wedding planning. Along with the library funding uncertainties in the mix, let's just say sleeping can be a little sketchy lately! I'm very much looking forward to the return to normal life, and being able to focus my creative energies back onto knitting, sewing and all those other fun projects that pop up.

Some things I plan to blog about post-wedding: a homemade smoker made of terra cotta pots, a minor bathroom update, the garden turning into the shaggy monster it always does, a new sewing machine (I haven't even had time to play with!), my return to knitting (via a drop spindle), a trip to Belize and well, yes, probably a little bit about the actual wedding.

As a parting picture, here are some lovely tomatoes from the back yard. Turns out grape tomatoes are very rewarding plants. I don't love a raw tomato, but these are great sliced up and warmed in pasta. They match that Coke bottle perfectly, right? By the way, Coke is sooo much better from glass. Why is that?

Pretties from the Garden

2009-06-09T20:17:00.005-04:00

I had a little time to wander around in the garden today (willfully ignoring the weeds, and overgrown spinach), so I cut a few flowers and snapped some pictures of the pretty things to be seen there in early June.

Those purple blooms are potatoes, and it looks like we should have lots, if we can avoid all the awful things that want to eat up the plant before we do. It also appears that we should have a bumper raspberry crop this year, too. Here the babies are, all tiny and green and fuzzy.

Here's the end of this year's columbine. I can only assume there are seeds in there...Anyway, they look pretty cool - kind of like jester's hats, right?

And while this didn't happen today, I had to share one of the photos. I think it was last week, a pretty strong storm came through the area, and I caught sight of the edge of the front as it started to cover up the sun in the evening. Totally cool things happened to the rays and shadows off the clouds, so I ran inside, got my camera and starting taking pictures. Here's just one.

It looked like you could've walked on those clouds. I'm so glad I dropped what I was doing and ran for my camera!

Too Too Tutu

2009-05-25T11:57:00.005-04:00

I've always loved this idea, and I finally got around to making one. What little lady would not love a tutu to twirl around in? I'm telling you, as I made this one for my niece, I was secretly wishing it was big enough for me!

It could not be simpler to make, though, so maybe with a bit more elastic I could pull it off. The only real sewing you do, is to attach the two end of the elastic securely together. After that, you simply double knot the strips of tulle around the elastic in an attractive way. The spooled tulle is way easier to deal with for this. You just want to cut it to twice the length from your girly's belly to her knees - or longer if you want. The key part is to remember to double that length. Then you just tie away.

I think this took just about 30 minutes to complete. My niece lives out of town, so I haven't seen her in this yet, but her mom says she's dancing everywhere in it! So, I'll probably be making another one for her little sister in a while, when she's able to stand up and flit about.

Something Old

2009-05-25T11:42:00.002-04:00

Just about 30 years ago, our next door neighbor Judy made a present for me that I'll just now be able to use. She made one for all three of us girls, and although it's sort of an old fashioned idea by now, I still think it's charming.

The gift is a baby bonnet, made from a handkerchief. It looks like you just sew a couple of corners together, add some bows and ribbons, and there you go. Then, when baby girl is suddenly an adult, she can open up the seams again, and have a handkerchief to carry down the aisle, as her something old.

It's been sitting in a box for 30 years, so I hope I'll be able to make it look presentable. That's a pretty long time to let the wrinkles set it. Here's the little poem that goes with it, that was on that adorable 70's giraffe card:

I'm just a little Hanky, as square

as square can be.

But with a stitch or two they made a

bonnet out of me.

I'll be worn home from the hospital or on

the Christening day

Then I'll be carefully pressed and neatly/

packed away.

Then on the Wedding Day so we have always

been told,

Every well dressed Bride must have that

something old.

So what would be more fitting than to

find little old me

A few stitched snipped and a Wedding Hanky

I'll be.

And if perchance it is a boy someday he'll

wed

So to his Bride he can present the Hanky

once worn upon his head.

Milk Glass

2009-04-16T19:50:00.003-04:00

Here's my latest wedding decor brain storm: milk glass vases. I saw a couple I had sitting around on my window sill, and thought, "Oh, how pretty those are together like that." Well, if two are cute together, than a whole bunch will be adorable, no? I've been hitting up thrift stores like crazy for all these vases, preferably with lots of different textures. Luckily, every old person that has died in the last 30 years has about 5 of these under their kitchen sink and then their stuff was then been donated to Goodwill. By themselves, they just say "hospital florist, " but together, they look country charming.

I plan on grouping several together on the table tops, maybe mix in some mason jar and cram in as many Hydrangea, Queen Anne's Lace and Bells of Ireland as I can. That is, if the Bells of Ireland grow this year. Stupid seeds.

And for no good reason, other than that it's pretty: a lovely spring flower.

The Modern Family Cookbook

2009-04-11T10:04:00.003-04:00

Here's one more of Grandma's things that I have to share - The Modern Family Cookbook, by Meta Given. The spine is just about non-existent, and it's got that great old book smell. While I'm sure there are some lovely dishes in this book, the ones pictured tended to look a lot like selections from the Gallery of Regrettable Foods. The most interesting part is the text, by far.

As you can see from the inscription, this was 1944 modern, so hold on to you hats, ladies. I have to wonder if Grandma was rolling her eyes at this stuff, too, the first time she flipped through this tome. The author was apparently big on "creeds." There are 4-5 major creeds peppered throughout the book, to guide the happy homemaker. Here's a portion of my ultimate favorite: The Family Hostess' Creed.

That's right people. Once you're a wife and mother, you transition from being a member of the household to being the hostess of a never ending party! The guests never leave, they take your hostessing skills for granted and somehow you end up doing everyone's laundry...

This is such an alien idea now - as if you are the one that doesn't belong here, and everyone elses's comfort is somehow waaaaay more important than yours. And you know what's even crazier, is that many women are still operating like this, unconsciously! Not that taking care of your family isn't important, or that you can't get enjoyment and satisfaction from it. The implication is that hostessing the family is now your only purpose on the earth, and to do anything for yourself is somehow a failure of your duties! Watch out, wifey. If anyone's grumpy is the fam. it's clearly your fault for using paper plates last night.

I just like the wording on this one: I will preserve as far as possible the nutritive elements in the foods which are delivered to me. Ummm, delivered by whom? Woodland creatures? I know back in the day the grocery store actually could bring food to you, but, I mean, I just picture a harried wife looking at a random pile of foods brought to her by some clueless person and trying to make an enjoyable meal. This homemaker is starting to sound like she's not allowed to leave the house, or even request specific ingredients!

"Let's see what hubby ordered for us! Okay, we have a cantaloupe, some celery, dried beef and a box of plain gelatin. That silly man! Oh, if only I were allowed to go the grocers! Well, it looks like beef celery aspic with cantaloupe relish again tonight. Although, how I will ever preserve and enhance the attractive qualities of these foods, I don't know."

Wow - a whole chapter on dishwashing! Now, I realize there are probably lots of handy housework tips and tricks out there that I could benefit from, and that a person can truly be an expert of running a house (thanks for the pressure Martha). But, really, a whole chapter on managing dishes? It's not as if they're mobile and sentient and you have to convince them to jump into the soapy water so that you can scrub them clean, rounding up those pesky forks and juice glasses, like a scene from The Magician's Apprentice. But hey, maybe my kitchen would be cleaner if I read this chapter. Who knows?

I guess the difference between a household management book from 60 years ago and a current day one is that, now, the book is trying to help without creating a deep seated anxiety in you that now, everyone's happiness is suddenly under your watch. That you could potentially ruin someone's happiness by making the wrong household move. Hopefully that's the case. Maybe now they just pile on the guilt in a less ham fisted way. And now you get to do all this crap after you just spent 8 hours doing more stressful crap somewhere else. Either way, it's pretty interesting looking at an artifact of pre-feminist American life, and just thinking about the changes.

Daisy Chain

2009-04-09T20:14:00.002-04:00

Here the latest wedding decoration idea I've been furiously making. Since we're having a pretty informal affair, I haven't really "picked colors." There's just something so churchy wedding about that, to me, for some reason. However, I do envision sticking to light green and white for flowers and other furbelows. I randomly bought some pale green ribbon a few months ago, without a real plan for it, but this one worked out perfectly. Like a lot of fun crafty things, I found this idea on One Pretty Thing.

So, I used my Joann's coupon, got a dandy flower shaped paper punch, the tiny hole puncher necessary, and went to town until my hand hurt (of course. I never know when to stop.) . It's really incredibly easy, and I think it looks so charming. I'm not exactly sure where this will be draped for the event, but I'm sure it will make its way in somewhere. That is, of course, after I make roughly 83 more feet...

(Sorry for the crummy pictures, by the way. We had one last kick of winter early this week - snow even. Hopefully that kind of hooha is done with!)

Little Things

2009-03-25T20:24:00.003-04:00

My family unexpectedly suffered a loss last week. While I've been muddling through the shock and sadness, it's been nice to have these little things to appreciate. Some of them came to me last week, and some are just the happy product of the world continuing to roll around through space.

This was my Grandma's garlic keeper, and the "Dial a Pick" toothpick holder I remember being in Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen when I was a kid. I'd forgotten about the garlic keeper until last week, and was really happy to see it. I think it's pretty funny, and I like to think my Grandma did, too.

Here's the back:

This is the dish my Grandpa would always have peanut brittle in. It sat on the desk in their living room, waiting for the odd sweet tooth to get curious and take a peak.

Here's one of the first tight curls of rhubarb starting to unfurl through last year's dried leaves. It's a strange, sort of alien looking thing, but the first vibrant sign of spring to brave the chilliness.

A blown open crocus. It's so amazing how those delicate little things can manage through the cold nights, isn't it?

Ah, the surest sign of spring. Short of making bread or maybe folding sheets, there's no work as honest and mind cleaning as breaking up the garden and getting it ready to go another year. That hoe is my parents ( I "borrowed" it a while ago), and the handle is nice and worn. It's nice to keep using old thing like that, I think. It's reassuring, ya know?

It's heeerrre!

2009-03-11T20:30:00.004-04:00

Well, after finding out that it had actually been waiting for pickup for over a month, my wedding dress is finally in my possession! It's so nice to know it's hanging there in the closet, and it's not going to go anywhere without me in it. In fact, I have plans to make the most of this dress, and wear it around a little - when T's not home of course. I just think I'd like to a.) get a little practice wearing something fancy again, and b.) get a little more than a few hours wear out of it. So, hopefully the gas meter reader won't come to the door, or I might have some awkward explaining to do.

In other news, I finally feel like I'm caught up and "back" from my last NJ visit. I had a whirlwind of a time at work last week, due to a library staff plague, and I had a busy weekend, gallery hopping, working and well, not cleaning the bathroom. So, now here I am, simmering up some amazing smelling chicken stock (I'm trying herb de provence this time!) and letting some bread raise. Aaaaahhhh. And since the sun set just an hour ago, I don't feel like I'm living in Siberia. Life is incredibly good right now, right?

As a parting photo, I caught one cute kid displaying about 5 of the 6 Ready to Read skills! (You can't hear it, but she's "reading" Green Eggs and Ham to herself.) I miss this little lady and her sis big time!

Mmmmm, cake....

2009-02-15T13:27:00.005-05:00

For whatever reason, I was struck with a major chocolate cake craving earlier this week, and found a nice little recipe to help me out. I actually had every ingredient I needed in my kitchen, in the right quantity, so miracle of miracles, I got cake with icing too!

The recipe calls for 1 cup of cold coffee, which I might bump up to instant espresso powder, since the flavor didn't stand out too strongly. It was still delicious, none the less.

And here's a really simple chocolate icing recipe that I luuuv:

1.5 cups confectioners sugar

3 TB cocoa powder

3 TB milk

3 TB oil (canola or vegetable oil)

Mix it together - maybe add a little more cocoa powder, or coffee or vanilla if you want, and you're ready to ice it up. Deelicious. T and I actually managed to eat this whole cake ourselves, so it must of been pretty good.

Itty Bitty Lamp Shade

2009-02-15T13:12:00.003-05:00

Another fun project I tested out this weekend was a wine glass candle lamp shade. I've been cruising around so many crafty, wedding type blogs and sites, I can't remember where I picked this one up. Here are the directions I linked, from CasaSugar.com.

Again, another simple idea that has great possiblities of making reception tables look charming. The shade it made of vellum, cut out with a decorative edged scissor (on sale at Joann's - sweet!). After it's cut out, all you have to do is glue up the straight sides, and you have a wine glass sized lamp shade. Pop in a votive - or safer yet - an LED votive, and you've got a little sparkle on your table.

I'm hoping to find wine glasses on the cheap at Old Time Pottery, thrift stores, or Big Lots. Also, check out this website, if you haven't already - Save On Crafts. They have pretty decent prices, no? I think I may snag additional vellum, here, as that stuff is crazy expensive!

What do you think? Maybe 3 per (round) table, surrounding a simple jar with flowers?

Big, White and Fluffy

2009-02-15T11:15:00.004-05:00

Well, I think I'm finally getting to the fun part of planning my upcoming nuptials. Yesterday I finalized my homemade Save the Dates, played around with tissue paper and vellum. Weee! Not that buying the dress wasn't fun, but there's an element of stress involved with it that just doesn't come with tissue paper.

I think I stumbled upon this idea while looking at Martha Stewart wedding stuff, online, and noticed that she sold a kit for giant tissue paper pom poms. They looked adorable, but let's face it - I'm not going to shell out $15 for something I could make for a buck fifty. So, I found several sets of instructions online - including Ms. Stewarts, and saved myself a few pennies and had a great time, too.

The idea is pretty simple:

- Layer 8-10 pieces of tissue paper - size isn't totally key, but I think rectangular is the important part.

- Make accordion folds every 1.5 - 2".

- Once it's all folded up, take your white fabric covered wire, and secure the paper with it, twisty style.

- Now you get to hack your way through all that tissue paper! On each end, cut a curve, a point, a curvy-point - whatever you want - to create the scalloped, fluffy edges to your pom pom. So, sharp scissors are pretty key here. Don't worry if it looks like a five year old hacked at it with their safety scissors, just even it up as much as you can. The fluffing out disguises all the uneveness, anyway, so don't sweat it.

- Once you've made your cuts, just gently - VERY gently - pull apart the layers and fluff them out into a big ball. Ta da! Super cute, super cheap decoration for any occasion.

All together they take maybe 15-20 minutes to make, and are ever so gratifying. I'm having to restrain myself from make a bunch more, since the event isn't until August, and just where would I store all those lovely pom poms? I think I'll stick to white, but wouldn't these just be the perfect thing for a child's party, in bright colors? I may even have to decorate the children's area in the branch with these come spring!

Now, just try to restrain yourself from making one of these right now - you know you want to!

Before Things Melted

2009-02-08T22:10:00.007-05:00

While I was in New Jersey, two weeks ago, one humdinger of a storm came through Ohio. I got to have an extra day with my sister and her family, and everyone back home got snow and ice! Once I did get home, I just had to take some pictures of what all that pain-in-the-ass ice did to everything outside. It was a beautiful sunny day, but colder than cold. The next day it warmed up enough to melt all the delicate ice on plants and such, so I'm glad I braved the temperatures to get some pictures.

And now this weekend we've warmed up to the 50's on some days, so we're finally seeing the ground again for the first time in what feels like months. I never thought I'd be so happy to see the asphalt on my street. I know it's a nature fake out, but you could easily be tricked into thinking spring is here. I worry for the spring birds I keep hearing out there! I'm sure we'll get more winter, but the respite has been nice. I'm definitely in the mood to get going on garden planning now, too. Warm weather will be here before we know it, and I can just smell the dirt already!

A Week with a Baby Bird

2009-01-30T18:47:00.003-05:00

I just got back from spending a week with my niece, E, who is officially a big sister. She is pictured above, giving a concert for me and Papa Bear, of the Berenstain Bear family. Periodically throughout every day we had to look for Papa Bear, and he was usually found sitting in this room. So, naturally, a couple of songs were sung. Heaven forbid if Aunt Di sat at the piano, though!

I had such a great time with E reading, playing grocery shopping, coloring, painting and squishing play dough. Her imagination is running at full blast, so it was amazing to see what she would some up with each day. There's nothing quite like reading with a little one on your lap, is there?

A Little Love

2009-01-18T12:12:00.004-05:00

Check out this website - so much fun, and a great lead up to Valentine's Day. Perhaps the poor man's Valentine present this year? Very sentimental, fun and FREE! These hearts are few of the "more thans" I submitted. Here's the whole list:

I love you more than hotdogs with mustard.
I love you more than warm feet.
I love you more than homemade bread.
I love you more than reading.
I love you more than moonlight.
I love you more than common sense.
I love you more than underwear that fit.
I love you more than old movies.

What a fun way to spend a few minutes thinkin' about the one you love. See if you can come up with some good ones! Just email them in to love@paperwhite-studio.com, then check the site with anticipation to see your very own hearts.

Something Yummy

2009-01-11T11:21:00.004-05:00

Well, I've been a little slowed down here, probably since iTunes software killed the mouse on my computer (ho boy, there was some gnashing of teeth). But I got that all fixed up and I'm trying to combat the winter blahs. How is it a lack of sunshine can just suck the energy right out of a person?

Well, here's something so easy and delicious, it's bound to cheer you up, at least a little. Homemade tortilla chips, baked in the oven.

It seems to me, there's always more tortillas in a package than can be used - then again, there's just two of us at home, so I imagine not all families have this problem. But if you do get a hankering for chips and salsa, and don't have chips, this a quick fix.

-Preheat your oven to 400, and slice up 3-4 flour tortillas into chippy shapes (more or less, of course, depending on just how snacky you're feeling).

-Coat a baking sheet moderately with cooking spray, then lay your tortilla pieces in one layer on the pan, pressing them down to make sure the bottom is coated in the oil.

-Spray the top of your soon-to-be chips lightly, sprinkle on some salt, and put them in the oven.

-Depending on your oven, and the thickness of the tortillas, they should come out golden brown, crispy and delicious in about 6-8 minutes. Seriously - that's all it takes! Make sure to re-coat your pan for subsequent batches.

Now, watch out, cause these are pretty addictive. I found they're particularly good with hummus. And since they're baked, you can feel not quite so bad about eating a boat load. We'll just pretend white flour isn't a carb rich food, agreed? I've never tried it with corn tortillas, but I can't imagine it wouldn't come out just as good.

Well, I feel more chipper already - ugh, bad pun not intended...

Threesies

2008-12-31T13:21:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the magic of printable iron-on transfers, I made these onesies as a Christmas present to my upcoming niece. Now that I've made these, I want to make a million more! I just used copyright free clipart images (yay for no copyright issues!), printed, cut out and ironed on. The bear turned our perfectly - but peeling off the backing to the other two animals didn't go as planned, so I had to leave a little background on them. I think next time I'll add color to the backgrounds to make this an asset, instead of a glitch!

Oh, those little onesies are so tiny, people! It's pretty exciting to think they'll have a brand new little one in them very soon. I can't wait to meet the new little peanut!

Seven Random Things

2008-12-31T12:41:00.002-05:00

I was tagged by Cheryl this week for a 7 Random Things post, so here goes! (Doesn't that picture make you long so very much for summer? It is soooooo cold and crazy windy here today, so a little flower love seemed the ticket)

1. I love old movies. I'd almost rather be watching TCM than anything else. I love seeing a glimpse of past culture, seeing what people found funny, sad, entertaining or riske a long time ago somehow makes that time in history more real. I also just love the sound of an old movie - modern movies just don't sound that way anymore.

2. I have a fear of toilets overflowing - seriously. When I'm stressed out, sometimes I'll have nightmares involving a toilet that won't stop overflowing. I'm not sure why exactly, but the arm chair psychologist in me thinks maybe control issues are at hand...Either that or the scary, old fashion power flush toilets in my grade school scarred me for life!

3. I was obsessed with horses as a kid. I would plead with God to just let me have a horse and a lot of my play time involved pretending to ride. I was actually lucky enough to take lessons in high school, and I'm pretty proud of having that particular skill. I haven't ridden since college, which makes me really sad, but hopefully some day I'll have a little extra money around for some horse time.

4. I the youngest of three sisters, and we all shared one room growing up. It was the half-story upstairs of our house, but still, the teen years were pretty rough!

5. I think Katherine Hepburn was just about the coolest lady ever. She's my favorite actress, and I love her strong will, no-nonsense next to the moments of softness she played. I can usually identify big time with her characters.

6. I love to plant gardens, but sometime around August, it just gets to be too much. The heat gets the better of me and I get super lazy, and the weeds take over. I'd love to have a beautifully maintained garden one day - hopefully I'll get a little closer with T's help this year :)

7. I love sitting in rocking chairs - we grew up with la-z-boys my whole life, so sitting still in a chair can be a real challenge for me! I think this might actually be behind the knee pain I'm starting to experience, come to think of it!

Since Cheryl and I share a lot of bloggy friends, and I don't want to double tag them, I've just got one tag-you're it. Anyone else that wants to play along, please do!

Katherine at A Book, a Nap, a Dog

A Thing of Beauty

2008-12-27T20:21:00.002-05:00

Yes, there she is, on her maiden voyage - my spankin' new KitchenAid mixer. Oh happy day, I can now mix bread dough without paining my poor little hands. This wonderful vision was made possible by a lovely Christmas present from my parents and my sister K. Thanks guys!

So I made up some bread at the first chance, and it was so dang easy with this thing. My hands barely got floury people. The only tricky thing is knowing when you've got the right consistency or worked the dough too much or too little, since your hands aren't actually in it. Oh well, I'm willing to have a little adjustment period! This loaf came out beautifully, and was practically half-gone shortly thereafter. Yum!

Happy Day After Christmas!

2008-12-26T17:45:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Since I had an extra day off today, I thought I'd finally take the time to hop onto the meme train, and answer this holiday related one from Cheryl.

01. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Definitely wrapping paper - so many pretty designs, and I'm a sucker for paper folding, and making the stacks of boxes all neat and pretty and shiny.

02. Real tree or artificial?
Well, I grew up with artificial, and I have an artificial one I got for cheapo in college. The thing about them is you only have to buy the tree once. I do very much want to have a real tree, but can't seem to make myself part with the money this year. The real thing does look and smell so wonderful.

03. When do you put up a tree?
Just after Thanksgiving. I like having it up and enjoying it for a while. Why not have the extra pretty up for a good long time? :)

04. When do you take the tree down?
Usually just after New Year's. I'm usually ready for it, but it's sort of a depressing day. All the fun and prettiness are over, and the real long haul of winter has just begun. :(

05. Do you like eggnog?
My goodness, yes! Oddly enough, though, since I very deeply hate eggs. But usually if you add enough cream and sugar to them, I can be persuaded to love them. Not to mention bourbon.

06. Favorite gift as a child?
The first year Cabbage Patch Kids were super big, my parents worked together to make all three of us homemade versions. Three dolls would have been a lot of money. Mom did sewing and Dad painted the eyes on. When I think of the time and effort involved, and remember sitting outside their bedroom door as mom was tyring to hide and work on them, I feel really lucky.

07. Hardest person to buy for?
Probably my Dad.

08. Easiest person to buy for?
My niece! Good books are a very easy sell with her.

09. Do you have a nativity scene?
We did growing up. I don't think I'd have anywhere to put it, now....

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I really don't know...Can't think of anything that bad.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I have three! Charlie Brown Christmas Special, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and It's a Wonderful Life. Does Meet Me In St. Louis count?

12. Favorite Christmas Song?
That's a hard one to answer! I think my favorite carol is The Carol of the Birds, and my favorite secular song this year is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

13. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Oh, stay at home fer sures.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
I can't remember if I have or not. I'm going to go with no, but that doesn't mean I never will, in an appropriate way, of course. :)

15. Favorite ornament or theme color?
I love silver and gold sparkly things! I also like a mix of handmade, "natural" looking stuff mixed in with the fancy things. Oh, and I super love my Victorian tree tinsel - it's thin, shiny twisted metal strips, so you can reuse it.

Well, what're your answers?

photo credit from flickr

Last Minute Gifties

2008-12-23T18:53:00.003-05:00

Well, it's almost Christmas Eve, and I'm totally done with presents! I bought a few and made a few, like the one below.

I haven't done any embroidery in years, so this was a really fun and gratifying project. I simply cut out two layers of my shapes, and did any stitching that went through one layer only, like the hearts or the bird's eyes and wings. Then I layered them, placed the ribbon for the hanger, and used my machine to sew it into place. At that point, I trimmed up the edges to make them flush, and I was ready to stitch them together. For the star I went with the can't-go-wrong running stitch, and I trotted out blanket stitch for the bird. Blanket stitch was a little trickier, had to look it up first to remind myself, first. I really love the look of the stitching on the felt, so I'm pretty sure I'll be making more of these for my own tree!

I Love the Java Jive

2008-12-21T21:18:00.006-05:00

Several years ago, my dad found plans and hardware for a coffee mill in a wood working catalog and thought that might be a neat project. So, he made a few, and being the lover of old timey things that I am, I think it's pretty neat to have a coffee mill around the kitchen. Even though I don't use it every day, I like looking at it and knowing it's there.

(Yes, it is sitting on a pillow. That's the only way I can get it into some natural light these days. Stupid winter. )

Well, I accidentally bought whole bean coffee the other day, and had a chance to get reacquainted with it. I think the hardware's rather nice, don't you? So, to grind coffee, you put your beans in the little hopper at the top, and turn the wheel. Peek in every once in a while and make sure the beans are feeding down in, listen to the comforting grindy-crunchy sound, and that's it. When you're all done, just open the little drawer, and there ya go - fresh coffee, ground by your own little hand.

Boy, does that fresh ground coffee smell good. And it was an even better cup of coffee. While it's certainly not as speedy, there's something much more satisfying about doing it this way than the noisy little electric grinder.

One For Me, One For You

2008-12-17T21:33:00.004-05:00

I recently made these grown-up/kid aprons for a friend, so that she'll be giving a surprise present at Christmas this year. I found the amazingly easy to sew instructions from this awesome instructables. I customized it a bit by making it reversible, lifting the how-to from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. The adjustable strap/ties make this a really comfortable fit in my humble opinion. No one likes to be choked by their apron. No one. And the ties are super long, so you can wrap around back to front, and still have lots of length to tuck a towel or tie a kicky bow. What's not to love?

Lighting It Up...well, just a little

2008-12-15T10:00:00.004-05:00

It's only a matter of time before I start to make soap, people.

I made my first candles ever last week. Well, now that I think about it, there was that time camping (as a kid) that the park service people had activities going. Each kid got a wick, and there were two buckets of melted wax many feet from each other. We all formed a line, dunked our wick, walked to the other bucket, dunked it again, etc., etc. Slowly, ever so slowly, a candle took form. While this sound sort of dull, it was actually a lot of fun. I think they also showed a nature film that night. The seats around the screen were big logs, if I remember correctly. Aaahh, good times.

But I clearly digress. I was taken with my new candle idea when I heard about a local candle store that makes soy wax candles with a million different essential oil scents to chose from. I also noticed that Joann's sells soy wax. So, in an amazing whirl of syncronicity, I got the wax, unburied some cool little jars from under the kitchen sink, and went to work.

The whole process was pretty simple. With a cheap pan from the V.O.A. I made a double boiler to melt the wax on the stove top. After it gets to a certain temperature, you take it off the heat and add your scent. I chose bergamot, because it's the best smell in the whole world. Well, I added and added and added, but it was really hard to tell if I added enough. In the end, the candles aren't very strong, but hopefully I'll have better results with the next set.

I have to say, the trickiest part was getting the wick to stay put while they set up. I eventually had to tie strings to them, then tie the string to the kitchen cabinet knobs. Sheesh. Well, even if they don't smell too strongly, I think they look lovely - which, in this world, as we know, really seems to make up for a lot.

Stick it to yo' fridge!

2008-12-12T10:27:00.003-05:00

I found this idea on One Pretty Thing, but can't remember which post now, though. That site usually makes my head spin with things I want to make!

This is another so easy, so fun project that leaves you feeling giddy because the results are pretty darn cute. You simply take adhesive backed, business card size magnets - which I found in the most random aisle at Joanns - and you cut them into 2'' squares. This leaves you with a little left over piece that's odd sized, but still very useful.

You then pick our a cool fabric scrap, or fun picture from an old book, or just anything that will stick to the magnet, and lay it on there! Trim off the excess, and blammo, you have a unique, adorable magnet! The project creator advised using a little fray check on the edges of the fabric, to keep the little threads from going crazy. I also coated mine with Mod Podge, for a little extra protection. I kept thinking how epoxy would've been way shinier and cooler, but oh well. Maybe next time.

The owl and pears are from the fabulous Lolly Chops, who makes the most truly adorable things in the world. The dots are a fabric I've had around for-eva. The little boy is from a super old children's dictionary I picked up at work, and the last is from an old French story book, also snagged from the donation pile. I love how "boom" turns into "boum" in Frenchy land.

Check out this bug!

2008-12-12T10:07:00.003-05:00

So I wandered into the bathroom the other day, and my eye was caught by motion - which is unusual when you're in the bathroom alone. Well, there trekking across the toilet tank was this:

Now - it's winter. All of the other creepy crawlies that I expect to find wandering the house are gone. It was kind of warm this day, but come on! This guy was at least 1'' long, so I don't think he's a newborn.

Well, after the startle in me settled out, I obviously was intrigued enough to grab the camera. He really was a cool bug, and had the funniest hesitant gate. He actually reminded me of a picture book I read all the time, about gnomes and bugs and fairies. He looks exactly like one of the characters! Anyway, I thought he was kinda cool, and maybe just a little out of place.

Christmas Pretties

2008-12-11T18:56:00.004-05:00

Those ancient folks sure had the right idea to start up the festival atmosphere and solstice fun-times when the world is starting to look its crappiest. All the pretty stuff in the natural world goes away, but now Christmas lets us make things look a little better, right? I'll admit - I had my outside lights up on Thanksgiving Day, but only because it was so warm out! I swear!

Here's a few of my favorite decorations this year.

This ingenious, simple and elegant decoration is so easy, I wanted to make a million. In fact, I did at work, to decorate our meeting room. But at home, I had to rein it in a little. I friend posted these directions from Design Sponge as a simple, inexpensive homemade decoration. And they are exactly that. With a little thread and ribbon, they are now strung over my living room windows. I used some scrap booking paper for these, but the simple red and white ones at work look lovely and simple, too.

And here are my absolute favorite decorations on the tree. I think I got these at a Joann's, years ago. Now I wish I'd gotten more, to cover the whole tree. Ooooh, sparklies.

I got this tree topper at Ikea, years ago, too. I love how it's fancy but very rustic at the same time. I do wish that some day, though, I'll be able to convince myself to part with the money needed for a for real tree. Oh well, it's still pretty and sparkly, and silver and gold, just like Burl Ives the snowman says.

Now, I need to figure out if I can take a picture of the outside lights while they're on at night, cause that is my very favorite part of the season - big, fat, colorful lights up, brightening up the night.

Pretty Pears

2008-12-02T20:34:00.004-05:00

I set my pears up in the sunshine to soften up for the Thanksgiving custard tart, and they looked so pretty up there, I couldn't help taking a few pictures.

You can almost watch the sun come out from behind the clouds, then go back again in these pics.

I'm having a little love affair with jars, now, too. I just love the light going through their different shapes and colors, old jars and new.

Dotted Bag

2008-11-28T17:36:00.004-05:00

One nice thing about times being a little lean, is that you're given the chance to make gifts for friends and family, and really focus on making them well. I made this handy tote for my sister's birthday a few days ago. I was actually able to make it without having to purchase a thing, and I was really happy with how well it turned out.

I used some old painting canvas I'd had around for years as a liner, to make it really sturdy. The outside is a linen-like fabric, and I used a heat and bond film to applique the three dots. Easy peasy. Like always, the hardest part was wrapping my brain around sewing the lining to the outside and turning it inside out... Which I actually gave up on and just turned the seam allowances in to face each other and just sewed it all from the outside. Phew, much easier on the noodle, and looks just as good.

Bottling Day!

2008-11-28T12:33:00.007-05:00

Time to bottle finally arrived this past Wednesday, so I spent a few hours sanitizing our bottles and whatnot and getting everything all ready to go.

Here they are, ready to receive. One 5 gallon batch makes about 2 cases, or 50 beers. We finally have enough bottles from previous batches that we don't have to soak and remove labels anymore - which saves a lot of time, let me tell you. After you wash bottles out, you leave them in a sanitizing solution (I have my suspicions it's just oxyclean, but I'm not sure) for about 3 minutes. You don't have to rinse - just let them dry out some. Now you're ready to go!

In order to carbonate, you have to add one last blast of sugar for the yeast to eat up - yes, those bubbles are just yeast gas (tee hee!). There are a lot different ways to do this, and this batch we're trying out using dried malt extract (DME). We dissolved the DME in about equal parts water, and boil it for around 10 minutes, to make sure there's no bacteria hanging out in it. Then we gently added it into the beer. Now we're really ready to bottle.

We siphoned the beer out of the carboy, previous to this, and into the bottling bucket, which has a spigot. At this point, you just turn on your spigot and fill up the bottles - carefully. There are little things you can attach to you spigot that make it easier - they fill when touching the bottom of the bottle, then stop as soon as you remove the pressure. Ours broke a couple of batches ago, and it wasted a lot of beer, so we're sticking to our spigot.

After you fill, you cap. We have a handy dandy bottle capper to make this happen.

After placing a new cap on, you just place the capper over it, and press down with both handles. It takes a little oomph, but not too much. I think this is the fun part of bottling.

Well after 50, give or take, there you are - 2 cases of beer, made by your own little self. Sadly, we have to let these guys bottle age. If we drank them now, they wouldn't be fizzy and they might not taste as great as they will in 4-5 weeks. With cane sugar, you can usually drink after about 3 weeks, but DME takes a little longer. So, here they are, back in the coat closet, silently becoming delicious. Eat up, eat up, little yeasties.

Since there's usually a few sips that won't go into a bottle, we tested this out, and guys - it was good. It's always a pleasant surprise when it turns out the way you'd hoped. It tastes like wonderful, fresh, creamy Guinness - better than any I've had bottled or draft, in the U.S. or U.K. So, now we have another reason to be excited about Christmas Eve - we can celebrate by cracking open our own yummy Guinness!

Little Bird, Little Bird

2008-11-19T20:00:00.006-05:00

After falling in love with the little stuffed bird ornaments in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, I decided to make my own, winged version this year. And just like last year, I made these a gift to a great friend, so I couldn't write about them until she received them! I used coordinating fabrics for bodies and wings, so there are little birdie pairs.

I also made some simple stocking ornaments to go along with the birds, in matching fabrics.

They were very easy to make and I think they turned out sort of darling. And who doesn't love something with pretty ribbons attached?

I just found another great bird pattern today from Design Sponge via One Pretty Thing, so it looks like there may be some more birdies in my future!

Cheese, Glorious Cheese!

2008-11-18T20:11:00.017-05:00

The time has come to talk of cheese, my friends. Cheese that you can make in your very own kitchen, as my friend K and I did this past Sunday. I know - it's pretty exciting, but scootch back off the edge of your seat - all will be revealed.

K had been longing to make cheese, and I was right there for her, wanting to make cheese, too. K purchased this amazing kit from Ricki the Cheese Queen, yes, you heard right, the Cheese Queen. It has everything you need to make 30 batches of mozzarella or ricotta.

Okay, so let's begin! We start, of course, with milk. Low-temperature pasteurized milk, whole or skimmed. We went with whole, cause, come on - fat makes everything more delicious. Apparently ultra-pasteurized milk won't work, because the heat denatures the proteins, and I can't imagine what you end up with, but I don't think it would be pretty. So, we begin with a gallon of milk, like this:

Prior to this, we added 1/4 tablet of rennet into 1/1 cup of water to let it dissolve. We also took 1 1/4 tsp. of citric acid and dissolved it into 1 cup of water. This citric acid solution was then added into the milk, and heated on the stove to 90 degrees. After reaching your temperature, you take the milk off the heat, and add the dissolved rennet, stirring up and down (for some mysterious reason). At that point, you leave the stuff alone for 5 minutes, to work its magic. After that time you get this:

This is curds and whey, people! Let's shudder briefly for Little Miss Muffet, who hopefully was eating cottage cheese. The milk solids, well, solidify into a sort of custardy texture, separating from the whey. Now it's time to cut the cheese! Well, okay, cut the curds...

This is K deftly cutting the curds in a sort of grid to gently break them up, so that they will be ready for the next step, reheating up to 105 degrees, being "slowly moved around," as the instructions told us to do.

After hitting the temperature and with additional stirring time, our curds began to sort come together more in the whey, and ended up looking like this...

Kind of groty, right? I'm not gonna lie to you, at this point, there is an unfortunate (but faint)baby spit-up odor in the mix, but the path to cheese is not without its perils...Well, okay, it really sort of is - it's miraculously easy. Next we drained off the whey - K making a lot of great whey puns all the while. We were shocked at the amount we were left with, momentarily convinced that we had created matter. Here's the curds separated from their pal, the whey.

Now comes a series of trips to the microwave for short periods of time, to heat and then separate more whey. Then comes the stretching, when K bravely handled the piping hot curds, stretching and unifying everything into something that looked like, and - hey - actually was cheese! Before the very end you add in a little salt or herbs or hell, whatever you want.

There it is! Mozzarella cheese! This first batch took maybe 45 minutes to an hour, and the second batch really took just a half-hour, as the directions said it would. Here's the glamour shot of the cheese, right before we sat down and put it to good use with the help of some crackers.

Isn't it pretty? It was damn tasty, too. In addition to cheese, we also used some of the whey for a pizza dough, and made what is darn close to a salted caramel ice cream. All in all, it was a very fulfilling day in the kitchen. As Ricki the Cheese queen says, it's just the beginning of our cheese adventure!

Flowers, grown and made

2008-11-16T09:41:00.005-05:00

Here's one of the last flowers of the season, scavenged during the great yard cut down a few weeks ago. I hated to discard anything still in bloom, so in they came for a few more days on the window sill. After clicking around, I think this flower is Tall Blue Pitcher Sage. I still have a ton of unidentified flowers in my yard, planted by the previous owners. Either way, this one was the winner for longest blooming - even with the crazy Indian summer we had.

But, since all flowers must eventually fade, I just finished a new project from the Alabama Stitch Book, by Natalie Chanin.

Here's a spankin' new, recycled t-shirt flower! This was a very simple project, and I love the results. You basically cut long, skinny strips of any old t-shirt, then make regular, vertical cuts into your strips, roll them together by twos, and sew up to secure. Combine about 5, and you get an everlasting chrysanthemum. Here's what the "baby" flowers look like, before coming together.

Once you stick these guys together, slap on a couple of felt leaves, there ya go! I'm finishing up my second one, and want to make one from a prettier color, for something brighter during the winter. I tell you, after sewing these together, I was definitely wishing I had a clue as to where my thimble was.

In other news, later today, I'm going to be making cheese with a friend - fresh mozzarella. I'm pretty excited to see how it all rolls out. I'll let you know how it all goes!

Guinness Part 2

2008-11-12T21:58:00.009-05:00

Okay, so after boiling up the wort, it has to cool down to around 72 degrees. This can take a while if you're stuck with the bathtub full of cold water method, as we are. In the warmer months, it's just about as long as it takes to go the movies, conveniently enough. Once your wort is cool, it's time to strain out the hops and any other lumpy things, and get it set up in the "ale pail" or fermentation bucket.

You can sort of see the hops there - they look like big oatmeal grains. After this is done, it's time to pitch the yeast, i.e. throw the yeast in. During this whole process, we've been letting the yeast packet start, so that the yeast are all fired up and ready to go. You can see how big the originally flat packet has gotten.

So, without much ado, it gets dumped in, then we aerate...or, well, just stir it up a lot, to make sure there's enough oxygen for the yeast.

After it's all shook up, as it were, it's time to add more water - until you hit the 5 gallon mark on the ole bucket. Some people say you spring water, but others say tap is just fine - that all the "stuff" in tap water lets the flavors cling to something. Adding in the water is another great chance to incorporate more air into the mix. After that, you slap on the air tight lid, put your airlock in the hole, and just let 'er go. Fermentation has begun, so it has to be kept between 68-72 degrees, and out of bright light, so our bucket is living in the coat closet this time. Here's a shot of the airlock bubbling away the next day.

The main fermentation doesn't have to take that long - ours seemed tapped out after just 2-3 days. At this point, we "rack it," or syphon it out of the first fermentation bucket into the glass carboy, to let it keep fermenting away from the sediment.

And here's how she is right now, looking very dark and delicious. It'll spend another two weeks in this second fermentation, then we'll be ready to prime and bottle. Priming is adding one last additional shot of sugar to allow for the carbonation. Factory beer is pasteurized, to kill all the yeast (cause it'll make ya sick), so the beer we buy is force carbonated in order to be bubbly. This batch we're going to try priming with some of the powdered malt, instead of corn sugar. Hopefully we'll get a better, less sweet taste than in the past. I'll make sure to post about the bottling process in a few weeks. A five gallon batch usually yields about 50 bottles, or 2 cases. It's fun, but veeerrry messy.

As a parting shot, here's what the spent hops look like:

My Goodness, My Guinness!

2008-11-11T20:20:00.012-05:00

This weekend, we furthered our adventures in home brewing by starting our fourth batch, a Guinness Draught clone. We didn't know what we wanted to make when we went into the shop, but then flipped open to the recipe in the Best of Brew Your Own magazine's 150 Classic Clone Recipes issue. So, here's how it went down! (these pics aren't exactly pretty, so brace yourself)

Like any beer, we start with the grains. What you see above are flaked barley and roasted barley. These are what give the beer its flavor, and with each different combination of grains you use, a different flavor can be developed. There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but grain is a starting point!

Here we have our grain all bagged up in cheese cloth, and ready to go. This is how you start your wort (which apparently is pronounced wert ). The grains are steeping in 160 degree water, for varying times, depending on your recipe.

Here's the wort, cooking away, releasing all the sugars and flavors from the grains. This recipe is actually a partial mash. Usually you'd make your wort all in your big brew pot, but for reasons not entirely clear to me, this is a bit different, and starts with a smaller amount of water at first. Like my crazy harvest yellow stove...and, um, crazy green walls?

The next step for this particular recipe was sparging, which just means taking your grains out of the wort and into a colander over your bigger brew pot, which is full of water. You then pour the wort over the grains, to get every last bit of sugar into the clean water in your pot. In my mind this is like adding water to a concentrate, but I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate...I'm more of a "relax, have a home brew" kind of gal, than a crazy, measure measure test test one. Anyway, here's what sparging looked like: messy.

Next we added in the malt - which is yet another grain/sugar component. Leaving it at that, we'll just say it lends flavor and give the yeast even more sugar to chow on. This recipe used an dried and an extract malt. The dried stuff looks like powdered milk, and can be very hard to stir in. It clumps and looks alarming, but if you just keep stirring, it all takes care of itself. After malting, you boil boil, and add in you hops.

Aaaahhh, hops. T threw them in before I could get a picture, but these Kent Golding hops were mushed into big pellets. They look like giant rabbit food, but smell like spicy, peppery, bitter green goodness. I tried chewing some loose hops before, and whew, it is bitter. Hops are exactly that element in beer - the bitterness. when you add them into the wort, they tend to make things, well, active. And when you throw them all in at once, they tend to make your pot boil over...like ours did. Doh! Well, all was not lost, and here's what it all looks like, boiling away. Murky, eh? You can see the hops on the left of the picture, sort of.

Okay, I think there's going to have to be a part 2 to this process! Next post: pitching the yeast, aerating and letting her go!

Five Most Influential Books...

2008-11-08T10:27:00.004-05:00

A friend was pondering the most influential reads of her life so far, and it got me thinking, too. Just like her, I feel the need to divide between adult and kid titles, since I'd have five kids books before I even got to the adult years.

Adult Titles:

1. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fanny Flag

2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

3. One of Ours by Willa Cather

4. The Art Lover by Carol Maso

5. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Childrens' Titles:

1.The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( I can't choose just one)

2. The Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery (again, can't pick just one)

3. Misty of Chicoteague by Margeurite Henry

4. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

5. If You Listen by Charlotte Zolotow (with the old artwork)

These are almost just a snapshot of what I'm feeling this particular day. Who can say what I might list next week, or next year? I suppose I'd call these influential in that they either stuck with me and made a deep impression upon me my whole life, or in that they showed me something new or showed me a way in which I did fit into the world.

Here's the set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books me and my sisters shared since, well, birth, I think. They are clearly well loved, and opening them - despite broken spines and very yellowed pages - is in every way like coming home. God, I love books, don't you?

What a Beautiful Afternoon...

2008-11-02T21:15:00.009-05:00

Despite the fact this is the first day of "falling back" and less daylight, it was a gorgeous afternoon. It's unseasonably warm, so I was able to spend a little time outside today, and the transition to super-depressing-winter-time was a little easier to take.

I just love this time of day, when the shadows get long in the back yard and the sky is all orange and bright. There's something very comforting about it to me. It's the end of the day light - the light of everyone coming home, the light of dinner time and everything being right in the world.

So, in-between cleaning out the fridge (so satisfying) and loads of laundry, I squeezed in some fresh bread and a pot of from scratch chicken noodle soup. There were all kinds of yummy smells going on in the house. Add in the smell of clean laundry, and I'm a very happy lady.

This was my first pot of chicken soup from home made stock, and even though it's a multi-step process, it's totally worth it. T made game hens earlier in the week ( I know, game hens?) and we had a whole one left over. I used the bones for stock a couple of days before, which was super easy, then today, added in the left over hen, some potatoes and the delicious noodles, and that's it! Not counting picking bones out of the stock and stripping the meat from the bird, it was practically effortless. What could be more delicious than bread and soup?

A beautiful end to the day. Now, if only this season of Mad Men wasn't over, things would be just about perfect :)

It's the Great Pumpkin!

2008-10-29T22:20:00.002-04:00

Aaaahhh, jack-o-lantern day has arrived! I finally took my littler guy in off the porch to be given his new persona....

I think he's spooky, but also a little odd and funny at the same time. I so enjoy carving pumpkins, it just sucks they're available only a short part of the year. It's the ultimate chance to carve out positive and negative space, but it's on such an un-intimidating canvas the goofiness is a natural side effect. It's so freakin' fun.

Here's last year's model....

A little bit of a friendly vampire look, right? That pumpkin was almost perfectly circular - so fun to fill in that face.

I'd better get to rinsing the pumpkin guts off the seeds, so that delicious toasting can happen tomorrow. Yum - salty crunchy goodness. In the meantime, my porch is ready for trick or treaters.

Tee hee hee!

2008-10-28T17:56:00.005-04:00

Yes, that is the sound of my geelful giggling. My loving boyfriend bought me surprise fabric last Friday! And didn't he do well?

I'd been telling him about the lovely fabric shop down the road, Sew to Speak, and how fabric from there would make a great Christmas present por moi.. Well, he just happened by it, stopped in and bought me a couple of 1/2 yards of delight! Both are by Amy Butler, and I cannot tell you why, but I feel oddly rich holding this fabrics in my lap. I'm not sure what they'll be made into, but I can't wait to find out myself.

In other news this weekend, after an eventful day bargain hunting groceries, panicky fall yard clean up work and recovering from attending the OSU/Penn state game the night before, T and I decided there was no better way to relax than make a complicated, rich desert. I bring you - the Sachertorte!

(I know, the pictures are a little stark, but the litghting in the kitchen does not make food look yummy.)

Travis found the recipe while leafing through The Kitchen Bible, by Brigitte Hafner. This oh-so- lovely new book has about a million pictures, which, as we all know, makes a cook book good! Every dish has a color picture, and the table of contents is simply a table of pictures arranged in handy ways, like level of diffculty, or hot or cold deserts. And it has a beautiful cover - check it out. We, simple people that we are, chose someting from the "Deserts to Impress" section.

After much chocolate chopping, egg seperating, beating of whites, folding, baking and glazing - there is was, our sachertort. Apparently it's called that because it was invented by a Mr. Franz Sacher, in 1832. Anyway - it's a dense, seriously chocolate cake, layered and coated with apricot preserves, then glazed with dark chocolate. And even though ours came out a teensy tiny bit dry (don't ask) it's still damn good cake.

Burning Bush, White pumpkin, Kale

2008-10-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

I'm having a little love affair with the white pumpkin I got Sunday, and had a little photo shoot with it, around the yard and with some very fetching kale from the garden. I don't know what it is about white pumpkins, but dang, I think they're just about the prettiest things out there. I'm a sucker for any pumpkin in general. I grew a couple tiny ones successfully last year, had two that looked great this year, but something tragic happened and they rotted on the vine. (*sniff sniff*)

The book The Compleate Squash, by Amy Goldman, has such amazing pictures of the crazy and wonderful varieties out there. If only they weren't such touchy little things to grow, I think I might become way more obsessed with them.

New Bag, Blue Bag

2008-10-17T14:02:00.001-04:00

Well, after figuring out that the handle piece sizes are misprinted in the book, and visiting a couple of errata pages, I figure out the Simple Tote from "Bend the Rules Sewing." Hmmm, not as simple as desired, in my opinion, but I just hate turning sewn pieces right side out and stitching closed the hole. Haaaate it. Okay, I'll stop complaining. This is one of those projects that takes a little mind bending to figure out, but once you do, it makes total sense. I've been wanting to use this Amy Butler fabric forever, but only had a little bit - this was the perfect thing for it. It's a bit wrinkly from use...

In the meantime, I'm hunting around all my fabric hiding places for some flannel (it's around here somewhere) to make a pieced scarf with. Again, inspired by Amy Butler - her book "Midwest Modern." I love looking at those books, but I also get wracked with jealousy because all those pictures of are a life I want to be living! Agh! Oh well, I guess human nature just tends to go that way. Back to my own life, where the dishwasher still needs emptied, the floors swept and the cat has probably yakked all over something. Again. Aah, the round of life!

It's heeerrre!

2008-10-11T10:50:00.000-04:00

Well, it looks like fall is officially here. Trees are turning, some more than others....

I love this tree across the street. This picture just doesn't capture how it seems to glow from inside out. Fall colors are so amazing, so saturated and alive. I love fall, but in a sentimental sort of way. It brings up school memories so intensely, and then I start to think about how winter is really just around the corner, and how summer feels like a long time ago all of a sudden. It makes a girl need a little something to pick her up, like a brightly colored bag!

This is my latest incarnation of the Simple Sewing "Simple Tote." I may have to break it off with that easy tart recipe and marry this pattern instead. It's so ridiculously easy and gratifying I'm finding myself making it again and again. I went a little tricky on this one, and added a small pocket on the inside, for keys or cell phone or lip gloss. When I carry my other version of this bag, I'm continually and frantically hunting for that ringing cell phone, and untangling my keys from the other junk that ends up in there - but no more!

I think I'm going to try a bag pattern from Bend the Rules Sewing, today. Hopefully it will be a breeze like this one!

Quilt Top

2008-10-08T19:24:00.001-04:00

Inspired by quilts seen in Jane Brockett's The Gentle Art of Domesticity, I decided to piece together a simple quilt top on my vacation a couple of weeks ago. While I was hoping to purchase fabric with amazing, colorful patterns from the local fabric store Sew to Speak, once I realized the amount of fabric needed, and the cost per yard, I realized I was going to have to economize!

Luckily my mom has a huge fabric stash that she's very generous with. I decided to go with a monochromatic selection of creams, beiges and tans. I like how clean and soothing, and sort of old fashioned the colors are. Feminine without being frilly and pink. It'll be queen sized (in preperation for the day we can actually have that sized bed) once it's done. I'm kind of dreading laying it out and layering batting and backing and pinning. Ugh. No fun. Oh well, the result will be worth it, and it was so dang easy to sew together, I hate to complain.

I guess I'll have to save Sew to Speak for a smaller project - maybe something apron sized?

Reading...

2008-10-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

I'm always really excited when this book comes out every year. I don't pretend to know a lot about comics, either past or present - I just know I like them. What a cool medium - words and images together, but for grown-ups (hmmm, I wonder why this should appeal to a children's librarian).

There's something about the immediacy of the image coupled with the meaning of the words that creates, at times, a weird sort of third meaning. If you had either thing by itself, it would have a distinct meaning - but when you put them together, a totally different mix of the two occurs. I love it - I love these strange, unnerving, funny and beautiful comics. They appeal so much to the part of me that is drawn to process and multiplicity and "in-betweeness."

Cheery Apron

2008-09-30T18:32:00.000-04:00

I like this apron so much, I'm a little afraid to wear it while cooking. What if I got something on it?!

This is another great project from "Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing." It's a very easy pattern to complete, and the end result is an adorable, reversable apron. The only thing I might change, would be adding some length to the ties.

Of course the possibilites are endless when it comes to fabric choices and pockets and embelishments. I decided to go crazy and add a simple little pocket from the coordinating fabric, on the pink side.

I get such a kick out that apples and pears fabirc, I think I showed great restraint in not totally overhauling my kitchen in order to incorporate it everywhere!

Yum, part deux

2008-09-25T15:12:00.000-04:00

In addition to my delicious pastry treat, I also made my first succusful loaf of traditional, white bread. Here it is (after dinner, which is why it's so short).

After two annoyingly lame attempts at sourdough last week, I was incredibly relieved to see the dough rising and acting like a good dough should. After making this recipe, I'm not sure why anyone would want the trouble, not to mention stench, of dealing with sourdough. I created my own starter, proofed dough, all that stinky stuff - and the bread came out heavy as a brick, and smelly as socks. Two thumbs down for that one.

But this bread was easy, fast, and darn good. The only thing I might do differently next time, is use a little less sugar. T, of course, said I should use more.

Yum

2008-09-25T14:50:00.001-04:00

I've been on vacation this week, and I've been on a domestic rampage (well, the cleaning might better be called a skirmish than a rampage). Made soup in the crock pot, and Cuban bread to go with it Tuesday, then yesterday I made this soooo delicious pear/custard tart. Katherine at work told me the recipe, which is so ridiculously easy and rewarding, I might just marry it.

- 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry dough

- 2-3 pears, depending on size and how many you want in there

- 1/2 cup whipping cream

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 egg

- dash of nutmeg and cinnamon if you want

Line a pie dish with your thawed pastry dough. Slice your pears - you can be fancy and layer them like a frenchy chef, or just dump them in there any old way you want. Combine cream, sugar, egg and spices, and whisk until sort of airy and fluffy. Pour your custard over the pears, covering evenly. Then lick the bowl, cause come on - you're SLAVING here!

Bake at 350 for an hour. This is really delicious when it's nice and cold - stick it in the fridge if you so desire. So, I've finally made something with my homegrown pears! And it was good!

A little trip

2008-09-23T21:47:00.000-04:00

T and I just got back from a little weekend trip, up to Cedar Point for a day, then taking the long way home down Route 4 through the little towns the next.

After spending a good 6 hours being hurled around and subjected to some serious G forces, I think I can officially say I've passed the window of oppurtunity for becoming an astronaut. Urgh. I felt icky after the first ride, but I powered through and rode almost everything T did. There is no way in hell I'm ever going to climb aboard this kicky little number. The 310 foot hill on the Millenium Force nearly killed me as it was. Now I understand why my mom would politely sit some of these things out when we were kids.

We passed a kind of strange night and morning at the cheapest hotel we could find - a Knight Inn down the road from the park. T went out to smoke and came back in saying it was like Melrose Place out there - a couple making out in the hottub, another arguing loudly in the walkway, trains thundering by mere feet across the road. Then around 8:00 the next morning we wake up to shouting, someone running by and a woman screaming help me, help me! We scramble for pants and by the time we get to the door, no one's there. T later found the girl in the office, crying on the phone. We never did figure out what happened, but were kind of glad to get the heck out of dodge, seeing as the police were now involved.

On the way out of Sandusky we stopped by their Carnegie library. This beautiful library was opened on 1901, and it had all the great woodwork, stained glass windows and cool reading rooms you'd expect. I love big, stand alone, Carnegie libraries. We didn't spend long, but it seemed like they had good resources and maybe a partnership with Cleveland libraries. They also had Ready to Read kits that focused on one specific skill and age level, that could be taken home. A nice idea.

We kept driving south into Bucyrus, stopping at Coopers Mill where they made fresh cider and just about any flavor of jam, jelly, relish or pickle you can think of. We hopped onto a little tour group of the place, but hopped back out again after seeing the factory end where they were making pumpking butter. Tasting stuff was frankly more exciting. We ended up getting pumpkin butter and this really, awesomely delicious Vidalia onion relish. Must be eaten with the one you love, though.

Next we stopped by the D. Picking Company, which is the last hand hammered copper kettle maker in America. They've been around since 1875, and I don't think much has changed since the advent of elecriticy.

Yes, that is a wall calendar from 1913. The whole, small factory is a reminder of what people have been accomplishing for years with a whole heck of a lot of hard work, and very little other help. Seriously, this looked like hot, hard work. By far the coolest thing we saw.

After Bucyrus, we went through Marion - tried to visit the popcorn cart exhibit at their historical society, but it was closed. Tried to visit the Warren G. Harding House, but it was closed, too. So, we had no choice. It was time to go home.

Again! New Camera - yay!

2008-09-19T15:20:00.002-04:00

Wow, cameras have definitely improved in the past couple of years. My new one is an updated version of the old one - which I got cheaper and with more features (hooray for techonoligcal progress). Here's my two favorite pictures so far.

Dried flowers on my kitchen window sill.

More dried flowers on the window sill - chives from the backyard.

New camera! Yay!

2008-09-19T15:20:00.001-04:00

I finally got a new camera today, so I feel like I can actually start to post! I've been making a lot of stuff lately, so it was killing me not being able to take pictures and write about the things I've been doing.

I'll start with first things first - the boyfriend knitting project that actually took less than a year to complete! Ta da!

My man actually picked this yarn out himelf, on ebay - Debbie Bliss cashmere, of course. I think this is the first %100 cashmere I've worked with before (ummm, cause it's sorta expensive, unless you have a bargain-hunting, ebay-shopping man) and it was such a pleasure to work with. So smooth and the final product has a really nice weight to it. It's super warm, of course, too. I'm going to make myself one in the orange he bought - but he wants me to make it big enough so that he can wear it, too! Here the simple, classic pattern, from Needle Beetle.

I'm really proud of my knitting on this project - very few visible errors, if I do say so myself. I may have never finished the Knitting Guild's master class, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn a thing or two! And though I hate to admit it, working with really nice fiber seems to make a difference in the project. Whether because you're more conscious of the precious yarn in your hands, or just the better quality, who can say?

Anyway, I'll get to posting more in the next days. If I could take a picture of my new camera, I would!