You are currently browsing jessbcuz's articles.
This will have to be my shortest post ever. I was late making this weeks Tuesday’s with Dorie selection, Granola Grabbers (out of granola!) and now I’m rushing out the door for a one night retreat with my grad cohort.
Quickly. These were a hit with my kids. They grabbed them off while cooling and gave them a thumbs up– even from my daughter who normally tells me she doesn’t like cookies with nuts in them. I liked the almost peanut brittle flavor they have. I wish they had a bit less sugar so I could feed them to my kids kind of like a granola bar– but I might mess around with the recipe in the next couple weeks. These would be awesome for the lunchbox!
I especially like these cookies because my end product looked a lot like Dorie’s picture!
Check out more (longer) postings on the recipe at Tuesdays with Dorie. I’m off to recharge before my semester starts next week!
An image from a past tea at my home (summer time requires lemonade too!)
I attended a tea yesterday for a fellow grad student’s birthday at a local tea house. It was a lovely lovely afternoon– child free, women only, lots of talking and tea drinking. I usually go to tea for my birthday, but somehow this year it hasn’t happened, so it was nice to revisit that wonderful afternoon ritual for another’s birthday.
The ambiance of the tea house was very nice, and the service impeccable, but the food, honestly, was disappointing (then again, perhaps I am never satisfied with anything less than homemade). My auntie has schooled me in throwing our own very satisfying teas over the years (I was lucky enough to have her throw my baby showers and my wedding shower teas) and so it is very very hard to meet my expectations for tea food. Thinking on that on the way home, I thought I might share a couple of my favorite tea party recipes (I’ll post them at the end).
One of my favorite sandwich recipes that is a little outside the norm is Cucumber and Roquefort Cheese Sandwiches from a book titled Afternoon Tea Serenade (These are the top sandwich in the 1st picture). The original recipe was collected from The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, which I can say from personal experience, does one of the best afternoon teas in the San Francisco area– truly worth doing if you are in the area and feel so inclined (my other favorite tea place in the San Francisco is Lovejoy’s– less refined, more eclectic, but delicious food and welcoming environment).
The thing that was missing from today’s tea experience was a hot scone. To me the scone is the anchor of a good tea, and the quality of the scone speaks to the quality of the tea. No scone? It is just luncheon with hot tea. I have made a variety of scones, but my favorite are a quick and easy biscuit-like Orange-Cherry Scone. This recipe came to me from my Auntie, but she told me it was originally from The Honor Mansion B & B in Healdsburg (a stone’s throw from where I live). I like these as much for their flavor, as for their ease– particularly because they can be prepped and placed in the fridge, then popped in the oven when your guests arrive, so that you may serve hot scones!
And last, a tea is really not a tea with out a little sweetness. The highlight of all the teas my auntie has thrown are her Chocolate Dipped Shortbread. She varies the shape of the cookie cutter to fit the theme of the tea, so for my sister’s baby shower which had a little prince theme for my nephew, she made little crowns. She has done these in dark chocolate, but in the last few years she has moved to white chocolate and they are as delicious as ever.
With these recipes, a couple egg salad sandwiches (try these with a little curry powder in them), and perhaps some fresh fruit and a pound cake or box of chocolates you are ready to serve tea. The only thing left is to ask, “One lump or two.”
Ritz Cucumber Sandwiches (My simplified version)
10 slices Tea Sandwich Bread (you can use cocktail bread or any other thinly sliced bread– I think Orowheat makes some thin sliced– or just your favorite bread. These are open faced so the thinness is not as important is with some breads– you do want to make sure it is sturdy enough to stand up to spreading, some breads will tear.
2 small cucumbers, peeled and cut into thin slices (or one English cucumber peeled and sliced) You can trim the cucumbers to the size of your bread and slice lengthwise, or just slice as you normally would.
8 oz Roguefort cheese
8 oz cream cheese at room temp
4 TBSP butter at room temp
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted (you can of course use the nut of your choice, pecans would probably substitute well)
Blend cheeses and butter together in blender or food processor until smooth. Spread a layer over each piece of bread (toast your bread if you like before hand). Place overlapping slices of cucumber on the toast. Trim off bread crusts (absolutely required for a tea sandwich– crusts are unsightly at the tea table), and cut into triangles. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Serve.
Orange-Cherry (or Cranberry) Scones
6 Tbsp cold butter
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely grated orange rind
3/4 cup dried cherries ( I chop them into smaller pieces when them come whole– you can also substitute dried cranberries, etc)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease baking sheet. In a large bowl, cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until misture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in orange rind and dried cherries. Add egg and milk; mix until mixture clings together and forms soft dough.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently about 15 times. Divide dough into fourths and pat into squares about 1/2 inch thick. Cut each square diagonally twice to form 4 triangles. Place on baking sheet. (The scones can also be frozen after being cut, or place on sheet and refrigerate covered overnight).
Bake abt 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm with butter, lemon curd, jam, or Devonshire cream.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Hearts
2 cups unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans)
2 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Preheat oven to 325. In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add extract and dash salt; beat well. Add flour, beat just until well mixed. Stire in nuts. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes (cookies should not brown). Cool on rack.
Cook and stir white chocolate and/or semi-sweet chocolate and 2 tsp shortening over low heat (in seperate pans if doing both) until melted, stirring frequently. Dip half of each cookie into a chocolate mixture, or half and half. Let stand until chocolate is set.
For my Grandmother’s 80th birthday we all wanted to make it special for her. In the divying up of food duties somehow I ended up with the charge of baking a chocolate dessert to go with a the summer fruit shortcakes my auntie was making, and the black bottom cheese cake my cousin was making. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that the chocolate dessert also needed to be a cake. I found myself then seeking a chocolate cake recipe that would be special in every way. I’ve made many a chocolate cake, chocolate being the favorite of most of the family (except one cousin who inexplicably prefers vanilla in cake and ice cream– I fear she has received some recessive genes), but I wanted this cake to rise above the others in honor of Grandma and her special love of chocolate. Now if I could of made a cake from See’s candy that would of been ideal. I also thought of making her the cake that she always makes for our birthdays when we are visiting, a strawberry cake with chocolate ganache frosting, but decided to try something new instead. I’ve made a few times the Devil’s Food White-Out Cake from Dorie’s Baking book (I make just the cake part and frost with chocolate frosting), and always as a standby you can’t beat the Hershey’s cake recipe from their tin, but this time I wanted something a little different. So I hauled out my Tartine cookbook.
Now while I have had good luck with everything I’ve baked from their cookbook, I always feel a little anxiety everytime I contemplate baking from this book because of my experience not with their recipes, but at their actual bakery. I live in a very rich “foodie” area and it is only about an hour from my house to this bakery. About two years ago I decided we should take advantage of this great eating area we live in (as much as our budget will allow) and we made a day trip to the city, culminating in a visit to Tartine Bakery in the afternoon. All was going well as we parked, and proceeded to a nearby upscale grocery to grab some sandwiches before getting the chocolate cake and cookies that were swimming in my imagination. After lunch we got in line at the bakery and started looking at our choices. It all looked so good, but I especially had been wanting to try their chocolate cake I had read about. When I reached the counter I found that I could only buy the cake whole as they had run out of pieces. I was crestfallen, but decided to be adventurous and try a passionfruit cake (a flavor I had never had). We settled down outside at a sidewalk table, the kids happy with their cookies and hot chocolate, and I cut my first bite of cake. I had waited all day to make it here and my expectations were very high. I took my first mouthful and discovered I do not like passionfruit. In the midst of my dissappointment I looked up and saw our car being attached to a tow truck. What ensued was far from what we had imagined as our last stop for the day! We had to grab a taxi and track our van down at the impound lot and a couple bedraggled hours later finally loaded ourselves in the van for the now very long sounding hour drive home.
My associations with Tartine are now fraught with anxiety and disaapointement, but I decided to forge through these and give their chocolate cake a try for Grandma.
The baking went better than the visit, but I did, for some unknown reason, turn the oven to 325 instead of 350. This resulted in a longer baking time for the cake and, I think, in a much dryer cake than I was expecting. The flavor though was very nice. This cake also has a carmel filling and ganache throughout. It is exceptionally rich; a true chocolate lovers delight. In the future I would double the caramel filing amount– no one could tell there was caramel in it.
Since my first visit to Tartine I have been back, but I have yet to try their version of this cake. Although my second visit was not quite as dramatic, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps sometimes the best way to visit a famous eating place may indeed be through their cookbook. Hence my very large (and always growing) cookbook collection, and very infrequent day trips.
School is creeping up on us. My children are chock full of excitement this year, with little worries bubbling over here and there. Each day I glance at our calendar I see the very clearly written: First Day of School. As a teaching grad student, this means my summer is ending soon too, and I must mentally prepare myself to reenter this other world away from my children and their concerns.
So today we escaped to the beach.
Absolutely lovely. We packed up around lunchtime, eating a small bit before we left and packing more (and more) for the beach. We grabbed pails, books for me, some sunscreen. It’s a little trek for us, but a nice drive, and we stopped on the way to pick up some local plums and apples (the Gravensteins are in!) to add to our basket. I wasn’t sure if it would be as sunny there as it was at our house (and had packed layers in case), but it was perfect. A little breeze. Sunshine. Happy kids.
Mrs. Miniver- Perfect Beach Read
While they played in the waves, being chased and chasing them, digging holes (there really is no substitue for digging and filling a hole at the beach), I kept one eye on them, and one eye on my reading.
One of the books I brought to peruse was Nature in a Nutshell for Kids by Jean Potter, which I saw recommended at Soulemama (I think). I’ve persused A LOT of nature and science books for children, and done a good amount of projects with preschool groups, but I’m always looking for new ideas. Usually I find a few scattered projects in a book, but this one is overflowing with great small scale experiments and exploration, and has wonderful explanations that can easily be explained to children. While this book would definietly be appropriate for preschool age children (3+), it would also work for up to 8 years, at least. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that it divides the projects based on season, which is exactly how I like to introduce science concepts to children.
For example: it is summer, so I go to the pictorial coded summer section. I want to do a project with my children about the ocean, or beach to follow up on our outing today and some of our talk on the way home about how much water is in the world, and how many oceans there are. In 5 minutes I am able to locate at least 5 different quick projects. A couple of my favorites (that we will probably try tomorrow) are: Dense Dip: Why is it easier to float in the ocean than in a swimming pool? and Wind Waves: How are waves made?.
Which brings me to two other wonderuful things about this book! The projects are based out of questions that children ask (that I usually can’t answer– like today’s question from my daughter: “Where did water come from?”), and the projects are done using mostly things you can find on a nature walk or nature exursion, or around your house. For the two projects I mentioned I will need: a large cake pan, water, drinking straw, 2 bowls, food coloring, salt, spoon, and two eggs. I should also only need about 20 minutes to complete both explorations/explantions with my children.
Which is a lot shorter than it will take me to explain where water came from, so consider this my diversion tactic until I can get a handle on that one.
I suppose I should know better by now, but sometimes I don’t slow down enough to listen to myself. Clothing and patterns just aren’t made for me, and especially not clothing patterns for women in a Japanese craft book!
When I visited my dear friend Anna in Seattle (Anna, are you checking up on me here yet?) we reconnected over sewing and blogs. She has been making some of those lovely bibs from Angry Chicken’s book, Bend the Rules Sewing, as well as working on a quilt (a sewing feat I have steered clear of so far). Talking of how I happened into this world of blogging I told her the story of my friend with the Japanese craft books and then the links that followed via email. Sweet friend that she is, upon learning my love of those books (if you’re not familiar with them, check out these blog postings for more pics and info: mollychicken, weewonderfuls, or angrychicken) drove me (our kids in tow) across town to the Kinokuniya Book Store, where Japanese craft books galore were to be had. And have I did. As it was my birthday week when I was visiting I bought myself a couple that day. And then, yes, the truth must be told… I returned with my husband the following day on our way out of town for another stop and a couple more books. I know I overloaded, but I have promised myself no more until I sew from each of the ones I brought home.
Cover of the book
Feeling that sewing pressure, and anxious to crack open a book I decided to try an adult pattern from Dress made of My Favorite Cloth by Machiko Kayaki. I have sewn in the past a few outfits for my daughter (boy clothes books are not as inspiring, but i”m working on it) but I had never sewn from one for myself. I especially liked the look of this dress (okay, the sleeves were really what got me) and decided to give it a try.
the dress!
First I measured myself, and then try to align that with their measurement table to determine my size. That the sizing runs on the petit side cannot be stressed enough. But I estimated, adjusted, and began cutting. Most important for me is usually length. At 6′ 1″ most patterns don’t fit me, but I added about 3-4 inches of length to each piece thinking it would be enough. It was not.
As I didn’t have any of “my favorite cloth” I was using some nubby fabric I had bought a while back (probably with some project in mind at the time, long forgotten) and was attempting to try out my serger a bit more with this project. What I ended up with looks okay, but does not fit. The bust area is darted well above where it needs to, and the whole piece is much, much too short– the line that is supposed to fall below my bust, cuts it almost in half. In my serging I also lost some of the gathering, and it has rather a flat look. On the bright side it went together rather quickly. On the downside— I have already begun cutting it apart (it is lying in pieces as I type)– trying to salvage it but knowing that it may not be possible.
I do, however, still love the sleeves.
You will probably note a flurry of sewing in the next couple weeks. My semester starts the last week of August and I can feel my sewing time dwindling and so many unfinished projects still staring me down. I decided that I would dedicate this afternoon to finishing the lunch mats for my children. The decision to focus on the lunch mats was strenghened when I came across a picture of some lunch mats in one of my newest Japanese craft books:All Your Kids Need
I like the one on the top right
These are a slightly different set up than mine, and give me something to try another time. I see lots and lots of embroidery work here, as well as all over the blogs I’ve been reading, and perhaps I will give it a whirl one day. My favorite from the book is the one with the embroidered spoon and chopsticks to show where they go.
With that inspriation I began my work this afternoon. It was quick and easy sewing and I have finished them all! Five for each of my children, so that we may make it through the weeks with clean mats and napkins for their lunches. Hopefully I won’t fall behind on laundry this year!
Hers
His
It was in fact such an easy project that I decided to let my daughter sew one for herself. She received a sewing machine for her 7th birthday last January, but we have just carved out the time for sewing lessons starting this week. We had a basic lesson a couple days ago, and today we dived right into her first project. I helped her as I’m a bit nervous still to let her go at, but she did stupendously and will be on her own soon enough. Today I handled the iron, but I do need to give her a chance to try that soon.
My proud girl!
As I was sewing the rest of them I began playing around a bit- trying pinking shears on some for finishing, my serger on others (I’m still using the serger in it’s most basic way as I haven’t had time to explore it more yet). I tried out a snap and a tie on my son’s, but after having him try to undo and then redo them, I’ve decided that no clasp or closure will work better. Sometimes, simplest is the best.
Pinking Shears
serger action
Please ignore my lumpy crust. I usually stick to baking for this reason.
About a year or so ago, I began getting the magazine Vegetarian Times. I am alternately unimpressed and inspired by this magazine. Not sure if I just haven’t had the time for it, haven’t been interested in cooking, or if I’ve just become over saturated with cooking and recipes after a lifetime of reading Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, and my always growing cookbook collection. But this month was an inspriation month. I tried (sort of) a recipe from the pages of their latest copy, September 2008– Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas.
Make that pizza, singular. The other dough I made into a regular cheese with red sauce for the children, wanting to hog all the tomatoes (from our garden) and corn (from our CSA) to myself (and my husband too, I do share–sometimes). Their recipe uses a store bought pizza dough (thank you Trader Joe’s), a garlic pistou and then a bit of cheese and veggies. Right off I knew I wouldn’t be following this one faithfully when I glanced over the instructions for the pistou and read “Wrap garlic in foil. Bake 40 minutes…” That wasn’t happening.
My kids were due home from soccer in 30 minutes and I needed to have dinner on the table shortly after that– I did not have 40 minutes + pizza baking time tonight. Knowing I was compromising the flavor, I decided to skip that step and use fresh garlic instead, but a little less of it.
Second bump came when I realized I’d forgotten to buy the cheese they called for (Cotija or feta)– did I mention I always end up going to the store more than once? I decided to ignore that too and use a bit of mozzarella I had in the freezer that I’d pulled out for the kids pizza already.
What resulted after these changes (and a couple more) was a delicious pizza, even more appreciated for it’s lack of resemblance to one of our 5 or 6 standard dinners. But the flavor did seem suscipsiously familiar… Then I remembered one of my favorite summertime salads from The Jimtown Store Cookbook: Cherry Tomato, mozzarella, & corn salad with basil. Sound familiar? It was as though this salad had been dumped on a pizza dough and warmed. What a wonderful thing!
Here is the pizza recipe (ammended) as well as an abbreviated version of the salad.
Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas
ammended from Vegetarian Times
prepared garlic-herb pizza dough
garlic pistou my way:
4-10 heads of garlic (depending on size), minced or pressed
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 glugs olive oil
10 leaves fresh oregano
zest of half a lemon
3 handfuls of grated mozzarella (frozen straight from the freezer works fine)
fresh corn kernals from 1 ear of corn
assorted sliced tomatoes from your garden, csa, or nearest store–enough to fill your pizza
6 sliced/chopped basil leaves
other veggies you have on hand? I added sliced summer squash and sliced onion from our CSA
Preheat oven to 400 or possibly 450. Place pizza stone in, if you have one to heat. Whirl pistou ingredients in a small cuisinart or in a blender into a paste. Shape pizza crust to your liking, or to the best of your ability (mine is very poor, but always edible). Sprinkle cornmeal on a wooden cutting board if using a pizza stone, or on a pizza pan. place pizza dough on corn meal and adjust shape and crust. Spread pistou. Scatter corn kernals (and other veggies you want to cook– my squash and onions went on now) about. I also wanted some of the tomato cooked so I added about 6 slices now. Sprinkle with as much cheese as you deem appropriate. Slide onto hot pizza stone or place pizza pan in oven. Bake for 15- 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with the rest of the sliced tomatoes and then sprinkle basil on top. MMMMM!
Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella, & Corn Salad with Basil
Adapted from The Jimtown Store Cookbook
8 oz marinated bocconcini (small fresh mozzarella balls) (the original recipe has you marinate them yourself, but I usually can find them already marninated in spices and oil and save myself that step for the extra 50 cents)
1 basket small cherry tomatoes (yellow, red or orange, pear shaped or round)
Corn kernals cut from 2 medium ears
About 12 basil leaves that have been chiffonaded
Mix it all together. Serve room temperature. You may want to add some pepper, salt and lemon juice or zest to taste. Perhaps even some pepper flakes.
In my jumbled vault of memories, I have a few, of myself and my sister, as little girls, freckled, sunburned, braids or pig-tails swinging, helping to make home made ice cream. I am quite sure that these memories have quantified, for it seems now that we did it many times; most likely it was exactly twice. No matter, I have that memory and it is lovely. What I do know is that the ice creams in question were churned on my grandmother’s patio, and as the ice cream maker was older than ourselves, it needed us to sit on it to keep it stable while someone turned the crank. This ice cream making was far from a solitary affair, but rather needed most all my large family to help get it from cream to ice cream. There was rock salt to be located, carried, poured. Bases to be mixed. And lots and lots of cranking to be done.
But oh, oh, oh! the flavor! Two stand out in my mind. One was a peppermint ice cream, made in part, from candy canes saved from Christmas and the other was fresh strawberry. It is hard to go back to store bought.
Well imagine how I felt now, these taste memories floating in my mind, when I saw that ice cream was up for Tuesdays with Dorie this week, and then remembered that I had, uncharacteristically, given away our ice cream maker just one month ago. [You can find the recipe for the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream at Culinary Curiousity] I have been trying to turn over a new leaf, work against my patterns of saving every possible thing for every possible situation, and relinquished my ice cream maker to the Goodwill pile. It is true it had gathered dust. In fact, it had been living in my garage for the last couple years. When it was new and sparkly it got lots of use. But then our children were born and 9 years after receiving it for our wedding I think it had stood idle for at least the last 4. So into the pile it went.
At first I thought I would just take the alternate choice and make a recipe TWD had already done, but knew it wouldn’t be the same. So then I checked out the links on making ice cream with out a maker. I was committed to doing that. Even though it would of taken hours of attention. I really would of done it. But thank goodness for neighbors. Especially for Angie. I was going on and on about TWD and my ice cream maker deficiency when she offered hers up- bowl already frozen and ready to go.
So ingredients gathered (why I can never do this in one trip to the store, I don’t know), ice cream maker borrowed, and book before me I got to work. Quick work it was too. In about 5 minutes the ice cream was ready to chill before churning. Then after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner I popped it into the maker. 20 minutes later, into the freezer. Not quite the 12 person, all afternoon experience of my childhood! Since it doesn’t use a custard type base it is very quick, but it does taste distinctly different from the ice cream flavor I was imagining.
My son described the flavor as he licked the churning blade (plastic, no worries!) as follows: “This tastes like frozen yogurt! It’s not ice cream.” He did still lick every last drop, except for the large blob that dripped on his chest (although he might of gotten that one too, but I wasn’t looking). But he is right. This ice cream tastes quite similar to the Stonyfield yogurt tubes I buy my kids sometimes, that we then freeze for an afternoon treat. But while it tastes more like frozen yogurt than the ice cream of my childhood, it was delish nonetheless.
Tomorrow I will return Angie’s ice cream maker. And, of course I will bring her a taste! I have to if I ever want to try that very tempting Honey-Peach Ice Cream on the very next page! Perhaps that can get me closer to recapturing that childhood decadence.
Sticky buns! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Even I, very selective in the sweet breakfast foods I love (I’m not a donut in the morning kind of gal), love them! So…. having successfully baked the basic bread recipe from Artisan Baking (who by the way have their own site) I thought I should give their sticky buns made with challah bread a whirl.
They actually write their recipe to be made with either the brioche or the challah, but when I was mixing up the dough I only had enough eggs to make the challah, so challah it was. It really did mix up in minutes, then I left it on my counter while I wandered off to check email and read for a bit. Unfortunately, I had mixed this up rather late in the evening, and I found my self dozing off before the 2 hour rest time was up. Fortunately, even though I stuck it in the fridge after about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, it finished rising and doing its thing in my fridge! My kind of dough. I need a little forgiveness and flexibility in my live now and again.
Major drawback to this recipe–time. After your dough is ready (it can be used directly after the 2 hour rest period, or the next day, or the next… until 5 days later [and then, if you really can't get to it, you can freeze it]) it still takes approximately 2 hours before the sticky buns are ready to eat. That put a cramp in my plan to make these for breakfast for the kids, because, of course, when they wake up they want to eat within a half hour- tops– and I was not waking up 2 hours before them just to serve them hot sticky buns. I love them, but I also love my sleep. So a couple days later I relinquished my dream of sticky buns and tea with my children in the morning, and revised it into, sticky buns and tea after lunch.
Please don't count my pecans!
Why the two hours? After you make up the sugar coating for the bottom of the pan and sprinkle precisely 30 pecan halves (who is going to count that out? I did two handfuls of pecan pieces with no adverse affects–more forgiveness and flexibility), roll your dough out (to what size rectangle, by the way, was not noted and slightly irked my perfectionist side– it’s subtle but it does exist) and sprinkle the sugary, nutty goodness into it, and then roll and cut it into the rolls, the buns must still sit for 1 hour in the pan. Then they bake for about 40 minutes (mine took about 45). If I was an early riser and was puttering around the house anyway, this wouldn’t matter much, because the hands on time is not long (rolling the dough etc took about 15 minutes), but with two kids those type of mornings are few and far between. However, I could see a recipe like this being used quite nicely, on say, Christmas morning.
Whatever my reservations about this recipe, it was delicious, and well worth the hours of wait time. Yummy, scrummy sugary goodness, all washed down with a cold glass of milk— for lunch. But don’t tell my kids– I’m making them wait until after.
The main problem I’m finding with making something for my kids that lasts year after year is that I have to start thinking of other things to make for them, because I do love sewing things for them that they will actually use. So while the lunchbags I made for them 2 years ago are still holding up well (used in alternation with their metal lunchboxes from Noni), I was ready to do a little back to school sewing. Lucky for me there is more I can supply them with!
About a year and half ago, when my son was attending a coop preschool, I was helping the children during their snack time on my workday for that week. One little girl had the most adorable placemat and napkin in her handmade lunch bag. Really, I was drooling over it. I sat with her a couple times over the next couple weeks so I could look at it closely (fortunately four year olds aren’t that concerned by adults inspecting their lunch gear). It wasn’t complicated, but perfect.
Later in the year I got to know the mother of that child (no, not just to get a pattern from her) and a couple sewing conversations later she turned me on to Japanese craft books, which were the inspiration for her lunch time crafting. While I haven’t been able to get my hands on the craft book she had, I have taken a first stab at replicating her nifty idea– perfect for my kids’ snack time, which is eaten in their classrooms.
I have only completed my daughter’s, but some for my son, and a couple more for her will follow. They are a two sided placemat, with a sewn on pocket to hold her utensils and napkin. It folds up to fit in her lunch bag, or box, and hopefully will have a snap or tie to keep it closed (although I haven’t gotten there yet, and not sure it is neccesary). Although I am not a germ-phobe, it is nice to know they can eat their snack off this instead of their desk. I also like that it will keep their utensils in one spot so I don’t have to root around their lunchbags for the sticky spoons.
Lunchmat Tutorial! (let me know if you use this tutorial if I can improve it in any way by leaving a comment)
If you would like to make your own you can follow these easy directions, or make it up as you go along.
1. Cut two rectangles from coordinating fabrics approximately 14 x 12 inches or 14 x 10 (or what ever size suits you!) At this point decide which fabric will be on the outside, and which fabric will be on the inside (where the pocket is); consider them fabric A and B respectively. Cut an additional small square from fabric A- approximately 4 x 4 inches. Cut another square from either fabric, or for a two sided napkin, 2 squares; I made my napkins approximately 6 x 6, but anything up to about 8 x 8 would work.
2. Iron the pocket square (square cut out of fabric A) folding over the edges on all for sides to create hemmed edges. Sew the top edge, leaving the others creased, but not sewn.
3. Pin it to fabric B about 3/4 of an inch from the bottom (raw edge) and 1 3/4 inches from the right (raw) edge; be sure to have the sewn edge on the top edge of the pocket. Starting at the top sew the two sides and bottom of the pocket to the fabric B rectangle.
4. Pin right sides together (pocket will be on the inside) of fabric rectangles A and B. Sew all around the rectangle leaving a small gap (maybe 2 inches). Inside out, pulling the fabric through the gap. Iron. Top stitch around all for edges closing the gap as you do.
5. Serge, or hem the edges of the napkin (or make a double sided napkin in the same fashion as the placemat). Fold the napkin and place in the pocket. Find the best way to fold your lunch kit. I fold mine in half longways (top comes down to bottom)- and then do a rolling fold. Iron it when it is folded to your liking to help it keep the folding creases.
Last summer, or fall I saw a recipe in Cooking Light for a Lime Chiffon Cake. I thought it looked, and sounded delicious, and I had not really had a lime cake before and was interested in trying it. Last fall also was when I went back to school to begin my Master’s and so most of my cooking desires were left unfulfilled. This recipe floated about my kitchen, from the counter, to the bookcase. I pulled it out over winter break and it sat on my table for a while. I had an email exchange about it. Clearly it was unfinished business for me.
This summer has afforded me with a long stretch of time free from my school year worries– no carpooling/carting the kids about (well, at least not as much as usual), no classes to teach, no classes to read (and read and read) for. At the begining of summer I made a kind of mental to do list; high on that list was this cake. But suddenly summer’s end was nearing. And I hadn’t made this cake!
Determined to not have it haunting me this year (I’ve got a churros recipe that is threatening to take its place) I decided to make it. Today. I kept thinking I would make it for a party, potluck, etc., but as the timing has never worked, I made it for absolutely no reason at all. But, whew! What a relief!
I followed the recipe fairly closely, except for substituting the Cool Whip for Whipping Cream (I’ve never really gotten over when somebody told me there is a common ingredient between Cool Whip and something used in your car– whether it is true or not doesn’t probably matter). It went together fairly easily and quickly. The best part was the smell of the limes as I zested them!
Taste? The crumb of the cake was very nice, but I expected that as it used egg whites and cake flour (the key, in my opinion, to a nice crumb). The filling, made with sweetened condensed milk, seemed a little sweet to me, but my husband thought the cake overall was a bit on the tart side. I think this would be an excellent cake with a cup of tea. The blueberries (listed as optional) I think are absolutely necessary to cut the intense lime flavor of this cake.
Well, now that I’ve made this cake and we really can’t be eating a whole cake ourselves, I’ve packaged some chunks for delivery to friends tomorrow. I just hope this cake isn’t haunting me as long as the recipe did.
Find the recipe for this cake here.
The only drawback to baking! Dirty dishes.
Yes, it has been one of those days. It started right off when sewing my daughter’s shorts for soccer camp. I was bringing the waist in just an inch or so, when, somehow, I managed to send the needle through my finger. I’ve never quite had that experience before of seeing my finger pierced through by a needle, and it did send my head spinning for a moment. However, I’ve made it through this day and the finger is doing well, although my arm is a bit sore from my tetnus booster. There are somethings you just can’t plan for!
So, in part because of throbbing finger, I am not posting as I hoped, but am instead just going to update my drawstring bag tutorial with photos.
And to think, I was hoping to give my daughter a long awaited lesson on her sewing machine this week. I’m hoping my mishap won’t deter her!
As a grade schooler I had a friend whose house I loved to visit. Not only did she not have a little sister, she had a great victorian dollhouse (which as these things go, she never wanted to play with as much as I did, or perhaps I just never could say how much I wanted to play with it). In addition to these perks when coming for a playdate, each time we walked into the house after school (so it seems to me now), there was a loaf of banana bread waiting for us to snack on. My mom baked a lot (late at night after my sis and I were in bed), but her main vice was chocolate chip cookies, so this banana bread was a treat for me (we didn’t get many of those cookies anyway, but rather ususally just saw the evidence in the morning).
When I read that this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was a banana bread I was leary. I love a basic banana bread, and even have a favorite banana muffin recipe, but chocolate banana bread has never appealed to me particularly. But one of the reasons I thought doing this baking group would be fun, was trying recipes I would normally skip over. And so the baking began!
Why do my bananas look that way? Frozen reserves.
Fresh Nutmeg! One of my small delights!
After pulling my frozen bananas from the freezer to defrost (This, by the way, is one of my great discoveries as an adult! That I could actually freeze my ripe (or overripe) bananas in the skin and all and use later has greatly enhanced my happiness with ripening bananas on my counter. I especially love using the frozen bananas in fruit smoothies as it eliminates the need for ice.) I got busy on this recipe. A little nutmeg grating, chocolate melting, and soon it was ready for the pan. This “loaf” is actaully a marble banana cake and I did, as usual, find the marbalizing part a bit of a chore. I am not convinced that a marble cake’s flavor makes up for the extra minutes spent mixing up the chocolate batter and carefully alternating batter and then swirling. But I’m a simple girl and like to move as quickly and effienciently as I can in the kitchen most days.
However, I have to say, the cake is pretty good. I am not converted (or convinced the marbling was worth it!) though, and while my kids and I are munching our way through this loaf, next time I’ll probably fall back on my original banana bread or my favorite fancy one from Cooking Light magazine years ago: Jamaican Banana Bread.
The recipe for the Black & White Banana Loaf is posted at A Year In The Kitchen.
As the mother of two school aged children we attend our fair share of birthday parties. My children both love visiting the toy store, or the book store to pick out presents, but sometimes it gets a bit tiresome to have to negotiate with them regarding a) the price or appropriateness of a gift and b) that it is not their birthday and they won’t be leaving with a toy for themselves as well.
It also can become quite a strain on the pocketbook, and so, as my time has allowed, I have been trying to think of alternative gifts that I can make at home that will have less of an impact on my budget. I have made thus far an apron and a couple sets of p.j.’s, which went over well at the parties and didn’t require too much of my time. My children also seemed quite content in giving these gifts so it has been a win-win all around.
This weekend we had two overlapping 5 year old boy birthday parties to attend and I had only a day to contruct suitable gifts. Flannel pajamas in the summer didn’t seem as appropriate, but I remembered some capes I had made for the preschool last winter. After a quick trip to the fabric store and about 2 hours at the sewing maching (which included about a half hour rethreading my serger; I’m hoping that will get easier soon!) I had two completed superhero capes!
I estimate that each reversible cape cost about $6, and could certainly be done for less, if you can find cheaper fabric. It takes approximately 2 yards of fabric (1 yard of each fabric, although for smaller children you could probably get away with using less), and I found some suitable ones for abut $3/yd. The only other materials needed are thread and velcro for the closure. I originally found the idea for these capes at puking pastilles. She has posted some awesome photos and templates with her tutorial. When I made these for the preschool, I wanted to speed up the process even more (I had 8 to make in one evening) and so instead of using her machine instructions, I used my serger. Using the serger saves some seam cutting time, and ironing, but even using the machine directions it should be a very quick cape. Once everything is cut out and ready to go (machines threaded) I think each cape only takes about 15 or 20 minutes, including the appliqué.
The applique superhero symbol is of course highly important to the child, so be sure you pick a good one! Puking pastilles has a Batman, Superman, and princess one. I also found some more at a Martha Stewart tutorial on towel capes that came up on my search for a template. For these capes I used a hand drawn lightening bolt (click for pdf template if you’d like to use it). 
Now my son is wanting his own cape, of course. I guess avoiding the toy store doesn’t really solve everything.
Broken in!
I had been reading the buzz around a new book on baking bread. It had cropped up a couple times in my blog readings, and so– intrigued– I requested a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day from our local library. Of course, I was a little behind the curve, and was placed in line behind many others–aproximately 25 others, which, with only 4 copies in our county, could take months to get through before my turn. This has happened before. Often by the time it is my turn I’ve forgotten I’ve even requested– not as terrible as it sounds– kind of like a suprise, a gift, when you least expect it.
But as it turns out I didn’t have to wait months. I arrived home one day to a package on my doorstep. I hadn’t ordered anything. But yes! It was for me. My friend had sent me a copy for my birthday just weeks after requesting it. A gift indeed!
Before I had a chance to try out the book, I got a chance on my vacation to see the recipes in action while visiting said friend. They were delicious! Now back at home it was my turn in the kitchen. Well, at least for 5 minuntes.
My dough just after mixing it.
It is in fact a very straightforward process and as quick and easy as it is described, although it does have some equipment requirements that seem slightly daunting. I found though that my pizza stone worked well for the baking (they show a large baking stone), and a wooden cutting board stood in for the required pizza peel that I don’t have (nor have the budget for this month). I had a tupperware large enough for the dough storage, and as it did seem to have a good seal (not recommended), I merely left one corner cracked.
A finished loaf!
Verdict? The process was easy. The bread delicious. In fact, the two initial loaves I baked have disappeared, but luckily we have more dough in the fridge. I started with their first recipe, a boule, but I’m anxious to give some of the whole wheat recipes a whirl, as that is what we eat more of.
I found one blog posting at Alexandra Cooks that does a nice job of breaking down the cost benefits of baking bread this way. Perhaps with my bread savings I can start saving for the pizza peel!
mmmmm!
Ingenious bag made by a craftier mom than me.
Last spring we attended, or rather I carted my children (who were attending) to a birthday party. The very talented mother, instead of the usual plastic goodie bags had done something ingenious. That ingeniuity I, of course, quickly decided to copy ruthlessly. She made for the children fabric goodie bags with a ribbon drawstring. I had almost gotten there on my own with my son’s party; I made fabric bags, but mine were a rough set, with unfinished tops and certainly no drawstrings. As I said: Ingenious!
Well, as my children’s birthdays are clumped in January we haven’t made it back around yet for me to try these out for their parties, but I’ve been thinking of different ways I can use these little, inexpensive bags (really, they can be made for probably 50 cents each). After the party we repurposed those bags as toy holders. One is used to hold Hot Wheels on the go. When my son wants to bring toys in the car, to a friends, or on an errand, he is allowed to fill the little bag. Another has been used to corral our unruly gang of finger puppets, and they seem very happy there.
And now, today I found an excuse to make one of my own. The domino box, stepped on one too many times, was ferried off to the recycle. But what to do with the dominos, scattered here and there about the floor? A drawstring bag of course!
It was a quick job. I did however take it just one stop farther and sew some little awkward looking dominos on the front (no mistaking where they get cleaned up to now). I’m not one for handsewing so the domino dots, which probably could have been done very cutely and neatly with an embrodiery stich, I just put on with the machine. Crude, yes. But did the job in the little bit of time I alloted this bag.
The dominos are now at home in their little bag. Now what else could use its own bag?
Summer fruit waiting to be transformed
Technically I am not fulfilling the TWD rules this week, so it will not count towards my participation this month (which means I will do next weeks recipe as well), but I had all the ingredients and had wanted to make this one anyway. And so I did. At least it is still summer, and therefore fitting for the Summer Gallette recipe chosen for this week.
I bought some nectarines, peaches and plums at our CSA yesterday when we went to get our box of farm goodness (oh! the glorious summer tomatoes and basil in there!). And finally this afternoon I found a little space of time to put this together. Wonderfully it really did not take long, but it did take a bit of forethought because the butter for the dough needed to be frozen, and then the dough itself needed to be chilled. Other than that it basically made itself in no time.
I have to say, I’m always a bit afraid of pastry. My friend is a whiz at it, but I find it troubling and usually avoid it. I’ve had some luck, but more frustration, ripped crusts, and mishaps than I care to list here. It was a lovely suprise to have this crust come together so quickly and easily in the food processor (brilliant!). Even better, it tasted devine! Light and buttery. Dare I say…flakey?
My leaky lucious gallette
I love making this kind of pastry over a pie in a dish– the free form crust suits my non-perfectionist style much better and saves time , as well as dishes to be washed! I have made similar desserts, mainly working from Ina Garten’s (Barefoot Contessa) recipe for Apple Crostata in her Parties! cookbook. (Here is another of her crostata recipes I was able to find online) This cookbook is one of the most stained and tabbed books in my collection, precisely for these types of simple, flavorful recipes. Her crostata differs from Dorie’s gallette mainly in the topping. Dorie used the custard, Ina a light crumb topping. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the custard enough to warrant the extra step– I could taste the fruit and the crust and that was enough for me with a great big glass of milk– but… I was eating it quite warm in order to be able to post this evening. Perhaps the custard comes into its own in cooling; I should know at breakfast tomorrow!
One last note about this recipe. I’m not sure if I just had extra juicy fruit, or used too much but my gallette leaked all over. In fact there was so much juice I had a hard time telling if the custard had set. Really I don’t mind, the juice made it luscious to eat, but it did make the bottom a little less crisp than would be ideal. I wonder if the the leaking would have been worse without the crumbs and jam?
I will leave the experimentation for another day.
Find the recipe for the Gallette posted here.
Photo from my vacation!
We are home again! And while when I am here too long I can only think about traveling, when I am away too long, I can only think about home. Our full trip was almost two weeks and it was nice to come home, check on my garden (still growing), my to do list (still growing), and think of fun summer things to do in our area where my bed is (blackberry picking is high on our list this week). I was also anxious to get back to my posting here. We came back a bit too late to get my TWD up today (check tomorrow– I did get all the ingredients today and they await me in the morning) but not too late to get up another post about baking with children– one of my favorite topics.
My Baking Boy a couple years back
In my last post about Baking with Children I mentioned one of my favorite cookbooks for children, the well-known classic, Pretend Soup. And my favorite recipe in that book? Popovers. Hands down one of the most satisfying baking you can do with young children. I’ve made this recipe now multiple times not only with my children, but in their preschool classrooms where it never fails to be a hit.
The great thing about this recipe is that it is broken in to steps making even the prep work managable for the kids. The children get to “paint” the muffin tins with the melter butter, and just as Katzen promises, some children “love” this and will do this for quite a while, making for some very buttered tins!
The format of the cookbook is a bit lengthy with grown-up hints, the recipe itself, and then simplified pictorial directions for the children to follow. I can’t obviously recreate that here, so I will do my best to give enhanced directions. The best bet is to check out the book itself, at the library or at a bookstore.
Popovers
adapted from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen & Ann Henderson
best eaten slightly warm, with jam
This recipe will work in a toaster oven and in mini muffin tins.
Ingredients:
2 TBSP butter, melted (to “paint” with)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Have the children paint the insides of the muffin cups with the melted butter (you may need more than the 2 TBSP depending on how much they enjoy this part– don’t rush them! Focusing on the process instead of the product is very important for young children)
When they are ready, break the eggs into the mixing bowl (try my trick for the small bowl for each or Katzen’s listed “break them on the bottom of a big bowl and let the egg run out into the bowl”). Once you have all the shells out of the egg, add the milk and beat well. Add flour and salt and whisk until blended.
Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. You can put the batter in a small pyrex measure cup to let the children help fill them on their own. Bake for 30 minutes without opening the oven (if using mini muffins it will be less– you will need to watch them, but this is part of the fun of popovers!)
Remove from pan and prick with a fork to let steam escape (truth be told I don’t think I usually remove them from the muffin pans– lazy, I guess). Katzen suggests having your child wear an oven mitt when they prick the muffins to protect them from the steam.
Eat one. And another. Add a little jam to the next. Maybe time for a glass of milk, or a mug of tea. Now one more.
Now get them young'uns in the kitchen!
I’ll be camping and traveling to see friends, but I don’t go far without a book in my hand (that’s my daughter above reading at our quick beach trip in June. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree). Here’s a list of books I’m hoping to get through while I’m gone. This reading will only be possible with quiet children in the car, a husband who wants to drive, and lots of down time while we’re gone. It may be entirely wishful, but it’s the hope that keeps me going.
Divisadero It’s been on my list for quite a while. I’ve loved other books by this author, hoping for a similar reaction.
Toast by Nigel Slater I’ve been wanting to read this ever since looking through his wonderful cookbookish book, Kitchen Diaries last year.
Three Cups of Tea Recommended to me by a good friend and fellow reader. Looking forward to reading this and sharing my reactions upon my return!
A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies Can’t remember why this ended up in my pile (was in NY Times book review that mentioned… yes I think it was this one about another book on my “to read” list!), but my australian e-pal says he’s a good aussie author and I trust her opinion infinitely.
The Biographer’s Tale Picked this up at the local Friends of the Library bookstore for a dollar (can’t beat their prices). I haven’t read anything else by Byatt since I read Posession, but sounded right up my alley.
Here’s to my summer reading! I hope it really happens.
I love baking. I love sharing things I love with my children. Not too far a leap to loving baking with my children. One recent afternoon my son had a friend over and we headed to the kitchen to do those things I love. My son loves chocolate. That lead us to this recipe from Linda Collister’s, Cooking with Kids for Double Chocolate Muffins. The recipe was from her aptly named section in the book, “baking afternoon”.
I got the boys suited up into aprons and away we went, mixing, stirring, cracking… and of course spilling. We made it through with only the barest of messes (one egg did miss the bowl completely but a quick swipe, a new egg, and we were back in business. 30 minutes later- cooling muffins. The interesting thing is that I think they enjoyed the process of baking more than those muffins. By the time they had come out of the oven they were onto another activity— but momma enjoyed them!
Here are a few tips when baking with children. The thing to always keep in mind is that baking with children will be a little bit messy. But there are some things you can do to minimize the mess and mishaps.
1. Have them crack eggs in a small separate bowl so if shell goes in with it all is not lost! I picked up this little trick from one of my favorite children’s cookbooks, Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson.
2. Use nice large bowls. It helps when they pour in too quickly (slosh), too much at one time (large puff of flour in the air), or stir with the might of mighty mouse (flinging unincorporated flour or, even better, bits of batter, throughout the kitchen). It doesn’t solve the mess, but it does minimize it.
3. Read through the recipe before you invite them in the kitchen. Make sure you have all the ingredients and prepare what you can. 
3a. Be sure that if you are baking with more than one child that the recipe has more than one egg to crack. This is the highlight of baking for most children. You can also check to see if there might be a compensating step, but cracking the egg is hard to beat. To ensure equal egg breaking consider making scrambled eggs after or instead. All will be happy.
4. Choose a recipe that will be done today. Preferable within an hour. Patience is not common in children, especially when it comes to eating dessert.
Happy Baking with your children!
As I started last year with some pics from my garden I thought I should head out there again. First off you can see from my pic above that my hollyhocks are back– I can’t remember if the doubles bloomed last year or not, but the singles are back too! They bloomed again with no help from me! Other than that (new) constant I’ve changed the set up slightly based on some things I learned last year.
Here are the top three things I learned:
Now where did that garden path go?
1. Just because they are beautiful and interesting doesn’t mean your children will want to the eat blue pumpkins you grow.
2. Before you plant every variety of tomato you love, think about how many tomatoes you will be harvesting off 2 cherry and 2 yellow pear tomato plants + 2 other plants– note to self, that would be way too many for one family to eat or even give away– Hello compost!
3. Don’t let your garden over take your walking areas.
So based on these starting points I was sure to do a few things differently this year. First off I’m growing a pumpkin the kids want– jack o’lantern pumpkins. I still did plant one winter squash (amish pumpkin) to try but hopefully they’ll be less prolific and smaller than the queensland blue’s of last summer. I”ve spotted small pumpkins on the amish plant, but not the jack o’ lanterns….yet.
Secondly, I restricted my tomato craziness. I did not start them from seed this year (no time! I had to germinate paper topics instead) and limited myself to 3 tomato plants and only one small tomato, the other two are medium sized tomatoes. We opted for yellow pear this year although we really did enjoy the currant cherry tomatoes from last year. They seem to be coming along, some have green fruit on them, but August will really tell us if this is still too much for our family of 4 to give away and/or eat.
Thirdly, I am being sure to trim the rose bush, the hollyhocks and tomato plants to maintain a reasonable walking area…so far. August will be the true test!
Based on some companion planting research I did I also tried some interspersing of flowers with vegetables this year, tucking in marigolds and nastursiums where I could fit them, as well as some herbs here and there. Most serendiptiously some sunflowers just grew right were I wanted them. I had been planning on planting a few sunflower seeds along the back of one box, but didn’t get to it. Strangely four have grown right there. My friend guesses that some bird dropped the seeds, but I’m not sure. No matter their source (could I have planted them and forgotten?) I am happy with how that worked out.
Another new addition: Jackamanii Clematis
A couple new additions to my garden are 1) a sunshine blueberry bush (I wanted two but only had room for one) that is already producing fruit and is a great treat for my kids, 2) more strawberry plants in one box (that produced a disappointing amount of strawberries) and 3) a lipstick pepper (last year I grew only the chocolate bells, but this year I am growing one of those and one of this other kind of pepper).
Another View of My Suburban Garden!
I haven’t been able to really give it much time this year, but it seems to be humming along. I am curious to maximize my boxes more next year and have been inspired by this blog (randomly found one evening) to look more at square foot gardening as a way to do this. Of course right when I get it all figured out my tree will get bigger, block all my sun, and force me to rethink it all.
But that’s the great thing about gardening… it can (and should) be different each year.
This is my first week doing TWD and I am very excited. I’ve had Dorie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook up on my shelf for over a year now and have baked some out of it, but as with many of my cookbooks in the last year, it has not been put through the paces as much as I would have liked. I have found two great birthday cake batters in there (Devil’s Food White-out Cake [pg 247]- a chocolate chip cake- and Perfect Party Cake [pf 250]- a lightly lemon flavored white cake with a stupendous crumb) but beyond that ventured very little. When I stumbled upon TWD one night last week while blog surfing– jumping from one baking blog to another through links– I was delighted. Accountability- that’s what I needed to explore her book more; so I signed myself up.
At least 2 weeks out of every four I must make the chosen recipe from her cookbook and then post my experience, reaction, etc here. So here is week one for me. My next posting will be not be for one or two weeks as I will be out of town.
So lets get down to the pudding…..(you can find the recipe here)
I’ve made chocolate pudding from scratch before from Barefoot Contessa’s cookbook, Parties! (I’ve found a recipe link here for that version) and with success. I am always delighted with the result, and with anything chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use the better your result. So this time I pulled out the bittersweet Valrohna bars which I tuck up in my baking cabinet for just such times.
After weighing out my five ounces I thought I should do this recipe right and prep all my ingredients (measured and all) before I got started. This is not my usual method, but I was multitasking with cobbler in the oven, and one child still awake making periodic visits to the kitchen for one more tuck in.
A few characteristic flubs (broken yolk while separating eggs [dump, start again], too much sugar in the milk [dump start again], too much milk in the milk [scoop out with a measuring cup because I was tired of dumping out]) and I got down to business. Of course that wasn’t the end of my mishaps– while taking my bubbling cobblers out of the oven the milk boiled and overflowed the pan, flooding my burner. Milk was fine but I was a 1/4 cup short now– that would be the 1/4 cup that was now filling my burner plates. No problem, pour off finished milk, boil 1/4 cup more with a sprinkle of sugar– Good as New!
Over all I found the back and forth between pan and food processor a bit tiring, but I think that is because where I plug my cuisinart in is not very handy to the stove, so I couldn’t, say, pulse AND watch the milk (of course we all know this isn’t why the milk overflowed, but it could have been). But I understand the reasoning– my arm was not exhausted after whipping up this pudding. When I’ve made some puddings and pastry creams (which are similar to pudding, and which this same cookbook has a great recipe for (Dark Chocolate Cream page 25 
the amount of whisking needed is downright frightening and I end up with flared up tendonitis in my forearms. Ina Garten’s recipe uses a similar technique but she utilizes the kitchenaid mixer instead of a cuisinart– perhaps that could be used here as well– but in either case I appreciate the modern shortcut.
Yes. I licked that Cuisinart bowl clean while my finished little puddings were chilling. And just for the record– I prefer the film on my pudding so I did not cover it. I love breaking through that film to the smooth depths.
The end product? Superb. Very Chocolately. Ultra Chocolately. I might almost substitute a wee bit of semi-sweet for some of the bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrohna 70% bittersweet). The richness is a nice way to savour it slowly. The six little cups (by the way I have to give credit to La Tartine Gourmande for the inspiration to use these little yogurt glasses that had been kicking around my kitchen for a while– too cute to recycle) that it made have lasted a few days as 1/2 of each is enough for each sitting.
I will be tabbing this recipe for future revisiting, but hopefully won’t flood my stovetop next time with sticky sweetened milk.
I think that my reference to Martha Stewart projects as sources of “inspiration” was spot on. I’m glad I saw their “Easy Beach Bag” project, but it really only served as inspiration for the final project as the directions did not end with the type of finished bag I wanted. If you followed their directions you would end with a drawstring backpack, but their pattern for it did not meet my standards (which I honestly hadn’t realized were terribly high). So I had to work it out on my own, based loosely on theirs, and pulling some tricks out from when I made lunch bags for my kids a couple years ago using this pattern. The main difference in the end is that I wanted the seams hidden on the inside of the bag, so that the lining is inserted rather than sewn together, and I wanted the holes where the drawstring comes out to be finished. A little tricker, but worth the effort.
Here is my tutorial on how to make this more finished version of a drawstring backpack. I’m working on some step-by-step pictures to go with this tutorial that I will get up soon. Let me know if you use this tutorial and if I can improve it in any way!
Materials Needed 1 14 x 32 inch piece of preshrunk cotton or other fabric (I used decorator weight fabric I had lying about)* 1 14x 32 inch piece of nylon or cotton (use nylon if you plan to put wet suits, waterbottle or other damp items in the backpack to prevent a soggy pack)* 2 4-inch lengths of cord 2 50-inch (+) lengths of cord
*You can customize the size of the back by changing the size of your rectangle, just be sure to remeber your bag will end up about 1/2 the size of your rectangle– so figure out your dimensions and double the length and add seam allowances. Also, don’t forget to change length of your cord if you lengthen the bag.
1. Fold each piece of fabric in half, width-wise. Iron to make a nice crease, then pin. For the interior fabric (the nylon lining) sew up the sides.
4 inch loop, as it should be set inside the folded exterior fabric
2. On the exterior fabric piece you will need to tuck in the loops before sewing. Fold one of the 4-inch cords in half; place inside one of the bottom corners, matching up the raw ends of the cord with the raw edge of the fabric, the loop tucked inside facing toward the center of the fabric. Pin in place as you see fit. I snuggled a pin very close to the loop so that the loop wouldn’t slide out of place