Candy Cane Cookies

Emily and I decided to try and make Candy Cane Cookies in preparation for a small new years eve gathering. I think they turned out well. The only thing I'd change in the future would be not to melt the butter so much for the frosting.

The recipe can be found here

Florentines

I tried making Florentines, and for the most part half the batch worked out well. I made 3 fatal mistakes.

1. I am home for the weekend, and my mom has FIVE different types of sugar, but none were white granulated, so I used light brown instead.
2. I mis-read the amt of cream to use, so i used much less than called for
3. I only flattened 1 pan appropriately, so the not flat pan did not bake evenly

The flattened pan came out well, and a spread dark chocolate over the bottom. They turned out pretty well, but i'll have to give it one more shot.

Ocean Waves Quilt

I completed this quilt while we got about 2 feet of snow outside (exciting!). The pattern is called ocean waves, but it doesn't really look much like waves.

I realized that I'm not very good at assembling the layers of quilts. I'm totally fine making the front, but since its never a perfectly even shape it gets a little messy when I try and add a back and filling. This time I put 2 layers of fleece inside, and miraculously the exact width of the fleece was the width of my quilt otherwise that would have been disastrous!

Here is a close up on one square


I think this is technically my best quilt because all the blocks lined up and you have to look pretty close to see something wrong! Plus peter helped me cut off all the loose threads, so its neat.

Cranberry Tart

From The Art and Soul of Cooking
5 Cups fresh Cranberries
3/4 cup of sugar
Finely Grated Zest of 1 medium Orange
4 teaspoons flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coarsely chop half of the cranberries, an mix all ingredients. Pour in a Pie shell.

Pie without topping.

Topping
1 Cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Mix above ingredients until the consistency of peas, and then evenly spread on top of the pie.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 min.

Success! (with room to grow)

I've been wanting to make Parisian macaroons for a long time, and this week finally read up on it and gave it a try! To my surprise all the things that I thought would go wrong worked out well, and the only problem was that i slightly over cooked them so they are sightly golden in color.

I used this recipe to make them, and was careful not to over beat the eggs. I split the recipe in half and dyed half teal and half pink. I pulled them out of the oven and was pleasantly surprised that they were the right shape, and even had the little foot!



In the middle I used jam in some and this recipe for the filling but added almond flavor to it. The filling was alright, but a little too buttery in my opinion and i may try and find another recipe for next time.



I'd consider this baking adventure a success!

Happy Hannukah

what better way to celebrate Hanukkah than by making a new tablecloth with Hanukkah themed colors! At the outlet store today I noticed that crate and barrel sells raw fabric in many of their patterns, and they were on sale for 5 dollars a yard instead of the usual 32 a yard. How could I not give this a try since I've had such a hard time finding a table cloth in the right colors.

A future Project?

I was perusing the internet today and came across this:
Found Here

Sounds like a great project if you ask me! I also suspect I have quite a few friends who are going to want items relating to this

Time saving techniques for quilting

I'm working on a new quilt made up with hundreds of triangles sewn together to make squares, sewn together to make patterns. I have done a pattern similar to this before where I spent a lot of time sewing the triangles together one by one. Luckily I came across a trick to make this go faster.

Step 1. measure a strip of each color, for example below I measured 4 blocks 3 and 3/8 inch squared of each color.
Step 2. Pin the two pieces together lined up
Step 3. Sew along the blue lines (1/4th an inch on either side of the red diagonals)
Step 4. Cut along all red lines.
Step 5. You are now left with 8 squares with a triangle of each color as seen below!

Pumpkin Mini Muffins

Last week Puja and I took our second cooking class at Sur La Table and walked away with many delicious new recipes and tips, and one gross recipe (parker house rolls)

The first recipe I've tried on my own was mini pumkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. They are so good plus with their small small size they make them perfect finger food dessert.

Here is the Recipe:
Batter:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup buttermilk
Frosting:
12 ounces cream cheese
3/4 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 3/4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 cup pecan pieces for garnish

Preheat oven 350 F

1. Cream the butter with the sugar (4-5 minutes in an electric mixer till the mixture changes colors to a lighter brown)
2. Add the eggs and vanilla while mixer is on a medium setting
3. Add the pumpkin and blend well
4. Mix all the remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl
5. Alternate adding some of the dry and wet (buttermilk) ingredients while mixing by hand
6. Cook the mini cupcakes (makes 65) for about 10 minutes
7. Blend the cream cheese untill smooth in the mixer
8. Add the remaining frosting ingredients
9. Frost and enjoy!

Mistakes Were Made, Lessons Were Learned

In honnour of halloween and the fall season I thought I'd try making one of my favorite meals. Pumpkin Ravioli (did she say pumpkin?). If this item is on the menu you can put money on the fact that I will order it. Last year my favorite cooking magazine, Cooking Light, published a recipe which Leslie tried last hannukah for a dinner party. They were delicious so I thought I'd give it a try as well...It had potential, but I'd definitely change a few things



Lesson #1. As a shortcut the recipe calls for won-ton wrappers for the outside. I tried three stores and could not find the wrappers! How difficult could it be to just make the pasta wrapper myself right? The answer turned out to be very difficult. I made the dough just fine with a simple flour, water, and eggs recipe found online. Peter and I then rolled out the pasta and formed them into little raviolis with the filling. When we sat down to eat it, it turned out that we didn't roll out the dough NEARLY enough and ended up with a gooey outside and a tough inside. I'm looking into getting the pasta attachment for my kitchen aid for next time

Lesson #2. The sauce was a Gorgonzola cream sauce made by heating non fat milk and flour and then mixing in gorgonzola cheese. The only milk I had however was the Over The Moon brand non fat but tastes like whole milk. This turned out to be the wrong choice, and the tastes like whole aspect of the milk made the sauce much too thick. Next time I may look into making a brown butter sauce instead.

Science Experiments with Rachel

I am pretty sure this wont be the last science experiment post.

It all started a few weeks ago when peter and I went out to vapiano with joe and kate. If you've ever been to vapiano you'd know that instead of after dinner mints they offer gummy bears! my fave!! It was raining outside, and kate throws out there in our efforts to stay dry something about how when gummy bears get wet they blow up. She said it so casually as if "oh yeah, dont you know that? eeeeeeeveryone knows that".

I played it cool and tried not to act to excited at this new tidbit of information I just learned, but the next day at the grocery store I casually threw a bag of gummy bears into the cart to see for myself the amazing growing gummy bears.

I put the gummy bear into the water and watched excitedly. Nothing happened :( I must have been called away and ended up accidentally leaving the gummy bear in the glass for a few hours. When i returned I was pleasantly surprised to see that the gummy bear was now twice the size of the initial bear. The coolest part was that while the bear was still under water the colored part was concentrated in the center, surrounded by a clear bear form of gelatinous goo.

We took the bear out and it felt (and tasted) just like jello!!!


Profile of both bears


Straight on Shot

Incase Leslie's Blog didnt convince you

Last week Leslie posted this blog about a delicious corn/tomato/chive/cheese pie.

One of my favorite things is corn cut right from the cob. You know the kind, where the kernels are still packed together and its at the peak of freshness. I am also a huge fan of cheese. On the other hand i HATE warm tomatoes (a fact Jessica and Robbie think is very odd). I mean i'll eat pureed warm tomatoes, but if its just a tomato in tomato form warmed up i'll pass.

what leslie may have neglected to point out (or in my haste to get from her photos to my kitchen to make the same i missed it) the crust of the pie is a delicious biscuit!

I modified the recipe just slightly. First and foremost I cut the amount of salt (not in the crust part) in half if not even less. They wanted an entire teaspoon of salt mixed in with the corn and tomatoes! I just used a pinch for each layer. Second, I used half the amt of tomatoes and cut out the seeds and pressed each slice with a paper towel to get out any liquid possible. This pressing of the tomatoes actually kept the tomatoes pretty crisp and bearable once cooked!.

Leslie's blog did not do this pie justice! it was DELICIOUS!!! like ridiculously delicious!!

Cup Cakes For Jessica's Birthday

Last weekend I made cupcakes for Jessica's birthday. I decided this time to try and make the frosting myself, so I turned to paula dean for ideas. She simply calls this one "frosting", but I think it is more of a caramel frosting! Delish!



Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (1 stick butter)
* 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1/3 cup heavy cream, or more if necessary
* 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Directions

To prepare frosting, melt butter in saucepan over medium heat and stir in brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a handheld electric mixer until it reaches a spreading consistency. At this time it may be necessary to add a tablespoon of heavy cream, or more, if frosting gets too thick. Just be sure to add cream in small amounts because you can always "add to," but you can't take away.

Thread

Sounds boring, I know. But recently I've found out what a difference thread makes. I was trying to make some quilt flowers last night and the thread kept breaking, and the bobbin on the bottom kept coming out the wrong spot, and it kept jamming up and all around made for an unpleasant experience....then i changed to the dual duty thread and suddenly sewing was fun and easy again. Good thing too because I was ready to quit quilting forever.

New Photography Software

Since this blog is about all arts and crafts, I'd like to stray from quilting for a second.

After our hike at great falls this weekend I decided to (finally) figure out how to stitch together panoramic photos and I came across some great software to do it. As you can see from the watermark at the bottom of the picture I still need to pay for it.

Without Further Ado, I present to you great falls in panoramic

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/59587601@N00/3737866586/)

I cant wait to take panoramic shots of EVERYTHING. Watch out world!

Turtle Power!

I followed a pattern for this quilt (except replacing orange with purple), and I think it turned out decent. Its a little crooked, and some of the squares don't line up perfectly, but you can tell they are turtles - so that's a start.



Here is a turtle close up.



Peter helped me pick out this fabric for the back of the quilt and its pretty and really soft.

People's Choice Award

Out of my quilts and a few other projects not on this site, most people like this quilt the best.

I made this quilt in less than a month when peter was gone for the campaign so I picked up a project kick starting my quilting obsession again.

This pattern I think is called the pineapple pattern because I guess if you squint each square sort of looks like a birds eye view of a pineapple.



You can sort of see the "pineapple" pattern

My First Quilt

I started my first quilt after freshman year in college while I was home for the summer and using my mom's sewing machine. I then thought I could take it back to school with me and I could sew the rest of it by hand.

This never happened.

After I graduated, but before I got a job I bought a sewing machine of my own and finally completed my quilt. There are a lot of things wrong with this quilt such as a few holes, almost none of the patterns match up, and the overall edge shape is nowhere near even.

That being said I completed my first quilt and to this day I still think its the greatest, coziest, sit down on the couch and take a nap quilt.



As you can see its just a tedious series of triangles and hexagons in some pretty fabrics, but upclose it formed some stars where the pattern lined up correctly.

Easy Pillow, Pretty Fabric

When I was at the fabric store the other day looking around in the pink section, one particular pattern caught my eye, but didnt match anything I was making. I tried to not buy it, but after passing it a few times i figured I'd buy a yard and just make a simple pillow case (which proved a little harder than I thought trying to make everything straight)



The fun part was that I got to play around with the settings on my sewing machine to get some fancy (for me) stitching for the lip of the pillow case

Ducks Are Definately Gender Neutral

My good friends Ashley and Tim just had thier first baby Oliva and she's as cute as can be.

The only problem (for me) was that Ashley and Tim decided to wait till Olivia was born to find out if she was going to be a she, so I had to make my baby gift gender neutral. I looked through a lot of patterns of scary clowns and sports patterns and butterflies before I came across ducks!!! perfectly gender neutral. Obviously I'd make it in greens and yellows too, the typical gender neutral colors.

the pattern was initially bath time ducks, but the bubbles proved to be too difficult to appliqué on so I scrapped that but left my bubbles and rubber ducky boarder.



On July 1st when we found out Oliva was Olivia and not Oliver I realized that my bubble boarder made it look a little too "boy" so I added a little pink bow to the duck in the center.



And here is one last one to see the super cute rubber ducky fabric I found (and now have extra of and need a new project)

A Quilt For A Good Cause

My good friend Laurie Sheen is participating this year for her second year in a row for the Susan G Komen 3 day walk. She trains for months and works very hard to raise money for her team The Pink Sprinkles. I figured that the best way I could help was to donate one of my quilts to her silent auction that will be starting in a week or so.

This was also my first venture into designing my own quilt. In the past I have found patterns and followed instructions, but this time i spent a day drawing out different ideas on graph paper until I was happy with a pattern, and I think i like the way it came out.

Arts and Crafts, a new beginning

I've decided to start another blog dedicated exclusively to my arts and crafts. Lately I've been on a quilting kick, but in the future this could also include my knitting, cooking, photography, but probably not drawing or painting, i'm not very good at the last two. So enjoy, and comment and leave me ideas for future projects!