Arts and Crafts with Rachel

Caramel Ganache Tartlettes

2012-01-28T11:48:00.004-05:00

For Diana's Annual Wine and Cheese Sarah and Leslie came to town and we baked some delicious tartletts. We modified a few recipes and added our own twist. We made Caramel Tartlettes with a mini pretzel and drizzled with chocolate ganache.
For the caramel sarah showed us how to make it since she's an expert. The caramel looked so pretty while it was cooking

We then spooned about 2 tablespoons in to the shells we had made. We had read it would take 4 hours to set, but it turns out for the purpose we were using it for, it was almost immediately useable.

Leslie-the pretzler- put one mini pretzle on each one and then I drizzled ganache on top (the ganache tasted good but really did take forever to dry). These were so delicious! I cant wait to make them again.

Italian Cookies

2011-12-28T22:44:00.002-05:00

I bought a roll of almond paste and later realized I couldn't just eat it plain (i guess I should say I shouldn't eat it plain because I certainly could). I found a recipe for Italian Cookies that looked delicious. It was fun making and dying the layers, and it tasted great. I decided I didn't want to use shortening in the frosting layer...big mistake. It turns out the butter just doesn't do volume like shortening does. It still tasted good but it could have been prettier. Freshly made they were great! Every day you could taste them getting not as great (still delicious though). The problem was the apricot jelly between the layers absorbed into the cake layers. Not the worst, but if you try this I recommend serving it immediately. I'll certainly try this again though!

The start of a new project!

2011-12-19T10:55:00.002-05:00

I found a pattern for a new blanket. I'm not sure yet how big i'll make it, but the first piece came out pretty well. Look out for updates on this one :)

Crochet

2011-12-19T10:43:00.002-05:00

Remember back in august when the hurricane "hit" I taught myself how to crochet? Well I figured I'd try out making a bigger thing, like a throw for the couch. I found a cute zig zag pattern and gave it a shot! I dont love the colors I picked, and I also picked not the softest yarn since i'm a beginner, so its not the greatest blanket, but i'm done and the pattern looks awesome.

Rosti and Museli

2011-12-19T10:35:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite childhood breakfasts is a swiss dish of Rosti and Museli. I don't get it very often, but whenever my dad goes to switzerland he brings back a pack of Rosti for me. I decided to make it this weekend since its almost like latkes so it would be a good pre channukah breakfast. I had forgotten how gross it looks right out of the package.

but after cooking it and next to the bowl of Museli it looked (and was) delicious!

New Foods

2011-11-10T15:30:00.004-05:00

I'm a sucker for buying new products that I see whether it be a fruit I've never seen or a new flavor of gum. This week at Trader Joe's and then Whole foods I found 3 new things that I had to buy.

First at trader Joe's I saw pea shoots! I love pea shoots at restaurants but I've never seen them before at the stores, and trust me I've been looking.

I've enjoyed using these by throwing them into stirfry and eating them with my potstickers. Its nowhere near as delicious as the ones in restaurants though, but I suspect those are a slightly different variety.

Next at whole foods I found Keffir Limes. I've never even heard of these, but how could I not buy one to try. I haven't tried it yet though b/c when I went to look up the recipe it turns out what most people eat are the leaves, but they weren't selling those. The internet went on to teach me that the zest of the lime is good in Thai cooking so maybe I'll try that. The part that I thought I'd be eating, the citrus center, is evidently not good for eating but is good for washing your hair because its so strong. Maybe I'll give that a try.

Lastly at whole foods I found an apple variety I've never seen before. I cant remember what its called but the blurb on the sign said its from Japan, perfected in Italy, and made exclusively for whole foods.....wait what??? how can a fruit be made exclusively for a store! This seems pretty wrong to me. I did buy one to try out of curiosity, and it wasn't bad but it tasted as fake as it sounds. I don't think that was just in my head, it had this weird almost perfumy sweetness to it.

Flax Crackers Take 1

2011-11-04T11:05:00.002-04:00

My dad has been making Flax crackers and working on perfecting the recipe. His are delicious. I though i'd give it a try....it turns out they are harder to make than it looks! For starters I let mine sit for 2 hours in the fridge in the water, but it turns out you need to let it sit at room temperature. Second for flavoring I only added (low sodium) soy sauce which made them turn out far too salty. Third I cant seem to figure out when to take them out of the oven so that they are perfectly crispy without being burnt. I tried a second batch with soy vay instead of soy sauce, and i'm not sure why but its terrible. Maybe third time's the charm...we'll see!

Butternut Squash Soup

2011-10-24T09:55:00.003-04:00

This weekend I decided to try out my new immersion blender, and what better to try it on than Butternut Squash Soup now that the temperatures are dropping and all the fall and winter foods are starting to appear in the grocery stores. we used this recipe, which in my opinion is miss titled. Its called Butternut squash shallot soup, but you could barely tell there were shallots in there, and really taste the ginger. Peter suggested putting a few crumbles of goat cheese on top next time which maybe we will try. It was very delicious.

Fried Rice

2011-09-27T10:48:00.004-04:00

Well, we are back from our honeymoon and ready to eat in for a while. This first meal is hawaii-inspired. The best dish I had while we were there was actually at breakfast. Our hotel had an amazing breakfast buffet, and since most of the hotel guests were Japanese, they catered to their guests. One morning for breakfast (along with my amazing fresh pineapples and mangoes) I had a delicious pineapple fried rice that we decided to try and make on our own last night. I found this recipe. It couldnt have been easier to make. We of course omitted the egg, and added corn (peter loves to add corn to everything). The only step we didnt really follow was using old rice or letting it sit for an hour. We let it sit for like 10 minutes, and I didnt think it hurt the meal any. Maybe next time I'll prepare a few days in advance and whip up some rice. Sorry for the bad photo, I really need to start taking these pictures with my nice camera instead of my iphone.

As a side note does anyone have a rice cooker? I'm considering getting one, and peter thinks its a dumb idea. Thoughts?

Crafts in the shower?

2011-09-14T12:42:00.002-04:00

Well sorta, more like science projects. One of the awesome things about my mom is that she encouraged my science side and allowed me to take part in many science projects as a kid. Anything I was curious about we investigated. One of which was using an egg for shampoo. I gave it a try except i didnt take into consideration the temperature of the water and made a scrambled egg in my hair. Well now that I'm older and more mature I thought i'd give alternate shampoos and conditioners a try. I get so much build up on my hair from normal shampoos and conditioners that I figured this couldnt be any worse. So i looked up a few different methods and settled on beer rinse to make my hair shiny. My hair is moderately shiny today, but nothing out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary however is how dry my scalp is today. I read more and I guess its the alcohol in the beer. An alternate method boils down the beer first which I guess I should try next time. This would have been nice to know before :( Lessons learned.

Amigurumi

2011-08-29T10:45:00.003-04:00

Again, in preparation for the hurricane we got old school activities that don't require electricity. I bought a kit from barnes and nobles on how to make Amigurumi (crocheted animals), and re-taught myself how to crochet. I tried to use the instructions in the 1st chapter of the book but some didnt make any sense at all or left out steps, so i went to youtube for that portion. Once I figured out all the stitches I started with the kissing fish pattern.

It turns out that I was reading the instructions wrong and was more than half way through before i realized. For example the instructions would say *1sc, 2sc in next stitch* (12). I read this to mean 1 single chain then 2 single chains in the next stitch and repeat this entire cycle 12 times. Instead what it actually meant was that in the end you should have 12 stitches (not the 36 I was doing). I started to notice the fish wasn't very 3d (minus the lips i did perfectly), I thought maybe at a later step it would pull the stitches in and it would become spherical.

I finally re-read the how to section and realized I had been reading the instructions wrong. Luckily its easy to undo this and I started over from scratch.
I didnt quite get some of the steps on the fins but i think i improvised well.

Hurricane Chili

2011-08-29T10:23:00.005-04:00

This weekend in preparation for Hurricane Irene to blow through town (probably an over statement since there was barely even wind) we stocked up with water, batteries, flashlights, and non perishable food. Peter had the great idea to make a big pot of chili and just eat that all weekend. My favorite vegetarian chili is hard times cafe at the ball park. Infact last time we went i got stopped by FOUR seperate guys who wanted to know where I had gotten the delicious looking chili (at first I thought they were just trying to make an excuse to talk to me, but by the 3rd i realized it was the chili not me). We started with a base recipe and added corn and peanuts.

The chili looked great even before the beans and tomatoes were added

The part you could really taste the most were the spices

The recipe calls for Chili Powder ( we added a bit more than it called for), Cumin, Coriander, and a tiny dash of Cinnamon...even though the smallest amt of spice in there was the cinnamon it was the most easily distinguishable with both the final taste and final smell of the chili.

I made nachos with my portion :)

Pea Pesto

2011-08-18T12:53:00.003-04:00

Last night I followed Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Pea Pesto. Smitten Kitchen has never let me down so I love trying recipes from this site (see corn pie). English peas aren't quite in season so I had to make do with frozen peas. I also left out the pine nuts since I don't like them at all (although if i were to try it again maybe I'd give toasted pine nuts a chance). Peter also wanted me to add basil, but I left it out this time in curiosity for what a non basil pesto may taste like. In the end it was very nice looking, and pretty delicious, but definitely lacking something. Maybe that Basil and Pine nuts are what I needed. I do love this color though!

All in all I'd file this under a recipe to try again with modifications

Candied Pecans

2011-08-15T09:14:00.004-04:00

One night last week I caught a bit of an old Julia Child episode while at the gym. She had a guest on showing how to make some lemon chiffon cake with candied pecans on top. The cake itself didn't look good, but the pecans sure did. I decided to play around with ingredients and make my own. First I tried just plain sugar (1/4 cup pecans, 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp white sugar). This one was pretty good, but a little too sweet. Next I tried a batch the same but added a few grounds of sea salt. This one was definitely on the right track, but not quite there yet. Then I tried one last one with the sugar, salt, and then added a few shakes of ground cloves, and a few shakes of cinnamon. This one was the clear winner. For all these recipes all you have to do is throw all the ingredients in the sauce pan at once and stir till sugar dissolves and begins boiling, then reduce the heat and let cook for about 7 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally. If you take it out too soon the sugar coating remains sticky. You'll know when you are done when there is almost no sauce left in the pan.

I topped my salad with the cinnamon pecans and it was delicious!

The two things i'd try next time, is first maybe i'll try a batch using brown sugar instead of white, and second maybe i'd try toasting the pecans first.

Vegetarian White Wine Sauce

2011-08-10T14:34:00.002-04:00

I didn't take any pictures, so this wont be a visually pleasing post. But it was so delicious that I'll just try and draw a picture with my words...just kidding, who do you think i am? seriously, I'm an engineer the best I can do is give you a picture in numbers.

I tried to find a recipe online but there were none that fit the idea i had in my head so I made up my own and it came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

this recipe made 2 generous portions
*1/2 cup of dry white wine...I went with barefoot chardonnay b/c i happened to have little bottles sitting around
*1/2 cup of vegetable stock. I used the Trader Joe's vegetable reduced sodium savory broths.
* 1/4 onion chopped
* 1 large shallot chopped
* 1 clove of garlic chopped and crushed
* 1/4 lemon
* 1/4 tbsp salted butter (b/c i like it healthy like that)
* 1 fresh ear of corn, kernels cut off
* 1/2 cup frozen peas
* 1 handful of fresh chopped spinach
* cream to taste

1. Melt in your prettiest le cruesette the butter, and throw in the onions, garlic, and shallots to sautee.
2. squeeze in the lemon juice
3. Once sauteed add the wine and broth and put the top on to simmer.
4. after a few min add the corn and peas.
5. Reduce heat and Simmer longer
6. add a dash of cream
7. Boil up some water and cook the pasta
8. Just before the pasta is done throw in the spinach.
9. Mix and serve
10. On each plate mix in goat cheese, and then top with parmesean cheese
11. if desired add salt to taste.

Note: I used zucchini in mine but i don't recommend it so I wont add it here.

All that practice with play dough paid off!

2011-07-25T10:10:00.008-04:00

This past sat was the 1 year anniversary of the day peter and I got engaged. To celebrate we tried out our brand new kitchen aid attachment pasta maker to make ourselves a nice dinner. We also tried out our new beater blade attachment. Kitchen aid is a great kitchen tool, but its major flaw is that the mixing attachments designed for it do not fully reach the bottom of the bowl, which generally results in extra dry materials unmixed at the bottom of the bowl.

This new beater blade (pictured above) reaches all the way to the bottom helping to mix almost all of the ingredients. Since it touches the entire bowl its a bit noisier when mixing, but thats ok with me.

After all the ingredients were mixed through we attached the pasta attachment and began to make pasta! its exactly like playing with play dough! We were slightly concerned because the spinach wasnt chopped up well enough for the dough, but evidently the pasta attachment does some good blending while its pressing out the pasta to give it a nice even green color.

We tried 4 different pasta settings. Fusili:
This one lost most of its shape and looked kinda strange, but the consistency of the pasta cooked well.

Next we tried bucanini which i have never had before. its like spagetti but hollow little tubes. These probably came out the best!

Lastly we tried large macaroni and rigatoni which practically came out the same (rigatoni a bit better).

We threw all the different types in the pot of boiling water and made a confetti of pasta! I made a tomato/cream/pesto sauce that was so delicious if i do say so myself. We served it on our new plates

mmmm what a delicious celebration!

Garlic Scapes Pesto

2011-06-21T16:12:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday I headed to the farmers market at work in hopes for fresh peaches. No peaches were to be found, but they had a bucket of beautiful garlic scapes. I've never seen them for sale before so how could I pass up this opportunity! The farm even provided me with a recipe! I bought 1/2 lb of garlic scapes and was excited to try making garlic scapes pesto. I was imagining it to be garlicy, but not overwhelmingly so. I was very very wrong. I tasted the pesto as I was making it and it tasted like pure garlic!! I quickly emptied out my fridge's basil collection and added that to the pesto to try and diffuse the flavor. It helped, but only mildly. We ate it over pasta, but I would not recommend it. Tonight i'm going to try it again since we have so much leftovers ----i'll add more basil this time i guess.

Below is the recipe I dont recommend

1/2 lb garlic scapes (buds cut off)
1 c oil
2 c Parmesan cheese
blend in food processor

Star Wars Themed birthday food!

2011-04-17T20:35:00.005-04:00

For peter's birthday gathering I decided to make star wars themed food.
We ended up making 4 star wars themed foods.

1. Light Sabers! We melted white chocolate and dyed it green, blue, and red (no purple b/c peter would have gotten angry if i acknowledged samuel l jackson's purple saber)
2. Princess Leia cupcakes. M&M buns and frosted faces. Not that well done since i'm not that artistic, but you get the idea

3 and 4. Using the william sonoma cookie cuters I made yoda and storm trooper cookies.

Ideas I didnt follow through with:
* Han Solo action figure in Jello (carbonite clearly). Someone suggested I turn this into Jello shots, but I was afraid people would accidentally eat the han solo figurines.
* Death Star Truffles, pretty easy to make a chocolate truffle look vaguely like the death star
* Luke's severed Hand. At halloween Diana took a latex glove and filled it with water and froze it to have ice hands floating in the punch, I figured this might be able to be adapted for the star wars purpose as well.
* Home made marshmallows for cloud city

Cooks Illustrated

2011-04-14T10:34:00.002-04:00

I've recently been introduced into the world of Cooks Illustrated, and even signed up for 1 year. I found some great recipes and all turned out delicious. One however could have turned out better. It turns out Cooks Illustrated has a handy iphone app, which of course I downloaded. You can look up a recipe, add the ingredients list to an easy shopping list, and then follow the recipe by phone as you cook. This would have been all fine and dandy if there hadnt been a major typo in the iphone version. I made the Poached Pear and Almond Tart. There are 3 different portions to this recipe, the poached pears, the crust, and the Frangipane filling. TWO of the 3 portions (the pears and the filling) had the same typo. On the iphone version it called for 5/6 tsp of salt. First off who has measuring spoons that can even do that? I thought it sounded like a lot, and didnt have the right spoons, so i put in 3/4 instead (so slightly less for those of you who dont feel like doing the math). I decided to taste the frangipane b/c I love almond flavored anything and it was super salty!!! I ran to my computer and sure enough it was supposed to call for 1/8 tsp instead! I dumped in a ton of sugar to both parts to try and compensate for my super salty tart. The tart ended up ok (esp since I love salty things), but I think next time will be better.

Scalion Pancakes!

2011-04-14T10:23:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week I came across a recipe for scallion pancakes, which is just about the only part to Chinese food I'll eat. For some reason no restaurant around here offers them. I started discussing it with Emily who recommended a slightly different recipe. Who knew scallion pancakes are so easy to make!!! The other nice part about making them at home is that you can use less oil, and put them directly on paper towels to soak out more oil when you are done. mmmm so delicious.

Emily was also inspired by our conversation and made them as well this week!

LDCM Cookies

2011-04-08T09:07:00.001-04:00

Today we had a govt shutdown party. I made cookies stamped with the image of the satellite our instrument is mounted on. They came out alright

Pizza!!!

2011-03-07T09:55:00.004-05:00

Friday during the day peter and I were emailing back and forth trying to figure out dinner plans. We decided on home made pizza...who knew almost all recipes out there require you to start a day in advance! Luckily I found This recipe which only takes 45 minutes to rise! We made two small pizzas and peter and i each added our own toppings. Mine was a white pizza with caramelized onions, spinach, and gorgenzola cheese, and peter's was a pesto pizza with the onions and spinach and ricotta.

Here is my pizza (the more delicious one)

And Here is Peter's less delicious one

Poached Eggs!

2011-03-06T19:55:00.003-05:00

I was really late on watching Julie and Julia, but when I did I loved it. Also it made me realize that I've never poached an egg and it looked like fun! So this morning I made peter a poached egg (since I dont want to eat it myself).

Check it out! I'm super proud that it worked first try!

Tomato Sauce

2011-02-17T11:18:00.002-05:00

I like to make big portions of home made tomato sauce to keep around in the fridge for whenever we feel like pasta. I like making my own for two reasons, one is that I like the taste better, and the second is I can control more about it such as salt content. Generally I use canned tomatoes of any sort, and include sauteed tomatoes, garlic, and herbs and spices. I decided recently to try using fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and started with the fun first step of blanching the tomatoes. I also used fresh herbs instead of dried ones. The outcome was pretty good, but in my opinion the the canned tomatoes result in better sauce both texture and flavor wise. I'll probably go back to the cans for next time!

the best Peanut Butter in the world

2011-01-27T12:43:00.004-05:00

Last night while watching the snow fall outside, I decided it was finally time to try making my own peanut butter. This is something I've been wanting to try for a while. I found an easy recipe and got to work.

This is seriously the best peanut butter i've ever had. It almost tastes like the peanut butter in a reeses cup!

Home Made Gingerale!!

2011-01-13T10:05:00.005-05:00

I made my own ginger ale last night, using most of Alton Brown's Recipe, but replacing the step where you add yeast to carbonate it, by using my awesome Soda stream to carbonate it!

My apartment smelled delicious as it simmered. After straining out the ginger I decided to try the syrup on its own. It was spicy and hurt my mouth, I wouldn't recommend that. I then mixed it with my bubbly water and a splash of lemon juice and it tasted almost store bought!

I'd like to try rootbeer next, but I'm not sure where to buy sarsaparilla.

Rugelah

2010-12-23T08:42:00.002-05:00

Last night I tried my second attempt at making rugelach. The first try came out really delicious but lost form during baking due to too much jam. This time I added less jam and it came out much better. The only problem was that I forgot how much a batch makes (4 dozen) and I decided to double it....

Holiday Season

2010-12-20T09:19:00.007-05:00

I decided to try out making my own holiday stocking this year so I could have one in non traditional colors. I found a cute pattern and only modified it slightly. The modification was to add an edging under the cuff which you can sort of make out in the pictures.
First I cut the inside fabric, the outside fabric, and the batting.

This is the first time i've tried to do the traditional quilting stitch over everything to keep the batting in place, and I started with a simple box pattern, maybe next time I can try a more complicated pattern. I'm very happy with the way it came out too!

And voila! the final product

Night Photography Take 2

2010-08-01T21:11:00.007-04:00

I still have a few more things to work out, such as more manually adjusting the shutter speed.

I got a wireless shutter release to fix the main problems from last time, but I forgot to bring it out with us, so we had to make do with the self timmer.

The light turned out fairly eerie in the long exposure pictures. These pictures were taken at about 9 or 10 pm, it was pitch black out, but the photos looked like it was dusk. I even tried using the hood on the lens but that didnt do anything.

The lincoln memorial photographs well from upclose though when the shutter speed could be fairly fast.

Then I brought out my new toy, the fish eye lens. I bought a pretty cheap lens extension for this, so the photo quality isnt all that great, but still kinda neat.

Then when we were just packing up and about ready to go home, peter spotted this creepy guy:

I just made my first dress! NBD

2010-06-03T20:58:00.003-04:00

I just made my first dress. Its not amazing, but its wearable! I was in the fabric store today (my favorite place) and I saw the dress fabric section and figured why not. I bought a fabric that I surprisingly like since Orange is involved, and we all know how much I despise the color orange. I followed this pattern. My favorite part are the functional pockets.

There are two things I may do to modify the dress though. 1. Add straps. 2. cinch the high waist a little bit to add more of a figure.

Time Saving Techniques For Quilting #2

2010-05-27T16:03:00.002-04:00

You may recall that I offered a tip back in the winter for quickly sewing and cutting triangle pieces for an ocean waves, or pinwheel quilt.

I've come across another time saving tip with the same outcome, however its less motions, so I feel like its a little bit easier.

1. Cut 2 squares 6 3/4" One dark, One light
2. Sandwich them together front side facing inward
3. Draw vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines in pencil (shown below in blue)
4. Sew 4 lines 1/4" on either side of the diagonal lines (shown in red)
5. Cut along drawn lines (shown in blue)
6. Voila! 8 identical squares with only 4 lines of sewing!

Gardening Apartment Style!

2010-04-26T23:00:00.003-04:00

I bought this little window garden today at target! I planted aster, cornflowers, and dwarf sunflowers. Cross your fingers and hope they sprout (if for nothing else, to prove peter wrong since he's already referred to them as "the next victims")

Passover 2010

2010-03-28T21:22:00.003-04:00

I began my passover cooking tonight for tomorrow night's Seder.

I started attempting making matzo balls from scratch. They seemed to be fine till I cut one in half to taste. My whole life my dad has made jokes about "matzo bombers" but until now I didnt quite know what he meant. The centers were so dense that they could not possibly float. It was terrible. I made a second batch to much more success. (no pictures)

I then made a cappucino/chocolate/cognac roulad. Its one of my favorites.

The leftover cappucino whipped cream was a great dessert with strawberries

I will make more tomorrow, but my final dish for the night was chocolate chip meringue cookies. The first instruction to making these cookies is Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then turn it off. So for the next 12 hours the cookies are hanging out in my pre heated oven. Cant wait for morning when they are ready!

Just a Drop of Color

2010-03-24T22:20:00.004-04:00

I decided to have a little photo shoot tonight in my apt. The lighting isnt great, and I still need to get a remote shutter release, but I made do with what I had and am happy with the results for a first attempt at this. This was a two person art project. I stood on one side of the room with the camera, and peter stood on the other dropping dye into a champagne glass of water. Here is what I have:

First try with Green and Blue Dye

Second try I managed to capture the splash back from the drop of red dye! That was part of my goal, so even though its not completely in focus I was pretty happy with myself

We branched out to yellow which I think works the best since it is so light and lets the light through

Even after we were done and the dye had sat for a little bit it was still really pretty.

Does Your Sewing Machine Do This?

2010-02-09T21:04:00.001-05:00

Mine Does

Lost Party!

2010-02-09T16:01:00.018-05:00

I had big dreams for this lost party, but due to the snow that night most people did not end up coming, so I scaled the plans back a little. Alan, Joe, Kate, and Puja made the trek over though because they are awesome:)

First off, we had Dharma Initiative Beer:

There was also water and Peanut butter. Water, because not everyone wanted beer, and peanut butter for Claire, and how she finally got some when the hatch was open.

There were of course cupcakes with The Numbers on it.

My favorite part was the cake with the picture of the island frosted on, and a matchbox airplane crashed into the island.

Now compare that with the actual island:

Pretty good right?

Cant wait for the rest of the season, and maybe a few more lost parties along the way!

Candy Cane Cookies

2009-12-30T09:39:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-28T21:03:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-20T21:55:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-20T21:46:00.003-05:00

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)

2009-12-13T16:47:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-12T18:16:00.004-05:00

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?

2009-12-09T16:27:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-07T13:30:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-11T19:48:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-11T19:38:00.002-05:00

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

2009-09-07T21:58:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-07T21:46:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-25T18:53:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-28T09:58:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-20T16:50:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-07-19T00:35:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-14T22:50:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-14T22:38:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-14T21:58:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-14T21:30:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-14T21:11:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-14T21:08:00.002-04:00

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!