Poached eggs, where have you been all my life?

I'm addicted to poached eggs, ever since I learned how to make them a few weeks ago. If you don't know how to do it, and you love your eggs poached (like I do) here's a very simple, helpful tutorial from Smitten Kitchen.

The yummy, healthy dinner (or breakfast) from these pictures comes together in the time it takes to poach your eggs, which is about four minutes once your water has boiled. I always include some lightly dressed greens, sandwiched between a buttered English muffin and a not-quite-four-minute poached egg.

And the acorn squash is something I just discovered this year. It's sweet and pumpkiny, the skin gets caramelized and chewy in the oven--hello edible skin! In that way, it's better than butternut squash. It roasts up easily, tossed with oil and rock salt in a 400-degree oven for a mere 20 minutes. 

Isn't this the sweetest little Christmas tree angel? I found this little gem at the Goodwill years ago, at the bottom of a bin. She is made out of paper and is about as tall as my pinkie finger. She's my favorite ornament, and each year when I unwrap her she makes me smile.

It's been a long, wonderful, busy few months. I had a baby who is a month old today. I now spend most of my time taking care of him and his older brother, feeding, changing diapers, cuddling, reading books, cleaning, doing unreal amounts of laundry. I'm still recovering from a C-section, those things are no joke. Today was actually the first day I could manage the laundry on my own. Am anxious to feel strong and able-bodied again. Patience...

 We made 'gingermen' over the Christmas break. Jack was thrilled and loved decorating them. I found the recipe online over here.

And finally, here is, thus far, my favorite drawing of Jack's. Pretty amazing I think.

Farmer's Market adventures

Since we found out that we'd be having another child, I've been trying to create daily or weekly rituals for Jack and me. One of these is our weekly visit to the farmer's market. We're so lucky to live in California, in the wine country no less, because we get beautiful seasonal produce all year. Our farmer's market is popular in the community, so going there is a great opportunity for us to people watch and be reminded of the kind of community we live in. There's always live music and picnic tables set up, even a little playground for Jack to play on.

We have one rule (that sometimes sticks, other times...not so much.) We have to get one healthy thing each, and then one sweet or unhealthy thing to share. Most times we get apples to munch on while we search for a huge muffin (like the chocolate cherry one above) but other times Jack surprises me and gets a pomegranate or a persimmon. Once he actually chose a basket of organic strawberries as his 'sweet treat.'

I'm hoping we can keep up this weekly tradition after the baby comes, it's such a positive way to learn about where our food comes from and a simple activity to celebrate the changing seasons...

What may be the best cookies ever?

Holy crap. I just saw this recipe and had to post a link to it, if only so I don't forget that these exist.

Who wants some Nutella-stuffed Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies? Recipe here

Snow day

We were lucky enough to make it to the snow in Lake Tahoe last weekend. The conditions were perfect, lots of snow on the ground but none on the road (no chains!)

Snowballs were thrown, one little snowman was made, and we even got to go tubing, which I insist is one of the most fun activities in the world. I swear Jack giggled all the way down the hill...each and every time.

And after it all, we got to come home to our sunny, warm little house. But I think someone would like to go back next year...

I want to make this!

 Isn't this hand-sewn bird just the prettiest thing you've seen all day?
The pattern can be found in this book:

Epitaphs

When we are in the dregs of winter, perhaps it's natural to dwell on the darker side of human experiences. Plants die in the winter, or at least hunker down and stretch deeper into the earth. Most animals get thinner as food supplies dwindle, and yet humans get notoriously fatter in the winter. I think it's good practice to live closely with the cycles of life.

In this vein, I present a little collection of possible epitaphs--thoughts on life and death that would not necessarily be carved on a headstone (what do we cremation-choosers use?) but at the very least, sum up a life-philosophy. I suppose the collection is part of what Gretchen Rubin calls my "ongoing, personal research project." Little notes scribbled on gum wrappers, books filled with ephemera, thoughts, quotes, lists of songs to play at my funeral (that's another post.) My mom is a notorious personal research note-taker. She may still have a misquoted saying from LA Story in her wallet.

This is my favorite of all possible epitaphs:

"The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
all goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier."  Walt Whitman

Another great one is:

"Is it so small a thing,
to have enjoyed the sun,
to have lived light in the Spring,
to have thought,
to have done...     Matthew Arnold

The weirdest one is on W.B. Yeates' grave in my opinion, although I love it.  I've had the pleasure of visiting this site. There is nothing quite like an old, overgrown Irish graveyard in the rain. It's so romantic.

Another bird feeder

I just purchased an awesome bird feeder. It's huge and plastic with no less than six perches. The little tree on one side of our house, where I hung the feeder, is now aflutter with tiny, pink-headed finches. They're mesmerizing.

And they are mighty hungry. They went through a half-gallon of seed in almost a week. So it reminded me how important it is, and how cool it is, to feed the winter birds.

Jack and I made this easy bird feeder a few months back. The good old pinecone slathered in peanut butter and rolled in seeds, then hung with string (or purple yarn in our case.)

Whale watching and rugelach

We spent the weekend looking for whales out at Bodega Bay. We saw a few sprays, but no actual whale was spotted. The weather was clear and sunny and cool--Jack ran around in the fields while my girlfriend, Bri, and I ate scones and jam.

And a few projects were finished when someone got a cold (Jack) and someone else (me) got to stay home from work and keep him company.
First: an aquarium scene made out of construction paper and sequins.

Second: some seriously delicious rugelach.

You can find the recipe in my favorite baking cookbook: Martha's Baking Handbook or online here. These are so friggin' good, I have a tummy ache from eating waaay too many. The flaky layers are almost pastry-like and hold chocolate slivers, finely-chopped walnuts, raisins and sticky apricot jam. The filling in my book is different from the one online, I used 1 cup of walnuts, 1/4 cup of sugar and only 3/4 cup of jam. I made half of ours with chocolate, the other with raisins, all with nuts. Too good.

And from what I remember from my coffee shop days, rugelach freeze really well once baked. (I've already put more than half in the freezer to deter a late night rugelach attack.)

And I found this in a drawer the other day, don't you just love these? Jack is fascinated by it, and always wants to drink the water out of it. Yuck.

Sweater quilt

I've been wanting to make this quilt for a long time. I think I saw one here a while back and loved it. As each one of my favorite sweaters begins to show its' age or gets too tight or just not right for me anymore, there's been a crafty voice in my head that whispers "sweater quilt, sweater quilt."

So over this incredibly lengthy and relaxing Winter break, I finally began The Sweater Quilt.

First, I gathered up seven sweaters that were all sizes medium or large and about the same, medium weight. I then grabbed by rotary cutter and self-healing mat and cut them into six by twelve-inch strips.

I arranged the strips on my queen-sized bed in a way that was pleasing to my eye.

Then I stacked each vertical row together, stacking them one on top of the other, so I'd know which way to sew the strips together in the pattern I wanted.

Then I sewed the strips together, stacking them and running them through my machine on a straight stitch with medium length. I ended up with 11 long vertical strips with about seven and a half 6x12-inch strips. I say one half because I didn't want any long horizontal seams. In other words, I didn't want my blocks to line up, so I added a piece that was 3 or 6 x12 at some spot on every vertical strip to give each strip a unique pattern. (See the picture with all the strips laid out--they don't line up horizontally.)

After sewing the strips I squared them up, making sure that they consistently measured six inches all the way down.

And that's as far as I've gotten. Next, I'll stitch all the long strips together. I'm excited to see all my sweaters together, in one big cozy blanket.

Handmade Christmas update

I whipped up these potholders last night from some already quilted fabric I bought. I've found that potholders need a good, grippy material on at least one side to really hold the pot safely. I made some out of 100% cotton once and they were just a little too slippery. These ones have canvas on the other side. I used extra wide double-fold bias tape along the edges and stitched in the ditch (along the already quilted seams) to make these potholders look more quilted. Get ready, Dad!

And I still have a few of these precious strawberry pincushions left from the spot I once held in a gift shop. They make great stocking stuffers for sewers. Directions here.

I realize after seeing this photo that I really should have taken the time to iron the bag before photographing it.  I made this out of a canvas bag from Joann's. It's a great big bag made of medium-weight canvas that I got on sale for, like, crazy cheap. I added the fabric design using Steam-a-Seam, my favorite, and added a cute little pocket on the back out of the same material. Slowly but surely, the gifts are coming together!

Handmade Christmas: Part Deux

I had myself a little candle-making party today. I'm sorry, but the best thing about working in education is these long breaks. A week off for Thanksgiving? Yes, please.

So in my quest for great handmade gifts, I'd remembered seeing these on Martha's website. I had a huge (I mean silly big) candle and this cute set of teacups, and all I really needed were the wicks. These took longer to find, but I finally found them at Michael's.

I did make a huge mess at one point (melted wax all over the table) but these were totally worth it. I think they make cute gifts and when the candles are spent, the recipient can just put the teacups in the freezer and the remaining wax will just pop out. Voila! New cup. Martha's are quite cute. Directions here.

Homemade Christmas gifts

This year, I and (some of) my family have decided to go all handmade on the gift-giving. I'm excited because it's always something I've wanted to do. And with the Occupy protests going on around here, it's a natural choice to forgo the frenzied dash to buy and rather, make.

I have so many ideas: homemade sugar scrubs, potholders, children's smocks, bags, aprons, blankets....and on. I've decided to organize my projects here on the blog, and gather cool ideas for future works.


For Jack, I'm making a boy version of this smock:


 

And I was thinking a pillowcase:

Source: Mousy Brown

And that's all I've got so far. In other news, Jack and I made an autumn mobile from things we gathered at the park.

And I made another one of my grandma's recipes, these Cranberry Almond cookies

The cookies were delicious when they first came out of the oven, but they softened up quite a bit over the last day; maybe it's the fresh cranberries. I've been storing them in plastic, perhaps waxed paper would keep them more crisp. Very balanced flavor though and the almonds and cranberries are great together. 

I'm cooking my way through my grandmother's recipes, I inherited them when she died a few months ago. It's such a personal experience, holding these cards that she wrote in my hands.

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall...

Roasted chestnuts

Jack and I like to visit a particular park here in Santa Rosa around this time of year because it has three glorious chestnut trees that drop these little babies. We spend time looking for good, shiny nuts beneath the trees and maybe even pick some from the trees and husk them for our collection.

Well, yesterday we weren't alone in our chestnut gathering. A man showed up all prepared with a plastic bag to collect some too. Luckily, there were more than enough to go around. Now, onto roasting.


I've never actually roasted my own chestnuts before. The first time I ever had them was while walking the streets of Rome in winter, where they are sold in the infamous paper cones. People just drop the shells in the street. I remember wondering how all the Italian women, in their amazing high-heeled boots didn't trip on them. How do European women navigate those cobblestone streets in heels?
I've seen chestnuts roasted in a coffee roaster...those were good, but the ones in those street 'ovens' seem to do the best job.
I've found lots of simple directions for roasting these babies in the oven. I've excerpted some directions from a Smitten Kitchen recipe below.


Preheat oven to 450°F. Cut a small X on the top of each chestnut with a very sharp knife. Don’t be afraid to cut into the “meat” of the chestnut a little; I found that the the ones that were the most easy to peel start with a deep enough cut that the skin peels back while roasting. Roast chestnuts on a baking sheet for about 20 to 30 minutes, until a darker shade of brown and the X peels back to reveal the inner nut.
Cool on tray and then peel.
 I'll let you know how they turn out...

Seitan Bourguignon

Saw this dish prepared on Martha today. It looks seriously deelish, something that should probably wait until the weather is a bit cooler though. Bring on autumn!

Find the recipe here.

Leafy branch draft catcher

I saw this project first in this awesome book and then promtly forgot about it--until this winter when I noticed that the door in our new house is quite drafty and would really benefit from a draft catcher. I remembered this pretty leaf-covered branch project and just did my best to re-create it sans instructions.

First, I drew a branch nubby branch design on doubled up muslin. The branch should be about four inches wider than your door. I pinned the fabric together loosely to make it easier to cut out.

After cutting out the shapes, I ran it through the sewing machine but left the base of the branch open. Then I trimmed the excess fabric to about 1/4 inch and snipped the corners.

Turn it right side out, carefully turning out the nubs. You can iron it, but I didn't bother.

Then fill it with something like corn, buckwheat hulls, cat litter, sand, rice or beans and sew up the end. I used a funnel and this helped tremendously. I made one out of a plastic soda bottle.

I also used cat litter because that's the only thing I had enough of to fill the branch with. It's kind of dusty and a bit heavy, but it works in a pinch and is certainly a better choice then polyfill, which I think was a strange suggestion I saw online.

 Then I cut some leaves out of green and brown felt and sewed them onto the branch nubs.  It was a fun and quick project which will probably save us on some heating bills.