Things of thinginess

First things first, the recipient of May's shrinky dink giveaway is Sarah of Slinging Stitches! I liked all the posts, it reminded me of all the crafty things I haven't picked up in ages, as well as a few messes I used to make for the fun of it. :D

It's still spring here, and for proof that it's May we had a tiny morel harvest on Friday. Three, we found three morels. Actually, I found a big one off the driveway near where I found several last year, but the entire top had been bitten off by something so I hardly think that it counts. These three were in an entirely different spot at the base of a rotted out stump that had been filled in with dirt.


Since there were only three, I ended up making a mushroom side dish with additional white button mushrooms and some fresh shitake mushrooms. I cut them all up and sauteed them with lots of garlic in olive oil with a bit of thyme and freshly cracked black pepper. It never ceases to amaze me how small morels shrivel when cooked, yet still retain a kind of crunchy texture.

Meanwhile, today I made a lunch of crepes and I like to record recipes when I tamper with them. These crepes were whole wheat and are quite robust in tooth. They're not exactly the delicate buttery things that most people anticipate when promised crepes, but I like them. I think they would be better with a savory filling but we had them with strawberries and whipped cream.

Strawberries were dressed with agave syrup and a bit of cognac, and the whipped cream was lightly sweetened with agave syrup as well.

Recipe after the jump.

Slightly less bad for you chocolate chip cookies

A small baking and knitting post tonight.

I'm constantly on the lookout for cookies that are satisfying but have some sort of redeeming dietary merit. So I took a chocolate chip cookie recipe and changed a few things and I liked the result enough to record the recipe here. These cookies still have butter and sugar in them, but they also have fiber, iron, whole grains, and protein.



1c (2 sticks) butter, about 1/4 melted.
1c (200g) sugar
1/4c (80g) dark molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2c (280g) white whole wheat flour
1/2c (24g) bran (wheat or oat)
1c (90g) rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp cinnamon
1c chocolate chips
1/2c raisins
1/4c toasted sesame seeds
1tbsp toasted flax seeds

Cream together the butter and sugar and then stir in the molasses, vanilla, and eggs one by one until it's thoroughly blended together. Stir together the dry ingredients and then mix them into the butter mixture until thoroughly combined.

Drop by heaping tablespoons full 3 inches apart onto pans lined with baking parchment and bake in a 375°F oven until deep golden brown. They will be soft to the touch. Cool on a rack before storing. The cookies remain soft and slightly cakey once cool. Makes about 4 dozen.

Substitution is the name of the game, of course, so butter subs, egg subs, sugar subs can all be worked in. As it is this recipe is soft enough to accept more solid things like chopped nuts that won't change the essential nature of the dough. Additional oatmeal would result in a firmer cookie, but it should be able to accept another half cup of rolled oats without becoming hard.

Meanwhile, back at the knitting, I'm working on a modified Arabesque top, translating it into a dress with a different yarn at a denser gauge. I finished the waistband tonight and I'm very chuffed at how it's turning out. Yes, I know it's nothing more than a ring of cabled fabric. What can I say, I like that ring of cabled fabric! Aside from the tension difference in the rows around the graft, I think the join is decently invisible.


Considering that I'm not normally a sweater knitter and I prefer working in DK to worsted weight, this is a bit of a departure for me. Of course I would decide to break that trend with a dress knit at 7.25st/in. But I'm excited and I think it might even look flattering on (once I offer concessions to self consciousness and toss a light linen shirt over it like a jacket or knit a shrug). So I'm not going to examine this urge too closely but feed it for as long as I can, because I really want to wear this! :D

Chocolate noms

I made a dessert tonight that was so fast and simple and delicious that I have to share it here. Molten Chocolate Cake, also known as chocolate lava cake. It's fast and easy to make, has a short list of ingredients, and it's sooooo good.

I dare you to keep decorum past the second bite.



Recipe with my modifications after the jump.

Like bubbles in a fish tank

Little thoughts keep rising to the surface. I'm a bit scattered, I've got a festival on Saturday and I'm behind schedule!

*bubble*
If you happen to be in the Montgomery NJ area on November 13th, swing by Montgomery Made by Hand at the high school (1016 Route 601, Skillman, NJ). 10am-3pm, it's a holiday craft fair hosted by the honors society, and there will be 45 vendors in attendance.  Free admission!  Raffles!

*bubble*
One of my yarns was in an Etsy front page Treasury last night. That was a very pleasant bump in views and hearts. Statsy screenshot. I really like the coy little bird print in the top row.

*bubble*
Someone asked a question on the Rav forums yesterday about whether garter stitch or seed stitch uses less yarn.  My gut reaction is to say seed stitch, both from experience and from considering the mechanics of both stitches.  But in a bit of procrastinatory rebellion I also decided to swatch.

Cast on with the backwards loop co, slipped the first stitch of every row, and bound off in pattern. The total number of rows included the co and bo. Each swatch was made with exactly the same length of yarn on the same needles.  Tension differences are sure to influence this, of course.

Now if I can just avoid getting sucked in to figuring out how to adjust for giant holes in one's knitting, like those Swiss cheese holes at the start of the hemlock ring.  For some reason these puzzles are always more interesting to me when I've got a massive pile of other things to do.

*bubble*
In another bit of procrastinatory rebellion, I put together a clip for This Is Handmade.  If you haven't heard about this blog, it collects tedium.  Specifically it collects the tedium of handcrafting (an explanation of the project).  So here is slightly more than 5min of me making stitch markers last night.  It's not a tutorial and it's hard to see exactly what I'm doing, and it's quite dull. But that's kind of the point. YouTube link


*bubble*
And now for something completely different. Some ruminating about cake after the jump.

In cake there is truth

(Because saying "the cake is a lie" has become a little tired.)

This is late, because I actually baked this cake a week ago for a reception on the 23rd. Cake is an evanescent art form, and also participatory.  I'd go so far as to call special occasion cakes performative.

It tasted really good, although it fell apart when cut due to several factors. And I should have used more syrup to moisten the layers all the way out to the edges. And I rolled the fondant too thin for the first tier I covered, so it ended up being overly pleated. 

But, cake!


The next big baking I have to do is a teetotaler's rum cake for my father's birthday banquet in December (teetotaler because we can't send people home drunk off cake, mostly), but that's only one layer, even if it's big.

Details of the wedding cake after the jump.

In other things

I haven't posted about food in a while because I became swamped with festival business and then fell into a blue funk.  I'm actually still in the blue funk but I'm working on snapping out of that.

In the meantime, one of my two favorite kinds of food needs to happen and I need to make it happen.  I like two kinds of food, which may or may not be clear by now; the really simple and delicious, and the really complicated and delicious.  Really, I just like delicious food but this falls into the latter category.  My cousin is getting married this month. I'm baking the cake.  I've had very little notice (which would be why I am baking the cake), but that's actually OK. Three weeks is actually plenty of notice given that I don't have a scheduling conflict.

I'm fond of spectacle food as long as I don't have to be too creative with the decorating.  I can do the actual baking and such, but I've never really practiced the art of compound moulding or piping or any of the delicate bits that elevate a cake or pastry into a sculptural art form.  But damned if I can't make it melt in your mouth.

He and his fiancee are stopping in today to talk cakes so last night I stayed up and baked a test run of the preliminary idea for proof of concept.   It allows me to test out how the raspberries in the filling will hold up, and quantities. It's already a good test because I've decided 2 layers is plenty per tier and that the whipped ganache holds up perfectly. It's quite fluid until it sets.


This it the 9in test run, rather haphazardly decorated as I don't have the fondant yet and I wouldn't have used it for a test run anyway.  I'm still undecided about raspberries in the filling, and I'm a little concerned that the whipped ganache is too stiff. It's as firm at room temperature as chilled buttercream (and I'm not talking those gritty powdered sugar buttercreams, but a proper buttercream made with whipped egg yolks and a boiling sugar syrup).  But I'm used to those silky room temperature buttercreams, so I could be biased.  The frosting on this cake is quite literally a whipped truffle, after all. The whole cake exhales chocolate.  The final cake will most likely be 3 tiers, 6in, 9in, and 12in, and covered in chocolate flavored rolled fondant over the ganache.  Recipes for all the components are coming from the Cake Bible, except the fondant. I'm purchasing that as making it from scratch is simply too much work for not enough return.

I've also baked a few wedding cakes in my past.  I figured I might as well put up a little gallery.  So, after the jump are some Cakes I Have Known.

Through the roof

Last night was full of moment. There was a lot of not getting enough work done (which is why my next shop update starts tomorrow come hell or high water), mangoes with coconut rice, and a mystery. The mangoes with coconut rice will be at the end of this post because I'd like to talk about the mystery. If you just want the recipe, click through the jump cut and page down until you see the food picture. :)

So, the mystery has to do with visitors to my shop and shop hearts. I check Craftcult several times a day to see my shop hearts. I know that hearts don't equal sales, but I think of it as a general barometer of how appealing my shop is. And really, it just makes me feel good. It's a bit of harmless affirmation.

Last night, the number jumped. It jumped so much that I thought it was a glitch and wondered if Craftcult was having problems. There was more than a page of new hearts. That is not typical for my shop! So I went to Craftopolis to see if it also had the anomalous hearts.


Look at the visitors, views and hearts for Aug 9. 821 unique visitors, 2611 page views, and 44 new shop hearts. I was gobsmacked. And I still thought it might be a glitch.

Keep in mind that in May a skein of my yarn was in an Etsy front page Treasury. That day I netted 300+ unique visitors and 26 shop hearts. This blew that day away.

I was still skeptical so I checked and everything kept saying it was real, so I started hunting for the source. I googled my shop, I checked for any more front page treasuries, I checked treasuries in general, I checked Ravelry, I even checked Etsy finds on the slim chance. I came up blank everywhere. There was nothing to explain why people had suddenly decided to heart my shop right and left starting 8:48pm last night.

I waited for midnight so I could check my analytics, and there was the completely unexpected source. Facebook.

Cake!

First off, don't forget the giveaway happening in this post, taking comments through Thursday.

Now, on to cake!

We have family visiting and one of my nieces asked for cake. Since we're in the middle of a slightly cooler patch of weather, I decided to go for it. The request was chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and raspberry jam filling.

I decided to go with a simple chocolate cake using oil instead of butter, vanilla cream cheese frosting, and tart raspberry sauce to go in the filling. The cream cheese frosting is one I devised when I made my cousin's Red Velvet wedding cake (it wasn't hard, it's just a basic frosting). The raspberry sauce comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible.

The cake is chocolaty and very moist. I prefer the flavor and texture of butter cakes and this is definitely not a butter cake, but it's plenty good enough to satisfy a craving. Other than the softness, the frosting and filling were tasty as well. As long as I keep the cake chilled when we're not serving portions, it should be fine. Otherwise, I'd do a standard buttercream for warm weather (the kind with egg yolks and soft ball stage syrup, not powdered sugar). But a buttercream was more work than I was willing to do today.



Recipe after the jump!

Ice cream social II - Another giveaway

It's that time again! Today is National Ice Cream Day and I've got another coupon for a pint of Ben & Jerry's up for grabs.



Just comment here any time through Thursday, July 22, about your favorite summertime treat(s), and you'll be entered in the random drawing! Please leave a way to get back in touch with you, or check back here on Friday, July 23 to see if you've won!

Once again, this coupon expires in 2011 and is only good in the US. However! Don't let that stop you if you're outside the US. If you win, I'll send a little surprise instead.

Myself, I love the bounty of fresh fruit the summer brings. One of my favorite extra special treats is a ripe, juicy peach or two cut up and smothered in vanilla ice cream. I've also been known to take a slice of chilled watermelon, straight through the melon like a wagon wheel and laid out on a plate, and go at it with a spoon. Or sit me down with a big bowl of cherries and leave me alone; I can never get enough cherries. Or I'll have a rootbeer float if I want something that instantly throws me into childhood nostalgia. What can I say, I love sweet treats!

I'll leave you with a picture of a melon. The farm gave us a few of these yesterday. This one is on the small side, but they don't get very big. 1-2 pounds is normal.

They're known as xiang gua in Mandarin, or "fragrant melon". After a bit of Googling, I found the English name is early silver line melon. They're small and hollow, white-fleshed and crisp, sweet and mild in taste like a honeydew. The skin is smooth and can be eaten. They're a bit underwhelming if they haven't ripened enough. We're going to let this one sit for a few days to improve.

Now tell us about your favorites! :)

An update and Ice cream month

I've been updating the shop in bursts for a few days, and last night I finally redid all my listing titles. The old versions were too wordy and it was difficult to keep straight which was which base. Hopefully the more succinct titles will work better.  Let me know what you think!

Picture links to the shop.

Now, on to the sweet, creamy good stuff. Did you know that in the US July is National Ice Cream Month?  I only just found this out.  Not only that, but the third Sunday in July is National Ice Cream Day. That's tomorrow!  So it's very appropriate that I am making ice cream today.  Tomorrow, I'll start the next ice cream giveaway.

But today, my niece and nephew are over and that alone is reason to make ice cream.  I'm using the same recipe I used for the mango ice cream, but I'm using beautiful, ripe peaches instead.


Peach ice cream with cherry topping, in a wine glass so the layers can be seen. It could have been frozen a little longer, but I was impatient.
 
Recipe chatter below the fold.

Fifth of July, not fifth of gin

First things first, I'm giving away some delightful Urbbody products in this post. 

Meanwhile, the quip "Fourth of July, fifth of gin" passed through my radar yesterday.  We missed out on fireworks, but stayed inside and tried to keep cool.  Our family barbecue is today and all that cooking I haven't done lately came to a head.

I'm historically in charge of dessert and I usually bake.  Unfortunately, we're in the grip of an entirely ridiculous heat wave. It went up to 100°F today, according to the thermometer on the front of the house. Mind you, our house is usually a good 4-6 degrees cooler than street level because we're on a hill surrounded by trees.  I can't remember a July this hot before, and we're all hiding inside as much as possible.

Luckily, we have a gas grill with a side burner, and a full tank of propane. I've made cobbler on the grill in the past, so today I decided to try clafoutis.  Clafoutis is a custard fruit tart and one of my favorite things. And then, because I've been wanting it for a while, I also made mango ice cream. A new recipe for me, that I like very much and can also see my way to modifying.
 
Blueberry and cherry clafoutis, and mango ice cream with a sprinkling of sweetened flaked coconut.

Recipes and more chatter after the jump.

An experiment in mini (micro?) s'mores

So, have you ever looked at a Teddy Graham cracker and thought "Teddy Graham, mini-marshmallow, chocolate chip!"

I've had this idea for a long time, I just never implemented it before.  (Apologies for the blurry pics. Unfortunately I didn't get a single unblurry one!)


I overtoasted them, so they were like napalm. We did a second batch with the chips and marshmallows on the same half, and we toasted the marshmallows until they were just turning golden.  That worked better, but the general verdict is that they're too fussy.  Big ones are easier and better.

The biggest problem is that Teddy Grahams tend to rock on their bellies, so the marshmallows roll off.  The second problem is that chocolate chips tend to get stiff/dry when they get too hot, even if they're not burnt. They have less cocoa butter in them than bar chocolate, and lecithin, etc.  Sooooo, these weren't really smooshy.  They tasted good, however. And I tested out an idea that has lurked for a very long time. :D

Existential pudding

Last night, I had the dilemma of having pudding and yet not having pudding. Because I had made pudding, but it was not yet chilled and ready to eat. So this morning I had pudding for breakfast.  I am not ashamed.

A sliced banana and home made chocolate pudding

The recipe after the jump.  And don't forget! Today is the last day to comment and enter my yarn giveaway here, and my stitch marker giveaway over in my Ravelry group.

Not the kitchen sink, but the seat of the pants

After I have measured the milk, yogurt, egg, and vanilla and beaten them all together is not the time to discover that we only have 86g of wheat flour left in the entire house.

I thought the "there's no plain sugar" situation was bad enough, but I have my emergency jar of vanilla sugar so that was OK. But one cannot make scones without flour!  And one cannot have berry shortcake without some sort of short cake.

So, I improvised.  I had potato flour and stone ground yellow cornmeal; I went with the cornmeal.  I ended up with something a little bit like the sweet "cornbread" common up here, but much less sweet and not at all greasy. I like it enough to save the recipe and  make it again.


Strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries, with vanilla ice cream and a corn... something or other

Recipe after the jump-