Another One

I need another new project like I need a hole in the head. But I just couldn't resist. Of course, that's what I thought months ago when I actually started this project. This week I think I've gone insane.

Oh well, what else is new?

I finished almost two weeks of single parenting and the only good thing about it is the quiet at the end of the night. It means I can write or quilt without listening to whatever crap on TV Hubby is likely watching. And I can do it without guilt because I'm not not spending time with Hubby. 

Most of the projects I have on the go are ready for basting and quilting. But that single parenting thing combined with the knee thing means no basting is getting done. Oh darn, more piecing. So pulled out this project and got myself sorted. All my squares are pressed, cut, and paired up. Another quiet evening and my half square triangles are done!

Hmm, where can I find another quiet evening?

Cardamom Ice Cream

Save for a few days over Easter and our wedding anniversary I've been single parenting the last two weeks. What I wouldn't do for beer and chocolate every single night. And intravenous caffeine first thing in the morning. But it's just another week in an absolutely crazy month. And all you can do is put one foot in front of another, type another key, cook another meal, and eat another bowl of ice cream.

Yes, another bowl of ice cream. For every day that I remember to buy cream when I steal a moment to buy groceries I dream about ice cream. Okay, that's a slight overstatement, but only slightly.

Once I called my neighbour over to save me by digging through the mess in the basement (I can still can't make my way to the basement yet) to find the base of the ice cream maker I could make my dreams come true. Cardamom ice cream here I come!

And oh, did that ice cream do it for me. It's quite rich. Ridiculously rich. And while I doubted the cardamom taste when making the custard it came through perfectly in the finished product. Adding rhubarb was a way to tease myself into spring (despite the snow storm we got this week) and soften the richness of the ice cream.

Cardamom Ice Cream with Lightly Stewed Rhubarb
(Adapted from delicious March 2010)
Serves 6 (or 1 tired mom over a few days)

Ice Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cinnamon stick
8 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
5 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk

Rhubarb
6 stalks rhubarb
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons water

1. Steep the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods in the cream and milk. Bring to medium heat in a saucepan. Just before it boils turn off the heat and let it sit for an hour. Strain and discard the spices.
2. Whisk the eggs and the sugar until pale. Add the infused milk/cream, whisking constantly. Pour into a clean saucepan and cook over low/medium heat, stirring, for 5-8 minutes until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, add the condensed milk, and pour into a clean bowl or jug. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
3. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Pour into a freezable container and freeze until firm.
4. Half hour before serving chop the rhubarb and combine with the other ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but is still holding it's shape.  Set aside to cool.
5. Serve ice cream on top of cooled rhubarb.

Friday Favourite - Lint Tool


Okay, hands up. How many of you clean your sewing machine on a regular basis? And just what do you define as cleaning?

With the knees injured my machine was getting a bit of a rest. So I took it in for a little tune-up and deep clean. In the almost 4 years I've owned it there has been very little that has ever bothered me about it, other than the needle threader breaking. It may just be because it is a good machine, but I also think I take care of it rather well.

One of the things I do is clear the lint every single time I change a bobbin. Yup, every time. The bobbin case is out anyway, so I have a good clean view of all that lint! I used to use a Q-Tip with a dab of oil to do this. This was how I was taught to oil my machine. Then a swap partner sent me a handy little tool. With regular cleaning I've found that I only need to do a quick swab with oil once a month or so, depending on how often I've sewn.

Today's favourite is the handy little tool.  It can be yours for less than a dollar, or even free if you, like me, often have straws and pipe cleaners around. Ah, preschool crafts.

Take a roughly 2 inch piece of pipe cleaner and a thin straw. The little coffee straws work best for this.
Fold the pipe cleaner in half and pinch the ends together close. Insert into one end of the straw. Don't worry about glue or anything. A small straw will hold the pipe cleaner in place.

Open up your machine where the bobbin is. This is what mine looks like after a a bobbin's worth of sewing. You don't have to look too close to see the lint.

Drag the pipe cleaner/lint tool through the entire area, behind the bobbin housing, in the bobbin case, and underneath the throat plate. This is what came up for me.

Do this every time you change your bobbin and your machine will run quite smooth. Trust me, a clean machine saves you a lot of headaches and repair bills.

Workshop in Progress - April 7

It's a late day for me, my apologies for coming to the Workshop late. There hasn't been a lot of sewing for me with some deadlines approaching on other projects. But a few of you have been busy.

Lesley over at Pickle Dish is busy working out of her comfort zone. This is a perfect post for us in the Workshop. I can just imagine all of us standing in front of her fence and collaborating on this design. Take a moment to view her post and lend your thoughts.

Because she is funny and she is working on an amazing project I want you to go check our Rachel at 2nd Avenue Studios. Any maybe you've got a thought or two on her corners.

Elle is still working on wonky, but she's made some good progress. And what about the use of black and whites?! But where to go from here?

Have a good week everyone! 

Things That Make Me Tired and Happy

This blog was only meant to be a hobby. A few recipes snuck in on my quilting blog, but I wasn't really thinking of going back to the food world in any way other than as a dedicated home cook and mother. And what was I thinking, a working mom maintaining two blogs in my copious amounts of free time? Apparently, I was thinking of the future without even knowing it.

After a year or so I started to think about writing, especially food writing, as a career option. Despite working in catering kitchens, running my own muffin company, and dropping out of journalism school it wasn't something I considered before. But the more I wrote here the more I wanted to write.

Insert some amazing mentors, loads of inspiration, and a serious lack of sleep and I am now a two job lady. A tired, but happy two job lady. I am now writing as Food Editor for What's Up and doing a little freelancing and teaching on the side. The day job stays, and I'll always be a mom, but my little hobby is turning into something exciting. And I couldn't be happier.

And when I'm happy (or sad or mad or glad) I like to bake. That's why I'm sharing this cookie recipe for you. The combo of chocolate and dried cherries is better than any chocolate box cherry, and guaranteed to fix any emotion you've got. (This recipe actually appears in the Spring issue of What's Up, along with more on Litterless Lunches.) So come on, celebrate with me!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries
Makes 2 1/2 -3 dozen, depending on the size of the cookie

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat your oven 350 degrees F. Grease your cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
2. Cream together butter and sugar for a few minutes. Add egg and vanilla, mix well.
3. Stir in the flour, cocoa, oats, baking soda, and salt. When it is all together as a dough add in the chocolate chips and cherries. 
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly firm around the edges. Let cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Belated Easter Treats



How very Martha of me. Not that I dyed Easter eggs using cabbage, beets, onions, and turmeric. Not that I also decided to dye some fabric. But the colours are all Martha. And if you look around this site for about five minutes you'll see that I don't generally work in softer colours. Like I always say, it's good to change things up a little.

We dyed eggs with friends on Friday. I was totally enamoured with the colours, and very surprised from that orange from just a few onion skins. So I left all the eggs with our friends, but took home the rest of the dye juices. We dyed a few more eggs but that liquid colour looked too good to throw away. I already had all my scraps out so I grabbed some pieces of white on white and threw them in the bowls. The orange is from onion skins, the yellow from turmeric, and the purple measuring cup contains the liquid from boiled red cabbage.

This is the fabric as it came out of that red cabbage juice. Such a lovely purple. It clearly turned the eggs blue, so this was a bit of a shock. But a good rinse in cold water and some air time to dry and the fabric all turned the same soft blue/grey as the eggs. Perhaps a little less blue.

These are the turmeric stained fabrics right out of the dye water. So yellow! And even though I rinsed and rinsed they stained quite bright. And point of fact: turmeric dyed fabric will smell like turmeric long after it is rinsed and dried.

Look at my strips drying so nicely together!

And here are the eggs and their associated fabrics. In truth, they may be Martha colours, but they really are softer versions of the colours already in our house, namely turquoise and orange.

So I took all the scraps, trimmed them into strips, and started sewing. I went for the silly a little, in making an egg shaped placemat. This was easy to do. I simply created an egg shape out of paper so I had something to compare to as I sewed. You could also use it as a paper pieced project. Then I sewed the strips together. Once I knew I had my desired size I trimmed the top, cut out backing and batting and sewed it all together with right sides together.

Full disclosure, I screwed up twice when sewing it together. That's what I get for rushing to get it done during naptime. But I got myself sorted out and finished it off after turning it all right sides out and sewing that last seam around the edge.

There is a peak of the backing fabric. I put on something bright and fun so that if/when the top gets wrecked/runs I can use the other side for springtime. And there is my Smilosaurus checking it all out.

Self-Portaits

Yes, I know this is a quilting blog and pictures of the quilter aren't always part of the package. But today's post is about me, so a picture of me in my natural habitat seems appropriate.

This weeks marks the culmination of a lot of effort on my part to realize the life I want. I don't have that life yet and, to be honest, I wonder if I ever will. This week definitely marks my intentional movements in the right direction. Yet it isn't about milestones or defined marks of success, although many of those are there. Rather, it is about my perspective and attitude towards my life.

Long, long ago it became very clear to me that we get out of life exactly what we put into it. I was surrounded by some very irresponsible people. They whined and bitched about how their lives sucked. Any outsider could see that aside from the odd bit of bad luck their lives sucked because they let them suck. They made choices or a series of choices that put them in crappy living situations, bad relationships, or uninspiring jobs. I wanted to scream at them that they'd brought most of it on themselves, but I, more than anyone, knew that was pointless. So instead of trying to change their lives, I decided to change mine.

I'm not going to say that it's always been sunshine and roses and every single thing I decided to do worked out for me. I've made bad choices, Hubby and I have questionable timing with some decisions, and more than once I've been plain wrong. Regardless, I own those choices. They were mine to make. And in the end I've always made it work for me.  Why?

Because we are the sum of the choices we make.

And lately I believe I've had every right to whine a little about a lot of things. And I have done so. You get to the point though where even you get tired of your own whining. Instead you pull yourself up, maybe slap yourself in the face, and decide to change the way you are reacting to the things you have no control over. Because that is where your character comes in, in how you choose to respond to the world around you.

In the midst of all these platitudes I do have a point. My choices of late are leading me to live a truly creative life. From the activities I do with my kids like this and this, to the professional decisions I am making. From the projects I tackle, to the goals I set for myself. And this week I took another step in that direction. I really can't tell you how I feel about this other than to say I am beyond excited and damn proud of myself and my partner in the adventure.

And so what if my house behind me is chaotic and messy? I am happier, my kids are still full of joy, and my family is stronger.

Workshop in Progress - March 31

Thank-you for all your kind words about the indigo project. I really am quite attached to this project and the anticipation of what it might be. I will definitely keep you posted on every step along the way.

This week in the Workshop we have some interesting posts.

Felicity has a very sweet hand-me-down flimsy. It is hand-pieced by a beloved family member and she is looking for opinions on how to do it justice with her own touch. Any advice for her?

It's been mentioned here before how I love the challenge of putting together quilt tops from seemingly disparate pieces.  Bees are fantastic for this. That's why I really like the challenge Kris from Summer at Grandma's House has for us this week.  She has a number of house and tree blocks from her own bee. What would you do if they were your blocks?

Elle is up to something new, again. Does she ever not try something new.  This week she is looking for advice on getting wonky.  Do you have any for her?

That's a wide variety of topics, but that is the best part of the workshop - being exposed to so many different ideas.

Fabric with Weight

Progress on a quilt! Trust me, this is momentous news lately. Hubby has been out of town a lot, I've had some writing deadlines, and Quilt Canada is now a month away.  Things are busy! But we had a low key weekend and I squeezed in some sewing, during naptime of course.

This is the start of what is currently being referred to as my Slaveship Quilt. I promise I will get a better name in time. These strips have come from this pile of indigo fabrics. Oh, I heart these indigo fabrics. These are designs that are well over a century old, but some of them are so bold and modern today. And that indigo is melting my heart.

It wasn't until I started cutting into them that I realized these were real Da Gama fabrics, imported from South Africa. Suddenly the fabric had more weight, and the project took on even more symbolism for me.

Yes folks, I would say that I am making my first art quilt. With every step, from inspiration to design to sewing I feel the importance of each decision. There is a reason to everything I'm doing. So not only do I intend to have something beautiful simply to look at, I hope it is something meaningful and symbolic too.

(My nature is to suddenly retreat into something self-deprecating right now, but this project doesn't deserve that.)

This is a multi-step design and who knows whether I'll finish it this week or next year, but I hope you will enjoy the process as much as I will.

Babka is a Family Affair



It's only fitting that I felt compelled to make Babka on the day of the bake sale at my parents' church. They would have sold Babka by the hundreds there. Not surprising since every single recipe I had seemed to make enough to feed an entire Ukrainian village. 10 eggs! 3 packages of yeast! 10 cups of flour! Oi vey.

So I did what any good Ukrainian would do. I called my mom. Unfortunately, she was at that bakesale, but my dad totally came through for me. He referred me to another cookbook in the family collection, where we found a recipe that could easily be adapted for a normal family size. And he said it looked a lot like the Babka that he was familiar with.

Did I mention that I've never made Babka before?

Traditionally served at Easter, and part of the required items in the Easter basket to be blessed at church, Babka is a sweet, eggy bread. Our family likes our studded with raisins or currants. A lot of descriptions  online call it something between a cake and a bread. Not so in my world. I always think of Babka as a sweet, rich bread, baked tall and best with creamy butter. Keep your cinnamon and chocolate and your Jerry Seinfeld, Babka is for spring, with a touch of citrus.

So the girls and I gathered our ingredients, put on our aprons, and set about to make a big giant mess. The good thing about making Babka is that it needs a lot of eggs, perfect for little hands. And what gorgeous little hands. I adore watching my girls' attack dough in their attempts to knead it. The Monster even has the push - turn - fold technique down now. And so long as we can keep Smilosaurus from snitching bits of raw dough we end up with a nice piece set to rise. And rise. And rise again. Be forewarned, from start to finish this is a full day affair.

This recipe starts out quite wet, what with all those eggs, milk, and a juiced orange. You will have to play with the flour, adding as much as necessary.  Just go slow, adding a few tablespoons at a time. Your dough is ready when it is smooth, aside from the raisins, no longer sticky, and relaxes a little, just a little, when you stop kneading.



Babka is traditionally made into a tall, round loaf. You do this by baking it in cleaned out cleaned tin cans. You could bake it in a loaf pan, but that doesn't seem quite as fun, or traditional. If, like me, you don't have a lot of cans in your house you can ask a neighbour. Failing that, make plans to make sauce later and use the cans from some tinned tomatoes. Just make sure they are washed well. Then buttered quite well. If you are worried about the bread releasing from the can, line it with a strip of parchment paper, and more butter. 

And when you are all done, make sure you call your parents to share your success. Then butter some slices for the next generation and enjoy with tea. Church blessings optional.

Ukrainian Babka
Makes 5 large tin size loaves, more or less depending on the size of container

1 tsp  plus 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 package Active Dry Yeast
3 whole eggs
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup warm milk
1 tsp salt
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 tsp vanilla
4-5 cups flour
1 cup golden raisins or currants
1 egg, beaten

1. Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in warm water.  Add yeast and let stand 10 minutes.
2. Soak raisins in warm water. Drain well.
3. Beat eggs and yolks until light - 4 minutes with stand mixer, about 8 minutes by hand. Stir in remaining sugar and beat 30 seconds more. Add melted butter, milk, salt, orange juice and zest, and vanilla. Mix well.
4. Mix the wet ingredients to the 4 cups flour in a large bowl. Mix together well.  Add flour, if necessary, 1/4 cup at a time until you get a wet dough. 
5. Turn out onto a floured countertop and knead.  Add flour in small bits until the dough is smooth.  Knead for 4 minutes or so. In two batches knead the drained raisins into the dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a clean, buttered bowl, rub a bit more butter on the dough and set in a warm, draft-free spot to rise.
6. Let rise until double in size.  Punch down and let rise again.
7. Butter cleaned tins, dish, or pans. If preferred, line with a strip of parchment paper, then butter that as well. Form dough into balls that will fill container of choice to 1/3. Place in container and let rise again.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the tops of the babka with beaten egg.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your container. It should be nicely browned and have a hollow sound when you tap it.

Friday Favourites - Quilts of First Quarter 2010

I heard back from a lot of you in January that the round-up of my favourite quilts was something you wanted to see more of. I've decided to do this every 3 months for you. Even then it is hard to narrow it down!

Selvages are something that I now cut off and set aside - to giveaway. I have absolutely no motivation to make a selvage quilt myself. Even after seeing this one, I still don't want to make one. But I can look and admire the quality and beauty of this quilt.  Great job Jacquie!

There are some lovely, lovely quilts on Jess' site. Simple and graphic.  You see similar quilts around, but there is something about the way she places just that one extra bit of fabric or a carefully chosen binding that elevates her quilt above many modern others.

If you've been reading me for a while you know that I'm generally not a fan of quilts made entirely from one fabric line alone. But I adore what Andrea did from her inspiration - a drawing and design by her son.  How cool is that? And a nice break from her year of solids.

White binding. White binding on a multicoloured striped quilt.  Need I say more?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who puts quilts in her office.  At least it doesn't seem odd when you work in a crafty kind of place like Lark Books.

Off Kilter by Amanda Jean from Crazy Mom Quilts
Okay, so a slight bias here. But I had to share one more finish from my quilt along. I know many of us miss Amanda Jean's blogging, but you can keep up to date with all her work on Flickr. Thank goodness!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour.

Only in My House?


Hubby has a disgusting habit. Okay, he has more than one. Opening beer bottles with his teeth, eating knobs of butter, just butter, and eating dried macaroni by the handful. And much to my chagrin, he's passed on those habits to our youngest child. Not the beer bottle one - yet.

Yes, when we bake she steals bits of butter and I've found her with her finger in the butter dish more than once. Are you cringing just a little at that? I am.

Lately, however, the macaroni habit has become an obsession. All our dry goods are stored in glass jars on open shelves above the stove.  She literally tries to climb up the stove, yelling, "Macaroni please!"

At first I refused, fearing that she would choke. We've been down that road and I was terrified of another ambulance visit. Eventually I relented, letting her have just one. She chomped down, chewed it up, and asked for more. So now she and her Daddy sit with handfuls of dried macaroni, crunching and laughing together over the naughtiness of their habit.

Does anyone else do this? Or is my family just this special? (Sarah, don't answer that)

Lemon Frozen Yogurt

For sittin' on the porch and pretending it's summer.

This is about the laziest dessert one could make, aside from cutting up fruit and pretending it's a treat. Of course, it only works if you own an ice cream maker. That's not true, you could just stick a container of yogurt in the freezer, but you'll miss the churning and the joy of soft serve fro yo as it comes out of the ice cream maker.

Recipe:
Take a carton or two of your favourite yoghurt such as Liberte Mediterranee Lemon. Dump it in a frozen ice cream maker. Turn on. Eat when frozen. Dream of green grass, ocean breezes, and blazing sunshine.

Workshop in Progress - March 24


First off, let me address last week's post on the Workshop. Even if there is only one post out there with someone asking for advice, a second opinion, or even showing off a challenging piece, I will share it with you.  My goal is to encourage more of us bloggers to share things throughout the creative process, to open ourselves to the opinions and insight of others that we might get if we were taking a workshop together.

So, I will continue to do this until I'm no longer interested. Or the posts really, really dry up.

I completely understand the chaos and demands on our schedules through work and family, beyond our creative pursuits. Blogging on demand, as the Workshop may make you feel is a necessity is never fun. I'm not immune to it myself.

Going forward, I will continue to post on Wednesday any posts I see from the last week, not just those that come out on Wednesday. It's okay if you posted on Friday and have maybe even moved on in some precious hours in the weekend, I still want us to share and collaborate. Even if the opinion is moot, it is good food for the next time around. If I miss your post, or you really want to make sure I see it, send me a quick email. It will get up. 

Take the time to explore, to share, to discover new artists, techniques, and questions.  Enjoy the Workshop today! This week seems to have a theme on names. 

Many of us find naming the finished quilt a very tough thing. Felicity is struggling with the name for a very calm but striking green quilt. I keep feeling moss from it, how about you?

Cindy at Live a Colorful Life is embarking on a new adventure - an online store devoted to selvage goodness! But she's debating names.  I know my favourite, what's yours?

We'll see you next week in the Workshop!


PS I couldn't leave you without a picture, so here are my brand new moccasins, courtesy of Darlingtonia on Etsy.

I Joined a Bee

If you know me or have seen the hidden boxes in my basement you know that it is hard for me to keep commitment to bees and round robins. I don't know why, but I get so stuck on these projects and I'm the one who either hands in the project ridiculously late or not at all.  Yes, I've been known to be THAT quilter.

Alas, no more! I promise, I swear, and I cross my heart because this year I joined a bee.  I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with these ladies. And my logic also tells me that if I am being told what to do I should be able to manage it.  

One month down and I was only a tiny bit late. But I'm totally blaming my knees.


This is the first block for Valerie. It was also the first time for me to work with these Heather Ross fabrics.  They're sweet, but I won't be losing any sleep over them.  And after seeing the blocks headed her way, I am quite excited to see them all together.

That is probably my favourite part of this process. I just wish I could be there with every one of my partners to help them assemble the tops.  I love taking blocks and putting them together, moving this one over here and that one there, until it all just feels right. I've got to wait until January for my turn.  That gives me plenty of time to change my mind about what I want done.

An Overdue Thanks

Back in August I won a copy of Bend the Rules with Fabric from the author and designer herself, Amy Karol. It was quite a treat really.  I continually pull it out and plan some ideas in my head.  I even went so far as to buy some fabric paint for a specific home decor project, but Hubby vetoed the addition of stamps on the curtains. But Hubby's been away a lot lately.

No, I didn't go ahead and stamp the curtains, but I did make what is known as a Daddy Doll in this house.  You see, the Monster fully recognizes that Daddy is away and come bedtime she gets upset. Personally, I think it is more her knack for melodrama than actually being upset, but who am I to argue with a crying three year old? Then I remembered a specific project from the book.

With a little help from a good friend at work and her Photoshop skills (I have none) and a drawing of Daddy that The Monster herself made I turned this:

into this:

To be honest, it isn't the best example of what the concept is. We had a major printing error where the head, inexplicably, printed itself about 3 inches from the body.  But the printable fabric is expensive so I had to figure out a way to make it work.  How very Tim Gunn of me. So I cut out the shape, without making Hubby look a little too male, and hand appliqued it on. Hubby picked the fabrics, it was his doll after all. And I rescued the filling from an old, unused pillow. It isn't quite the same effect as the original concept, but the end result is the same - less crying at bedtime when Daddy was away.

Scotch and ...


In a fit of accidental drinking and eating Hubby and I discovered a fantastic food/liquor combo. Scotch and caramel corn.  In particular, peanut and sea salt with my caramel corn and a smoky scotch like Caol Isla. Okay, so the drinking wasn't accidental, but the insane hunger that led us to the Scouts caramel corn was.

Not wanting to repeat ourselves, nor get into that beyond sweet caramel corn again, as well as prep for My "Whiskey for Dinner" class tonight I set out to make my own caramel corn. How refreshing it was to discover that it is so damn easy. Pop some popcorn, make some caramel, toss together, and bake at low heat. That's it. I even encouraged the men in our class tonight that it was dead easy and hopefully they are logging on to get the recipe right now.


One of the surprising things in my research was that 99.99 % of the recipes I found used brown sugar.  Actually, I didn't find any that used white sugar, but I can't conclusively say that there isn't one out there. The first batch I made was with the "best brown" sugar I keep in the house for oatmeal and cookies.  It was good, once I got over the concept of adding baking soda to the recipe. But I knew I wouldn't have enough, plus I wasn't that fond of the colour.

The second batch was with the "yellow" brown sugar I borrowed from the neighbour when I realized that the nanny had used the last of my brown sugar making cookies - not that I was complaining. And, I'll admit it, I was afraid to try white sugar since I found no recipes with it. So yellow brown sugar it was. 

Can you tell the difference in the photo above? Best Brown on the left, yellow brown on the right.


So I had my caramel corn ready to go. Good to go. Loaded up I joined a great group of guys at J. Webb tonight. Where are my single ladies?  Seriously, develop a taste for scotch or an open mind, because there are always a fun, intelligent group of guys at scotch tastings. 

The caramel corn was on deck to serve with those lovely smoky or peaty scotches.  When it comes to scotch and food pairings you don't want to pair smoke with smoke. The sweet and salt of caramel corn matches perfectly with the smoky drinks. Actually, the caramel corn went with almost all the scotches.  As does chocolate, especially the fruity ones from Venezuela and Guatemala.

But pairing scotch and food is more than the sweet stuff. At its most basic level, pairing is pretty straight forward - match the basic characteristics of the scotch to your food. For example, the Lowland scotches are lighter, so they work well with rich cheese, honey, and fruit. Something like a pear and brie tart, or a cream of leek soup. And think about where the scotch comes from, The Island and Speyside styles work really well with seafood and both clean and salty flavours.  Even sushi works really well, or mussels with fennel.  The Lowland and Highland styles lend themselves to the richness of game meat, the sweetness of peppers, and even some spice.

But the star of the night was the caramel corn.  And the Glenfarclas 17 year old.

The caramel corn recipe I used was a slight variation on this one.  I added a bit more salt, used the roasted peanuts I had in the cupboard, and that yellow brown sugar. It isn't cloying, has the burnt sugar saltiness, and the baking soda makes the carmel crackle, but not crack.

Caramel Corn
Makes about 10 cups

1 3/12 ounce package plain/orginal/natural popcorn
OR 10 cups air popped popcorn
1 cup yellow brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (cut this back if you prefer it without the salty taste)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanuts, cashews, or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray. Spray a large bowl.
2. Pop your popcorn and toss in the bowl, being careful to keep out any unpopped kernels.
3. Whisk sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and water in a small saucepan.  Melt and boil for 3-5 minutes until it reaches 250 degrees F on a candy thermometer. You need the candy thermometer, so don't try to just eyeball this step.
4. As soon as you reach temperature stir the baking soda and vanilla into the caramel.  Pour over the popcorn, add the nuts, and stir together.  You won't get a complete cover over the popcorn, but stir well and try to get a little on each bit of popped corn. Spread out on the cookie sheet.
5. Let cook slowly in your low oven, stirring gently every 20 minutes, for 1 hour. Let cool completely before enjoying.

True Inspiration

Inspiration for an artist of any sort doesn't just refer to seeing something or hearing something and then turning it into a project.  Inspiration can come in the form of people and ideals. I had that experience the other night and it gave me so much energy, so much affirmation for the approach I have to quilting. On Friday I had the pleasure of attending a trunk show by Bill Kerr from Fun Quilts.

Fun Quilts is the quilt baby of Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, a husband and wife combo of designers, artists, quilters, teachers, and authors. I discovered them about 5 years ago. There'd been a bit of a lull in my quilting, mostly because I felt a little alone and lost in what I was trying to do. I knew that I wasn't that interesting in traditional piecing, but I hadn't found anyone who was quilting like I was, with simple and bold designs. And I didn't want to see another Yellow Brick Road quilt!

So I did what most of us do these days, I turned to the internet.  My very first Google search was with the term "modern quilts." I'm not sure I googled anything else, to be honest, because so much came up. It was eye opening for me. 

At the top of the search results was the book The Modern Quilt Workshop and a pile of blogs showcasing work from the book. Wow, it was eye opening. No, I didn't rush out to the buy the book. (I'm not a pattern person and this book is mostly patterns.) But I started exploring all the blogs and got so excited.  Generally I'm not one be a joiner, preferring my own track, but this felt like a community of like-minded creative folks. 

It was just the inspiration I needed, just the kick in the pants to get me creating again. I started sketching and sewing with energy again. I even started the blog after not too long. And now, I can honestly say that the one internet search led to a a whole new creative me.

Seeing Bill Kerr speak, one of the authors of The Modern Quilt Workshop, is only getting me more jazzed about creating. His presentation included a brief discussion of design and the reflection of quilt design as a sign of the times. And this, really, is the crux of the Fun Quilts approach. There is no one visual style to their work, rather they like to think they create quilts that are a reflection of the times we live in.

Sigh. So perfect.

Then he went through a number of their quilts, discussing the inspiration or motivation behind the piece. For example, this one was inspired by a can of mixed nuts and boxes of cereal. And I thought I was the only one who was inspired by food! And the one above was inspired by the departure maps in the back of the airline magazines.

It has actually been a while since I was on their site and in preparation for the trunk show I found myself browsing through their quilt gallery. It actually shocked me to see the influence of them in not only my quilts, but in many others I've seen. Either we think exactly the same, or their quilts were hidden in my subconscious when I was sketching!

Sometimes it is so enlightening to meet the people who inspire you. Thankfully with quilt celebrities you almost always get the chance to actually chat with them as well. I always admired the work of Fun Quilts and now I admire the people behind it. I identify with their approach and personalities (even if they managed days of skiing without incident while visiting our area). And I am totally focused on where I want to take my quilting and my creative life. That, for me, is the result of true inspiration.

Bean Burgers Yum!

If you've been reading a while you know that I was the mom who went crazy anal about making my kids' food when they were little. Or you just know me and that fact isn't surprising at all. But the one thing I did buy was some bean burgers from a local manufacturer. The Monster absolutely loved them. But they were expensive. Damn expensive.

I launched a search to make a good bean burger myself. And I searched and tested and searched and tested some more. And I had no success. Nothing seemed to work.  They were all too dry or too wet, so I gave up.

Then the Blog Aid: Haiti cookbook arrived. Catherine McCord at Weelicious included a recipe for garbanzo burgers in it. The old challenge poked its head out of my subconscious and forced me to make her burgers. And you know what? Success at last! 

Of course, I did adapt it a bit.  But that's because I had a 19 ounce can of chickpeas, not 14 ounces as in the original recipe. To compensate I added some pistachios when I was making the breadcrumbs and threw in some spices. The girls and I happily ate them, as did our vegetarian friend who was visiting. Even Hubby, the devout carnivore, ate them without grumbling. Much. But he did clarify that they were actually patties and did not deserve the name burger.

Garbanzo Patties
Adapted from the Weelicious recipe in the Blog Aid:Haiti Cookbook

Makes 12-15 patties

1 19 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small carrot, chopped
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios
2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp oil

1. Blitz the first 8 ingredients in a food processor until it is a consistent mixture.
2. Stir in the bread crumbs, pistachios, and sesame seeds.
3. Scoop about 1/4 cup of the mixture (it will be wet) into your hand and form patties. 
4. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Cook patties for 5 minutes, flip and cook 3-5 minutes longer.

Particularly tasty with Edgar Farms Asparagus Relish. Or a nice green salad.