Craftings: Tie Bracelets

So I had a ton of tie ends (the skinny tails), left over from making a tie skirt¹ a couple years ago.  I figured I could put them to good use, and finally decided I could make little cuff bracelets out of them and some cute vintage buttons I inherited from my mom and grandmother's sewing collection.

I measured them on my wrist, folded over the not-pointy end and stiched it closed.  Matched a button to each tie, then sewed a buttonhole on the pointy end.  Boy, it's been a while since I machine-stitched (okay, any stitch) a buttonhole, and wow did I really suck at it.  This is one of the later (and better) ones.  Ugh.

On my wrist!

A fleet of them!  (I have three others that aren't pictured because I did them on an earlier night and they were already in my jewelry drawer)

I made a couple double-length ones that could be chokers, or doubled up on the wrist.  Doesn't this one look so academic? :)

¹ Todd Oldham taught me how, in, like 1993.

Craftings: Cardboard Star Wreath

So I've been on quite the crafting binges lately.  And a lot of them have involved reuse of otherwise unused objects.  Partly because of thrift, and partly because we live on an island now, and I'm a lot more sensitive to our waste these days.  Not that I wasn't before, but when you live on a very small pinpoint in the middle of the sea from which our garbage gets shipped, anything I can do to recycle or upcycle seems prudent.  Anyhow, I saw a how-to online for cardboard 3-D stars (which will be perfect for Christmas cards later this year - we'd already recycled a ton we'd saved before we moved).  So I took a cereal box and pizza box that otherwise would have gone in the recycling bin, grabbed my x-acto knife, and got to work!

Then I painted my stars a silvery sage green, plus an extra pearly coat on the smaller stars.

Some I left cardboard-colored, scored, and folded them into 3-dimensional stars. 

Then I grabbed a nasty wire hanger (you know, the cheapy ones that your dry-cleaning comes back on - blech), fashioned it into a circle, bent the top back into a loop, and then hot-glued the crap out of it on the back.

Stuck the 3-d stars on top of the flat green ones, making sure to gob them with hot glue wherever they touched the stars under them.

Close-up of the bottom.

On the door!  There's a sheer shimmery ribbon that matches it quite well that's looped around the top where the hook is - but I may take it off.  Haven't decided.

Chex Mix, Hawaii-Style

So I passed by some Crispix mix in a store a few weeks ago that had furikake in it. (a Japanese seasoning for steamed rice that has sugar, salt, sesame, and seaweed in it - don't turn up your nose until you try it, it's good!)  I love love love a good chex Mix, but was unwilling to pay the confiscatory price they were asking, so I started searching for recipes and found this and this.

I adapted the recipes to what I had and scaled it down to one pan (and the popcorn, while I'm always game for popcorn, just seemed to be too much of a textural contrast with the cereals - maybe on its own, it could be good).  Also, I just can't see dumping an entire bottle of furikake in.  Maybe it's my mainlander tastes, but I think that much furikake would make it taste very one-note.  I put in less than half and I thought that was plenty.  You could still get the sweet/savory/salty thing without any one flavor domineering.  I didn't have Tabasco, so I substituted in a few shakes of cayenne pepper - and could probably have used a little more.  I don't like nuts in my chex mix, so I swapped in more cereal for them.  And when I poured the sugar goo into the pan, it seemed like way too much, so I wound up adding at least another cup of (combined) cereal and pretzels.  I also think it wound up a little greasy, so I cut back on the oil just a bit.  And don't use the furikake that has bonito flakes in it.  Unless you like fishy chex mix.

Furikake Chex Mix

6 c. cereal: Corn Chex, Rice Chex, Honeycomb 

(I like 3c. Rice Chex, 1c. Corn Chex, and 2c. Honeycomb)

1 c. pretzels (I used pretzel goldfish, because, hey, they're cute)

0.5 c. butter

1/4 c. + 2 T. sugar

1/4 c. + 2 T. corn syrup

1.5 T. soy sauce (shoyu here in the islands)

1 T. worcestershire sauce

1/4 c. oil

Dash red pepper

2-3 T. furikake

Line a large roasting pan with foil.  You'll be glad you did this, because the syrup gets super-sticky as it bakes.  Heat oven to 250 degF.  Pour cereals and pretzels into pan.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat and stir in sugar until it dissolves.  Add corn syrup, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, oil, and pepper.  Pour syrup over cereal in pan and stir well to coat.

Bake for about an hour - maybe longer - until it is crunchy.  Stir every 10 minutes.  Stir in the furikake after 20 minutes.  If you don't have furikake, you can do what others have suggested and use a mix of toasted sesame seeds and a little salt.

Make sure you store this quickly in an airtight container or bag because it sucks up moisture and gets sticky quickly, even if you don't live in the middle of an ocean.

Very ono.  And remarkably addictive.

Craftings: Stained Skirt Reclamation

About a year ago, I bought a lovely basic grey skirt.  Knee-length, goes with lots, fits well.  So you can understand my dismay when, on the second or third wear, I stained it by sitting on a sharpie or pen or something.  Well, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it, even though there was a big black stain on the caboose, so I set it aside, figuring I could wear it with long jackets or sweaters or something.  Which was maybe once. I mean, I didn't know what exactly I could do to cover it without the covering looking worse than the stain itself, you know?  But I figured I could come up with something when I had more time and ambition.

The original stain.  Mid-project, from underneath. :(

Then, I held a bridal shower which left me with hundreds of surplus buttons.  Perfect!

And unemployment leaves me with plenty of time!  Perfect! (well, perfect for crafting, at least...)

So, I parsed out all they grey, black, and pearly buttons.  Stuck one over the stain, and then started sewing more on, randomly.  And kept sewing - I wanted a thicker covering of buttons at the bottom hem, tapering up towards the waist.

The back, with stain now cleverly hidden.

Things I Underestimated About This Project:

1. The amount of time required.  I didn't sew each button more than 2 or 3 loops, but each one is individually knotted, and that takes a while.  This was a 3-evening project!  I didn't anticipate it taking more than a night.
2. The forethought required in achieving a "random" pattern.  It was hard to scatter buttons so that they weren't equidistant from their neighbors!  I had to keep shifting them and adjusting before sewing them down.
3. The weight of all those added buttons.  This skirt weighs close to a pound now!

Extra buttons sewn into the lining for those I will invariably lose!

My reclaimed skirt!  From the front.

Craftings: T-Shirt Refashioning

So I've been addicted, in my unemployment, to pinterest, where in a 5-minute span, I can grow my project-list exponentially.  But, I now have time for all the projects I've accumulated for the past seven years!  So I've been doing a lot of crafting and DIY projects.

One recent obsession: refashioning t-shirts into new things.  I'm kicking myself for giving away so much of my clothing before we moved - I could do so much with them now! :(  Well, Goodwill has provided me with some cheap supplies!

I found some directions to make scarves/necklaces out of t-shirt jersey material.  I cut a bunch of strips/loops from t-shirts, stretched them so they roll up on themselves, and assembled.  What fun!

 Made this one because I loved a former colleague's combo of purple and lime she wore one day.

  Cut spirals out of t-shirts.  In retrospect, I'd have made them larger slash used a larger shirt, because this scarf is a little scrawny.

I was concerned that this one plays a little too 80s - but it actually looks kind of cute with a darker kelly green top and white skirt.

  Finger-knit braided bracelets - what a fun (and VERY instant-gratification) technique!.

 Chrysanthemum pin made from sleeve scraps.

  If I were to do this one over I'd have made it shorter and thicker.  But I did dye this one myself, and the pink shows a nice subtle variegation.  I also achieved this pink using black food coloring and boiling water. Pink was the only tone that stuck to the cotton.

  This one's going to a friend. :)

 This one, too. :)

 But this one I'm keeping.  To me, it's very oceany.  And makes good use of a bunch of surplus buttons!  It's a hybrid scarf-necklace (scarflace?  ew, no) made of long loops doubled-up on themselves.  But I've worn it so it cascades a little more.

There are more t-shirt projects coming, as soon as I can get back to a thrift shop! 

Adventures in Shave Ice II

Went back up to Hale'iwa today and tried Aoki's Shave Ice - which was not-crowded and right across a gravel lot from the always-crowded Matsumoto.  

First, they weren't crowded with tourists.  Which we aren't any more. :)

Second, they had more pleasant seating out front.  And just seemed cleaner than Matsumoto.

Third, they had some interesting flavors - including Blue Hawaii, which might be one of my top-5s now: coconut, pineapple, vanilla, and blue.  That and the ubiquitous lilikoi, the standard by which I will judge the island's shave ice.  I am also looking forward to trying the coffee, cream soda, and butterscotch syrups.

They were a little weak on the syrup, which is sometimes fine - because the sugar crash after Matsumoto can be rather unpleasant.  And they have a darling little antique cash register on the back counter.  And a penny-squisher.  Word.

Thoughts on Arriving

So we've been "home" for about two weeks now (staying in a hotel for the first ten days doesn't count), and we just about have everything situated in the house.  The kitchen was the first room to be settled.  The guest bedroom is all set up! (Book your vacations now!) The office is almost ready.  The bathrooms done. Our closet still needs some organizing, and everything could use a good vacuuming.  Pretty much everything has found its space  Even though it's remarkably foreign - more than one might expect - it's becoming more like home every day.  Now that the house is more or less under control, it's time to get out and start exploring.  Because until I find a job, my world is incredibly tiny!  

We've been to O'ahu several times, but upon arrival, nothing seemed terrifically familiar.  Partly because my husband usually does the driving when we're here, partly because this has never been my favorite island and we usually just connected here before dashing off to a different island, partly because the roads here are pretty confusing (to say nothing of the street names in a foreign language!), and partly because it's all colored by the we-live-here-now filter.  We're not vacationers, we're residents.  And that changes everything.

A couple people told me, before we left, to beware of island fever - when you just have to get off the island and start to go a little stir crazy.  We spent seven years in central FL, roughly the same land mass and population as here, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface of all the things to do and see there.  Never even made it to Sea World or Gator Land (gasp!).  So, to the island-fever folks, if you have run out of things to do on a gorgeous tropical island of a million people, clearly you are not looking hard enough.

When I'm not arranging the house1, I've been doing loads of comparison-shopping.  Trying to figure out what reasonable prices are for things around here (e.g. where milk does not cost $7 a gallon or other confiscatory pricing), and I'm surprised to see that gas pricing is virtually uniform throughout the island, even right at the airport.  I meant to take a photo of "what $100 buys in Hawaii" upon return from shopping yesterday afternoon, but already put the perishables in the fridge before I thought to - and didn't want to pull it back out.  So, some other time.

Our neighborhood is nice - loads of families, which means we probably don't have enough candy for tonight!  We have air-conditioning in some rooms, but the trade winds and our elevation (right at 1000 feet) make for nice circulation through the house if we throw open our windows.  Especially our front door, which has a separate screen door in front for just that thing.  Haven't had a screened front door since my parents' house! Anyhow, since I throw open the windows every morning, I find that there's so much sound!  Cars driving down the street, dogs barking, people's conversations - I have to be careful about singing along to my ipod. :)  Such a difference from Florida, where one goes from a sealed air-conditioned house to a sealed air-conditioned car. It's amazing how much goes on that you hear when your windows are open!  I know that's sort of a captain-obvious observation, but it just shows how insulated our FL existence was.  I suppose it's largely good - I sometimes get easily freaked-out by unidentifiable noises, but leaving the windows open and spending so much time in our house (again, a strange benefit of not having a job) as well as a much smaller house, I feel a lot more secure here than I have in previous homes.  Maybe that's just a function of my own growth in general.  Another topic for another time.

Other topics for other times: the process of finding a church, what it's like to be "on sabbatical" for the first time in my life, and what new things we've learned through each of our moves.

Not sure what I will wind up doing for work, but am patiently waiting on submitted resumes and sending new ones out when I see something interesting.  What I want to do is tackle my projects list and get to reading.  In time.

I love that we have both mountains and ocean again.

And because we're just on the other side of the Ko'olau mountain range and the wet windward side, we get brief little showers virtually every day, as well as rainbows virtually every day.  But the rain is so gentle, and it spares us from running the sprinklers on the yard.

1 I distinctly remember being peeved four years ago when we moved into the home we built and lamenting that all my school load was robbing me of the ability to enjoy the setting-up-the-house time.  That's been redeemed - I don't have anything to do now besides that here!

Adventures in Shave Ice

So I think my newest goal is to make a thorough investigation of the island’s shave ice and determine which one, truly, serves the best. 

Made a visit to Matsumoto’s up in Haleiwa with a friend earlier this week, and while it’s popular and very tasty, it’s also always crowded with tourists, the benches outside smell like garbage, and the staff is hit-or-miss on friendliness.  I ordered a combination of lilikoi (passionfruit – always present on my shave ice), coconut cream, and white cake.  The last two flavors were virtually indistinguishable. 

At Matsumoto’s, you can get regular ol’ shave ice (not a snowcone – it’s much finer, like real snow, and are almost always formed into grapefruit-sized portions.  But you can also have them put ice cream under your ice.  Or sweet azuki beans under your ice.  Or both ice cream and beans.  I tried the beans once.  Once was plenty.  No beans in my shave ice any more – no ice cream, either.  Just pure ice.  Almost everyone in line was getting sweetened condensed milk poured on top.  Not only does it look weird, I’m just dubious about the fruity-ice-dairy combo.  I don’t adore sherbet, barely tolerate ice cream sodas, and am pretty sure I don’t want ice cream at the bottom of my shave ice.  But, others have told me it’s delicious, so perhaps I need to give it a try, if nothing else but to say I have (see also: beans).

There are many other shave ice purveyors on O’ahu, however, and it’s time to start discovering them.

Meanwhile, I am rediscovering my home ice-shaver!  This is one of those gifts I wasn’t too sure I really needed or wanted, but turned out to be pleasant surprises (see also: yogurt-maker).  Anyhow, with milk fetching confiscatory prices in Hawai’i, I might not be using my ice cream maker as much as I would like.  Ice, however, is cheap and plentiful.  The syrups, however, can get a little pricey.  I did find a store in Pearl City that sells them for $1.99, but they’re full of high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives (something I’m not too Michael-Pollan about, but if I can avoid them, super).  Surely I can make my own. So I got on the google-box and started looking for snow-cone syrup recipes.  With pennies for the cost of the sugar and Kool-Aid on sale for 10 cents a packet, this beats the supermarket syrups by a long shot!  And it’s crazy-easy.  I cranked out 5 batches in just under 20 minutes, all for less than the price of one commercial syrup bottle.  I’ve been a fan of crushed and shaved ice from the days of my Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (which produced just a Dixie cup of shaved ice after minutes of hand-cranking), so I’m easily satisfied by a dessert of a bowl of snow flavored with a little sugar syrup.

Shave Ice Syrup

¾ c. water

¾ c. sugar

1 packet Kool-Aid (unsweetened); 1 t. extract; half a dram bottle of flavoring

Boil the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.  Add flavoring and stir.  Cool your syrups in the refrigerator, then pour over shaved ice. Store in the refrigerator. (Chilled syrups don’t melt the ice so quickly, anyhow.)

It’s essentially just flavored simple syrup.  And this stuff is sweet and flavorful – which it needs to be, so the ice doesn’t water it down too much.

For this go-round, I made Grape, Strawberry, and Pink Lemonade with Kool-Aid; Vanilla and Coconut with extracts.  I used my clear vanilla for this, but added a drop of neon blue food coloring to distinguish it from coconut, which I tinted bright yellow-green.

Chemistry? No, sugar syrup!

Next up: Almond, Cherry, Pineapple, and my favorite, Lilikoi (as soon as I can figure out the proportions with my pre-sweetened passionfruit drink mix).  Later: Maple, Banana, Lime, maybe a vanilla-peppermint or an Earl Grey syrup?  Lemon-elderflower would be awesome, if only we had an Ikea here for the elderflower.  Maybe someday I can move behind the candy-like esters of artificial flavoring and try reducing fruit juices into syrups, but – oddly – that has an air of the inauthentic.   Plus, those would surely taste cooked.  All the more reason to keep with the Kool-Aid and the extracts. :)

My most recent combo: vanilla-coconut

Adventures in Barbecue

I only recently began ordering pulled pork (usually at those barbecue places that bring you otherwise plain pork and allow you to sauce it yourself) and I sure don’t like that nasty brown smoky-sweet rubbish that is commercial barbecue sauce.  Ugh.  But, I can tolerate the sauces at those barbecue joints that are more tomato-tangy than anything.  So, having found a recipe for slow-cooked pulled pork that uses only root beer and pork, I decided to give it a go.  But instead of root beer, I thought the honeysuckle-sweet taste of Dr. Pepper would complement pork pretty well.  I was right!  This was SO GOOD!  Stop what you’re doing right now and go make some!  You won’t be sorry.

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

with

Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

2-4 lb. pork shoulder (sometimes called shoulder butt roast or Boston butt *)

1 2-L bottle Dr. Pepper

Put the pork in the slow cooker, pour in enough Dr. Pepper to come up about 2/3 the depth of the roast (about half the bottle – save 2 c. for the sauce).  Season with salt and pepper, if you like.  Cover and cook on low for 8h.

[While the pork cooks, make your sauce.]

Remove the pork from the slow cooker and drain. Shred pork roast with forks.  Top with sauce and enjoy!  (You can put it on bread, too, if you want a sandwich)

* Don’t waste your money on pork tenderloin or some other pricey cut – a cheapy-cheap bone-in pork shoulder with a little marbling of fat is perfect.  It’ll be falling off the bone after you get done with it.

Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce

2 c. Dr. Pepper

1 15-oz can tomato sauce

3 T. dry minced onion

1/3 c. vinegar

¼ c. honey

¼ c. brown sugar

½ t. Penzeys Northwoods seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine soda, tomato sauce, and onion in a saucepan; bring to a simmer.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir and simmer on medium heat, uncovered, 1 hour or until sauce has thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.

+

 

=

Thoughts on Leaving

Well, have I been woefully negligent in posting, or what?  I started a bunch of posts over the summer and never finished them.  Until now... so, apologies for the newsreader bomb, subscribers.  

Anyhow, the big news this summer, if you don't already know it, is that we are moving! To Hawaii!  Mr. Jenspin got a promotion, and that promotion is on Oahu.  It hasn't felt real. It gets a little more real as days pass, but I still can't believe it, even though all our household belongings (that which we didn't give away or sell - which was a lot) is in a shipping container somewhere between Florida and Honolulu, our car gets picked up and shipped tomorrow, I quit jobs I loved and don't have anything lined up in Hawaii yet, and we had to say a lot of goodbyes to a community we specifically moved to seven years ago.  

We had to do a lot of figuring-out about what to do with our belongings. We purged a lot in some typical summer-cleaning, but we had to decide what really made the cut, as we had a finite volume of a shipping container to constrain us.  What comes with us? What sells? What stores?  And since it was summer, I spent a lot of time in the lovely home we built and continually improved. I have been sad to leave my gorgeous kitchen, my big screened patio, the luxurious bathtub. And I had to ask myself, Do I love Jesus more than my stuff? And, if I'm honest with myself, sometimes the answer is no.  But then, isn't that a fundamental question? "Stuff" isn't just stuff. Could be "spouse". Or "job". Lots of little gods, all competing for our allegiance. Which we so readily surrender.

So, believing that the opportunity was from God, we pursued it, willing to shed things like belongings, like houses, which I've discovered often cause people hesitation in decisions to follow after God's desires.  Come, follow Me.  Sell your belongings, give the money to the poor. Don't look back.  The invitation is deceptively simple.

As we decided to move over the summer, that meant my last day of school - a lot of lasts, really - had already happened. And I was grateful for that, because I think if I'd known I'd been experiencing my last whatever, along with my seniors, I'd have been miserable. And instead, it was a season of such joy.  Unlike any other.  And that joy, along with a natural sense of completion in graduating off my seniors, made the decision feel fairly natural. I actually went back to campus this fall, to help out with the new teacher's transition the first week of classes. I was glad for the opportunity to see students one more time. But the lasts I thought I'd been spared, I had to confront them. A little. It's a new school every year, but this time it's different.  The increment of change seems much larger. It's familiar, but a lot of the students are new, a lot of the faculty is new. New programs, new classes, new people; it didn't feel quite like mine any more.

I keep saying it's not goodbye, it's really see-you-later - and I really do trust that's more than lip service.  With modern methods of communication and personal broadcasting, I'm in contact with hundreds of people all across the globe that I otherwise never would have seen again.  Plus, our lives have gone in such a crazy path I never would have predicted, I can't discount seeing people again.  It's not like we are moving to a beautiful vacation destination or anything.  It's just so weird, I keep getting fleeting thoughts like "we are moving to Hawaii.  Do you hear yourself??" I don't know when it will really sink in.  Or stop feeling like vacation.

If there's one thing that I've learned, moving to college, to grad school, to California, to Florida, it's that I always find my people.  And there's always room for more favorites.

Anyhow, we're currently en route, stopping in Indiana to visit family before heading to the middle of the ocean.  I'll continue to post updates as conditions warrant.  It's exciting, having the prospect of a new place to explore, a new culture to navigate, even a language to learn.  It's decidedly foreign, but doesn't require a passport.  Aloha!

Summer Projects: Cooking

This summer, I'm giving myself some Iron-chef-style personal challenges with the things that are in my pantry (seriously, where did all these kidney beans come from??). Recipes I've bookmarked for later:

Orange-Blossom Creme Brulee

Red Beans and Rice (it's been hard finding a recipe that doesn't use canned beans when I want to use up dried)

Curried Courgette Soup

Lilikoi Chiffon Pie

Caramel Corn

Shokata Gelatin

Cookies and Cream Pudding

Date Shakes

It's later.
I did not get around to the orange blossom creme brulee or the lilikoi chiffon pie.  I did, however, host two nights of crepes, very successful!  I highly recommend a mixture of ham and swiss for dinner and nutella with amaretto for dessert!

I've already blogged about the gelatin.  The date shakes were... meh. I don't think the dates got adequately pureed, so the whole blend-up just looked like, well, you can imagine.  Blech.

I also added to the mix an orange-blossom shortbread, sort of modeled on this. Cut into flower shapes, brushed with egg wash, and sprinkled with orange sanding sugar, they were good, but I think I will try a different shortbread recipe next time.  The orange blossom was subtle, but fragrant, which was good, because the floral scent can quickly make things taste soapy.

The real win, though? The caramel corn.  It's exquisitely addictive.  I started doing some riffs on the basic recipe, swapping almonds and almond extract to great effect.  It only takes a couple minutes in a standard microwave - you just have to play with the timing, but the best part of the recipe is that it results in caramel corn that is (and stays) crunchy!  Go on, try it.  You can use any kind of popcorn, but the best is stovetop-popped kernels in butter-flavored oil.

Fun With Gelatin!

More kitchen fun, this time with gelatin.

The basic proportion?  1 Knox envelope, with 2 c. liquid.

Assemble your liquids! Last year, I made americano gelee with unflavored gelatin, espresso, and water. This time, I'm using Shokata (lemon-elderflower soda), leftover Shiraz from last night's dinner (I added a couple teaspoons of sugar to the hot wine to take a bit of the edge off), and a passionfruit cordial I found in the clearance rack at my international market (about 3/4 c. diluted to 2 c.).

I used Knox envelopes, since that's what I had on hand, but you could use gelatin sheets, too, whatever the equivalent is. In 1 c. of cool liquid, I bloomed the gelatin by sprinkling the powder on top.

Meanwhile, I stuck the other 1 c. of liquid in the microwave to boil it. I added the boiling liquid to the bloomed gelatin and stirred more than I probably needed to, to make sure it was completely dissolved.

Then, into the serving dishes! I put the wine in wine glasses, naturally. The Shokata went into martini glasses - never seen gelatin so elegant! And the passionfruit got divided into four Japanese teacups.

And into the fridge! I let these gel overnight. It takes a few hours.










The results?
The best was the gelatinized Shokata.  Passionfruit was a second, but I might have liked it diluted with seltzer water instead of still.  The Shiraz was unconsumable.  Way too strong - should have made much smaller portions and sweetened it further - maybe with some fruit juice and fruit as a jiggly riff on sangria...

Crafty, crafty

Hot glue is just as miraculous as duct tape. What can't be fixed with a glue gun? Well, mine's been hot today. I have a long summer-project list - things I'd love to do, but never have any time during the school year - and I made some progress on it this morning. First, a wreath.

I saw a clever cookbook-page wreath in a fancypants kitchen shop in Marin.
 

When I picked it up, I saw the price tag: $120.  What! Surely I can make my own, I thought. I found this page for assistance, a $3 styrofoam wreath, a $1 thrift-shop reproduction of a 1909 Sears Roebuck catalog (nicely yellowed), a few hot-glue sticks, a scrap of ribbon, and a pin.

Summer Cooking I

So I had a burst of industry today. Surveyed our pantry, looked up some recipes, and went to the grocery store and came home with all kinds of fresh food for the week. I do love summer produce! Bought blueberries, mango, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, potatoes, bananas (both green and ripe - some for eating, some for baking), plums, green onions, peaches, plus some tilapia, ham, and sausage. My goals this week are to use up the following from the pantry:

macadamia nuts

beans (we have a ridiculous number of beans, canned and dried, right now)

white chocolate chips

double cream and apricot jam

popcorn

couscous

Well, the mac nuts and white chocolate chips simply begged for cookies. I also ran across a mac-nut-crusted tilapia recipe I hadn't had in a while - so that was put on the dinner list. When I opened the freezer, however, to pull out the mac nuts, I found I barely had enough to use for the fish, much less the cookies. Fail. But, I have a huge bag of walnuts in the freezer, so I quickly fast-tracked them to the list. I've hardly ever used walnuts for anything, really - this is perhaps the first time I'd ever purchased them, for a Lebanese pastry with orange-flower-water called ma'amoul. So I substituted walnuts for macadamias in my usual cookie recipe, and the results seem favorable!

White-Chocolate Walnut Cookies

(adapted from this)

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. shortening

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 c. chopped walnuts (or macadamias, if you're a purist!)

2 c. white chocolate chips

Cream together butter, shortening, and sugars. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Combine flour with baking soda and salt, then stir into butter mixture. Add nuts and chips. Drop by 2 tablespoons [the original recipe calls for making cookies by the teaspoon. Get serious, people! A chocolate chip takes up most of a teaspoon. I used my 2-tablespoon scoop, thankyouverymuch.] onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degF for about 12-14 min until tops are tanned.

I often can justify popcorn as dinner (with some Dr. Pepper to chase it down - mmmm!), but I wanted to use up some for more legitimate reasons. I happened across this recipe in my allrecipes.com box, and decided to give it a go. SO. INCREDIBLY. GOOD. Crunchy, not sticky (even in FL humidity, though I'll be honest, it hasn't lingered too long...), and the possibilities for modification (e.g. add nuts, tweak the extracts, etc etc) abound. Will definitely be making more of this stuff this summer.

Caramel Corn

(adapted from this)

1/3 c. popcorn

2 T. popcorn oil (you can use any vegetable oil, but I like the faux-buttery flavor of the bright-yellow stuff)

Pop popcorn(1), pick out any unpopped kernels, and set aside in a large microwave-safe bowl. I sprinkle mine with a little popcorn salt, to give more of the salty-sweet dichotomy we all know I love.

In a smaller microwave-safe bowl (but not too small), combine 1/2 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. butter, 2 T. corn syrup, and 1/4 t. salt. Microwave for 1 min. Stir, and microwave an additional 1.5 min. Add 1/2 t. vanilla and 1/4 t. baking soda.

Pour caramel mixture over corn in larger bowl and stir. Microwave 1 minute, stir. Microwave 1 minute, stir. If you have a large-wattage microwave, it'll probably be done at this point. If you have a smaller-wattage microwave, cook up to a minute more. Pour out onto parchment or a nonstick baking sheet to cool.

Note: be careful with this stuff. That sugar/butter mixture is napalm-hot, no joke. You'll see when you add the vanilla that it's hot enough for the extract to boil. Plus, it's sticky, and even a little drop on your fingers is going to hurt. Use a big spoon to stir the popcorn - you'll be glad you did.

Next up: Maple-pecan popcorn with maple syrup and toasted pecans; almond popcorn with almond extract and toasted almonds.

(1) Look, you can use microwave popcorn, but it's not going to be the same. Ditch the microwave bags and buy kernels. You won't spend that much more time on it, and stovetop-popped corn tastes way better. In a large covered pot, heat 2 T. oil on medium heat and add 3 kernels. Cover, and wait until you hear those test kernels pop. Add the remaining 1/3 c. kernels, and cook, shaking occasionally, until popping slows. Remove from heat, add salt, and never go back to microwave popcorn ever again.

I also needed to use some double cream that's been waiting patiently in my refrigerator. A lovely breakfast is some yogurt, some fresh fruit, and a scone topped with cream and apricot jam. So I needed some scones. I made some from a mix, but they came out flatter than roofing tiles. Back to my usual recipe:

Scones

(adapted from this)

1 c. sour cream

1 t. baking soda

4 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. cream of tartar

1 t. salt

1 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 egg

Mix sour cream and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt in another bowl and set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add sour cream mixture and egg and blend thoroughly. Fold into flour mixture, taking care not to overmix. Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll into a rectangle and cut 12 triangle wedges from it, or else make 12 rounds. Bake at 350 degF for 12-15 minutes on parchment, or until edges begin to tan.

Not my favorite scones, but they're serviceable.

Quite the output for an afternoon. And it's not even time to start dinner yet!

Hymn

If to distant lands I scatter
If I sail to farthest seas
Would you find and firm and gather

'til I only dwell in Thee?

If I flee from greenest pastures
Would you leave to look for me?
Forfeit glory to come after
'Til I only dwell in Thee

(Brooke Fraser)

Summer Projects

It's summer, which means I finally have time to tackle all the projects that come up during the school year. I've also been inspired by last year's cleaning and purging of a friend's apartment and classroom, prior to her cross-country move. And it just feels good to live light. Here's my summer-project list. I'm really good at starting projects, but less good about finishing them, so maybe some public-post accountability is what I need. ha ha

Clear out old semester exams (I have 7 years of exams in a file cabinet in my classroom)

Clear out old college notes and books (I moved these across the country twice. Twice too many.)

Shred pay stubs (how many do I need to keep, anyhow?)

Clean out old cosmetics (my morning routine is significantly shorter than it once was, and there's a bunch of stuff in my train case that I never use)

Jewelry repair (need to fix a bunch of things that broke this year)

Make some fun headbands with feathers and ribbons

Give new life to a marker-stained skirt (I think maybe with buttons to camouflage the stain)

Finish knitting some scarves for friends

Teach myself to crochet

Make some felted cup cozies - maybe my coffee shop can sell some?

Make postcards from my travel pictures

Make a vintage-cookbook-page wreath

Whoa, May.

So this month, no, this year just screamed by. I can't believe it's getting to be my birthday already - our last day of class is tomorrow! Some have asked for my annual list, so here it is. :)

As always, nothing means more to me than handwritten notes and letters from friends. There are few joys quite like receiving mail!

Moleskine Recipe Journal

Trish McEvoy #9 perfume

2G SD memory cards

Pilot Varsity pen set

Levenger Stub-nib True Writer

Ten weeks of open studio time here.

Crochet hooks and yarn - plus this book. Like I need more summer projects! ;)

Green coffee beans, and an air-popper roaster. Yeah, what I just said about projects.... :)

The newest Paul Simon album

The Civil Wars album

Great Lakes Myth Society albums