Photoset
June 19, 2013
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Fruit Tart

I love making this fruit tart, and I make it every summer, usually as a contribution to someone’s cookout or party. People seem to like it a lot, and it looks impressive despite the very little effort required to make it. I like to arrange the fruit in a pretty pattern, but this tart would also be great just piled high with fruit. 

This recipe makes two batches of dough, and if I’m not making two tarts, I freeze half and it keeps very well. I recommend letting the tart come to room temperature before eating it, but it should not be left out of the fridge for too long (especially in hot weather). The leftovers are also delicious straight from the fridge at breakfast the next day. :)

Fruit Tart Recipe

Crust (enough for two tarts)

  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
Pulse together in a food processor until the dough forms a ball (or use a pastry cutter to mix the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and stir until dough is smooth). Dough will be fairly wet and sticky. Press dough into a greased 9” or 10” tart pan with a removable bottom, building up a slight rim on the sides. Prick with a fork several times. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Cool.
 
Cream Filling (enough for one tart)
  • 1 8oz package of cream cheese
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup sugar
Beat together until smooth. Spread evenly over cooled crust.
 
Fruit
  • Whatever kind you like. I suggest peaches, kiwi, raspberries and blueberries. My recipe suggests 3-4 cups per tart; I typically use less than that making a fussy pattern.
Arrange as much fruit as desired on top of cream layer.
 
Glaze 
  • 1/2 cup orange juice, sieved
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 T corn starch
  • 2 T lemon juice, sieved

 

Bring to the boil for 1-2 minutes. There might be some vanilla involved; probably wouldn’t hurt to add some. Allow glaze to cool. Spread over fruit layer - I like to use a pastry brush for this.
 
Refrigerate tart for at least 2 hours. Remove from fridge about 30 minutes before serving to allow tart to come to room temperature. 

Tags: baking fruit tart summer dessert

Photoset
June 08, 2013
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Hexagon Quilt: Part 3

I finished laying out the top of my hexagon quilt! It looks massive, but it will hopefully be the right size for a queen bed.

I stacked the hexagons by vertical column, moving from top to bottom and left to right, and labelled them with a column number. It’s time to start sewing, and I will need to think hard about whether I will be able to do any chain piecing or if that will just make it harder to keep track of the order of the hexagons in each column. I have about some leftover hexagons to practice sewing together, which is what I’ll do next.

Tags: quilt quilting sewing patchwork hexagon

Photo
June 03, 2013
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My husband just returned from Italy. This meal was an (successful) attempt to recreate an Italian feel, mostly for my own benefit, but everyone wins with delicious antipasti and no cooking on a hot night. The wine, from Tuscany, was the bomb. Bonus: sleepy dog in the top left corner.

My husband just returned from Italy. This meal was an (successful) attempt to recreate an Italian feel, mostly for my own benefit, but everyone wins with delicious antipasti and no cooking on a hot night. The wine, from Tuscany, was the bomb.

Bonus: sleepy dog in the top left corner.

Tags: eat food italian tuscany antipasti wine

Text
June 03, 2013
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Hexagon Quilt: Part 2

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I began to lay out the hexagon quilt top! I am about halfway done, but rapidly running out of floor space. I may have to extend the hexagons out on the left side. I need 17 columns from left to right, and I have 8 and change now. I am going for a systematically random design, trying to balance the colors and shapes that emerge. So far, so good, but it’s pretty difficult not to obsess about each hexagon’s placement.

My plan is to stack the hexagons in order from top to bottom within each of the 17 vertical columns, label the stacks from 1-17, left to right so I know which column they belong to, sew each of the stacks into vertical strips, and then sew the strips together. I haven’t marked any of the sewing starting/stopping points on the hexagons yet, but I will probably do that on a strip by strip basis. 

I will also need to add the half-hexagons to each of the shorter strips at the top and bottom. I plan to lay those out after laying out the whole hexagons. I have extra whole hexagons that I will cut in half to use for this purpose.

The pattern I made is shown below. I can see it coming together now!

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Tags: quilt quilting hexagon patchwork sewing fabric

Text
May 22, 2013
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amylouisesandsblog asked: Hi, I love the alphabet blocks you made your niece! I am wanting to make some for my son's 1st birthday in September, I was just wondering how big they were. Could you tell me how big you cut each square of fabric? Thanks.

Hi, and thanks! I think I cut 3” squares, so that the finished product measured 2 1/2” on all sides using 1/4” seam allowances. They were somewhat difficult to turn right side out just because they are small, but it’s doable, and I think the size is great for a 1 year old. You can download a pattern here for free, if you sign up with your email address. I hope you enjoy making them!

Photo
May 21, 2013
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Jambalaya!  I borrowed heavily from this recipe, but I knocked back the quantities by about a third and substituted/omitted some of the ingredients. I left out the ham, used ketchup instead of tomato paste, used grape tomatoes instead of large ones (and definitely did not bother seeding them), used Sriracha instead of Tabasco, used arborio (risotto) rice, and added some Creole seasoning in addition to the cayenne pepper. I also didn’t have scallions, but no huge loss there. Amazingly, I had fresh oregano AND parsley in the fridge from when I made a lasagna a couple of weeks ago. The oregano was a little dry, but totally usable. I used dried thyme and (thawed) frozen shrimp. I like to have frozen shrimp in the freezer at all times - kind of a strange thing to always have around, but they are just so quick to thaw under running cool water and to cook. I particularly like the way that this recipe has you take the jambalaya off the heat after the rice is cooked, stir in the shrimp, bury them in the rice, and just let them steam for 15 minutes until they are cooked. The shrimp  were great and not overcooked this way. If I could add one thing, it would be a dash of liquid smoke, but I didn’t have any in the house. This jambalaya was still great without it, and it didn’t take all day to make (only about 45 min). 

Jambalaya! 

I borrowed heavily from this recipe, but I knocked back the quantities by about a third and substituted/omitted some of the ingredients.

I left out the ham, used ketchup instead of tomato paste, used grape tomatoes instead of large ones (and definitely did not bother seeding them), used Sriracha instead of Tabasco, used arborio (risotto) rice, and added some Creole seasoning in addition to the cayenne pepper. I also didn’t have scallions, but no huge loss there. Amazingly, I had fresh oregano AND parsley in the fridge from when I made a lasagna a couple of weeks ago. The oregano was a little dry, but totally usable. I used dried thyme and (thawed) frozen shrimp. I like to have frozen shrimp in the freezer at all times - kind of a strange thing to always have around, but they are just so quick to thaw under running cool water and to cook.

I particularly like the way that this recipe has you take the jambalaya off the heat after the rice is cooked, stir in the shrimp, bury them in the rice, and just let them steam for 15 minutes until they are cooked. The shrimp  were great and not overcooked this way.

If I could add one thing, it would be a dash of liquid smoke, but I didn’t have any in the house. This jambalaya was still great without it, and it didn’t take all day to make (only about 45 min). 

Tags: eat food cooking jambalaya cajun shrimp kielbasa

Photo
May 20, 2013
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Progress on the Purl bee sweatshirt sweater: sleeves are complete! I need to get some longer circular needles before I move on to the body, and so this project is at a pause for now. I’m looking forward to continuing it when I get new needles!

Progress on the Purl bee sweatshirt sweater: sleeves are complete! I need to get some longer circular needles before I move on to the body, and so this project is at a pause for now. I’m looking forward to continuing it when I get new needles!

Tags: knit knitting purlbee sweatshirt sweater alpaca wool yarn sleeves

Text
May 20, 2013
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Hexagon Quilt: Part 1

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I may live to regret this decision, but I have chosen to make a patchwork hexagon quilt as my first ever quilt!

I have dabbled in quilting before, but only in small amounts and straight lines. I am not stellar at joining corners using my machine sewing, but I got better at it while making the plush alphabet blocks a few months ago. 

I couldn’t find a pattern that was exactly what I wanted to do for this quilt, so I made one up. What I was really thinking was, “Hmm, how can I make this project as complicated and difficult for myself as possible?” and starting from scratch without a pattern seemed fitting for this oh-so-rational approach.

Indeed, developing the pattern took some serious thought. “Should I make several measuring errors at first?” Of course. “Leave out the seam allowances, too?” Absolutely. Several recalculations and struggles with Microsoft Word shapes later, I have a sound quilt pattern. 

Challenges aside, I am happy with what I have come up with. I ordered a 6” hexagon ruler to make my life a little easier (no template making!), and have completed cutting hexagons from 14 different types of fabric. I need a total of 298 hexagons and 16 half-hexagons for the quilt. What I have now is a pile of 24 x 14 hexagons, which equals 336. I am thinking of using some of the extra hexagons for practice, and I can possibly make another small project out of them (a bag, potholders or some such thing).

I have probably spent a good 20 hours of my life on this project thus far, just making the pattern, picking the fabric, washing the fabric, pressing the fabric, and cutting the hexagons. I was able to cut 6 hexagons at once, but I think it may be time to replace my rotary blade. 

Major successes so far:

  1. Obtaining a hexagon ruler: best decision ever.
  2. Not excessively over-buying fabric. True, I overbought in the sense that I bought more types of fabric than I really needed. This is about an $8 loss, and I can use the extra for much needed practice, so I’m good with that.
  3. Not cutting myself with the rotary cutter (not even once!) and actually turning out some quite accurate hexagon cuts (thanks to the ruler). 

Part 2 will begin with marking all the 1/4” cross points on the backs of the hexagons so that I know were to start and stop sewing each seam. Oof, that’s going to take a long time. Next, I will attempt to lay out the hexagons on the floor to determine what the pattern will be. I want it to be sort of strategically random, if you know what I mean. Then, it will be time to sew the top.

To be continued with my next burst of inspiration…

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Tags: sew quilt quilting hexagon patchwork fabric modern

Photoset
May 12, 2013
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Banoffee Pie

Thank you, Scotland, for introducing me to this awesome dessert.

My recipe:

Crust

  • 1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 1 stick butter, melted

Toffee Filling

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • pinch of salt

Whipped Cream

  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 TB powdered sugar
  • Chocolate shavings for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crush graham crackers and add to melted butter. Mix well and press into 9” pie dish. Bake crust for 10 minutes.

Make toffee: melt butter in a saucepan over low-medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add sweetened condensed milk and pinch of salt. Stir constantly until well combined. Bring to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Toffee will thicken and darken slightly. Remove from heat and cool. 

Pour half of toffee on to crust. Slice bananas and arrange on top of toffee layer (I only had 2 bananas, but 3 would be better!). Pour remaining toffee on top of bananas. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. 

Before serving, whip cream with the vanilla and powdered sugar, then smooth over top of pie. Garnish top with chocolate shavings or cinnamon. Enjoy with a nice cup of tea, or coffee for some delightful rhyming!

Tags: eat banoffee pie banana toffee graham cracker Scotland

Photoset
May 06, 2013
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Best. Hummus. Ever.

I love hummus; just not the store-bought kind. To me, it always tastes kind of funny, and the flavors of the chick peas, tahini, and lemon seem to get lost while a kind of cardboardy, metallic taste sometimes comes through. My solution to this problem: homemade hummus. Below is my own recipe for hummus. Depending on how much you like garlic and tahini, you can adjust accordingly. Don’t skimp on the salt.
 
Required equipment: food processor. I don’t recommend trying this with a blender. My food processor was an early birthday gift, but before I got it, I tried the blender method for making hummus with pretty much terrible results. 
 
Recipe
 
1 to 2 garlic gloves (or none if you don’t like garlic)
1 can of chick peas, drained and rinsed (if you are a purist, cook your own chick peas from dried)
1/4 cup of lemon juice (juice of about 1 lemon)
2 TB olive oil (the good stuff)
2 TB tahini (or less if desired)
1/2 tsp salt
up to 1/4 cup water
 
In a food processor, pulse together garlic and chick peas for a few pulses. Add lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, and salt. Pulse a few more times, then process for about a minute (you may need to scrape down the sides after this). Then, with the motor running, slowly pour in water from the opening in the food processor lid until you achieve the desired consistency for your hummus. I like it to be on the thinner side, so I usually use the full 1/4 cup of water.
 
That’s it! Serve with olive oil drizzled on top and a few sprinkles of paprika. Or, just eat it out of the food processor. Take the blade out first. This is good advice.

Tags: hummus recipe chickpeas tahini lemon garlic dip