Taking it easy

I made some comfort food today, homemade potato salad, and I'm just taking things slow around here. The potato salad is improvised, using my mom's directions. Boil about six red potatoes for about forty-five minutes, or until a fork goes into them easily, but before they get mushy. Then stab each one with a fork, and while holding it under cool running water, take a knife and peel away the skins, being careful not to burn yourself. Slice them into a bowl, and mix them with some oil and vinegar. I used extra virgin olive oil. Put them in the fridge to cool.

In another bowl, mix up some diced celery, chopped up green olives and dill pickles, two chopped up hard boiled eggs, and a little salt and pepper. Mix some mayonnaise with a little of the dill pickle juice, until it is the consistency of heavy cream. Pour this over the celery, olives, pickles, and eggs, and mix them together.

Once the potatoes are cool, pour the celery/mayo mixture over the potatoes, and mix everything together. Leave the potato salad in the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the potatoes to absorb the other flavors. Season with salt to taste.

My mom seems to be a little better today, but still tired. Doctor's orders are for me to stick around, just in case. So, I'm home bound for now. I've been reading The Cider House Rules by John Irving, which is very nicely written and interesting to read. I admit, I've also been napping a bit, as I'm tired from this past week. I need some rest and relaxation, and then I'll be photographing dolls and getting them up on our website as soon as I can. I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead.

Hug Me! Kitty

Meet Darla, my new black and white, tuxedo "Hug Me! Kitty". I took a little sewing detour to play around with my pattern designs and came up with a kitty. That doesn't seem too surprising, huh? Lots of cats.

I like her curly appliquéd tail.

She'll be ready to give someone a hug over in my Etsy shop soon.

I'm still sewing doll clothes. I stopped to make some blueberry apple muffins though. They were about to be blueberry muffins until I discovered I didn't have a whole cup of blueberries. A happy short-coming though. The combination worked out nicely. I made them from the same buttermilk muffin recipe I usually use, and added a teaspoon of freshly grated orange zest. I also substituted some plain yogurt plus some milk for buttermilk, since I was also out of buttermilk, trying to get it to about the same consistency. That worked out fine too, but it must be time to go food shopping again!

I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

Butterfly bushes and baked goods

I took these photos of Painted Lady Butterflies on our butterfly bush a couple of years ago. The butterfly bushes aren't in bloom quite yet, but...I finally planted the one I have had sitting in a pot by our chimney for as long as I've had these photos. I can't believe it has survived this long in a pot, and I'm hopeful that it will continue to persevere.

We've had an overcast day, which is good for transplanting. Here's hoping it takes off like the one in these photos. This one is enormous, and the butterflies, moths, and bees visit it all summer long.

I have some more gardening to tend to, that I have been putting off doing. I used to garden with a passion, but the hard clay in the North Carolina soil has put me off a bit. I'd love to get my iris beds divided too.

I'm trying to do the things I have been putting off, one at a time, including making progress on all things doll related.

I also made both banana oat muffins and soft pretzels today. Mm...salty pretzel goodness. I had a craving for soft pretzels while at the mall recently. I almost stopped for one, but I kept thinking, "I could just make those!" So, that became one more thing on my to-do list. It was well worth the effort.

While I was out, I also picked up a copy of Quilting Arts new special issue, Stitch, Creating with Fabric & Thread. The pretty pillow on the cover is "Tuesday Pillow" by Malka Dubrawsky. The instructions are included in the magazine.

What really made me purchase the issue though, were the cute stuffed toys, "Pretty Cat, Baby Bear and Mini-Mouse", by Heidi Boyd. The patterns are in the foldout in the center of the magazine, and the instructions are in the back. They'd make adorable gifts.

I've got my own pile of toys to sew and doll dresses to make. So, I probably won't be trying these out right away. I'm sure I'm more likely to get some new idea before then, to add to my list of things to do, but I thought perhaps some of you would enjoy making them! Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

I thought I'd share my pretty Valentine's flowers with you.

Please have a cookie and some tea too.

Yesterday, I made Linzer Hearts from the All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking. I used the recipe for Drei Augen and used raspberry preserves, boiled for two minutes and then cooled to lukewarm, for the filling. They are dusted with confectioner's sugar. I would think many shortbread cookie recipes would work nicely as well.

The Drei Augen dough required ground almonds. I didn't have a food processor, but I "discovered" that I do have a food mill. It was in the kitchen closet just waiting for the day I would realize how useful it is. I used the large-holed grater plate and then worked my way down to the medium-holed one. Or, that was what I planned to do. The novelty of the food mill attracted a helper.

My dad wanted to "see how it works" and he ended up grinding all my almonds for me. This food mill thing worked out pretty well! I wonder what other gadgets I might have in that closet and what they might encourage others to do for me. Hm.

Enjoy your day!

Heidi's dress fitting and blueberry muffins

At first glance, it may appear from this photo that my kitty assistant from my last post has been magically transformed into a doll, but this is not the case. He would never fit in that dress.

This is Heidi, the tabby cat. She is Max and my first collaborative original folk art cat doll. I did the final fitting on her dress today. If you look closely, you will see the pins holding it together here. I sewed all the finishing details by hand. It's a real challenge sewing little things on a machine. Now I have to get our Siamese's sweater and skirt set assembled. It's going to be fun photographing them together.


I also made my blueberry muffins that I had planned to make along with the last batch of muffins I made. These are from the same book, Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. They are made from the Basic Buttermilk Muffins recipe. I added a cup of thawed blueberries and a teaspoon of orange zest. These are so good! I ate too many.

I had them with the orange I used for the orange zest for breakfast. Really good.

And thanks, Eric, for sharing an inspiring site...it's our cosmos, with a new view of our universe every day. Check out Eric and Melissa's music too. They're putting together an LP of their own original songs. Pretty exciting. It's great to see other people pursuing their dreams too :)

Banana oat muffins and sundry

Just a quick note for those of you waiting to see our new dolls finished...They are still in progress and I will be sure to post a note here and on our Ruffing's blog when we've got them finished and photographed. I was under the weather for a couple of weeks, and I've been in slo-mo. They'll be posted in our doll gallery too. Just so you know you haven't missed them.

I decided today was going to be muffin day. I've been saying I'm going to make muffins while watching my ingredients expire. I was going to go all out and make two kinds today, but I just made these Banana Oat Muffins from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I didn't do her muffin recipe justice last time. So, this time, mid-recipe, when I saw my ingredients were, once again, over-the-hill, I just drove to the store and bought new ones. I found some King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour, which I'd never tried before, and used that. It seemed to give them a lighter taste and a finer texture than when I tried them with regular whole wheat flour. The recipe recommended whole wheat pastry flour, which I haven't seen. I also used less nutmeg and added a little cinnamon, but only because I don't go for nutmeg in a big way.

They came out nicely, not so sweet, more like a muffin to have with eggs, or another breakfast food. I keep feeling that there isn't any reason I'm not making more home-cooked foods, except that I've gotten lazy about it. And muffins are easy!

I've been trying to add more vegetables to my diet too, and trying to have a mixed plate of vegetables for lunch each day. A friend sent me an interesting video from Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat. It's about twenty minutes, but I felt it was worth watching. He talks about how we need to eat less meat, more plants, less fast food, and more home cooking, not only for the sake of our own personal health, but for the sake of our environment. He makes a case for becoming at least a partial vegetarian, but he keeps his focus more on our health and our world, for anyone worried about being upset by watching a video on that subject. Anyway, I'm trying to do better in those areas.

And thanks, Lisa, for giving me the the "Kreativ Blogger" award! Thanks just as much for saying I am an "awesomely fabulous person" You know I like that just as much ;) Now I need to think of seven things I love and seven artists to pass the award along to. I'll have to give this some thought...

Sewing and soup-ing

I started sewing our kitty doll bodies today on my new sewing machine. I'm still getting used to the buttons I need to push instead of dials I need to turn. So far, it's great. I really like the "fix" button that ties the thread off, and the "needle up/down" button, which I used a lot when I was pivoting around tight corners. I borrowed my mom's Ott-Lite and put it right over my fabric so I could see better. The newer machines have stronger lighting, but that's okay. It worked out fine. Incidentally, I hate that I look like I have big, old man paws in that photo! Foreshortening does some odd things.

We were so cold today that it seemed like a good day for some homemade soup. I made some vegetable soup using a hodgepodge of ingredients. I had some stock I made and put away in the freezer maybe two years ago! I thawed it out and everyone told me it tasted fine. None of us have come down with botulism yet. So, I think it was okay too. I added a can of diced tomatoes and a little chopped onion and garlic, and then I put about five cups of other vegetables into the boiling stock, about a cup each, adding them in order according to their cooking times. I used fresh carrots, fresh parsley, frozen cut green beans, frozen peas, and frozen corn. I also added a cup of whole wheat macaroni, and some salt and pepper.

I probably could have used more stock in my stock-to-vegetables ratio. As it is, my soup came out more like a stew, using about six cups of stock. Closer to eight cups might have made it more soup-like, but it was hot and warming, and we were cold, as I said. So, there were no complaints!

Cool artists, snowflakes, and "after" shocks

My "Rabbit Dances" print was included in this "Cool Artists and Snowflake" Etsy Treasury today. Thanks, Iris, for including me!

I'm thinking of adding some more print sizes over on our website, so that there will be more options to fit standard-sized frames. We stopped at A C Moore yesterday so I could see which sizes were more popular, or available. The most popular smallish sizes are always 8 x 10 and 11 x 14 inch frames. I've made the smaller prints on 8 1/2 x 11 since that can easily go in either an 8 x 10 or an 8 1/2 x 11 mat and frame set. I may add an 11 x 14 paper size, and possibly 12 x12, and 12 x16 paper sizes. We have some prints that will fit 10 x 20 as well. I'm still fixing the pages that are on the site, but if anyone is interested in other paper sizes for prints, just contact us.

Today I went down a list of miscellaneous things I needed to do that I hadn't gotten to yet, including cleaning up and vacuuming my workroom. Believe it or not, the above picture is the "after" photo. I should probably invest in a snow plow so I can clear a swath to get in there from time to time. After cleaning, washing, packing, shipping, and I can't remember what else, I felt the need for some cookies.

Fortunately, "make some Toll House cookies" was also on my list of miscellaneous things I meant to do that I hadn't gotten to yet, which meant all the supplies were ready and waiting. So, I took care of that too ;)

Oh, and by the way, when I went to pick up that Interlibrary Loan book that I thought was never to be, it was the wrong book! Too funny. I thought I might be in trouble when I wrote out the title and the author and she said, "Which one is the title?" But then, maybe it was another library that sent over the wrong book. Maybe next time.

Rainy Thursday

I woke up this morning with an idea that I had had before for a doll. I had put it off before, not knowing where it would fit in, as far as marketing it went. I still don't know, but eBay has been frustrating lately anyway. So, I decided it didn't matter if I made a doll I couldn't include in any of the popular categories there. I wanted to do a more colorful, maybe 1920's style doll in a more stylized way, as opposed to the antique/primitive style that is more popular on eBay. The primitive dolls tend to be more subdued in their colors, and earlier in their clothing styles. I'm thinking of something more along the lines of my cloth dolls and toys, but as an art doll, for display only. Instead of putting it off again, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I don't know where that will lead me. Right now, I am trying a little of everything.

I made some pineapple and cilantro pizza last night. It came out okay. It is much better with fresh cilantro. It's pretty simple. Take any pizza dough (I used the pizza dough recipe from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger), roll it out, and put it in a pan that's been lightly coated with some olive oil and cornmeal. On top of it I added some olive oil, mozzarella cheese, cilantro, and pineapple slices (no tomato sauce). I baked mine for 13 minutes at 475, but you'd probably want to follow the directions for whatever pizza dough you use.

I've also been sewing up more fleece "Hug Me! Slugs" in different colors. I've got a couple of pinks, blues, greens, a yellow, a lavender, and an orange fleece, just to expand the choices. I've been amassing a pile of odd supplies lately. That way, I can get up in morning and make just about anything I want!

Macadamia White Chip Cookies

I wanted to try out the cookie-baking tips I read the other day in this NY Times article. I picked the Ghiradelli Macadamia White Chip Cookie recipe from the back of the Ghiradelli Classic White Chips bag. This is the first time I made these, but the recipe is similar to the well-loved Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, only with macadamia nuts and vanilla chips. The Times article, among other suggestions, recommended refrigerating your dough for at least 24 hours, preferably 36 hours before making your cookies. I have to say, what they said would happen seems to be true. The nutty flavor seemed to permeate the cookies, along with a nice toffee flavor. They were quite delicious. It was also true that the dough did get a bit dry and crumbly, but I was able to mold it into balls with my hands. I tried to make larger cookies since they said they would be chewy in the centers and crisp on the edges, but I think they came out small because my dough was still very chilled. I'm not sure. They were chewy in the middle and crisp on the edges, just the same. All and all, it was a good experiment.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

This pineapple upside-down cake recipe came from the "All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking". The pineapple, maraschino cherry, brown sugar and butter top came out all nice and chewy and sticky :)

Brownies

They may not be fancy, but they are good. These are the made-from-scratch kind of brownies. I got the recipe right off the box of my Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate squares, Baker's One Bowl Brownies. I never have pecans around, and so I always go for the chopped walnuts instead. Quick and easy.

I had my first sculpting lesson from Max today. I was told that I behaved myself and didn't yell, although I did get a little frustrated at points. All in all, we both thought I did pretty well, better than I expected. Hence the need for a brownie reward. I was going to take a picture of my first kitten, but I was afraid to touch him/her because he/she wasn't dry enough. At some point I will have to decide on a gender. It is always hard to tell with kittens, isn't it ;) So far my kitten makes me think of what a Maurice Sendak version of a kitten might look like, which is good, I think. Quirky, cute, a little odd.

Sugar Cookies

Just checking in...These are really easy sugar cookies. I made them from the "Basic Drop Cookies" recipe in our ancient, stained, and falling-apart edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It is so tattered the page with the date and edition have fallen out. I have a newer version, the 12th edition, and the "Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe in that is close enough. In fact, any basic drop cookie or chocolate chip cookie recipe will do just fine. Instead of nuts or chocolate chips, add a cup of golden raisins and you have it. I sprinkled sugar on top in the last two minutes of baking them.

I'm adapting a doll pattern so I can take some sculpting lessons from Max Bailey, and I'm working on getting a hand piecing tutorial installment of my Stitch-along together. That will take me a little time since the hand sewing part is a bit slow. Right now, I'm thinking a quilted pillow cover would be the best project to demonstrate with the bluebird block, since it is can be done more quickly, without a long wait or a chance of my getting distracted by other things ;) I'll try make the design quilt-friendly so more blocks can be added to the layout design if desired.

I'm also debating over whether or not I should be taking the two quilting classes I signed up for this year, as I have a backlog of projects from previous classes I would like to finish and not enough time for both. I really like going to class, as it affords me some out-of-the-house time and I like the social aspect of it. But the pile of unfinished projects causes me some stress, especially when I have work-related crafts projects to do as well. I haven't made up my mind yet. I guess it will be made up for me if I don't get to my homework!

"Did you photograph them yet?"

Yes. Yes, I did. LOL. I know it is kind of strange to make your family wait to eat their cookies while you photograph them, isn't it? Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't take nearly as long as it seems to take.

These are sand tarts, from my mom's relatively old edition of Joy of Cooking. The latest copyright in it is 1964. I have the newer All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking version, but I wanted to make the same cookies we had when I was little. It could have been a little easier...Those old recipes have you sifting and resifting and sifting this with that. I guess that's why I couldn't find the recipe in my new version. I also couldn't find our "Little Drummer Boy" or snowman cookie cutters. So, the Christmas bunny and the Christmas elephant had to stand in for them. Never heard of them? Well, never mind ;)

I iced them with confectioner's sugar mixed with milk and a couple drops of vanilla, then sprinkled them with colored sugar. Now, they are ready to be eaten :)

Apple Crisp

All done. I made my apple crisp this morning using the "Fruit Crisp" recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Yeah, I ate some already. Before lunch even.

I am supposed to be resting, but, of course, I am not. Resting is boring...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Cheesecake

One more dessert to make and I'm ready for Thanksgiving. This is "Cheesecake Supreme" from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It's really pretty easy to make and it comes out very nicely. I'm getting better at making it. This time the middle didn't crack.

Here is a slice with strawberries in sugar on top. I ate this piece right after I photographed it. It was hard to wait.

I am just starting another round of antibiotics, and so it will be interesting to see if I can manage an apple crisp tomorrow or if I will be too loopy to bother.

Carbohydrates make the world a nicer place

It's raining here, which is wonderful because we have had a terrible drought, but it is also quite dark and dreary this morning. I woke up feeling melancholy and decided it was a pancake day. These are "Vineyard Pancakes" from Beth Hensperger's The Best Quick Breads: 150 Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Shortcakes, Gingerbreads, Cornbreads, Coffeecakes, and More, or, in other words, 150 shortcuts to happiness :) I know...carbohydrates are just a temporary high, but, well, who cares?

These are really good pancakes. They have a little cornmeal and whole wheat flour in them, which gives them a nice texture, and they puff up nice and big. We all sat down and ate them together, which was fun too.

Big Cookie, Little Cookies

Someone's birthday is near and so it was time for a big cookie. Hopefully that someone does not read this blog :)

These were made using the Nestlé Toll House cookie recipe on the back of their bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Once you make up the cookie dough, divide it in half. One half goes in a buttered 9 inch round spring form pan and bakes at a slightly lower temperature, 350 instead of 375 degrees, for a longer period of time, about 25 to 30 minutes. I found this suggestion in The Family Baker by Susan G Purdy. It's a fun cookbook full of traditional treats.

The other half of the cookie dough is baked according to the package directions. This way, even though the big cookie is leaving for a far away place, we still have a plate of chocolate chip cookies to enjoy here.

Best if used before 1982

I woke up again not well, headache, stomachache, etc, and thought it might be nice to make peach muffins for breakfast. Without being truly awake, I just started to follow the Basic Buttermilk Muffin recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, using the Fresh Fruit Muffin variation. I remembered making these before and they were quite good, only I didn't remember how long ago that was.

I scooped out some whole wheat flour (it was supposed to be whole wheat pastry flour...but that's what I had) from I don't know when. It smelled, um...a little dusty. I threw it out and found a "new" bag I must have gotten to replace the first one, but even that expired a year ago. Then there was the bag of peaches that I obviously hadn't checked on in a week. Out of three, I got almost enough fruit. I threw out two bags of shriveled frozen fruit, two jars of old baking powder, didn't even have enough vanilla, but I still went through with my plan to make muffins.

Well, I know they were good the last time I made them. Sorry to Deborah Madison...all the recipes I've tried from this book have been good. I just didn't do her proud this time around. That's all I'm going to say about that! :)

We did get some art doll photography time in yesterday and the day before. I've got to edit and upload Max Bailey's new kitty doll photos to Flickr and then we'll get them up over on the Ruffing's blog.

Soft pretzels

While working on a new doll pattern today, I had a mad, desperate craving for soft pretzels, the kind you buy from street vendors in NYC. I was frantically looking for a recipe, going through my pile of cookbooks, until I finally found one in Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook.

I loaded up my bread machine, forgetting to put the paddle in the pan so that it sounded like it was kneading the dough, when it was really doing nothing. I've been a bit spacey lately. Fortunately, I checked on the dough in time to reach in and insert the paddle.

After the dough finished the bread dough cycle in the machine, I shaped it into pretzels, left the pretzels to rise a second time, then boiled each one in a couple quarts of water with two tablespoons of baking soda for about a minute each. This is what makes them chewy.

I brushed them with an egg white beaten with a tablespoon of water, sprinkled them with Kosher salt, and put them in a 400 degree oven for about sixteen minutes until they were golden.

Then...carbohydrate relief. Sigh.

A similar recipe can be found here.