Pastry Practice

I absolutely love this pastry dough recipe and have wanted to try using it for things other than the hand pies in the recipe.  It is such a lovely flaky mock puff pastry that is a cinch to make.  The dough is assembled and ready in under an hour versus real puff pastry dough that takes all day to make.  It has just the right buttery salty flavor that works well with both sweet and savory baked treats.

 Last week I had some leftover chicken meat after I processed a whole chicken.  I'd never cooked a chicken like that before and it was delicious and moist.  It was also the cleanest I'd ever gotten the carcass!  We had all kinds of chicken pieces to top salads and I used some along with the broth for a fabulous chicken noodle soup.  The last of the leftovers were made into chicken pot pies.  I made up my own gravy using onions, carrots and celery softened in butter with some salt and pepper.  I added some flour and chicken stock for the roux and finished it with some dried thyme, dried sage and some frozen peas.  I let it cool completely before spooning it into my wide ramekins.  I topped each with a round of this pastry and baked it.  These made for some elegant work lunches in the break room!

Today is a glorious sunny day with temperatures in the 60's!  It's a regular heat wave!  I have the deck door and the bedroom window open to air out the house.  Lopi is laying in the sun on the deck and I am baking.  I only used half the pastry dough I mixed up last week and had the bright idea to try my hand at some sausage rolls.  These are eaten everywhere in England.  They are a crumbled sausage wrapped in puff pastry.  I had half a tube of Jimmy Dean sausage in my freezer that I browned and cooled.  The sausage in the UK version is more of a nutmeg sausage but this worked just fine.  Next time I will try to make some from scratch with some ground pork.  I used an egg wash and these browned quite nicely.  Num num.  Dave will have a nice after school snack today.

I was able to make 6 sausage rolls with the amount of meat I had so I used the last scraps of dough to make 2 jam tarts using my strawberry freezer jam.  Delish.  I never thought to use jam for these and almost wish I didn't know they'd turn out so well because now this means I don't have to wait for summer raspberries.  I can literally make these at the drop of a hat.

And finally, here is a photo of Lopi's blue feet.  She got ahold of a ball point pen and chewed it to bits.  She couldn't deny it if she wanted because the evidence speaks for itself!

Nuthin' says lovin'...

...like an electric ball winder! 

 Here is a dark picture of my yarn swift and my electric ball winder.  This was Dave's Valentine gift to me when we were dating!  Actually he gave me a Joann's gift card and this is what I used it for.  Skeined yarn needs to be wound into a ball before it can be knitted.  If it is a small skein, I can hold it on my knees or usually talk Dave into holding it on his hands while I wind it with my hand crank winder.  I put large or fuzzy/grippy skeins on my swift.  If they unwind nicely, I use my hand crank winder but if I have to untangle and separate while winding, I use my electric one and feed the yarn.

I'm currently on ball 3 of my Zen Yarn Garden for my Crocus Blanket.  Each skein has 400+ yard but it looks like so much more once it's wound into a ball!

Yarn Bomb!

 I had to run to the grocery store yesterday and I noticed this on the mailbox!  It's a yarn bomb!

I don't think I've ever seen a yarn bomb here in St. Paul! 

Bowl Cozies

 

 Melissa brought a tutorial on how to make bowl cozies.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  They are basically a fluted potholder that you set your bowl in when you're microwaving and then instead of burning your hands on the bowl when you remove it from the microwave, you grab it by the bowl cozy.  What a great idea!

 These are a fabulous little project because there is no pressing seams and each piece is made from 10" square pieces of fabric so fat quarters are ideal.  The only thing is you have to use 100% cotton fabric, thread and batting so you don't start a fire in your  microwave!  I use Warm and Natural cotton batting in all my quilts but apparently it is 88% cotton and 12% poly.  Pellon makes a Wrap and Zap 100% cotton batting and it says "microwave safe" on the package.  We made a special trip to Joann's and asked about microwave safe batting and I thought they'd think we were crazy but they knew just what we were talking about.  The other big project making the rounds with this batting is potato bags.  You microwave potatoes in these cotton quilted bags to make baked potatoes and there is a pattern on the bag for it. 

We  used a combination of several patterns to make this project.  Just google bowl cozy and you can't go wrong. 

Ax-Man!

 We also took Melissa to Ax-man Surplus on University while she was here.  I just don't quite know how to describe this store!

 I can remember coming here as a kid on the way to the Europe Reunion when it was more of a bona fide military surplus store.  Now it is a much funkier hardware/junk store.  This place reminds me of my dorm room in college because we had signs and pictures and garland and all manner of crap hanging from the ceiling and walls.  I say all the time that I like BUSY.  This store certainly is BUSY.

So far I've purchased paint brushes, a variety of scissors, empty bottles and jars, all kinds of lab glassware, plastic bags, patterned duct and packing tape, shipping envelopes, magnetic clips, pleather, silver plated pickle forks, self adhesive fake mustaches, measuring tapes, craft wire, gift bags, etc.  Even though I find all kinds of things that I think are useful, there is still plenty of junk to be purchased here.  You can get all kinds of electrical components, old VCR's, gauges, obsolete electrical items, etc.  We brought my dad here last month and he could appreciate this store.  Whenever we'd go to Fargo as kids, we'd always go to Mac's for an afternoon activity.  Mac's was on about the same plane as this store but not nearly as funky, at least as far as I can remember.

 Half the fun of this store is just wandering around looking at everything!  You find all kinds of things you never knew you couldn't live without.  For example, I paid 95 cents for a Stress Kitty.  It is a cute little stuffed cat toy....and when you feel stressed you can rip it's head off because it is velcroed on.  I thought that was hilarious.  They also have all kinds of gag/kid stuff like switchblade combs (remember those?) and whoopie cushions.  The only caveat is that Dave has to drive us because I'm too nervous to drive downtown.  Maybe someday I'll be confident enough to do it which will be good for him because after one trip, he'd seen enough.  He is such a good sport though!

That Melissa!

She's going to kill me but I don't care.  Melissa is one of my absolute dearest friends.  I talked her into walking across my pond so I could take these Olan Mills caliber winter glamour shots of her.  Isn't she gorgeous?

She and  her daughter came to visit and stay at our house this week!  We had an aggressive 2 days of crafting as well as a full day of shopping at The Mall of America.  Here we are in my living room painting and embellishing dominoes for ornaments/key chains/necklaces/pins.

 I love when she comes to work on things because it forces me to dig out components and findings from my various satellite craft caches around the house.  I found all kinds of stuff I'd been looking for!  Later when we were cutting out fabric, I agreed to cut out her batting and in exchange, she organized all my craft stuff for me!

 We went to the aquarium in the Mall Of America.  It costs $25 for adults and $18 for children 3 years and older.  I'm a tightwad and nearly soiled myself but they DO give you a free return ticket with your ticket purchase.  I gave mine to Melissa because my husband would never shell out $25 to visit the exhibit with me. 

I have to say I think it was worth the price of admission!  Everything was beautifully exhibited and arranged and it was just enough to hold your interest.  You start in an area where you can touch starfish and sea urchins and then you move through to large aquariums where they have jellyfish and sea horses and all the Finding Nemo fish before you head towards the aquarium tunnel.

The tunnel was awesome!  All the animals swim over and around you and you get a much closer look at them.

They had several different kinds of sharks.

I think the manta rays were my favorite.

I think Serenity enjoyed the aquarium!

Dog Shaming

Lopi was a very bad dog yesterday.  I walked in the house after work and Dave had put the new Joann Fabrics sale flyer in front of the door so I had something pleasant to temper the bad news he had for me:  Lopi had chewed up and wrecked my digital camera!!!  Until recently, we always kenneled her for the hour between me leaving for work and him returning from work and I always felt bad locking her up like that.  We slowly began shutting her in downstairs in the living room after "dog proofing" the area and she's been so good.  She's spent up to 8 hours at a time alone down there with no problems but I guess she just had to remind us again that she is a dog and we need to be better dog parents.  I always put away my knitting and any pens (she chewed up a Harry Potter wooden pencil too yesterday!) but now I guess everything will have to be put in a basket and put up while we're gone.  I don't understand what was so appealing about that camera that she felt she needed to chew it up.  AND I'd even filled her Kong with treats before I left the house!  Bad dog!

She knew she was in trouble too because she was skittish and darting around and not making eye contact even when I got home hours later.  She'd chewed the strap and zoom/shutter control off the camera and chewed up the body a little.  You can still turn it on and toggle through the pictures but you can't take any pictures.  Not a lot of damage but enough to render it useless.  Lucky for her, Target has this very model on clearance this week and I just ran out and bought the display model--the last one left--to replace it.  I am picky about my cameras because I don't trust one with a rechargeable battery.  I'm always afraid I will run out of juice and I like knowing I have lithium batteries in my purse.  This is another reminder that children, whether 4 legged or 2, will eventually destroy all your nice things and I really like my stuff.  I think children with opposable thumbs can wreck more stuff! 

I spent Saturday baking and frosting 10 dozen heart sugar cookies.  I love these small foil
'carry out' containers from the dollar store because they make perfect little baking care packages.  One of these went to my parents in law yesterday and I packed up and froze 2 more for my Grandma Helen and Uncle Doug.  Normally I mail these to the Fargo relatives but this year I will get to hand deliver them when we go see her next week!  2 dozen cookies went with my brother up to Duluth for him and my nephew and niece in law to eat.  The rest were packed up and frozen and will be doled out during the week as work treats and next week as travel treats.  I fuss and gripe the whole time I'm frosting these and I make thousands of them, but I'm always happy I did and there never seems to be enough to give away to everyone on your list.

 I'm taking a break from my black hole of a Crocus Lace Blanket to make a dent in another vacuous hole of a project.  This is The Beekeeper's Quilt.  You make literally hundreds of these little "hexipuff" pillows that are stuffed with polyfil and then you sew them all together to make a "quilt".  I think this is much more practical as a seat or couch cushion/liner rather than a blanket.  I'm starting small and shooting only for a seat cushion for my sewing room chair.  The pattern says a 2 x 2 foot quilt requires 102 puffs.  I have 11 and it takes me about 45 minutes to make one.  I have a way to go!  I do love this project because it is mindless and portable, plus I'm using up all my beautiful Koigu and various sock yarn scraps!

I spent Monday in bed with the dog and that flu-been-hit-by-a-truck-feeling.  I felt awful and accomplished absolutely nothing and I can't stand that.  Dave surprised me by bringing me home a donut and these roses!  I don't think he's given me flowers since we moved into the house and I just love them!  What a guy!

Crocus Progress

It is Saturday morning and I'm baking for my night shift tonight.  I love baking treats to bring but I'm always a little down too because it means I won't get to go near my knitting for the next 3 days or so.  Especially this knitting!  This is my Crocus Blanket I'm knitting for our eventual baby stash out of some bee-YEW-tiful merino/silk/cashmere yarn I got on clearance from WEBS.  It is a soft yellow yarn with subtle pale mustard mottles.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  It is a fingering weight single and has been a pleasure to work with.  I can't say as much about the pattern...

I started it and did the 16 rows of garter stitch and then had to rip the whole thing out after the first two rows of the lace pattern.  As I sat there, swearing through my tears, I got to thinking that I don't think I've ever tackled lace before (other than feather and fan) and then I didn't feel quite so bad.  Those first two rows were the worst too because you're setting up the pattern there's nothing to guide you.  I set markers between the repeats and meticulously counted my stitches after each repeat to make sure I was still on track and thank goodness the wrong side is just knits and purls.  My mother looked at this and said, "You know Katie, this really isn't that difficult of a pattern."  Way to kick me when I'm down Mom!  ;)  She makes a good point that some laces are patterned on both sides.  Yikes!  I've been a brat the last 2 weeks and took 4 on call shifts so I could obsessively work on this and so far have 3 out of 10 repeats done.  This is personal.  I will not let this lace defeat me!

Slipped Stitch Stash Hat

 Last fall I purchased a bag of scrap yarn at Saver's for $1.99.  It wasn't labeled but I knew in my heart of hearts that it was Malabrigo.  The balls were clearly leftover scraps but I was sure I could use them for something, and what a wonderful color assortment!

I found the perfect pattern!  The Slip Stitch Stash Hat!  I believe this is linen stitch because it looks like the popular colorful scarves that are making the rounds.  You get a lot of colorwork and variety with slip stitches and a few simple rows that are repeated.

I loved the back side with all the slipped stitches.

The only downside was all the finishing.  I am a knotter vs. a weaver so I had to untie all my tails at the end and weave them in.

Here are all my snipped bits.  I just love all the colors!

 We finally had our family Christmas two weeks ago and my parents, my sister and her family, and my brother and his family all came to stay with us.  I love when my family gets together and I love my house because we can host everyone comfortably.  I am reminded of a prayer I ran across:  When you have piles of laundry and dirty dishes to deal with, be thankful because it means your family is nearby.  When you have garbage to take out, and vacuuming to do, snow to shovel and a lawn to mow, be thankful because it means you have a house.  There is more to it but it escapes me at the moment.  It was bitterly cold but we still had fun playing outside on our frozen pond.  My nieces brought a pair of skates and couple hockey sticks and we all had fun knocking tennis balls and practice pucks around playing boot hockey.  Amy even found a child's hockey stick for Erik the next day when we all went thrifting.

 I know I wrote last winter about our hockey neighbors and how serious they are about it and all the equipment they had.  Dave surprised us all by building a goal net out of our old garden gate, some pallets and some landscaping fabric!  He quietly put it together out in the garage while we were clearing the breakfast dishes and took it down to the pond.  I think he had the most fun out there and was truly the hockey hero that weekend.

What a great winter playground we have out there!  Dad used a shovel to make fox and goose trails which was a winter game he used to play as a kid.  I love this action shot because Erik and the dogs are following in his trail and Sparky's ears are blowing in the wind.  We brought lawn chairs down to the ice and Mom and Dad sat and watched us play and held little kids when they were tired. 

Last Minute Finishing

 I spent all of last night awake on call and got to stay home the entire night.  I'm such a homebody brat that I would rather sit up working on projects and forfeit a 12 hour night shift of pay.  We are having our Christmas next weekend and last night was one of those times when I felt like I had way  more money than time.  I finished up so many things though and have a great sense of accomplishment.  As much as I love being home on call, I hate being on call because I nervously eye the clock all night and wait for the phone to ring.  It is good to keep busy or otherwise I'd have gray hair and a twitch by the end of the shift!

 These are the gloves I finished for my two older nieces to go with their winter coats.  I used the tried and true Patons Next Steps pattern.  The purple ones are for my 13 year old niece and I used the ladies' size.  The green ones are for my 8 year old niece and she is so tall for her age that halfway through the first child sized glove, I knew they were not going to fit.  Luckily I'd traced their hands the last time they were here and kind of fudged my own pattern using her lengths and monkeying around with the widths and was pleased with what I came up with.  I wanted her to be able to wear them for at least one season.  I just hope they don't lose them!  We also redeemed some of our credit card points to get them Barnes and Nobles gift cards.  They are both book worms and the gift cards were a big hit last year too and while they were here visiting, we took them to the big store near us.  I have to say I couldn't wait to be finished with these.  I have so many new projects I want to start but I had to finish these last gifts.  And of course if you put anything on the floor to photograph, Lopi has to come along and investigate!

 I also made this year's batch of crackers for Christmas lunch last night.  These went much quicker than crackers I've made in the past because I used wrapping paper that had a grid printed on the back.  No measuring this year, just count, cut and stuff.  I thought the prizes were particularly great this year!  I wrapped the last remaining gifts, finished sewing and packaging another Etsy sale (Weeeee!) and got halfway through knitting a Christmas stocking for Lopi.  Yes I know I am insane.  I starting watching Orange Is The New Black last night too and am now kind of hooked. 

Houska

The beautiful loaf of bread on the right is houska, a braided Czech bread made with potatoes, butter, blanched almonds and raisins.  We spent Saturday at Dave's parents' house helping to make this Christmas treat.  Dave's mother makes 6 loaves at a time which translates into 40 pounds of dough!  The loaf is formed by stacking 2 twisted pieces of dough over a braid of 3 pieces of dough atop 4 more pieces of dough braided together.  I was first invited to help 3 years ago.  Dave's mother and brother sat at the table with their written out instructions on how to create the 4 piece braid.  I watched them do it once and said, "Oh, you're weaving."  Ever since then, I have helped with the braiding! 

My girlfriends were going to come up last week but couldn't because of illness.  I'd wanted to fool around with salt dough ornaments.  I can remember making them with my babysitter when I was little.  While braiding real houska this year, I got the brilliant idea to make some salt dough houskas.  After forming a few loaves, I pressed some E size cream colored beads into the dough for blanched almonds and gold and plum colored seed beads for the raisins.  After I baked them, I painted them with a wash of acrylic paint and then Hodge Podge for an egg wash shine.  I stuck a wire loop into them before baking to make them into an ornament but they might be too heavy to hang.  If so they can be a paperweight or a nic nac.  I know I'm a nerd but I was so excited to make these!  I also made a couple Danish heart ornaments and a Lopi paw print!  This is a great cheap and non-toxic activity for kids!

Lisa's Blankie

 I drew my sister's  name for our gift exchange this year and had been sitting on this fabric for a good ten years.  I am crazy about jelly roll style quilts and have busted through all kinds of fabric stash using the technique.  This is fabric I bought at full price at Joann Fabrics ten years ago when I first saw this line.  I bought 6 yards of backing fabric and 5 yards of individual prints.  This fabric line was Japanese themed in different colorways.  Lisa loves red and so red kimonos, lanterns, fans, butterflies and bamboo chutes.  I hate to admit I was a little disappointed in the final results of this quilt.  I was surprised how small the top came out with the 5 yards cut up.  And of course Lopi has to come lay down on anything you're working on.  That backing is 9' by 7.5'. 

 Really Lopi?  You're going to be in my hair that much?  Here I am trying to trim the batting and backing to stretch as much as I can out of the blanket.  I think she will like it even though it won't be a bedspread size.

As beautiful as the fabric is, I just wish there was more contrast between the pieces.  I bought another whole set of fabric in a blue colorway 10 years ago too.  I seem to remember that my fabric had a few prints that had white as a background.  I won't get to that fabric until after the Christmas season.

 I am finally posting pictures of the new furniture we got this summer.  It has been cold and snowy with overcast skies for the better part of 2 weeks and the lighting wasn't the greatest when I took these photos.

 Here is the hutch it all it's holiday glory.  I had so much fun polishing the wood and cleaning the glass and then unpacking boxes of nic nacs and dishes arranging and rearranging them in there.  My polish pottery and egg cups and cake plates and chafing dish and relish trays and Maynerd's dishes finally have a home.  Grandma Helen's silver in the wooden lined box also lives in there and the drawers are filled with different serving spoons and herring forks and wooden spreaders as well as candles for the table.  I just love it!  I have waited my whole life to own one of these and have somewhere to put it.  On the ledge you can see the perpetual Advent calender my sister gave us and we are enjoying it.  Her family has a yearly tradition of filling their perpetual Advent calender with candy and taking turns opening it.  Ours looks right at home on the hutch.

 Here is the sideboard that came along as a set.  Currently it houses my cookbook collection and a few Polish pieces and normally is topped with all my framed family pictures.  Here it is holding some holiday decorations.  That red tin is filled with candy because we need to eat to maintain our figures around here!  Maynerd's Christmas decorations are in that bowl and the shelf above it belonged to my great grandma Elnora and used to hang in their farmhouse.  My sister found that carousel at a garage sale and is exactly like the one Mother has and we'd put it together every year when we'd set out the decorations.  It is so nice to have a place to put things.

 I finished a sweater for my niece Laina.  I keep forgetting that Christmas is next week because for us, it isn't Christmas until January 9th when we can all get together.  I used this pattern and 3 skeins of some Classic Elite Waterspun yarn that I bet I've had in my stash for at least 10 years.  I've got all the little ones shopped and knitted for and just have 2 pairs of gloves to knit for my older nieces.  I'll finish a quilt for my sister tomorrow and then if I'm really ambitious, I'll knit a stocking for Lopi.

Wintry Mix

I love my dog.  I love her so very much!  I know I fuss over her more than I should and my dad is constantly saying, "You need to have children."  I baked doggie treats for her from a book I bought at Saver's with seasonal/monthly recipes and it even came with it's own treat cutter!  The treats are quite bland but that is OK for dogs.  They don't need extra salt or fat, etc.  I tasted them myself and would eat them if I were starving to death but she really likes them.  Maybe it is the idea of it being people food.  Who knows. There is a recipe that contains peanut butter and I will try that one next.  I think it would be a nice gesture to bake a bunch of these and deliver them to all the neighbor dogs we see on our walks.  We know more neighbors by their dogs.

 I really liked this particular recipe because it used up some canned pumpkin I had leftover from baking a pumpkin roll cake for Thanksgiving.

1/2 c. canned pumpkin                  1/2 c. water                 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. cinnamon                          1/2 tsp.  nutmeg          1/2 c. oatmeal
2 c. whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine pumpkin, water, oil, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.  Stir well.  Gradually add oatmeal and flour.  Form a dough.  Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutter.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 40 minutes.  Makes 4 dozen.

I woke up yesterday and found all the trees and fences and surfaces covered in hoar frost!

 Gorgeous winter accoutrements!

 I finished Erik's knitted vest 4 days ago and it has been blocking on the floor of  my sewing room.  The buttons were sewn on tonight and then was wrapped up with his vehicle and sign gift and is waiting under the Christmas tree.  I believed I was on the verge of finishing this on the last days of November to count towards my NaKniSweMo challenge (since I  kind of putzed out with my sweater dress I knit for my niece) but the finishing was much more involved than I thought it would be.  The vest edges were knit and then stitched under and then the 5 i-cord loops were knit and then sewn on.  Still I am pleased with the way it turned out, especially since I bought the yarn a few years ago on clearance when I still lived in Mason City.  I got 5 skeins and was thrilled to bust through 2.5 of them for this project.  I got the buttons on a buy one get one sale at Joann's earlier this month.  I finished this project while watching my new DVD copy of Schindler's List.  I owned a VHS copy years ago but never updated after moving to Minnesota and recognized several locations used in the film that we visited on our trip!  I bought a copy for Dave to give to my mother because he drew her name in the gift exchange.  I couldn't wait to tell her I recognized things and I was afraid if I did, she'd run out and buy a copy of her own so I already spoiled her Christmas gift and told her!