Don't panic...it's just soup

First off, yay!  I got my pin-cushion from the pin-cushion swap I was involved in.

It was made by Heather from Olive and Ollie http://www.oliveandollie.com/...totally cute stuff.  I love the fabric.  My Youngest has claimed it as her own tiny pillow, and keeps asking me if Mama sewed it.  Nope...Mama didn't sew this one.  Thanks Heather (sweet name by the way).

Back to business at hand...soup.

It is just soup, but look, let's face facts.  If you don't know proportions or what tastes good in soup, or how long to cook it...then it can be a little intimidating.  And I'll be honest, it's not an exact science for me.  It's a little of this and a dab of that and maybe a smidge more of something else...you gotta taste it as you go along.  So be like me and play like the chef's in Top Chef and have little tasting spoons that you can have a bite and then throw in the sink to wash later so that you continually check the flavors.  Or you could be really hard core and just dip your fingers in...gross.  I'll just wash a bunch of spoons, thank you.

I can't even give you an exact recipe, I can just give you the basics for making your own recipe.  Let me start by saying though to start early with soup.  It is best to pre-chop and pre-make certain items before you need supper in an hour, as it's a little time consuming to make soup.

I made Vegetable Beef and Barley Soup.  So at lunch time today I got out the skillet and I put a little oil in the bottom, I finely chopped an onion and an Anaheim pepper.  And I diced a celery into crescent moons, somewhere between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch thick.  Started sauteing these over medium heat.  Then I added 1.5 lbs ground round 85 % lean, and browned until done, add salt and pepper as you feel is tasty.  Set aside when done.  In fact, do this the night before and just toss it in the fridge.

Start chopping your veg.  Again, you gotta go with what you like.  Carrots, potatoes, green beans, cabbage and zucchini for me.  I grabbed a medium-sized bowl and started chopping, aiming to fill it up.  I chopped approx: 6 carrots into half moons, several hand-fulls of green beans chopped into 2 inch pieces (please chop off the ends...they're kind of scratchy going down), 1 potato into 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch dice, 1/2 of a small head of cabbage chopped into 1 inch square pieces. and 1 zucchini quartered and then chopped approx the size of the carrots.  Set aside.  If you want, do this the night before or after breakfast even.  But give yourself enough time!  I wouldn't chop the zucchini or the potato ahead though.  Nasty brown potatoes are not delicious.

Prepare your barley if you're going to use it as early as you like as well.  If you want to use noodles, then obviously you don't have to prepare these in advance as they will cook in your boiling broth.  Just follow the instructions and set aside.

Now it's broth time.  I got my biggest pot as I knew this was an enormous amount of soup.  I dumped my chopped veg in the soup, minus the zucchini as it's a quick cooker.  I took the bowl the veg was in before and I filled it with water, twice, and dumped it in the pot.  Then I used beef bouillon base and just guessed how much to put in, but several good spoonfuls.  I added several dashes of Worcestershire Sauce and 2 large spoonfuls of tomato paste.  Taste.  Add salt and pepper and a bay leaf.  Turn on heat and bring to boil. 

Boil approximately 15 minutes.  You want the veg to be tender...it is not nice to take a bite of soup and have some under-cooked veg.  Gross.  Give yourself time to get them nice and soft.  Add the meat.   Add the barley.  Decide that maybe it isn't soupy enough and add another cup of water.  Looks good!  Slap on the lid, reduce heat to simmer and let it be.  Taste.  Add more salt, or another dash or two of Worcestershire.  Toss spoon into the sink.  Simmer for an hour or so.  Add the zucchini.  Taste.  Throw spoon into sink.  Slap lid on and let it go on very very low until dinner time.  Yay and yum!  Soup.

My Oldest declared this the BEST soup she has ever eaten.  And as a matter of fact,she actually ate her entire bowl...a zucchini included I do believe.  And the Youngest who is terribly picky, gobbled hers up as well.  I served it with bread that I buttered and then layered Pecorino Romano cheese on and broiled for a couple of minutes until nice and toasty and melted.  Dessert was fresh strawberries with a dollop of whipped cream.  So good.  So try soup.  It's not so hard.  Just use what you like and use common sense regarding the ingredients.  If it looks like there's not enough water, add some.  If it looks too watery, you can take it out!  If you love rutabaga, put it in! 

Who has styrofoam hanging around?

What a fun Easter!  Here's some gratuitous pics of a couple of amazing kids celebrating Easter...

What comes with Easter dinner?  Easter dessert.  Luckily I volunteered for dessert and salad duty at the relations tonight.  Fun for me.  I like to experiment with new techniques I've never tried and sweets make it so easy to try different things.  While perusing the blogiverse I came across carrot patch cupcakes.

 So cute and perfect for Easter day dessert (but also perfect for spring dessert of any kind).  http://frogprincepaperie.com/2011/04/tutorial-carrot-patch-cupcakes.html 

I started with my faux gourmet cupcake recipe.  I used triple chocolate with fudgy chips.  Yum!

My trick to melting the butter, but not leaving it too hot at the end: take it off the heat when there's still a hunk of butter un-melted and let the residual heat take care of the rest.

Remember to only fill your cupcakes 2/3 full.  Very important step.  Nobody wants their cupcakes to not be charmingly domed.  I did not originally have mine filled properly as muffin tin spot #24 was mostly empty, so that required me to fish batter out of the wrappers that looked extra full.  It worked out fine.

Necessities for the carrot tops.  I had never heard of edible grass before.  It's a wacky candy from Germany and while not particularly tasty, it just made the look.  If I hadn't found it I was going to pipe green frosting as the carrot tops.  As always, use adorable cupcake wrappers.  In the tutorial, they recommended sticking the marshmallows on toothpicks and then sticking them in styrofoam for the candy melt and sugar to set.  First of all, who just has styrofoam hanging about?  Not me.  Second, I found this unnecessary anyway.  I didn't use a toothpick, just my fingers and I laid the finished carrots on parchment paper and they set up just fine.

See.  No need for styrofoam.

I did have one issue though with the mini marshmallows...where are all the orange ones?  I found a huge discrepancy in the colors.  Less orange ones.  Tricky when making carrots for cupcakes.

The best part of the cupcake though had to be the milk chocolate frosting.  Yum!!!!  I got this off of America's Test Kitchen and have adapted it to suit my tastes.  I have found that it needs a little more powder sugar to keep it from being too rich and buttery.

     Milk Chocolate Frosting

20	tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened (60 to 65 degrees)  This is a slightly tricky step as I have discovered.  You don't want the butter to be too soft because the frosting doesn't set up firm enough.  So I have found that it still needs to be quite cool in the middle.  Don't let it come completely to room temp.
1 1/2	cup confectioners' sugar
3/4	cup powdered cocoa
	Pinch salt
3/4	cup light corn syrup
1	teaspoon vanilla
8	ounces milk chocolate , melted using a double broiler and cooled slightly (I used guitard real milk chocolate chips.  You want to make sure you use good chocolate for this and no artificial stuff.  I didn't go out of my way to use really excellent chocolate, but I've found these chocolate chips are the best and they melt great. See my post on oreo truffles to see how I melt chocolate)  http://why-because-i-can.blogspot.com/2011/03/chocolate-dipped-oreo-truffles.html

In mixer, process butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed (this takes a bit of patients and a lot of scraping...eventually it will come together)   Add corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl, then add chocolate and mix until smooth and creamy.


After you get the frosting made, make sure to frost your cupcakes as desired.  My sister would only place the smallest whiff of frosting on her cupcakes.  Others might put 2 inches of frosting on theirs.  I prefer a nice layer of frosting, not too thick and not too thin.  Just right.

Now it's time to add the green carrot tops.  Pick them up one at a time, the candy melt and sugar should be hardened by now.  With a toothpick, drill a hole in the top and then break off two pieces of Edible Grass and stick them as you please.  Then place on top of cupcakes in a pleasing manner...and you have carrot patch cupcakes.

So, don't be afraid to try new things.  It's fun and not as hard as you think.  That's the moral of this story.  If you come across something that looks tasty or adorable, just make it.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  And if it's a total failure...you can always bring something store bought.

Gardening Staff

I have two of the best gardeners anyone could ever hope for!  One look at the state of our vegetable patch left them in a fuss and something had to be done.  ASAP!

The Head Gardner went right to work industriously digging a giant hole.  Clearly just what was needed to combat those pesky weeds. 

For every worm she came across, she first showed it to the Under Gardner who proceded to be very unhappy when said worm was thrust into her face, and then the Head Gardner would run to the house so I could examine it.  Whether a baby, or the fattest worm ever or the wiggliest worm ever or whatever, she was excited every time she came across one.  I have seen many worms today.

The Under Gardner decided that piling up the dirt into castles was the best way to combat the scourge of the garden...but then quickly abandoned that method to make mud balls...

And bring each new one she made into the house.  Just like the Head Gardner and her worms, the Under Gardner was equally excited about each and every mud ball she made and yet thoroughly distressed at having mud on her hands.  Go figure.

Though the work they are doing is really really good....something tells me I will be out in the garden filling in a giant hole, smushing mud balls and soothing the nerves of several dozen worms tonight while I....weed.

Heather

Random Pattern

Since I focused on my oldest's daughter's crib blanket yesterday, I thought I'd give equal time to my youngest's crib blanket today.  I've never felt the constraints of only using traditional colors and fabrics for my children.  I love bold colors!  Sometimes I love bold colors too much and it bites me in the end, but in the case of this crib blanket, I think they work perfectly.

I love the orange too!  I have little redheads and so deep inside I love to emphasize their beautiful hair...and nothing does it like orange.  Their hair looks even redder next to something orange. 

The random pattern on this one makes me happy!  Seemingly random, that is.  Until I made this pattern, I couldn't figure out how people attached so many different sized pieces together.  Here's the trick, you just make several  panels with random pieces that all meet up at the edges and then sew the panels together.  Voila!  Random.

My one regret is not using more of the cute polka dot print throughout.  I had consulted my loving husband, who is usually pretty spot on in his assessments of color arrangement and if I have too much dark or light or color in a particular area.  He felt the white would be too distracting and take the eye away from the rest of the quilt.  Then after it was made, he loved the look of it.  Sad!

I quilted hearts inside the individual blocks and stiched in the ditch around the perimeter of each block.  In the smaller blocks I did a single heart.

In the larger blocks I did it Grinch-style.  You know, his heart grew 3X that day.

Here's the back with racing stripes!

So that is it for baby blankets for now.  As I only have to babies, I only have two crib blankets to show.  I could steal my sister's crib blankets for a day and take pictures of them.

Thanks for stopping by.

h.

The original Hexi

Do you ever feel like you were so there first before a trend really hit?  I got braces way before anybody else in my 7th grade did...I had a sweet poof in my hair before Snooki...uhhh... anyway, that's how I feel about Grandmother's Garden...aka hexies.  Can I just say this was maybe the 3rd quilt I'd ever made...and it only took me 10 years.  Hexagons are one of those quilting techniques that you can just bring a few things with you wherever you go so that when you have a little bit of time to spare you can quilt.  You can pack just a few essentials: enough of your fabric of choice, hexagon patterns, thread and scissors.  So consequently as it was my "work on it every once in a while" quilt, it took a while to complete.

I had always planned on this being a queen, but then I got preggers and realized too late that I had not made my future child a baby blanket.  As a quilter I could not let that be and realized that I had just enough done on my hexi quilt for it to be a crib blanket...if I turned it sideways.  So what was meant to be the horizontal sides became the vertical sides and vice versa and a crib blanket was born!

I bound it with red...because I figured a mostly green quilt needed a little punch.

And instead of a coordinating fabric on the back of the hexi quilt, I ofcourse chose purple...logical.  This really began my love affair of putting a completely unrelated fabric on the back of my quilts.  I think it's kind of a fun surprise for people...Oh what lovely green hexagons...turn over quilt...BAM it's purple.

So...I guess what I'm trying to say is...these hexies were brought to you by the letter H...for Heather....and hexagon.

One more tip, don't be afraid of the ugly fabrics.  Once they're all mixed in, you don't even know they're ugly they just add some extra oomf.

See ya!

Well enough

Take 3.

I can't leave well enough alone...until now. I have made 3 pincuchions now for my swap partner.  I pretty much have a week to get my pincushion mailed, but of course I've yet to be satisfied with what I've made.  I'm giving it to somebody other than myself and so I have to fret and ponder and think about it...to death. 

So I'm done!  My exchange partner is just getting into quilting and I will say I have a pretty good knowledge of quilting and so I wanted to give him something that celebrates the diversity and beauty of one of my favorite arts.

The top is Grandmother's garden (a personal favorite) and fun and quick to make. The best part of this little pincushion is that I used my scraps.  I found all the cute fabrics that I've used recently and combined them into a pleasing little arrangement of adorability.  I also patterned this after the traditional tomato pincushions and crocheted and attached a little strawberry!  Personally I think it's a hit...so much so that I made one for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law for their birthdays...and my sister-in-law doesn't even sew.  Who cares, everybody needs a cute pincushion even if they just sew buttons occasionally, right?

The bottom is a snazzy little log cabin, again using scraps.  My favorite of the bunch has to be the gooseberries, it's the tiny little strip on the far left.  I made my Grandma a quilt where the focus was gooseberries because I have many a childhood memory of picking gooseberries and taking off the stem and fluff ends.  So fun!  Quilting is just so personal and I love it.

There you go Thomas I am sending it!

Chocolate Dipped Oreo Truffles

My oldest loves a feast!  She loves getting the whole family together and eating delicious food that you pretty much only eat once a year.  She loves meat too.  Corned Beef is right up her alley...unless she finds the brining strange.  I guess we'll find out.

My sister and I host the St Patty's Day Feast and invite our parents over to partake in the festivities.  We split up the duties.  The last two years it has been her job to make the corned beef and the accompaning veg: cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  I am not a fan of corned beef.  It kind of makes me want to gag a little bit.  So I am happy to turn over this job to her.  My dearest husband though LOVES it, so I guess once a year I can stomach it...as long as my sister cooks it. It is my job to do everything else! 

I was going to turn dessert over to her but then she informed me that she was just going to buy something at the store.  GROSS!!  What can you get at the store that's very tasty?  I would much rather have something home-made.  So I am doing dessert, colcannan (this crazy Irish dish with mashed potatoes, loads of butter, cabbage and ham) and Irish Soda bread courtesy of Ina.  Very tasty! 

truffles before chocolate coating

Dessert is going to be oreo truffles.  If you haven't heard of these, it's pretty simple.  I got this off of Bakerella's web-site.  Take 20 mint oreos and (you're suppoed to have 12, but my package only came with 10 more) cookie part with the cream filling taken out.  Make into crumbs in food processor.  Stir in one package softened cream cheese.  Form into balls.  Refrigerate til firm.  Dip in chocolate.

I am using Callebaut dark chocolate to dip the truffles in...and something tells me the chocolate quality is going to far surpass the oreo truffle quality.  Nothing against oreos, but, come one.  Delicious, dark callebaut should probably be paired with something a little fancier.  I am all about the fancy you know.  But we will see.  I am hoping to turn them into little pots of gold.  I bought some gold chocolate rocks to top them with.

Results:
I think they are a success.  You have to use your imagination a little bit to see the pots of gold.   I feel they are a little odd texturally, and very very rich.  The minty taste is nice.  And the fine-quality chocolate is an excellent dipper.  If I were to do them over again I would definitely freeze vs. refrigerate the un-coated balls before hand as swirling them in the melted chocolate caused them to fall apart slightly and I couldn't mold them into a very good pot shape.  Both girls were licking every little crumb off their plates.

Chocolate Tips (disclaimer: I am not a chocolatier, so there you have it)
1. Don't get water anywhere near your chocolate!  It will cause it to seize up and be a complete disaster
2. Chop your chocolate into small pieces and when melting, melt on a very low heat
3. Try not to melt it completely, when it looks mostly melted, remove from heat and start stirring and let the residual heat finish melting the last few lumps
4. Add a pile of unmelted chocolate into the melted chocolate and stir like crazy to get the unmelted pieces to melt using whatever heat is left.  This helps bring the temperature cool enough to dip in.
5. If the chocolate in your pan gets too cool.  Briefly put back on burner until it starts to melt again.  Stir stir stir. You don't want it to get too warm.
6.  The chocolate needs to be cool to the touch before you dip anything in it.  No warmth whatsoever!

Here's the thing about tempering, you see, you want your chocolate to solidify after you've dipped whatever it is you're dipping in the chocolate.  If you do not temper it correctly, it will never harden.  So then you're left with a gooey chocolatey mess instead of a nice hard chocolate shell. 

Here's my final word on chocolate dipped oreo truffles...

Pin-cushion Fun

If you are Thomas and you are my pin-cushion swap partner, please avert your eyes! 

I am showing off the goods here and now....I'll wait 10 seconds for you to scram....

...this is what I organized this weekend.  I am a notorious magazine and newspaper page ripper-outer.  Luckily I tossed probably 2/3 of this pile.  I only kept the very best for me to (hopefully) try at a later date.

Is Thomas still around?

No?

Good.

Cute right?  There was basically no rules about what make.  It was just have fun and if your partner has any wishes, like me, no civil war reprints please, just make something awesome.

So I used Heather Bailey's square pin cushion tutorial as a jumping off point, but as my printer doesn't work, I had to figure it out on my own.  I made the top out of a cute little 4 patch using what I feel are complimentary fabrics, but at the same time an unexpected pairing.  And in the middle I added a little be-jeweled fanciness.

The white with brown polka dots around the edge is just fun! I used this fussy cut of a bird on the back because after checking out Thomas' blog, I saw he likes birds.

See ya!

Just like that

So I got the binding done too!
I think it turned out really cute.  I like the black binding with white polka dots, I think it frames the quilt nicely. And I feel the yellow isn't too much.  Sometimes I like too much color and too much pattern and the main focus of the quilt gets lost.

Yay!  Happy St. Patty's to my family, we now have a decoration to celebrate the holiday of my  husband's ancestors.  A totally cute one too if you ask me.

Instead of quilting it traditionally, I used 3 strands of yellow embroidery floss.  I made bigger stitches and it went so quickly and gives it that extra touch of detail.

It's so hard to see.  Taking pictures with a lot of white makes my camera go crazy. 

Now, I know you have enough time.  7 days to be exact.  Go make something green!



Endless Winter/Give them a chance to help

Where are the flowers you say?  Why, they're right there.  Can't you see them? Burried under inches of snow!  Forget my last post.  Winter is here to stay.  I will say though, the only good thing about snow in March is that it's sure to melt the same day it falls.  So, that does allow for a bit of hope to sneak it's way back in.

Now, on to what this post is really supposed to be about.  The snow was just an unfortunate detour.

I want to encourage parents to have their little ones help out with household chores more.  Both my girls love to help!  I can remember when my oldest was just about 2 and she colored all over my mom's floor with a crayon.  My first instinct was to clean it myself.  But, I handed her a damp towel and let her clean up her mess as best she could.  I have tried to do this with my kids.  If they make the mess, I want them to clean it up.  But more than that, I believe that starting at 2, they can help out with every day chores to a certain degree.

My youngest helps me unload the dishwasher every day and it is her job to put the silverware away.  I hurry and get all the sharp knives out before she gets to it, but this makes her feel like such a big girl and she feels that she has a done a good job.  She also likes to help with all the other dishes too.  Watching her precariously dig out glass bowls and plates just about gives me a panic attack, but still I let her.

Sometimes I put everything in the right spot...sometimes I just leave it like this.

Now for the big one...Laundry.  I hate doing laundry.  I can load the washer and dryer all the day long, but to fold and put it away is like torture for some reason.  But then, I realized my kids can help with laundry.  This was an epiphany!  Now, it works a little better with their clothes.  I just hand my oldest a pile of folded laundry and she knows where everything goes.  For my youngest, I hand her a couple things and tell her things like, "Top drawer", "Shirt drawer",  "Pants drawer".  And they pretty much make it into their respective spots.  They aren't necessarily folded anymore, but the upside is they are out of the laundry basket and put away.  I think I can handle a few wrinkles.

The kitchen linens on the other hand...well...at least they're in the drawer...right?

Because it was so chilly last night, I decided the only thing to be had for dinner was...chili  Yum.  I wanted to make cheddar jalapeno biscuits, but didn't have two important ingredients.  Luckily I was invited to my sister's house for lunch and she just happened to have sour cream out.  Hmmm...you don't happen to have jalapenos as well, do you?  Why yes she did.  A couple weeks ago I had bought her rolls for her supper and so this was a nice way to repay me since I'd forgotten about the debt.

Sour Cream a la baggy.

Spicey!

Yum.  The recipe I used is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  I loved it the first time I made these, I think I must have done something different this time as I didn't love it quite as much.  I think I might have needed more cheese and less flour.  They were a little dry.  But I think using sour cream is such an interesting ingredient. 

Adios!