July 10, 2009 by mybricole
I finished seven totes this week and am excited about starting some new aprons and Lulu’s dress of course.
Over the fourth I made a light fruit dessert for a bbq with friends.
Well, it’s about as light as I get with a dessert. Fresh whipped cream layered with strawberry puree, strawberries, blueberries, and broken up meringue stars. The meringues melted pretty quickly so next time I think I will make them bite size so I don’t have to break them up.
We also had some friends over on the 3rd for pulled pork. Knowing we would be spending 12 hours minding and mopping the shoulder, I went for an easy dessert. My intent was malted milk ice cream for the kids and pomegranate sorbet for the moms and dads, but the adults decided mixing the two would be an even better idea.
pomegranate sorbet
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water,
3 cups pomegranate juice
Mix all ingredients together in a large saucepan. Big to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature and refrigerate until well chilled. Process in ice cream maker.
Posted in baking | Tagged strawberry, dessert, whipped cream, berries, raspberry, blueberry, eaton mess, pomegranate, sorbet | Leave a Comment »
June 27, 2009 by mybricole
In all the website shifting around, I didn’t want to lose K’s apron. This pattern reminds me so much of Ana Pascal in the movie Stranger than Fiction. That’s why I had to make this for K. – she reminds me so much Ana Pascal too.
This apron has a lined bodice, but the skirt isn’t lined so it doesn’t get too heavy. I love the super long ties.
Posted in sewing | Tagged apron, sewing | Leave a Comment »
June 27, 2009 by mybricole
So here we are another month has past and that means it’s Daring Bakers time.
The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosiaand Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.
I made mine with lemon curd and strawberry jam. It’s a rather straight forward dessert, but I will add one bit of cautionary advice. Do not over fill it. If your tart looks like this when it goes into the oven…
You should be prepared for an eruption of frangipan. I have never felt so grateful for deciding to bake a tart on a cookie sheet.
Luckily, because it was in a tart pan, I could trim up the edge and slip off the ring and it was back to beautiful.
For the challenge, we were to make the sweet shortcrust pastry and frangipane, plus the homemade curd or jam of our choice.
The pasty and frangipane recipes along with the assembly instructions can be found at the Daring Kitchen. My lemon curd recipe can be found here. The strawberry jam is suger filled and was the perfect sweet compliment to the over the top tartness of the lemon curd. This tart was excellent when still warm from the oven. The next morning, the almond flavor was much more strong, but it still made for a great breakfast.
strawberry jam
In a flat bottomed saucepan, place 1 quart of hulled strawberries that have been cut in half.
Add one cup of sugar. Set over low heat, stirring gently and bring to a boil.
Boil for 3 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Add one cup sugar.
Cook as before.
Add one cup sugar.
If too thin at this point, continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Spoon into jars. Makes 2 pints.
Thanks to Jasmine and Annemarie for hosting this month’s challenge. I liked this recipe and look forward to trying some different flavor combinations. I’m also looking forward to next month’s challenge.
Posted in Daring Bakers, baking | Tagged bakewell tart, dessert, lemon, strawberry, tart | 7 Comments »
June 27, 2009 by mybricole
So while I was away, using some not to be named fancy website software, I was discouraged to find it didn’t stand up to it’s promises. While it was easy to transfer my new domain name and they did have a drag and drop menu for blogging, each drag and drop took about a minute to land (hopefully in the right place or heaven help you if you needed to move it again) AND there was no spell check. How is that possible?
I have reconfigured my wordpress site and was even able to transfer my domain once again. It’s almost like I know what I’m doing.
If some of the older posts look a little funny, it’s because they were formatted in the old theme. Maybe some day I will go through and fix them. Right now, these need to be made into bags…
and these need to be made into aprons…
Posted in general, sewing | Leave a Comment »
June 7, 2009 by mybricole
These things are going to be the death of me. They are not simply truffles, they are rich, smooth, dark, creamy bites of heaven. I have little interest in nibbling on a bar of plain chocolate. For me, chocolate is a carrier, a means of providing some contrast to peanut butter or marshmallow, or even lemon, not something to just sit and enjoy on it’s own, but these I could pop by the handful, one after the other, loving each silken bite.
I started with the perfect truffles recipe from Martha. Then I tweaked it just a bit to create something even more perfect.
Posted in baking | Tagged chocolate, dessert, truffle | 2 Comments »
June 3, 2009 by mybricole
I have been trying to find just the right thing to knit for my mom. When she mentioned the cute scarf in Living I was thrilled, but then had to find just the right yarn. I stumbled upon this merino wool fingerling weight from Hand Jive in the color “spring grass” in a sale basket at my favorite yarn shop. It is a mom shade for sure.
Posted in knitting | Leave a Comment »
June 1, 2009 by mybricole
These are delicious and even a bit healthy with the oatmeal, right???
chocolate chip oaties
makes 2 dozen
1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (roughly chopped to make sure some chocolate melts right into the dough)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in egg until just combined. Finish with wooden spoon, fold in oats. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and fold into mixture. When almost incorporated, add chocolate. Scoop into one inch balls and flatten slightly on prepared trays. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes and cool on rack.
(you could also add 1/2 cup toasted and chopped hazelnuts or pecans)
Posted in baking | Tagged chocolate, cookies, dessert, oatmeal, snack | 3 Comments »
May 27, 2009 by mybricole
…or maybe not. There is supposed to be a Daring Bakers challenge here, but it just didn’t work out this month. Life’s just like that sometimes.
In the meantime, be sure to check out everyone’s work.
Posted in Daring Bakers | Leave a Comment »
May 24, 2009 by mybricole
Just popping in to share another apron…
Posted in sewing | Tagged apron | 1 Comment »
May 20, 2009 by mybricole
I went on a little apron binge. I think I am finally friends with my sewing machine too. I even mastered button holes which is great because up until now, I have avoided any pattern that required them.
This is one of my favorites. It’s a reverible apron with extra long ties so you can tie it in the front or the back.
view a
view b
Then I made the most hideous apron ever to grace the earth. It looked so cute on the model, but I look like I’m overdue for a trip the delivery room. When I modeled the reversible one for the spouse I got a vavavoom, with this one, he avoided eye contact. I don’t blame him. I can’t look myself in the eye when I’m wearing it either.
All jokes aside, I learned a lot about working with biased tape, so it wasn’t a total loss.
Posted in sewing | Tagged apron, aprons | 3 Comments »
