The pastry gods may strike me down

I made my first Brioche today* and the gods of pastry may strike me down. My Brioche is lovely. It's like a giant croissant. I am fighting the power to eat it because Nick is outside mowing the lawn and I am sitting her in my pajamas and we are going to have it for breakfast together.

The pastry gods may strike me down because I greased the pan with Pam. You're supposed to do Brioche with butter, butter, and more butter. Greasing with butter is hard. Pam is easy. I didn't even use butter flavored Pam, though, just regular. To add insult to the Pam injury, I also baked it in a bunddt** pan. You are supposed to bake it in a fluted Brioche tin. I have mini fluted Brioche tins (which I just got for my birthday) but I wanted a big loaf. Hopefully the gods of pastry will allow me to live another day.

I'm quite proud of how well this turned out. Today the last day that Abby*** is at my parents, so I am supposed to clean the house. I am hoping to finish the cow, which looks nothing like a Hereford, for my farm. I want to do the barn yard so I can complete the barn, but everything needs to be proportion to the animals, thus the cow must be finished first.

Nick is done--time for Brioche!!!


*Either my food photography is getting better, or my food is getting better. You be the judge.

**Every time I think of the word "bundt" it reminds me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which then reminds me of my in-laws.

***I decided to stop calling people A, E, M, etc, as I was getting confused.

I Heart Bread!

I am still in love with the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." Last night I tried to buy it at Williams Sonoma, but they don't carry it. It isn't due back to the library until June 20th, so I have time. Tonight I'm making Olive Bread with Tuscan White Bean Dip for dinner. I modified the Bean Dip recipe based on what I had in the house, so here is my version.





Tuscan White Bean Dip

• 1 Cup dried White Northern or cannelloni beans or 1 16 oz can, drained



• 5 small plum tomatoes or two larger tomatoes



• 2 small heads of garlic



• 2 TBSP olive oil



• 1 tsp salt



• freshly ground black pepper to taste



• 10 fresh basil leaves

1. Soak and cook the beans according to directions



2. Preheat the oven to 400. Cut tomatoes in half and place cut side down in a oven safe dish. Wrap each garlic head in aluminum foil. Roast tomatoes and garlic for 30 minutes. Allow everything to cool to room temperature. If using canned beans, drain and rinse them.



3. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the head and add everything but the basil to a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth--you should have something that sort of looks like hummus. Taste the mixture and add more salt or pepper if needed. Add the basil and puree until well incorporated. Serve immediately at room temperature or refrigerate and serve cold.

I think that this is going to be a great summer dip--very healthy with only the two tablespoons of olive oil in about 2 cups of dip. I think that this would also be a good mayo substitute on a sandwich or a pita with tuna or grilled chicken. Maybe I'll make pita bread next...

I'm very excited that we are having company next week because it gives me a good reason to do lots of lovely things with Brioche dough. I fill kind of silly making individual breakfast Brioches* for just us, but when you have company you can make things like Sunny Side Up Apricot Pastry or Blueberry Lemon Curd Ring. I also may go "old school" with some sticky buns.





I did some personal sewing today and made myself a tunic top in the style of some of the dresses that I've been making. I'm really happy with the way that it turned out. The flower detail came from a blog that I discovered yesterday via Tip Nut. The flower was originally used on a lunchbox made out of a pillowcase, which I totally want to try. I think that this might also be the pattern that I use as my model when making the basket liner for E's bike. http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2008/03/vintage-pillowc.html

I'm also in the process of turning some of my pants into Bermuda shorts. Either I'm getting taller or my pants are shrinking. I have several pairs that I can only wear with my flattest flat shoes, and even then I'm in danger of my sock showing when I'm standing.** I found a good tutorial for making pants into shorts. I have my first pair pinned now and it looks like the end result will be a lot better than just hemming a pair of cut-offs.



Tomorrow it should be back to the farm and then Nick and I are embarking on an exciting adventure called CLEANING THE SCARY BASEMENT.
Wish us luck. There may be pictures...







*I'm guessing that isn't the correct plural. I speak German, not French.



**One of my biggest pet peeves. My all time biggest pet peeve are little girls with too short shirts so their little bellies hang out. Oh, I also hate scraggly hair. I have lots of issues.

Cows Wearing Earrings

I thought that some of you without a "farm background" might have trouble visualizing what the cows looked like with their earrings. I was thinking about trying to Google another picture, but I don't know the official name and after being overwhelmed in trying to choose a picture of a Hereford yesterday, that task was a little too daunting, so I was going to leave it to all of your imaginations. Then, I got this picture in my email!! My daughter is visiting my parents this week and they went to a dairy farm yesterday and the cows were all wearing earrings! I remember my grandpa's cows only having tags in one ear, but since the cows went away when I was about 6, I could be wrong. Anyway* now you have a picture so you know what I'm talking about.

*I always have the desire to write "anyhoo," but that seems much too cheesy and I would never say "anyhoo" in conversation

My Farm

I'm working on my Take Along Farm right now and have been thinking a lot about my grandparent's farm. This is a picture of me* and my grandpa from about 1981 (I'm guessing). I looked through my pictures yesterday and I don't have an exterior shot of their barn, so I'm working from memory and your basic red barn. I'm trying to incorporate as many elements from their farm yard as I can, as that was the real farm to me.



This is one of my favorite stories about my grandpa...When I was little they raised Hereford cattle. Here's a picture** if you don't know your cow breeds. My grandpa's cows all had numbers on little plastic tags through their ears, instead of being branded. The cows had indoor and outdoor options in the barn and I loved to feed them grass through their fence and pet their noses. I had dreams about riding a cow, since they didn't have any horses, but you don't ride cows. One time I asked my grandpa why the cows had numbers on their earrings. He said that was so he could remember all their names and after that, he called them all by "name" whenever I was with him. I remember thinking that 256 wasn't that good of a name and offering to come up with some better ones.

As I work on my farm, I'll try and make the cows look like Herefords and also make sure that they have indoor and outdoor options. I miss my grandpa and had lots of fun on that farm.





*check out my groovy pants!

**choosing the picture was really hard--who knew there were so many pictures of cows on the Internet.

Odds and Ends

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

I think that today was my first day to get to sleep as long as I wanted since A was born 5 years ago--I was up before 8:00. Nick however, slept until almost 10:00 and only woke up when I ground the beans to make coffee.*

I finished "Home Tweet Home" and it is listed on Etsy. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Part of me wants to keep it. I hope that it is loved, wherever it goes. While making it, I was thinking of my friend M's little boy, as he is a real nature lover. I am thinking about doing a more masculine version (or at least less girly) that someone like him would enjoy. I do have plans to make another one, as there's a few things that I would change.

My next project is a farm. I'm working out how to make corn out of felt in minature in my head right now. That may take a few tries. I'm also thinking about felt soy beans, but I don't think that most kids would know what those are.

For the odds and ends part: I got the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois from the liberay on Saturday. If you like baking bread, I think that it's worth checking out. (I'm a big fan of using the library before you buy, espically for cookbooks.) I made our first batch of dough yesterday and baked the first loaf today--this is as close to bakery perfection as I have ever come. I started with French Boule (a white flour French round loaf with a soft inside and crunchy crust) and it is soooooooooooooo good. The book does seem to live up to it's name. It took me less than 15 minutes to make the dough yesterday (no kneading required) and today was less than 5 minutes of hands-on time. The loaves are small and the dough can be frozen, so I have plans to try out many things. Olive Bread with Tuscan White Bean Dip may be next. It also tells you how to make your own bagels, which is so crazy that I may have to try it.

Because I'm in a baking frenzy, I also made the Buttermilk Blueberry Scones (or Stones, as A would call them if she were here) from the June issue of Martha Stewart Living. This is the blueberry issue and it looks like most of the recipes are avaiable on line. Scones are yummy!

The green beans that I planted are starting to take over the world--I should probably thin them out today.

I hope that you all have a great long weekend! Make something fun or dig in the dirt!

*I can do a lot of things, but I have issues with the coffee/water ratio. Mine is always too weak or too strong.

Around the World in 5000 Calories

Today Nick took A to spend a week at my parents*. My friend M (of the "creepy bird feet" recommendation) came over for lunch and to sew. We are like women on the prairie with our sewing circle. We had a feast from lunch, which I am calling "Around the World in 5000 Calories." We had PF Chang-like Lettuce Wraps, (if you like lettuce wraps, this recipe from Recipe Zaar is really good. The key is the "secret sauce." http://www.recipezaar.com/P-F-Changs-Chicken-Lettuce-Wraps-15865) home-made pizza, Trader Joe's dumplings and chips and guacamole. It was yummy.

My friend M also has a new career as a hand model. I though up this way to show off my tiny birds when I post the bird house on Etsy and I really like the way the picture turned out.

Nick and I are taking advantage of the fact that no one here wants to watch Yo! Gabba Gabba! We're watching movies and I'm finishing my birdhouse. Maybe it will be listed tomorrow...

* I know that she'll have a good time, but it does make me sad.

Home Tweet Home

This post is about a birdhouse that I'm making...did you think that it would be about Twitter? Nick has about 8,000 followers on Twitter*. I don't think that I could "tweet" because he would give me some kind of a complex.





Anyway, I'm working on a take along bird house toy. It will be sort of like a fabric dollhouse that you can take with you (roughly a 6 inch cube), but instead of dolls there are little birds and instead of furniture there will be a nest. I'm thinking about making worms for the birds to eat. I finally have enough done that I can show it to you. This picture is the front panel, or the outside of the house (minus the peeked roof, which I haven't done yet) and two of the little birds).

When it's done you'll be able to open this panel like out (like you open your oven) and see the nest inside and also have the birds play on their tree. I love the tree. I had a hard time figuring out how it should look, so I actually went into our yard and cut several small branches off different trees to get the right shape and to figure out how to do the leaves. I'm also really happy with how the bird family turned out. I need to name them--let me know if anyone has any ideas.





The birds do not have feet. My friend M and I went back and forth about feet this afternoon. I didn't think that I could get the scale/proportions right and M thought that feet would look creepy. (She did say creepy in a loving way, though.) I'm thinking about putting a tiny bit of Velcro** on the bottom of the birds so that they'll be able to stand up on their tree and in their nest--the bark is fuzzy.





I'm hoping to get the whole house done this weekend and then I'll show it to you.***


*Since I can't draw, I looked at about a million simple pictures of birds in order to make my bird pattern. The Twitter bird was one of my favorites, so maybe these look familiar.

**I always forget that Velcro has to be capitalized. I need to learn the non brand name for Velcro.

***I love footnotes. In my papers in school I was always so happy to get to note things. Some of my favorite papers footnotes that took up over half a page.

ETSY STORE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

My Etsy Store, www.giupettos.etsy.com, is now open for business. Please tell your friends to visit. I'm just getting started, so the two dresses are the only items available now, but more are coming soon and I'm switching over to toys for awhile. (Toys are more fun.)

I finished the "Kitty Goes to Paris" dress last night and it passed the washing machine test. I'm really happy with it and am planning a "Kitty Goes to..." series of things.

I'm working on my toy bird house right now--everything has been cut and prepped, so I get to do the embroidery and embellishing now, which is the fun part. That will probably be done in the next few days.

I'm off to pull leaves off our trees, since my attempts and drawing a leaf didn't work out so well.

Pet Ducks and Dinner

To answer my father-in-law's question (should he ever read this)--no, I didn't eat the ducks for dinner.

For the past six years, a pair of migrating Mallards have been visiting our neighborhood on their journey North. I feed them and we have a small garden pond, so they seem to like our house. They also seem to remember us and get more trusting each year. They are our pet ducks; George and Rebecca. About two years ago, they started bringing their friend Bernard. When I looked out the front window this morning, I saw one of my favorite things--three ducks sitting on my grass (that needs to be mowed*). I think that I've taken about a thousand pictures of my ducks, but here's one for all of you. From left to right, we have Bernard, Rebecca and George. I have decided that Bernard is one of Rebecca and George's children who hasn't gotten married yet. If the ducks are following their usual time table, they only have a few more weeks with us. It always makes me sad when they leave. Rebecca has gotten to the point that she'll eat out of my hand. They also now come all the way up to our porch. Sometimes I think that they are going to knock on the door and ask to be fed. If you're wondering, ducks eat almost anything. Mine have been enjoying Old Fashioned Oats, blueberries that accidentally became petrified at the back of the refrigerator and leftover rice that I forgot to put back in the refrigerator. Rebecca also seems especially fond of raisins and Frito's. I've been trying to think of a project that relates to my ducks but is a fitting tribute--right now I'm leaning towards a fabric children's book. I am nothing, if not ambitious.

In other news...

I've been spending more time in various waiting rooms than I'd like to.** All this waiting room time allows me to read magazines that I wouldn't normally read and I frequently come across recipes that I might enjoy. Sometimes I have a pen and write them down; usually I just try and remember. Last night I made us "Waiting Room Egg Sandwiches," which were really tasty, so I thought that I'd share. (Yes, I am aware that I probably won't have a career as a food photographer). I think that the original recipe came from Real Simple Magazine, but it could have been a Real Simple from 2005. We eat a lot of eggs for dinner because we like them, they are nutritious and cheap. Here's my recipe:

Waiting Room Eggs

• 1 thick slice of dense whole wheat bread per person
• 2 eggs per person
• asparagus, trimmed
• olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

1. Turn on your broiler and allow it to pre-heat. If you have a large toaster oven you could do this whole thing in there.
2. Drizzle the bread and asparagus with olive oil and season the asparagus with salt and pepper. Place the bread on a cookie sheet and arrange the asparagus around it.
3. Broil the bread for 2 minutes per side and then remove the bread. Toss the asparagus around and allow it to broil for about 5 more minutes (more if you don't like crunchy asparagus).
4. Meanwhile, place your eggs in a saucepan and fill the pan with cold water until the eggs have been completely covered with an extra inch of water. Cover the pan and bring it rapidly to a boil. Once the water boils, turn off the heat and leave the pan alone for 6 minutes--you are making soft boiled eggs.
5. By this point the asparagus should be done and it's time to start plating. Place one piece of toasted bread on each plate and grate on a little Parmesan. Arrange your asparagus on top of the toast and add a little additional Parmesan.
6. When the eggs are done, carry the whole pan to the sink and start filling it with cold water. Keep running cold water into the egg pan until you're able to touch the eggs. This makes the egg shells easier to remove and it prevents you from burning your hands.
7. Once the eggs are cool, carefully remove their shells by tapping them all over with a spoon. This is time consuming and kind of a pain. (You could do fried eggs, which would be easier and less of a pain if you wanted.) Place the eggs on top of the sandwiches and enjoy. I like to break my egg yoke, as it makes a nice sauce for the asparagus.
   

*Too long grass is not one of my favorite things, but there's a very good reason that it is too long.

**Long story, and strangely, it has to do with the grass not getting cut.

My New Martha Craft Room

Today was my first day of not working, so I cleaned up my office and made my New Martha Craft Room. I think that the Dora the Explorer shelves are my favorite part. Note the Diet Coke--that's how you know that it's my office.

I also organized all my lovely fabric. It makes me happy to see all the fabric together like this. I do have plans for almost all of these and I like to take them out and look at them.

So you can truly appreciate the makeover--here's a before shot of the room....

Kitty Gets Taped to the Lamp

Today I started working on my new dress "Kitty Goes to Paris" I finished the hem and body of the dress as well as my design for the embroidery and tonight it was time to transfer the embroidery design to the fabric. Our house has REALLY poor lighting and printed fabric is hard! I'm sure that there's an easier way to do this (and probably a better way), however this is my way. Next time I'm going to remember to do this during daylight, as I think the sun would help a lot.

I'm also getting ready to start a take along house. I'm deciding between the bird house idea that came to me during "Micky Mouse Clubhouse" (art is clearly all around us) or a house for people that look like my sister's salt and pepper shakers. I may have to flip a coin.

I'm hoping for a good drying day again tomorrow, as I still have lots of laundry to do from our trip and life in general. Your perspective on the weather changes when you want to stop using your dryer for the summer.

I forgot to mention this in my previous post, but the Giupetto's banner for this site and my Etsy store was designed and created by Brandy. She did a wonderful job and gave me exactly what I wanted (even when I didn't really know how to ask for it). I would highly recommend her for all your graphic design needs. Check out her work at http://wickedsisterdesigns.blogspot.com/ or on her Etsy store.

I'm off to embroider and watch the season finale of Lost...

My First Item for Etsy and some memories...

This is my first item for my Etsy store--the Giupetto dress... I am really happy with how it turned out and it will go up for sale in a few days. I've started working on a new dress, called "Kitty Goes to Paris." Depending on how that goes, there might be a whole "Kitty Goes to..." series. I can see Kitty at the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, etc. Kitty is a world traveler. Remind me later and I'll tell you a story about Kitty's band--Swing Sensation Sugarboots.

The Giupetto Dress has been done for a while, however I haven't been able to post it for sale because we've been out of town. My niece E graduated from high school on Thursday. I've had two nieces and nephews graduate on Nick's side of the family, but E is the first one that I've gotten to watch since the beginning. Graduating always causes you to reflect on the past, so I thought that I'd share one story about me and E.

My sister Laura is 12 years older than me and I was 14 when E was born. Let me tell you, it was REALLY cool to get to be an aunt in the 8th Grade. Laura had my nephew N right after I turned 16. My mom and I were both supposed to go out and visit Laura when school got out, about a week after N was born, but because of weird Iowa weather, our flight was canceled and we could only get one ticket for the next day, so I went out alone to "help" my sister with E. (Now that I am a mother, I can see that my help at age 16 probably wasn't a whole lot of help.)

E was a typical 2 year old and wasn't too happy that her brother had arrived. My sister was just tired, as only a new mom can appreciate. If I'm remembering right, my brother-in-law had to go out of town for a few days, so I was supposed to watch E, who had decided not to sleep in protest. My sister had one of those screened in wagon things that you pull behind a bike and they lived in a really bike-friendly neighborhood in Richmond. In the afternoon I was supposed to put E in the wagon and peddle her around until she fell asleep. Apparently, she always fell asleep when you put her in the bike wagon--not so with me. When I put her in there and started to ride her around the neighborhood she screamed. She screamed the really loud high-pitched scream of a two year old. I thought that the neighbors were going to think that I was kidnapping a child. She never did fall asleep, but on at least one occasion, I peddled her around until Laura had said we were allowed to return home. Who would try and kidnap a child on a bike? That strikes me as really funny now, but at the time it was a serious concern of mine. It's hard to believe that E is all grown up.

It seems like things have come full-circle, as one of my upcoming personal projects is to make a bike basket liner for E's new bike that she got for graduation and will take to college. Hopefully she won't scream while riding this one.

I'm excited to start working on some new projects--I got lots of new ideas while at my sister's (mostly from her house, which is much cooler than mind). I put them all down in my notebook and was lamenting the fact that I can't draw, so they all got really lengthy descriptions. Someday I'll scan my first drawings of a project so you can really see how much I can't draw.

I'm taking some time off from my other job this summer and am hoping to get my office converted into a project room tomorrow. There will be a new use for the outgrown Dora the Explorer shelves. Hopefully Dora will approve of being re-purposed.

Finally--don't knock it until you've tried it. My home-made deodorant / antiperspirant past the Louisiana test. My other sister and I are trying to move towards chemical-free homes and I've also been trying to save a lot of money, so I've made some personal care products. Although I made fun of it at first, home made deodorant is a keeper. If you want to know how to make it, check out one of my favorite sites--Little House in the Suburbs. http://www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2008/07/homemade-toiletries.html

Coming Soon...

This morning I had a burst of inspiration (while watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" with A.) about something new that I want to make. I made A. a fabric take along bunny dollhouse for Easter and I've been planning to do more take along fabric things. This morning I decided that I want to try a take along bird's house.

We had a nest of Robbins in our front yard this Spring and were delighted with watching them. Unfortunately, the Robbin Family's nest was a little too exposed and some mean birds got the eggs before they hatched. That was a tragic day. We loved watching Mama Robbin sit on her nest and A. was fascinated when my mom lifted her up and showed her that the Robbin's eggs were bright blue!

Anyway, all of this has come together and I'm going to make a take along bird house. A. painted a bird house at my parents this winter, so I might use that as my color model. I'm still trying to work out a way in my head for the eggs to hatch. Usually these things have to percolate for awhile.

I also made a list this morning of all the things that I'd like to make for Giupetto's shop. I made the list in my old work notebook, which was very liberating. Here's a partial list of what I think I'm going to make:

• girl's sundresses with ribbon ties and various embroidered designs
• mother and daughter "outfits" (an a-line skirt with rick-rack trim for mom and a dress for daughter out of print fabric)
• take along fabric houses
• nesting family (felt people that will all fit inside each other)
• children's activity bags with their names and something that they like embroidered on it
• Quiet Book--a cloth book full of quiet activities (I had one when I was little that was for church only so it would always be new)

Today is Mommy and A. day, so we are headed to the library later, so I won't get to start any of this now. I always want to start projects right away. I remember many times as a child getting an idea and making my Halloween costume in July or August.

Time for some coffee...

Welcome to Giupetto's

Today I started setting up my store on Etsy: you can visit it at www.giupettos.etsy.com.

If you are wondering about the name, Giupetto was our first dog-baby. He was Nick's dog-baby before we were married, which is why he has a name with such Italian spelling.

Tomorrow I am starting work on my first creation for my Etsy store--the flagship item--the Giupetto dress. It is going to be a pink dress, trimmed in brown, with a beagle puppy embroidered on it. In my head it looks really cute--usually things come out of my head well. That is not true for the pair of shorts that I made A. last night, but that's another story...