Berlin's Whimsy

To feed everyone.

Our family has its fair share of food aversions and quirks.

My son hates tomatoes. He'll eat salsa, ketchup, a little spaghetti sauce, but no tomatoes that resemble their fresher selves. Since the rest of our family loves tomatoes (and I have eight healthy tomato plants in my garden) his life can be quite miserable.

Pants hates onions. This one was difficult for the chef in me to take. I remember a time when each and every meal started with "Chop up an onion..." The rest of our family agrees with Pants. Even I cringe a little when fresh onions are added to certain food items--- it's probably a hold over from when I hated onions while growing up. Now, however, I love, love, love roasted onions. Every so often, I roast a bunch of sweet onions and keep a secret stash in the refrigerator to add to my own meals (a roasted yam + caramelized onions + goat cheese= YUM for lunch).

My daughter--- well she doesn't like mushrooms but she just removes them without much fanfare. However, for what she doesn't complain about she makes up for in her constant food requests: "When are you going to make aebleskivers again? Can we make Brownies?... You haven't made Cupcakes lately... We should make homemade Ice Cream..." For the observant readers out there, you might notice a theme!?  :-)

I'm the one always trying to pass off the healthy stuff on my family. I make treats every now and then, but for the most part, I try to healthy-them-up a bit. We've had success here and there. I persuaded my daughter to eat oatmeal soaked overnight with chia seeds ("what are those weird little black things in there?' Upon tasting it: "Hmmm, they don't taste like anything..."). Our standard cupcake recipe is a vegan one, and my kids call nutritional yeast on their popcorn, 'caramel.' 

But there are my failures... Thankfully, my family makes the best of them.

These were yesterday's fallen cupcakes (because I was doing too many things at one time and didn't check to see if they were baked through--- ugh). They turned into convenient little chocolate cups to hold fresh whipped cream.

My attempt at making a pumpkin pie pudding in the Vita-Mix was a failure and will soon become a savory Curried Pumpkin Soup. (I will perfect that parfait, though--- the spices were off a bit).

I guess my theme is to stay flexible when it comes to feeding my family. I try not to take complaints personally. I respect others tastes and opinions but I also try to "stretch" them a bit in hopes they'll find a form of their food aversion that they do like...

Late Summer.

Ah, late summer. It's such a wonderful time of year... because fall is just around the corner!

In addition, the garden is coming to fruition and offering up delicious results. Harvest season is such a wondrous time. I pulled these beauties from my garden yesterday. With eight tomato heavy with tomatoes, I'm going to be busy in the coming weeks!

Whenever I pull a vegetable from the garden, I envision ways to prepare it. That zucchini will be roasted along with some other veggies in my veggie drawer. The Anaheim peppers will be broiled and stuffed with some jack cheese. Some of those tomatoes will be sliced onto tomato sandwiches on homemade bread  (mmmm). Those little Thai peppers? Well, they're hot as the dickens so I'm going to dry them and grind them into a powder to add a little heat to dishes throughout the year.

How about you? What do you have planned for your garden treasures?

Cider Dress Winner!

Today is the last day to enter the Fall Cider Dress Giveaway! You have until 5 PM (PST) to enter. To enter, go to The Shabby Apple website, browse a bit, and return here to leave a comment with your favorite dress.

It's been fun reading all of your choices of women's dresses from The Shabby Apple website---- don't they offer beautiful clothing?! I'm quite smitten, myself.

After 5 PM today, I'll use the handy-dandy Random Number Generator and choose a winner and I'll add the winner to the bottom of this post. Good luck!

***

The Random Number Generator worked its magic and came up with comment #3! That's Mandi! Mandi, I will send you an email shortly with information The Shabby Apple needs to get your dress to you.

To everyone else who entered, thank you so much for participating!

Sunflower Seed - Basil Sauce Recipe

Veggies make up a big portion of my diet recently. Mostly, I've been sauteing them and drizzling a variety of dressing over the top. Often I turn to the Yumm-y Sauce but with a little experimentation, I found a new favorite!

One of our favorite simple pasta dishes is pasta with homemade pesto and a sprinkling of toasted sunflower seeds. The flavor of sunflower seeds and pesto is amazing. This sauce (or dip, you choose!) blends those flavors wonderfully!

Sunflower Sauce (or Dip)

1/2 C. toasted sunflower seeds (I buy them at Trader Joes)

1/3 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 T. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. salt

1 T. honey

4 T. warm water (or enough to thin)

scant 1/4 C. fresh basil leaves

Method: Place all ingredients in either a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Thin with more warm water if you want it to be a drizzling consistency. Makes approximately 1 1/2 Cups.

It's amazing on stir-fried greens! In fact, this photo makes me want to make some now for breakfast!

******

Have you entered the Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway!? You have until this Friday to enter. I'm glad to hear you all are enjoying their website and wares as much as I do!

Fall Cider Dress Giveaway from the Shabby Apple

I anxiously await my favorite season of the year: fall. Our mornings are beginning to hold that crisp feel of the changing season. Not only do I enjoy the weather of fall, but also its earthy colors. Greens mottled with oranges; flames of red amongst the trees; the yellows and burnt oranges from the garden---- all so inspiring.

And here's your own opportunity to capture a little fall color of your own! The Shabby Apple has generously offered a dress giveaway to one lucky reader! I chose the Cider Dress (pictured above) for this giveaway because of its elegant lines and beautiful color. Though, you'll find many other beautiful womens dresses if you pop over the The Shabby Apple website--- additionally, you can shop by collection, by body type, and they also offer girls and preteen clothing. 

There are three ways to enter (and you may enter up to three times but please leave separate comments for each entry):

1) go to The Shabby Apple website, browse their wares, and return here to leave a comment about which dress you like and why you like it.

2 & 3) Follow The Shabby Apple blog on Facebook and/or Twitter and come back here and tell me about it.

The contest is only available to those in the United States and I will choose a random winner at 5 PM (PST) on Friday, August 27th. After the winner is chosen, I'll announce it here and contact the winner.

Good luck and I look forward to one of you winning this fabulous dress!

Favorite Oat Bran Muffins

I've been on an oat kick lately. By far, I eat oats this way the most often: soak 1/2 C. oats & 1 T. chia seeds  in 1 C. water overnight. In the morning, add your milk of choice (mine is usually almond or soy) and voila! I prefer the texture of soaked oats to the traditional stove-top method--- they retain some of the their texture.

However, here's another way to get your oats (oat bran) in--- a way that my kids enjoy, too!

The only caveat is that the best muffins are made from Trader Joe's Chunky Spiced Apples. It's perfect for these muffins! 

Oat Bran Muffins

1/2 C. dark brown sugar

1 1/2 C. Oat Bran

1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cardamom

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 C. Trader Joe's Chunky Spiced Apples

4 T. vegetable oil

Method: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Either line or grease a 12-C. muffin tin.

Mix the dry ingredients together (oat bran, flour, leavening, spices, salt) in a bowl. Mix the sugar, eggs, and oil together in another bowl and allow the sugar to dissolve a bit. Mix the two together and stir until just blended (it's okay if there are bits of flour not stirred in--- don't over stir)! 

Fill each muffin tin 3/4 the way full. Bake for approximately 15-minutes or until golden brown.

Added: If you don't have a Trader Joes nearby, you can make your own chunky applesauce to use for this recipe or to eat all on its own!

The way I'd do it would be to peel and quarter three apples (1 granny Smith to hold its shape and two others) and place in a saucepan over medium heat. Add a little apple juice concentrate (or brown sugar if you want), 1 tsp. cinnamon, a dash of mace and nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and about 2 tsp. lemon juice. Cook over medium-low heat until the apples are cooked through but retain some of the shape. Remove half the apples and puree and return to the chunky ones. Yummy!

******

I have a fun giveaway coming up on Monday! Hint: It's clothing related... :-)

Jason's Biscuits. My favorite biscuit recipe.

Almost as much as I love eating biscuits, I love making them. In fact, any recipe that calls for cutting butter into dry ingredients makes me smile. It must be the baker in me.

Anyhow, I considered myself a fairly good biscuit maker until one weekend my brother (who is a professional chef) came down and baked the most fabulous biscuits ever. Huh?! What was his secret? Well, he added an egg to the dough. I was a little skeptical because never in all my biscuit making have I added an egg. He said the egg creates a biscuit that is little more cakey. And it does. It creates a biscuit that is both flaky AND cakey, and very tender. Yum. And if you use a farm fresh egg, the biscuits are a beautiful, buttery yellow color.

(the biscuits before baking)

So, this is my favorite biscuit recipe---- my version of Jason's Biscuits. They are high rising, tender, and very, very yummy. They aren't my usual healthy fare, but they are a great treat when the occasion warrants the best biscuits ever (biscuits and gravy, biscuits with freezer jam, biscuits with lemon curd, biscuits with eggs.... mmmmm. You get the idea).

Here are my tips for making great biscuits:

- I cut in butter using my fingers because I believe I can control the size and consistency that way. I work quickly, though, so my fingers don't melt the butter. 

- I keep the dough cool. If it's very hot out, I chill the dry ingredients with the butter cut in before adding the buttermilk mixture. In fact, you can cut in the butter and leave this mixture in the refrigerator and whip up a batch of biscuits in no time just by adding the liquids to this mix when the biscuit need arises.

- I use a fork to mix in the liquids and I don't mix too much. It should just come together before you pour the mixture onto a work surface and knead it together once or twice.

- I lightly press the dough into a rectangle (don't push it down too hard) and I keep the dough fairly thick. I like my biscuits tall.

- I use a metal biscuit cutter to cut the shapes. You can use such things as a glass or a can but I believe that a thin, straight cutting edge doesn't press the edges of the biscuit down and allows the biscuit to rise better.

- Don't bake them too long or they will dry out. They should be tinged light brown and be slightly firm when pressed, but not too much so.

Jason's Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 C. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

5 T. butter

1 egg

approx. 1 C. buttermilk (see method)

Method: Preheat oven to 450-degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until pieces are the size of peas. Crack egg into a measuring pitcher and fill with enough buttermilk to measure one cup. Whisk to mix the egg in. Add this mix to the dry ingredients and stir with a fork until it just comes together. Pour onto work surface and knead once or twice. Lightly press the dough into a rectangle approximately 2-inches thick. Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter. Reshape any remaining dough. I get nine biscuits out of this recipe.

Place biscuits on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 9-12 minutes, until just a little brown tinged.

Makes 9 tall biscuits.

A New Skirt to Love: Tulip Skirt.

As usual, I'm late to the party with this skirt--- The Tulip Skirt. There's a whole lot of these skirts out there and the original pattern was printed in the first issue of Stitch Magazine back in 2008. However, with my infatuation with the Colette pattern, Beignet, I also found this similarly styled skirt and HAD to make it. (I haven't made the Beignet yet).

I used some linen I had in my stash and I think it suits the style of the skirt quite nicely.

I can't say enough about how much I love this skirt! It reminds me of something out of 'The Sound of Music' (and I've written about my love of those clothes before). The skirt is very nicely designed and comes together to make a well-tailored garment (something I appreciate: details). The instructions are easy to follow but be sure to check out the errata page before embarking on the project.

The only changes I made to the pattern were to lengthen the skirt by 1/2" (I have long legs) and lengthen the ties. I recommend lengthening the ties because though I added an additional 1-inch, I still think they could use another inch or more to tie sufficiently.

Because of the ties, the skirt's fit is flexible--- you can pull it tighter or loosen it up with the ties. It's quite comfortable to wear. It's high waisted, which is different than many of the clothes these days, but I like the look.

Anyhow, I plan on making a few more of these. I have some stretch twill waiting to become another...

Great Expectations.

I've had a little time to think lately. About my life and what I want in it. It's good to take the time to do that sort of thinking now and then. I find that my best contemplating comes when I'm tucked away sewing and making something. Sometimes I listen to music or NPR, but sometimes I just enjoy the relative quiet.

While browsing sewing patterns recently, I realized that it's indicative of the way I look at life: with Great Expectations. I don't envision a failed project. No, I envision the dress or skirt fitting the intended wearer perfectly.

I thought about that concept----- do Great Expectations set me up for disappointment in sewing and in life? Well, they have. There are more than a couple handmade items that wound up tossed in the corner or even in the waste basket out of frustration. And in my life, I didn't envision becoming divorced, or going back to college at 40, or wrestling with blended households, and complications. Maybe we never envision these things.

But all in all, I believe in Great Expectations. It's good to set the bar high as long as one's able to deal with the possibility of disappointment and alterations from plans. It's good to set goals and to believe in one's dreams, even if they never come true.

And when I think about those projects I've tackled and my visions of grandeur, I enjoyed those daydreams. Even when the project did indeed turn out as expected, I enjoyed the dreaming and the anticipation more than the final project. It was the process.

There is a recommendation within the envelope on Colette patterns: "The best advice for sewing is to relax, take your time, and enjoy the process of creating something just for you." And maybe that's good advice for life, too. Enjoy your dreams. Enjoy your Great Expectations, whether they come true or not. Enjoy the process.

*****

The project photographed here is from the book, One-Yard Wonders. It's the Summer Nightie. It was a quick and fun project. I like the way it looks, as well. Close to what I envisioned! I used some vintage cotton and made my the bias tape from muslin. If I make more of these nighties (Voile would be nice!), I will change the inside seams and elastic casing to make it look more "finished." (I have a thing about the inside of garments looking as nice as the outside). Also, it fits me fine but the cup portion is a little on the slim side (FYI). All in all, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

sewing in the summer.

 

I'm sewing again. I took quite a break from my sewing machine this spring. I believe it was sad and lonely gathering dust on the shelf. So much so, that it requested a friend to keep it company---a  companion with multiple needles and blades. Oh!

I bought this serger with specific projects and ideas in mind but plans changed... Even so, the serger has won me over with its tricks. The rolled hem alone is enough to make me wonder how I lived without it. But my sewing machine has nothing to worry about----- it's still my main form of sewing magic. 

Another inspiring discovery: Colette patterns. I absolutely love them. Not to mention the company is right here in Oregon. In fact, the designs remind me of some of the vintage-inspired clothing styles I see in Portland. I plan on making the Parfait dress very soon. In yellow. To match the brooch in the top photo. I inherited it from my Grandma.

But so far, I'm too enamored with making these French Knickers from the Nutmeg pattern to venture off on another project. They are simple and very, very cute!

I whipped them up in under an hour. I plan on making more of these with some stretch satin, charmeuse, or silk (ohhh!).  My daughter is requesting a pair for sleepwear.

Colette has a blog and also has a gallery of finished projects. Very inspiring! Not to mention a free pattern download for some mini bloomers here (Madeleine). Another pattern on my list...