Mmm, delicious macarons that I. . . didn't make. This morning, Rob and I trundled off to Borough Market, which is London's food market. I'd never been before, and I wasn't terribly impressed. I suppose I ought to be -- and I am quite amazed by its history -- but it's just not well organized enough.

There was actually a lot of open space (because it's nearly December, perhaps?), and I couldn't detect any sort of categorization of the stalls. It would make sense to me to have, say, all the meat vendors in one section (or just leave it at Smithfield Market, for all I care). But no.

We had a nice time, anyway, and walked around the neighbouring area, through Southwark and down to Elephant and Castle (I wanted to share an interesting factoid about that name, but I just did a bit of research and found out that it's actually just a myth. Bah.). Also, Rob got a small blueberry crumble that we brought home and baked. Yum all around.

Sort of a sad looking cupcake, but it tasted nice. I'm not quite sure what happened with the frosting; even though it was primarily cream cheese, it refused to be anything but drippy, even after a night in the fridge. Very strange.

Speaking of things I can't manage to do right, I had not one but two failed batches of macarons this evening. Well, the first failed (I blame the recipe), and the second just didn't turn out right. It didn't really bother either Rob or me, as they tasted how they were meant to, and sometimes you can settle for that.

There are two things I want at the moment which I can't exactly have (well, two in particular) -- a trip to Paris and a cookery course.

The first will shock and amaze some people, as it's generally known (again, by some people) that I do not care for Paris. It's too Frenchy, and why go to Paris when you live in London? But I did enjoy my last trip there. And they do appear to have some of the best sweet treats (I'm looking in the direction of my failed macarons here). Given some research beforehand, a long weekend in Paris might be quite nice. But not right now. Later, when I have more time and money.

Solution: Go to Borough Market instead.

A cookery course would be fun, especially if I got something resembling a diploma at the end, because I could wave it in people's noses. And I might learn some stuff, too.

Solution: For now, I'll stick to my current routine of experimenting and throwing out any baked goods which boil in the oven.

Mmmm, macaroni and cheese. Sorry for the lack of photographic evidence, but I knew it was futile to attempt a photo (in the artificial light) that looked more appetizing than a cheesy blob sprinkled with bread crumbs. I mean, it IS delicious, but it's not exactly one of the beautiful dishes, is it?

I followed Meg's recipe from Too Many Chefs, which is sort of the only way I cook these days. I used to use allrecipes.com quite a lot, but one hardly ever finds anything special there. Now, I Google whatever it is I want to make with the added phrase 'food blog;' if it's blog worthy, I can probably trust that it's Anna-worthy as well.* (I'm willing to give almost anything a go, given my amateur status, but I hate to waste my time if I'm not going to love eating whatever I make.)

Anyway, the mac 'n' cheese was very simple and quick to make, and I even had to grate the cheese myself (stupid hippy grocery stores with their lack of pre-shredded cheeses. Oh, chee-ses.). I made it to bring to work for my lunch tomorrow (and the next day), but I couldn't help sampling it this evening. Just a little corner. After all, as I told Rob, I wouldn't want to bring it for lunch and then find out it was horrible and be stuck with no lunch, would I? No, no I wouldn't. The test corner was divine (in a mac 'n' cheese sort of way), but I nibbled a bit further in case it was just a fluke.

Mmm, mmmmm. Tasty, tasty. Yes, yes.

*I actually have paid for a few cookbooks, which I love to page through, but they're not as good as the internet when it comes to catering to my whims.

'But, Anna,' I hear you say, 'What about the little birds?' Well, wonder no longer!

Ira's still the same as always -- always thinking I'm carrying something for his nest, and therefore always looking suspiciously interested when I walk by. In the picture above, you can tell he's thinking, 'What's that you've got there? That hair on your head -- are you using that?'

I keep a basket filled with fabric scraps from various projects, and I cut off a small piece for the birds every now and then (ie, several times a day). They're particularly fond of string, but I have to make sure to cut very short lengths of thread (about one inch long), for the safety of the dumb birds.

Still, a long piece found its way into their house last week, and we quickly noticed Frankie hopping from perch to perch with some nice pink thread wrapped around his leg and through his toes. I don't know how he managed to get it so wound up, but it was clear he wasn't going to get untangled on his own, so the chase was on. Little birds are fast, and you have to be careful not to get overexcited and crush them as they go from one side of the cage to the other.

I eventually caught Frankie and held him gently on his back while Rob used a pair of very small scissors to carefully clip the thread in a couple places. Ira stood on the back perch the entire time, scolding us. Brave Ira. Once freed from the string, Frankie went back into his house, looking slightly mussed, but he quickly regained his composure. Here he is, having a bit of a sing-song:

It's nearly clear now, but this is what it looked like outside this morning:

There should be land on the other side of the river, but it's only now becoming visible. In fact, I couldn't even get a shot of this barge at 7:30, and it's not even a third of the way across the river from us.

When I went to the Handweaver's Studio a couple weeks ago, I not only bought piles of roving for welt felting, but also a few barbed needles for needle felting. I gave it a go recently and came up with these two-inch-tall. . . creatures:

The blue one was originally meant to be a dog, which quickly became a flop-eared bunny after I started adding the features. Rob thinks it looks like a lamb. I found needle felting to be annoying and not at all as fun as wet felting, but for some reason I had to try again this morning. I guess I like it more that I thought -- it's addicting at least. The pink one should be winging its way to America soon.

I've lost interest in making soft toys, choosing to spend my time making purses and quilts. I seem to be relapsing into toy-mode this weekend, however, mainly because I've been thinking about Christmas presents. This is going to somebody who probably doesn't read this, but who shall remain nameless all the same.

It's funny; I've seen a lot of people making doll type 'softies' -- creatures that have a more upright, human shape. They always look great, but I haven't managed to succeed with that style. This dog is very, very similar to ones I've made in the past, but I didn't use a pattern; I just intuitively drew out the shapes on the fabric and went from there. I wouldn't like to toot my own horn, but I'm very pleased with how he turned out. I guess I understand animal shapes much better than doll shapes.

Anyway, I'm glad he has a home to go to soon, instead of sitting on my shelf. His jacket is lined with my favourite Cath Kidston fabric, and the bias tape edging actually went on with minimal fussing (I've never been good with narrow bias tape). Here's the obligatory 'looking-out-the-window' shot. Huzzah.

In the midst of my morning crafting, the doorbell went. Who could it be? The post man! With a package! For me! Eee! It was a load of goodies from Mariko at supereggplant.com.

When I commented on her number fabric a while ago, she offered to send me some, so we arranged a fabric-and-candy trade. I've had a hankerin' for Butterfingers lately, and Mariko sent not only the bag in the picture but a SECOND bag of the same. Gone are the days of wishing for something sweet after dinner! Mmmm.

She also included a mini-tote she made, lined with the 'bonjour' rooster fabric she's shown on her site -- very nice craftsmanship! It's such a treat to get so many different, new prints all at once. I've got quite a collection of bright prints in shades of pink and red now, I think a log cabin pillow or two (a la Lisa) is in order.

Hooray for the weekend!

I went to Page's yesterday at the recommendation of one Mermaid King, to buy piping tips for icing. I'd found some horrible cheap ones at the grocery store, which I bought for my trial run of snowflake cookies (our company Christmas presents this year). I'd also bought some stainless steel bowls and a butcher-block style cutting board from a nicer supermarket, and I swear these few items have made me more organized.

See how shiny they are? You couldn't help being organized with reflective properties like that at your disposal! The wooden block is mainly for rolling out dough; the only area of counter to roll upon happens to be right next to the stove knobs, which gets in the way. The block raises the surface above the knobs, and it's also ten times easier to clean.

The cookies. I'm not overly impressed with these (though I do like the piping -- done with the crap tips); there's just no wow factor. I think I'll stick to sugar cookies, which don't spread and lose the snowflake shape, as these did. I've got a reliable, tasty recipe for sugar cookies, and I can use multi-coloured icing on top, which makes my job more interesting. But click here for another shot of the gingerbread versions, which have now been et by the quality inspectors.

A picture of my fougasse, again in the less-than-ideal glow of the under-cabinet light. Not perfect, but very tasty. It would have been a much easier process all around if I had a different oven. I had to pull out the rack (which had a hot baking sheet ready for the bread), and once I put the first fougasse on the sheet (I baked two at a time), gravity took over and the baking sheet + fougasse started to slide towards my shins as I hurriedly tried to place the second piece and catch the whole thing (with an oven mit) before it hit the ground.

Anna means graceful.

A picture of the jam tarts I made a while back. I was unusually productive yesterday, but it's so dark that I can't take any photos. Instead, a few words on food.

I added some links on the side to various food blogs. I still feel I'm an outsider watching the foodie bloggers, mostly because I've only recently discovered the community, but also because I'm an amateur in the field of cooking. Er, well -- baking. My mom's always been an enthusiastic baker but a reluctant cook, and I'm following in her footsteps. I do enjoy putting together a nice dish, but I find starters and main courses much less inspiring that a good dessert.

I grew up baking with my mom; I'd gather and mix the ingredients and would then usually wander off to play, leaving my mom to see the cookies/brownies/etc through to the finished product. Sometimes it seems like I've gone from not being able to hold AND scrape out a bowl of batter to suddenly being able to eyeball ingredients and make substitutions on a whim. I'm not sure it's actually happened like this; I'm just glad to finally have an ounce of coordination.

Yesterday, I bought Dough by Richard Bertinet. I've seen the book here and there, and was won over simply by the picture on the cover. Bread falls into the realm of baking, and I'm very excited to properly try my hand at a few recipes (I've made bread before, but just his directions for working the dough make me think I'm in for much better results with this book.). In fact, I spent much of last night thinking about bread making -- I even dreamed I was following the steps he outlined.

Perhaps some fellow Londonites could point me towards some good kitchen/cook/baking shops. I know of Gill Wing, which I quite like, but it'd be nice to have something slightly larger and perhaps cheaper. I've found a couple places through the internets, but they all seem to be in west London and are websiteless -- like I'm going to trek all the way across the city without knowing what the store looks like! I currently need to buy icing bags and tips for piping, a baking stone, a nice stainless steel bowl or two, some pearlescent sugar. . . and a bigger kitchen.

These felt pouches have been driving me crazy, simply because I cannot get a good picture of them. It doesn't matter how good the lighting is, they soak it all up and look either over saturated or dull. In person, the felt is quite lovely (if I do say so myself), and it's really fun to make -- easy and satisfying.

A couple weeks ago, we had a plastic ready-to-steam container of fresh, shelled green peas in the fridge. We never wound up eating them, and when I finally decided to throw them away, they hadn't gone moldy; they'd sprouted. I filled an empty coffee can with dirt and planted four, and two really started to grow.

I've taken a photo of the bigger sprout; I'm not sure if it will actually grow into a plant as A) it's in a coffee can and B) it's the middle of November, so there's not that much sun. Still! Green garden gumballs, as my dad would say (and probably will).

Lastly, Rob's favourite: pancakes.

It's difficult to make pancakes look appealing when they're covered in syrup (they tend to just look. . . damp), but these were pretty nice.

Here's a strangely coy photo of a piece of chocolate cake. With the time change (to which I say 'HOORAY!' -- all the naysayers obviously don't have to walk to the train station at 6:55am; I'm perfectly happy to have extra morning light for a couple weeks), I'm hardly ever at home when there's decent sunlight coming in. The above photo was taken in the glow of our under-cabinet lighting, and I cropped out the horrible shadow. Just a peek of cake for you.

I found the recipe on Delicious Days, a food blog I only recently came across and fell in love with instantly. I've distributed the cake to a couple people, as it would be very unwise for Rob and I to attempt to eat it all by ourselves. Especially considering I made cookies two days ago (they're now gone). There must be something about the changing of the seasons that's convinced me to put on some extra winter weight.

Yes, well, if I'm going down, I plan to take everybody with me.

Phew. Using a printing press is harder than you'd think. Especially when the press in question has been sitting in somebody's attic/garage for the past number of years. See the press and cabinet here. There are actually two more of the drawer units and two other trays of type. I'm think of stealing a shelf or two from a different cabinet so all the trays can be in one place.

Rob spent a while this morning taking bits out and cleaning them (and dousing them with WD-40), and now I can adjust various things, which makes the printing much easier. I've made several of the little 'business' cards in the photo above (and lots and LOTS of dud ones to be thrown away) and a few postcards I haven't yet photographed.

The press came with everything I need, but the ink is pretty old and takes forever to dry. I think I'll order a few different colours soon and see if modern ink is a bit more time-conscious. There are several complete fonts and many near-complete or partial sets to play with, but I'm going to have to start scouring the internet for excellent old image plates. And I might need gloves. Or ink-eradicating soap.

Since last weekend, when I posted about my new quilt fabric, I've cut all the pieces and finished sewing a quarter of it:

My original plan was to sew all the strips and then figure out the best way to arrange them (so there are very few pieces of the same pattern touching), but once I'd finished five strips, I really wanted to see how they'd look together. So, that's 100 squares down, 300 to go! It will be about 6.5'x6.5' when it's finished, which should be just right for bundling up during the winter.

I spent a couple hours last weekend scrubbing the kitchen. The counters are so difficult to keep clean on a day-to-day basis, but a little scrubbing with some steel wool goes a long way when I want them shiny.

Noel had been confused by the pictures of my old kitchen in La Crosse (in the cooking section), so I thought I'd post a picture of our clean, metal kitchen. Nicer than the old one.

But now! The getting ready to go out! To fetch my new printing press!

Dudes! Look what I won off eBay today:

It's an Adana Printing Press with a full complement of accessories -- several different fonts, image plates, ink, paper, etc. I'm very pleased with the price I paid, though I have to admit I'm not quite sure where it's all going to go. I think one of my Ikea cabinets will have to become letter press central for the time being.

Because Rob's a great big pal, we're driving up to Northampton on Saturday to pick the lot up. Until then, I have to satisfy myself with looking at the amazing items Sesame Letterpress make and dreaming about what I'll make once I get the hang of the press.

Any ideas?