30 May 2007: New Laptop + Craft
Isn't this lovely? It's not very modest for me to say that, of course, but I just love a good bit of piping and top-stitching. And the fabric is fantastic, and that's nothing to do with me.
I'm very pleased with the way the pattern lines up on the flap and the body; I don't often take the time to do things like that, but it certainly makes a difference, doesn't it? But what is this thing? What's it for? My new laptop!
Hooray! I've had a few different laptops over the years, but never a new one, as it's never been my primary computer. So I'm very excited indeed to have this to play with now.
There's suddenly a lot of Apple in my life, where there once was none. I have issues with Apple products that go beyond being a lifelong PC user, so it's a change that's somewhat uncomfortable. Last week, my mom received an Ipod shuffle and didn't know what to do with it, so she was willing to trade it for a small amount of manual labour on my part (painting). And now the laptop. How excellent!
And the perfect excuse for crafting, of course.
29 May 2007: Patchwork Pillow
I managed to squeeze in a little Memorial Day crafting:
Now, I'm not crazy about this image as a photograph for many reasons, but I like it for the following:
-- Booty really does love patchwork. You all probably think I have to glue him down to each new quilt I make, but no. It appeals to his feline sense of aesthetics.
-- His front feet are all 'flop', and the back feet are ready to hop away.
-- Belly!
-- I have the Tardis on my bookshelf. Looks smaller than you expected, no? It's bigger on the inside.
26 May 2007: Saturday Morning Things
Even though I was an English major in college -- even though I make a living by drawing pictures and reading stories -- I like to think of myself as a serious scientist. And as such, it's down to me to find answers to life's great questions. For example: Can you bake only one cookie at a time?
Long time readers (mainly only people I know in Real Life) will remember my one cookie attempt back when I had my 'Cooking with Anna' section. The recipe I came up with worked, but it actually produced two cookies, so the one cookie dream remained unrealized. Until today! One Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cherry cookie, perfectly formed and delicious. Ridiculous, I know, but science made me do it.
Imagine all the inane accomplishments I could claim if every day were a Saturday. Not everything can be as exciting as One Cookie, though, but even the mundane is enjoyable when you've got no time table.
I spent the early morning painting last week's journal -- a new on-going project for me. I tried to keep a diary of sorts when I was in London last time, and now I've got a dedicated watercolour notebook for that purpose. SOMEthing happens every day, and it keeps the weeks from blending together.
Speaking of London, I'm going to be in town for a week in June. Recent developments will change the way the company works, so we'll be having a week of planning and (I suspect) nonsense. The good sort of nonsense, mind you. And lunch in Exmouth Market and pizza from the lovely place down the street. And strategery. Lots of that.
26 May 2007: A Very Colourful Quilt
Booty is happy today, because I've finished a new quilt!
Well, I say 'new', but I started it aaaages ago. You can actually see part of it hanging on the back of a chair in the photos of my craft room back in London. My plan was to start at the center and work outwards, buying the fabric as I went -- it's all Westminster fabric, most from Liberty and an on-line quilt shop in the UK.
It's very colourful and very bright! It's definitely not everybody's cup of tea, but I do love it. You can get a slightly wider view here. I sort of wish I'd done something a bit more ambitious with the quilting, but you know how these things go -- you get to a certain point and are impatient to just finish already! I was particularly excited to see this in its finished form, since it had spent so long sitting around unfinished. I'm very pleased, indeed.
24 May 2007: Bran Muffins
Just popping in to say that if you take my banana pancake recipe, add a bit more sugar and cinnamon (I used 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, but you could use more), and mix in 1/3 cup of oat bran, you can make three bran muffins. Just sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake at 350F for 15 minutes.
Neat. It's like learning that shampoo and dish soap are the same product with different amounts of water. For example.
20 May 2007: Food Quirks
Quick, photographs of food to bump down self portraits!
A nice surprise this morning -- three mini boxes of cereal packed in with the Saturday newspaper! I haven't bought cereal in ages now, and a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios was a nice treat indeed. And toast. I sometimes go a week or more with no bread in the house; it's something I can easily do without, but every now and then it seems really appealing. A nice stack of lightly buttered toast can even be a little bit exciting. I'm not comparing it to donuts or waffles or anything, but there's a part of me that finds multiple pieces of toast an indulgence. And if it's white bread! Goodness me. Whew.
You know what it is? To me, toast equals restaurants and hotel breakfasts. If you've got a nice stack of toast, you're obviously having a good time. See, it's not that I need to get out more -- it makes complete sense.
I thought my stir fry craving was a sign that I wasn't getting enough veggies, but it's clear to me now that my diet was simply coming up short in the 'crunch' department. I mean, how satisfying is it to bite into a water chestnut? That's at least 40% of your RDA of crunch right there.
I thought I had made stir fry before, but I was just cooking vegetables in a pan. After reading a few different cookbooks' thoughts on the technique, I tried doing things differently. Get the pan very hot before adding the oil, and then brace as your dump in the veggies. One mustn't fear the spattering oil! I do, but it's really amazing how quickly everything cooks when you've got it in a hothot pan and keep it moving. Just a bit of teriyaki sauce from a bottle, and dinner's ready!
Well, there's the vegetable slicing and rice cooking as well, but never mind. And just enough crunch to keep you happy and healthy!
20 May 2007: Self Portraits
I have to thank Liisa for commenting on the last post, because if she hadn't, I wouldn't have seen her blog and would have never known about Bert Teunissen. I immediately fell in love with his photographs and have ordered one of his Domestic Landscapes books from Amazon. I cannot wait for it to arrive!
I tend to seek out certain kinds of light when taking a photograph, as I think most of us do. It's part of what defines our personal styles. But I've been trying to appreciate other times of day and -- in an effort to really experiment -- have been taking some quasi-self portraits.
Listening to the radio this evening, having some tea and biscuits. Some day I'm going to drop this mug and break it, and I'll spend the rest of my days wandering aimlessly, bereft. Possibly I could just renew my MPR membership and get another. I suppose.
Doing the washing up last night. I like to clean the dishes before heading to bed (I can hear Rob, far away, saying, 'You do?'), although it doesn't always happen. I've got a potted clover plant of some sort next to the sink; the leaves fold down in the evening and open up again the next morning. It's been hanging around since February or March, getting ganglier and ganglier, but it seems happy enough. It's even flowering now.
I wish I were more comfortable taking photographs of people -- I don't think there's any trick to taking a pleasant still life shot, but good portrait photographers really have a gift. Aside from a couple of pictures of Rob that I like, I've never really been pleased with any of my portraits (and I don't imagine he'd be crazy about me plastering his face around the internets), so I guess faceless self portraits will have to do it for now!
17 May 2007: Wait, Time, Wait!
I've been puzzling over where time has gone recently, figuring I must have been rather busy with real life things that have kept me from the Internets. Nope. Can't think of anything.
I know I've been spending more time out here, on the porch. So much time that I apparently haven't had a spare moment to sew up the cafe curtains for the windows. Bah. Very white, though, no? I got the little table and chairs (one is just outside the shot, with Booty's basket on top) from a Craigslist seller. The door into the house is just to the left of the photo, and my little Ikea armchair is on the other side. That's where I park myself for hours at a time, listening to the radio, reading, drinking tea, and generally mulling things over.
I've also been working out in the yard, although I have very little to show for it. Well, there's a 6'x10' hole that wasn't there a couple of weeks ago, but I still haven't planted any veggies, despite saying I was going to the garden center every day this week. Maybe today tomorrow.
I've been eating simply; I think I would have soup and bread for every meal, if I could keep myself in homemade soup for long enough. You may have noticed that I stopped updating the Lunchtime blog -- quite a while ago, in fact. I want to wrap that up in a different package, so it doesn't seem like something I abandoned but rather more of a mini-feature.
So, in short, I've been feeling rather distracted lately, though I can't say by what. I blame that armchair on the porch. It forces me to sit still and dwell on how good life is.
12 May 2007: Thanks, Nigel
After a couple of days with temperatures in the 80s, what could be better than some roasting with a hot, hot oven? If that sounds like a stupid idea, it's because it is, and I'm paying for it now with a very warm house. But it was worth it. Sooo worth it. Do you ever make a dinner so enjoyable that, with every bite you take, you feel like calling somebody up and telling them about it? This was such a meal:
Roast tomato soup and zucchini cakes with feta. Both were recipes from Mr. Slater's The Kitchen Diaries. I've been so taken with his writing and philosophy, and have bought quite a few of his books -- but without really, properly trying out any of his recipes. He's inspired me to try many things, but this was the first time I set out to do things the 'right' way. Sort of.
Neither the soup nor the zucchini cakes were difficult to make, but they were quite time consuming. Even though I'm usually cooking for just myself, I don't tend to take shortcuts, but I also don't seek out very involved recipes. I was prepared to be disappointed after all my hard work this time, particularly because zucchini is such a hit-and-miss vegetable for me. Prepared the wrong way, it's boring and perhaps just a bit slimy.
Lucky for me, the effort was well, well worth it:
The only thing I changed from Nigel's recipes (besides halving the soup recipe and 'thirding' the zucchini cakes) was using cilantro instead of dill in the cakes. Just because I had one but not the other. It seemed to suit the overall flavour quite well, anyway. Yum.
I've still got two bowls of the soup left for the coming days, but I think I'm going to be dreaming about the zucchini cakes until I can make them again!
11 May 2007: Morning Photos
Just some photos for you this morning. Perennials from the front yard -- it's been exciting to see what comes up:
They've now been placed well out of the reach of cats and dogs. I love using this old (I mean 'used' -- definitely not 'antique'!) vanilla bottle as a miniature vase. A tip from me to you, via Rob, and originally from his father: use WD-40 to remove stubborn sticky residue. Not a very 'natural' solution, but it does the trick when nothing else will -- AND it removes the stamped-on date, etc from glass. Usually. Sometimes.
Poached pear from last night, with a strawberry sauce/coulis/...thing. I think the heat and recent eating habits have put me on sugar overload; the thought of carb-y baked goods isn't doing it for me lately. Cooked fruit is just about enough -- sweet, but not overly so. I think summer will have to equal more veggies and fewer desserts. Chocolate doesn't count, of course.
09 May 2007: Banana Pancakes
Faced with another over-ripe banana and a distinct lack of anything resembling pancake mix, I set out to make my own. I honestly don't have pancakes that often, and I certainly haven't made them from scratch much, so I've never settled on a recipe I like. I think these turned out really well, though:
Quickly, before I forget:
Banana Pancakes for One
-- 1 very ripe banana
-- 1 egg white
-- 1/4 milk
-- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
-- 1 tsp baking powder
-- a pinch cinnamon
-- 1 tsp white sugar
Cut off one end of the banana -- you want about 35g, which is roughly one-third of a medium fruit -- and mash it very well in a bowl. Add the egg white and beat it together with the banana. The mixture won't combine, but you want to get it well-mixed, and the egg white should froth. Add half of the milk (I used Almond Breeze); save the rest until you mix in the dry ingredients and see how runny the mixture is.
Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar together and mix with the wet ingredients. If the batter is too dry, add more of the milk -- you know what pancake batter should look like! Drop small puddles on a hot skillet and turn when lots of bubbles break the surface. Makes five little pancakes. Slice the remainder of the banana and use it to top.
I say pancakes for one, but it was really a goodly amount of pancakes, as far as I'm concerned. If I were having them for breakfast instead of lunch (what? Pancakes are lunch food too.) -- and especially if something else were served alongside -- I'd say the recipe is enough for two. But I'm not a terribly greedy person.
Do you know what would be really good on banana pancakes? Peanut butter. Peanut butter sauce. And chocolate syrup. And maybe some sprinkles and ice cream. Thank goodness I'm not greedy. . .
09 May 2007: Photography
Ooh, I've been sitting on some foodie photographs because I haven't had any sort of narrative to tie them together (does that usually stop me?). I bought oat bran the other week for a bread recipe, but it was sold as a hot cereal, so in the name of science, I tried it out:
Topped with fried apples -- yum. I've been enjoying the changing light as Minnesota edges towards summer. Taking photographs in the morning really alters their look. Low and unusual light usually produces a more interesting photograph than midday sunshine (and doesn't wash out the subject), but I don't use a tripod, so keeping a steady hand at 1/20 (of a second) is key. I'll attempt to take photos right down to 1/4, with very mixed results; I just need to be able to move around and find the angle I want.
Ever since seeing this photo, I've had a hankering to try the bulk peanut butter from The Wedge, and I finally got around to it this week. It's serious stick-to-your-teeth stuff.
I love that a lot of cookbook photography is moving in a new direction -- I'm absolutely in love with the images in Nigel Slater's books (and Apples for Jam, Grub, etc). Perhaps it's just going along with the movement in general; good food is less about haute cuisine and more about making something special and enjoyable for yourself and loved ones. Do you think?
I really want to buy a new macro lens, but recent expenses (finishing the porch, starting the garden, etc) have put it on the back burner for now. I almost always use the 28-90 lens that I originally got with my Nikon film SLR (I use a Nikon D70 these days). I've got a combination macro/telephoto lens as well, but it's massive and requires a lot of light to get a decent shutter speed.
Anyway, I'm thinking photographic thoughts this morning because Holly from decor8 posted about my flickr photos. I woke up to an inbox full of flickr contacts and figured something must be up -- how exciting!
Even though I have been paid to take photographs here and there, I still think of myself as very much an amateur. I guess, ideally, things will continue on like that. Even if a big time chef one day called me up to collaborate on a new cookbook (one can dream!), I'd still always be looking at the photographers I love, trying to figure out how I can improve.
05 May 2007: Cookies and Porches
I think I mentioned trying to make spice cookies from a cookbook a while back. They didn't turn out at all; they were flat and greasy, nothing like the fluffy cookies in the photo. I was still wishing for those cookies, so I took my carrot cookie recipe -- which I knew would produce nice cakey cookies -- and changed it to come up with Spice Cookies (with oats).
But where is that little plate of cookies sitting? That doesn't look familiar, does it? It's because it's my lovely porch!
Lovely now, that is. Until recently, it was a shrine to wood paneling; both the walls and the ceiling were covered. Well, they still are, technically, but now everything's been painted white. Shiny. The room's still not finished, of course; I've got to sew cafe curtains for all six of the windows, for privacy as well as keeping the hot hot sun out. I want to replace the screen door with a hard door (and eventually replace the hard door between the living room and porch with a French door), and I'm going to St. Paul tomorrow to see about a table and chairs.
And what's this?
Craft! It's craft! A pretty little lavender sachet. The porch has gone from smelling of dirty mustiness (so, like an old porch) to being filled with paint fumes, so now I'm trying to air it out and make it smell, you know -- nice. The porch is so light and bright, and I can't wait to have a little spot to sit and read. I might have to have a porch warming party. It's only 6.5'x9', so the guest list will have to be very exclusive.
03 May 2007: Risotto
Okay, one last post today, because I can't believe how easy it is to make risotto. I've never really had homemade risotto before, and I'd heard rumours of its trickiness to prepare, but they were lies, all of them. I made this very simply with butter, onion, garlic, and my favourite vegetable stock (Imagine brand -- I've always got a box in the fridge) and tossed in some chopped basil and spinach right at the end. It tasted amazing -- so much better than I was expecting for the amount of work required!
I also had a bowl of strawberries and cantaloupe, as well as some asparagus. At least, I meant to have asparagus. I remembered it halfway through taking Minnie for a walk after dinner -- poor old asparagus, sitting half-steamed in the microwave. Luckily, since I hadn't finished cooking it, it had steamed itself to perfection by the time we got back. So I ate it. And thus the tragedy was turned into a. . . different kind of story. . . that ends with me eating asparagus.
Those kinds of stories are always a little bit rubbish, if you ask me.
02 May 2007: Spring Love
Who cares how bad the winters are when spring is this good?
Lilacs from right outside my windows.
Lemon curd ice cream, from the recipe in Apples for Jam.
02 May 2007: Breakfast Pudding
People call them 'Dutch Babies', 'German Pancakes' (and Finnish, etc, etc) -- but it's really just a Yorkshire Pudding for breakfast, and it's delicious!
Here's an easy recipe for a single-serving version:
Dutch Baby with Fried Apples
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
1 apple, cored, sliced, peeled, and cut into chunks
caster sugar or cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
powdered sugar for dusting
Start the oven heating to 425F. Spray a small skillet (I used a 1.5 pint Corningware skillet) with oil or melt a tablespoon of butter and pour it in. Heat the skillet in the oven in advance; you want it to be nice and hot when you pour in the batter.
Beat the egg and milk together by hand. Mix them thoroughly, but don't let the mixture froth. Beat in the flour with an electric mixer (or by hand, but it's easier to avoid lumps with the electric). It will be a very thin batter. Add a pinch of cinnamon, if you wish. When the pan is hot, carefully take it out of the oven, pour in the batter, and place it back in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Do not open the oven door for at least the first ten minutes. It's either going to work or not, but you'll collapse your Baby if you trying peeking too soon.
While that bakes, heat a bit of butter up in a pan over a medium burner. Throw in the chunks of apple and keep an eye on them as they cook, turning them from time to time. Sprinkle over a bit of cinnamon sugar. After 5-7 minutes, when the apples are starting to get nice and tender, turn the burner off, remove the pan from the heat, and cover until the Dutch Baby is done.
When the Baby is finished -- puffed up nicely, golden on the edges, and not soggy in the middle -- take it out and watch it shrink. Place the apples in the hollow and dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!
That seems like a lot of words for what's actually a very simple process. You could fill the Baby with anything you want, of course -- I can't wait to try variations. It seems like an indulgent breakfast treat, like a waffle or pancake, but there's not much wrong with an egg, flour, and milk, is there? And only the tiniest bit of sugar to finish it off!