down the rabbit hole

Since I've been taking so many nature shots this spring, I've fallen way behind on the other things I like to occasionally highlight here.  First, the baking.  I've done quite a bit of it this spring.

Recently, baked lemon donuts, lightly glazed, from Sugarcrafter...delicious.

Back in the Day Bakery's Coconut Cream Pie with DOUBLE the coconut...just because.

A Triple Chocolate Cookie Skillet Cake from Life Love Sugar.

I made a TON (over 100) Lemon Crinkle Cookies to send out to friends and family this year for Mother's Day.  Somehow, I had a few lemons left over.  I hate to waste anything, so first I made David Lebovitz's famous no-zest lemon curd.  It wasn't as tart as I normally like my curd, but it definitely grew on me.

But now we had all this curd.

"Must make lemon curd!"
"Lemon curd is great with crumpets."
"I could also make some kind of layered pastry with the leftovers..."

...and down the rabbit hole I went.

First came the crumpets, using my trusty King Arthur Flour recipe that makes sourdough-like beauties.  A perfect companion for this mild curd.

I still had quite a bit of curd left over, and when I read The Baker Chick's post about a nutella-layered sweet bread, I knew I had to improvise.  Instead of using nutella, I spread each layer thickly with lemon curd.  I crushed up frozen blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, sprinkled them with a mixture of sugar and cornstarch, and layered them on top of the curd.  I made many mistakes - I didn't make my dough circles big enough, and this and the leaking fruit made it very difficult to do the star twist design.  It wasn't pretty, but at least it was very tasty.

I've also tried to squeeze in 30 minutes or so each day for knitting.  I've primarily been working on a large, lacy shawl that I could use as a late winter scarf.  If the temperature is 70 degrees or less, I'm chilly.  I don't like thick, bulky fabric wound around my neck, so this seems like a perfect compromise - a cardigan or sweater and this lace instead of a heavy coat and binding scarf.

Now lace, in its original knitted form, is fairly unattractive.  It's all bunched up and doesn't really look like much.

But if you wet it, and carefully stre-e-e-e-etch it out, and use pins to open up the jagged points at the shawl's edge, well, it really makes a difference.

 I think it's so beautiful...and here it is, serving its purpose.

 Love!  The pattern is SWEET DREAMS by Boo Knits on Ravelry.

Now I'm knitting a standard cardigan...

...that has a fanciful yoke of foxgloves.

It's knitted with fingering-weight yarn, which is very thin, so it will take a bit longer to finish.  I'm not in any hurry, though!

That's all the updates for now.  Have a great weekend!

Cuttin' Up

I twisted my knee in class this morning, so today is the perfect day to prop it up and get that extra blog post out!

Todd recently celebrated his 42nd birthday.  Since I haven't been baking much, I was really excited about making him something decadent.  Would he pick Martha's six layer chocolate cake with salted caramel filling?  Maybe a three layer chocolate cake with peanut butter cream?  Oh - maybe homemade cinnamon rolls with lots of sweetened cream cheese?  Homemade vanilla bean cookie dough ice cream??  I was salivating just thinking about it!  But in the end, he selected a simple coconut cream pie.  "That's it?"  I said.  "No chocolate?  No buttercream?  No ice cream?  Just a pie?"  Who is this person I married?  In the end, since it was his birthday (and not mine!), I gave in and made his pie.  I had to make an additional treat, though.  He was in the mood for something light, and he loves strawberries, so I decided to make a strawberry cake roll.  I used Julia Child's recipe for the cake roll and made my own whipped cream.  Oh...homemade whipped cream.  If you've never made it, you've got to try.  It's so easy.  Pour a couple cups of heavy whipping cream into your mixer and beat it until it starts to stiffen.  Add a dash of vanilla and 1/4 - 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  Whip until soft peaks form.  Don't overwhip...you could make butter!

Buy some fresh strawberries.

Make Julia's cake roll (recipe below).  Just like other cake rolls, you need to loosen the edges and turn it over, all at once, onto a damp towel.  Sprinkle it with powdered sugar...

...and roll it up in the towel.

I did not refrigerate it for 2 hours like Julia instructed, and I should have.  My cake stuck to the towel a bit.  So do as I say, not as I did!

After you have refrigerated it for 2 hours, unroll it and spread on your whipped cream.

Pile on your strawberries.

Carefully roll it up, dust with powdered sugar, and refrigerate until serving.  I would recommend slicing your strawberries into smaller pieces, because my roll didn't want to roll.  It was messy, but I eventually got the job done.

I had enough batter left to fill the bottom of a 9 inch pie pan, so I made a mini roll and repeated the above steps.

I put it in the freezer and surprised Todd with it three weeks after his birthday.  He loved the cake roll...and that coconut cream pie!

If you'd like to make it, here is Julia's recipe:

Vanilla Chiffon Roll
barely adapted from Julia Child

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a jelly roll pan, or a cookie sheet with a lip works nicely too.  Sift together your dry ingredients (including the lemon zest, minus 1/2 cup sugar).  In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks, oil, water, and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients, whisking continuously.  With your mixer, beat 6 egg whites until soft peaks form.  Then add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until you have stiff peaks.  Fold 1/3 of this mixture into your other mixture, and then turn the first mixture (the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients added) into the remaining egg white mixture.  Fold together.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until golden.  After it cools a bit, follow my instructions above for creating the cake roll.

On a non-cooking front...when I've had a little spare time, I've played in my craft room.  I splurged and bought two big Stampin' Up craft punches, and I love how versatile they are.  I get lot of ideas from Pinterest, and one link led me to an interesting craft blog:  Blinkin', Thinkin', and Inkin'.  She used her bird punch to make realistic-looking birds.  I was hooked!

Here I'm making a bluebird (on a very overcast day - sorry!).  I punched out the main color, blue.

I punched out a silhouette in the contrast color, orange, and another set of white.  I cut a sliver of tum from the white birds and pasted it onto the orange ones.

Then I cut off the orange heads and tails, leaving just the abdomen.

These I glued onto the blue silhouettes.

Then I added the wings.

Pretty cool, right?  But my favorite is the chickadee.  I cut out black silhouettes just for the head.  I cut out white silhouettes for the tum and face stripe, and grey for the main bird and wings.

I glued on the face stripes and tums...

...and then put it all together.  It was easy to line up the heads, since they were cut from the same mold.

I also made towhees (black and orange), cardinals (red), and goldfinches (yellow), five of each since I already had the equipment out.

They seemed unfinished, so I went to Michael's and bought some Swarovski crystal eyes.

I'm pretty much in love with them.  The craft punch includes a leafy branch, so you've got everything you need to create 'a scene'.  I haven't had time to make any cards with them, but I can't wait!  I am also excited about trying other realistic birds. 

I've been having some fun with another punch this week, so I'll try to post that soon.  Have a great week!

a walk down memory lane

I don't need to look at the calendar to know that fall is coming...all I have to do is look at the insect activity in our yard.  Big grasshoppers are very active in early autumn, and they're everywhere right now.  Clinging to the fence...

...or to plant stems.

They're unlikely beauties, but look closer.  I've always thought that they have an almost military appearance, from their camo-patterned faces to the armored plating over the necks.  Besides that, I like their tidy antennae, little segmented feet, and their big eyes, shiny as a piece of glass.  Yes, I think there's beauty here. 

I've been a bit nervous about the black swallowtail caterpillar this year.  They feed on my bronze fennel and queen anne's lace, but the drought completely decimated those plants.  The recent rains have rejuvenated them a bit, but they're still a pale shadow of last year's offerings.  Today, though, I saw a single black swallowtail caterpillar.  It's a start!

And, what do you know...I also saw a black swallowtail butterfly.

I've been slowly getting back into knitting again.  I bought some beautiful grey yarn...

...and am putting the finishing touches on a Christmas gift.  I won't show the whole thing, but here's part of the stranded knitting...a motif of little birds.

When uploading some photos today, I accidently scrolled back to late August/early September 2011.  It was interesting to see what I was doing a year ago. 

I was just starting a project...

 

...that became one of my favorite finished knitted pieces ever.

 

I was making fortune cookies...

...and jam!

Tabby was still svelte enough to chase her tail though the slats of our kitchen chairs...

...and I was bringing in big bouquets of fall flowers.

Todd was in the home stretch for his dissertation...but he wouldn't be Dr. C for another two months!

Those things seem so long ago...it's hard to believe it was just last year.  Now, let's come back to the present, because in the here and now, we have pie.  I'm not talking about weak, crumbly, now-what-kind-was-that-again? pie - I'm talking about rich, flavorful, decadent pie that you'll be thinking about for weeks after you've eaten it...or am I the only one?  :)  This recipe comes from my favorite new cookbook, and once again, I highly encourage you to check it out - every recipe I've tried has been a winner.

Coconut Cream Pie
Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook
Makes one pie

Pie ingredients
6 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons corn starch
5 egg yolks, beaten
2 cups half-and-half
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Pie crust ingredients
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (16 crackers)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted

Fresh whipped cream ingredients
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 - 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions
First, make your pie crust.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Blend together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar, and drizzle your melted butter over the mixture.  Combine and press into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake for 6 to 8 minutes and set aside to cool.

Pie time!  Combine the sugar, salt, cornstarch, and egg yolks and blend well.  In a saucepan, heat your half-and-half to the boiling point and remove from heat.  Whisk a cup of it into your egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.  Keep whisking and add the remaining half-and-half.

Now, the cookbook asks you to to stir this mixture over a boiling pot of water for 5 - 7  minutes, until it thickens.  I've been making my own pudding for years and it's a cinch to do in the microwave.  Just microwave for a minute, stir, and repeat until it's thick.  I tried following the boiling pot method and my mixture was still soupy after 15 minutes.  Three minutes in the microwave?  Done.  Take your pick! 

After your mixture is thickened and cooled for a few minutes, whisk in the butter, vanilla, coconut extract, and 1 cup of coconut (I like a lot of coconut so I stirred in a bit more!).  Place a piece of plastic wrap over the top so that a 'skin' doesn't form and put in in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes, until it's room temperature or cooler.  Then, spoon into your cooled crust.

 

 To make fresh whipped cream, pour your heavy cream into the mixing bowl and whip on medium speed until it starts to thicken.  You can add the powdered sugar and whip until you reach the desired consistency.  Spread a thin layer on top of the pie...

You can just spread the whipped cream on top, or put it in a pastry bag with an M1 tip to make stars.

I like stars, so that's what I did.

It only takes a few minutes to cover the whole pie!

Toss a handful of toasted coconut on top...

Slice...and enjoy.  It's so good!  You're only an hour from the random thought, "I'd love some great pie!" to this:

 

Just try to fit in an extra class at the gym.  :)

Have a great week!