a stroke of good fortune

I have to admit it - I'm a slacker. I have totally ignored the yard.  Between the rain, mosquitoes, and lack of flowers for bouquets, I've let the weeding go (not that many weeds grow in complete shade) and just enjoy the view of the water from inside the house.  I feel guilty, but not guilty enough to rouse myself into action.  I know that come November and December, the mosquitoes will be gone and the flowers will be starting a 6-month bloom fest.  So, I enjoy my summer indoors and leave the outdoors for a later season.  Todd, however, does go outside several times a day with our dog, Borga.  If he sees something interesting, he'll call me out.  I always get a few itchy mosquito bites, but it's usually worth it. 

This weekend, Todd called me outside to see an amazing spiderweb that stretched several feet across our driveway.  It was lovely, and I had a hunch that once the sun came out, we'd see an even better show.  I was right!  Mid-morning, I caught the spider taking down and busily consuming his web.

Spiders expend a lot of energy making webs, and this is one way to recoup it  See him rolling up the web against his mouth parts?  So cool!

While I was outside, I noticed a little more activity in the yard.  Several azalea bushes are blooming in the front yard. 

More blooming in the side yard, too!

It was so, so nice to see a bee in the flowers.  I can't remember the last time I saw one!

The evergreen grass planted in clumps all around, liatrope, is sending up purple stalks.

Two bushes that look a bit like Rose of Sharon are blooming.  One white...

...and one purple.

This mystery bush has had small white trumpet-shaped flowers on it for a month now.  It seemed so delicate that I didn't expect them to last so long!

The oregano has flowered...

...and a new plant is coming up in regular intervals at the side of the house.  I wonder what it is?

Todd had another great find this weekend when he discovered a cicada coming out of its shell by the garage.

What a beauty!

Todd and I celebrated our five year anniversary this past week.  Because of his crazy work deadlines and plain poor planning on my part, we just stayed in, split a chocolate-chip cookie cake for two, and played some games.  He gave me a Dutch ship model kit with real linen sails and wooden parts that need to be cut out and assembled.  I'm pretty excited about it!

One of the things I decided to do for him was make him a batch of paper fortune cookies that were ostensibly from the week before we first met.  They're easy to make!

If you have a big circular punch you can use that for your fortune cookies, and plain brown paper to match their typical shade.  I have an adjustable Fiskars circular cutter that did the trick.

I wrote out my fortunes...some silly, some serious.

I put a piece of double-sided tape at one end of the circle, folded my fortune in half and slid it into the cookie, and then pinched it shut.

I used my finger to make a crease in the middle.

They don't look as much like fortune cookies as the homemade cookie ones I made a couple of years ago...

...but they worked. 

Todd got a big kick out of it.

Hope you're able to make something crafty 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! 

 

 

Fortune Cookie Rookie (no more!)

Finally, we've got monarchs in the garden this week.

Todd and I saw one freshly hatched from its chrysalis on a walk the other morning. Talk about fresh, vibrant colors! But many of the ones I've seen are older. This monarch has probably been alive for a couple of weeks. He has telltale tears on his wings, and many of the tiny feathers that cover his wings have flaked off, leaving dull, gray spots.

Older butterflies are a little more devil-may-care than the younger ones. They don't mind sitting on my fingers, or letting me get close while they feed.

I love their delightfully spotted bodies! God had fun making butterflies, I'll bet.

The older ones aren't as buoyant as younger ones. This monarch had multiple tumbles from flowers, but he always patiently climbed back up to the bloom to feed.

Another winged visitor this week: a beautiful moth resting on our screen door.

Identifying moths is difficult, because they are so numerous, and so many of them happen to be brown. But I still enjoy studying their markings. Don't they have lovely designs?

A common buckeye (Junonia coenia) stopped by for some nectar. They look interesting with wings closed, but...

...they are much prettier with opened wings!

Recently, I was eating supper in our little sun room and idly surveying the back yard. On a low wire running through our pine tree branches, I saw a familiar silhouette:

A mantis was poised in "attack position" directly over the web of a small orb weaver spider. The spider tidied up his web, seemingly oblivious of the threat. Do mantises eat spiders?

Oh, yes, they do! Mantises eat all forms of insects, bees, and spiders. Oh, and also small birds and reptiles...if they can get them! I'm telling you - these things are dangerous! :)

Even though I had planned on taking it easy with knitting this year, I feel like I've got an unusually high amount of projects on needles. I like doing small projects in between the big ones, because I need that instant gratification. I recently completed a really fun project...a bookmark.

With a tail.

Squashed, with a tire-tread back.

And a lolling tongue. And, in case you still weren't sure...X's for eyes. Yes, this is one dead rat.

He was so much fun to knit! The pattern was easy...a simple 2-needle cast-on (using Judy's Magic Cast-On), a few increases, a bit of embroidery, some polyfil, and then a simple garter stitch body. I used teeny pink i-cords for the feet and tail.

I don't need to crack open a fortune cookie to know that there are many more of these in my future!

Of course, just in case I wanted to stack the odds...I happen to know how to make fortune cookies. They're easy, and fun, and great for almost any occasion...Valentine's Day, a birthday, an exciting life event, or...just because. Would you believe they only contain four ingredients?
Now there's really no excuse not to try them!

Fortune Cookies
Makes 12 - 20 cookies
Annie's Eats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites

Whisk all ingredients together until well-blended and then chill for one hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and write out your fortunes!

When your batter is chilled, spoon out 1 teaspoon of it onto a greased cookie sheet and spread it into a 3- or 4-inch circle. I made my cookies a bit too big and they didn't fold as easily as they would have if smaller. Lesson learned! Only put 3 or 4 circles on your cookie sheet. They harden quickly after baking, so if you have more than 4 cookies waiting to be shaped, there's a good chance that they'll harden before you've got time to shape them. Don't worry...if they do harden, you can heat them up in the microwave for a few seconds to soften them.

Here's where the fun begins! Bake for about 5 minutes, until they've just gotten a golden edge.

Working quickly, remove your cookies from the cookie sheet and flip them over. Lay a fortune inside...

...fold them in half...and fold them over the edge of a bowl to harden. Because mine were a little too big, I ended up placing them on a clean cloth and resting a spoon against their tops to hold them down while they hardened. Either way will work!

Look! You just made fortune cookies! Repeat with remaining batter and let cookies cool. You can give them away in their current state...

...or, you could dip them in chocolate and cover them with sprinkles, which is my preference.

The chocolate hardens quickly, and then they're ready to give!

Your recipient will be "fortunate" to receive such a fun gift!

I hope you'll make some this week. Enjoy!