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! 

 

 

Fabric Maverick

I didn't notice it at first.  Since the drought had so dreadfully scorched our yard and wilted our flowers, I didn't like to spend a lot of time outside.  It was just too depressing.  I gave the flower beds an obligatory daily watering and thought about other things, not paying attention to their progress (or lack thereof).  But a couple of weeks ago, the drought broke.  We've had regular, steady rainfall, and temperatures have fallen from the hundreds into the low eighties.  And...things have been happening outside.

Somehow...miraculously...the scorched, crispy, completely dead lawn started to regenerate.

Plants that were long-dead suddenly showed new life, like this creeping geranium.

Some plants had already gone to seed and are hopeless this year, like the yarrow...

...but plants that I diligently cut back, like my zinnias, are blooming wonderfully again.  All zinnias will come back if you deadhead them, which make them great for bouquets.

My green zinnias...

And my multicolored mixed zinnias...looking great!

My nasturtiums have rallied...

And my cosmos are going strong.  In April, I'd planted all pink and white cosmos along our walkway.  Immediately after, we got a downpour, and I was afraid that the water had pooled the seeds.  I decided to plant over the ruined beds with orange cosmos.  As it turns out, BOTH colors bloomed.  You wouldn't think that pink and orange were complementary, but you just can't go wrong with cosmos.

Vivid!

Unbelievably, I had two cleome plants that sprang to life.  Cleomes are also called 'spider flowers', and they're wonderful flowers to have at the back of a bed.  They are pink and white explosions at the top of a tall stem.

The long stamens thrust out from the heart of the flower, inviting bees in.

The bees seemingly glide in on their tummies, down the long stems, like out-of-season sledders.  It's quite charming!

Speaking of bees, we still have swarms of honey bees and carpenter bees...

...lots of wasps...

...but, happily, a few of these little guys, too.  I caught someone hiding behind a plant stem yesterday.

Always glad to see grasshoppers!

I've been doing a lot of baking lately...two loaves of pumpkin bread, a chocolate layer cake containing four full cups (!!!) of sugar, and a cherry chip layer cake with 7 minute (marshmallow) frosting.  Thankfully, we had gatherings to take everything to, so we suffered from only minor sugar overload.  I was so busy, though, that I neglected to take photos.  I'll move onto a craft project completed last month!

My nephew was turning two, so I turned my attention to making a colorful card.  I got some inspiration from Pinterest and headed to my craft room. 

I used my Martha Stewart ornament paper punch turned upside-down to cut out lots of circles from scrap paper.  The upside-down ornaments looked just like balloons.  I quickly attached string to each balloon and bound them together at the bottom.

I let the string hang down below the edge of the card for effect.

Voila!  A balloon bunch!  I really enjoyed making it, too.

I also made his birthday gift this year.  I took the idea from the Purl Bee:  The Purl Bee's Fabric Memory Game


I encourage you to check out their website for more detail!

I loved the idea of making a fabric memory game, because you had the sensory bonus of using soft fabric pieces, and the recipient could match fabric squares based on colors and shapes.  He's only two, so he can start with 4 squares and try to match up colors, and gradually expand.  I think it's a great learning tool.

This was my first sewing project with my new machine! 

First, I gathered twenty different prints and cut each pattern into two 2 1/2 inch squares (making 40 total squares).  I cut 80 3 inch squares from light-colored felt, and from fusible interfacing, 80 3 inch squares and 40 2 1/2 inch squares.  Phew!

Next you have to fuse the 2 1/2 inch interfacing to the fabric pieces.  Also, the 3 inch interfacing to the 3 inch felt pieces.  I'd never heard of interfacing before but apparently it's a special type of fabric applied to other fabric with an iron that 'stiffens' the piece to give it more stability and weight.

Done!

 

Next, I cut windows into the remaining 3 inch felt pieces and pinned everything together.

 

Now for the scary sewing part!  I carefully sewed around the square once...

...and then again.

Once I got done with the cutting, the sewing went by really quickly...even for a novice like me!

Of course, all the squares had untidy edges, where the fusible interfacing peeked out.  I took some sharp scissors and gave the pieces a good trim...

 

...and they were done!  Colorful, soft squares with all sorts of different patterns and colors, and all securely sewn.

 

Hooray for conquering my sewing fears!

Have a great, fear-conquering, try-something-new week!

In my mind, I'm going to...

I didn't make my regular post last week, but it was because our lives got a lot more exciting in a very short time!  Todd has been looking for full-time work in his field for the past year while finishing up his dissertation.  After obtaining his Ph.D. at the end of last year, he started his job search with renewed vigor in 2012.  Two weeks ago, he received TWO job offers!  After much prayer, we now know and can announce...

WE'RE MOVING TO SOUTH CAROLINA!!!

We'll be settling in the Clemson area in the upcountry, the far northwest corner of the state.  It's a beautiful area in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by lakes, and we are beyond excited.  Todd will start work at Clemson University the second week of September. 

So, we took a little drive down there last week.

It's interesting to see how vegetation varies by region.  We saw a lot of the same trees that we have in Indiana, but we also saw quite a bit of cactus and bamboo.  Crepe myrtle trees were in bloom everywhere, and I saw several magnolia trees, too.  As a gardener, I'm especially excited.  Making the jump to Hardiness Zone 7 opens up a whole new world of gardening possibilities!

Did I mention...magnolia trees?!?

Clemson is a small town of about 12,000 people.  The university is beautiful, with a lovely landscaped campus bordered by large lakes on two sides.  There are several other small towns only 10 or 15 minutes away in each direction.  For someone who's used to concrete and traffic, this sort of town-to-town drive is very refreshing:

You can just see the mountains in the distance!  Just beyond the main streets and housing clusters of each small town is this:

Quiet, tree-lined streets.  A little further out, farms.  It's so pretty!

One of the reasons for our trip was to look at houses.  We looked at some more modern homes...

...but we mainly saw old-fashioned ones.

It doesn't look big from here, but this is a 5-bedroom farmhouse, built in the 1930s!

Oh, it's so green.  I've missed the grass.

This farmhouse is partially remodeled...

...but other areas need some work.

This is not the house, of course, but one of the two barns on the property.  Todd is imagining a place to store our business...while I'm more focused on the other barn, which would house animals.

It's a little ramshackle, but it is a barn with 4 stalls and plenty of room to move around.

A beekeeper must live nearby, because we saw these down the street:

They were full of very active bees!

It was fun to look at houses, but we wanted to see the natural beauty of the area, too.  We drove about 20 minutes north of the little town with the farmhouse, to the Jocassee Reservoir.  It's amazingly beautiful, and seemed so large.  I couldn't believe it when I looked on a map and saw that we were only at one tiny finger of a much, much larger body of water.

The water was so warm and inviting that we immediately peeled off our shoes and socks and went wading.

This is one body of water that Todd has agreed to snorkel in!  Scuba diving is very popular here too, as well as all types of boating, swimming, hiking, and bicycling.

It was great to take a break...

...but now we're home and in a flurry of activity.  We've patched and painted the interior of the house, hauled loads and loads of things to Goodwill, and filled a second storage unit with miscellaneous non-essentials.  We're putting our house up on the market this week and are then going to rush to get ready for a toy show we'll have a booth at later this month.  Then packing, finding a place around Clemson, and finally, hauling two cats and a very nervous dog on a pretty long drive!

Phew!

We're ready for the challenge, though!  Todd and I are both excited about this opportunity and are really pleased about the area we'll be moving to.  Moving is never fun, but we've gotten a lot of great advice from friends and family and I think we'll be able to keep things pretty low-stress.

I think.

I'll be sure to post regular updates.  Have a great week!