Another Etsy Addition

A little preview of another mobile I made.  I think this one is my favourite so far because there's so much detailing on it.  To see the rest of it on Etsy, click here.

My newest Etsy addition: Heart Mobile



I've gone a bit crazy for mobiles lately, and not just because I have a baby.  They make great household decorations (seriously) and I really enjoy making them.  This hand-sewn heart is at the center of a mobile I just added to Etsy (more coming soon).  You can see it (or order it) on Etsy here: http://etsy.me/veox3G
So there's my craftiness for the day.
We had a great day (including taking the kids swimming) so I hope you're all having a lovely autumn's day as well.

My Take on French Toast

Brunch will never be the same again.

I love Chopped, but it seems like lately all the chefs can make is French Toast.  The past several episodes that we've seen have had a dessert round where one of the chefs makes French Toast.  (Usually the other chef makes a Neapolitan.)  So to all chefs who consider going on Chopped, this is for you.

French Toast is not a dessert.  It is a breakfast or brunch food.  In fact, it's a rather delicious way to start the day.

So here's my take on French Toast.

1. Beat together eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla and powdered sugar with a whisk. 

The better your ingredients are, the better your French Toast will be.  For luxurious French Toast, use fresh, free-range, organic, local eggs (room temperature).  Use organic and/or filtered milk (I've used vanilla soy milk before).  You can really splurge with real vanilla that you scrape from the pods, or just make sure to get vanilla extract and not vanilla flavouring. 

Using powdered (confectioner's) sugar means that you won't have any graininess from the sugar and can get a great melt-in-your-mouth consistency on the inside of your French Toast.  Just sieve in a little to the batter.

2. Soak your bread in the wet mixture. 

Slightly stale breads often work well in French Toast because they can suck up the moisture.  I used a apple, walnut, and rye loaf that we had bought at the market from a local artisan baker.

3.  Cook in a frying pan on medium heat.  If you want extra yumminess, cook with some butter in the pan.

4.  Serve with butter and syrup.  We served by stacking two slices with cream cheese in the middle and topping with vanilla cream, strawberries and dark chocolate shavings.

5. Share and enjoy.  We made it and then all piled back into bed for breakfast.  Delicious, even if the kids got syrup on our bed ;)

Let them eat pie.

Welcome to autumn!  We had an unexpected end of summer heatwave.  In fact, the hottest day of the year here was in late September!  Now, though, the days are noticeably getting shorter and cooler.  It's autumn and I have to admit to being a bit excited by it.  I have always loved autumn, and we get some great autumn produce.  We're getting loads of fresh apples, and the girls have settled into their new classes at school and preschool.

Cooler weather means that we can start enjoying all of the autumn food that we haven't eaten in awhile.  Savoury pies are very popular in this house, and make a good warming dinner on a cool, dark evening.  We spent a day making a whole big batch of pies together.  We ate two over the next couple of days, and put the rest in the freezer to pull out later.

We started off by making several batches of pastry.  I have naturally cold hands so I have an advantage at pastry making and am pretty proud of how well it turned out.
For my tips on making perfect pie pastry, click here.

Then we made several types of filling.  We didn't follow any recipes, so I won't give you exact recipes here.  We just made them up based on what we had and what sounded good.

Jared did make one pie with a meaty filling....any guesses what's in it?

The vegetarian pie that we ate first was a mushroom pie.  It had big organic chestnut mushrooms in it along with some other veggies and a home-made gravy.

They were delicious, and the best part is that we still have more pies in the freezer (including a butternut squash pie and a broccoli cheese pie). 

The Romsey Show



the Romsey Show 2011

I don't know about you, but I love a good fair.  I love the old-fashioned community atmosphere with farmers showing off their livestock, home-baked goodies, little rides for the kids, and entertainment.  The Romsey Show takes place every year near us, and it's a lot of fun for the whole family.

the Romsey Show 2011
(picture taken by my husband)

 There were so many things to look at and enjoy, and I think we all had our own favorites.  Miriam loved getting to make a clay horse (it will be on display soon); Anya loved seeing live bats at the bat hospital and then making a bat puppet; Preston liked napping in the stroller as we walked around, and Jared says he liked all of it.  My favorite was seeing all of the traditional crafts.  It made me want to learn how to do things like spin and weave, make ceramics, and work with felt.  I'm adding a whole list of these things to my list of things to try one day.  Until then, I really enjoyed seeing other people's beautiful creations and the way that these traditional skills and art forms are being passed on and used.

Romsey Show 2011

Eiffel Tower Apron

I love taking part in the Secret Post Club.  You never know what you're going to get or what great new blogs you'll discover. 

My last Secret Post Club swap introduced me to the great blog Blackbird has Spoken.  On the blog, I noticed some references to cooking, and some pictures of an Eiffel Tower collection.  So I decided to make her a apron with the Eiffel tower on it.

Not all of the stitches are even, and I really should have ironed it before taking a picture, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.  In fact, I was a bit sad to part with it.  Luckily I saw the pictures of the beautiful macarons that Max made (possible, of course, because of her new French apron), and that just made my day.

I'm thinking I may get started on some more aprons...maybe as Christmas gifts for people...

3 Cakes & a 3rd Birthday

Strawberry & Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake for my sister-in-law's 17th birthday.  Happy Birthday Bea!

Orange & Chocolate Cake (decorated with cars for my daughter Anya's 3rd birthday.  I can't believe she's 3 and starting preschool this week!)

Orange & Chocolate Digger Cake (for my daughter's 3rd birthday party--it was Digger themed; She had a fantastic birthday!)

.

Orange Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cup plain (all purpose) flour

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp orange essence

1/2 tbsp orange food coloring

2 bars chopped chocolate or about 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth and well blended.

2. Pour into greased and floured cake tins (bakes best if you make multiple smaller cakes and stack rather than one large cake)

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 F/350 C for about 25 minutes (baking time depends on the size tins used, so check regularly. When a knife can be poked in and comes out clean, it's finished).

4. Let cool then decorate as desired