Archive for September, 2008

Because I can’t keep stealing the Hershey bars from the S’mores stash.

September 25, 2008 · Filed under We are busy in the kitchen.

The answer to my chocolate craving lately: beet chocolate cake.

It seems to satisfy on all levels: moist, chocolaty goodness with mega-nutritious, colorful vegetables secretly packed inside without the slightest hint of “beetiness” to give them away. Also makes for a nice two-layer cake to showcase on a cake platter if the Martha mood strikes. (the one where presentation is just as important as taste and nutrients)

Top that off with my favorite frosting, a cream cheese number that never fails to melt in your mouth, unless you forget to let the cream cheese and butter warm to room temp. before scrambling to make it in the midst of a 3-yr-old birthday celebration…

Beet Chocolate cake recipes abound, but here’s the one I like. (I’ve tried two – the first was just a tad beety)

4oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 c. olive oil, divided
3 eggs, preferably from Lovely Ladies such as ours
1 3/4c sugar (we use raw, unrefined sugar exclusively and it’s delicious)
2 cups pureed cooked beets (3 medium beets, or two bunches small beets, we found)
1T vanilla
1 1/2c all-purpose flour
1/2c whole wheat pastry flour (I used whole wheat bread flour – was great)
2t baking soda
1/4t salt

First, boil or steam the beets until nice and tender. Puree and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly coat pan(s) with oil or butter and dust with flour. 10 c. bundt pan, two layer pans, or a 9×13 pan should all work fine.

Set up a double boiler with water, bring to a boil over high, reduce heat, then add the chocolate and 1/4c oil to the top. Heat just until chocolate melts; remove from heat and stir until completely melted and mixed uniformly with oil.

Mix eggs and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. (or by hand until your forearms are the size of tree trunks) Slowly add 3/4c oil, chocolate mix, beets, and vanilla while mixing slowly.

Sift the flours into a large bowl; stir in baking soda and salt. Add to batter mixture until just incorporated. Pour batter into your prepared pan(s).

Bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Let the pan(s) cool on a wire rack for about 30 min. Remove cake from pan and cool to room temp. before frosting, or you may end up with a tasty, but horrendous-looking confectionery landslide, which I did in round 1. You can also dust gently with powdered sugar in lieu of frosting.

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting EVER (adapted from a recipe I found on a blog somewhere, adapted a teeny bit, and can’t for the life of me trace back to give due credit.)

8oz. cream cheese, at room temp. (yeah – “room temp” is pretty important)
1/2 stick (1/4c) butter, also at room temp
3/4t vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter until nice and “whippy,” about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and beat well. Slowly add powdered sugar in a few additions, beating well until combined.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A quick google search on beets will highlight some of the many, many nutrients packed in these little jewels. If you’re lucky enough to get your beets with the greens left on, they make a delicious addition to salads and contain many of the same nutrients.

That’s all fine and dandy, and makes me feel good about eating well, but really….it’s all about the chocolate. Chocolate with benefits.

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Seasick crafting.

September 24, 2008 · Filed under I sew.

Thank you all for the kind words and well wishes in this second pregnancy. So far, so good. As I’ve returned to reading about all things baby and birth, I’ve come across a nice adjective for the unpleasant feeling that accompanies the first trimester (and beyond) for many women: seasick. Yeah – that about sums it up, I’d say. If this particular course is anything like that of Isadora’s pregnancy, we should be heading out of these churlish waters into calmer ones in the weeks to come. Already I can see some sunlight peeking through the receding stormy clouds; I’m sitting here at the computer, for example, instead of assuming my position as a permanent fixture of the living room couch. My heart goes out to those women who navigate these turbulent waters while still maintaining a job and actual responsibilities, besides those of a rather independent 3-yr-old. Hats off to you!

The ship recently docked for a bit of a crafty interlude. Lots of birthdays this month mean lots of gift-giving, and the timing of the annual Quilt Expo on the day before a nephew’s birthday party was too tempting to resist. (you’ve already witnessed my tendency for last-minute panic-crafting) Past experience has made me a bit skeptical of stores or events with Quilt in the title, as I’ve learned that, while deeply in love with fabric and my sewing machine, I’m not ever in their target demographic. The quilting industry in my area just hasn’t caught up with the new wave of hip crafters seeking an alternative to the traditional calicoes, country-inspired, or primitive designs. Nevertheless, I arrived at the quilt expo with a strict budget and a good friend in tow. I held on to the friend, but quickly discarded the budget.

When all was said and done, I walked away with the foundations for a baby quilt to whip up and bring to the party the following day. Oh, it was a cloudy, rainy day when I photographed the finished product, and I can’t be bothered to set up proper lighting, so you’ll have to trust that it looked way better in person than in the above pic.

I returned home from the show riding an immense wave of inspired euphoria and quickly set to work, at which point a wave of nausea set in, interrupting the progress for a few hours until it could no longer be avoided. Time was running out. For support and good company, Andrew joined me, and contributed the most important part of the design: the applique of the mouse behind the steering wheel of the truck.

He’s cut out from a vintage Smokey the Bear bed sheet that I thrifted a few years ago and have gotten enormous mileage from.

Break your matches! Only you can prevent forest fires!

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Three. And then four.

September 23, 2008 · Filed under I'm Momma; this is my family.

Three birthday cakes.

Three celebrations.

Three years of mind-boggling, head-scratching “How did she get here?” and “How did she get so big?” This must be one of the most difficult concepts to wrap a human brain around.

Three years of almost-constant awe.

Zero.

One.

Two.

Three.

How can we possibly lasso time and make it slow down just a bit? Or at least remember this fervent wish when begging it to please speed up?

Three found us this year visiting the very spot Isadora entered the world. In a rescheduling move whose magic was lost on me until the very day of her birthday, we found ourselves again at the Madison Birth Center greeting new life in the presence of our midwife and friend. Part of this three-year-old’s gift (and ours as well) was to hear the rapidly beating heart of her unborn brother or sister for the very first time. It was blessed to be there again, with a healthy, beautiful three-year-old girl by our side, honoring the day she entered our world with the promise of another joining our family.

We will all be very busy growing in the year to come, as a family, from three to four.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl.

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Almost the stuff of dreams.

September 12, 2008 · Filed under I thrift. A lot.

I had the absolute BEST dream the other night. It took place in a thrift shop, involved some kind of design challenge ala Project Runway, and I kept the bus load of fellow contestants waiting while I filled my arms with the most wonderful finds imaginable. I was loaded down with vintage textiles, some great toys for the Girl, and there was even something great for the Guy. Oh, it was heartbreaking, indeed, to wake up to the reality of that dream. Despite this, I was left with the lingering euphoria that always accompanies such a windfall of treasures.

Naturally, it became imperative that I did some real-life thrifting. At the very least, I needed to replace our entire collection of drinking glasses which have been breaking at the rate of about one a day. You can bet I came home with far more than glassware.

I’d like to start off the parade with this smashing combo, illustrating the ever-present Goddess of Thrifting Synchronicity at work. The yellow rose print is on a roll of vintage wallpaper given to me by a good friend just days ago. The fabric, photographed on this poorly-lit dreary day, was bestowed upon me by the generous St. Vincent de Paul. (one of my favorite saints, no doubt) I’ve only got a fuzzy vision of how this combo will be transformed, but I’m thinking it may have something to do with lining an armoire or some kind of shelves. Martha, incidentally, has lots of ideas for using vintage wallpaper.

Aren’t these sweet? Add a little bit of paint, maybe some hinges to connect the two and make them a bit more stable, and perhaps some candles behind to flicker through…

While not my style, (I’m a micro-brew kind of girl) this full length bed sheet will make the perfect foundation for lounge pants for a special someone on my Christmas list. Just as soon as I rig the name exchange to be sure I get his name, that is. This is actually the second Christmas gift I found in this round of thrifting. The other, a real gem, has my husband’s name on it, so I don’t dare picture it here. You’ll have to trust me when I say it was a real find.

These gossamer earrings seemed the perfect complement to a knit jersey dress I’ll be making soon. They have an appointment with a pliers, some glue, and a new set of posts and backs to replace the screw-into-your-earlobe-posts. Clips and screw posts common to vintage earrings are no doubt vestiges of the corset mindset, are they not, sacrificing personal comfort for fashion and propriety. Thankfully, the barbaric holes in my ears negate this kind of fashion sacrifice.

And I’ve saved the best for last! This is a Loteria set, a sort of Mexican version of Bingo, it seems. The illustrations are fantastic, as is the opportunity to brush up on necessary Spanish vocab like El Borracho (the drunk), El Alacran (scorpion), La Sandia (watermelon) and La Calavera (scull). That said, it was clearly born of a different era, one without the culturally-sensitive guiding hand of Political Correctness. There may be a few racially-insensitive stereotypes hanging with El Borracho, El Soldado (the soldier), and El Valiente (some kind of strapping, brave Mexican man). Nevertheless, it may be time to institute a Family Multi-Cultural Game Night sometime soon, albeit with a few disclaimers.

And now the parade must be cut short, for the best and most quaint thrift shop of all was tragically closed for lunch. All in all, it was a highly successful trip. Let the transformations begin.

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I’m still here. Are you?

September 10, 2008 · Filed under We grow things.

Muskmelons, fattening up and longing for just a bit more heat in the forecast. Edit: Most definitely NOT muskmelons. Perhaps a renegade strain of cucumber?

Hello. Anyone out there yet? It seems I’ve fallen into a big, black, not-going-to-blog-for-ages hole and am just now peeking my head out to see if anyone is still there. Anyone? Sorry for my absence if checking in here has provided some sort of bright light in your day. To say things have been crazy here is so cliche; crazy is our lifestyle, despite our best efforts on the contrary. For reasons I can not yet mention, I’ve been in way-less-than-top-blogging form. Also, there was the hosting of a grand picnic here at the homestead, an event which had prompted over a month of preparation – cleaning, organizing, decorating, cleaning, organizing, decorating. In true form, I was spotted making curtains at T-6 hours pre-party. They were the first in what was to be two different sets. In a frenzy of great creative inspiration and optimism that ALWAYS precedes a big decorating deadline, I was also seen pulling Andrew aside to get his blessing on the other curtains I was planning to make. Bless him, for his attentiveness as I blathered on, pulling out swatches of fabric, discussing embroidery techniques, musing on the best choice of thread. Bless him for not calling me out on the craziness that is characteristic of me in pre-party situations like this. Bless him for agreeing to the proposal, in a similar spirit of optimism that allowed for the possibility of this project actually getting completed as planned. Because is there really a better time, ever, to make curtains? Doesn’t everyone wait for the looming promise of lots of guests arriving to hang up some pictures and whip out some sewn curtains? What? Why not? Because it would make you CRAZY!? These curtains, incidentally, did not get completed…or started…until after the party. They are currently in progress, though, so stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to that story.

So, I’m clearly crazy, but we do have a few more things on the walls, a few more curtained windows to stifle the mounting legion of peeping toms lurking about (whitetail deer, a groundhog, and maybe some cranes), and for this fleeting moment, our house is pretty clean. Unless you open the closets, but really – don’t you have any manners? Stay out of there.

In other news, the garden continues to overcome the immense disadvantages we laid upon it, providing a wonderful, if not surprise, harvest. There are the muskmelons, shown above.

There are also some vigorous calendula plants that are providing a beautiful string of dried blossoms which I will fashion into some kind of therapeutic herbal concoction. Calendula is especially great for healing the skin. We have a lot of skin.

And if the mercury can overcome the forces of gravity and seasonality for a few weeks, maybe these tomatoes can have a chance to grow up and be something. If our temps of late are any indication though, there’s not much hope of that.

But perhaps the greatest of all of the garden’s gifts that I’ve reaped this year is the mantra that I’m going to try my damnedest to hold on to:

Start small.

When the winter darkness is pierced by the shining beacon of light that is the beekeeping catalog, I must remember to START SMALL.

And when the chicken catalog arrives, eliciting a state of giddiness reminiscent of paging through the Wish Book toy catalog as a child, I hope to remember to KEEP IT SMALL.

And those seductive seed catalogs with their fleshy pictures and their sensual descriptions….surely I won’t forget the folly of this season! Just to be sure, I’m going to rig an alarm to the copy function of my printer, programming it to self-destruct in the event that I try to photocopy additional pages of the seed order form.

That ought to do it, I think.

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