My Secret Ingredients Shared

Yesterday I got a package sent with FREE shipping from King Arthur Flour.  In it were some secret ingredients I used in this delicious cake made with their recipe for Lemon Custard Cake which I of course tweaked a bit with great results.  To be fair though I should make it again following their directions to a tee then compare, but I am completely satisfied with my results.  I used the new Mary Ann cake pan that came in this order and the Queen Guinevere Cake Flour and Cake Enhancer.  My secret ingredient though that they didn’t use in the cake was the fiori di sicilia which is an orange/vanilla flavoring that smells divine.   I could wear this as a perfume.  I also added some grated lemon rind and used a lemon pudding mix with some cream cheese added instead of the pastry cream they called for.  We had some fresh blueberries and raspberries on hand to add to the very top, the only thing missing was whipped cream which I some how forgot on my trip to the grocery store.  This was worth turning on the air conditioning so we could turn on the oven for a while…very much worth it!

Check out King Arthurs recipes for some really great ideas then find your secret ingredient that makes it yours!

Shhh!!!  It’s a secret after all…

Ferne

What’s Growing in our Garden

I have another blog where I usually blog about garden related stuff, but Candace at Squash House has started doing garden updates weekly on her blog and I thought it might be fun to play along.  So…this week in my garden after a very long and cold spring things are finally starting to show signs of future harvests.

This little squash is an heirloom ‘White Lebanese’ that should be ready to harvest any day now.  It looks a bit like one of my favorites called ‘Magda’.  This is the first time I have grown this so I will have to update you all later to let you know if you should search it out next year.  The plant itself only gets about 3 feet around instead of taking over the garden like some zucchinis.   My herb garden is finally taking off too and I harvest a bunch of Italian Parsley that I dried in the food dehydrator and bottled.  I like dehydrating my herbs because they come out so colorful and fresh looking and that way I know they are not dusty.  We got a big dehydrator called an ‘Excalibor’  and hope to put it to good use this summer.  They parsley took about 24 hours to dry.  There is a temperature control which is nice since herbs need less heat than drying tomatoes or other fruit so this is a handy feature.  It also has a lot of removable drying shelves so depending on what you are drying you can add or remove shelves.  The motor is really quite also not at all annoying.  I think I will be making lots of Basil mixes later.  I am growing about 5  different types of basil and love to mix them together.  I have a little leaved one called ‘Pistou’ and a bigger leaved one called ‘Marseille’ and of course there is ‘Genovese’ and ‘Opal’ and my favorite ‘Cinnamon’.  Can’t wait for those tomatoes to serve up with basil and balsamic vinegar…oh, and don’t forget the mozzerella!

Looking forward to many harvests!

Besides the vegetables I have a lot of flowers in bloom.  I have tried for years to grow lupines and this year I had great success.  These are Russel hybrids and they stand about 2 feet high.  I love them!  There is also some scabiosa growing there next to them.  I planted them a little close together because they are in a 1 foot by 3 foot gopher cage.  I took a lot of precautions here and love the results! 

Another plant I have not had much success growing until now is hosta.  I have put out the snail bait, but not seen one snail here.  I’m hoping that they don’t like the cold winters.  I think I planted  about 6 different ones in this bed and they all came up and are just about ready to bloom.  I love this place where I can grow almost anything, let’s hope the gophers and deer don’t discover my treasures.  We have lots of deer fencing and gopher cages in place and our fingers are crossed.

In this bed are some Russian Mammoth Sunflowers and they are budding up, can’t wait to see these huge sunflowers and feed them to the birds. 

I’ll close with a picture of my favorite rose ‘Country Dancer’,  I wish I could share its sweet fragrance with you all, but you will have to trust me on this one, it smells like a sweet apple.

Let the growing and harvesting begin!

Ferne

Catching the Wave

I saw this on Oh, Fransson’s! blog and Monica at Happy Zombie did it here, so I  had to give it a try.  I printed out the tutorial and studied it for a few days then she came up with a new idea using my dresden ruler so I was on board.  I started just playing and when I laid it out on my table and it fit for an idea I had a while back.  I had thought of running 2 table runners across the table to double as 4 placemats and protection for the center of the table.  Funny thing is the fabric I chose also went perfect with some dishes I have.  Now I need to make another one and get them both quilted.  She squared hers up, but I am thinking I will leave them wavy on the sides and bind with the white fabric.

I also completed a little wall hanging for my laundry room.  These little washday bunnies were inspired from a Tilda book called Crafting Springtime Gifts.  I changed their dresses and had some fun with the quilting.  I don’t know if it shows, but I quilted a shirt, pants, sock and a towel on the clothesline and grass and flowers on the ground.  I guess if I were braver I would have used colored thread.  This was a really fun project now I have to finish some things in the laundry room so that I can hang it up.

Guess all this rain is good for giving me some sewing time!

Ferne

Growing Going on

I don’t have much sewing, but a lot of growing going on here at the moment.  My sons and Michael just removed some juniper bushes for me creating a very large space that I get to garden in.  I used to call it the ‘Secret Garden’ because it was completely encircled with huge junipers.  Now it has gone public so it will need a new name and a lot of new plants.  The area is much larger than it looks in the picture measuring in at 37’ X 40’ and there are a lot of iris that I plan to move to other locations.  It is very sunny there with a little afternoon shade, but not much.  I am dreaming of all sorts of colorful perennials like salvias, rudbeckia, arctotis, and much much more.   So I guess I am making a flower quilt in my mind right now, but not for long.  I have a wedding quilt to start working on soon and the fabric that I ordered for it just arrived last week.  It is for my son and his soon to be wife.  I asked for color ideas and she picked beautiful dark jewel tones and lots of black.  I have been playing with some ideas in EQ6 and have come up with several great ideas.  Now if I could just plan my garden plot in EQ6…hmmm…now that’s a thought!

After a very long cold winter we finally planted our vegetable garden.   I had a lot of fun designing the layout for that.  It is sort of formal looking and quite different.  We used the old satelite dish in the center as a gopher cage.  It is 10’ across and is now my herb garden.  Then we made 8 boxes lined with gopher wire and dug them in to border the herb garden.  We have 31 tomatoes planted in them and some peppers and basil.  There are 2 more beds to plant and the seeds are growing in the green house for much more.

Keep the growin’ goin’  on!

ferne

Piece Therapy

Sometimes there are times in your life when you have to try to figure out how best to put the pieces together to make something orderly of it.  I am working on a part of my life right now where I am trying to make an important decision. I have looked at all the angles and  tried to put them together just right so that all the points and corners meet up (or at least come close).  I am finding that working on a quilt block helps.  Oh, I don’t know what that block may become or if it will join others in a basket in the closet of misc. blocks with no particular purpose, but for today it served a purpose in my life.  It makes me wonder how many other people find that kind of therapy in crafting or gardening or baking or other hobbies that require concentration and mindfulness.  I think that is what hobbies are all about, sort of a therapy or a focus exercise.  I spent a few hours yesterday baking 2 loaves of bread and thinking about how mixing ingredients and watching yeast work to create something that is tasty and good for my body is also good for my mind, and I shared that with someone special to me which also made me feel good.  These were both great things to do on a rainy day deep in thought.  The only decision that I have made about the situation I am thinking about is that it won’t hurt to try and decisions can be changed and adjustments made, in the end I must take care of myself and be content with the life I create for myself.

  My block that I created comes from a new book out by Eleanor Burns that I preordered called “Quilt Blocks on American Barns”.  I got a signed copy and I love it.  It reminds me so much of my Grandmother and summers spent in Iowa.  The block I chose is called Quatrefoil and it represents a 4 leaf clover.  She says that a common saying is “to be in clover” which means to be living a carefree life of ease, comfort or prosperity.  I’m not sure that I am living that life yet, but I am getting closer and maybe a few more blocks put together will help to get me there!

Enjoy your craft therapy whatever it may be!

Ferne