No-Knead Bread

I've been brushing up on my bread making skills lately. While I dearly love the taste of fresh made bread, it's not the simplest food to make. I don't have a decent place in my kitchen for any type of bread or dough work. All the surfaces are the wrong height for comfortable kneading and none of them are suitable because dough sticks badly to the surface.

Then I read about no-knead doughs. Sounded too good to be true!
I ordered this book, Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day. Yum! Essentially the trick is to leave a wet dough in the refrigerator long enough for it to simulate the same process that kneading fulfills.

You throw your ingredients in a bowl, stick in in the fridge for 3 days to 2 weeks. Whenever you want a loaf you pull off a hunk, let it rise for a bit and bake. So simple and no mess! It makes a small round loaf about the size of a grapefruit. Perfect size for us. The crust is awesome and the flavor is great.

I'd been having some issues with the loaf baking all the way through but realized that it was due to my oven taking much, much longer to pre-heat than I expected. Now that I figured it out I've had better success. I was going to take pictures of yesterday's loaf but my salivary glands got the better of me and we ate it all up!

I haven't had the chance to try any of the other recipes yet (baguettes, enriched breads etc) but I'm excited get baking!

Have any of you tried this method? Like it? Hate? Problems with an under-cooked loaf? (mine still tend to come out a wee bit under-done).

I believe there is no scent more delicious than that of freshly bakes bread. Heaven!

What's Cooking? Granola!

Granola has long been a breakfast favorite of mine. I would make it from scratch on occasion but I always eat it up so quickly no one else gets a chance. Now that we're trying to be more frugal and cereal, especially granola, is so expensive, I decided it was time begin making in on a regular basis. To make it more economical I now buy most of the ingredients in bulk at Costco. Oats, nuts, honey etc, and share the excess with my mother, who taught me the joys of homemade granola at a young age.

Just about the easiest breakfast food ever, granola is so easy to tailor to your preferences. You can't really mess it up unless you burn it, turning it bitter. The key to all the wonderful flavors is toasting the ingredients before baking.

This is a very basic recipe and you can add or subtract to preferences.

About 8 cups.

One container of Quaker rolled oats (about 6 cups) Not instant or 1-minute oats

2 cups mixed nuts and seeds - walnuts, almonds, sunflower, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews etc. Chop larger nuts.

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

pinch of salt and any spice you like (cinnamon, nutmeg etc)

About 3/4 cup honey (I put in almost a full cup for a little more sweetness)

1 cup raisins

1) Preheat oven to 300

2) Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add the oats and toast them until fragrant and turn color slightly, about 5 minutes or so, depending how deep your pan is. Stir frequently. Pour oats into large bowl. Next add the nuts and toast several minutes, add coconut and toast for several minutes.

Next add salt, spices if any, and stir to mix. Add nuts to bowl with oats. Stir in the honey, mixing well.

3) Spread onto 2 cookie sheets and bake for 20-30 minutes, occasionally stirring and rotating pans. Do not let it over-brown.

4) Remove from oven and stir in raisins. Let cool completely before storing.

If you make a half batch you can do step 2 all in the pan, just cook the oats a minute or two less before adding nuts. No need to transfer to a bowl.

I dare you not to have a bowl before it cools completely!

(Apologies for no line breaks. Sometimes blogger likes to have it's own way.)

Vintage Magazines and Questionable Foods

One of my goals on the road trip was to find more vintage goodies. I hit the jackpot! I picked up oodles of vintage magazines such as this Calling All Girls magazine I had never heard of before. I also picked up a bunch of Cosmo's, Mademoiselle, and Good Housekeeping, all from the late 1940's. For a $1 each!

I also found more of these little cooking booklets. Usually, but not always product-sponsored, they are always packed with unusual (and regrettable) recipes and great photos.

And of course, the cook books. I have quite a few now and it's apparent that it's become a habit. I have found dozens of Flickr groups sharing all manner of these items and I'm afraid I'm going to destroy these gems in the process of scanning them all!

And an ever popular item, vintage ads.

Mmmmm, breaded, deep-fried bananas!

I'll be sharing many, many more in the future but feel free to check out my Flickr and my Flickr groups to see the wealth of vintage fun out there!

Happy Holiday!

I've been scarce, I know. Partly holiday burn-out and partly just being lazy. We've had a lot of snow and cold weather here in the northwest, not very typical, and it's been fun but inconvenient. Luckily I don't have to drive anywhere for work!

We keep getting snowfall after snowfall and in my area we now have over a foot. Very rare because snow around here usually melts by the next day. I visited my mother in the next town and she has a large lawn....covered in a lovely blanket of snow! We got nostalgic for when I was a kid so we bundled up and made snow people! It turned out to be a community effort. Once folks saw us playing in the front yard they stepped outside their doors to contribute. One gave us a carrots, another had a brush pile for the arms, another came over to help us lift one giant snowball onto another, etc.

We had a blast. And were sore for 2 days! Time for a hot toddy!

But yet more snow was headed our way. Potentially a grand storm with extreme winds and very cold temperatures. We bought a generator, stocked up on kerosene, batteries and booze (well, what else is there to do?) And then our furnace died. You have got to be kidding. How does it know? Well the storm was no big deal and our kerosene heater kept us toasty warm for a few days until the furnace was repaired. $600! Gasp! Figures. But isn't that was Christmas bonuses are for?

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...Complete holiday madness. It doesn't take much to get me rushed and flustered and boy am I in a dither! The promos are done and I'm trying to make sure my shop is all stocked up for the hordes of holiday shoppers (hey, I'm thinking positive here folks. Positive cash flow, that is). But most of my inventory went out to a bunch of new consignment accounts.

So I sewed, and photographed and finished all my half-finished projects and it's all finally coming together! Better late than never! Here are a few of the new items available in my shop (or will be by this weekend).

Ladybug and Bumble Bee pot holders. Ladybugs available now, Bees by this weekend.

Fabric Fortune Cookies. Aren't they cute? Many more to come including little bags of 3.

Oilcloth place mats. Shiny reversible joy! Sets of 4 available now.

Hope your holidays are happy!

Bust Craftacular promos are done!

I did it. Finally. With lots of help. And here they are all finished. Well, 500 are pictured because I already sent off 100 to LA.

These are fabric fortune cookies that I have made for Bust's Craftacular shows in New York city and Los Angeles. They will be distrubuted in the goodie bags. Inside each cookie is a sort of raffle ticket. All you have to do is visit my Etsy shop and convo me the "secret" word inside and what show you went to, for a chance to win $50 worth of HBIC goods of your choice!

I'm a little nervous because I've never done a promotion of this scale before but I'm feeling optomistic and excited. Now I need to get back to work filling my shop with more goodies!

Never stagnate, always innovate

I always knew I couldn't rely on the apron trend forever. When a trend peaks it usually means it's time to move on to something else, you are no longer unique or an innovator, you are just one of the pack.

I went in to Joanne's last week with my mother. Honestly, I've become a fabric snob. I don't like Joanne's and have begun to look at it like the Walmart of crafting. I'll go there in an emergency but I don't rely on it for supplies.

And I saw this. Something many of you have probably seen for a while but it was new to me. A pre-printed apron kit. The apron is printed right on the fabric. All you have to do is cut it out along the lines and sew. And all those beautiful books by Lark publishing (I have even submitted to them before) on sewing potholders and aprons. Ack! That's my livelihood!

I've been wanting to expand my product line for more than a year and now is the time! If I had been up on my market research I would have known this a lot sooner. Don't forget kids, get out there and never stop scoping out the competition! This was the perfect reminder of that for me and has lit a fire under my keister to diversify.

It's just unfortunate that I happen to be working on a fresh, big, new stack of aprons right now!

Halloween Treat!

Oh Joy! How could I have forgotten to mention it yesterday? Delivered fresh to my doorstep- new fabric!

Receiving new supplies is always exciting but for me there is no greater pleasure than getting new fabric. Even the touch and feel of a new bolt if wonderful.

I spotted the cute red and blue fabrics in a shop and knew I had to order my own. When I got online I found the fantastic chicken print. Just what I needed as I'm all out of my old chicken fabric. And nothing says retro kitchen quite like chickens!

But look at the size of the print! It's HUGE. The squares are almost 5" across. I'm almost afraid it's too large for an apron. I'll make a tester and see what reactions I get from it.

Another risk when buying new fabrics is whether or not they'll match any of my other fabrics. I have some fantabulous prints but the colors just don't go with anything else. So they sit and wait for the perfect project or a good match. These fabrics are great! I love the colors and they play well with my existing palette.

Yay! Off to play!

Featured Blogger - Baby Friendly Beads

I'm under the weather today and would rather be back in bed but I really wanted to share with you this month's EtsyBloggers featured blogger. She has two Etsy shops; Baby Friendly Beads, Mama's Magic Studio, and a blog, Mama's Magic.
(Apologies for not having more photos! Jen's photos are quite large and in my flu-state I cannot figure out how to shrink them. Jen, I'm so sorry!)

Baby Friendly Beads is a wonderful shop of jewelry for nursing moms.

"Baby Friendly Beads are beautifully functional nursing necklaces and bracelets. Breastfeeding jewelry gives baby something else to focus on and play with, instead of pulling mom's hair or pinching her skin. Reminder bracelets track nursing sessions."

(I had a lovely pic here of this necklace)

This is a pretty clever idea, and beautiful pieces to boot. Take a look through her feedback to see how much moms and babies adore her work!
But who says you have to be nursing, or even a mom to wear this jewelry. I often have to remove my jewelry when I'm doing any kind of physical work that might break it. Buying something sturdy would fix that problem!
(I love this bracelet)

Her other Etsy shop, Mama's Magic Studio, is beautiful. I only wish there was more to see! Great pictures on a lovely serene green background. Clever paired earrings, very reasonably priced. See for yourself! The above earrings are from this shop.

The blog, called Mama's Magic, is full of the same green serenity as the shop of similar name. Sweet musings about family life, creativity and creative writing are a treat as she's a poet and her eloquent posts make that evident. But you have to go see for yourself!

All mommas and friends of mommas will be happy if you do!


Now I'm going to make myself a mug of hot, soothing tea, curl up on the couch with the kitty and hang out in my pyjamas all day :)

Skillet Mitt Madness

These things really do drive me mad. Well, they definitely put me (here's the pun) on pins and needles. They are essentially mini oven mitts to put over the handles of hot pans. There's a lot of thicknesses to sew through on the little guys. Six, to be exact. Then when I get to the part where there is binding, it's even thicker. That little half inch causes me much anxiety as I often break needles there. On the batch shown here I only broke 3 and that's pretty good! Then I trim everything closely and turn them inside-out.

But aren't they darling! I was especially pleased with myself for thinking of displaying them on the mini skillet with clothes pins!

This is just the tip of the iceberg as I prep for this weekend's show, and for the holiday season. I've finally finished my retro packaging and it's just too darn cute. I'm so proud! But I'll wait to share that with you tomorrow :)