soozphotoz

Ooey Gooey Goodness

Pioneer Woman Cookbook

I've admired and guffawed at The Pioneer Woman's blog for year now. Recently, I received her Cookbook from a dear friend (Sandy V) as a most excellent Christmas gift. With the recent blizzard enabling me some extra time at home, I decided to try my first recipe from the cookbook....Pineapple Upside Down Cake...yes, even in my newly acquired iron skillet (God Bless Amazon.com).

First, let me say that this cast iron skillet is my most valued purchase since my KitchenAid stand mixer (and nearly as heavy). Yes, it means that I'm frying more foods...but they taste better too. And now that I know I can bake in it as well...just let me say a hearty Hallelujah!

The recipe is super easy to follow and don't those maraschino cherries look so darn 50's sitting pretty in the middle of the pineapple rings?! I would have linked to this recipe on PW's website, but she doesn't have it listed there....sorry :(  Can't say that I blame her, though.

I used a 10 inch skillet so the cake took about 5 minutes longer than the recipe called for. Aside from that everything came out just as yummy as I remembered (it's been YEARS since I've had PUDC).

Trust me, it tastes even better than it looks! (btw...it's not burnt, it's just that I used dark brown sugar because I'm saving the light brown sugar for tomorrow Toll House cookies :)

Rescuing Andy

Max & Linnea

Although hard work delivers its own merits, it's even more rewarding when it results in re-discovering "hidden treasures." Last weekend while cleaning the basement, I found Max (from author/illustrator Rosemary Wells delightful series ), Linnea (from the book Linnea in Monet's Garden), and my childhood toy Raggedy Andy.

Poor Andy was more raggedy than usual...that's what fifty years will do to you, as I can attest to. So I did what I usually do when not knowing what to do; I asked my friends for advice. Lynette suggested that I soak Andy in Woolite and Oxyclean overnight. The woman is a genius. As you can see above, Max and Linnea look sparkling new. While Andy isn't quite as sparkling (or nearly as young), he looks as though he's sipped quite a bit from the fountain of youthful toys.

He still has some drying to do and is relaxing outdoors today. It appears as though he's taking a nap while he continues to convalesce. In reality, after I rinsed the suds from the back of his little red head, I flipped him over and gasped...his eyes had fallen off. One was still in the sink. I knew the other was somewhere on its way to the garbage disposal. I must admit here that I have an unnatural fear of plunging my hand into the garbage disposal. I know that the chances of the device turning itself on are astronomical...but then, most unnatural fears defy logic. I could have cut another eye from felt but I really really wanted the original. So I took the plunge.

Not often, but at times, my lack of attention to detail can be a happy accident. As I began to feel around in the drain, I felt mushy nasty stuff that had not yet been devoured by the disposal. I began to pull the contents out and discovered the not-so-green strawberry tops that I had removed early (not earlier today, mind you). And there among the disgusting colorless discarded strawberries and leafy tops was the missing eye!

I plucked the heart from Andy's chest so that it too would not slip to the now clean drain. When all is dry and reassembled, I will post another photo for the sake of posterity.

Again, thanks Lynette for your suggestion. Memories, toys, a little soap and (most of all) the help of friends is the stuffing life is made of...and if you don't believe me, just ask Andy.

Loving the Thread

sock monkey quilt (in progress)

In Natalie Chanin's  Alabama Stitch Book, she advices sewers that "loving your thread infuses the work with kind intentions." On a more practical side, running the thread repeatedly through your fingers before hand-sewing, removes excess tension and thereby prevents the thread twisting and knotting.

This sock monkey quilt is the first quilt that I have quilted together by tying it off with small knots. I have a small quilt that was made by my Great Aunt Myrtle sometime in the 1930's or 40's. I expect that a baby quilt will undergo many more machine washings than this heirloom, however I don't think that this quilt qualifies as an heirloom.

In the past, I've experienced many annoying curling knots when I've cut thread too long in an attempt to save time. Chanin's advice seems to work on both accounts; the thread has not knotted, and while "loving the thread" I took the time to send out small prayers for the recipient of the quilt. "Let the baby be healthy, please let the baby love books, don't let the baby be born with monkey ears, if (or more like, when) the baby gets big enough to jump on the bed, please don't let it fall off and bump it's head."

Now that school has ended for this year (woohoo!), I'm looking forward to a lot more of "loving my thread".

death and love in a creekbed

i trekked to the creek today
camera & macro lens in tote
to capture smaller worlds inside
the larger

i hadn't ventured to the creek
since the body was found
in January

hispanic male
multiple (twenty-seven) stab wounds
gang-related
fifteen year-old
Dennis G

only the winter before
he walked the halls
of my school
and played soccer

there isn't enough Kevlar
in the whole world
to protect a body
let alone, a heart

the creek water was low today
and as i tread through the sand
i looked for evidence
(of what i wasn't certain)
yet
not really wanting to
find any

instead i focused on the river rocks
glistening in the mud
and discovered an answer
written on a shard of muted brown glass

LOVE (with half of the E missing)
fragmented and sharp

i picked LOVE up
without even wiping it off
and carefully secured it in my backpack

truly sun day

 
Quite the sunny Sunday today! I oscillated between reading, knitting, gardening, and vacation-planning.

 
The herb container garden is growing nicely thanks to the recent constant rain.

 
I took a trip to the local nursery for some vegetable plants...cucumbers and peppers in this small space. Hopefully this will be the BEFORE picture with a much fuller and fruitful  AFTER to follow.

saturday morning

I headed to Seneca Creek Park this morning with the intentions of hiking and taking photos. The only hiking I did was really just a stroll through the Peony Garden. We've had torrential rains this week and the peonies were fairly battered and fallen on the ground. But a few stubborn blossoms managed to survive. I can relate :-)

After shooting a few peonies, I rented a kayak. I had kayaked on Clopper Lake once early last summer and after the first six minutes on this adventure, my arms began to protest my winter lethargy. Because this was a spontaneous venture, I also made the mistake of wearing my jeans which were getter more soaked by the minute. Once I stopped trying to avoid the runoff from the paddles, I got into the rhythm of paddling and began to reacquaint myself with the Zen of Kayaking. I no longer cared about the soaked jeans and the sore arms...I was literally  "in the flow" of things.

I spied a family of turtles sunning themselves on a log near the lake bank and slowing approached them to snap a shot with my cell phone. All but one of the sunbathers plopped into the lake. He seemed older, wiser and unaffected by my presence. I  lingered a while near the log and enjoyed the gentle lapping of the soft current, the solitude, and, like my reptilian neighbor, the warm of the early summer sun.

almost gone bread

Banana bread with chocolate chips and crystallized ginger

Around 7:30 on Monday evening I was practically comatose with lethargy...didn't want to knit, didn't want to sew but also did NOT want to just sit on the couch. So I decided to make the banana bread before the bananas turned completely rotten. This turned out to be quite a good decision as the bread was even more delicious in reality than in my conceptual dreams.

I got the recipe from A Homemade Life, the book I mentioned in the previous post. The author, Molly Wizenberg, is a genius. Her recipes are easy but the results would lead someone to believe that you put a LOT more work into the dish than you actually did. In two days, I have made two dishes. Last evening I made her Italian Grotto Eggs....easy-peasy and WAY beyond yummy!  Tonight, I may try yet another recipe (NOT a dessert!).

Unfortunately, the recipe for this banana bread is not on her website Orangette and I am so enthralled with the book that I simply cannot, in good conscious, share it here. You'll just have to buy the book for this one. But I do offer another Wizenburg recipe for banana bread that you can find HERE.

As long as I'm writing about food (again), I'll share a recipe that didn't take a lot of originality but turned out to be a nice summery salad. This one is a no brainer.

Easy Apple Salad
Cut two Gala apples and "some" (can't remember an exact amount) sharp white cheddar cheese into bite-sized cubes. Mix in some Cucumber Salad Dressing (any light and crispy tasting dressing would do)and a little (or a lot, depending on your preference) mayonnaise. I also added some Maple-coated peacans because I had them on hand (and they were toward the front of the cabinet so I thought they would probably be less than a year old). Any nuts would suffice. If I liked raisins (which I do NOT), they might be a tasty addition.

Spring Quilt

With this new quilt I discovered the joys of machine quilting. I'm stilll getting the hang of it, but the time it saves over hand-quilting just might reduce my stash of fabric a lot faster.

almost bread

It's Mother's Day and I thought I would begin the day by doing something "motherly"...is there anything (aside from joyful agony of labor and delivery) more motherly than baking? I think not.

I found the perfect Banana Bread recipe in my newly acquired copy of A Homemade Life. I had lusciously ripened bananas. I pre-heated the oven to the required 350 degrees. I was out of milk. I had no "whole milk yogurt" either. My enthusiasm deflated as quickly as a souffle in earthquake conditions.

Now what? Do I go to the grocery store (a despised task under the best of conditions..."best of conditions" meaning that it is in the same shopping center as Krispy Kreme Donuts") just to buy the necessary ingredient....or do I knit or quilt instead? (or maybe beat up a few low-lifes in Mob Wars?)

I really wanted to take some bread as gifts for my daughter and mother-in-law whom I was meeting for brunch in a couple of hours. The decision must be made quickly. I look at the bananas again. I notice the way that dappled light from the early morning sunshine falls across the table. I head upstairs, not for the shower, but for the camera instead. The eyes have it. The visual wins out over the olfactory, the semi-artistic over the palatable. For now anyway.

I love baking. But in reality, I think I love the concept of baking even more. I love domesticity but this statement seems a farce as I pay a true professional wonderwoman every two weeks to clean my house for me. It takes her three and hours and it would take me....well, let me honest here...I have never, ever done the amount of cleaning that she does in one fell swoop so I have NO idea how long it would take me to clean my entire house (refrigerator shelves and windows included) However, this money is very well as spent as it allows me to the time to pursue other domestic endeavors: sewing, knitting, quilting and, at times, cooking and baking.

I utterly fail at times being "motherly." However, I love being a mother...and not just as a concept. I may groan at the mundane tasks it sometimes brings but the rewards far outweigh the inconvenience. It is somehow comforting to know that even when they are grown, that your children still need you. Being a mother is not simply a job that never ends but an ongoing state of being (similar to insanity but motherhood does not respond as readily to shock treatment). I am still learning to mother and at times I wish I could do things very differently, go back and reapply the things I've learned along the way. I suppose that is why we have grandchildren...they afford us the opportunity to mother again, part-time.

My opportunity to bake bread this morning has passed in the writing of this post. The bananas will still be waiting this afternoon. Although I won't have any bread to take to my daughter and mother-in-law, I can still do the most valued "motherly" act that I learned from my own mother. I will pray for my children and my family.

Happy Mother's Day.

knitting to sia