Wicked Good Week

This was a productive week here in PA. We made some seriously great crafts, meal and dances. It all came together and  left us wanting more.

After reading so many books on knitting I can say I finally knitted something!!!! Happiness comes in sts! Thank you to the colorfully titled book "Stitch' n Bitch" for helping me realize my cast-on was wrong. I can also say that what I knitted is appalling, but I love it so. In my knit-bliss I went in search of some yarn. I searched and found a local shop where I met a great couple of ladies. One women was working with this gorgeous purple yarn making a very funky swirly scarf that looked very much like spun sugar. Delicious.   They knew immediately that I was a newbie offered me much advice. I will have my first official lesson tomorrow.  More on that next week.

This weekend was Grandma M's birthday. Grandma has lots of things, so it is always hard to shop for her without getting her the same things over again (chocolates, movie tickets, pictures...) .  B and I decided we would make a gift this year. While searching for knitting books at the local library, I came across the "Martha Stewart Craft Encyclopedia." Of course I checked it out.  I love Martha Stewart.  She's organized, crafty, Type A and a felon.  What's not to love.  Anyway, one of the pictures in the book show a lovely staged room with pretty flowers in these tiffany colored enamel painted vases (blue/green and white).  I thought if I replaced the vases with canning or honey jars these would make a great and useful gift for Grandma. I picked the paints up from Michael's in the model car section.  There were tons of colors to choose from. I choose a pretty blue that I know Grandma will like.  I decided not to let B help with me paint as the directions called for paint thinner.  Not kid friendly.  The directions were to use enamel paint and pour it into the vase. Thin it out with a few drops of enamel thinner and swirl it around the vase to cover all surfaces.  Tip the jar  upside down on a paper plate to let the excess run off.  Let dry for 48 hours.  I  used a paint brush to stir and spread the paint rather than swirling (I could just see the glass slipping from my hands and shattering on the floor).  I also found I needed a second coat of paint after the jars dried for a bit.  The paints are water and  dishwasher safe.  Thought I would not drink out of them.  

We used two small pickling jars.  One filled with origami notes of love and the other with her favorite candies.  

I used the others around the house.  I will definitely do this project again.  

In the kitchen this week the juices were flowing.  Normally I have one wow meal for two not-so-good wow ones.  I loved every thing I made and B said it was like eating at a restaurant every day.  I think by kid standards this is a good thing.

Lets start with the bread.  I let the yeast rise for a good 20 minutes before adding my salt, olive oil and flour.  Once kneaded, I let it rise for about 10 hours with a few beat downs in between. I baked it off late night and let it cool till morning.  The final product was better than I expected.  B having watched this process all day woke up very excited to eat fresh bread.  I came out into the kitchen to hear her say, "Good Morning bread...you  are definitely going to get eaten this morning."  It was one of the best breads I've made to date.

One morning B requested crepes for breakfast.  Hmmmm? Two things come to mind at this request. She obviously does not know what they are and that I may not be able to meet this challenge. So not wanting to disappoint her I researched, planned and executed crepes. I chose a Martha Stewart recipe from her webpage (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/delicious-basic-crepes).


Makes thirty-two 6-inch or twelve 10-inch crepes

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 cups whole milk, room temperature, plus more if needed
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/2 ounces (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet

Directions:

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together milk and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour milk mixture into flour mixture, whisking to combine. Whisk in butter. Strain mixture into a medium bowl, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 1 day). Batter should be the consistency of heavy cream; add more milk if needed.

Heat an 8- or 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, and brush with butter. Ladle or pour 3 tablespoons batter (for small crepes) or 1/3 cup batter (for large crepes) into pan, turning and tilting skillet to coat bottom evenly with batter. Cook until top of crepe appears set, bottom is firm and golden brown in spots, and center is lifted by pockets of air, about 1 minute. Run a spatula around edge of crepe to loosen. Slip spatula under crepe, and gently flip in one swift gesture. (If it doesn't land quite right, that's OK; use the spatula to unfold or rearrange it.) Cook until bottom is firm and golden brown in spots, about 45 seconds. Transfer to a plate, and cover. (The first one will not be your finest.) Repeat with remaining batter, brushing pan lightly with butter as needed (every 2 or 3 crepes). Serve immediately.

For fillings options (always got to have more than one) we chose Nutella and Rasberry perservers, and Applebutter with a homemade caramel sauce.  How'd they come out...?

She liked them.

Next we wanted to make chocolate chip cookies.  I used a standard tried and true recipe and dressed it up a bit.  I replaced vanilla with real maple syrup and added 1 cup of  1/4 in chunks of marzipan.  Holy-moly were these some good cookies.

Just to show that we did not live on sweets and starches all week here are pictures of one of the meals we had.

B's daddy  (who we don't get to see enough these days) was home for a visit .  We played some serious monopoly and went puddle jumping. We ended the weekend with cookies and Gone with the Wind.

We had a  great week!