A Gray Ribbed Scarf for Mother’s Day

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With my mom being so sick this past year, it has been a roller coaster ride of a year. My mother has proven to be one tough cookie though. She had a rough go over the winter. As a result of the liver disease, she had pneumonia twice and several bouts of hepatic encephalopathy, where she was confused, sometimes to the point of unresponsiveness. I am (and I think the doctors are too) surprised and impressed by how well she is doing health-wise and how gracefully she is accepting HUGE changes in her life. I hope if, and when, I am faced with a serious illness like my mother’s, that I will handle it as well as her.

When she was in and out of the hospital over the winter, I started knitting the ribbed scarf from the book, Stitch ‘n Bitch. It was a good way to pass the time while my mom was sleeping and while we were waiting for the doctor to make his rounds. If you have ever spent much time in a hospital, you know what I mean. Knitting during those times was not only a nice distraction, but when the nurses would come into the room, it often opened up a conversation. They would say “how pretty” or “I knit too”. It felt nice to make a connection with these people that were taking care of my mother, that I saw all day long, and to be able to talk about something other than my mom’s illness. I was so focused on my mom being sick and what was next for her, that it was hard to think of anything else. I felt really alone too, as it was often just me there with my mom. Talking about what I was knitting, made me feel like a human being for a second, which I so needed at that time.

I am new to knitting and not that fast yet, but I got pretty far on this scarf during those long stays at the hospital. When my mom was moved out of the hospital and into a nursing home, I forgot about this scarf for awhile and only finished it recently. Because I knitted it when she was in the hospital, it will always remind me of that time. I completed the scarf and my mom made it through, so I felt like it made sense for it to become a gift for her.

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It sat on my dress form for a bit waiting to be photographed and it just so happened that shortly after I finally photographed it, it was Mother’s Day. I couldn’t have timed it better, except that maybe a scarf in May isn’t the most seasonally appropriate gift, but it is Seattle after all, so she may still be able to wear it. If not, it will be waiting for her this Fall.

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On Mother’s Day, I brought her a card, some flowers and the scarf. Then we went out to the patio at the nursing home and did a little photo shoot. I think photographing my mother like that, made us both feel good. She was so sick over the winter and had lost so much weight, but luckily has gained some of it back. My mother realizes how much better she is doing, but I don’t think she looks at herself in the mirror much, so I think it was nice for her to see how much she is looking like herself again. It was nice for me too. It made me feel good to be able to show her how beautiful she is and to be able to capture photos to send out to the family that isn’t here, so that they can see it too.

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I think my mom and I have both learned a lot in the past year. It’s been a rough year, but I am so grateful for the time I have had with her. It has forced me to slow down and live in the moment so much more. Who really knows how much time any of us have left with each other, so it is a great lesson to learn.

Learning how to knit came at a good time for me, as well. It not only helped me get through last winter, but produced a special, meaningful, handmade item that gives new meaning to the expression “handmade with love”.

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Baby Shower on a Budget!

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I’d never been a part of planning a baby shower before, so when I was recently asked to help with decorations for one, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Pinterest is great for party planning, as you can make a “secret board” that only people you invite can see. This way, I could pin inspiration to “Traci’s Baby Shower”, invite the people who were helping plan the shower and then Traci (who follows me on Pinterest), would not be able to see what we were planning. It’s brilliant and so helpful. I’ve made the board public now, since the event is over, if anyone wants to take a look. My friend, Val, and I then had a decorating party and cranked out most of the favors and decorations in one evening.

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The party favors we ended up making were inspired by a post by Jen of the blog, Scissors and Spatulas. Her recipe for popcorn, with M&Ms, that is coated with white chocolate, was to die for. Matt was even able to find M&Ms in blue and green (the colors we picked for the shower). I used regular salted popcorn, with light butter, and I loved the salty and sweet of the popcorn and the white chocolate. It was a big hit and I received many compliments on it. I even got to take one home and I could not stop eating it. It’s addictive. I need another reason to make this again!

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I knew I had a limited budget for this, so I really wanted to try to use materials I already had on hand. Someone had given me a couple dozen mason jars from a wedding, so rather than buy or make containers for the popcorn, I figured I could just re-use the mason jars! I used scrap fabric to cover the top (cut with my pinking shears), and twine I already had, to tie them on. I designed a quick label in photoshop and printed them out on my Avery Kraft Brown labels (that I usually use as canning labels). Easy peezy!

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Tissue paper pom-poms seem to be an easy, go-to party decoration, as I came across a lot of those of Pinterest. This was the best tissue paper pom-pom tutorial I found and the one we used.

Val had made these before, so I followed her lead. I had also seen a tip on Pinterest to buy things like tissue paper, plasticware and tablecloths at the dollar store. That proved to be a great tip, as I did buy a lot of those things there, but the tissue paper from the dollar store was quite rigid, and hard to form. Our pom-poms ended up looking more like flowers, so instead of hanging them, we used them as table settings. They weren’t totally a “Pinterest Fail“, but if I ever make them again, I will splurge on better, softer tissue paper.

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I was able to find the rest of what I needed at Packaging Specialties. I love that store. They have everything, in every color theme you could want. I got blue and green tags, so people could write little messages for the baby. The clothes pins came from the dollar store and the twine I already had.

babyshower_traci-027 Our friend Colleen made an impressive and delicious spread of finger food and I made the labels for them. The labels also came from Packaging Specialties. A template can be downloaded from their website, so you can put them through your printer. They also had cool striped straws in a bunch of different colors. I just used a hole punch to punch a couple of holes in them and affixed the flags to the straws that way.

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I had to figure out a way to stand the flags up, so I just filled some half-pint mason jars with beans and stood them up that way. Again, more stuff I already had on hand. Mason jars really are good for everything!

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babyshower_traci-059Mmm. The food was so good. Bravo, Colleen!

babyshower_traci-068Val and Flower also brought some party games. Val brought “Baby Head Cornhole”, which is essentially the bean bag toss game, but with baby doll heads. Nice job, Val.

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Flower did the game where you melt candy bars in diapers and then make people sniff them to guess what candy bar it is. This is one of my favorite baby shower games, because it’s funny and kind of gross!

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I loved seeing Matt and Traci’s grandmother (Mom-mom), sticking her nose in one and so did their mom apparently!

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I had a lot of fun being part of decorating for this shower and think the shower as a whole turned out great. I’m also glad I could score some “sister-in-law” and “auntie” points while I was at it. Now I’m just looking forward to meeting this little dude very soon!

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Goat Cheese Making: Homemade Chèvre

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One of my goals for 2013 was to make cheese. I am lactose intolerant, but have found that I can eat sheep and goat cheese. I have wanted to make my own cheese ever since reading about author, Barbara Kingsolver’s, own lactose intolerance and cheesemaking in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Exciting stuff, huh? Well, you try not eating cheese for years and you may think it’s pretty exciting too. Unless you are vegan and then you just have more willpower than me. Also, I like the flavor of goat cheese. Some people don’t. Even some other lactose intolerant people I know don’t like it. So they may not be as excited about this option as me either.

A friend of mine (and reader of Rake and Make), saw my post on 2013 goals and as a “birthday” gift to Rake and Make, he bought me the supplies for making chèvre and said “Now you can cross cheesemaking off your list”! How sweet is that?  And not only, did he get me the supplies, he got the goat milk from an actual goat farm called St. John Creamery in Lake Stevens, WA! He was going there anyway, because he wanted to (and did) make his own goat cheese, but it was still amazingly nice of him to do. Whew, that was a long-winded way to say thank you, but THANK YOU JULIAN! You rule, because the cheese was SO good!

I did have to buy a couple of things from my local homebrew store, Sound Homebrew Supply, that also sells cheesemaking supplies, like cheese mats, cheese salt and calcium chloride (which it turned out I didn’t need, but it was on my list, so I bought it). I also picked up a book on cheesemaking, since I love books and having something for reference. The book I bought was Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses
by Ricki Carroll. She’s the owner of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, which seems to make most of the supplies I’ve seen around so far.

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There are many different types of cheeses that can be made from goat milk; feta, cheddar, ricotta, mozzarella. Pretty much any cheese that can be made from cow’s milk, can be made from goat’s milk. Awesome news for me. Goat Cheese Making: Making Homemade Chèvre is just the French word for “goat”, so I guess it is just the basic goat cheese to start out with!

Making chèvre is so easy! Detailed instructions for making chèvre can be found on cheesemaking.com. Flower came over to help me make it, which was basically just her watching me wait for the milk to come to temp so I could add the chèvre culture. Home Cheese Making is great because there is a little icon next to each recipe that shows the recommended method for heating the milk. I used the indirect heating or water bath method. The milk needs to reach 86 degrees for this recipe, so the idea is to fill a sink, or bowl, full of hot water (about 10 degrees higher than the temp you want the milk) and let the heat from the water gradually and evenly heat the milk. This worked pretty well, I guess, but was kind of like watching paint dry.

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I then drained the sink, so the milk wouldn’t continue to heat, then sprinkled in the chèvre culture evenly across the top of the warmed milk. I waited a couple of minutes for the powder to rehydrate, so as not to form clumps, and then stirred it in. The chèvre culture came with two packets, but I only needed one per gallon of milk (which was how much I had), so I have one left (stored in the freezer as per the instructions on the package) for my next batch!

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That’s it! That was day one. All I had to after that, was cover it and then let it sit at room temperature for the next 12 hours. So if anyone ever says they want to come “help you make goat cheese”. make sure they realize it’s gonna be more like a “book club” night than actually making goat cheese.

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The next day I had to work, but I knew I had to drain the curds and put them in forms, so I got up early just to do that. Julian said that curdled goat cheese is basically just goat cheese yogurt, so I tried a little taste. Then I remembered that I hate yogurt. So much so, that if someone is standing next to me eating it (which is all the time at my work), I feel like I want to vomit. Julian was right about the taste, but I won’t be making any goat cheese yogurt any time soon. Blech.

The cheesecloth Julian gave me says “Butter Muslin” on it and then it says “fine cheesecloth” in smaller letters on the label. I like the first name, because it has the word “butter” in it, so I will stick with that name. Sterilization is important in cheesemaking, so I boiled the cheesecloth and then lined a colander with it for straining.

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Julian had already made his goat cheese and said that he cut the curds with a knife into smaller chunks, but mine wasn’t really doing that. I tried scooping out the curds with a slotted spoon, but that was so time-consuming and I had to get to work. In the end I just dumped the whole lot of curds and whey into the strainer and hoped for the best!

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Meanwhile I boiled the forms in boiling water and set them in a turkey roaster for draining (again Julian’s tip).

goatcheesemaking-006I picked the cheesecloth up out of the colander and squeezed as much excess whey out as I could before evenly dividing the curds in the forms. I could have just filled the form halfway, added a layer of herbs or spices and then added the other half, but I just did mine plain this go around. You are supposed to wait a couple of hours and then salt the top, but I had to go to work, so I wasn’t able to salt it until I got home.

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Then I went to work, where I proceeded to announce, all day long, that I needed to get home to my cheese! This seemed to confuse my co-workers, because my cat is named Cheese. And if they didn’t know that, they probably just thought I was being weird. I needed to get home so could flip the cheese and salt the other side!

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before flipping.

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after flipping

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the finished cheeses

I left two wheels plain, rolled one in green onion and the other in rosemary. This may seem like a lot of cheese, but we plowed through it. Which is good, because since it was made with raw goat milk, it only keeps for about 10 days. I brought the onion one to dinner at Flower and Val’s and it was so tasty! I brought a plain one to work with a jar of my pepper jelly and it was gone by lunchtime. The other plain one we used for my favorite salad; goat cheese, beets (from my garden, I had one can left), candied walnuts and spinach. The rosemary one was probably my favorite though and since it got eaten last, the flavors really had time to marry.

I love that making this cheese was so easy and that they are like blank canvases to add flavors to. I plan on making this cheese again and experimenting with other flavors, like blueberries and figs, when they are season. I just might have to take a trip out to St. John Creamery next time, to get the milk and see the baby goats! They also offer delivery with a minimum of 10 gallons per area. Anyone want to order some goat milk with me?

An Interview with Sarai Mitnick of Colette Patterns

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The The Colette Sewing Handbook played a huge part in me learning how to sew. The first three garments I ever made were the first three patterns in the handbook, the Meringue skirt, Pastille dress and Truffle dress. Colette Patterns are some of my favorite to sew. They are everything I want in a pattern; vintage inspired, yet contemporary, stylish, cute and unique. They come in beginner, intermediate and advanced patterns. I have only attempted the beginner’s patterns so far, but I have found them all to have easy to understand directions. With each new project, and the handbook open to the chapter on fit, I have been getting better and better at altering the pattern, and getting a good fit. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Colette Patterns. On the last day of my Portland Blogcademy weekend, I had the great fortune of being able to tour the Colette Patterns Headquarters and sit down and chat with designer/owner/author (she does wear a lot of hats), Sarai Mitnick!

Her studio is in a very cool industrial part of Southeast Portland and, of course, was very organized and tidy with beautiful daylight. We chatted for about a half an hour about everything from starting your own business, to body image, to the pros and cons of social media and more. I am pretty sure she was working on upcoming patterns, so I didn’t want to snoop too much, take up too much of her time or take too many photos, but I got a few of this gorgeous space.

Seriously, I could gush for days about why Colette Patterns is so great (did I mention that I love the packaging and the branding as well?), but what’s really cool is when the person behind a product you love, is just as awesome. Thank you Sarai, for taking time out of your busy schedule to have such a great conversation with me. You truly are an inspiration!

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Lilly: I always find it interesting what people’s backgrounds are. Is being a seamstress and pattern maker what you have always done or was it a career change? 

Sarai: It was definitely a career change. I started in the tech industry. Before this I did user  experience, design kind of stuff. I was working in the Bay area for Google doing that, and it was a really great job. I mean, that’s what my education was for, and there was a lot that I really liked about it. People there were awesome, but there’s something about working for a large company and especially a large tech company that didn’t really fit my personality. I had this desire to do something that was a little bit more creative. I just felt like I was spending a lot of time stuck in meetings and not really getting anything done. I really like to be able to actually produce things. I had this idea of starting a sewing pattern company because I’d been sewing for a long time.

It’s something I’m really passionate about and interested in and there weren’t a lot of great sewing patterns out there. I was sewing a lot from vintage patterns mostly, but those are a little bit hard to use, especially for beginners, and it just seemed like there was a real gap in the market as far as that stuff goes. I thought that would be kind of an interesting thing to do, so I wrote up a business plan and I spent about a year doing product development and that kind of thing before I left my job. We moved up here to Portland and we started the business all at the same time. It’s been about four years now. It’s been great. It’s been awesome.

Lilly: So are you professionally trained or self-taught? 

Sarai: As far as the pattern making and all the technical stuff involved in the design process, I am.

Lilly: You’ve gotten this good in four years?

Sarai: I’ve been sewing for much, much longer than that. I’ve been sewing since I was about 16 and I’m 32 now, so 16 years.

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Lilly: You’re close in age to me! I have a theory why people in our age group are drawn to making things themselves, but do you know why you do it or is it just something you’re interested in?

Sarai: Well for me I think it’s just a personality thing because I’ve always been into making things, since I was a little kid. I just think it’s something I was born with. Ever since I was little it’s what I’ve enjoyed doing with my free time. From crafts to making drawings, or whatever. I don’t know if it’s anything particular to my age. I think getting fed up with working for somebody else might have something to do with entering into my 30s.

That’s part of it definitely. I think a lot of people spend their 20s floundering around a little bit, trying to figure out what works and what they want to do and then when you hit your 30s, sometimes, you start to get a little bit more focused. At least that’s what happened for me.

Lilly: I’ve noticed a lot of people my age gravitating towards cooking, crafting, and making things with their hands and I wonder if it’s because we’re the generation that remembers life before the internet and so we’re trying to do something to get away from computers a little bit.

Sarai: I think that’s also true because I find myself constantly in this kind of push and pull between the online world and the real life world. It  goes in waves. I’ve spent a lot of time online because of my business and I just sometimes get really, really burnt out on it.  I don’t even want to look at my computer, so yeah, I definitely hear you there. I think that’s probably a big factor too.

I’ve seen a lot of discussions about that online too, I think.  A lot of people feel a sort of angst about the world of the internet and the constant self-presentation to other people. I think it is really, really tiring. I mean, you have to do that enough in your daily life, but it’s 9 to 5, but a hundred times when you have a blog, or anything, or any kind of online presence.

Lilly: Then again we need the internet because I’ve learned so much about sewing from the online sewing community, especially with your patterns and the following you have. If I’m going to make a pattern of yours, all I have to do is go online and I can see what everyone else has made and I can read about modifications they made or tips they have for how to do it. I usually research stuff before I make it and there’s so much info on there, so that’s been really helpful to me.

Sarai: Yeah, it’s great for that and there’s all kinds of positive things about it too; the community is amazing and it’s really nice to be able to connect to people that have your same little niche interests. I don’t have that many friends in real life that sew. Most of the people I know that sew are online. It’s cool that you can connect to people with those kinds of interests.There’s the positive stuff and the negative stuff for sure.

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Lilly: It’s interesting for sure. Well, back to you starting your own business. I was a freelance photographer for a very short time (and found not knowing when the next booking would come, very scary), so I opted for a staff job, but I’m so impressed with people that are able to be self-employed. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to both. I’m sure you work very hard and maybe even longer hours than someone with a staff job, but I would imagine you are so proud of the business you have built. Do you have any advice for someone thinking of leaving a job and starting their own business?

Sarai: I have a lot of advice probably. I think you have to be really interested in what you want to do as your business. Unless you’re just planning to keep it very small the entire time, you have to really delve into the idea of actually running a business. I think that is where a lot of people can encounter problems later down the line, because you have to wear so many different hats. If you don’t relish doing all those jobs, then it’s going to be really hard, unless you have a partner.  That can help take care of some of it.

That was a big learning curve for me personally. It’s just that I love sewing, but I don’t really spend a lot of time sewing now. I spend a lot of time doing financial stuff and I spend a lot of time thinking about things like managing the business and hiring and growing and new product ideas and all kinds of stuff that is not always 100% related to what my business is about. I think that was my biggest thing.

Other than that I would say I think it is good to write a business plan. I know there are different ideas about that. It was super helpful for me even though all my ideas about where the business would go didn’t necessarily pan out exactly.  I mean, they never do. It’s a really good tool I think, for just thinking through all the details before you dive in, so I found that really helpful. Those would be my biggest hurdles; the planning, the multiple roles. I mean, there’s a lot to learn, especially if you’ve never run a business before.

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Lilly: That’s part of why I haven’t done it. I know what goes into it, so I admire people that have done it! You mentioned about having a partner being helpful to starting a business, was Kenn always a part of the business or did he get folded in later?

Sarai: I started it on my own and he got folded in later. Originally, it was a bit of a risk for us, but we figured we’d move to Portland, because it’s cheaper to live here. I had savings and he’s a web developer by trade, so he was going to continue doing that. I figured if the business didn’t do well, I could always go back to what I was doing before. It just sort of grew organically from there and as it began taking off, I needed more help. He slowly started helping more by working on my website and other features and then doing more of the logistics and the shipping and all that stuff.

Now he handles all the background stuff like that. He helps with customer service and handles our fulfillment in the warehouse that we use, as well as updates the website. He’s just about full-time now. He still has other side projects that he works on, but mostly he’s here with us.

Lilly: Was Kenn freelance before?

Sarai: Yeah. He’s been consulting for quite a while. Since before we moved here.

Lilly: There seems to be a trend with my favorite female bloggers, that  their husbands are web developers…

Sarai: Yeah, well it’s helpful when they have those skills. Also I think when you start to need help, it’s just natural to turn to the person that you can trust. It’s a big hurdle when you start bringing in somebody else to help you out.

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Lilly: Did you learn anything from starting your own business that you wish someone had shared with you when you were first starting out?

Sarai: Probably just the major stuff, but I think coming up with good systems for doing things has been really valuable to me. That’s something that I’ve had to learn over time. It’s not the kind of thing that somebody can just tell you. It’s just something you have to learn for yourself. A lot of it just comes through experience, guessing and testing out what works for you. A business is such a personal thing. It depends so much on your personality and your talents and what you like to do and there’s just a lot you have to learn hands-on.

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Lilly: I enjoyed reading your interview with Elizabeth Cline, author of the book, Overdressed. It really got me thinking! I like expressing myself through my style, but I definitely have some issues with the mainstream fashion industry. Sewing has made me realize that it’s not clothes I don’t like or style, it’s just …

Sarai: The way it’s presented to you? Or the industry that surrounds it?

Lilly: Yes! It’s been really nice to read positive things on your blog about body image. I feel like that is helping a lot of girls and women realize that some of the things we see in fashion ads are not realistic. I like that some of the business practices and cheaply made clothes are being addressed as well. 

Sarai: I think it’s something a lot of people don’t think about but I think people who sew do think about that stuff quite a bit. It seems to me just from the discussions that we’ve had that people are very much aware of where clothes come from and how much work goes into them, which I think that the population at large is not very cognizant of. It amazes me how little people understand about clothing and for example when people ask what I do and I tell them that I make clothing patterns, they just have no concept of how clothes are made, at all.

They are surprised there is such a thing as a clothing pattern. It’s shocking actually, but it seems like sewers are a lot more aware of these issues, the issues that you’re talking about, that go along with that and everything within the fashion industry.

I love talking about that stuff my blog.  It’s so much fun to have those discussions with other people who are interested in those issues because so much of what you see in the world today is so consumer and materialism focused. It’s nice to be able to be connect to people who question those things.

As for body image issues, it’s hard for us because one thing that we really like to do is have models of different sizes, shapes, and skin colors to present a diversity of women. It’s really quite difficult because there aren’t many women who model who are not a size two or a size zero. It’s actually really hard to find a professional model, who is just a normal-sized woman. That’s been a little bit surprising to me.

I have noticed where there is a little more diversity in body sizes, interestingly is the bridal fashion industry. It seems like a lot of bridal designers do use women who have a little bit fuller bust or a little bit closer to a normal size. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it’s because when you’re trying to sell a wedding dress, a woman really wants to imagine herself in the dress or I don’t know why that is, but it’s interesting.

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Lilly: I like that you write about your travels and running on your blog. You seem like you have made conscious decisions about how much you share about your personal life on your blog. Why did you make that decision and how did you decide what to share and what not to?

Sarai: Well, I think it’s more engaging when you see the person behind the blog. I don’t read that many blogs, but the ones that I find most interesting are people write from a very personal point of view, so I like to incorporate some of that. I don’t want it to be just some sort of generic company blog because that’s not really, what I’m about. On that side there’s that. On the other side, I’m generally a sort of a private person (laughs). I don’t really like being in the limelight that much. I don’t want to ever write about things that are going to come across as unprofessional.

At the same time I don’t want to get too personal. It’s always been a really tricky balance for me. I’ve been blogging or writing online for probably 10 or 12 years, in some form or another and I think that’s always the balance that you have to strike between getting personal and maintaining either privacy or sense of professionalism. For me it’s a little bit of both.

Lilly: I think you strike a really good balance. I’d imagined it’s been good for your business, because your business is so interactive in a way. There’s so many ways to kind of communicate with you, get tips from you or share things that you’ve made, so that whole package is nice.

Sarai: That can get a little bit tricky too as we start to grow and have more customers, because like you say, there are so many ways to interact. I try to respond as much as possible. I try to be there as much as I can when people message me on Twitter, or Facebook, or email us, but that becomes more and more of my time spent doing that. That’s another thing that has to be balanced as the business grows. How much time I personally spend on that? How much can we have other helping out with that? What do we answer? What do we not answer? That kind of situation.

It’s tough for me personally, because I just want to answer everyone. Going back to learning about running a business, that’s another thing that most small business people say, you have to eventually learn not to do everything yourself.  I think for every person that has a small business, it’s always a really big hurdle, because you just get to be a control freak about everything and I have definitely encountered that in myself. It’s not because I’m naturally a control freak or I want to be that way, it’s just that I really care about this stuff. I want everything to be perfect.  So letting go of some of that has been very important for me. It’s hard for me though because I love the blog and I really like responding there and reading what people have to say even if I don’t respond to it, I always read every comment. I really like it!

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We talked a bit more after this. I told her a little bit about the Blogcademy. We chatted about making friends online (with other bloggers), our gardens etc., but this was the heart of it.

I want to say thanks again to Sarai for sitting down to talk with me. It was the perfect end to an amazing weekend!

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Guest Post by Sarah: Salted Rosemary Bread

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Let me start by saying that I don’t bake. I don’t bake because I don’t enjoy baking. Every so often I’ll get a bug up my butt to try to bake something, and I will earnestly tie on my apron and toil away doing whatever string of precise and boring-ass steps are required. Halfway through I think to myself, “Oh yeah! Baking sucks!!” And then, nine out of ten times, whatever it was I had attempted to make doesn’t rise, or I forgot to set my timer and I have no idea how long it’s been baking and I can’t find a toothpick to check it so I have to use a spaghetti noodle, which breaks off inside…  I can tell you that on more than one occasion, an entire sheet of burnt cookies has been wildly flung into the yard to be rained upon for a week and ignored by dog and crows alike. You’d think that having a kid would make me want to learn to bake, but now that I have a toddler who talks, I bake even less, because I do not want her to learn the words that come out of Mommy’s mouth when she bakes.

This recipe has been going around for a while, known as “slow bread” or “no-knead bread,” but my guess is that the only people whose interest might be piqued by it are people who enjoy baking, and are looking to try something new. It is a near miracle that I even attempted this bread, much less make it on a near weekly basis. And every time I make it, I’m like, “I FUCKING BAKED THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” It is truly divine bread. Crusty bread. Better than bakery bread. Amaze everyone bread. And it’s so ridiculously easy to make, I’ve even figured out some ways to play around with the recipe (which I will mark with a *).

I guess there’s some science to this whole baking thing, and the science behind the “slow” and “no-knead” factors of this bread has to do with the development of gluten molecules, which is what makes bread chewy and allows it to hold big airy bubbles. Usually, you knead dough (bo-ring!!!!) to get the gluten molecules to align, but with a wetter dough, the free-floating molecules align themselves. Ta-da! The “slow” has to do with the fact that the bread is started about 18-24 hours before it is baked, allowing yeast to naturally develop (which is why you only need ¼ teaspoon instead of a whole package), and allowing the gluten to go where it needs to go to do its thing. So baking this bread does require a bit of planning, but if you start it Sunday evening, you can have bread with your Monday night soup.

Oh yeah.. You’ll need a cast iron Dutch oven, because that’s how the crust gets so amazingly.. crusty.

If you hate to bake, I hope this recipe finds you, because you deserve the gratification of baking one, just one, damn thing that turns out right.

Here’s how you do it:

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Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose white flour
¼ teaspoon of baker’s yeast
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 5/8 cups water
*sea salt
*honey
*rosemary

Mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a big bowl. Add the water. *This is where I play around a little bit. I have started adding about 3 Tbs of honey to my water before I add it to the mix.  It gives a slight sweetness to the bread, and provides a yummy snack for my little yeast buddies.

Mix the dough well with a fork. Don’t freak out if your dough looks like a disaster. It will look shaggy and rough and sticky and you will wonder if you mistakenly were following a recipe for waffles. Don’t touch it unless you want to make a big mess of your hands. Just leave it… Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it somewhere out of the way and warm-ish.

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Wait 18-24 hours. Put a couple of handfuls of flour into another bowl. The dough will more than double in size, and appear to be even wetter than before. It is super sticky now, and you need to move the whole wad to the bowl with the flour. To do this, rub a spatula down with olive oil and scrape the whole thing out and into the other bowl. Don’t cry if your dough deflates.. I promise you are doing this right.  Toss the dough around in the bowl, adding more flour if needed to coat the whole thing, and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Lay out a cotton dish towel.. not terry cloth but something smoother.  Generously coat the towel with more flour, and transfer (plop!) the dough to the towel. Wrap the dough loosely in the towel, and move the whole thing back to the bowl. Set aside for another hour (or so). Check it occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking to the towel. If it does stick, ditch the towel, put the whole thing back into the bowl, and set it aside to rise. Your dough is ready to bake when it slowly springs back halfway when poked with a finger.

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When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to a hot 450 with your Dutch oven inside. Allow your Dutch oven to heat up for about 30 minutes.

Gently ease the dough into the Dutch Oven. *If you wish, you can score the loaf (I found an X-Acto knife works well for scoring). Scoring allows the loaf to grow bigger, as it gives the crust of the bread more surface area as the bread expands.

*Coat generously with sea salt and rosemary. A lot of this will fall off as the bread is baked, cooled, and cut, so really pack it on.

Note: the sea salt I used on this loaf was Hawaiian Red sea salt. It was all we had, but it turned out lovely! It’s pretty coarse, so I had to grind it a bit. You can get it at your local Asian market.

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Put the lid on and put the Dutch oven back into your oven. Let bake for 30 minutes at 450, then take the lid off and let it go another 15-20 minutes, or until beautifully browned.

When it’s done, let it cool on a towel. Listen to it… it crackles as it cools! Instagram it… you domestic beast! Smell it… you fucking baked it!

Slice and eat warm with butter and honey.

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Super Simple Pea Trellis

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This pea trellis is so simple it is almost ridiculous that I am even posting about it, but it is the one I always do, so here it is.

SUPPLIES:

trellis netting- the larger size, so I get the 5′ x15′

wooden garden stakes- pack of six, six feet tall

staple gun with 1/4″ 6mm staples

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Put stakes in garden bed where you want them.

2. Staple trellis netting to stakes, cut where you need to.

What I like about these: They are cheap, simple and fast to set-up. It’s not permanent and so can be placed anywhere in the garden.

What I don’t like about these: They always end up leaning from the weight of the peas once they are in full bloom. They are trashed after one use and I have to remove the staples to be able to compost them.

It’s a trade off I guess, I have been going with quick and easy in lieu of finding a better more permanent solution. I hope to someday see something cool at a yard sale or thrift store that I could use or make something reusable.

Do you have trellises that you love?

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Maple Blossom Fritters

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Ever since Flower went foraging for nettles, I have been intrigued by the idea of foraging. For awhile now, I have been hearing of people foraging for mushrooms and for all sorts of wild greens, even within the city limits. My friend Cara is the expert on foraging and I have been wanting to go mushroom foraging with her for awhile, but it hasn’t worked out time-wise yet (she often goes on weekdays and odd hours).

When Cara came over last Saturday and asked if I wanted to go foraging for maple blossoms and then make maple blossom fritters, I said “Hell yeah!”. I did think we were going to get in the car and drive somewhere though. I realize that you often don’t have to go far to forage for greens and such, but I guess I didn’t cross my mind that it could happen just blocks from my house!

So we took the dogs for a walk to the park down the street and didn’t even have to enter it before we saw a huge maple tree full of em’!

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 Cara, the big leaf maple and my mom’s dog “Mickey”, who lives with us now.

mapleblossoms-009 It’s funny how I never noticed these flowers before and now I see them everywhere. Word of warning, some of these “racemes” were kind of buggy, so you should inspect them first. We tried to soak the extra buggy ones in salt water, which works for broccoli (it causes the bugs to jump ship), but it didn’t seem to have an effect on these. We had enough non-buggy ones though, so we just went with those.

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Cara had a recipe for Maple Blossom Fritters, from a book called Pacific Feast: A Cook’s Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine.

It’s a basic fritter dough made with ingredients you probably already have; flour, baking soda and cornstarch. I have to say that, the author, Jennifer Hahn’s recipe does not call for enough flour. We did a couple of test batches until we found a consistency we liked.

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The fritter batter should drip off some, but enough of it should hang on to the maple blossom so that it is coated.

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We also used about half the oil she recommended. We still filled the skillet almost an inch deep, which felt like a lot! The idea is to deep fry these so it has to be deep enough to coat the fritter or the batter will sink to the bottom and it won’t fry evenly or be very pretty.

mapleblossoms-013As for the taste, while I could taste a hint of the actual maple blossom, I have to be honest in that I feel these are mostly a vehicle for fried bread. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. They are a perfect vehicle, as the batter can hang on to all the little flowers. It also, maybe, subconsciously took away the guilt of eating so much fried bread covered with powdered sugar (because it was over a foraged blossom), because I sure did eat a lot of them! Like I have said before, I am a hug fan of taking something fresh from the garden and covering it with cheese, so why not deep fry something foraged!

Thank you Cara, for taking me on a little foraging and cooking adventure in my own neighborhood!

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Portland Blogcademy Re-cap

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If you follow me on social media at all, you have probably already seen a lot of photos from my weekend at the Blogcademy in Portland. I couldn’t wait to share them! But if you want to know how my weekend went and what the Blogcademy was like, read on!

Blogcademy is a two day blogging workshop taught by Kat Williams of Rock n’ Roll Bride, Shauna Haider of the blog Nubby Twiglet and Gala Darling. The Portland Blogcademy was their 4th workshop (they go to L.A. next) and they will be starting their world tour after that. More info and dates can be found at www.theblogcademy.com

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It was held at the Cleaners, the event space at the Ace Hotel, in downtown Portland. I got a room at the Ace, for three nights, which was exciting in itself as I had never stayed in a hotel room by myself before! I love my man and our pets, but the thought of no animals waking me up at the butt-crack of dawn, and getting to lay around in my bathrobe watching cable if I wanted, was very alluring!

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When I first heard about the Blogcademy, I just had this feeling it was something I should do and I am so glad I went. It was everything it promised to be and more. I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth halfway through the first day. Half way through the second day, I was sad it was almost over!

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Gala, Shauna and Kat are all very different and have different areas of expertise, but they compliment each other so well. And they are so nice! They advertised an informative, inspiring and collaborative experience and boy did they deliver. They purposely keep the workshop on the smaller size, so that there is plenty of opportunity for asking questions and one on one time. They went above and beyond to make themselves accessible before and after class and at breaks and I was always able to ask a question or two during those times. I felt like I got all my questions answered in class as well.

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They cover a lot of information from creating content to branding to social media and more. It’s kind of intense. We were all a little bleary eyed towards the end of the the first day. Some of it is like, “oh that makes sense”, but you just wouldn’t really know it unless someone with their experience level told you. Some of it is stuff I am already doing, but it was nice to be told I was on the right track and thinking the right way. Mostly, they were just gems, that would have taken me years to figure out on my own. So it is invaluable for me to know it now and will just put me that far ahead of the game.

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Blogcademy is not just for women, but my class was all women and apparently that is the trend. I was amazed at the age range in the class. The youngest I met was still a junior in high school and there were certainly some twenty somethings. I’m 36 and I’m thinking I may have been one of the older ones in class. But it didn’t feel weird. These women were all so interesting and mature, I wouldn’t have even thought about their age if they hadn’t mentioned it. I was also amazed at how far people had traveled for this workshop. They were several east coasters (New York and New Jersey), a gal from Utah and one from Arkansas.

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The trio of Made U Look Photography, from Bakersfield, CA took photos of the workshop, but these ladies are no flies on the wall. They covered the event unobtrusively, but were just as friendly and open as Kat, Gala and Shauna. I always gravitate towards the photographers and spent a good amount of time talking to these ladies and thinking how fun it would be to work with them (as a fellow photographer or a client).

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Blogcademy swag!

I was glad I stayed at the Ace. It’s a very cool hotel and was it was so convenient to be right there, but the beds there are no Heavenly Beds (which is what I have at home, I’m spoiled that way). I woke up on the fourth day sore from the room’s thin ass mattress, missing Matt and the doodies, and excited that I was going home, so it’s funny how that works!

The only other thing I felt was lacking (beside the bed at the Ace) was some sort of planned social hour afterwards. I was there by myself and since most of the shops in downtown Portland were closed by the time we got out for the day, there wasn’t much to do in the evenings (except work on my blog on my laptop, so maybe it was a good thing). I am pretty out-going, but maybe it is a bit weird to ask someone you just met and talked to for like 5 minutes to go have dinner or a drink with you. I did it anyway, but with little success. If they set up some sort of happy hour or after party, it would take the pressure and awkwardness away and allow people, who do want to network or chat more, an opportunity to do that.

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Overall, between the quality and quantity of the info that Gala, Kat and Shauna share (they really don’t hold back), the beautiful branding they’ve created and the warmth and sparkle of their personalities, these gals have assembled a winning combination. Plus, I feel like the long term affects of this workshop are yet to come. There’s the people I met (and an online forum for us to continue to chat in) and all the info I learned that I still need to put into play. I feel so lucky to have been a part of this and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get inspired and push their blog to the next level.

So thank you Gala, Shauna and Kat for creating such an amazing workshop! You ladies really are rock stars!

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March Cook the Books: Good Fish- Hangtown Fry!

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The March cookbook, for the Cook the Books cookbook challenge (hosted by Meg of Grow and Resist and Oh Briggsy), is Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast by Becky Selengut. Becky is from Seattle, used to work at the Herbfarm and I think she should be my friend. She also has a podcast that I have become hooked on (thanks to Meg mentioning it in her overview of the cookbook), called Closed for Logging. I listen to a lot of podcasts and If I can listen to someone I don’t even know talk for an hour, and think they are hilarious, than they really must be funny.

At first I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to buy this cookbook. I’m not sure why, because I love seafood. I just wasn’t planning on buying every single cookbook for the challenge, since it is a year long and I am not sure I need 12 new cookbooks, but maybe I do because they have all been awesome so far! I am so glad I bought this one and think it is my favorite so far. All the recipes look amazing and I love how it is organized by easiest to hardest per section. Most of the recipes look totally doable to me and the harder ones look like a fun challenge. It seems like a cookbook I will cook from a lot, even on weeknights.

I also love how in depth she goes into picking out seafood. While I love to eat seafood, part of what has kept me from cooking it much is that I felt overwhelmed by my ignorance everytime I wanted to shop for seafood. The way she breaks it down into what to look for, what all the different types are and how to shop sustainably, was all very useful info that I needed.

Although, I didn’t get to put that knowledge into practice much this time, because the first dish I chose to make was Hangtown Fry (page 39). All that required was pre-shucked oysters and I was able to get those from Seattle Fish Company. I just asked the guy at the counter for them, he got some out of the fridge, filled a pint container with them, charged me six bucks and I was on my way.

I picked Hangtown Fry, as the first dish from this cookbook that I wanted to make, for several reasons. One is that I love special fancy egg breakfasts on the weekends. Matt tends to cook breakfast more than me and I tell him it’s because he is better at it than me. He is a pro at flipping the eggs without breaking the yolks (which frustrates me to no end). My breakfast specialty is usually Huevos Ranchero, but I thought this dish would be a nice addition to my breakfast arsenal. Also, I’d only had Hangtown Fry once before, at 13 Coins. I probably never would have ordered it, but my friend Rick recommended it to me and I did end up loving it. I’ve only been to 13 Coins that one time. I love the look and feel of that place and the food, but it’s kind of spendy and out of the way for me now, so that’s probably why I haven’t been back. I still have the memory of sitting at the counter in those awesome high back leather chairs and eating Hangtown Fry though. This was my chance to recreate that delicious meal and see if my memory served me right!

I think I decided to do things in a slightly different order than Becky suggests. The first thing I did was get the oysters soaking in the “buttermilk” or in my case, my fake buttermilk concoction that I make by adding cider vinegar to rice milk.

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I then got the bacon started in the oven by putting it in the oven (cold) and setting the oven to 400 degrees and setting the timer for 20 minutes.

hangtown_fry-001I have never cooked bacon like this before and I think I am always going to bake it now. I love this method. I got to just put the bacon in the oven, set the timer and forget about it until the timer went off. It turned out crispy, the way I like it, and was way less greasy than if I had pan fried it.

hangtown_fry-003Becky says to scramble the eggs and then set them aside while you fry the oysters and maybe there is a reason for that, but I figured eggs get cold so fast and the fried oysters would probably be okay in the oven on warm for a sec, so I decided to fry up the oysters first.

The recipe says you can roll the oysters in either breadcrumbs or panko, but since I still haven’t figured out where to buy panko and I know I can get breadcrumbs from Trader Joe’s, I went with breadcrumbs.

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Since the oysters can be eaten raw, and therefore, don’t need to be cooked all the way through, they fry up pretty fast. Mmm, fried oyster goodness. I think this is when I started to salivate.

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I put the fried oysters in the oven on warm and scrambled the eggs with arugula. My chickens are laying again, so I was able to use farm fresh eggs! I might have to make this again when I have fresh arugula in the garden!

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I toasted some good bread, put it all together and served it up! So was it as good as I remembered it? I’d say so! Oysters for breakfast seem so decadant to me and I love the natural salty flavor of them. The breading cuts some of the fishiness down and mixed with the eggs, it’s such a good combo. I am definitely a fan of this dish and it is totally doable on a weekend morning!

So thanks Becky, if you’re reading this! Your cookbook rocks. And thanks Briggsy and Meg for picking this one. I was hoping to make more stuff from Good Fish in time to submit it for the round-up, but this may be the only one that makes it in. This cookbook is a keeper though, and I will be cooking from it for a long time, I’m sure. Plus, Closed for Logging has a new fan now!

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5 tips for Overcoming Being Overwhelmed by the Garden

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With the arrival of Spring, and the official start of gardening season, I thought I would welcome in the new season, by talking about something that I experience every year around this time. No matter how diligently I put my garden to bed in the Winter, I always walk out to a yard that overwhelms me in the Spring. There’s dead stuff that needs to be pulled out and chopped up for compost. Then there are the beds that are compacted from a Winter’s worth of rain that need to be forked up (and root systems removed), so the soil is loose again. What has become my most dreaded task though, is the truckload of compost that will need to be picked up, then shoveled out and turned in. The last step, to getting my beds ready for planting in the Spring, is fertilizing. Which isn’t so bad I guess, except that I have to get a 20lb. bag to be able to cover all my beds. By the time I get to scattering the fertilizer on top of the beds, my arms are so tired from shoveling, that 20 lbs. feels more like fifty and is awkward to hold on to.

It sounds like I am complaining and I guess I asked for this by turning my entire front yard into a garden. I have said before, that getting my beds ready for planting in the Spring is my least favorite task in the garden, but it is also the most important, so it is so worth it.

I have found some ways, to get over this feeling of being overwhelmed by the garden, that I find helpful. In fact, thinking this way can be helpful, in many areas of my life, any time I am feeling overwhelmed.

1. Just get started- I can be the queen of procrastination. Sometimes, I will do anything besides what I should be doing. I will clean the house instead of sitting down at my computer to edit photos or pay the bills. I often make excuses that I don’t have a large enough chunk of time to start something, so I figure why even start. I have learned from experience with gardening that it pays to be timely and plant things when they should be planted. I also have to take advantage of nice weather when it happens. So those two things are usually motivation enough to get me outside. Once I’m out there, I may stare at everything I have to do for awhile, but I find if I can just get started, tasks usually take less time than I thought they would. I am also usually surprised by how much I get done.

2. Take breaks- Steve Solomon talks about taking the time to “hoe lean” in his book, Growing Vegetable West of the Cascades and I utilize this tactic a lot. It’s nice to look out over your garden and assess what you have done and what to do next and can provide a much needed break.

3. Set a stop time- I have had days where I work in the garden from sun up until sun down (that may be how I got tendonitis), but I find I enjoy gardening a lot more if I set a stop time. It feels nice to know when I should call it quits, head inside, shower up and get ready for my evening. It’s more like a work day that way. I just get as much done as I can by my set end time and then whatever I don’t get to, I can do the next day. That way, if  it’s 2:30pm and I planned on stopping at 3pm, I won’t start another big project that will take hours. Which ties in with my next tip…

4. Don’t try to do it all- I try to make smaller goals and do things in sections. This is especially helpful when it comes to weeding. For example, I will plan on weeding bed by bed, just the herb garden or just the backyard. If I get that done, I can move on to the next bed or area. If I don’t, it will get done later. There will always be more weeding to do!

5. Ask for help- Have a gardening party! I have been to plenty of garden work parties at friend’s houses or neighborhood gardens and it’s amazing to see how much more you can get done in a shorter amount of time with more hands. Make it fun, by feeding people and having some garden cocktails afterwards!

I hope this is helpful to anyone who may be looking out at their rain soaked, wreck of a garden and feeling overwhelmed by it. Do you have any tips for overcoming being overwhelmed by your garden? Or just tips on dealing with procrastination in general? I would love to hear them!

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