Best Christmas Present Ever

It's true. It came early.

I was on the phone this evening with my mother (and feeling impatient during the call because she likes to call right when I ought to be cooking dinner, and talks about nothing important at all) when I got the dreaded call waiting beeps. Usually I ignore them since I am terrible at interrupting people.

This time I took the call. I had to when I saw that it was a business where my husband had been for a job interview just yesterday.

He got the job. His first day is January 3rd. Yes, this is the best news, and present, we could have asked for.

Here is to more happy days ahead.

Pelee Island, August 2010

Productive, Unproductive Day

I am working on my last term paper. It is getting ugly now - my ultimate plan is to stay up tonight until this puppy is done.

Remember my mantra - FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT. Finished is productive. Finished is useful. Finished is freedom. I am desperate to remember it myself. It is the only thing that can save me.

A mediocre finished paper is still much better than an unfinished, late, weight-on-my-shoulders term paper.

I stayed up until 4am last night. Today, I needed a slight break so I decided the best thing ever would be to sew FIVE PAIRS OF PYJAMAS! It had to be done, really. If there is one thing my kids need it is PJ's. The best thing about these is they were made entirely out of my fabric stash. I was just fortunate that I was able to match enough fabrics to coordinate tops and bottoms.

Most of my homemade Christmas gifts are sitting unfinished (is there a theme here??!!). Some are really close to being finished, but not quite. Thankfully, teacher gifts are done and given. Phew.

Not having much to wrap is a sad state to be in.

Those who know us, know that my husband has been out of work for five months. My own income is pretty shabby since I finished my contract job last summer and I don't have much time with my full-time classes. So, I have to make a WHOLE lot of gifts this year (every year actually, it never really is that different).

I know a lot of you out there are in the same boat. Maybe some choose to make things because they believe in it - it is from the heart truly then isn't it? Perhaps others would like to be able to buy a few things, but it just isn't happening this year.

Here is my Christmas UFO and TO DO list:

1. Vanity and Chair (it already exists since it was purchased from Kijiji, but needs paint, some repair and to recover the cushion)
2. PJ's pants for one older child 
3. Camisole and panties - Jalie 2568
4. Girls Nightgowns  (from peasant style dress instructions)
5. Mock Crochet market bag
6. Zombie Knit Hat (making this up)
7. More Bath Bombs (finished one batch - turned out awesome!)

Stuff that was planned but will not get done:

1. Knifty Knitter Socks
2. Knifty Knitter Mitts (2 pair)
3. Knifty Knitter Poncho
4. Monster Pillow Copy
5. Dress up clothes
6. Jalie 2919 - Cardigan
7. Knifty Knitter Sweater

Since I have much to do. I will get to it.

Quit stalling.

First Snow Day

Today was the first REAL snow day this year. And there was no mistaking it either. Everything in town screeched to a stop. The municipal office closed. Some roads were closed. The mail was not delivered. The snowplows were pulled off the road.

My chickens were snug in their hen house. They refused to come out into their covered run today (let alone the uncovered run!). There are wind gusts up to 50km per hour.

This is a great day for hot chocolate, baked beans (in the oven baking as I write this) and a good book, Christmas movie or anything else comforting to do. It isn't a day for building snow forts or skiing.

Looks are Deceiving

Okay, as a follow-up to last week's post I am writing a review for the cinnamon bun recipe I mentioned Clone of a Cinnabon.

As you may remember from the last post Lazy Day, Sunday I wrote that I tried out a scratch recipe for cinnamon buns (among other things) and that while it took a really long time to rise, they came out fabulous. Tender, sweet, fluffy, flaky - although they were somewhat small and hadn't risen that high.  They didn't LOOK like the most wonderful cinnamon bun, but they tasted great.

This week I decided to break down (it is the holidays after all and I want the perfect cinnamon bun for breakfast Christmas morning - a tradition in our house) and try another recipe. I was hoping to find one that worked in the bread maker, assuming that it would be faster, easier and perhaps better.  You are right to point out that no one NEEDS cinnamon buns two weeks in a row.  They aren't healthy and most of their ingredients are not local either. :( However, we can't be perfect every week can we?  I feel good in not buying Pillsbury dough or supermarket premades (I am pretty sure that should be a word).

These buns look absolutely picture perfect. They are huge - you get 12 rolls in the batch (compared to 16 in the last recipe). But that is more of a method, not the recipe itself - which is actually a 4 1/2 cup of flour recipe,  versus the 3 1/2 of the other recipe - since it instructs you to cut them into 12 rather than 16 for the previous ones. You could cut them into 8, 13, 27 or whatever and have larger or smaller buns. 

In the moment of  truth - they aren't as tasty. They are fluffy and flaky, but they seem a bit bland and they are a little drier. In fact, I found that they didn't have enough icing  and they were really just TOO BIG. I wasn't enjoying the last few bites. And, that is a bad thing. 

Consider them side by side:

                 1st try                                                                                2nd try

So, next time I will compromise.  The first scratch recipe could easily be made into 12 larger rolls - then they would be higher and perhaps more visually appealing, yet with the smaller batch of that recipe, they would not be as large overall as the Clone of a Cinnabon recipe. Sort of in-between. I would still get the flavour and moistness of my preferred rolls but just a little bigger.  

Can't wait to try it - when I can convince myself that we need to try another batch. Right now we still have to eat another 10 HUGE rolls.  So off I go...

Lazy Day, Sunday

Today is a really lazy day. I am still in my PJ's. There is talk of us watching the Grey Cup and eating Chicken Quesadillas tonight.

 However, we are also running a stomach flu through our household - today it is my youngest daughter Allison who is sick. So, we also have plenty of laundry.

To be clear, when I stated we were lazy (which I thoroughly meant) my husband and I have been baking most of the day. AND, the best part is that our hand mixer broke (I haven't been blessed with a stand mixer yet) and we mixed everything by hand. Elbow grease is a good thing.

~ If you are on a DIET in any way - STOP reading now. Seriously. ~

It started with the cinnamon buns recipe discussed on Foodess.com. However, there is very serious error in the recipe (see note later in post) which has caused a delay in our consuming these.  Then came a couple loaves of 5-minute Artisan Bread started yesterday (yummy).  After allowing those to cool we turned to Chocolate Mint Cookies also from Foodess.

These cookies are totally addictive. I thought with the ridiculous amount of cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate that they would be decadent enough to prevent over eating. Wrong. 

As it turned out, I was running out of chocolate chips. So instead I used 1 cup chopped semi-sweat chocolate squares. The recipe instructs you to make 1" balls of cookie dough, slightly flattened. I found this to be best, especially if you wish to take these to a Christmas party or give away as they make lots (we got about 112 small cookies).  Alternatively, I think these would work well if you wished to extrude in a cookie press and add a chunk of chocolate (or other garnish) to the centre before baking. In any case, if you like chocolate and mint - these are worth a try. A very easy cookie with enough decadence to impress guests, a hostess or a teacher for a lovely, edible holiday gift.

Okay, now to the cinnamon buns. Note these are risen yeast rolls, not the biscuit type cinnamon buns (which, by the way I hate, and yes, you can read this as full hate - if you really love cinnamon buns, biscuit-style, rip-off cinnamon buns are NOT going to cut it, no matter how desperate or how bad your baking skills are. At this point you are likely to go Pillsbury on me since I have digressed - my bad).

This recipe is also featured on Epicurious.com with many raving reviews. This is where I found out I wasn`t in fact crazy - at least not this time.

When I started making the recipe, I realised right away there was a serious problem. It calls for 2 1/4 tsp of  rapid rise yeast with "2 envelopes" in brackets. Any baker will tell you that 1 packet is 2 1/4 tsps, not 2 packets/envelopes and packets of yeast are pretty standard. My question was - which one is it? Some people will likely measure without worrying about packets, some will just use 2 packets and others will question this whole thing  (and probably over complicate things for several hours - I am the latter).  I realised after making the dough that because of the rave reviews, most people probably used the 2 packets without question (or measuring). As it turns out, reading the reviews more closely, this is likely what has happened. Those who were more exact, realised their mistake and that the dough does not rise on 2 1/4 tsp yeast in 2 hours. Because I am exact myself, I needed to wait a full 4 hours for this dough to rise to double. And, for the second rise, I also had to double the time. This means that all told, it needed to rise for 5 1/2 hours! WOW. 

After contemplating for hours and looking at another bread recipe on Robin Hood I finally thought of a possible answer for the mix up.  The Robin Hood recipes have the packets listed first and then the size in brackets, like this: 2 envelopes (2 1/4 tsp/11 ml) whether it is one or two envelopes it has the same "size of the packet" clarification listed - what would happen if you mixed up the order of the words? It would look like you meant the packet size for the quantity or: 2 1/4 tsp (2 envelopes).  If I am right, it means this recipe is being passed around without correction and many are suffering as they either a) give up in the middle with a hard dough, b) pay no attention to if it has doubled and bake hard dough balls, or c) wait 5,000 hours and at least come up with something edible. Serious bakers might tell you it has more to do with instinct, experience and common sense than exact times and measurements - so the extra waiting is likely worth it if you need to wait longer for your dough to rise.

Lovely cinnamon buns - much yummier than a phone pic can show

Thankfully, the extra rising time did the trick. These did work. So by 3 in the afternoon, we were eating luscious cinnamon rolls (I started at 8am).  Actually, they were quite easy - the worst part was them not rising despite my putting them in a nice warm oven with the oven light on and my whittling away the hours attempting to figure out who and what went wrong with the recipe.  Too bad some of my crew can't eat them right now (heh, more for the rest of us).

The best part was that this is my first attempt at a yeast dough that actually worked. I haven't tried bread making from scratch for about twenty years. Back then, when I was a mere babe (ha) I was not successful at making from scratch bread. My results were very discouraging and I hadn't tried again since.

At this point, I must also be frank in that I have many times made the cinnamon bun recipe that came with my breadmaker. In fact, it is a family tradition in our house to have this for Christmas morning, and I love to start them the night before and pop them in the oven in the morning for a no-mess easy breakfast treat. However, that recipe has really let me down for flavour and texture. It just wasn't as good as a great bakery cinnamon bun (or Pillsbury) and I never knew what to do - it was dry too. For several years I had this Clone of a Cinnabon recipe from Allrecipes.com saved  to my recipes. What I loved about it was that it was a breadmaker recipe that I knew I could handle.  It has even more than rave reviews and I still plan to try it out soon for which I promise to post an update for those of you who aren't ready to try rolls without a breadmaker. For now, I am happy at what I accomplished for our lazy Sunday at home in our PJ's.

~Ciao

PS: The purse organizer I made for my aunt was verified as "perfect" so, despite my misgivings, I actually did measure correctly. She just has the mother of all purses. :)

Measure Twice, Cut Once...

I worked on a number of sewing projects in the last few weeks, which meant that our dining room was a disaster (as well as the rest of the house since threads seemed to be tracked everywhere!). It was fun getting back into the groove again however, since it had been awhile since I had been sewing.

Because I don't have a sewing room and I must mess up the dining room (which is where our family eats every meal because we don't have an eat in kitchen) I usually make it count by doing a marathon event of sewing, not just a small project. It wasn't quite a marathon this time however, but more than one project was pretty time consuming.

Brazilian Hipsters - 5 min sewing project!

This time around:

1. Regency Period Hallowe'en Costumes - including short stay from Sense and Sensibility Patterns
2. Two pleated cardigans  Jalie 2919 - one from fabric in my stash! Yay!
3. Three pair of  Jalie 2568 - Brazilian hipsters
4. One pair of Jalie 2568 - low rise hipster - out of scraps from one of the cardigans
5. One purse organizer - no pattern, just a draft of my own.

There is the problem. Last year I made one of these purse organizers for my mom for Christmas. These are something you would stick inside your purse and you could remove it and put it in a different purse and still have everything. My mom asked for one of these, but sent me a link to one you would purchase online already made. It was about $60 plus shipping and it was from the US, so I may have paid duty, brokerage fees etc.. 

I wouldn't do it. It looked easy enough and there were patterns out there such as this one for a PortaPocket. This pattern looks quite nice, but I wasn't into buying it. First, I like to wing it, second, it would add significantly to the cost of the gift (unless I made millions more!). 

It went over well (I forgot to take a picture which is sad because the ladies at the fabric store who helped me on Dec 23rd to figure out how I might put it together without a pattern may have appreciated seeing how it turned out!) and at Thanksgiving this year I was asked by my aunt to make her one too.

Wait, that isn't the problem yet. Sure, I would like to devote time to my own projects rather than taking on new. And, I don't remember any offer to pay for fabric or anything else, but that is nothing really, compared to the real problem.

I measured my aunt's purse hurriedly on the way out at the end of a long Thanksgiving Day. We had a two hour drive ahead of us. You might be able to imagine the rest. The point is that it must fit into her purse and her purse must be able to close. I am not confident that this will be possible because once made up (and I actually made it quite a bit smaller than I measured for) THIS THING IS FRIGGIN' HUGE! It is about 12 x8x4"

Purse Organizer 

Other Side - pen holder, cheque book or other flat object holder

 Side view - small pocket

Inside view, roomy pockets

Close up of zippered pocket

Close up of credit card holder

Close up of tissue holder with strap

Another view - side has clip for keys or other item

Reversible - this is it flipped inside out. Your choice.

Close up of elastic detail. I dyed this fold-over elastic years ago and it matched. Nice.

Now, it came out pretty nice I must say -  but it is SO large. I am concerned it won't fit her purse. Won't that be a disaster? Well, maybe it will work out - I mean, in my memory her purse was huge. I think. If not, it would probably work great for inside a tote bag.

In the bright side. I used up some scrap fabric, and found notions to recycle for this. I did buy a yard of fabric though.

The saddest thing is that we had company on the weekend (wait that was the good part) and we cleaned up the dining room and put my sewing stuff away, so while I still  have a sewing bug, I can't sew right now :( . I guess I should finish up some Knifty Knitter projects instead.

Enviro-Couture

One of the sewing ideas I have in the past involves taking perfectly good, underused, dated or even damaged clothing and turning it into a newly loved item.

Examples:
Adult or child's large sweatshirt into infant romper/sleeper - haven't found an online tutorial for this. I am sure there is one somewhere. I got the idea from this book:

 This is a great book for people who are just learning to sew or just want some simple projects for fun gifts. Sadly, I am pretty sure it is long out of print. 

Sorry for the blurry picture - but this is an example of what I mean by re-purposing a shirt into a romper. I used a shirt no one was wearing because it had a rather "loud" graphic on it of a wolf. Of course, this was years and years ago and I don't have the romper now.






Cloth diapers from t-shirts / sweatshirts - see: http://fernandfaerie.com/sewing_fitteds.html
This tutorial wasn't around when I was cloth diapering, but it looks like a great, informative site that those thinking of cloth diapering should check out. T-shirt diapers are wonderfully absorbent and stay so soft after lots of washings.


Men's shirt into woman's blouse - I haven't done this yet, but I seriously plan to. There is no shortage of men's shirts around.  See: Stripes in (re)fashion – Learning Sewing | BurdaStyle.com and Peasant Top from a Man's Shirt at Cut out and Keep.

Of course this is only a tiny sample. Others could be cloth menstrual pads, dinner napkins, lots of kids clothing, rag-rugs etc.

Hoards of clothing get dumped at thrift shops, which on one hand is great for providing affordable clothing to those of us who wish to purchase it, however it also is indicative of the throw away society we have.  Check out the horrific economic and cultural impact second hand clothing has on the developing world in this paper at Oxfam and this good but old article in the Washington Post.  As important as reusing is, if it is at the expense of certain economies over others, it is worth it or fair? Better for us to take care of our own clothing, think before we buy (do I need this?) and look for innovative ways to re-purpose some clothing rather than discard each season.

Happy re-purposing!