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Epicurious
One of their bloggers (Joanne C) wrote me to say they would like to use one of my felt food pictures on epi-log. Isn’t that cool? 
Here’s the link, if you want to have a look.
The Birthday Party Dress
So… I decided to make the Birthday Party Dress by Oliver + S.
I had a 1 metre length of this pretty green cotton, and it was just enough to make the 3T size! Next time I am going to remember to read the fabric requirements first before purchasing any fabrics for patterns.
Birthday Party Dress pattern + fabric
Making a dress from a commercial pattern is relatively new to me. I had to re-read the instructions a lot – mainly because I didn’t know a lot of proper sewing terms. It was also the first time I’ve ever attempted box pleats, but I am very pleased with the end result. I have to admit that the instructions are really good and the measurements very precise. And blind stitching by hand is really relaxing – especially while watching Project Runway!
Miss S loved the dress too. Her only comment was, “It doesn’t poof when I twirl, Mummy”. I’d make this dress again seeing that the Oliver + S blog has a post on how to lengthen a pattern (the pattern I have is 6m-3T).
The completed dress
Spinach and Broccoli
Mr K walked in the door after work yesterday and said “Yum. Pizza.”
Then, “It’s vegetarian, isn’t it?”. His enthusiasm fell a notch.
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When I saw this recipe on Annie’s Eats, I wanted to try it. It’s like a broccoli and spinach gratin but in pizza form – who wouldn’t love that? Well, apart from those who do not like broccoli or spinach or both.
I overloaded the pizzas with baby spinach leaves and went overboard with the cheese and baked them till the cheese was bubbly and golden. Then, I topped it off with flaked salmon pieces (salted a fresh salmon fillet liberally and grilled it while the pizza stones were heating) – so, it’s not vegetarian.
Mr K took a bite, “It’s not half bad.” And proceeded to eat 4 more pieces. Miss S loved it too, despite the adamant “I don’t want any green stuff”.
Salmon, Broccoli & Spinach Pizza Slice
It tastes nice by itself, but the grilled salmon adds another dimension to the taste and texture.
Proof in the telling – Miss S asked to have the leftovers for lunch just now and polished off 2 pieces with no complaints – greens and all!
Patterns in the mail
I finally caved a bought the Ice Cream Dress pattern by Oliver + S (and the Birthday Party Dress pattern + a Heather Bailey pattern).
And they arrived in the mail today!
The package was wrapped like a gift:
Pretty polka dots
Isn’t that wonderful? I was so impressed!
See, I love this sort of thing. Some people might say, “What a waste of paper. Think of the trees!”. But I for one really enjoyed it. It’s probably something normal for them to do, but it made my day and made me feel happy. Maybe it’s just me being dotty about polka dots, or the pretty colour combination, but I loved it. It made me feel special even though it was not a present…. well, technically it was since Mr K paid for it.
To the owner of Bella + Vintage Chic, thank you for making my day and I wish you the very best for the future.
The patterns
BAKED brownies
Yep.. this is the 3rd recipe I’ve tried from the Baked book. And I have to admit, I really REALLY wanted to drizzle the tops of the little brownie cakes and the big pan with a LOT of chocolate ganache.
But I held back. After all, I’d already used 350 grams of good chocolate in the mixture (minus a couple of pieces – hey, I had to sample a few pieces) and the cream I had in the fridge had expired. Besides, chocolate ganache on top seemed to be over-kill – NOT.
Verdict? They are just about the bestest (if there’s such a word), moistest brownies that I’ve ever tasted.
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- Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water
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- Get your tins ready while the choc + butter is melting
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- Stir in the sugar
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- Add the first 3 eggs and mix well
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- Add the last 2 eggs + vanilla extract
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- Add all the dry ingredients
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- Fold in the dry ingredients gently
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- One final stir
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- Look at that chocolatey mix!
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- Uncooked brownie cakes ready for the oven (12 are sprinkled with dk choc drops)
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- Ready to be baked in the oven
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- Warm brownie cakes
Here is the purple foodie’s adaptation of the recipe. Definitely a ‘must-try’ for people who love chocolate.
Malt-Ball Cake
When I saw this recipe in the Baked book, I thought, “Hmm.. interesting…”.
It’s 9:30 pm and I’m waiting for the last of the cupcakes to finish baking so I can make the frosting. See, the husband has to go to work at 2:30 am tomorrow (in 5 hours time), and I thought why not try this recipe on him and whoever is game enough to sample it.
Anyway, the recipe calls for malt milk powder. Here we were, combing the aisles in the supermarket trying to find this, then Mr K googled it on his phone. Horlicks! So we got a container and the other ingredients and trotted on home.
The recipe makes one 8-inch cake, but I managed to get 24 medium cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes out of the mixture.
If you like Horlicks, Maltesers and chocolate, this is definitely a recipe to try. The end result is delicious!
Malt-Ball Cupcake
Guess what came in the mail today?
I got something in the mail today. It was from hyggeligt fabrics. When I saw the package, I was so excited – the pattern is here! I skipped all the way back into the house. I’ve had my eye on this particular pattern for a few months and because of the competition on www.fromanigloo.blogspot.com, I’ve won one!
I tore into the envelope, and found this:
Sunday Brunch Jacket + Skirt Pattern
It was the Sunday Brunch jacket and skirt pattern.
I was deflated – they sent me my 2nd choice. Maybe they ran out of the ice cream dress pattern, who knows? It was rather disappointing not to get my 1st choice.
But no matter, I was still happy to get such a nice pattern and I will still get to make some really cool jackets out of it. I might just have to shell out the USD 16 (plus international shipping) for the ice cream dress pattern one of these days.
Thank you www.fromanigloo.blogspot.com and hyggeligt fabrics for running the wonderful competition!
It’s spring… feels like summer though
It has been a long while since I’ve sat down and blogged. The weather has turned nice (no more rain, yay!) and Miss S and I have been playing on the deck and just hanging out. She turned 3 the other week and it won’t be long before she’s off to kindy. I can’t believe that 3 years has gone by just like that.
Anyhow, we’ve made a few visits to the fabric shops – this time Miss S got to choose fabrics for her dresses and twirly skirts. And some white blouses to go with the skirts. Oh… and a couple of lightweight cardigans too. I worked out that it was cheaper to make clothes for her than to buy then ready-made from shops. Only thing I can’t really make are socks and knickers.
Anyway… here are some pictures of what I have been working on.
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- Something Miss S will have to grow into – it was too big!
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- Cardi (Cotton + Merino mix) + Shirred Dress (Poly Cotton)
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- Merino + Cotton mix cardigan
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- Cardigan made from cotton ribbing
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- Tiered twirly skirt (Poly Cotton)
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- Shirred Dress (Poly Cotton)
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- 2-tier skirt (Poly Cotton)
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- Cotton sleeveless top
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- Cotton sleeveless top
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- Poly Cotton sleeveless top
As you can see, the dress and tops have bound edges. Gotta love bias binding!
Note: I used from an igloo’s formula for the tiered/twirly skirts measurements.
Sweet and Salty Cake
I love cook books – especially ones with LOTS of pictures. I don’t have a collection of cook books (even though I would love to have one). However, my local library does and I usually “max out” my library card whenever I visit. What’s even better is I can order the books from the library’s online system and pick them up when they are ready – at no charge. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
Anyway, a few months ago, I borrowed a book from the library. It was called Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. It was a gorgeous book – the pictures made me want to make and eat all the cakes I saw. But I had never attempted big cakes like the ones in the book. They all looked pretty daunting to make.
I was browsing through www.marthastewart.com one day. I was after some new cupcake recipes and happened to click on this page which featured one of the cakes in the book. There were a couple of video clips to show how it was made. I asked Miss S who was watching along next to me if I should even attempt to make it and she said “yes”. What almost 3 year old would say no to cake?
I had most of the ingredients in my pantry except for corn syrup and fleur de sel. Didn’t have any of that fancy salt but I did have a little package of pink salt flakes that came with a goodie bag from the Auckland Food Show.
It took one whole day to make – the cake, the caramel, then the butter cream. My poor hand mixer nearly had a heart attack. But ta-da, my first “proper” cake.
Sweet and Salty Cake
It was a very rich cake. One small slice was all I could eat, but thankfully Mr K took the rest to work for morning tea the next day.
Would I make it again? Probably, but not with the caramel buttercream – I think it would taste better (to me, anyway) covered with a dark chocolate ganache. And the salt does add an interesting talking point to the cake. If I do happen to find fleur de sel, I’d make it again to see what the differences are.
Note: I substituted veg shortening for butter, the fleur de sel for sea salt and pink salt flakes, and omitted the corn syrup.