Tag Archives: handmade/homemade

Teacher Gifts

Posted on by

Every year I like to knit something for Lindsay’s teachers to show my appreciation of all the love and care and amazing work they do. I usually surprise them, but this year BOTH of Lindsay’s teachers are getting married. I asked them if they would like me to knit them a shawn for their wedding (or not). One of the teachers asked for a shawl to go with her wedding dress and the other asked for a casual summer shawl. I wanted to get started on the shawl for the wedding as there was a real deadline. The wedding is in August, but I don’t like cutting things close.

This is a pattern that is aptly named Trousseau. I am using Malabrigo sock yarn, which is fun and springy and making this an absolute pleasure to knit. I’ll post photos of the finished and blocked shawl soon.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

My Mother’s Day

Posted on by

Sunday was a beautiful Mother’s Day. I woke up to bacon pancakes and this beautiful card from Lindsay.

After breakfast, Lindsay and I went into Manhattan to take a sewing class at City Quilter on how to make stuffies. We were asked to bring a couple of drawings, which we would then turn into stuffed felt creatures.

Lindsay made these two drawings:

After a few hours, she made them (with very little help from me) into these:

That evening Neil took us out to The Farm on Adderly, which specializes in seasonal, local and wild edibles. It was delicious!

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

How to make stock

Posted on by

I make a simple stock that is a combination of chicken and veggies. You can make yours all vegetarians very easily. I don’t go out and buy the ingredients for my stock. I kind of just, uh, stockpile them. Hee  hee. What I do is whenever I cut the ends off of carrots, or pull the stems off of parsley, I put the trimmings into a ziploc bag in my freezer. Bones from chicken, woody asparagus ends, whatever I’m cooking with goes in the bag.

When the gallon-sized bag is full, I put everything in a stock pot and cover with a couple of inches of water. I simmer for about an hour, or until the aroma makes my feet lift off the floor and I float towards the kitchen.

I scoop the big pieces out and then pour the stock through a mesh strainer. Voila! It’s much better than those cartons of chicken stock. And it’s already made with everything I like to eat.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Raised Bed Herb Garden

Posted on by

 

If you’ve spent time reading this blog, you will know that the soil in my garden isn’t great. The term to describe it is “rubble.” I don’t really trust growing food items directly in it. Besides the sunniest area of my garden is paved, so that limits my options. This has lead me to trying raised beds. I have a mish-mosh of containers that I hope are creative and fun and not reminiscent of the set of Sanford and Son.

These are the wine crates I salvaged last year. They are holding up well.

This year I’m not going to grow beans or try and coax tomatoes to grow in a partly sunny garden. I’m going to stick to herbs, which do very well in my yard. I love mixing flowers, herbs and vegetables together.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

School Fundraiser

Posted on by

I’ve been organizing a fundraiser at my daughter’s school in conjunction with Earth Day. We are selling oyster mushroom growing kits through Back To The Roots. If you order one, Back To The Roots shares a portion of the profits with my daughter’s school in Brooklyn.

My husband gave me one of their kits for Christmas and they are really fun. C’mon, you know you want to try this! Just make sure to enter “PS58” in the coupon code for the school to get credit. The offer expires on 4/20, which is our school’s Earth Day celebration.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Knitted Gifts

Posted on by

For the past few months, I’ve been knitting like mad, making gifts for the people close to me. Here’s a selection of what I’ve made. I sent some projects off without photographing them.

Coffee press cosy for Neil

Here’s a cosy I knit Neil for our french press coffee pot. It uses a design called the Death Flake. If you look closely you will see the skulls inside a snowflake motif.

I knit these fingerless gloves for my MIL. I liked them so much, I knit a pair for my sister and am now knitting a pair for another friend.

This little sweater was made for baby Maia. 

This blue sweater was knit for baby Thomas. His mom was Lindsay’s 1st grade teacher.

This little hat is for baby Ray, due any week now.

Here’s a cardigan for baby Ray.

This little green sweater is for an upcoming baby. Here’s a link to the sweater pattern.

This sweater is the latest one off my needles. It’s based on a pattern called Paper Dolls, but instead of having a paper doll motif, Lindsay wanted the death flake pattern. My sister helped talk me down off the ledge when I realized that not only would I need to chart the new motif, but I would have to figure out where to put decreases within the motif. She charted out this version and added the cute hearts at the bottom. Now I really need to take photos better than these iphone ones!

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

Posted on by

For Mother’s Day, Neil and Lindsay got me a ravioli attachment for my kitchenaid mixer. I have had fun making pasta and even made ravioli once. I’ve been eyeing the ravioli maker because it makes such beautiful, perfect little ravioli. I also thought it might take some time off the process.

So that evening we made wild mushroom ravioli. Neil bought a package of mixed wild mushrooms and some organic ricotta. I made the dough. The recipe is based on the recipe in The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles.

  • 2T good olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic,  minced
  • 10 ounces of mixed wild mushrooms. You can see the ones we used, but feel free to use your favorites. Remove tough stems and mince.
  • 1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water and strained, then minced
  • 1/4 c. minced parsley
  • 1 c. ricotta cheese
  • 1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pan, sauté garlic until golden. Add mushrooms and cook until wilted (appx. 4 minutes). Add in the porcini, parsley and seasonings. Cook until the liquid has evaporated. Place mixture in a bowl and let cool slightly. Stir in remaining ingredients. This can be done the night before.

The pasta is a basic egg pasta, which is made with 2 cups of flour and 3 large (beaten) eggs. You mix the ingredients together. I used my stand mixer, but you can do it in a food processor. Add tiny amounts of water (1 T)  until the dough forms a rough ball. Let the dough rest about 30 minutes. Roll the dough out and fill with the mushroom mixture. Cook the ravioli for 4-5 minutes, or until al dente.

I made a sauce out of sautéd garlic w/ olive oil and then a can of crushed tomatoes. Grate a nice parmesan cheese over the top and you are done. We had fun figuring out the ravioli maker. Lindsay liked playing with and eating the raw dough strips that formed between the ravioli squares.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Making Seedling Pots

Posted on by

Last night I pulled out my x-acto knife, cutting board and old newspaper to make pots for my seedlings. Neil and Lindsay gave me this nifty little tool called the PotMaker last year. You wrap 3 1/2″ wide (longer than 9″) around the base of the cylinder. Then you fold the ends under and press down on the small disc-shaped base. I had a lot of fun making them and got a kick out of the pictures that appeared on the outside of the pots. And, yes, I’m a little insane/ocd because I planned some of how the photos would fall on the pots.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Happy Easter

Posted on by

Happy Easter for those who celebrate. Yesterday Lindsay and I blew the insides out of 6 eggs and today she and her friend dyed them. They drew the pictures on the eggs and then I traced them in wax. We used the standard Pas dyes, which I thought would be good and not permanently dye them and whatever they spilled the dye on. The technique is based on Ukranian pysanky. Take a look here for traditional eggs.

The first few egg photos are of one egg I did about our family. The light blue/green color is the natural color of the egg. It comes from our hen Edie.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare

Linzer Torte and my dad

Posted on by

Of the many things my father loved to do, bake and listen to Mozart ranked very high. Whenever he had friends or family over to the house he loved to bake a special treat for them. He had an endless supply of  Hungarian recipes that he would try. His success rate was about 70% and when the desserts were good, they were really wonderful. The 30% failure rate usually had to do with his not thinking he had to follow a baking recipe to the letter. “Why should I put salt in something that’s sweet” was something he firmly believed. I am still scared to glaze a dessert with egg whites. My sister will immediately know why. My father must not have beaten his egg whites enough and one time his linzer torte came out with the equivalent of an egg white omelet on top of it. We had to scrape the omelet off the top and eat it because it was a crime to waste food in our house.

My father got better and better with his baking and all of his friends loved to share his creations. My father particularly loved to bake with my sister and me. It was a nice time that we could spend together.

One year ago friday my father passed away. I was thinking of a way to spend the day remembering him. I decided to listen to Mozart and make a linzer torte. Linzer was one of his favorite recipes and he seemed to have a different recipe every time he made it.

Linzer Torte Recipe

3 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 generous T. baking powder

2 sticks of softened butter

1 egg yolk

1/4 c. sour cream (I felt like a bad Hungarian girl because I didn’t have any sour cream in the fridge)

1 grated lemon peel

juice from 1 lemon

jar of thick jam (raspberry, apricot or red currant)

1 1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts

1 egg white (please beat this well, or you will end up with the dreaded omelet on top)

Combine dry ingredients. Add butter. Combine and make a well in center.

Mix together the wet ingredients (except the egg white) and add to the flour mixture. Divide dough in 1/2. Press 1/2 the dough into the bottom of a 10×15 baking pan. Refrigerate both halves for an hour or overnight if desired.

Spread the jam onto the dough in the pan, making sure you don’t go all the way to the edge. It will burn if you do. I try and get as close as possible, because it can be a little bit dry otherwise.

Sprinkle the nuts over the jam.

Roll the remaining dough into ropes about 1/2″ in diameter. Think back to your preschool days when you would make snakes out of playdoh and you’ll get the idea.

I was running out of time and the dough wasn’t cooperating, so I rolled it out with a rolling pin and just cut strips. It worked really well, but next time I would try and roll the strip to make it a little rounder and more attractive. I also didn’t have time to make a nice woven lattice, but that would have been much prettier.

Once you have the top done, brush the egg white on top to make a nice glaze. Or you can skip this step if I’ve scared you.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until the crust has a golden brown color.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+StumbleUponShare