Buttery Crescent Rolls

We were invited to dinner on Sunday and were asked to bring bread. I had to squeeze in one more recipe from my Christmas cookbook before we moved so it was a good excuse. These are fake crescent rolls. It's a basic roll recipe that you roll out, cut wedges and roll into crescents. The part that was supposed to be special and make it more like flakey crescent rolls was shredding 1 cup of cold butter on the dough before rolling. Yes, one whole cup of butter. It got messy, both shredding (getting all over the counter) and cooking (melted butter pooling in the pan and basically frying the bottom of the rolls). They were very tasty rolls and extremely buttery, but next time I'll probably just spread soft butter instead of shredding cold butter. It will be less messy and taste the same.

Grandpa Duck

I know what your thinking. What? Another duck? But behold, this one is different! It has a foam head! It's a lot sturdier than my Lucky ducks, which were designed to be flexible with babies in mind. When I started this one I thought it would be neat to make him a Mallard Duck or a Wood Duck with a cool green head. But alas, I don't have cool green fabric and I'm on the verge of a move, so I'm not going to get more fabric. I do like how his wings turned out, though. Notice the feathers?

Creme Brulee divine

One of my best friends recieved a gift of 10 real vanilla beans. What a fun gift! But she had no idea how to use them. Itta Britta to the rescue (DA da-da DA!!! [that's my theme music])! I also had never used real vanilla beans before, but I had watched them used many many times and couldn't resist the invitation to teach (and to get my hands on some real vanilla beans).

I knew in an instant the best thing to make using real vanilla beans. Creme Brulee. Mmmm. We had a fun night of making custard and the next fun night eating creme brulee. Thanks, dear Emily! We will miss you!

The puppets and I were having a nice conversation

I was contacted by a friend from high school who wondered if I would be willing to make some puppets for a friend of hers. Would I!? I was delighted and excited that someone wanted me to specially make puppets! Since I wanted to learn how to make foam head puppets, I decided now was a great time to experiment. Here is what I've come up with.
The whole time I was working on this one, he reminded me of Guy Smiley whom I had fond Sesame Street memories of. I instantly liked him from the moment his green foam head shape was cut out.
This one I wanted to have some glam. I tried to make lips but they all just looked funny, so I made sure she got some glamour in her eyes. I love the eyelashes and the purple eyelids. I think I might make a different dress for her. This on is too big. Glamorous puppet hair is tricky so she got chunky yarn. I love chunky yarn hair for puppets.

I have one more puppet in this collection and it's my favorite: the baby. Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied with any of my current hair options, so I'll be visiting a craft store next week when we go to Kansas City. Photos will be coming as soon as I have her hair done. Hurray!

Make your own cheesy crackers? You bet!

There have been several times I've thought to myself "I wish there was a good cracker that didn't have so much artificial stuff in it." Lo and behold, I found this article on the kitchn and immediately wanted to make them myself. It's SO easy and SO good. I've made this recipe several times in the past couple months and the crackers are always gone within a couple hours.

Cheesy Crackers
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp. salt
4 TBS cold unsalted butter
8 oz. grated cheddar cheese
3-4 TBS water


If you have a food processor this will be a breeze. If you don't have one, like me, use a much less breezy pastry blender. In a medium bowl mix together the flour and salt (and an optional few shakes of pepper). Shred the cold butter into the bowl and with your trusty pastry blender mix it in until it resembles coarse meal. Mix in one tablespoon of water at a time until the dough binds together and can form a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Roll the dough out thin (it will puff up). Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut small little shapes. I prefer triangles. I do this all on a piece of parchment paper that I slide right on to a cookie sheet to bake. I like to space out the pieces a little so they don't stick together while baking, but if you don't most of them will break apart.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, but watch them periodically after 10 minutes.

Hydrangea pretty

I Planted this in my front yard, I'm so sad I won't see it grow big. I even fertilized it with Aluminum Sulfate to keep the blossoms blue. I hope it thrives.
I think hydrangeas are so pretty. Two years ago I saw a photo of a garden in a home decor magazine with a huge hedge of white hydrangeas. It was stunning. I think hydrangeas are one of my favorite landscape elements, and they grow well in mostly shady spots!

First cake

Ah, this cake. I had so many dreams for this cake, but reality grabbed me by the ankles and dragged me back. I think I frosted this cake in ten minutes. I know the Babe doesn't care. Hopefully when she does I'll have more time to make a cake we can all be pleased about.

Flower Hair clips

I made these at a project night for a club of med student wives. Cute stuff. If only I could convince the Babe to keep them in her hair.

Garden!

I planted a garden! The husband built me two garden boxes last year, but I never got around to filling them with plants. I was a little distracted with a new baby. My first box has peas and strawberries.

Here are my peas. I'm so excited they're coming up!
Only 3 of my 10 strawberry plants have shown signs of life as of yet.
And that's it for now. I chose peas and strawberries because I'm moving in June. Hopefully I'll be able to reap the benefits of these crops. My second garden box will be flowers (Zinnias, Cosmos and maybe Lavender). I was planning on planting those seeds today, but I planted a baby in the dirt instead.

Plant a tree, save the world

Today was a busy day! Among the projects, I planted a tree...

made a card for work...
and baked and frosted cookies. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and a new frosting recipe here. It's ok, but a little too runny and blah. It needs extra flavor. I'll have to modify it next time.

What was that again?

"I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is--'Be what you would seem to be';--or, if you'd like it put more simply--'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'"

"I think I should understand that better," Alice said very politely, "if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it."

"That's nothing to what I could say if I chose," the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.

"Pray don't trouble yourself to say it any longer than that," said Alice.

"Oh, don't talk about trouble!" said the Duchess. "I make you a present of everything I've said as yet."

~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

What the Crepe?

Yes, a stacked crepe cake. I found this recipe in my Christmas cookbook right after I got it and decided to make it when I had a good opportunity. Easter it was! Funny thing, over the past couple weeks, I've been seeing these crepe cakes everywhere! Mine wasn't quite as pretty as the pictures I've seen.

Meh, a little crooked, crepes not all the same size.... Cutting into it is much more impressive.

Pretty cool. It was tasty, but a little sweet for me. I also found the texture slightly unsatisfying. It was fun to make once, but the time it takes to make it again is probably not worth it to me.

Wish fulfillment

I got a sewing machine on Wednesday! You know what this means? More puppets! And now that I have it, I'm thinking of all sorts of clothing ideas, toys, quilts... But first, on my list is home improvements. You see, I need to make my home look pretty so someone will want to buy it. These are actually projects that I've been planning for years, but only now got to do them.

Commence project window valance:

I made two of these for my bedroom windows. Three or four years ago I bought two faux scarf valances like this picture, but quickly learned that they only look good in threes. I loved the fabric, though, so wanted to make something more suitable. Now I have! This was probably the most makeshift and imprecise process I've ever used, but with the final result you would never know. My husband calls me the MacGyver of quilting and that title really fit for this project.

Project sofa pillows (the brown ones):

The previous pillows were pretty flat and had ugly fabric. That's all I have to say about that. Pillows are easy peasy. (p.s. I love the husband's casual glance to the side and leg posed especially for the photo.)

I have one more room to fix curtains for and then I will be back on the puppet train. I'm so excited! I have some fun ones coming up.

Trim those windows!

We had our windows replaced last summer and the trim got all torn up when they removed the old storm windows. They've needed a good whitewashing, so I finally got around to it now that the weather's better.

Before (also note the railing):

After:

I only did the front of the house. Three windows and a railing down, four windows to go...

Cupcake Craving

I've been wanting to make cupcakes for a few weeks now. I had a great excuse this week because yesterday was a church dance and I was asked to bring refreshments! Cupcakes, here we come.

I wanted to try a new basic yellow cake recipe I found on allrecipes.com. It worked like a charm. Fluffy, moist and sweet. I like homemade cake much better than boxed cake mix. The frosting was a modification of the frosting in this recipe, but I left out some stuff and added grenadine so there was a slight cherry flavor and pink tint.

I used a big star frosting tip for the first time. It made frosting these a cinch! It was super fast and looked better than frosting with a knife. Then I added something that made them look even prettier.

Cherries!

p.s. For future reference, someday I want to order cupcake wrappers from here. The solid color wrappers stay opaque when you bake them, not like the above example of nearly transparent wrappers.

Quintessential Chocolate Cake

I taught my sister-in-law some cake making techniques with this recipe I found on allrecipes. It's a really good basic chocolate cake recipe and the frosting has a delicious sour cream tang.

I stole this photo from my sister-in-law's blog.

It was fun to make the cake together with her little girl helping. I'm excited to experiment and add different flavors and ingredients. One of my grandma's most beloved desserts was chocolate cake with cherries mixed into the batter. I would love to develop my own version of her cake.

I feel like a rock star!

A rock star of puppet-making, that is.

I feel like I've found a new calling in life, and it is making puppets. I can not believe how satisfying this is! It's so exciting to discover an ability, such as visualizing 2-dimensional patterns for 3-dimensional puppets, that I never knew I had. I feel like I could make anything!
I made another Lucky, just to make sure I could duplicate my pattern. I could. I changed his eyes a little to try something new. So much fun!
Meet Bruno. First puppet variation of the original pattern. He came together like clockwork. Not a glitch in sight. It made me so happy.
This is Luke (the Babe named him). He was inspired by a comment from Trent. When he mentioned that his son went around making elephant noises I thought, "If I could make an elephant puppet, I could make anything." Voila! Ok, so he isn't perfect, he looks a little like Gonzo, but he is recognizable as an elephant, right?
This is Susan's best friend, Sally. This is the only photo I have of her and she wasn't quite finished here. She is now living with her new family and is receiving lots of lovin'.

Hurray for puppets! I will be returning the borrowed sewing machine in a few days, so I don't know how many more puppets will be posted any time soon. Sad, I know. I sure have enjoyed it!

To know God

"Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us."

~Henry B. Eyring quoting Ezra Taft Benson

What do these things have in common?

Cranberries

Orange and chocolate

They both make delicious additions to sweet scones. I'm starting to learn that I could probably like any food if it's fresh and prepared well. Before I made these I believed that scones, just like biscotti and sugar cookies, were clumps of dry, dense dough that I had to choke down out of politeness. I've made two batches of scones in two days and they were WAY above my expectations. The first batch were no-sugar cranberry cream scones. I substituted honey for sugar and the recipe called for cream instead of milk. I was wary, but they were really good.

My second batch were these delectable Mandarin Chocolate Chip Scones.

With orange zest in the batter and a sweet orange glaze, these had a refreshingly citrus zing with yummy bittersweet chocolate.

In my Christmas cookbook it emphasizes the importance of technique, technique, technique. A new technique I learned for these that I will probably carry over to all pastries is this: whenever you need to cut butter into flour, grate the cold butter first with a cheese grater. It worked like a charm!

Puppet mania

I'm borrowing a sewing machine from a friend to satisfy my growing addiction to puppets.

I'm having fun.

This is Charlie. I think he's my favorite, but he needs something more, like a patch of fuzz hair or pipe cleaner antennae. All I have is yarn and fabric and I'm not satisfied with those options to complete him. Those round felt monster-bug eyes make me happy. Maybe they revert me to childhood and Sesame Street. All my puppets so far have different eyes but Charlie's might be my favorite. I'm also a big fan of the black buttons on Susan.
This is Lucky. He is my second attempt at a durable (not hot-glued together) puppet. I'm hoping I can modify Lucky's pattern to accommodate different animals. The muppet-style puppets are really neat and look awesome, but they are a little more fragile. I want puppets that this little one can pull and poke and bend and bite without me worried about them falling apart.

She likes puppets and it makes me happy.

These are the two puppets that we don't like enough to give names. Miss Green Eyes needs a nose. Her eyes are the heads of plastic spoons that I painted. Yucky duck is the first attempt at a durable pattern. His seams don't all match up very well and his eyes were an experiment in laziness and creativity mixed together.

It's amazing to me how much eyes can change the personality of a puppet. There are so many options! I can't decide which I like best. I guess I'll have to keep making puppets just to make more eyes.