roses are red, violets are blue...

Here's a quick idea for a last minute Valentine card, brought to you by my 11-year old daughter Sadie.  She just made these for each of the kids.  She sew everything up for each photo, showing step-by-step...

First:  gather your supplies.  Card with envelope, tape, pen and candy (Runts pictured).

Second:  Write your message and address your envelope.  Sadie is really good at writing poems.  I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you wanted to borrow one of hers.

Seal your envelope and hide in a special place to present to your Valentine.  Have a LOVING day!

Bake 52: Challah

Bread. Yum. I had no idea what Challah meant or was, etc. So I did a little research, (straight to Wikipedia, of course). Here's their definition of Challah... in case you were wondering too: "According to Jewish tradition... This "double loaf" (in Hebrew: lechem mishneh) commemorates the manna that fell from the heavens when the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years after the Exodus from Egypt. The manna did not fall on the Sabbath or holidays; instead, a double portion would fall the day before the holiday or sabbath." There you go. Now you know. And, knowing is half the battle. I've always wondered what the other half is, but unfortunately, GI Joe never did expand on that one.

 On to the bread... I like making bread, or rolls. Growing-up we almost always had homemade rolls on Sunday. And probably had homemade bread more than store-bought. What can I say, I was spoiled. My mom is an excellent bread/roll maker. And, she taught me. I'm not sure that I'm as good as her, but I do really enjoy making bread. So this was a fun recipe.

 Here's a picture of the eggs, 2 large eggs and one egg yolk. Not sure why you need to see this picture, except that eggs are pretty. Yellow. Nice. Anyway, I did like that you save the white to use later to brush on top of the bread for the deep glossy shine. I always feel bad to throw the white away. Feels so wasteful.

 The flour, sugar, yeast, and salt are combined in the mixing bowl, and then the warm water, butter and eggs are then added while mixing. I usually add my yeast to the water/sugar mixture, and allow the yeast to soften and proof/grow a bit before adding the flour/salt, so this was different for me. But I listened, and followed their directions.

This cookbook is really good at giving time limits for everything... mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes... knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. It's nice. And helpful. Especially I think, if you haven't had much experience with bread-making. They're thoughtful that way.
 

Once it's all come together, you get to knead the dough by hand a bit, until it's a nice ball. Then place in a greased bowl and allow to rise. You'll see in my pictures, that my dough ball doesn't look like THAT much bigger after rising. But it really did sit for a long time. The recipe says to leave it for 1-1 1/2 hours... mine probably sat for 2-2 1/2 hours. There you go.

 The ball is then cut into two pieces. One twice as large as the other. Then each piece is cut into 3 pieces. Rolled into ropes, and braided.

The larger braid goes on the bottom, and is brushed with the egg wash. Then the smaller braid is placed on top, ends tucked under, and allowed to rise again.

 When the rising is complete. The whole thing is brushed with egg wash, sprinkled with sesame seeds or poppy seeds, and baked.

 And the finished product. I think it looks marvelous. And it was really yummy too. It was a fun recipe. I liked braiding the bread, and the end look, was just fun. The book said to try it the next day as french toast. We have yet to test this one out... but I'm thinking that might be a good idea.

 For the complete recipe, check out Jennifer's blog for the full recipe.

Bake 52: 7 Layer Bars

Most of you have probably had 7 layer bars, in some form or other.  It's your basic graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate, butterscotch, white, peanut butter, toffee... chips of some kind or other, coconut, and possibly nuts.  They're super easy, super fast, and super good.  This week we tried the America's Test Kitchen version.

First, we process some chocolate-covered toffee bits (be sure they're chocolate-covered - this was a special note in the recipe), in the food processor.

Then add the graham crackers.  And then the melted butter... and process until well incorporated.

Add to the pan.  Pressing down with a measuring cup, again.  Love this tip.  The crust is then actually par-baked for 10 minutes, which was different... we always just layer the ingredients and then bake the whole thing.  But, we'll try it their way.

When the crust comes out of the oven, we sprinkled milk chocolate chips over top, and allowed them to sit until softened.

Then we spread them.  Mmm.

Then we added the rest of the layers... Rice Krispies (new for me in this recipe), pecans (I left this one out), more chocolate chips (semi-sweet this time) and toasted coconut, (pre-toasted coconut... also new for me in this recipe).

Then, and only then, TWO cans (yep, you heard right), of sweetened condensed milk were whisked together with some vanilla, and poured over the top of it all.

Then it baked, and cooled for at least 2 hours, (which was hard to make happen around here).  And finally we got to sample them.

Now, there's something that has to be said, and perhaps I should have opened with this, but I didn't, so here it is... my husband LOVES 7 layer bars.  It's possibly the one thing he really likes to make, and does so without a recipe.  So, needless to say, I was curious to see what he would think of these.  And... he really liked them.  He ate one, smiled, ate another one, and then asked me, "So, do you think they're better than mine?"  Which I honestly answered, "no".

They were good.  Really good.  I liked the crunchiness of the Krispies, and the toasted coconut was yummy.  The crust had a little extra flavor in it with the addition of the pulverized toffee chips.  Overall, great.  But I did have a few issues...

#1 Appearance:  In the original recipe the sweetened condensed milk is poured on top of the crust, and then the coconut, and whatever chip variety is then added, and pressed down a bit. The sweetened milk does bubble-up a bit between the toppings, but you still overall see the coconut and chip stuff.  They're pretty, and neat looking.  This version was not that way.  It looked a bit strange.  I thought/hoped maybe the milk would melt down between the layers, and some of the coconut/chip top would shine through - not so.  So, I'm not sure that I would dare take this version to a pot-luck.

#2  Oozing of sweetened condensed milk:  (Disclaimer:  this may have been my lack of skill in making these bars, and could possibly NOT be the fault of the recipe).  Once the bars were cooled, and I cut into them, if they weren't eaten right away, sweetened condensed milk started oozing out from the under the top layer of really cooked milk.  Perhaps I didn't cook them long enough?  Not sure.  I know they cooled long enough though, because these pictures were taken 2 days after making the bars, and you can see, there's still plenty of oozing going on here.

Okay.  I think it was just those two things.  And if you can get past that, which was actually REALLY easy to do, they these bars were a pure delight.  I think in the future I'll stick with the original version, but mostly because if Shawn is willing to throw together a pan by himself, why would I NOT go with that?!

Check out Jesse's blog for the full recipe.

Little Things To Sew-Along: Bear Carrier

I've signed-up for a number of "alongs", did you notice?  First the weekly:  Bake 52.  Baking something each week from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book".  Next, "Sewing For Boys" sew-along.  Sewing something monthly from the book by the same name.  And lastly, "Little Things To Sew" sew-along.  Also sewing something monthly from the book by the same name.  A personal goal this year, do more sewing/cooking, push myself a little.  Both are things that I really love, but I don't always make time to try new stuff.  So, I hoping that these "alongs", will help.

So, this month, our project was the Bear Carrier.  Hazel was the lucky recipient of this.  She was a little unsure what I was trying to do as I was strapping it around her to measure and snap pictures.  We'll see if she uses it.  Silas, on the other hand, asked me when I would be making one for him.  Maybe I chose the wrong child to sew this for?

Anyway, it's super cute, and really easy.  What a fun idea.  Let the kids carry a bear or doll around latched to their fronts... just like mom might do with a real infant.

I would recommend this pattern.  Can't wait to tackle the next project.  Hosted by a little gray.

Sewing for Boys sew-along: Raw Edge Raglan Tee

I REALLY loved this pattern.  Loved how the final product turned out.  Loved how easy it was.  Loved how quickly it came together.  Loved how much Silas also loves this shirt.  He might try to wear it daily, if I weren't so good at nabbing it to spray and wash after each of his wears.  Let's just say he's really good at getting it dirty, and really needing a good spray after each wearing.

Part of the "challenge" is to embellish the clothing item in some way.  So, since Silas' favorite color is green, I knew that at least some part of this tee would be green.  We also kind-a like Green Lantern around these parts (haven't seen the movie), so hence the embellishment.

I knew I had some scraps of white knit left-over from an ungifted baby nightgown made months ago, and thought it would be cute to do half the sleeves in white, as well as the collar.

Came together slick.  Made in just a couple of hours.  I need to make more of these.  I think a small one would be just so cute on little Oscar... maybe that will be my next project.

I would highly recommend this pattern.  Next month's project is either "Mr Two Face" pants or "Kickin' Back Sweats".  Can't wait.  Join us!  Hosted by boy, oh boy, oh boy.