Hi There Hammy

Three layers of cake +/= three layers of pie…

Brought to you by: Craftzine

HaWOW! Remember all those cucumbers I’ve been amassing over the past few weeks? They finally graduated to PICKLE status this weekend. We made six small jars and two big jars of briny pickles.

The recipe we used from my cousin is pretty simple:

Dill Pickles
1 qt vinegar
3 qts water
1 C salt
Garlic
Dill
Don’t scrub pickles. Wash and let soak overnight in clean cold water. Put
cucumbers in jars (don’t pack tight). Bring solution to full rolling boil and pour
over cucumbers (for 1/2 gallon jar, use about 4 cloves of garlic and 1 large
stalk of dill). Let jars stand a little before sealing.

We’ll see how they turn out in six weeks. The brine made enough for eight small jars and two large jars so we had a little extra.

The fiber arts class took a trip down to the farm to sheer the sheep Sterling has on loan from Bonnieview. I got to step out of the office for a little bit, step into my work pants and check out some of the action.

It had been a while since I’d been down to look at the lambs. All of the sheep have had their babies now (all adorable) and there were quite a few little black lambs (pretty obviously from that handsome fella McCain/Fabio). This particular black lamb was having a great time climbing up his mother and leaping off into the air over his siblings…

Amanda wrestled one of the sheep into the first shearing position almost all by herself. It was great to see people working with sheep and trying to figure out how to wrangle them.

Amanda wanted to make sure her sheep was ok with this whole “reclining” thing. She was rubbing her tum tum and crooning to her while she waited to shear.

In other news, Joe and I have been experimenting with Kombucha. We got a mother from someone at Sterling and made a batch. Which tasted like fizzy apple juice! I think it’s amazing that we can take black tea and sugar and turn it into something that tastes like cider without the alcohol or the apples! All natural and pretty cool to watch.

There’s a website out there that is dedicated to picture-based recipes. Instead of a boring ol’ list, you draw out the ingredients/steps and voila! There’s your recipe! Check out Recipe Look if you want more mixy mixy and choppy choppy…

Well, this is a combination of today and yesterday. Today I baked some bread, did some papier mache and doodled about a little bit. Yesterday I made a craft organizer, a pot holder, and a dish towel. Domestic, eh? I got the idea for an organizer an all those other fabric bits from a book Ashley gave me called Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter.

New bread and a new pot holder. The bread is from my absolute favorite bread recipe from Bread & Honey.

Go ahead, ask me what Linus does all day.

And here’s that sweet organizer I was talking about earlier. And here’s the craft space over all. Ta dah!

Mummy and Dad got me Baking Illustrated for Christmas this year. So far I made the granola, and the spiced biscotti recipes but Joe has been going butter/baking crazy. He’s made the yellow cake (aka cupcakes) and by far the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever EVER tasted. I can’t stress this enough. If you can get your hands on a Baking Illustrated cookbook or the Cook’s Illustrated website subscription MAKE THESE COOKIES. As fast as you can!

I made a batch of grilled naan right before I left for camp, and now you’ve got a recipe for grilled naan over on the cooking blog! I know you’re excited, don’t try to hide it. Embrace it and check it out.

I just put up a new recipe over on the cooking blog! Today it’s Dutch Baby Pancake… check it out, or be square (and minus a good breakfast recipe).

DUTCH BAAAABY PANCAKE TUMMY TIME!

I’ve been working at Twelve Mile Market since Christmas and I have yet to get myself down to Bob’s Red Mill in Clackamas. Sad, isn’t it? Yes, it is. For those of you who haven’t heard of Bob’s or have and just haven’t been to their store or purchased any of their products, listen up, I’m about to tell ya’ll about it. ‘Kay?

Bob’s Red Mill mainly produces grains but there are TONS of other products like beans and lentils and mixes to choose from. They have an impressive selection of gluten free and organic products in addition to their regular food stuffs. Mom and I walked in and my brain let out a little “Ooooohhhhh! Loook!” They have over 400 products and a very good bulk section, everything from muesli to chickpea flower. Mom and I had a very good breakfast there and spent about two hours wandering around collecting a mountain of stuff in the cart. We even got a pasta machine! Woot! I even found some unsweetened coconut (which I’ve had a really hard time finding).

Check out all the bulk grains we got! This cost about $20 and the pasta machine was only $30. Everything is really reasonably priced and it’s right down the road from our nearest Trader Joe’s, so anything we can’t get at Bob’s or Twelve Mile, we can get at Joe’s. Nice, huh? I would definitely recommend Bob’s 10 grain cereal and 5 grain rolled oats mixed together in hot cereal for breakfast the mornings.

I baked a cake for Tyler to take up to Mt. Hood tomorrow when he starts his ski camp. I’ve made this one three times now and it’s turned out delicious every time. You’ve gotta try it! I wrote about it the first time over on Cooking With Hanzipan and I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. There is beer and chocolate and a pinch of cinnamon to make it all tasty. What isn’t fabulous about that idea?! Nothin. Fo sho.