Home-made 2012

This is just a little recap of some of the things I've made over the past year. I don't remember to take photos of everything I create, and some of those things were gifts so I can't ask for them back just to take a picture.

This is a pillow (back-side) I made from a shrunken wool sweater and a pillow form stuffed with dryer lint. Hubby made a face when I told him what the form was made with, but, geez, dude, dryer lint is cleaner than the clothes you have on you! After all, it came from clothes that have been washed and then the lint was thoroughly dried in pretty high heat.

I also made a scarf that is keeping me toasty warm all winter long:

I bought the gorgeous yarn - a combination of mohair and ribbon - from talented Robin. Check out her Etsy site to see her hand-dyed yarn, roving, and hand-woven towels.

I knitted some wash cloths for gifts, but since I didn't get started early enough, only some people got them for Christmas. :} Others will have to wait until next year.

One really cute thing I knitted was for my buddy Tom, who is not only a kind-hearted soul, but also fun and eclectic in tastes:

Guess who?

Some of the best things I made during the year were, of course, food. Here's an apple kuchen:

and a blueberry pie - yummy and nutritious:

A favorite of hubby's is homemade pasta (he whines notes that I don't make it as often as I could).

What was the favorite thing you made this year, for yourself or someone else? Do you also go a little batty if you're not doing something creative or making something by hand?

Happy New Year tomorrow! May your 2013 be as productive as I hope mine will be. :) Thank you for following and reading my blog. I hope you'll continue to drop by and we can learn and laugh through the year together!

p.s. If you're itching for another blog to visit, I'm trying a 365-Day Project and would love to see you there. ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Coconut Cream Pie...oh my!

Hubby won't let me, but I would eat pie everyday if I could...savory pies, sweet pies, or even eat pie crust on its own, like my mom used to.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a coconut cream pie. Wow, was that ever good.  Here's a photo of the toasted coconut, set aside, and the filling in progress:

The recipe I used is from Mark Bittman's book, How to Cook Everything.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 pie crust (I use the one from the same Bittman book; it's the best one I've ever made)

3/4 C sugar [I always reduce the amount of sugar called for]
2 T cornstarch
pinch salt
3-4 eggs, separated
2.5 C whole milk
1 vanilla bean or 2 t vanilla extract
2 T unsalted butter, softened [though I'm not sure why it needs to be softened since you're just putting it into the hot filling]
pinch of Cream of Tartar
1/4 C confectioners' sugar
1 C dried sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut

Toast the coconut by placing it into a dry skillet over very low heat and cooking, shaking almost constantly, until it begins to brown. Remove from pan immediately [with a gas stove, I just remove from heat and leave in pan].

Pre-bake pie crust [according to the directions for the pie crust recipe you're using] and start the filling while the crust is in the oven.  When the crust is done, leave the oven at 350F and cool the crust slightly on a rack.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar with the cornstarch and salt. Mix together the egg yolks and milk. If you're using a vanilla bean, split it and scrape out the seeds; stir them into the milk mixture (reserve the bean itself to make vanilla sugar [recipe in the same cookbook on p. 682]). Stir the milk-egg mixture into the sugar-cornstarch mixture over medium heat; at first whisk occasionally to eliminate lumps.  Then stir almost constantly until the mixture boils and thickens, about 10 minutes. Stir in the butter and toasted coconut (and vanilla extract, if you're using that) and set aside.

Make the meringue: beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar, until foamy. Keep beating, gradually adding the confectioners' sugar, until the mixture is shiny and holds fairly stiff peaks.

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet. Pour the warm filling into the warm crust. Cover with the meringue, making sure the meringue comes in contact with the edges of the crust.  Note that the meringue will hold its shape so you can decorate it if you like.

Bake until meringue is slightly browned, 10-15 minutes.  Cool on a rack, then refrigerate; serve cool.

Speaking of pies, I noticed last month that I had 100 followers and to celebrate, I was going to have a giveaway of the Pillsbury "Easy As Pie" cookbook. However, apparently someone was at the wrong party, realized this, and left. So, now it's back to 99 followers, and no giveaway.

But if it ever goes back to up 100 followers, I'll offer that book! ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

The Bread Challenge

Sangeeth (Let's All Cook) tagged me for the Worldwide Blogger Baker Bake-Off Challenge started by Breadline Africa.

The Blogger Bake Off is an online campaign that challenges bloggers to get involved by baking bread, and then acting by donating to end poverty. And then, challenge their readers and five other bloggers to do the same.

With the money raised, we will be supporting grass roots community projects aimed at ending poverty and hunger in Africa. We’ll be placing container kitchens, vegetable gardens and more in poor communities, sending emergency food relief where needed and helping these poor communities to help themselves.

The rules are:

If you are tagged, bake bread, do something you wouldn’t normally do, and blog about it. Upload your picture and recipe.

Give dough, donate to Breadline Africa and help us end poverty.

I decided to try the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day recipe. Starting with water, sea salt (Fleur de Sel, courtesy of my lovely sister) and yeast:Then I threw in the flour:My flour resides in a 5 gallon bucket - inside the bucket:And the series of buckets (2 are for dog food, and 2 are for flour):Here's the dough, after mixing up the flour, salt, and water mixture:All that was done on Monday. Well, I was busy from Tuesday through Thursday, so didn't get around to making bread out of the dough until Friday. I looked inside the container and the dough isn't looking so hot:But, I followed the directions and tried my best to fold it into a boule. Here's the somewhat square boule on my peel (Alton Brown named his 'Emma'; I'm not quite as clever):I let it rest a good long time, but it never did rise. I finally decided to bake it anyway. Even though I kept shaking it on the peel to make sure it didn't stick, it was apparently stuck anyway and it pulled into a rectangle as I was trying to place it on the baking stone. Ugh. Here's how it looked as it came out.I haven't cut it yet to look inside, but I get the feeling it's a bit too doughy, as one reviewer said on Amazon.com about the recipe in this book. However, I have to say that the bits I pulled off the ends to try did taste remarkably like sourdough. Guess we'll toast the heck out of it before we eat it.

My other baking ventures worked a lot better than the bread. Here are my sweet potato pieand pecan pieGuess I need to go donate some "dough" now.

Speaking of donations; that'll be my topic for tomorrow's post.

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." ~ James Oppenheim