I've Been Sewing

Winter woods pillow


T-shirt bag


T-shirt bag


T-shirt bag

I've been doing some sewing and added these to my shop. All made from recycled materials.

Featured in Retro Handmade

Red Mushroom Home

My little house was featured on the Retro Handmade blog today!
Thanks Lisa!

Pumpkin

Pumpkin soup with garlic cream


Roasted pumpkin seeds


Baked pumpkin

Yesterday I got 7 pumpkins to store and last through the winter, and baked one today. I roasted the seeds too - delicious! I'm going to make some soup and a pie.

I just made the soup and it was pretty easy. Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Soup

2 c pumpkin pulp
1 c water
1 chicken bullion cube
salt
pepper
curry
garlic
cayenne pepper
cumin

Heat the pulp, water and bullion on medium heat. Blend with a stick blender (if you don't have one put it in your blender or food processor). Then add the spices to taste. I just sprinkled a dash of everything. I topped it off with some garlic cream I had leftover from a party. Very tasty!

Garlic Cream

2 heads garlic
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 c parmesan
salt
splash of milk

Cut the tops off of the 2 heads of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven for an hour at 400. Let them cool and then squeeze the garlic out into a bowl. Mix together with the cream cheese. Add parmesan and salt and mix. I do this with a fork but you can use a hand mixer if you like. Add a little milk to make it spreadable. Serve with crackers (or put it on your soup!). I made water crackers with caraway seeds to serve with it.

Owl Cozy

Owl cozy for french press


Keeping warm


Handmade cozy

I made this owl french press cozy from recycled clothing. It has polyfil and mylar sandwiched in the middle for optimum insulation. And I added magnets for the closure, they are sewn inside the material. It works really well and keeps the coffee hot!

Kale Chips

Kale


Wash the leaves


Tossed in oil


Baked chips

I made some kale chips this afternoon. They are delicious! And very easy to make.
I bought two kale plants for decoration outside and decided to start eating them. If you pick off a few leaves everyday to eat, buying the plant works out to be much cheaper than buying a bunch at the grocery store. Next year I need to plant them in the garden.
If you need to eat more leafy greens this is a good way to do it.

Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tahini sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
dash salt
dash cayenne pepper

Wash and dry the kale. Tear into pieces and put in a mixing bowl. Add the other ingredients and toss together. Spread the leaves out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Making Crackers

Homemade crackers


Mix the flour, water and oil


Add the cheese


Roll out the crackers


Swiss garlic, swiss pepper, and cheddar pecan crackers

These crackers are light and delicious! And very easy to make. Here is the recipe:

Homemade Crackers

3 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 c water
1/3 c oil
1 1/2 c shredded cheese
sea salt

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. If you want to add any herbs or pepper add it now (eg. 1 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp dill, 1 tsp oregano, etc.)
Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water and oil. You can use different kinds of oil for more flavor. I used Walnut oil. Stir with a wooden spoon. Then mix the cheese in by hand. Roll out very thin on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. I found it easier to roll out strips of dough than to roll out the whole mass.
Bake for 10 minutes (or until brown) at 350. Break into pieces to serve. Great with soup!
I added pecans to one batch - you can add 1/2 c of any kind of nuts for more crunch.

You'll be amazed at how simple and addictive these are.

Sweet Potatoes and Sage

I made this dish today for lunch and it was yummy!


Sage from my mother's garden


Sweet Potatoes


Saute


Steam


Serve

My son was over for lunch and he is a vegetarian so I made this dish for him. It's really good so you might want to try it.

Sweet Potatoes and Sage

1 large sweet potato
6 sage leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 c water
2 tbsp butter

Shred the sweet potato - I like to use my food processor. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the sage leaves. Add sweet potatoes to the pan and saute about 10 minutes. Boil some water in a tea kettle. Make a well (a space in the middle) in the sweet potatoes and pour about a cup of the water in the middle. This will steam the potatoes. Stir around until the water evaporates. Then add the butter and serve with the sage leaves. 2 servings

This is a great fall dish.

Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween - it's the most wonderful time of the year!


Scaredy cat


Young zombie couple


Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkinhead

Here are a few things I've been working on for Halloween. Some can be seen in my shop Picturama. It's getting cold here and the leaves are falling. I just hope it doesn't snow like last year!

Shopping

I'm listing some new things in my shops today.


Vintage paperweight


Antique Lidded Soup Tureen


Linen pumpkins

The paperweight is charming. It has a picture of 2 ducks landing on a winter pond. The tureen is very nice and comes with a ladle. I made the 2 pumpkins out of recycled linen and gave them brown wool sweater stems. Feel free to shop!

Little Quail

Little Quail Pillow


Quail detail

I just finished this pillow and put it in my shop. It's free-hand machine embroidery with hand embroidered accents.

Rose Hips

Rose hip jelly

I just finished canning a batch of rose hip jelly. It has a sort of appley taste and a pretty amber color.

Wild Grapes

Wild grape jam


Delicious!

We found some wild grape vines in the park and brought home a bag full to make jam.
The grape flavor is so intense and reminds me of the beautiful fall day we looked up and saw all those grape clusters growing on the vines in the willow tree by the creek.
Go out and look for wild grapes in your neighborhood. If you find some make some jam. Here is the recipe:

Wild Grape Jam

1 bag of grapes (5 c juice)
7 c sugar
1 box of pectin

Pick as many grape clusters as will fill a plastic grocery bag. Don't worry about the stems, you will strain them out later. Put the grapes in a big bucket and cover with water. Let this sit over night, it will kill the bugs and they will float to the top. Pour off the water and rinse them again. Pick out any green grapes and the large stems.
Take a large stock pot and put the grape clusters in it, and just cover with water. As you go, pick out any grapes that are damaged or shriveled.
Bring to a low boil and mash with a potato masher for 10 minutes. Let this cool. Strain the grape juice into a bowl. Use the masher to try to get all the juice out. Discard or compost the stems, skins, and seeds.
Measure 5 cups of the grape juice and put in a stock pot. Stir in the box of pectin and bring to a boil. Measure 7 cups of sugar into a bowl and have it ready to pour into the pot all together. When the pectin and juice is all mixed together, pour the sugar in and bring to a rolling boil while stirring. Boil for exactly one minute, then remove from heat. Pour into clean sterile jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. This will make 8 or 9 half pint jars of jam.

Fall Foraging

Fall is here and it is foraging season! My sister and I have been out in the fields and hedgerows looking for fruit to make into syrups and jellies.


Elderberry syrup

We found a lot of elderberries and made syrup. It has a beautiful garnet color.


Boiling elderberries for syrup


Mashing the berries

The syrup can be used in many ways. Over pancakes and waffles, added to club soda for a sparkling drink, added to white wine for a fruit punch, and I will make some of it up into jelly.
I used it in the Spicy Pear dessert I made for my daughter when she came for a visit and it was delicious! This is based on a medieval dish I read about. Here is the recipe:

Spicy Elderberry Pears

4 pears
3 c red wine
3 tbsp elderberry syrup
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
3 peppercorns

Peel and core the pears and place in sauce pan. Pour wine and syrup over them. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and pepper corns. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the pears begin to soften. Serve them hot and the pears will be pink, or let them cool and put them in the refrigerator overnight and the pears will absorb more wine and be dark purple. I like to serve them over Greek yoghurt.


Spicy elderberry pears

We also found a lot of crabapples and made them into jam.


Crabapple jam


Crabapple jam

This stuff is yummy! We found several different types of crabapples and mixed them all together. This jam is a pretty pinky peach color and tastes very appley.
We also picked wild grapes, highbush cranberries, and rose hips. Those will all be made into jams and jellies too.

I've Been Stalked!

The blog Etsy Stalker featured my Meh Robot pin today.


Meh Robot

Thanks Beatrice and Violet!

Tree Pillow

Tree pillow

I've been doing more free hand machine stitching. This is done on recycled linen in black thread and sewn into a little pillow.

Eggplant Dinner

I have lots of eggplants now so I decided to try some new recipes for them.
Spicy Eggplant Rolls
Eggplant Stir Fry
Eggplant Bruschetta


Eggplants, plums and parsley


I grilled slices for the eggplant rolls


Eggplant rolls with spicy tomato sauce


Fried eggplant for the stir fry


I roasted the eggplant and a head of garlic for the bruschetta


Roasted plums

Everything was delicious! For dessert I roasted plums with a little olive oil and brown sugar and served it over greek yoghurt.