Tuesday, October 28, 2008
the shiiiindig
We had a super fun, albeit windy, fall party/birthday party for Christina on Saturday. I made a video, so I don't think I need to say much more than: Happy Birthday, Christina! Thank you, everyone who came. :)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
oatmeal cinnamon-raisin scones
Oatmeal cinnamon-raisin scones are... *quickly searches handy thesaurus* ... scrumptious, mouthwatering, delectable. Yum. Another Baking Illustrated recipe.
1 & 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats, or instant oats
1/4 whole milk
1/4 heavy cream
1 egg
1 & 1/2 cup unbleached, low-protein flour, like Gold Medal (not King Arthur. If you use King Arthur, make sure to add a tbsp or two more milk)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup raisins
I didn't have whole milk or heavy cream, so I just used 1/2 cup half and half, which seemed to work just as beautifully. Also, if you don't have unsalted butter (is an advocate of salted butter!), you can use salted, just remember not to put the extra salt in.
Spread the oats onto a cookie sheet.
And toast in the oven at 375, until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool. Prepare a baking sheet. It says to use parchment paper, so if you have some, go for it. I had no problem with a naked pan.
Turn up the oven to 450.
Mix together cream, milk and egg in a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside 1 tbsp for glaze.
Put flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and salt in a food processor, fitted with a blade. Pulse until mixed, about 4 or so one-second pulses. Chop up the butter into small pats and dump on top of the flour mixture, then pulse about 14 one-second pulses, or until its the consistency of rough cornmeal. Mm.
Pour into separate, large mixing bowl. Add oats and raisins, keeping 2 tbsp of oats behind for use in dusting workspace. Pour in liquid mixture and fold together with a spatula until it forms these lovely mashy clumps. Then, the fun part... make sure your hands are clean, then dig into it yourself. I love squishing food with my hands: ground beef, mashed potatoes, frosting, if it's mushy I like to mush it. Anyway, back to the recipe. Knead it in the bowl, until it's in one cohesive mass.
Then, if you have one, use a 9 inch round cake pan. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with half of your set aside oats, plop the ball in the middle, and squash it evenly into the pan, until it is flat. Then sprinkle the top with the other half of the oats, pat them, and move on with life. You can use a dough scraper or a brownie cutter or a chef's knife to cut the pie-like dough into eight parts. Taking the parts out may be kind of tricky, depending on the consistency of your dough. If they take a bit of smushing to come out, just reshape them.
Place them on your prepared baking sheet, 2 inch apart. Get out your 1 tbsp of cream/egg mixture and brush it onto each wedge, then top with 1 tbsp of sugar. By that I mean, start with 1 tbsp and use it for all of the scones, not a tbsp each. Which might seem obvious to you, but I found myself wondering what the book meant. o.o
Stick them in the oven for 12-14 minutes. They will look DELICIOUS and make you begin to hyperventilate, from the mouthwatering aroma of autumn cinnamon, and wholesome, hearty oats... but don't burn your face off trying to take a whiff from the oven, like someone silly. Not me. I wouldn't do anything so silly.
Wash dishes while you're waiting. It's a clever time-passing trick. Take pictures of your faucet, it really boosts your dish-washing energy levels.
This is how mine looked. *drools*
They were perfect. Fluffy, but dense, oaty, cinnamony, raisiny, and the glaze was delicious on top.
I strongly advise you to make them. Bake them. Eat them. Have some tea or milk or coffee. You'll feel like life is even more worth living. Honest. But you really should eat them outside, on a table in the yard, with a table cloth and a little vase of flowers, and your bestest friends or family with you. On your best china. That is what you should really do.
p.s. i wrote these instructions down by memory. do not come after me for vengeance if it goes wrong somehow, because i forgot to mention that the main ingredient is a cup of shrimp w/ heads. :D
1 & 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats, or instant oats
1/4 whole milk
1/4 heavy cream
1 egg
1 & 1/2 cup unbleached, low-protein flour, like Gold Medal (not King Arthur. If you use King Arthur, make sure to add a tbsp or two more milk)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup raisins
I didn't have whole milk or heavy cream, so I just used 1/2 cup half and half, which seemed to work just as beautifully. Also, if you don't have unsalted butter (is an advocate of salted butter!), you can use salted, just remember not to put the extra salt in.
Spread the oats onto a cookie sheet.
And toast in the oven at 375, until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool. Prepare a baking sheet. It says to use parchment paper, so if you have some, go for it. I had no problem with a naked pan.
Turn up the oven to 450.
Mix together cream, milk and egg in a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside 1 tbsp for glaze.
Put flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and salt in a food processor, fitted with a blade. Pulse until mixed, about 4 or so one-second pulses. Chop up the butter into small pats and dump on top of the flour mixture, then pulse about 14 one-second pulses, or until its the consistency of rough cornmeal. Mm.
Pour into separate, large mixing bowl. Add oats and raisins, keeping 2 tbsp of oats behind for use in dusting workspace. Pour in liquid mixture and fold together with a spatula until it forms these lovely mashy clumps. Then, the fun part... make sure your hands are clean, then dig into it yourself. I love squishing food with my hands: ground beef, mashed potatoes, frosting, if it's mushy I like to mush it. Anyway, back to the recipe. Knead it in the bowl, until it's in one cohesive mass.
Then, if you have one, use a 9 inch round cake pan. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with half of your set aside oats, plop the ball in the middle, and squash it evenly into the pan, until it is flat. Then sprinkle the top with the other half of the oats, pat them, and move on with life. You can use a dough scraper or a brownie cutter or a chef's knife to cut the pie-like dough into eight parts. Taking the parts out may be kind of tricky, depending on the consistency of your dough. If they take a bit of smushing to come out, just reshape them.
Place them on your prepared baking sheet, 2 inch apart. Get out your 1 tbsp of cream/egg mixture and brush it onto each wedge, then top with 1 tbsp of sugar. By that I mean, start with 1 tbsp and use it for all of the scones, not a tbsp each. Which might seem obvious to you, but I found myself wondering what the book meant. o.o
Stick them in the oven for 12-14 minutes. They will look DELICIOUS and make you begin to hyperventilate, from the mouthwatering aroma of autumn cinnamon, and wholesome, hearty oats... but don't burn your face off trying to take a whiff from the oven, like someone silly. Not me. I wouldn't do anything so silly.
Wash dishes while you're waiting. It's a clever time-passing trick. Take pictures of your faucet, it really boosts your dish-washing energy levels.
This is how mine looked. *drools*
They were perfect. Fluffy, but dense, oaty, cinnamony, raisiny, and the glaze was delicious on top.
I strongly advise you to make them. Bake them. Eat them. Have some tea or milk or coffee. You'll feel like life is even more worth living. Honest. But you really should eat them outside, on a table in the yard, with a table cloth and a little vase of flowers, and your bestest friends or family with you. On your best china. That is what you should really do.
p.s. i wrote these instructions down by memory. do not come after me for vengeance if it goes wrong somehow, because i forgot to mention that the main ingredient is a cup of shrimp w/ heads. :D
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
project green bean
This Sunday was Project Day at the Green Bean! I made this video... Just a fun documentation of the day.
Wish that the quality wasn't so crappy... :(
Monday, October 13, 2008
lots of different things
I've started sewing again. I have two projects: a patchwork quilt made from half muslin (love), half vintage scraps we found in the attic, plus some other patterns... and the second is a soft book that will be absolutely cute - when I finish it someday. XD I've finished one page. I love sewing... I have about 20 more squares to cut for the quilt (cutting is so tedious) and then I can sew it together!! So exciting.
We washed our new trampoline today. We got it off of Craig's List for pretty cheap and it's really nice.
Who wants to guess who it is washing the tramp? Me or Quinn, Quinn or I?
heheh.
We had milk and lovely homemade chocolate chip cookies for tea today.
mmm.
and then everything went daaaark
The power went out on Saturday night, just as we were finishing the second season (or 'series' as the Brits say) of House of Eliott. It was kind of sad, because we were almost really interested in what was happening.
But then we got out candles. I love candles. I was rather giddy. And then I wasn't sleepy, so I read more of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography by candlelight. Ev'rs'a historical. That's how they said "ever so" in London in the 20's. Aren't you glad?
Speaking of Ben's autobiography... I really dig his 13 Virtues.
this was another crappy pic that I fixed up... tried to make it look kind of oldish. :)
This one is focused on my fingerprint on the jar in which the candle is sitting.
But then we got out candles. I love candles. I was rather giddy. And then I wasn't sleepy, so I read more of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography by candlelight. Ev'rs'a historical. That's how they said "ever so" in London in the 20's. Aren't you glad?
Speaking of Ben's autobiography... I really dig his 13 Virtues.
this was another crappy pic that I fixed up... tried to make it look kind of oldish. :)
This one is focused on my fingerprint on the jar in which the candle is sitting.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
wallpaper
Yesterday I spent nearly all of my time learning Adobe Illustrator, from tutorials, playing around, to watching graphic design videos. It was really, really fun, and I learned loads. I also realized that Illustrator is not, in fact, a completely annoying and hard-to-work-with program... instead I'm just so swift with Photoshop that being awkward in Illustrator seems horrible. (Btw... don't you dig the word "swift?")
Anyway, after really getting to know the pen tool (awesome), I started making a big canvas of stuff I was learning. The first thing I did was the swirly stripes of colors, then the text, then the... dot dot dot. It was really fun and empowering. I'm posting it here... Anyone who wants it as a desktop can totally have it. :)
(click to enlarge. it's 1680 x 1050 pixels, which is the dimension of my screen...)
Anyway, after really getting to know the pen tool (awesome), I started making a big canvas of stuff I was learning. The first thing I did was the swirly stripes of colors, then the text, then the... dot dot dot. It was really fun and empowering. I'm posting it here... Anyone who wants it as a desktop can totally have it. :)
(click to enlarge. it's 1680 x 1050 pixels, which is the dimension of my screen...)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
i'm grand
Hi there. How are you? I hope you're good, because I'm grand. Yesterday, as we were coming home from Quinn's Taiji class, I kind of felt sick, so when I got home I sort of... just went to bed. At 7:30. It was a weird occasion. So, in the middle of the night, I woke up and the first thing I thought was "pity I didn't wake up at dawn, dawn would be fun, must be kind of early if the stupid roosters haven't crowed me out of my warm snuggly bed through the closed window." So I pondered on what time it could be. I could heard Dad snoring, so it was before 6 am, because he hadn't gone to work yet.
Then an idea occurred to me. What if it was like 11:00 or something horrible like that. So I decided to get up and brush my teeth, because I hadn't done that before hitting the sack. As I passed M&D's room, I saw the digital alarm clock, blaring, in red neon, "11:54."
All I thought was, "aw man." So I found out Mom was just going to bed, we talked for a bit, I got something to eat, did homework for a while, and listened to Coldplay. I like Coldplay a lot... I happened to be learning about poetry and rhythm in American Lit., which Coldplay uses constantly. :D Anyway, then I went back to sleep an hour later and slept til 9:30... I slept nearly 12 hours. And I'm likin' it.
This is an example of what might happen if my hair and a brush get together. And for anyone who doesn't believe me when I say my eyes are GREEN with a little brown, here's some good proof.
Rain has been pouring down all day long. It's awesome. For tea we decided to make scones again, but we didn't have the same recipe, so we looked up one online, but it wasn't the same. We were also out of sugar, so we used some cinnamon sugar we had stored up. However, the dough was so STICKY that I couldn't knead it or do anything with it. We ended up globbing weird gooey lumps on the cookie sheet. They turned out yummy, though. :)
This is a pic of my tea. For a random fact of the day, I used Lightroom setting "Kate" on it. :) Sara inspired me to name my presets after TV show characters. I picked LOST. I'm going to save something yummy for Sawyer.
Raindrops.
I have a trick. A secret, amazing trick. When I take really, really bad pictures, like this one, all I do is ... use the KATE preset! Translated into normal-person-language: turn it black and white, hit the contrast wayyyy up and just pretend that it's really classy.
See, this is the original:
I actually TAKE really crappy pictures, most of the time. Just happen to be a tasteful cheater. :D Now you know my secretest secret.
Then an idea occurred to me. What if it was like 11:00 or something horrible like that. So I decided to get up and brush my teeth, because I hadn't done that before hitting the sack. As I passed M&D's room, I saw the digital alarm clock, blaring, in red neon, "11:54."
All I thought was, "aw man." So I found out Mom was just going to bed, we talked for a bit, I got something to eat, did homework for a while, and listened to Coldplay. I like Coldplay a lot... I happened to be learning about poetry and rhythm in American Lit., which Coldplay uses constantly. :D Anyway, then I went back to sleep an hour later and slept til 9:30... I slept nearly 12 hours. And I'm likin' it.
This is an example of what might happen if my hair and a brush get together. And for anyone who doesn't believe me when I say my eyes are GREEN with a little brown, here's some good proof.
Rain has been pouring down all day long. It's awesome. For tea we decided to make scones again, but we didn't have the same recipe, so we looked up one online, but it wasn't the same. We were also out of sugar, so we used some cinnamon sugar we had stored up. However, the dough was so STICKY that I couldn't knead it or do anything with it. We ended up globbing weird gooey lumps on the cookie sheet. They turned out yummy, though. :)
This is a pic of my tea. For a random fact of the day, I used Lightroom setting "Kate" on it. :) Sara inspired me to name my presets after TV show characters. I picked LOST. I'm going to save something yummy for Sawyer.
Raindrops.
I have a trick. A secret, amazing trick. When I take really, really bad pictures, like this one, all I do is ... use the KATE preset! Translated into normal-person-language: turn it black and white, hit the contrast wayyyy up and just pretend that it's really classy.
See, this is the original:
I actually TAKE really crappy pictures, most of the time. Just happen to be a tasteful cheater. :D Now you know my secretest secret.
Monday, October 6, 2008
i read banned books!
Today we had a rather unsuccessful trip to Town. There was a to-do about leaving behind library cards and deposit slips, but I would say that I am glad that we went, because I got these three shots, which I like.
Apparently it's Banned Book Week... So I got a sticker!
So, as for the list... There was a list of 100 banned books. I've read about six that were on that list, including the Harry Potter Series (love!), To Kill a Mockingbird (was really good), the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (awesome), all of the Roald Dahl books (British genius!), and a few more that I can't think of. :)
I keep laughing out loud at this picture. Every time I see it. These are the kind of books that really could be banned, and the world would not mourn... but if that were the case, I would not have laughed half so much today! I DIG those shorts!
Apparently it's Banned Book Week... So I got a sticker!
So, as for the list... There was a list of 100 banned books. I've read about six that were on that list, including the Harry Potter Series (love!), To Kill a Mockingbird (was really good), the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (awesome), all of the Roald Dahl books (British genius!), and a few more that I can't think of. :)
I keep laughing out loud at this picture. Every time I see it. These are the kind of books that really could be banned, and the world would not mourn... but if that were the case, I would not have laughed half so much today! I DIG those shorts!
randomosity
A random post:
Did you know that those silky soccer pants with the white stripes down the sides are actually made of knitted nylon, and all of those little holes are made like you would make a button hole. I find this very fun and interesting.
Pretty cracks in a tree.
This shot was supposed to be of my boots (that greenish blue blur back there) but I didn't realize that when I sat the camera in the grass that it was set on Macro... Cool anyway.
I take this picture every fall. There is something about the light and long shadow that you don't see in the summer.
Did you know that those silky soccer pants with the white stripes down the sides are actually made of knitted nylon, and all of those little holes are made like you would make a button hole. I find this very fun and interesting.
Pretty cracks in a tree.
This shot was supposed to be of my boots (that greenish blue blur back there) but I didn't realize that when I sat the camera in the grass that it was set on Macro... Cool anyway.
I take this picture every fall. There is something about the light and long shadow that you don't see in the summer.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
chris & jennifer's wedding
Yesterday I shot a wedding with Sara & Casey - it was a pretty fun day (at least I had fun). I'm going to throw together a slideshow/video this week (yay) but for right now, I just wanted to post three of my favorites (that I shot). Jennifer, the bride, was really sweet and pretty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)