I am not exaggerating when I say that I have been waiting my entire life for this:
Blessed be the Toasted Cheez-It
For real. It's a grand day. I bought four boxes.
One time? My mom and I decided to take matters into our own hands, emptied a box of Cheez-its onto a sheet pan and toasted them ourselves. We considered ourselves geniuses. We were not wrong.
From an interview with Atlanta Magazine, comes this from Tony Bourdain:
I love Ina Garten. She’s one of the few people on Food Network who can actually cook. When Ina Garten roasts a chicken, she roasts it correct. When Ina Garten makes mashed potatoes, those are some solid mashed potatoes. In many ways I want Ina’s life.
WE ALL DO, TONY. We all do.
we have returned from vacation! Cape Cod is beautiful as always, and I wish yet again that we had more time up there, and that Massachusetts was magically an hour and a half from New Jersey instead of minimum five hours (when driving with only grown ups who can suck it up and not pee already . . . oh and blessed by the traffic gods) to seven or nine hours (when driving with small, awake, children who are not easily placated by the magical technology of DVD players in the car and just want to GO GO GO GO NOW NOW NOW at the top of their tiny little lungs). And speaking of small squirmy children . . .
The littlest little enjoyed his time at the Cape, and furthered his obsession with bunnies (and Paw Patrol. Ugh.). His attempts at hopping are hilarious, and really just turn out to be stomping, or stomping REALLY FAST. And he alternates between shooting "BUN!" and "JOR!" when he spys a rabbit, either in real life or as a picture. The JOR is short for George. You see, for whatever reason, my family has always called the many many bunnies hanging out by the house on the cape, "George". Don't ask, even we don't know. Sometimes he's looking for the mama bunny, so it's "BUN! Mama? BUN!" As one does.
A few years ago we picked up a great close up photo of a George from a local Cape photographer, and hung it up in the house in the room where the kids sleep. But now that we are back home, there's only the picture of a bunny on the littlest little's favorite cup and man is he bummed by that.
And last night he requested a bunny of his very own, by trying to snuggle the cup and take it to bed. I asked him if he missed the Georges, and got a very enthusastic "YEAH." I asked if he wanted to snuggle the bunny: "YEAH!" I asked if he wanted me to make him a bunny of his very own to snuggle, and the kiddo practically bounced off my lap with a big "YEAH! BUN! YEAH!"
So bunny softie it shall be. Keep in mind this kid already has a collection of about fifteen animals in his crib--most of them cast offs from the biggest little who really could care less about stuffed animals. The little one though? Carries his baby doll around snuggling her, and gathers up as many animals as he can hold like Navin Johnson with the thermos. "All I need is baby Boo. Baby Boo and this kitty. Baby Boo and this kitty and this hedgehog. And this Plex. And this chair. . . "
I've flipped through my knitting books, including the EXCELLENT Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys (affiliate link), for bunny patterns. I've made her Elefante (ravelry pattern link) for the biggest little a while back, to great success. And she has a great pattern sense.
I like her sock yarn bunny a lot, probably the larger version, but would probably make the arms a bit shorter. I also like Ysolda Teague's bunny--very cute face. Bunnies are weird for softies, I feel like a bunch of them skew a bit too pointy and lean for my tastes--I think it's the shape of the snout. I want something short, stubby, and cute--amigurumi-esque but also still recognizable as a bunny. But as I learned with Elefante and Grumpasaurus, placement of the eyes is crucial--too close and they look evil; too far apart or too big and they're too old school "cute." The big cuddly bunny from Purl Soho is almost too stylized for me, but damn it's cute. This bunny in a blue dress (aka Miffy) is pretty cute, but I'd ditch the dress and go straight up nakey bunny.
And then we get into yarn choice and color. Grey and white? Grey and pink? Brown? My default yarn for this type of thing is a Cascade 220-esque (sturdy, worsted weight wool with good stitch definition and soft but pleasantly wooly), but maybe a furry/chenille type of thing would work well? But would it drive me batshit? (hint: YES IT WOULD)
Or do I go full on "creative" and avoid the realistic colors? Stripeys? Tell me interwebs what to choose!
bubbles! And pond!
posts will be slower than normal this week, and next. On vacation!
#sorrynotsorry
And of course, because I am a nerd, now I am now singing "Clafoutis" to myself, to the tune of "Shipoopi." That will NEVER get out of my head. Ugh, Meredith Wilson.
Doesn't it look pretty? It's also pretty damn tasty, especially with a bit of whipped cream. (never mind the fact that it didn't slice well, eh, whatever)
Shockingly I am the only one in my house who likes warm fruit--who doesn't like pie, I ask you? WHO? Everyone living in my house, except me. Of course, pie and fruit desserts are my favorite. Because of course.
Cherries can sometimes bridge the divide, but still since JBB was away on a trip the day I picked up the CSA share and the box of cherries, I figured why not make something I like. And something that is easy. Because I am lazy.
And so clafoutis! Which is essential an eggy pancake batter poured over fruit in a cake pan or pie tin, and baked in the oven. It puffs up, browns lightly and is fantastic hot or cold. Traditionally, it's made with cherries, with the pits in, which lends a bit of an almond flavor. But you can use almost any kind of fruit--berries are great, but so are plums and peaches. And the method is dead easy: arrange fruit in a pie dish, mix together wet ingredients, dump in flour, and pour over fruit. Bake and DONE.
I turn to the clafoutis pretty often in the season, because you can easily adjust the size you make to the amount of fruit you have, and because it works so beautfully with so many types of fruit. Today it was cherries, and though I do love a traditional French clafoutis and don't mind eating around pits myself, I have kids, and kids do things like choke on pits, I went with pitted cherries and turned my counter in a cherry murder scene.
before the crime.
While technically the cherry pitter is a unitasker (I mean, it also pits olives! But it still just pits things), it's also way easier than all the non-unitasker methods of pitting cherries (poking them out with a chopstick or skewer, using a loop of a paper clip) and way quicker.
cherry splatter patterns
It does leave a bit of a mess though, so do it over a bowl or something.
all ready to go
The batter for clafoutis is essentially a crepe batter, and it really does come together in less than five minutes. That's 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 1/2 cup of sugar in that batter bowl (isn't it great? I love batter bowls with the handle and pouring spout. This one I picked up at a pottery place on Cape Cod), and 1 cup of milk in the measuring cup. Once again, I am lazy, and so I melted the butter in the cup first, poured it into the bowl and then reused the cup for the milk.
homemade vanilla and batter. And sippy cup. And wine.
Even though almond flavor can be traditional for the clafoutis, I went with vanilla because I like it better. That's my bottle of homemade vanilla that's been in use since 2008 (refilled countless times from the giant jar of homemade vanilla that's stashed in the pantry--remind me and I'll write about that sometime)
wet meets dry
Whisk up the wet ingredients (and yes, the sugar counts as wet), dump in the flour and whisk again. This is pretty much exactly the way I make crepes, the only difference is the amount of flour. Tweak the proportions to be a bit more flour heavy, add a leavener and you get a pancake. Tweak a bit looser and you have a full on crepe batter. And it's easy to adjust the levels of batter to suit your fruit--just adjust the proportions based on how many eggs to use.
the pour
Then pour the batter over the fruit. Note something missing in the pic above? That's right, I forgot to butter the damn dish, before assembling. Because OF COURSE I DID. This basically means that you get no beauty shot of the perfect slice of clafoutis at the end of the day because the damn thing won't come out pretty. It tastes great, but doesn't slice well.
So lesson here? DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO. Butter the damn dish before doing anything else.
pretty! raw!
But doesn't it look pretty now, before it's fused to the damn pan? It does! And look, I even thought to put it on a sheet pan to make it a hell of a lot easier to get in and out of the oven (and in case of spills or overflow).
35-40 minutes later? Voila! You are done! Let it cool a bit, serve warm (perhaps, pried out of the pan if you also forgot to butter the damn pan), or cold.
And here's the recipe, tweaked and adapted from several clafoutis recipes.
Clafoutis
Preheat oven to 325 deg. BUTTER A PIE OR CAKE DISH. Arrange fruit in single layer in dish and set aside on a sheet pan.
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, melted butter, and milk until thoroughly combined. Add in the flour and whisk--you're going for zero lumps. The butter may make a few little ones, but you're really looking out for flour lumps.
Pour batter over fruit, and carefully place in oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is set and top is pale gold. Let cool in the pan, dust with powdered sugar. Slice and serve warm or cold with lightly whipped cream, ice cream, more fruit, or just a fork.
And here's the second mug, coming from the spring 2015 session of my pottery class.
This one is a much frostier green, but still has a bit of a sheen to it, and isn't pure matte. This one also pools blue because SHOCKER I choose green and blue glaze combos.
This is another runny but really pretty combo: standard pottery pale seaweed, topped with a dip of moss. Moss is a semi-matte, almost like velvet, and pale seaweed is a pale frosty matte mint that can puddle bright blue and glossy. Together the chemistry turns them into this combo, which I find lovely.
please to note, you can also see where I whacked the mug off kilter where I attached the handle. Oops.
Again, you can't quite see the blue puddle in the bottom, but trust, it's there.
This is another mug where I purposefully created a glaze catch while trimming the foot, just to give the glaze runs a place to pool and collect and (hopefully) not run all the way down the foot and fuse the bugger to the shelf.
So the spring session of pottery has wrapped up, which means I now have a bunch of pieces back with me. I've been working on mug forms, because handles are a pain in the ass and clay shrinkage is also a pain in the ass, and I will figure this out if it kills me.
But I came out of these last few classes with two mugs that I'm very pleased with. Today, mug the first, aka, a seaweed mug.
the seaweed mug. shows the variations, but not quite nailing it on color. But, ooh, look at my filthy porch newel post!
This is the same glaze combo as yesterday's bowl, and the first of these older mugs--one dip chambray, one dip frosted moss.
inside the seaweed mug. Can't quite see the true blue pool in the bottom.
I'm pretty happy with the size and form of this mug as well. The handle sits nicely, and isn't too thin or too chunky for my taste. The body is big enough to hold a giant cup of coffee, and I'm happy with the points of attachment on the handle, with the thumb rest doodad and the little roll at the bottom.
most accurate to color, and shows the pooling around the details and the glaze catch. Also, my lawn!
I'd done a glaze catch at the bottom while trimming the foot, and it's a damn good thing I did with this glaze. Even though I thinned out the glaze on the bottom of the body after the second dip and wiping the foot clean of extra glaze, it still ran a ton, and puddled blue right at the catch. Also note my thumbprint which the glaze ran clear over.
Those lighter areas look at first like places where the glaze is thin or broke too much over the edge, but they're still pretty smooth to the touch. It definitely broke hard on the edges of the handle though.
Not literally a seaweed bowl. But a glaze combo that to me looks like seaweed, and pools a deep clear blue.
pretty pools of blue. please to note the sippy cup in the background, along with the ikea bowl with the dregs of broccoli. KLASSY!
One dip Standard pottery glaze chambray under one dip frosted moss. I love it
I've used this combination on at least one or two other pieces, but I think I've finally nailed it's quirks a bit more. It pools blue where the chambray was heavy--which I used to my advantage inside the bowl and didn't quite dump all the chambray out while glazing. But only on the inside of a bowl because this combination is super fucking runny. This piece has a bit of a ridge to act as a glaze catch, so it didn't run down the foot and onto the shelf.
see the mottling? Also say hi to my dad (and the messy kitchen). Hi Mr. Tom!
It's glossy, but translucent on the edges and texture and breaks a bit browny green on edges. But when the dips are too thin, it's dry. Where the frosted moss was heavier, it brings up some of the lighter colors and looks as though it'd be matte (as the frosted moss is a matte glaze on its own), but is still shiny with a bit more of a velvet sheen.
My name's Jen. I make stuff using yarn, fiber, clay, words, etc.
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