finger thumb

I'll take what's behind door number three

Or rather, what's in box number one.
But that's wasn't as catchy a title. So, here's the story. You know that Hubs and I are both big thrifters/second hand buyers/scroungers/garbage pickers, right? So he stopped by the e-waste bin at the end of our road today, (for those of you who don't know, e-waste bins are where people can dispose of their old broken phones/computers/whatevers that might be toxic, for safe disposal. So obviously it is a repository for cool junk, though it often gets used as a random dumping place for anything that has to be plugged in. Lots of microwaves.) because he saw some promising looking overflow. He came home and told me about this mystery bin. So I wandered over there with my friend Laura and look what we found:

Can you believe that? Its like someone's childhood all crammed into one box.

And that childhood clearly happend during the 80's.

I probably am not going to keep all of these. I'll comb through them when I have some time and find what is of most interest/has the best play value. But I think it'll be fun to walk down memory lane along the way. I'll post some of the cooler/more obscure things I find next week. 

gluten free dairy free pizza dough

A friend of mine who has a recent Celiac diagnonsis (and a very pretty blog, and awesome etsy shop Cubits, for all your heirloom seed needs) asked me for this recipe on Facebook the other day. It is such a staple around here, and so relatively quick and easy (not as easy as pulling a pizza out of the freezer and slamming it in the oven, but you know) that I thought I should share it here on the blog. I used the pizza crust recipe from Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone (an excellent book, I highly recommend it if you are going wheat free and dairy free, especially with kids) as my starting place, but have modified it a bit both in ingredients and method, enough so that I feel like it is different enough to post it here.  Also, I should note that this is a very thin pizza crust, bordering on crispy around the edges because that's how we like it 'round here. Perhaps if you roll it out less thinly than I do, you could have a doughier crust, if that's what you're into. 

First of all, you are going to need some of Silvana's Flour Mix, the recipe for which can be found here. I really like this blend, though to be fair I have not tried too many others. This is one of the first few that I tried on our Gluten free journey and it works well, so I haven't really investigated that many alternatives. But maybe you have a flour mix that works well for you. If so, you could probably use that.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Pizza Crust

2 cups Gluten Free Flour Mix

1 1/2 tsps active yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp kosher salt (regular salt will work too)

1 tsp dried oregano

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

2 tbsps olive oil, plus more for brushing on the crusts.

Parchment paper for rolling out the dough. 

First thing you are going to do is start the yeast. In a small glass overproof bowl, mix together the half cup of warm water, the yeast and the sugar. Depending on how warm your kitchen is, or what kind of a rush you are in (frankly, I'm always in a rush, and my kitchen is not so warm) you can either just let it proof on the counter, or as I do (rush, rush) you preheat your over to 100 degrees, and then put it in there to proof. You know its ready when it has gotten all frothy and stuff. 

Meanwhile, mix together your flour, salt and oregano in a large bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg whites, and the olive oil, give it a little mix and then add your yeast/water/sugar mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until it all sticks together. If it seems to sticky at this point, you can add more flour until it seems to be the right texture to you. 

Turn your oven up to 450 degrees.

Divide the dough into two portions and turn one of them out onto a square of parchment paper. Sprinkle it with a bit of flour and lay another square of parchment paper over it, and roll it out into a circle. I like to roll it really thin. Like, less than a quarter inch, for sure. Probably more than an eighth of an inch though. Hard to say exactly how thick, but basically just thick enough not to tear when I pull off the top layer of parchement paper.

Then, peel off the top layer of paper. Pour a little dollop of olive oil on top and spread it around with your fingers. Then lift the whole thing, bottom paper and all onto a cookie sheet, pizza pan, or pizza stone. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Now you have two crusts. (You can also divide the dough into four and make personal sized mini-pizza's which really appeals to the kids.)

Put the two crusts into your preheated oven. Make sure the racks are not in the bottom position. Let them bake for about 8 minutes. Pull 'em out and using a large metal spatula type thing, slide it between the crust and the parchment paper and then flip it over. So they are still on the paper, but now they have been turned. Return them to the oven to cook the other side for another 8 minutes. (Unless you don't want them to crispy, in which case put the toppings on before you cook the second side)

So now you've cooked both sides. At this point, you could leave them to cool and then wrap them up and put them in the freezer for later. Or you can go ahead, put your toppings and sauce on them, and then put them back in the over for another 6 minutes or so. We usually pre-cook most of our toppings (bacon, mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus, whatever) in a pan, so really, it just needs a quick heating, and not so much a cooking. But if your toppings need more of a cooking, go back and put them on before you cook the second side of the crusts, and then they will get more of the time they need. 

So there you are! You can have pizza! I make this once or twice a week, as the Little Dude loves it. I'd love to hear your feedback if you get a chance to make these. Enjoy.

summer dinner

I realize I've been neglecting the blog a bit this week. I have a very good excuse though; an out-of-town friend is staying with us for a couple of weeks while she is in town for work and so my evenings are filled with tea and chocolate and chatting about art and parenting and popular culture and all the things we like and are mutually pre-occupied with. And I look up at the clock and suddenly, it is near midnight! How did that happen? And another evening slips by without a blog post. But I will not let it happen tonight! No, I say. For tonight, we had corn on the cob and it was worth a few pictures. Yeah, I know, its waaaaay too early in the season for local corn, so this came from the States, but it was still reasonably good. Not as good as the stuff we get from the guy who has a stand in the corner of the Canadian Tire parking lot across from the local library (that guy has the best corn in town. I stop there at least twice a week in corn season) but still, it was worth it for the taste of summer. Also, the boys had not had corn on the cob since last year, and the Baby did not even remember how to eat it, so it was lots of fun.  First of all, (and ever so annoyingly) I could not find the little corn-prick handle thingys anywhere! They only ever live in ONE place in my house (underneath the cutlery drawer) and when I went to find them, seconds before we sat down for dinner they were AWOL. Argh. So our stop-gap solution was to use the extremely sharp three-tined dessert forks that I got as a wedding present a million years ago and never use. Took us a minute to figure it out... ...but once in place they worked very, very well. The Little Dude mastered the technique very quickly, but it took his little brother a little longer.

I'm not an idiot, so I did not let him jam the uber-sharp forks into the end of his slippery ear of corn himself. But despite the fact that I did it for him, he was still very pleased with the set-up.

But before he could do much eating he had to show me the architectural potential of his corn on the cob. Which is to say, he perched it on the table, brummed his hand underneath it like a little car and stated "Bridge". And once we'd established that fact he could get down to eating.

There's the wind-up....

...and there's the crunch.

I love summer food.

 

gardening

We took advantage of the lovely weather and the long weekend to get the garden in. Or at least the part that I'm responsible for, which is the herbs and leafy greens. Hubs has big plans for another larger section of garden, but I'm only concerned with my basil and my spinach. Plus also, it was my chance to teach the Baby how to garden.First you get yourself some seeds.

You just need a little pinch.

Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle. Right into the soil.

Then you cover 'em up.

And go pat, pat, pat.

And of course his favourite part - putting in the marker stick. At one point I turned my back and when I looked at the garden a minute later it had been fully 'planted' with about forty popsicle stitcks. No harm done, and it made him very happy.

oh , I spoke too soon. Because his actual favourite thing is watering with the hose. Oh hose, how wonderful you are. Your appeal is never ending. 

Be careful though, don't get to close, he knows what to do with that hose.

Seriously, he would have watered the garden for an hour if I let him. Luckily, I could set the nozzel on the lightest of sprays, so he could have his fun without washing away the seeds we'd just planted. 

But before we go inside, just a quick chat with Dad. Sharing some gardening tips probably. He's checking to see what Daddy is going to plant (peas, beans, corn, squash, tomatos, etc) All together in my little garden I planted three kinds of Basil, Italian Parsely, Cilantro, Rosemary, Mint, Spinach, and Buttercruch Lettuce. I can't wait for my herbs to come up!

Now if we can just keep this guy outta there...
I hope he doesn't like basil.


 

stinker

The Baby has hit a new developmental stage where he's not so interested in eating. I mean, he still loves food and can pack back the bananas and crackers like nobody's business, but at mealtimes he's changed his tune. If he's sitting on your lap he's happy to have almost anything spooned into his mouth, but when left to his own devices, he's just not that interested in feeding himself any more. Which is a big change. We mostly try not to focus on the behaviour and my trick is to give him only one or two nice morsels of whatever we are eating at a time. That way if he eats them or not, at least he can't make a big mess with it. Anyhow, Hubs was home alone with the boys tonight for dinner, as I was at work and he made a delicious meal of meatballs, sweet potato and regular fries, and green beans. Hubs dished the Baby up a nice toddler sized portion and then went about eating his own meal. A little while later he looked over to see that the Baby had eaten it all. His tray was empty and he seemed very pleased with himself. It wasn't until Hubs went to unbuckle him from his seat when the meal was over that he found this: Yep, giant mushed up food stash tucked in next to his bum. He'd shoved nearly every bit of dinner into his 'cache'. I don't know whether he thought he was saving it for later or just getting rid of it. Such a stinker. 

And I just need to show you his new 'look'. Here he is modeling a teddy bear sweater that I knit back in, oh, I dunno, the 80's? He found it as I was cleaning out a closet today and insisted on wearing it. Despite the fact that it is obviously too small and was originally intended for a stuffed toy, I kind of feel like he's pulling it off. Who knows maybe he's on to something? Just wait, its only a matter of time before cropped sweaters with cutesy intarsia motifs are hanging on the racks at Forever 21. 

fairy house

At the end of a forest walk we took the other day we found a nice little piece of tree bark that was just crying out to be transformed. Isn't that just waiting to be turned into a little fairy-house?

So we propped it up at the base of a tree....

...and put a roof on it.

I just love how it blends in there at the base of the tree.

So if you know a little gnome or sprite (or tiny Ewok, as my Star Wars obsessed four-year-old insists) who is looking for a place, this would be perfect. The ad I'd write for it would say. "Cozy bachelor aparment, above ground, but near to the forest floor. Five minutes from the closest creek, with access to beautiful old growth forest and ample foraging opportunities. Adjacent to a home with two small children who love all things green and magical, who own neither cats nor dogs. Flexible lease length. The only payment required would be if you could teach us an enchantment to keep the racoons and squirrels out of our garden. (And if you can do that you can live there forever!)"

bird!

As I was stepping out of the shower this morning, the Little Dude ran into the bathroom, bursting with excitement. "There's a BIRD in the fireplace upstairs!" he announced in a manner that assured me that he was NOT joking. So I grabbed a robe and ran upstairs.Everyone was gathered around the fireplace, still in their pyjamas, to see what they could see.

Yep, he's in there. A Grackle I think. Must have come down the chimney and now doesn't know how to get out. Poor guy was flapping around, kicking up soot and randomly pooping (sign of stress probably).

We talked about what we should do. My suggestion was to call my Dad and have him come over and help us figure it out. Because that's always my suggestion. But Hubs pooh-poohed me saying "We can't call him for everything. We can figure this out." 

And he was true to his word, as he came up with a simple and elegant solution involving a clear plastic storage box and a sheet of cardboard. We put the clear box in front of the door, and the idea was that we'd open the door, the bird would fly into the box, we'd slide the cardboard over the top of the box and release him.

And it worked like a freakin' charm! Pretty much as soon as we opened the door he obligingly flew right into the box.

I know, it would be a waaaay better story to tell if he had been more difficult or he had gotten out of the box and flown around the room and some mild mayhem and hilarity ensued. But honestly, I'm glad it all went smoothly. Because a: I'm sure the whole experience of getting stuck down our chimney was pretty stressful for him and b: I've got so much nice freshly washed fabric sitting around in that room and the last thing I need around it is a nervous flying poop machine.

But the best part of the whole thing was how excited the Little Dude was about it. The Baby thought it was all somewhat interesting, but L.D. was absolutely stoked. He sat next to me as Hubs was locating what he needed for the trap and release, and as the bird fluttered in and out of view behind the glass of the fireplace he turned to me and said with great sincerity, "I love that bird."

But of course, as the saying goes, "if you love something, set it free. So we carried him to the balcony...

..took the lid off the box....

...and after a moment of stunned silence he spread his wings and flew off into his familiar green and blue world.

And all's well that ends well. He soared across the valley, leaving us with a soot dusted box and a story to tell. It was a pretty exciting way to start our day. 

nesting

There is something sweet happening in the little pine tree in front of our house.

Look and see who is in there. Do you see her? Look closely.

Another mother, busy at her work, keeping her eggs warm. No small feat on this strangely cold and blustery Mother's Day. But depite the rain, the snow and the hail (hail!) she huddled low on her nest, and her little eggs stayed warm and dry. 

Well done mamma mourning dove. And happy Mother's day to you all.

who made it?

I've been a little light on the posts here lately. Sorry about that. Between rehearsing for a play reading, meeting various sewing deadlines and the occasional evening shift at work, life has been really cutting into my blogging time.

I spent last week sewing like a mad woman on a project that almost literally turned me into a mad woman. Honestly, my innocent little sewing machine gets to hear her fair share of cursing, but it is the rare project that has me threatening to throw my poor defenseless ironing board out the window. 

Its a long story, and not especially interesting, but here's the short version. Since I sew/make things/am a fibre artist I occasionally get asked to make things out of fabric that aren't really in my wheelhouse, per se. And this was one such thing. This is the close up of an academic stole, a part of the regalia that would be worn with robes by an academic for official university events. A friend of mine works at a university and needed some of these made. Two in fact. He had an original for me to copy, so no big deal right? I happened to have almost an exact match for the fabric on hand (and good thing too, do you have any idea how hard it is to find velvet for sale in May?) and so after a few days of planning and measureing and testing I got down to it. 

And I just. about. lost. my. mind. I have sewed with velvet before, on a recreational basis. Remember that pretty little cushion cover I made? So I know that because of the nap it shifts and grabs and you need to pin the shit out of it. But I made the classic quilters mistake of only cutting a quarter inch seam allowance, when I should have used garment making practices and factored in at least a half inch for the seam, if not more. Because after carefully cutting and sewing and laboriously machine embroidering (not my favourite, I totally prefer hand embroidery, but I was replicating an original and had to follow the lead of whoever went before me) I turned my "finished" stole right side out only to find this: Aaaaand cue screaming. Do you see it? That frayed open seam where it should not be? And at a very focal point, RIGHT alongside the applique. Oh, I was so mad. The time wasted! The fabric wasted! The fact that I now had to make TWO MORE of these rotten things because this one was a TOTAL WRITE OFF. Garbage basically. There was no way to fix that frayed fabric edge and open seam. Nothing but wisps of thread there, nothing to sew into. I even tried turning it inside out again, ironing on some interfacing and sewing that together, but when I turned it right side out not only was the fraying obvious, but also the interfacing was visible. Sigh. 

Well, as they say, live and learn. And boy did I learn. So with very careful cutting of my meager remaining velvet supplies I managed to get two more stoles made. This time with MUCH larger seam allowances and a generous edgeing of fray check all along the freshly cut seams. I have never used fray check before (chemicals. yuck) but in this case it did save my bacon. 

When I successufully finished the 2nd one and showed it to Hubs he smiled and said "It looks great! Are you happy?" And I said, "Well, I'm relieved and not filled with murderous rage, so sure, lets call that 'happy'." And when I finished the 3rd one I was very pleased indeed because it meant that I would no longer have to sew velvet! At least not in the near future. 

But the best part of this whole experience came when my friend Shawn came to my house to pick them up. He was sitting at the table finishing a quick cup of tea. I was getting ready to put the Baby down for his nap, and I plunked him down on Uncle Shawn's lap while I rushed around trying to find Floppy Dog or something like that. And my sweet boy looked at the pile of velvet stoles on the table, pointed his chubby little finger them, looke up at Shawn and said "Mommy made it." And my heart just melted! Because I didn't know he knew. I didn't know that he even paid attention to what I do on and off throughout the day at the sewing machine. One of the difficult aspects of parenting can be the way that it seems to narrow the focus of what you do and who you are in life. You go from being a professional, or an educator or an artist or whatever you defined yourself as before parenthood to being a mom. And only a mom. Or as I've heard some women put it just a mom. (which of course makes me sad, because we all know that, to our children at least, it is a very important job) And I've heard those without children complain that their friends who are moms "let it take over their lives." And that complaint is not with out foundation because lets face it, parenting is an incredibly immersive experience. It is literally a 24/7 job. You are never off the clock. There are no breaks, unless you have someone else to take your place and even when you are not with your kids, they are still on your mind. And you never ever stop being their mother. So yeah, it kinda takes ove your life. I don't say this to complain, just to state the facts. And I have worked very hard, as I begin my journey into motherhood, to retain the other aspects of my self by which I to continue to define me. I'm a mother but I'm also a wife. I'm a Feminist. I'm a Christian. I'm a researcher. I'm a designer. I'm an artist. I'm an actor. I'm a quilter. I'm a sewist. I'm a maker. All those things are important to me and I don't want them all to be swept away as the waves of motherhood wash over me. 

And to think that my two-year-old sees that I make things! Has noticed that I do something during the day that is NOT laundry and food prep. Can see that beyond being the woman who loves him and cares for him and is as we jokingly say around here is "the nice Lady with the Boobs", that I am also a person that makes art. It makes me so, so happy! And I know, I know I'm ascribing an awful lot of importance to a very simple observation on his part. He is hardly at the stage where we will have a conversation about the definition of art or the multiple facets of of identity. But still. It feels good to think that he will look back on his childhood and remember me not only at the sink in the kitchen, but also at my sewing machine in the studio. That he can see beyond me as an extension of himself and perhaps get a glimmer of who I am on my own. And that feels good. 

new star wars sheets

I thought I'd seen all the vintage Star Wars sheets that had been made, so its kind of exciting to find a new one. Look at this! Bad lighting and whatnot, but stil, exciting.

How awesome is that!

I love the droids variation on this one. I love that Chewbacca is included. And he's such a nice, flowy curly version.

And there are some GREAT space ships/machinery on this one. 

Great Millenium Falcon. Though I think what I really like best about this is the clouds. 

Fantastic little walker. 

And my favourite.... Ewoks AND Han and Leia. Perfect. Though what I love most is the little baby on his mamma's back on the far right. 

See? How cute is that? 

Oh, and also Jabba... With his little buddy, Salacious B. Crumb. Love it. 

Anyhow, made some bibs with it. Wanna see 'em?I know I've made hundreds of these, but I still really enjoy it. I love the way it crops the image. 

See? Those clouds are killing me.

Good ole' Jabba.

The best. 

Anyhow, I'm having a really sewing-heavy week, as I think I might be doing a craft show this weekend. But there's a lot going down this week besides that so we'll see. I'll get some of these up into the shop next weekend. 

Right, back to sewing....