A little French cooking

We watched the movie Ratatouille yesterday. We, being myself and Miss E. Mister e sort of watched... mostly in 1 minute sections. I'm not sure how much he retained. Any hoo, Miss E was very curious about the actual dish of ratatouille. So we found a recipe and walked to the store and loaded up on fresh vegetables. Ratatouille is a French country vegetable stew, but instead of doing it in the traditional chopped vegetable style, we decided to make it exactly like Remy does in the movie.

So Miss E taped this to the front door....

... and we were in business.

Thank goodness for the food processor. We didn't have to slice all these veggies on a mandoline.. or worse- by hand!



Miss E was very excited about the whole process. We made a separate tomato sauce which she stirred on the stove.



We put the sauce in the bottom of the dishes and then layered all the vegetables on top: summer squash, eggplant, onions, red and yellow pepper, and parsnips...



They really turned out pretty with all the overlapping layers of color...



And then into the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and the finished product...



We used a baked version as the base recipe from Chocolate and Zuchini's cookbook. The cookbook is wonderful, and I've been wanting to try something out of there.
Of course, after all the shopping, prepping, cooking and excitement, Miss E decided that she didn't want to actually eat the ratatouille for dinner. Too bad, it is very good. And like several recipes state, it IS better the next day... after the flavors meld.

A Little Redecorating

I don't usually set New Year's Resolutions, because there are so many things that I need to do to improve that I keep adding things to work on all year long. But I have been wanting to learn Photoshop more, so with that in mind, I did my own fancy banner and updated the colors on the site to match. Always good to spruce things up a bit this time of year...

The Wreath

Here is a slightly dark picture of the finished wreath.



I'm still working out the exposure and the ISO settings (which I just recently discovered) to try and get good pictures in low light. If I turn on the overhead lights or use the flash, you loose the glowing color. On the mantle, you can see the spouse's collection of plastic figures. They are the kind that you put a small light inside and they glow. The santa on the left is really glowing... to the point where you cannot see santa, but more of a santa outline. You can get an idea of the style by looking at the non-glowing figures on the right.

And speaking of finishing projects, here is Miss E's art space in the basement.



We scored the table two years ago at the giant Laurelhurst Yard Sale for $10!!!! It is solid oak and heavy as all get out. The iMac is an ancient computer that we bought almost 10 years ago. It has been upgraded as far as it can and no longer performs for us, but is perfect for some educational software for E... and she is thrilled to have her own computer.. and I am thrilled to not have her asking to use mine every ten minutes. She received boxes of art supplies for Christmas, so we made a quick trip to IKEA and purchased some storage containers to keep everything tidy. We also bought the chair for $19.00 which adjusts to adult height as well as kid height... so it will grow with her. When we did the basement, we put up lighting tracks around the perimeter and bought these two pendant lights as a test. We didn't know where to put them and they have been gathering dust in the shop for the past 6 months. They work perfectly over her work space.

Another project done! Whew!

Christmas

Here is the status of the sewing area just after finishing 5 days of sewing...



I did some tidying up... but there were thread and snips of fabric everywhere... and tons and tons of down! I remade another old down pillow into a small pillow for Mister e and no matter how careful I am with my sewing there is still loose down when I cut off the excess.

My main project was four sets of pyjamas and matching night caps for the kids. For now they all think it's cool to get pyjamas from mom/auntie... I'm sure there will be a day that it won't be so cool. For now, I'm taking advantage of it.



I always wondered what exactly a night cap was when we would read "A Night Before Christmas" as a child, so I thought I would make my kids and my niece and nephew night caps (with tassels) to match their new pyjamas. They opened these on Christmas Eve and all changed into their pyjamas for a reading of "A Night Before Christmas" by Papa... and they all put on the night caps! In fact, my niece insisted on sleeping in hers and became greatly distressed if it came off. She still had it on Christmas morning!

There was a lot of sledding. Even little Mister e had a go.



Then the night before we left to drive back to Portland, we had a blizzard...



About 10 inches of snow fell. We had to do some digging to get to the van in the morning, but we made it home safely. I will post more pictures of the Christmas goodies and project materials later... as well as a picture of my finished glass ball wreath with looks magnificent on it's perch above the mantel.

I love my daughter but....

... my serger dials are not to be used to contact Space Command or guide a boat into dock..... it took me a half and hour to sort them out.....

Glass Ball Wreath

I have loved glass ball wreaths ever since I say my friend, Mo's. I have collecting glass balls for a year to make this bad boy. Look at how they sparkle and shine in a pile. This picture is my computer desktop for the holiday season... sparkly....


So I worked away for an hour or so in my studio, wiring these balls onto a styrofoam wreath. The floor in the studio is concrete. You get one good bounce, surprisingly, and on the second hit it makes that pop and breaks. So if you are fast enough, you can catch it on the first bounce. I was not so fast, so there were a couple of casualties tonight...



This is as many as I can wire on. Tomorrow we are on to the hot glue phase.



I'm going to glue the balls together at key locations to give the wreath a little more structure and to keep some of the balls from popping off. Then I will fill in with some smaller balls. I think I need to scrounge up some little guys.. about 1" in diameter would be perfect in gold or green.... hmmm... time for a Goodwill run.

Mister Judy Sale!

My sister and I have a childrenswear business named Mister Judy, and we are having a sale! 25% off all clothing through the end of the year!




Come and check everything out!

Pillow Project

I have a few old feather/down pillows that don't stay fluffy anymore. I run them through the dryer with a trio of tennis balls, but after one night of sleeping on them they deflate. So I have recycled them into throw pillows for the couch.
First I shift all the down to one side and pin it in place:



Then I sew along the pins and eventually serge the edge too, so the down doesn't escape:



Then I make a lovely pillow cover for my "new" down form:



In this case, some lovely Amy Butler fabric. The pillow is a little smaller than I planned... I had an accident with the serger, and it caught a bit too much fabric.

Goodies from my father-in-law

Look at what my father-in-law scored at a yard sale!



I have a pretty good sized collection of vintage ric rac and seam binding, so this is a welcome addition. He got the whole bag for $2.00!!


The vintage colors and so much nicer than what is available currently... and they are 100% cotton too.

Last Color of Summer

I'm going to miss my flowers when the cold weather really starts.



It is a beautiful, clear day here, but very cold. I walked around my garden this morning and cut whatever I could find that was still blooming. I have one purple dahlia that is still struggling to put out blossoms... although the shape and color and a little unusual.



They add a burst of color to the kitchen which is starting to get that lovely winter light.

Halloween Update

This is Mister e's first piece of Halloween candy....



He received it at the second house we went to and would not let go of it. I held one hand and one wrist (that hand was holding the candy) and helped him walk for 2 blocks... which is a long way when you are not really walking yet. He held that peanut butter cup the whole time. When we came back to the house, he still held onto it while I took his costume off; and then continued to clutch it for the next hour. He loved Halloween and all the people that came to the house, and he become very attached to his first piece of candy. About 4 days later he discovered that you could actually open the wrapper and eat the contents. He wasn't too impressed with the candy... I think he liked the experience better.

Cinderella and Gus-Gus

The inspiration....



... the finished product...






They are a squirrely duo so it's hard to get a picture with both of them in focus. Mister e likes the mouse suit just fine and would have preferred to spend the rest of the day in it... but he was turning red.

Happy Halloween!

It is very cold here, so I had to create a last minute layering system for Cinderella that gives the appearance of bare skin. I think we have a good solution... I'll post pictures of the kids later.
We had some excellent pumpkin carving yesterday....



The zig zag mouths are Miss E's trademark. We just let her draw whatever she wanted on the pumpkins, and then I did my best to cut it out...



They are a motley crew...



The spouse's is the one with the bulging eye gourd and the square mouth.... sort of like a Borg.

Halloween is a comin'

Cinderella is in the DVD player and there is blue satin everywhere.... Halloween costumes are in progress.

Cider Making

We traveled to the farm last week for some cider making.





These are just some of the apples.



And the cider press... which I had the unfortunate experience of running my finger through when I was 4.



The apples are washed before being thrown in the grinding mechanism.





The cranking is the hard part. Usually the newest people "get" to do most of the cranking because they don't know what they are getting into and haven't "enjoyed" all the aches and pains the day after cider making.




And then the cider comes out...



bugs, debris, and other mystery items are filtered out as it is poured into jugs...



We made a total of 30 gallons.

Mister e's Birthday

The birthdays of the E's are three weeks apart. So things get a bit busy around here. After the fairy cake, I needed something a bit easier to execute. So Mister e had a caterpillar for his First Birthday.

I made a big batch of Seven Minute Frosting because it is so light and fluffy and has a beautiful sheen. It also takes color well.


The caterpillar sections were baked in my glass mixing bowls and then carved to fit one another.


Then I started to tint the frosting a little bit green and frosted the head and tail.


Adding some more green, I then frosted the next sections...


Finally I added more green and frosted the middle and added chocolate stick legs and miniature oreo spots.

After all the spun sugar challenges, I wasn't up to creating legs or anything else.



Mister e thought it was very good and ate the entire head.