We have had a tough time this winter (Nini too), but this past weekend some kind of happy harmonic convergence occurred, the crocuses bloomed at last, and I found myself with a few crafty hours to rub together. Since the winter dollies sold out recently (yay! thank you!) I decided to do it all again, this time in springtimey colors.
They are on etsy now. Thanks sammybaby for the fine photos!
Something that I have missed since leaving Vancouver is my mother's cooking. She's a private cook, and while she's not Iron Chef, she's enjoying what she does for a living, which is a blessing in my eyes. Growing up, I've watched her cook intensely flavourful dishes, bewildered at the complexity of the assembly and ingredients. Nowadays, I wish I paid more attention!
This national Filipino dish was first served to me in my ancestral home, shortly before I moved to Philadelphia. The first thing you notice is the smell - sharp, tangy, crisp. When you bite in, the contrast between tart and peppery is intense. And as my mother assured me, is it ever so simple to make.
Ingredients
1 pound chicken drumsticks or thighs
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves of crushed garlic
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Assembly
1. In a deep saucepan or medium-sized pot, combine vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, garlic and black pepper.
2. Add chicken to the pot, cover and allow mixture to come to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for roughly half an hour, turning chicken over occasionally so all sides are coated.
3. Uncover and continue to turn chicken over for an additional ten to fifteen minutes.
4. Serve with rice.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Cheers!
Happy new year! Overall we're doing fine although the family is facing some health challenges, busy-ness, job stress, and all the delights of being 3 -- and consequently I've got rather little to post just yet. I have faith it will all be good soon. Here's a snippet of the tail end of my Advent Calendar series on flickr:
Best crafty gift received: a Babylock Embellisher. Machine needlefelting, here I come. If you'd like to admire the work of someone who's already an expert, I recommend Sara Lechner. It's a world of wow over there.
Honest to Pete, I did not mean to abandon the blog. I merely have been very, very, busy -- like, "mom of a three-year-old, with two jobs" busy. I love it and I wouldn't have it any other way, at this point, but some things have had to slip!
This month I focus on avoiding treating my family like barefoot little shoemaker's daughters. All year everything I made ended up leaving the house -- a happy success but I'd like my loved ones to have their piece of me, too. I made a quilt for Sam and Maya and me to snuggle under, am currently wrapping up a special wall quilt for my Mom-Mom's birthday, did or am still doing a couple other mumble mumble mumble things I better not mention because they're gifts, and the really huge project: making the advent calendar and its 24 little felt ornaments shown above. Each night of the month either Sam or I take a close-up of an ornament. When we reached the halfway point, on the 12th, I insisted that we have Maya's puppets do a Bon Jovi song and dance routine to celebrate being halfway there. So, as you can see, I'm still crazy as ever. It's all good.
Finally! I finally updated my shop. I got psyched up after schlepping 37 individual packages to the post office (for another cause altogether), doubtlessly irritating the postal clerk and the awful long line of people behind me: I had some international parcels and couldn't use the jolly little automated postbot. And, well, it IS nice to connect with the postal clerk, although perhaps not over 37 individual packages all at once.
I figured if I could get through that major shipping experience without getting thrown out on my tukkas, or without anyone else going postal (*groan*), I could also go ahead and update the shop already, and do it all again, often. Here's hoping.
In lieu of posting every day in November like others somehow manage to do, I've actually been either drawing or crafting every day in November. Make that every night in November, after my kiddo goes to bed, mostly. There was one funny evening though during which I found it necessary to cut tiny shapes from felt, and the kiddo felt it necessary to climb all over me, giggling. I didn't get a lot done, but it was the most fun time crafting. A close second: giving Nini her first sewing lessons. She gets to learn on a BERNINA. So lucky.
My artwork is in another show from November 30 till the end of January at the Curiosity Shoppe in Philadelphia: 4th and South, on 4th, next to Starbucks. This is exciting enough, but to top it off, a bunch of dear friends are coming to the opening, just for me; so, so sweet.
When I was living in Hong Kong a few years ago, I would always walk by a small French bakery on the way home from school. My schoolmates and I would stop in occasionally and get a snack to tide us over until dinner time. More often than not I would get a croissant or a brioche, but occasionally the pile of madeleines would catch my eye. Since then I've become extremely fond of them - these soft little pastries, marked with crispy caramelized edges and distinctive ridges, melt in your mouth.
Ben and I thought it was fortuitous that, during our trip in Atlantic City, we found a discounted copy of Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking, complete with a recipe for orange madeleines. Shortly after we came home, we went shopping for a madeleine pan. Ben had a bit of spare time before work today, so we proceeded to tweak and test this recipe - and despite a bit of chaos, we're planning to make them again soon. :)
Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (freshly ground sea salt also works)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon zest
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Preparations:
-Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
-Brush room-temperature or melted butter over the madeleine pan. Make sure to coat every ridge! (Trust me, it is much easier to clean later...) Dust surfaces with flour, coating the pan evenly, and tap out excess flour.
-Melt the 1/4 cup of butter on low heat in a small pan, then set aside to let it cool while you're going through the first few steps of this recipe.
-Zest your citrus using a zester (or a well-adored Microplane grater!).
Assembly:
1. Combine eggs, granulated sugar, and salt. Beat with a mixer (or by hand!) until fluffy - the mixture should make a soft ribbon on its surface when you drip it from a spatula.
2. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Add sifted flour and stir mixture thoroughly.
4. Fold in your citrus zest and half of the melted butter until just blended. Fold in the remaining melted butter.
5. Fill each madeleine mold carefully - the batter will swell while baking, so there's no need to fill them all the way to the top.
6. Bake until edges are slightly browned, about eight to twelve minutes. Invert over a wire rack, then shake or rap the madeleine tray so that the madeleines fall onto the wire rack. Cool for ten minutes, then serve. Enjoy!
In between the chaos of getting sick upon my arrival to Philadelphia, settling in, and all that extra paperwork, Ben and I managed to find a weekend to visit Atlantic City. It was especially wonderful for me, as I was rather homesick for the sight of the ocean. Even though it was windy and cold, we had an amazing time walking along the beach.
I highly recommend visiting Lucy the Elephant in Margate City if you're ever able to go - as kitsch as it sounds, we had a lot of fun walking inside her wooden interior. The tour guide we had was full of interesting information and we had a great time looking at all the historical artifacts. Lucy has a very interesting history - she's survived hurricanes and was once a summerhouse for a visiting professor and his family!
At one point you get to gaze out of Lucy's eyes - there you get a glimpse of the shoreline.
Afterwards, we went to visit the Absecon Lighthouse (the name of which I can barely pronounce) and climb up its 228 steps to the top.
On the way, there are six landings which offer increasingly gorgeous views of the surrounding land around the lighthouse (they were also great opportunities for us to rest our legs). At the top we were greeted by a tour guide who was waiting to pass us congratulatory cards and tell us about the history of the lighthouse, including the incredibly stunning Fresnel lens.
Ben and I tried to get a picture of us with the gorgeous view, but since I'm petrified not very good with heights, we opted to climb back down shortly after our ascent. Even after we got home, my legs are still sore from that climb!
Something happened that strikes me as odd/funny (although I think I know where it comes from, and I appreciate it): in recent weeks, a few people have actually asked me, so nicely, if I would mind if they painted their own wooden dolls like mine. Of course I don't mind!
It is very OK by me if you paint (and even sell) wooden dolls like mine. It is not rocket science. I do not own a patent on painting on wood, something people have been doing for who knows how long, and you know, those smiley faces of mine are surely the result of having admired the sweet simplicity of Sanrio product design when I was a tiny kid and onward. Even still, no two smiles are ever exactly alike. Sometimes that is on purpose but mostly it's a happy accident.
Obviously we shouldn't violate copyrights or steal someone's art. I struggle futilely to define the subtle difference between art and craft, but I feel certain this is craft, and I think the major power of craft is in the sharing of it. So, I am really happy to have shown some people something fun they can do, maybe with their families and friends, or to pass a quiet evening alone. If painting these dolls seems like fun to you, you should go for it, and be sure to share the pictures.
Here are some of my recommendations (do comment if you have your own recommendations to share):
1. I buy unfinished wooden dolls in bulk from craftparts.com but have seen them in smaller amounts in the big chain craft supply stores. The dolls I use are 3.5 inches tall and 1.5 inches in diameter. The currency in the photo above is to give you an idea of scale. I had a one- dollar bill there but the excellent photographer Sammy upped it to a Lincoln, 'cause he's such a big spender.
2. I'm sure the wood you get from craft stores and lumber stores has been chemically treated at some point, so even though I'm pretty sure my acrylic paints and water-based varnish are non-toxic, I still wouldn't let a baby gnaw on these things. And man, do I feel for all of you who still have babies that are in that gnawing phase with all the lead paint scares now. My kid was never too gnaw-y, thank goodness.
3. My favorite paint for this purpose is Delta Ceramcoat. I sometimes mix up some Liquitex artists' paints, or use cheaper craft paints. You may notice that a lot of brands of red paint just don't go on well and require many coats, but that Delta Ceramcoat is soooo good: even with the red it's one coat and you're done, and it still goes on smooth as buttah. I don't know how they do it and hope it does not cause seven types of cancer in five parts of the body. But it is good.
4. Keep the brush pretty dry as you're not working on a 2D surface and it'd be sad if your colors went all runny on you.
5. The plastic palettes they have for sale at art/craft supply stores... I mock them. This is what takeout containers are for! I also use cheapie tiny Gladware lidded cups to store mixed colors I'll want to use again.
6. For the bitsy details, such as the eyes and mouth, you can use a tiny paintbrush, but since the doll is not a 2-D surface you may find you have much better control with an opaque paint pen. I tried lots of brands, and Zig Painty Fine Tip is my favorite by far: it's the only one that means fine tip when it says fine tip. I only depress the nib for 30 seconds total, I keep looking to see when the paint starts flowing down the wick and as soon as there's the tiniest glimpse of paint, no more depressing -- I stop and wait for the whole wick to absorb the paint. Zig Painty is definitely NOT non-toxic, though. It's oil based and smelly.
7. A Sharpie will work for fine features too, but not as well. I also had wacky and disappointing results with my otherwise well loved uni-ball Vision Elite pens. I use these with watercolors on paper, and they don't bleed. But when I draw on the wood with them, and apply with water-based varnish well after the ink has dried, it's still smear city. Also, if you like a more natural look and you use a Sharpie or uni-ball Vision Elite on unpainted wood, it will bleed a lot. Use a pencil or paint instead.
8. I never want to make the same doll twice... and since I am really not that disciplined a painter, it would be impossible for me to do anyway. So if you find yourself with the time and inclination to make lots of these, vary them! Change up the hair color and skin color, or see if you can model them after loved ones. And have fun.
Sometime this month I will have a big etsy shop update featuring my own wooden dolls (gotta pay for the habit, you know!). Watch this space. Also, I wish to giddily announce that Nini should be landing here in the US -- for good -- any minute now. I am so excited and so grateful to her family and friends for sharing her with us.
First Thanksgiving (the name I use for our illustrious Canadian Thanksgiving up here in the north) is one of my favorite holidays, purely because of the food. For years my family has cooked a gargantuan feast that usually results in weeks of treadmill therapy. You can imagine how happy I am to be able to celebrate two Thanksgivings this year - double turkey!
This long weekend is, coincidentally, also the last one I have with my family before my move to the East Coast on Thursday. Somehow, in between the packing and the goodbyes, I managed to find the time for a First Thanksgiving pumpkin pie today.
The first time I made this, there was too much filling left over and I ended up driving out for more pie shells. I recommend getting at least two nine-inch pie shells and giving the second one away to your friends, as I did. I know it's cheating to buy the pastry from le supermarché, but I haven't been able to perfect a pie pastry yet. (As an aside, if anyone has a great recipe for a pie pastry, I'd be up to hearing from you!)
Nini's Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
3/4 cup (175mL) heavy cream (at least 30% M.F.)
3/4 cup (175mL) whole milk (skim or 2% can be substituted)
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin -or- 1 and 3/4 cups of cooked pumpkin
1 cup (235mL) dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5g) cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) ginger
1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon (1.25g) cloves
1/4 teaspoon (1.25g) salt
Assembly
1. Preheat oven at 400F°. Using a fork, prick holes into your pie crust like it's your ex-boyfriend's voodoo doll (this allows the pie to bake without puffing up like a blowfish). Prebake pie crust for 10 minutes.
2. Whisk pumpkin and spices and salt over medium heat in a saucepan.
3. When pumpkin begins to cook, add brown sugar. Stir constantly, but without splashing the contents all over your shirt.
4. Add milk and cream to saucepan.
5. Let filling bubble, then remove from heat.
6. Whisk eggs. Add to pot and blend eggs very thoroughly into filling.
7. Fill pie crust with filling and bake for 25 minutes, or until centre jiggles when you try to dance with it shake it gently.
8. Cool on a cooling rack window sill for at least one hour to set. Guard against jealous, thieving neighbours. Serve with freshly whipped cream sweetened with a hint of vanilla.
*cue James Bond theme*
About six months ago, I picked up the materials for a winter scarf which I hoped to have finished around this time. As a relatively beginner knitter, I wanted to try something which was a little more difficult than my usual knit-purl-knit-purl scheme. After wandering around a local shop called Urban Yarns, I managed to find a pattern by a British company called Sublime. The yarn is a blend of kid mohair, nylon and merino, which is amazingly soft and fluffy (and also good for those people that are sensitive to particular wools). The scarf is coquettishly named "Amour".
Needless to say, my first attempts weren't successful. What with school and the rather demanding paperwork for my move to the East Coast, I barely managed to get an inch out of the scarf before I shelved it.
Recently, while I was packing my belongings in preparation for their trip across the continent next week, I found the abandoned project on my dresser. After a few minutes, I unwound the entire thing and started over. And over. And over...
After a lot of wrestling with my bamboo needles, I've come to settle on a Great Plan. Since the pattern calls for two hundred and fifty rows of stitches, I can minimize any mistakes (and reduce the chances of a complete do-over) if I tackle one row a day. With that, I'll theoretically have a winter scarf for next year.
In the meantime, I'll be spending my first cold winter in Philadelphia with a blue-and-white scarf from my mom, the lovely Ben Leibowitz, and the rest of his family (which includes Keet!).
