Cherries

Inbetween swimming lessons, cleaning, family reunions, and extra sewing, we picked cherries!  I took the children to a pick-your-own orchard.  Ben asked what the treat was going to be and I told him picking cherries was the treat. He dropped the subject.

And actually, the kids had a ball.  There were long rows of trees in the morning sunshine, buckets in our hands, and ladders to move from tree to tree.  The trees were loaded and it felt so luxurious and wonderful to have so much bounty at our fingertips.  My gardening efforts yield handfuls, not bucketfuls.



the children took turns using the pitter and their fingers to pit cherries; I used a paper clip

We picked 3 pounds of sweet cherries for $2.75 a pound and 12 pounds of sour cherries for $2.25 a pound.  We sat on the porch and pitted the cherries (I did end up pitting the rest by myself - the silence was fine with me). I made a cobbler in the slow cooker, we ate the sweets, and the rest of the sour cherries went in the freezer. 

This was the second preserving project of the season. The first was strawberry jam and went entirely undocumented by camera or blogging.  The third was recently completed - stay tuned because I have a new, useful canning set-up to reveal!

Ruffled Shorts from a Shirt

One Sunday evening, Genevieve still didn't have a pair of shorts in her drawer to go on a bike ride with Daddy.  So after she pulled a pair out of the dirty laundry and left, I sewed her yet another pair of free shorts.

She liked her knit pair so well that I looked for some more knit material in my stash.  And came across a knit shirt my husband had just given to me to cut up for rags (holes in the knit from the woven tag), but I set it aside because I don't need any more rags at the moment.

But someone small needed shorts.

what's left of the shirt

 

 Ergo. Shorts! With ruffles.  I stitched them down by machine first and then added, by hand, a running stitch in perle cotton in a darker shade of blue.  I did a Grandma Weaver on the pattern:  I eyeballed a scaled-down version from an adult pattern I have (this one).  It's only 2 pieces and goes together so quickly.

I should have taken a picture of the "tag" I put at the back, a little scrap of rainbow fabric cut with pinking shears.  It's so much easier to put on homemade garments if there's a loop of ribbon or fabric that stands in as a tag, immediately identifying the back.

something contentious - I forget what

The bonus:  since the shorts fit Genevieve so closely and are so soft, I am hoping they will serve nicely as bloomers under her school jumpers this fall and winter.  I need to start looking at school clothes soon so I can find the best price on needed items or allow time to make them.

The First Peach

I wove a little story in my head as I finished sewing a set of picnic napkins.  It was a sunset, binoculars, a vintage wagon, a basket, and two perfect peaches.  Don't know what the silverware in the napkins was needed for, but nevermind:  this was a fairytale.  I was going to grab pale green apples out of the wooden bowl for the photo shoot, but I thought that was rather matchy-matchy with all the red and green. 

If I was forced to choose (this is Genevieve's favorite game right now:  would you have a cat or dog?  would you eat jellybeans or Nerds? (I hate both). . . .peaches would be my favorite fruit.  And there they were at market this week, slightly unripe but so pretty.  I sniffed one as I cuddled it in my hand, walking out to the backyard; it was perfectly ripe and fragrant.  The first thing I did when I turned off my camera was hunch over the kitchen sink, rip open the peach, and eat. 

That, my friends, is the reward for waiting for the stuff in season.  No amount of expensive food or kitchen skills can replicate the taste of a peach, a strawberry, a tomato, a what-have-you, when you have waited patiently for that taste for a year. Can I get an amen?

Oh.  The napkins are in the shop.

Cooking Lesson: Baked Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

Genevieve is seven-and-a-half years old and she is ready. We are taking a bit more formal approach to cooking this summer. Every Wednesday, we will have a cooking lesson and then I will share it with you!

I have come to realize that what I am teaching Genevieve is how to read and follow a recipe.  It sounds so obvious, but the first thing I taught her was a technique with no recipe (eggs and toast).  

I realized I need to teach her to read the recipe through once, assemble her ingredients, and keep re-reading as she steps through the recipe.  What I do is stay in the kitchen and put away ingredients as she uses them.  

Ben adores kitchen work, too, so he stays in the kitchen and his sister kindly allows him to stir or something.  Then he gets to be my helper at the next mealtime. 

This lesson, we made Baked Oatmeal.  I have blogged a lot about Baked Oatmeal because it is healthy, cheap, fast, and delicious. 

And people with summery-hot houses, take note: we put this Baked Oatmeal in a 4-quart slow cooker on high for 1.5 hours. Slow cookers don't give off a lot of heat to begin with, but you can also plug it in outside to cook and keep more heat out of your house.  Great, huh?  (We didn't take the slow cooker outside today because I thought it would be simpler for the newbie cook to stay in the kitchen.)

We actually had this cooking lesson in the afternoon due to our busy day, so we ate the Oatmeal for breakfast the next morning with some blackberries.  I love to have meals figured out so far in advance!  It frees my mind up to think of other things and to get to the sewing machine. 

However, later that evening as I sewed happily away, I listened to a sermon we missed while on vacation; it came highly recommended from several church members. 

scraping technique: hard to explain, hard to execute, but she licks the spatula at the end

I was convicted.  The sermon was about how Jesus responded to interruptions and didn't get glued into his plans and miss God speaking.

Oh, how I love my plans!  Oh, how I love order! 

But I want to love my children, my family, Jesus, more than my plans.  So I'm trying make plans that I'm willing to release - hard lesson for me.  And so far, the cooking lessons have been bright spots, so I'm grateful for that.

A Hair Towel for Genevieve

When Genevieve's hair was washed, I would wrap it up in a towel turban that never stayed on her head.  So her hair would drip on her shoulders and she would go around with a damp nightie or tee-shirt, depending when she had her shower.

I stumbled across this hair towel tutorial.  I made one using a random lavender towel that came back from a cabin vacation that my aunt thought was hers but could not be bothered to shlep back to the cabin.  So: unwanted towel in a color my daughter loves. 

I cut the hair towel/hood on the finished sides of the towel, so I didn't need bias tape to finish the edges (although the tutorial has very nice, clear directions for doing that).  For a little sweetness, I stitched on a cupcake with several casual lines of sewing. 

I made the elastic loop the 8" as stated in the tutorial, but I think it could be shorter.  Also, my towel was quite thick and thirsty, so it doesn't twist up as easily into the top loop.  And I did need to shorten the back hood seam to accomodate Genevieve's small head, although I hope it's big enough to carry us through years here.  The towel is definitely an improvement over slipping turbans and wet shoulders!  I do recommend it.

Vacation in the Boonies

Following is a re-cap of our vacation last week when my side of the family stayed at a cabin in the woods.  I'm feeding it through Like Mother, Like Daughter's Thursday collection of links.   

 

 

Pretty:

 

We were in driving distance of Chautauqua, NY, so we went.  It was a perfect day, a perfect tiny town.  My husband wants to live there.

 



I snapped these photos to study those canvas porch hangings.  I think my Victorian porch could benefit from them.

The Chatauqua library was having a $5 bag sale.  I kid you not.  I am lugging a sack of gorgeous old books.

 

 

Happy:

 

My children were so thrilled with this vacation.  So much water!  So many creatures (too many in the lodge for the adults' liking).  So much dirt!  So many sweets and eating all the time!

 

 

 

 

Funny:

 

Can you guess what she's doing?  My poor little deprived city kid is fishing. She is the daughter of non-fishers and apparently, non-borrowers because I'm sure we know somebody who would have loaned us a fishing rod.

 

 

 

She did eventually catch a wiggly little salamander. Which my husband helped her google later (no cell service in the boonies) and discovered it was a newt.

Real:

This was a hunting camp cabin down the road.  Apparently I fit right in.  (In fairness, I think I was pretty even-keel on this vacation).

Cooking Lesson: Pizza Dough

Without the pressures and furor of daily life, a cooking lesson was practically fun on vacation last week.  In fact, when I told my extended family that Genevieve and I were having cooking lessons this summer, my sister and sister-in-law wanted in, too.

So we made pizza dough together.

Following is the handout I gave them (blue text) and photos from the session. Everyone was very pleased with themselves.

Pizza Dough From Scratch

Serves 4-6

1.  In a large mixing bowl, place:

                1 cup warm water, a little warmer than room temperature

                1 Tbsp. (1 pkg.) dry instant yeast

2.  Add:

                1 Tbsp. sugar

                1 ½ tsp. salt

                2 Tbsp. oil, any kind, plus have a little more for later

                1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

3.  Use a sturdy whisk to beat everything together until there are no lumps.  This is helpful to get the yeast started and make a smooth dough.  Shake the batter off the whisk – you’re done with it.

 

4.  Pour on top of the batter:

                1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

                (keep a ½ cup whole wheat flour nearby – you will probably need it)

5.  With clean hands or a wooden spoon, stir the whole wheat flour into the liquidy batter.  It will be messy.  Persist.

6. Begin to knead the dough.  Fold it firmly on itself, turn the bowl or the dough slightly, and fold firmly again.  Use the heel of your hand to push down as you fold.  Do this over and over and the dough will get smoother.  If it is still pretty wet, sprinkle some of the reserved ½ cup of whole wheat flour over it.  Knead the flour in.  You can do this again, but do not exceed the extra ½ cup or you may need to add more water. The goal is for the dough to be a uniform ball that isn’t too sticky or dry/crumbly.  It could be described as satiny, shiny, smooth, and elastic.

 

7.  When you have kneaded the dough for 3-5 minutes, lift it up out of the bowl.  Pour a little oil in the bowl (the bowl is still a little messy and crusty – this is fine).  Put the smooth side of the dough ball down in the oil and rub the oil around the bowl and over the dough ball; the goal is to grease the bowl and the dough.  Flip over the dough ball so the smooth side is up and any pinchy ends are underneath.

8.  Make a dishtowel wet and wring it out.  Cover the bowl/dough while you assemble toppings.  The dough can rest like this for 10-20 minutes.

9.  Roll dough out with a rolling pin so that it is a ¼ or ½” thick – you can use a sprinkle of flour if you’re worried about sticking.  Fit it into baking pans (I usually lightly grease the pan).  Add a thin layer of sauce, a little grated mozzarella, some toppings, more mozzarella, and the final toppings that would like a little caramelization in the oven. 

 

10. Bake at 450 F for 13-20 minutes, until crust is nicely brown, cheese is melted and browning, and any toppings in view look cooked.  A smaller pizza pan will take less time than a larger one; start checking at 13 minutes and check every 2 minutes after that.  If you cut into the pizza and it is still doughy in the center, it can be put back in the oven and baked for a decent outcome.  Any leftovers reheat best in an oven.