Fritters and Fabric

Today was a Suzie Homemaker kind of day.  It started out with delicious homemade apple fritters.  YUM!

Usually frying things in oil makes the house smell awful, but this time it smelled sweet, like apples and cinnamon.

And the delicious end product wasn't nearly as hard to make as it looked.

 

Then it was on to raking the leaves, doing the laundry, and ironing.  The best part about it was that I could finally pre-wash some fabrics I bought with friends at the local quilt shop.

 
They are mostly for Christmas presents, so it will be a while before you see what I'm turning them in to (can't go spoiling the surprise!).


Have you ever tried homemade apple fritters? 

Fabulous Fall!

I love Fall.  The changing leaves, the crisp air, and the apples...oh the apples!  The other weekend we went apple picking and picked a LOT of apples.  Having never made a large pot of applesauce to freeze, I had no idea how few apples it really takes to get a whole bunch of applesauce. 

Tonight I finally dove into the bags of apples we picked.  I ended up going through one of these...

And making a pot of applesauce with my Mom's recipe.

Some of it is going in lunches tomorrow, a container of it is going in the fridge for this week, and multiple containers are going in the freezer for later enjoying.

I also made one of these...

We had an extra pie crust in the fridge from making a quiche at the end of last week, combined with some apples, and another fabulous Mom recipe, plus an cobbler crumb topping...and yum, Yum, YUM!!

I think I'm going to be making more apple recipes in the near future, seeing as the bag in the first picture is all the apples I have LEFT from tonight's endeavor.  But that's all right, I sure do love apples!


What do you love to make with fall apples?

Mmmmm....Tastease!

Well, the last month of summer came and went in a whirlwind of vacations, work, and projects.  We did a little bit of apartment cleaning...which our very helpful baby cat Annie thought she would help out with...

Isn't she such a helpful cat when it comes to flipping the mattress???? 

The other thing that has kept me occupied this summer...discovering the hidden treasures in the city we call home!  One of them, Tastease, is this amazing mini-donut shop with dozens of different varieties of mini donuts.  And, since it is difficult to make mini donuts with filling, they just pipe the filling right on top.  They are super tasty. 

See...YUM!!!!!

Well, enjoy the beginning of your week!  I'll be back a little later with some great pictures from the season's last Brimfield Antiques Show, and some of those great projects I've spent the last month working on....first, I have to upload the pictures...

See you all again soon!


How did you spend your last lazy days of summer?

Naked Mole Rat...Gets Made

One of my nieces turns three this month and this year she received an Aunt Karen original :-)

We found this adorable book by Mo Willems entitled Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed and thought that the perfect way to complete the present was to make a Naked Mole Rat that my niece could dress while reading the story.

 
So, after shopping around for the perfect Naked Mole Rat materials (a very difficult task if I may say so!), I went off of Willems fabulously illustrated Naked Mole Rat...with a few personalized modifications...added a few inventive felt garments so Naked Mole Rat can "get dressed"...and arrived at:

 

I love how he turned out.  I think he managed to be so ugly that he's cute!  So, he can be casual in his pants and tie-dyed shirt, or professional in his suit with fun red tie.  I made one horrifying discovery, however, after taking these pictures and looking at the book....I forgot to give Naked Mole Rat a tail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yet, it is fairly quick and easy to fix...

 

The picture is a little blurry, but you can see the new tail, and you get a glimpse of the Midwest Nutmeg tags I made.


And, there is no way to spend an entire afternoon sewing without a little snack.  Vanilla and Lace put up this yummy recipe for peanut butter chocolate pretzels on her blog; to find it, go here.

 

I hope everyone had as happy and productive of a weekend as I did!!!



Have you created with inspiration from a book lately?

Earth Day and Puffins

Happy Late Earth Day and Happy Early Spring!!!!

In celebration of Earth Day, I decided to wear one of the earth-inspired felt pins I made this winter.  They provided a great way to think of the coming spring in the middle of the cold snowy winter we had this year.

I had a hard decision to make...ultimately the tree won out because it celebrated Earth Day and Spring.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter, and is having a great start to Spring.  This is what Spring looks like around here...

These were taken across the way at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.  They have some beautiful grounds.

This morning, before continuing our early spring activities (taking walks and spring cleaning) we tried a new recipe....Puffins!  A puffin is a tiny pancake-muffin from Bakerella.  And they are delicious!!!

We had ourselves a little Puffin Picnic with real maple syrup, peanut butter, butter maple syrup, and blueberry syrup.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :-)

I hope you all had a great weekend.


How do you celebrate Earth Day and Spring?

One of my Favorite Things

A few years ago, we got some homemade vanilla for a Christmas gift.  We realized this winter that with a few more batches of chocolate chip cookies and pancakes, we were about to use up the last of the delicious vanilla (which, by-the-way, not so delicious if you ever actually taste it straight up!).  So, we made our own. 

I love homemade food....my Mom always had homemade jelly in the cabinet (raspberry peach will forever be my favorite), and a homemade dinner on the table.  When faced with the eventual demise of our stock of homemade vanilla we looked up the recipe...super easy: vanilla beans + vodka = yummy homemade vanilla!  It takes a couple weeks to make as you shake it daily and just let the beans steep in the vodka, but you can make it stronger the longer you keep it going.  Ours ended up pretty dark, so now it is just a matter of remembering that it is strong and you need a little less than usual.

So...next time you find yourself about to run out of a cooking staple, look up a recipe....maybe it will not be too hard and it will turn out even better than you expected!!!!


What is your favorite homemade food? 

A hidden advantage to craftyness...

I am constantly a girl on the hunt for a bargain, and often times that means finding something on the racks that is there because of a small problem making it undesirable to most, but perfect for us crafty types!  This weekend I spent a much needed mini-vacation in Providence....Boston is cool, and I love living close to Manhattan, but Providence will forever hold a special place in my heart as my favorite city in the North East.  While there, a few bargains found their way back to Connecticut.  One of them required a bit of crafty ingenuity to make them perfect. 

Although these mitts are wonderful, they came with a slight flaw....the severe lack of a button on the right mitt.  This is one reason I love being crafty.  Instead of having to pass up the amazing green pair (this was the only pair left) and having to go with the "safer" black pair that boasted two buttons, I was able to bring them home, dig through my button jar, and make them perfect once more!

This is the ever ellusive, "perfect crafter's bargain."  A dress, still being sold in the store at full price, but this particular one found its way to the bargain rack because it was missing one of the all-important buttons that held the strap to the dress.  Easy Fix!!!!  Again, to the button jar I went, and I emerged with an amazing dress at half the price, just because I was able to change out some missing buttons!

One of the best parts of our trip, however, (besides visiting friends, of course) was going to the Elmwood Diner in Providence and eating these AMAZING orange and cinnamon pancakes with sweet butter and real maple syrup.  I'll have to hunt down a recipe for these :-)


Have you ever found a hidden bargain because of your crafty abilities?

Leaf Pins and Sandwich Bread

For the last few months I have been on the hunt for a great sandwich bread recipe...and I think I finally found one!  It is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  And it is delicious.  I think the hardest thing about making homemade bread is finding a place to let it rise.  Luckily, our apartment has huge old radiators that provide the perfect warm environment for rising bread dough...who knows what I'll do once summer hits!

This is the resulting golden brown loaf of bread.  Mmmmmm.  My favorite way to eat it is toasted with hazelnut spread.

Well, baking bread is not the only thing I did this weekend.  I also did some crafting with a few things from my "leftovers" box.  After finding these fabric leaves I tried making months ago (the original project didn't work out...but oh well, it happens!), I thought they would make great bases for some new pins.

The first one I made using a crochet chain stitched flower, some buttons, and two of the green leaves.

The second one I tried using an orange leaf as the base for some beautiful buttons.

I love digging into my scrap bucket and figuring out fun things to make from things I didn't think were much use anymore!


Do you have a "leftovers" pile that you create from?

Needle Felting: Try Number One

Over the summer, my parents were in Connecticut for a visit and we found this amazing little quilt shop (it is my Mom's special talent to find quilt shops wherever she goes!).  While there, I decided to pick up something new to try in the world of crafts: a Woolpets needle felting kit.  The kit is for an adorable and small blue bird...well, mine turned out closer to the size of a blue jay!!

Still, I don't think it is too bad for a first try.  I really enjoyed it and only ended up pricking myself with the needle twice!  I think I'll give it another go around in the future (after getting some more wool roving).

After needle felting this little guy (okay, big guy), I needed a snack.  So, I decided to try making some home-made sweet potato fries with maple sugar mayonase for dipping.  They were not as crispy as I would have liked, so I guess I will just have to try making these again too!

What new craft were you a little nervous and hessitant to try? 

Menus and Wontons

After numerous trips to the grocery store and still thinking there was nothing to eat in the apartment, I decided it was time to try and shop with a menu in hand.  It has actually seemed to work, so I decided to get fancy and stop writing out the week's menu on the back of the grocery list.  I found a tutorial for this project over at Make and Takes and couldn't wait to give it a try. 

I think it came out pretty nicely.  Since I usually have trouble stamping words in a straight line, I found some thin paper so I could line it up with the cutting mat on my desk to ensure nice, even words.  Look at those letters!!

Then it was on to the first thing on the menu....potstickers and wonton soup....YUM!!!

I hope everyone's Martin Luther King Jr. Day was as fabulous and productive as mine!


What is your favorite time-consuming-yet-delicious meal?