This is fun. Thanks Winter’s Edge Home for the link. Who knew I’d be Superwoman? I was hoping for Spiderman. He’s my fave.
More fun quizzes from structured settlement factoring.
Posted in just for fun
Today’s sermon at church was about persevering to the end. Our pastor is doing a series on the life of Moses and the pickle he found himself in when he was put in charge of the Israelites and they all were falling victim to the hand of the Egyptians. He had to trust in the Lord and stick with these people. I needed to be reminded of this today–it’s been hard at school. Teaching itself has never gone better, but dealing with people around me at school has added a layer of stress that I haven’t had at work in a really long time. Knowing that I’m not going to be teaching when we have kids, I do just want to finish well despite the hard stuff.
If I didn’t get it today, I got an object lesson in the snow. My sweet husband and I took our inner tubes up into the mountains and found a little unspoiled hill of powder and sled down it many times. But because it was an unspoiled bit of powder, we had to do some trail-breaking in order to make ourselves a path up the hill first.
I’m not athletic. I’m not out of shape, I’m just not athletic, and I’m short, so falling into knee deep snow while trying to move uphill is a very frustrating experience. I sat and cried and pouted a little, and then I got the energy to try it again. My reward? Several fun zippy runs on a tire down a hill. It was worth the perseverance. So maybe it is at work too. If the Lord can be faithful in giving me strength to get through deep snow uphill, why not to help me deal with difficult people?
Posted in family time
The yoyo’s from the swap I did in January have been sitting on my bookshelf since I got them. Yesterday I finally got a bit of inspiration that led me to make this mobile. Right now it’s between our two functional but not very pretty desk lamps, but eventually, it’s going to be a present for my co-worker’s baby who is due in April. I think yoyo’s are made for babies–they have such texture to them they just have to be good for their little sensory systems.
If you think about it, pray for me–my tendinitis is flaring up. I have a lot of pain in my right elbow and my thumbs which is originating from my shoulder area. This is bad since I use my hands for so much. Usually this time of year I have a mild flare up because I don’t sleep as well in the winter, but this year is worse because work has been really stressful. So just pray that I come out of it quickly because it stinks.
Posted in crafterrific
I guess this is a tutorial of sorts–really, it’s more just me showing the process that goes into making pulled strudel. My family has been making this for 5 generations that we know of, and who knows how many before in Germany. I love making it…I get to think about my great-grandma pulling the dough across her red ice formica kitchen table that was her only workspace in her little kitchen. This particular day I was making it for my Bible study group at church.
Here are the apples all diced, and cooked down until very tender with a pinch of salt, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and dried sour cherries. A lot of recipes call for the apples to be raw, but I think they ultimately have a better flavor if you cook them first.
Here’s the dough on a floured vintage tablecloth (they hold flour better than new ones because they have a more pourous surface, so you get less flour in your finished strudel) after it has rested for about 2 hours. I made it in my Kitchen Aid because kneading it by hand can’t really yield as pliable of a dough. No magic here–just flour, egg yolk, wee bit of salt and sugar, and warm water and time to let the gluten relax before you stretch it.
Here I’m stretching out the dough. It feels so nice! It’s important to stretch one side for a couple of inches, then move to another side. This will give each side a chance to relax before you try to stretch it more…it helps prevent holes. By the end, you should be able to see the pattern of the tablecloth through the dough very well. I shoot to stretch the dough into about a 3 foot square. It’s usually a little smaller. No worry. There’s always extra dough anyhow.
All stretched now (it takes about 15 minutes)…the entire surface now gets painted with melted butter. My great-grandma didn’t always have butter, so sometimes she’d use lard or shortening–or whatever she had on hand.
Now the apples are made into nice little piles…note how well they keep their shape. This is what makes crisp strudel. That’s because all of the moisture has been evaporated out of them and replaced with silky caramelization which will not soak into the dough as it bakes. This is why apple strudel is my favorite. My Grandpa likes sour cherry and one of my aunts likes cheese strudel which have much more moisture, so when you initially lay out the filling like this, you have to move quickly so things get sealed in before they leak all over.
I just sealed in the filling by pulling up the edge of dough around it. It gets more melted butter. Sorry about the resolution…the camera is getting a little buttery at this point. Teehee.
You continue using the tablecloth to flop the dough over on itself and painting each flop completely with more melted butter until you get to the end of the dough. Then you paint the whole thing with more melted butter. It’s really hard to have too much butter here. I’m with Julia Child on that point.
Here are the little lovelies baked. I put them on a silicone mat. If anything leaks and subsequently caramelizes, it will come right off of the mat–on parchment, it might burn and then rip the strudel when you take them off the pan. I also cut wee vents in the top before they baked just like you would with a pie.
Done and served!
I made the pink cuts I alluded to in my last post.
They’re so darn tasty. I chill them really well so that the pastry-buttercreamish filling gets nice and firm. Go make some already! I’m going to have a cup of tea. I made some apple strudel which I’ll post about when I get all the pictures together. I really want to show the process of strudel making.
My sweet husband surprised me by cleaning up all the dishes and making the bed and he bought be two dozen roses–pink and yellow because I think red roses are boring. He’s the best. I’m so blessed to have him. I love you Nathan!
I finished this skirt last night.
It’s also from Sew Everything Workshop. I had to shorten it a wee bit (because I’m short, and things that hit me below the knee look weird), but I think it turned out well. I’ve felt bummed because winter in a snowy climate often means just being warm…so dressing like a lady is sometimes rather impractical–which gets depressing after a while. So enter the nice weight denim and my brown boots, and I’m set to brave the elements.
I hope your day is filled with tasty pretty pink things and some quality time with the one you love. Go make these too–I’m making a batch tomorrow. Your tea time will never be the same without them again.
Posted in sewing
As my family can attest to, the very first thing I do in the mornings is make a pot of tea to go with my breakfast. On days that I have the luxury, I sip it in a lovely cup while I read and plan my day. Usually, I am wearing this hideous cream colored knee length sweater that was my Mom’s in the 70′s (she thinks it’s hideous too–she’s tried to take it away from me before)–hideous but oh so comfortable. So maybe I’ve finally accepted the fact that it is not very attractive even though I’m the only person that is ever looking at it, but I made this instead.
Note the pajama bottoms. This is most likely the natural realm this garment will be found in. I shoot for realism here.
The pattern is from Diana Rupp’s new book Sew Everything Workshop. It was VERY simple to follow as is everything in the book. I’m trying to sew my way through the whole thing. I think I need to before I tackle the Vogue sewing book my sweet husband got me for Christmas. I need simple and easy to follow in my life as a beginning sewer. It’s like when you’re learning to cook. A good cookbook (like a James Beard or IACP winner) is worth every nickel you’ll spend on it over some kitschy little thing that a non-writing person wrote. They have GOOD directions and insprirational pictures in them that will teach you the PROCESS of braising or baking or whatever, not just how to make one recipe that your Aunt Mabel used to make that is missing all of Mabel’s little tricks that made that pot roast so darn tasty in the first place.
So yee haw for good directions and something nicer to wear though equally as comfy as my ugly old sweater.
This has been a marathon week at school. I made it though (although at the moment I do feel a wee bit dotty! Last week I was here
at a teacher’s conference. It’s beautiful, but it was COLD.
I’m very excited about this
It’s my first Tie One On submission. I love aprons. Such useful devices–and when they can be cute, even better.
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