Formaggio

Buon Giorno!
Last weekend I took a trip to Boston to visit my good friend Ruth and her fam.  You may remember her baby girl, Babs, from such previous posts as this and this.
I always have a nice time visiting them.  They live in Back Bay where you can walk to everything.  I can pretend I'm hip and live in a city for a few days which is just the right amount of time for this small town girl.  Plus, they are super laid back and very generous hosts.  For example, Ruth treated me to a vichy body scrub at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's Spa.  Unbelievable.
On Saturday morning we ventured out to Cambridge to find a cheese/gourmet food shop that I had read about online called Formaggio.  It's located in a really cute neighborhood with cute little shops including the Marimekko store.  Dangerous.

*cue angels singing*

After dropping too much cash on some very small floral printed items we found Formaggio.  

It turned out to not only be an amazing cheese shop but an all around amazing food store.  They had fresh produce and lots of imported dry goods.  They had incredible pastries.  We bought some macarons.

Oooo la la!

The best thing is that they had lots of cheesy samples for everyone to try.

free + sample = happy me!

A beautiful bell shaped soft cheese to try.  Nice and stinky!

And check out the cheese counter.

I

And salamis below.

I got a few slices of the saucisson sec.  It was wonderful and brought me right back to France.
Another great feature of Formaggio is that they have a weekend BBQ.  They just set up on the sidewalk right out front and grill up amazing meats and sides.  

The menu:

Check out this cornbread:

And this chicken was amazing:

One interesting thing was there was a Boston Firefighter standing there the whole time.  I guess maybe that's a requirement if you want to grill on the street?  Anyway, he wasn't hurtin'.  He was getting free BBQ!

Byeeee!

Minnow and Boy Bait

Hello again, blogochums!
This post's title may lead you to believe it's about fishing but believe me, it's not.  I don't fish. Today's post is dedicated to the delicious blueberry cake recipe that my mom's good friend Minnow gave me.  Minnow was my mother's catering partner for years and a wonderful influence on my life.  She would let me come over to her beautiful farm where I would play with her daughter Joanna.  We would ride horses, tease the cranky goat, play games and eat lots of yummy things that Minnow would make.  Her husband Tony would entertain us with tractor rides and one particularly wet canoe adventure in a nearby creek.  I have such wonderful memories of spending time at their farm.  Minnow, by the way, is not her real name but a nickname given to her by a sister who couldn't pronounce her real name, Maryanna. 

She gave me this recipe when I was home visiting and had stopped by her house to pick blueberries.  The recipe's name is really "Melt In Your Mouth Blueberry Cake" but after reading it over a few times I realized that it's a lot like a recipe I'd seen floating around called "Blueberry Boy Bait".  So what I made is kind of a hybrid of the two, although really they are both pretty basic recipes.  I prefer the name "Boy Bait", because well, it's hilarious.  To think you could get a boy interested in you by baking a cake is such a quaint 50s idea.  Actually, when I think about it it's not so dated.  What guy wouldn't be attracted to someone who could make a decent baked good?  I know I would, which is why this recipe will probably also work just as well on girls.

Of course the first thing you need is some blueberries.  These were picked at the Hand Melon Farm in Greenwich, NY.  I love picking berries.  Nothing is more satisfying and fun.  Plus, it's cheap!

The only thing that would be considered tricky in this recipe for those who don't bake a lot is the separating and beating of the egg whites.  The easiest and safest way I find to separate the yolks from the white is to crack the egg on a flat surface (this avoids puncturing the yolk on the corner of a bowl) and letting the whole thing slide into your hand.  Let the white run out through your fingers into a bowl while cradling the yolk (this is a wonderful, jiggly sensation).  Then slip the yolk into another bowl.  Be careful because if you break the yolk and any gets in the white you will have a harder time beating the whites.

It really helps to have an electric mixer to beat your egg whites.  If you don't then be prepared for a major upper body workout.  You want to beat the eggs until they are just forming stiff peaks.  You want to keep stopping the mixer to see how stiff the whites are.  When you pull out the beater you will see a little peak form.  If the peak flops over then you are in "soft peak" land.  Once the whites stand up at attention you have reached "stiff peak".  DO NOT get distracted and over beat your egg whites.  You will end up with a watery mess and will have to cry into your mixing bowl.

Peaks!

I tried mixing the blueberries two different ways.  The first time I mixed them into the batter before adding the egg whites.  This worked fine except that most of the blueberries ended up sinking to the bottom of the cake.

 Where'd they go??

The second time I tried sprinkling them on top of the cake after it was poured into the pan as I'd read in other recipes.  This worked ok but they didn't sink into the cake as much as I wanted them to.

Too many on top!

I think the best way would be to mix half of them into the batter and then sprinkle the rest on the top.  Then you should get good blueberry distribution. 

So I've made this cake twice now and it's been a big hit.  It doesn't look like much but when you bite in it's moist, light and delicious.  Bake one now while there are blueberries about!  And thanks, Minnow... for everything.
Byeeee!

Blueberry Boy (or Girl) Bait
adapted from Minnow's recipe

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs, separated
2/3 cup milk
2 cups blueberries (if frozen keep frozen until ready to use)
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350˚.  In a medium bowl, sift flour and baking powder together, set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar.  Add salt, vanilla and egg yolks and beat until creamy.   Add flour and milk alternately and mix until combined.  Pour into a large bowl.  In clean mixing bowl beat egg whites until they just reach stiff peaks.  Fold egg whites a third at a time into the batter.  Fold in a half of the blueberries.  Pour into a buttered and floured 9 x 13" pan.  Sprinkle the rest of the blueberries on top.  Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top.  Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in pan and serve warm or room temperature.  Cake keeps sealed in an airtight container at room temperature for three days.

Knit v Sew

Welcome back, blogfollowers.
I have been pretty productive the past week and hopefully I will not be a lazy bum and do some posting about what I've been up to.  The other day I baked a delicious blueberry cake AND I made myself a brand new purse.  Then the next day I didn't do anything more inspired than brush my teeth.  Hey, that's how it goes sometimes.  More on the cake later.

I believe that there are two kinds of people in this world, knitters and sewers.  Well, in my world anyway.  Hey, I just noticed that sewer (SOH-er) and sewer (SOO-er) are spelled the same.   Anyway, I have always considered myself a knitter.  I like sitting in front of the tv knitting away at something for weeks (sometimes months).  You can't really sit in the front of the tv and sew (big minus). Still, I've always envied sewers.  Sewing takes a lot more precision and lot more planning.  Sewers must have minds like engineers.  I just don't have that kind of brain.  I like following the "knit 1, purl 2" pattern and seeing a scarf or a sweater develop stitch by stitch.  Sewing patterns scare and intimidate me.  They have weird symbols on them for things like darts, grain line and gathering line.  They are as thin as tissue paper and once opened, can never be folded back again to fit in their paper sleeves.  Sewers have to worry about construction, lining, interfacing.  They use machines.  They have to follow complex directions to the letter.  Sewers need to make a garment fit perfectly because, let's face it, a dress is not going to be as forgiving as a big baggy sweater if the fit is slightly off.  Because of this I've always shied away from sewing, despite my sometimes meticulous nature.  I can handle sewing some trim on a costume or hemming a pair of way too long H&M pants but besides that I don't really sew.  I faux sew. 

Here was my problem.  I wanted a bag.  I wanted it cute.  I wanted it now.  I had done my usual three days of research on Etsy and came up with nada.  Then I remembered that I had bookmarked a page from one of the sewing blogs I read, Sew Mama Sew.  It's a great site with an online store and blog.  They have the coolest fabrics imaginable and on the blog they post all kinds of sewing projects, tutorials and sew-alongs.  They had a little tutorial once of how to make a fat quarter bag.  I thought, I could make that.  Probably. Maybe.  And then I did what I usually do.  I bookmarked it and completely forgot all about it.

So the other day I thought, this is it.  This your time!  I studied the tutorial carefully.  It was not very detailed (for a knitter like me) so I had to read it a dozen times.  I actually set my computer up on the desk where I sew so I could refer to it as I went.  The bag had lining and interfacing.  It had a snap.  I took a deep breath and got going.

I bought two fat quarters from the quilting shop which has conveniently moved right now the street from my house.  Literally.  Walking distance.  Scary.  A fat quarter, for all the sewing neophytes out there like me, is a quarter of a yard that's cut differently than a typical length of fabric.  Here's a handy little diagram I drew up so you can see what I'm talking about. 

 

This is how a typical quarter yard is cut as it comes off the bolt of fabric at the store.  What you end up with is a skinny strip of fabric. 

This is the same yard of fabric, but instead of cutting it in strips, the store takes the yard and cuts it into rectangular quarters.  This means you end up with a fatter, more useful piece of fabric.

The fat quarters were $2.75 each which makes this bag relatively cheap to make.  You can definitely find fat quarters for less at Joann's.  Last time I was there they had them on sale for $.99 each.  This store, however, has the cutest fabric ever so I bought a beautiful red bold print for the outside and a cute green polka dot for the lining.

 Outer fabric

Lining fabric

The lady at the shop recommended fleece interfacing which turned out to have a nice body to it.

I already had some purse handles that I got ages ago with my mom at M&J Trimming in NYC. 

I won't go through step by step because, if you sew, you could probably do this in your sleep (I bow down). Here's the tutorial again if you need it.  After about an hour and a half and no big disasters I came out with this! 

I even added some interior pockets made from scrap fabric.  I hate bags without pockets.

Pocket before being sewn into bag.

I ran a seam down one side of the pocket to make a little pen slot.  Aren't you so impressed?

I am really pleased with the bag and I've gotten quite a few compliments on it.  I was even asked to make one for someone which made me quell with fear.  Quell... what a great word.  Not sure I'm ready for mass production yet.  So, in the end, I feel really good about my purse project.  My first love will always be knitting, but maybe there is hope for the sewer in me.  That's SOH-er, people!

Byeeee.

A Tale of Two Cookies

Happy Summer Bloghoppers!
It's been hot hot hot here in upstate NY which means I've been mostly laying in front of the AC watching HGTV all day.  I have been productive but it's just been too humid to blog.  That's not really an excuse but it's the one I'm using. 

Anyhoo, before it got beastly hot one of my friends' fathers fell ill and had to go into the hospital for a while.  When he got home (and is thankfully doing quite well) I decided to bring over a little spirit-lifter in the form of cookies (which I think were much more welcome than a get well bouquet).  One is soft, chewy and spicy, the other is crisp, buttery and fruity.  Kind of a yin and yang of baked goods. 

First contestant, Chewy Ginger Cookies:

Second contestant, Cherry Almond Jumbles:

And here they are all wrapped up and ready to cure what ails ya.

Recipes are posted below.  Stay cool, friends.

Byeeee.

Chewy Ginger Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened (no marg!)
1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 egg
1/2 tsp ground cloves or allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 oz or 100 grams of crystallized ginger, chopped fine

Preheat oven at 375F. Combine softened butter, sugar, molasses and egg. Beat well. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together well. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until incorporated. Add crystallized ginger. Chill for 1 hour (or several hours, can be chilled overnight.) Once batter is cold, form 1 inch balls and roll each one in granulated sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. These will spread out so don't overcrowd your pan. Bake 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake! Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Cherry Almond Jumbles
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped (you can use cranberries)
1 cup sliced almond, lightly toasted* and roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the extracts and beat.
With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add the dried fruit and almonds and mix well.
Make cookies by either dropping a walnut size mounds of dough using a tablespoon/s or a 1.5-inch cookie scoop.  Bake until just beginning to brown, 20-24 minutes. Makes 28 cookies using a 1 1/2 – inch cookie scoop

*Toast the almonds in a dry pan on medium-high heat for about 5-10 minutes. Keep shaking the pan until they get a nice light brown color. DO NOT leave the pan unattended. Your almonds will burn and you will feel like a big fat failure. No, but really, they will burn.

Gretel

Hello again, Blogfroggers! (these names are getting dumb)

Back so soon, you say? Well, the year is finally winding down in ballet-land which means more time for, well, everything! We had a great year at SCB. That's Saratoga City Ballet in case you're interested. Last weekend we presented our production of "Hansel and Gretel" to wild critical acclaim. Well, not exactly the critical acclaim part, but everyone seemed to love the show and the kids all did a great job.

In the months prior to said show I spent every waking moment it seemed trying to find the right costumes for the lead characters. Turns out you can't buy a german-type girl's costume without going the not-so-family-friendly slutty Halloween costume route. Fantastic! I finally found a wonderful woman named Linda who runs German Import Haus out in CA. She had traditional lederhosen and dirndls (that's German for dress) for very reasonable prices. So I ordered up and this was the "Gretel":

Donker-shane, Linda!

It also came with an adorable white eyelet apron:

For all it's cuteness, though, it still looked a little plain.  I removed the black trim from the bottom of the dress and went digging through our costume closet for something better.  I love hunting around for stuff back there.  You want lime green paillette trim?  You got it!  Pink tassle fringe?  Check.  Here's what I unearthed:

Good ole Wright's Trim

I found some sweet eyelet trim and the cutest tulip ribbon trim.

Gotta love the price.

I started by sewing on some antique lace trim from my own stash to replace the black I had taken off.

I then added the eyelet just above and decided the whole thing needed more color.  This is THEATER after all, people.  I found some ric-rac at the craft store along with some really cute daisy trim.

Then I decided to sew that tulip trim to the bodice of the dress to break up the black a little bit.

And there you have it!

She's all ready to wander around the forest and nearly get eaten by a witch!

Although I complain about not having a life outside of ballet, I do love my job.  When everything comes together on stage it makes all the headaches and hot glue gun burns worth it.  It's kind of magical.

 Hansel & Gretel with The Witch, played by William Otto, SCB faculty and former member of NYCB.

Byeeeee!

Around The Yard

I took some "glamor shots" of the things blooming in our front yard a couple weeks ago.  It was that magical time in upstate NY when spring finally arrives and everyone gets out of their winter funk and is nice to each other.  Well, for a week or two at least.

First specimen: Apple blossoms

Cherry blossoms

Forsythia (the plant that makes you sound like you have a lisp)

We had this pretty shrub that I don't know the name of.  Anyone? Anyone?  Bueller?

An actual honey bee (yes, they still exist) enjoying the last of the rhododendron.

The one plant that really thrives in our yard.  Anyway, I don't care what anyone says.  I like dandelions.

The first buds of my favorite yard plant: lilac.  Unfortunately, this year's crop was pretty thin.  Anyone else have the same problem?

What could this giant leafy thing be?  I'll give you three guesses...

WRONG. Just kidding.  It's RHUBARB!  My mother does not like rhubarb but I'm trying to turn her on to it.  I never even had rhubarb until I was an adult.  Now I'm obsessed!

I can smell the pie already...

Now what's this strange plant??

Uhoh, it's a big giant dogface!

Pip says, "Stop taking pictures of plants, do-do."

"I'm so much more interesting."

Oh dear.
Byeeeee!