Baking Workout

If you're looking for a fantastic upper body workout, I suggest trying to roll out paper thin whole wheat tortillas after an hour of yoga and a relaxing shower.  My shoulders have never been sorer.  But I got to eat homemade burritos after all that exercise!

Basil Focaccia

My mother's oven must be a lot hotter than mine, because earlier this week I made a fantastic loaf of focaccia that I didn't have time to let fully rise in the pan.  In her oven, it rose another half an inch during the cooking process.  I also wonder if it has to do with gas heat which apparently radiates from more places in the oven than my bottom-of-the-line electric stove.  Because we didn't have any fresh herbs, and I don't really like dried rosemary, I sprinkled this dough liberally with dried basil, then sprinkled the top of the bread with it before baking.  It was absolutely delicious!

Best Baguette Ever - Blame the Oven

I'm vacationing at my mom's house for two weeks (which is an awesome break before I start my new job!)  I figured that, since I wasn't out of the country or staying at a stranger's house, there was no reason to really change my day to day habits.  Although her house isn't fitted up with a fancy new-ish mixer, I managed to make the best baguette of my baking career this afternoon.  I used the same recipe from Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes that I've been using and tinkering with for months.  However, I made a few changes simultaneously that may have affected the outcome.

First, I was concerned about the changed baking circumstances, so I increased the bread flour from half to slightly more than half.  This probably had a negligible effect on the bread, since the difference was only a quarter of a cup. 

Second, I'm not sure exactly how much yeast I used.  The recipe calls for four and a half teaspoons of yeast, but my mom's teaspoon measure is really hard to even (yes, I'll get her a new one) and, unlike at my house, I was using yeast from packets instead of from a big jar.  I seem to remember that a packet holds about two and a quarter teaspoons of yeast, but I really couldn't be sure.  After trying to measure them with the teaspoons and getting frustrated, I just poured two packets into the the bowl and went with it.  Is yeast in packets fresher than yeast in a jar?  I hope not, because it's a lot more expensive!  Did the bread benefit from an extra half teaspoon of yeast?  Possibly.  It's hard to be sure.

Third, I mixed and kneaded the bread by hand.  In the past, before the coming of the great mixer of the gods, I always mixed and kneaded by hand.  And this recipe in particular gave me so much trouble that I frequently added extra water.  Maybe it was the knowledge that a mixer could get one and a quarter cups of water to hold together three and a half cups of flour that helped me to mix it by hand this time.  I'm not sure.  I do know that I made it work without adding any extra water.  I mixed with a fork until it clearly was no longer working, then kneaded in the rest of the flour by hand.  The dough was actually softer and silkier than it is coming out of the mixer!  (It helped  that my mom has more counter space and I wasn't kneading on a rolling island, too.)

Fourth, I cooked the bread on a preheated stainless steel cookie sheet instead of a bread stone.  I'm actually not sure whether this affected the bread at all.  It probably shouldn't have, but who knows?!

Finally, and I think that this may be the most important variable, my mom's gas oven heats over 500 degrees.  The dial on my electric oven only goes up to 450, and even then I'm not really sure how hot it gets in there.  My mom tells me that her oven isn't true, but it seems much hotter than mine, anyway.  I cooked the bread at 500 degrees for about 18 minutes, then at 400 for about another 4 minutes, just to make sure that it was cooked inside.  I also placed a cake pan full of boiling water on the bottom rack and misted the oven multiple times during the first five minutes, as I usually do.  The bread is crispy on the outside and light and fluffy inside, just like at a bakery.  This is an amazing breakthrough!!!

When I get home, I will definitely experiment with hand kneading (on the counter!) and with baking on a stainless steel baking sheet, although I figure I can't do much about my oven, other than move to a nicer apartment!

Historical Fancy Dress Party - Part 2

A few weeks ago I had all my friends over for a fabulous costume party.  The theme was fancy dress from any era, with a focus on historical fancy dress.  We had flappers, harem members, and flower children, plus dapper gentlemen from every generation.  We also had fantastic food.  The party started with a high tea at 5pm - I invited a couple of ladies over for tea and crumpets.  The crumpets were flipped by a charming, 70's era Becca, who has since been crowned Lady Becca of the Order of the Crumpet.

For the main party, I served all easy-to-eat finger food.  I also made some fantastic punch!  My mom obliged me by taking some fantastic shots of the house and all the yummy food on the table:

LOVED the Royal Wedding!

I just got back from a Royal Wedding Viewing Party and it was DELIGHTFUL!  My mom and our friend Cory and I all wore the fascinators I made (picutres coming soon), and we had a grand time comparing our outfits to what the famous attendees were wearing.  My fascinators were definitely neither as creative nor as intricate as most of those on display at the wedding, but they made us feel like we were part of the action.  My mom's friend Helen served the most fabulous tea - there were scones and clotted cream, mini quiches, cake, and a delightful pastry with a fig filling that I have since forgotten the name of.  We drank tea and coffee at first (we got there at four in the morning!!) then switched to champagne to toast the newlyweds and mimosas to continue the fun.  By the time I got home around 11am I was ready to go back to bed!

Mill End Rules!

. . . in a wonky, suburban way.  I visited Mill End Store on McLaughlin Blvd in Milwaukie, OR, at the suggestion of a designer friend.  I sew rarely enough that I had mostly shopped for sewing and crafting supplies at Joann Fabrics, a nationwide chain.  I had tried shopping locally, but most of the local fabric shops I'd heard of were boutiques, and way more expensive than I could afford.  My friend Lindsey told me about Mill End, which is a Portland-area business and, unlike most chain stores, carries some local fabrics like Pendleton wool.

I knew that I was basically going to a fabric warehouse, so I checked their website a whole bunch of times to make sure that this was a place where I could buy fabric by the yard.  It was.  What I wasn't prepared for was the warehouse-y feel of the place.  It's set back a little off the road, looking like all the other warehouses on the strip, and has a parking lot and entrance behind the building.  To the odd pedestrian (and we are oddities in that part of town) it screamed "This place is not for you!  It's for people who drive minivans!"  But, once inside, I found that it was bright, open, and arranged to help knitters, sewers, and quilters find exactly what they are looking for and to guide them to things they didn't even know they needed.  Today I was looking for white organza and brocade for my White Party outfit, and almost walked out with six yards of artichoke-printed cotton for a funky, retro sundress.  I had a very hard time staying goal oriented with all the treasures around me.  The calico section alone would make most vintage-inspired seamstresses weak in the knees, as would the collection of vintage prints and fabrics.  I also found that the prices were competitive with Joann, the only chain store I've been to recently.

Finally, the staff were fantastic.  In Oregon, almost everyone is fantastic, so it's sometimes hard to tell the difference.  Even at a big chain store like Joann, the staff is fairly knowledgeable about what product they stock and they usually ask about my projects.  At Mill End, however, the staff I interacted with seemed to have an in-depth knowledge of the different types of fabric I asked about, seemed to sew or knit or craft regularly, and seemed to have very friendly relationships with regular customers. 

I will definitely be going back to Mill End - at the very least to buy a bunch of that artichoke fabric!

Jane Austen-style Bonnet

There was something off about the last bonnet I made.  I thought it made me look like a pilgrim - although I have been accused of looking like a pilgrim in the past:

(I was supposed to be Jane Eyre)

Anyway, when my friend with curly hair tried it on, it looked significantly less pilgrim-y on her.  Still, after doing some intensive research (i.e. watching the six hour Pride and Prejudice miniseries in one sitting) I concluded that the bonnets of that era, or at least the bonnets in that movie, had brims that fanned out from the wearer's face more.  They also seemed to perch on the wearer's head or hair, rather than wrapping around the head like my first bonnet did.  With all those considerations in mind, I set out to alter the bonnet pattern I had used to make it more Jane Austen-y.

The pattern, of course, was for a Halloween costume, because apparently no person in her right mind wants to wear a historically accurate, apparel-quality bonnet for fun.  I have never significantly altered a pattern or made my own pattern before.  For those who know of my extreme, almost handicapping lack of spatial intelligence, it might come as a surprise that I would even attempt it.  In the end, I used the crown pattern provided, but drew my own brim.

I had noticed that the brim pattern provided was nearly flat - the top wasn't any wider than the bottom and the bottom didn't curve around the head at all.  The result of this was that the brim, when laid across the top of the head, laid flat and didn't flare away from the head at all.  To create a better brim, I measured across the top of my head from behind each ear and then attempted to draw a curved pattern that would sit perpendicular to my scalp.


For the brim, I cut this pattern three times out of navy cotton and two times out of fusible webbing.  I then ironed the two pieces of fusible webbing between two pieces of cotton.  This made the "interior" of the brim.  I then sewed the interior piece to the third piece of navy cotton with a long strip of tulle pinned between them.  When I turned the brim right side out, it was navy on the outer edge, and navy with a tulle covering on the inner edge (the side that faces front).

After attaching the brim to the crown, which I had gathered loosely along the top and sides and rather tightly at the base, I hand sewed the seam inside the brim and basted the tulle in place for a sort of pintuck look.  I really like the way this bonnet sits further back on the head, and the way the brim fans out from the face, allowing the face to be more exposed.  It looks even better on someone with elaborately styled hair like the fancy ladies wore during that period.

I also shortened the back of the bonnet from the pattern.  I like it shorter, without the bizarre neck modesty flap, but I found that it was less forgiving.  I had to make sure to tuck all my hair (not difficult) or my friend's hair (more difficult) under the back of the bonnet, and then it looked a little strained.  In my next attempt, I will probably keep the back short, but make the crown itself fuller to accommodate more hair.