(Inside A Black Apple)

Saturday View, Sunday View

What a wonderful weekend!

It was wildly beautiful here this Saturday and Sunday...and this is coming from a girl who much prefers 50-degree-Fall-ishness. I had just commented to Josiah the other day that in between Winter and Summer, it's difficult for me to get inspired about dinners and things. I think it's because the choices aren't obvious. If it's Winter, you make a soup or stew or some cozy thing...if its Summer, the weather calls for pasta, salads, avacado (as if I don't consume plenty of those 52 weeks a year!). But we had two nice, warm, easy days and two Spring-y/Summer-y dinners.

Saturday:
-Antique stores
-Bagels + Iced tea/coffee
-Park...dozing, reading aloud, enormous lemonades
-Big salads for dinner (which are, quite literally, just big salads with lots of good stuff on them)
-Drawing at night

Sunday:
- Pick up friends from airport
- Grab picnic food and take it to...
- Park, again! Hours of drawing, bird-watching, and cherries. And more lemonade!
- Work at home in the evening
- Make off-the-cuff "white lasagne" for dinner with basil, tomatoes, chicken...85% smashing success, will futher perfect and share
- Drawing and movie-watching at night

Any weekend in which we end up on a quilt at the park two days in a row is a total success in my book. Worthy of celebrating with crazy-expensive cherries...I always try to resist, but they totally got me yesterday.

Happy Monday to you!

Two things I have done recently that I recommend:

1.) Watching Let The Right One In

 

I was really, really looking forward to this little film, and we finally got it from good ol' Netflix last weekend. It's not for everybody, for certain, but I really loved it and I've heard nothing but praise for it from other people. It's such a beautiful portrait of the wild precipice between child and adult, right and wrong.

2.) Making this pound cake which  Sarah tipped me off about. So good! I cut down the eggs by a few, but I think it's probably grand either way. And definitely go for the cake flour with it!

Things I do NOT recommend:
Twisting your ankle horridly (as I did on Tuesday night) and becoming couch-bound. This is the reason for the lack of posting and the kind of anemic post today. I'm just trying to really do the whole R.I.C.E. thing (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, I think?!) and cross my fingers that I can at least leave the house with my crutches in a day or two.

Happy weekend!

Golden Years

Thank you for all of your merry birthday wishes!

Today is for quiet, happy, real-birthday time, so I am going to get on with the business of that...but before I do, I thought I'd share a few nice vignettes from last night's get-together.

I never really buy big cakes or things like that for parties, since I always want to bake everything, but I thought that since it was my birthday I would avoid the potential heartbreak of baking macaro(o)ns myself. Pix did the work for me instead, and we had a dozen of my favorites (Rose) and a dozen of Josiah's favorites (the caramel). Everyone really got a kick out of them, and I think they also had a happy time celebrating with me and ol' Abe!

It was a marvelous little gathering...I got some of the most thoughtful gifts, Amy's girls came (who are treasures themselves), and I felt so warm and as golden as all the candlelight.

I am so lucky.

Artwork Dreams & Donut Wishes

I thought I would be hermit-like this weekend, but it always seems that when I plan on that, we're 10 times more social than usual. This is a good thing! It means we got to spend Friday night with Ryan + Lucy hanging out at the opening at Grass Hut for a show in which Ryan had lots of work. This is my favorite Ryan-piece from the show:

Ryan is so prodigiously good that it's actually a little frightening.

The piece that made me cry a little inside because I cannot really afford it at this time is this Carson Ellis drawing:

Jeez louise.

She also has a drawing on the Grass Hut website (that I didn't see at the gallery) that is the "Little Fur Child" from this book, which is absolutely my favorite picture-book. And if you happen purchase it, please get the faux-fur binding. There is no point in the non-tiny, non-fur-bound edition.

We had dinner and then donuts, and the abundant artificial light at the donut place was too amazing.

 
You can barely make out the "mega donut" on the upper tier on the right. Its radius was at least 6 inches.

Aforementioned prodigous Ryan with utterly out-of-place chandelier.

The boys were really into this bubble-hockey game. Like, two hours of games into it. Josiah is there on the right. That man is such a cutie. A cutie among cuties.

We also got to hang out with this out of town Etsy-pal on Saturday, and then Drew made us brunch today. Ashley contributed by pouring us some orange juice.

And now I'm going to cut out fabric for dollies and spend time with my numero uno friend of them all. Luckily, he's just in the other room.

Cinnamon Rolls for Two Insane People, or Four Sane Ones (with corrected recipe!)

Here goes the way I'm making cinnamon rolls, from now, 'til time immemorial. The ingredients are heavily borrowed from this wildly good recipe that lots of you linked me to, but the method is much more slap-it-all-together.

- First off, set a stick of butter out on the counter to soften...hopefully a few hours ahead of time. (This is the part I forget)

- Then, gather your ingredients:
(for the dough)

1/2 C warmed milk (sorry, I forgot this on the first posting)
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 c white sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon yeast

(for slathering on the dough)
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tablespoons soft butter
hearty amounts of cinnamon (adjust to your tastes)

(for the icing)
2 tablespoons soft butter
3-4 tablespoons cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 c confectioner's sugar

(before + after frosting)

Now, you just fling all of your dough ingredients into a bowl, mixing thoroughly. Pretty quickly, it should become smooth enough to knead with floured hands. This dough is so smooth...it's just beautiful to work with. When you can pat it into a ball, put it back into the floured mixing bowl and let it rest for a little while (maybe 15 minutes). If you're going to bake them immediately, pre-heat the oven to 400.

After it has rested, come back to your dough and roll it out into a rectangle on a floured surface. Take your allotted softened butter, and spread it across the surface with a spoon or spatula. Then sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll up into a roll, and then slice. This is where you must decide whether or not to be insane. You can form this batch into two enormous rolls, or 4 smaller, more sane ones. I recommend the sane route. The huge ones are lovely and impressive to look at, but they have trouble cooking to the center thoroughly, and quite frankly, might send you into a coma.

Now, when you have your buns, you can either pop them into your preheated oven (using a greased pan) or, and this achieves slightly better results, put them in the refrigerator overnight and bake them the next morning. Either way, you want to bake them for around 15 minutes (or slightly more if you made the huge ones).
Then, whip together the few frosting ingredients, and spread over the warm rolls when they emerge from the oven.

Now you have cinnamon rolls to enjoy...and if you're only two people like we are, you will have some to enjoy tomorrow morning, too!

Marianne and Marshmallow

Hello sweet friends!

You'll be relieved to know that I haven't gone into a diabetic coma from the follow-up (and insanely good!) cinnamon rolls I made after my last post. I'll have photos and a recipe for you soon.

In the mean-time, here's another new Milkland piece that has been finished up for a few weeks now. It's another girl with another white, downy friend.

Marianne + Marshmallow      9" x 12"x 1"     Acrylic on wood

Something else that is a similar lovely salmony-pink...

 

Cherry-vanilla macs that I made last week!

Happy weekend!

Not Quite Right

I made some enormous cinnamon rolls for us over the weekend, and while pretty good, they aren't quite there yet. I was winging the recipe and construction of the winter-y buns, so I need to just get back up on the cinnamon-horse and try again.

I will get cracking on that, and when I've got something really good and share-worthy, I'll be sure to post the recipe here.

I'm thinking that they'll be an invaluable ally to have in the lingering days of Winter.
Especially the weekend ones.

Thank you for all the enthusiasm over the new work, it is so appreciated!
Happy Tuesday!

Post-Holiday Hello

Hi! Hello!

We are back (as of late last night) from our holiday-visit-gift-and-eat-athon and feeling so grateful for that 10 days of happy times. Also happy to be back at our dollhouse with a certain grey furbaby warming our respective laps! It is good to go home, and good to come home.

Here are just a few Christmastime snippets from our trip...peacefully finishing up scarves the evening before our flight with the lovely company of a huge cup of steaming-hot tea:

The perfect roasted turkey my brother Stephen made for Christmas dinner:

And the big morning with my mom's incredible tree from this year:

I'm feeling inspired and happy and my brain and sketchbook are abuzz with ideas for the coming year for me and the Black Apple.

Happy Friday, and Happy New Year to you!

More Stories from Sugarville

Thanks for all the 'mallow-love!
And while I liked those photos just fine (and certainly liked the 'mallows themselves) it was a bit of a color-less post. So, today's treats should help make up for that.

These are the holiday cookie boxes I put together for some local friends:

They contain (clockwise): Peppermint Macaro(o)ns, Star-shaped sugar cookies with silver sugar, Peanut Butter/Chocolate Fudge, and Cheesecake + Berry Macaro(o)ns!

The sweet compartment-ed boxes are the Martha line from Michael's. They had perfect little polka-dot parchment sheets included...which helped make up for the fact that I completely forgot my plans to order a roll of this.

The peppermint macs are dusted in a golden luster-dust I flipped over from Fancy Flours. It's difficult to see in the photo, but they are truly opalescent in person.

I hope all of you bakers are making a lovely smorgasbord of cookies and the like...I'm hoping this is just round one for me. Christmas Eve at my mom's is usually a bake-a-thon!

It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter...

Continuing with the white-winter-theme, I boxed up a few batches of marshmallows and sent them on their way yesterday, still being rather hobbit-like and staying in the kitchen. They are so simple and fun to make (I use this Martha-method), and are, in all seriousness, 100 times better than the dusty cylinders that come in the bag.
I don't even like those. These, I love.

Maybe it's because you can add vanilla with abandon (highly recommended), maybe it's because they melt so creamily and wonderfully. Or maybe it's because of the way they taste dipped in a bit of chocolate...

I only made a few chocolate-coated ones...just melted a couple of chocolates I had around and coated them in that and it was so. good. It made me wish that I had known of the evil goodness so that I could've split people's gift packages between plain and chocolate.

I didn't, though, (sadly for my recipients) so all those naked plainies went into their parchment nest in a bakery box and were tied up in peppermint string.

Today I spent the afternoon with one of my favorite friends and it stretched out into dinner for all four of us and christmas presents and loveliness (the lingering ice on the roads didn't stand in our way).

What a sweet time of year.

Cozy Orphan-Thanksgiving For Four

I hope that those of you United Statesians enjoyed your Thanksgiving yesterday! We truly did...it was a really lovely day. It was my first Thanksgiving on my own, and I think Josiah's, too.  I read that people refer to these gatherings of misfits (who can't or just don't go home) as "Orphan Thanksgivings", and it struck me as very cute that there is a name for these things. Ashley and Drew came over to join us for dinner, and there was so much laughing, wine, genuine good cheer, and so very many carbohydrates.

This is some of what I made for the festive day (curiously, my photos seem to mainly be of desserts! Hmmm...)

Thanksgiving Macaro(o)ns! I couldn't help myself.

The opal-ly pink ones are filled with cranberry-buttercream. They were insane. Insane! I'm learning on my odyssey with these cookies that the less-sweet the filling, the better (because the cookies themselves are so sugary). The miniature ones jumbled alongside them are chocolate with orange-cream cheese filling (the chocolate mac recipe came from David Lebovitz).

I also made a little pinecone cheeseball like Heidi posted a few weeks ago. They're so flipping cute! Mine was just cream cheese + herbed goat cheese. It was meant for snacking before the big meal,  but we ended up devouring it at 9:30 pm as we sat around the table and talked and talked.

I just realized as I was writing this that the little candle-centerpiece above includes a pumpkin from the trip the four of us took to Sauvie Island. And as you can see, both a regular-turkey and a Tofurkey graced our banquet.

Drew took this photo as the taper candle dwindled into one-ness with the pumpkin (that was around the time we finally ate the cheeseball).

We finished off the night with a pumpkin cheesecake I made Wednesday night. Those things are so good (especially for a non-pumpkin-pie-person), and there are so many recipes for them out there now! To make the pattern, I just dusted ground cloves over a doily I had laid on top. It was an easy little impromptu trick, and I think it gave it a sort of disheveled elegance.

Today I'm going to work on some little dolls for the upcoming update, and go to see Milk, which I've been excited for since I saw the trailer a few months ago. His story (this documentary tells it well) is so fascinating, sad, and virtuous all once.   And goodness, Gus Van Sant could never have known what a timely movie it would be upon its November 2008 release.

Happy Friday!

Macaroon(ed)! Part 2

So, when last we spoke about French macaroons (or macarons, if you want to be fancy), I was feeling pretty good about them. I had made one batch, my first batch ever, and sure...they looked a little like amoebas, but hey...they had the correct texture, little feet, everything. Since then, however, I have been ma(ca)rooned on the Island of Persnickety Cookies, trying my darndest to recreate that first batch.

Seriously, folks, like 7-or-8-failed-batches-trying.

I spent hours and hours researching recipes, technique, etc. (because this seems to have been a recurring obsession of internet-bakers, there is a TON to look through). I read and re-read Tartelette's tutorial and tried, and tried again. But they just. weren't. right.

(Vanilla Macaroons with Toblerone creme filling)

This story does have a happy ending, so don't get depressed yet.
See, up there? Those pretty, sandy little things?
Well, my magical mom (cold-fixer and nice-weather-bringer) also got in on the macaroon obsession when she was here on her visit. We tried making a few batches together, trying out two different recipes, and both failed, so she got all monomaniacal like me and resolved that we WOULD indeed get some decent macaroons. She searched around a bit online, and came to the A La Cuisine! post on macaroons (which I, curiously, had seen but hadn't tried).

(Grapefruit Macaroons)

And it seems to be the perfect macaroon recipe. I'll have to try it a third time before I declare it nearly-bulletproof, but applets: this is the one to try if you want to give the tricky little things a go. After trying and failing so many times, nearly being in tears with frustration, this recipe just worked like a dream...I think his proportions are just right-on-the-money. I now feel confident about the 5 lbs of Blanched Almonds I've got sitting in my kitchen, because I know they will turn into something good. I also thought I would try to outline the tips I found especially helpful in making these (so that something worthwhile came out of all the blood, sweat, and near-tears).  They're illustrated by bad photos that were taken at night, so don't judge too harshly.

If you want to continue on this baking-geek-out odyssey with me, please click below to read on!

Boo!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Our BYOP Party was a big success.
I got all of my baking done, and I think everyone had a nice, cozy time.

(A little blurry, but you get the picture). I baked pumpkin spice muffins, spinach/goat cheese tarts, orange macaroons/macarons, and sugar cookie ghosts and pumpkins.

The little ghosties might look familiar...I bent a "regular" ghost cookie cutter into a "Black Apple ghost" shape. I painted their faces on with mixed food coloring and very small brushes.
Do you see how I seem to have cut just one backwards? So this photo looks like a mob of ghosts ganging up on this one little guy.

Agh! A casualty!

The photo leaning against the candleabra above on the left got a lot of attention last night...the story on that weird possession is that it was a "white elephant" gift at a Christmas party in college. I fought so hard for that photo. If you click to enlarge it, you can see the ghost-lady in the front.

We realized as we were stringing up a few decorations that our house doesn't really need much to get very Halloween-ish very fast.

Josiah reprised his cool folded paper skulls from last year, and I sewed together a garland of black leaves. I like how they look a little like paper dolls, folded out with joined arms.

From the left, these guys are Josiah's gruff albino, Alicia's jolly little fellow, and Ashley's amazing mopey one.

These are (from left) my wonky, "Meatwad"-ish one, Dave's jolly giant, Trina's elegant + fancy tree, and Drew's winking (and bloodthirsty) fella.

Lucy's was amazing and also kinda gross (that's "earwax", suggested by the youngest member of our party and art director of Lucy's pumpkin, young Eliot).

Aw, everyone looks so happy. Many excellent pumpkins were carved and lit, lots of cookies were eaten, and lots of cider (spiked and otherwise) kept hands warm.

Thanks for wading through all these photos with me!
Today I'm spending time with my favorite pumpkin:

...and his pops. We will watch scary movies, dress up, and get dinner...and hopefully be paid visits by some trick-or-treaters.

Enjoy your day and night, and watch out for ghosts!

PS: If you want some spooky movie suggestions, here's my Halloween Movie picks post from last year. We re-watched Eyes Without a Face on Wednesday night and, damn, that is a crazy-good movie.

xoxo

We're having lots of things from bowls this time of year.

Hello there, and Happy Friday!

I haven't been around too much this week, but it's not for lack of stuff going on behind the scenes. It's a strange thing, the whole "readying for Christmas when one should be enjoying Halloween". I've been working on Christmas products (exciting but not-quite-the-proper-thing-to-share just yet) and on a long-term project that I'm very invested in. And, enjoying warm drinks and crunching leaves, of course.

Also, things from bowls. Two soups I want to share that I love. Both are very hearty, but that is all they have in common. I'm a big soup person. I love 95% of soups, so when soup-weather rolls around, I get very excited.

The first soup is a stew from an old Martha issue. We both love it. It has heaps of parsnips, which is a plus in my book. In fact, this is the soup that introduced me to parsnips. And now I am in love with the little ghost-carrots.
You can follow the recipe here, but we make a few substitutions/omissions. We use turkey sausage as a rule, but my suspicion is that veggie crumbles would be very good, too, and besides swapping to veggie stock, is the only substitution you'd need to make it a vegetarian stew.

Also, the recipe calls for a generic "handful" of herbs, but I say rosemary all the way. But then again, given the choice, I always go with rosemary. Oh! I also omit the pearl onions.

The other soup is my guilty pleasure soup...the ol' Broccoli + Cheddar variety.

This soup might be a little more low-rent than the fall stew above. I don't know. It's definitely not good-for-you, but it's so good to have once in a while. This is my take on a recipe that I found on AllRecipes a few years ago:

INGREDIENTS:
2 Tablespoons butter       
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 large yellow or white onion, finely chopped         
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 crushed garlic clove         
1 1/4 cups 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper         
5 oz grated sharp cheddar
Large handful of grated monterey jack cheese
16 oz package frozen chopped broccoli

1. Melt butter in stock pot on medium, add onion and cook til' soft. Add pepper and garlic, and cook for a few minutes. Add broccoli and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer to broccoli is tender (10-15 minutes).

2. In separate bowl, whisk flour into milk until completely dissolved. Stir into soup, stirring frequently ti'l thickened. Reduce heat to low, and then stir in cheese til smooth and heated through. Salt to taste.

Serves 4-5.

Enjoy, if you try one of my favorite soups!
If not, enjoy your Fall (or Spring, depending on the hemisphere) weekend.

xoxo

Macaroon(ed)!

Are there any macaroon fans in the house?
The colorful, French sandwich cookie type, just to clarify...'cause there are a million uses for the word macaroon in the baking-world, it seems.

I have gotten really hooked on these little pretties since coming to Portland, because there seem to be beautiful, disheveled piles of them seem at every bakery we go to (which is only maybe 2 regularly, but still). The rose flavored ones from  Pix started out as an experiment ("What is eating a scent like?") and now I'm in love. I think that macaroons might be kind of divisive amongst cookie-people (a few weeks ago a little girl was eying mine, and asked her dad about it. He answered "They're really not very good...they're kind of an empty taste"). And he's kind of right. But I like the airy chewiness of them. And whenever I fall really in love with a baked good, it's only a matter of time til' I try to emulate it at home.

I thought Tuesday debate watching with Ashley + Drew deserved some treats, so I made them earlier that afternoon.

I used this recipe from Epicurious for the cookie part, and improvised the filling (confectioner's sugar, butter, a bit of cream, and raspberry extract). These cookies are simple enough to make, but VERY persnickety! You have to pipe them in little perfect circles, and that is the hardest part. Well, for me it was, but I might not be the best at piping. Mine are a little amoeba-ish, as you can see above. Still, they tasted really good, and had the right consistency for a macaroon, so I was really happy for a first-time attempt.

They were a hit with the A + D contingency, and with Josiah. I also made some goat cheese tartlettes, and Ashley had some really good crispy cookies and peppery chips on the table, so we were all drowning our respective dour, uninspired moods (courtesy of the uninspiring debate) in snacks. It's a good thing we had some quality stuff to nibble on, 'cause jeez.

That debate was kind of a dud.

In the Night Kitchen

The book In the Night Kitchen isn't really a favorite Maurice Sendak book of mine, but I do love the title very much. It seemed perfect for a post about some magnificent macaroni and cheese that I made in our new, tiny, individually-portioned Le Creuset pots one night last week. I had been longing for some invididual little pots like this for a while (since my favorite restaraunt when I lived in Williamsburg, Dumont, which I know I've mentioned before, always served their Mac + Cheese in little skillets).

They are the cutest little things, and make me very happy.
My modus operandi when making macaroni + cheese is very slapdash and make-it-up-as-you-go-along, but I always use two ingredients: sharp cheddar & nutmeg.

These photos are not the most beautiful, but remember, it was the night kitchen.

And there is the pot of requisite broccoli that must ALWAYS accompany macaroni + cheese in my house. I think they are perfect together.

Also, to rewind to yesterday, thank you so much for making the update such a big success! Thank you so, so very much. I love the Ordinary Forest work so much that I think I was extra nervous this time when it all went live. And please know that I appreciate and feel sorry for the dissappointed ones who really wanted a doll and weren't able to snag one, but (and I know there is a post somewhere in which I address this very thing but I can't find it) I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm only one girl, and I don't exclusively make dolls. I don't even primarily make dolls, nor do I want to. Sewing for too long hurts my back, and crafting 16 dolls over a few weeks for each update is just the best that I can do.

I don't want to raise my prices to a place where only a few can afford my work, and I don't want to go to an auction format for the updates, so I'm not sure how I can do things differently. I would love to hear any suggestions you might have, because there might be solutions I haven't thought of...I am totally open to suggestions!

Another thing is, and I don't like to dwell on ugliness here, but the insulting and nasty comments and emails I recieve seem to have been coming more frequently lately than any time I can remember. I try to diligently delete them, to shield both myself and my loved ones and you applets from the hateful words, but they are there. I see them.

Many of them seem to stem from a misplaced sense of entitlement. Some are unbelievably cruel and personal. Almost all are highly illogical and overly familiar. I've had commenters/emailers attack my life,  my entrepreneurship, my work, my honesty, my kindness, my character,  and worst (and most confusing and illogical), those that I love.  You would not believe the seething hatred contained in some of these diatribes. I'm actually thinking of publishing a zine compiling some of the greatest hits.

(Mostly) Kidding. 

I really just wish that these people who seem to visit this place out of a twisted resentment for me or my work or anything about me would just do themselves the kindness and stop. Because eventually, if they are such a person, they might author one of these defamatory letters, and that won't be healthy or helpful for anyone. This doesn't seem to happen to any of my other close blogging friends who have reached the same level of visibility, so I'm at a loss. I don't have any enemies (that I know of) and I try to be the best person that I can be. However, I seem to be a lightning rod for some stranger-people's disappointment or dissatisfaction, and I don't know why, but I'm so tired of it. I'm just trying to make a life for myself, make good work, keep pretty and clever blogs, and strive for happiness.

Wow, that went from a happy thing, Macaroni + Cheese (one of the happiest things there is) to a sad thing, and I'm sorry for that!
Good grief.
Let's go back to mac n' cheese. Let's all go back to that happy place.

Wool + Marshmallows

Well, my yesterday went mostly as planned. Most importantly, I got to make the two things I wanted to make...the wool bag and the 'mallows, and I'm very happy with the end result of each.

Bag (with delicate, spider-webby vintage lace trim), which even the kitten likes:

Cold-toes curing homemade Marshmallows (Martha-mallows?) mentioned in yesterday's post:

They really were a snap. They are very, very tasty...but I wasn't really sold til' they started to melt in my cocoa. It's when the melting starts to go down that these homemade ones really, really blow regular store-bought away.

S'mores for dessert tonight. For certain.

Vanilla Lemonade for Friday

I whipped this up a few days ago, and it was so, so, good. In each sip there is first the great tartness of the lemons, and then just after, a mellow vanilla kick. I like my lemonade semi-sweet (but not too sweet) and pulpy, so just keep that in mind and adjust to your heart's desire!

To Make One Reasonably sized pitcher (serves 6-ish):

1. Make a simple syrup by stirring together 3/4 c of sugar and 1 c water in a small saucepan on low heat, remove when sugar is dissolved
2. Meanwhile, juice about 5 good-sized lemons directly into your pitcher (reserve half your lemon-left-over peels and such)
3. Cool the syrup slightly, and then stir together with the concentrated lemon juice. Fill 3/4 of the pitcher with cool water.
4. Throw in a teaspoon or so of vanilla and give the whole thing a good stir.
5. If you're like me, toss about 1/2 your juiced-lemon wedges back into the pitcher. I love the taste that it gives!
6. Serve over tall glasses full to the brim with ice, and take delight in one of the best things about the sweltering Summer...the cold, cold drinks.
7. Find a place, preferably grassy, on which to enjoy!

Happy Friday!

PS: Thanks for all that fabric love! What will come of my designs?

Who knows! Doll dresses, zip pouches, quilt squares, etc. I've recieved so many nice emails asking if it will be available for sale...and for right now, I am thinking probably not. The Spoonflower yardage isn't currently affordable enough to turn around and sell it in the shop, and also, I really love the idea of there being some original Black Apple fabric designs to make my dolls + things even more my own specific, unique creation.

However, I would adore to design a line of Black Apple-ish fabric that could be available to you, and if approached,  would take them up in millisecond!

Icing Cupcakes By Candlelight (Or, My July Fourth)

My ears are still buzzing from the barrage of firework-sounds they were just exposed to at our friend's fourth of July shindig. At half-past-midnight on the 5th, it's now officially not Independence Day for the US, but I thought I'd share what I made in honor of the day.

I made a batch of vegan brownies with peanut-butter frosting for the vegan-ese that would be in attendance, and vanilla cupcakes with cream-cheese/orange frosting for everyone else. I had done my baking last night, and just needed frost them today...and wouldn't you know it? We had a really bad afternoon thunderstorm which left me frosting my cupcakes by the light of candles.

Eventually, though our power was still out, the natural light returned and helped me with my decorating. The Fourth is always a hard holiday for me to get into aesthetically...I'm not really a huge fan of the red/white/blue, stars & stripes motif decorations, so I schemed up another way to celebrate my country.  I printed out little flags from the nation's inception (the only US flag that I love) and made some little cupcake-toppers out of those as well as some notable presidents and/or founding fathers: 

I topped the cupcakes with people that I'm really happy + proud are/were American:

Tom Waits, William Faulkner, John Coltrane, Joey Ramone, Johnny Cash, Dorothy Parker, Ronnie Spector, Amelia Earhart, Edgar Allan Poe, David Lynch, etc.

They were such a hit! Lots of people kept theirs, which I think is really sweet and made me happy that I  figured out a personal way to celebrate the country I'm from.

Glazed Orange Scones For Your Weekend Breakfasts

I kept getting these very tasty orange scones at one of our usual lunch spots, and I frequently said to myself: "You must try to make something similar at home". I'm on a huge citrus kick right now, which began with the last of the season's tangelos and is still going strong.

For these, I adapted a simple scone recipe from my beloved AllRecipes.com , and the results were tender and crumb-y and delicious.

(Makes about 8 medium sized scones)

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 C white sugar
pinch salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" chunks
1/2 C orange juice
1/4 c sour cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk
Zest of 1 orange

   1.   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C    

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter using a pastry tool or your hands, until the mixture is crumbly and there are still pea-sized lumps of butter visible. Stir in the orange zest. Mix together 1/2 cup orange juice and sour cream in a measuring cup. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently just until blended. Do not over-do the blending.

3. With floured hands, pat scone dough into balls 2 to 3 inches across, depending on what size you want. Place onto a greased baking sheet, and flatten lightly.  Whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.    

4. Bake for around 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are just golden brown. Transfer to rack to cool.

5. Once cool, you can leave them be or glaze them as I did. To make the glaze, I combined about 1/2 orange juice, the zest of 1 orange, and about 1/2 an orange cut into small chunks. I simmered the mixture lightly for about 10 minutes, and then took it off the heat and allowed to cool. Once cool, add confectioner's sugar until it reaches a good glazing consistency, and stir til' smooth.

6. Squirrel away any that remain in a tightly sealed container at room temperature.

We're heading to Portland today for a short trip, house business, and not least of all: this lady's birthday. See you soon & have a lovely weekend.

You Are As Sweet As Banana Muffins

Seriously, though. You are some sweet peas.
I just wanted to make a little "thank you" post. I made a batch of Nigella Express banana-butterscotch muffins last night, and I though I'd offer a, um, digital one to you.

Thanks for reading this blog, and for your silent or chatty presence on it.
Thanks for taking a look at what I'm making, what I'm thinking, what I'm cooking.
Thanks for being excited with me about such things as sofas.

What the blog means to me has changed subtly over the few years of its existence, but one thing has remained a constant: that nowhere else will people get excited/"nerd-out" with me about all of this stuff. Stuff like dolls, fabric, paintings, pies, BBC shows, and sofas.

So, thank you, lovely Applets. Have a muffin.
(and happy Friday!)
xoxo

Bread and Jam Day

Re-reading what I titled this post, it makes it sound a bit like I'm having the most leisurely of days...but it's quite the opposite! After the big update yesterday (thank you to everyone who stopped by for it!), I spent the evening getting some wholesale orders together and working on sketches for a future-awesome-project (that I'll share when the time is right). Today I've been writing and revising for another exciting future project, and Josiah is getting finished with the first steps of shipping all of your update orders out, which will be our day-long task tomorrow.

The only real reason this post has this leisurely title is because we're finishing up a loaf of bread I made Monday night and I've been slathering mine with lots of this cherry jam that I'm crazy about (pictured above). Homemade bread is so good that it really seems like a totally different animal than bread you can buy at the store. Even good store-bread. It's hard to call them both "bread", really.

I'll be back tomorrow with two things I'm very excited about showing you! Good things that can be divulged are always more exciting than good things that I have to keep under my hat.

You Could Cry, or Die, or Just Make Pies All Day...

The title of this post hails from one of my favorite songs by the ever lovely-sad Patty Griffin. I had a rough day yesterday (Sunday), and baking something almost always does the trick to lift me out of the bad spell.

So, I decided to make Alicia's Sour Cream Apple pie, which I haven't made for quite a while and adore.

I couldn't find my rolling pin anywhere, so to make the crust I had to rely on my old friend here:

I used Mark Bittman's simple crust from How to Cook Everything, which is such a useful book. Also, the crust is amazing. The recipe for the tasty pie itself is right here.

Yum. By the time that the whole apartment smelled of apples and cinnamon, and I was lifting the pie out of the oven, I felt soothed and contented.

As a bonus, there was plenty left over for late breakfasts:

Just Why Are Pretty Cupcake/Muffin Papers So Hard To Find?

I heart Fancy Flours for making this question of mine obsolete. I just got so sick of the pastel pink/yellow/green set that has been the standby of my grocery shopping since I was a teenager.

Those red/white striped ones? Mwah!

And "mwah" to Heidi, too, for tipping me off about them.

Springtime Lunch

I think even the most goth person can appreciate that the warm weather brings us smoothies, and smoothies are just the best.

I had a nice, quiet week...with visiting, scribbling, and computer-work and a very-soon-approaching road trip on the horizon. I'm excited to see my mom this weekend, and to celebrate the moms of every stripe, everwhere! They all deserve a smoothie.

Happy Weekend, everyone.
xoxo

PS: There are only 4 sets left of the bookplates (I can't believe how quickly 50 packets of them went! Goodness!) so, if you had your heart set on them, you might want to hop over to the shop.
(Edit: All sold out! I will consider doing a reprint, and I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that people love bookplates so much)