A Little Something for the Moths: Lavender Bags

I have a lot in common with the moths in my house. Actually, it's just one thing we share: a love of wool. We like to do different things with it of course. When it's cold out, I like to wear wool sweaters, coats, scarves, and socks. They—just like to eat all those things. 

After battling them for what seems an eternity, I have learned a lot about our little friends the clothes-moths. My best advice? Never let them in the door in the first place. They are guests who will never leave. Like many bugs, they like areas that are dark and undisturbed for long periods of time. In fact, they can remain in a dormant state for a LOT longer than you would imagine, just to pop up again later... after you'd thought they were gone for good. 

What can you do? Well, I have no proof, but I suspect that they (and their bazillions of eggs) don't like extremes in temperature. To that end, I have been known to: toss certain items into a hot dryer (not the washer, just the dryer), iron them (without steam), and have even put a favorite sweater in a plastic bag and stashed it in the freezer for a week after I found it snacked upon.

Whether in my closet and drawers during winter and spring, or packed away for summer and fall, I always tuck lavender sachets among my sweaters, in the pockets of my coat, on top of the hats, down the sides of the socks, and underneath the scarves. Moths absolutely hate lavender, cloves, and cedar more than anything else. I am beyond delighted that something I find pleasant and natural is an effective deterrent to the little dears.

So move your woolens around, shake them out often, wear them a lot, and clean them before storing them for the season. And if you have a spare minute, make the moths a little gift of some dried lavender (and/or cloves and cedar) tied up in cotton bags. If you don't feel like sewing, a clean sock will work too, or put the mixture in paper envelopes that you've poked some holes into with a thumbtack. One last thing: If you notice your sachets losing their scent over time, they can be refreshed with essential oils.

Thinking of you 

(and your favorite sweater),

 

-Steph

 

PS... these little critters also love to eat cashmere, mohair, and silk... and are even attracted to pet hair! Basically any and all protein-based fibers. Don't say I didn't warn you.

 

My Favorite Soup (and how to Ramen-ize it)

This soup came into being about 4 years ago when I wanted to do something different with the baby bok choy in our CSA farm box. I love simply sauteing baby bok choy with garlic (so good) but sometimes I just need to change things up. At least three recipes were combined (based on what ingredients I had on hand) and I improvised the rest. It has since become one of our most favorite soups and it's always a treat when we have all of the stuff on hand to make it.

That said, like the several soups that inspired this one, it is very forgiving of substitutions. I've made it with kale instead of bok choy (not as good, but not bad), and I've even made it without the cooked chicken (still delicious but not as filling). I've made it with vegetable stock, rotisserie chicken, and dried mushrooms instead of fresh. When I had some leftover cooked brown rice in the fridge, I used that instead of ramen noodles.

The name is a mouthful, but what do you call something that is at it's most basic, Chicken Noodle Soup, but really is so much more? We pretty much just refer to it around here as "Mock Ramen Soup". It's decidedly not real ramen, but it is definitely delicious... and easy, super flavorful, and pretty darned healthy too.

Curried Chicken & Coconut Soup with Baby Bok Choy 
(and Optional Ramen Noodles)
Serves 4 large or 8 small portions

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
10 oz  white button or cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 bunches of baby bok choy, thinly sliced (keep tops and thicker stem ends separated)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp each: cumin, chili powder, and curry powder
4 cups chicken stock
1 can full-fat coconut milk
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
juice from one small lime (or half of a larger lime)
1 good pinch sea salt
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
ramen noodles (optional, see below)
good quality soy sauce (our favorite is nama shoyu)

Optional additions (and when to add them)…
1 small red onion, thinly sliced or diced (sweat with garlic & ginger during step #1)
1 sweet potato, diced small (add with bok choy stems in step #1)
For a hit of heat try adding some Thai red curry paste (add just before the mushrooms in step #1)
1/2 Tbsp each: fish sauce + brown sugar (add at step #2, with the broth and coconut milk)
1 red bell pepper, julienned (add with the chicken in step #2)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven, over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and half of the minced ginger and cook, stirring, until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add in sliced mushrooms and bok choy stems, and cook for 3-5 minutes. When the liquid begins to evaporate, stir in the turmeric powder and the rest of the seasonings.

2. Add the broth, coconut milk, and remaining minced ginger. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Add cooked chicken pieces and lime juice, stirring occasionally until chicken is heated through, or up to 30 minutes.

3. Add sea salt and black pepper. Stir the bok choy leaves into the pot and let them wilt for a minute or two. Taste the broth and adjust if needed. Keep it less salty though if you will be using soy sauce in the bowls.

4. Divide soup into bowls over cooked noodles, if using (see below). Add soy sauce individually, to taste. Top each serving with any (or all) of the following garnishes.

Garnishes:
fresh cilantro or basil leaves, chopped or torn
fresh chives, finely chopped
avocado, diced small 
fresh corn

Wanna Ramen-ize it?
Better noodles are certainly out there, but if you buy the instant ramen (like I do), be sure and get the square package (not the kind in a styrofoam cup), and throw away the seasoning packet—there's nothing good in there—the noodles are all we're after. Continue with the directions below.

Regardless of which noodles you use, if you're going to refrigerate or freeze some of the soup for later, cook only enough noodles for the current meal, separately, according to the package directions. Divide the hot cooked noodles between the bowls and continue with the serving step below.

Here's How:
About 5 minutes or so before serving the soup (just prior to step #3 above), drop the block (or two) of instant ramen noodles into the simmering soup pot. Let them cook, giving them a stir occasionally, until they're fat and happy. Taste test a noodle to check done-ness. Serve as soon as the noodles are ready.

Serve it up:
I generally use a big fork or tongs to pull out the cooked noodles and divide evenly into bowls, followed by a big scoop of the chicken and veggies, and finally a ladle or two of the broth over the top. Continue with step #4 above and be sure to provide chopsticks and/or forks alongside the soup spoons at the table.

...and don't forget to slurp the noodles!

–Steph

PS... I know it's summer now, but honestly, I make this whenever I find myself with enough baby bok choy. If the weather is too warm for eating soup, I leave the noodles out and freeze the whole batch to enjoy at a later date. Heck, even in the summer we get the occasional chilly evenings, and unlike some soups, the flavors in this soup really are perfect year round!

Things I Actually Did During The Lockdown: Vol. 1

Yes, another list. It's what I do. Expect more in the future. This is an incomplete list of some of the things that I actually managed to accomplish during The Lockdown.  Alternate title: A Less Than Enchanted April in Rooms Without Much in the Way of a View is Cold Comfort Indeed!*

• Re-read all the library books I’d picked up before this mess began. Those things are seriously overdue, but I’m pretty sure it’s okay. If I'd realized what we were in for, I would have checked out a bunch more.   
• Gave Hubby an awesome haircut. Full disclosure: I give him haircuts even when we’re not in lockdown. This one though, really looked good! Pity nobody saw it! I also gave myself a major trim. I figured that even when I have to go out, my hair is up or in a baseball cap (so the mask ties don’t get caught in it)… nobody will see a bad trim!
• Finished a crochet hat with a challenging pattern that I’d started over a year ago and misplaced. The bigger challenge was figuring out where I'd left off. Gotta remember not to stop mid-project like that.
• Tested some Christmas gift ideas. In April! What is the world coming to? I'd say more but that would be telling.
• Weeded the garden. Yes, I weeded. Totally not joking, I really did. And then, after getting up close and personal with the little darlings, had to find out what they’re actually called and other non-pertinent information about them. Because I could. And it was the least I could do after unceremoniously ripping them up by their invasive %$#@!& roots.  My favorite weed? The Redstem Storksbill!
• Did some reading up on the habits and habitats of our local feathered friends. We had an Oak Titmouse family in our front yard birdhouse. I could watch their comings and goings as they “feathered their nest” and fledged their young. Forget the Lion King, we've got the circle of life right here in our front yard. And it's awesome.  
• A bit of clutter clearing happened. Then the sun came out! After a cold grey winter, I've pretty much planted myself on the porch to soak up as much heat as possible. Not sun, heat. There is a difference. Might do some more de-cluttering now that the fickle weather has turned on us once again.
• With the libraries still closed, and you know, a swirling vortex of stress, I turned to my favorite novels for comfort and escape. They’re the ones in green print cotton covers in the photo above. Re-reading them is like therapy. No, it's more like a special treat; a visit with an old friend. I don’t like the look of paperbacks, so to cover up the sometimes damaged (sometimes ugly) covers, I glue fabric over them. It’s pretty and it reinforces the cheap paper covers.

So that was April. This is May. May is thus far just like April. But if I look closely, there are some positive changes happening….

Cheer up, Buttercups!
—Steph

*Three of the top favs: Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim, A Room With a View by EM Forster, and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. These also have the distinction of having had excellent movies made from them with stellar casts. The same can not be said of all my favorite novels.

Spring Means Cherry Cake Weather

or... What to do with that glowing jar of maraschino cherries hiding in the back of the pantry (other than topping bowls of ice cream)

It's still Springtime. I can tell because the bugs are fully activated, the weeds are on steroids, the wild onions are in bloom, and there are still a few cherry trees festooned in their floral finery in our neighborhood. Not many, and not for much longer, but a few nonetheless. Pretty sure the late-bloomers are the Kwanzan variety (one of my favorites). I had meant to post this in March or April when all the other varieties of fruit trees were showing off too, but things were starting to get weird in the world and blogging was not my focus.

We don't have cherry trees in our yard anymore, but we do have a crab-apple tree that came with this house, and when it comes to blossomy spring beauty, it's a close second to the cherry trees. Most of the year it's a nondescript unattractive old thing, showing its previous decades of neglect. For three to four weeks out of each year though (usually in March), it's a real stunner. A profusion of dark pink buds start the show and soon burst into pale pink blossoms that finish off creamy white before dropping their petals, swirling and fluttering to the ground, like springtime snow-flurries, with each passing breeze.

The color of this cake reminds me of those pretty buds and blossoms that every year herald the coming spring. The color is achieved by the inclusion of maraschino cherries and specifically, the "liquid" they live in. I won't go into how very unnatural the color of these jarred cherries is or what non-nutritive chemicals could create such a vivid hue, nor why you might want to avoid ingesting these things too terribly often. I'm a "waste not, want not" type of person, and even though they're not healthy, they are still sort of like food and need to be used if at all possible.

The reason we have a jar of maraschino's in the pantry at all is because of a sweet and wonderful Christmas tradition in my hubby's family. And now I have found the perfect thing to use them for. Don't get me wrong, we've had no problem at all using them to adorn bowls of ice cream every year! But next Christmas when I thank my mother-in-law for another jar of cherries, I will look forward to making this cake again.

When our crab-apple starts to bloom (or the neighbor's cherry trees, or all those darned wild onions, or frankly, whenever I feel like making a pink cake), I'll say, "It looks like Cherry Cake weather!"* and reach into the pantry for that jar of maraschinos, vivid with love, family, and memories.

Cherry Tea Cake

adapted from: here, here, here, and here

ingredients:

1 16-ounce jar maraschino cherries
1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour (+ 2 Tbsp, reserved)

1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder

a good pinch of salt
2 large eggs

1/2 cup light olive oil
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup maraschino liquid

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a standard 8.5"x 4.5" glass loaf pan.

1. Drain the cherries well, reserving their liquid. Put the drained cherries in a small bowl lined with a couple folded paper towels, set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. 
3. In a separate bowl, add the eggs, oil, and the rest of the liquids. Mix well.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated.
5. Give the cherries a few chops, then toss them with 2 Tbsp flour until coated (this prevents the cherries from sinking to the bottom while it's baking). 
6. Fold the cherries into the batter and pour it into the greased loaf pan. Bake for about 70 minutes (start checking after 50 though, as ovens and pans vary).
7. If you notice the top of the cake getting too dark too early, make it a little hat out of foil and perch it over the top of the pan.
8. Cake is done when it tests clean with a toothpick in the very middle. 
9. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then carefully tip it out and finish cooling it on a rack.

My Notes...

• This cake goes together really fast. No mixer needed, just a whisk and a spoon. 
• Almond extract can be substituted for the Vanilla in whole or part if you like. 
• Powdered sugar or cream cheese glaze would look nice over the top of this cake if gifting or taking to a party etc. Save a little bit of the jar liquid to tint the icing pink. I find that the cake is plenty sweet on its own, so I don't bother to frost it if it's just us eating it. 
• The cake can be frozen (unglazed) if wrapped well. 
• You can bake two mini-loaves instead for gifting (bake time will be shorter), or even make pretty pink cupcakes! 
• If you use a metal loaf pan, the baking time may be different. 
• And lastly, if you're sensitive to red food coloring, you'll want to just stay away from this cake altogether.

Happy spring, late bloomers!

–Steph

P.S. This essay would have worked so much better if we still had a cherry tree in our yard (or if I'd managed to post it six weeks ago). But this is me, doing my best with what I've got (and missing my old cherry trees a little also, I think).

*An homage to Truman Capote's short story A Christmas Memory, about fruitcake and family ("It's fruitcake weather!"). If you haven't read it before, do so in November or December for the right ambiance.  

Things are Weird… but It's Going to Be Okay

As a crafty/DIY-type of introvert with more unfinished projects than time to do them all, there are some aspects of this “Shelter-In-Place” and Social Distancing-thing that make me want to just say, “Hey, welcome to my world everybody!”

But then there are the overwhelmingly serious aspects of this situation… and then there are The Fears… The Uncertainty... The Isolation... The Horrid Media Coverage... The Stats... UGH. And while I rejoice that some restrictions may be lifting soon, the weirdness will continue for quite some time.

I don't know about you, but I need to focus on positive things to keep my mood from spiraling. Lately that's a real challenge. So, while boredom is not in my vocabulary even in the best of times, I made a list of things to work off of when I do lose focus (or start to focus on the cruddy stuff). Plus making lists calms me.

My Big Fluid List of Possible Things to Do During the Lockdown (in no particular order)

Practice my penmanship

Go for a walk in my neighborhood

Embroider something

Putter in the garden

Catch up on stuff (UFOs)

Re-read a favorite book or two (or three...)

Make a dent in my craft supplies

Start a new art journal/work in my "altered book"

Write “morning pages”

Learn new ukulele songs/hone old favorites

De-clutter a closet/dresser/room

Watch movies and TV shows that make me feel good/laugh

Listen to old radio shows (online/streaming)

Mend stuff

Play board games/card games

Plant fruits and vegetables 

Organize/purge my digital photos

Make music playlists (I can kill a ton of time this way)

Rearrange the furniture

Do a real Spring Clean

Make meal plans

Feed the birds in the front yard

Clean out my fountain pens

Write letters and cards to friends/family

Bake and cook (even more) stuff from scratch

Practice “belly breathing”

I've been staying off the internet/TV/social media for the majority of each day. It really only takes a few minutes to get what little important info there is (the rest of it is just a depressing rabbit hole).

The main thing right now is to take care of ourselves: mind, body, and soul. Sometimes that might mean watching cat videos all morning in pajamas and eating ice cream straight from the carton. But only sometimes.

What’s on your list? What have you been doing to keep happy and healthy lately?

—Steph 

Happy Bizarre Stuck-At-Home Birthday!

Springtime is what I usually refer to as "birthday season". We have so many friends and family members with birthdays that fall in the March-April-May time frame. This year of course, things are no different. Except of course: no birthday parties, dinners, get-togethers... no birthday hugs, kisses, toasts... and certainly no blowing out of birthday candles on any birthday cake. Likely that's not going to change for a while. That means there's a whole lot of bummed out birthday boys and girls out there! So I did what any crafty person would do and made a topical birthday card, not to celebrate the situation, but to celebrate within the situation.

This is the new now kids. We're just gonna have to make the best of it and have one heckuva bash when we're past all this someday.

In the meantime. . . I wanted to make a card that basically said, “This birthday will be like no other you’ve ever had!”. I wanted it to be special and a bit playful. Hopefully it succeeded! Each one took a fair amount of time. I could’ve scanned it and printed out multiples, but I don’t have a scanner. What I do have is time (and lots of it!).

Though the design is 100% me, much of the inspiration for this timely birthday card has grown from years of crushing on the super-creative blog The Postman’s Knock. Go check it out and prepare to get inspired from all the great tutorials and ideas there: mail-art, calligraphy, watercolors, pens and inks, and more!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted here. That's something I'll have to remedy... one more thing to add to my "lockdown to-do list"!

Have an unforgettable birthday Spring babies! This is one for the history books.

-Steph

Loving Stitches (Happy Belated Mother's Day)

Technology changes rapidly when you're not paying attention to it. It actually changes pretty darned fast even when you are.

I've not been blogging for a while and the online photo editing program I used to use apparently decided to cease operations at some point in the last year or so. Since I only use it for watermarking blog photos, I never noticed that it wasn't there anymore... not until I needed it.

So, better late than never, I give you all my very happiest of Mother's Day wishes. If you're not a mother, I'm betting that you had one, so have a big bucket of happy wishes from me anyway.

And speaking of lateness... while I did finish the cards I made for our moms in plenty of time, I did not get them to the post office in time for Saturday's delivery... this blog post was to be a preview. Oops. It's a good thing I already have a reputation for doing this type of thing... expectations are never too high and nobody gets disappointed! Just being true to myself (har har).

I make 99.9% of the greeting cards we send out which saves us a lot of money and takes me hours and hours to do. Somehow this makes perfectly logical sense to me. It also means I must love you a lot. Seriously, I'm not going to spend that kind of time on you if I don't care for you. Consider it an expression of my love. Because it is. Very much so.

I dragged out the old embroidery basket for the Mother's Day cards I made this year. Links for the design, template and instructions for this lovely card can be found on the wonderful but sadly now also defunct blog How About Orange. I really love how these cards turned out and enjoyed making them so much. I stitched the design onto a separate piece of cardstock (see photo), trimmed it down and then attached it with strong double-sided adhesive to a colored blank card. Simple, easy, and yes, more than a little time consuming.

Some tips from me:

• Don't use a thin cardstock for the stitching.
• Be sure to "strand" your embroidery floss before using.*
• Don't use too long of a length of floss. Yes, it's a drag to stop and start often, but constant twisting and unwanted knots are a bigger drag and take longer to deal with.
• When your floss starts to twist on itself, stop and hold the work up letting the needle and thread hang freely. Pick the needle back up and continue stitching.
• Do use tape to stick the ends of the floss down when starting and stopping (instead of knots). It won't be seen and you won't have any extra bumpy bulk to deal with.
• Don't make more work for yourself by making smaller stitches than the template shows... it's a simple project but takes longer than you think it will!
• Take your time pulling each stitch through. Rush it and you risk knotting your floss or worse, tearing the paper.
• If your holes are too close together and/or your floss has too many strands, you risk tearing through between the holes (think of perforated stamps).
• Use the thinnest embroidery needle that you can get your floss to thread through.
• Don't skip the pre-punching your design step! It's crucial to success.

Cheers, my dears!

Stephanie

* I don't know if "stranding" (to strand) is the correct term, but you'll want to do it anyway. It makes your stitches behave better during and look better after. To do it, cut the floss to a workable length (no more than 20") and pull each strand out separately before recombining the number you want to use (I used three for the card in the photo above). Just grab one thread and pull straight up (not outward), lay it down flat and pull out each of the remaining threads one-by-one.

Joy's Chocolate Bundt Cake

Here's another yummie I made a while back but never posted. It just looks like Easter doesn't it? It looks like spring. But I didn't bake it in spring or for Easter. Actually, I think I might have. But I never got it onto the blog though, did I?

If I miss the window for posting something, I have to wait until its time comes back around. If I miss it again (and again)... and then take a break from blogging... well, here we are...years later, talking about this cake as if I made it yesterday (don't I wish!)

Now, a chocolate cake is fine any time of the year. Seriously, it just is. But once I sprinkled those candied sunflower seeds on top (to distract from my weird icing technique), it just plants itself firmly at Easter or the weeks surrounding it. 

There was of course a frosting fail on this one. It's always something, and this time it was the frosting.* There's a whole back-story about how I contacted Joy (The Baker, herself) regarding the frosting issue I was having and how very very gracious she was with her replies. It was so long ago now, that the details aren't important. What matters is how delicious this cake is (frosted or not), and how lovely she was about taking the time to listen and respond to my questions. She is the real deal, and her recipes rock.

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Glaze from Joy the Baker

[also on page 179 of the (awesome) Joy the Baker Cookbook]

My Notes: As I mentioned above, I had issues with the glaze and ended up whipping it in the mixer which turned it into the fluffy gargantuan mass of frosting you see in the photo. I have never frosted a bundt cake in my life, and hadn't a clue what to do with it all. I had no choice but to just wing it since I was taking it to an event. Weird but delicious.

*Actually a lot of the time it's the frosting that gives me the most problems. Apparently it's a "thing" with me. Which then obviously is why I don't do a lot of frosted cakes! The fact that this scrumptious cake is supposed to be GLAZED and not frosted should tell you something.

A Carrot Cake for People Who Don't Like Carrot Cake

I know I promised you Cleansing Bars in my last post, but I just made this cake again and realized that I hadn't blogged about it yet. I forget sometimes that I've been a little absent around here for the last couple years. I'm working on that though.

So, on to the cake. I've actually made this cake at least four times, maybe five, in the past two years... and it has, along the way, become my "go-to" cake. The kind of cake that still turns out and tastes great even when you are sure you've blown it somehow. I like that kind of cake. I like it a lot. And more importantly, everyone who's tasted it seems to like it a lot too.

Some people don't like carrot cakes, probably because they tend to be quite dense, rich, and are packed heavily with carrots, nuts, and raisins. I quite like those cakes actually. But this cake... this cake might make converts of the carrot-cake-hating folks. This one is light, flavorful, not too sweet, and there isn't a walnut or raisin to be found within it's sweet confines.

The frosting I like to use with this cake is good and easy, maple-y sweet, and can optionally be loaded with chopped walnuts or pecans. Just don't do what I did the other day and try to use YouTube-inspired DIY powdered-sugar in your frosting. Just don't. Please promise me you won't.

I'm giving links to the recipes here because I didn't change a dang thing in either of them. They are perfect as is (and I am grateful to these ladies for sharing these tasty treats with us)!

Sigrid's Carrot Cake by Ree Drummond on Food Network
...and also on page 110-111 of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year Of Holidays 

Maple Pecan Frosting from Darla at her sweet blog Bakingdom
The frosting with the carrot cake recipe is very similar to this one but calls for cream cheese which I don't always have on hand. Also, I think the maple in this frosting tastes really really good with this particular cake!

...a coffee-flavored icing might be nice too.... hmm...

Note: The recipe for calls for baking this cake in a Bundt pan but you can do it in classic layers, sheet pan or muffin tin even. If you use any other shaped pan, just be aware of the baking time and check it before you think it'll be done. A shallower pan will take less time to bake than a Bundt; so will cupcakes.