Baking, with some photos!

My last baked treat for the bachelorette tomorrow night are the carrot cake cupcakes from . . . Ok. If you don't know where I got this recipe before clicking the link, you haven't been keeping up with this blog at all. I'll give you a hint though - it rhymes with "blitzen mitchum". And they're suuuuuuuper tasty!

Strangely enough, I doubled the spice (which is why my dough turned out so much less orange than the original). There's never enough spiciness for me. Except the nutmeg, which I used very sparingly. That is a very unforgiving spice - too much and you have soap-flavoured everything. Which I don't like all that much, for some reason.

I haven't frosted the cupcakes yet (as they're still warm, the cold room isn't cold enough at this time of year to set the frosting, the icing needs to chill more, and I'm going to do that tomorrow anyway so they're perfect for the party. I might even take them over unfrosted and then do it there), so you'll have to wait for a photo of the final version ;)   I can't wait to frost them though, the cake is very earnest and healthful (especially since I added a zucchini and an apple, and reduced the sugar in them to 1.5 cups from 2), so it'll be a great contrast to the cream cheesey/maple (and veeeeery rich) frosting.

But here are a bunch o photos of me making the cupcakes and frosting:

I was going to upload the photos for another Newfoundland post. But the photo uploader is being an asshole, and I really don't want to learn a new step by having all my photos hosted on another site (à la Flixster or Photobucket). . . I am more seriously considering migrating this blog to WordPress. . . I don't know if you'll notice the occasional horizontal photo that would actually look better in vertical. Stupid uploader.

We'll see. 

Are you as frustrated as me today, Dear Internet?

Aw poop.

So. . . I have a confession to make.

I baked 4 different things last night, and didn't take a single picture. Not even a "Lookit what I made!!" finished shot. . . And they were all completely new recipes for me.

Will you ever forgive me, Dear Internet?

I do have a pretty good excuse, as excuses go. I have a couple of weddings to attend this year (as I've mentioned previously) and the first one is coming up in, holy crap!, just over a week!! So excited!! I'm not too sure I ever want a fancy wedding of any kind, but they're sure fun to attend :)  Anywho, the first bride's bachelorette is, well, tomorrow night, and it's going to be a "girls' night in" party (awesome! and quite a bit easier on the budget. . .) so I thought I'd contribute food, since 1) I'm pretty good at food, 2) there's a no-presents-please policy (ish), 3) I have a whole bunch of recipes I need to try out (damn you, Smitten Kitchen!!) and a new pile o guinea pigs to try them on is an opportunity I cannot pass up, and 4) I love playing with food and trying out new techniques! So I've been kinda busy with the whole, baking four different recipes. Plus, with the not-spending-the-lovely-long-weekend-with-the-boyfriend (as originally planned. mope mopey mope mope. but more on that later), I was rushing around Tuesday night after work so that I could see him later that evening and catch up on weekendy-goodness. So I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. So last night was a fun 5 hours of go-go-go with baking funtimes. Which was awesome, but didn't lend itself well to the whole staging-pretty-photos-for-the-blog thing. Or even the remembering-that-I-have-this-blog-thing-I-like-posting-on shamozzle. . .

But!

I have one more recipe I'm going to make (I know, I'm insane. I've come to terms with this), so I will hopefully have enough leisure this evening to take a few process shots of this one for you, Dear Internet. Will that make up for my sad blogging skills??

I think I should also post my second installment of Newfoundland photos (maybe even the 3rd through 7th. . . I think that's how many I've planned. I forget). As well as some long weekend photos too. . . I'm just avoiding the blogger photo uploader. Cause it sucks. Maybe I should look into switching from this blog provider, especially considering the problems they've been having lately (what with the blurry photos and the occasional losing people's blogs' content). Hmmmm. . . Food for thought, I guess. (pun very much intended.)

So, look out for photos in your future, Dear Internet! Lots and lots of photos. And some more photos.

In the interim, I guess I should at least let you know what I made. There were the margarita cookies, green tea shortbreads (though I didn't make them sandwich cookies cause 1) the bride-to-be has chocolate issues and 2) it's finicky dough and that's waaaaaayyyyy too much work. I'm lazy, so sue me), sundried tomato stuffed mushroom caps, and mushroom and blue cheese stuffed phyllo triangles (which puts the lie to the "I'm lazy" theory, cause phyllo, it's hard f-ing work. But sooooooooooo much fun to work with!!!!! I'll probably use spray olive oil instead of brushed-on melted butter for the phyllo next time - sooooooo buttery). All from Smitten Kitchen, of course. . . I'm so happy I've learned how to work with phyllo pastry. I've been wanting to try it for a good long while, but I've been a bit intimidated since everyone who works with it complains about it's finickiness. But maybe the brand I got is just easier to use - There was only one (yes, 1!) sheet that was annoying out of the 10 (!!) that I used in the recipe, and it was a lot more flexible than I thought it would be, so actually pretty forgiving to work with (get the President's Choice phyllo pastry - it's actually easy phyllo to work with!!). I should also mention that, since one guest at the party has onion/onion-family issues, I made the two appetizers without onions at all (thus mushrooms = insta-flavour). I added more flavour (with fresh herbs in the mushroom caps, and some dry white wine in the phyllo triangles) to help offset the loss of the alium-y goodness, and I think it actually worked out ok :)

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Also, update re dressmaking: my fabric arrived!!!! wheeee!!!! And it looks sooooo pretty. I think that my colour idea is quite cool (and will work really nicely for a summer-to-fall transition time wedding), and luckily viewing fabric swatches on the interwebs actually translated into the fabrics matching! Crazy!! Though I have to get some new lining material, since the one I'd originally chosen had run out. Pout. But I've found a couple really good options to replace it. 

So I think this weekend I'll actually cut out and (maybe even??) start working on the mock-up version in cotton and play with the modifications I want to make to the pattern. The pattern's the right shape, but has a bunch of little details I want to change, which will probably be really fiddly and make me wish I'd invested in a good dress form. I have a few more things I need to get - zippers, thread, some ribbon, maybe a crinoline-type-thingy to help the skirt fall nicely, a fabric marker, etc. - but I'm really looking forward to some major playing with fabric!!! I even spent some (read: waaaaaaayyyy to much) time on reading through the pattern before bed last night and figuring out the basics of how I want to change the details, as well as finding the steps I can omit since I'll be doing a back zipper instead of a front button placket (see? very different details. . . though maybe that's technically a 'feature' of the pattern. . .).

Excitement about sewing. In a food and music blog. . . Yeah. . .

Stay tuned, Dear Internet!! Much excitement coming your way!

Change of pace - for now

Hello, The Internet!!

I think you will have noticed by now that I'm not regularly posting new Newfoundland pictures since the first post. I have a second post partly finished and a few more in plannign stages. The thing is, there are lots of photots. No, really - looooooooooots. And Blogger, well, let's just say their photo uploader leaves a whole fuckload something to be desired. So I've given up for now - you'll have to wait unitl next week (or possibly even longer - baking/cooking projects coming up for next week!!) for more Newfoundland goodness. Cause I was about to punch a hole in my nice (and almost new) Mac, which might have been cathartic, but would have ended up being pretty expensive (what with the buying a new computer and the reconstructive surgery on my hand. . .).

But there is another new project I'm going to be starting in the near future (just waiting for a package to arrive in the mail) that I want to share with you now. I have a couple of weddings to attend this summer and I'm planning on making a dress I might be able to wear to one of them (if it turns out to be wearable, of course). My inspiration is a vintage dress I saw on an Etsy shop (Dear Golden Vintage) but with rather different fabric choices (wait and see!). I have a pattern that approximates the one I want to end up with and I think with a few easy modifications, I'll get the dress I want.

I love vintage clothes, and I have a pretty 50s silhouette so vintage and I get along pretty well. The only problem being most things that are actually vintage won't come in my size (I'm not petite, in any dimension - thanks Eastern European peasantry ancestors!). I could have just bought the dress (though, a bit pricey), but it was something like 4 dress-sizes too small. No thanks, I don't need the stab to the gut and self-recrimination. I could also have gone the dressmaker route. I did in fact do that with the dress I'm going to wear for the first wedding (just two weeks - the summer is realy flying by, isn't it?). That was inspired by another dress I saw in the same Etsy store - I tried to find it but it's apparently vanished :( That one was a pale silver metallic strapless dress, with a sweetheart neckline and a really cool obi-style belt - I can't wait to show you photos, Dear Internet!! It was just too complicated a task for me to tackle (boning??? no thanks), and the dressmaker I found was very good and really easy to work with. The next time I come accross a dress I'd like made for me, I'm definitely going back to her! The dress I'm going to attempt has a pretty basic shape and I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine, so hopefully I'll do ok. I also got a whole bunch of basic broadcloth to make a mock up (with modifications) so I can attempt the dress and not muck up the pretty fabric I got, also sort out how I'm going to do things. Like putting in invisible zippers. Which I've never done before. . . 

I'm really looking forward to this project. It's been a while since I've  made any clothes for myself, and it'll be nice to work on those skills again - maybe even start to make more clothing, instead of always buying it. I've been really inspired by a few new blog finds of mine: Adventures in Dressmaking, and Kittyzilla's Handmade Stuffs which have really started me thinking about getting back into sewing again. Clothes as well as embroidery.

I'm excited to start this little journey! How about you, Dear Internet? Start any new projects lately?

I can't wait for the fabric to arrive :D

Quite the delay. . .

Oooohhhhhkaaaayyyyy. . .

A litany of woes, excuses, and a dash of lazy thrown in for good measure equals a week since the last post, the last post which was supposed to be posted two weeks prior to when it did go up. But I won't bore you with the details. I'll just say that suddenly being unable to sleep more than three hours at a time really screws up your productivity. Also, weather system pressure changes really suck.

And now <da, da, da!> my first post about the wonderful Newfoundland trip!! And a few photos, for some eye candy.

The trip started out auspiciously enough - I was getting a ride to the airport at 5:15 on a Saturday morning, so I had spent the last few days organizing and packing everything I'd need. And even though I know I set my alarm to go off in plenty of time to shower and finish up with getting ready to go. . . I was woken by my ride sending me a text that he was on his way (and he lives about 5 minutes away.) Crap. But I'm so organized it only takes me 7 and a half minutes to get down and load my stuff into the car. Luckily I'd had a shower the afternoon before (after swimming). From there on in, not a hitch: flight was smooth (even a large number of children wasn't an issue. I guess their parents intelligently knocked them out for the flight or something), and we landed in St. John's on time. The next hitch appeared in the form of (drumroll please) the rental. There were going to be six of us staying in the cottage together, so we needed something that could hold not only us, but all our luggage. So the car came in at 300$ more than the original quote, and we were only getting 100 km a day. In Newfoundland. Which is 111,390 square kilometres. . . And it would be 20¢ for every additional kilometre (just so you know, we did fairly spectacularly exceed our kilometre limit. . . more on that at a later date). And the cottage we were staying at is about an hour and a half south of St. John's. . . Just awesome.

But that's just the first few hours of our trip. We then went grocery (and, more importantly, booze) shopping to get stuff for the week, and then started on our way to the cottage. Nothing earth shattering happened on the drive down, though we almost missed Renews (the village where we were supposed to be staying). Our fearless leader called our local contact (I don't know if you know the stereotypical Newfoundland accent? Well, he had it, and we were all seriously hard-pressed to understand anything he actually said. . . You should have heard how he pronounce 'foggy'. Which was probably only as hysterical as it was since it was me and five gay men staying at the cottage. . .), but we eventually found the cottage, and got in. 

It was tiny. In the diminutive sense - 6.5 foot ceilings. . . (maybe 7', but it didn't look it). Adequately sized kitchen (though lacking in counter space, but hey - it's a fricking cottage), tiny dining room and tv/living room completes  the first floor. And there are three tiny bedrooms and a good-sized bathroom. I was going to share a room with one of the others - a bunk bed. But it was a kid's bed. And the ceilings were lower upstairs. . . They ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs. . . For some reason. 

Also - there was a pretty impressive colony of pill bugs infesting the building. Local colour.

That pretty much sums up what I remember of the first day (we went for a little walk to the harbour, and had some dinner, and then discovered the incredible uncomfortableness of the beds. . .)

Now that I've gotten you excited, here are some photos!!

View near Renews

very picturesque :)

coastal village shot (from observation platform tourism thingy)

Our little saltbox has a pedigree?? oh, wait, 2007?

Buttercup!

red clover

Queen Anne's Lace

view of the cottage (looks much bigger than it is. . .)

WTF???

Renews Harbour

miiiiiiiisssssssssssst!!

starfish (poor thing)

local church (RC)

St. Mary's shrine (slightly creepy when come upon at night
with the crosses all glowing. . .)

Now, don't get me wrong, I did focus a little on the negative (see above. . .), but I don't want you to get the wrong impression - I loved it there. I cannot wait to go back!! There were rough spots (and I am surprised we were able to spend a week together, all six of us, in that diminutive building and not axe murder each other), but there were also very special moments. And billions more photos yet to come. So, Dear Internet, fear not. I won't be a misery monger about the whole trip. And I'll try to stay light-hearted about the mishaps instead of whiny.

But, wildlife, hijinks, mishaps, and wonder galore are headed your way! And probably a whole post devoted to the flower porn from our visit to St. John's botanical garden (in amazingly named Pippy Park!). So many pretty flowers, so little time (and too crappy a camera to really do them justice).

Been anywhere new lately, Dear Internet?

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By the way - why did it take me so long to start listening to Mumford and Sons?? Crazy me.

This week, in baking. . . part 3

Okay, The Internet, it's technically a week later two weeks later (oooops . . .). But I'm not made of time, so unfortunately this post had to wait a little looooong time before I could get around to it. Aaaaaaand. . . UPDATE! Also, I just went on a week long vacation to Newfoundland! Billions of photos to come :)

This past week A few weeks ago, I made those delectable granola bars, several tasty strawberry quick breads, and this. On Saturday (that is, two weeks ago, now), in preparation of a Settlers of Catan games night at a friend's place, I made this beautiful cake. The apple yoghurt coffee cake from The New Spanish Table (which I got from Smitten Kitchen, of course). Because I just had to try a coffee cake with lots of apples, lemon yoghurt, olive oil (!), and sambuca. I LOVE anise-flavoured anything, so I jumped on the chance to use it in something. 

Photos!!

ingredients!

action shot!! whiskage! (my sister took this picture, my hands were in use)

adding the flour

sambuca!!! or is that olive oil? i forget. . .

tasty shredded apple goodness

about to undergo a chemical change

baked!!!

And it was also eated, eated aaaaaalll up! I was surprised at the flavour - very mild but satisfying, with a something different you couldn't really put your finger (or should I say, your tastebuds?) on. I think using olive oil was more of an exciting taste sensation than the sambuca, so if you're not a fan of the licorice/anise thing, Dear Internet, you could probably substitute whatever liqueur you think would work well (Amaretto, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, and dark spiced rum come to mind as good options. Apple brandy might work too). You can probaby also swap out for different flavours of yogurt if you felt like it, but I thought the lemon really made the apple flavours sing. Definitely recommended!! I can't wait for a reason to make this one again!!

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Now, you might have noticed, Dear Internet, that I said that I was in Newfoundland for a week. And that there are billions of photos coming your way (seriously, I just spent an hour organizing photos for you. . .). But not today. I'm afraid that here in my lovely hometown, we're having a heat wave and I do not handle heat well (or at all), so I'm feeling pretty gross at the moment. I might even have gotten a mild case of heat stroke from one un-airconditioned subway ride on Monday. . . But hopefully now that the organizing has been done, the blogging with follow swiftly. If I don't end up feeling worse tomorrow when it's supposed to go up to 37 (feeling like 45, or something evil like that). Cause it's not the heat, it's the humidity that'll kill ya. There will even be a few oblique references to baking! That's on theme right??

Seriously, it's mostly going to be flowers. I have a weird obsession with the macro function on my not-too-awesome digital camera. So be prepared.

Now, my Dear Internet, it's time for me to have a bit of dinner, a nice cup of (cold) tea, and to go to bed and sleep off this ickiness. I hope you're handling the heat better than me.

Just by the way. . .

I'm sorry to say this, Dear Internet, but I cooked a very tasty meal of two new recipes for me (waaaaaayyyyy too late - i.e. I'm still eating it. . .) this evening, and while busy with the task I neglected to take any photos. But, in my defense, I've been awake since 6 AM, I have eaten very little today, and I went to spin class after work (for the first time in a while - I've been mostly swimming after work lately). So the hunger, it had to be obeyed.


I can say that they were both (surprise surprise) from Smitten Kitchen's archives. I'm pretty sure that I'm seriously addicted to that blog now. You might need to stage an intervention to save me from myself. (INTERVENTION!! INTERVENTION!!! Please tell me you get that joke, The Internet. . .) Check out the recipes - I definitely recommend you try them!


And I will be relishing the left-overs, that's for sure :)


I did make a few changes, of course, to suit my own peculiar tastes - I added jalapeño to both, as well as apple and lime (zest and juice -  the Flavour Gods, they demand it) to the slaw; I used honey and grainy mustard in the slaw dressing, and only used 1 cup of mayo; I used cumin and an Italian herb mix instead of just thyme, and added a few cloves of garlic for depth of flavour. Also, going to the 24-hour market made the choices of produce rather slim and I had to use baby spinach instead of escarole (soooo tasty!) and red kidney beans instead of white. 


I'm definitely looking forward to attempting these recipes again sometime, and playing some more with the flavours. Especially if I can go grocery shopping at an intelligent time and thus can go to a store that has more than four aisles.


Well, my barley risotto is finally an eatable temperature, so I'm going to finish my dinner and go to bed. 


I hope you had a lovely day, Dear Internet. Did you try anything new today?

MUSIC!!

Ok, The Internet, I know this blog has been rather more heavily slanted toward the food end of the blogging spectrum that I originally proposed.And this post won't fully rectify that discrepancy, but I'd like to actually start talking about the music in my life. Shock!


Last night A couple nights ago (ooops. . . forgot to finish this post yesterday. . .), I went over to a friend's house for a Settlers of Catan games night (awesome game, by the way - if you at all like board games, check it out!). There was too much food, too much alcohol (if that's even possible), and some lovely music. Which reminded me that I've been super derelict in my duty to make this a blog about music, as well as baking. Though, I should take a moment to tell you that part of that too much food I just mentioned was a cake that I baked, from the archives of the lovely Smitten Kitchen. Which everyone enjoyed (yay!) and there will be a new blog post on the making-of that delightful confection to come in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled for that one!!


But back to music - after the game (where the person who'd never played or seen the game before was the winner. . . we were soft on him. That's right we let him win to make him like the game more. Next time it'll be different), we all congregated in the living room and listened to a recording of the piece of music our fearless leader wanted to look at. (This of course is for the quintet I sing with, not the Sunday choir.)

We might have finished singing for the season, but that doesn't mean we can't start preparing for the next one. We've been having soprano issues for a while now - our first (and the closest to our hearts) ended up not being able to sing on Wednesdays (the day we sing) because of work (and then eventually ended up moving back east to be closer to her family this past December.) Then was the month of trying to figure out not having a soprano (while awesome, four (or more)-part harmony is the best so we ran through a few until we found a great singer with whom we had a really good blend (and, incidentally, helped me to become more confident in my own voice, which also helped the blend). But her work was making it harder and harder to justify taking a whole evening out of her schedule, and at the end of the year she decided that, though she'll help out when we need her, she can't come back full-time in the fall. Our fearless leader has gotten in touch with one of the sopranos we've had sing with us as a sub before, but she's not sure yet if she can do it. She has a sister who might be able to, and another sub we've had might work out. But it's all up in the air right now. Sigh :(

That's a really long-winded way of saying "We practiced a piece for 4-part lower voices" - specifically, Vicotria's Duo Seraphim, arranged for TTBB, in case we need to have a few weeks of soprano-free services. Luckily I am an alto with a pretty decent three-octave range, and the first tenor part doesn't really challenge the lower end at all. And after listening to the piece, we actually ran through it (sight-singing 101) a couple of times. And I felt like I had finally come home. It's only been a few weekes since singing wrapped up for the season, so I hadn't realized how much I really missed it.

We weren't perfect, and I don't think the large amount of alcohol I consumed was too helpful here either. . . But it was still heavenly. I'll have to start carving out a chunk of time each week to keep in practice, as well as to learn some new music we'll be adding to our repertoire in the fall.

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I hope you'll bear with me for a moment, but I have something I need to get off my chest about the singing I do. As I said in one of my first posts, I have been singing since I was 6 or so. Somehow I ended up in the junior choir at my church - my Dad's been big into music his whole life and his parents before him, so it's not too surprising I ended up singing. So I grew up in a choir, and absorbed a love of choral music by osmosis. I might not have had any classical training, but "singing my whole life, pretty much" is nothing to sneeze at in terms of experience.

That being said, we have a choir master/organist (CM/O) who doesn't trust us. Over the last few years, I have begun to really notice this problem, especially since I also now sing in a very small group where we literally have to trust each other or it'll just fall to little bitty pieces. We also sing everything a capella, so we occasionally go flat or sharp - but we go flat or sharp together because we're actually blending with the voices we're singing with. On Sundays, our CM/O plays the organ (unfortunately very loudly) while we sing (even ahem especially for pieces that are supposed to be a capella), and plays the piano very loudly during rehearsals. We can't hear each other, how can we blend? If we go flat (which we occasionally do, cause hey! we're actually human. Surprise surprise), the sections of the choir can't hear each other, can't blend with each other, so we end up singing in different keys (on the most spectacular failures). And then CM/O gets frustrated with us and plays the right chord at us really loudly right after we're finished singing. Might as well just scream "Hey!! You guys sound like shit!" And the more she plays loudly with us, the less confident we are in our blend, and more problems crop up. . . It's been really hard to go from one group that sings with trust and challenges us to try new (and sometimes scary hard) music, to one where our CM/O will tell us how rests work. . . I know you want consistency, but thanks so much for the patronizing, it really makes me feel great.

Another issue is the kind of voices she prefers: Operatic voices. And this is a choir, apparently. So, having a nice little choral voice in this choir has given me a really big problem of trusting my own voice - for a long time I thought my voice was crap, because of this CM/O. Insecurity issues. But, do you know how hard it is to sing, and sing your best, in a choir where you know your sklls aren't really appreciated? If I hadn't started singing on Wednesdays, I'd still be under the impression that I was a useless member of the choir. In addition to giving me an inferiority complex, the kind of singers our CM/O prefers make it really hard to have a choir that blends - operatic singers don't blend (some just can't), and in many cases they have voices that are massively huge, which is another barrier to good blending.

And I like our CM/O - she's quite a good keyboardist and composer. She's a really interesting person to talk to. I'm just getting to the point where I don't know if I can actually stay in this choir for much longer. I've been saying this for a while now (and the boyfriend will just sigh and shake his head since he's heard it a bunch of times before), but I might soon be leaving the choir I've been singing with for the past 22-or-so years. And that's really very scary - what if I can't find a new choir with people I like as much (especially since I have such a hard time warming to people anyway) and who sing as much great music (even if we do fairly often sing the same things over and over again)?

What if I can't find a choir that would like to have me??

I have the summer to think about these things, and maybe look into finding a voice teacher (if I have a reliable source of income at some point) to help me potentially get into a more professional choir. I don't know what I'll do, but I'm already sad at the idea that maybe this is the end of something that's been such a huge part of my life.

Any thoughts, Dear Internet?