Necessary Chocolate

Sewing in daylight for Archie

I mentioned, in that last post, my mood by Saturday. It seemed like I was wasting precious summer hours, doing nothing meaningful. I usually feel that way this time of year: how can it be mid-July? Why am I at work instead of on a vacation? Why am I inside? Will I ever have a summer vacation? Will I ever see a beach again? Why do I have a yard if I ignore it? Why don't I want to weed? Why do I even exist?

And so on.

In the meantime, I was at home in daylight for three whole days. Making things in daylight is a rare opportunity. Since the Arizona owner of Archie will soon have a birthday, it seemed the perfect occasion to use my "Arizona rabbit" fabric for a make-a-long sleeping bag.

I originally meant to use this fabric for Archie's shirt, but he looked like a bare-chested, tattooed circus guy. Entertaining, but not good for this particular audience.

Polka-dot Olive modeling. Her skin nicely matches the sleeping bag lining.

The Fourth

Thursday evening, I was euphoric - I had a three-day weekend! At home! I could get so much done.

By Saturday afternoon, all I could see in my house was the projects that weren't done. Time to get in the car and drive away to continue my tradition of listening to a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

This year, I headed back to idyllic Williams College, where my tradition first started. Copies of the Declaration of Independence, the British response, and the Constitution are held in the rare books library, and members of the Williamstown Theatre Festival read from the documents each Fourth.

Dylan Baker read the American documents, and Michael Coglon read the British response with all the necessary disdain. We cheered, and boo'd, and had a great time. The museum was open so that we could then go look at the documents themselves.

As long as we left the balloons outside. Probably good advice for any museum visit.

Key Lime Cupcakes

Here's a recipe that might outshine the marshmallow-graham cracker-chocolate cupcakes: key lime cupcakes from Bon Appetit. I brought them into the office to celebrate a wave of employees passing their LEED tests (that means that the public thinks we're "green" architects - we already were, but now there are initials that supposedly prove it - any excuse for a party).

Wow. I used real key lime juice, and now I know that you can juice those little guys with a garlic press. There's a mix of key lime zest and regular lime zest in the batter and in the frosting.

I added a graham cracker crust (the same one as in the s'mores cupcakes), and topped the batter with extra graham cracker crumbs. The cake is dense, but velvety, and tastes more like lime than I thought it would.

One batch was made with green food coloring, another without. Without wins, hands down.

(Edited to add the link to the recipe. It's also at epicurious.)

A moment of silence for the Kitchenaid

This baby was my mom's, and then mine. For 37 years or so it has beaten and kneaded anything. It's been the most dependable thing we owned. As of this week, it only runs for a few seconds at a time. Kitchenaid's customer service told me that they consider it a vintage model, and "unrepairable."

I'm sure that there's a repairman who could fix it. That would be the frugal, environmentally responsible thing to do. Or...

Or...

I could buy a red one, and put off fixing this one.

And that's why I only need a moment of silence. The rest of the seconds need to be spent dreaming of a gleaming new red mixer.

I promise that I don't treat my human friends this way.

Tomato soup & english muffins

Thanks, everyone, who's playing Read for Fun with me! I currently have twelve books out of the library. I really need to make my library bag before I lose the books.

Before I post my most recent foray into cupcake-making, I need to prove that I can, in fact, make things without sugar.

See? Tomato soup, made from scratch, using yet another recipe from How to Eat Supper. And that there's a homemade sourdough english muffin with toasted cheese (I know, it looks like butter, but honest, it's not).

I spent most of last week on the road or at meetings, and now I'm home for a while. Two of those days were spent with internet friends, some of whom I met for the first time, and as always I was so impressed. I came home loaded with goodies from them and a cooler of goodies from Wegmans: pasta salad, watermelon, gazpacho, green beans, olives, etc. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I realized that I was starving and that I had bought nothing filling. Nothing. Hence, the muffins.

Pretty, huh? They're pretty tasty, too, even without the nooks and crannies.

Read for Fun 2009

Happy Father's Day and Happy Summer! Want to justify eating ice cream while you read? Need an excuse to walk through a bookstore? Hoping to discover a little something about a local landmark?

At my library, the kids start signing up for the summer reading program tomorrow. Since I don't think that I get to sign up (although I've never had the guts to ask), here's my Read for Fun program for 2009.

Like last year's chart, it's not intended to encourage reading lots of books. Instead, it marks the moments that we, as adults, can grab for reading. The five-minute summer vacations.

Want to play? Download the PDF file:

Download 2009 readforfun

Please leave a comment to let me know that you're playing. There will be a reward sometime in September.

Once again, the chart includes eight squares already filled in with goals, with corresponding pictures (courtesy of Dover's bookplates) on the sticker sheet. Feel free to change the goals as needed. My friend Julie's son helped me with some of the goals. He's ten or so, and had great ideas.

Choose eight of the other stickers to customize your plan. Two are blank, in case you think of a goal that I couldn't.

Have fun! Please share some of your favorite moments!

There's a badge over there in the sidebar - feel free to borrow if you want one. Since I add badges about once a year, let me know if there's a problem.

Summer plans #3: bridal shower cupcakes

A lovely woman at church, Ethel, is getting married in July, and there was a great big shower for her last night. Since I can now stay up late! and bake! I volunteered for cupcakes.

That cupcake up there is a chocolate-graham cracker cupcake with marshmallow frosting from Martha Stewart. It is an incredible recipe: layers of graham cracker and chocolate and cake. Plus, I used a kitchen torch for the first time ever! Chocolate and open flames. Who could ask for anything more?

The cute little peaks on top disappeared under the cupcakes picks and umbrellas, but at least I knew that they were there.

The recipe made 36 cupcakes, so it only took one more batch of coconut cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting to get 24 more.

I'd never tried freezing cupcakes before - I assumed they'd dry out. But Cook's Illustrated said it was okay, so they went into the freezer earlier this week and then unthawed on racks yesterday. They turned out great - moist and fresh. Make-ahead cupcakes are possible!

Now, for the summer plans

A number of people have asked what I'm doing with myself now that seminary is over. So, I thought that I'd share my summer list.

1. I do, in fact, have a full-time job. Mercifully, I haven't needed to travel much during seminary. I think we're about to make up for that.

2. Read for Fun! I'll be posting this summer's version on Sunday. Stay tuned!

2. My parent's 50th anniversary is this August, and I couldn't plan anything until class was over. In other words, last week. But I think we're on track, and there will be invitations soon.

3. 60 cupcakes for a wedding shower tonight. I volunteered to bring cake/cupcakes before I asked how many guests were coming.

4. Cook my way through the Improvisational Cook. It's great so far.

5. I want to sew, sew, sew. I want to clean out closets and drawers. I want to get rid of the extra books. Or maybe buy bookshelves?

6. Go to lots of performances.

7. Read a pile of books.

8. Sew a library book bag.

9. Sanitize the ice cream maker (it's been sitting in the garage for a while now). Make homemade ice cream.

10. Get ready for a friend's wedding open house at my place in August (the week after my parent's 50th anniversary party).

11. Get ready for the fall seminary class.

11. Try not to drive up to Vermont to buy a new peony. Or buy a new peony. Either choice is a good one.

It's going to be a great summer!

Pies

For one whole summer, my evenings are free! I can bake on weekdays! So I volunteered to make pies for an office birthday celebration today. I kind of wished that I had checked the schedule out a little more carefully; turns out we were giving a lecture last night, and I wouldn't be home until 8:30 or so.

But what the heck - I can stay up late! And make pies! And I did!

I tried out Cook's Country Buttermilk Chess pie twice; last night's version was too ugly to show in public, so I made another one this morning.

This is the prettier version that made it into the office. The ugly version stayed home, but it's so good that I might have to swallow pride and feed it to others before I eat it all.

Also on the menu was Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Cream Tart, from her "Baking" book.

 

Sigh. So good. Worth every arm-aching moment of whipping the cream by hand (I left part of the mixer at home). Luckily, none of this pie was left home. One less temptation.