Marsbarn Designs...

Hello peeps

Wishing you a bit of handmade goodness for your day!

Bagels... oh yes

Last week I made (or helped to make) 6 batches of
bagels.  That's a lot of yummy, warm, yeasty
goodness.   

We even got to keep a few.  

Let them eat cake

Oh yes, another food photo.
I've been cooking.  I find I can only do one
creative venue at a time.  I can either create with
sewing, or collage, or baking, and while I can
rotate through them, I can only do them one at a time. 

The meals get planned, or the art gets made.
If we are eating well thought out, creative meals,
I am only going through the motions at the sewing
machine.  If I am quilting, or creating new bags,
or making aliens come alive with thread and fabric,
we are eating grilled cheese and eggs.

So, at the moment, let them eat cake, for soon, soon 
it will be packaged cookies and random fridge findings.

Birthday Dinner, or if you give a girl a Moroccan cookbook...

My friend Meegs sent me a lovely Moroccan cookbook
for Christmas.  It's one of those coffee table cookery 
books that is lovely to look at, heavy to hold, and
tempting to cook from.

So, of course, for my birthday dinner this year, we made 
a Moroccan flavored dinner for 20. 

This is the chicken tagine with prunes made with
thighs and drumsticks and flavored with tumeric,
ginger, cumin, and onions. 

This is a lamb tagine with preserved lemon and olives.
It had a lovely warmth provided by white pepper, and
the preserved lemon added great depth.  Lightly
steamed baby spinach was folded in right before
serving.  Both of the tagines were delicious and went
together easily, although with all of the strong flavors,
I'd substitute beef for the lamb next time.  

For sides, we had this quinoa with lemon salad (not
Moroccan, but delicious and from the January Bon
Appetit.)  There was also bread, a great green salad,
sliced oranges, a roast beet salad,  cous cous, and 
wild rice. The best side, however, was a squash dish
with cinammon from the Food of Morocco.  My Mom
altered the recipe by roasting the butternut squash
instead of steaming it.  So good.

And then there was dessert.  I made a sour cherry tart
with sour cherries I'd frozen this summer.  My Mom
made a gooey molasses cake, as well as a lemon
meringue tart.  Everything was so good.

There are still a bunch of recipes from the Food of
Morocco I want to try. I didn't have time to get into
any of the bread recipes, but so many of them looked
tempting.  Obviously I need to have more dinners...

Interdimensional Cake fit for a birthday girl

Sweet G turned 12 this month.  She's our resident
Dr Who expert, so of course she needed a TARDIS cake. 

I went round and round trying to decide on how to 
make a cake that's bigger on the inside.

I liked the idea of using frosted cut out cookies as 
panels for the outside of the police box.  I thought the
cookies would be easier decorate, than trying to pipe
on the sides of the cake.  

And I went small.  'Cause small is good.

I baked up chocolate and buttermilk cake layers. 

Made multiple batches of frosting, and a double batch
of cut out cookies.

I might have lost my mind a wee bit when it came to
making the police box cookies.   

See the fancy towers of cake in the background?
Each little TARDIS cake is a tower of buttermilk and
chocolate bake with chocolate fudge frosting between
the layers.  

Then I attached the cookie panels. 

Add a bit of frosting to the edges and the tops, and 
voila, cake fit for a Time Lord Girl.

Oh yes. 

I cut each cake into four wedges, each with a Tardis
cookie edge.

All of the girls at the party agreed that the cakes were
bigger on the inside.   

Peach Dinner

On the last day of July, Grand M hosted a Peach Dinner with her neighbor.

There was a peach stuffed pork loin, peach pizza, peach
gazpacho,  a peach and roast golden beet salad, peach
pasta, peach caprese, and peach salsa.  Yum, yum, yum!

It was a delicious dinner, and a beautiful evening.
We ate and visited until late.  

What a beautiful way to end July.

summer break

Okay, so enough with the trying to do it all.
I've got stuff I've made and stuff I'm making,
as well as things I'm doing and have done
waiting for me to get around to post,
but it's just not happening, is it?

So instead of beating myself up for not getting it posted,
I'm going to take a break.  I'm going (shockingly) off-line
for July.  I'll be back in August with stories and projects
and photos. After all, there's been a batiking class to 
talk about and berry picking and new bags to share.

So I'm going to concentrate on doing, and I'll start telling
when I'm ready for a break.  Happy Fourth! 


Okay, just one quick berry update:
Between the two women and the two eleven year olds
on the picking adventure, we brought home almost
50 pounds of berries after two hours of work.  
Even more amazing?  
It was an effortless experience. Not muddy, not hot,
and the berries were gorgeous! 

Oh! And quick Squee! moment.
(I'm not good at this "stopping" thing, am I?)
I've figured out how to make a flat bottomed,
hexagonal, fully lined dice bag!  
(Okay, I was excited.)

Now, see you in August! 

A dilemma of oatmeal chocolate chip proportions

Can you see the problem?

I made a cookie that was too big to fit in the cookie jar.
What's a girl to do? 

Cooking with adults, part 2

Today was the second of my two adult cooking classes.  
This was the candy installment, and we made
three kinds of marshmallow, two kinds of toffee,
and a batch of carmel corn in a space of three hours.
Everyone went home with bundles of treats and recipes.

This is my last cooking class of the year,
but I'm planning a repeat of this candy class for January.
I'm really enjoying the baking/cooking classes,
both the adults and the kid versions.

There is an idea for a kid class (after the new year)
that is simmering in my brain.
It would cover planning a meal, as well as making it.
I want to introduce the ideas of ordering or organizing,
of figuring out what order you need to make the pieces that make up the meal.

Oh, Julia. I miss you so.

Last weekend, I had a date with Julia.
The girls went out with Big E and Grand M
to harvest pumpkins at a friend's farm.
And I made Beef Bourguignon with Julia Child.

I met Julia once, when I was about Sweetheart G's age.
It was in a corner store, and she was larger than life.
Tall, vibrant, and that voice. And so kind.
I said, "You're Julia Child.  My mom loves you."
To which she said, "Tell your Mom I love her, too."

Julia's TV shows ranked as must-see material in our house,
along side M.A.S.H. or the Muppet Show.
I found this today.  I tell you, I miss her.

The Boeuf was lovely, just as Julia said it would be.