Marsbarn Designs...

hot cross buns, now with less jellied eel

Last week, in the midst of St Patrick's Day food specials
at the grocery store, I had a dream about hot cross buns.

In the dream, I was at the store, and asked at the deli
counter about when they would start carrying hot
cross buns.  The woman behind the counter said, "Oh,
we have jellied eels!" and she pointed to a neatly
arranged tray of lengths of the aforementioned.
"Jellied eels are not the same thing as hot cross buns!"
I exclaimed.  "But they are AUTHENTIC!" she said.
"Still not the same thing!" I said with growing concern.
"Well, this year, we're carrying eels, instead of buns.
Here, try one!" and she held up this limp, slimey, length
of unmentionableness. ((Shudder!)) 

I did ponder, upon waking, about the meaning of a dream
where one Victorian delicacy takes the place of another,
but couldn't find anything of any significance 

But today, today at the store, look!

Hot Cross Buns!  Now, with less jellied eel! Joy!

a whirlwind of flavors and friends

There's been a fair amount of celebrating here in the 
last few weeks.  

That's a Chicken Tagine with prunes under the parsley
in the red bowl.  And below is a lamb fefta with duck
eggs and olives.  

 

Beyond the food, there have been friends, glorious
friends, and family.  The only thing lacking has been
a way to slow down our time together.   

I don't get to have an many of these dinners as I'd like.
We used to have friends for dinner more often, now it
is just birthdays and holidays.  Perhaps this is something
I need to work back to.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to Sweetheart G.
Happy birthday to all our mid winter friends.

When your Whovian daughter has a birthday

My older daughter is a Whovian.
A big time Whovian. 
So of course, for her gaming birthday party,
she needed Doctor Who themed cakes.

The 2013 versions of the TARDIS cake is a one story 
affair. It's a single serving of either scratch made
vanilla buttermilk cake or gluten free chocolate cake
with a buttercream frosting.  They measure 4 1/2" long
by 2" wide. 

These were a somewhat simpler affair than last year's
cake, with the exception of the yellow sugar I used for
the light and widows.  In a fit of passion, I used tweasers
to place each sugar crystal.  (The Doctor inspires a
certain amount of maddness.)

Last year's cakes were three dimensional, and honestly,
bigger on the inside.


These were small (say 5" by 5" bases) triple layer cakes
with alternating chocolate and vanilla layers. I made
and decorated cut-out cookies that were decorated
to be the sides of the TARDIS.  Then the cookies
where attached to the cakes via frosting.  I think I
made 5 or 6 of these cakes.  Each cake served 4 people,
and we cut them diagonally into triangles, so each
serving had a whole cookie TARDIS panel.  The kids
at the party started to complain that they didn't
each get a TARDIS to eat, but once they started
eating their quarter, no one could finish their
piece.  They all went home with left-over bites.
Thus, they were bigger on the inside.

Another year, I'd like to attempt a Dalek.  
Dalek's are cool! 

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!