RAK Winner

Thanks everyone for the deluge of lovely comments on my blog Thursday. I cherish them all. Now the moment you've been waiting for:

There were 29 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Carol

Your cupcakes look yummy and oh my goodness, bingo cards and vintage labels in the same RAK! I might faint!

April 1, 2010 5:58 AM

Timestamp: 2010-04-02 17:49:49 UTC

Congratulations, Carol. Hope you like the RAK :-)

Gauche Alchemy Blog Hop With RAK

If you've stopped by the  Gauche Alchemy blog today, you'll see that a brand-spanking new team has been announced, and in honor of that, all the Gauche Girls are Opening Up.  How easy are we..to figure out that is!  If you haven't started at the beginning of our hop, Hop on back to the Gauche Blog and start in the fun there. There are RAKs up for grabs along the hop, so make sure you comment on each Gauche Girls blog for a chance to win some serious yumminess.

Now for the fun part: Each of us Gauche Girls has chosen a word that best describes Why we're so Gauche! Honey, this is where you need to work it a little!  Here's what you do:  Find all the words and which  hoppin' hunny they belong to, head back to the  GA Blog & post a comment with your answers - if you get it right, you get a shot at a kick-ass prize pack from The Head Honchettes themselves! See, it's EASY. If you have already started on the hop you should have come from Andrea's Blog.

My handle, as most of you know, is Perky Nihilist as I am a study of opposites and contradictions that peacefully coexist. So my word is Perky it describes both my personality and has a naughty boobies connotation. *grin*

This LO is a good example of my attitude towards creating in general. I like art best when it has bits and pieces of real life throughout, especially when you can use things that would normally be discarded. The fabric is all the selvages and bits left from straightening fabric pieces to cut for a project I am working on. All those wedge-shaped slivers were too pretty to toss in the trash.

I also used bright, bright colors - lots of red and orange - as that is what you see most in my work.

Making feminine pieces is my only "girlie" outlet. I added frayed, messy bows to reflect on my life as a women in an all male household.

Here's the RAK I'm offering for commenters on my blog. I am de-stashing some of the awesome mixed-media goodies I have on hand and would love to share them with you.

Please head over to Lara's blog to see more Gauche Alchemy goodness and get to know the rest of the team.

Heather

Nina

Maggie

Angela

Kas

Stephanie

Yvonne

Erika

Andrea

******* You Are Here *******

Lara 

Amy

Note: Leave a comment on my blog to be eligible to win my RAK.

And on a completely different topic - aren't you excited about Easter? Avery and I made these:

April Stash Bust

Hello Everyone,

I've been lying pretty low the last few days - stomach flu ate my life... again. It's been a bad year for bugs.

We had a lovely Earth Hour on Saturday night. Chris and I had gruyere (it's G Fortnight) fondue by candlelight and then sat on the couch and talked by the light of our fireplace. Bliss. Makes me want to turn off the lights more often.

Another great Earth-Friendly thing going on is April Stash Busting Month. This was brought to my attention by DollarStoreCrafts and I think it's a great idea.

If you click on the link above, you'll find lots of tutorials, challenges and prizes in association with busting your stash. I'm all over this - it's gonna rock.

Sneak Peek and a Tutorial

I'm blogging at Gauche Alchemy today. Wanna peek?



Now go on over and check out MY TUTORIAL :-)

Success, Failure, and Cupcakes

When I sent out my missive to the brave hearts of A-Z Year I included this suggestion:

Fail. Seriously consider attempting something you might not be all that good at. As adults we rarely take risks or put ourselves in positions where we might look Foolish. Take a dance class, try painting, bake a souffle - do something that might not work.

I firmly believe in walking the walk so I decided to tackle a few new recipes this fortnight - sketchy ones that I couldn't quite grasp the food chemistry of. All four recipes involved came from highly lauded internet foodies and if pictures don't lie, then they had great success with them. I won't post links as I'd hate to sully their good name with my incompetence.

Here is Buttermilk Vanilla Cupcakes (I forgot to take a pic of the praline frosting. Sorry):



Look at that sway-back, hollowed out nastiness. Ugh! And they were hard work and expensive too.

These are the Coke Cupcakes with Coke Frosting (forgot to photograph this frosting too - there was a repairman, I was teaching homeschool, the bread timer was announcing it needed punching... photos weren't a priority):


Before I continue, let's discuss flavor. The coke cupcakes were billed to taste like chocolate coke. But, instead, they tasted like watered-down cupcakes with a corn syrup after taste. Ew. The buttermilk vanilla ones were an outrageous sugar bomb and very crumbly. Ick. ( An aside: We were worried from step one about the buttermilk because the house had this horrible animal meets chemical stench as soon as I started cooking them. Turns out I had sat my leather-bound recipe book on an element set to low for over an hour. It was slow-roasting. *shudder* The page protectors are fused together; time to redo my recipes.)

I thought, and thought, and thought some more as quitting just isn't my style. Cake Pops were on my March To-Try list and they required crumbly cake and frosting - BAZINGA!

So I de-papered the mess, and crumbled the few bits that were baked hard enough to stick together:



And with a little effort, candy melts, sprinkles and lollipop sticks; we ended up with these:


Wanna see a close-up:


Yeah, that's some sort of oil that sweats through the cracks - appetizing!

The boys claim they are truffle-like and delicious. I had one bite of each flavor and fearing a sugar coma sat them back on the plate. Not for me.

Fortunately, for "F" Fortnight I made Fancy and Fabulous French Toast to save Face after all that Failure. I added 3/4 tsp of cardamon to my regular bread recipe. When I was forming the loaves, I pressed the dough into rectangles, sprinkled with cinnamon and rolled it up to make swirls. It's delicious and so pretty. I wish I had a picture but I have three boys, one teenaged, so the picture I do have was snatched out from under their fork.


We gilded the lily a bit with fresh warm cinnamon syrup. Delish.

Here's my bread recipe, it works well for whatever flour you prefer. I usually use half fresh-ground wheat and half all-purpose.

Finnish Cardamom Braids or Home Baked Bread
For regular bread, omit the cardamom and skip the italicized steps.


2 TBL yeast (two packages)
1/4 C warm water
2 C warm milk (we use soy milk, vanilla soy if making cinnamon rolls or any sweet breads)
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C softened butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
* 3/4 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
2 eggs
7-8 C flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, sugar, butter, *cardamom, eggs and 3 C of flour.
Beat until smooth.
Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough.
Knead 6-8 minutes.
Place in greased bowl and rise to doubled (about one hour).
Punch down and shape into three loaves.

*If making cardamom braids: Divide dough in half and braid each half.

Cover and rise until doubled (about 45 minutes).

*
If making cardamon braids: Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with Finnish Sugar (it looks like rock salt - big crystals)

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden.

Brush the tops of the loaves with butter when they are still hot from the oven if you prefer.

I blogged at Gauche Alchemy today, I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing the amazing Melanie Testa. She rocks my socks off with her art quilts and mixed media projects. Wow.

The Issue of Expectations

Today was my appointment with the pain clinic. Last time I saw them was in December, I was still having my tail bone removed and I didn't even know about tethered spinal cords and the fun of having them freed. The pain clinic is supposed to be the banner all my care falls under, their role in my life is to coordinate my care - making sure surgeons, physical therapists, pharmacists and whoever else is involved all have one point of contact. In theory it's a great system but today, not so much.

Imagine you have been dating your beau for a couple of years, you've talked about wanting a family together and you are actively planning your future. One night, he asks you to don your best dress, takes you for dinner at a very tony spot and nervously sets a small velvet box before you. You open it and see a beautiful diamond pendant hanging from a thick gold chain.

This is a very nice gift, right? But it wasn't what you were expecting. The expectations made a very thoughtful gift less than and even possibly unappreciated.

I went to my appointment today harboring fantasies of exercise programs, physical therapy, stretches, yoga, therpeutic swim classes... SOMETHING... and I got, rest a few more months, keep your schedule limited, take your meds - and hey, speaking of meds, do you need more?

This irked me beyond belief. I have been fighting each and every day to reduce my dosages; aiming to be free of pain killers entirely. Instead, the best I could do, was ask to have the amount they prescribe reduced.

They act like I'm somehow unappreciative of the progress I've made. Which is funny as I'm the one working as hard as I can to make that progress and they haven't even seen me since last year. It still hurts so bad I cry. My life is still limited at every possible turn. I'll be more appreciative when my life is more. More in ever way.

It doesn't help that my doctor didn't know a thing about TSCS. According to him, he "Googled it" before my appointment. I assured him (pleasantly) that I probably know a lot more about the topic than he does. He agreed and said no one in the building knows much about it. Great. He also said that it's so rare that there is no known trajectory for recovery. I really want some steps to aspire to. This rest and see business is maddening.

Eclairs Tales of a Young Bride

Back in 1989 I made eclairs for the first time. I couldn't cook anything fancier than ramen or KD; but eclairs, being made with simple stuff like boiling water, flour and eggs, didn't look too daunting.

I don't remember if the inspiration came from a Home-Ec class or from one of my mom's Good Housekeeping magazines. Either way, I set to the project with the kind of faith and spirit wholly reserved for youth naive of the kitchen and it's many pitfalls (see previous post).

I made them and they were good. (Nicole's Genesis 1:3)

Throughout my pre-marraige years I had two things I could cook: eclairs and chicken vinegar soup*. After a whirlwind courtship, I was a new bride to a young husband who was heading out the door to his first day of work. I kissed him and was left standing in a tiny apartment galley kitchen with not a clue as to how to set it up or what to make in it. Time was ticking. He'd be home in eight hours.

Tick-Tock.

Tick-Tock

*Dials the phone*

" Honey, do you like eclairs?"

To my horror he said no. So the one thing I knew I could woo him with was a bust.

Last night, on the final day of "E" Fortnight ( you've joined the fun at A-Z Year, right?) I made eclairs with my boys. They found choux pastry just as magical as I did at their age.

It goes from this boiling goo:


To these airy shells:


We made thick sweetened whip cream in a blender ( have you tried that? fast, easy, not messy.) and melted chocolate as the base of our frosting. My boys all experience love most profoundly through their stomachs and their love tanks were full.

My Chris came home, now fifteen years past that galley kitchen, and I nervously offered him the best eclair of the bunch. I held my breath hoping that he would accept it and love it - I mean really, what's not to love about pastry, whipping cream and chocolate.

He took a bite and his eyes rolled back in pure unguarded rapture.

It turns out he doesn't remember telling me he didn't like them and he is pretty sure he thought eclairs were something else.

Here's a simple choux pastry recipe. They can be filled with anything fluffy: whipped cream, mousse, ice cream etc. and topped with frosting or drizzled with syrups.

Choux Pastry:

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium saucepan, combine butter and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until butter melts completely. Reduce heat to low, and add flour and salt. Stir vigorously until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and begins to form a stiff ball.

Remove from heat.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.

With a spoon or zip-loc bag with corner cut off, pipe dough onto cookie sheet in 1 1/2 x 4 inch strips.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake 20 minutes more, until hollow sounding when lightly tapped on the bottom. Cool completely on a wire rack.

* I won't divulge the glory that is Chicken Vinegar Soup aside from the fact that it's a delightful blend of broth, curry, pepper, garlic, soy, vinegar and much more. No one ever forgets it and you crave it for life. Yeah, it's that amazing. But that'll have to wait for a different post.