Pots and Pins

Casa Black Beans and Rice...

I hadn't planned on sharing a mister "incident" with you today but that changed when he said this morning....naked as a jaybird and fresh out of the shower..."What do you think it means that I have to sit down to dry my feet?"  Of course, I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath and said, "I don't know dear, what do you think it means?"  And he replied, totally serious, "Well, it's probably a symptom of something, don't you think?"  I walked out of the room laughing and biting my tongue...gee, let's see, not being able to bend over...could it be your belly is getting in your way?!?  Ever since the mister and I have been hooked on HOUSE he is becoming more and more of a hyperchondriac - I can see that I'm going to have to limit his TV again.

This is my new favorite lunch...I finally tired of my old stand-by Tuna salad - but I still love it and I'm sure I'll be eating it again and again and again...but in the meantime, this is what's got me watching the clock for noon to roll around...  

Cumin, chili powder, cotija cheese...those are the fireworks that are added to canned black beans and canned diced tomatoes...and let me just say this, it's filling and healthy and cheap and easy...but the best part is it's a 4 danger on the Dang Meter...dang, dang, dang, dang good!

Casa Black Beans and Rice - ME

1/2 of a large red onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 can (14.5 oz.) black beans

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 cup brown rice, cooked

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 cup Cotija cheese, grated (or more if you like)

salt and pepper to taste

chopped fresh cilantro to garnish, optional

In a large skillet melt the butter.  Add in the red onions and saute for about 8 minutes or until soft.  Stir in the beans, tomatoes, rice and seasonings.  Bring mixture to a boil, cover and reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in cheese and serve hot as a main or side dish or serve at room temperature as a dip.  Serves 4.

*************************************************************************************************************************

"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching; or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.  ~ Emily Dickinson

*************************************************************************************************************************

One year ago today:Triple Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

Macrina Bakery Rustic Potato Loaf...

The Macrina Bakery in Seattle is a favorite - and this is the recipe for their most sought-after loaf.  When I told the mister I was making potato bread he rolled his eyes.  He then went out into the yard to begin his deforestization of the property...removing small trees and foliage and leaving the weeds.  When he returned, all scratched and bleeding - as is his custom - he could smell the bread baking and when I mentioned how good it smelled he rolled his eyes yet again.  Well, after he got himself bandaged and bathed he returned to the kitchen just as I was slicing the first piece...I slathered on the butter and handed it to him...and he rolled his eyes...but this time they rolled back in his head as his teeth sank into the thick, chewy crust...mmmmm...it was a glorious sight to see...the mister actually enjoying himself while eating something I made.  I marked the day on my calendar - as I'll probably never see that again.

  

You don't peel the potatoes - which only makes the bread more rustic and tasty.  The recipe calls for two medium russet potatoes - I doubled the recipe so I could take a loaf to a friend.  I also used rather large russet potatoes so I had to add in some extra flour.  But even not using exact measurements, this bread turned out great - I'd give it a 5 on the dang meter....'cause it's dang, dang, dang, dang, dang good!

The bread has to rise for 45 minutes - and then it rests for another 45.  Finally you bake it...yep, for 45 minutes...and your kitchen will be filled with the most wonderful aroma...there is a hard part to this bread...after it comes out of the oven you MUST WAIT for at least 30 minutes before slicing...so get in the car and go for a drive - it's the only way to keep from tearing into the bread...trust me!

Macrina Bakery Rustic Potato Loaf - Adapted from the Seattle Times, Pacific Magazine, May 2009  (Originally adapted from "Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook)

1 1/4 lbs. (about 2 medium) russet potatoes

1 tablespoon kosher salt, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

spray bottle of water

Scrub the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch chunks.  Place potatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt in a medium saucepan and cover with water.  Bring the water to a boil reduce the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes are tender when poked with a knife, about 15 minutes.  Drain the potatoes and save 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.  Cool the liquid to 90 degrees, about the temperature of a warmed baby bottle.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk the reserved cooled potato water with the yeast.

Pile the drained potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer.  With the paddle attachment mash the potatoes on low speed for 1 minutes.  Motor in the olive oil, then the potato water and yeast mixture.  Exchange the paddle attachment for the dough hook and on low speed, motor in the remaining salt and the flour on low speed, then increase speed to medium and mix for 11 minutes.  When the dough is ready, a small amount pinched between two fingers will stretch to two inches before breaking.  Trasnfer the dough to an oiled, medium-sized mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow the dough to proof in a warm place until it is doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Transfer the risen dough to a floured work surface and flatten it with your hands into a rectangle.  Starting with a short end, roll the dough away from you to form a tight log.  Just before the log is sealed, stop rollling and dust the last inch of dough with flour.  (This will create a seam that will open slightly while the loaf bakes.)  Wrap the dough, seam-side-down in a well-floured dish towel and let it proof at room temperature for 45 minutes.

While the loaf is proofing, place a baking stone on the center rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Carefully unwrap the risen loaf and plant it, seam-side-up in the center of the baking stone and heavily mist the oven with a spray bottle.  After 5 minutes, mist the oven again, then continue baking until the loaf is well-browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, a total of 45 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing.

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."  ~ Ingrid Bergman

*************************************************************************************************************************

One year ago today:  Sumptuous Southwestern Brisket

Tami's Baby Quilt...

Tami - mother of 3 beautiful little boys - is now expecting a girl!  The girls in our church who she teaches wanted to give her a shower...and since none of them had any idea how to do that, yours truly got involved.  We had a great time - even played shower games - which I loathe but the girls were totally into them!  They all helped to make Tami this quilt - they each made her a quilt block using fabric markers and then I sewed them together.  Tami was totally surprised by the shower and the quilt and was a good sport playing those dang shower games!

Fabric markers are supposed to be permanent...they're really not.  I washed this quilt in a gentle cycle with cold water and almost all of the blocks faded.  After a few washings I'm sure the pink pictures will be totally gone...but maybe that's a good thing?  Kidding - it's very cute and the girls LOVED seeing their blocks in a quilt. 

*************************************************************************************************************************

"I will tell you, scholar, I have heard a grave divine say that God has two dwellings, one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart."  ~ Izaak Walton

**************************************************************************************************************************

One year ago today:  Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon with Orange Fig Sauce...Mmmmmmm

Rainbow Swap Blocks...

Participating in an on-line swap always sounds so fun...and then when I'm in the middle of doing the blocks I want to slap myself for getting involved!  But...when the swap works (and not all of them do - I'm still smarting over some Valentine swap I knocked myself out for and got NOTHING in return!) they are tons of fun!  Here are my rainbow swap blocks - and thanks to Jane for putting this all together!

Not sure how I'll put these together - for now they'll go into my ever-growing unfinished pile of blocks...and maybe they won't end up being a quilt but used for labels on the backs of other quilts? 

**************************************************************************************************************************

Two kinds of gratitude; the sudden kind We feel for what we take, the large kind We feel for what we give."  ~ Edwin Arlington Robinson

**************************************************************************************************************************

One year ago today:  Note to Self - Max's Big Feet

Cupcake Tote...

Here's a peek at my latest creation...this goes along with the cupcake tablecloth and the rest of the cupcake collection I'm working on...what is it about cupcakes?!

I love the free-form stitching - it's fast and fun and you can't make a mistake - even if you try!

Oops!  Better put the cardboard in the bottom!  As my mom's friend, Doretta, likes to say, it's "smart yet simple!" 

Happy Birthday to the Girl...

Today is the girl's birthday...she won't be happy I'm posting her picture but what can she do?  I'm the mom!  I still have SOME say!

The girl had to be rescued the other day - she stopped to take a picture of something at the side of the road and locked herself out of her car...with Baby Max inside!  Baby Max thought the whole thing was quite fun - the girl felt stupid - and I held my tongue...afterall, the girl is quite adept at punishing herself...I think I've told you this before...can't remember...but when she was quite young and had acted up, she said, "You don't need to punish me, I've already punished myself."  She took the fun right out of parenting.  As a reward for her stupidity...err, mistake...the firemen took her picture...and one of them was named Cullen...as in Edward Cullen...so her day was MADE!  Happy Birthday little girl - see you next week!

The New and Improved Workroom...

Nine years ago, when the girl moved out, the boy moved into the girl's old room - because it was much bigger than his - and I moved out of my workroom in the garage into the boy's old room...mainly because it had heat...and a view.  Nine years ago I was so anxious to move into my new digs that I just threw everything into the room - and I mean everything.  I didn't take the time to redo anything then because I just didn't have the time...so I kept the railroad track that went around the top of the room and the little scenes on the wall by the track...which I painted when the boy was 8 - scenes from his favorite storybooks or movies or family adventures - scenes he loved and I loved...so really, painting over them at that time would have been traumatic...almost as traumatic as it was watching them being painted out last week!  Nine years of working in chaos...

This is the new and improved room...and I just love it!  I still have some things to do - like put up a design board on my big empty wall and I'm going to hang a small quilt above the TV and put up a valance - but I'm in no hurry - I'm just so happy the big stuff is done and the crappola is out!  So, without further ado...here's my new and improved room!    

Cherry Divine - that's the color of my walls...and my new floor is antique oak LAMINATE!!!  But it wooks like REAL wood - especially if you have bad eyesight!  I also treated myself to a new cutting mat - after 15 years of slicing on the old one I really needed it!  And I have plenty of room for storage under my make-shift desk and my "island."

Gobs and gobs of stuff are gone - what a relief!  I now have everything organized, nice and neat and I'm going to keep it that way...even the Aussie, the one with OCD who irons her sheets and underwear, proclaimed my room BEAUTIFUL! 

Two years ago I bought a P Kauffman fabric to recover my chair...and it promptly got lost in my mess.  I have just enough left to make a valance.  It's so great to be organized!!! 

This, That and The Other...

THIS is what I WON from a little contest over at Lucy's Tales From Home and I couldn't be happier!  I love checking in to see what Lucy has to say - from the outside looking in I'd say Lucy lives the perfect life, with the perfect family...and her mom is especially creative and talented...go see for yourself!

THIS is the cake I made for a charity auction...my Italian Cream Cake and it just looked so pretty I had to show you...I'm hoping it tasted great - it usually does but you never know with cakes - if you beat them just a tad too long they can be dry as the Sahara!  So, if anyone out there ended up eating my cake would you please let me know how it was?!  The curiosity is killing me!  (I'll be posting my new version of this cake soon - it's a keeper!)

Remember THAT old addage that says something like a little knowledge can be dangerous?  Well, I was thinking, what if I used oven cleaner to clean the bottoms of my pans - you know, the stuff that just won't come off even with a Brillo pad and an hour of scrubbing?  Well...there's a reason oven cleaner is ONLY FOR OVENS...this is what it did to the bottom of my pan...totally ruined it - it took the finish right off and as you can see the stuff that is COOKED on is still there!  Don't try this at home folks!

The Other thing I wanted to show is my workroom - it's almost done...the walls are finished after FIVE coats of paint and a coat of primer - over WHITE walls!!!  Stinkin' stupid to do red...but now that it's done I'm loving it!  I've decided that red is a neutral for me.  The floor is in - antique oak and it looks great...and I've started to move back in...which is so, so hard because I don't want to put all the crappola back in my room but it's starting to "talk" to me...."Take Me!  Take ME!"  So scary!

And lest you think I have been sitting on my laurels all weekend...I made a couple of arrangements for our Sunday service...it was so nice to be outside in the sun working with beautiful flowers...

So that's it - that was my weekend...now it's back to the grind...how was your weekend?

Chocolate Chip Cookies...

I'm sure you have a favorite, tried and true, chocolate chip cookie recipe...I have two recipes that I love - adore - drool over...and this is, sadly, not one of them.  Oh, don't get me wrong, this is definitely one of the best tasting cookies I've ever made...but it's flat, and it has very little "chew-factor," something I feel is necessary in a chocolate chip cookie.  So, I hear you asking, why did I make this recipe if I already have two that I love?  Well, I'll tell you...two words...Dorie Greenspan.  Dorie is to baking what fat is to my thighs...she is the guru of everything good, rich, decadent...she is also the author of Baking With Julia and Baking: From My Home to Yours; two must haves for any serious baker.  But enough about Dorie, I could write volumes about how much I love her recipes...so when I read that THIS was Dorie's all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe I just had to make it.    

Telling you this is not in my top two fav's was misleading...I should have said it's in my top three because I did LOVE this cookie - and really, how could I not?  It has TWO sticks of butter in the recipe, plus two teaspoons of vanilla - very few recipes for chocolate chip cookies are THIS rich...so the cookie is seductive in a way...you'll be half-way thru your third cookie before you realize that you could easily be a cookie addict!  And the only reason these are not my favorites, because they DO taste amazing, is because they are just SO flat...not a good look in a cookie or me!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 teaspoons if you really like salt)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or chunks*

1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)*

* I used chocolate chips and Reese's mini-peanut butter cups and I did not add nuts.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment.  Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute.  Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated.  On low speed, mix in the chocolate and nuts, if using. 

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.  Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine.  Allow the cookies to rest on the sheet for 1 minute before removing to racks to cool.  Makes about 45 cookies.

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."  ~Luciano Pavarotti

****************************************************************************

One year ago today:  Fabulous Finds  

Attention All Seattle Pie Lovers...

Good news!  You don't have to make a pie or spend a fortune to get a great tasting pie!!  I just discovered Plush Pippin Pie company in Kent, WA...made a pie run the other day and all I can say is...they're worth 5 dangs on the Dang Pie Meter!

 

 

 

Here's what you need to know before you go: 

They are located at:  21331 - 88th Place South, in Kent, near Highway 167 in an industrial park - at the back - and are only open Monday thru Thursday until 4:00, but they're closed from 12:30 until 1:30.

The pies are frozen and they don't always have the same pies...I bought 11" blackberry pies for $5, 11" cherry pies for $5, and 10" apple pies for $2.  They carry a variety of pies but you're at their mercy for which ones they have in stock the day you go.

They only take CASH...no credit cards, no debit cards, no checks. 

The pies bake up beautifully and taste amazing...worth the trip.

You could try calling before you go but they don't answer the phone. 

And yes, those THREE BOXES in the back of my car are filled with PIES...got a problem with that?!?