This was done in error since I just happened to grab the wrong flour, but since everyone loved them and I know a bunch of gluten free folks, I figured I would save it here.
2 1/4 cups soy flour, 2 sticks of softened unsalted butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 2 duck eggs (chicken eggs work), 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp vanilla (I use the alcohol free), 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 2 heaping cups of chocolate ships.
Beat the sugars into the butter, then add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Next add the flour and baking soda, followed by the chocolate chips. I use a kitchen aide with the paddle for everything except adding the chocolate chips. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Fig jam and cookies
Just putting this here so I can remember what I did. Depending on how busy I am, I will try and add pictures and actually edit it later.
Jam: An approximately 9'diameter, 3" deep basket with figs from our tree. Some not fully ripe, because my picker was very enthusiastic. I diced up the figs, leaving the skins on. Put them into a pot with 1 gram of apple pectin, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar, and the juice from one large lemon. Brought to a boil, and simmered till desired thickness. Then I used the vitamix to break up any chunks, so the jam would be smooth.
Cookie dough: For the cookie dough, I added 1/4 lb of butter to the bowl of the kitchenaide, along with 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat them together until mixed. Added the zest from both sides of the lemon I juiced, 1 tsp vanilla, and one egg white (though I think next time I am going to just leave the yolk and see what happens), beat again. Added 1 1/2 cup of flour a 1/2 cup at a time while the kitchenaide was running. I was in a hurry, so I put the dough in saran wrap and into the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then I rolled it thin, cut out 4" wide strips, added a line of jam in the center, then folded it onto itself, and cut the roll into fig newton sized chunks. I also did finger print cookies, because a certain kid needed something she was better at helping with. Baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Jam: An approximately 9'diameter, 3" deep basket with figs from our tree. Some not fully ripe, because my picker was very enthusiastic. I diced up the figs, leaving the skins on. Put them into a pot with 1 gram of apple pectin, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar, and the juice from one large lemon. Brought to a boil, and simmered till desired thickness. Then I used the vitamix to break up any chunks, so the jam would be smooth.
Cookie dough: For the cookie dough, I added 1/4 lb of butter to the bowl of the kitchenaide, along with 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat them together until mixed. Added the zest from both sides of the lemon I juiced, 1 tsp vanilla, and one egg white (though I think next time I am going to just leave the yolk and see what happens), beat again. Added 1 1/2 cup of flour a 1/2 cup at a time while the kitchenaide was running. I was in a hurry, so I put the dough in saran wrap and into the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then I rolled it thin, cut out 4" wide strips, added a line of jam in the center, then folded it onto itself, and cut the roll into fig newton sized chunks. I also did finger print cookies, because a certain kid needed something she was better at helping with. Baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Monday, September 2, 2013
Norse Seam Treatment class from Highland
I actually ran out of handouts (for the first time ever), so I am posting pictures of the stitches taught here, so they are readily available. I did not go over much history, as I knew we would not have much time. The main points I made were that stitches were often structural, and that often what we modernly would have considered the decorative aspect was on the inside of a garment. I also passed around a few examples of layered stitches from archeological finds.
Take the thread closest to the needle, and pass it back towards the section that you have completed.
I chose to do this loosely so it is easier to see the structure of the stitch, but when pulled tighter it gives a wonderful braided appearance.
Stem Stitch
I general, I usually bring the needle back out in the hole it previously went in, rather than above or below it. The back of this stitch will be backstich, so it works very nicely for pieces that you will see both sides.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Bubblegum or loop braid
My mother's day tradition is that Chiara and I make something together. Today was very hot, so cooking was out. Instead I taught her a braid that my mom taught me. She calls it a bubblegum braid because they used to make them from bubblegum wrappers. I haven't tried doing that, but they are super easy to make with ribbon or yarn. I just refer to it as a loop braid because it makes it easier for people to understand.
If you know how to make a slip knot, you can skip the next part.
Find the center of your ribbon, and make an X. Then reach through the loop and pull the piece that crossed the other one through the loop. Fiddle with it, until the knot looks pretty.
If you pull one string, it should shorten the loop. The other string should not cause any movement. Take the string that doesn't cause movement, form a loop, then pass the loop through the other one. Don't let your loop twist, or it will show in the braid.
Then pull the string with movement, to reduce the first loop until snug against the loop that has been passed through it.
Now take the string you pulled snug, form a loop, and pass it through the current loop.
Pull the other string to snug the loop snug against the loop passing through it.
Repeat, until you use up your ribbon, or have a piece as long as you want it. Then pass the next string without looping through the loop to lock the braid. Otherwise pulling the strings will undo the braid.
The same process can be done with two colors of ribbon as well.
If you know how to make a slip knot, you can skip the next part.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Preserved (Salted) Lemons
Tonight's cooking guild meeting was preserved lemons, because we have a ton of lemons. I don't want them to go to waste, but I can only use so many at a time.
While lemons are present during medieval times, I have not yet run across a recipe for preserving them with salt that dates from that time. There are a bunch that use sugar or honey, but that would render them useless for my uses. With school right now, I have not had time to do more than a cursory search, so it is possible that one does exist. Packing meat and other items in salt to preserve them was done in many areas, so it could be argued that this is using a period technique on an item that is not specifically mentioned.
If you search on-line you can find a ton of recipes for preserved lemons. Some of them add spices as well, but I chose to just do salt and lemons this time. I picked both Meyer and Eureka lemons, but I have only done the Eureka lemons so far. I kept them separate because Meyers are actually a lemon crossed with a orange, and are much sweeter. I did not follow a recipe, because the sizes of lemons vary, and this is so simple, that it seemed silly to measure anything.
Steps:
1. Wash the lemon, and cut off any imperfections from the skin.
2. Cut off the end. Since I knew I would be squishing them in the jar, I made this a wide enough cut that it would expose more of the pulp.
3. Quarter them without cutting through to the base. I cheated a bit on this last part since some of the lemons were very big, and I was using narrow mouth quart mason jars. On the large lemons, I cut them fully in half, then partially quartered the half.
4. Using a spoon pack the slices and all exposed areas with salt, and place them in the jar. As you add more, squish them into the jar releasing the juice.
5. Some of the recipes suggest adding lemon juice to top them off. For the time being I have held off on this, so I can see how much they settle. I used a tamper to squish them, so I am not expecting to be able to fit many more, but it may happen. If I can't fit any more in, I will top off with more juice from the lemons, then set them aside for a month to cure.
Things I learned:
1. I'm already well aware of how thorny lemon trees are, so I managed to avoid any cuts. However those cuts I did not realize I already had on my hands made sure I knew they were there, and how much they appreciated my antibacterial and drying treatment of them.
2. If the lemon is at all a close fit for the mouth of the jar, point the cut part down. Otherwise the lemon juice and salt escapes in a spectacular fashion splashing things you might not enjoy.
3. It takes a lot of lemons to fill a jar when you squish them. For five jars I have used about 60 lemons. This is actually pretty cool, because I barely made a dent on either tree.
If I you want some, please let me know, because the trees are already budding again. *sigh*
To use them, rinse the salt off, and either chop the complete lemon, or remove the pulp, and just chop up the skin.
While lemons are present during medieval times, I have not yet run across a recipe for preserving them with salt that dates from that time. There are a bunch that use sugar or honey, but that would render them useless for my uses. With school right now, I have not had time to do more than a cursory search, so it is possible that one does exist. Packing meat and other items in salt to preserve them was done in many areas, so it could be argued that this is using a period technique on an item that is not specifically mentioned.
If you search on-line you can find a ton of recipes for preserved lemons. Some of them add spices as well, but I chose to just do salt and lemons this time. I picked both Meyer and Eureka lemons, but I have only done the Eureka lemons so far. I kept them separate because Meyers are actually a lemon crossed with a orange, and are much sweeter. I did not follow a recipe, because the sizes of lemons vary, and this is so simple, that it seemed silly to measure anything.
Steps:
1. Wash the lemon, and cut off any imperfections from the skin.
2. Cut off the end. Since I knew I would be squishing them in the jar, I made this a wide enough cut that it would expose more of the pulp.
3. Quarter them without cutting through to the base. I cheated a bit on this last part since some of the lemons were very big, and I was using narrow mouth quart mason jars. On the large lemons, I cut them fully in half, then partially quartered the half.
4. Using a spoon pack the slices and all exposed areas with salt, and place them in the jar. As you add more, squish them into the jar releasing the juice.
5. Some of the recipes suggest adding lemon juice to top them off. For the time being I have held off on this, so I can see how much they settle. I used a tamper to squish them, so I am not expecting to be able to fit many more, but it may happen. If I can't fit any more in, I will top off with more juice from the lemons, then set them aside for a month to cure.
Things I learned:
1. I'm already well aware of how thorny lemon trees are, so I managed to avoid any cuts. However those cuts I did not realize I already had on my hands made sure I knew they were there, and how much they appreciated my antibacterial and drying treatment of them.
2. If the lemon is at all a close fit for the mouth of the jar, point the cut part down. Otherwise the lemon juice and salt escapes in a spectacular fashion splashing things you might not enjoy.
3. It takes a lot of lemons to fill a jar when you squish them. For five jars I have used about 60 lemons. This is actually pretty cool, because I barely made a dent on either tree.
If I you want some, please let me know, because the trees are already budding again. *sigh*
To use them, rinse the salt off, and either chop the complete lemon, or remove the pulp, and just chop up the skin.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Stazi's double face lightning bolt
A while back I had some string left over after teaching a class. I had purposely put on colors to make a test swatch for Stazi that she could use on an apron, and see what I was proposing for her belt. Recreating a piece you chose to doodle is interesting. I knew how many cards, and which colors were in which card. However, I forgot that I had set up this pattern alternately threaded S and Z, and set it up as half S and half Z. It did not look like I remembered, so I backed it out and started over. Thankfully looking at the picture I took made it obvious what I had done.
I did not bother charting the pattern, because it is really simple. Instead I am writing exactly what I did. A while back I charted a dragon for someone who had never done double faced card weaving, and wound up giving them row by row directions for the first few rows. This helped her understand what to do with the chart. Charts are great for complex patterns, but I think charting very simple patterns is a waste of time, because it distracts you from letting the threads tell you what to do next.
On this piece, I chose to flip cards on their vertical axis rather than rolling my cards. I find this easiest, but you can substitute with rolling the cards twice, or changing the direction of the cards (see my previous post of double faced weave, if you want clarification). In the flipping method all but the selvedge (edge) cards move together as a group. I have no problem keeping track of my cards, but I am lazy, so I prefer to move them as a group. Selvedge cards roll in the same direction for long stretches, until you reverse their direction to remove your twist build up. Selvedge cards will keep your weaving flat, though they are not always necessary. I use the edge ground card (in this case green) to tell me which direction to go. Once it reaches the closest position (ground color in the 2 holes next to your body), it rotates forwards (away from you) until it gets to the furthest position (ground color in the 2 holes furthest away from your body). At that point it rotates backwards (towards you), until they are back in the closest position. You can always tell which cards you are making a pattern with, because they will have the design color in the holes that normally would have the ground color.
This piece is 20 cards wide. Two selvedge cards on each side are yellow, with the remaining 16 cards threaded half white, and half green. The cards are alternated S and Z across the band. I wove about an inch of basic ground before starting the lightning bolt. The white and yellow are wool yarn, the green is 75% wool/25% silk yarn.
With the ground color in the closest position, flip the center two cards on their vertical axis. Weave two more passes as if you were just weaving the ground. You should have the other color showing up in the middle of your band. You should be at furthest position, now flip one card on either side of the 2 middle cards, and weave two more passes. Aside from the starting color change, I use the cards with white in the holes to tell me where I am in the pattern. In this case all the furthest holes should be green except for the two center ones which have white in the furthest holes. Continue this process adding one card to each side, until you have only two cards of the ground remaining on either end. These two end ground cards will never flip in this pattern, and will tell you what the original position is. Flip all but the center four on their axis again (this will be the four cards cards on each end, after you skip the two on each end still in their original position), and weave two passes. You should now have an arrowhead with the beginning of a shaft.
I continued to weave without making modifications to the cards to
give me a line in the center. When I had six floating stitches (long
straight white threads) in the line, I flipped the four cards to the
right of the center cards, and wove two passes. Next I flipped the
center four back to their original position, and wove two more passes.
This gave me a turn in the line, and the line has now moved to the right
side of the band. I wove the line until I had six floats, then flipped
the eight cards to the left of the current line, and wove two passes.
This gave me a line across the band. To move the line to the left side
of the band, I left four changed on the left and flipped the eight to
the right of them back to their original position.
I wove until I six floating stitches, then flipped the eight cards to the right to give me another line across the band, and wove two passes. Then I flipped eight cards from the left back to their original position. The line will now be on the right of the band. Once again I wove till I had six floats, then flipped four cards to the left of the four, and wove two passes. I flipped the four on the right back to their original position, so my line will be back in the center. I wove until I had six floats, then flipped four cards on either side, and wove two passes. Once again I have a line across the band. Then every two passes I flipped one card from the end back to the original position, until I had a solid green ground again.
I did not bother charting the pattern, because it is really simple. Instead I am writing exactly what I did. A while back I charted a dragon for someone who had never done double faced card weaving, and wound up giving them row by row directions for the first few rows. This helped her understand what to do with the chart. Charts are great for complex patterns, but I think charting very simple patterns is a waste of time, because it distracts you from letting the threads tell you what to do next.
On this piece, I chose to flip cards on their vertical axis rather than rolling my cards. I find this easiest, but you can substitute with rolling the cards twice, or changing the direction of the cards (see my previous post of double faced weave, if you want clarification). In the flipping method all but the selvedge (edge) cards move together as a group. I have no problem keeping track of my cards, but I am lazy, so I prefer to move them as a group. Selvedge cards roll in the same direction for long stretches, until you reverse their direction to remove your twist build up. Selvedge cards will keep your weaving flat, though they are not always necessary. I use the edge ground card (in this case green) to tell me which direction to go. Once it reaches the closest position (ground color in the 2 holes next to your body), it rotates forwards (away from you) until it gets to the furthest position (ground color in the 2 holes furthest away from your body). At that point it rotates backwards (towards you), until they are back in the closest position. You can always tell which cards you are making a pattern with, because they will have the design color in the holes that normally would have the ground color.
This piece is 20 cards wide. Two selvedge cards on each side are yellow, with the remaining 16 cards threaded half white, and half green. The cards are alternated S and Z across the band. I wove about an inch of basic ground before starting the lightning bolt. The white and yellow are wool yarn, the green is 75% wool/25% silk yarn.
With the ground color in the closest position, flip the center two cards on their vertical axis. Weave two more passes as if you were just weaving the ground. You should have the other color showing up in the middle of your band. You should be at furthest position, now flip one card on either side of the 2 middle cards, and weave two more passes. Aside from the starting color change, I use the cards with white in the holes to tell me where I am in the pattern. In this case all the furthest holes should be green except for the two center ones which have white in the furthest holes. Continue this process adding one card to each side, until you have only two cards of the ground remaining on either end. These two end ground cards will never flip in this pattern, and will tell you what the original position is. Flip all but the center four on their axis again (this will be the four cards cards on each end, after you skip the two on each end still in their original position), and weave two passes. You should now have an arrowhead with the beginning of a shaft.
I wove until I six floating stitches, then flipped the eight cards to the right to give me another line across the band, and wove two passes. Then I flipped eight cards from the left back to their original position. The line will now be on the right of the band. Once again I wove till I had six floats, then flipped four cards to the left of the four, and wove two passes. I flipped the four on the right back to their original position, so my line will be back in the center. I wove until I had six floats, then flipped four cards on either side, and wove two passes. Once again I have a line across the band. Then every two passes I flipped one card from the end back to the original position, until I had a solid green ground again.
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