Cloth: Liberty of London Triangles Quilt

A few years ago I made my sister bring me back a bunch of Liberty souvenirs when she had traveled to London—that’s how gorgeous and exquisite their fabrics are.              And a year later I finally bought a bundle of fat sixteenths of Liberty Tana lawn fabrics from Purl Soho with the intention of sewing them into their Prism quilt.

But I wish I had curated my own collection of their fabrics because some of the lawns Purl Soho included in my bundle were just meh. Still sumptuous and detailed in illustration, but not as as saturated in color which looked incongruous to the vibrant florals I did like very much.

                                          And some of the fabrics were whimsical English-themed like you would find in a Beatrix Potter story. I didn’t want to sew a baby quilt.

However, I love most of the florals and the more modern motifs were growing on me.

Despite my lack of fondness for some of the paisley or Victorian peacock feathers, I was determined to “have a go” and aimed to use each and every lawn and cohere all of them into a quilt. I had made 9” half square triangles of ALL the Liberty lawns and Kona natural yardage. And then aaargh, some of my patches were 8” squares instead. And so I gave myself a massive headache on all of a Sunday, trimming all the patches to the smaller size.                            

That’s okay. The 9” squares made up too big a quilt for my liking. I arranged the patches into groupings and rows that I thought looked presentable. But while sewing the rows, I didn’t like the layout as much and switched up some of the order while sewing.              

And this time I used my bed as a design wall rather than my living room floor.  Also I didn’t want to waste any of that expensive lawn, and so I treated the triangle scraps I trimmed away as raw edged appliqué and zigzag stitched the then to the Kona rather than trim it down from a square adhered to the patch. While sewing and pressing, I noticed pink, both tiny and large in volume in all the fabrics. Therefore pink will be the color of the thread when it comes time to machine AND hand quilting this sandwich.           

Cook: Eggs Benedict

From Friday night baking, I had six egg yolks I didn’t want to waste, which meant I needed to continue perfecting my Eggs Benedict.                                        

I made the hollandaise sauce perfectly (but then ruined it—to be explained later)and cracked two eggs in the strainer to drain their water from the whites.                                 

I put my English muffins in the oven to toast. And got my water simmering and then layered thin slices of honeyed ham over my toasted muffins. 

My sauce wasn’t thick enough and so I cranked the heat and continued whisking and had it a perfect velvet consistency. But then I had to reheat the sauce and mistakenly added a little water. And kept whisking and broke it. Aaaargh.

              

My poached eggs, however, came out perfect.           

I went with it. I spooned my broken Hollandaise sauce over the ham and then some more on the poached eggs.

 

And of course, minced chives for a pop of green.

Despite the broken sauce, it was yummy. But I've been on the search for a fool proof mother sauce recipe. Here's one. And a Sunday morning repeat.                     

Clay: two vases

Yesterday morning during handbuilding, I was either channeling Alvar Aalto or an amoeba when making this vase from the frost porcelain scraps I reclaimed a couple weeks ago and rolled into slabs.         

I used Frost Porcelain, and yikes I pray to the clay gods that the two slabs were similar in moisture content. 

I dunno though. I rolled that slab kind of thin and could imagine it cracking where I formed curves. If it cracks, I'm gonna reclaim it again and start over. But if it doesn't, I'm in a quandary of whether to just glaze with a clear matte and really highlight its translucence or aim for an ombré of blues and aquas to evoke ocean waves.

Cook: “Lite” Tacos

Poultry, pescatarian and vegan tacos and lots and lots of raw salads comprised the meal of last night’s birthday party. I made Curtido or Salvadorean coleslaw the day before by slicing red cabbage, green cabbage, carrots, white onion, jalapeno, serrano on a mandoline. And added olive oil and apple cider vinegar before serving.      

And Cecilia went to town on the grill with chicken she had marinated in orange and lime juices and Mexican spices and tomatillos and green onions to be folded into a tortilla with avocado and red salsa. The chicken tacos at this bbq were my absolute favorite.

Cecilia had also marinated portobello mushrooms for a vegan taco. Not my favorite, but mushrooms are growing on me again. I like mushrooms again, perhaps not in tacos but in Northern European recipes.

Lastly, she grilled shrimp that a neighbor marinated.

And I was so happy today for leftovers because again I could eat tacos every day.                         

Tacos. Every. Day.

Bake: a Unicorn Cake

I rarely bake because 1) I’m not a fan of sweets; 2) I won't produce something I won’t eat; and 3) hubs is much better at baking than I am. However, I do love a creative project and had been wanting to bake a unicorn or rainbow cake, which I'd been seeing all over on Pinterest and YouTube, and so I offered to do so for a birthday party. I wasn’t going to bake from scratch, and really all a cake box mix is pre-measured flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. I used two boxes of white cake mix to which I added water, oil, and egg whites. Each box makes a little over 3 cups of cake batter (easy peasy math)—1 cup of cake batter per layer, each a different color.  

I considered my first layer more dark pink than red, and so I added even more red food coloring to my sixth layer rather than bake a blue layer. Baking this cake was fun. Pour a cup of batter into my Pyrex measuring cup, squeeze 4 drops of food color into the batter, blend with a tiny whisk, and then pour into the parchment-lined and cooking oil-sprayed cake pan before popping into a 350 degree oven for 13 to 15 minutes until done. 

I frosted between layers very thinly because I didn’t want the cake too sweet, but I did sprinkle confetti between layers. In retrospect, I wish I had reserved the sprinkles for outside the cake.

And the next day, I decorated the cake. As a beginner, I just went with using three different sized star tips. But first I mixed up four different colors of pink, light green, peach and lavender icings to frost the outside edge and top of the cake, aiming for an ombré of these pastels. 

             

And then I just piped large, medium and tiny stars of these colors to mimic the mane and attempted to pipe a big rose star at the top of its head, but gravity pulled it down lopsided. Oh well, go with it because I wasn’t gonna scrape it off and do it again. Not enough time as the birthday party was already starting. Yeah the confetti sprinkles would've looked better at the base of the cake to hide bare spots in the frosting. Next time! Instead I stuck the plastic eyelashes, ears, crown and horn.  And 3 candles for the 3 birthday women.                   

Everyone commented how cute and that the rose in the forehead looked like a nose.

And lastly a shot of the cake slice. And no I wasn’t able to eat all of my slice which was way too sweet for me. But I would love to bake this cake again next year for Pride Month or the other variations with the cake decorations like a Frog Prince or Narwhal or Mermaid cake.

Cook: Kale Salad

Temperatures here in Northern California are very warm, and we’ve heat advisories and admonitions of flex alerts. And so in order not to use the stove, we’re eating leftovers and salads and cold sandwiches. A picture from my stay at Arrowmont, an arts and crafts camp in Gatlinburg, Tennessee popped up on my Facebook memories to remind me to make this salad. I loved the salad bar in the dining room at art camp and even took photos of recipes of my favorite dishes from the school’s cookbook.                   

And so yesterday I made John Boy’s Orange Kale Salad for me and a friend with whom I lunch. I wonder if John Boy is referencing the character in the tv show the Waltons. Were they a family that lived in one of the hollers of the Great Smoky Mountains?

I riffed and added walnuts which I loved and think next time, I will also use walnut oil instead of olive and add balsamic vinegar and chopped shallots instead of ginger.

I also didn’t understand the use of white wine in the recipe; perhaps white wine vinegar was intended? I also needed to use the lower sodium soy sauce in my cupboard as the Filipino soy sauce adds a bit too much funk. Still I love the recipe for the orange and lemon juices in the dressing, the thinly sliced red onion, and the goat cheese which goes so well with the toothy kale.

Ikebana: Blush Pink Dahlias

My favorite blooms in hubs' garden this season are the blush pink dahlias. Usually he grows brazen burgundy dahlias which get as big in diameter as a dinner plate or Dahlia Tsuki Yori No Shisha, which have petals that are twisted and fringed and creamy white.

Okay yes I lean toward monochromatic bouquets, and I think this particular pink dahlia is called Cafe au Lait. Love it, love it, love it.