A Wee Bit of Baking

I don't know if I've told you this, but Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" is like my Home Bible. Not in a religious way, but in a this-book-is-everything-I-love-about-being-a-homebody-and-inspires-me-to-do-everything-I-love-in-a-creative-and-fascinating-way.

I'm sure that I've already mentioned that I savored every page of this book at night while a cup of tea and curled up in my bed, with a warm, little guy by my side (not Ian, Ben). I marked pages for recipes, added movies to my queue on Netflix that she recommended (all SUPER so far!), reading books that were listed as awesome (which, again, have been wonderful!) and got so inspired by all of her not-complicated, but beautiful quilts, that I've started one of my own.



I dragged my ironing board out from the laundry room, bought a new blue, floral cover for it and brought my iron out of hiding. I set the whole thing up (along with all of the new cotton, quilt fabrics I bought from Purl Soho) in my bright (although not on the day of this photo) yellow and white kitchen. After washing my fabrics, I set about ironing them...and everyone seemed to gather in the kitchen with me! Ben took out his watercolors and quietly started to paint some pictures, Tim and Mike came in to chat with me (teen alert!) about random things and have a snack, and even the cat came to sit on the windowsill. All the while, I'm ironing in a very relaxed way. It was almost like a meditation and everyone got sucked in!

Push, push, smooth, readjust, push, smooth, fold.

Since THAT went so well, I decided to try one of the recipes from her book. Now, I'm not at all a baking type of mom. I can put self cut cookie shapes on a baking sheet and bake them and make a mean apple pie, but that's about it. I have made a loaf of bread or two, but nothing fabulous. When I saw the recipe for "Natural Lemon Cake", I knew I had to make it. I LOVE lemon anything. Yummmmmm.

After carefully procuring and adding the ingredients, I got this:



A very thin and soupy batter. Everything was measured with extreme precision (at least as far as it's possible in anyone's kitchen), so I'm not sure if it was MEANT to be this liquid-y or if the ingredient amounts were wrong. It only called for 1/2 cup of flour for the entire cake and I thought, wow....that's very little flour.

But, I kept going, hoping that it would all work out.

Here is the cake right out of the oven...



Smelled very good, but about 1/3 of the size I thought it would be...compared to the picture of it in the TGAOD book.

When it cooled, I took it out of the pan and found it to be even thinner than I'd thought. I've taken a picture here with a half of a lemon for comparison:



I frantically checked online to see if anyone else had made this cake and found a couple of bloggers who had the same thing happen to them. I was relieved that it wasn't me, but a bit sad that the cake was so tiny.

Later on, I mixed up the frosting...with real lemon juice...(I could have smeared some on anything and it would have tasted good! Well...almost anything) , spread it on top of the mini-cake, and arranged it nicely on a white ceramic plate. (forgot to take a pic...ugh)

Though the cake was less than the beautiful, huge mountain of lemony-goodness that I'd hoped for, it was eaten with no less enthusiam - we drooled, licked out lips and gobbled that cake up in a matter of hours. (a slight exaggeration, but barely)

H-E-A-V-E-N!

Now, before you ask if I'm still knitting, I will let you have a peak of what I've been working on, but I want to save the final sharing of it when I'm finished.



Can you guess what it is? (Manchvegans cannot guess...they've seen me knitting it for the past week) Can you guess what yarn I'm using?

Quick Quack Catch Up

It's been for-e-ver since I've blogged. I could make excuses like...I was sick (which I was), I was tired (which I definitely was), I was in transition with the kids going back to school (which is also true) and that I'd knitted very little so didn't have much to share (which is somewhat true, but sad, too)....but I will just say that...well, at least I'm blogging now : D

Since it's late, I'll be blogging semi-short and quick. So, here we go!

1. Fabric



I made a very guilty purchase from Purl Patchwork a couple of weeks ago and bought some gorgeous cotton fabrics for making my very first quilt (in my eyes, the tiny ones I've made for my kids toys don't really count). These fabrics are not only incredibly cheerful, but I think will blend perfectly together for a unique and fun-to-create quilt. I was lucky to receive some truly helpful advice from a talented quilter at my local library and, now, all I need are the necessary tools...and TIME.

2. Pumpkin Hat



A very belated knitted hat for a daughter of a friend of ours. She is one of only a few little girls I can knit for and her mom actually has her wear the things I knit, which makes them both very knit-worthy. I knit a little dress, Berry Hat and Mittens set and other things for her so far. I thought this was the right season to send a cute, Pumpkin picking hat. View my details of the project HERE on Ravelry.

3. Ravelry Visit



I was extremely lucky to be working one Sunday at the Yarn and Fiber Co. with some of my best knitting pals and...who should walk in to the store?????

Jess, Casey and Bob of Ravelry!!!!

There was much squealing, laughing, giggling and jumping up and down (don't know what everyone else was doing, though...) and it was the greatest pleasure to sell Jess some skeins of Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool.

Bob ran around the store like a maniac and did his best to look utterly cute and adorable. Casey sat with us at the knitter's table and we talked with him and a couple of friends of theirs about the website and things like that....I can't remember much now...my mind was in a daze and I was smiling like a maniac.

BEST SUNDAY EVER! is all I can say.

4. Boston Duck Tour with Family



After the first week of September being a crazy, stress-filled I might jump off a cliff school transition week and the second week finding Ian and I sick with horrible end-of-the-summer death warmed over on sticks colds, we were happy (and relieved) to wake up on Sunday feeling better. Ian's aunt from Arizona called us and asked if we'd like to meet them in Boston for a Duck Tour.

Believe it or not, we've NEVER done this and we were excited to. We drove down to Boston (I remembered my knitting and Ravelry bag!), shopped at the Prudential building mall (or whatever it's called...I went to Sephora!!!), and then met up in the later afternoon for the tour.

It was SO much fun!!! Ben loved seeing all the skyscrapers and parks (and quacking when prompted by our driver)...while Tim was thrilled because he actually got to DRIVE/STEER the boat in the Charles River!!!! He even got a sticker for doing it. That was the highlight of his day....take a look at him!



I've only met Ian's aunt once, so this was a great time to get to know her and we talked a lot. She was a wildlife biologist and traveled all over the world rescuing animals. Extremely exciting work!! What an interesting lady and very different from Ian's mom, who is very quiet and shy.

After our boat tour, we had a nice dinner together and came home with just enough time to get the kids off to bed. But, wow, what a great day. It's funny how we never do things that are "tourist-y", even though they're things that should, if not must, be done...and they're so close by, really. Ian and I promised ourselves that, for our next anniversary or whenever we get someone to watch the kids overnight, we're going to spend the whole weekend in Boston - stay at a fancy hotel, go shopping, go for walks in the botanical garden, visit the churches (for the gorgeous architecture) and library....I can't wait!!!

And, so....before I sign off...QUACK QUACK! that means 'Happy Knitting' in duck-ese