Under a Blue Moon

Gingersnaps

I spent the afternoon baking cookies so I could send some back with my nephew when he goes back to school on Monday. Working on one's Masters is hungry work. You need all the sustenance you can get.

He is a tea drinker and I wanted cookies that would travel well and would go nicely with a cuppa. He's also an adventurous eater so I wanted to punch them up a bit (I think he was the only one that truly appreciated my spicy Mexican chocolate cookies).

I found a recipe for ginger snaps on allrecipes.com. I made some very minor adjustments and one major addition.

My minor adjustments were to use dark molasses, rather than light. Per some of the other reviewers I doubled the spices. I also baked them for 11 minutes rather than 9. I prefer a crispier cookie and I think they hold up better it you want to dunk them in a cup of tea.

The major addition was that I made crystallized ginger and added it the recipe. Crystallized ginger is a bit time consuming but very easy to make. And if you see how expensive it is in the store then the time seems well spent.

I took a nice sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled it and diced it into small pieces (a bit smaller than 1/4"). You place the diced ginger in a small, heavy saucepan and cover with water. I brought it to a gentle simmer and cooked it, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

I drained it, weighed it and then added it back to the saucepan with an equal amount of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water. I boiled it, stirring frequently, until it was almost dry. It starts looking syrupy and bit foamy and then all of the sudden it kind of crystallizes up. Then I just tossed it into a bowl of sugar and coated it well. I was sure it was just going to clump up into a big wad but once I started stirring it around each piece was coated nicely.

It gives the cookies a nice extra jolt of ginger.

When I was pregnant, eight million years ago, I used to keep a box of gingersnaps by the bed to help with morning sickness. Only every time I reached for the box, it was empty. Someone else must have been feeling queasy too.

It's also reputed to be good for arthritis and in Indonesia they believe it helps reduce "winds" in the blood. Have no idea what that condition is.

I'm just hoping it is a nice respite from studying.

TGIF

I have been feeling this urge to just clear the decks – pile up all my decorative objets, take inventory and then redecorate. With what I have.

For anyone that lives in Northern California (and who knows, maybe other parts of the world as well) is going to totally understand what I'm about to describe. January is a really sneaky month around here. It never fails we have a week of just fabulous weather. You walk outside and the air is starting to feel warm, it's sunny and everything is so green. So you think Spring is making her first furtive gestures. You break out your sandals, start stalking the local nurseries for impatiens.

Then February and March show up, all dour and cranky and rain on your parade. Well right now we are in that wonder week of January. It's so hard to even fathom the bitter cold my North-Eastern friends are feeling. I'm really sorry! Come visit me and we can BBQ out on the back deck.

More Kelly generosity here – the turquoise tole tray, the pretty pink sugar bowl, sans lid – makes a perfect container for mismatched silver spoons, also courtesy of Kelly.

Rick has been working on a project that I can't wait to show you (sorry for the pressure, sweetie). He's making a bead board headboard for the the guest room bed. It is turning out quite nice. I'm hoping our sneaky January weather holds out so he can paint it this weekend.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and that the weather is cooperating for you – if not – come see me!

My benefactress

On Sunday I met up with Kelly. You remember Kelly ~ the one that gave me five boxes of linens? She said she had a couple of lamps for me. Let me tell you one of the great things about having a blog is that people sure do get a feel for what it is you like.

That sounded a little greedier than I meant it to.

Anyway – I got there and she, in typical fashion, had way more than a couple of lamps for me. I left with four paper grocery sacks full of stuff and a hand-hooked rug.

Why can't I crochet like that? Why can't I crochet at all?

I left there with linens, frames, plates, lamps, a clock, a rug, vintage millinery and lace.

Isn't this clock lovely? I think it used to belong to Marie Antoinette. Okay maybe not, but she would have loved it.

Last night I had a bunch of bits of lace and crocheted doilies soaking in the bathroom sink and my oldest son came home with a friend and then came to me, rather horrified, asking what was in the bathroom. I think he thought it was my underwear or something. I had to show him they were doilies. He was not convinced.

Polishing silver: Before and after

I haven't been posting much this past week because I've been polishing silver. And it is time consuming. Miserably time consuming.

I started off using Wright's silver polish – the purple stuff in the tub. It has served me well for the past 25 years. But it just wasn't cutting for the heavy duty tarnish on the new (to me) set.

If you look at the tarnished bowl on the right you can see how the tarnish is a slightly different color half way up the bowl. That's because previously it had been polished using the aluminum foil/baking soda and salt method (a method I do not recommend). The set was placed in a sink or tub and the water only partially covered the pieces. That part that soaked tarnished differently than the top part. It is MUCH harder to get that tarnish off.

Even after polishing one of the pieces with a ton of elbow grease you could still see that line of demarcation.

So I went back to the store and bought a product called Tarn-X. Nasty smelling stuff. Smells like rotting eggs. It is a clear liquid that you can either soak the pieces in (if you buy the industrial sized container) or you can dab at your tarnished silver with a cotton ball soaked in the stuff. It's still time consuming but it does a great job of getting rid of the tarnish.

You dab for a few minutes and then rinse the piece in cold water. I guess you don't want the liquid to stay in contact with the silver for too long. What I did was take a Tupperware container and sit the piece I was working on in it so any drips were contained.

It gave the piece a slightly yellow cast so after I finished removing the tarnish I went over the piece with the Wright's silver polish.

So here's a question for you silver aficionados – why would a silver set have two bowls? One has handles and the other doesn't. One has a lid the other doesn't. Is one for lemon slices and one for sugar?

Oh – and notice the frost on the deck railing? Baby it's cold outside!

500 and some truths about hand work

I was really hoping the title of this post would be '500 and YAY! I finished something…."

So this is my 500th post. Good lord, what have I been blathering on about?

I have spent the weekend polishing silver (more on that in another post) and working on my table runner. Which I bought last January and promptly stuffed into my craft closet.

What stalled me was that teeny bit of green felt that is winding its way around the perimeter of the white piece of felt. Sewing that on has been t…..e……d……i……o……u…….s to say the least. While I was working on it I came up with a list of truths about hand work:

If you are working with white fabric you will prick your finger, hard, a minimum of 137 times
You will run out of thread or embroidery floss when you reach that final 1/2" of stitching and will have to re-thread your needle.
The whip stitch does not go quite as quickly as the name would imply.
You will do 56 French knots and then promptly, and quite totally, forget how to do them. The skill will vanish. It's remarkable, really.
One of the million itty bitty pieces you have painstakingly cut out and meticulously pinned exactly where it needs to go will vanish. Coincidently said piece will be the exact color of your carpeting.

I actually adore handwork. But you do have to know what you are up against.

I don't have much more to do except affix 16 more blossoms with French knots and then blanket stitch the white top piece to the green bottom piece (patiently waiting on the kitchen counter).

Here is the pattern if anyone is interested. I took some liberties with the color scheme.

And I'm hoping that I finish it before I have 500 more posts.

An e-mail exchange

I would like to share with you a little e-mail exchange between Rick and I last week:

To: "Andrea"
Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 7:59 AM

Good Morning,

How are things going this morning?

It was my mom calling yesterday when I was talking to you. She wanted to know if we would like her nice silver set that is in her dining room. I said I like it, but don't think we have room for it right now, but would check with you to see if you would like to have it now.

What time are you coming up today/tonight?

I love you,

Rick

To: "Rick Paulin" 
Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 9:01 AM
 
Are you kidding me!?  I've been coveting that silver set for 25 years!  We'll make room for it.
Why on earth does she want to get rid of it?  
I love you too.
~A

Can you even imagine the utter casualness of the "I don't think we have room for it" ?? I think my eyeballs just about jumped out of my head when I read that. Honestly.

There is something going on with my camera and my pictures are turning out really grainy. It's too bad because I don't think I can adequately convey, in words, how gorgeous it is. It has this unique coffee pot that it pivots on a stand for pouring.

The set weighs about eight million pounds and is in desperate need of a polish. And, needless to say, is now in my hot little hands.

« Previous Page