Black Forest Cake Williams Sonoma Style

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Birthday boy (hubby) wants Black Forest Cake every year and this year is no different.  So Black Forest Cake it is, despite cherries being $7.99/lb at Safeway!!!!!  Of course, I go to Trader Joe’s today and they’re selling about the same amount of cherries in a pack for $4.99!  I was tempted to snatch up the pack and buy it even though we just had cherries the other night and I was already going way over budget with my grocery shopping.  Rest assured, I didn’t buy the cherries JUST because they were cheaper, which I think I have a tendency to do…

 
While driving the kiddos to school yesterday morning, we decided that we would try to throw together a simple surprise “party” (really not a party) for my husband when he got home from work that evening.  So I scrambled last minute to buy the ingredients for the cake and the shrimp scampi (Ina Garten’s recipe) that he so loves and turned my kitchen upside down baking and assembling the cake, then scurrying to make dinner after taking the kids to their dental appointments.  Thank goodness all three of the kids passed their dental check with flying colors and each got balloons which we used for our “decorations” in the entryway! According to my kids, we’re not ready for a party unless we have balloons, albeit just 3 with our dentist’s logo. 🙂    
 
Now about the cake…I love to poach the cherries myself instead of using jarred cherries; they taste so much better!  And we love the combination of chocolate cake with light freshly whipped cream studded with chocolate curls (crumbled curls).  Just blogging about it makes me want to eat the leftover slice of cake right now!  I’ve used this Black Forest Cake recipe from “The Williams Sonoma Baking Book” for a few years now and it never fails and is requested every year by this man.  And I must confess, I just got myself a slice and ate every last crumb and cream… don’t worry, there’s more, hubby.  
 
The cake calls for a 9-inch round cake pan, but I split the batter into two 6-inch cake pans to make a taller 4-layer cake.  If you make it as a 9-inch cake, then split it into 3 layers.


Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease one 9-inch round pan or two 6-inch pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. Melt the butter then set aside to cool.  Sift the cake flour and cocoa powder together on a piece of waxed paper and set aside.  Beat the eggs, vanilla extract, and sugar in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment on high speed until tripled in volume (about 5 mins) and when you lift the whisk it leaves a trail of thick ribbons of batter.   (See video below)
 
Can you see how much it has inflated in volume and falls into thick ribbons when you lift the whisk?

 
 Remove the bowl from the mixer and carefully sift half of the flour/cocoa mixture onto the egg mixture.  Quickly fold it into the egg mixture before sifting the rest of the flour/cocoa mixture over the batter and again fold it in, being careful not to deflate too much.  Then add a large dollop of batter into the melted (cooled) butter, mix, then pour into the main batter and fold in.  The batter will naturally deflate some while you mix in the other ingredients so don’t panic!

How I “fold” in the powder mixture into my egg mixture with one hand doing the “folding” and the other holding my camera.  Yes, you should actually be holding the bowl still with your other hand while you fold. 🙂
 
 


Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and place into preheated oven and bake for about 30 mins.  Check with a toothpick to see if it is done.  Toothpick should come out clean.  Let it cool in the pan set on a wire rack until it is completely cool.

 

While your cake is baking and cooling, poach your cherries, make the sugar syrup, and shave your chocolate (to decorate your cake).

Poach the cherries: Bring 1 ¾ cups water and 1/3 cup granulated sugar to a boil then add 1 cup of pitted cherries and simmer for 10 mins.  Drain and cool.

Sugar Syrup: Bring 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar to a boil over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat, cool and stir in 1 tsp Kirsch (opt)

Chocolate Curls: Use a peeler to “shave” curls off a thick bar of semisweet chocolate.  I like to warm my chocolate with my hands (covered in wrapper) which makes nice curls instead of brittle chips.  



When the cake is completely cool, run a butter knife around the inside of the pans and carefully invert the cake, remove parchment, and slice horizontally to make desired number of layers.  


I like to eyeball it when I cut my cake layers, but you can use the toothpick method to cut your cake layers perfectly, a cake leveler, or whatever other trick you have up your sleeve.  After you have your layers, brush your sugar syrup onto the layers on the cut side.  
 
Pour the heavy whipping cream and confectioner’s sugar into a clean mixer bowl and whisk until medium peak consistency.  (Trick: Place your metal mixer bowl and whisk in the freezer until you are ready to whip your cream. Keeps your cream cold for best results and no runny, melted cream)  It should be stiff enough that it retains the peaks and ridges when you lift your whisk (that way you don’t have whipped cream sliding off the cake and will stay put).
After you reach the desired consistency of whipped cream, place a layer of cake onto a cake board or plate, spread with whipped cream, place poached cherries on the cream, cover the cherries with a thin coat of whipped cream, then add another layer of cake and repeat.
 
Be sure your cake is nicely centered on the cake board/plate and get down to eye-level with your cake to see if it’s lopsided and if it needs more cream or you need to place a thicker layer in a certain part of the cake.  When you are done stacking your cake, cover the entire outside with the cream being careful not to introduce cake crumbs into the frosting.  Use plenty of cream and “push” the cream onto the exposed cake and lift carefully so you don’t pull up a bunch of crumbs.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth on the outside since it will be covered with chocolate shavings. 
 
Protect your surface with waxed paper then start covering the top of the cake with chocolate shavings and “throw” some on the sides until you are satisfied with the way the cake it covered.
 
 Place some cherries on top and you’re done!!!


 You look good enough to eat, you!
 
And eat it, we did!
 
 
 
Black Forest Cake (adapted from Williams-Sonoma)
Ingredients:
Poached Cherries
  • 1 cup pitted fresh Bing cherries (or frozen)
  • 1 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
Sugar syrup
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tsp Kirsch (opt)
  • Semisweet chocolate curls (decoration) 
  • Fresh Cherries w/ stem (decoration)
Cake
  • 1/2 cup cake flour
  • 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 6 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature 
Whipped Cream (filling/frosting)
  • 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 3 Tbs. confectioners’ sugar (more or less to taste)
  •  
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease either one 9-inch round cake pan or two 6-inch round cake pans then line the bottom with parchment paper.  Melt the butter and let cool. 
Sift together the flour and cocoa powder onto a sheet of waxed paper and set aside. 

Beat the eggs, vanilla extract, and sugar in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment on high speed until tripled in volume (about 5 mins) and when you lift the whisk it leaves a trail of thick ribbons of batter. Remove the bowl from the mixer and sift  half the flour mixture over the egg mixture carefully fold in then repeat for the rest of the flour mixture.  Fold a large dollop into the melted butter, then fold back into the egg mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until the cake is puffed, about 30 minutes. Toothpick to come out clean (except for a crumb or two). Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

To make the sugar syrup, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the granulated sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Add the optional flavoring (Kirsch) if desired, once cool.

To make the poached cherries, bring 1 ¾ cups water and 1/3 cup granulated sugar to a boil then add 1 cup of pitted cherries and simmer for 10 mins.  Drain and cool.
When the cake is completely cool, run a butter knife around the inside of the pans and carefully invert the cake, remove parchment, and slice horizontally to make desired number of layers.  Place the top layer, cut side up, on a cake plate.  After you have your layers, brush your sugar syrup onto the layers on the cut side.  
To make the whipped cream for filling and frosting the cake, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream and confectioners’ sugar until medium-stiff peaks form. 
Place the top cake layer on a cake board/plate, cut side up, and spread your first layer with whipped cream, strew some poached cherries on the cream, cover the cherries with a thin coat of whipped cream, then add another layer of cake and repeat.  Be sure to leave a 1/2-inch border of cream around the edge so the cherries don’t peek out between the layers. Spread the remaining whipped cream on the top and sides of the cake. 
Press the chocolate curls onto the top of the cake and “throw” some on the sides of the cake. Place some fresh cherries on top of the cake in desired pattern.  Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.

Quick Chicken Wonton Soup

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I’m an avid Trader Joe’s fan and of course I enjoy going to Costco just as much.  So it’s no surprise that most of the ingredients for this wonton soup are either from Trader Joe’s or Costco, with the exception of the rice vinegar, which I purchased at a local Korean grocery store.

The frozen wontons, chicken stock, and the soy sauce (refill) are from Costco.  Everything else, minus the rice vinegar, are from Trader Joe’s.  And don’t get me going on their frozen crushed garlic: They are just SO convenient and easy to use, and the same goes for their shredded carrots.

So it’s been cold here in the Bay area (as cold as it can get here in Nor Cal) and I have been craving a lot of hot soup to warm me up.  This is such a quick and satisfying soup that I have been making it quite often and just made some tonight to go with some fried rice (when husband’s not home for dinner, I like to keep dinner quick and easy).  It can definitely stand on it’s own for a lunchtime meal and makes enough for myself and my 3 little musketeers.  I originally got this recipe from my favorite book “The I Love Trader Joe’s Cookbook”  (which I scored from my local library’s used bookstore for $2) and made some tweaks to suit our taste buds and has been and will continue to be my quick go-to soup.  Try it! You won’t be disappointed!

Ingredients

  • 1 quart (about 4 cups) chicken stock or broth
  • 2 cubes of Trader Joe’s frozen crushed garlic (or 2 cloves garlic minced)
  • 1 TB light soy sauce
  • scant 1 TB rice vinegar
  • chicken cilantro wontons (fully cooked, frozen from Costco) (about 2-3 handfuls)
  • handful of shredded carrots (Trader Joe’s)
  • quartered (or halved) baby bok choy
  • 2-3 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp sesame oil

Directions

  1. Add chicken stock, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar in a medium pot and bring it to a boil
  2. Add the frozen wontons, bring to boil, then simmer until ready 
  3. Put in a handful of shredded carrots and the baby bok choy and simmer until tender.
  4. Remove from heat and add the sliced green onions and the sesame oil
  5. Serve hot and enjoy!

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Cheers,
Flora


Krispy Kreme copycat doughnuts

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I   L O V E   W A R M   K R I S P Y   K R E M E   D O N U T S  ! ! !

My kids always asks for a donut whenever we’re at the local grocery store getting fresh produce since the tempting display of those sugar-coated fried concoctions are right next to the veggies. Who thought to place donuts next to the produce section?   I usually cut them right off and continue with our shopping, but I am human and have fallen prey to their chewy, oozy, deliciousness.  We don’t have a Krispy Kreme in the vicinity of our small town and would have to drive 15 mins to hop on the freeway, then drive another 15 mins (without traffic) or so to actually get to a Krispy Kreme… which is too far for me.  I did do it once when I was pregnant and at the end of my first trimester of morning sickness.  I took my two kiddos, strapped them into their carseats and turned it into an educational experience as they watched a fascinating contraption make their donuts from start to finish.  And at the end of it, they got their donuts with chocolate and sprinkles.

Well, I started a new tradition of doughnuts on Christmas morning last year and woke up at 5:30am to make the dough and have enough time for it to rise, but was not too keen on waking that early again.  So I racked my brain and remembered I had made challah dough the night before and let it rise slowly in the refrigerator! And it had been even more soft and delicious than if I had let it rise the regular way.  So I decided to try that same method with these doughnuts and it was even better than last year’s doughnuts!!!
So Christmas eve, I made the dough, covered, and placed in the fridge overnight, then rolled out, cut and fried them at 8am-ish Christmas morning and got to eat them before opening presents from Santa.  I’ve made this recipe before and it  made SO much that  I decided to halve the recipe (below) this time.   Good, big batch though if you have family in town to help you eat them, but not an impossible feat for a family of 5 over a couple days.  I made a little of the white glaze and some chocolate glaze and added Xmas sprinkles to add holiday cheer. 🙂  They were DELICIOUS!
last year’s HUGE batch of donuts that we ended up delivering to neighbors.
Krispy Kreme Copycat (Full batch)

adapted from food.com

makes about 2 dozen donuts

Doughnuts
2 (1/4 oz) packages yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 ½ cup warm milk, scalded, then cooled
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter
5 cups all-purpose flour
Canola oil
Creamy Glaze
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4-6 TB Evaporated milk (regular milk or water okay too
*Add 4 oz milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate for Chocolate glaze (melt w/ butter)
Directions
1.       Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl.
2.       Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and mix
3.       Add only 2 cups of flour and mix on medium speed for about 2 mins, scraping bowl.
4.   Add remaining 3 cups flour and mix until smooth dough forms
5.       Place dough in a large, greased bowl and cover.  Place in draft-free spot
6.       Let rise for 1-2 hrs.
7.    Roll dough on floured surface to about ¼ inch thickness
8.       Cut with 3-4 inch round cutter and about 1inch for the small donut hole
9.       Let it rest for about 10 mins
10.   Heat oil in a fryer or saucepan with plenty of oil (at least 2 inches deep) Heat to 350-375F
11.   Carefully slide doughnuts into the hot oil and let fry about 1 min on each side. 
12.   Remove and place on a plate covered with paper towels
13.   Make the Creamy Glaze by microwaving the butter until liquid (for Chocolate glaze, melt with chocolate on low heat)
14.   Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix
15.   Add milk slowly until you reach desired consistency.

Thanks for reading,
Toki

"Sewing Mod Kid Style" Bubble Dress by Toki

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2015 is already here and it’s really starting to feel nippy in the Bay area, which can be quite challenging if you have a girl like mine who always wants to wear a dress.  I would wake up freezing and seek out my warmest sweater, steal my husband’s thick socks (that roll up all the way up my calves) from his drawer, and slip on my fuzzy slippers before I even think to walk on the ice tiles in the bathroom.  Then in twirls my almost-5-yr-old with a piece of cloth draped over her in the shape of a dress with no socks or any tights! I immediately send her back to change which turns my twirling, prancing princess into a creeping, crawling slug bent on never making it back to her closet.  SOoo we compromise and we add a multi-colored jacket (with sequins) and pink polka dot tights which turns her into a walking rainbow with blinding sequins in the shape of a cat named Hello Kitty.

I don’t mind that my daughter looks like she walked out of a “Fancy Nancy” picture book, but I had been wanting to make her a long-sleeved dress for her from the “Sewing Mod Kid Style” book I had borrowed from the library.  My little fashionista had even picked out ALL the dresses and skirts in the book for me to make for her.  The bubble dress was her favorite and asked for that one first.  I had been sitting on the project for a while even after picking out the fabric (Joann) for it before the holidays.  Right, the holidays, there’s my excuse!  

This bubble dress is really simple and easy to make and doesn’t have all those little pieces of bodice linings, interfacings, zippers, or buttons to make it complicated.  It’s meant to be made with knit fabric so it’s a comfy every-day dress that can be slipped on and off over the head.  
While making the dress I made a few notes to myself and one of those are that the sizing of the dress seemed to be quite a bit on the larger side.  I made two dresses, one for my almost-5-yr-old and one for my 3-yr-old.  The one pictured is the size 3T that fits my almost-5-yr old.  It was too big for my 3-yr-old so she’ll have to wait until it’s “handed” down to her, like a lot of her other clothes…  And the size 5T dress I made is way too big so my 5-yr-old, so she will have to grow into it later.  
A note about the neckline hemming.  The pattern and directions instruct you to fold in the neckline of the bodice fabric and sew it. Very simple.  I did just that with a stretch stitch setting but it stretched out the neckline so much it was warped and wavy.  It was ugly.  That didn’t happen to my other 5T dress so I think it’s a difference in fabric… So to remedy that problem, I added light pink bias tape with pink rickrack under to add a little something around the neckline and I think it turned out super cute! If you notice in the picture directly below, I didn’t add the bias tape and rickrack all the way around the neckline.  That’s to allow the dress to be slipped on and off over the head without having to cut the back and add buttons since the bias tape doesn’t have any stretch to it.  

She LOVES her dress!  And it’s long-sleeved! Or actually it should have been long-sleeved, but since this dress was actually for a 3T, the sleeves are three-quarter-sleeves on my 5 yr old, which is just fine.

The “bubble” part of the dress is really quite simple! Always wanted to make a “bubble” dress and finally made two!

Thanks for reading,

Toki

Perfectly Sweet Lalaloopsy Birthday

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My daughter just turned 4! Where has the time gone?!!?!.  So for my little girl’s 4th birthday she wanted a Lalaloopsy theme, which was not too difficult with all the resources out there posted by wonderful bloggers and all the free printables from Nick Jr.  I gleaned inspiration from birthday express and from images I searched on Google and I was excited to use some recipes I’d been wanting to try including a 6-layer birthday cake, macarons, and an Oreo cookie pop.  I’m usually a procrastinator but this time I made myself prepare early enough so I wouldn’t kill myself, but ha ha… I still ended up procrastinating a lot of decorations so here I am recovering from it.

The hanging pompoms are made from $1 plastic table cloths from the dollar store.  One of the purple sizes makes 4 or 6 from one tablecloth depending on how full you want the pompoms.  Here’s a link to the tutorial I used from Craft,Interrupted blog.The pink ones that look like flowers are just the same thing, accordion folded, just didn’t open it up, so looks like a flower and adds a nice varying touch. 
I already had her name from her room decor so used wall mount 3M brand adhesives to stick it on.  The tiny confetti pompoms surrounding her name are from the dollar store and stuck on with double-sided tape.
I stayed mainly with pink, purple, and white with colorful confetti-theme and pink and green streamers.  

I tried to keep the party simple and used the craft paper bag lalaloopsy puppets as examples (for the kids’ craft) and decor.  You can print them off on nickjr.  We also did a Bingo game which I tried to get the hubby to make, but found one we could just print off for $5 on Etsy, which he was ALL for. 🙂

The party feast in action: PB&J sandwiches and cream cheese-cucumber sandwiches, fruit and veggie platters, plenty of sweet treats, and Avie’s favorite salty snack: pirate booty.

Our little dessert table.  macarons.  pirate booty.  Oreo cookie pops.  My reject macaron shells topped with whipped cream and raspberries.

Oreo Cookie pops!  They look just like cake pops and tastes way better~ I’ve never been a fan of the mushy/soggy cake pops made from crumbled cake mixed with frosting.  These have more texture and not so mushy.  And seriously, who doesn’t like Oreos?

I was wondering who was sneaking all the raspberries from the dessert… my son… caught in the act
Simple but cute cake with Spot and her crew.  She’s the one who paints, so the confetti dot sprinkles look like paint spatters.  Perfect!


See how smooth you can get this buttercream frosting?  It helps if you have a rotating cake decorating stand and a pastry scraper too.  

Time to blow out the candles and make a wish!
I forgot to take pictures of their party favors, so I took one of an already unwrapped one (please excuse the wrinkles) I saved for my daughter but basically got Lalaloopsy paperback books from Amazon, wrapped them up and added a white-chocolate bowtie lollipop (same as on cake) on the front.
NOW
FOR
THE RECIPES
6-layer strawberry cake with strawberry cream-cheese filling, frosted with vanilla buttercream
  
For the cake and the strawberry cream-cheese filling, I used the recipes from Better Homes and Garden’s Six-layer strawberry cake  but I didn’t use their frosting recipe for the outside of the cake, which would also have been a cream cheese recipe, just without the pink tint and the chopped strawberries.  Instead I used my favorite French Vanilla recipe from Toba Garrett’s “The Well-Decorated Cake” (see recipe at bottom of post).  This buttercream tastes great (“like vanilla ice cream”) and frosts smooth and keeps shape well as long as it’s not too warm.  For the bow behind Spot, I added confetti sprinkles to a Bow-Tie candy mold and filled it with melted white candy melts.  After frosting the cake, drop and throw the confetti sprinkles on the cake and place your washed lalaloopsy to finish it off.
*Only have two 8-inch cake pans so carefully sliced each into three’s, which wasn’t too bad since this cake is dense (but still tastes moist and not dry) and didn’t break easily.
The cake tastes great… but WAAAAY too sweet for my liking.  Two bites was just fine for me.  My first attempt at this recipe so I followed it to the T, but next time may add a lot less sugar for the cake.
Now for the macarons… my first attempt and half of all my batches failed…

I still have no idea what makes them perfect like above, and what makes them crack and ugly, like below…
but I’ve had a friend refer me to this site to troubleshoot… Maybe I need to let them sit and dry the top a bit after piping them into circles and before placing them in the oven.  It was a rainy day so perhaps it was a humidity problem.  Bottom-line… baking macarons are SO Simple! Yet SO tricky!  I used the recipe my friend sent me from the Martha Stewart Living magazine.  The only thing I did differently, is I used blanched almond flour instead of grinding my own flour from almonds, and I only had to bake them for about 8 mins.  The ones I bakes for the 13 mins it calls for in the recipe, were waaaay too brown and hard on the bottom.
And last but not least:
THE OREO cookie pops!
These are really just so simple.  Place an entire pack of Oreos in a large freezer-size ziplock bag, then get your 5yr old son, who’s not napping, give him a wooden spatula and let him go at it, while you go get some zzzz’s.  After a broken spatula (pretty strong 5 yr old), and a good nap, make sure the Oreos are all finely crushed and dump them into a stand mixer bowl.  Add almost an entire pack of 8oz cream cheese, (I added 3/4) and let it mix well until you don’t see any streaks of cream cheese.  Form them into balls and refrigerate until firm.  Melt your candy melts, dip a little onto a lollipop stick and poke halfway into the Oreo ball.  Then dip and tap off excess, add sprinkles, and place in a pop stand*.  You may need to stick the pops into the freezer for a bit if it gets too soft and it falls off when you dip it in the white chocolate.
*I made a pop stand with a Capri-sun size box, wrapped it in gift wrap paper, and poked holes with the help of a pointy tip knife and a metal chopstick.
This vanilla buttercream recipe I used for the cake is adapted from the Institute of Culinary Education blog and Toba Garrett’s book “The Well Decorated Cake”. 
FRENCH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
Tools: 5 or 6 Quart Mixer
Yields: 2 ½ to 3 lbs (5-6 cups)
Ingredients:
  • 1½  cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1½ Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 3/8 cup or 3 fl oz (85 g) heavy cream
  • 1¼ lbs (5 sticks) unsalted butter (cut-up)
Or, for a larger quantity:
Tools: 20 Quart Mixer*
Yields: 10 to 10.5 lbs (4.45 to 4.76 kg)
Instructions:
  1. Make custard by heating milk and sugar over a double boiler until sugar crystals dissolve.  Remove from heat and add flour and salt and whisk until flour is incorporated.  Place over an ice bath until the custard has slightly cooled or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool (about 30 mins)
  2. Pour custard mixture in mixer bowl with paddle attachment.  Add cut-up butter and heavy cream.  Mix on LOW speed to fully incorporate ingredients or until mixture starts to thicken.
  3. Mix on NEXT highest speed until mixtures starts to look light and fluffy.   This can take 7 to 10 minutes or longer if making larger batches. DON’T panic if it looks like cottage cheese!  Keep mixing!
  4. Store and refrigerate buttercream in an air-tight container.  Freeze for up to 2 months.
Note:  If the buttercream curdles, it will just take a longer time for the butter to warm-up.  Continue beating until the butter softens and the mixture looks light and fluffy.

Thank you for reading~ and please subscribe and follow my blog if you like what you see! 🙂 

Contrast Stripes² Girl’s Knit Shirt *upcycle*

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The mornings and evenings are starting to become sweater weather and before we know it, I’ll be turning our rooms upside down looking for the cold weather clothes I had packed away hurriedly at the beginning of summer.  So this week, I have decided to get a leg up on some cold weather clothes by making some from fabric and old clothes I had on hand.  I made a couple leggings with leftover fleece from the kids’ Halloween costumes I made (which I will post soon), and saw these two old-but-perfectly-good shirts that would coordinate perfectly together to make a cute little shirt for my not-so-little-anymore girl.

These are the two shirts that I had kept in the hopes of using them one day to make something cute since the fabric is still in great condition.  The pink and gray shirt is a maternity shirt that ended up with a little hole on the shoulder area and the gray and white stripe shirt has beading that was unraveling around the neckline.

So first off, I got a 4T size shirt that fits A but is just a tad loose on her since she’s 3 yrs old and on the smaller side.  I folded in half vertically then traced a pattern for the front and back adding a little seam allowance.

I like to make one pattern piece for both the front and back and just draw another neckline which I find is easy to trace by lifting the paper a bit.

And made a rough pattern piece for the long sleeve, note how I drew above the shoulder line for the sleeve so I can gather it a bit and fit it into the armhole. *the sleeve ended up being a bit too fat/wide, so I sewed it thinner later*

Cut out your front and back pieces and sew at the shoulder and side seams with right side of fabric facing each other.  *I cut the fabric to use the already hemmed bottom portion of the shirt and the sleeve so I don’t have to hem later. *

Prepare your sleeves by folding in half and sewing up the open, long side.

See how the sleeve is a lot “bigger” than the armhole?  I made a blue mark on both sides of the sleeve then made a gather stitch between those two blue marks.

Stitch a gather stitch then pull the thread to make gathers. (You stitch on the longest stitch setting, which on my sewing machine is a 4)

Line up the seam line of the sleeve and your side seam then ease and pin the sleeve together with right sides of fabric together.  Repeat for the other sleeve and you can do serge or use a zigzag stitch to neaten the exposed seam.

Now for the neckline, I just cut off the neckband from my pink and gray shirt, roughly stretched it across the neckline to see how long it needed to be, then sewed the ends together to make a circle of the neckband.

THEN, I pinned the neckband into the neckline and remember when adding neckbands with knit fabric, you need to stretch the fabric while you pin it so it doesn’t hang loosely around the neckline later.  

Patiently pin and sew and there you have it!  My girl’s shirt is done!  I didn’t even have to hem bottom of the shirt or the wrist portion of the sleeve!  

I think it turned out cute and is a nice fall weather piece.  And the fabric I used was really soft knit fabric that is sort of loose and drapey.

Baby Mary Janes

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There’s nothing more precious and gets more “oohs” and “aaahs” at a baby shower than a pair of tiny newborn shoes.  Although my experience with my little ones and their shoes have been more of trying to keep them from falling off when they shuffle and rub their feet.  I have found that slip-on shoes just fall right off, and good luck keeping track of both pairs :), so I like this pattern that actually has the “buckle” right around the higher part of the ankle making it harder for them to kick off.  AND these are just so adorable with contrasting colors and decorated with little flowers.  

Materials: 2 colors of felt, Wonder Under, extra felt for flowers, velcro, hot glue gun, iron, needle and thread.  You don’t even need your sewing machine.  (I always prefer to fire away on my machine than have to sew by hand… BUT these shoes sew up really quickly and easily, even by hand.)
I purchased the pattern from Joyfolie and finally got around to trying out the pattern.  It was so easy and quick!  I’m looking forward to playing with different fabrics other than just felt for the pattern.  Also will try the loafer pattern that comes with the Mary Jane pattern, so look for it soon 🙂

 Perfect little gift for a baby shower!!!  And that’s what I’m using this pair for… a gift for a new little baby girl.

Vegetable Chow Mein

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I’ve just returned from a long trip to Orange County which was so fun seeing my relatives and having a little family reunion the last weekend we were there.  I grew up in the OC area so being able to stay for about 2 weeks and revisit some of my old stomping grounds was quite nostalgic and makes me want to move back there again.  I just LOVE the convenience of having my favorite Korean stores and restaurants so close by and i LOVE LOVE LOVE the M&L Discount Fabric store in Anaheim.  It may be a good thing I don’t live close to that fabric store or I might just break the piggy bank.  My husband is soooo against southern California but the only excuse he can come up with is the traffic.  But there’s bad traffic here in NOr Cal!  He takes the BART up here so that makes it a lot better.  The traffic in So Cal is bad… I must say, but people still make do there!  Not to mention the food seems to be sooooo much more affordable!  The food prices in Nor Cal seem to be hiked up compared to the prices in So Cal.  The housing market seems more affordable in certain areas as well in SO Cal.  I’ve still have a ways to go before convincing my husband that we can move to So Cal.  Actually, I love Nor Cal as well.  I definitely love that it is more green and not as hot in the summer (in the bay area), love the people, love just the feel.  So Cal just seems a lot more busy and people seem to be less relaxed.  Every area has their good and bad.  🙂

So one of the reasons for my visit to OC: My cousin just had her first baby and she is the most adorable chubadub!  I wish we lived close so my Clara (who will be 1 yr in less than a month) and Elise can play together and be like sisters just like me and my cousins were growing up.  My 3 kids and I stayed at my aunt’s house for those 2 weeks and I’m sure we drove them crazy…  Really appreciate that my aunt and uncle love children.  They loved having us there… or so they say.  ha hah a.

Now, you’re probably wondering where the Chow Mein comes in… Well, it really doesn’t have anything to do with my OC trip, but this is a blog and I get to rant, right?  🙂  Thanks for reading.

This is a recipe adapted from the Williams and Sonoma Recipe book.  I decreased the amount of vinegar is uses, and make a few other minor tweaks to really make it mine!

Vegetable Chow Mein
printable recipe
Ingredients
10 oz pack of egg noodles
1 zucchini, cut into matchsticks
3/4 onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 cup dried, sliced shitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water
5 TBS canola oil
1 TBS grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBS each: soy sauce, oyster sauce, water
1 TBS each: rice vinegar, sesame oil
1 tsp sugar

 Prep your vegetables, ginger, and garlic.  Soak the dried shitake mushrooms in warm water, then gently squeeze out the excess water once mushrooms are soft.

Bring a medium pot of water to a full boil, add the noodles, and cook for about 2-3 mins.  Drain, rinse well with cold water.  Place the drained noodles in a bowl and toss with 1 TBS of canola oil.

In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, water, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.  Set aside

Heat a wok over high heat until very hot and add 2 TBS canola oil.  Stir-fry the bell peppers and onions for about 2 mins until almost tender.  Add the mushrooms and zucchini and cook for about 2 more mins then transfer all the vegetables to a plate/wide bowl.

Return the wok to high heat and add the remaining 2 TBS oil and stir fry the garlic and ginger for about 5 secs.
Add the noodles to the pan and cook until heated then add the cooked vegetables and the sauce and stir-try until heated through, about 1 min.  
Then serve!
Makes about 4 adult servings as a main dish, more as a side dish.

Berry Oven Pancakes or panCUPS :)

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Walking through the grocery store,  I see a lot of berries out already and they are actually sweet!  So I bought a pack of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, whipped up some sweetened whipped cream and thought about just plunging the berries into a cup of my fresh whipped cream and preview a taste of summer.  Then I remembered these delicious oven pancakes from Ina Garten’s book so I told myself I could wait and enjoy the berries, whipped cream AND delicious puffed pancakes..  I like to take pictures of my favorite recipes on my phone so I have easy access to them without having to go through my stack of cookbooks.

The recipe calls for 3 eggs at room temperature.  Really?  REALLY?  You’re talking about a breakfast dish here… My daughter is usually up at 7am, then my baby, then my son, and they’re all up before 8am.  So anyways, I really don’t plan ahead and think to run upstairs and pull out 3 eggs so it can sit at room temperature while I direct morning traffic.  SO what to do?  Just place the eggs into a bowl of warm water and you’ll have room temperature eggs while you get all the other ingredients measured and ready.  YES!  So there, you have no excuse to NOT make these incredible pancakes that will be all ready at the same time and not one-pancake-out-of-the-pan at a time.  
I use jumbo muffin pans to bake them into cute little individual servings but my husband likes them baked in a huge pie pan so he can “fill ‘er up”.  Whatever floats your boat.  You can use little gratin dishes as well.  The muffin tins bake faster and works just as well.  When you add the batter into the muffin cups, only add about 1.5-2 TBS, enough to coat (about 1/4 inch deep?) the bottom of the cup, so you get a nice cup shape for your berries and cream.  
Oven Pancakes (adapted by Ina Garten)

printable recipe

2 TBS unsalted butter, melted plus more for pan
3 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup milk
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
¼ tsp salt
Serve with seasonal berries or fruits, sweetened whipped cream, and/or maple syrup.  You can play around with these.  They are a good base for any fruit really. 
Preheat oven to 425 F
Zest the orange into your measured milk.
Place the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk until well mixed.  Add the milk and combine, then add the milk with orange zest, flour, vanilla, melted butter, and salt.  Whisk until it’s not too lumpy.  It will still be a little lumpy and that’s okay. 
Add about ½ a pat of butter into each muffin cup and place it in the hot oven for about 1-2 mins, until it’s hot and bubbly.  Immediately add the batter into each muffin cup and bake for about 10 mins, until it’s puffed and golden brown.  Don’t worry if it looks really big, it will deflate a lot when you remove it from the oven. 
Fill it with your whipped cream and berries and dust with powdered sugar if desired.  OR come up with your own toppings.  
P.S.  If you noticed my “muffin” pans look like it has a dome in the center, you’re right.  You’re very observant.  I used my muffin pan to freeze homemade baby food last night.  I freeze them in the pan, pop them out and place them into a freezer ziplock once they’re frozen discs.  That way I have perfect portions that I just need to pull one “disc” out of the freezer and defrost.  SO, I had to substitute it with another pan that has a dome for baking cakes that you place toppings onto.  They work just fine, but some of my pancakes ended up with holes.  ha ha.  

Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Yeah, they’re SO good that only half (or less than half) of the cookie made it on this picture 😉  I LOVE coconut.  It’s awesome how there’s so many coconut and coconut oil recipes out there with everyone going gluten-free.  I love it!  This one definitely is NOT gluten-free and has a whole lot of butter in it, but that’s what makes them so good-old-fashioned spectacular.  They’re sooooo yum!  You won’t be able to eat JUST one.  That’s what I told myself I was going to do… I’m going to eat JUST ONE, but alas… I’ve eaten… 3? ok 4… ALRIGHT… I can’t remember.  They may not be fancy or much to look at, but are your eyes going to do the eating?!?! Yeah, that’s what I thought.  
I actually found this recipe on my phone… meaning I was probably perusing through some baking books at the library, liked the recipe, took a picture of it on my phone and forgot about it.  I found it the other day while trying to organize some of the pictures and thought, ‘hey, I have all the ingredients!’  Tried the recipe and love it!  Don’t bake them on those air-insulated cookie sheets… I did for some of them and the cookies spread like mad.  Bake them on a regular cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Works perfectly.
Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
printable recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temp
1 TB pure vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour and baking soda and set aside.
Beat the butter, sugars, and salt with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 2-3 mins.  Scrape down sides of the bowl halfway though.  Add the eggs one at a time, allowing it to incorporate before adding the next one.  Scrape down sides and add vanilla and beat. 
Add the flour mixture with mixer on low speed.  Then fold in the chocolate chips, coconut, and oats using a rubber spatula.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. 
Bake for about 10-12 mins, rotating pan halfway so they brown evenly.  Lift the parchment paper with the cookies on them to a cooling rack and cool until set.  Then lift with a spatula and allow them to cool completely on the rack.  

My 4 year old son LOVES to help me bake and loves to help me eat them even more.  He definitely takes after me in the sweet tooth department.  Oh, and that goofy plate is one that my husband used growing up!  My Mother-in-law has kept it all these many, many years!  Pretty neat.