Loafing Around

The credit for this delish zucchini loaf goes entirely to taste.com.au. I have made it twice now...it is so easy and an absolute hit!

I love loaves that don't involve messing around with yeast, and rely on their namesake ingredient to keep the loaf moist. Date, banana and pumpkin loaves fall into this category for me. They aren't as unhealthy as cake and are great as a snack or for a morning/afternoon tea. I also love zucchini - it's such a versatile vegetable!

The recipe calls for 1 cup of vegetable oil. I don't use vegetable oil, so the first time I used EVOO, and this time (as I am trying to use everything up in anticipation of leaving in 1 WEEK) I used almond oil. Almond oil is expensive, but this loaf is a little more delicate and sweeter than the first loaf. Both, however, turned out just fine.

It also calls for vanilla bean paste. The paste and vanilla extract are equivalent in terms of strength, so 1/2 tsp of paste is the same as 1/2 tsp of extract. I used extract the first time, and this time had run out ( :0 ), so it still works without it.

Anyhoo...

You will need:

2 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup grated zucchini (this winds up being most of an average to large zucchini - don't bring home a crate of them in anticipation!)
1 cup vegetable oil (see above)
3 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (see above)

Grating the zucchini. I love this grater -
it is also a juicer and an egg separator,
plus it measures as I grate!

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon



Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm x 10cm loaf pan with baking paper.

Mix all ingredients together. Doesn't
get much easier than this!

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined.

Ready to bake!

Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 mins. Loaf is done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 mins before cooling on a rack.

All done and ready to enjoy!

This is where I have to step in...I have now cooked this recipe twice, and there is no way it could be done after 50 mins. Of course, every oven is different, so I would definitely start with 50 mins. But both times it has taken 1hr 10mins, so be aware that there is a good chance it will take longer (just in case you are budgeting time).


The original recipe says to serve with ricotta and honey. I haven't tried this, but it is certainly good with butter, especially if fresh. It will keep sealed for a couple of days, and if it starts to go dry, it will revive a little in the microwave. The first time I made it, I used it as a side at brunch, and this time, I am heading off to a meeting (my last one at the music school!) and we often have snacks or soup, so this is going to accompany whatever we have.

You could add in walnuts or similar if you wanted a nutty texture, you could experiment with different oils such as coconut, or you could add in another essence other than vanilla for a different flavour.

Too easy, right? It's a one-bowl-wonder, no beating or melting or anything fancy...and it is fabulous!

Thank-you card frenzy

When we got to the US, I was in despair about my lack of papercrafting gear. The Maestro kindly allowed me to purchase a few items to get me going again. As the two years have progressed and time seemed to shrink, my card making items got put on a shelf and my inspiration disappeared.

Fast forward to two weeks before we fly home, and all of a sudden we realise we need a whole bunch of thank you cards. Not only that, but I am so good at amassing cheap cardstock that we cannot ship it all home. Cue mass thank-you-card-making chaos!

I am not a fast cardmaker (despite me doing this for the best part of a decade). I deliberate far too much, usually before I've even started. It usually takes me an hour to make a card that isn't based on an existing design of mine. So, for fast, simple cards, I have come up with a bit of a formula. This also works because my supplies here are a mere spit in the ocean to what I have at home, so I am limited in terms of matching, etc.

I try to work with three papers/cardstocks - base card (I find it is easiest if you are making many cards just to deal with white), print paper and either matching or contrasting (depending how far my stock will stretch) solid card. Layering/matting is a quick way to add texture and introduce all of your materials at once.

In the future, when I blog my card creations, I will include the brands/colours/products that I am using, but right now, I actually have no clue what half of this stuff is, I am trying to use it all up, and these cards can all be done with almost any materials. They are definitely not colour or design specific!

These cards were all for musicians, so I incorporated one musical element in each.

Stripy Medallion Card

Boy-friendly!

I am fabulous at making bright, fun and feminine cards, and struggle with the rest. Most of the faculty we were giving these to were male. So, out came the blues, greens, browns and neutrals! Here is my formulaic pattern + contrast.

I found some Spellbinders Nestabilities dies in Meijer for $9.99 on clearance. This is what I am going to miss about the US - (almost) everything is so cheap! (Meijer, for my Aussie friends, is like Coles and KMart rolled into one giant one-stop-shop.) I love the Nestabilities dies because of their, well, nesting ability. They are fabulous layering tools. And they fit in a Cuttlebug machine!

Or so I thought...

I have an original Cuttlebug at home in storage, and it came with more spacers and plates than I could work out what to do with. The purpose of the extra spacers is so you can use other brands of dies and folders. I bought a Cuttlebug V2 here in the US (it was on sale for, don't faint, for those in Oz, $45). I found out after I bought the Spellbinders dies that US Cuttlebugs don't come with the extra spacers - the box only contains the spacers and plates for Cuttlebug dies (2x plate B and 1x plate A), and for Nestabilities dies you need Plate C. (I guess you deserve something for your extra $100+, right? :P )

More filling in the sandwich!

So I needed something to fill the extra space...I had an embossing folder that came with the Cuttlebug that I didn't really like. So I added this to the 'sandwich' (closed, of course), and this took up enough of the space that the dies cut perfectly! A little Cuttlebug-to-Nestabilities cheat for you if you need it.

I die-cut two different sized Lacey Circles in white and my contrasting colour, grey. I had some puffy music stickers and added one to the centre of my medallion. Grey ribbon across the bottom and two matching buttons completed my simple card!

Finished!

This is a winner of a design, because you can alter the top shape if you don't have a die-cut machine (squares/rectangles, corner punches, border punches, etc), put a sticker/die-cut/stamp in the centre of the top shape and ribbon/thread/contrasting paper across the bottom. You could include a sentiment running across the strip at the bottom. The possibilities are endless!




Patterned Ribbon Card
I am obsessed with two particular cardmaking materials - ribbons and buttons. I often buy ribbons on a whim because I like them. And if I find a cute embellishment with anything musical on it, I just have to have it. I mean, being in the music business, I will always use it, right? Until it is so restrictive it doesn't match anything!

Cute, right?

I found this ribbon at Joann's...(I am going to miss that store...but hello again Spotlight!)

Cute, yes, but it doesn't really go with much. So, I had to make the card match the ribbon, not the other way around! I also wanted to keep the focus of the card on the ribbon, since this was going to be the musical element in this card. If you are ever stuck for inspiration, this can be a way of finding it - start with an element that doesn't get used much and build your card around it.

Pick two colours!

I chose two colours out of the ribbon. I figured the ribbon was loud enough, so I avoided the pink. I do have a thing for both teal and lime green, so I experimented with putting them together. I think it works!

I ran two strips of ribbon, since it was my feature, stamped a simple sentiment on white using pink ink which matched the ribbon, matted it on lime green to match the overall matting of the card, and voila!

Can you tell I like buttons?

Simple, to the point and I got to use cool ribbon that doesn't usually go with anything. Win!

The double-mat technique is a great way to tie your whole card together, hence why I mentioned the layering as being a way to incorporate all materials at once. The stamped element, despite being the only text and the only pink item on the page (aside from the buttons, which I added last), still 'matches' because it is matted on the same card as the background card. You can get away with a lot using this technique!


I have a LOT more cards to come, some which are simply different coloured versions of these, but I will leave it there so I don't wear out my card-making welcome.

Happy simple card making! (I know I have a LOT more to do!)

Re-birthed Chucks

I have a confession to make. My shoe choice is still stuck somewhere between Year 9 and 11. This includes my strange affinity for Converse Chuck Taylors. I try to keep them age-appropriate (I have sensible navy-blue and grey, among others), but sometimes...bright colours get the best of me.

I scored a bargain on eBay. (Not the first, but we will just discuss this one this time!) I got two pairs of used hi-cut Chucks for $10. I bought them mainly for the pair in better condition, which were red/green/orange plaid. The other pair was well worn, and was white with crayon-looking 'childhood' designs all over them (hopscotch, rainbows, etc). I figured I would experiment on them, since I didn't feel like they had really cost me anything and I wouldn't wear them as-is.

(I neglected to either take a photo of them at this point or save the eBay pic, so you're going to have to use your imagination as to what they looked like.)

I figured I would dye them, since I always wanted a teal-coloured pair of Chucks. But first, I needed to get those designs off. I dunked them in a bucket of bleach for several hours. Nothing happened, except the insides turned from bright blue to bleugh. I scrubbed them with bleach. Not much more happened, except I nearly died from bleach fumes. It did, however, start to break up what I now realised was fabric paint.

Next I tried rubbing acetone (nail polish remover) and a toothbrush. Now, we were starting to get somewhere! It took a lot of elbow grease (and I'm pretty sure I may have got a little, ahem, affected by the smell), but I got the majority of the paint off. But, I decided, not enough to dye them and get a decent finish, as any remaining paint would repel the dye. I put them aside until I got bored enough to deal with them. They were kinda ooglay by this time!

Check out those blue/bleugh insides!

 I'm not sure who to credit my next brilliant brainwave with. Possibly Pinterest. Possibly random Google-browsing. However, I figured that, rather than dyeing, I could colour my shoes in with Sharpies! The downfall to this idea is that while I can create stuff, I can't actually draw to save my life. So actually drawing anything on there and making it not look crap was going to be a challenge. So I decided to go with an all-over pattern, which would not only hide my lack of artistic skills, but it would camouflage any extra paint. I chose three colours (purple, pink and teal - see, I still got my teal!) and went with a kind of 'fireworks' design. The Maestro made more than one reference to 'how old are you again?' when he saw me colouring in my shoes, and at one stage threatened to kick me outside (Illinois winter - that was a true death-wish) because of the smell (noticing a theme here?) Over the course of an afternoon, I went from this...

...to this...

...to this...

...to this!

To be honest, I was so happy with the effect that the scribbly-firework pattern made on the tongue in just the purple marker, that I kind of wish I had done the whole lot in just one colour, but of course, I did the tongue last! At any rate, I had comments about them from the first time I put them on, so they definitely got attention!

I can't comment on longevity of Sharpie on canvas shoe as I haven't had much chance to wear them yet (we've gone from sub-zero temperatures to torrential rain to 30°C - none of which is Chucks weather), but considering Sharpies are permanent markers, I wouldn't expect there to be issues. I don't ever wear Chucks in the rain anyway (I HATE wet socks and feet, so canvas + rain = doesn't make sense to me), and if you value your work, I wouldn't advise you go mud-puddling in them, but it is the easiest way to rejuvenate an old pair of canvas sneakers that would otherwise have ended up in landfill!

A slow-cooked 'speriment

It will not surprise most people that my first post is a food post. It might, however, be surprising that it is cooking rather than baking...but today I had a win I just had to share!

I love my slow cooker, even though I don't exploit its use nearly as much as I could. The amazing meats and casseroles I get out of it completely justify its existence for me! Usually one day of the weekend is reserved for slow cooking (and occasionally a weekday or two as well). You can convert almost any casserole or roast recipe to a slow cooker by reducing the liquids involved to about 2/3. Most red meats and chicken can be slow cooked for between 8-10 hours. I try to make it to the 9 hour mark, if I can stand the mouth-watering aromas it creates for that long.

Yesterday (in my effort to clear the freezer before we leave for home in 23 days :0 ), I defrosted a pack of diced chuck steak (700g). This is what I love about slow cooking - meat that you wouldn't eat alone or cooked up on a grill/in a pan can be slow cooked and become amazing. Just be careful that the amount of fat in the meat isn't too high, as you can create a pretty fatty, oily mess if there is too much (and by 'too much' I mean slabs of thick, white fat - marbling is usually okay).

This morning at about 10:30 (when I remembered that I had defrosted the meat), I threw the beef in the slow cooker, along with...

3/4 cup of beef stock
1/4 cup red wine (it may have been slightly more than that...ha ha)
1 diced onion
200g tinned diced tomatoes, drained
1 clove garlic, crushed
cracked pepper

...and turned it on low. I know most recipes call for the meat to be pre-browned, but to be perfectly honest, I am lazy, and at that time of the morning, I do not want to smell meat frying. Nor do I want to wash the extra pot. And because I aim for the extra hour or so, I have never noticed much of a difference. I do brown the meat if I am doing a whole roast, which seems to prevent it just breaking up in the pot.

I usually serve slow cooked casseroles with roast/mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings or couscous. When browsing other slow cooked dishes, I came across a whole slew of casserole recipes with dumplings. I have cooked and baked my way through many interesting (sometimes interesting for the wrong reasons!) dishes, but I had never attempted dumplings. Cue end-of-semester experiment time!

All the recipes I found for dumplings were attached to a casserole of some kind, and for good reason - I soon realised that you were supposed to bake the dumplings on top of the casserole for the last 20 minutes in the oven. Well, my casserole was in a slow cooker...but it was covered, so surely it would still work?

I made my dumplings like so (to serve 2 of us - and we had leftovers):

3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour (which turned out not to be enough - I gradually added more as I mixed the dumplings, and it would have wound up between 1/3 to 1/2 cup to make a soft dough, not too sticky)
30g butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
freshly ground pepper
a generous shake of dried oregano

Sift the flours into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the seasonings and liquid ingredients, then mix to form a soft dough. Divide into 6 even portions and roll into balls.

The recipes I came across said to bake them on top of the casserole in the oven for 20-25 mins. Typically, recipes get tripled in time when converting from the oven to the slow cooker, so I put my dumplings on top...

...and cooked them for the last hour that the casserole was in.

Within about 10 minutes, they doubled in size, and given I had planned to run to the store while they were cooking, I was concerned I would have some kind of oozy mess to deal with afterwards. But, to my amazement, I arrived home at 7:30, 9 hours after starting the casserole and 1 hour after putting in the dumplings, to this:

And they were fabulous! Not every experiment of mine goes to plan, and I was a little concerned that I might ruin the whole casserole in the process. But this one was a winner! The Maestro ate four of them!

The best part about them is that they use very cheap ingredients and are very filling, so if you are cooking on a budget, this is the best way to make the meat go a loooong way. We had much more casserole left over than we normally would. I also served this with green beans and broccoli.

Now you know you can make dumplings in a slow cooker. Hooray! Just in time for Aussie winter!