HOMEFREE

LOAFIES: Betwixt Cake and Cracker

(repost from Sept 27 2007)

Edna Staebler has passed on so I am no longer able to phone her at her cottage on Sunfish Lake near Kitchener, Ontario.  "If your ears are burning," I'd tell her, "it's because I'm once again prancing  around the kitchen shouting,  'Thank you, Edna, for your - " and it was her Doughnut Muffins or Cucumber Salad or Irish Soda Bread or Speedy-Pat-In-Pastry or any one of a number of other offerings from one of her Schmecks cookbooks.  She was a special lady and I benefit from having known her.

We shared an enthusiasm for life so what I would be phoning her for now - and miss being able to do so! - is to say "Edna, guess what I've done with your Carrot Bread recipe - you know how you love crackers - well - I've turned the carrot bread loaf into  something between a cake and a cracker.   I'm calling them loafies, for want of a better word.  You must try them."  And I know she would. 

Here is the More Food That Really Schmecks book and the Carrot Bread just out of the oven.

For  the loafies it would be better to cook it in a loaf pan but  I've always cooked it  in a tube pan, so that's the reason it is so here.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup salad oil
2 eggs
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

For the loafies I added 1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (unsalted)
and 1 tsp caraway seeds

I put sugar, oil, eggs, chunked carrots and milk into blender and whirl until carrots are chopped.  Then pour this liquid over the dry ingredients which have been sifted together.  Stir until well mixed.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in 350 F oven  for 55 min or so.

Now - remove from pan and let cool. 

Then, cut cake into thin slices, and then bite- sized pieces, and put on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Put back into a 350F oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Take from oven, turn oven down to 300F, turn each almost-loafie over, pop back into oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so.  You want them crisp but not overly brown.  I turn oven off after the ten minutes, leave oven door open, and let them dry as the oven cools.  This is what they look like.   I think Edna would have been very pleased.         

                                                                                                                  

(The inspiration to double bake  came from biscotti recipes and Lesley Stowe's  wonderful   Raincoast Crisps)

I am now wondering how banana loaf would 'loafie'.  And date bread... and cranberry...

Natural habitat gardening. Urban Wilderness Gardeners.

This post is from nine years ago, when I last had a natural habitat garden.    

My nature and temperament is more akin to those people who can stop and look at a dandelion, either the first of the year as this one is,  or many in a flock later on in the season,  and delight in its appearance,  its beauty,  its 'weedy' reputation and not immediately think of how to eradicate it.

Who do not, automatically,  'clean up' the garden in the autumn but watch it across the cold weather months,  the shadows a low-lying sun makes against a wall,  the attention given by creatures fur and feathered and human.

And a certain three-year-old who, each time he hops from stone to stone on the path, stops and lifts the 'goldfish'  from its home in the birdbath and looks it over carefully,  does not need to explain why he is doing this or what he is looking at.

Digging and planting and staking and thinning will, eventually,  happen.  In the midst of a great deal of strolling and sitting and gazing and snacking and thinking and chatting and  knitting and reading .... in the garden.

This playing in the earth has been how I have always gardened and for many years I thought it was because I was lazy, or perhaps scattered rather than focused.  But it made sense to me and  gave me great contentment.

Then a man came along who was interested in the environment and what was being done with land in the city and how parks and schoolyards could be better utilized for nature - human and otherwise,  and how awareness of what could be done was important ....  And he saw our 'garden' and said,  "Good lord, you are doing it."  

Some publicity attracted like-minded individuals and Urban Wilderness Gardeners sprouted in 1985 in Toronto.... and grew.  Its mandate was "providing alternatives to manicured lawns."  Hill Cottage in the Beaches area of Toronto was the headquarters where the front yard vegetable garden,  sun catcher flagstone patio,   mini orchard,  boardwalk,  painted driveway,  gazebo,  wildflower meadow, became one  of many viewable gardens as the concept spread.  Kew Beach was the first school to create an urban wilderness garden.  Workshops and a newsletter and lobbying for increased awareness of the effects of pesticides and herbicides and seeing how people responded ....

That was more than thirty years ago but the experience accompanies me now when I stop and look at a dandelion....

 Here's another 'habitat chat'.  (from June 2008 - garden in its spring glory)

Making Buttons!

An old post about button making.

 

Documenting : Home

re post from Dec 31 2010

Hand-carved cedar day bed serves as a chesterfield with those seated at either end facing each other.

Hemp and linen t-shirts are sewn and knotted onto foam pillow shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A green plastic comfortable reclining deck chair retains its function and takes on a futuristic form when covered with a cylinder of stretchy material.

The simple modular units on top of a regular book case can be configured to accommodate the contents.

Bowling balls and a plant stand  in front of a mirror add whimsy and depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Mission style desk provides studio workspace and can become a dining table with a quick shift of  the machines.  Old suitcases act as a bureau.  A magnetic knife rack attached to side of the desk keeps scissors handy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the doorway a southernwood plant has come in from the garden to give a welcome to those entering and leaving the room with its scent.

Another bowling ball is on another iron plant stand .  The green plastic garden table will return outdoors when something more interesting is found to replace it here.  A length of  silver flashing rolled into a column and pierced with a design like the old pie cupboards is being considered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dining area serves as studio also. 

A draw leaf table has slide out leaves to extend the eating or working area.

An Australian bushmint plant offers clippings for scented bouquets and invites touching to release the fragrance.

Stretchy material has been pulled over an old wooden windsor chair and a tiny carpet used as a seat cover.

The angled mirror reflects the bird feeders outside the window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The intent was to have a narrow slatted bed suggesting Japanese style but this futon base happenstance'd and expanded the vision.  The floating aspect and contrast of narrow space to the wider wood elements are visually pleasing.

An orikeito (fabric folding) art piece is done daily with the amber fleece blanket.

 

 

 

 

 

Another plastic garden reclining chair has been covered in stretchy fabric. The old crocheted blanket is an artifact  of fibre archeology discovered  at a thrift store dig.

The dressmaking form has a work-in-progress draped on it -  scrunching and securing material in the ongoing exploration of playing with energy and producing a garment.

The project is satisfying and satisfactory; the dress form is not and a substitute is being searched for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The south-facing window can be opened on cool days and sun rays captured in the indoor/outdoor intent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bowling balls representing the sun and the moon are on and under a stand meant to hold a bag for jelly straining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A variegated Australian bushmint is by the door, again as a scented welcome.

The small bureau was used as a sample by a traveling salesman; so said the seller at a garage sale, his daughter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An indoor wall window - most sensible and underused feature in house construction -  gives light to the hallway.

'Old' 35 mm film canister makes a great change 'purse'

(repost from Jan 2 2012)

I was digging change out of my wallet and commenting that it was a bit irksome as the zippered compartment meant for other-than-bills money was narrow and not finger- or eye- friendly  when the church thrift store lady cashier said she used a 35 mm film holder.

"But it wouldn't fit the width of loonies and toonies,"  I said.

"Yes it will," she said.

It does!  It does!  Thank you, Betty!

And this technique that I learned ages ago from my dentist's receptionist (thank you, Jilian!) enhanced the repurposing of  the canister.

It's very simple, fun, and the effect is startling and satisfying.  You take plain masking tape and rip off pieces at random and stick them on the surface.

Then rub it with shoepolish; experiment with more or less for different effects.  Let dry.  Buff for a shine or let remain a matte finish.

 

 

 

 

 

Money is contained nicely, pours out easily into palm, is immediatlely visible, and it slides back into the container as satisfactorily.

I don't know what this is called but you can decorate any surface with it:  books, tins, furniture, stair risers,  walls  etc.etc.etc.

 

 

P.S. As I was getting ready to go out on the daily errands and was tucking the earth-coloured change holder into my purse,  I decided a green one would be nice to have as well;  thing is, I don't have green shoe polish. Actually I don't recall ever seeing green shoe polish. But I do have green acrylic paints.

This 'last minute to leaving' idea resulted in a green change holder (proving it really is simple and quick to produce!).  The acrylic paint is more staunch*  than shoe polish and required using fingers to spread it around and have it adhere, but it worked:  when I got home it had dried and was nature-mottled green; it pleases me. 

* I am aware "staunch" is usually a verb but I am using it here as a noun because it suits  the situation.

 

Keuffel & Esser pencil sharpener ... and writing longhand

(re-post from May 27 2012)

Finding this interesting pencil sharpener at a church sale yesterday reminded me how much I like writing in longhand because it did such a good job of sharpening a 'tool of the trade' - the pencil.

Look at that nifty point!  

The machine-looking object was on the stationery table and I thought it might be a pencil sharpener - unlike any I had seen before - and one of the men sellers confirmed this;  he said you twirled the pencil around.

I googled and found out it was meant for drafting pencils;  it works just fine on my ordinary ones; I like to think of its intended use and imagine where it has travelled over the years. I opened it up and there were lead shavings but no wood shavings; wonder how it will deal with my  kind of pencils.

It is very satisfying to use;  the sharpener is heavy and steady and the circular motion gets to the point;  you don't turn the pencil in the cylinder - you hold it and turn it around the whole base!  Simple.  Somehow reassuring.

It was while writing notes for this blog with the well-sharpened pencil that I got to thinking about longhand writing and how a lead can be too thin and break or too thick and not give a fine enough point for writing;  this sharpener is perfect.

 Writing by hand is constantly changing; it invites and encourages and fosters variation in how the pencil is held, at what nearness to the lead, at what angle, with what pressure.  

I can look at what I have written and tell what mood I was in when I wrote it. 

I can vary mood by playing with the writing - extend the length of the words,  lengthen or shorten the letters,  slant this way, now that way,  grip the pencil tightly, let it sit lightly in my fingers and follow it more than direct it.

Many letters, journals, poems, stories, books, plays, columns, articles, reviews,  memories, conversations, recipes, lunch box notes, lists (!), post-its, thoughts, ideas, ponderings  .... have been written  over the years and there is a rhythm that happens between mind and hand.  A flow.

It feels as if this pencil sharpener is honouring the last stage, through the lead, before the words attach themselves, secure themselves to the page -the paper... the fibre ...  Ah, the fibre - but that's another story.

 

Outdoor room : rebar and tablecloths

S

(Coming across this post now,  which  originally  was published  on April  9 2011, I was reminded of the actual construction which was around 1995 when I was living in Fernwood.  I wish I had taken photos of it!  It was awesome.   I would do it again - this time using four re-bar.) 

Several years ago, the wish for a simple outdoor room in the front yard where a lawn was being replaced with a meadow/habitat and a site for a permanent summer house was being considered, led to playing with some plasticine and pipe cleaners.  This structure resulted.

I cannot find the photos of the actual room;  they would not be digital, in any case.

So you will have to imagine three twelve-foot lengths of thin, flexible,  magnificent re-bar being inserted into holes in the ground, two ends to each hole.  

The process involved two people at each end of a length of rebar, holding it at waist level, horizontally, who would walk slowly toward each other as the rebar assumed an arch shape.  

Previous experimenting with the 12 inch pipe cleaners to achieve height and distance between the ends for equal space had determined where the holes would be made in the ground.  

What was not evident using pipe cleaners (oh, the joy of surprise in design!)  was how the re-bar would orient itself at the top of the arches.  It swayed and rocked and then settled.

After a few minor adjustments to depth of holes and positioning,  we tied the re-bar with -  hmmm,  I think it was fishing line, to stabilize it.  Then lace tablecloths from garage sales were draped over the supports.  Instant room.  The door opening could be changed depending on the drape of the cloths.  

While reconstructing what was done then,  I wondered what would happen if four re-bars were used.

Looks interesting.  Even more so when the ends are adjusted not equal distance apart.

 

The overlap of the re-bar would likely be intriguing.

The sixteen yards of unbleached cotton I could not resist at a thrift store awhile ago could be wrapped and clothes -pinned to the supports.  Then maybe decorated by the grandkids with squirt bottles filled with liquid paint.

Fibre archeology ; macrame sampler

 

re-post April 2 2010

In the Sixties macrame was popular and this sampler (I've never seen one before) is enchanting in itself and for the memories it evokes.

Back then,  the father of all my children (then my husband) made an exquisite room divider in macrame from  heavy twine, about six feet by three feet.

Macrame was viewable:  wall hangings,  plant hangers,  clothing,  hammocks,  pillow covers,  jewelery etc.

This sampler is 12 by 3 inches.  Translated into 1:12 scale this is 12 feet by 3 feet and I am considering it for hanging in a stairwell or a two-storey room in my renewed interest in miniatures.

Or, maybe I will make one.

This is the best of the best book on macrame.  It was published in 1970 but it keeps appearing in thrift stores.

Mary Walker Phillips,  as with her other books,  has a love of as well as interest in the subject which comes across very satisfactorily.

She traces the history of macrame from 13th century Moors to 20th century Italian children,  from 15th century seamen to Victorian era queens.

She points out that only two knots are basically used and your lap your workplace.

The technique is clearly outlined and the projects range from decorative to practical.

Floating Earrings

Link to Floating Earrings post

 

lhttps://homefree.blogs.com/archive/2013/11/floating-earrings.html