apples

Hello -- I'm back!  Have you given up on me? I hope not...

Because of family commitments things have been difficult and busy around here, but I have a number of things I'm looking forward to sharing with you.  Meanwhile... apples!

Apples seem to be late this year.  Every week for the past two months, I've stopped by the local farmer's markets and haven't found what I was looking for.  In early September there were Gravensteins, and then... Ho hum. Not much. Finally, last Saturday I bought those gorgeous Winesaps (in the photo at the top of this post) and Pink Ladies (above).  Pink Ladies are favorites of my little son because he thinks the name is funny, but as far as I'm concerned, the Winesaps and Pink Ladies are both fantastic and worth the wait.

Baking has ensued.  In September I made this apple cake (twice).  Note: I think substituting brown sugar for at least half the sugar called for in the recipe improves the flavor of cake, and instead of baking in a large tube-pan, you might consider (as I did) splitting the batter into two 8-inch square or 9-inch round cake pans.  Next on the list is apple crisp; I cannot find my usual recipe, but this one is similar.  And applesauce. I use Judy Rodgers recipe for roasted applesauce, substituting honey for the sugar.  It's divine.

Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween?  For some reason (I have yet to uncover) my little one insists he doesn't want to go trick-or-treating, but I'm hoping he will change his mind...

tutorial :: watercolor leaf garland

A re-post of another favorite autumn craft...

Last week I looked over at my mantelpiece and decided it was in need of a festive autumnal garland.  This thought sent me rummaging through my craft supply cupboard where I found some paper which we had painted with watercolors about a year ago.

To create this garland, I cut an oak leaf shape from a piece of card-stock and traced outlines on the reverse-side of the water-colored paper.

 Then I cut out the leaves...

And used a 1/16 in (approx. 1 mm) hole-punch to add two holes to each leaf (a 1/8 in / 2 mm hole-punch would also work.) If you don't have a small hole punch, you could thread a needle and use it to create holes in the leaves as you string them up for your garland.

 

 Like so... 

And done.

tutorial :: autumn flutter-kite

This is a re-post of a favorite autumn craft from a few years ago...

These flutter-kites are easy to create, fun, and great for rainy days when everyone is feeling cooped up.  We always seem to have one or two among the book shelves for a quick run around the house when the mood inspires. Just grab the end of the string, take a dash around the sofa, and these little kites will flutter & fly satisfyingly in your wake (or you can take your kites outdoors on fine autumn mornings as we did today.)

I usually make these kites from construction paper, but today I decided to get fancy and cut up some watercolor paintings.

 

Besides oak leaves, some of our other favorite shapes for kites are butterflies, fish and ladybirds.

Generally, I use cellophane tape to attach short pieces of yarn (about 15 inches long) to the kites; however, for this kite (made from heavy-weight watercolor paper) I trimmed a scrap and glued it to the back of the leaf, sandwiching the yarn between the leaf and the triangular scrap (see photo above.)

The kite is ready & now it's time to fly...

(or sit on a bench and give it a hug.)

quince

One night, while at university, I neatly won a game of Scrabble against my housemates by landing the word 'quince' on a triple-word-score.  When I lay the word on the board they smirked, insisting that 'quince' was not a word.  I informed them that I had not only cooked but consumed a quince earlier that day while they sat around the kitchen table eating tortilla chips; in response, they shook their fists in fury and swore eternal vengeance.

So this past Sunday, when I spotted a pile of quince at my local farmer's market, I skipped over with glee, not only due to my fond memory of the aforementioned Scrabble game, but because quince are rare, their season short, and I've been saving up recipes all year (plus I'm intrigued by ancient texts which indicate that Eve's forbidden fruit may perhaps have been quince).  Why did I only buy three?  My bags were already overloaded with kale, Brussels sprouts & jars of honey, but I'm planning to buy more quince next Sunday (reassuring myself that quince season runs through October & November, so they should hopefully continue to appear at the market for the next two months).

I'm not sure which recipe to try first: this one at Orangette, this one over at Food 52, this recipe at Chowhound, this recipe at kitchn, this one at Bon Apetit or this other one at Bon Apetit (I'm thinking maybe the Chowhound one with honey and cognac... or the one at Bon Apetit for fig & quince preserves... oh,my).

GOBLIN MARKET

By Christina Rosetti

 

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

“Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpeck’d cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;—

All ripe together

In summer weather,—

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegranates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Bright-fire-like barberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the South,

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

Come buy, come buy.”

the troll cookbook

About a month ago I was craving apples -- good, local apples harvested in season.  And then, like a bit of wish fulfillment, walking through the farmers market, my eyes landed on a pile of freshly picked Gravensteins.

These first apples of the season put me in mind of a watercolor illustration by Karima Cammell from The Troll Cookbook, which she co-authored with Clint Marsh.

I've been intending to tell you about this book since its publication last February, but now that apple-season is here, it seems the perfect time.

The Troll Cookbook acts as an instruction manual for how to prepare food as trolls do: relying on seasonal produce, guided by appetite, and enjoyment of all five senses.  The recipes are organized by season, interspersed with insight into troll-wisdom, sensibilities and folk-tales.  For example, this information appears under the heading Goblin Fruit: Visiting the Troll Market: 

All vegetables taste best when they are fresh and grown in soil, ideally with a bit of dirt still clinging to them when they are displayed in the market. What sort of dark magic, thinks the troll, is responsible for hydroponic tomatoes grown in the dead of winter? 

... Moving beyond the produce section, the troll is equally frustrated with much of the rest of the supermarket, with its aisles of packages plastered with photographs of the food inside, or worse, of happy people.  Trolls appreciate truth in advertising.  Not once has a troll torn open a box of cereal and found actual people to eat inside.  It's disappointing.

This quote points, alas, to the one deficit in this book.  Trolls are known for tossing hapless humans into their cookpots, and yet I could not find one recipe for how to cook a human among the collected recipes. This is probably for the best. Personally, I'd much rather have a book filled with instructions for preparing apples, breads & cakes, pickled vegetables, preserved lemons, rose-hip jam and warming winter soups.  How about you? 

'tis the season

...for acorns!

Note: The leaves and acorn above are from a variety of oak called California Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia); as you may have noticed, the leaves are not deeply lobed in the way that would identify most varieties of oak leaves.

tutorial :: autumn leaf lantern

In this beautiful season we have been enjoying leaves by collecting handfuls and ironing them between wax paper.  This inspired me to think about creating some candle lantern decorations for our Thanksgiving table.  I wasn't sure about using real leaves to make the lanterns; I've seen photos of how others have done it, but these things never seem to work as well for me, so I decided to try making lanterns with paper leaves...

Like this.

MATERIALS & SUPPLIES

-- a glass jar (or jars)

-- Mod Podge or diluted white craft glue

-- a wide paint brush

-- scissors, a pencil & a small bit of cardstock

-- Kite paper, also called Window Stars paper,

    which can be purchased here or here. Plain

    tissue paper will work as well.  Note: for this 

    project you will need autumn colors plus white 

    paper for covering the jars.

  

STEP 1 :: Find leaves which you like and, using a pencil, trace around the leaves on a small scrap of card stock.  This will be your template for cutting our your paper leaves.

STEP 2 :: Fold your Kite/Window Star paper (or tissue paper) into thirds or fourths and use your template to trace leaf shapes onto your folded paper.

STEP 3 :: Carefully cut out your leaves along the pencil lines you made from tracing your templates.

STEP 4 :: Cut pieces of white kite/window star/tissue paper to size for covering the jar.

STEP 5 :: Using a wide paint brush, cover the entire jar with Mod Podge or diluted white glue and then wrap the white window star/tissue paper around the jar.  Once the white paper is in place, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge/white glue over it.  The paper will have crinkles, but once the Mod Podge (or glue) dries, it will look very nice (I promise!)

STEP 6 :: While the Mod Podge (or glue) is still wet, place your paper leaves all over the jar.  If the top layer of Mod Podge (or glue) dries too quickly, add more Mod Podge (or glue) and keep sticking on your leaves until you happy with your design.

To help the leaves stick to the jar (and so the whole thing has a nice, shiny finish) go over the paper leaves once again, with another layer of Mod Podge (or glue).

STEP 7 :: Place your decorated jar someplace safe and allow it to dry for several hours.

 STEP 8 :: Light a candle in your jar and enjoy the beautiful glow of autumn leaves.