Category: Seasons

in the kitchen, Seasons

Valentine’s Leftovers

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Turns out, when confronted with petite homemade cookies topped with cherry jam and Safeway bakery cupcakes with 1.5 inches of frosting, most second graders will choose the frosting. I can’t say they’d choose the cupcakes since many of them licked the frosting off and disposed of the unwanted cake. Too bad I can’t bring myself to just bring cheap frosting and a bunch of plastic spoons to classroom parties. I now have a large quantity of jam-topped sugar cookies. They go really nicely with tea. Does 4pm work for you? Save

Caitlyn, Seasons

It’s Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!

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Or, it was. And, yes, it’s a thing. Our local ice cream place has hosted an event for International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day for the last three years. It’s seems to still be a small thing, though, so if you missed it, I won’t tell if you have a slightly delayed celebration. The story is that it’s cold and dark and dull in the Northern Hemisphere, post-Christmas and pre-daffodils. So, someone declared a fun holiday right in the middle of it. There’s a long tradition of marking this point in the year: Imbolc, the pagan Gaelic festival celebrating …

in the kitchen, Seasons, sewing

All wrapped up

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Remember this project? Want to see what it became? These bags are officially tradition now. I made about a dozen (some of last year’s bags were returned for refills) of the tutorial size of Jeni‘s Drawstring Bags, which is the perfect size for several bundles of homemade candy. This year, the fabric bags contained the required caramels and English toffee (from Grandpa’s recipes), as well as salted caramels (which might become a staple), peanut brittle and chocolate dipped marshmallows. I was hoping to also include opera cremes, but that didn’t work out so well. And I ran out of time …

in the kitchen, Seasons

If you need me

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I’ll be in the kitchen for most of the month. The first batch has been beta tested and deemed a success. I’m still not sure what the final collections will include beyond the essential caramels and English toffee. I’ve got all of Grandpa’s candy books, which mostly means that nothing is impossible. Which leaves me with improbable amounts of sugar. Hooray! Save

Caitlyn, Seasons

Now with 3 pounds of candy

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This year’s costume started out as one of our projects from Craftsy’s Costume Box class. The colors were partly determined by a small box of beads, partly by what colors of tulle were available the day we went shopping. After seeing what we had, Caitlyn and I agreed that this was a Fire Fairy costume. I don’t think we were thinking of Halloween at all when we got started, but then that was months ago. Caitlyn, of course, wants everything that’s in the Costume Box. So far, we’ve got this skirt and crown pair and her sword. There are more …