Early last week, I went to visit Coral & she sent me home with a ton of leftovers from the wedding, including several pounds of plum tomatoes (7 1/2 lbs.) & Anaheim peppers (4 1/2 lbs.). They sat in our basement for a couple days, while I wondered what I should make with 'em. I finally decided to make canned diced tomatoes & pickled Anaheim slices. For the peppers, I used a basic pickling brine, & added garlic, mustard seeds, peppercorns & a hot pepper to each jar. I have to wait about a month to try them (so they can develop their flavor), but I hope they're good! The tomatoes are just lemon juice, salt & tomatoes, so they'll be pretty versatile.
Before pickling:
After pickling:
Smels was gone all last week. Coral's sister, Laurel, had to head back to school in Wyoming after the wedding festivities were over, so Smels went with her & they had a fun road trip. All four of us: Coral, Laurel, Chelsea (Smels) & me, have been friends since we were toddlers. Their mom is like my second mother, & they're all such dear friends. <3 <3 <3
Thankfully, Smels is back. She got me this beautiful bowl in an antique store. I love it! It feeds my bowl habit & matches my tiered candy dish thingy too. :)
Yesterday, before work, my sister & I went to the King Farmers Market. I got some basil & Walla Wallas, & a treat from the Grand Central stall. Plus we each got a free bag at the Farmers Market, which was cool:
After that, we decided to go on a bike ride to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, then the Smith & Bybee Wetland area. Whoa...going to a stinky sewage place, for fun?! Well, there are both the Peninsula Crossing Trail & 40-Mile Loop around there, & Smels knows some good blackberry-picking spots nearby. We picked 4 quarts of them, so she can bake a pie or two.
We also saw three Western painted turtles! They were far away, sunning on a floating log, so forgive the blurriness:
After our berry picking, we rode to Kenton & went to an antique store, the library, & then got iced mochas at Posies Bakery & Cafe. Tasty!
Now for something sugary: the other night, I whipped up some raspberry crisp for a dinner at Smels' house, so I made a behbeh portion for myself too, mwa ha ha. I used the same filling as this raspberry pie, but cut down on the sugar, since the topping is sweet, unlike (most) pie crust.
This happens to be my favorite-est crisp topping in the Universe...
Fruit Crisp Topping
- 1 cup flour (white whole wheat is my favorite)
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Mix everything together until combined. Just lightly sweeten & thicken your favorite fruit by tossing it with some sugar & either cornstarch or flour, then put it in a casserole dish, generously layering a bunch of this topping over it. Bake at 350*F until the fruit is bubbling & the top is brown, around 45-55 minutes. I usually lightly cover mine towards the end of baking, to prevent over-browning. Don't cover tightly though, or you'll steam your crisp, making it pasty & sad. :(
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Ooh, I also made some Pad Thai today, using Pim's guide, but substituting vegetarian fish sauce for the real deal. I got mine at Fubonn, but it's probably available at larger Asian grocery stores. The resulting dish was pretty tasty. I made it with ingredients I had around (carrots, basil, tofu, egg, cilantro, Walla Walla onion, jalapeno, etc.), so it was far from authentic, but I was satisfied with it nonetheless.
Wow, this has been an amazing process, & now it's time to relax! Coral has spent so long planning her & Ryan's beautiful day, & it sure paid off. Everything was lovely & perfect in the end!
I'll start out with the prep work that I was responsible for. Ryan & his awesome friend, Chris, built a photo booth from scratch! Coral asked me to make some silly props for it. It took a while to get the method down, so I started on the simplest pieces, the lips.
Here's the first batch, on our trippy green couch:
The felt wasn't stiff enough to hold up on it's own, so I ended up painting them with diluted wood glue & letting them dry. Then I hot glued them to sticks. Some shapes were easier to cut with scissors, while others (especially the glasses) were easier with the Exact-o knife. For the glasses, I actually painted entire sheets of felt with the watered down glue, then let it dry before cutting them out. I'm not exactly sure of the method the people who sell them on Etsy use, but you couldn't pay me to sell these things, ha ha!
I was also asked to cut a couple dozen burlap table runners. Good thing we have a big basement crafty area now! It's not easy to find 10 ft. of blank space for cutting fabric. :)
Ready to be delivered to Coral:
My biggest contribution to the wedding was in the form of baked goods. Coral wanted 125 or so cupcakes, half carrot cake w/orange cream cheese frosting, & half traditional butter cake w/chocolate frosting. She also wanted 150 lemon bars, but they only needed to be a square inch, so that wasn't too bad.
The recipe I used for the lemon bars is available here. I've used it before. I really like the texture of the bars & they aren't as "wet" as traditional ones, so they won't get weepy & soggy.
What got me was the last-minute cutting & frosting! I baked the lemon bars & carrot cupcakes the day before, & also prepped the frosting, but wanted to wait till the day of the wedding to bake the butter cupcakes. Rose Levy Beranbaum, goddess of baking, recommends serving them on the day you bake them, so I wanted them to be as fresh as possible.
Here's the first dozen, fresh from the oven.
The recipe I used was for Downy Yellow Butter Cake from the Cake Bible. I used 3 tablespoons of batter & baked them @ 350*F for about 28 minutes. Even though I'm a baker, I don't really love cake that much. I'd much rather have some chocolate or a cookie, but this recipe is so amazing. It's light & fluffy, with such a deliciously sweet buttery flavor. I'd even prefer it plain, or with some macerated fruit on top. Mmmmm...
Here's some of the frosted lovelies:
The carrot cake recipe was an original that I've tweaked over the years at work. I added raisins & walnuts to these, but coconut &/or pineapple would also work. Yes, the recipe is eggless! It's also great with soy milk in place of dairy, for a vegan version.
Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/8 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk with 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice added (or buttermilk)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting:
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- zest of 1/2 an orange
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper cups & set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon & ginger; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, milk, vanilla, carrots, raisins & walnuts.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones & mix until combined. Scoop 3 tablespoons of batter into each paper cup. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
There will be enough extra for another cupcake or two, or a baby cake for the baker!
Cool completely, before frosting generously. To make the frosting, whip all the ingredients together. Try not to eat it by the spoonful!
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And here are some pictures of the payoff of so much hard work by so many incredible people! I would have taken more pictures, but I was helping to set up, then had to get bedecked in my bridesmaid attire.
First of all, here is the beautiful bride. Did I mention that she made her entire dress herself?! One of her sweet neighbors happens to be a retired professional seamstress & she was a godsend! Coral also sewed the two flower girls' dresses, & all the bridesmaids' dresses. There is nothing she can't do!
Coral & Smels:
Smels literally teared up at Coral's beauty! :')
Here's a shot from under the tent. Look at the beautiful place settings! And I spy my old frenemy, Mr. Burlap! See the little jars of light & dark honey that we got as wedding favors?
And now for the dessert table, which was breathtakingly beautiful, thanks to Coral's thoughtful planning. I was honored to have my baked goods be a part of something so stunning. One of her friends from work, who does some catering, baked chocolate chip cookies too!
At this point, we were in the process of setting the cupcakes out at the last possible minute, since it was so hot out. The poor babies already had a long trip in the hot trunk of my (no air conditioning) car, so they were nervous to be displayed! We set 2 or 3 on each antique, floral saucer.
This sort of shows the left side of the table:
And this shows the right side:
I almost forgot to mention the cake! Coral wanted something tiny & rustic, so her & Ryan would have something to cut & shove into one another's face (lovingly, of course!). You can see the frosting was getting that glossy, I-want-to-melt-but-I-won't look to it. Thankfully, it held up for the whole evening! Whew!
Smels & Ethan show wear from too much good food & booze:
I'll end with a couple of photo booth pictures. Outside the booth, there was a table set up with a scrapbook, markers, glue sticks & scissors, so guests could leave a cute picture & note for the newlyweds.
Ethan & I:
Smels & I:
We love you, Coral & Ryan! Congratulations on your new life together!
Again, it's been awhile since I posted. So much has happened, including a big move from Southeast to North Portland, so we were really busy settling in. It's SO NICE to live in an actual house, rather than an apartment. We had forgotten what it's like to sleep through the night, as we'd had horrible upstairs neighbors for the longest time! Now, instead of living around a bunch of self-entitled hipsters, our neighbors are super friendly & down-to-earth. Yay!
Shortly after moving, my siblings & I went on our annual camping trip, this time to Champoeg, one of my favorite camping spots evar!
We took our time at camp, after surviving an indecent rush-hour trek to Champoeg. Sean munches a Tofurky-avocado bagel, in recovery:
Smels was impressed with her mustard skillz, & had to get photographic evidence:
Friday night, we went down to check out the beautiful river.
A confession: my biggest fears in life are drowning, & having big fish touch me in the water(so irrational, I know! I hope to conquer these neuroses before I die!), so I wasn't keen on diving in, but the next day, after we walked a few miles to the Butteville Store, Sean asked if he could swim in the freezing, murky, Willamette. My sister, the voice of reason, said she thought it was okay, so he bravely waded in. This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Such cuteness!
We also walked to an old grave site & found an orchard with pear, apple & hazelnut trees. Smels spotted this picturesque ladybug. Way to strike a pose, gurrlll!
We also found some shelf fungi along the trail, home to behbeh slugs!
I brought a pie, baked from these delish raspberries from Sauvie Island.
We had zero trouble eating it all up. I used a recipe from CHOW as the base, but modified it a little bit, for pure raspberry delight.
Raspberry Pie
- 2 1/2 cups flour (I used half white whole wheat & half white)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons cold, salted butter
- 6-8 tablespoons ice water, mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 6 cups raspberries
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 tablespoons lemon juice
- zest of one lemon
- milk for brushing crust, plus sugar for sanding (optional)
Mix together the flour & salt. Cut the butter into it, until sandy, with small, pea-sized balls of butter. Add the minimum amount of water necessary to get the dough to hold together. Try not to overwork it! Divide dough into two disks, then refrigerate them till chilled.
In a separate large bowl, mix together the berries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, & zest.
Preheat the oven to 375*F. Roll out the pie crusts to 1/4-inch thickness. Line the bottom of your favorite pie tin with one of the crusts, leaving the extra dough hanging around the edge.
Pour in the filling. Top with the other half of dough. Trim the edges, but leave about an inch extra around the outside. (Save the extra tidbits for turnovers, or cinnamon-sugar munchies!) Turn the dough under, then crimp/decorate in your own way.
Brush the top with milk & sprinkle with sugar, if you like it that way. Cut a few slits in the top, then bake until the crust is golden & the filling is bubbling out the slits. If the crust begins to brown too quickly. cover it lightly with foil. Let cool before cutting, or it'll be soupy!
Here's the jam I made with those same raspberries! It's made with only three ingredients: raspberries, honey & Pomona Pectin.
Fun! Fun! Fun! I also want to recommend the OMSI exhibit, "Game On", to any gamers out there. We took Sean & had a blast. There were SO MANY CONSOLES, from all around the world, most of which were playable. My brother & I even played PONG, which was projected onto a huge wall. I took a bunch of pictures before I saw the "no pictures" signs that were posted in randomly weird areas. It was hard to notice them through the herds of kids & flashing lights, but I stopped once I saw them. Oops! I feel like an asshole, since people who saw me snapping away must have been like, "This lady thinks she's too cool for school..."
Hello there!
I just had to share this amigurumi schlong that I made for Coral's bachelorette party. A bunch of us ladies went on a limo-driven wine tour around 5 or 6 vinyards (I lost track after awhile), which is hilariously unlike me, but it was fun. The peen is from Anticraft, but I used worsted weight Red Heart yarn. I didn't make the taint. It looked weird, so I frogged it out & just sewed the shaft & balls together. He seems happy, even though he's taintless.
Here's the beautiful bride-to-be. Her feather boa kept shedding all over, ha ha.
Hope everyone is having a good summer! I can't wait to share photos from Coral's wedding! See you soon...
