Autumn is here! I cut open a kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) yesterday to celebrate the beginning of my favorite season. Wow - that was a bit of a chore!
I made kabocha muffins using this recipe. There were a couple of minor things I changed…. like replacing the canned pumpkin with kabocha. To prepare the kabocha, I peeled, cubed, and then microwaved for four minutes or until it is easy to mash with a fork. Then I added a little more cinnamon (always more cinnamon than what is called for - yum!). Also, the recipe made a total of fifteen muffins rather than twelve. That works for me. *grin*
I might have mentioned this in an earlier post, but there is an excellent bakery/café in Seattle called Fresh Flours. You can order a kabocha muffin. And they have a good lunch too. Take a look at their menu.
Antipast socks! It has been one of my favorite searches on Ebay for several years. Every now and then, I get very excited and surprised to “win” something like this:
Yes…I get excited about socks (just like the gift bags!). Especially very cute ones + made in Japan. You can purchase Antipast socks and accessories at other online stores such as Ped and A Mano, but I like to find a bargain from time to time and Ebay seems like a good place to do just that.
No crafting again. However, I am starting on the dress pattern I bought when I was in Sacramento (see last post). It is a sleeveless summer dress. I know cooler weather is coming, but I needed a pattern for starters (easy in other words) and most of all….sleeveless. Arm sleeves seem to be a little difficult for me so I’m working up to it. I decided on a striped fabric for the outside and charcoal cotton fabric for the lining. Have I mentioned that I love stripes? I am drawn to them! This goes beyond clothing, but wallpaper, upholstery, window awnings, gift wrap, and the list can go on and on, but I will spare you.
I am having visions of a circus dress. Oh dear.
I love Superbuzzy. With every purchase, they throw in a couple pieces of Japanese candy. Very sweet. Literally.
So on a completely different note….I finally made our mini garden pizzas. Yum! I brushed some olive oil on the pizza dough, topped it with goat cheese, zucchini and cherry tomatoes from our garden, and then more goat cheese and olive oil, sprinkled salt, pepper and and a little garlic powder. That’s it. Simple, but yummy.
My husband and I are both back from our trips, the holiday is over and we are easing into our first day of the same old stuff. However, we spent the holiday in our garden - harvesting potatoes and picking some cherry tomatoes - took a drive out to the ocean and (the best part) stopped for a little ice cream at Screamin’ Mimi’s before going home. I am a big chocolate freak…. so I go for Mimi’s Mud everytime.
Peruvian purple potatoes (and others) from the garden:
So…not much crafting lately, but I caught a great sale at Joann’s in Sacramento. They are moving to a new location and most of their items were 50 to 70 percent off. I picked up some fabric, a dress pattern, zippers, ribbon and twill tape. They were even selling their fabric samples - perfect size for a gift bag! You’ll notice in the photo that I was really thinking about the holiday season coming upon us. Well, at least the two pieces of fabric on top.
The last stop before heading back home was Sakura Gifts - a Japanese gift store with more holiday thoughts.
My husband = work in Chicago, me = visiting family in Sacramento.
Leaving this little guy behind:
And our garden - maybe the title should have been “Hang on Little Tomato“:
Two packages of banana bread to go:
I miss home already.
Check out Wordle! It is a lot of fun and somewhat addictive, but don’t take my word for it….I am a Scrabble player.
By Beverly Cleary. I believe I had the paperback back in the 80s when I was in grade school. Sappy, I know.
And you know those days when you are asking yourself, “why me?”. Well, the last two days have been like that for me. I am not trying to get sympathy here, but it is almost funny. This is the super ultra-condensed version. Yesterday, my car wouldn’t start…and today, I tried to bake some more banana chocolate chip bread (posted earlier) and the oven started to smoke. Then I had a particular program crash on me multiple times and printer problems, and etc. I am done now. Like I said, it is almost laughable.
Is there a full moon out by any chance?
Anyway, in spite of having a bad day or two, I managed to complete a couple of projects. One is the mouse pad - my design printed on canvas fabric for the top and felt for the bottom. Don’t pay attention to the dirty wireless mouse.
Second is another lined (with stripes!) pouch. This time I used felt to do a little edging around the opening and no zipper. I am thinking for tissue or something small like buttons, thread, ribbons. Even paperclips. Something you want to grab fast and don’t want to unzip anything to get to it.
A pancake blog would be very cool. Taking photos of various flavors - banana, blueberry, green onion and pumpkin (my personal favorite). You would have to get a little more creative than that…maybe mango coconut? My husband and I were having a conversation just last night about how all scents and flavors *must have* at least two words or a mixture of two or more. Pomegranate + green tea, brown sugar + fig. Use the examples and forget the comma - now there is something to look forward to. Yikes! Anyway, I am sure there is a pancake blog out there somewhere, but I just couldn’t bring myself to fix pancakes as often as I would need to in order to maintain a blog. Well, I guess you could as long as it was a weekly thing. Oh goodness… too much coffee this morning is the explanation for the babble. My point is that you probably will not find many pancake posts here although the blog is called “Pancakes for Dinner”. I hope to explain why it is called Pancakes for Dinner a little bit later in the “About” section.
Figs + goat cheese + honey + garlic + pita bread. A yummy snack I found here.
Thomas + me + crafting room. You’ll find us here.
This is a very easy and delicious recipe for breakfast… or anytime! If you make this recipe using the mini loaf pans, you can freeze them for later consumption or give them away for others to enjoy. Also, perfect size serving for your little ones.
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°
In a large bowl, mix mashed bananas and melted butter with a wooden spoon. Mix in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle and stir in the baking soda and salt. Add the flour and chocolate chips last and mix. Pour mixture into a greased 4×8 inch loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
One nice perk for women who live in the North Bay: the annual Athleta 70% off sale in Petaluma. To get a little taste… I purchased some sideline-vegan J-41s for only eighteen dollars. Cool, eh? That is just one example of many good deals. However, you must bring a lot of patience and have a decent amount of time on your hands for this event. It is not too hard to imagine a sea of women with glazed-over looks in their eyes from the overwhelming tables and boxes full of clothing and etc at hand. It was difficult to move an inch in any direction! I still say it’s worth the wait. It is my third year attending and there is no way you leave empty-handed. It is a sure thing. Hey - remember that mid-80s movie with John Cusack and the poster with the half-naked lady on it (that narrows it down)? This is “The Sure Thing“.
