Cooking, Gardening, Stitching

This apron seems to combine
3 things that are important to me:
Cooking, Gardening, Stitching

Summer grilling season is upon us.

In honor of the summer cookout season, I've decided to start posting recipes and the results of cooking experiments here for all of you to enjoy. Likewise, I plan to start posting bits and pieces related to gardening in addition to bits about what I've been stitching.

Why?

Because I have a degree in landscape management (urban horticulture + some business), and I want to be able to use it. My previous experience has mostly been with ornamental plants. However, you may catch bits and pieces about my vegetable garden this year.

Pomegranate Molasses Apple Pear Cake

Have you ever encountered pomegranate molasses at an ethnic market? It's a syrup entirely from pomegranate juice, so it's an interesting way to incorporate the nutrients from this superfood into your baking. Although it has molasses in the name, it's not terribly sweet.

I managed to find some recently at a Pakistani/Indian food market, so I threw on an apron and got to work on an easy-to-make cake. The following has been adapted from the Old-Fashioned Pear and Ginger Cake recipe found in The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn:

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 stick butter (6 tbsp), melted
1 sm.can pear halves, sliced thickly
1 cooking apple (such as granny smith), sliced thinly
1pkg. yellow cake mix
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup pomegranate molasses
1/3 oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Rack should be in the middle of the oven.

2. Spread the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with an even coating of melted butter and brown sugar. Arrange the bottom of the pan with sliced fruit. I sliced the pear thickly and the apple thinly to even out the cooking times (the pears were already cooked until soft during the canning process).

3. Mix remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Pour over the fruit.

4. Bake 43-46 minutes - until the cake springs back lightly when pressed and starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestion: Flip the cake upside down so that the fruit slices are visible on top.

Squash Soup in a Crockpot

I've used this recipe for a variety of winter squash, including pumpkin, butternut, and hubbard  It's a great recipe for when you see squash at reasonable prices. For example, I traditionally make it each fall right after Halloween or Thanksgiving (I see no reason to toss the uncarved pumpkins I place on my porch for fall decor). I made it today after I found some calabaza squash at the grocery store.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it in the crock pot and the proportions are extremely forgivable. 

 * Onion - diced

* Garlic - minced

* Winter Squash - peeled and cut into pieces 

* 1 can diced tomatoes

* Chicken Stock - enough to cover the squash in the crock pot

* Salt, to taste

* Pepper, to taste

* 1 1/2 cup cooked rice (optional)

* 8 oz. Sour Cream

* Coriander, garnish

1. Cut up the squash. If you do not plan to blend the soup later, be sure to cut the pieces into bite-size chunks. Otherwise, you can get away with relatively large pieces. 

2. Add onion, garlic, tomatoes, and squash to crock pot. Add enough chicken stock (or water and bullion cubes) to barely cover the vegetables. Since it's a crock-pot recipe, the soup will not reduce significantly during cooking. 

3. Cook until the squash is tender. This will depend, in part, on how big the squash chunks are. 3-4 hours on high is definitely enough time even if you use large chunks. You can also cook it on low for longer periods of time. 

4. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, blend the soup into an even consistency using an immersion blender, or process it in batches using a food processor. 

5. Stir in rice. Toast a bit of crushed coriander. Add sour cream and coriander (either as a garnish or stirred into the soup).

6. Serve.

Countdown to Christmas Gift Guide

I've been featured in a holiday gift guide. There are some very interesting items here from a variety of small businesses and independent artisans:


http://bmebluprint.blogspot.com/2012/11/countdown-to-christmas-week-7.html

Up and Running

Things have been busy here recently. We've been working on lots of custom orders and special requests. We've also been working to set up a new online shop at PolkadotOrchid.com.

What Happened to Your Old Shop?

We still have our old shop at polkadotorchid.artfire.com. The items you see posted on the side of our blog are pulled from our listings at the old shop. We'll probably keep the old shop because many of our customers are used to finding us there. However, we wanted to make it easier for our customers to give us customization information. The new shop has a better checkout process for custom orders. We will be adding more items there in the future.

Custom Nautical Hooded Sweatshirt

What Kinds of New Items?

At the moment, we have most (not all) of our lace ornaments up. We have some of our clothing, and almost none of our tote bags. We plan to beef up all categories. We will also be adding patches and lace jewelry.

There are some items that we will be adding based on personal feedback. For example, a t-shirt version of our Pi apron. Our custom nautical sweatshirts have been very popular, so we will probably add a t-shirt option as well as a tote bag version as well. 

If there is something in particular that you'd like to see*, let us know. We enjoy doing custom requests. 

*The one thing we absolutely can't and won't budge on is copyrighted material. For example, any recognizable cartoon character (Disney, Hello Kitty, Loony Toons, etc.) or sports team (college, semi-pro, pro, etc.) is a copyrighted, licensed property. The only people who can legally produce items drawing on their characters and imagery are those who have set up licensing agreements with the franchise. 

It is possible for me to reproduce copyrighted material if I have the permission of the original copyright holder. For example, if you own your own business, then I can embroider your logo on polo shirts or bags if I have your permission. 

A Walk Through Oregon City

I recently took a 4-5 mile walk through Oregon City for three reasons:

1) Enjoy nature 

2) Check out the local businesses

3) Have a date with my husband

4) Start getting ready for a marathon in October

Yes, I signed up for a marathon. My father-in-law assures me that anybody can do a marathon (walking). He also says there are only two ways your body pays for it: either before or after - either way it takes six months.  So I'm starting to make a down payment now via layaway, and it made for an interesting walk.

My starting and ending point was Clackamette Park. From there, I walked a loop upstream along the river toward the bridge, up through downtown Oregon city, past the old papermill and museum, and then back around to where I started. I kept an eye open for anything interesting, which for me includes plants, animals, vistas, and local businesses. 

On the plants and animal front, I was happy to spot a ruby throated hummingbird sitting on a barren tree and my first snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) of the season. (BTW, if you've ever asked yourself what hummingbirds eat in late winter before there are any flowers, the answer is tree sap and pre-digested tree sap, which they steal from aphids.)  Since the river has been running a little high, the falls a little further upstream of the city were beautifully dramatic.

What I really noticed on this trip, however, were the local businesses. Downtown areas are not setup to navigate by car as easily as the local strip mall; however, they're a mecca for businesses that are interesting, independent, and local. I noticed, for example, a shop that sold vintage hats along side gourmet chocolate, a traditional arcade (complete with the old machines for Pacman, Centepede, and Tetris), a few antique stores, and a print shop that allowed a glass artisan to display his work in their window front. 

There were also two shops that I noticed due to their connection to the fiber arts: Wynona Studios and Seven Seas Canvas. I was able to talk to the owners of both, who were extremely friendly, and I was impressed with the work they've put into making a brick and mortar business work.

Wynona Studios is devoted to anything having to deal with knitting, yarn, or related fibers, and they are in their second year of business. The shop was full of wool roving, yarn, spinning wheels, and knitted items that are available for sale. It looks like a great place to check out a spinning wheel if you're thinking of getting one, and they feature new pieces monthly that local individuals have created up on their wall. In fact, I really liked the way they feature those pieces - they've installed gilded molding up on the wall, which becomes a frame for each piece.  

Canvas is great for highly detailed embroidery.

Seven Seas Canvas is devoted to making (and repairing) custom boat covers. There aren't many people who make custom boat covers in the US, and visiting his studio was a special treat for me: my parents (in Virginia) bought a cover for their Tazer sailboat from him (in Oregon) while I was in college.  To randomly happen upon his custom studio was delightful.

Although he focuses on making boat covers, he'll make almost anything with canvas. In fact when I wandered in, Chris Calvert, the sole proprietor, was working on a hammock. He was kind enough to show me his industrial sewing machine and a bit of how it worked. (I've read a lot about industrial sewing machines, but I've never been able to touch one before.) I was really impressed Chris and his willingness to take some of his time to answer my questions.

Given the amount of canvas that he goes through... he might be a really good source for buying it for my own projects. The next time I want to use high quality canvas (like nautical-grade quality), I think I'm going to contact him for a quote. Maybe he'll be able to give me a reasonable price for a few yards.  

A Review of My Futura Sewing Machine

The Singer Futura is a sewing/embroidery combo machine, and as an embroidery machine, it's a really low end one at that. It's not too bad as a sewing machine, though there are machines out there that are far better.

How is it for Embroidery?

My Futura was best with small designs using few
colors, but hooping baby clothes was a pain.

It works, but I found it really limiting. (Says the woman who decided to start an embroidery business.) It doesn't trim jump threads, and if you loose power in the middle of an embroidery job (one of your kids unplugs it), it doesn't remember what stitch it was on when the power went off - this, despite needing to be hooked up to a computer in order to embroider. You also have to re-thread it for every embroidery color change, but this is true with all single-needle sewing machine/embroidery combo machines. I don't really recommend the model I have for embroidery. However, my exact model of Futura has been discontinued, and Singer came out with a new one with some improvements. It may be that the new one has fixed a lot of the things that bugged me about my old one, but I wouldn't buy it again without a bit of research.

Durablity?
Any Singer made after the 1970s or 80s uses plastic gears inside. It makes the machine lighter, but it also means that the gears wear out more quickly than metal parts.  Computerized sewing machines came out in the 90s. According to my local sewing machine repairman, computerized machines often have fewer issues because they use a circuit board to control fancy stitches and have fewer moving parts. Though I think he may have been talking about machines with computer boards AND metal innards given that he was attached to a Bernina dealer (which uses plastic gears).

Either way, I haven't had any problems with my machine yet. Except for one or two occasions where I've allowed too much lint to build up under the bobbin case and it's messed up the tension. Cleaning and oiling the machine is easy to do at home.

Ease of Use? 
It's very easy to thread and use. It has a drop-in bobbin with a clear cover so it's easy to ensure you don't have the wrong color loaded in the machine before you start stitching. Bobbins are clear plastic too, so it's easy to see how much thread is left on the bobbin. It's also very clear what stitch you are on. If you turn the power off and on, it doesn't remember what stitch settings you were using during your last session, which has its pros and cons.

It doesn't have auto-tension, so it's good to test out what setting works best for your project before you begin. And on really delicate or lightweight fabrics, I recommend holding the bobbin thread for the first few stitches to help with the tension and to prevent any fabric from getting sucked down into the throat plate - though this is true for almost any machine.

Fancy Stitches?
There are a lot of built in stitches on the Futura. However, I pretty much only use the straight stitch, zig-zag stitch, and automatic buttonholes. I tend to break out the serger, the embroidery machine, or a specialized foot for my sewing machine before I use a fancy stitch. If you really like fancy stitches, there are other machines on the market that have far more than the Futura.

So If I Were to Buy a Sewing Machine All Over Again, What Would I Get?
To be perfectly honest, my mom has an old metal body 1970s Bernina. She always manages to load the bobbin wrong on it and doesn't use it. I plan on offering her a trade: my shiny, 2004 Singer Futura for her 1970s Bernina. I don't really use the Singer's fancy functions; I want the durability of the Bernina's metal gears.

You Want A Vintage Machine? 
Yep. A lot of people who sew frequently love the vintage machines and seek them out because they can be real work horses. I even know a few specialty sewers who seek out the REALLY old machines (think hand-crank or foot treadle) because they give the sewer more control over the timing of the needle penetrations, which allows them to get super-accurate sewing results. Once you figure out how to clean up and maintain an old machine, it can last for almost forever, and you can get a good 1980s Bernina even on a limited budget.

If You Must Have A New Machine
Ok, lets say that automatic buttonholes are a must. Or being able to do a fancy decorative stitch.  Or a machine that will thread itself because you can never seem to get it through the needle eye. See if you can go to a store or a dealer that will allow you to test drive your machine first. Here are some things to consider:

Being able to add embroidery is a great perk for a new machine.

1) Easy to use and thread? (including the bobbin, and how you raise/lower the pressor foot)
2) How does it handle different types of fabric? (try it out on really thin stuff as well as something really thick - you may need to supply this fabric yourself for a proper test)
3) Automatic buttonholes and other stitch functions?
4) Advanced features such as trimming thread for you, automatic tension control, or embroidery
5) Price (including that of any future repairs - Kenmore machines can old be serviced at Sears because Sears controls the supply of parts)

Brands
If you're not going to do much sewing, then anything that has the features you need ought to work. Get what your budget allows and feels natural to work with. Here are a few notes about some common brands.

If you need fancy features, such as computerized embroidery, the following three brands are considered the most advanced, reliable (and expensive):
* Bernina (considered most reliable)
* Huskvarna/Viking
* Pfaff

Based off my experience with their sergers and embroidery machines, I'd also be personally happy with the following company:
* Brother/Babylock

More Budget-Friendly Options:
* Elna
* Janome
* Kenmore (be prepared to take it to Sears for repairs)
* Singer