from the deep

In the shop now, Nessie, the diminutive felted wool/angora blend Loch Ness monster. Rowr.

the brownie

I have a long-standing and unbridled love of outdated technology, as evidenced by my continued use of fifty year old metal ice trays even though my finger tips stick to them when I pull them out of the freezer.
I realized recently though, with a tinge of sadness, that I used to go to greater, more stubborn lengths to do things the hard way. I bought this Kodak Brownie at an estate sale years ago. The model was discontinued in 1958. They no longer manufacture the 620 film this camera needs, but I found out it is possible to respool currently manufactured 120 film onto an old 620 spool and fit it into the brownie. I diligently searched antique shops and estate sales for a stray 620 spool, eventually buying an entire second camera to cannibalize. I was a photo student at the time and I patiently sat in a pitch black room and fumbled the film from one spool to another, put it in the camera and went out into daylight. Later, when I went to develop the film, I found out that it was unusable. All the photos had overlapped one another in a long continuous line. The 120 film was not marked for the brownie, so there was no clear way to know when it had advanced safely from one shot to another.
I suppose I'll try again though, I'm nothing if not a mule.

los osos

New bear in the shop now. Otso, the felted wool polar bear. In other less exciting news, it is pouring rain here and I have big plans for some tandoori chicken which is currently marinating in the fridge is what I can only describe as bright orange goo, but which I know to actually be a curry/yogurt marinade.

claudette

New swan in the shop, lots of cake left to eat, time for some tea and my attention-whoreish cat, I think.

rosemary loaf cake

I've been wanting to try and recreate the pleasantly herb-y savory/sweet muffins we had at the Cliff Cafe in Dallas for awhile now, so I thought I'd try this rosemary loaf cake from my go-to lady for things like this, Nigella Lawson, and see if it was in the neighborhood.



Usually I'm an advocate for the sparing use of things like thyme and rosemary, lest they over power a dish, but here I really like the combination of the sweet and savory - and it ended up with a nice fine crumb and somehow feels appropriately ready for fall.

Rosemary Loaf Cake

How to be a Domestic Goddess
Nigella Lawson

1 cup plus 2 tbsp soft unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
about 2 tsp chopped rosemary needles
4 tbsp milk
1-2 tbsp brown or white sugar

9 x 5 inch loaf pan, buttered and lined with parchment

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream soft butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time, folding in a spoonful of flour after each addition. Add the vanilla. Fold in the rest of the flour, then the rosemary. Thin the batter with the milk. Pour into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with sugar and bake for about an hour. Cool cake in its pan. Serves 8-10.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't have self-rising cake flour so I used regular ol' self-rising flour and I also just greased the pan and skipped the parchment, I suppose because I was being a little lazy. I can't see that either of those things adversely effected the cake, which I'm pretty pleased with, on the whole. Nigella suggests eating it with stewed apples, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

a little slow on the uptake

Some new bears will be up in the shop soon. I don't quite know why they've been so slow to come together this time. No matter. bears. soon. really.

a swan in an apple

I was tickled to see the photos of The Black Apple's minty new studio space - if you look on top of the right bookcase you'll see Edda the Swan perched in her happy new home. Also, in other pleasant news, I've been invited into the folds of Spoonflower and I plan to start designing the tar out of some fabric swatches here shortly.

etsy favorites for september

a little belated,


This fine china rendition of a disposable pie plate from lorena barrezueta.



The barnacle whale gocco print from The Argyle Whale.



This stunning set of eight nesting lotus bowls from Whitney Smith Pottery. Rest assured, if I had $325 burning a whole in my pocket, these would already be sitting on my dining room table.

out in the world

A big thanks and warm feelings goes out to Art + Ghosts for her inclusion of Lemonweir in her Aug. 24th softie-themed Cuddle post on her beautiful blog, The Wonder Cabinet.
He is in very fine company.

potential

The stripping of the barn wardrobe continues in earnest. This is the finish that has to be removed, but the end is in sight, I think. More on this story as it develops.

adventures in jell-o

So, I'm always looking for an excuse to break out the ol' gelatin molds - really, it comes up in life less often than you'd think. It's probably part of my inexplicable affection for things that are somewhat twee and overly precious. At any rate, I'd had my eye on this recipe for Apricot Gelatin Salad for quite some time, despite the disastrous (and vaguely dish soapy) result from my usually dear Nigella's Gin and Tonic Jelly several birthdays ago. I decided to try it out.


It is really a very orange salad. On a fancier day, I would have filled in the center with some member of the berry family and a few mint sprigs or something presentable. I think that if I were to make it again, I might go a little easier on the added liquids, because I don't think that the end product was as set as it could have been. And I did have a moment of crisis when, upon turning on the blender full of apricots, I learned that at least one of said apricots sneakily still had it's pit intact. That said, I'm going to file it away in the victory column.

Apricot Gelatin Salad

The Taste of Home Cookbook

2 cans (16 ounces each) apricot halves
dash salt
2 packages (3 ounces each) orange gelatin
1 can (6 ounces) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup lemon-lime soda

Drain apricots, reserving 1 1/2 cups juice. set apricots aside. In a small saucepan, bring apricot juice and salt to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, add gelatin, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

In a blender, combine orange juice concentrate, lemon juice and reserved apricots. Cover and process until smooth. Add to gelatin mixture with soda, mix well.

Pour into a 6-cup mold coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and refrigerate until firm. Unmold and transfer to serving plate.