Baby Quilt for Sava

My latest sewing project was quilt for a friend and her new baby, Sava. As with numerous projects before, I set somewhat unrealistic expectations for myself for the deadline. I decided to make the quilt about a week before I was supposed to meet the new baby; at the time, a week seemed sufficient for a simple hand-made quilt. I had not accounted for the numerous distractions that would put off my visit to the fabric store, and when I finally made it with only 3 days on the clock a minor case of baby quilt mania set in. I had to have this color... and this texture... this design is nice... oh, I should add some personalized embroidery... so many threads... which embroidery ring?... which hand-quilting thread should I use?!?

2 hours and a very large bag later, I was ready to roll. Or stitch.


I had noticed dragonflies decorating the baby's room, so I decided to go with a hand embroidered one in the center of the quilt. This is how it looked after 4 hours :)

2 days to go, and all I had was cut fabric and part of a dragonfly. Oh my.


By day 2, my living room was feeling the heat.



After work the next day, I was ready to go again! Beau helped me to choose these colors from the decorations in Sava's room.



Frozen yogurt surprise from Beau gave me the boost I needed! :)

Sewing these pinwheels was one of the worst experiences in my life. Under the fluorescent lights of luring fabric stores these shiny blends might seem a good idea, but I do not recommend using this delicate material for something so small. Each small triangle had a base of about 2 inches, and each time I used my machine to sew the pieces they would shred to bits. Full of coffee and tiny embroidery pinpricks, I was ready to figuratively shoot myself in the face. Proceed with caution.

Gotcha!
Although I faced some difficulty with the decorative pinwheels, I learned to be happy with their whimsical lopsidedness :) Only a few more hours until we leave!
Beau is Sava's uncle, and he helped me to write out her name in Cyrillic to embroider.

I added in some reds and burnt orange to the center embroidery to spread color in layers through the quilt.

I don't have any photographs from the next several hours because, well, it was a rough night. I stayed awake through all of it eating homemade dal and drinking red bull while I finished the embroidery, assembled the layers, basted, binded, and began to quilt (I finished the hand quilting on the drive).
I used a patterned flannel backing (which doubles as the binding) and thin bamboo/cotton blend batting. I chose bamboo as it is a naturally antibacterial fiber, earth-friendly, has a low 2-3% shrinkage and can be quilted up to 8 inches. Tying is my quilting method of choice, and used a soft gold thread for the knots.

Although I was exhausted, every ounce of effort paid off when I got hours of new baby snuggles!


Congratulations to the happy family, and welcome to the world baby Sava!

Prazan Burek: Attempt One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLAz3kRDPfU

I have recently been faced with a unique challenge: bake a foreign pastry for which I have no recipe and have never tasted. Burek comes in many varieties with a plethora of fillings, flavors, and techniques (plain, meat, cheese, layered, rolled). My goal is to make an acceptable Serbian burek; for my first real attempt, I chose prazan burek, or empty burek.

After trying (and failing) to find an acceptable recipe written in English, I decided to wing it and make my own. Here’s a video of the pro’s…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL4R_RRB0Qc

I made a basic homemade filo with

4c AP Flour
1c warm water
1.5tsp salt
1.5 c Butter (melted)


In order to make transparently-thin layers of dough, the dough has to be continually worked and stretched to form gluten. Mix all of the ingredients except the butter and knead.

While you get an extensive hand workout, melt the butter.

Knead in about 4 tablespoons of butter.




This whole process took a Really Long Time. I set up shop on my porch and listened to an audiobook for entertainment :)


Work the oiled dough into balls (I believe I ended up using 12?) and let the dough rest.



Brush the dough with more butter...

I couldn't photograph the next part- I was covered in flour and oil- but you can get the general idea from the video above :)

Make sure the work surface is well buttered and brush each layer with more butter throughout the process. (Don't be stingy with the butter- it is necessary! I only used about 1.5 of the 3 sticks, and the result was too dry)
How does it look?
Ah, I have never been so proud of transparency!







Mmmmm!
While this wasn't quite what I would imagine to find in Serbia, it was a tasty first attempt! We ate it in thick slices with kefir.

Excited for attempt two! I plan to use more liquid (my first burek was somewhat dry) and change the time in the oven. Doviđenja! :)

"Space Invader" White Chocolates with Walnuts and Brown Sugar

It has been my recent goal to expand my chocolate-making into the realm of actual filled formed chocolates, rather than just chocolate truffles. For weeks I have been jotting ideas for fillings and combinations, scribbling in crayon on my handy pad of paper I keep in the side of my car door at each stoplight. I have been on the lookout for the perfect chocolate-forming vessel, and, alas, we met.

Although I was originally searching for a basic square tray, there was no way I could decline Space Invaders. How often do you come across a Space Invaders ice tray?! It was just too quirky to pass up. Imagine the possibilities of conversation starters!

For my first attempt, I decided to go with a butter, walnut, and brown sugar filling encased within a white chocolate shell. The inner combination was inspired by a popular crepe filling, and I chose the delicate creamy white chocolate as a complement.




1/3 c Brown Sugar (I mix light and dark; dark brown sugar has a higher content of molasses, which provides added flavor)
2 oz (about 1 cup) Walnuts (toasted at 350 for 15 minutes)
1 T each light and dark Corn syrup
2 T softened Butter


12 oz White Chocolate







Add the toasted walnuts to a food processor, reserving a few attractive halves to decorate the chocolates later.

Pulse lightly with the corn syrup...


and butter. I also added a dash of macadamia nut liqueur :) Don't overpulse the mixture- a few large walnut segments are nice in the completed chocolates.


Waiting to fill the Space Invaders!


Time to temper the chocolate! The general rule for tempering white chocolate is to gently heat 3/4 over a double-boiler until the chocolate reaches 110 degrees, then add the other 1/4 and stir until the chocolate cools to 83 degrees. This can be tricksy...

All of my tools made me feel I was prepping for surgery.



I used 12 ounces of white chocolate (reserving 3 ounces to add back in later).


Smaller uniform pieces help the chocolate to melt evenly.


After the arduous task of tempering, I excitedly filled my little invaders, tapped out the excess, and allowed the shells to cool.


Once the outer shell has cooled, add the filling.


Then, again, cover with white chocolate, scraping off any excess. As you can imagine, I was feeling pretty darn cool at this point.


When my chocolates had cooled sufficiently, I gently overturned them, hoping to release my delightful creations into the world.

It wasn't so easy.

After about 2 hours worth of warming, cooling, bargaining, I decided that I would be satisfied to have just ONE successful Space Invader chocolate. I would photograph the heck out of it, then I would hide the crumpled bodies of my victims in the bottom of the garbage and claim that my chocolates were so delicious that I couldn’t help but eat them all. All I needed was one photo to prove my success…




just one...












please?
























What?! My Space Invaders were defeated by these perfectly (ordinary) round morsels?!

After many fits, tantrums, and angry calls to my mother seeking comfort from the evil which falsely calls itself "white chocolate", I broke down and started over. My brother will be receiving an ice-cube tray surprise; hopefully he will end up cooler for it, using the jokes and opening statements I had originally planned for myself.



Maybe simple and round suits me :)