Zucchini Pear Quick Bread

This recipe makes two proper large loaf pans of bread plus one small round cake pan.

The small round cake pan comes out first and is usually devoured by the time the larger loaves come out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Oil and flour your pans and add parchment paper liners if you like them.

We started off making this recipe for Mom's Zucchini Bread but doubled and altered it to suit our tastes.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

5 3/4 cups of white flour

3 tbsp ground flax seed

2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

6 tsp cinnamon

2 cups of chopped pecans or walnuts

Wet ingredients:

6 eggs

2 cups of veg oil

4 cups white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

4 tsp pure vanilla extract (or the scrapings from one large vanilla bean)

3 1/2 cups of grated zucchini

1 cup of grated fresh unpeeled washed pears

1/2 cup of chopped apricots

For topping:

1/3 cup of unsalted, shelled pumpkin seeds

I mixed all the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Sometimes I add substitute carrot or apple. Sometimes we add raisins or currants... It depends on what we happen to have a heap of. 

I mix the dry ingredients up in a separate bowl. I use walnuts or pecans, but you could use any nut you happen to have. I've also added bran to this recipe along with the flax seed. Remember to reduce the flour if you increase the flax or add bran. I figure I can always add more flour at the end of I need it.

I butter and flour the loaf pans and add a sheet of parchment paper that overlaps the sides of the pan to make taking the loaf out easier.

I mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Make sure you are using a super big bowl. This is a heap of batter! Just mix until the ingredients are blended. Some lumps are ok, you don't want to over mix!

Pour the batter in the bread pans and put the left over batter in a smaller pan. Now is the time to sprinkle the loaves with seeds or toppings. I bake all three together but take the smaller pan out after about 30 minutes or when a knife comes out clean. The larger loaves will bake from 45 minutes to an hour. Use the clean knife trick here too.

Here are two loaves without seed topping.....

And here are two loaves with the pumpkin seed topping.

They are both delicious.

Hope you try your own version.

We can't seem to keep this in the house. It gets eaten almost as fast as I can bake it.

Even More Delicious Autumn Pair Fixin's

We were gifted with even more delicious fall pears. A different variety then last week, but just as delicious and ripe. Here are a few of the things we've done with them so far.

These guys are a little bit bigger and have very yellow skin. They are very juicy and have delicate white flesh.

This is Pear and Jalapeno Chutney. It smells of Christmas, all cinnamon and ginger, but it's the hottest preserve I've ever tried. Can't wait to see what happens to it after it sits for a few months.

The pears were so ripe I really couldn't stew them without them falling apart. So I just poured a sugar syrup infused with cloves and ginger and a few chai tea bags. There are also some dried berries thrown in just because I had them.

This is the stewed pear and peach salad. It's just in a simple sugar syrup, but they're delicious just the same. These are just out of the caner and you can still see the bubbles rising up from the syrup boiling.

I made some more pear and zucchini bread. That's six giant loaves so far. I love it the most the next day, sliced thick and reheated in the toaster with butter and sharp cheddar. So delicious! I'll be sharing our recipe for pear and zucchini loaf this weekend too so stay tuned.

Delicious Autumn Pairs..... What to do with them?

We've been gifted with a giant box of these little gems. 

They're delicious and juicy and need to be used right now! 

But what do you do with a heap of ripe pairs?

We made pair and peach crumble. They were delicious!

Then I decided to try some pear preserves. The kids found the recipe on the interweb and told me what to do. I followed their direction and ended up with 11 gorgeous jars of 

pearsomethingorother. 

Not sure what to call it. 

It's a bit loose to be a jam.... and a bit to firm to be a sauce..... 

Any suggestions what I should use it for?

What would you make with a heap of pears?

I would love to hear your ideas?

Latex Scar Prosthesis Lesson

Here is a very basic tutorial on building stitched scars. 

Materials List:

Castin Craft's Mold Builder Liquid Latex

Plexiglas Sheet, ceramic tile or ultra smooth, portable work surface

Plasticine

Inexpensive soft paintbrushes (you'll probably ruin them and throw them out)

Corn starch

Opaque foundation that matches whoever is going to wear the finished scar

Heavy black thread and a sewing needle

Fake blood

I made a worm of plasticine and smoothed the sides of the worm into the work surface with my fingertips. I dragged a sculpting knife all the way down the high point of the worm to create a gully. I made a "Y" shaped scar, but you can make any shape you'd like. I used a soft paintbrush to coat the scar with the Mold Builder. I gave the scar a one inch border of latex that will taper onto my skin when I apply the scar later. I gave the scar another five coats of Mold Builder and let each coat dry completely before applying the next. Make sure to wash the paintbrush out immediately with warm soapy water. If you leave it too long the latex will set in the brush and you'll never get it out. I bought six inexpensive brushes so I wouldn't be bothered if I ruined them.

After all six coats have been applied and are dry, I dusted the whole scar with some corn starch to seal the piece and prevent the piece from sticking to itself when I peel it off the work surface. The corn starch also helps the makeup to stick.

I added a wee bit of opaque foundation and dusted it with cornstarch again to set it. This is just a base coat and it will be scratched up when I apply the piece, but it will help with building depth in the finished look.

I sewed through the two edges of the scar with the black thread. I tugged gently to create a bit of puckering. Dip the sewing needle into the cornstarch before each stitch to help the needle go through the latex more smoothly.

I added some fake blood to see if the piece looks convincing, but I would leave this step out until I have applied the piece. I just wanted to see if the design needed any tweaking. I think it'll do! I'll post a tutorial on how to apply the scars closer the Halloween. I'll be using spirit gum to apply the piece and I'll show how to blend the edges of the piece into your skin.

Halloween Prep with Picmonkey

Oh my GOODNESS!

There are only 60 days left until Halloween!

We'd better get our Ghoul on PDQ!

Here's a sampling of some family shots done up right for the season with Picmonkey.

These have all been transformed with the basic "not a member" tools.

So many cool options.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Much more Halloween Help to come!

Oaknwich Lane Designs Made It With Me, The Mushroom Mood Lamp

The glowing mushroom mood lamp was on pages 44-47, in the April 2012 issue of  PolymerCafe Magazine

Back issues are available by following the link.

I used STAEDTLER's fimo effect translucent clay to create these luminous lamps. They were an extremely fun project to work on and I've had loads of feedback from folks who have tried it out. It really is the greatest thing to be able to see what folks do with an idea.

The extremely talented June Gallagher of Oaknwich Lane Designs wrote and shared these two pieces with me. Just in case you were wondering, both of these gorgeous works are available for sale at June's ETSY shop right along side some of her other spectacular polymer clay wonders.

June Gallagher is a spectacular artist. I'm tickled pink that one of Make It With Me's published projects helped (in a teeny way) her to create these fantastic pieces of home decor. Thanks so much  for sharing June!

June wrote the following:

"I was inspired to make these two sculptures using a combination of articles you wrote for Polymer Café Magazine.  For the stem of the mushroom, I used your wax melting technique featured in your Pin Up Ghoul Basic Ball-Jointed Doll.  And Your Glowing Mushroom Mood Light article gave me the idea to use Fairy Lights inside of larger mushroom caps with the battery pack in the base of the sculpt."

Wearing History's Vintage Overalls

I received this Wearing History pattern a while ago. I've been hunting for a good retro coverall patterns so I could make some work clothes that would last a bit. The men's work trousers I've been wearing just don't fit in the right spots and I needed some specialized pockets. I saw the Wearing History blog and pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it.

It really is a cute pattern and its pretty straight forward to sew together. There are three size choices per pattern and mine fits nice and roomy. I'll be able to bend and squat and turn at work without worrying about a rip. 

George decided to "help" me cut the pattern out. I had to relocate him three or four times before a friend suggested a well placed shopping bag might lure him to safer quarters.

Here are the finished coveralls. I lined the bodice and pockets with a red gingham. 

I used up some vintage buttons and double stitched all the seams with a stretch stitch. This is a pretty stretchy thick canvas type fabric. It should wear well.

Here's one of the redesigned pockets. This one holds my sticky note a permanent marker and my pen. I also sectioned off one of the hip pockets to hold my box cutter. 

I will be visiting the Wearing History blog on a regular basis.

What a completely fabulous pattern!

How I Edit My Drawings for Use as Headers

I'm going to give you the option to use the blank header I made using my 

STAEDTLER Karat aquarell watercolour pencils. 

You can also follow the picmonkey instructions I've given to create some of your own.

It's a fun way to add more of your personal style to your blogs and social media pages.

These, my friends... are my watercolour pencils..... I love them.

The very first thing I do is take a photo or scan the images I want to use into my computer. Once I have them in there, I can start to alter them. I usually crop the images in photoshop and store them in a file on my desktop while I'm working on them.

Once the image is cropped to size I load it into picmonkey by simply selecting the "edit a photo" tab on their homepage. Once the pic is in the workstation, I usually start by fixing the colours. I like to use the neutral picker. Just hit the neutral picker tab and position the little eyedrop tool over something on the pic that should be white. Then click the mouse and the pictures colours will be truer to real life.

The exposure tab will let you adjust how light or dark your picture appears. I play with the slide buttons until I'm happy with the brightness of the image. 

I go back to the colors tab and adjust the saturation and temperature slide buttons until I'm happy with the colour intensity.

Next I move from the editor page to the effects page by clicking on the little chemists bottle, second icon down in the side menu. There are heaps of effects to choose from here and you can play for literally hours experimenting with them. I use the frost option to clean up the edges of my image. My blog has a white background and I use just the plain white to help my image float. You can load your own colour in there and alter things to match your own backgrounds. I frost the edges and use the "original" option in the paint bar to erase the frost that has overlapped the main image.

Next I move to the text page. It's the fourth icon down, a capitol P. I click the add text tab and start writing. After I've written my text I can choose from a huge list of text, colours and transparencies. 

I added different sized text by adding a new text box. Then I changed the size, colour and text style for my subtitle. 

Hope this helps. I get heaps of questions about what photo editors I like to use and how I alter my drawings for use in publications. This, in a nutshell is how I do it.

Stewed Cherries, Puff Pastry and Ice-Cream

We made this for desert tonight and I had to share the process with you. It took minutes to prepare and was one of the most delicious deserts ever!

Puff Pastry Cinnamon Sticks:

President's Choice frozen puff pastry sheets

butter

sugar

cinnamon

parchment paper

I rolled out the thawed puff pastry sheets and brushed them with butter. I sprinkled them liberally with a mix of one cup of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon. I flipped over the sheets and repeated the process. I used a pizza cutter to cut four inch by 3/4 inch strips and twisted them. I laid each strip in rows on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and baked them in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. You can store any extras in an air tight container.

While the sticks were baking I made the cherries.

Spiced Rum Stewed Cherries:

3 cups of pitted fresh cherries

1/2 cup of spiced rum

1/2 cup of sugar

Put pitted cherries into a saucepan and add rum and sugar. Heat over medium heat until heated through and liquid thickens. Add more rum if needed.

Assembly:

Put four or five cinnamon sticks into a bowl and scoop one scoop of Neapolitan ice-cream in there. Scoop over the warm cherries and enjoy!

Our Version of Scotched Eggs

I love Scotched Eggs. We used to make them all the time when the girls were little and we called them Dinosaur eggs. It was one of my favorite dinners to make because they would help and get so excited.

I wonder if they remember stuff like this. Cooking with the girls when they were young are some of my fondest memories. I know they are both spectacular cooks today and I hope it has something to do with our kitchen play time when they were younger.

Well here goes. 

I made up a batch of our basic meatloaf mix. I flattened about 3/4 of a cup in my palm and covered it with a layer of grated old cheddar cheese.

I plunked a very soft boiled egg that had been carefully peeled in the middle of the meaty cheese sheet and gently wrapped the egg up being careful not to squeeze too hard and pop the egg yolk. It was barely a four minute egg and we lost a couple in the peeling. It's worth the trouble so the eggs don't overcook in the baking process.

After the eggs were sealed up I rolled them in some seasoned bread crumbs mixed with crumbled crisp bacon. I baked them at 375 until done. about twenty minutes I think.

We served them with Brussels sprouts and carrots and mashed potato with dark gravy. It's starting to feel a bit like fall out there this weekend. We didn't mind having the oven on at all. In fact it made it a little bit cozier in the house. I love fall and it's warm rich food. Does your family have any traditional fall favorites? I'd love to hear about them.