Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Miss Maile is Two!

This little stinker, lover of "toffee" and "popo titis" (coffee and a purple blanket called titi), had a birthday last weekend.

She got a new birthday outfit to wear when not in her birthday suit...so that means she probably won't wear the outfit most of the morning.


I made a simple little skirt with matching appliqued Old Navy shirt. I replaced the belt on these Old Navy capris with the same coordinating fabric. Muy cute-a!

Happy Birthday Maile!

Making Mozzarella

I know I've been pretty absent lately - and the truth is there's been very little crafting (nothing crafted = nothing to blog). Mostly I've been working, visiting family, nesting, and obsessively researching wedding stuff. No plans of yet, but... stay tuned.

I did make a little time this morning to make some mozzarella. Once you get your hands on some rennet, it's quite simple. (I found mine at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco - otherwise, buying it online costs 5x the cost of the actual product...so instead I drove around for ~5 hours looking for the stuff to avoid a $6 shipping fee. Possible exaggeration.)

The book from whenceforth the recipe did cometh (look it up, it's totally proper English):


stir and warm up your milk and citric acid (yes, something I actually had lying around):


It will start curdling a little, but nothing compared to the clumping that happens once you add the rennet:


You actually don't have to stir fast and furiously, this is just how it looks when you turn your flash off:


See such clumpage?

You ladle it out, squeeze out the water, microwave it, squeeze, stretch, repeat until you get something like this. Wear gloves, it's hot!

Voila! His and hers mozzarella balls. Mine is the twisty, D's is the roundy moundy.

It was a little rubbery and not salty at all. Next time, I'll do a little less squeezing/pulling and a lot more salting. But a quick, satifying activity always makes me happy.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Miss B's Baby Blanket

My friend is having a baby girl! So I made her a girly blanket to curl up on, make a fort under, turn into a "boat" along which she can line up her stuffed animal passengers and save herself from hot lava....you know, the usual.


I'm in a stripes phase right now - can't get enough.


I can't wait to meet her!

Monday, June 08, 2009

Helado

I moved this past weekend (world's worst activity), and so I thought it a great time to accumulate another bulky appliance - an ice cream maker! I had wanted one for so long...


And while I should have been packing boxes, I decided that it was much more fun to make brown butter salted pecan ice cream (I made that up).

Anyhow, I used up excess ingredients in my pantry, so, it was sort of like packing.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Guess What?

It's a breathtaking view, isn't it?


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!