Show and Tell - Crochet Hexagons and Dreamcatchers

by Kelly

Crochet hexagon blanket finished!

At least, I think it is. It's standard afghan size, but it's got these bevelled side edges that I'm not sold on...

 

But for now, it's done. We're going to have a free stall at a local flea market, so this will be up for sale. If no one buys it, I'll bring it home and make sixteen half hexagons to clean up the edges. I should have just enough yarn left to do that. 

Meanwhile, my talented husband has also been crafting things to sell, with grapevine harvested from our now overgrown property.

Remember dreamcatchers?

My favorites, though, are the 'all natural' ones below. Ironically, if you click the one with the blue jay feather, you'll see a real spider web behind it.

The big stick was my idea. I wanted to show people that we aren't just reselling the dream catchers, but that my husband actually made them, so if someone wanted a custom order they would know to ask. I found that branch in the yard after the windstorm and dragged it up to the porch. My husband looked a little doubtful about the whole thing, probably because the stick is like six feet tall and HEAVY, but he humoured me and wound a web on it. And now he's in love with the idea, and decided to hang all the dreamcatchers on it, which is quite clever as it makes an awesome display and also solves the problem of how to hang them up. Let's hope it draws people in!

The acorns and oak leaves were my idea too. I guess I'm just a Druid at heart. And when we went to Stonehenge (of course we've been to Stonehenge, hasn't everyone??) I did feel this deep, spiritual connection kind of thing. But then we went to the giftshop (of course there was a giftshop, this is the modern day) and bought some worthless stuff that we no longer have, and the deep spiritual connection thing turned into sticker shock.

But even though we don't have the trinkets anymore, we still have our memories, and a picture, despite the prohibition against taking pictures without express written permission. As the locals say, "Poor Stonehenge."

Anyway, wish us luck at the market!

SInging the Blues Crochet Hexagon Blanket

by Kelly

Work continues on the hexagon flower blanket...

I really like how this one is turning out. And I've put it together in such a way that I can make it longer or wider easily, if I'm not happy with the end result.
All I have to do is add more rows of hexagons, and that also means that I can use this blanket as a stash buster - provided I can find a blue yarn to make a border on the new hexagons.

Pictures From a Dry Garden

by Kelly

That title sounds like some puzzling existential film that would be shown on IFC or Sundance, but really it's just a statement of fact.

I tried to wait for one of the fledgling baby wrens to poke his head out of this birdhouse, because I thought it would be a nice contrast, the weathered old paint and a very young, very small bird. But Mama wren was scolding me from above, so I decided to move on. Besides, even though it was only nine in the morning, it was 92 degrees outside and humid as only the Midwest can be.

 Is this good weather for grapes? We'll see...

 

I've never been that in love with Hostas, but these were actually quite pretty until they shrivelled up in the heat and drought. 

In fact, it's so dry that it's starting to look more like autumn around here, just because so many trees are dropping their leaves. But there are some tough survivors around here that aren't giving up...

Whatever this Mulberry tree has been through has left it scarred and ugly, but it's leaves are green and it was covered with berries a few weeks ago.

And one last spot of beauty, struggling along in a hot, white desert that it landed in by chance.

I'm going to go back out to give this guy a drink of water. I admire anything that stubbornly gives the finger to the uncaring universe and all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Sometimes my efforts to help the small creatures in the world backfire, but sometimes they work out. Fingers crossed.

Summer Flowers

by Kelly

Flowers are blooming here...

Now the fun part...sewing them all together. (*Sigh*)

Hummingbird Cake

So Kelly's post about Sunshine Cake got me to thinking about another old-fashioned favorite, Hummingbird Cake. I first heard of Hummingbird Cake on a visit to my Aunt June's in Pikeville, TN in the late 70s. Of course, being all of about 14 years old, I was convinced she was making confections out of sweet, innocent little birds and was naturally horrified. Once she convinced me that wasn't the case I dug in to find a dense, moist cake flavored with bananas, pineapple and pecans and then slathered with thick cream cheese frosting - divine. Really cream cheese frosting on anything - right?

The cake first appeared in a 1978 issue of Southern Living magazine and has since become a southern staple. Here's a recipe from Art Smith - no actual hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this recipe.

Servings: Serves 12

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chopped ripe bananas
• 1 cup drained crushed pineapple
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs , beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans

• 8 ounces cream cheese , at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter , at room temperature
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar (about 4 1/2 cups sifted)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

To make the cake, position racks in the center and bottom third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Lightly butter two 9" round cake pans, sprinkle evenly with flour and tap out the excess. (If you wish, butter the pans, line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, then flour the pans and tap out the excess.)

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, stir or whisk the bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs and vanilla until combined. Do not use an electric mixer. Pour into the dry mixture and fold together with a large spatula just until smooth. Do not beat. Fold in the pecans. Spread evenly into the pans.

Bake until the cake springs back when pressed in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the cakes to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks (remove the parchment paper now if using). Turn right side up and cool completely.

To make the icing: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in the sugar, then the vanilla, to make a smooth icing.

Place 1 cake layer, upside down on a serving platter. Spread with about 2/3 cup of the icing. Top with the second layer, right side up. Spread the reaming icing over the top and sides of the cake. The cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored, uncovered in the refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Sunshine Cake

by Kelly

It looks like the heat wave may be over! It's only supposed to be 83 degrees tomorrow. Brrr! That's almost twenty degrees cooler than Thursday.

So in honor of the extremely hot and sunny weather which has now come to an end, I thought I would put up a certain recipe. Not that long ago, I posted a review for Mary Meade's Kitchen Companion, a 1950's cookbook that recently came my way. In one of the chapters was a mysterious, off-hand reference to a 'sunshine cake'. Specifically what she said was, "The egg leavened cakes: This group includes angel food, sponge cake, 'sunshine cake', jelly rolls and others...they contain no fat or baking powder."

I couldn't help but wonder why this was called a sunshine cake. Was this just a fancy name for ordinary yellow cake? Was it lemon or orange flavored? Orange in color or usually frosted with orange icing? Something that could only be made in the summer because of ingredient availability? A cake to brighten a rainy day?

I have always been a lover of mysteries, and there was no listed recipe for this cake, so I began to search. Google presented me with a few possibilities, and many of them did involve oranges, pineapple, and lemons, and modern ingredients like Cool Whip. But I knew the recipe must pre-date 1955, when The Kitchen Companion was published, so I looked for very old cookbooks on Project Gutenberg, and began to browse through them online.

Surprise! I found 'Sunshine Cake' in a very old cookbook entilted 'Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus'. So here it is, in all its glory. Oh, and why is it called 'Sunshine Cake'? Well, the answer to that question is in the recipe. Have a look and see if it jumps out at you.

Sunshine Cake -- Cream one cup of butter, add two cups of sugar and beat, add one cup of milk, the yolks of eleven eggs beaten until very light and smooth, and three cups of flour sifted with four teaspoons of baking powder three times to make it very light. Turn into a tube baking pan and bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven.

No wonder this recipe didn't survive to the modern day! Eleven egg yolks for one cake would make any modern dietician choke on his decaf coffee.

For another version (without the baking powder, which Mary Meade suggested in her book) visit this link to my man's belly. Her recipe is from the 1900's, and there is a beautiful photo of the cake itself.

So what do you do with the remaining lonely egg of the dozen, after you make this cake? Well, if the weather is hot enough, you could try to fry it on a sidewalk and see what happens.

Heat Wave

by Kelly

It's officially 102 degrees Fahrenheit here today. To give you an idea how hot that is, here's a picture of the poor robin family nesting on our garage.

So let's see...102 degrees Fahrenheit....that's 39 degrees Celsius.  Hmmm...

And look, our personal thermometer is only showing 100 degrees!


Nope. Things still don't seem any cooler. Maybe I'll wander down to the river and dip my feet. See you!